Toki Birch, Functional Medicine Practitioner for Women Who Are Always Tired and Don’t Know Why
If you’re exhausted, can’t think clearly, or feel generally unwell, but your blood tests keep coming back ‘fine’… that isn’t normal.
You may just need someone to get their Sherlock hat on and the fine-tooth comb out.
Maybe you’re getting through the day, but only just.
You wake up tired. You forget words. You’ve gained weight without changing anything. Your patience is non-existent. Your periods, digestion, sleep, mood, weight, or energy have changed, and every time you try to explain it, you feel like you’re either saying too much or not enough.
Then the results come back.
“Normal.”
And somehow, that makes you feel worse.
Because normal results don’t explain why you’re dragging yourself through the day, collapsing in the evening, or wondering when you stopped feeling like yourself.
That’s the gap my work is built for.
A GP often reads your results to check whether you’re ill. I read them to understand whether you’re well. Those aren’t always the same thing, and that space between ‘not sick’ and ‘actually thriving’ is where many women’s answers are hiding.
I’m Toki Birch, a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner, Health Coach, and Nutritionist. I help women make sense of symptoms that have been brushed off, missed, or explained away, especially when they’ve been told everything looks fine, but they know they don’t feel fine.
CFMP, AFMCP, INHC, DipNBefore I worked in functional medicine full-time, I spent twenty years as an orthodontist and was an Associate Clinical Lecturer at Warwick University. I qualified in dentistry (BDS), took my membership of the Faculty of General Dental Practice (MFGDP) and a Diploma in Postgraduate Dental Studies (DPDS), and went on to complete an MSc in Orthodontics. That work trained me to assess carefully, look for patterns and keep asking questions when the explanation you’ve been given doesn’t fit what you’re experiencing.
Alongside my clinical work, I trained in functional medicine, nutrition and health coaching through the Institute for Functional Medicine, Functional Medicine University, the Kresser Institute, the Kharrazian Institute and the Kalish Institute. I left orthodontics over five years ago to focus completely on helping women understand persistent fatigue and complex symptoms.
Today, I have almost a decade of experience in functional medicine. I’m also a Certified Advanced Thyroid Practitioner, Certified Gluten-Free Practitioner, Safe and Sound Protocol practitioner and GEMM accredited clinician, and my deeper training has been in autoimmunity, Hashimoto’s, neuroinflammation and chronic fatigue. In plain terms, those are the areas that show up as brain fog, thyroid symptoms that carry on despite medication, and tiredness that a good night’s sleep doesn’t touch.
When testing is genuinely useful, I work with comprehensive blood panels and hair tissue mineral analysis, looking at thyroid, iron, B12, vitamin D, inflammatory markers, blood sugar and mineral status. I only suggest it once the foundations are sorted, because most women get their first real answers before any of it is needed.
What I Help With
- Persistent fatigue and exhaustion when blood tests come back normal
- Brain fog and difficulty concentrating at work
- The afternoon energy slump and blood sugar crashes
- Thyroid symptoms that continue despite medication, including Hashimoto’s
- Nervous system dysregulation and burnout
- Autoimmunity and ongoing inflammation
- Bloating, digestion and gut symptoms, which tend to be present with the exhaustion far more often than not
- Unexplained weight changes and stalled energy in your forties
- Coeliac disease and gluten-free eating for a whole family
- Making sense of blood test results the GP has called normal
Training and Accreditation
- Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM): Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice (AFMCP)
- Functional Medicine University: Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (CFMP®)
- Kresser Institute: ADAPT Level One Trained Practitioner
- Kharrazian Institute: Autoimmunity, Hashimoto’s, Neuroinflammation, Chronic Fatigue and Pain Syndromes, Childhood Development
- Kalish Institute: Foundational Functional Medicine Training
- Nutrigenomic Institute: GEMM Accredited Clinician
- Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN): Integrative Nutrition Health Coach (INHC)
- Gateway Workshops: Diploma in Nutrition (DipN)
Recognition, Speaking & Teaching
I was nominated for and won Best Gut Health & Lifestyle Coach (UK) at the GHP Fitness and Nutrition Awards 2020.
