After more than 40 years working in the health industry, Kawerau-based health practitioner Susan Birch has turned her experience into a new book aimed at helping people better understand their bodies and make informed health choices.

The Health Detective’s Handbook draws on Birch’s decades of work in exercise, nutrition, nutritional biochemistry, blood chemistry and functional medicine.

“I just thought it was time,” Birch said of writing the book.

“There’s so much confusion about health out there,” she said.

“About what to eat, how to exercise, and the public get really confused.

“I thought it was kind of time to try and bridge that gap between the scientific world and what everyday people need to know and understand to be able to make better choices for themselves.”

Birch encourages readers to think like “health detectives” by looking beyond individual symptoms and instead identifying patterns and asking questions about what their bodies may be telling them.

The book explores how food, movement, sleep, stress, recovery, mindset and the environment can influence how people feel and function.

Birch said the book was divided into six sections, beginning with the brain and how it can influence people’s health choices.

“The first part of my book is about how our brain is working, why that happens, kind of how what we eat really affects why that happens,” she said.

The book then looks at energy, nutrition, exercise and recovery, before bringing the different elements together.

“When we feel good, it’s because we’ve got tonnes of energy,” Birch said.

The nutrition section looks at different foods and their effects, while other chapters cover areas including stress, sleep, breathing and getting enough natural light.

“The book includes 17 case studies, which are real people that I have worked with, and diagrams to help explain things.”

The book is designed to be read from beginning to end or dipped into according to what is most relevant to the reader.

Birch began studying exercise and nutrition science in 1986 and later trained in functional medicine, nutritional biochemistry and blood chemistry analysis.

She holds a Master of Health Sciences, along with postgraduate diplomas in Sports Medicine, Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation, Musculoskeletal Medicine and Community Nutrition from the University of Otago.

She now runs an online nutrition practice from her Kawerau home.

Birch said her aim with the book was to give people information and tools they could use to better understand their own health, and the title of the book emerged from when her clients began calling her the “Health Detective” because of her approach to looking for connections between symptoms and the factors that may be contributing to them.

Readers can purchase The Health Detective’s Handbook through Paper Plus, order it through the store if it is not in stock, or buy it online through Birch’s website, www.birch.co.nz