5 Important Principles for Nutritional Consultants
Book Review: Mind Over Medicine, by Lissa Rankin M.D.
I had the pleasure of receiving a review copy of Mind Over Medicine, by Lissa Rankin. As a nutritional consultant, I subsequently joined her online course for both those with “chronic” illness, as well as, alternative and mainstream health providers, called “Take Back Your Health”.
In both the book and the course, Lissa outlines several really useful principles, extremely helpful to those of us who are nutritional consultants. She references many medical studies, which support her theories, and presents them in an easy to read and entertaining manner. In this review, I will highlight just 5 of many.
Nurturing Care
Dr. Rankin writes: “In a study published in The Lancet, which investigated the role of endorphins in how placebos relieve pain, researchers found that, despite the use of a double-blind procedure, the expectations of the physicians still influenced how patients responded to injections of fentanyl, naloxone, or placebo. If the doctor doesn’t believe a certain treatment will work, the treatment may actually be less effective.”
While we are not physicians and don’t treat disease, as nutritional consultants, we are in a unique position to help our clients recognize their own innate ability to heal and to provide a positive, hopeful environment to assist this process. By approaching all illness with a belief in the person’s ability to get well and in the recommended therapies, designed to bring their body back to balance, we can offer them something many clients who seek our care need most, which is hope.
The Placebo Effect
Lissa has a fresh approach to this mental phenomenon. She highlights the science behind the effectiveness of placebos and how a nutritional consultant can use this belief/self-healing cycle to the benefit of their clients. One way is by providing healthy “rituals”, which hold significance to their client. For example; rather than simply recommending a homeopathic remedy to a client, a nutritional consultants could activate the placebo effect by recommending the client hold the homeopathic remedy in their hands to “warm” it. She would then explain how one’s mind can affect how the body will absorb or assimilate the remedy. Explaining this to the client and having them take a couple of deep breaths and imagining what it will be doing for their health, will encourage the client to deactivate their stress response before consuming the recommended product. It may increase the effectiveness of their protocol, simply by activating their BELIEF in it. We know that stress affects both the immune system and the digestive system, and that state of mind has a lot to do with how our bodies perceive what we consume. Thus, it makes sense that positive belief will also do the same!
Trust Your Clients’ Inner Pilot Light
An interesting concept, put forth by Lissa, is that, many dealing with illness need someone to ask the right questions. She writes:
“That’s when I began asking my patients two mother-lode questions. “What do you think may lie at the root of your illness?” And most important, “What does your body need in order to heal?” She continues: “When I first started popping these questions, I assumed people would tell me that the root cause of their illness was a hormonal imbalance or an unhealthy diet…But more often than not, my patients said things like these: “I give until I’m depleted.” “I’m miserable in my marriage.” “I’m out of touch with my life purpose.”
And when I asked my patients, “What does your body need in order heal?” my patients shocked me with their answers. “I have to quit my job.” “It’s time for me to finally come out of the closet to my parents.” “I need to tell my husband I’m having an affair.” The results these patients (who followed through) achieved were astonishing. Sometimes, a laundry list of illnesses would disappear, often very quickly. My patients were healing themselves after years of medical therapies had proven useless. I was in awe.”
For me, this is a very important aspect of any nutritional consultant. Our bodies need nutritional support and the right kinds of toxin elimination, but our bodies do not operate independent of all other aspects of our lives. When meeting with a client, I feel it is our duty to explore the whole of their life and all the “inputs” that may need addressed, in order for the body to have an optimal environment in which to heal. If, in this investigative process, we identify some non-nutritional needs which are outside of our scope of practice, we can refer to trusted professionals, to assist in those aspects of our client’s journey to wellness. For this purpose, it is a good idea to have made contact with a few different health care providers, to which we can refer comfortably and provide this referral list to our clients.
The Relaxation Response
Activating this response deactivates the stress response, allowing the body to go into repair mode. This can be done, through a variety of exercises, which are outlined in the book. Among these are meditation, prayer, creating something, solitude, and specific breathing exercises. This is helpful, because many of our clients come to us in a state of anxiety, fear or hopelessness.
Helping our clients learn how to activate their own relaxation response provides an environment in which self-healing can begin. One of the best ways we can help with relaxation is to recommend the Castor Oil Pack application. The softness of the flannel in combination with the oil and heat stimulates the liver, kidneys, lymphatic system and bowels to remove toxins. It also increases the production of neutrophils by 40%, in only 20 minutes. Most importantly, it puts the person’s nervous system into the parasympathetic mode. This creates relaxation; therefore, reducing stress hormones and inflammation and allowing the healing to begin.
The Whole Health Cairn
Dr. Rankin uses a self-evaluation tool she calls the “Whole Health Cairn”. It looks like this:
The Whole Health Cairn is her visual depiction of all the aspects in our lives that need to be considered when the body is out of balance. Sometimes a health problem, which is manifesting in the body, may have its core cause in a person’s life purpose “stone”.
She recommends that nutritional consultants ask their clients to spend some time considering how well each of these aspects of their lives are going and how well they are nourishing each stone, on a regular basis. She then recommends using a different color for each stone. She may then have the individual evaluate how well they are nurturing each of their “stones”, on a regular basis. I found this exercise beneficial for women, in particular, because we tend to be very relationship oriented. Dr. Rankin emphasises that she has seen a significant connection between the quality and happiness of a patient’s relationship stone and the prevalence of illness. Asking a client to take this home and spend time considering each stone and how they can improve those that need supportive action, is a great tool to shift the client into a holistic way of thinking.
I highly recommend Mind Over Medicine by Lissa Rankin as both a resource for Nutritional Consultants, interested in improving their own belief system, so as to positively affect those with whom they consult, as well as a tool to recommend to clients who may benefit from reading it. With its many study references, stories of hope, healing, and remission, as well as, its honest discussion of those cases where there has been work by the client on all of these fronts, and still healing did not come, I personally find it an excellent addition to my resource list.
By Marcie Macari-EIN graduate
Earn a Diploma in Holistic Nutrition as a Nutritional Consultant. EIN strives to provide you with the knowledge to live well and stay healthy. We are an internationally recognized school offering online nutrition training. If you’d like to learn more about any of our programs, call us today at or contact us online.
