Internationally acclaimed research scientist, environmental health consultant, entrepreneur, and author, Dr. Christina Rahm is most definitely living her best life, and she’s eager to help others do the same. If it’s scientific fields Christina knows front to back, it’s psychology, bioscience engineering, and nanotechnology – having advanced degrees in all three. She’s the chief formulator for an emerging nutraceutical company, CEO and founder of multiple innovative enterprises, including a new retail fashion, art and wellness company, and a devoted mother of four. Yet, her journey of a thousand miles began with many painful steps.

Dr. Rahm grew up on a farm in the small town of Dexter, Missouri, the kind of place where people are kind and keep their word. It’s where she was given her first glimpses of community, of building something from nothing, of perseverance, and hard work. Her great grandmother, part Cherokee, part Choctaw, married a successful businessman who traveled from Ireland across the Atlantic—as family legend has it—to expand his brand and bring Bushmills Whiskey to the Americas during the Prohibition era. It was a time where land was unsettled, and opportunities to develop communities from the ground up were readily available for those ambitious enough to put in the sweat equity. “I was given the ability to watch people grow grocery stores, banks, farming communities, and developments,” Dr. Rahm recollects, adding, “Campbell, Missouri— not far from my hometown of Dexter—is where my grandfather started it all. It was a small town, but the family developed everything. I had great examples from them.”

On the other side of her family, starting his life in America as an orphan, her grandfather Rahm—from the Middle East and Germany— was brought in by a plantation family. He worked hard and tirelessly, and became an All -American football player. Dr. Rahm recalls, “He married my grandmother whose family were wealthy plantation owners—successful tobacco farmers. They had land. They started businesses. They had people helping them. All their children—eight boys and girls—went to college.” While there was generational money passed down and trust funds available, Dr. Rahm was also taught humility and the value of hard work and education. With both her mother and father’s well-heeled and well-educated families around her, she learned by example how to grow everything from vegetables to businesses. Everyone in herfamily went to college, and both her grandmothers, whom she especially admired, had earned master’s degrees.

Having battled Lyme disease as a child, Dr. Rahm’s concerned parents insisted she stay close to home to pursue higher education. Always an adventurer, free spirit, and gypsy-like—and since both her siblings chose to travel the world—her parents were afraid that she would follow suit and go somewhere international, and never return home. “I always loved going places and was never really scared about doing anything. I really wasn’t. I had goals about what I wanted to do.” Even back in those early days, the young Christina knew that she was going to one day leave the small town of Dexter, Missouri. She knew she was going to travel all over the world and help people. “I didn’t know how. I just knew it was going to happen.”

Although appreciative of her family’s prosperity, during her sophomore year in college, Dr. Rahm walked away from her trust fund money and any baggage and expectations that rode along with it. “I stopped taking money from them. I wanted to prove myself.”

Passion for Healing, Service and Success

Her drive to succeed was powerful. Armed with unwavering confidence, sheer vision and determination, Dr. Rahm took many leadership roles in high school and college, including student government and president of her Panhellenic sorority—all while working 4 jobs. “I had this drive to succeed. I had this passion, and at the same time I wanted to support others while I did that.” With role models in Gandhi, Muhammad, and Mother Teresa, from very early on Dr. Rahm knew that she wanted to heal and serve, and become successful. She knew that in order to be both successful and an effective leader, there were things she needed to understand and emulate from her role models. She asserted, “I thought Mother Teresa was amazing. I wanted to be like those people. I wanted to make an impact.”

After earning her master’s degree, she entered a doctorate program and was anxiously looking forward to giving birth to her first child. Then, the unthinkable happened. She was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that they said would metastasize all over her body. She was 25 years old. Up until that point she’d led a rather charmed life. Recognizing that her life may well be cut short, she was faced with a choice—give up or do as much good as possible with the time she had left. Her deep roots in southern Missouri soil and her strong belief in a higher power simply wouldn’t allow her to do the former. She decided to focus on being a bright light. And, she’s been shining ever since.

