Hoop’s Story – HOOP Health

Hoop's Story

Female Founded and Led

Professional Summary & Credentials

Katrina Raimes is the Founder of Hoop Health and a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner, Nutritionist and Naturopath with over 20 years of training and clinical experience. She has spent over 15 years in clinical practice helping hundreds of clients improve their health through clinics including at the Harley Street Breast Cancer Clinic, Harley Street GP Practice and The Well Natural Health in Highgate, London.

Member of mIFM, mBANT, mCNHC

Katrina is a Member of The Institute of Functional Medicine, The British Association of Nutrition & Lifestyle Medicine, and The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council.

Training & Qualifications: BioMed; dipNut (CNM); dipND (CNM); AFMCP (IFM); FMU

Includes: Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology with a medical doctor (1 year), Diploma in Naturopathic Nutrition at The College of Naturopathic Medicine London (2 years), Diploma in Naturopathy at The College of Naturopathic Medicine London (2 years) , Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice – The Institute of Functional Medicine, Certified as a Functional Medicine Practitioner – The Functional Medicine University in partnership with Southern California University of Health Sciences.

BA (Hons) Business Studies – Oxford Brookes University, UK.

A Childhood Shaped by Science and Struggle

From a young age, Katrina lived with complex, painful, and unexplained health challenges, as well as a traumatic childhood. Science was her favourite subject, and her teachers urged her to become a doctor, but repeated infections, constant fatigue, and ongoing pain made even getting through the school day difficult.

After university and by her early twenties she had undergone countless ultrasounds, blood tests, and consultations with specialists, yet no one could explain why she was so unwell.

A Glimpse of Health, and the First Clue

During a period of travelling and working in warmer climates, her symptoms mysteriously disappeared. But when she returned to London and began a career in investment banking, chosen for financial security after growing up with very little, the infections returned with a vengeance.

Despite prophylactic antibiotics, she was regularly bedridden for days at a time. Out of desperation, and despite her strong belief in conventional science, she visited a complementary practitioner recommended by a friend.

His advice was simple: stop the antibiotics and follow a protocol of herbal, nutritional, and dietary changes. To her astonishment, the infections eased… then vanished entirely, and remained that way for a long time, unless she ate sugar. It sparked a question that would change her life: What was the science behind this?

A Mother’s Instinct, and a Turning Point

At 29, still working in the City, Katrina had her first daughter. Joy quickly turned to fear as her newborn became severely unwell; screaming in pain, vomiting, and failing to feed. After 11 days in hospital, invasive tests, and daily shifting theories, doctors concluded that because all tests were negative, her baby had a rare bowel disease (Hirschsprung’s) with a shortened life expectancy.

Distraught and unconvinced by a diagnosis based on exclusion rather than evidence, Katrina sought complementary medical support and sought help from the same practitioner who had helped her years earlier. Within days her baby was feeding, settling, and behaving like a healthy newborn, and by the end of the course of recommendations remained well.

Challenging Assumptions, and Finding Answers

Determined to understand what had happened, Katrina began researching fungal infections, the root cause of both her own and her daughter’s symptoms. She presented her findings to the head of the hospital’s gastroenterology unit, who supported the likelihood that her daughter had a fungal infection and described the thinking as “very state‑of‑the‑art.” He was, in fact, running a long‑term research project on the topic.

This was the moment Katrina realised she needed to change the direction of her life.

Leaving the City, and Re‑Training in Health

Katrina left her banking career and retrained in complementary medicine with a strong scientific foundation. Beginning her studies in 2004, she spent around seven years in formal training, including anatomy, physiology, and pathology under a medical doctor, and went on to work alongside a GP, cardiologist, oncologists, and a surgeon in clinical practice.

Over the 20+ years, she has combined science‑informed functional medicine with deep clinical experience to help patients uncover and address root causes of chronic illness.

Her Own Health Crisis, and the Breakthrough

Despite her expertise, Katrina later faced her most severe health challenge yet, during the time she returned to her career in the city due to financial pressures, in the role of Chief of Staff for Credit Suisse, whilst continuing her health practice part-time.

She developed debilitating chronic fatigue syndrome and was given multiple diagnoses, including:

Fibromyalgia (ME)
Severe dysautonomia and POTS
Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS)
Autoimmune thyroiditis
Interstitial cystitis
Anxiety and depression
Rapidly progressing, unexplained osteoporosis

Two suspicious spinal lesions appeared on MRI, and at one point clinicians suspected the neurological condition multiple sclerosis.

With no clear answers and her quality of life collapsing, she did what she had always done: researched, analysed, and built her own protocol.

Within months, her energy, mobility, and wellbeing returned, and on follow-up MRI imaging the spinal lesions were no longer visable. This lived experience deepened her empathy and sharpened her clinical insight.

Why Hoop Exists

Katrina rebuilt her health, but she knows most people don’t have the time, resources, or support to do the same alone.

Hoop was created to change that.

Hoop’s mission is simple:

To make high‑quality, root‑cause‑focused health support accessible and affordable for anyone suffering from chronic illness, so they can rebuild their health and reclaim their life.

Katrina’s journey, from childhood illness, to motherhood crisis, to her own near‑collapse and recovery, shapes every aspect of Hoop. It’s built on science, lived experience, and a deep belief that people deserve answers, clarity, and a path back to themselves.

The Wider Hoop

At HOOP we combine approaches grounded in experience and current health science, across a spectrum of health practices that really work.