I'm looking for a practitioner (Cardiff area) but don't know what I'm looking for - we don't seem to have "functional medicine" practitioners. What's the name of what I'm after please??
IF >!Joanne Kemper DOESN'T end up being part of a powerful dynastic family who carry out ritual sacrifice every decade to maintain power!< then I'm going to be really, REALLY disappointed.
hello friends. I have recently become interested in functional medicine after being failed on multiple fronts by my GP (iron deficiency/ gut health etc etc etc). I’ve spent all year reading clinical articles, research papers. it’s so interesting!
I would love to do some actual education in this field and deepen my knowledge, but I don’t know where to start or what kinds of courses I’m looking for. can you help!?
I have absolutely zero medical knowledge and am not from a science background (I work in the arts… but have become fascinated). Not thinking I want to change careers or anything (Not right now anyway…!) - but who knows what the future holds!
THANK YOU!
hello friends. I have recently become interested in functional medicine after being failed on multiple fronts by my GP (iron deficiency/ gut health etc etc etc). I’ve spent all year reading clinical articles, research papers. it’s so interesting!
I would love to do some actual education in this field and deepen my knowledge, but I don’t know where to start or what kinds of courses I’m looking for. can you help!?
I have absolutely zero medical knowledge and am not from a science background (I work in the arts… but have become fascinated). Not thinking I want to change careers or anything (Not right now anyway…!) - but who knows what the future holds!
THANK YOU!
The American Society for Haematology (ASH) has just released new ferritin thresholds for iron deficiency! If you are a massive iron nerd like I am this is VERY EXCITING.
Key new bits of info to note:
This is a HUGE leap forward for all those women struggling with iron deficiency and heavy periods and just getting ignored by their doctors.
Inflammation = ANY autoimmune condition / celiac / endo etc etc...
Meanwhile the UK NICE Guidelines are still stuck in the middle ages with 30 ng/ML as deficiency for adults. Barely any GPs even know about these or pay any attention to them.
ASH press release with all the info https://www.hematology.org/newsroom/press-releases/2026/ash-sets-new-standards-for-diagnosing-iron-deficiency
Full guidelines: American Society of Hematology 2026 guidelines for diagnosis of iron deficiency (you can download the PDF from this link to read the full thing) https://ashpublications.org/bloodadvances/article/doi/10.1182/bloodadvances.2025015950/570502/American-Society-of-Hematology-2026-guidelines-for
PLEASE bookmark and save these to send to your doctors, ESPECIALLY if you are female and bleeding and having the fight of your life trying to advocate for yourself versus the entire healthcare system.
While we're here, other articles that you might want to read, bookmark and also send:
Dr Esa Soppi - Iron Deficiency Without Anemia – Common, Important, Neglected
Sex, lies, and iron deficiency: a call to change ferritin reference ranges
Rose Stokes - Tired all the time? There may be a simple reason for that (The Guardian / Nov 2025)
If anyone else has good research / links, please add them in the comments!
NEW YORK I am a roller skater who will be IN YOU in late August for a work event. Would love to meet up with some local skaters for a street skate or something. Do you have such things? What groups should I look up? What places should I skate? Not super into indoor rink skating, love street and trail skates. Also skate parks. I've seen the Brooklyn Banks and that looks DOPE! Any recs gratefully received!
Sincerely, Welsh skater.
HELLO. I have recently started HRT, I'm having issues with oestrogen (histamine intolerance) so trying to balance myself out on progesterone first to get rid of all HIT symptoms before introducing oestrogen into the mix.
HOWEVER I am also just recovering from iron deficiency. My ferritin was 26 back in February - I took supplements -got it to 101 back in May. Then I reduced my dose a bit to every couple of days. Started feeling symptoms again, took iron every day again for about a month (dose is 100mg elemental iron ferrous fumarate + 250mg lactoferrin). Just had a test, my ferritin is down to 76!!
I'm now taking 400mg utrogestan orally every day (I've been titrating up to this over a couple of months). Love the stuff, love the calming effects, really feel like I'm getting along with it well, it really helps with histamine intolerance ... but then read these articles about how progestrone increases hepcidin (which blocks iron).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4701562/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378512216300457
FML is nothing in this life straightfoward. Any insights or help or tips gratefully received!!
I tapped a section of the outside wall of my kitchen (there is damp inside) - I didn't realise how badly blown this external bit was, bits just came off in my hands (see pic 2 for what it looked like originally...!!!). I pulled all the loose bits off and now I have a massive hole in my wall.
I have very basic DIY skills - I have filled cracks before but never anything as big as this, I am freaking out ...!! I know that you always need to remove more to give yourself enough space to fill, but this just seems like so much render ...
Please help me!
