Our interview with women’s health guru, Dr Marilyn Glenville PHD

1.    What inspired you to get into natural healthcare? 
My inspiration into the power and effectiveness of nutrition came about due to a personal problem.  From an early age I was plagued with migraines, which caused me to go to bed in a darkened room, often vomiting and affecting the quality of my life.  Over the years I had been given numerous drugs, been checked for a brain tumour and also referred to a migraine clinic but to no avail.  In my early twenties, I had my first taste of complementary medicine when I went to see an acupuncturist who along with the acupuncture suggested I look at my diet.  This was a revelation to me, to think that I what I was eating and drinking could be affecting my health; there was no connection in my mind about this at the time.   As I cleared the sugar and chemical laden food out of the cupboards I realised that I would go hungry if I did not learn more about selecting and cooking healthier foods.  As the migraines disappeared this inspired me to explore the effects of nutrition and diet even more.

2.    What are the benefits of using natural products or methods of treatment?
The major benefit of the natural approach is to identify and treat the cause of a problem rather than just the symptoms.  Imagine your health as a tree, with various symptoms attached to different branches. For example, you may suffer from a lack of energy, mood swings, headaches, weight gain, bloating, period problems, skin disorders and more. In theory, each of these ‘symptoms’ could be treated separately, as they are in conventional medicine. For example, you could be given painkillers to treat your headaches, the Pill to regulate your cycle, antibiotics for skin problems, and perhaps even antidepressants to deal with the emotional factors. You can be pumped up with all sorts of drugs, but once they are stopped, the problem will return. The reason for this is that most of conventional medicine is aimed at treating symptoms. The root cause is not addressed; the underlying problem remains, no matter how good medication makes you feel in the short-term. Quite apart from that, many drugs have unacceptable side-effects, and in an attempt to feel better in the short-term you may well be causing long-term damage to your overall health.

Beneath your symptom tree are the roots which feed and nourish the plant. The nourishment the tree gets determines how well the leaves on the branches grow and how it blossoms. It’s clear that in order to affect the symptoms that appear on your branches, you need to do some work on the roots. That’s the basis of nutritional medicine, which aims to get to the root cause – literally – of any health condition.

3.    What obstacles have you encountered while promoting the use of natural healthcare?
I have been lucky in that I personally know and work with some very wonderful caring doctors who are very open minded about the use of natural healthcare.  But I have received comments from medical doctors who are blinkered in their approach even though there is a large amount of evidence for the benefits of nutrition in the medical literature.  

Most doctors will only get a few hours of nutrition lectures in over six years of training, so you probably won't find any nutritional recommendations as part of your doctor’s treatment plan.. But nutrition is crucial. Everything that you eat can be turned into the fuel that your body uses to produce hormones, enzymes, blood, bone – in fact, every single cell in your body, and all the processes that take place, are determined by what goes into your mouth.

4.    How does your work complement and contrast with traditional medicine?
Using nutrition as a form of treatment works quite differently from conventional medicine. The first aim is to work on the symptoms by addressing the underlying cause of the problem. The next stage – and here’s the big difference – is to work on prevention.   

The aim of natural medicine is not just to suppress the symptoms, as is often the case in conventional medicine. Symptoms are not the cause of the disease. A good way to understand this premise is the story of the hardworking doctors who are busy mopping up a floor that is quickly flooding. Water spills from the sink, where both taps are on full and the plug is in place. The doctors frantically treat the never-ending ‘symptom’ (the wet floor), while failing to address the cause. The nutritional approach would be to remove the plug and turn off the taps. Then the business of mopping up the water can begin. This process can take time, but the results are permanent.
    
But the nutritional approach can be used alongside traditional medicine. I will talking about the menopause and beyond at the Vitality Show this year.  This is a situation where women can combine talking HRT and nutritional medicine together if they choose.  But they can also decide that this is a natural stage in their lives and they want to feel well, having lots of energy and look after themselves without taking drugs. 

