Rosie (not her real name) came to me for help in December 2020 seeking solutions for her fatigue, hormonal imbalance and low mood.
1. Background
As a 42 year old legal professional, running her practice from home whilst caring for her 2 young children, Rosie had a lot of demands on her time. Like many of the women I see her needs came bottom of the list. She’d reached the point where she was really struggling to keep a handle on everything.
Focus areas
Having agreed my Foundation Package would be most appropriate, Rosie and I worked together on a 1:1 basis over the course of a month.
Rosie’s main aims were to
- Regain control
- Eat more healthily
- Achieve greater energy levels and hormonal balance
As with every client I work with, after taking a comprehensive health history, we agreed two symptoms to track. Rosie picked her anger/irritability and fatigue. I also track overall wellbeing with all my clients. I asked Rosie to score her symptoms on a scale of 0 to 6, where 0 is as good as it could be (ie. no symptom) and 6 is as bad as it could be. Rosie scored both her anger and irritability and fatigue 5 out of 6.
2. What we did
Started with the basics
We worked on blood sugar balancing to help stabilise Rosie’s energy levels and mood. This took the form of making time for proper meals, ensuring her diet contained a good balance of protein, carbohydrates and healthy fats and cutting down on sugary snacks.
I encouraged Rosie to eat a greater quantity and wider variety of vegetables, to improve her digestion and support her microbiome. Vegetables also provide a range of vitamins and minerals essential for production of energy in the body.
Rosie’s symptoms were suggestive of her being in a state of oestrogen dominance, so we also included foods to support oestrogen detoxification on a daily basis. In addition, I recommended a probiotic supplement to optimise her microbiome and support the excretion of oestrogen metabolites.
Lifestyle
The Nutritional Therapy process is about more than just food, lifestyle changes play a big role too.
By encouraging Rosie to make time for herself each day, take a daily walk and improve her bedtime routine she saw reductions in her levels of stress, improvement in her sleep and was better able to cope with the day to day challenges of life.
Testing
Rosie had undergone previous testing as a result of her multiple miscarriages so we knew that she had mutation in an MTHFR gene. This leads to suboptimal methylation, a biochemical process that is important for effective functioning of neurological, reproductive, and detoxification systems. We supported Rosie’s methylation with an appropriate multivitamin whilst making changes to her diet to optimise this important process longer term.
We also discovered through testing that Rosie’s vitamin D levels were inadequate. Insufficient levels of vitamin D are associated with a variety of conditions, including depression and PMS. Vitamin D is also important for immune and bone health. We addressed this with a vitamin D supplement.
3. The Result
Rosie’s saw huge improvements in her symptoms over the course of our time working together.
Her Anger/irritability moved from 5 to 1 and her levels of fatigue moved from 5 to 2. Rosie’s overall wellbeing also improved, moving from a 5 to a 2.
There is still work to do, but Rosie now has the knowledge and the tools to continue her wellness journey.
If Rosie’s story sounds familiar, and you’re interested in finding more about Nutritional Therapy why not book FREE DISCOVERY CALL?