True Nature NZ

28/12/2025

If you stepped on the scale this morning and saw a number that surprised you: just a quick reminder:

That’s not fat gain.

A couple of days of festive food, extra salt, more carbs, a few drinks, and less sleep can cause the scale to jump but what you’re seeing is mostly:

🔹 Water retention (especially from higher carb and salt intake)
🔹 More food in the system still being digested
🔹 Changes in inflammation and stress (hello late nights and social overstimulation)
🔹 Glycogen storage your body storing fuel, not fat
Real fat gain doesn’t happen in 1–2 days. And just like fat loss, it requires sustained change over time.

So, skip the scale today if it’s going to mess with your head. It’s not giving you useful information right now.

Instead, focus on what supports you:
✅ Drink your water
✅ Prioritise protein + plants
✅ Get outside and move
✅ Get some rest
✅ Return to your usual routine

This is all part of a normal, flexible lifestyle. One that’s not derailed by a holiday meal or a couple of days out of routine.

21/12/2025

After a recent accident I have been accelerated into a world of learning on the subject of concussion.

Concussion is always accompanied by a whiplash injury, purely because the force required to create a concussion is far greater than the minimum force required to create a whiplash. Deep soft tissue structures (membranes and ligaments) in the upper neck take a huge strain during the impact and as a result become chronically tense. Creating not only pain through the neck and upper back, causing headaches but also neurological symptoms.

I’m using a combination of massage, ConTact CARE and osteopathy to address my own symptoms.

What modalities have you used that you found helpful for chronic headaches, neck and back pain??

https://www.facebook.com/share/1ZxRHk2yp9/

⭐️ CONCUSSION, THE NECK & DIZZINESS — THE CRITICAL LINK TOO OFTEN MISSED ⭐️

Why persistent concussion symptoms are NOT just “in the brain”… and why the neck may be the missing piece of your recovery.

Every week at The Functional Neurology Center, we meet patients who have been told to “just rest” after concussion — only to find themselves months or even years later still struggling with dizziness, light sensitivity, visual strain, imbalance, head pressure, jaw pain, or motion intolerance.

Many are told their scans are normal.
Many are told it’s anxiety.
Many are told their symptoms “don’t make sense.”

But emerging research — including a 2025 Frontiers in Neurology article on cervicogenic dizziness — is finally explaining what we see in clinic every day:

👉 Persistent post-concussion symptoms are often driven by a sensory mismatch between the neck, the vestibular system, and the visual system.
👉 And until the neck is addressed, symptoms can persist — no matter how much you rest.

⸻

🧠 The Science: Why the Neck Matters in Concussion

The upper cervical spine (C0–C3) is packed with proprioceptors — sensors that tell the brain:

• where your head is in space
• how fast it’s moving
• how your eyes should stabilize
• how your balance system should respond
• and how to coordinate posture

After concussion or whiplash, this information can become distorted.

The 2025 Frontiers in Neurology article outlines exactly what happens next:

🔹 1️⃣ The neck sends altered proprioceptive signals

🔹 2️⃣ The brainstem and vestibular nuclei receive conflicting information

🔹 3️⃣ The visual system tries to compensate

🔹 4️⃣ The cerebellum attempts to reweight sensory input

🔹 5️⃣ A sensory mismatch develops

This mismatch is what drives:

✔ dizziness
✔ motion intolerance
✔ unsteadiness
✔ “floating” or “rocking” sensations
✔ eye strain
✔ head pressure
✔ jaw or facial pain
✔ anxiety in busy environments

The article emphasizes that this mismatch can persist — even after the brain has “healed” — unless the cervical system is rehabilitated.

(Source: Frontiers in Neurology, 2025 — Cervicogenic Dizziness Perspective)

⸻

🌀 Why Imaging & Rest Often Fail

Standard MRIs and CT scans look at structure — not function.

They cannot detect:

• proprioceptive errors
• vestibular integration issues
• cervical mechanoreceptor dysfunction
• sensory mismatch
• autonomic dysregulation

So patients are told everything is “normal,” while their functional systems are deeply dysregulated.

Rest alone cannot recalibrate these systems.

They need targeted, active retraining.

