Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

Aisling Brennan spent two decades working as a software engineer and was so talented that she created a startup company specialising in forensics on computer networks before selling the business.

After a lifetime of suffering from many different health conditions and trying to get treatments that were not always successful, her interest veered into alternative therapies.

When she was younger, she suffered from eating disorders, chronic anxiety and panics attacks. She had very bad acne, suffered from shocking PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) and was a vegan since she was seven years old, choosing to cut out all animal products including dairy when that type of diet was a rarity.

She and partner of ten years Gerard Lane have put considerable time, effort and money into overcoming infertility, so much so that she had returned to eating fish and meat in a bid to fall pregnant.

Two years ago, not long after she turned 40, she fell down the stairs and suffered a brain injury, spending a few weeks in Beaumont Hospital where she was treated for multiple fractures and brain bleeds.

“It happened at home and wasn’t witnessed and I’ve no recollection of a couple of weeks but somewhere along the way I had a seizure,” she recalls calmly in a matter-of-fact way belying the seriousness of the incident.

Aisling taught yoga classes and worked part-time in the local health shop but after the accident decided to change her life and concentrate on helping others overcome their health issues and lead their best lives.

She has trained in yoga, massage therapy, lifestyle coaching and spent over four years studying nutritional therapy and is registered with the Nutritional Therapists of Ireland. Last month she opened her own functional medicine hub called Vitaclinic in the old Glynns Hotel in the heart of the bustling South Galway town.

“My goal in the clinic is not to be preachy, but to get behind what health concerns a person might have, look at their diet, lifestyle, what they enjoy eating, how they like to move, drill down to get family history and then come up with a personalised, detailed therapeutic plan,” she reveals.

“The plan will support their whole body through nutrition, stress management, sleep, exercise, functional laboratory testing and supplements. If they’re perimenopausal, I might recommend a Dexa scan. I’m trying to get to the root cause of any issues – I’m not here to replace the GP but I work with the GP to make changes that might help them get off statins or blood pressure tablets.”

As well as her own nutritional therapy knowledge, she uses a functional medicine application to suggest particular foods and supplements and asks the client to bring previous blood test results or asks them to undergo new ones.

Pictured: After a lifetime of dealing with her own health conditions, nutritional therapist Aisling Brennan wants to inspire others to take control over their health.