Nutritionist

Are you nutritionally depleted and missing vitamins and minerals?

Do you eat or know how to eat the right food to be strong and healthy?

It’s time to get a professional medical nutritionist to help you with your diet?

What is nutritional medicine?

Clinicians trained in nutritional medicine study physiology, microbiology, and the relationship between food and health, wellbeing or disease.

It is important to remember that most of the diseases in modern society are due to poor diet, leading to the body not operating at its maximum capacity. To be well, you must eat well. In fact, very well indeed. Many people need help from a professional nutritionist in developing diets that will specifically suit their body’s needs.

Unfortunately our education system fails to teach children what is the safest and best diet to eat specifically for that person. What is important in developing a personal diet is to take into account factors such as genetics, medical history, gastrointestinal history and the person’s allergies, which are often unseen or unknown to that individual.

Professional nutritionists are trained to take all these factors into consideration.

Why visit a nutritionist?

Naturopathic dietitians work by the motto of the ancient healer, Hippocrates of ‘Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.

Many people can profoundly benefit from professional help with carefully planning what, when, where, why and how they eat.

Without realising it, people are often eating what is called food product, instead of actual food. While they may be taking in large amounts of carbohydrates, they are often deficient in the vitamins, minerals and amino acids that they need to recover from an illness and to promote wellbeing.

What happens in the first consultation?

A nutritional medicine consultation consists of taking an extensively detailed case history, asking questions about the person’s problem and situation.

We look specifically at what people are eating and what effect it may be having on their body.

Because nutritionists are trained to consider the biochemical effects of food, we are able to tell from symptoms and other tests how a person needs to change their diet.

The consultation may include a physical examination with the taking of pulse, blood pressure and temperature, listening to the chest with a stethoscope, a tongue and eye examination, palpating and percussing different parts of the body, and considering the results of blood, urine and faecal and allergy screening.

What treatments are offered by our Sydney nutritionist?

We advise people, after close scrutiny of their diet, exactly what it is they need to eat, in what amounts and how to prepare those foods.

Prescribing of vitamin, mineral and amino acid supplements is an essential part of the work we do to help people maximise their absorption of the right nutrients that are key to wellbeing.

In cases of poor digestion, we may also prescribe other nutritional supplements and herbs, in order to settle the gastro-intestinal tract, desensitise the person to certain foods and prevent nausea, constipation or diarrohea.

Australian Health & Education Centre director and medical nutritionist Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH, BHSc (right) with cardiologist Dr Kim Williams, MD, former president of the American College of Cardiology.

What conditions can our nutritionist, Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH, BHSc, ND help with?

Because Tracie is qualified in several disciplines, including naturopathy, herbal and nutritional medicine, massage therapy, hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, counselling and sex therapy, she is able to offer help with a wide range of conditions, offering a complete holistic, mind-body solution.

These conditions* include:

Plus many more day-to-day physical and psychological problems, along with helping you in promoting your health to its optimum level.

*Many factors will be important in determining your actual results and no guarantees are made that you will achieve results similar to anyone else’s. Because of the diverse nature of the human body and mind, and the requirement on the part of each individual entering nutrition consultations to carry out any additional recommendations outside the session, including changes to diet and lifestyle, no guarantees can be made of results. Medical conditions are complex and may be subject to a range of ever-changing variables.

What diagnostic tests are used?

• Physical examination
• Candida test
• Urine test
• Faecal matter analysis
• Iridology
• Blood testing
• Behavioural profiling
• Hair mineral analysis
• Allergy testing
• Skin analysis
• Comprehensive dietary analysis

Can I claim for treatments on my private health fund?

You may be able to claim for naturopathy treatments through your private health fund, either instantly through the HICAPS machine on the day, or by sending off your receipt to your provider.

For details about claiming for treatments through your health fund, please visit our health funds section.

Are your products tested on animals?

All products used and dispensed at the centre are plant-based, not tested on animals and contain no animal-derived ingredients.

Australian Health & Education Centre director and medical nutritionist Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH, BHSc (left) with Dr Michael Klaper, MD, physician and educator on lifestyle medicine.

Why choose the Australian Health & Education Centre?

Because Dr Tracie O’Keefe, DCH, ND is highly qualified in several modalities, including naturopathy, herbal and nutritional medicine, massage therapy, hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, counselling and sex therapy, with a wealth of many years’ experience, she is able to look at patients from many different perspectives and evaluate what the best solutions are for that person.

She can offer, if necessary, several treatment options within the one clinic. This means your healing process is conveniently managed with the one practitioner.

Tracie has run health centres since 1972 and has had a deep and binding interest in healthy foods and how to maximise health through nutrition. In the 1980s she owned an organic hotel and restaurant in the UK.

Because Tracie is a naturopathic nutritionist she also considers food preparation and sources in all the diets we formulate for each individual.

We also have extensive knowledge of helping vegetarians, vegans, diabetics, anorexics, bulimics, binge eaters, those with weight problems and those with medical dietary needs, as well as helping people improve their diets.

We are conveniently located on Elizabeth Street, just 10 mins from the CBD and a 5-minute walk from Central Station.

We are happy to see patients independently or to work with patients’ doctors.

Treatments carried out by Dr Tracie O’Keefe, ND, BHSc, DCH
(Doctor of Clinical Hypnotherapy), Registered Naturopath (ANPA), & Medical Nutritionist.