Not Sure Where to Start With Your Health?
Sometimes you know something isn't right, but you don't necessarily know what kind of help you need. Perhaps you're exhausted all the time, your digestion has changed, your hormones feel completely out of balance, your blood sugar is becoming a concern, you're struggling with headaches or joint pain, or you simply don't feel like yourself anymore. You may already have been to your GP and had blood tests, perhaps you've been told that everything looks “normal”, or you may have accumulated a cupboard full of supplements without really knowing which ones you need or whether they are doing anything.
You might not need a full health programme. You may simply need somebody to sit down with you, listen properly, focus on your main health concern and help you understand where to begin.
That is why I have introduced my new 30-Minute Focused Health Consultation for £65.
What Can We Do in 30 Minutes?
My 30-Minute Focused Health Consultation is exactly that — focused. It isn't intended to be an in-depth investigation of your entire health history or a replacement for one of my longer consultations or programmes.
Instead, we concentrate on your main health concern. You can tell me what has been happening, which symptoms are troubling you most, and what medications or supplements you are currently taking. I can then give you some initial nutritional and supplement guidance and discuss whether there are particular areas that may be worth investigating further.
For somebody who has one main concern or simply feels they need some professional direction, this may be exactly what they need.
However, if you have multiple symptoms, have been unwell for a long time, take several medications, have complicated blood results or feel as though nobody has ever really put your whole health story together, 30 minutes is unlikely to give us the time we need to investigate everything properly.
That is why I also offer more in-depth consultations and programmes.
When We Need to Go Much Deeper
My longer consultations and health programmes are very different from the 30-minute appointment. This is where I have the time to go through your health history properly and begin joining the dots between what may initially appear to be completely separate problems.
I want to know when your health began changing, which symptoms appeared first and what happened next. We can look at your digestion, energy, hormones, blood-sugar regulation, sleep, stress, nutrient status, medications, supplements, diet, lifestyle and previous health history.
We can also look at existing NHS blood results and consider whether further NHS or functional testing may help us understand the picture more clearly.
This deeper investigation can be particularly valuable for somebody who has been unwell for months or years and has accumulated multiple symptoms, diagnoses or medications. I don't want to concentrate solely on the symptom bothering you most today if there is a much bigger story underneath it.
For me, this is where personalised nutritional therapy becomes so important. Two people can walk through my door with exactly the same symptom and have completely different health histories behind it. Their plan shouldn't automatically be the same simply because their symptom has the same name.
Looking Beyond the Word “Normal
As part of my more comprehensive work, I can look through blood results you have already had through the NHS. I don't simply look for whether something has been flagged as outside the laboratory reference interval. I look at the actual numbers, where they sit within those ranges, how different markers relate to one another, whether there are changes or trends across previous results where available and, importantly, how those findings fit alongside the symptoms and health history of the person sitting in front of me.
A result being within a laboratory reference range can be reassuring, but it doesn't necessarily answer why somebody continues to feel unwell. Equally, a result sitting towards one end of a reference range isn't automatically a problem. Context matters.
There may also be additional blood tests that I feel would be useful to discuss with your GP. Depending on your individual health picture, this might involve areas such as thyroid function, iron status, vitamin D, B12 and folate, blood-sugar regulation or inflammatory markers. Rather than simply telling you to “ask for more blood tests”, I can explain what I think may be worth investigating and why.
When NHS Testing Doesn't Answer All of Our Questions
There are also times when we need to investigate areas that aren't routinely explored through standard blood testing. This is where functional testing can become a valuable part of my more comprehensive programmes.
Depending on your symptoms and health history, I have access to a wide range of functional investigations, including comprehensive digestive and microbiome testing, DUTCH hormone testing, nutritional and metabolic testing such as Metabolomix+ and NutrEval, vaginal microbiome testing and other specialist investigations where appropriate.
But I don't believe in ordering tests simply because they are available. Functional testing can be a considerable financial investment, so there should be a reason for doing it. What question are we trying to answer? What information could the test give us? And importantly, will knowing the result influence what we actually do? Sometimes the most appropriate next step is functional testing. Sometimes there is plenty we can do before we ever need it.
Ordering a Test Is Only the Beginning
Receiving a laboratory report isn’t the same as understanding it. Functional tests can contain a great deal of information, and the results need to be considered alongside your symptoms, health history, existing blood results, nutrition, medications and supplements.
The price of a test covers the test itself. If you would like me to review and explain your results, you’ll need to book a separate short interpretation consultation. We can then go through the findings together, discuss what may be relevant to you and consider what to do next.
