Hi! I’m Christina Sanders, Nurse Practitioner, Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, wife and mother of two boys.
My journey towards nutrition started a few decades ago when I dreamed about being a nutritionist and owning a gym, but nutrition wasn’t a readily accepted field. I was encouraged to look for something “bigger.” I kept trying to find things in the health field and knew I didn’t want to be a physician or a researcher, so ultimately I made a total pivot and graduated with a degree in government. I dabbled with public health for a bit and during an informational interview at the public health school, the adviser encouraged me to go next door and check out the nursing school! And, ultimately that became my path for more than two decades.
I started out as an ER nurse — which was fast paced and exciting for a girl in her 20s, but ultimately, I found my way to suburban medicine as a cardiology NP. One of the things I anticipated the most about becoming an NP was all the time I would get to educate my patients. All throughout nursing school I learned about disease prevention, and how NPs got to spend more time with their patients than their physician colleagues and how NPs were really known for educating patients. But, I found myself feeling a bit more like I had to meet a quota each day, often with 15 minute visits. I loved when a patient would ask “So, what should I eat?” or “What kind of exercise should I do?” It was in these patients that I found my captive audience, but most of my patients were happier to take a prescription than a grocery list.
When I really started to listen to my heart, I realized that I needed to find my way back to nutrition and now I have all the years of experience in acute and chronic disease management to build on with my client care. I am now using nutrigenetic testing to complement and really personalize my nutrition practice, Nutrition NP, and I’ve never been happier.
My Health Story
I was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease at the age of 27. I remember being told that I had to eat white foods (bread, pasta), avoid chocolate (OMGoodneess — forever?) and limit vegetables, especially raw. This was a nightmare! I adhered to my new standard diet and started gaining weight. I didn’t feel well from the medication cocktail, which gave me horrific headaches and I was conflicted about what I was supposed to eat.
As the medical community started to hit hard on low fat diets and avoidance of red meat, I was running out of things to eat. I found that by altering my diet, away from all things highly-processed, I was able to discontinue my medications and keep symptoms at bay.
While not completely medication-free now, I am able to control my auto-immune disease with better dietary planning and use my genetic results to guide my nutrition and lifestyle habits as well as identify the ideal supplements to support the best version of me.
If you would like to learn more about the ways I can help you achieve your goals, click here:
