I love this idea, I’m a Functional Nutritionist and this fits in so well with my own personal philosophy.
I’m excited to explore Sofi and potentially help my clients with it.
Good luck with your venture!
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Hi @sarah,
So nice to see you here and thanks for joining! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it here with lots of likeminded people 
Is a functional nutritionist different from a ‘normal’ nutritionist? Or is it actually always ‘functional nutritionist’? But people leave the functional out?
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It’s amazing to have you here with us on this journey @sarah. Always love to add the perspective of nutritionists to sofi as so much what we are doing is delivering “functional” nutrient. I just uploaded a paper that made an impact on my own thinking with sofi which if you haven’t seen you may find of interest … it is on the posting “On People and Plants”. Welcome on board. KM
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Thank you so much!
I think a Functional Nutritionist IS different to a Nutritionist.
We specifically focus on the effect that food (and sleep and lifestyle!) may have on our bodies. We are curious about physiology and not just about what we might put in our body.
I should also mention that my journey to Functional Nutrition started because of my Children’s (and ultimately mine) health battles.
I am exhausted and have very poor quality sleep. So this is definitely a case of healing the healer.
I am excited to see how it might help me first and foremost, and later my clients!
Best wishes
Sarah
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@Sarah : do you work in this field and help people improve their lifestyles? If you do, what are the main issues your clients are facing and areas that you can help? Do you work remote?
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Hi yes I do work remotely, I have clients all round the world. People come to me from all age groups and a variety of conditions…autoimmunity is up there (Crohns, Fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s, Coeliacs disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis etc), skin rashes, digestive issues, eczema, psoriasis, depression, hyperactivity in kids, CMPA, fertility issues…
I can help all of these conditions through guiding my clients through diet Md lifestyle choices.
Sleep of course plays a very important part which is why I am here!!!
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So glad you are here with us on this journey @sarah and can’t wait to see which plants have the most beneficent effect for you xx 
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Thanks, I’m really looking forward to trying the S2!!!
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This is something I am very interested in as having RA and very recently developing psoriasis I read a lot of diet advice but as always it’s very individual and one diet doesn’t fit all.
My diet is quite healthy and I don’t eat meat and the most common advice for RA is to avoid all varieties od Nightshade . What would your top recommendation be Sarah ?.
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Also adding @pamelaspence into this @dannytobin68 in case she has some views as well that may be helpful
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Thanks @Kaveh Medical herbalists like me also treat these conditions both by looking at diet and also lifestyle and prescribing herbs and supplements to treat our patients.
The important thing for me is to look for patterns in the body and treat the underlying cause - and I’m sure it will be the same for @sarah
So @dannytobin68 with your situation i can immediately see that your pattern of RA and psoriasis is one of the immune system - it is overacting, if you like, in an unhelpful way. Also with those conditions there is an inflammatory pattern and a hot pattern going on.
So in terms of diet I would generally be recommending trying to take out very acidic foods as a first step and treating with herbs and then if we didn’t see enough of a result I might move to a low histamine diet and change your herbs if needs be.
Of course this is very general information and each patient needs to be treated as an individual, but as an idea that would be my approach - and likely similar to many of my medical herbalist colleagues.
Interested to know whether you filled out the constitutional type questionnaire on here and whethere a lot of the ‘hot’ traits were familiar to you. As a simple rule for you avoiding heating foods (spicey fried, high acid) would be a helpful thing to do. It won’t sort out your RA and psoriasis but it will stop you adding more fuel to the fire, as it were!
Hope that is helpful,
Pamela 
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Thank you Pamela that’s very helpful 3 years ago I was on very strong biological therapies that lower the immune system, but my body rejected 3 different biological drugs so I said enough. Since then I tried going on a vegan diet for about 18 months and my RA really improved all my markers came right down but I lost a load of weight and to be honest the food was not the best. I then decided to try fish and that was so much better, so my diet is very Mediterranean without the beach 
, I really miss the 
, 
I eat a load of salad and vegetables and wondered if tomato or anything else really should be avoided that was about it really, I am still subject to the occasional flare up but overall I am so much better.
