Nutritional Therapy CNM or ION?

Hi Sazy - welcome to Healthy Pages :wave:

I went to ION so am biased to a degree. Excellent information, very technical and absolutely science-based and now following much more closely the Functional Medicine format. Biochemistry is the core basis of the training. It leads to university qualifications. There is little of naturopathy or other forms of healing - it focuses on Nutritional Therapy, and training you to become a therapist. The format was one weekend per month - I did Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday - a massive 18 hours of lectures in that short time! because I had so far to travel. We had a number who used to travel up from Brighton, but we came from all over the country and abroad. I found the course very full-on, stimulating and exciting. I wish though I had some knowledge of NT before starting, as there is SO much to learn (I'm still learning now ...) It is a very different approach from my time as a nurse - which has turned out to be a disadvantage in many ways - the focus is from a different perspective.

To my knowledge CNM has a wider-based knowledge course which may or may not be to your liking. I cannot advise you as to their curriculum, not having been there, but I suggest you speak to them and find out what they offer and see whether it will satisfy your needs and aspirations better than ION.

I don't know it that is of any help. I wish you all the best. Let us know what you decide on!

Thank you for your helpful post!

I have emailed ion for fees. It will take 4 years to complete whereas cnm is 3 years. I will have to decide if the extra cost of travel and fees is worth while. Looking at the cnm content there is a a lot a biochemistry as well.

Does the ion course provide you with competent skills to order functional tests?

How have you found the demand for nutritional therapy after qualifying? How long did it take to build your client base?

Thanks again

Hi Sazy

The first year is the basics of physiology and mostly biochemistry - I thought I could do without it, having covered a lot already - but there was TONS more I knew nothing about and this left me with a vertical learning curve :eek:! Had I done it, I think it would have been much easier to cope with the following 3 years (I also had to learn how to find stuff on the internet, type, etc! Now, it would be a doddle in comparison.

There is quite a big section on testing - but it would be better to ask them because I am much out of date now (10 years) and there have been a lot of upgrades and changes since I was there.

Getting going after training is a matter of how good your marketing skills are. No matter how good you are at NT, it will take time to establish a client base - and because it works so well many clients don't return after just a few consultations (2-6 at the most). So marketing is paramount, unless you have a client base for something else or are working in a clinic with other complementary practitioners who can refer clients.

The other thing is that doctors need informing about how NT works and is different from dietetics. I have just been reading a magazine put together by dieticians and doctors and there are some statements and recipes I disagree with considerably - to them 'healthy' = low fat, salt and sugar only. The understanding of how the body reacts to nutrients doesn't seem to be there at all. So there will be marketing/discussions with the doctors to tell them you can make an amazing difference to people's health by altering what they eat and taking the right supplements and making the right lifestyle choices.

Do read Patrick Holford's [url]New Optimum Nutrition Bible[/url] before you get going, and Liz Lipski's Digestive Wellness - the hyperlink is not working - will also hold you in very good stead. They explain so well what is going wrong and what is possible to sort out.

All the best

Training nutritional therapy Cnm or ION

Hello Sazy, I am facing similar dilemma, reading your post back in august this year. Could you please let me know what decision you made and way.
Does anybody have some experience with Westminster university or west London university with regards to studying nutrition. Also dietetics or nutritional therapy. I will appreciate any advise so please help
King regards
Petia

Training nutritional therapy Cnm or ION

Hello Sazy, I am facing similar dilemma, reading your post back in august this year. Could you please let me know what decision you made and way.
Does anybody have some experience with Westminster university or west London university with regards to studying nutrition. Also dietetics or nutritional therapy. I will appreciate any advise so please help
King regards
Petia

Hi Petia

I think you need to do considerably more research as to what is involved with giving advice about food. Have a look here for a start - link didn't work, I'll find another one. You need to decide whether you want to work within the Medical system treating patients, or working independently as a Nutritional Therapist where you set up your own clinic and find your own clients.

Nutritionists also work in industry advising on food content in their products (a whole other situation) or even working with animals, either with vets or in the pet-food industry.

