How can a nutritionist help you?

Often when people hear the term nutritionist, they jump straight to thinking about weight loss.  Whilst weight loss is something I can absolutely help with, there is a lot more to how a nutritionist can support you in different health challenges or chronic disease.

Some of the health concerns or conditions I can address through dietary and lifestyle changes include:

  • Fatigue/low energy

  • Gastrointestinal dysfunction- eg. reflux, bloating, diarrhea, constipation 

  • Skin conditions including psoriasis and eczema

  • Metabolic dysfunction- eg diabetes, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, high triglycerides 

  • Thyroid conditions- including subclinical hypothyroidism, Hashimoto’s and Graves disease

  • Hormone imbalances- eg heavy menstrual bleeding, PCOS, perimenopause, absent menstrual cycles.

  • Systemic inflammation and associated conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and gout

  • Immune dysfunction- eg recurrent colds/flu, or longer recovery time after a viral infection

  • Assistance in navigating dietary changes- eg dairy or gluten free (especially for newly diagnosed coeliacs), vegetarian and vegan.  This is important to ensure you are still covering off all the essential nutrients we require from our diets. 

  • Diet analysis- perhaps you don’t have a health concern as such, but would like to know that you’re hitting all of your nutrient requirements and would like your current diet analysed.

Blood test analysis:

I can gain a lot of insights into your overall health and wellbeing through your blood test results.  Nutritionists are trained to analyse your results by looking at the optimal ranges of a particular marker, rather than relying on the often very wide reference ranges.  Analysing blood tests, will also allow us to see if you happen to be trending in a particular direction and I can work on prevention to improve this before it becomes a problem.

Put simply, it is another piece in the puzzle of addressing your health concerns.

Private blood testing (additional cost) can be arranged to order any tests that you may not be able to get through your GP.

Functional testing:

There is a huge range of functional tests that we can utilise to get an even more in depth picture of what might be going on for you.  Some of the most common tests utilised in the clinic include:

  • Gut microbiome testing- there are several levels of testing available, each providing different levels of information regarding the mapping of your gut microbiome, testing for pathogenic organisms and gastrointestinal markers.

  • SIBO breath testing- this test is a breath test that is performed in your own home, to check for possible small intestinal bacterial overgrowth

  • Hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA)- this test involves taking a small hair sample that is sent away for analysis of heavy metals and minerals.  Hair is a great way to test minerals such as magnesium, copper, zinc, selenium, iron, manganese and more.  Heavy metals tested include aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and uranium.

  • Allergy testing- this can be arranged to check for many food intolerances or allergies.