VJ Hamilton: The Autoimmunity Nutritionist

VJ Hamilton: The Autoimmunity Nutritionist I'm VJ, and I am a Nutritionist and Autoimmune Disease Expert.

I think one of the things chronic illness can quietly take from you is the belief that you might actually feel well agai...
09/09/2026

I think one of the things chronic illness can quietly take from you is the belief that you might actually feel well again.

When you've been tired, in pain or dealing with symptoms for years, you adapt. You become incredibly good at working around how you feel. You lower your expectations, stop making certain plans and eventually, what started as feeling unwell can simply become your normal.

I know this because I did it too.

For years, I organised my life around how much energy I had. There were things I wanted to do that I simply didn't believe my body would cope with, and after a while I stopped expecting that to change.

I don't believe positive thinking cures chronic illness. You cannot think your way out of an autoimmune condition or replace appropriate medical care with affirmations.

But I do think what we believe is possible can influence what we do next.

If you've accepted that exhaustion, pain, poor digestion or brain fog is simply who you are now, you may be less likely to remain curious, ask different questions or notice the small signs that something is improving.

And recovery isn't always dramatic.

Sometimes it's doing something you couldn't do six months ago. Recovering more quickly after exercise. Making plans without calculating how exhausted they'll leave you. Realising you haven't thought about a symptom for days because it simply hasn't been there.

Perhaps the goal isn't to convince yourself that you're definitely going to get well. Perhaps it's simply not closing the door on the possibility that how you feel today isn't necessarily how you'll always feel.

This is something I’ll be talking about next week when I’m speaking alongside at her Wellbeing Rituals UK Leadership Immersion in London, where I’ll be sharing more of my own story and what I’ve learned about understanding our health differently.

If you’d like to join us in London on 17 September, comment KOYA and I’ll send you the details.

07/09/2026

Sometimes the biggest change comes from looking at the same situation differently.

I loved this part of my conversation with Dr Rachel Morris because so many of us have an internal story that says being a good person means being available, saying yes, helping, taking responsibility and not letting other people down.

But the problem isn't necessarily that we care too much. It’s what happens when caring turns into carrying too much.

You say yes to one more thing because saying no feels uncomfortable. You take on the extra responsibility because you know you can do it. You keep going because other people are relying on you.

And for a while, you probably can.

But there comes a point where continually overriding your own capacity starts to affect how you feel, how you work and ultimately how much you have left to give to anybody else.

That’s why I think Rachel’s perspective here is so useful.

Saying no to something today doesn’t necessarily mean you’re letting somebody down. Sometimes it means recognising that your time, energy and capacity are finite, and making a decision that allows you to still be there for the people and things that matter tomorrow.

It’s a small shift in perspective, but it can make a massive difference.

We talked much more about this in my conversation with Dr Rachel Morris on The Autoimmune RESET, including the responsibility trap, overwhelm and why capable people can find it particularly difficult to recognise when they’re doing too much.

If this resonates, comment BOUNDARIES and I’ll send you the full episode.

There are times when looking after your mental health absolutely requires professional support. But I also think there’s...
02/09/2026

There are times when looking after your mental health absolutely requires professional support. But I also think there’s something incredibly valuable in understanding the everyday things that help you feel mentally well.

The things that help you feel calmer. The habits that make you more resilient. The early signs that tell you you're becoming overwhelmed, anxious or simply not feeling quite like yourself.

Because while we can't control everything that affects our mental health, there are often small things within our own lives that can make a meaningful difference.

I really enjoyed contributing to this piece for Women’s Health, which explores exactly that: the things we can do ourselves to support our mental health, while recognising that they aren't a replacement for therapy or appropriate medical care.

For me, this is personal too. I lived with health anxiety for years, and although it still makes an appearance from time to time, it no longer has anything like the hold over my life that it once did.

There wasn't one magic thing that changed that. Over time, I began to understand what genuinely helped me, from the way I eat and look after my physical health to exercise, sleep and managing stress, alongside becoming much more aware of the thought patterns I can slip into.

And I think that's the useful takeaway from this piece.

You don't have to wait until you're struggling to understand what supports your mental health.

Start noticing what makes a difference. The days you feel calmer or more resilient, what have you done differently? What helps you come back to yourself when things feel overwhelming? And equally, what tends to make things worse?

The answers will look different for all of us, but knowing yours can be incredibly useful.

Thank you to for including me in the piece.

What have you learned genuinely helps your mental health? I'd love to know.

01/09/2026

Hair loss has a way of making you focus almost entirely on your hair.

