This webpage provides you with all the key pieces of information you need for your first appointment.
Please commit 60 minutes before your appointment to read, watch and download everything on this page so you can come to the appointment with your questions.
Where are my symptoms coming from?
When most people hear the word ‘hormone’ they think of the reproductive hormones – oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, but there are hundreds of hormones in the body that when imbalanced can become a root cause of symptoms.
For example, when we have too much of the blood sugar hormone insulin and it stops being effective (in the case of insulin resistance), this can be drive many common conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes, obesity and weight gain.
We like to think of health as an iceberg. The issues we see above the water with the potential causes below the water. And in our clinical practice, we are interested in identifying and balancing the whole iceberg.
A Whole Health Approach
When supporting our health, it is important we take a whole health approach. Your practitioner will consider all of these aspects in your journey with us.
whether you used hormone contraceptives which could contribute to hormone imbalances
the stress you are dealing with
how much exposure you have to oestrogen mimicking chemicals
how your diet and any food intolerances are impacting your gut
how you process and absorb your hormones
If any regular lifestyle choices are potentially contributing to hormone disturbances
Getting Started...
Lets start by understanding how hormones work together in the Triangle of Hormonal Health.
Reducing your intake of food intolerances can have a dramatic improvement on your health and hormones. Watch this video and download our food intolerance document to learn more about the ‘gateway allergens’.
Are you on HRT or considering taking HRT for menopausal symptoms? Here are the 4 things you need to question to make sure your decisions are supporting your health fully. Download our considerations document to give you all the important information on HRT.
This is a key part to our approach. Please watch the video here on the blood sugar rollercoaster so you understand that food balance is important to your health.
When we eat, our blood sugars rise and insulin brings them back down again. Depending on what we eat depends on how high they rise. If you have eaten something that is high in carbohydrate, you will require a lot of insulin. The body responds by often producing excessive insulin in preparation for the next large requirement of insulin, bringing down our blood sugar level often below normal range. This drop in blood sugars is stressful and triggers a release of our flight or fight responses, adrenaline and cortisol. This release creates carb cravings and forces us to go and forage for sugar. And the cycle continues. This is what you can see happening in the blood sugar rollercoaster.
Eating PFC
We use the PFC Food Strategy in our clinic. The letters P, F, and C stand for the three “macronutrient” categories that every food falls into: protein, fat, and carbohydrate and the idea that every time we eat, we eat the right balance of all the macronutrients. The PFC approach focuses on real, whole foods whilst removing inflammatory foods like bread, pasta and grains that increase inflammation, disrupt optimal digestion and reduce energy levels, immune function and vitality. Your practitioner will recommend a PFC food strategy that is best for your health.
If you are highly stressed or anxious, please watch the video here on the HPA Axis Dysregulation.
Your practitioner will be working with you in session to ensure your endocrine system is supported nutritionally and emotionally.
Balancing Your Hormones
If you have imbalanced hormones, this could be due to the pregnenolone steal. Watch this video and let your practitioner know if you believe this is impacting your health.
What is Oestrogen Dominance?
Oestrogen dominance (or progesterone deficiency) is on the increase because of:
Hormonal birth control
Impaired metabolism, detoxification or poor digestion
High refined carbohydrate diet and blood sugar instability
Xeno-oestrogens in our food, products and water
High stress
To understand more about oestrogen dominance and our approach to it, watch our video and discuss this with your practitioner as a potential root of your hormonal imbalances.
Balancing Your Digestion
If you are struggling with digestive symptoms, it could be because of your hormones. Watch this video and learn more here. Your practitioner may recommend the PFC microbiome reset food strategy.
How do Hormones Affect the Digestive System?
When we eat a diet that is high carbohydrate, highly processed or contains inflammatory grains, we imbalance our blood sugars.
This has a knock-on effect with digestive hormones such as motilin which is the hormone that is released in the upper small intestine. It stimulates gastric and small intestine motility, causing undigested food to move into the large intestine.
Imbalanced blood sugars create adrenaline and cortisol which can cause the oesophagus to go into spasm, increase the acid in the stomach, and reduce enzyme output from the pancreas.
With heightened stress, we see the leg muscles rotate in the legs which can misalign the pelvis. This in turn misaligns the ileo-cecal valve which causes digestive disturbance and pain.
With high insulin, high cortisol and impaired motilin and serotonin, we see an increase in stress and oestrogen and a reduction in sex hormones like progesterone.
High oestrogen and gut disturbance contribute to high histamine, increased inflammation and a heightened immune response which can show itself as allergies or food intolerances.
If the body is unable to process and balance these hormones, we stay in the blood sugar rollercoaster which adds to our desire to eat erratically.
Why is HRT not working for me? Why is my digestive health so important for a healthy menopause? Why am I becoming allergic to everything I eat? How do I navigate my emotions around menopause?
This pivotal guide calls upon the latest scientific and nutritional research to provide a demystified explanation to these questions and many others. It offers jargon-free insight into how women’s hormones interact with one another, and how to improve quality of life during and leading up to the menopause.
If you are interested in buying our new book, preorder it now.