Nutritional Therapy Association Conference 2016!

The 9th Annual NTA Conference was everything and more….again!  The best thing about attending was to be able to go and be with the “tribe” – the tribe of like-minded people that are dedicated and focused on improving their health and the health of others….know anyone like that?!  ;b)

 

Who Spoke @ The NTA Conference 2016?!

The format this year was different from last year and really delivered the goods for those of us that have a personal practice, as well as for those who are just getting started, or thinking about getting started.

While I took a ridiculous amount of notes, below is the list of those who spoke and panel discussions, and quick blurb about what I got out of the talk, who these people are, and how to get a hold of them.  The important thing to make note of, is that many of these people are becoming well-known, and some of them already have some amount of fame in the world of nutrition… i.e. these are the nutritional thought leaders of the near future – so sit up straight and pay attention!  I did!

 

Break-Out Sessions

First of all, while I personally got so much out of all the sessions I attended, these are only a fraction of all that was offered!  The complete line-up was startling!  Click on the names below to go to my rundown of what I got out of what they presented.

Danielle Brooks – Emotional Eating

Craig Fear – Bone Broths

Dr. Deanna Minich – Whole Detox

Dr. Elston Haas – Nutrition & Integrative Medicine

Andrea Nakayama – Functional Nutrition

Isabella Wentz – Root Causes of Hashimoto’s

Hashimoto’s Panel Discussion: – Andrea Nakayama, Mickey Trescott, Isabella Wentz

Maya Shetreat-Klein, MD – The Dirt Cure

Miriam Zacharias – The PEACE Process

Liz Wolfe – Beginners Guide to Profitable Online Presence

Nutrition Blog Panel Discussion: Liz Wolfe, Lauren Geertsen, Caroline Potter

Caroline Potter – Healthy Eating Is a Lifestyle, Not a Diet

Nora Gedgaudas – Rethinking Fatigue

Again, these are just the speakers that I got to listen to….this is just 1/3 of all that NTA lined up!  If you want to really immerse yourself in the world of nutrition, going to next years NTA conference would be a great idea!

 

What Did They Say?

Here we go.  This is just a brief snapshot of the pages and pages of notes I took, listening and absorbing what these brilliant minds had to impart.

 

• Emotional Eating: Why We Do It and How To Overcome It

The big reason I chose to go to Danielle’s session is because in my practice, I have seen how so many of my clients (mostly folks with gout) are such slaves to their emotions when it comes to eating.   And Danielle taught,  “how can we help it?”  From our earliest years, we’ve all been coerced and bribed with sweet foods and candy.   We have ingrained mental patterns that drives so much what decided to eat….it has nothing to do with what our bodies really need!

Danielle wrote the book, “Good Decisions…most of the time“ – (Because Life Is Too Short To Not Eat Chocolate)  Click here and learn more about Danielle and how to connect with her.

 

• Bone Broth Secrets From Asia

This was the easy one to go to!  I really wanted to hear what Craig had to say because for one thing, he helped me make my decision to become an NTC (nutritional therapy consultant).  The second reason is, what he has put together with his book, his course, and his talks, is exactly what I want all my gout people to get a hold of: Affordable, nourishing, and fast ways to make food for themselves.  Foods that are simple traditions from around the world.  THAT….is “broth”.

What is awesome is that Craig has a few different ways to get a hold of his experience and knowledge.  His book, “Fearless Broths and Soups” is an easy read; check out my post about my first foray in to fish broth making.

The other way that is the real step-by-step way to get going with becoming an expert broth maker is the Craig’s course, “How To Make Bone Broth 101”.  I’m making my way though this course and the simplicity and common sense of it all is amazing.  YOU…can be feeding yourself and your family great nourishing food for cheap…today!

 

• Whole Detox

Here’s the deal: Dr. Deanna brings a very important aspect to understanding health that I have been trying to get across to gout folks for years and years – your thoughts and emotions and the way your brain works, has everything to do with how your body works…and that has everything to do with why we do or don’t get gout.

Dr. Minich has a whole system she’s developed to help people get their whole body healthy again, to help determine the areas of health that are in need of the most healing.  Take her “Spectrum Quiz” and see what areas of your health can be improved.

Get to know Dr. Deanna, and get to know more about detoxification in a whole new way.

 

• Nutrition & Integrative Medicine

Getting see Elston Haas have special significance to all NTCs and NTPs.  He wrote the book, “Staying Healthy With Nutrition” and it is the core to the intellectual curriculum of the NTC and NTP courses.  So, with that said, much of my understanding of health and nutrition that I pass on to people battling gout, comes from what I’ve learned from Dr. Elston Haas.

The important piece that Dr. Haas brought to us at the NTA Conference is that the integration of western medicine practices and natural, “functional” medicine are coming together nicely.  As holistic practitioners, many of us, (myself included) tend to bad-mouth and have a negative viewpoint of traditional western medicine because of the heavy emphasis on the use of pharmaceutical drugs and surgeries.  The fact of the matter is, there are some very important, live-saving applications of western medicine that need to be respected.  However, Dr. Haas, as a traditionally trained MD, has been bringing holistic and functional practice, and his western medical knowledge together and successfully improving the health of his patients for the last 40 years.

