I’d love to take a moment to introduce myself
I’m Catriona Walsh, a nutrition and lifestyle coach, or NLC, although for years I worked as a doctor in the NHS before that. I was actually a consultant paediatrician with a special interest in paediatric allergy. I’ve written more about my journey here.
You’re probably wondering what led me to such a career pivot. Well, my own health problems were what sparked the change. I ended up completely burnt out, exhausted, anxious and depressed. But the story of my burnout is for another time. Suffice to say, it slowly sucked the life out of me. When I sought help for my chronic ill health from conventional healthcare, I actually got sicker. If you haven’t already read about my gadolinium ordeal, you can find out more about it here and here. And if you’re interested in finding out more about the symptoms most often described following MRI contrast agents you should read this article.
But I didn’t give up hope. I knew that there must be a way for me to regain my vibrancy and vitality. Eventually, I discovered that diet, lifestyle and supplement changes were actually a lot more powerful than I’d ever been taught during my medical training. I’d always been told that drugs were the most powerful way to manage poor health, so initially I felt a lot of resistance to this new way of thinking.
But then I took some time to consider how I’d helped to save children’s lives, and what I realised was that life support and the most powerful treatment strategies actually rely largely on carefully, and with a great deal of expertise, using exactly the right amount of natural treatments: things like oxygen, intravenous fluids, salts, vitamins, sugar, blood transfusions and other blood products, and intravenous, nebulised or even subcutaneous (injected under the skin) hormones were some of the most potent ways to help save children’s (and adults’) lives.
From that point, I really wanted to learn as much as I could about how to harness the amazing power of food as medicine.
Now when I look around, I can see that there’s a gradual realisation in healthcare that food, supplements and lifestyle changes should often be the first, and even only, approach that a lot of chronically unwell patients need.
When I was working in paediatrics as a doctor, there were lots of times I witnessed children’s lives being saved when they came into hospital in emergencies.
But when it came to seeing great results in my chronically unwell patients who were being managed according to national standards, using pharmaceutical drugs, the results were really disappointing. And now I know why. Are you curious about how and why Big Pharma gets away with creating a dishonest narrative about how effective their drugs are? Then you need to check this post on the pharmaceutical cabal out.
These kids had a few of their symptoms suppressed by drugs, but they were seldom cured or had a complete reversal of their conditions. In too many cases, children were experiencing a steady or stepwise deterioration in their health, particularly when they were diagnosed with autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammatory conditions. Their medications had side effects, which could be unpleasant or even life threatening. This was disheartening, to say the least. But it was heartbreaking for the kids and their families.
As a doctor, I started trying to introduce some basic dietary changes in my outpatient practice. And would you believe, I started to see some kids experience much better results. But there were some I knew who needed more expert dietary and supplement advice than I was able to give at that time.
So whenever I left paediatrics, I jumped at the chance to train in nutrition and lifestyle coaching. And I’m loving the results I’m seeing with many of my clients. Some of them had suffered from autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue, type 2 diabetes, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, anxiety, depression and other conditions for years or decades and had given up hope of ever getting back to normal, before engaging in nutrition and lifestyle coaching with me.
So, helping them be able to:
has given them their lives and confidence back.
I promise that I’ll do everything I can to help you experience the same sort of results. I’ll help you get real clarity about which foods to eat and which to avoid. As well as this, I’ll help you identify some lifestyle changes that will help you feel more connected to other people, less stressed and stronger, physically and mentally.
Clients who’ve experienced the best results have been the ones to really go all in and commit to trying these changes to the best of their ability for at least a few months.
For that reason, I’d really like you to make a commitment to yourself. Really give it a go and work at changing, despite the fact that change is both difficult and frightening. If you choose to work with me, I’ll be there to support, guide and encourage you. I’ll be your ally. Together, we’ll work on optimising your health.
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