About Me - The Person Behind the Site

My name is Melissa Makris and I've created this website to share natural ways to help your body heal itself.

I am incredibly fortunate that both of my parents make their living in holistic health. Each have over 40 years experience in the field, and I soaked up a lot of great information by learning from them.

Not at first though. After all, how many kids listen to their parents?!

But I finally received a wake-up call at the age of 21. I was in the doctor's office complaining about how sick and lethargic I had become. I had recovered from a severe case of mononucleosis the year before.

Trouble was, I never really felt like I had recovered.

I went in for blood tests to try and find the problem. But everything came back clean.

Maybe you can guess what came next?

What do most American doctors do when they can't find anything "wrong" with you? They assume it's all in your head.

So after telling the doctor over and over again that I was not depressed (things were actually going very well for me), he finally just shrugged and said words that have burned into my memory. "Well, you're not as young as you used to be."

How anyone can look a 21 year old in the eyes and say that is beyond me. Frightening images of what I would feel like at 40 and 60 years old filled my head.

That was when I realized modern medicine could not help me. I knew it was time to return to the holistic roots my parents had put down for me.

I refused the Prozac prescription and walked out of the office. Haven't looked back since!

So what was wrong with me?

I was tired of all the "band-aids" out there and I wanted to address the actual cause of my problems. This is the basic principle of holistic medicine.

So what was it that was ailing me? Well, lots of things!

I had discovered I was deficient in many nutrients and had significant hormonal imbalances. All thanks to a rampant Candida albicans infection that had taken over my gut.

But candida normally doesn't take over in a healthy person. It is kept under control by the beneficial organisms that live there.

So what was the ultimate cause of my health problems? My body pH had become severely acidic. My body was starving for oxygen and other nutrients. My immune system was in shambles and crying out for help.

But that was then...

Now my immune system is incredibly strong. So much so that I have not been sick for over a decade. Not even a tiny cold.

This website contains all the information I've learned (and more!) on the way to my vibrant recovery.

My fascination with the immune system

I manage a laboratory in a specialized scientific field that very few people have heard of, flow cytometry.

Basically, I help researchers study cells of various species utilizing this particular technology. The instrumentation I use allows me see cells that have been "tagged" with fluorescent particles. We can use these tags to identify cells, track them, "listen in" on what they are saying to other cells, and more.

It can be easy to forget that we are made up of trillions of single cells all working together like a well-run city.

What you are about to see is an immune system cell doing a little "house cleaning." This little guy's actions are part of what keeps you well.

This neutrophil (the most common white blood cell in humans) fluidly moves around all the red blood cells trying to capture a type of bacteria. It is using chemical signals to give chase to the bug until it finally "eats" it.

And all just to keep you well.

How I am building this site

And if you've read a few of my pages, you can probably tell that I really do enjoy working on my site. You see, for a while now I have wanted to build a website. I didn't know a thing about building one. I was very lucky to stumble upon Site Build It!

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