When trying to get better becomes complicated
Living with chronic illness is hard enough. But trying to understand what might help can become complicated too.
The researching.
The appointments.
The supplements.
The symptom tracking.
The constant wondering what to try next.
The different explanations for what might be going on.
If that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.
When trying to get better becomes complicated
Living with chronic illness is hard enough. But trying to understand what might help can become complicated too.
The researching.
The appointments.
The supplements.
The symptom tracking.
The constant wondering what to try next.
The different explanations for what might be going on.
If that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.
You might recognise yourself here...
You’ve read so much about your health that you’re no longer sure what to believe.
You’ve tried treatments, supplements or different approaches and aren’t really sure what has made a difference.
Your symptoms don’t always seem to make sense, and you’re not sure what deserves looking at next.
Every new recommendation gives you something else to research, pay for or decide.
You’re worried about stopping something in case your health gets worse – or it might have helped if you’d just given it a bit longer.
You’re spending more time, money and energy trying to get better than you ever imagined – and sometimes you miss having more of your life back.
You don’t need to tick every box.
If even a couple of these feel familiar, you’re in the right place.
When it all starts to get difficult to make sense of
When you’ve been unwell for a long time, you can end up trying to make sense of an extraordinary amount.
Symptoms that change. Tests and appointments. Treatments and supplements. Things you’ve read. Things people have suggested. Different ideas about what might be going on.
Some of it may be genuinely useful.
The difficult bit is working out how it all fits together.
What do your symptoms seem to be telling you? What changed when? What might be worth looking at more closely? What is this treatment or protocol actually trying to do? How good is the evidence behind the claims? What still needs asking or checking?
This is where much of my work sits.
I research and explain complicated health information, look critically at common approaches and help people unpick what they’re already dealing with so they can see more clearly where to focus next.
I’m not there to diagnose you or decide what you should take. And I’m not there to persuade you to stop looking for answers.
I’m there to help make the search more useful.
The aim isn’t to stop looking for answers.
It’s to make the search more useful.
A note from Jo
For years I watched my own family live like this.
Our lives revolved around appointments, supplements, researching and trying to make sense of symptoms that changed on a daily basis.
Like so many families, we kept hoping the next thing might finally be the thing that helped.
Then one day I realised something. We weren’t only living with illness. We were constantly trying to understand what was happening and what might help next.
Some of what we learnt genuinely did help our son, who eventually became well again. That experience is one reason I still believe in looking carefully for things that may help – while being honest about how complicated that search can become.
Over those years I also became very good at finding research, comparing different explanations, questioning claims and turning complicated information into something we could actually understand.
That changed how I think about chronic illness.
And it’s why I do the work I do today.
How I can help
My work brings together science, research, health education, lived experience and coaching.
I write about treatments, supplements, tests, protocols and common chronic-illness ideas – what they’re trying to do, what the science says and where the claims may be stronger than the evidence.
I explain complicated health information
I help you unpick what’s happening
We can look at symptoms, timelines, changes you’ve made, things you’ve tried and what happened afterwards. I’m not diagnosing the cause, but putting the pieces in order can make it much easier to see what deserves looking at next.
I believe the foundations of health matter too
Food, sleep, light, appropriate movement, rest and connection can all support health. That does not mean chronic illness is caused by poor lifestyle choices, or that getting these things ‘right’ will fix everything.
I help you work out what makes sense from here
That might mean something worth researching further, a better question for an appointment, an approach you want to understand properly, something useful you want to keep doing, or something that doesn’t need another decision today.
Choose where you'd like to start
“I’ve tried so much I’m not sure what’s helping anymore”
Read ‘When Nothing Seems to Help’
“I want clear health information I can actually understand”
Browse my articles and practical resources
A few kind words
‘I turned up in tears, embarrassed and overwhelmed, and she just listened.’
Hannah H.
‘She never rushed me and never made me feel stupid for worrying.’
Rachel S.
‘I finally feel like I’m not failing my daughter anymore.’
Kate W.
A free guide
'Making Sense of Your Supplements'
If your supplement cupboard has gradually filled up and you’re no longer quite sure why you started some of it, whether you feel it’s helping or what you still want to know about it, I’ve put together a short guide that may help.
It will help you get everything onto one list, look more closely at up to three supplements and work out which questions you might want to answer next.