Functional Health and Performance

19/10/2026

We've been coaching nutrition since 2008.

We pulled this modality in alongside the bodywork and movement coaching we already had in place at the time.

The brilliance of nutrition is the capacity for how much it can influence the function of the body and hence, how it can help us progress towards those wellbeing goals.

The challenge is in it's vastness. The potential for overwhelm and chaos is huge. Masses of topics, complexity and opinions.

We've found that one of the best ways to navigate this is to always give it context. The most relevant context seems to be to 'individualise'.

Rather than following diets and trying to do it all can you throw the gauntlet down and prioritise the changes?

Jack

18/10/2026

Get your spot for a Discovery Session (free).

Check out availability over the next few weeks here: https://functionalhealthclinic-scheduler.as.me/Discovery-Sessions

Visit In-Clinic or schedule a Call.

You can tell us all about your health challenges and we'll provide feedback from a Functional Health perspective.

Fatigue, Pain, Movement, Inflammation, Immune, Sleep.....?

Jack

18/10/2026

“I was fighting an unhealthy gut. I was battling infection and I had so little immunity. It was wearing me down and I am an athlete on Team USA for Duathlon. I am determined to keep up with the health needed to compete, while working as an actuary full-time at a small insurance company.

Moreover, I was engaged to be married and our honeymoon was at the World Championship Duathlon event in Aviles, Spain. I really needed help to turn this around.

Jack’s support taught me how to eat a diet that provided healing and calming of the whole body. It shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. I found through the testing process that so many of the problems were due to different ‘stresses’ and my diet.

Learning how the body can be reworked, with a change in diet, approach to exercise, and application of specific supplements was the best way to get relief. Jack explained everything in a way that helped me to understand how it works.

Since then, I have married, competed, and just requalified for Team USA in 2017. I am so grateful for his help!

Stefanie (Arizona, USA)

17/10/2026

Ivanna makes it sound so simple, but of course it was not.

There's no talk of 'cures' on our functional health program. It has limitations. We actively seek them out. There are remits it isn't fit for purpose for.

We look to stay grounded on what we do.

In situations like this and knowing what we found out and implemented, I'm sure it had a significant impact. But it was still just a piece of the puzzle.

Jack
https://functionalhealthclinic.co.uk/

17/10/2026

Perhaps most significantly, was the fact that so far Fiona had not yet felt in the driving seat or in control of her own healing process.

"I approached Jack at a time I felt I had exhausted the options given to me by my GP and consultants. I wanted a more functional, all-encompassing, 1-1 approach which could not be achieved by conventional routes. Admittedly, I was initially a little dubious. My symptoms were debilitating. I had spent time critically ill in hospital and there was a financial commitment for the program".

Here’s a full list of the symptoms and health challenges Fiona was still experiencing when she came to see me in the Functional Health Clinic in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Jack
Fiona's Case Study - https://functionalhealthclinic.co.uk/case-study-chronic-ear-infections-and-gut-health/

16/10/2026

At the Functional Health Clinic this week -

Adding more value and services for our Membership - We now have a dedicated drop-in session for fine-tuning the bodywork. Once you're up to speed with the bodywork we do, you can take advantage of a quick pit-stop to keep peeling back the layers of structural integrity 😀

An upcoming Case Review and Initial Consultation involves an interesting and complex situation of long-term sore throats developing into other health challenges in other systems of the body. We'll be looking for the patterns, drivers and what process to put in place.

We're making good progress through a few sessions of Bodywork on this client's face/TMJ pain.

A topic we run many Discovery Sessions on is Gut and Digestive Health. This week we delved into an enquiry into chronic 'bloating'. When there are gaps we point them out and in this case there's a lot of guesswork so far, so getting insight is going to be key.

Early stages of working on Bilateral Lumbar and Hip Pain, where there has been little progress prior.

Jack

16/10/2026

A Sudden Onset?

