Nutritional Therapists work closely with their clients to assess their individual nutritional needs. Nutritional Therapists also analyse their client’s diet, lifestyle, medical conditions and genetic factors in order to address their specific health concerns.
Traditional Medicine and Nutritional Therapy are not mutually exclusive, in fact their treatments can complement and enhance each other. Nutritional therapy also works very well with alternative medicine, especially acupuncture where we see great results in areas such as hormonal balance and fertility.
Pilar’s approach to Nutritional Therapy is based around the Functional Medicine model which is a client-centred and science-based approach. This model allows clients and practitioners to work together to address the root causes of individual health concerns to achieve optimal wellness and, as a result, improve symptoms.
In Functional Medicine, understanding your diet, lifestyle, medical conditions and genetic factors provides information to support your health in a personalised manner.
Pilar looks beyond symptoms and investigates any potential nutritional deficiencies, digestion and hormonal issues as well as environmental, genetic and lifestyle factors, and how these factors interact with each other, to create a customised plan to support your health.
For Pilar, each client and their health are unique and she delivers a personalised Health and Nutrition Programme including supplements, when appropriate. Pilar also ensures any proposed diet and lifestyle changes are realistic, achievable and have a proper time frame.
Pilar has designed a thorough on-line questionnaire to collect the information she needs to understand your health concerns, assess your nutritional status and learn about environmental, genetic and other factors that may affect your health.
The questionnaire includes sections on your own health history, family health history, current medical concerns, systems function and a detailed analysis of your vitamin and mineral status.
The questionnaire takes approximately 30 minutes to complete and can be saved and retrieved to complete at a later stage. It can also be submitted on-line.
Pilar requests a detailed food diary prior to your consultation to help her understand your diet choices and eating habits. She also uses the information from your food diary to identify any potential nutrient deficiencies.
This information helps Pilar design a personalised dietary plan that addresses your health concerns but also includes, whenever possible, your favourite foods.
Following the initial consultation, Pilar may recommend some tests to look into certain areas in more detail. Some of these tests (e.g., iron levels, thyroid, vitamin D) can be requested from local GPs.
Other tests that look into, for example, the bacterial balance in the gut or nutrient malabsorption, are carried out by independent laboratories such as Genova Diagnostics, Invivo or Cyrex and will be recommended if preliminary investigations indicate the need for further analysis.
During a follow-up consultation, test results will be discussed in detail and, if needed, Pilar will propose changes to the Health and Nutrition Programme.