What is Nutritional Therapy?
I practice Nutritional Therapy with a Functional Medicine approach, striving to uncover the root causes of symptoms by treating the person as a whole, rather than the symptoms alone.
While lifestyle and diet often take their toll on our health, Nutritional Therapy teaches how to support the immune system, prevent chronic disease and alleviate ongoing conditions. This is achieved through a health history analysis, sometimes with diagnostic testing, and ultimately a diet plan specific to your needs. Instead of asking “Which drug can we prescribe for these symptoms?", we ask “Why do you have these symptoms?"
We are all biochemically different and no single approach works for everyone. What may be one person’s ‘superfood’ may be another one’s poison.
My Nutritional Therapy is up-to-date evidence based. It is very well suited to individuals with immune related conditions, but also to those looking to optimise their health. To keep in tune with the latest research I regularly attend Nutrition and Functional Medicine webinars with top of the field doctors and practitioners.
Nutritional therapy is not a replacement for medical advice. It is a complementary therapy that works well alongside conventional medicine and whenever necessary, clients are referred to medical professionals.
My Story
I’m originally from Stockholm but have lived abroad for over half of my life. I moved to London in 1999 where I worked as a freelance photographer until 2012 when I moved to Berlin. The crippling back pain that I had been suffering with was finally diagnosed as Ankylosing Spondylitis and a lifelong treatment with drugs was proposed.
The thought of taking powerful immunosuppressant drugs with unpleasant side effects for the rest of my life scared me into searching for a drug-free alternative. Carol Sinclair’s book about the Low starch diet for IBS and AS gave me some hope, but I found it difficult to follow and gave up after 6 days without any reduction in pain.
Years later I was still in agony, despite taking anti-inflammatory medication (NSAIDS).
I turned to Google and started researching the diet approach again. That’s when I came upon this famous Ted Talk by Dr Terry Wahls which gave me the push I needed. I learned that the inflammation in my back could be linked to my gut and I set out on a major reinvention of my diet. I also learned that having 2 – 3 bowel movements a week is not normal!
I changed my diet and this time I stuck with it. After 6 weeks I noticed a major reduction in pain, a good indicator to keep on going. I could now easily get out of bed in the morning whereas previously I had often felt like a 90 year old woman, rolling out of bed and limping or crawling to the bathroom.
To keep motivated I read obsessively about nutrition and its connection to the immune system. My passion for the subject continued to grow and a year later I started a 3 year course in Nutritional Therapy at the renowned Institute for Optimum Nutrition in London from which I graduated with a wealth of knowledge in evidence based nutrition.
I now understand how my previous poorly executed vegetarian diet, high in refined carbs, combined with binge eating and a whole lot of antibiotics led me down the path towards a diagnosis of disease.
I do have the gene associated with AS, but genes only account for around 30% of our risk to develop a disease – as Dr Bert Griffith once said “Genes load the gun, but lifestyle pulls the trigger”.
Qualifications
Institute of Optimum Nutrition:
• Nutritional Therapy Diploma
Institute for Functional Medicine:
• Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice (AFMCP)
• Immune Advanced Practice Module
Kharrazian Institute:
• Autoimmunity Clinical Strategies & Treatment Applications
• Gastrointestinal Clinical Strategies & Treatment Applications
• Hashimoto’s Clinical Strategies & Treatment Applications
• Neuroinflammation Clinical Strategies & Treatment Applications
• Cognitive Decline & Dementia Clinical Strategies & Treatment Applications
• Diabetes & Dysglycemia Clinical Strategies & Treatment Applications
• Chronic Fatigue and Pain Syndromes Clinical Strategies and Treatment Applications
I am a member of the professional association BANT (British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine) and NMTF in Sweden.
I regularly attend nutrition and functional medicine webinars and conferences with top of the field doctors and practitioners for continued professional development, keeping up with the latest research.