Thank you so much for your reply 
.
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Hello @dannytobin68,
Glad you found that helpful. Well done for taking charge of your diet - many peole are unwilling or unable to make the changes that can really help.
Sounds like you have a very healthy diet! I would say that the vegan diet does not suit everyone - of course there is always a moral argument to be vegan, but not everyone thrives on it so that’s great if fish is suiting you.
I do find that tomatoes can cause an issue with both psoriasis and RA unfortunately. Now, there is a big difference between eating a couple of fresh tomatoes and having a concentrated tomato product- like soup for instance.
If you imagine that your body can process a certain amount of acid in a day, the trick is to keep your intake below that level. And if you are having a flare up of either psoriasis or RA to try to exclude acidic foods if you can. Sometimes it can make a significant difference.
Top culprits are tomatoes (the more concentrated the more acidic), oranges (again one slice of orange is a lot different to a glass of concentrated juice), any kind of pork or cured meat, fried food, spicey food, shellfish, vinegar (except apple cider vinegar), alcohol, caffeine, hard and mature cheeses.
It’s not about cutting them out, but cutting them down. So if you know you will have a tomato based dish for dinner, don’t have orange juice that day etc.
Also - nettle is a wonderful herb for getting uric acid safely out of the body and has no contraindications- so maybe a couole of cups of nettle tea each day will help too?
Let me know if you see any difference!
Pamela
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That’s wonderful Pamela thank you very much .
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You’re so welcome.
Hope it helps!
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Wow from someone who’s suffers from psoriasis (alongside a few other things) that’s quite insightful thankyou @pamelaspence for your knowledge 
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Very interesting! I’d love to hear more about how you work @pamelaspence - I have a young lady client at the moment with psoriasis and in functional nutrition we treat it slightly differently - we generally recommend removing inflammatory foods and oils, ie refined sugars, dairy and Gluten and seed / hydrogenated oils for a number of reasons… in order to calm the inflammatory response. As you say everyone is different and I don’t really apply a protocol but we would consider these to be ‘non negotiables’ 
it’s all about diet choices and lifestyle and eating whole foods.
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Sure thing! Well while all those steps certainly make perfect sense, in clinical practice I find they are not always necessary (likely because medical herbalists are also medicating the condition along with dietary and lifestyle changes). But for me the key thing is that limiting your diet in those ways is HARD. And many people feel overwhelmed by it and give up. In which case they won’t ever benefit from what i can offer. Plus if you feel pretty rubbish to begin with, tough changes can be even more difficult to face.
So over the years I have learned to go slowly, with the minimum of difficult dietary restrictions and see how much each patient actually needs. If we are not getting the results we want, then I would move onto removing more of the groups you mention. By then the patient is likely feeling at least a bit better and more able to tackle it. But in truth, many just don’t need to go that far - which makes life a whole lot easier!
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Thst certainly makes sense people being people ,if I may Pamela could you recommend any products that would be helpful when you have a flare up and the thought of showering with even the best shower gels ( I use Sanex ) makes my skin so itchy
Thanks .
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Hmmm tricky question @dannytobin68 because so much is available and everyone is different.
I know some patients like to shower regularly and that hot water can sometimes bring relief but i would caution about showering too frequeny as it can strip the skin of oils and aggravate more.
It’s important to avoid any soaps or gels with any harsh additives or perfumes. Look for brands with organic, 100% natural ingredients or even handmade soap bars without perfumes. Sorry - can’t think of any specific brands!
Make sure you keep skin moisturised and again the less additives the better - you can try pure coconut oil or an oil high is anti-inflammatory vitamin e. Even organic sunflower oil can work well (although that is in short supply right now).
Hope that’s helpful - sorry if it’s not very specific!
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