MBSR: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
Stress is not just a condition that affects how you feel in yourself. The impact of a prolonged ‘drip feed’ of the stress hormone cortisol has a detrimental effect on your digestive system, immune function, cognitive function and sleep which will all combine to lead to long-term chronic health problems if left unchecked.
This 3-month programme uses state-of-the-art lab tests to find out how well you are coping with the amount of stress you are under.
- Is your gut functioning correctly?
- Are you getting enough good quality sleep to help you rest and repair?
- Are you getting enough of the right nutrients your body need to function well?
- Would you benefit from more adaptogenic foods and herbs to help you cope better?
- Are warning signs of adrenal fatigue starting to creep in?
- Are there any quick wins for relieving your stress while we tackle the root causes?
- Would you benefit from MBSR for stress, anxiety or depression?
In addition to identifying where you are now on the stress spectrum, we will use MBSR or Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction techniques to guide you through an 8-week programme of steps to help lower cortisol levels and restore homeostasis. This would help in decision-making, improved mood, better physical and emotional wellbeing and not least your physical appearance would improve as we reduce the damaging effects of oxidative stress (the ageing process) caused by prolonged high levels of stress.
We cannot make the stress go away, but we can definitely help you to cope with it better both physically and mentally.
Step 1
Causative Investigations
Step 2
1:1 Consultation
Step 3
Lab Tests
Step 4
3-month Restorative Plan
Your Functional Health Score devised by the Institute for Functional Medicine is an assessment of the extent to which your symptoms are affecting your daily life. You will be taken through a series of questions and the answers will be submitted to me so I can calculate your score out of 200. An ideal score is less than 15 so the higher your score, the more benefit you would get from professional intervention rather than trying to manage everything yourself.
You are welcome to check your health score for FREE anytime by clicking this button. If you decide to become a regular client, I will keep a log of your scores each month and we will be able to measure the effects of the interventions to ensure you are getting the results you need. Please note that you will need to complete this quiz on a laptop or desktop computer as it is not yet compatible with phones or tablets.
Step 1: Causative Investigations
When you have been accepted as a client on the 3-month MBSR programme, you will be invited to complete 3 questionnaires as part of the initial investigations. The more detail you can provide in these crucial early steps, the better, so you may need to save your answers and come back to it later hen you have found out more dates or information.
Medical Symptoms Questionnaire
This is a series of questions about symptoms you may or may not be experiencing, and the severity of each one. this questionnaire will be completed each month so we can assess your progress throughout the course of treatment.
World Health Organization PROMIS Quality of Life Assessment
At the beginning and end points of this programme, you will be invited to complete the World Health Organization PROMIS Health questionnaire which is used internationally to measure your health-related quality of life. PROMIS stands for Patient-reported Outcomes Measurement Information System and I use it to find out how YOU are in yourself, aside from any symptoms you may be experiencing. This is important because some people are able to cope with the same symptoms better or worse than others, depending on a multitude of factors including social support, family environment etc.
Step 2: In depth Consultation (looking for antecedents, mediators & triggers)
Having gathered the ‘facts’ about your health, this session is to discuss the progression of your symptoms and look at what was taking place at each phase of your life that may have had an impact upon it. I will be looking for ‘antecedents’ (genetic predispositions), mediators (what is facilitating your on-going stress) and triggers (what events or people are triggering a bout of stress-related symptoms).
Once the Functional Medicine Timeline and Matrix are put together and this lifestyle information is added, we can begin to pick apart what is making you better or worse and where we can best interrupt the ‘cycle’ of stress related symptoms that you are experiencing.
Step 3: Test, don't Guess
The focus on these lab tests is to measure the effects of stress on your overall health so we will be measuring th efollowing to personalize your nutrition and health plan:
- Cortisol Awakening Response
- Hormone levels
- Gut Function
- Metabolic Function
- Cognitive function
It may also be advisable to measure your cardiac heath, but that is not routinely included because phlebotomy services are different for each region and country. I will be able to send you the kit you need for cardiac tests if necessary, but you will incur further costs from your local phlebotomist so this can be discussed as part of your Restorative Strategy.
DUTCH+
The Comprehensive Organix Profile report is generated from an overnight urine sample that is easy to collect yet provides extremely valuable clinical information. This is an in-depth specialist investigation into the cellular biochemical activity in the body providing insight into several major metabolic areas:
- Malabsorption and Dysbiosis Markers
- Cellular Energy & Mitochondrial Markers
- Vitamin Markers
- Neurotransmitter Metabolites
- Toxin & Detoxification Markers
- Oxalate Markers
Several diseases are associated with abnormal organic acid levels including but not limited to:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Cardiovascular disease
- Neurocognitive decline
- Forgetting appointments and dates.
