About Willow Johnson
Since childhood, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to help people heal. To be more specific, I wanted to be an Endocrinologist. The fact that my 12-year-old self knew what this word meant - a hormone doctor or specialist - was saying something.
My inspiration was actually Deepak Chopra - before he became famous. A hormone specialist who spoke all about “lifestyle medicine” before it was really a term.
Lifestyle medicine takes into account the importance of diet, stress management, restorative sleep, regular exercise, and the importance of positive social connection (i.e. relationships & community) on health and the ability for these factors to reverse chronic disease. I wanted to do THAT.
As I grew up, I realized most medical doctors don’t provide these services or recommendations. Rather, their main tool is to prescribe medications that often simply suppress symptoms. I remember thinking, “Aren't we missing the real problem, the root causes of why the symptoms are going on in the first place!?"
