Meet Dr. Jolie Mestre
Born and raised in Miami, FL to a Cuban immigrant father and a French-Canadian mother, Jolie grew up surrounded by diverse cultures and foods.
In Jolie’s family, food always brought everyone together and was a source of love and togetherness.
From a young age she developed a love for cooking as she spent summers in her grandmother's kitchen, helping her knead the dough for her homemade bread and pie crusts. Jolie would also accompany her grandmother to the grocery store where she would see her plan out weekly meals and find the best deals at all of the local markets.
As Jolie grew older, she had a desire to help others and was drawn to healthcare from a young age. She obtained a degree in psychology from Florida International University before earning her doctorate in pharmacy at the University of Florida. She believed by entering the medical field, she would be able to serve others and make a difference.
After graduating, she worked in a variety of settings as a traditional pharmacist including community retail pharmacies and hospitals- but something never sat well with her.
Why were her patients on sometimes dozens of medications yet still had shopping carts full of ultra-processed and inflammatory foods? Each medication seemed to be accompanied by another, just to counterbalance the side effects. It seemed redundant and counterintuitive!
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However, it was not until 2020 when Jolie started to exhibit some symptoms and health concerns of her own that she really started to explore the world of holistic medicine and nutrition. It was in that process that she started to question everything she had spent years being taught in school. Jolie suddenly started to feel unwell and inflamed, experienced difficulty sleeping and sudden weight gain, and most concerning the sudden loss of her menstrual cycle.
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She did what most people in this country do when experiencing symptoms- she went to her primary care doctors for solutions. She was frustrated when her concerns were oftentimes dismissed, leaving the office with little solutions other than to get on hormonal birth control to “regulate," an all-too-common scenario for women in America.
She knew there must be a better way and began digging and researching. She immersed herself in every aspect of holistic health, studying nutrition and lifestyle habits that could negatively impact female hormones. After months of testing and seeing various specialists, she was diagnosed with a rare endocrine disorder called Cushing’s disease, where the body produces too much cortisol due to a purported tumor on the pituitary gland. She was told she needed a very invasive neurosurgery to correct this issue and was reassured that this surgery had a 95% success rate at curing her ailment.
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Jolie was terrified but assumed these top doctors and surgeons knew what was best and despite her hesitation, underwent a pituitary tumor resection surgery in June of 2021. After a brutal week in the neuro ICU, a lonely and scary experience without visitors due to COVID restrictions, she was told that her cortisol levels were not trending as anticipated, and that the surgery was likely unsuccessful. She felt defeated, frustrated, and confused.
It was in that moment that she realized she had to take matters into her own hands, that she was the only one who had the power to heal herself, and that she must seek answers outside of the traditional Western medicine model.
She began studying Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine principles, researching heavily on the impact diet, lifestyle, and stress can have on the body. She traveled all over the world and got multiple opinions from holistic and alternative medicine healers and started to really understand the mind, body, spirit connection.
In the end, she was told she was misdiagnosed and underwent that very traumatic surgery unnecessarily. She came to realize that she was likely just under a high amount of stress, working 12 hours shifts at a busy pharmacy, not taking the time to properly rest or regulate her nervous system, and was likely eating a diet and leading a lifestyle contributing negatively to her condition.
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Since then, Jolie has become an expert in nutrition, stress management modalities, and holistic medicine. Her goal and mission is to help others not have to endure what she did.
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Jolie believes everything happens for a reason and that she underwent what she did to heal herself to be able to in turn help others using the knowledge this experience has taught her. This experience gave her a new awareness of food as medicine, a deep understanding of the intricacies of hormonal imbalances and gut health, and instilled in her a love for ancient healing modalities such as Ayurveda.
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She believes most health conditions and “diseases” are due to inflammation, gut imbalances, and toxin accumulation - driven by stress, poor food choices and our unfortunate toxic environment we live in. Jolie works with her clients to get to the root cause of their symptoms and help them heal holistically to reach equilibrium so that pharmaceuticals or invasive surgery are the last option.
Jolie focuses on the pillars of good health including proper diet, sleep, and stress management, utilizing functional laboratory testing and tailored supplementation based on each person’s unique situation. She believes in the power of positivity on one’s physical health, and blends her background in psychology and medical science to help her clients overcome health obstacles.
Jolie currently resides in Miami, FL, and loves traveling, staying active, cooking healthy meals, and spending time in nature. She finds great joy and satisfaction helping her clients heal holistically, overcome imbalances, and regain their zest for life.
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