The Nutrition Coach Blog London Nutritionist The Nutrition Coach offers advice on healthy living, nutrition and diet issues such as IBS, bloating, gluten intolerance and more.

Last week research was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health demonstrating that living around ‘green space’ improves your health, and the impact is particularly noticeable in reducing the rates of mental health problems.

Im sure to most of us this isn’t new news.  Most, if not all, or us feel noticeably more uplifted when we’re out in nature, walking in the countryside, relaxing by the sea or enjoying fresh mountain air.  However, if you live in London or another big city and are juggling a million different commitments it can be difficult to find the time to escape to the countryside for that much needed boost and advanced planning is definitely needed.

The Nutrition Coach is holding its detox retreat from 21-24 January and is set in the glorious Dorset countryside, where you’ll be surrounded by a sea of green and will truly be able to re-connect with nature.  This is a perfect way to start 2010 and will leave you feeling happier, healthier and on track for the year ahead.

Find out more about our New Year detox retreat or contact us to book an appointment at one of our London nutrition clinics.

If you are feeling tired, exhausted and generally under the weather – the very first thing to do is to go to you GP for them to check the obvious causes. Often the first place to start will be checking your iron status  to make sure you are not depleted – or even to check your thyroid if you have enough symptoms (weight gain, tiredness, constipation, dry skin).  The doctor may even be looking for a more sinister reason why you should feel exhausted – he may check for viral infections too or be looking for any other symptoms that can enable him to make a diagnosis.

In Nutritional Therapy we will be looking at some of the above too – but as we are in functional medicine rather than the medicine of pathology (i.e. disease) we will be usually looking under the reference ranges of most doctor’s tests.  In other words, we consider borderline abnormalities to be something that would be worth treating.  Also we tend to work holistically, which means that instead of just looking at one reason for tiredness we might look for a whole range of reasons why someone might be exhausted.

Adrenal Fatigue
One area often over looked by doctors as a reason for tiredness is suboptimal adrenal function.  The adrenal glands are where you produce your stress hormones.  After periods of sustained and long term stress, you may not be producing the optimum amount of stress hormones that keep you functioning properly.  Adrenal fatigue is the sort of fatigue that is not relieved by a good night’s sleep – and symptoms can range from being tired (obviously), to feeling foggy and a general sense of unwellness.  You may look normal and act normal but you may feel like you are dragging yourself through the day, keeping yourself going with cups of coffee or tea.

What are the causes of Adrenal Fatigue?
Your adrenals can get depleted after long periods of stress or even illness as the adrenal glands mobilise your body’s response to stress – either physical, emotional or psychological.  The adrenals will stimulate the body’s response through hormones that regulate energy production, immune function, heart rate, muscle tone and other processes that enable you to cope with  stress.  Anyone who has a stressful existence can be susceptible to adrenal fatigue, but eating a poor diet, neglecting exercise and burning the candle at both ends can make this more likely.

A real example of adrenal fatigue
Tessa is a very busy mum with 3 young children. She came to see me a few months ago complaining of not feeling quite right and having a continual foggy head.   She had already gone to the doctor who had checked her thyroid function and iron status.  I got her to fill out a questionnaire that eliminated some of the other suspects from our point of view including bacterial/yeast infections.  I decided to test her adrenals (we do this through a saliva test) and I also tested her thyroid through another blood test looking at more parameters.  Although the doctor’s test was negative which ruled out pathology I was interested to see if there was any degree of suboptimal function.

We looked at two stress hormones in the adrenal test – cortisol (flight and fight hormone) and DHEA (a recovery hormone). Tess had low cortisol (the score for cortisol production for a day is 20- 40 and she had and her recovery hormone DHEA was low too.  Her thyroid test came back with high antibodies – which meant that the immune system was engaged.

The first thing we did was improve the diet. She had got into the habit of hoovering up her children’s food and keeping herself going through teas and coffees.  Also, she was entering a marathon and doing a lot of training. This type of exercise tends to lower adrenal function further. She was happy to change to more gentle forms of exercise like yoga.  She was also up for doing some acupuncture as well to support the journey in Nutritional Therapy.

We worked with some dynamic food supplements too – we use licorice (not the type you buy in the shop) – to support the adrenals.  This slows the breakdown of cortisol in the body making it more available.  We also worked with some herbs which are able to adapt to helping either high or low stress hormones .  We also added a range of other nutrients to support her adrenals and thyroid.

It is not a quick fix – the body takes time to heal and mend – especially if we have been abusing it for a while.  But Tess is getting there.  We know that she is, as we regularly retest the adrenals to see if what we are doing is working.  It is encouraging to see the result improving each visit.  She can now see light at the end of the tunnel and with her new lifestyle adjustments won’t get so run down again.

Please read our recent news letter for more on Tiredness/exhaustion

http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001ytzJgXCdPi5ppWjQ0TPjhg%3D%3D

Check out http://www.thenutritioncoach.co.uk/stress-and-nutrition.htm

How do you know if stress is affecting your health?  Most of my clients associate stress mostly with their mind rather than their body.  They get stressed about pressures at work, late running trains, or childcare.

Few realise that stress also has a physiological impact on the body.  One client recently came to see me complaining of constipation and bloating, difficulties falling asleep, and constant colds and coughs.  She was a busy working mum, and was getting frustrated with her variety of seemingly unrelated health problems.

To me, the most obvious common denominator for all the symptoms was stress.

In the case of my client, I suspected that her digestive problems and susceptibility to colds were a result of constant low grade stress down regulating these functions.  To make sure that we were on the right path, I asked her to do a test measuring levels of certain hormones that get produced in response to stress.

