Nutritional Therapy Practitioners Near Me

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FAQs:

What is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner?

A Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) or Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (FNTP) is a holistic nutrition professional trained and recognized by the Nutritional Therapy Association. The focus of an NTP is to help support individuals’ health and vitality through individualized holistic nutrition and lifestyle factors, as well as supporting nutritional and physiological deficiencies through the NTA’s Foundations. NTPs are trained to support the optimal function of the body by assessing and addressing the health of the diet, digestive system, blood sugar regulation system, fatty acid status, mineral balance, and hydration levels. NTPs also incorporate analysis of lifestyle habits including sleep, stress, movement, and environmental considerations to provide holistic recommendations that drive client success.  

With this framework and focus, an NTP can support you in achieving your health goals so you can live life to the fullest. Even the most complex systems and processes of the body are heavily influenced by the Foundations an NTP is trained to support. Instead of chasing symptoms and trying the next trend, working with an NTP can help determine what your unique body needs to thrive and cut through the noise of health claims in the industry. 

What Does a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner Do?

As a nutritional therapy practitioner, your job is to help advise each client on matters relating to their diet, lifestyle, and overall wellness. In this role, you may determine which services can help a client or patient see improvement in their overall help, explain how nutrition factors into their goals, and promote a holistic approach to health. Nutrition therapy practitioners are not nutritionists or doctors and do not provide medical advice or treat diseases. However, you may address topics like digestive balancing, nutrient density, or blood sugar regulation to help clients meet their goals. Nutrition therapy practitioners often work in medical offices, retail stores, or as educators.

What Conditions Can a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner Help with?

As an NTP, they can help you with nutrition, but they don’t believe in a “one-size-fits-all” approach to diet. So, don’t expect them to tell you to go vegetarian or keto unless those diets will work for you! As an NTP, we believe in working with your unique needs into account. They can help you improve your diet and lifestyle for general health, and for preventative care to help you prevent health problems as you get older. Many of these problems can be prevented by addressing lifestyle changes or diet now!

Besides prevention, NTPs can also help you with a litany of conditions. Some examples include bloating, digestive distress, constipation, gut dysbiosis, hormonal imbalances, autoimmune conditions, joint pain, anxiety, depression, chronic health conditions, stress levels, energy levels, and weight management. As mentioned, they cannot diagnose or cure these conditions, and they cannot guarantee any results, but can help you support your body’s foundational health and aid in its self-healing.

When you look at the root causes of health issues, and support the foundations of health (digestion, blood sugar regulation, fatty acids, minerals, and hydration) through diet and lifestyle modifications, and balance out the body, many symptoms will begin to heal on their own.

Why is Nutritional Therapy Important?

Healthy eating is important, whether you are suffering from a disease or not. This therapy is suitable for everyone, be it young and old looking to alleviate specific symptoms as well as those looking to improve their overall health and well-being. Nutritional therapists generally assess the client's medical history and current health status; basis which they prescribe a personalized nutrition plan and advise them accordingly. Nutritional therapy majorly focuses on natural unprocessed whole foods that help boost overall health and stave off the risk of various diseases. The diet is planned in a way that is nutritionally balanced and sustainable. However, it is important to understand that nutritional therapy does not replace conventional medicines but may complement them. It is imperative to start following these guidelines only under medical and expert supervision.

How Many Consultations Will You Need?

This depends upon your circumstances, although clients will always be seen for an initial and a follow-up consultation. Follow-up consultations last 45 minutes, in which time the client’s progress will be assessed and their nutritional and supplement program adjusted to take account of their progress and any remaining concerns. Clients with more complex issues may request further appointments to meet their nutritional health goals.

What is Nutritional Therapy Used for?

Treatment is based on nutrition. It includes checking a person’s nutrition status and giving the right foods or nutrients to treat conditions such as those caused by diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. It may involve simple changes in a person’s diet, or intravenous or tube feeding. Medical nutrition therapy may help patients recover more quickly and spend less time in the hospital. Also called nutrition therapy.

Does Nutritional Therapy Work?

With the guidance of a nutrition professional, nutritional therapy can play a key part in rehabilitation. It can help rebuild the body's natural defenses, by introducing gradual dietary changes to fuel the body with essential vitamins and minerals that boost immune function and aid overall well-being.

What is the Difference Between NTP and FNTP?

The focus of both NTPs and FNTPs is to support an individual’s health and wellness with a nutrient-dense, whole-food nutrition approach as well as lifestyle support while supporting nutritional and physiological deficiencies through the NTA’s Foundations. The primary difference is that FNTPs learned an additional hands-on functional tool to gain even more information from the body in the assessment process. Both NTPs and FNTPs are trained to help you find lasting health and wellness.