5.    What three skills have helped you progress to where you are now?
1.    Really listening to what my patients want and are saying to me.
2.    Being flexible and open to new ideas and not being fixed in a viewpoint that is out of date and where the latest science has moved on.  
3.    Having integrity so that women trust what I am saying and that my aim is always to offer what is best for them.  It may mean explaining to a woman that in her situation the nutritional approach is not enough and she does need to seek help either to have IVF treatment for example or surgery for fibroids.  

6.    What is the most common concern you hear from women now?
The biggest concern I have heard from women is about their waistlines, even with younger women with the ‘muffin top’ over the top of the jeans.  That is why I ended up writing the book ‘Fat around the Middle’ in response to the questions from women coming to the clinic.  Even women of normal weight can have this fat around the middle.  Statistics from the Department of Health in 2005 have shown that Britons now have the fattest stomachs in history.  And figures published in 2004 looking at women, showed that between 1951 and 2005, women’s waists have increased by 6.5in.

But compare the other changes in height, bust and hips:

Source:  National Sizing Survey

So women have become generally taller and larger but there is an enormous difference between the 1.5in gain in height, bust and hips and the 6.5in gained on the waist.   There is no doubt that women have lost the traditional hourglass figure (synonymous with a pear shape) and women have become more apple shaped but this carries significant health risks.   

7.  And what solution or advice would you offer them?
Take the time when they come to the Vitality Show to hear my Fat around the Middle talk to understand why the weight goes around the middle of the body and how to get rid of it for good.

8.  What can women do on a regular basis to maintain good health?
To eat well 80% of the time, there will always be the odd blips like birthdays and weddings but it is what you do everyday that makes the difference.

Also take a good multivitamin and mineral on a regular basis and add in a separate fish oil supplement.  The well balanced diet is a myth and it is not easy nowadays to get everything we need from our food.  The food itself is lacking in minerals compared to years ago and our soil is now depleted in vital nutrients from overfarming and the use of pesticides.  So as an insurance policy and to help you maintain good health it is better to take a few supplements on a daily basis. For good brands of supplements I use in the clinic go to www.naturalhealthpractice.com.
   
9. What is your prediction for the next big thing in women’s natural healthcare?
More scientific nutritional testing available to women so that the emphasis can be on prevention.

If a woman finds that she is  deficient in certain nutrients for example then she  can correct this, if a woman finds out that her bone density is not as good as it should she can work on this even before she gets to the menopause.    I will be bringing the BMI and body fat machine with me from the clinic to the Vitality Show together with the bone scanning ultrasound machine so that women can test to find out where they stand.

The importance of Vitamin D
Another good example for testing is vitamin D.  I have been routinely testing for vitamin D in my clinic and I am shocked at how wide spread vitamin D deficiencies are in some instances the level is so low that the lab has said it is undetectable.  It is so important for women to have sufficient levels of vitamin D because research has shown that this versatile nutrient plays a key role in keeping in us in good health, both mentally and physically.  For example, it has been found to:

•    be vital for bone health and osteoporosis
•    play a major role in breast  and bowel cancer prevention
•    be important for immune function and particularly helpful in the winter when there is more flu around
•    help with other conditions as diverse as diabetes, heart disease, joint pains and arthritis, dementia, autoimmune diseases, fertility, autism, and allergies
•    help with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).

As well as all of these benefits, it is now thought that having good levels of vitamin D can help slow down the ageing process and when taken in pregnancy and childhood could wipe out 80% of multiple sclerosis cases.  Vitamin D deficiencies have also been implicated in other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and inflammatory bowel disease.  
And if you are trying to get pregnant or having recurrent miscarriages then it is important that your vitamin D level is checked because it is known that having good levels of vitamin D helps the body maintain a pregnancy by effectively switching off the part of the immune system that could reject a baby as only half the DNA is the mother’s.  

Vitamin D is a simple finger prick blood test that can be performed at home.  You are either deficient or you are not and then if you are, you can supplement with vitamin D for three months and then get re-checked to make sure the level is back to normal.  Having a good level of vitamin D is so important to our health that is worth finding out what your level is and correcting it if it is too low.  

Interview by Abigail Challenor

For more information on the natural approach to women’s health visit www.marilynglenville.com