296 318
HEALTH&FITNESS
296
May15
Balancing Act
By Verne Maree
Brit LISA McCONNELL is one of three highly qualified holistic health
practitioners at
Balanced Living
. This “centre of wellness” offers
services ranging from health consultations, weight loss and detox
programmes to yoga, meditation and functional sports nutrition –
even a health food outlet, called The Living Café.
What attracted you and your
colleagues to this field?
Our founder, Dana Heather, and I
came from corporate backgrounds,
whereas Menka Gupta is a medical
doctor who has adopted a more
holistic approach. Each of us
knows from personal experience
that juggling long working hours,
studying and family can lead to your
own health being compromised.
Happily, we three are living proof
that it’s possible to turn things
around and to achieve vibrant health
– and our aim is to help others do
the same.
How would you describe your
approach to health?
Very client-centred, very personalised. It’s
based on Functional Medicine, a holistic
yet scientifically grounded approach to
health and wellbeing. As we’re trained to
understand how nutrients and other food
components influence the functions of the
body, protect against disease and restore
health, we’re able to work with any health
condition.
What would a nutritional
consultation involve?
It would start with a thorough investigation
of your health history, as well as family
Balanced Living
779 Bukit Timah Road
6762 8029 |
balancedlivingasia.comhistory. Funnily, many people find this
part tricky: they forget that they were
often sick as a child and were given
a lot of antibiotics; or they have to ask
relatives whether they had a natural
birth, and if they were breast-fed.
We’re also aware that traumatic
events can trigger life-long stress in both
mind and body. In fact, when looking
for triggers we take into consideration
your whole environment, your spirituality,
family and social connections and more.
Once you’ve identified a source
of nutritional imbalance, say, how
do you advise a client?
We work with the client to rebalance his
or her diet, and possibly recommend
supplements for further support. That
said, treatment is highly individualised,
so no two patients are likely to receive
the same advice.
If it appears from your history that
your hormones are being disrupted
by xenoestrogens – and this is far
more common than one might think –
you might benefit from detoxification,
perhaps through fasting.
For someone with post-traumatic
stress disorder, we could offer referral
for counselling; we could suggest yoga
or meditation therapy; and we’d also
want to support the adrenal glands, for
example with a mixture of B vitamins and
adaptogenic herbs.
Is it true that some people find it
easier than others to change their
diet?
Being client-centred means we work on
the basis of what you are currently able
and willing to do for your own and your
family’s health. For example, if you’ve
only recently arrived in Singapore and
are still settling in, we’ll understand that
you may not yet be prepared to make
huge changes to your diet or the family
routine. But even small changes can do
a lot of good.
Sebastian Kaulitzki | Dreamstime.com
It is more
important to
know what
patient has the
disease than
what disease
the patient has.
– Sir William
Osler