How Can Nutritional Therapy Benefit Me?

Nutritional Therapy is suitable for everyone, young and old, for those who would like to alleviate specific symptoms, as well as those who would just like to improve their overall health and well-being. In a nutshell, Nutritional Therapy helps you to identify the foods that make you look and feel your best.

What is the Goal of Nutritional Therapy?

The fundamental goal of Nutritional Therapy is to encourage people to become knowledgeable about—and responsible for—their health. An NTP helps individuals reach their optimal level of overall health by supporting and bringing balance to the five foundations: Digestion, Blood Sugar Regulation, Fatty Acid Balance, Mineral Balance, and Hydration. All five are built upon a single, solid base: a properly prepared, nutrient-dense diet.  Nutritional Therapy is not designed, however, to treat any specific disease or medical condition.

What is Nutritional Therapy?

Nutritional Therapy is an evidence-based approach to maximizing one’s health potential through individually formulated nutritional and lifestyle changes. It promotes the benefits of good, wholesome, unprocessed foods for optimal well-being, as well as the therapeutic effects of particular foods for specific health conditions.

Nutritional Therapy has its origins in naturopathic principles from ancient Greece, China, India and Europe. The first recorded dietary advice, carved into a Babylonian stone tablet in about 2500 BC, cautioned those with pain inside to avoid eating onions for three days. Scurvy, later found to be a vitamin C deficiency, was first described in 1500 BC in the Ebers Papyrus. Historically in China, India, Malaya, and Persia, food was classified into ‘hot’ such as meats, blood, ginger, and hot spices, and ‘cold’  such as green vegetables, and this information was included in traditional therapies. 

The discoveries of many vitamins between 1926 and 1936 and the related nutrient deficiency diseases such as scurvy (vitamin C), beriberi (vitamin B1), pellagra (niacin), and rickets (vitamin D) first linked the importance of diet to health. Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) were first formulated in 1941 in the UK. This knowledge was then augmented by the more recent nutritional medicine, allergy, and environmental medicine movements of the late 20th century.

What Conditions Can Nutritional Therapy Support?

- Diet-related illnesses, such as diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, bloating, indigestion, and inflammatory bowel disease

- Training for a sports event or trying to improve overall fitness

- Weight loss and improved well-being

- Recovery from long-term illnesses as part of the rehabilitation process

- Personalized nutrition and lifestyle programs

- Specific food allergies or those who need to adhere to specific diets

- Maintaining a healthy balanced diet tailored to your individual needs

- Supporting an existing health condition through nutrition

5 Reasons to Work with a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner

There are many health conditions that nutritional therapy can address, and the results can be life-changing. If you’re not already convinced, read on to find out why you should be seeing a nutritional therapist.

Reason #1: To Help Change Your Habits

Think of your nutritional therapist as a support system that will help turn your bad habits into healthy ones. They can help guide you toward the goals you want to achieve regarding your health. You won’t just be seeing them for one consultation - they’ll be there to help you every step of the way with one-on-one care. (In my office, I currently do this either virtually or in person in light of the pandemic.)

Reason #2: You Struggle to Lose Weight

If you’ve tried just about every diet and exercise program out there and still aren’t seeing results, the next appointment you schedule should be with a nutritional therapist. There may be an underlying health condition that needs to be addressed before you begin to see progress. Nutrition Response Testing gets to the root cause of your health-related symptoms and addresses the issue(s) at hand naturally.

Reason #3: You’re Not Sure Exactly What’s Wrong - And Neither Does Your Doctor

When you meet with a Nutrition Response Testing practitioner, you’ll go over all the diet and lifestyle factors that could be causing your symptoms. Your nutritional therapist will do a series of muscle tests as part of a Nutrition Response Testing assessment. Then, s/he will use the results, coupled with the information you’ve provided, to create a personalized plan based on your needs. There’s no one-size-fits-all program.

Reason #4: You Have An Allergy or Intolerance

Through Nutrition Response Testing, your nutritional therapist can help determine exactly what food, ingredient, or heavy metal toxin your body reacts to. There will be no more guesswork and ineffective diet changes. You will know exactly what you need to avoid and what you need more of.

Reason #5: You Want to Achieve a Specific Goal

Whether you’re training for a sporting event, looking to lose weight, or just want to be the healthiest version of yourself, a nutritional therapist can help. They will determine exactly what changes to your nutrition, hydration, and lifestyle need to be made to get you where you want to be.

