I'm a registered nutritionist!!!

Finally after tears and toil, I can say I'm a registered nutritionist!

This is massive.  I wasn't sure about applying for registration as it now means I'm tightly controlled as to what I can and can't say and firmly am open to the idea that there is no 'one size fits all' when discussing nutrition.
OF course, the human body is made up in similar ways but we all have so many differences.  For me, I am very aware of my body, how I'm feeling, my symptoms etc and there are times I'm still not sure what I should be eating and drinking....

Yet this was a risk I would have to take as I'm very keen to stand up and be regarded as an expert in the field while I blog about health and food.

So here it is.  The logo i am permitted to use:

Wonderful! Just as I decided to start taking life a little slower and try to repair the adrenal fatigue I have likely caused through my 20s due to way too much work, bad food choices, regular Pepsi and all.  Sugar is high in the mornings, I'm working on that.

My joints have started to ache, I'm working on that.

I'm building up a lot of calcium in my body, Working on that too....the list goes on.

My leaky gut and all. Yet I know if I am totally strict on myself I can help these issues which is where the love of nutrition started. I would love to help others on my path.

I really hope you have found some use in some of these blog posts as I have shared my work and I also hope you have enjoyed a little entertainment through the ups and downs of being a student.

Happy to continue my studies, I plan to get writing as soon as I can with all the things I love to do both online and offline.  Let me know where you are at and what you are doing with your plans from here on in.

With love from 

Louise Usher ANutr

Chronic disease epidemiology

What is chronic disease epidemiology?

It is a way of investigating a link between dietary behaviour and chronic diseases.

Epidemiological studies used:

* 24 hours recall
* Diet history
* Food frequency questionnaire

Types of chronic disease:

* type 2 diabetes
* Heart disease
* Stroke

Ways to investigate the link between dietary behaviour and chronic diseases

* Anthropometric
 Using body weight, height, skin folds, waist and hip circumference

* Biochemical tests

Blood, urine, faeces, tissues are rested to deter subclinical deficiencies

* Clinical observation

Observation of pallor,  hair, nails, skin, eyes, lips, mouth , muscles, joints

* Dietary assessment

Obtain report of food items consumed, portion sizes, frequency, calculation of nutritional intake

Confounding factors

Within nutrition, confounding factors play a large part in trials.

The relationship between disease and exposure can experience confounding.  IE Alcohol drinkers.  Do they suffer more heart disease than non alcohol drinkers?
As smoking is often associated with alcohol consumption, is it possible that alcohol drinkers may have more heart disease but due to smoking as opposed to drinking alcohol?  This would be confounding.

Therefore, the relationship between alcohol and heart disease could be due to some confounding variable.

Case control and cohort studies

What are case control studies and cohort studies?

What does this mean in clinical nutrition?

Case control studies are observational studies in which two existing groups (differing in outcome) are identified and compared on the basis of a casual attribute.

Group 1 - Has the condition or disease plus another factor.
Group 2 - Does not have the disease but has the same factor.

Cohort studies uses a group of people who share a common defining characteristic such as graduation or birth etc.
An analysis over time of risk factors of people who do not have a disease but uses correlations to determine the absolute risk.

Epidemiology and exam help

Epidemiology - this is the one I felt would be common sense. I felt this would be simple and straight forward.

No.

Not so.

Yikes.

To help me revise (no, hang on, to learn) I am going to try writing blog posts.  Pray to God this will help you guys too.  Let me know if it helps any of you...so, ok, here we go.

Epidemiology is 'the study of the occurrence and distribution of health related events, stats and processed in specified populations, including the study of determinates influencing such precesses and the application of this knowledge to control relevant health problems.' (Porto M. A dictionary of Epidemiology)

Distribution means the frequency and pattern of health events in a population.
Population is a group of people with a common characteristic.
Determinants are factors or events that influence health.

Epidemiology is a tool used by governments to determine investigations into public health.

Common terms used are

Sporadic - a disease which occurs occasionally and often irregularly
Endemic - Constant presence of disease within a given population.
Epidemic - above the expected level of occurrence of disease
Pandemic - an epidemic weidspread over several countries or continents.

Morbidity: any departure from a state of physiological or physiological well being.
Mortality: a number of reported deaths in a population in a specific time period.

Analytical Epidemiology - Basic question - "Is exposure and disease linked?"

Research questions/hypothesis - Do persons with exposure have higher levels of disease than persons without exposure?

3 major factors in epidemiology:
social factors
lifestyle factors
personal characteristics

Measure of disease frequency: Incidence = number of new cases of disease the developed during a specified period of time.
Prevalence - number of existing cases of disease at a given point of time or during a period of time.

I hope some of this may have helped, the next few blog posts go into specifics of exam questions you may find help you to revise! Good luck.