Complex health deserves time, evidence, and a little humanity.
I'm Dr Brad Leech, a clinical nutritionist and herbalist who has spent the better part of two decades helping people understand what their body has been trying to tell them, and teaching other practitioners to do the same.
It's good to meet you.
For more than fifteen years, I've helped people feel better in their own bodies and understand why. Some arrive with a single clear goal; others bring a complicated history and a folder of results that never quite added up. Wherever you're starting from, and whatever shape your health is in, you're welcome here.
My work lives where two things meet that are too often kept apart: rigorous science, and care that treats you as a whole person rather than a set of numbers. I'll happily tell you when a popular idea has outrun the evidence and I also believe your body usually has a good reason for what it's doing. The work is to listen, test where it genuinely helps, and turn what we find into something you can actually act on whether that's settling a flare, steadying a long-term condition, or simply helping you feel and function at your best.
How I think about health
Three principles behind everything I do
Whether I'm sitting with a patient or teaching a room of practitioners, the same three ideas hold.
01
Evidence, first
Every recommendation should be able to point to good research or be honest about where the evidence runs out. I've spent my career in the science of the microbiome, and I hold the clinic to that same standard. No guesswork dressed up as certainty.
02
The whole person
Symptoms rarely live in isolation. Your gut, your immune system, your stress, your sleep, your history — they're connected, and the most meaningful change comes from understanding how. Functional and integrative, because real bodies don't work in silos.
03
The root cause
Easing a symptom matters, and we'll do that. But it's only half the work. I want to understand why it's happening, so we can address the cause rather than manage it forever. That's what makes change last.
My path here
I didn't arrive at this in a straight line
My path runs from a health-focused childhood through traditional medicine, formal science, the clinic, and research and every chapter shapes how I work today.
Long before any qualifications, health was simply the water I swam in. I grew up in a household where wellbeing was a way of life fasting and juice cleanses, one new way of eating after another, a constant, curious experiment in what actually helps a body thrive. I didn't know it then, but that was my first training: a deep sense that food and lifestyle are powerful, and worth paying close attention to.
It started at home
It didn't begin in a lab. I came to health young, graduating as the youngest Ayurvedic herbalist in Australia at just sixteen, drawn in by how seriously the tradition took the gut. I'll admit it: early on, I'd tell patients that "leaky gut" wasn't real. I wince a little looking back, but it taught me something I've never let go of stay curious, and be willing to change your mind when the evidence does.
A traditional start
That curiosity pulled me toward the research.I completed a Bachelor of Health Science in Nutritional Medicine, graduating with distinction, then went on to first-class honours and, from there, a PhD at the University of Technology Sydney, where I spent years developing clinical guidance for assessing and managing increased intestinal permeability and surveyed hundreds of Australians living with it. That work has since been cited more than 250 times by researchers and clinicians around the world.
Into the science
Research only matters if it reaches people. As Lead Clinical Educator at Microba, I help turn frontier microbiome science into tools clinicians can actually use, and as an Adjunct Fellow at the National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine I stay close to the next generation of research. I've mentored practitioners since 2018 work that now lives in The Academy by Dr Brad Leech.
Translating it forward
Today I split my time between the clinic, the classroom, and the stage. I see patients online, and I mentor thousands of practitioners a year through The Academy by Dr Brad Leech and well beyond it. I travel across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK to present at conferences, workshops, and talks, because translating the science for the people who use it is where I do the most good. It never stops moving, and neither do I.
Where I am now
Who I work with
From acute care to chronic management to longevity
Much of my work is with complex, chronic, and often misunderstood conditions but the door is open far wider than that. I work with people right across the spectrum of health: settling an acute flare, managing a long-term condition, and, increasingly, helping people who already feel well optimise their health and extend their healthspan.
That spectrum has a name in my practice — The Method by Dr Brad Leech, a framework that scales the same foundations across three tiers, Restore, Manage, and Optimise, and moves with you as you progress toward longevity.
Wherever you are on that journey, there's a place to start.
