Over the last fourteen years, I have been consulting with many clients and come across a large spectrum of different health conditions. One of the most interesting observations has been that whilst we are all at different places with our health, most of us have to pay attention to one particular aspect of our health or another if we want to be able to live a rewarding and disease free life. Not only has this become obvious to me in my clinic but also from my relationships with friends and family. There is no truer statement than “without our health we have nothing”, whilst at times we want to ignore our health and get on with living, unfortunately it just doesn’t work that way and our health will block us whether we like it or not!

There seem to be two major hurdles we face in doing this:

1. Understanding the real status of our health.

Often you may eat healthy so therefore you think you are healthy, yet nothing could be further from the truth. This type of thinking is extremely simplistic, yet understandable, but it ignores underlying weaknesses, genetic predispositions and previous behaviour that may not yet have shown up as signs or symptoms.

It can also be challenging in a world where symptom control is the only attention given within the current medical model. Whilst this approach is mainly used in orthodox medicine, it is also used in naturopathic medicine, and so we should not be naive in thinking all “natural approaches” do not go there, because they do. “Symptomatic” treatment can be valuable and necessary at times, but we should always strive to understand underlying causes and be aware, to avoid doing so can and does ignores both short and long term problems to come.

My favourite way to go about this is, first find out about your parents’ health issues and your siblings. Have a look at your health issues over your life (regardless of how insignificant they might seem) and test your nutrient and pathway markers. Have them interpreted within the context of you as an individual. This can be fun, interesting, useful and health saving, in the short and long term and guess what – You’re worth it 🙂

2. Changing our behaviour and knowing what to change.

It can be nearly impossible to know what things you should change to affect your health, particularly when we are talking about our food, due to all the conflicting information! As this is very much based on what is going on with your health, for example, if you have an autoimmune condition the recommended diet will be different than if you have diabetes or chronic fatigue.

Then we have to contend with changing our habits and behaviours, which on paper looks easy! But in reality is not and various skills need to be implemented to meet this end. To help you do this you need education and understanding of what is required and WHY, and in most cases focusing on only a few changes at a time.

As we move, more and more with online information to receive our source of education which can be useful, many times it is just too difficult to work out what is needed to work for you as a unique individual.  Consistency, simplyfying changes, being guided and measuring your progress is the key. What frustrates you with your health and what information do you feel you need?

All the best – Maria