Hi.
This is Dr Bernadette Dulawan.
I would like to share with you my inspirations
for having opened this channel in my transformational
transition from being a conventional doctor to a very empowered
and enthusiastic medical practitioner.
So a little bit about myself.
I've been a medical practice for over 30 years now.
I graduated in 19 84 at the Philippines St Louis University and I went back home to my
hometown, a rural town where the rice services are in Ifugau, and worked there as one of
2 doctors serving 21,000 people.
I enjoyed my work there.
I was everything.
the obstetrician, gynaecologist.
I was the emergency doctor, name it.
I had.
I had a ball.
In 1991, My family and I, my husband, with my three young kids, moved to Australia, where
it took about another seven years for me to fully go through my accreditation as a certified
general practitioner.
It was hard bringing in a family, adjusting to a new country.
I almost gave up But thanks to my husband and the support of my family, I was able to
go through it all.
And those specialists and myself don't have anything to explainAnd in my practice I distinctly
remember challenging patients who come with mostly gastro intestinal issues, tummy pains
that I cannot spell, and I would send them to the a specialist, and the specialist would
generally work them up and do the scopes, and they come back with pretty much normal
findings and say nothing is wrong, and yet the patient is not well.
the patience for other than give them symptomatic relief.
And that did not sit well with me.
And a second experience of mine was my very own. It's close to home.
My middle daughter, she suffers from chronic almost daily migraine. And I tried
as a mother, I tried giving her what I knew, which was medications and nothing worked.
I asked my colleagues if they knew anything better, and they did give their best shot other
medications, but nothing really worked. And so I remember having known of a natural path,
joined her in one of her consults. I was so surprised at how she was asking about food,
about her gut health, correlations between food to her migraine and giving her I was just so in awe.
I was asking myself, How come I never thought of this. Why were we we
thought about nutrition related or causing migraine gluten. All those things that I heard
from her dis triggered my curiosity, especially so that I saw improvement in my daughter.
And then comes other patients in search and in reading, I came across concepts like leaky gut,
the concept of microbiome ecosystem in our gap. It was so amazing.
I attended Trainings of Integrative Medicine or Australasian College of
Nutrition and Environmental Medicine in search of answers and more knowledge to help me out.
I read more books and I came across
Doctor Mark Hayman, who became my hero. He was the founder of Cleveland Clinic in the Us.
One February 2018, my husband and I were prepared to go for holidays in Tasmania.
And then I was browsing through a magazine in the Institute of Functional Medicine. And
Hey, I saw that they are coming to Australia to give for the first time
the training for functional medicine is I run to my husband and I said, no, I'm not coming to
Tasmania anymore. There is this training I really, really want to go to do in America, but they're
here in Brisbane. I want to go. I registered. And then I went there and all. What a training.
There were Australian doctors, allied health nurses, physiotherapists, specialists,
psychiatrist, gastroenterologists in the setting. They were my classmates
who were also certain for this knowledge of functional medicine. I
loved every bit of it. And I knew that I wanted to be certified as soon as I can.
And voila! on Christmas Day in December 2019,
I got my certification. I successfully passed the exams and became
a certified functional medicine practitioner from the Institute of Functional Medicine.
And I was so happy. Not just happy, but really empowered by the knowledge that I had
gave me a new list of life in my career as a doctor. I have the attitude now saying,
bring it on. I may not know everything, but with the knowledge I have with functional
medicine. I have a platform. I have a system to deal with the patients.
It's such an amazing passion I have now. I still am practicing. I'm learning my craft and
I read through my difficult cases. I see patients happy that they have found a doctor that listens
to them, that finally gives time and engaging them. And they are seeing answers for the many,
many symptoms that they have been feeling and going to doctors for and never got some answers.
And so this was the joy in my heart to have found functional medicine that has enabled me to
practice medicine a more effective way. If you understand how your diseases come about,
which functional medicine has taught me, you will be empowered to be your own healer.
What I have learned is genes, we are born with genes. If you are born with a certain gene that
predisposes you to certain disease, it's not all doom and gloom. This is just 20% of the effect.
What actually causes this gene to be expressed or not expressed is what you do on a lifestyle,
your lifestyle choices.
It's your sleep. It's your diet. It's your relaxation and movement.
It's your stress management or how you deal with stress and community and relationship. 80%
of this are in our hands. Can you imagine that our health is in our hands? It's not the doctor,
it's not the pill. A pill for an ill is no longer the norm.
Yes, drugs can help you. But that is not all there is. The power is in our hands.
And that's why this is what enthuses me to share with you. Because I believe that
if we are educated in this lifestyle diseases and how it impacts on our genes and in our bodily
system and how it creates diseases or prevents us from diseases, then we would be our own healers.
And it's less expensive. We believe in healthier lives. We are happier. We are more vibrant.
It was overflowing in me to share it with you because I want us all to be healthy and vibrant.
chronologically, without learning, without our systems falling down through illnesses,
we kind of get old, old, old, old. And then suddenly, in our older age,
we just die of old age. No chronic diseases in between. This is what we aim,
and I know it's possible. If only we know how diseases come about.
Thank you. And bye for now. See you in the next video.
We seek to educate and empower you to live healthy, vibrant lives
When they say, can we all, you know, getting on in years