What do Nutritional Therapists help with and how to find one?

You might be someone who gets bloated after every meal. Or someone who feels exhausted by mid-morning despite a full night’s sleep. Maybe your skin flares up regularly, or you’re dealing with unpredictable mood or energy changes.

These are just a few of the reasons people turn to nutritional therapists.

Common concerns supported by nutritional therapists include:

Digestive issues (IBS, bloating, reflux, gall bladder issues, gout etc.)
Fatigue or low energy
Pre diabetes and heart health especially cholesterol
Osteoporosis and issues with bone density
Skin conditions
Female hormonal health (PMS, perimenopause, PCOS)
Stress and mental wellbeing
Autoimmune conditions such as arthritis
Healthy ageing and preventive healthcare
Optimising athletic performance

You don’t need to be diagnosed with a condition to work with a nutritional therapist. Many clients seek support for prevention, performance, or simply to understand their bodies better.

Why People Seek Nutritional Therapy

Many people turn to nutritional therapists after trying multiple solutions—diets, supplements, or private testing—without clarity or consistent results. Others feel dismissed by standard medical care or overwhelmed by conflicting online advice.

Nutritional therapy offers a structured, evidence-informed approach to identifying patterns and making progress that lasts.

It’s ideal for anyone who:

Has symptoms that don’t have a clear medical diagnosis
Feels like they’ve tried everything but still don’t feel well
Wants to optimise health before issues become problems
Prefers natural, lifestyle-based strategies alongside medical care

How to Find a Qualified Nutritional Therapist

To ensure you’re working with a properly trained practitioner:

Look for CNHC registration – this confirms they are qualified and regulated
Check for BANT membership – this indicates high standards of ethics, education, and science-led practice
Use BANT’s Find a Practitioner tool
Visit the CNHC public register to verify credentials

Discover the Value of Working with a BANT-Registered Nutritional Therapist

Nutritional therapists play a vital role in bridging the gap between general wellness advice and personalised healthcare. They take time to understand how your diet, genetics, environment, and lifestyle interact and use that insight to guide tailored, evidence-based recommendations that help you feel better, for longer.

Generic nutrition tips and one-size-fits-all plans can fall short. Working with a Registered Nutritional Therapist puts your individual needs at the centre. For many clients, it’s the first time their symptoms, history, and goals have been fully explored and connected into a clear plan.

This approach supports symptom improvement while also helping you reconnect with your body, increase daily energy, and take charge of your long-term wellbeing.

If you’re ready to stop guessing and start understanding what your body really needs, a Registered Nutritional Therapist could make all the difference. Please feel free to get in touch or book a call via my website.

Know your numbers

This blog was inspired by an article written by a lady who had a heart attack at the super young age of 42. She did have high cholesterol and some significant family history but it really highlighted to me that ‘knowing your numbers’ is a good thing. I am generally a cautious tester for various reasons. It can make clients anxious and there is often a lot of work you can do just based on a client’s diet and lifestyle questionnaire. However knowing certain key health numbers can also save a life, help with motivation and direct a client’s protocol for maximum support.

HDL cholesterol

Here are the top line numbers we should be aware of and why.

Known as the good cholesterol, low levels of HDL are linked to an increased risk of heart disease. Cholesterol has a metabolic cycle in the body and if this is functioning well your LDL (known as ‘bad’ cholesterol) will be converted to HDL (known as ‘good’ cholesterol) and returned to the liver with any excess being excreted. It’s the overall pattern and clinical picture that matters so if you are unsure what your numbers mean it’s best to talk to your GP or health professional.

OPTIMAL LEVELS ARE:

Total cholesterol - below 5 mmol/L
HDL cholesterol – 1 mmol/L or above

Triglycerides

High triglyceride levels can indicate elevated levels of fat (lipids) in the blood. This figure is measured with a blood test. Remember that fat in the body is not just from fat in the diet. Any sugar that we eat in the diet that the body can’t immediately utilise for energy will be converted to fat. Sugar in the diet is not just from fruit or added sugars such as honey, syrup, sugar etc. We also convert starch from grains and vegetables to sugar during the digestive process and subsequently to fat if your cells and sugar stores (glycogen) are already full. The more processed and refined the food, the quicker this conversion happens.

OPTIMAL LEVELS ARE: below 1.7mmol/L

Blood pressure

High blood pressure stresses your heart and blood vessels, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. Healthy blood pressure is a marker of overall metabolic health. We need to manage stress, exercise regularly and maintain a healthy body fat percentage to regulate our blood pressure.

OPTIMAL PRESSURE IS: 120 /80 mm/Hg systolic/diastolic.

Waist to hip (WHR) ratio

Divide your waist circumference by your hip circumference to obtain your WHR.

WHR measures the ratio of your waist to your hip circumference. It determines how much fat is stored around the waist, hips, and buttocks. It is an easy, inexpensive, and generally accurate way to assess the body’s proportion of fat. This is important as not all excess weight carries the same health risks. It can help predict your risk of heart disease and diabetes when reviewed alongside other health markers.

OPTIMAL ratio is:

Men should be more than 1.0
Women should be more than 0.8

Waist circumference

This is another marker for assessing abdominal obesity which is associated with increased health risks and metabolic conditions such as diabetes and heart problems.

OPTIMAL ratio is:

Men should be less than 102 cm.
Women should be less than 90 cm.

I hope you have found this guide to your top-level health markers useful. Remember no test is perfect and no test can fully convey the complexity of your health. To understand your full health picture there are many factors to take into account including information about your diet and lifestyle.

My next blog will summarise how to improve the body’s blood fat picture.

You can read the full article that prompted this blog here: https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/health/conditions/a64363807/young-heart-attack/