Brain Food and Nutrition Clinic

09/11/2025

Memory loss isn’t a normal part of ageing. It’s often linked to circulation, and yes, even hot chocolate can play a role in keeping your brain sharp. Here’s how flavanols support both heart and mind 👇

08/11/2025

😂 😂
We try our best to make our nutritional programmes practical and accessible.
We know how busy life can be!

07/11/2025

05/11/2025

When it comes to mental health, hormones and the gut–brain connection, standard tests don't give us enough information. Functional testing looks deeper. It helps uncover the subtle biochemical shifts that standard blood work can miss. These shifts are the ones that influence mood, focus, energy and stress resilience.
At Brain Food Nutrition Clinic, I use these insights to solve complex health puzzles and support recovery, not just symptom management.

Read the full article: Normal Isn’t Optimal: The Case for Functional Testing in Chronic Symptoms. Link in comments.

04/11/2025

Hair mineral analysis to assess toxic metal burden.

Heavy metals are in our food, water, cosmetics and the air we breathe. These small exposures can add up, especially in individuals with poor detoxification.

A hair mineral analysis offers a simple way to see whether the body is holding onto these metals and how well it’s coping.

Blood tests offer a snapshot of what is circulating, mostly revealing recent, acute exposure. Hair analysis reflects what’s been stored and excreted over several months. It helps us understand patterns and how effectively the body is clearing what it’s exposed to.

Even low-level accumulation can interfere with enzymes, hormones and neurotransmitters. Lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium and aluminium all have a particular affinity for the nervous system, thyroid and mitochondria. These are the systems we rely on to keep energy, focus and mood stable.

These metals don’t work alone. They compete with essential minerals such as zinc, selenium, iron and magnesium for absorption and binding sites. When metals displace these nutrients biological processes slow down, inflammation rises, and the stress signals become prevalent.

Some examples of the impact that toxic metal exposure can have include:

- Lead can replace calcium in bones and nerve tissue, affecting mood regulation and memory.

- Mercury competes with selenium and sulphur, reducing antioxidant defences and thyroid efficiency.

- Cadmium interferes with zinc metabolism, undermining immune balance and wound healing.

- Aluminium binds to magnesium and disrupts ATP production, leading to fatigue and brain fog.

A hair mineral test can highlight these imbalances before they cause long-term damage. It shows exposure to metals and reveals the ratios that reflect how your system is managing the load.

Key patterns practitioners look for include:

- Calcium : Lead ratio. Which is an indicator of how well the body is buffering lead exposure.

- Zinc : Copper ratio. This is altered by both metal exposure and detox capacity and is linked to mood and hormone balance.

- Sodium : Potassium ratio. This is a marker of adrenal stress and the body’s ability to handle toxic burden.

- Calcium : Phosphorus ratio. This gives insight into metabolic rate and tissue storage versus release of metals.

Seeing these ratios together helps identify whether the system is retaining metals, mobilising them, or struggling to excrete them effectively. It’s this context that makes the analysis so powerful.

Many people with ongoing fatigue, brain fog, anxiety or stubborn inflammation have never been screened for hidden metal load. Standard blood tests rarely show it unless there’s acute poisoning. Hair analysis bridges that gap, giving a longer-term picture of exposure and detox capacity.

For some, the results explain why nutrient therapy hasn’t been as effective as expected. When metals are blocking enzyme sites or depleting cofactors like zinc and selenium, supplementing those nutrients alone can feel like filling a leaking bucket.

Once we know what’s happening, the next steps can be precise. A retest after 3–6 months can help to track improvement.

A small hair sample can tell a surprisingly detailed story about your body’s toxic load and mineral defences. It’s painless, non-invasive and suitable for adults and children alike.

When interpreted in context, alongside symptoms, diet and other tests, it becomes a key piece of the functional health puzzle.

Available through Brain Food Nutrition Clinic, see link in comments.

Our Hair Mineral Analysis assesses both toxic metals and essential mineral ratios, giving insight into how well your body is coping with environmental stressors. The results form part of your personalised nutrition and detoxification plan, designed to support safe, effective rebalancing and long-term resilience.

03/11/2025

Everyone’s asking about vitamin D at the moment and for good reason.

It’s something I keep an eye on with clients all year round but awareness always spikes as the days get shorter and the sunshine disappears.

Most people I speak to are already taking a supplement. What’s less common is knowing whether the dose they’re taking is actually enough, or whether their body’s using it properly.

