Dr Alyssa Burns-Hill, PhD, MSc, FRSPH, IHPE Alyssa is a leading holistic Hormone Health Specialist with clinics in Harley Street, London, Channel Islands and an international virtual clinic through Skype, Facetime or landline. Alyssa s work brings in her academic background in Health Promotion (MSc) when she studied: psychology, sociology, epidemiology, communications, and health promotion theory and practice amongst other subjects. Her dissertation theme was, A critical analysis of the current communcation relationship of the television health educator and his/her audience: A health promotion perspective. Alyssa also did in depth research on hormone health (PhD), in particular focusing on, Holistic healing from breast cancer through the lens of hormones: Synopsis and synthesis. Alyssa says My work aims to educate you so that you understand why you feel the way you feel and how we can move you to a better place of wellbeing so that you can look after yourself in the longer term. For absolute clarity Alyssa is not a medical doctor
What is holistic hormone health? Holistic hormone health acknowledges that your glands and their hormones are part of a system and that looking at the system as a whole is just as important as looking at some of the individual hormones. The principle can be summed up perfectly with the metaphor, a forest cannot be explained by studying each tree individually. A forest is not a tree, but it is a system of trees. You are not the pieces of your body, you are much more than the sum of it. After evaluation, through advanced hormone testing and analysis, I work with natural products to support your body back to better wellbeing. Your body is the most complex biochemical factory beyond man s imagination or understanding. So, if we can support it on a number of levels, established through looking at hormones, progress can be seen very quickly. For the vast majority of people I work with I expect significant improvement within six weeks and this is improvement can be quantified and qualified. A forest is not a tree, but a system of trees. You are not the pieces of your body, you are more than the sum of it.
How do I know if it s my hormones? Hormones affect us physically, mentally and emotionally so it s not just about women s problems! From a hormone point of view the following are some critical areas that are affected by your hormones: reaction to stress weight problems - weight gain at the hips or around the middle relate to different hormones fertility, PMS, menopause, PCOS - these female problems are not just about one hormone depression, anxiety, nervousness, tearfulness - emotional health is a big part of hormone health memory and foggy thinking - mental health is a big part of hormone health headaches and migraines tiredness and fatigue aches and pains, decreased muscle mass loss of libido sleep... and so much more
Your Consultation - Harley Street, Channel Islands or Virtual (Skype/Facetime/Phone) An initial consultation is to discuss your problem areas and your history. This discussion will consider you as a person, so it will look at physical, mental and emotional influences and factors. This discussion helps me to build a map that represents your health, your lifestyle and your history. With this information I can explain many whys and wherefores of your health. Then, it can be assessed if advanced hormone testing is right for you and, if so, which test would be right for you. Some people prefer to go straight for testing because they know that they want or need a comprehensive review. This is absolutely fine, the only disadvantage is that when I write up the hormone evaluation I won t have a history to draw upon. (This can be discussed in the post-test follow-up briefly.) 60 minute and 45 minute consults include a follow up email. Initial Consultation Post Test Consultation Follow Up Consultations 60 minutes - 175 or 45 minutes - 135 30 minutes - 95 45 minutes - 135 (your choice) Mini Consultations - 15 minutes - 50
Advanced Hormone Testing I work with a CLIA-certified testing facility that uses cuttingedge technology to evaluate your saliva and blood spot samples. Samples that can be provided in the comfort and privacy of your own home wherever you live. (No additional costs for blood draws or couriering your samples to the lab because they can be posted.) There is a comprehensive signs and symptoms questionniare that asks you questions across the physical, mental and emotional levels. These questions are correlated with specific hormone imbalances. This provides context for your lab results so that I can assess the relative impact of your results with much more accuracy and meaning for you. The testing that I work with is often more extensive and accurate than the venous blood testing panels that your doctor works with. (Full clinical references for this type of advanced hormone testing are available on my website.) Testing includes: kit, questionnaire of signs and symptons, lab tests and extensive report - 80-345
Advanced hormone testing includes evaluation of your bio-available levels of hormones (the ones that are available to work), comprehensive signs and symptom assessment and a written report to explain why you feel the way you feel.
Advanced Analysis - which experience do you look for? In Range or Out of Range? or Your History With an extensive multi page report
Advanced Analysis is All About You! I don t look at lab results with a view to simply saying whether or not you re in normal range or not. Analysis of all the data I collect enables a more three dimensional context of interpretation of your health problems in relation to these advanced hormone tests. This approach: helps to make your health experiences make more sense to you; addresses the health problems with joined-up thinking across the physical, mental and emotional levels; starts the process of your education when you work with me. My aims are to empower you to look after yourself more effectively in the longer term. My experience shows me that when someone understands why they feel the way they feel it brings: a huge sense of relief, based on understanding and being understood; a sense of empowerment at being able to address the problems in a health-supporting manner in, most often, a relatively short timeframe.