I’ve spoken at public and professional health events, including a menopause event attended by around 600 people and a training session for fellow practitioners and medical doctors that drew on my background in dentistry and functional medicine.
Practitioner presentation
Beyond Gingivitis: Oral Dysbiosis and Its Whole-Body Impact
The Oral Microbiome: A Hidden Driver in Systemic Inflammation, Autoimmunity & Chronic Disease
But the reason I do this work isn’t only professional. It’s personal.
I know what it feels like to be that exhausted.
There was a time in my life when I was going to bed at half past five every day. I had two children, a full clinical workload, and I was on the sofa before they’d even had their dinner.
My blood tests mostly came back normal.
I gained nearly five stone without changing what I was eating. I was told I was probably depressed. There were mornings when I needed both hands to hold my toothbrush. I kept an ever-growing list of symptoms in my Notes app because I was too tired to explain everything again every time I saw someone new.
The day things changed was the day I left work early because I simply couldn’t cope.
I drove to the GP surgery, found it closed, sat on the ground in the car park, leaned against my car, and sobbed.
That was the day I realised that if I wanted answers, I was going to have to find them myself.
So I retrained in functional medicine, nutrition, and health coaching while still working full time. The more I learned, the more I understood what had been happening in my own body.
And later, when my son was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome and we were told it would likely be at least 18 months before he walked again, the functional medicine principles I’d been studying became even more real to me. He was walking in three months.
That was when I stopped doubting the direction I was going in.
Now, the women I work with are often exactly where I was: exhausted, dismissed, and certain that something important is being overlooked. And very often, they’re right.
And that’s why I recognise this story when I hear it
★★★★★
“I had been gradually becoming more poorly over several years and was told there was nothing wrong with me by GPs who were unable to identify any problems.”
“I now feel I have my life and me back.”
Emma W., Google review
★★★★★
“Such a pleasure to deal with such a lovely, kind lady. I received lots of professional, helpful advice at a time when I felt my GP surgery was failing, due to long waiting lists to be seen and left to wait and suffer. This lady goes over and above to help.”
Rachel Gregory, Google review
My approach is practical and built around the reality of being exhausted.
- I won’t hand you a plan with 30 supplements in week one.
- I won’t ask you to cut out every food that’s currently keeping you sane.
- I won’t send you straight into expensive testing before we’ve looked at the foundations.
We start where you are.
That might mean looking at the blood tests you already have. It might mean understanding your symptoms as a pattern instead of a random list. It might mean supporting your nervous system before asking you to do more.
Because when you’re already running on empty, complicated plans don’t help. Clear next steps do.
You’re in the right place if…
- You’ve been told your results are normal, but you still feel anything but normal.
- You’re tired of being offered antidepressants, weight loss advice, or ‘just rest’ when you know there’s more going on.
- You want someone to explain your results in plain English.
- You need a plan that feels doable, not another thing to fail at.
- You’re ready to understand what your body has been trying to tell you.
Full Disclosure
I’m a fantasy reader, a fair-weather walker, and a big believer in the power of an evening routine. Mine is sauna, shower, reading, satin bonnet, sleep. In that order.
- I have an ADHD-type brain, which means I love a new idea, a good pattern, and anything that helps things finally make sense.
- I’m powered by decaf coffee, spicy food, and good chocolate. I’m coeliac, so a proper treat is gluten-free sourdough toast or a Booja Booja truffle.
- I have what I call Labrador energy. When I’m full of beans, I’m very full of beans. My social battery runs out from peopling, not because I get tired. Which is probably why I’m so passionate about helping women understand their energy instead of blaming themselves for not having more of it.
You don’t have to know exactly what’s wrong before you start. You just need the right first step.
Here are the ways we can work together, depending on where you are right now:
Still not sure where to begin?
Start with the free resources or get the Exhaustion Decoder.
You don’t need to have all the answers yet. You just need a clearer idea of what your body needs, and a next step that doesn’t feel impossible.