I get asked this a lot. “What qualifies you to talk about health? You’re not a doctor.”
Fair question. Let me answer it.
My story
I didn’t come to this world through a textbook. I came to it through pain.
I spent years dealing with chronic health issues that the conventional medical system couldn’t — or wouldn’t — help me with. I was shuffled between specialists, given medications that treated symptoms but never addressed causes, and told that “everything looks fine” when I clearly wasn’t fine.
Sound familiar to anyone?
That experience broke my trust in the system, but it also lit a fire. I became obsessed with understanding how the body actually works — not from a pharmaceutical perspective, but from a foundational, biological perspective. What does the body need to heal? What’s getting in the way?
That journey led me to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, and eventually to opening my own clinic — Feel Good Nation.
What makes me qualified?
I’m not a doctor. I’m not a scientist. I’m a practitioner and an operator. Here’s what I bring to the table:
- Hundreds of hours of clinical education — I’ve trained under some of the leading HBOT practitioners in the world, including completing advanced hyperbaric medicine courses
- Thousands of hours of personal research — I read papers, I attend conferences, I listen to the people who are doing the work
- Real-world clinical experience — I run a clinic. I see clients every day. I see what works and what doesn’t
- No conflicts of interest — I don’t get paid by pharmaceutical companies. I don’t have a research grant to protect. I have nothing to gain by recommending something that doesn’t work
I believe that the best advocates for health are often the people who’ve had to fight for their own. We don’t have the luxury of theoretical detachment. We know what it feels like when the system fails you, and we’re motivated by something more than a paycheck.
Lived experience matters
The medical system is excellent at acute care. Broken bones, heart attacks, emergencies — incredible. But when it comes to chronic illness, prevention, and optimisation, it’s failing millions of people.
The gap between what the research shows and what patients actually receive is enormous. And that gap is where people like me operate.
I’m not replacing doctors. I’m complementing them. I’m filling the space that the 10-minute GP appointment can’t fill. I’m spending the time to understand what’s actually going on with someone’s health, and connecting them with evidence-based therapies that their doctor may not know about or may not have time to discuss.
What I’m not
I’m not anti-medicine. I’m not anti-doctor. I’m anti-ignorance. I’m against a system that dismisses therapies with decades of evidence because they don’t fit the current paradigm. I’m against practitioners who refuse to look at the research because it challenges their training.
What would I want from a healthcare professional anyway?
- Curiosity — the willingness to keep learning, even when it’s uncomfortable
- Humility — the ability to say “I don’t know, but let’s find out”
- Patient-centred care — actually listening to the person in front of you
- Evidence-based practice — not evidence-limited practice. There’s a difference
- Skin in the game — do you practice what you preach?
I tick all of those boxes. And I’ll keep doing this work because the people I serve deserve better than what they’ve been getting.
Michael Nuggin — Nuggins.life