I’m Dr Catriona Walsh — Cambridge-trained physician, former consultant paediatrician, nutrition and lifestyle coach, published author, gadolinium toxicity researcher, and the sort of person who gets bitten by monkeys, donkeys, and spiders with alarming regularity.
I also really don’t like big spiders. There’s no need for any animal to have that many legs. (Octopi and squid get a pass. They’re cool. Millipedes are just goofy. But giant spiders? No.)
Now that we’ve established the important things, let me tell you why I left mainstream medicine and what I do instead.
I spent 15 years as a paediatric doctor in the NHS, eventually becoming a consultant with a specialist interest in childhood allergy and metabolic disorders. I did my preclinical training at Cambridge and my clinical years at Queen’s University Belfast. I loved the work. I was good at it.
But I was also burning out. Working nights and shifts, eating on the run, drinking coffee like it was going out of fashion, prioritising everyone else’s needs before my own health. The classic recipe. When I finally crashed, my doctors had as little to offer me as I’d had to offer the chronically ill patients who’d frustrated me throughout my career — the ones whose labs were normal but who felt sick. Really sick. Blood work normal, but clearly falling apart.
I suddenly became one of those patients. The ones whose blood tests kept coming back perfectly 'normal' whilst their bodies were screaming that something is catastrophically wrong.
Dr Catriona Walsh
Then I discovered I have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hypermobility type). And during the investigations for that, I made one decision that would change everything: I had a gadolinium contrast MRI.
Worst. Mistake. Ever.
Within hours, the symptoms began. A headache that hammered at me for months. Insomnia so relentless it felt like every nerve had been wired to the mains. Joint instability, cognitive fog, fatigue that sleep couldn’t touch. My doctors had nothing. Conventional medicine — the system I’d dedicated my career to — couldn’t even figure out who to refer me to.
So I did what any stubborn, slightly furious doctor would do. I went looking for answers myself.
I combined my medical training with deep research into mitochondrial dysfunction, nutritional biochemistry, toxicology, and the emerging science of oxalate toxicity. I studied how scientists approached radioactive contamination after Chornobyl. I listened to hundreds of fellow gadolinium survivors. I tracked what worked and what didn’t.
Gradually, I built a recovery protocol: the first all-natural protocol targeted specifically at gadolinium toxicity. And it worked. My joints stabilised. My cognition sharpened. My energy returned. Now I feel pretty normal most of the time. Better than many women my age, if I’m honest. But you can prize my supplements from my cold, dead fingers.
Along the way, I also co-authored the largest patient-led survey on symptoms following gadolinium contrast MRI scans (316 patients with normal kidney function). I now partner with Professor Brent Wagner’s team on gadolinium pathophysiology and Dr Susan Owens on oxalate toxicity research insights. I’ve been on Sky News, in the Daily Mail, and on BBC Radio Ulster. And I wrote the book on it: “Contrasts: More Than Meets the MRI." I became, by necessity, a gadolinium toxicity nutritionist before the term even existed.
The deeper I went into recovery, the more I noticed patterns that nobody seemed to be connecting. Why do so many of my clients have overlapping symptoms? Why does gadolinium toxicity look so much like oxalate toxicity, which looks so much like mast cell activation, which looks so much like burnout? Why are so many of my clients hypermobile? Why do so many people feel terrible whilst their labs come back normal? What if the labs are measuring the wrong things?
I developed a framework I call ATTRACT Theory: Accumulating Toxicants and Their Reactive Attraction Compromises Tissues. It describes a cascade mechanism where accumulated toxicants trigger crystallisation processes in the body, which provoke emergency immune and metabolic responses that create the symptom patterns my clients experience.
Many of the symptoms tormenting you aren’t the damage itself. They’re your body’s desperate salvage operations: emergency protocols designed to keep you alive when primary systems failed. The tragedy is that these emergency measures were never designed for continuous use. Over time, they deplete you further, derail your metabolism, and damage tissue. The lesser of two evils. Your body isn’t your enemy, but it is caught in an impossible situation, choosing survival at a cost.
Once you understand this mechanism, you can start systematically relieving the siege rather than fighting your own biology. That’s the foundation of everything I do.
I’m a nutrition and lifestyle coach who works with people the medical system has failed, dismissed, or actively harmed. My clients are the medically abandoned — people whose blood work is normal but who feel anything but. Their labs come back clean, whilst their bodies are screaming that something is catastrophically wrong.
Some have been affected by gadolinium contrast, fluoroquinolone antibiotics, or other medications. Others have been ground down by years of unexplained illness, stress-induced burnout, or the slow accumulation of dietary toxins they didn’t know they were eating. What unites them is a system crash that conventional medicine cannot or will not explain... and a GP who looks at the results, shrugs, and says “everything’s normal.”
Here’s how I work:
I analyse your diet using specialist software that goes far beyond macronutrients: vitamins, minerals, omega fats, the lot. I take a detailed history, review your test results, and use my clinical experience to unravel the specific tangle of conditions behind your symptoms. Think of it as the investigation your GP never had time to do.