The shedding. The thinning. The regrowth. The products you’re using. Your ferritin level. Whether something you’re eating is making it worse.

And of course, the hair itself needs to be properly assessed. Different types of hair loss can have very different underlying mechanisms and need different approaches.

But I also think it’s important to understand what was happening in the wider body around the time the hair loss began.

Changes in thyroid function, nutrient status, hormones, energy intake, illness, medication, digestion, stress and recovery can all provide useful context, depending on the individual and the type of hair loss.

This doesn’t mean there is always a hidden “root cause” waiting to be found, or that every symptom you’ve experienced is somehow connected to your hair.

It simply means that sometimes we learn more when we widen the lens.

I’ve experienced alopecia myself, and September being Alopecia Awareness Month feels like a good opportunity to talk more about both the lived experience of hair loss and what I now understand clinically.

I’ll be sharing much more throughout the month.

hairlosssupport autoimmunehealth autoimmunedisease womenshealth symptomintelligence

If you know someone struggling with hair loss, please share this with them.

alopeciaawarenessmonth alopecia alopeciaareata hairloss womenshairloss

September is Alopecia Awareness Month, and with it starting tomorrow, I wanted to begin with something I wish more peopl...
31/08/2026

September is Alopecia Awareness Month, and with it starting tomorrow, I wanted to begin with something I wish more people knew about investigating hair loss.

When your hair starts falling out, understandably, your attention goes straight to your hair. You notice what comes out in the shower, what is left in your hairbrush and whether your parting looks different from one week to the next. Before long, you can find yourself trying new shampoos, serums and supplements, looking at your ferritin and focusing almost entirely on encouraging the hair to grow back.

I understand that very well. I developed alopecia areata when I was seven, and I know how consuming hair loss can become.

But one of the most useful things I've learned, both through my own experience and from working with women with hair loss, is the importance of sometimes looking beyond the hair itself.

The type of hair loss matters, but so does the wider context in which it developed. I look at the timeline, nutritional status, thyroid function, hormones, diet and energy intake, digestion, illness, medication, stress and recovery, alongside other changes that may have been happening in the body around the same time.

Not because all of these things will be relevant to every person, or because every case of hair loss has an underlying nutritional or hormonal explanation. Often they won't. But sometimes the wider health picture gives us information that looking at the hair alone cannot.

For me, that's the important shift: the place where a symptom appears isn't necessarily the only place we should be looking.

Throughout September, I'll be sharing much more about alopecia and hair loss, including some of my own experience, what I understand differently now and what I look at clinically.

If you're struggling with hair loss and feel like you've tried everything, comment HAIR and I'll send you some information about how I work with clients.

One of the things I find interesting about finally getting a diagnosis is the relief that can come with having an explan...
28/08/2026

One of the things I find interesting about finally getting a diagnosis is the relief that can come with having an explanation for how you've been feeling.

But after a while, that diagnosis can also become the explanation for everything.

I see this particularly with hypothyroidism. You're exhausted, so it must be your thyroid. Your hair starts falling out, your brain feels foggy, you're constipated, struggling with your weight or feeling cold... and because these are all symptoms we associate with hypothyroidism, it's very easy to stop looking any further.

Sometimes, of course, your thyroid is part of the problem.

But one of the things I spend a lot of time doing with clients is asking what doesn't quite fit.

If your thyroid markers have been relatively stable, why has your energy suddenly changed? If the hair loss is new, what else was happening when it started? If you're in your 40s and suddenly sleeping badly, feeling exhausted and struggling to concentrate, could perimenopause be contributing too?

Iron and ferritin, B12 and folate, sleep, nutrient absorption, gut health, stress, female hormones and how well you're producing and using energy can all influence symptoms that we very easily label as “thyroid”.

This doesn't mean dismissing the thyroid. It means looking at the whole person rather than attributing every symptom to the diagnosis they already have.

I think that's an important distinction.

Because a diagnosis can explain some of what is happening without necessarily explaining all of it.

In this week's Friday Five episode of The Autoimmune RESET podcast, I'm sharing five things I'd investigate if you have hypothyroidism and still feel exhausted, particularly if you've been told your thyroid results are “normal”.

Comment THYROID and I'll send it to you when it's released.



📷by the wonderful

25/08/2026

One thing I see time and time again with my clients living with autoimmune disease and chronic illness is just how much they are carrying.

And often, they are the person everyone else relies on.

They're managing their symptoms alongside a career, children, elderly parents, a home, relationships and all the mental load that comes with keeping those things going. Yet asking someone else to take something off their plate can feel incredibly difficult.

