DR JENNIFER HEWITT
Jennifer graduated with an award-winning PhD in exercise physiology in 2008. At the same time she was competing at an elite level in cycling & triathlon. The combination of her PhD in exercise and health (breast cancer survivorship) with her elite sport experience provided her with in depth understanding of how our lifestyles (nutrition, exercise, stress management, sleep optimisation) affect our risk of becoming ill, developing chronic metabolic disease and impact our ability to mentally and physically perform.
Jennifer specialises in both the areas of health optimisation and sports performance. She works with corporate clients to optimise their health and well being, improve productivity and support cognitive performance, while also supporting many individuals who suffer from chronic health conditions. Jennifer is the only female to provide training and lifestyle interventions to support 4 x 24H Le Mans wins. Her clients include Olympic athletes, celebrities, WEC, Stock Car, Team New Zealand Equestrian, top jockeys and elite endurance athletes.
How can functional medicine improve my health or performance?
Functional medicine can help to improve the symptoms of numerous chronic diseases and conditions to support your return to health, and/ or to optimise your professional/ athletic performance. Importantly, it addresses you as a whole person and provides a preventative medicine approach towards your healthy longevity and wellbeing.
Jennifer works to discover the underlying causes of what is making you feel unwell or underperform through biochemical and/ or metabolic testing, rather than only addressing your visible symptoms. One condition can have many different causes, while one cause can create many different conditions. The aim is always a root cause approach that supports your physical and cognitive performance to optimise your complete health and wellbeing. Performance is always about achieving body balance and harmony.
Working with Jennifer will provide an individualised, science-based, preventative approach to your health. This ensures that your health or performance plan is centred around you and that it uses a multi-dimensional treatment approach (testing, nutrition, supplementation, exercise, sleep/ stress management) to achieve your wellness goals.
Specialist Areas:
Athletic/ sport performance: sports specific nutrition and training analysis/ advice, under performance syndrome, weight management.
Chronic fatigue: lethargy/ unexplained tiredness, brain fog, intolerance to exercise, sleep disturbance.
Gut problems: bloating, abdominal discomfort, diarrhoea or constipation, IBS/ IBD, SIBO, candida, gall bladder stones.
Mental health: depression, anxiety, poor cognitive function/ burn out.
Rheumatoid arthritis
Skin conditions: eczema and psoriasis.
Weight loss
Women’s health and hormones: ante/ postnatal support, candida, endometriosis, fertility, hormonal cancers, perimenopause/ menopause, PCOS and PMS.
My Approach
Jennifer is an expert in exercise physiology and a registered nutritionist, who is passionate about health and wellness. She has a unique ability to integrate performance exercise physiology alongside nutrition to achieve your health goals. Her approach is to support/ correct your metabolic imbalances and deficiencies through analysis, testing and a multi-dimensional programme. Jennifer optimises your health by centring on you as a person, and believes that “Protect - Replenish - Restore” is key to our well being.
Health
Jennifer is passionate about helping people to become healthier and happier. Her client’s concerns range from allergies and autoimmunity, asthma, arthritis, chronic fatigue, cognitive decline, digestive health/ gut symptoms, fertility, glandular fever, peri/ post-menopausal support, pregnancy support, skin complaints and weight loss. She also has a special interest in combatting the effects of ageing and improving skin health, and in 2020 launched her own health and wellbeing product Collagen Vitality.
Performance
Jennifer has 15 years elite sports performance experience, training world class athletes to multiple championship successes. She provides a unique 360 degree approach that can include diagnostic physiological and nutritional testing, lifestyle management and specific training and nutrition prescription. This combination pin points exact areas for support, to help ensure your optimal performance gains, while also helping to prevent under performance syndrome.