Brain Food and Nutrition Clinic

09/08/2025

It may seem like the strangest suggestion, that what you eat, your nutrient levels and your digestion can affect your anxiety levels, but a personalised nutrition programme can make a huge difference to your anxiety levels.

There are many ways nutrition and diet can affect anxiety. One of the major factors is depleted levels of zinc and/or B6. These nutrients can be lowered through poor absorption, IBS, stress, the contraceptive pill, low zinc diets and pyroluria. Lowered levels can lead to lower levels of serotonin which can lead to heightened anxiety levels. Another factor is a lack of long-chain fatty acids – these allow serotonin signalling to occur in the brain. A lack of these fats or too many altered/trans fats can also affect the way we feel.

Magnesium deficiency is relatively common and can also impact anxiety levels. It is worth keeping an eye on blood sugar levels to ensure that they are balanced throughout the day. Blood sugar that peaks and troughs throughout the day can lead to panic attacks and increased anxiety. Food intolerances can significantly alter blood sugar balance and are worth looking into. Over the longer term, this can lead to adrenal issues which can mean anxiety becomes chronic and is coupled with exhaustion.

Digestion needs to be optimal. You can have a great diet, but if you are not absorbing nutrients well you can end up with a deficiency. It is not unusual to find that anxiety and IBS co-occur. An altered gut flora can also affect anxiety levels.

If social anxiety or being fearful is something that seems to run in your family, it is worth checking to see if pyroluria may be an issue for you.

06/08/2025

If you are struggling to gain weight, then instead of focusing on the quantity of food you are eating, focus on gut health instead.

Many underweight individuals struggle due to poor digestion and nutrient malabsorption. Until nutrients are properly absorbed, weight gain remains difficult. 

Low stomach acid can impair protein and mineral absorption, affecting muscle growth and metabolism.

Gut inflammation, leaky gut, and microbiome imbalances further disrupt digestion and nutrient uptake.

Issues like enzyme deficiencies (e.g. pancreatic) or SIBO also interfere with absorbing fats, proteins, and carbs. 

Beyond weight, malabsorption can compromise mood, energy, cognitive clarity, and contribute to anxiety or depression. 

Comprehensive stool testing can help identify issues. It gives a detailed evaluation of digestion, inflammation, microbiome balance, metabolic byproducts and pathogens. The results can guide personalised nutrition plans, tailored approaches and supplements.

Read more below.

06/08/2025

Zinc and B6 are vital nutrients for mental wellbeing. In some individuals, metabolic by-products called pyrroles build up in the body. This is often due to stress or genetic factors and they bind to zinc and B6 and excrete them in urine, creating a functional deficiency. Over the longer term, this can be detrimental to physical and mental health.

Low zinc and B6 levels can lead to:

Anxiety and emotional overwhelm
Irritability, inner tension, or sudden anger
Poor stress tolerance
Sleep issues and vivid nightmares
Low serotonin and GABA production
Hormonal problems
Low mood
Addictive tendencies

These symptoms often show up in families where there is a genetic tendency to increased pyrroles.

The urine kryptopyrrole test helps uncover this hidden nutrient drain.

Learn more or book a test here:
https://brainfoodnutrition.co.uk/kryptopyrrole-testing-identifying-functional-nutrient-loss-in-mental-health-disorders/

04/08/2025

What causes loose bowel movements in the morning?

Waking up in the morning and urgently needing to get to the loo is not uncommon. Or maybe there’s a little less urgency but your first bowel movement is always loose and unformed or watery.

Every body has a circadian rhythm, this is our natural internal clock and first thing in the morning, your body starts to get moving. Cortisol starts to rise, which gets your gut going too. This is part of a healthy process called the gastrocolic reflex.

However, when your gut is inflamed or sensitive that reflex can become overenthusiastic. Instead of a normal bowel movement, it turns into cramping, urgency or full-blown diarrhoea.

There are several reasons this can happen, from food sensitivities to small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) or bile acid malabsorption.

https://brainfoodnutrition.co.uk/why-am-i-rushing-to-the-loo-every-morning-the-truth-about-morning-diarrhoea/

31/07/2025

High homocysteine raises dementia risk - yet it's overlooked. Experts confirm B vitamins can slow brain shrinkage and memory loss.

30/07/2025

Your blood tests are normal, but you feel anything but.

It’s one of the most common things I hear from women in clinic. They’ve had all the standard tests and their results come back saying everything is normal.

Standard testing is generally not designed to detect functional imbalances. The kind of imbalances that cause niggling symptoms and disrupt your energy, mood, sleep, hormones and gut health.

This is where functional testing comes in. It goes deeper to identify what is causing your symptoms.

