About me
Hi, I’m Natalya. A Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Registered Naturopath, Primal Health Coach and functional test provider based in the UK.
In my spare time, I like to get out in nature, hiking in the forests or mountains. I love adventures of any kind but I also like the simple things. Real food, spending time with friends and family, or being out with my dog.
Health optimisation and nutrition became a passion over a decade ago when I felt the positive effects of diet, sleep and light exposure. However, that knowledge could only get me so far.
Up until my mid-thirties, I worked in the software industry as a UX lead and web designer, but found myself burnt out and in need of a career change.
I retrained at The College of Naturopathic Medicine, inspired by a more holistic approach to health and a desire to show others that there is another way. One that involves addressing the many root causes and making long-lasting changes to health.
My Health Story
Despite growing up on a farm, eczema and allergies have been a big part of my life since childhood. The hives, hayfever, skin rashes and endless itching plagued me for the next few decades and I truly felt like I had tried everything that conventional medicine had to offer.
Alongside skin problems, my gut was a mess and I experienced severe food sensitivities. Bloating, cramping and constipation became the norm. A diagnosis of IBS just added to the frustration and led me down the alternative health rabbit hole. After trying many different restrictive diets, I found digestive relief from eating adequate animal protein, raw dairy and easy-to-digest fruits and veggies.
Sadly, the diet didn’t address the root of my issues or fix my hormone imbalances, which developed a few years earlier while travelling in Africa. A cocktail of anti-malarial medication, soy-based protein bars and food reheated in plastics created the perfect storm for my already overburdened liver.
My skin would still flare if I deviated away from those safe foods and I learnt that I had much work to do.
Two years of mould exposure saw my health take a nosedive. I attended nutrition college at the time, but the topic was barely mentioned. This led to hundreds of hours of research, summit attendance and webinars on mycotoxins and their impact on hormones, our immune system and their role in mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) which leads to the release of histamine and many other inflammatory chemicals in the body.
Whilst my husband was much less affected by mould, my genetic susceptibility (an inability to detox mycotoxins due to the HLA DR/DQ genes shared by ~25% of the population) led to MCAS, histamine intolerance, rashes, fungal infections, pre-diabetes (which disappeared within 6 weeks of getting away from the mould), hypoglycemia, night sweats, frequent urination, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), estrogen dominance, PMDD, low progesterone, anxiety, brain fog, iron deficiency, hair loss and fatigue.
Going through this experience has given me a deep understanding of those who are trying to recover from mould illness, from the range of weird and ‘unexplained’ symptoms to needing a more tailored approach that embraces whole body health.
