In this episode Octavia Hamilton and Dr Amy Shacaluga talk with Maria Gresham, who is a fourth year medical student and a former Synthesis Clinic patient.
Through her personal experiences, Maria has become passionate about integrative medicine, and in this episode we discuss how this has impacted her training and development as a doctor.
About Maria Gresham:
Maria is a 4th year medical student at Bristol Medical School. Her multilingual background and the desire to unite the best of various cultures and traditions brought a natural progression into Integrative Medicine. Alongside her medical training, she is about to finish a Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Medicine with NCIM. Maria has been involved in curriculum reform at Bristol Medical School, empowering future doctors with more education about nutrition and lifestyle medicine. She has been part of Nutritank, a thinktank and medical student organisation founded in Bristol, as well as undertaking research projects with Penny Brohn UK, Culinary Medicine and the Mistletoe in Breast Cancer research trial.
Maria’s own health journey with PCOS launched her into an adventure obstacle course, which brought her to medical school, then the Diploma in Integrative Medicine, then to seeing Dr Nina at Synthesis Clinic. The reversal of her PCOS through lifestyle alone bamboozled all her health professionals and kindled a specialist interest in women’s health.
When she’s not transcending her step count on the hospital wards, Maria enjoys playing the fiddle, singing, writing poetry, calligraphy, swing dancing, being active (especially in nature) and keeping her vagus nerve in check. Maria is determined to reinstate the importance of spiritual health into medical care, and her own faith underpins everything she is and does.
Having plunged into the integrative medicine scene since the very start of medical school, Maria is determined to weave together conventional, lifestyle and holistic approaches into her clinical practice and hopes to pave the way for Integrative Medicine to just be called Medicine.
Resources:
https://ncim.org.uk
https://nutritank.com/recipes/
https://culinarymedicineuk.org/
https://www.pennybrohn.org.uk
https://thedoctorskitchen.com/recipes/
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