EN 
NL Graduating as a doctor and Graves' disease
At the end of my fellowships (a one-and-a-half-year internship at the end of medical studies), I was diagnosed with Graves' disease, a autoimmune disease of the thyroid gland. In the case of Graves‘ disease, your immune system is overactive and your thyroid gland is working too hard. Because this is a disease that develops over a long period of time and your thyroid is an organ that controls and influences many different processes in your body, it is the case that such a disease can cause a variety of different ’vague' symptoms, both physical and mental.
Being sick was a rollercoaster for me, and unfortunately I often felt lonely in it. I didn't feel that doctors, or people around me, really understood me. Looking back, I can say that I am extremely happy that I eventually took control, started working on my lifestyle and (then still vegetarian) diet, reduced my stress and followed my heart and dreams. Although I used to see it as a weakness that I became ill, I now know that it is actually my strength. Having been a patient myself, I know exactly how my patients feel and what they are going through. This allows me to help them even better.
Really helping people
I became a doctor because I was interested in biology and the human body and wanted to do something for others. Unfortunately, in mainstream medicine I could not help people in a way that gave me satisfaction and that felt with integrity to me. For me, the main reason was the way patients are looked at in mainstream medicine. From my point of view, a general practitioner still looks at a patient most ‘as a whole’, because ‘at the hospital gate, the patient is pulled apart’, as Barbara Havenith, integrative gynaecologist and orthomolecular physician, also says.
Too much focus on complaints, not enough on the cause
The focus is often on the symptoms someone is experiencing and on ways to reduce those symptoms. There is little focus on the whole patient and search for the possible causes behind the onset of the complaint(s).
Fortunately, there are also an increasing number of doctors from within mainstream medicine who do look this way. For instance, this holistic view of medicine is shared by former general practitioner and researcher Machteld Huber, who created the concept of ‘positive health’ and founded the Institue for Positive Health.From this perspective, it is important to identify possible causes and risk factors for the onset of symptoms and then treat them so that the underlying problem is solved. Here, in the case of autoimmune diseases, you can think about the influence of diet, stress, etc. on the intestines and digestion, among other things, which can then ultimately result in (chronic) low-grade inflammation. As a result, the immune system start functioning overactively and symptoms may subsequently arise.
So in treatment, from a holistic point of view, you can think about adjusting the diet, focusing on anti-inflammatory (non-inflammatory) foods, among other things. Supporting the body (temporarily) with supplements can also be helpful. Furthermore, stress (reduction) is often important. Other lifestyle factors, such as exercise, biorhythm/sleep, certain underlying behavioural patterns and coping mechanisms are also influential.
Improvement of chronic symptoms is possible
I have had my own practice since 2021 and I am extremely happy to be able to contribute to my clients' health in this way. Of course, sometimes (especially in the acute phase) it is necessary to take medication. However, in many cases patients are told to take a chronic illness that they carry with them for the rest of their lives. In my experience, this usually does not have to be the case at all for the degree and intensity of the symptoms they experience.
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‘’For me, finding and tackling the cause behind the complaint, in order to achieve better health and reduce complaints, means that I really help someone move on.’’