My name is… M. Allana McKinnon

About meI was born and raised in Boulder.My husband Mike and I have been married for 11 years. We’ve lived in Golden for about nine years. I have a 6-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old daughter who both go to Mitchell.I love that we know everyone in our neighborhood, and we’re about a mile from the school. Everywhere we go, we see friends. I love the small-town feel of Golden.A calling to help peopleI am completely clear that my calling is to help people with chronic health conditions, who have tried everything, to get better.I am a certified functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner and I have a home-based business called My Celiac Solution. I help people with chronic illnesses figure out why they are sick. I specialize in autoimmune diseases and nonresponsive celiac.I’m so passionate about it because autoimmune diseases are in epidemic proportions and there’s not a lot of solutions in Western medicine. But with autoimmune diseases, we can completely reverse the damage through finding infections, nutrition, physical movement, detoxification and life enrichment. There is still hope for finding answers.I got into this through my own poor health. I was always sick as a kid through young adulthood. In 2004, I was diagnosed with celiac disease. I did not get better on a gluten-free diet, so I had to dig deeper. With functional medicine, I found I had gastrointestinal infections. Once I started treating those with the right nutrition and lifestyle, I got better.Positive health influencesI’ve been practicing yoga for 22 years. It’s a positive influence on me. I love the way it quiets my mind and it’s really awesome for diminishing pain — and I love to sweat.When I was in high school, I had scoliosis and a lot of back pain. A friend had a yoga studio, and I was immediately hooked.I taught yoga from 2003-2009, then family yoga until about a year ago, but stopped teaching to focus on my business.My other big hobby is reading. I love to read books about health and wellness — I have a major drive to learn more and help people.If you have suggestions for My Name Is…, contact Christy Steadman at [email protected].