An early epiphany came after she was bombarded with the devastating news that if she didn’t follow a course of treatment for cancer, as prescribed by her doctor, that she probably wouldn’t live long. But what her doctors wanted her to do didn’t feel right to her. She worried that she would be violating her deeply held values and beliefs about her own health. Leaning into the pain, she had a life-changing thought. She was smart and capable of researching her own health problems, and ultimately, she was in charge of her body, and her choices.

In addition to her work as a medical, clinical, and research scientist at large pharmaceutical companies, she began studying eastern medicine too. She realized she needed to heal not only her body, but also her mind and spirit. Throughout her journey she became keenly aware of the many toxins both in and around us, and remarkably, she healed. Always intrinsically motivated to succeed, in her mind nothing was going to stop her—not Lyme disease, not cancer. Her ultimate goal? To leave a legacy that would positively impact people and the planet for many generations to come. For Dr. Rahm, it meant an unending journey of learning and failing. It meant that things were not always going to be perfect, but that she always had the drive in her mind. “There was nothing that was going to stop me.”

 

Multitude of Business Endeavors

Like many who are drawn to the world of health and wellness, Dr. Rahm’s story began with a battle to save her own life. “Medice, cura te ipsum,” physician, heal thyself—the ancient Biblical proverb would have been familiar to the young Christina, growing up in a Christian church-going home. Armed with her personal experiences and vast medical knowledge, she was uniquely poised to embark on her mission to equip others to take charge of their health.

The myriad ways that she fulfills that purpose is impressive.

As the chief formulator for The Root Brands, an emerging global nutraceutical company, Dr. Rahm develops products to detoxify the body, combat the signs of aging, and promote cell regeneration. Her patent pending formulas and trade secrets offer a sustainable path to wellness. Proudly, she says, “I’ve worked really hard on this protocol that could help people hopefully live longer and have a better quality of life.”

Ella Pure Skin Care, her all-natural skin care products, set to launch this October in over 60 countries, are designed to meet the needs of aging skin, and to nourish and give skin a youthful appearance. Named after her daughter and inspired by Dr. Rahm’s time in the pharmaceutical industry, Ella Pure is based in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.

Dr. Rahm’s unwavering commitment to eradicating toxins led her to create Rahm Roast, detox coffee totally free of many of the unseen harmful agents that find their way into your morning cup of Joe. Rahm Roast beans are cleaned before roasting to eradicate mold, bacteria, fungus, and parasites for a better tasting and healthier coffee. Set to launch in 67 countries this year, the company offers a delivered-to-your-door subscription service.

Her passion for healing the body has ignited a passion to heal the planet, knowing that without clean air, water, and soil, what we put into our bodies will ultimately continue to be contaminated. Dr. Rahm views one of her highest mindful purposes as the remediation and rejuvenation of the environment. She started ENVIREM, an environmental remediation company, to offer advice on how to avoid toxins and protect us and our families from harmful substances.

All living things are connected to one another. When fish or vegetables are exposed to toxins, we too are exposed. The message is beautiful in its simplicity, yet not an easy one for many people to adopt. She hopes to promote solutions by partnering with Save Soil, a global movement launched by Indian yoga guru and mystic, Sadhguru. Save Soil addresses the crisis by engaging activists and supporting leaders to institute policies to increase the organic content of cultivable soil.

Using her advanced knowledge of nanotechnology, Dr. Rahm is working on an innovative technique used to create a water-soluble formula which enables intracellular detoxification by absorbing toxins, such as heavy metals, from the body. Another exciting product she is developing using nanotechnology is a clothing line to target and protect the skin against pollutants, microbials, toxins, and nuclear wastes originating from 5G technologies.

Dr. Rahm is aiming to make science sexy by bringing together the art of science in fashion, food, music, and travel on her latest platform, Under the Red Chandelier(UTRC)—an online space for the arts and sciences, and people’s understanding of them, to come together. UTRC will feature a podcast where Dr. Rahm will share her extensive experiences with travel, her unique style, her passion for art, and her love of science. The 5G Protective clothing line is set to launch next year on UTRC.

