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Guiding People on the Path to Wellness

May 30, 2011 ● By Peggy Malecki

“I believe health is simple,” says Lynn Bednar, owner of Evanston’s Walsh Natural Health. “It’s not about fancy tests, MRIs and body scans. Rather, it’s about putting good things into your body and getting good things out.”

Ten years ago, Bednar was living a typical suburban life–raising kids and working as a managing director for a commercial real estate firm. She claims she was not particularly aware of good nutritional practices, and did not take supplements or exercise regularly.

Then she experienced debilitating lower back problems that launched her on a quest to a more natural approach to health and living. After trying “almost everything” medically to feel better, including medications and ineffective cortisone shots, she became disenchanted with Western medicine’s inability to ease her pain.

“Everything I tried seemed very temporary,” Bednar explains. “The notion that you should stay on a medicine indefinitely sounded inherently wrong to me; what was it actually doing, aside from masking my symptoms? The meds were causing bad side effects and didn’t produce any real healing.”

So she tried alternative treatments–including hydrotherapy, energy work and acupuncture– and discovered she could obtain what she calls “stages of relief,” allowing her to begin moving without pain and start healing. One day, she met Pieter VanHeule, a Wilmette wellness practitioner who introduced her to chiropractic treatments, as well as healing herbs, flower essences and kinesiology, and helped bring lasting relief.

Concurrently, Bednar began using herbs and supplements in place of meds, and was impressed with the results. Eager to learn more, she began intensive self-study in alternative health practices and even considered going back to school. In 2005, she decided to seek a part-time job in which she could immerse herself in a natural health business and learn all she could. Bednar’s first stop was Evanston’s Walsh Homeopathics, where she shopped frequently.

“It was a synchronistic thing,” she recalls. “Walsh had no opening for help, but for some reason, they told me the store was for sale. Everything fell into place and it felt right.” Bednar had found her calling and purchased the business. Since then, she’s learned by doing, becoming a certified nutritional counselor, researching products and practices on a daily basis and sharing her knowledge with staff and customers.

Today, Walsh attracts customers from Chicago, the North Shore and around the northeast Illinois area. Bednar attributes the store’s popularity to the variety of products they offer, including vitamin and herbal supplements, skincare and body products, natural cosmetics and hair treatments, essential oils, teas, books, music and one of the area’s largest selections of homeopathic products. Rounding it out is the staff’s extensive knowledge.

“We are a health food store that educates about, models and promotes natural health concepts,” Bednar says. “We live the lifestyle and do the research for our customers. One or more of us has tried most every item in our store, and we stand behind what is on our shelves.”

She stresses Walsh’s mission as a community educator that offers frequent health seminars featuring local practitioners. In addition, Bednar sends a monthly email newsletter to highlight natural treatment options for a given condition.

“We teach people about foundational things they can do to improve their health,” she explains. “It can seem daunting at first to make a lot of changes, but I try to meet people where they are today. Once they start making changes, they see the results and want to try more.”

Bednar firmly believes in the body’s power to heal itself, rejecting the notion that a condition cannot be reversed through proper nutrition and alternative care. She echoes the belief of an old guru, “As long as you can walk or breathe, there's a chance for complete recovery. The key is to take responsibility for your health, not turn it over to someone else to fix.”

Bednar explains that when customers are mentally ready to start their path to wellness, she leads them gradually through the process. Often, she recommends building a good nutritional foundation with quality multivitamins and fish oil, as well as a powerful probiotic to balance the system and begin healing. After a customer starts feeling better, she works to educate about the gradual process of wellness through supplements, proper diet and nutrition and other non-pharmaceutical options.

“I feel like many people in America have it backwards,” Bednar says. “We need to try to solve our health problems first without drugs, and then use drugs if nothing else works. The time to start working with your body to heal is when a symptom or condition first starts. There are so many things you can use, such as herbs and vitamins, to speed through a common illness like a cold or flu.”

Bednar gets daily satisfaction from helping her customers take the first steps in experiencing how herbs and natural products can work with their body’s healing process. “It’s all about baby steps,” she says. “I like to think every time a customer comes to our store, they learn something new to improve their health.”


Walsh Natural Health, 2116-1/2 Central St., Evanston 60202. For more information and to sign up for the monthly newsletter, call 847-864-1600 or visit WalshNatural.com.