Women In Wellness: Helen Taylor On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Today, more than ever, wellness is at the forefront of societal discussions. From mental health to physical well-being women are making significant strides in bringing about change, introducing innovative solutions, and setting new standards. Despite facing unique challenges, they break barriers, inspire communities, and are reshaping the very definition of health and wellness. In this series called Women in Wellness, we talk to women doctors, nurses, nutritionists, therapists, fitness trainers, researchers, health experts, coaches, and other wellness professionals to share their stories and insights. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Helen Taylor. 

Helen Taylor, MSc (Dist), fCMgr, MHP, Dip. Functional Wellness, premier wellness concierge, offers personalized integrative healthcare that transforms lifestyles and improves long-term outcomes. Helen holds a master’s degree in biomedical science and genetic and regenerative medicine, with a specialization in molecular and cellular immunology. She brings over 20 years of experience to her wellness coaching practice.
Helen began her professional career in the 1990s as a systems engineer. In 2003, she shifted gears to break into the beauty and wellness industry, and later, she was inspired to study functional medicine. This 180-degree turn was partly due to a negative traditional medical experience her partner endured years ago. Helen had always been fascinated by science and biology, and she couldn’t help but wonder if there was a better way to treat illnesses.
Today, Helen brings decades of experience to her work as an integrative health expert. She has always been passionate about offering the latest treatments and referencing the most up-to-date science. She guides her clients through various health-related concerns, using research-backed strategies to address root causes and heal clients from the inside out. Tailoring her techniques to each customer’s unique needs allows Helen to provide a range of bespoke wellness treatments.
Helen’s integrative approach to wellness is disrupting the market, as many of her contemporaries focus on treating symptoms rather than root causes. Working with people from all walks of life, she offers programs that can aid with metabolic health rebalance and reset, thyroid optimization and detoxification, as well as reversing biological aging. For Helen, wellness coaching is not just a profession; it’s a passion that drives her to create positive transformations for each client.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
Twenty years ago, I suffered badly with my periods and continued to do so with no real understanding as to why. As time went by, I thought it was normal and never really thought to ask WHY? But over the years, I began to wonder. I just got told to keep using medication or have surgery and that it was just the way I was. Finally, it got so bad that I had no choice—hindsight, however, tells me that I did have a choice—and needed to have a hysterectomy. Thankfully, I worked with a hormone specialist who carefully prescribed bioidentical hormones for me so that I wouldn’t feel the full effects of menopause at such an early age. Fast forward to now, and I recognize that I was progesterone deficient all of my life, which was what caused the horrendous bleeding and pain, endured for that time, and it was preventable. However, in the UK, these things have not been tested for by our National Health Service or even identified as a problem.

Similarly, my partner also became really unwell with bloating, sensitivity to foods, constant viral infections, etc., with no explanation. Again, the MDs just told him his results came back normal when, in fact, after he asked me to help him, he had H Pylori, SIBO and a heap of metabolic dysfunction that was the root cause of his illness. With my WHY, my mind fully engaged, and I decided I had to make a directional change in my career and help others who are having the same problem we have. This led to me completing my MSc and starting my PhD soon in the wellness field.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
Stress, sleep deprivation, overwhelm, mitochondrial health, metabolic and mental health, and hormone health all play a crucial role in identifying root causes of health disruption. Stress is the point that leads to disruptions in every chemical pathway in the body. 99% of women want to lose weight. However, in order for your body to release, you need to be metabolically well and flexible. You'll never do that if you are metabolically unwell and have high cortisol, especially if you are in perimenopausal or menopausal. Symptoms around this should not occur if you are metabolically well.

I have a client who said to me "I wouldn't say that there is anything wrong with me, but the MD has put me on statins and says verging on diabetes; that can be possible...." I did some tests and told them their MD was right; however, they've not told you the full picture, “You are really sick, your body is breaking down, and if you don't do something about it now, you're heading for a cardiovascular event imminently.” As it happens, they took on board what I said, admitted they were going through a big merger at work, had an incredibly busy mind, sleeping barely four hours per night, running daily to relieve stress, and not nourishing the body in any way. They just were not aware of what their body actually wanted and needed. My takeaway would be to listen to your body; it's with you now, and it regularly tries to tell you what you need.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I would never look at anything within health as a mistake because what we have to look at are the issues faced by patients in need. It is about getting them to understand the mistakes they have made to get them where they are now and how to get them back to full health. I help them solve the puzzle that they present after searching for a long time to get to the root cause of the issues they are facing.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
People are suffering because they are being looked at from a symptomatic perspective rather than a root cause, epigenetic and metabolic approach. I help improve my patients’ environment and world, leading to them being the best version of themselves in the best health, which helps them flourish from the inside out.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better well-being? Please give an example or story for each.
The lifestyle/prescriptive values that I work in are:
1 . Sleep
● Achieving 7-8 hours of sleep enables your body to repair.
● Avoiding blue light.
● Allowing your circadian rhythm to reset.

2 . Sunlight
● Enabling your body to see sunlight in the morning into your eyes wakes up your Pineal gland which then
tells other functions/services in the body to wake up.
● Watching the sunset does the opposite and tells your body to prepare to sleep.
● Sunglasses prevent your exposure and then prevent your Pineal gland from waking your body up.

3 . Nutritional Therapy
● Appropriately hydrate.
● Removing processed toxic foods/sugars.

4 . Movement/Meditation/Stillness
● Allowing your body to move.
● Checking in with your mind and body,
● Being able to control your narrative within your values.

5 . Relationship with Self and Self-reflection
● Putting yourself first.
● Observing how you react, and question why.
● Learning self-preservation.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would remove sugar entirely from the food isles and remove foods that have more than one ingredient! If you are feeding yourself from the middle isles of the supermarket, then you will be malnourished. If you eat from a box, you will be malnourished. These things lead to tiredness, metabolic dysfunction and mental health problems, just to name a few. Whole foods don't have any ingredients.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
I noticed that there are massive holes in the field of health and wellness. People were accepting being sick as the new norm. Examples of this are people saying, “‘It's my age,” or “I can’t do XYZ anymore like I used to.” The real question is: WHY NOT? A human body can live easily to 120 years of age; it's what we do to disrupt it that causes the body to fail prematurely.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Environmental changes are most important to me. This includes external toxicity that we are now exposed to, which didn't exist in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. So we have to look at the significance and connection between what's in our drinking water, which is full of antibiotics, fluoride, chloride, etc, that all create metabolic dysfunction and others. Examples of toxicity within wellness also include hormones and, therefore, endocrine disruptors, which mimic symptoms of depression, pain and tiredness without reason. Women use a lot of body creams, face creams and makeup, which are full of toxicity from the plastic they are encased in to the ingredient list. Your skin is your largest organ, and it absorbs it all.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
Please follow my Instagram account, @thewellness_concierge, and check out my website https://www.thewellness-concierge.com/.

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.