Not surprisingly, the results came back showing that she had elevated levels of stress hormones.  One of the hormones, cortisol, also controls our daily awake and sleep cycle, and raised levels can results in insomnia as in the case of my client.

To tackle her symptoms, I gave her some herbal supplements designed specifically to regulate stress hormone production, and some digestive enzymes to reduce bloating and ease constipation.  We also discussed potential ways of incorporating relaxation time into her week.  She was keen to try yoga, and also decided to dedicate an hour or two a week for herself reading a good book or taking a bath while her husband was looking after the children.

Over the coming weeks she noticed that her digestive problems started to ease off, and she was finding it easier to fall asleep.  Once her nutrition status started to recover as a result of the improved digestion, her immune system also perked up and was better able to fight off colds.

Do you think stress could be contributing to your symptoms?  Get in touch and let’s see if you could be feeling better.

At The Nutrition Coach we often incorporate the use of functional tests into consultations.  Functional tests are a fantastic indicator of exactly what is happening in the body, and ensure that a nutrition programme and any supplementation are designed specifically to address a client’s individual imbalances, which are evident from the test results. 

Because tests are so beneficial for seeing exactly what is going on in the body, we will be making York Test Laboratories Liver Check Test and Food Intolerance Test available on site during our New Year detox retreat (21st to 24th January).  The liver test looks at any damage to liver cells, whilst the intolerance test identifies any food sensitivities that may be contributing to health problems.  These are a fantastic addition to our detox retreat, where the aim is to fully support the liver and overall health.

Find out more about our New Year detox retreat, or contact us to book an appointment at one of our London nutrition clinics.

Julia Alderman

Well, the Summer holidays are well and truly behind us – and we are starting the long march into darker Winter nights!  Remember be kind to yourselves – here are some of my top favourite ways just to say (to yourself) I deserve it!

1.    Indulge in some luxury oil for the bath and pamper yourself with a long soak.

2.    Book some time in the diary for your hair and nails and a massage!  Or find a beauty college/massage college that offers more reasonable treatments for student practice

3.    Buy a trashy book – or even not so trashy book – I love Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert – http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm

4.    Try the Pzziz – good for a quick break during the day and great for getting you off to sleep – http://www.pzizz.com

5.    A great tip from my colleague, Hilary – buy a slow cooker. Cuisinart ones are good. Just bung in the ingredients and relax.

6.    Think about doing a detox – come on our wonderful New Year retreat.  Contact interested@thenutritioncoach.co.uk to find out more, or check our blog for the latest news - http://thenutritioncoach.co.uk/blog

http://www.thenutritioncoach.co.uk/nutrition-retreats.htm

7.    Don’t try and have a tidy house – it’s a losing battle!

8.    Live in the NOW – see “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle.

9.    Breathe!

10.  Celebrate the good things in life and don’t dwell on the bad

If you are like every mum and struggle to think of what to put in to the school lunchbox – I’d like to highlight what my colleague Hilary Davies has to say on the matter..

“I’d like to focus a little more on the teenagers for this one. I used to love making lunches for my boys when they were younger. Cute little plastic boxes filled with a variety of delights that they could enjoy and share with their friends with pride. There are also many books out there about healthy food ideas for young children but very little for the older ones. Although my youngest is still slightly in that zone my others are now into the lunch break that is mass refuelling at the greatest speed possible AND without a shred of street cred lost in the process! Added to this – these older ones really should be making their own lunches (if you have a child in year 7 or above and you are still making their lunches – please stop!) so I see the parent’s job as being in the background and making sure that the best foods are available to help their choices.

Some things we can insist on and some we can let go. For me the greatest necessity is that they drink enough water through the day. How many of your older children are drinking 1.5 litres of water during their school day? I think I’ve heard every excuse under the sun from a teenager about not drinking water but the stats are undeniable. A 3%, yes, just 3% reduction in hydration = 10% loss of power and 8% loss of speed. That’s just the physical effects so translate that to the brain and we could have a bunch of dehydrated fatigued children who are unable to achieve their full concentration and performance in class let alone on the sports field. If my boys consent to drinking 1.5 litres of water during their day then frankly I don’t mind if they leave the house with a ham sandwich (wholemeal and salad of course!) and an apple.

The days of little cute boxes are well and truly over for this age group so we do have to accept that the general theme is going to be anything they can pile into a pitta, wrestle into a wrap or bung into a bap. Plus it needs to be simple – remember you can fill in the nutritional gaps with your family food so this just really needs to be ‘good enough’. So chunks of fresh chicken, fresh salad – a bag will do – you could be on the side chopping tomato and cucumber otherwise it might not appear! Sticking it all together with hummus or some fresh salsa is a good idea. Try and steer away from too much cured meat such as ham and salami. Cold pizza can be a good one as it’s not considered ‘healthy’ so street cred in tact but it can be a great excuse to pile on the veggies and maybe some salmon, peas, chopped peppers, red onion and so on. I would also recommend making double quantities as so often lunch is eaten at morning break leaving them starving by the time they leave school and heading for the chippy! Aaargh!! If there’s a second bap or wrap waiting at the bottom of their bag then the gap can be well filled.

Reassuringly fruit still seems to be sociably acceptable so do pile them with that – even if they eat it on the bus to and from school!

Also be reassured that, although we lose some control over their nutrition when they are out and about, we can absolutely make up for it when they are home and they will thank you for good, wholesome family food”

If you are worried about your family’s diet – come and see us for a DIET MOT http://www.thenutritioncoach.co.uk/services-diet-mot.htm or contact us

http://www.thenutritioncoach.co.uk/contact-the-nutrition-coach.php