I don’t want you to spend hundreds of pounds on testing and be left with pages of laboratory information you can’t make sense of. The value lies in understanding what the results mean for you.
You Don't Just Leave With a Bag of Supplements
The same level of thought goes into supplementation. My more comprehensive programmes aren't about giving you a random list of supplements and sending you away to work it out yourself. Recommendations are set out within a structured protocol so that you understand what you are taking, why I have recommended it, how to take it, when to take it and how it fits into the wider plan.
The quality of the supplements I recommend is also extremely important to me. I always use practitioner-grade supplements from professional third party tested brands rather than simply choosing products because they are inexpensive or readily available. I look at the form of the nutrient, the dose, the additional ingredients and the quality controls behind the product. I favour reputable manufacturers that use appropriate independent or third-party testing and robust quality-assurance processes, giving greater confidence in the quality and contents of the product bringing actual results.
There can be a considerable difference between two supplements that appear to contain the same nutrient. The form used can affect absorption and tolerability, the amount of the active ingredient can differ and formulations can contain very different additional ingredients. This is why I don't simply tell somebody to “take magnesium” or “buy a probiotic”. I consider which form and formulation are appropriate for that individual and what we are actually trying to achieve.
I also look at how supplements work together, whether there are unnecessary duplications and whether there may be interactions with medications or other supplements somebody is already taking. More isn't always better. Sometimes creating a good protocol actually means simplifying what somebody is already taking rather than continually adding more.
Nutrition Isn't a Generic Diet Sheet Either
Your nutrition is approached in exactly the same individual way. I don't believe everybody needs to eat the same diet. What I concentrate on with somebody struggling with blood-sugar regulation may be very different from the nutritional approach I use with somebody experiencing digestive problems, hormonal symptoms or profound fatigue.
I also want recommendations to be realistic. There is little value in giving somebody what looks like a perfect nutritional plan on paper if it is so complicated that they cannot incorporate it into everyday life.
I want you to understand why I am recommending particular foods or changes and how they fit into what we are trying to achieve with your health.
A Protocol Shouldn't Be Created and Then Forgotten
This is another important difference with my ongoing programmes. You aren't simply handed a protocol at the beginning and then left alone with it.
We have the opportunity to review how you are responding. We can look at what has improved, what hasn't changed, whether anything hasn't suited you and whether our priorities need to change as we learn more about your body.
Your protocol can evolve with you.
For me, that ongoing relationship is important because health rarely moves in a perfectly straight line. Something that seemed like the priority at the beginning may become less important as another part of the picture becomes clearer.
The Time You Don't See Matters Too
Something I really want people to understand about my more comprehensive programmes is that the work doesn't begin and end when we are sitting together in a consultation.
There is a considerable amount of work happening outside those appointments. I spend time reviewing your case, going through blood results, interpreting functional testing, looking at your existing medications and supplements, researching aspects of your health where necessary, considering what further investigations may be useful and putting together your personalised nutritional and supplement protocol.
Then there is the ongoing work of reviewing how you are responding and deciding what needs to happen next. That time and attention are a huge part of what you are paying for.
I don't want somebody who has trusted me with a complicated health history to leave with a pile of information and no idea what to do with it. I want you to understand the plan, why we are doing it and what we are looking for as we progress.
So Which Level of Support Do You Need?
You don't have to know before you contact me.
If you have one particular concern and would like some professional guidance, my new 30-Minute Focused Health Consultation is a simple place to start. It is £65 and gives us dedicated time to concentrate on your main concern, discuss your current symptoms, medications and supplements, and give you some initial nutritional and supplement recommendations. We can also discuss whether any testing or a more in-depth consultation might be useful.
If you already know that your health picture is more complicated and you want me to investigate your health history, symptoms, blood results, nutrition, medications and supplements in considerably greater depth, then one of my longer consultations or health programmes will be more appropriate.
And if you start with the 30-minute consultation and we discover that you would benefit from more in-depth support, we can discuss the different options I offer. We can decide together which level of support actually fits your health picture, rather than automatically placing you into the most extensive programme.
If you decide to move into my Gold or Platinum Programme following your consultation, your £65 consultation fee will be deducted from the cost of your programme.
You don't need to squeeze years of health history into 30 minutes, and you don't have to decide how much support you need before we have even spoken.
We can work that out together.
30 Minutes | £65 | A Place to Start
Sometimes you don't need another Google search, another supplement or another person telling you that everything looks fine.
You need somebody to listen, help you make sense of what is happening and show you where to begin.
As an added benefit, you'll also receive a £10 credit following your consultation, which can be put towards either practitioner-grade supplements I recommend or functional testing where appropriate.
