About Me
My name is Lesley, and I am a Registered Nutritional Therapy practitioner.
I have always had an interest in health care, and spent ten years working as a Registered Osteopath specialising in Cranial Osteopathy.
Following my second pregnancy, I experienced debilitating fatigue which prevented me from returning to work as an Osteopath. Unable to find answers from doctors and health professionals, my own recovery journey was a slow one, as I learnt more about myself and how I could support my health. It wasn’t until my daughter experienced similar symptoms as a teenager and was finally diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) that I got further insight into the cause of my own symptoms.
Having learnt the value of supporting myself with diet and lifestyle measures, alongside feeling a deep frustration that not enough was known about chronic fatigue and POTS, I made the decision to retrain in Nutritional Therapy with ION (Institute for Optimum Nutrition) . This stemmed from my lifelong interest not only in health but also in food, nutrition and cooking.
My aim is to equip people from all backgrounds to be able to optimise their health through understanding their relationship with food and how it may impact their mental and physical wellbeing, as well as recognising how lifestyle factors can support wellness. I enjoy working with people looking for support with a variety of issues, anything from digestive health to hormone health and energy issues, as well as those looking to review and optimise their health as they age. Of course, based on my experience, I am also very passionate about reading everything I can about POTS and look forward to a time when this is a better understood and treated syndrome.
I am based in Gloucestershire and currently see clients online.
My Approach
At the heart of what I do is a desire to get to the root cause of symptoms or behaviours, considering your story so that I can interpret how this may be impacting your health now. What I love about my job is that with careful listening, and functional testing if necessary, I am able to work with individuals to identify where specific eating and lifestyle habits may not be serving them well. My aim is to empower you to make lasting changes to support your current life-stage. Programmes are very much a joint effort to ensure that you have actions that you feel are manageable to you and you feel supported in achieving them.
Nutritional Therapy is recognised as a complementary medicine.
Nutritional Therapy practitioners use a wide range of tools to assess and identify potential nutritional imbalances and understand how these may contribute to an individual’s symptoms and health concerns.
Nutritional Therapy is relevant both for individuals looking to enhance their health and wellbeing and for those with chronic conditions wishing to work with or 'consult' a nutritional therapist in collaboration with other suitably qualified healthcare professionals.
Practitioners never recommend Nutritional Therapy as a replacement for medical advice and always refer any client with ‘red flag’ signs or symptoms to their medical professional.
Practitioners consider each individual to be unique and recommend personalised nutrition and lifestyle programmes rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach.
What is Nutritional Therapy?
What to expect
Before the first consultation, you will receive a health and nutrition questionnaire to complete.
An initial consultation typically lasts 60 to 90 minutes, this allows time to discuss the completed questionnaire alongside current health concerns, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, medical and family history, lifestyle, use of medication, supplements and your current diet.
Your individual needs are evaluated alongside an extensive evidence base for nutritional science to develop a safe and effective nutrition and lifestyle programme.
This programme is designed to suit your needs, current diet and lifestyle and very much results from a collaboration between us, taking into account any barriers so that is feels manageable, achievable and exciting. Functional testing and nutritional supplements may be suggested if appropriate.
Follow up consultations can be offered weekly, fortnightly or monthly to monitor progress and make any necessary adjustments.
Nutrigenomics
DNA is present in every human cell providing instruction not only for our physical features, such as height, eye colour etc. but also for the function of the body.
Looking at variations in your genetic code, called SNP’s (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) can provide insights into the potential for your physiology to function well. Nutrigenomics considers how nutrition and lifestyle impact these small genetic changes and informs how we can support with diet and lifestyle to help optimise health and wellbeing.
I have completed Lifecode Gx’s practitioner training. Lifecode Gx are leading experts in nutrigenomics, providing DNA test kits and specialist nutrigenomics reports focusing on different aspects of body functions, such as how well nutrients are absorbed and used, production of sex hormones and neurotransmitters, energy production and storage, growth and repair and detoxification of medications and environmental pollutants.
Because small variations in our genetic code are common, we can all have individual variation in how well our physiology functions. An example of this the variation is how quickly caffeine is removed from the body. For some this can be very quick, allowing the individual to have a great night’s sleep following an evening cup of coffee while others are struggling to sleep following a cup of coffee much earlier in the day.
Our environment is seen to have the greatest impact in determining whether SNP’s impact health, which is where Nutritional Therapy has an important role. Accessing this information can be powerful as knowing where there is potential for compromised function can help to highlight where to target with nutrition and lifestyle protocols to optimise health and wellbeing.
My role is to consider whether there is value in accessing this information and if so to recommended which reports would be the most valuable based on your current health and what you are looking to achieve. I support in interpreting the reports and work with you to optimise areas of function with diet including nutritional supplements if necessary and lifestyle suggestions. Reports can sometimes highlight the need for further testing especially for nutrient deficiencies.
Lifecode Gx reports can be particularly useful for people who are wanting to understand why they have particular weakness or health problem. They can highlight the need for additional vitamin supplementation. For some they can provide an improved knowledge of ourselves through understanding our physiology and provide the motivation to make diet and lifestyle changes.
Further information on the reports provided by Lifecode Gx is available here