For a brief rundown on the presentations delivered by Meleni Aldridge and Rob Verkerk PhD at Vitality Expo 2018 in Dublin read on!

There'll be more detail coming as we roll out educational webinars in the coming months. Practitioners please stay tuned to our closed Facebook group - ANH International Practitioner Support.

“The Natural Thyroid Fix”

Presented by Meleni Aldridge BSc (Nut Med), Dip cPNI, Cert LTFHE, mIFM, mACN, mBANT, CNHC Reg

Meleni used her own inspiring journey from the depths of autoimmune thyroid disease, resulting in a total thyroidectomy over 30 years ago, and her return to vibrant health as a backdrop to her presentation, entitled The Natural Thyroid Fix. Her story touched many in the packed audience in Dublin who were challenged by their own personal thyroid journeys, or those of family and friends.

Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic and chronic diseases dominate headlines globally, but thyroid dysfunction, whilst less often referenced, is no less of an epidemic. Meleni’s background in clinical psychoneuroimmunology brought a fresh perspective to why the thyroid is so important from an evolutionary perspective – and why its role as the ‘permissive organ’ binds the thyroid and the immune system in an infinite and delicate synergistic dance through life.

Chronic low-grade inflammation, poor dietary and lifestyle choices, early life trauma and prolonged stress are all toxic to the thyroid gland, but that list is not exclusive. Ignore your body’s warning systems and your risk of developing an autoimmune disease will rise dramatically. However, as Meleni’s journey demonstrates, it is possible to come back from thyroid dysfunction and autoimmune disease. Even when you no longer have a thyroid. However, healing lies in multiple evolutionary pathways, not drug therapy with a synthetic analogue of only 1 out of 5 thyroid hormones.

Meleni has been invited by the Irish Institute for Nutrition and Health to host a webinar next month taking a deeper dive into pathways and protocols. We’ll post details as soon as we have them.

“Can a new language create health for you, your family and society?”

Presented by Robert Verkerk BSc MSc DIC PhD FACN

Doctors are trained to treat symptoms of disease. They talk in their unique form of techno-babble that often alienates their patients. What’s more, ‘a pill for an ill’ healthcare is failing us as preventable, chronic, autoimmune and mental health illnesses spiral out of control. Rob Verkerk introduced ANH's revolutionary blueprint for health system sustainability that will be launched later this month in the UK - and then further afield. It's built on the foundation of health creation - not disease management - and focuses on creating a common language and way of assessing the effects of all of our health choices, regardless of their nature. It involves looking at the human being through an ecological lens but also involves empowering the individual to make choices and decisions that support sustainability. Among the goals, using this participatory and collaborative approach, is bringing balance across 12 different domains of health and resilience and being aware of the 10 hallmarks of sustainable health systems.

“The 8-step vitality plan that targets mitochondria and oxidative stress”

Presented by Robert Verkerk BSc MSc DIC PhD FACN

Fatigue is rampant in modern society – even among those eating so-called healthy diets. For many people, this low energy state can be the result of their body’s powerhouses, the mitochondria, just not working at their real potential. That means working with specific ways of eating and moving, perhaps with a big help from specific supplements, to build the number and volume of mitochondria in our muscle cells, as well as improve their function, even when our body’s are under stress. Alongside this process, it’s also very important to ensure that you don’t expose yourself to oxidative stress, where you overpower your body’s natural capacity to quench and repair damage done by radical oxygen species – or free radicals. There is no one food, supplement or diet that can do this. Getting the combination and timing right is key. It's also about balancing all your inputs and building in the right forms and amounts of physical activity, relaxation and sleep. The talk provided some of the latest insights into ways of optimising mitochondrial health.

Low carb high fat - the evolutionary eating plan for vital health

Presented by Robert Verkerk BSc MSc DIC PhD FACN

Rob opened by getting stuck into some of the recent criticism of low carb high fat diets, nearly all stemming from a particularly suspect paper published in Lancet Public Health. He went on to explain some of the confusion that stems from the many different approaches and definitions. He explained the underlying physiology and showed how modern diets, lifestyles, and food production methods have led billions the world over to become overly dependent on ultra-processed carbohydrates - whether wholegrain or in highly refined forms. The systems that control appetite regulation as well as energy use and storage have got seriously messed up, making a mockery of government edicts to count and cut down calories. Reducing carbs benefits most people, but particularly when the right forms and combinations of carbs, fats, fibre, protein and micronutrients are consumed - in the right amounts, at the right times! Rob offered a range of hacks and discussed the equipment that can help people to achieve what he called ‘cyclic nutritional ketosis’. It’s all part and parcel of any healthy approach to diet and lifestyle and it’s about achieving improved levels of metabolic flexibility and resilience by tapping into the incredible systems gifted to us through our evolution.