My journey to becoming a nutritional therapist started a few years ago when I was twice admitted to hospital for prolonged periods of time. This led me to want to take charge of my own health.
The first hospital admission was due to sepsis which I contracted following a persistent kidney infection that four different courses of antibiotics had failed to treat. The infection became resistant to these antibiotics and sepsis set in. Thankfully high dose IV antibiotics finally got on top of the infection. I was left particularly drained and most likely lacking in any good gut bacteria as all the antibiotics had killed both good and bad bacteria. Since 80% of our immunity is in the gut, this left me in a vulnerable position. I wasn’t aware of this at the time and struggled with getting back to full health and vitality.
On top of this, following the advice of a dietician, I had been on a very limited diet to keep symptoms of IBS under control. I have since learnt that this highly restrictive diet should only be implemented for a matter of weeks, and yet I had been on it for nearly 4 years. Again, this was nowhere near diverse enough to feed my gut microbiome or to provide me with sufficient nutrients.
A few months later a bout of food poisoning landed me in hospital again. This time I’d had 13 weeks of extremely undesirable symptoms (I won’t go in to detail!!) before being admitted to hospital. No bacteria was ever found so the bug itself was probably long gone! Nevertheless I was treated with nine days of strong IV antibiotics.
This for me was the final wake up call to get my health back on track. I spent nine days in hospital with questionable food and strong IV drugs, all of which made me feel worse and worse. In my weakened and desperate state, I requested to see a dietician for advice on how to get food back in my system and what to eat to get me strong and healthy again.
The hospital dietician visited me and advised me to eat plenty of pastries and sugary carbohydrates to put weight back on. I could not accept this as being the best advice, and so this was the moment I decided that I would educate myself instead and find out how to nourish myself back to health. I think actually it was the flasks of my mum’s healing chicken soup that she brought me every day that kept me going!
From my hospital bed I googled nutrition courses and enrolled on one that inspired me, there and then. What followed was an incredible time at university studying a course of integrated nutrition and homeopathy, with exceptional teaching and intense learning. Outstanding teachers, a strong focus on overall wellbeing encompassing mental, physical and emotional health were par for this course, as well as long hours of study and research, relevant and topical subjects, and clinical supervision.
I thought that as an educated mother of 3 children – I was perfectly knowledgeable about what to feed my family. I was surprised at how much more there is to the world of nutrition for health and am happy to say that with the help of my tutors and putting in to practice all I’ve learned, I feel healed and back to my vital self.
“There is so much more to health than nutrition. Our diet is not only what we eat – but also what we think, what we feel, what we speak, how we eat, who we surround ourselves with, and so much more.”
That’s why the integrative approach of looking after our mental, physical and emotional health is vital. A holistic approach is one which takes all these into account, and incorporating some homeopathy or health coaching can bring many additional benefits to nutrition alone.
Aside from my newfound passion for holistic health, I am a proud mother to 3 incredible children who light up my life and make me grateful every day to be their mum. When I had my eldest child 18 years ago I gave up my successful career as a Financial Analyst in the city as I wanted nothing more than to stay at home and spend every minute with my babies. I had studied French and Linguistics at Leeds University where I not only attained a first class degree – but also found my future husband! Once the children were all older I founded my own cake business (ironic former career?!) which I enjoyed for many years before becoming unwell.
Now I appreciate and enjoy music, the arts, painting, playing the piano, yoga, meditation, family fun, as well as a good catch up with friends over a coffee and cake! (yes I am human!!).
I’d love to be able to help others with what I have learnt and feel this is all part of my journey. Life has many obstacles, and everyone has a history. What you do with your history is up to you. Some people learn from it, some people repeat it. And some people will use it to help others. This is my aim and I look forward to hearing from you if I can be of help.