In the past Westminster just taught Nutrition and not its application as a therapy, but that may have changed. Not all courses teach you how to become a practitioner. You will need to ask all sorts of questions 😉 :).

Best of luck and let us know how you get on and what choices you make.

There is a useful link , but there are others.

Hi CArolineN! Thank you very much for your advise. I have been researching the matter significant time now and is proven challenging to make a solid decision. I am very exited by the prospect of nutritional therapy. It appeal to me more so than DIetetics. However, I am looking for reassurance , I guess that ION , for example, is the best choice to study nutritional therapy. What would you advise to read on most for a preparation. I am a Rmn my self, I can recall that you mention that your experience as a nurse was I disadvantage. What do you mean CAroloneN? And most importantly would you recommend taking the path of nutritional therapy.
Thank you ever so much
Kind regard
Petia

Hi Petia

I have found the path of Nutritional Therapy has been utterly fascinating in that it is based on the biochemistry of the body and how it actually works. You are looking at the basic causes of illnesses and not looking to deal with just symptoms, and the body as a whole and not just the part that is affected.

For example, at a very basic level, in the 18th and 19th centuries many impoverished people were shut away in asylums for being 'mad', but they also had chronic diarrhoea, dermatitis, inflamed mucous membranes, migraines, anxiety, depression, hallucinations and dementia, and many died. If someone presented with these symptoms now each problem would be addressed with a suitable pharmaceutical, individually. I wonder how many current doctors would recognise the symptoms of pellagra - severe vitamin B3 deficiency? Or even ask what their diet was like. The doctor who discovered the cause spent 30 years trying to convince the establishment that it was a deficiency disease until his death in 1929, and it wasn't until after WW2 that doctors finally admitted he was right all along. (P. Day, The Mind Game) The poor patients however suffered all sorts of appalling 'treatments' to try and cure them, or just control them. It was caused by an absence of green material in their diet, but some people need a lot more B3 than others to remain 'normal'.

I had the experience of a case of zinc deficiency where the patient had seen the dermatologist and the endocrinologist and neither sorted her out and it was only studying her diet and lifestyle and the link to copper absorption that pinpointed it - neither consultant would have worked out the cause.

So, why did I find being trained as a nurse detrimental? Because allopathic medicine has a very different perspective on things from holistic or Functional Medicine which NT is based on. I had so much to unlearn. What was useful was the use of medical language to understand how medical problems are described. Nutritional Therapy is usually tried by people where allopathic medicine has failed them. There are a few doctors who practice some Functional Medicine alongside their practice such as [url]Dr Sarah Myhill[/url] - he website is a mine of information and helpful advice.

If you go to the website there is a lot of information there and suggested books, plus those below that I have suggested.

Whatever course you do make sure you can become registered with BANT and CNHC and NTC. You will probably need to make it a degree (ION are with Luton University) as there is no doubt it will be regulated before too long.

For me Nutritional Therapy has been life-changing for both me and a family member, and I have found it endlessly enthralling to keep on learning, even after 10 years. There is so much more to discover out there, and it is just brilliant getting those people better whom doctors have struggled to sort out.

Wishing you all the best

Hi Caroline,
I am very grateful for your help.
I also find nutrition and functional medicine fascinating. I feel so excited when I think of the prospects of studying educating my self with the subjects of nutritious.........so thank you very much.
Regards
Apartia

I don't really understand what the differences are between functional medicine (ION) and naturopathy (CNM)? I've always been attracted to natural ways of healing for myself and others so 'Naturopathy' is a term I'm familiar with. Naturally, when looking for a course on the subject, I found CNM but quite a few reviews about the college are not very positive. It's exactly the opposite for ION where every reviewer seems happy!

My dilemma is that I thougth I had thought that ION was the perfect place to study nutrition/naturopathy (I thought it was similar) but the staff at ION they told me they do not train naturopaths at all.

I'm confused. Can someone explain the core differences between these two fields of study? And does anyone know more about these schools' approaches to health?