Caroline Rees PhD - Nutritional Therapy And Lifestyle Medicine
I help people in mid-life who are suffering increasing health issues, to discover the root causes an
12/07/2021
Yes. My sleep is definitely bad if I have any alcohol.
The simple truth is that alcohol is likely not “good” for anyone. All of the benefits of red wine, such as resveratrol, can be found in other foods and supplements.
Women are even more impacted by the deleterious effects of alcohol than men. There are studies linking alcohol consumption to breast cancer. It depletes nutrients and harms your gut, your liver, and your brain.
I’ve been wearing an Oura ring, which tracks my sleep every night. If I drink alcohol, I notice that it takes me twice as long to fall asleep, my heart rate stays elevated into the night, and I don’t feel great the next day.
While it might make you feel more relaxed to have a glass of wine at night, I think you’d be sur- prised to see what alcohol does to your body while sleeping. Sleep is when we detoxify and repair; we don’t need to make it harder by adding alcohol, a toxin, to the mix.
I treat alcohol like I treat sugar: An occasional glass is fine, but daily can be problematic. Stick to one serving three or four times a week at most.
A serving is 1 ounce of hard liquor, 5 ounces of wine, or 10 ounces of beer. If you don’t feel great drinking alcohol, skip it altogether.
There is no shame in telling people that you don’t drink. If someone peer pressures you, be firm about saying no, and tell them that you’ve been feeling really good while not drinking. No one can argue with that.
08/07/2021
Cooking is your way out of sickness, and your path to freedom from processed food and towards vibrant health and a happier life.
When we cook, we not only nourish our bodies and souls, but we also rebuild our communities, strengthen the bonds within our families and it’s fun!
What will you be cooking tonight?
06/07/2021
A study of thousands of older people finds two blood test markers predict increased dementia risk: having a high homocysteine level (a consequence of low B vitamins) and a LOW cholesterol level. This makes sense because cholesterol is vital for brain function.
In this study, having a cholesterol level of around 4mmol/l, and an LDL cholesterol around 2 mmol/l, was strongly associated with an increased risk of dementia.
My big worry is that too many people without raised cholesterol, which is anything above 6 mmol/L, are put on statins which block cholesterol production. But to sell more statins the ‘normal’ cholesterol level got pushed down from 6 to 5 mmol/l.
People have been misled into thinking the following 3 statements:
1. That eating fat and cholesterol rich foods raises cholesterol
2. That raised blood cholesterol leads to arterial blockage
3. That blocking cholesterol production with statins reduces heart disease.
Every one of these statements are wrong.
Excessive total and ‘LDL’ cholesterol (the so-called bad guy) can occur from eating too many carbs, not fat. The more important marker for cholesterol here is triglycerides – blood fats made from sugar (and alcohol).
You want your triglycerides low, your HDL cholesterol high and making up one third of your TOTAL cholesterol.
We’re up against powerful biochemical mechanisms created by food addiction. Willpower becomes useless when industrial junk food and sugar are in charge of your brain chemistry.
Fake foods we’ve been introduced to in the 20th century – many of which contain high-fructose corn syrup and other added sugars – have hijacked our brains, our hormones, and our metabolism. These Frankenfoods have literally created a vicious cycle of hunger and cravings.
There is no such thing as junk food. There’s just junk, and there’s food.
I have a simple yet radical proposal: Let’s send the trillion-dollar junk food industry a message and eat real food. That means foods nature created, which don’t come with barcodes, fake ingredients, or an ingredient list at all.
To do that, we need to rewire our brains. A researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) told me the real regulator of our weight and metabolism isn’t our stomach, but our brain chemistry. The right foods send a message to your brain to shut down hunger and cravings so you burn fat and feel great. Sugary, processed foods send the opposite message.
We can start to do this by eating whole, real foods. Make sure that every meal consists of 75% plant foods, healthy fats, and sustainable protein. And try to avoid anything high in sugar, high in starches, and processed foods.
27/01/2021
The very first line of defence against infection is our body's barriers. Find out how to keep them in tip top condition:
Show The Gutology Podcast, Ep S2EP3 - Barriers of the body - 20 Jan 2021
24/01/2021
23/01/2021
Our wonderful Gutologist Caroline, has just published a useful article about sleep. There’s some really simple tips that you can include in your daily routine and dietary advice on what foods promote a good nights rest. https://gutology.co.uk/blogs/immune/optimise-your-sleep
23/01/2021
Are you a brussels sprouts hater? Here's why you should try to like bitter foods!
Do you like brussels sprouts, chicory, endive, very dark chocolate, olives? If you don’t here’s why it is worth persevering…and why you should aim to consume bitter foods regularly. Good for the gut As you might expect, as this site is dedicated to gut health, bitter foods benefit your gut. Wh...
14/01/2021
Feeling stressed at the moment. Listen to this Gutology podcast explaining how stress affects our bodies...and what you can do to take the pressure off.
Show The Gutology Podcast, Ep Season 2, Episode 2 - Stress on the body - 12 Jan 2021
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All I wanted was to be healthy, have the energy to keep doing the activities I loved with my partner and to look forward to a long future together. But I was overweight, and despite everything I tried any weight I lost was followed by gaining it all back plus a bit more. More worrying, I was developing an increasing variety of health issues.
First my blood pressure was increasing, then I began to suffer muscle and joint pain so that I could barely lift my arms enough to take off my T-shirt, then I started getting shooting pains in my jaw and lips. I struggled to get a good night’s sleep, spending hours awake every night. I suffered from anxiety attacks and generally felt that the future looked bleak. I tried to look after my health and eat home-cooked, freshly prepared food and thought I knew what healthy eating looked like.
I visited my doctor many times to seek help, but the solution seemed always to be more drugs and that I should lose weight. When I said I had tried to lose weight, I was met with disbelief. I caught sight of a comment in my notes from one doctor who said I was “in denial”. I was not in denial: I had simply given up on finding a solution.
I was willing to give diet another go but I was scared that changing my diet might mean that I could never enjoy food again. And that at the same time, my joint pains, insomnia, anxiety attacks would not disappear even if I did.
But in Autumn 2012 I saw a life-changing documentary which resulted in a complete transformation of my health, body and career! It was Michael Mosley’s Horizon programme, Eat, Fast and Live Longer. I found the documentary very compelling. The science spoke to me as being plausible. I began “intermittent fasting” the day after I watched the documentary. It immediately started to bring about changes and not just weight loss: over time my blood pressure came down, my joint pain reduced, the shooting pains in my jaw stopped, my skin and hair and gut health (which I had not realized were less than perfect) all improved enormously.
As a former medical research scientist, I was, naturally keen to discover the scientific basis for fasting in terms of health benefits and how it helped with weight loss. I set out to learn all I could. As I learned more, as well as intermittent fasting, I began to work on specifically on gut health, nutrient balance, stress and more. This brought further improvements in sleep, menopause issues, and energy levels. I have maintained my weight loss and improved overall health for 7 years now.
From researching the scientific studies, and putting what I learned into practice, I became so enthralled with the power of nutrition, I ultimately re-trained as a nutritional therapist on a Master’s level course at Worcester University. When I started out, despite my science background, I knew relatively little about nutrition. My nutrition training was a revelation. An important discovery is that weight gain is almost always a sign of an underlying health problem and not, in itself, a cause. Almost nobody understands this! I further discovered that the root of so many health conditions is often bedded in an immune system imbalance. As my PhD was in immunology, it was clear that I could bring my knowledge of the immune system together with my nutrition training to help people like me who have struggled with increasing health issues without finding a solution.
Let me help you too by calling me for a free discovery chat about how my approach can change your life!
