Sandy Kruse On The Future Of The Global Wellness Economy
An Interview With Savio P. Clemente
My wellness number one; symptoms matter. I am trained in symptomatology now and I find that there are so many people who dismiss and ignore when they have chronic symptoms.
As part of our series about ‘The Future Of The Global Wellness Economy,’ I had the pleasure to interview Sandy Kruse at the 2022 Biohacking Congress in Boston, Massachusetts.
Sandy Kruse is passionate about alternative wellness. She is a podcast host, a Holistic Health Practitioner, a biohacker and an aging-well advocate at 52 years of age who began a new career almost 3 years ago. Sandy holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature, and at 49, graduated with a diploma in holistic nutrition from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. Sandy explores alternative means for healing and wellness and shares them with the world through her podcast and her social media presence. She loves to develop recipes and take old favorites and make them healthier. Sandy also works one-on-one with mostly women over 40 experiencing symptoms of unbalance; uncovering the root cause or causes of their symptoms. She believes humans need a little bit of everything to be aligned in body, mind, and soul. Post-thyroidectomy, after many years of trying almost every style of eating, Sandy asserts that balance is the key to living well, enjoying life, and living life well into those golden years — both happy and healthy.
Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
When my daughter was five, she was diagnosed with a soft tissue sarcoma. Exactly one year after she was having her second surgery, I was diagnosed. Then I had my entire thyroid removed because of thyroid cancer. I really had to figure out how to gain a little bit of control of our health. It was this weird snowball effect of serious health issues in my family. Of course, there are uncontrollables in life, right? We can’t control everything, but I felt like I had completely lost all control and so I actually went back to college at 46 after I had, I’m going to call it a grieving period. I definitely went through a period of victim consciousness. I felt like, why is this happening to us? We’re not really unhealthy people. And then I realized that this is just part of our journey. That’s part of my journey and my journey was to go back to college and then say, okay, how can I turn this around and help other people?
So I became a registered holistic nutritionist. I got to work with people one on one and help to optimize their wellness, but then I felt a need to do more. I started the podcast because I wanted that megaphone. I wanted to share it with the world.
What are your “3 things I wish someone told me when I first started my career” and why?
My wellness number one; symptoms matter. I am trained in symptomatology now and I find that there are so many people who dismiss and ignore when they have chronic symptoms.
Number two in terms of my wellness, if your physician or practitioner isn’t your best advocate, find a new practitioner who is because they are your partners in your wellness and if they are not there to advocate for your best health, or they gaslight you in any way, shape or form, find one who will support you. I think that’s very important.
The third thing in terms of wellness I wish I had known would probably be that back then I didn’t think I had control over my wellness. Especially when I had the diagnosis of thyroid cancer. We now live in an information society where we have information at our fingertips. Back then that wasn’t really the case. I had cancer at 41, and I was only 35 when my symptoms began. Now we have so much information. So do your research, use reputable sources so that you can go back to your physician or your practitioner and say, you know what, this isn’t right, in an educated manner.
In terms of my career, whenever you’re starting your own practice, you think oh, all the clients are going to come rushing into you, and then it just doesn’t happen. So you have to be patient and you have to buy your time. If you’re starting your own business, that’s key. Podcasting, my goodness, it’s really hard to get started in podcasting and you feel like nobody’s listening. But this is something that my husband has said to me and I feel it’s really worth mentioning. He goes, even if you have that one person who cares about what you’re saying, then your message is being delivered. You just need to be patient for it to expand to others. The third thing is you always have to keep learning. I am constantly researching, constantly learning, especially in this field of biohacking. Things change by the day and so I always say I reserve the right to change my mind because research changes.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
I know this is going to sound corny and cheesy, but my husband and I’ll tell you why. He is a business owner and he built his own business from nothing. He’s always encouraged me and helped me to learn how to really grow what I needed to grow and what I was passionate about.
How has wellness played a big role in your life?
It’s huge. Not that I never cooked. I actually come from an Eastern European background. My mom always cooked, but I found when I had young children I would throw things together or it seemed so much easier to buy food and I learned that eating whole real foods is key. It’s not about diets. I learned how to respect my body and respect what goes into my body and that was really key. Even though I have literally done almost every diet under the sun, since I had my thyroid removed, I kept trying to chase what I used to be like. As a nutritionist, it’s important to test things out but I found that when I did severe restriction, it actually caused me more stress. If my body feels okay with what I’m eating, which is usually whole real foods, then I’m not going to cut it out. I don’t care if it has carbs.
Can you share with our readers what innovations you are excited about in the health and wellness industries?
I would have to say the biggest thing is that I’m seeing more and more people here. I’m seeing this massive community that just keeps growing of people who really want to do well and age better. I think that’s key. I’m 52 now. I feel younger and I feel better now than I did at 41 and so this is the key. Let’s try and age better and age without disease, as far as we have that control.
As you know, COVID-19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share some examples of how health and wellness companies will be adjusting?
I feel that more education for individuals to gain some control of their best health needs to happen on a larger scale. So here we educate ourselves and we know where to find the answers we need to find, but really being able to communicate that more to the masses. I feel it will be very helpful to society overall.
In my work as a Board Certified Wellness Coach who caters to the cancer survivor community, I have found the theme of “second chances” to be a powerful motivator. What keeps your spirit still firing?
My passion for what I’m doing. And of course, I have to mention my family. I’m so passionate about where my life has headed and where it is still.
You are a “wellness insider”. How would you describe the “perfect wellness experience”?
I actually just talked about that recently in a lecture. The perfect wellness experience would embody an alignment of the body, the mind, the soul and the spirit. Some people will put spirit and soul together. I separate them because what fuels you, what feeds your fire, fuels your soul is different from spirit. Spirit, to me, is not about a religious belief, although it can be. It’s whatever you want it to be but having a belief that we have a reason to be here, we have a reason for our journeys. I feel it’s very powerful and that to me is a perfect wellness experience. If you actually can get in touch with all of those four aspects, you’re on your way.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I talk about it every day. It’s my entire passion in life, and that actually fuels my soul. There are a lot of things that fuel my soul, but that’s one of them. I feel like sharing that passion with others is the most rewarding thing. When I started my podcast, I was sitting in my family room. The funny thing is that I started it just before COVID in February of 2020 and my husband said, “It’s great that you’re working with clients but you need a megaphone,” and I’m like, you’re right, honey I need a megaphone and I recorded it. My first podcast was recorded off my phone. I just needed to get that message out and that to me is my biggest passion.
How can our readers follow you online?
I am available anywhere as Sandy K Nutrition. So Facebook, I actually have a private Facebook group called Sandy K Nutrition, Health and Lifestyle Queen. Then my podcast is Sandy K Nutrition, Health and Lifestyle Queen. I cover topics anywhere from addressing trauma, which I think we all have. I’ve had amazing physicians on there talking about the ProLon fasting diet. So it’s a podcast that really embodies the body, the mind, the soul, the spirit, all in one to help us age better and age without illness, if we can help it. I’m also on TikTok, Pinterest, and Twitter.
This was very inspiring, Sandy. Thank you.
