Blog - Specialist Nutrition Rehab

Blog

27 Jan 2020

Vegan Diets, The Game Changers Movie and Catastrophic Injuries

  Between Veganuary and people watching The Game Changers movie on Netflix, I’ve had several people ask me recently whether we should be recommending a vegan diet for clients after a catastrophic injury. The short answer to that question is “no” — I don’t think every single client after a catastrophic injury would benefit from […]
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18 Dec 2019

Manage fatigue and motivate clients with….blood sugar monitoring

    If you have clients struggling with fatigue – do they know what their blood sugar levels are? Blood sugar levels can either be checked by requesting the HbA1c blood test (3 month average of blood sugars) from the GP and/or by using a blood sugar monitor at home. The healthy blood sugar range […]
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27 Nov 2019

Irritable Bowel Syndrome…no need to suffer

  Do you have clients who have been struggling with one or more of the following symptoms for at least six months: Abdominal pain or discomfort; Bloating; or Changes in bowel habits — eg. altered bowel frequency or stool form (to what is normal for them)? Gut-related symptoms, such as constipation, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and […]
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23 Oct 2019

Top 10 healthier convenience foods

When people are recovering from a catastrophic injury, they have the highest nutritional needs of virtually any other time in their life.  However, this is often the time when these clients find themselves struggling to prepare healthy food because they are fatigued, have multiple physical challenges around mobility or arm function and/or have impaired executive […]
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25 Sep 2019

Heartburn, indigestion and acid reflux – tips for helping clients

  Do you have clients who are regularly experiencing one or more of the following symptoms? burning sensation or pain in their stomach, chest or throat nausea or vomiting burping bloating a sour or bitter taste in their mouth chronic cough, throat clearing or hiccups difficulty swallowing or feeling like there is a lump in […]
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28 Aug 2019

Do brain injuries require a special diet?

The number one question that I get asked when I tell people what I do is, “What does nutrition have to do with brain injuries?”   That is usually followed closely by the question, “do people with a brain injury need a special diet?” Based on current evidence, almost everyone in the population should be striving […]
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29 Jul 2019

Ketogenic diets for drug-resistant epilepsy

  Do you have any clients with epilepsy who continue to have seizures in spite of taking anti-epileptic medication?  Have you asked the neurologist about trialling them on a ketogenic diet?   What is a ketogenic diet? Ketogenic diets contain very high amounts of fat, adequate amounts of protein, and extremely low amounts of carbohydrates.  […]
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27 Jun 2019

Constipation & laxative use after catastrophic injury

  A LOT of people with brain injuries and spinal cord injuries take laxatives — one…two…or even three laxatives a day, EVERYday for years.  My question is always, why?  If someone needs laxatives every day, that usually means there is another problem going on which needs further investigation.  It’s also worth remembering that some laxatives […]
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31 May 2019

PTSD and weight gain

  Over 80% of people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will go on to become overweight or obese (with the majority becoming obese).1  People with PTSD also have higher rates of developing other physical health problems, including: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, high cholesterol/dyslipidemia, increased risk of blood clots, systemic […]
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25 Apr 2019

Type 2 diabetes after a catastrophic injury

After a spinal cord injury, people are 2.5x more likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared to people who have not experienced a spinal cord injury.1 I was unable to find any similar research on rates of type 2 diabetes after a brain injury or traumatic amputation. However, many of the physical and metabolic changes […]
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