Integrative & Systems-Based Medicine for Autoimmune and Complex Chronic Conditions
Based in Ballarat & Daylesford, Australia, working with clients online worldwide.
I work with the biology of chronic illness — when symptoms don’t make sense and nothing has fully worked.
Autoimmune disease, mast cell issues, hormone dysregulation, trauma-patterned stress, and complex metabolic presentations, all approached as one integrated system.
If you’re here because your body feels unpredictable, reactive, or stuck, start below.
Who is this approach most suitable for?
Chronic illness rarely affects just one system.
Most people I work with experience a recognisable pattern of overlap across a few key areas.
If one (or several) of these feel familiar, you’re in the right place.
Gut & Metabolic Tolerance
You react to foods, supplements, or dietary changes in ways that feel disproportionate or unpredictable.
Bloating, discomfort, fatigue, or brain fog may appear after meals, fibre, probiotics, or “gut protocols”.
You may feel worse after dietary clean-ups, restrictive approaches, or aggressive gut support.
→ How I work with gut and metabolic tolerance
Immune & Inflammatory Reactivity
Your system feels reactive rather than resilient.
You may notice flushing, itching, food or chemical sensitivity, reactions to supplements, or symptom flares with weather changes, stress, or environmental exposures.
Mast cell issues, histamine intolerance, autoimmune diagnoses, or unexplained inflammatory symptoms may be part of your picture.
→ My approach to immune and inflammatory instability
Hormonal & Circadian Regulation
Your symptoms follow patterns — time of day, sleep disruption, menstrual cycles, stress, or seasonal shifts.
You may struggle with sleep, temperature regulation, energy crashes, mood changes, or thyroid-related symptoms that don’t fully align with test results.
Rest doesn’t always restore you.
→ How I work with hormonal and circadian regulation
Stress Physiology & Recovery Capacity
Your body struggles to return to baseline after demand.
You may feel wired but exhausted, crash after exertion or busy days, or notice symptoms worsen 12–48 hours later.
Exercise, socialising, illness, or prolonged stress may have tipped your system into a state where pushing harder no longer helps.
→ Nervous system load, stress physiology, and recovery
Many people recognise themselves in more than one of these.
My work is about understanding how these patterns interact — and deciding what needs to be stabilised first.
How does a systems-based approach support autoimmune and chronic illness?
Most people who come to see me have already tried doing “the right things”.
They’ve changed their diet, added supplements, worked on stress, or followed protocols — often with partial or temporary improvement.
What’s usually missing isn’t effort or compliance.
It’s sequencing and context.
I don’t approach symptoms in isolation, and I don’t assume more intervention is better.
My work focuses on understanding why a system became unstable and what needs to be stabilised first so the body can tolerate change.
In practice, this means:
I prioritise safety, tolerance, and timing before intensity
I look for compensatory patterns, not just deficiencies or diagnoses
I work across gut function, immune signalling, hormones, metabolism, and nervous system load as one system
I avoid stacking protocols when regulation is the real limiting factor
The aim is not to “fix” one system at a time, but to restore enough stability that the body can respond predictably again.
This is especially important for people who feel complex, reactive, or worse with well-intentioned interventions.
What happens in the first consultation?
Your first consultation is a focused 60-minute session designed for interpretation and prioritisation rather than basic information gathering.
Before we meet, you’ll complete a detailed Systems Signal Questionnaire. I review this in advance so we can use our time to identify patterns, assess tolerance, and determine where it is safest to begin.
The aim is not to address everything at once, but to clarify:
Which systems are under the most strain
What your body can currently tolerate
Where intervention would be premature or destabilising
We’ll draw from your symptom history, health timeline, stress physiology, and any relevant testing.
By the end of the session, you’ll have a clear starting direction grounded in systems stability rather than trial and error.
This is suitable if you feel complex, reactive, or unsure where to start — not if you’re looking for a quick fix.
How are nutrition, genetics, and nervous system regulation integrated?
I’m Lou Chalmer, an integrative nutritionist and counsellor working with people whose health concerns don’t fit neatly into single diagnoses or isolated protocols.
My background spans environmental science, nutrition, genetics, and psychosomatic counselling. In practice, these disciplines are not separate — they intersect constantly. Nutrient status influences immune signalling and hormone regulation. Genetic variants shape how individuals process stress, detoxify, methylate, and produce energy. Nervous system load alters digestion, inflammation, metabolic flexibility, and recovery capacity.
Rather than addressing these layers independently, I work from a systems-based framework that considers how stress physiology, immune activation, metabolism, and environmental load interact.
Nutrition is used to stabilise cellular signalling and blood sugar. Genetic insights are interpreted in context to guide sequencing, not dictate rigid protocols. Nervous system regulation helps restore tolerance and reduce reactivity so physiological interventions can be layered safely.
This approach is deliberately paced. It’s designed for people who need clarity, safety, and coherence — not more pressure to optimise or push through instability.
If you’d like more background on my training and approach, you can read more about my work by following the link below
If You’re Not Ready to Start Yet…
Not everyone arrives here ready to book an appointment — and that’s okay.
If you’re still trying to understand what’s happening in your body, or need time to orient before taking the next step, you may find these resources helpful:
These explore some of the patterns I see most often in people with complex or chronic symptoms, and may help you recognise whether the approach described here is relevant for you.
When you’re ready, the best place to start is a personalised consult.