Vitamin D needs vary from person to person. Your ideal dose depends on body weight, gut health, medications and how active your immune system is. Some people need far more support than others to stay in a healthy range.

It’s getting harder to check vitamin D through the GP, and when you are able to get it tested, it’s often only flagged up when levels are super low. By that point, fatigue, low mood, or poor immune system function have usually been hanging around for a while.

My at-home Vitamin D Blood-Spot Test gives a clear picture of where you are right now. It’s quick to do, analysed by LC-MS/MS (the gold standard) and measures total vitamin D (D2 + D3).

Once you know your level, we can match your dose to your needs instead of guessing. When you purchase this test, I will review your results and give personalised recommendations to get your levels within the optimal range asap.

Several factors can make it harder for the body to absorb or activate vitamin D. These include low magnesium, vitamin K or poor bile flow or fat absorption. A quick note on vitamin K2: it works alongside D3 but doesn’t need to increase in exact proportion. When higher vitamin D doses are needed, it’s often best to take D3 and K2 separately so each can be adjusted appropriately.

Some people have a variation in the VDR (vitamin D receptor) gene. This can affect how efficiently vitamin D binds to its receptor and triggers its downstream actions.

If you live with an inflammatory or autoimmune condition, your body can use up vitamin D faster. Immune cells draw heavily on vitamin D when they’re activated, which can leave less circulating in the blood.

Other factors that can raise your requirement include:

- Carrying more body fat (vitamin D is stored in fat tissue)
- Certain medications such as steroids or anti-epileptics
- Reduced liver or kidney function
- Digestive issues like coeliac disease or low bile flow
- Age and darker skin tone, both of which reduce vitamin D made from sunlight

In these situations, a higher or more consistent intake is often needed to stay within an optimal range.

Vitamin D and vitamin A share some of the same receptor pathways in the body. If one nutrient is much higher than the other, it can affect how well those receptors work.

This becomes important when using higher-dose vitamin D, as it can compete with vitamin A for uptake and activation. Not everyone converts beta-carotene (from orange and yellow vegetables) efficiently into retinol, so some people rely more on pre-formed vitamin A and may need to be a little more mindful of that balance.

Larger vitamin D doses can absolutely be appropriate when needed, we just need to keep an eye on the broader picture, as always.

If you’ve been supplementing for months but still feel tired, foggy or run down, it’s worth checking whether your dose is truly right for you.

Testing helps you make sense of what your body actually needs, so you can get results instead of guessing.

Check your levels with Brain Food Nutrition and receive a full review and action plan for your personalised dose.

Purchase your testing kit including review below.

https://brainfoodnutrition.co.uk/product/vitamin-d-testing-kit/

01/11/2025

Inflammation is the common driver behind problems with mood, cognition, energy, illness and long-term diseases.

And one of our strongest tools to gauge and shift this risk? Omega-3 fats.

The home test I offer, the Omega-3 Index Plus Test, reveals your balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fats. This ratio is a key determinant of your inflammation load.

When your omega-3 levels are low relative to omega-6, your body stays stuck in inflammation mode. Over time, this becomes chronic and the effect on your health is systemic and widespread.

Research shows omega-3s help modulate inflammatory signals and can protect the brain, heart and mood.

What you can do:
- Test your levels.
- Adjust your diet + fats accordingly.
- Follow a plan tuned to your results, not generic advice.

01/11/2025

31/10/2025

Higher rates of depression and bipolar disorder, but there may be another way.

30/10/2025

Unexplained anxiety, mood swings, poor stress tolerance or brain fog are often put down to emotional lability, but there can be (and usually is) a biochemical reason.

The Kryptopyrrole urine test checks for elevated pyrroles, these are compounds that can drain vitamin B6 and zinc. When these are out of balance, it can negatively affect mood, emotions, mental health and even digestion.

We offer a simple urine test that can reveal whether a pyrrole imbalance is part of your health puzzle, giving you a clear, targeted path forward.

Kryptopyrrole is a name given to a pyrrole-zinc-vitamin B6 complex that can be excreted in the urine of affected individuals. Kryptopyrroluria can result in zinc and vitamin B6 deficiency and this leads to complex mental health issues and has been indicated in eating disorders, addictions, depression and anxiety.

A high incidence of increased levels of kryptopyrroles have been demonstrated in:

- Autism spectrum conditions
- AD(H)D
- Bipolar disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Alcoholism
- Depression
- Anxiety

This test requires one urine sample; mid-stream.