Gut Health, Root Causes & Healing Chronic Illness | Functional Nutritionist Ruth Wood Explains

takeaways

1. Ruth Wood explains that functional nutrition aims to optimise how the body works and find root causes rather than cure disease, and that nutritionists work alongside doctors rather than replacing medicine.

2. Ruth describes how her own digestive issues after travelling and swimming in Lake Malawi were traced to parasites via a stool analysis in 1997, which set her on her career path.

3. The conversation covers how gut imbalances can drive whole-body symptoms, with Ruth sharing a case where a client's psoriasis/eczema cleared after a digestive test found parasites treated with antibiotics.

4. Ruth and Emily discuss how reactions to foods like gluten or dairy are often caused by an underlying gut imbalance rather than the food itself, and how balancing the gut can allow foods to be tolerated again.

5. Ruth outlines simple, achievable dietary suggestions for busy people — dark green leafy veg, seeds, lean protein, oils — and emphasises reducing stimulants and alcohol and finding alternatives.

6. Ruth shares how she works as part of a team in addiction recovery (including at the Priory), using a gradual, weaning approach and stressing compliance and individual differences.

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