The title of her book series sums up her philosophy nicely—Cure the Causes: Live the Life you Want, Not the One Prescribed—weaving us through why illness can happen to all of us, and how healing can happen by focusing on the cause instead of the symptoms. Dr. Rahm wrote the book to discuss the many facets of disease, and to share simple, daily practices to restore and revitalize health.

Her craving for healthy people and a healthy planet extends to an overarching passion for peace. As founder and CEO of Social Peace Project, a nonprofit utilizing education as a means to achieve social peace, Dr. Rahm hopes to raise awareness of the importance of education as a tool for social change; and provide access, resources and opportunity for people to develop skills and knowledge to build peaceful societies.

The International Science and Nutrition Society (ISNS), of which Dr. Rahm is founder and CEO, collaborates with innovators in science, technology, and medicine to bring forward leading-edge concepts and new paradigms of health and wellness. Listeners to her conversational podcast, Scientifically Beautiful, found on ISNS will benefit from her alternative approach and broad perspective based on years of extensive international travel and study of other cultures’ healing modalities.

 

Failures, Challenges, and Perseverance

On the outside, there is a long and impressive list of academic credentials, achievements, accomplishments, business ventures, and speaking engagements. Yet, life wasn’t always smooth sailing for this mother of four. From a young age, she remembers thinking about how boys were able to do things that she wasn’t. It seemed easier for boys, even in her family, as they handled the money. “But I know money. I know finance,” she recalls telling herself. In her mind though, as a female, she understands there are extra challenges, yet she’s aware and mindful that men face their own unique challenges too. “I don’t feel sorry for myself. I’m just being honest about the challenges I’ve had.”

Dr. Rahm’s message on being a successful female CEO is that women can be high achievers in multiple areas of life: motherhood, science, business—all of it. No one questions that a man can do that. “It irritates me that people have this notion that a female is not able to own multiple businesses or achieve things in several areas of life. How can someone have four children, and still be a part of or develop 10-20 patents, or have ten companies? In my mind, that’s never made sense to me. I feel like I can do whatever I’m supposed to do or need to do. It didn’t matter. If it’s a father of two, three, or four kids, no one questions that. But when it’s a mother, it’s not possible for some reason. That’s a trigger for me.”

The biggest lesson she tries to instill about success is that failure is part of the package, and this advice she offers to women in positions of power is the same she gives her own daughter and her three sons. “You’re going to fail. There’s going to be people who don’t like you and who are going to be mean to you. So, what you have to do is put your mission in front of you and achieve what you need to achieve, regardless of how many times you fail, or how many people attack you. You just can’t quit. And, it’s okay to be kind…it’s not a weakness.” She adds, “My parents didn’t prepare me for that. They protected me.”

What’s the difference between Dr. Rahm and others facing similar challenges? She took her own advice, and she just didn’t quit. “Losing something you love, or someone you love…you’re devastated. But the option in life has to be to keep going so you can leave a legacy, either for the person you lost, or for yourself, or for both.” Growing up in an environment where people did what they said they were going to do, learning about the harsh realities of the world outside of Dexter, life provides some tough lessons. “No one prepared me, so I really want to prepare my children for that. That it’s not going to be easy. I really think that individuals need to understand that life is not easy. If you expect for life to always be easy and for things to always be happy, you will be sorely disappointed.” Life’s tough, adding, “I think a lot of people think that if it’s tough, I’m going to quit. But that doesn’t work.”

Dr. Rahm concludes, “I want to be an example for others—as a scientist, as a mother, as a humanitarian. I really feel like almost a crusader, to be honest…to try to do these things so that one day, when I die, I’ve left something positive for the world. Not just for now, but generational. Having a brain tumor, having a child with cancer, losing a child, and suffering from various other things, I have been taught that I’ve got to do things while I’m here. Things that don’t just help my children, but my children’s children’s children. And, that’s how I feel, as the technology I’m working on now and the projects I’m involved in are, in my mind, the future and not just for while I’m here on this earth.”