On reflection, our client Alphie described the moment (18 years earlier) that he suddenly started to experience an agonising stomach pain one day in class at school. One moment he was fine and the next his whole life seemed to change!

The pain and symptoms had appeared to come out of nowhere.

Whilst we don’t have a time machine to go back and check, there certainly can be some factors that occur to create such sudden affects on our health. So it is of course possible that for example, this was due to a gastrointestinal infection of some kind.

Yet – Alphie expanded on this and over the last few years had been on several family holidays to Europe, where they spent time in the mountains, drinking spring water from the mountains, which would invariably cause upset stomachs. Albeit, he would recover seemingly well from these at the time.

He also described his diet at this time being quite poor quality, mainly consuming junk food, sweets and feeling sluggish in his own health.

All this means is that prior to the symptomology arising, there are most likely, more subtle and less noticeable changes occurring in the physiology of the body. Behind the scenes as it were.

Acknowledging this creates a little more clarity and understanding as to why he didn’t bounce-back from the health challenge in the way that he may have expected.



Alphie's full Case Study: https://functionalhealthclinic.co.uk/case-study-alphies-18-years-of-ppis-for-acid-reflux/

15/10/2026

When we get enquiries regarding Functional Medicine it's interesting to hear the ideas, questions and experiences to date.

It's safe to say we don't apply it the way many others do.

That doesn't mean it is a 'better' way. More-so that it is different.

That's also why we run discovery sessions for anyone who wants. To clearly define what it is and what it isn't. Where it fits and where it doesn't.

Staying balanced and grounded as to whether it really earns it's place in somebody's approach and journey towards their health goals.

Jack
https://functionalhealthclinic.co.uk/functional-medicine-in-newcastle-upon-tyne/

15/10/2026

We get great feedback about the clinic space 😀

Today, (from a bodywork client sinking into the alpha-state) - "It's just so calm in here.....I think it might be the plants"

14/10/2026

This has a bit of everything from our client Claire as she shares some interesting insight into her health journey:

"My situation was desperate when I first started working with Jack Walton. I had been suffering from a list of symptoms for over a decade and had been to numerous Drs, specialists and alternative practitioners, costing me a fortune with no answers.

My Doctors told me I was an anxious young women and to go on anti-depressants, which I didn’t, but did have to take sleeping pills. I was also previously diagnosed by an alternative practitioner with adrenal fatigue which seemed to make sense as all my symptoms seemed to point to that, I had to give up sugar and caffeine which was awful as I’ve always had a sweet tooth and as I was always fatigued, needed my caffeine fix.

I did this for nearly two years and being me did it completely, no cheating. I was also put on a regular eating plan of every 3 hours lots of greens, brown grains, nuts and lean meat and oily fish. I did all this but still was suffering from all my symptoms. And my gut was getting worse. Bloating, wind and pain in my chest. One day I thought I was having a heart attack!

I had given up with the Drs, who had basically washed their hands of me. Then I came across Jack through my mum who had who had been really ill and had had some amazing results. I felt reluctant at first having spent so much money in the past with no results, but deep down it felt right.

Jack did tests and found stuff going on in my gut which were never picked up before even though I’d had similar tests previously. Jack coached me a nutritional approach that was so different to what I had called a healthy diet I had before. There were great strategies and beyond that alleviated the fatigue, tummy aches and jitters!

I had a weekly meeting with Jack for 3 months to guide me through my ups and downs, tweak my diet plans, along with supplements and gut restoration steps. Alongside changing lifestyle and approach to exercise.

The progress was steady and gradual. I was soon feeling better than I’d felt in years. My stomach was not bloating, with less pain and no wind. At last this embarrassing problem was going, my energy levels were rising, anxiety reducing and I was sleeping much better.

I think that everybody should work with Jack."

Claire (Leicestershire, UK)

More from our Testimonial Page:

Client Functional Health Testimonials of Functional Medicine, Nutrition, Bowen Therapy and Movement at the Functional Health Clinic, Newcastle.