It started with a question
Santa Maria did not start as a business idea. It started with a question:
My name is Mariya Kurilina. For eight years I lived with more than twenty unexplained symptoms: crushing fatigue, brain fog, pain all over my body, inflammation, mood swings, and the feeling that my life was slowly shrinking. More than 60 doctors in five countries, including Russia, Germany, Switzerland and the United States, examined me. Different diagnoses, different pills, different opinions. Nothing truly explained what was happening to me.
We moved to San Diego, hoping that one of the best medical systems in the world would finally give me answers. Instead, we met the same wall: “Your tests look normal.”
A scientist takes on the case
My husband, Professor Yuri Nikolsky, a scientist, geneticist and molecular biologist, decided to treat my case like a research project. He drew my blood, isolated the DNA and sent it to a Silicon Valley company working with advanced genetic sequencing. Their answer was the first real clue in years: “There is an infection in the blood. Keep looking.”
That led us to a reference laboratory for tick-borne infections in Palo Alto, where in 2017 we finally found the truth: I had chronic Lyme disease, with a co-infection.
It was a relief, and a new challenge. We quickly realized that the standard approach, long courses of antibiotics alone, wasn’t enough for a chronic disease affecting the whole body. My body was too exhausted and my symptoms too complex. We needed a different approach.
We spent countless nights reading research on Lyme, chronic infections, the immune system, cell energy and integrative therapies. We went to medical conferences, including the ILADS Lyme conferences in Chicago and Boston, visited clinics and health retreats, and spoke with doctors in Europe and the US, trying to build a picture that actually matched what I was living through.
Mexico: where science met possibility
In 2018 our path took us south, to Baja California. Mexico welcomed us with open arms: a country of generous hearts and an open attitude toward integrative medicine. Here, on a piece of land above the Pacific Ocean, we decided to build a home for our family.
By day I was on the construction site, choosing tiles and watching the walls grow. In the evenings I was in a completely different world:
Professor Yuri brought his knowledge of genetics, the microbiome and systems biology; I brought my body, my intuition and my stubborn refusal to give up. We combined IV therapies, oxygen and ozone therapies, detox, nutrition, herbs and integrative methods, always guided by science and safety, and watched the changes through blood microscopy.
After about six months of this intense work, something shifted. My blood looked cleaner. My inflammation went down. My energy came back. I could think clearly again. For the first time in years, I felt like myself.
From one patient to many
Word of what we were doing traveled quickly. First close friends asked for help. Then friends of friends. Then people who had heard about “the couple near Rosarito who understand Lyme and chronic illness.”
By then we had a professional microscope, a library of protocols and data, my growing knowledge of nutrition and integrative medicine, and, most importantly, living proof that this approach could work: me.
At some point it became clear this was no longer just about our family. We made a big and very emotional decision: we turned our family home into Santa Maria.
We opened in 2020, in the middle of the COVID era, when the world felt uncertain. From the very beginning, patients came not only from Mexico and the US but from around the world: people with Lyme disease, chronic viral infections, autoimmune conditions, post-COVID symptoms, long-standing fatigue and complex, “mysterious” illnesses.
Today Santa Maria is an integrative and regenerative medicine clinic with a team of 20 people, about 150 treatments, and structured programs built on the Santa Maria Method. More than 4,000 patients have stayed with us. But we have never forgotten how it started: with one woman who was sick, tired, and refused to accept that “nothing can be done.”
What we believe
For our patients
If you’re reading this from Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada, San Diego, Los Angeles or anywhere in North America, we want you to know:
Santa Maria is not a “miracle place.” It is a place where serious science, good medicine and the human spirit work together.
And to everyone who, like I once did, feels lost in the medical system: