What I Actually Use in Naturopathic Practice: Herbs, Nutrients & Lifestyle Medicine

Top Natural Medicines I Use as a Qualified Naturopath to Restore Balance.

If you're new to naturopathy, you might be curious or uncertain about what It actually involves. Perhaps you've heard about herbal tonics or wondered if it's just expensive supplements.

Let me walk you through the different medicines I use in practice. Each one has its place, and what I recommend and prescribe depends entirely on your body's needs and your health goals. Some require herbal support, while others thrive with targeted nutrients. Many benefit from both, alongside foundational diet and lifestyle shifts.

1. Food as Medicine

The Most Foundational and Powerful Long-Term Intervention

Every meal communicates with your body influencing your hormonal, immune, digestive, and nervous systems. Food shapes inflammation, metabolism, skin barrier function, and even how well you cope with stress.

Here's what surprises my clients most: It's not about eating perfectly. It's about eating for YOUR body's needs.

Clinically Supportive Foods I Often Prescribe

• Fatty Fish & Plant-Based Omega-3s (chia, hemp, flax, algae oil)

• Pumpkin Seeds (zinc-rich for acne & hormone support)

• Sweet Potato + Colourful Veg (antioxidants + vitamin A precursors)

• Fermented Foods (microbiome diversity)

• Protein-Rich Foods (blood sugar stability + tissue repair)

• Healthy Fats (olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds)

  
  

I help clients build simple, sustainable meal prep routines that make eating well realistic not restrictive.

2. Nutrients as Medicine

Precision nutrition based on your unique biochemistry.

Here's what most people don't realise: nutrients aren't just about preventing deficiency. They are active medicines that drive critical processes in your body daily.

Nutrients play therapeutic roles in hormone production, detoxification, cell repair, immune function, and energy pathways. When we're dealing with skin conditions, hormonal imbalances, or gut dysfunction, targeted nutritional therapy can be genuinely transformative.

How I Use Nutrients Clinically

For Skin Health: Zinc aids wound healing and manages acne inflammation. Vitamin A regulates skin cell turnover, while omega-3s calm systemic inflammation that appears on your face. When your skin breaks out, it's often signaling deeper nutrient imbalances. Correcting these can shift everything.

For Hormonal Balance: B vitamins, especially methylated B6 and B12, support estrogen metabolism and progesterone production. Magnesium helps with period pain and PMS, while vitamin D is crucial for ovulation and fertility. Your hormones rely on nutrients; when the raw materials are missing, your cycle feels the impact.

For Gut Healing: L-glutamine repairs the intestinal lining, while zinc carnosine supports gut barrier integrity. Specific probiotics enhance microbiome diversity. A leaky gut can drive skin inflammation and hormone disruption. Healing it from the inside out changes the whole picture.

For Detoxification: Your liver needs B vitamins, antioxidants like NAC and glutathione precursors, and minerals like selenium to clear hormones, process toxins, and keep your elimination pathways flowing. When detox is sluggish, hormones recirculate, and skin suffers.

What Makes Practitioner-Prescribed Nutrients Different?

The supplements I prescribe aren't what you'll find at the supermarket.

They are practitioner-only, therapeutic-grade formulations with:

• Clinically effective doses

• Bioavailable forms your body can absorb and use (like methylated B vitamins for those with MTHFR variations)

• Meet high quality testing and purity standards

  
  

I prescribe based on your symptoms, pathology results, health history, and your unique health journey.This isn't guesswork; it's evidence based medicine tailored to your unique biochemistry.

The Results I See Clinically

When we correct underlying nutrient deficiencies and provide therapeutic support, clients often experience:

• Clearer, calmer skin

• More regular, pain-free periods

• Improved energy and mood stability

• Better digestion and reduced bloating

• Stronger stress resilience

• Enhanced overall vitality

  
  

Nutrients are foundational medicine. When your body has what it needs to function optimally, everything else becomes possible.

3. Herbal Medicine

Plant-Based Therapeutics with Tradition + Modern Evidence

Herbal formulations are personalised to your presentation, constitution, medical history, and health goals. Practitioner-grade herbal medicines are potent, standardised to therapeutic constituents, and formulated with safety in mind.

How Herbal Medicine Works in Practice

• Adaptogens restore the stress response and improve resilience.

• Nervines support the nervous system, sleep, and emotional regulation.

• Liver Herbs enhance detoxification and hormone metabolism.

• Anti-Inflammatory Herbs support skin clarity and calm inflammation.

• Digestive Herbs regulate motility, soothe the gut, and support microbiome health.

  
  

Examples include Withania, Schisandra, Rhodiola, Calendula, Burdock, St Mary's Thistle, Lemon Balm, and Gotu Kola.

4. Lifestyle Medicine

Daily Habits That Regulate Your Nervous System, Hormones, and Skin Healing Cycle

Lifestyle medicine is where long-term change integrates into daily life. Even the best nutrients or herbs cannot over-ride a dysregulated nervous system, chronic stress, poor sleep, or constant overstimulation.

Lifestyle Practices I Prescribe

• Nervous System Regulation: Breathing exercises, Legs up wall, grounding, meditation, intentional-rest, somatic work.

• Sleep Optimisation: Circadian rhythm support, sleep hygiene, stress regulation.

• Movement That Nourishes: Walking, strength training, yoga, mobility, chosen for your body's needs.

• Stress & Emotional Load Support: Journaling, nervous system tools, boundaries, restorative practices.

• Sunlight & Nature Exposure: Regulates hormones, circadian rhythm, mood, and inflammation.

  
  

These practices create the physiological environment that allows skin, hormones, and digestion to truly heal.

The Interconnectedness of Healing

Healing isn't linear, and it's rarely about just one thing. Your skin, hormones, and gut are all connected and need support in different ways.

Food is your everyday medicine. It's what you return to three times a day (or more), setting the stage for everything else.

Nutrients (supplement) give your body the therapeutic boost it needs, providing targeted support to correct deficiencies, calm inflammation, and drive the healing processes that food alone can't always deliver at clinical levels.

Herbal medicine works with your body's deeper patterns. It fine-tunes, regulates hormones, supports your liver's detox pathways, and calms an overactive stress response and so many more therapeutic actions.

Lifestyle is the foundation beneath it all. You can take the best herbs and supplements in the world, but if you're chronically stressed, not sleeping, or running on empty, your body won't have the capacity to heal.

When we weave these four medicines together, we create something powerful: deep, sustainable healing. Not just a reduction in symptoms, but a genuine transformation in how your body feels and functions.

This is the work that lasts. This is how we get you back to feeling like yourself again.

How Is This Different From What You've Already Tried?

You've probably tried supplements before, but were they practitioner-grade, dosed correctly, and chosen for your specific biochemistry? Generic supplements from the chemist often aren't therapeutic strength.

You've probably changed your diet before, but was it sustainable? Were you told what to eat for your body, or were you following a generic "clean eating" protocol that left you stressed and restricted?

You've probably tried to "manage stress" before, but did anyone teach you how to actually regulate your nervous system? How we can manage stress? Or were you just told to "relax more" while nothing in your life actually changed?

This approach works because its personalised, evidence-informed, and addresses all four foundations, not just one piece of the puzzle.

The Heart of Naturopathic Care

I believe in treating the root cause. Supporting the whole person.

Restoring balance from within using the medicines your body understands.

Ready to Start Your Wellness Journey?

If you're tired of treating symptoms without getting to the root cause, and if you're ready for an approach that's personalised, evidence-informed, and actually sustainable, I'd love to support you.

Book an initial naturopathic consultation to get a comprehensive health assessment and personalised treatment plan using food, herbs, nutrients, and lifestyle medicine tailored to your body's unique needs.

Book Here

Not sure where to start? Explore my signature areas of support to learn how I work with hormonal health, skin concerns, and gut wellness (including what to expect in consultations, treatment approaches, and specialised testing options).

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