A natural medicine practitioner’s tools of the trade

How does a natural medicine practitioner / holistic nutritionist help you achieve results? How do I address your symptoms, help you lose or maintain weight, improve your overall health and reduce your risk of disease? There are six “tools of the trade” which I use to improve your health:

1. Food as medicine
2. Lifestyle changes
3. Specific nutrients / supplements
4. Functional pathology testing
5. Referrals if needed
6. Your commitment!

1. Food as medicine

Food has been used to treat health conditions for thousands of years. We’ve all heard Hippocrates’ famous quote, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. He was well ahead of his time! What we eat is the number one determinant of our health and longevity. Diet can cause, prevent, and even reverse a wide range of diseases.

Plant foods in particular offer myriad benefits. In addition to vitamins and minerals, plant foods contain amazing substances called phytonutrients. These natural chemicals, including antioxidants, anti-inflammatory compounds, anti-cancer compounds, enzymes and fibre, can support, protect and heal the body.

As a holistic nutritionist, I believe that nutritional medicine is an integral part of the treatment for every health condition, and it is the foundation of my treatment plans.

A carefully tailored diet can help address identified nutrient deficiencies, improve symptoms you may be experiencing, reduce the risks of disease and strengthen your body’s defences and internal healing mechanisms.

2. Lifestyle changes

Just like diet, lifestyle is a well-known contributor to either health or disease, and it is an important component of a holistic nutritionist’s treatment plans. Just as I assess your diet, I also assess your lifestyle and recommend changes as appropriate.

Regular exercise, an adequate amount of good quality sleep, fresh air, sunshine, relaxation time, time in nature and time spent doing things that you love are all equally important for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

3. Specific nutrients / supplements

My first priority is to achieve as much as possible for you via diet and lifestyle changes. However, sometimes it’s not possible to replenish nutrient deficiencies or make a difference to your symptoms quickly enough without specific nutrients taken in therapeutic doses. When needed, I prescribe high quality, practitioner supplements. Prescribed supplements could include vitamins or minerals, enzymes to support the digestive process, prebiotics or probiotics, fibre, antioxidants, or phytochemicals, for example, flavonoids, polyphenols, carotenoids or curcumin.

4. Functional pathology testing

Much of the time, treatment can be carried out without the need for pathology testing. It is only recommended if significant benefits can be gained.

However, sometimes, functional pathology tests may be recommended to gain a clearer understanding of what is happening in your body and what may be causing your symptoms, to identify nutritional deficiencies, to develop a more tailored treatment plan for you, or to measure/monitor your progress.

Functional pathology testing involves the analysis of blood, urine, saliva, stool or DNA. These tests are used to investigate functional, biochemical, nutritional, metabolic and hormonal status.

5. Referrals if needed

As a natural medicine practitioner and clinical nutritionist, my scope of practice includes holistic health and lifestyle assessment, dietary analysis and planning and natural treatment of health conditions using food as medicine, lifestyle changes, specific nutrient supplements and functional pathology testing.

If your health condition requires medical treatment, is outside my training/scope of practice, or if I believe you would benefit from seeing a practitioner with a different area of expertise, I will refer you. I have a network of both medical and complementary medicine practitioners on which I can call.

6. Your commitment!

Of course, we can’t achieve much without your commitment to the process! Achieving optimal health and wellbeing is a process which takes time, and requires you to be 100% on board and committed to making the necessary changes.

It’s amazing what can be achieved by making simple changes to your diet and lifestyle, and also with a little help from strategically chosen supplements. Making these changes now can make a big difference to your health in the long term!