I recognised so much of what Lisa said here because I was exactly the same.

I didn't like asking for help either. Partly because I was very independent, but also because somewhere along the way I'd associated coping with being capable. Asking for help could feel like admitting that I wasn't managing as well as I thought I should be.

And I see versions of this with clients all the time.

They will change their diet, take supplements, go to appointments, work on their sleep and try to find the next thing that might help them feel better, while still carrying exactly the same load they were carrying when they became unwell.

Sometimes they even take on more work around their health.

I don't think the answer to chronic illness is simply “reduce your stress”. Life doesn't work like that, and stress is only one part of a much bigger biological picture.

But I do think it's worth asking:

What am I carrying because it genuinely has to be mine, and what am I carrying because I find it difficult to let somebody else help me?

As Lisa says, people often want to help.

And perhaps allowing them to isn't weakness or giving up some of your independence. Sometimes it's simply recognising that your energy is a resource too.

I loved this part of my conversation with Lisa Johnson on The Autoimmune RESET Podcast. We spoke about chronic illness, ambition, asking for help and what happens when you're mentally ready to keep pushing but physically it feels like you're “wading through treacle”.

Comment “LISA” and I’ll send you the full episode of my conversation with Lisa Johnson.

You might be getting less omega-3 than you think.I see this quite often in people who don't eat oily fish regularly, and...
24/08/2026

You might be getting less omega-3 than you think.

I see this quite often in people who don't eat oily fish regularly, and particularly in vegetarians and vegans. You might be eating walnuts, flaxseed and chia seeds and assume you have your omega-3 covered, but these predominantly provide ALA, which then needs to be converted into the longer-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. And that conversion can be limited, particularly for DHA.

Sometimes there are little clues too.

Dry or irritated skin is an interesting example. Fatty acids form an important part of the lipids that help maintain our skin barrier, keeping water in and helping protect us from the outside environment. EPA and DHA are also involved in inflammatory signalling and the processes that help resolve inflammation.

But dry skin, brain fog, fatigue or joint stiffness don't automatically mean you're deficient in omega-3. These symptoms can have many different causes.

This is where the Omega-3 Index can be useful.

Rather than guessing from symptoms, it measures the amount of EPA and DHA in your red blood cell membranes as a percentage of total fatty acids, giving us a more objective picture of longer-term omega-3 status.

If yours is low, food is where I would start. Oily fish such as sardines, salmon, mackerel and herring are particularly rich in EPA and DHA. If you don't eat fish, algae-derived EPA and DHA can be a useful option.

And don't assume taking any fish oil means you're getting what you need.

Supplements can contain very different amounts of EPA and DHA, so look at the actual EPA + DHA per serving rather than simply the amount of “fish oil” on the front. Quality and freshness matter too, as these fats are particularly susceptible to oxidation.

The signs in this post don't diagnose low omega-3, but they might be another clue worth paying attention to.

I'm going deeper into the Omega-3 Index, how to know if you're getting enough and what you can do about it on the podcast this week.

Share this with someone who might need to see it.

21/08/2026

“We’re constantly trying to live up to our own expectations of ourselves.” — Lisa Johnson

This really resonated with me when Lisa said it during our conversation.

Even now, I know I put a lot of pressure on myself. There is always something else I think I should be doing, achieving or doing better.

But I can also see where some of that started.

I can see the seven-year-old girl who had just developed alopecia, trying to be the best at school while also trying to keep things going at home. I used to cook and iron my Dad’s clothes (badly, I should add 😂), and somewhere along the way I think I learnt that being capable, achieving and just getting on with things was what I did.

And the truth is, not all of that pressure came from other people. A lot of it came from me.

Which is why I loved this part of my conversation with Lisa Johnson on The Autoimmune RESET this week.

Lisa talked about how, when everything feels like too much, we tend to think we have two choices: carry on doing everything, or burn everything down and do nothing.

But often there is a third option.

There may be one thing you can change, let go of or prioritise differently that has a knock-on effect on everything else.

And I think this is particularly important when you're living with chronic illness.

Your capacity may change. What you could do before may not be what your body can do right now. Yet the expectations you have of yourself often haven't changed with it.

As Lisa says, you can keep pushing, but sometimes it feels like “wading through treacle.”

Our conversation went into so much more than business. We talked about chronic illness, pressure, success, asking for help and what happens when life forces you to reassess what actually matters.

A really interesting conversation with a brilliant woman.

🎧 Lisa Johnson is on The Autoimmune RESET podcast this week.

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