- I think more needs to be removed - there are very loose wobbly bits of render all around what's come off above. How do I know when I've removed "enough"...? Is it just that all the loose bits need to come off?
- even more terrifyingly, the bit to the left (by the corner) seems very loose ... I get the theory of patching up big gaps (I've watched a lot of YouTube videos) but how do I sort out the corner?
Sorry if these are basic question, I live alone and don't have anyone who can help me. Any tips welcomed.
Friends! I will be travelling to the USA in August for a week for work. NY / Washington / Massachusetts areas. I'm working on events so likely to be very long days. I often take prepared meals to work, but as I'll be travelling (am from the UK) I'm worrying a bit about what I'll be able to eat, as I won't have access to full kitchen for cooking.
I struggle with dairy and wheat is completely off the table. I can't tolerate whole oats at all and legumes give me a terrible time.
I do eat meat (in fact my health is a LOT better with meat added - I was vegetarian for years and never been more ill in my life!). So meats are pretty essential for me health wise. I've got a pea protein powder (Bulk protein) that I seem to tolerate okay, so I will take that for emergency situations where I can't access food easily.
I can do occasional medium/high histamine items (depending on where I am in my cycle), so it doesn't have to be 1000% strict. But I'd rather not have a terrible stomach / flushed face / headache for the entire trip as the workload will be intense.
Meal on the flight - it's long haul so I will need to eat. I ordered a lactose-free meal last time I flew and most of what was there was also GF, which helped a bit. Wasn't amazing but I definitely didn't react as badly as I thought I might. Any suggestions for food I can prep before / take on the plane?
Hotel breakfasts - any suggestions?
Other meals? I will try and book hotels that have microwaves, so I can do microwave rice / quinoa at least ... any easy microwave meals / stores that sell food I can look out for?
Are there any chain restaurants in this part of East Coast US that you've found histamine friendly options? I discovered the AMAZING WAWA on my last trip, and did okay with the "build your own" options for breakfast and other meals.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!!! It's going to be a full on work trip so I really need to get the food part of it right. Extremely jealous of my colleagues who can just turn up and eat and drink literally anything from anywhere without giving it a second thought.
Hi lovely community. I'm really hoping someone can offer some hope / help / suggestions for my amazing mum who has been suffering with terrible hot flashes since she was 55 (she's now 71).
Her hot flushes are so bad they wake her up in the middle of the night and she can't get back to sleep. She sleeps so badly, sometimes less than 2/3 hours a night.
Before this, she never had any sleeping issues. It got so bad she had to give up work (she was a teacher) because she couldn't focus or function.
She didn't start HRT until she was 62 - she is very stubborn (!), also I think she was affected by the fake news bad press that's clouded HRT for a long time.
The HRT does help a bit with the hot flushes. She takes 3 sprays of lenzetto transdermal oestrogen every evening (each spray is 1.53mg) (3 is the maximum she's allowed for her age). She takes 100mg progesterone as well.
She also takes clonodine for her hot flushes. Without it, the flushes are REALLY bad - she literally turns bright red and starts sweating. She is taking the maximum dose of these are well, which is two in the morning and two in the evening.
The pattern is that she feels a bit hungry and sick, then she feels really cold, then she feels the hot flush. It wakes her up and she can't go back to sleep. She hasn't slept more than about 3 hours in a row for years.
She's been such an amazing mum to me, I really desperately want to help her. Please PLEASE can any of you help me?! Or share your own stories or anything that might help?
Friends. I'm looking for examples of misdiagnoses of iron deficiency, expecially where you might have been prescribed something (anti anxiety meds etc). Are there any of you that had experiences like this - mood disorder-like symptoms that actually turned out to be linked to iron deficiency over anything else? PLEASE SHARE YOUR STORIES WITH ME!
I miss having oats for breakfast!! Can anyone tolerate them? Any tips for preparation?
I’ve recently discovered my lifelong food allergy problems were histamine related. I have been iron deficient since birth - recently got my ferritin above 100 probably for the first time in my life. MCAS reactions have disappeared completely but I’m still getting light histamine reactions to some foods. I was sensitive to dairy and wheat so those have completely gone From my diet. I used to love having porridge for breakfast, or overnight oats! Yeah, my stomach hurt all the time … but I just really loved them. Any tips for having them? Or any similar thing I can replace them with??
I’m compiling a list as part of a complaint to our national health service. Tell me ALL your iron deficiency symptoms. I want to hear them all!
It’s not great. They’ll be rubbish and probably racist.
But, we don’t need to take this passively. It’s time to start holding them to account, to expose their shortcomings, to announce their mistakes.
Write letters to them about your _local_ issues, write to your local and regional papers when they don’t perform, or handle your query/request with a slogan.
In short, make them work.
It’s the quickest way to show them up.