Get To Know Us - Dr. Alessia Milano
roots
I’m born and raised in Toronto. I grew up in a suburb of Toronto called Thornhill, and went to school in the downtown area. I’ve lived here my entire life and have really grown to love the east end, so it’s officially and permanently my home.
background
It wasn’t a straight forward path for me to get to where I am today. My background is actually in clinical psychology - I have a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Psychology and I fully intended on pursuing a career as a psychologist. I got into graduate programs, began doing clinical placements, but just felt like something was missing for me.
At that point I decided to take a step back from academics to really consider what I wanted to do. I ended up working in sales for two years while I was figuring out my options - as an aside, sales also wasn’t for me!
Through my own medical experiences I came into naturopathic medicine and found it to be a really great fit.
inspiration
I first discovered naturopathic medicine because I was going through my own health concerns. I had severe acne, was in significant pain each month, and my mental health was suffering. A friend’s mom actually suggested going to see a naturopathic doctor and honestly it was the first time I had ever felt listened to by a health care provider.
I continued to see this ND throughout high school and university, and what really connected me to naturopathic medicine was that it offered comprehensive care. Up until that point all that had been suggested to me was the birth control pill, and I tried it and it unfortunately just did not jive with me. So finally I had this system of medicine that had these array of treatment options that I could pick and choose from so it optimally fit my life. In addition, naturopathic medicine was able to provide me with an official diagnosis that explained what was happening to me, and this allowed us to target treatment very specifically. I’m happy to say I’ve had sustainable results ever since.
hormones
The condition I ended up being diagnosed with was PCOS. So I ended up dedicating my career to understanding and treating PCOS. I really love treating this condition and feel very passionately about it because it affects everyone so differently. There’s no one size fits all approach, and I love being able to support people based on their individual symptoms and goals with this condition.
Over the years through trying to understand my own condition, I ended up becoming extremely interested in endocrinology and hormones in general. As a result I’ve ended up treating a lot of infertility, endometriosis, thyroid concerns, weight loss resistance, and acne in addition to PCOS, and have completed a lot of additional training in these areas to better support patients.
Also, as I’ve been treating endocrinology more and more, I’ve noticed there’s a very close link to digestive health. In a lot of my patients with hormonal concerns, I’ve noticed they do tend to have a very significant digestive component to their symptom picture. It’s interesting because as we look at the research more, we see the links between hormonal conditions and digestive imbalances such as dysbiosis (poor quality, diversity, or balance of our gut bacteria) or increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut). As a result I’ve ended up completing additional training in gastroenterology to really understand this a bit more so I can better get to the root cause of these hormonal conditions.
unexpected
Something people probably wouldn’t expect of me is that despite spending all day talking to people, and being quite good at connecting to others, I’m actually very introverted! Once I’ve wrapped up my day all I want to do is go home so I can have time to myself.
I am the biggest homebody and I’ll often make plans for after work or on the weekends, and then later come to regret it because I just want to be at home on my couch alone so badly! I think that just speaks to being an introvert and valuing time for myself and for self-care.
If you want to learn more about Dr. Alessia Milano’s practice, click here.
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In support of your health,
Dr. Hayhlee Clarence & Dr. Alessia Milano