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The gut is where I've spent my career in research and in the clinic. Using advanced microbiome testing and a root-cause approach, I work with people to understand what's actually driving their symptoms and to rebuild digestive health from the ground up, rather than chasing one symptom at a time.
IBS, Reflux, GORD, SIBO, Dysbiosis, Bloating, Chronic constipation, diarrhoea, Food sensitivities, intolerances, Crohn's disease, Ulcerative colitis, Coeliac disease, Diverticular disease, Increased intestinal permeability
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Autoimmunity rarely arrives alone, and it's rarely simple. I support people living with autoimmune presentations by working at the root across the immune system, the gut, and the drivers of inflammation always alongside your GP and specialists.
Hashimoto's, Graves' disease, Coeliac disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, Psoriasis, Ankylosing spondylitis, Lupus (SLE), Multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, Sjögren's syndrome, Alopecia, Recurrent infections
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Hormones shape energy, mood, skin, cycles, and fertility. Through nutrition, lifestyle, and carefully targeted support, I help people find steadier hormonal balance from the first period to pregnancy and through menopause.
PMS, PMOS, Endometriosis, Thyroid health, Perimenopause, Menopause, Preconception, pregnancy, postpartum
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Skin often reflects what's happening inside. Rather than working on the surface alone, I look for the internal drivers gut health, diet, and inflammation behind persistent skin concerns, so the change holds.
Acne, Eczema, Dermatitis, Psoriasis, Hives, Rosacea, Fungal presentations
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I support the foundations of metabolic health blood sugar, cholesterol, weight, and the inflammation beneath them with food and lifestyle changes that are realistic to actually sustain.
Blood sugar & insulin resistance, High cholesterol, Blood pressure, Metabolic syndrome, Non-alcoholic fatty liver, Weight & body composition
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Infants and children aren't small adults. I support healthy microbiome development and resilience from birth through childhood and often the whole family alongside them, because health habits are built together.
Infant & child microbiome, Eczema & allergies, Recurrent infections, Digestive concerns, Food intolerances, Immunity, Fussy eating
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Fatigue, stress, and low mood are among the most common reasons people come to see me. I work with the nervous system and the gut–brain axis to rebuild energy, steadiness, and resilience not just push through.
Fatigue & low energy, Burnout, Stress resilience, Sleep, Gut–brain & mood, Focus & clarity
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For busy, driven people who already feel well and want to stay that way and get more from their body. This is evidence-led optimisation of the foundations, advanced testing to see beneath the surface, and the practices that extend not just how long you live, but how good you feel in those years.
Healthspan & longevity, Microbiome optimisation, Advanced biomarker testing, Energy & performance, Preventative health, Healthy ageing
Beyond the clinic
The thinking I bring to patients, I also teach.
Since 2018 I've mentored hundreds of practitioners including naturopaths, nutritionists, and doctors first in live cohorts, now self-paced inside The Academy by Dr Brad Leech. Teaching keeps me sharp, and it's how this work reaches far more people than I could ever see one-on-one.
Off the clock
I practise what I preach
I've been fascinated by health for as long as I can remember, and I do my best to live the way I advise. My wife and our son are at the centre of everything, and we treat the kitchen as part of the medicine. We cook from scratch as much as we can, chasing as much plant diversity as we can fit on the plate, because a varied diet is one of the most powerful things any of us can do for the microbiome. Most of it starts at the local farmers' market.
Outside of work, I'm happiest outdoors, out on the boat, in the ocean, or off on a long walk or hike. I'm a believer in the simple, time-tested resets, too: a cold plunge, time in the sauna, fresh air and movement. They keep me steady, and they're the same tools I come back to with patients. And I never really stop learning: more weekends than not, you'll find me at a conference or deep in the latest research. Staying curious is the part of this work I love most.
I'm endlessly curious about the world. I've travelled to more than 85+ countries, drawn especially to ancient cultures and the traditional ways they've understood healing a fascination that began with my Ayurvedic training and has never left me. There's a great deal modern medicine can still learn from how people have cared for one another for thousands of years.
Dr Brad’s Research
