​I have been in healthcare for my entire career. I have been a hygienist since 1989 and then became a dentist in 1998. I have always been frustrated by how our health system has viewed the mouth like it is separate from the body, when in fact everything is connected and a problem in one part of the body ultimately affects the whole. If the body is fighting inflammation in one area, the entire immune system is called into play. It is my passion to help people look at their body, and therefore their health, as a system where everything works together and how by addressing the symptoms without searching out the root cause is never going to allow one to live a healthy life. It is my own personal goal to become a Centenarian with a good quality of life. What good is it to live into your old age without your health? I want to help people live a long, vital life. In 2020, with the arrival of the Covid-19 virus, it became very clear to me that I should become a health coach, and then I furthered my studies into functional medicine. We should all be free to live our best lives, and I love helping people accomplish that.

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​      I started my health journey in 2013 a few years after I retired from a 22 year career in the US Navy.  It hasn't been easy and I've had struggles with blood pressure, cholesterol and even AFIB, all probably brought on by alcohol.  But I've overcome my health problems and my drinking and am in better shape than I was when I retired from the Navy in 2008 and have run three full marathons since then.  

While Covid was in full swing, we decided to do more to help others with their health and enrolled in Life and Health Coach training.  Shortly after, we started Embracing Change Life and Health Coaching, with the goal of helping people overcome any challenges in their lives that were preventing them from feeling their best and living their best lives. ​ After doing basic health coaching for a while, we felt that we could still do more and decided to take a functional medicine and functional nutrition approach, and each enrolled to become certified in Functional Nutrition Counseling through the Functional Nutrition Alliance. 
      That certification led us to start Vital Roots Health and Nutrition, which was borne out of our desire to help people by bridging the gap between conventional medicine and the root problems with people's health.

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