⸻

🎯 The FNC Approach — Grounded in Research & Clinical Results

We specialize in evaluating and rehabilitating the exact systems involved in post-concussion dizziness:

✔ Cervical Proprioceptive Training

• joint position error
• deep neck flexor sequencing
• suboccipital function
• C0–C3 sensorimotor control

✔ Vestibular Rehabilitation

• VOR gain
• head-eye reflex training
• habituation
• motion sensitivity reduction

✔ Ocular Motor & Visual Processing

• saccades
• pursuits
• convergence
• optokinetic response

✔ Trigeminal & TMJ Pathways

• dural tension
• jaw mechanics
• facial pain modulation

✔ Cerebellar / Nodulus Integration

• gravity & velocity storage
• otolith processing
• postural control

✔ Autonomic Regulation

• HRV
• breath-driven vagal modulation
• limbic calming

✔ Sensory Re-weighting & Integration

where the REAL healing occurs.

We do not guess.
We measure.
We map systems.
We treat the whole network — not just the symptom.

This is why patients who have tried everything else often improve when these systems are finally treated together.

⸻

🙌 Why This Matters for YOU

If you still have:

• dizziness
• foggy vision
• motion intolerance
• neck pain
• head pressure
• jaw tension
• imbalance
• fatigue
• anxiety in busy environments

months or years after a concussion…

There is a physiological reason.
It is NOT “in your head.”
It is not “just anxiety.”

It is a treatable mismatch between the neck, vestibular, and visual systems.

And when treated holistically — recovery often accelerates.

⸻

💬 If You’re Still Struggling, You Have Options

At The Functional Neurology Center, we offer:

• comprehensive evaluations
• intensive programs
• multidisciplinary rehab

We serve patients locally & from across the U.S. and internationally.

If you want to learn whether you’re a candidate:

📩 Send us a message
TheFNC.com
💬 Comment “HOPE” below
📞 Request a complimentary consult 612 223 8590
📍 Minnetonka, MN

You deserve answers.

There IS hope — and there is a pathway to recovery.
— The Functional Neurology Center

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2025.1545241/full

11/12/2025

Your gut has a circadian rhythm, and when you break it, everything downstream gets louder.

When your sleep, light exposure, and meal timing are misaligned, your GI tract doesn’t just get upset, it can shift into a different operating mode:

🔴 Barrier weakens
Claudin and occludin drop, permeability rises, and the gut becomes more reactive.

🔴 Digestion derails
Transporters, enzymes, and gastric acid lose their normal rhythm: carbs, proteins, and fats are absorbed differently.

🔴 Microbes flip behavior
Anti-inflammatory species fall, endotoxins rise, and host–microbiome communication breaks.

🔴 Motility goes off-cycle creating constipation, irregularity, or hypersensitivity.

On the other side of the graphic:
🟢 Aligned circadian rhythms restore stability: smoother motility, stronger barrier function, normal acid cycles, synchronized enzyme release, and a microbiome that behaves like it should.

This isn’t “sleep more, stress less.”
It’s biology: light, timing, and behavior controlling tight junctions, immune signaling, gastric motility, hormone rhythms, and microbial metabolites.

If you want better digestion, mood, immunity, and metabolic health…
you don’t just fix what you eat.
You fix when you live.

PMID: 40588189.

03/12/2025

Give the gift of RELAXATION!

Christmas vouchers available ☺️

02/12/2025

19/11/2025

The mighty potato!

Cooking and cooling potatoes turns the starch inside them into ‘resistant starch’ …. A less digestible form of starch. A form of starch that beneficially feeds the microbiome of your gut and drives innate immune defenses.

I often roast a tray of potatoes and leave them in the fridge- ready to be sliced and reheated as desired. Great with a couple of eggs for breakfast!

😋🍳🥔

15/11/2025

This reminder is one I come back to often, especially on the days I feel stressed and exhausted but can’t quite name why.

Because sometimes what we call “strength” is actually us holding it all in, holding it all together, because we don’t want to burden anyone or admit we’re tired or face the fear that everything might fall apart if we let go.

But you were never meant to carry everything alone.

Letting something go doesn’t mean it wasn’t important. It just means YOU ARE.

So maybe today is a good day to stop holding something that’s too heavy. Even just a little but... even for just right now.

Tell me - what’s one thing you can set down, just for today? 👇🏼👇🏽👇🏾

♡,
Dr Sophia