This week I had the opportunity to speak with a friend, functional nutritionist, and resilient mother who found purpose in her pain after overcoming her daughter’s sudden neurological condition and leaning into the power of nutritional therapy.

We had a beautiful and informative conversation about using nutrition and lifestyle as treatment tools, all things perimenopause, ADHD in women later in life, navigating hormones, and everything in-between. Introducing Christine MacCarroll!

Christine is a Functional Nutritionist and Certified Brain Health Professional encouraging women to take control of their health by leaning into the power of functional nutrition. After discovering that her then 2-year-old daughter had suddenly developed verbal apraxia, a neurological condition that causes the inability to speak, she found herself thrust into the world of functional medicine in an attempt to take control back and help heal her child.

Following what felt like a never-ending battle with the one-size-fits-all model of modern healthcare, Christine leaned into the power of functional nutrition and has now helped hundreds of women recover their mood, energy, mojo, autoimmune diseases, period problems, brain fog and ADHD symptoms. To kickstart our conversation I wanted Christine to share more about why functional nutrition is a useful tool, and what it means to utilize it for treatment.

She notes that rather than being a quick-fix to relieve symptoms, functional medicine and nutrition is more focused on addressing the root causes of health issues and aims at nourishing the body.

"our own bodies want to be healed. if we give them what they need, they can do the repair work. We just have to know what's happening so that they can have what they need."

Now as women over 40, many of us experience a wide variety of symptoms due to moving through perimenopause, including brain fog, fatigue, energy loss, and libido changes. Many of us also experience neurobehavioral conditions such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD, and when we have all of these conditions cycling through us at the same time, it can feel impossible to manage.

Christine highlights that while our body will move through hormonal changes and imbalances, we have the power to ease our symptoms by giving back to our body in the right ways. Some key nutritional tips that we can implement ASAP:

• Prioritize the three P’s — protein, produce, and probiotics. The nutrients that come from these areas help us to combat common issues that come with aging such as metabolism, gut health, muscle loss, and energy.
  

• Be mindful of your blood sugar and incorporate a high protein breakfast into your daily routine. As we age our bodies can become more insulin resistant, meaning that our blood sugar is more likely to be out of wack, so it’s important to be mindful about how much sugar we’re eating. When we incorporate protein at the start of the day we are more likely to curb blood sugar spikes and later in the day cravings.
  

• Address any deficiencies like iron and zinc, and evaluate how your thyroid is functioning. When we ensure that we are hitting our vitamin needs and that our thyroid is functioning properly, we are likely to see many symptoms subside.

If we begin to nourish our mind, body and spirit, we can empower true change and well-being.

Connect with Christine!

Website: Christine MacCarroll

Instagram: @christine.maccarroll

Podcast: The Bitch Fix

Take care of yourselves and therefore each other!

xo, brooke jean