He was a great and engaging speaker, and I walked away with a more complete understanding of his ever-expanding research, experience, and practice.

 

• Functional Nutrition

If the world of nutrition has rock stars, Andrea Nakayama is at the top of the list!

Andrea is the ultimate combination of knowing how to help people improve their health and their lives, and knowing how to make it easy for those people to find her.  Let’s face it, it doesn’t matter how much you know and how skillful you are with your knowledge of biochemistry, and how to use nutrient dense foods to make people healthy…if they can’t find you!  Andrea is a master of both.

Andrea talked about so many different important things, but what pops out of my notes is the part about “a hero’s journey” – the working with the uncertainty what is ailing people.  As practitioners – people who put themselves out there to help others live a healthy and therefore happier life – we work in a realm of variables; hormone, mineral, vitamin imbalances, life circumstances, mental and emotional fatigue – so many things that are we don’t have a clear picture of, or are simply out of our control.  Andrea was very good to give one word of advise:  Empathy.  You have to have empathy for the people you are working with and trying to help.  For me that’s easy – I know what gout feels like!

Anyway…I could talk on and on about Andrea Nakayama, she is a strong leader in this bold new frontier of functional nutrition in this modern world.  You too should get to know who Andrea is and what’s she’s all about.

 

• Root Causes of Hashimoto’s

Dr. Isabella Wentz is a very nice young woman, making a HUGE difference in the world of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.   What is pretty cool about the NTA Conference is that there are hundreds of people just coming and going, here and there, and I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Isabella in the elevator!  I was not familiar with her work until I attended her lecture and heard her speak.

She delivered a very important message in that when dealing with thyroid issues, especially Hashimoto’s, we have to use all the resources available to us.  She, like Dr. Haas and Andrea Nakayama, (which by the way, Andrea and Isabella are collaborating) helped to bring forward that we are seeing the coming together of western medical knowledge and functional nutrition wisdom merging, and it that is making a significant difference to those challenged by Hashimoto’s.

Dr. Wentz is a Hashimoto’s patient herself and struggled through all the debilitating consequences.  Due to all her experience and training, she has several avenues of educating and helping people with Hashimoto’s. She has a NY Times Best Seller, “Hashimoto’s: The Root Cause”, her main website, HackingHashimotos.com, and a comprehensive food & diet platform to called RootCauseRecipes.com.  Personally, I have a hypothyroid (low thyroid) condition  myself – not Hashimoto’s (although Dr. Wentz says that you can have Hashimoto’s without testing positive for the antibodies) – I’ve been dealing with it for as long as I’ve been struggling with gout…think there might be a connection between gout and thyroidism?  Definitely, there is.

 

• Hashimoto’s Panel Discussion: Andrea Nakayama, Mickey Trescott, Isabella Wentz

It was quite a day full of learning about Hashimoto’s – what it is, how it presents, what causes it, what can be done about it, how to test for it, how widespread it is, more common than we think, and how to treat it.  Taking part in this panel discussion group was incredibly enlightening.  The common denominator was that using a more “hybrid approach” – where patients struggling with Hashimoto’s were more involved in their own process of improvement and recovery using functional medicine as the basis, are far more successful in overcoming the disease.

I’d like to think that is what you and I are doing here at TheGoutKiller.com to #killgout!  So thanks for being here reading this!

 

• The Dirt Cure

Dr. Shetreat-Klein delivered the much needed commonsense we seem to have lost in our world today.  The gist of what she spoke about, (and what her book, The Dirt Cure, is all about) is that we have forgotten that our inner environment and our outer environment is one in the same.  She is particularly keyed into the growing difficulties we our seeing with the health of our children today.  We have unnatural C-section births for convenience, we don’t breast feed like we should, and we try to keep our children from playing in the dirt, shield them from germs, use massive amounts of disinfectants, all in the name of disease prevention.  All it has accomplished is the weakening our immune systems.

You can find out more about Dr. Maya’s work here at:  DirtCure.com  Do what Dr. Maya says and go get your hands dirty…with your kids!

 

• The PEACE Process

Miriam Zacharias was a powerhouse public speaker.  She came from high powered big corporate business and delivered a very moving story about the health battle that ended her brothers life…and inadvertently started her down the path of health and wellness and holistic healing.  She is the VP of the NANP (National Association of Nutrition Professionals).

The importance of her being part of this years NTA Conference has to do with how many incredible practitioners there are out there that struggle to have the people that need them, find them.  Personally, I realized early on that a big part of my success had to do with attracting the people I could help to me, and for me to be able to take care of my own financial wellness by helping them.  In this world of gout, it hasn’t been that hard.  If you are reading this, I’m sure you understand – gout sucks and it’s confusing, and by helping people like you get out of the pain and stay out of the pain, I’ve been able to make a living….barely.

A big component of what the NTA brought to the conference this year was bringing people like Miriam to the table to help new and old practitioners alike, solve the ever-thorny problem of making a living doing what you love and feel called to do.

