This lovely creek sits in the Catskill foothills on the edge of the Mid-Hudson Valley — where my roots run deep.
Allow me to introduce myself….
Hi! My name is Ellen Nicholas. I am a functional health and wellness practitioner, certified as an FDN Practitioner and an AADP-certified Holistic Health Practitioner, and the owner of Roots & Wings For Renewed Health.
My Roots
I’m a lifelong resident of two towns along the Hudson River (Clermont and Rhinebeck), in the Mid-Hudson Valley in New York State.
I am a foodie, a sixteen-year gluten-free food entrepreneur at farmers markets, and the mother of three adult children.
I love going to the ocean in Maine, Rhode Island, and Cape Cod. This year I spent 15 days at Folly Beach in Charleston, SC and truly enjoyed every moment.
My Interests
My interests run to all kinds of music, movies, and health care policy. I’m an avid reader of both fiction (CJ Box is a current favorite); and in non-fiction, I’m drawn to anything that explores healthy and proactive ways to age with all my faculties intact.
My Joys
I am also a grandmother to my fabulous grand puppy, Penny. She’s wondering why my son is making that silly noise - so she’s not smiling - BUT her ear is standing up, so there’s that!
In 1983 or 1984, I was bitten by a tick in Rhinebeck, NY — number one for Lyme cases for most of 20 years — that was all she wrote. I never saw the tick itself, but I did have what would later be recognized as a bulls-eye rash. From that point on, I was chronically ill and weak, though it wasn’t as severe until my last pregnancy in 1994.
After conception, I was largely bedridden 27 years. During the first eight, I was out of bed for two or three hours a day. If you’ve lived through anything similar, you already understand how disorienting and isolating that kind of illness can be.
Eventually, I improved enough to bake gluten-free goods about 10 hours a week, which my family sold at farmers markets. My husband had nearly died from celiac disease, and I wanted to help others with serious health challenges. But after each baking session, I would crash and spend four days in bed before I could function again. I now know that is called PEM (post-exertional malaise).
When I say “I’d bake for ten hours” or do anything for that matter, it wasn’t ten straight hours. I’d bake for three hours, collapse for five, get up and work again, then return to bed — repeating the cycle till it was all done. It was a disheartening and exhausting way to live BUT it was still better than the years when I couldn’t get out of bed at all.
I had dozens of doctor appointments with all sorts of diagnoses from — “Nothing’s wrong”, “Your bloodwork is perfect”, to “probably hypochondriac” and “It’s anxiety” or “It’s depression”. I had migraines, high blood pressure (from pain), fibromyalgia, connective tissue disorder (causing feet and ankles to break a dozen times sometimes both at the same time), non-alcoholic fatty liver, hypoglycemia, pre-diabetes, I once had 30-40 ulcers at once, Barrett’s esophagus, esophagitis, acid reflux, diverticulitis, colitis. And more I no longer recall.
Eventually, I was diagnosed with Lyme, babesiosis, and ehrlichiosis in 2000 by the leading Lyme specialist. I took massive antibiotics for 18 months which destroyed my digestive system and caused much of what followed.
I wish a diagnosis then had meant a clear way forward but it didn’t. Lucky for you, things have changed. While recovery is still challenging, there are more ways forward now. There are now gentler, more holistic ways to support recovery that work with your body’s natural ability to heal.
For decades, I was a mess. It is behind me and I don’t want you to ever think I won’t believe the myriad symptoms you may have. There were many things that kept me stuck but NOW I know about them, which will help you…
Where We Begin Together …
The first step in my work is always discovery — helping clients uncover where their bodies have lost balance through the Roots & Wings Assessment and, when appropriate, functional lab testing. These evaluations will provide insights which reveal which of the body’s operating systems need the most support and shape a plan for rebuilding function.
From there we use targeted nutrition, evidence-based supplementation, restorative sleep, movement that matches the body’s capacity, and practices that calm the stress response to strengthen the body’s ability to digest, detoxify and repair itself.
As an FDN Practitioner, I don’t diagnose or treat disease. Instead, I help clients identify healing opportunities and educate and coach them through personalized strategies in nutrition, lifestyle, supplementation and stress-reduction
that support the body’s physiology and healing.
Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® and FDN® are
registered trademarks of AFDNP, Inc.
What drives me to do this work?
I want to help people — who have similar health challenges to the ones I had — improve their lives. Specifically, I don't want anyone losing decades to these illnesses.
I don’t want anyone lying in bed when they should be living a life of their design.
I want every child to have present, engaged parents…
By changing the lives of sick parents, we can change the lives of children.
I don’t want people being forced out of the American workforce and dropping into poverty or unnecessary hardship.
A few truths I’ve gathered along the way
about healing and renewal…