Hi Friends,
I opened my Nutritional Therapy practice almost 11 months ago and I thought it was a good time to explain more about what I do and give insights into how Nutritional Therapy can help support a multitude of diagnoses and symptoms. While we don’t’ diagnose, “cure” or even “treat” an illness, we offer tools to support various body systems, search for potential nutritional deficiencies as well as advise regarding lifestyle interventions that can help your body work the way it was intended and empower our clients. What we feed our bodies, as well as our lifestyle choices, either helps or hinders your body’s ability to heal, thrive, and ultimately have a profound effect on your overall vitality and quality of life. Here are my top 5 reasons why a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) is a great add to your care team.
1) Conventional medicine doesn’t teach much about nutrition and many traditional medicine (allopathic) practitioners don’t even spend much time in their training learning about nutrition. That is where a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, like me, can be an asset to your health care team. I have learned a lot about detoxification, blood sugar regulation, hormone balance, digestion, sleep, stress and movement and how to support these areas. We as NTPs learn about how the body systems work together and how they affect each other. You cannot isolate one body system, rather we learn to support the proper function of these body systems so the whole person can thrive! Did you know that blood sugar regulation can interfere with sleep? High cholesterol can be related to inflammation, which can also be tied to blood sugar dysregulation and stress. These are just some examples of why nutrition is so important and that you can’t focus solely on one system.
2) Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, said it best when he said “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.” There are even conditions that traditional medicine will say are “normal”, but they really are not. Take PMS, Pre/Peri-menopause and menopause symptoms, minor aches considered “normal aging”, and indigestion as just some examples. I used to have terrible, debilitating cramps each month. While some doctors may say take Advil (or whatever NSAID they recommend) and that should help. While, yes, that may help for the short term, an NTP will see how we can support hormonal balance to reduce those cramps. Why would that be beneficial? Well, first of all, we are not Ibuprofen (or acetaminophen) deficient. We must look at how we can support our bodies and learn what these symptoms are telling us. For women, we don’t have to live with excruciating cramps or suffer extreme menopause symptoms. Also, these NSAIDs can have pretty serious side effects such has stomach or liver issues if taken long term! We can also help with mood issues too through proper nutritional support. Through nutritional support and lifestyle modifications, many “normal” symptoms can be greatly improved or even eliminated. Our bodies are amazing and can heal in dramatic ways if given what they need!
3) It’s not all in your head. Have you been told your symptoms are just in your head? A Nutritional Therapy Practitioner won’t say that. I understand inflammation, and I know it first-hand! Two years ago, I had some extreme pain in my right knee and left hand. Nothing seemed to really show what the problem was. I was dismissed after a point and my care team gave up on me. My naturopathic doctor is the only person on my care team who didn’t give up. Have you been told by a doctor to eat less and exercise more because you can’t lose weight or were told your fine and get the feeling your doctor thinks you’re a hypochondriac? Western medicine doesn’t get to the root causes of chronic illnesses. They treat symptoms and move on. If they cannot treat a symptom, they may say it’s all in your head. They don’t know what more to do. I would not give up on anyone. Too many people are dismissed and I know, from my own journey, that we just want to be heard and to be validated. That validation is so important in my opinion, and I am making it my mission to help others who want the help and are willing to put in the effort.
4) You have autoimmune diseases. As I have said in another blog, if you have one autoimmune condition, you are much more likely to acquire more. I, myself, have several autoimmune diagnoses and I’ve been successful at managing them all with diet and lifestyle interventions that I learned not only in my coursework, but also in my own research. This is why getting nutritional support and lifestyle guidance is so important. First of all, your diagnosis doesn’t define you. You are not your autoimmune disease! Secondly, your genes don’t define you either! You may have the genes for a particular autoimmune disease, but that doesn’t mean you will get it nor that you can’t put your autoimmune disease into remission (by remission I mean symptom free). Yes, genes make you more susceptible to certain conditions, but epigenetics is real and environmental factors play a big role in gene expression.
5) You are not alone. A Nutritional Therapy Practitioner can help make the journey easier by providing knowledge, support, following up and accountability. This is quite possibly the most important point. We are with our clients every step of the way on their journey. The journey is not an overnight process, sometimes it takes some time to feel better. But we’re out there cheering them on, celebrating victories with them and providing them with many tools they need to help support them in their goals. My goal as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner is the encourage, support, empower and validate each and every one of my clients through whatever health concern they have. Also, we NTPs are not perfect, nor will we chastise anyone for not being perfect. We don’t live a perfect diet and lifestyle 100% of the time, we are human. We can relate to our clients in so many ways because of that. The key is that we have the tools to quickly bring us back to our best, including (and this is important) not beating ourselves up.
I was once told I should write a book by a friend after she saw me at my worst 6 years ago and now all those years later. Maybe someday, but until then this is my passion. If you or anyone you know could use the help of a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, reach out to me or pass along my information.
In Health…
Bridget Sloane, NTP
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and the information in this post is not meant to be taken as medical advice. Please speak to your medical professional if you have medical concerns.