Can a more natural approach really work? I walk my talk. When I was 38 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer (only 3% of breast lumps in women under 40 are cancerous) and I was zero on all the recognised risk factors. The hardest, and first thing I did following diagnosis was keying the words breast cancer into Google because this time it was about me, and that was a hard admission to make. Little did I realise at that time it was to be the start of a completely unexpected journey into natural health and what it might be able to do for me. My research made me start to question the very different medical approaches, evaluate the clinical studies and review the outcomes in terms of assault on the body, mind and soul. This was when the penny dropped! It boiled down to a simple question that I had to ask myself. Did I want what was effectively a toxic treatment that focused on killing a disease and my role to be totally passive? Or, did I want a non-toxic approach that was focused on health and wellbeing and in which I could be totally involved and active? To me, it suddenly became a no-brainer. I chose health over disease. All that took place in 2001. NB: This is not a claim for curing cancer - this is demonstration of my faith and understanding of what I practice as a professional.
Health is not just a physical quality. Health is not just the absence of disease and maintaining good health doesn t mean compromising on enjoyment in your life! A lot of people report long term symptoms without a specific label of a disease-state or condition. This is not your doctor s fault. Doctors are trained to identify a recognised disease-state and to prescribe an authorised treatment approach. If your symptoms fall outside either of these boundaries you are likely to be told that there is nothing wrong with you or, perhaps, it s part of the ageing process. So, what if you are given a prescription? How do you feel about it? You may be amongst the many who choose not to take the drug you are prescribed for a variety of reasons. You may not like the side effects, you don t like the risks noted in the leaflet, you don t want a drug that just addresses the symptoms and not an underlying cause? Did you know that the British Medical Journal has a website called Clinical Excellence that was established to examine the evidence for drug treatments to help patients and their doctors make better informed decisions about their use of drugs. It reveals that: 13% of treatments were found to be of definite benefit to the patient; 23% may be beneficial; 8% are a trade-off between harm and potential benefit; 6% are deemed unlikely to be beneficial; 4% are likely to be ineffective or harmful; 46% were assessed to be of unknown effectiveness. (2009)
A natural approach is the origin of medicine as well as the future A lot of people today suffer with chronic illness. This is a health problem that persists and doesn t heal by itself, it gets worse as time goes by and there are a lot of, seemingly, separate problems. People often come to realise that a drug for a symptom is not presenting a cure. Hippocrates, known as the father of medicine, is attributed to promoting the healing power of nature (vis medicatix naturae). This phrase is all inclusive of your diet and lifestyle, however a therapeutic regime today will need to include nutritional supplements not least because the modern diet is so nutritionally poor and the modern lifestyle is full of stress (which causes high excretion of important nutrients) and usually poor on exercise or physical movement! These considerations address you as a person with a life and, with a focus of looking at you through the lens of hormones, we have a detailed, yet more holistic viewpoint to begin to support your immunity, cognitive faculties, metabolism, reproductive health, blood sugar regulation, blood pressure... with a positive health strategy that makes a measureable difference for the vast majority of people within six weeks. PubMed is a vast database of published medical journal articles and it is run by the US National Institutes of Health. If you do a search on hormones and health there are nearly 80,000 papers (January 2015) that have been published within those parameters. Hormones really can be a window on many aspects of health and wellbeing!
Testimonials Within minutes of talking to the emphathetic Dr B-H, I was a sobbing, snot-pouring wreck. She asked spot-on, prescient questions. She wasn t overly concerned about the prolactin rise, as that s a typical response to stress. No, the real culprit was drained adrenals, which would sent a saint out of whack. Bereavement, she explained, is tiring and when your adrenals are compromised, you feel weak and vulnerable... Anna Pasternak, Tatler Magazine, 2013 I just wanted to let you know that our baby arrived. I will always really appreciate the help you gave me when I came to see you. You helped me so much with my crazy hormones which were all over the place and falling pregnant was definitely enabled by all your help and guidance. Anna, UK I wanted to say a huge thank you for all your help over the past months. It is so fab to be me again and to have energy to enjoy life. You truly are a God-send. I have already recommended you to three of my friends who will definitely benefit from your help. Thanks so much. Carrie-Anne, UK I m writing to inform you that I am feeling very much improved. My memory has improved my general mood has uplifted and I no longer am depressed. I have lost weight, but most importantly, that bulge around the hips has disappeared allowing the feminine curves to re-appear. Sandie, Greece... more can be seen with Case Histories on Alyssa s website
0203 289 8116 or 01534 522151 www.dralyssaburns-hill.com @ enquiries@dralyssaburns-hill.com or alyssa@dralyssaburns-hill.com