Benefits of Nutritional Therapy

1. Avoid Nutrient Deficiency

Many people live unhealthy lifestyles, which leaves them nutrient-deficient. Other people develop or inherit allergies or sensitivities to certain food groups. Eliminating these foods from your diet is key to avoiding any negative reaction or complication. To avoid nutrient deficiency, your provider can monitor your condition and give recommendations for appropriate food alternatives or oral supplements.

2. Weight Loss or Weight Gain

You can achieve a healthy weight with the guidance of your doctor. Through nutritional therapy, you can get the nutrients you need with an appropriate diet plan and exercise regimen. Your nutritional therapy will differ depending on the results you want. If you want to lose weight, your plan will include calorie control and exercise. If you want to gain weight, your plan will include ample calorie intake and fewer exercises that burn off calories.

3. Boost Your Immune System

Safe and effective formulations for metabolic support, immune system health, and brain and gastrointestinal health are also available through nutritional therapy. With carefully curated food supplements from experts, you can boost your immune system, so your body can function the way it should.

4. Detoxification

IV nutritional therapy helps improve skin conditions by removing bodily toxins. Glutathione, a powerful antioxidant, is a nutrient that helps get rid of toxins. Oral supplements for detoxification are available for appropriate patients.

5. Decrease Stress and Chronic Fatigue

Some nutritional therapy methods can ease your stress. Meyer’s cocktail includes a mix of nutrients like magnesium, vitamins, calcium, and other minerals. It also has many other benefits, such as addressing vitamin deficiency, anxiety, depression, and fatigue. Meanwhile, B12 therapy is useful in treating chronic fatigue.

6. Manage and Prevent Chronic Diseases

A significant benefit of nutritional therapy is its ability to support the management of chronic diseases like diabetes, digestive problems, heart disease, and cancer. Losing weight and boosting your immunity significantly reduce your risk of chronic diseases.

People with digestive concerns like ulcers, irritable bowel movements, and intestinal removal face long-term issues. These conditions can result in malnutrition, poor nutrient absorption, toxin production in the colon, and inflammation. Your doctor can create a customized dietary plan for your digestive condition, which will reduce symptoms and keep you nutritionally healthy.

Also, conditions like irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and plaque buildup can lead to heart attack, stroke, aneurysms, and heart failure. With nutritional therapy, experts can help reduce bad cholesterol, triglycerides, and high blood pressure. Some cases require lifestyle changes to avoid major heart diseases. Your doctor will advise you to maintain a healthy weight, increase physical activity, and get adequate sleep.

Finally, chemotherapy and cancer medications can have adverse effects on health, such as a reduced appetite and a damaged gastrointestinal lining. Cancer patients are, therefore, at risk of malnutrition. Nutritional therapy can help such patients remain healthy.

What to Expect from a Nutritional Therapy Appointment

During your first consultation

- Discuss your health goals and concerns with your practitioner answering questions about your diet, health history, familial background, and lifestyle

- Work together with your practitioner to establish relevant connections between your lifestyle and your health. Note that many aspects outside nutrition might be brought into the process

- Agree on a date for the next follow-up appointment (usually 3 to 6 weeks from your initial consultation)

- When you arrive for your consultation, your practitioner will discuss the findings from your answered questionnaire and further question you on specific aspects relevant to the analysis of your case. The practitioner will talk to you about your needs and listen to your input on many different aspects related to your diet and lifestyle. This information will help build your metabolic profile and confirm therapeutic priorities identified from your Preliminary Assessment Form.

A thorough case history and metabolic profile will be built based on all the information you provide before and during the consultations.

You’ll also be asked to fill in and sign a couple of forms that establish the terms and conditions of our therapeutic relationship.

At the end of your first consultation, an initial action plan will be agreed upon between you and the practitioner, and information on how to proceed during the first stage of the therapeutic program will also be given to you.

In the majority of cases, a follow-up appointment is booked for 3 to 6 weeks later.  This is an important part of the therapeutic program when possible adjustments and further investigations might need to be discussed.  If the investigation of underlying imbalances requires more detailed metabolic information, functional laboratory tests may be suggested.

 

Sources:

NTA

ZipRecruiter

HealthierU

Teaspoon of Healing

School of Health

NDTV Food

Bridges Healing Centers

Nutritional therapy Works

Cell Nutrition

NIH

Nutritionist Resource

E Therapy

NTA

Fab Nutrition

Houston Nutritional Therapy

 

The content herein is provided for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Medical information changes constantly, and therefore the content on this website should not be assumed to be current, complete, or exhaustive. Always seek the advice of your doctor before starting or changing treatment. If you think you may have a medical emergency, please call your doctor or 9-1-1 (in the United States) immediately.