About

Our Roots

Three Branches Healthy Living is rooted in experience. Nearly 20 years ago, Marilee Nelson was dedicated and willing to do whatever it took to help her son, then ten years old, recover from a severe chemical exposure. She refused to accept the bleak medical prognosis that he would not recover and began to explore alternative options that focused on creating healing environments and using food as medicine. Through her son's long road to recovery she gained experiential wisdom and knowledge far beyond the four walls of a classroom or the pages in a textbook. It did not take long for others to seek out Marilee for their own health concerns, and in 1992 she began consulting full-time and established The House Doctors.

In 2007 her niece, Allison, called desperately seeking relief from chronic pain that over a dozen doctors could not explain. Marilee linked Allison’s physical breakdown to several factors – the main one being chemical exposure to new building materials when she moved into a newly constructed apartment. It was then that the seed for Three Branches Healthy Living was planted. Allison’s best friend and roommate, Kelly, was there to soak up the priceless information Marilee had to offer, and a special bond between the three women formed. It only grew stronger as the two college graduates moved out to the Texas Hill Country to live with Marilee for a summer. After realizing the extent of her knowledge, Allison and Kelly knew they had to find a way to share it with the rest of the world. Now it is their great pleasure to provide you with Three Branches Healthy Living. So peruse and consider this vital information that has the potential to improve your quality of life!

Marilee Nelson

For almost 30 years, Marilee has been an advocate for healthy living. At a young age, a chronic kidney disorder left her facing potential dialysis and a kidney transplant. Not satisfied with the future that conventional medicine offered, she started the study of "Using Food as Medicine" and avoided dialysis and the kidney transplant. This awakened her awareness of how the choices we make each day, such as the food we eat, can make such a difference in our well-being. Years later, her ten-year-old son was exposed to pesticides, leaving him catastrophically injured and extremely chemically sensitive. The doctor's prognosis was that he would not recover from such an injury. Determined that their child WOULD recover, Marilee and her husband began extensive study of how the environment impacts the health. Their son had lost his ability to detoxify and metabolize the chemicals that we are all unknowingly exposed to in our daily life. The toxic chemicals found in our food, water, cleaning products, body care products, building materials, etc. were all impacting his health. So, as much as possible they were eliminated from the home to take pressure off his immune system. Many steps forward and backwards were taken in the attempt to recover their son. They watched as he responded both mentally and physically to a clean environment free of toxic chemicals and also to what happened when he would have inadvertent exposures. After seven years of hard fought tenacity on the part of Marilee and the family his immune system had healed to the point where he was able to start venturing out. Several years later he was fully recovered and able to attend college. Word spread of her expansive knowledge and eager willingness to help others and she is now a go-to source for the chemically sensitive, electromagnetically sensitive, and those given little hope for a normal life.

Marilee works to raise the bar on what people conceive as “normal”. While most of us accept aches, brain fog and lethargy as part of life and chronic diseases and cancers as part of aging, she sees that choices we all make in daily life about the food we eat and the environment we live in have a great impact on the body's condition and its ability to heal. Her comprehensive approach for reducing immune stress on the body combines the use of “Food as Medicine” and detoxification protocols with improving indoor air quality and reducing electromagnetic stress. Her work spans for nearly two decades and she sees in case after case how symptoms disappear once the client addresses these stressors. Her clients include the chemically and EMF sensitive, the mold injured, the chronically ill, children with ADD/ADHD, asthma, and autism, and those just seeking to enhance their health.

As a Certified Bau-Biologist and home inspector, Marilee works with homeowners, contractors, architects, and designers in order to assure a healthy home for her clients. Using the chemically sensitive as a benchmark for material safety, Marilee believes that if you accommodate the most sensitive, you help everyone. She also works with medical doctors and health care practitioners by helping diagnose and resolve their patients’ “sick building syndrome” issues at home. With Marilee’s tips, insights, and products provided through Three Branches Healthy Living, everyone can start making changes and achieve a higher level of wellbeing and health!

Download Marilee’s Full Story in PDF form.

Allison Evans

While Allison’s health struggles are deeply rooted, they forged a God-paved path that led the three owners together.

During her sophomore year at The University of Texas, Allison’s body began to break down as she was riddled with mysterious back and neck pain, numbness in her arms and legs, and loss of motor skills. She spent over a year searching for answers, but traditional doctors were dumbfounded, finding no consistent solution or agreed-upon source.

Though she had reservations, Allison began to pursue natural medicine and her aunt Marilee’s guidance. Marilee opened her niece’s eyes to the effects of everyday chemicals found in our food and environment, helping Allison understand that it was her brand-new apartment complex sophomore year that had incited her pain. Full of new – and highly toxic – carpet, paint, glues, grout and finishes, the chemical load was more than her body could bear. After moving to a cleaner environment, adopting a pure diet and using non-toxic body care products, Allison found tremendous relief. She now strives for a diet free of preservatives, processed foods and refined sugar and prudently avoids chemicals, toxins, pesticides and electromagnetic radiation exposure. This has proved to be the answer to her inexplicable symptoms as Allison’s daily routine of muscle relaxers, painkillers, and anti-depressants is now a thing of the past.

Astounded by her body’s natural ability to heal, Allison developed a passion for gaining knowledge that she believes can lead people to a fuller, more vibrant life. She created Three Branches to provide the information that brought her out of a season of pain and to prevent others from settling with the lower quality of life that many believe is their only option. She is whole-heartedly devoted to this company, knowing that Three Branches is more than a place to find products, but instead an easy access to Marilee’s wisdom that stems from years of helping people find renewed health through natural means.

Allison uses her trials as inspiration that anyone can heal themselves if given the right information, enough persistence and, most of all, faith that even small changes can produce big results!

Allison graduated from the University of Texas in 2008 with a major in Public Relations and a minor in business. She is a recent newlywed who now lives with her husband in their hometown, Houston, TX.

Kelly Blackstone

Kelly is passionate about providing others with healthy choices. Her road began like so many others, always wanting a healthier lifestyle but never sure of the best way to attain it.

When Allison’s health declined as a sophomore in college, Kelly joined her in eventually pursuing the world of natural healing. She challenged herself to learn more about dietary and environmental toxins and their affect on the overall health of the body. As her knowledge grew, an intrigue for the body’s innate healing abilities quickly developed, and in no time at all her kitchen and bathroom cabinets were stocked with organic, non-toxic goodies and products.

As graduation approached, job priorities that had once appealed to her suddenly seemed less attractive. When the opportunity to live with Marilee and learn from her for a summer opened up, Kelly jumped on board, eager to truly pursue her new-found passion. After only a few days of Marilee’s wealth of knowledge, Kelly found what she believes is the complete picture of healthy living. That summer was a coming-of-age of sorts as her knowledge base grew and the effects of her own lifestyle changes began to transform her own body and mind.

She could not be more thankful for that summer and the eye-opening experience it was for her. Kelly feels a true calling to follow in Marilee’s footsteps, and she feels very blessed to be a part of Three Branches Healthy Living. She’s excited to give more people the opportunity for a renewed and healthy life.

Kelly is from Baton Rouge, LA and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 with a degree in Kinesiology: Health Promotion and Fitness. She currently lives in Jackson, MS.