If you’ve been told your symptoms are just the result of stress or that it's just a part of getting older, then this is for you.

👇 Read more here about the tests that can give you answers.

27/07/2025

If you are in the thick of peri-menopause or have started HRT but are still struggling with symptoms then the DUTCH Complete test could provide you with valuable information. The DUTCH Complete test is the smarter way to manage HRT and peri-menopause.

Hormone changes can be chaotic and blood tests only offer a snapshot of levels that fail to capture the full picture. The DUTCH Complete test uses metabolites in urine samples to gain a detailed, functional insight into what’s going on with your hormones.

Hormones don’t decline in a straight line. In peri-menopause, it’s common for oestrogen levels to spike and crash unpredictably, while progesterone quietly declines in the background. Blood tests can miss these fluctuations entirely. This explains why some women feel anxious, wired but tired or emotionally all over the place, even when their results are technically considered within range. The DUTCH Complete test picks up on these patterns.

The DUTCH test tracks hormone patterns across the day. It gives information on levels of progesterone, oestrogen and testosterone as well as giving information on how well your body is clearing them. This is particularly helpful with HRT use as it helps to identify whether you body is metabolising hormones efficiently or pushing them down pathways that might trigger symptoms like weight gain, breast tenderness or anxiety. For anyone concerned about long-term risks, such as oestrogen-sensitive cancers or fibroids, this detail is incredibly useful. It allows us to intervene early, support detoxification, and make HRT more targeted and effective.

It also assesses your adrenal function by looking at cortisol patterns throughout the day. If you’re waking at 3 am, struggling to switch off or feeling totally depleted, this is often where the answer lies. High or low cortisol can directly impact how you respond to HRT or other treatments, so understanding this is essential.

Cortisol is your body’s primary stress hormone and it plays a central role in hormonal balance. When cortisol is too high because of chronic stress, overwork or anxiety or too low due to adrenal burnout from long-term stress exposure, it can interfere with the way oestrogen and progesterone are used and processed in the body.

For example, high cortisol can suppress progesterone production, which is already declining in peri-menopause. This can worsen symptoms like anxiety, poor sleep, irritability and heavy periods. It also makes the oestrogen to progesterone ratio more unbalanced, amplifying oestrogen dominance symptoms.

Cortisol affects liver detoxification and this is important for breaking down and clearing hormones. It can disrupt liver enzyme activity and deplete nutrients needed for phase 2 detoxification. This is the stage that excretes broken-down hormones. This leads to hormone metabolites recirculating and causing symptoms and imbalances.

The DUTCH Complete also includes markers linked to nutrient status, antioxidant capacity and neurotransmitter activity. This allows us to spot signs of low B vitamins, sluggish detoxification and impaired dopamine and serotonin pathways. Issues with these can contribute to mood swings, fatigue, brain fog, cravings and anxiety.

For women navigating peri-menopause or adjusting to HRT, these insights make a real difference. They allow us to create a personalised plan that addresses your unique biochemistry.

If you’re feeling unheard or are unsure whether your HRT is working for you, or maybe you simply want a clearer picture of what your hormones are doing, the DUTCH Complete test could be the missing piece. I offer one-to-one support and interpretation alongside this test, helping you make sense of your results and build a personalised plan that actually works.

https://brainfoodnutrition.co.uk/product/dutch-complete/

24/07/2025

Standard tests often miss the real root of fatigue, bloating, hormone chaos or that general death-warmed-up feeling you’ve been dragging around.

I help people who’ve been dismissed, overlooked, or told it’s just stress to uncover what’s actually going on and feel like themselves again.

Book an initial appointment here - https://brainfoodnutrition.co.uk/book-an-appointment/ and we’ll can investigate your symptoms and devise a functional nutrition and lifestyle plan to help you feel well again.

Because normal shouldn’t feel this bad.

23/07/2025

Inflammatory bowel disease impacts more than gut health. Energy crashes, low mood and anxiety are common. This is due to inflammatory signalling, poor nutrient absorption and a disrupted gut microbiome.

If you’re living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) you’ll know it’s more than just a gut issue. You’ve probably been told to avoid flare triggers, stick to a low-residue diet, take your medication, and that someday you might need surgery. There is little su[[prt for the other side of IBD...

21/07/2025

Are you looking for a smarter way to manage hormones, HRT and navigate peri-menopause?

https://brainfoodnutrition.co.uk/the-dutch-complete-test-a-smarter-way-to-manage-hrt-and-peri-menopause/

15/07/2025

Lipoedema doesn’t respond to diet in the same way as other body fat does. This can lead to developing a difficult and sometimes disordered relationship with food.