Suffice it to say, Miriam delivered!

Find out more about Miriam and her book, The PEACE Process, here:  MiriamZacharias.com  Incidentally, the “PEACE” part of the title, The PEACE Process comes from the PEACE of mind you will get by understanding how to attract the right people to you that need your help – that’s Miriam’s claim and I confess,,,I still need help with it!

 

• Beginners Guide to Profitable Online Presence

Liz Wolfe might possibly be the most memorable of all the speakers at the conference.  She introduced a term that I’ve latched on to:  “Financial Wellness”.  It’s interesting how all of us – no matter what we do, want to do things that help other people.  Making a living by helping other people – in whatever way that is for you – is really the reason why we do things.  We unconsciously think it’s for the money most of the time, but really, it’s not – it is all about how we change and add value to people’s lives.

For me, being able to help people through the bewildering and depressing journey of gout has definitely not been the most lucrative thing I’ve ever done financially, but far-and-away, the most rewarding.  Liz has done it and she knows how to explain it so that it makes sense for you to do the same thing – and she virtually done it, virtually. She is an NTP, a successful author, and internet marketer of holistic wisdom and information.

She has several different internet properties that you can take advantage of by going to RealFoodLiz.com.  Check out her book too:  Eat The Yolks!

 

• Nutrition Blog Panel Discussion: Liz Wolfe, Lauren Geertsen, Caroline Potter

As I was saying above about how Liz Wolfe made “financial wellness” real, she was also part of this panel discussion about blogging and internet marketing of nutrition and healing.  Her contemporaries, Lauren Geertsen and Caroline Potter (more from her next), outlined so much of what can be done to make an online living in the world of health and nutrition.

A few of the topics they covered were creating ebooks (like mine!) and promoting other great products and information from other thought leaders in the industry and creating an income stream as an affiliate.  What it all so often comes down to is creating rock solid content that really adds value to people’s lives – that is what makes them trust you and keeps them coming back for more.  Part of how you do that is by ever-developing your writing and communication skills, just plain being yourself, and sharing your struggles and how you’ve overcome them.

There was so much that they talked about and covered like the importance of building your email list, to doing professional podcasting, to doing search engine optimization, to being prepared to pound the internet pavement for 3 to 5 years before you really make it all work.  The only reason I relate all of this to you here in this realm of gout killing, is because I am so proud and impressed with the Nutritional Therapy Association doing what they do to not only turn out high quality practitioners, but to help those holistic practitioners become the replacements for the pill pushers of the pharmaceutical industry.

Get to know Liz and her wisdom from the link above, but also learn more about Lauren’s fantastic story, and check out what Caroline is all about next!

 

• Healthy Eating Is a Lifestyle, Not a Diet

Caroline is another awesome example of an NTA NTP who has taken a serious health condition, become educated, turned it all around, and has been able to make a nice living helping others do the same!

Caroline was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in college. Instead of taking the “I’m a victim” route, she decided to build her blog, write a cookbook, and become a food photographer!  Something I can relate to is that she talks about how she is thankful for her disease because it has caused her to really find her passions, and do good things in the world with them.

She, like Lauren, had to confront a very serious life illness at a very early age, and it was amazing to sit and watch and listen to both of them as they have become extraordinary public speakers, sought after by many different organizers of public speaking tours for health and nutrition.

 

• Rethinking Fatigue

Nora Gedaudas….author, podcast founder, neurofeedback specialist, and NTP.  Nora has gained a lot of attention for her book, “Primal Body, Primal Mind: Beyond the Paleo Diet for Total Health and A Longer Life”.  She has been on the Dr Oz Show.  Her latest book is: “Rethinking Fatigue: What Your Adrenals Are Really Telling You and What You Can Do About it”.

Honestly….she was WAY out of my league!  She very accomplished and really understands biochemistry and the far-reaching effects of what can cause dis-ease, and a very well developed ability to set it all straight again.  Primal Body, Primal Mind is on my list for continuing my nutritional education.

There are many other nutritional thought leaders like her that believe the adrenal fatigue epidemic has more to do with what is going on at the level of the hypothalamus and pituitary than it does with the adrenal glands themselves.  The HPA Axis (Hypothalamus/Pituitary/Adrenal Axis) is a world in and of itself and many people devote their entire careers to it…it’s just one part of Nora’s great big world.

 

A Big Thank You To All The Speakers at the NTA Conference 2016!

One more time; The NTA Conference is a sensational venue to hang with your homies if you are totally committed to improving your own health and of all those around you.  This year was especially well done for it focused on bringing in many graduates as speakers to showcase what they have created and accomplished.  For me personally, it was hugely inspiring, helping me to see what more I could do in this realm of killing gout!

Thank you to all of you who were speakers at this years conference!

 

….the NTA Mission

“If we can get 5000 NTPs (nutritional therapy practitioners) across the US, we can change the health of people around the world”….or something like that!  I can’t remember exactly how Gray Graham, the founder of the Nutritional Therapy Association actually says it, but it goes something like that.

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