Nutritional therapy is the perfect adjunct to physiotherapy, osteopathy or personal training. We see clients who are looking for weight loss, weight gain, or general health advice. We also see people with more chronic illnesses such as bowel disorders, autoimmune disease and hormonal problems. Your initial nutritional therapy appointment is a consultation and may last up to 1 hour depending on how complex your medical history is. All follow up appointments last up to 30 minutes depending on how much we need to go through in that session.
First we will establish your goals and expectations, and we will go through your past medical history and current dietary habits. I may also require you to fill out a Medical Symptom Questionnaire (MSQ), which is an objective marker on your current health and useful to measure progress with your health concerns. This questionnaire is suitable for those with ongoing medical problems and is not used with all clients.
The next step in a nutritional therapy appointment involves taking some anthropometrical measurements such as height, weight, body fat, BMI, waist circumference and waist to hip ratio if clinically indicated or if requested. This provides starting point data from which to measure your progress, particularly if weight loss is your primary goal. This is not a mandatory part of the initial consultation as many people do not want to be weighed and measured and that is ok.
Once we have completed the nutritional therapy consultation any remaining time is used to provide you nutritional therapy plan. This may be in the format of written advice, meal and snack recommendations, a diet plan with recipes or even as in-depth as measuring and tracking macronutrients and calories depending on what you request. Please indicate what level of nutritional therapy input you would like.
In follow up nutritional therapy sessions, that last up to 30 minutes, we check in and re-assess the MSQ or re-take measurements if appropriate and discuss your progress – figuring out what is working well, what is not and how we can implement new habit changes where required and discuss new recipes or supplements ideas.
It is not unusual to take at least 3 months to see significant changes in your health or body shape and in that time you need to commit to making changes in your lifestyle and implementing the advice I have given you.
In some cases more input is required. If you are currently unwell or have a diagnosed disease such as inflammatory bowel disease or an autoimmune disease for example, there is no guarantee that we can resolve your problem, but we can make significant improvements in your health.
This takes more time and a 6-12 month commitment of changing your nutrition habits is required.
There may also be some additional testing required in order to help you get better. You could speak to your GP about additional testing such as blood tests, however, we use a number of tests to give information about your current health. These include:
A comprehensive blood and urine test to establish your need for vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fats and vitamin D. This also shows markers for amino acid metabolism, toxic metabolites and bowel health.
A lesser version of the NutrEval using urine to test your need for vitamins, minerals, antioxidants as well as markers for amino acid metabolism, toxic metabolites and bowel health.
A stool test to establish makers for bowel inflammation, enzyme function, beneficial and pathogenic bacteria and parasites.
A saliva test to establish your stress hormone levels throughout the day.
A urine test to establish your metabolism of oestrogen, highlighting the levels of protective and damaging oestrogen metabolites.
These tests highlight any foods or food chemicals you may need to reduce or avoid as well as food and nutrients you need much more of or if any supplements need to be taken.
Armed with these test results, your anthropometrics, MSQ and food diary we can put a detailed nutrition plan together for you that will help you work towards your goal.
This level of input does have costs associated to it with the testing and follow up sessions that are required. Follow up sessions are recommended on a monthly basis to implement the actions required based on testing results and you will need to commit yourself to this process for a number of months.
