The clinic was founded by Alex Howard, inspired by his own story and experiences with M.E. Alex suffered from M.E. for seven years, for the first two of which he was virtually bed-bound and hardly able to talk. After reaching the point of near suicide, he was helped to realise that if his situation was going to change, then he was going to have to be the one to change it. As a result of this decision, over the next five years Alex studied everything and anything that could possibly help his situation. What started off as a struggle to read a few pages a day, ended up in his reading over five hundred books on health and healing in a few years, earning a first class degree and going on to study various fields of health and psychology.
After making a full recovery, Alex wrote about his experiences in the book “WHY ME? My Journey from M.E. to Health and Happiness.” and recorded “Healing M.E. The Holistic Way,” a 6 CD audio programme interviewing a number of expert professionals who had recovered from M.E. As Alex toured around the UK speaking to health groups, he started to book out months in advance with his clinical work, and therefore established “The Optimum Health Clinic” in Central London. At this point he was joined by Niki Gratrix, now Director of Nutrition at the clinic.
For the next year, Alex and Niki worked relentlessly to develop and refine the clinics protocols. They lived together, initially running the back office for the clinic from their flat! It was an extremely intense, but also very exciting time. What had started off as a dream of providing a much needed integrative clinic for M.E. sufferers at an affordable price, was now becoming a reality.
It soon reached the point that Niki and Alex were unable to treat
all patients themselves, and so they were joined by Anna Duschinsky
(now Director of Psychology). The teams on either side of the clinic
have steadily grown since then, with some of the most talented practitioners
in the UK being attracted to the chemistry and passion of the OHC
working environment.
In recent years the clinic has gone from strength to strength,
with patients in 20 countries around the world, and having treated
several thousand patients with M.E. Its protocols are considered
by many the most cutting edge and integrated anywhere in the world.