You’ll learn what to change, why it matters, and how to do it without losing your mind. I explain the science in plain English. Complex enough to be accurate, accessible enough to actually be useful.
I’ll hold you accountable, troubleshoot when things don’t go to plan, and answer your frantic emails when things feel dark. I’m your ally, not your lecturer. We go at your pace, not mine.
Medical training plus lived experience. I’m not theorising about chronic illness from a textbook. I’ve navigated EDS, gadolinium toxicity, oxalate toxicity, cyclical vomiting, tyramine intolerance, pyroluria, mould exposure, burnout, and malnutrition. I’ve MacGyvered my own solutions when nobody else could help.
Clinical depth. My paediatric training is actually a fabulous foundation for this work. You have to learn about all the inborn errors of metabolism and mitochondrial disorders. That knowledge now underpins everything I do as a nutritionist.
Research credentials. Co-author of the largest gadolinium symptoms survey (316 patients). Active research partnerships. Published author. This isn’t opinion. It’s evidence.
The whole picture. Nutrition is central, but I also address stress, sleep, movement, environmental toxins, joy, creativity, connection, and the grief work that chronic illness demands. Because your body doesn’t compartmentalise, and neither should your recovery.
Her mental database of knowledge in terms of how things will impact your health is as deep and comprehensive as anyone I’ve ever come across.
— Mike, gadolinium toxicity client
Within 6 weeks, I couldn’t believe the recovery. It was nothing short of miraculous. Energy that I probably haven’t had since I was in my 20s.
— Claire, nurse and university lecturer
I and my husband have both changed. We have more energy, a routine again, clear skin, proper bowel movements! Plus losing weight. I have a life, I’m able to go out and have even gone swimming with my mum and sister. Which is unheard of!! I HAVE A LIFE AGAIN!!!
— Susan, fibromyalgia (15 years)
Catriona is a gift to the earth, and I mean it!!!
— Anonymous client
I believe we have ancient bodies trying to survive in a modern world. We were built for sunlight and seasons, not screens and schedules. For whole foods, not processed substitutes. For community and connection, not isolation and endless stimulation.
This mismatch isn’t your fault. But understanding it changes everything. It’s the foundation of my Ancient Body, Modern World programme: a nutrition programme for chronic illness recovery that addresses the root causes rather than masking symptoms. It’s the lens through which I approach every client’s journey back to health.
I grew up in Maghera in Mid Ulster (home to Glen, winners of the 2024 All-Ireland Gaelic Football Championship). I went to school in Magherafelt, always wanted to be an artist, and still get asked by old classmates if I still draw. Recently, I’ve started painting in watercolour, which is a lot like recovering from chronic illness: you think you’re in control, then the pigments do whatever they please, and you’re left oscillating between awe and exasperation. I’m still at the stage where my colour gradation would make a professional wince. But they’re mine, they’re real, and they’re not AI-generated, which is more than I can say for the images on my blog posts (don't judge – people love pretty images and I ain't got the time to paint 'em all).
My qualifications: MA (Cantab.), MB BCh BAO, Dip NLC IHS. The first two mean I trained in medicine at Cambridge and Queen’s University, Belfast. The last one is a nutrition and lifestyle coaching diploma from the Institute of Health Sciences in Dublin. I was also a member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health while practising as a paediatrician.
I’ve ridden an ostrich (shortly after it tried to eat my hair beads), an elephant, and a camel. I was bitten by a monkey as a baby, a donkey as a child, and a spider as an adult. My aunt claims I was also bitten by a snake as a baby. My mum says I wasn’t. Who really knows? No superpowers yet, but I do have a spidey sense when it comes to health matters.
My general knowledge is atrocious. I’m embarrassingly useless in pub quiz sports rounds. I’m into K-drama and K-pop (GOT7 and Stray Kids). I love Muse and have stalked them — I mean, I’ve travelled to see them in Luxembourg, Paris, London (a few times), and Ireland. Now I’ve got my cousin doing the same thing. Must be an obsessive Walsh thing. I keep buying self-help books and never finishing them. And I can find innuendo in almost anything. 😜
I grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The best excuse for not doing homework I ever heard was “my schoolbag was blown up in a controlled explosion because the police thought it might be a bomb.”
What would the Hadza do? is my default question when faced with a health conundrum. The Hadza are hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, and I’d love to visit them. Mainly to learn about their cooking and lifestyle. But above all, I want to know what they smell like and whether they make deodorant. For real. How can you not be curious about that?
The information provided on this website is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
Dr Catriona Walsh provides nutrition and lifestyle coaching services. While she is a former consultant paediatrician, the services offered through this website do not constitute medical practice and are not a replacement for appropriate medical care. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or emergency services immediately.
The testimonials and case studies presented represent individual experiences and results. Individual results may vary. No guarantee of specific results is made or implied.