- Forgetting recent conversations and events.
- Feeling increasingly overwhelmed by making decisions and plans.
- Having a hard time understanding directions or instructions.
- Losing your sense of direction.
- Losing the ability to organize tasks.
- Becoming more impulsive.
- Diabetes
- Cancer
- Anorexia or weight gain (weight management issues)
This is the most personalized approach to tailoring a treatment towards improving your cognitive health in terms of memory, focus and concentration that you can have
Step 4: Restorative Plan
This is a very detailed 12-page report looking at how your digestive system is functioning. This test looks for maldigestion, inflammation (the main cause of chronic disease), dysbiosis (the balance of good vs bad bacteria which is particularly important for anyone who has been on antibiotics), metabolic imbalance and infection. In each of these 5 categories, your body is ranked 1-10 on whether there is a low need for support, a moderate need or a high need for support right away.
DUTCH stands fro Dried Urine Test for Complete Hormones. It is the most extensive hormone test you can have done to measure your stress response, circadian rhythms, the level of each hormone and, crucially, the ratios between the hormones.
Who is the DUTCH+ test for?
- Anyone with sleep disorders, regular long-haul travelers or anyone who wakes i the middle of the night and struggles to get back to sleep.
- Men or women experiencing sexual health problems (extremely common as a result of long-term chronic stress).
- Women experiencing menopausal problems.
- It is an indicator of hypo- or hyper-thyroidism (DUTCH testing can show an indication of Hypo/Hyperthyroidism when the free and metabolised cortisol do not match (one is much high or lower than the other) and abnormal cortisol clearance is implied, but it is NOT a diagnostic tool for either of thee conditions.)
Anti-Inflammatory Food Plan
The most important part of resolving stress is to detoxify the body of the ‘toxic load’ generated by excess oxidative stress. Following a phase of detoxification, you will then move to an anti-inflammatory diet plan.
- Customisable online meal plans you can access via mobile phone or desktop.
- Print off your shopping list so you have less food (and money!) waste.
- All the recipes are straightforward and do not require any particular skill.
- Several slow cooker recipes that can be cooked ahead and frozen in portions so you can still eat well on the days you do not have time to cook.
- Recipes can be tailored to meet special dietary needs including plans based on nurigenomics for those who opt to have certain genomic tests done EG for heart health.
MBSR: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
Week 1: What it means to be on auto-pilot
Week 2: Managing barriers to mindfulness
Week 3: Mindfulness of Breath and the Body in Movement
Week 4: Teh Art of Staying Present
Week 5: Acceptance and Going with the Flow
Week 6: Thoughts Are Not Facts!
Week 7: How Can I best take care of myself?
Week 8: Applying MBSR to your Future.
Advantages of Partnering with Simone
- No more ‘going it alone‘ and trying lots of therapies that don’t seem to work. Simone will be your Partner from Discovery to Recovery. I will not only recommend which tests and therapies may work for you, but I will discourage you from wasting money on unnecessary or inappropriate treatments.
- No more wondering what to eat and whether you will regret it later! Our meal plans are in-depth and tailored to meet your needs so that foods can be eliminated then reintroduced gradually once your gut lining has healed.
- Reduce the need for medication such as omeprazole! your body is trying to tell you something and it is NOT that you have a deficiency of drugs! Let’s get to the bottom of why you have acid reflux in the first place!
- No more repeating your symptoms and history to every health practitioner you meet. Our online portal will have a timeline of your health history, any interventions, diet plans, exercise plans and other relevant information needed. If you choose to share this with your healthcare team, Simone will co-ordinate a strategy of ‘joined-up-thinking’ with your other healthcare providers so we can all work together for your wellbeing and the best possible outcome.
- All our consultations are done online to relieve you of the stress and exhaustion of going out to your appointments.
- You have access to my calendar so you can book or reschedule appointments for your convenience.
- All the recommended tests are non-invasive which means that no blood draw is needed.
- The testing kits are sent to you at home for your convenience, then collected by courier when you are ready.
- Simone will identify trends that have developed year-on-year by creating a functional medicine timeline to see what has got you to this point in your health journey, then adding to the timeline each year giving you continuity of care and giving us the ability to spot ‘trends’ in your health with a view to identify potential warning signs early.
- No more confusion, isolation and lack of hope. Simone will help you fully understand the root causes of your health problems so that you will be empowered to make lifestyle and eating habits that will help you turn a corner towards a happier, healthier future where you will be able to reach your full potential without being held back by worsening chronic health problems.
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