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About

Irene-Hess-Oates-Nutritionist-with-dogs-nutrition-and-you-canberra-australia

G’day, G'day ….. Irene from Nutrition and You, is here to help you achieve better health. I’m a long-term registered nurse and medical herbalist for over 30 years, a nutritionist, grandmother, lover of dogs and gardening, cook, and kitchen hand. A happy and energetic, fun person at heart with a good sense of humor, who enjoys helping others and researching medical issues, “but serious about getting to the bottom of the pile of what went wrong some time back”.

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What I do


My naturopathic clinic hours are flexible, and weekends are also fine. I work part-time and exercise, swim, garden and eat well between clients. I gain a lot from talking to people and therefore like to personally book new clients in by phone to connect before our first meeting.

I enjoy working with children, preconceptions of health care, hormonal; - digestive - stress – energy - blood sugar regulation issues - (they are all connected), and people at all ages and stages of life; and seeing those pathology markers improve! High-tech marketing is not what I do. I could sell you this and that, but I won’t … because my work is about understanding what’s going on within your body; the emotional stress and/or physical stress that can interrupt good health.

 

I take time to listen to people’s stories as this is a wonderful way to help choose the right botanical, nutrients, minerals, and Bach Flower remedies which nature has designed and calculated so well to address all aspects of the disease. Correctly prescribed naturopathic remedies combined with some simple dietary changes, can greatly speed up the detoxification and healing process to complete the rescue plan. In clinical practice, I invariably find that one of the most important things to do is to help my clients with better meals and snacks. A little shift in dietary awareness, combined with better eating can give the very best long-term results. I love cooking and over the past 30 years have taught many students how to prepare tasty wholesome food for themselves, family, and dinner guests. How to balance, mix, and match meals and get food on the table - quick and easy – all gluten-free - no fuss. Talking to a health-wise friend recently he remarked “I’m glad you’re doing this (Nutrition and You cooking videos) because so many people are clueless as to how to feed themselves properly, it’s turning into a dying art.”

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In her youth, Irene trained for the Olympics as a middle-distance runner. When her trainer said "Eat better or leave the team" she took his good advice seriously and made sensible and practical dietary changes. A practitioner who "practices what she preaches", this lady is firmly committed to helping people obtain good health through better nutrition in conjunction with appropriate lifestyle changes.

Qualifications

  • Diploma of Medical Herbalism

 

  • Diploma of Iridology

 

  • Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Nutrition

 

  • The Advanced Certificate in Natural Fertility Management & Better Babies Preconception Health Care

 

  • Hemaview Live Blood Screening

 

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  • High Blood Morphology (HRBM) and Heitan-LeGarde-Bradford (HLB)

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  • Certificate of Clinical Prescribing

 

  • Level 2 Raindrop Massage

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  • Eye Diagnosis 2

 

  • Eye Diagnosis 1

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My journey

  • Diploma of Natural Therapies

 

  • Touch for Health

 

  • Psychiatric Nursing Certificate

 

  • Obstetrics Certificate

 

  • General Nurses Certificate

 

  • Certificate Tasmanian Auxiliary Nurse

I grew up on a dairy farm and completed general nursing in Launceston Tasmania, then obstetrics and psychiatry nursing training in Sydney. Moved to Canberra in 1974, raised two wonderful children and studied herbal medicine, iridology, clinical nutrition, Live Blood Morphology, Chinese Medicine and have kept up continuous naturopathic ongoing education.

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I’ve always loved running. That’s where my journey to eating better began. It was during my general nursing training in Launceston, Tasmania, when running for pleasure around an oval close to the hospital, that a running coach asked me to join their team. Bill said I had running potential, and he would like to coach me as part of his running team. So, I joined the boys’ running team as ladies weren’t doing much distance running at the time.


One evening I was burping after a few good laps on the running track. Bill enquired about my eating habits as good nutrition was part of his training program. I politely replied and explained about the overcooked hospital food in the nurse’s quarters, and that we could have a salad once week if we ordered it the day before. He scoffed and said if I didn’t eat better, I could leave the running team. At first, I thought he was joking. Then Bill looked over his shoulder, came closer, lowered his head, and said, “get some books on good nutrition kid”.


I read every good nutritional book on the market, started to look after myself much better and learned to cook. My running times improved greatly and despite working six days a week in nurse training (which we did back then), riding and grooming my horse most days of the week, plus nursing studies and assignments to do; - I felt amazingly well and so much better and happier within myself than before.

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Hope to connect with you soon.

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Irene

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