About SOFROS
Each patient is unique. Our practice reflects this.
Dr Helen Pickup
Dr Helen Pickup is a devoted, accomplished doctor with the privilege of thirty years’ experience in a wide variety of healthcare roles both in the NHS & private sector.
Her passion is in individually-tailored, holistic patient care. While working as an NHS GP she had the gradual realisation that the ‘wait for an illness then treat with medication’ model simply wasn’t working: the same patients would come back again and again, for more and more medication without the underlying cause being addressed.
This prompted her to study both lifestyle and functional medicine, to better understand how nutrition and lifestyle changes can often address the root-cause of illness and prevent disease before it occurs. These new skills, along with her conventional medical training, are a powerful combination.
Inspired by constantly emerging evidence about the impact of lifestyle and non-conventional treatments on health and longevity, she is able to empower patients to gain deeper insights into their body’s function to transform their health and quality of life.
Dr Pickup is also the lead doctor for Shackleton Challenges, a Polar Expedition company. & continues to work as an NHS GP in Wiltshire
Our Principles
Each patient is unique. Our practice reflects this.
We treat the whole person and see mental, emotional and physical health as one continuum.
We only suggest safe, science-based interventions and will not make false promises.
Where possible we use a ‘food-first’ approach. However, where the evidence supports the use of supplements we are happy to make recommendations for your individual needs.
We aren’t ‘anti-medication’, but where the underlying condition can be addressed by lifestyle changes, it may be possible to reduce or stop some medication (in collaboration with your own GP).
We are not paid or sponsored by any third parties, so any recommendations we make are genuine.
We will recommend allied, like-minded health professionals (e.g. nutritionist, psychologist, health coach) if you need extra help.