One Man's Quest for Better Health
In the early 1990’s there was a classic ad aired on Irish TV that featured a skeleton man proclaiming the virtues of drinking cow’s milk for the calcium benefit for our bones. Let’s jump in the time machine and check this one out for a sec…
I’ve just started back into Year 3 of nutritional science and my first module is the Nervous system. Every system I study just blows me away with it’s complexity and how it functions and the nervous system is no different. It is amazing what is going on inside the billions of nerve cells (called neurons) inside our brains and bodies every millisecond of the day. There is no computer or AI in the world that can even come close to performing at the same level as the human nervous system.
Continue reading “The Magic of the Nervous System”
If you live in Dublin, you should take part in this study: https://genofit.ie/
This aims to be one of the largest studies ever conducted in Ireland and is examining the role of genetics, lifestyle factors and fitness in our overall health. Their initial goal is to get 40,000 people to take part and based on the availability in their clinics (or lack thereof), I think they are not far off their target. 40,000 people is not a limit, the more the better.
I have never seen or taken part in a study that was as well designed and executed as this one. After discussing this study with my nutrition classmates a few weekends ago, I signed up at genofit.ie and booked a slot.
Continue reading “Genofit Research Study”
I first started studying nutrition and health coaching back in 2016 when I got an unexpected redundancy from a company and found myself with a few months time out from the normal 9-5 grind. I signed up to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN) to qualify as a health coach (a relatively unheard of term back then). I completed that course and really enjoyed it but did not feel in anyway ready to start taking on coaching clients.
My interest in the area of nutrition, performance and self improvement continued to grow and in 2018 I decided to undertake a Diploma in Nutritional Science to qualify as a nutritionist from the Irish Institute of Nutrition and Health (IINH). Why they all call themselves institutes I do not know but anyway…
I am in the middle of Year 2 currently and this weekend just past we were focused on Cardiovascular health, a topic that is very dear to my heart (boom boom!) with my own dads history in mind. We studied the entire anatomy and physiology of the heart and cardiovascular system and the dysfunctions and disorders that can arise in this area and how to treat clients with these issues.
Now to the muddy waters…
Continue reading “The Muddy Waters of Nutrition”
I just finished my lecture weekends on the Immune system. I thought Digestion was complicated (Its Just One Bite of Food). I thought Biochemistry was mind-blowing. I was amazed at the Liver and all the things it does for us.
However, the immune system is on another level.
Let me give you an example. We have 2 types of immunity in our bodies.
We have “Innate” immunity which we are all born with and provides us with a universal defense mechanism against infection and invading pathogens (the bad guys – viruses, bad bacteria, toxins, parasites). It works in a non-specific way in that it looks for and kills anything that looks even remotely suspect floating around inside of us. This is a super important defense mechanism as when we are born this is the ONLY defense we have for the first 4-7 days of life. Incredible right?
After 4-7 days, a second type of immunity is born.
There are so many things going on in these miracle bodies of ours even just to process one bite of food, that it amazes me how we are still alive at all! As well as so many processes going on in parallel, there are so many things that can and do go wrong in this digestion process, it’s no wonder the pharma companies are making a fortune from all our foodborne diseases. Taking a pill for every ill is far easier for most people than doing the hard yards of working out what it is that you are doing or eating that is not serving you well. Well, that’s where Nutritional Therapy comes in.
In July of 2016, I got redundancy from a software job I was working at the time. This was the first time, in my 17 years working that I have actually been made redundant from a job. I have been in plenty of companies where they had rounds upon rounds of redundancies but it just never involved me. So anyway, it was my turn so off I went with a miserable severance and a big smile on my face. I actually liked the job so it was a pity but it was due to circumstances beyond my control and the redundancies were wide and deep. So in the end, I decided I would deliberately take 4 months off. The job market was and still is good here in Dublin so I wasn’t worried about picking up another job but I was worried about finding a good job.
Anyway, long story short, this was when I decided to run my first marathon and when I started into a Diploma in Health and Nutrition Coaching from IIN.
