Month: September 2020

A novel virus and massage therapy –

The importance of recognising and acting on mental health issues is more evident than ever with the recent rise in people visiting our clinic with persistent low mood, anxiety and elevated stress levels. 

With another recent wave of uncertainty hitting us, many people are experiencing challenges and feelings that they haven’t faced before. There is no age discrimination when it comes to mental health disorder – every age group can be impacted by conditions affecting their mental health and personal growth.

The current climate could be seen as an opportunity to reflect on how we can support ourselves and those around us in a way that will help to carry us through a year many of us would rather forget. 

Checking in with yourself is just as important as checking in with others. How often do you check in with a loved one? And, probably more importantly, how often do you check in with yourself? It’s that old saying… if you don’t put your own oxygen mask on first, you’ll have little hope of helping others to put theirs on. 

Here are a few tips to support your mental health during difficult times. 

Breathe. Properly. 

Many of us become accustomed to breathing at a much lower than optimal lung capacity as we rush through our day. Take a few minutes each day to retrain yourself to breath more deeply and mindfully. 

When oxygen enters the lungs, a small portion is exchanged by the lungs and sent around the body via the bloodstream to all the tissues and cells of the body. 

If you are not breathing efficiently, you are starving your cells of optimal oxygen levels which are required for you to function efficiently and feel your best. 

Nourish with nutrients. 

Different vitamins and minerals provide the systems, tissues and cells of the body with building blocks to good health and facilitate numerous enzymatic reactions as part of the intricate workings of the human body. 

Conditions such as anxiety, elevated stress, insomnia, mood disorder, headaches and fatigue can contribute to a decline in mental health and may also be linked to nutritional deficiencies. Ensuring you are receiving adequate nutrition through food and supplements (if indicated) may be all that is needed to restore balance and resolve the symptoms you are experiencing. Always speak to a qualified practitioner prior to supplementation to avoid interactions with medications and other supplements and to reduce the risk of disturbing nutrient balance in the body.

The power of movement. 

We all know that exercise helps us to produce those feel-good hormones: serotonin, dopamine and endorphins. These guys help to regulate mood, relieve pain and enhance cognitive function in addition to many other actions. 

Scheduling in time at least three times each week (daily is even better!) to get your body moving by walking, swimming, cycling, going to the gym, yoga or any other activity that gets your heart rate above its baseline will improve your mental health. The heart itself is a muscle and needs to be exercised to keep in shape just like any other muscle in the body – keep it toned and vital.

The sun’s energy.     

What’s even better than exercise? Exercise in the sunshine. Exposure to the sun increases the level of some nutrients in our body and is required to convert other nutrients into their active form within the body. 

Catching some morning sunshine is safer than the afternoon sun and a great way to boost your happy hormones for the day ahead. 

Seize opportunity. 

A client, who was placed out of work due to the pandemic, was recently feeling quite anxious and lost. Suddenly finding herself with extra time was confronting but provided a rare opportunity. She decided to complete her yoga teacher training, something she’d always wanted to do but never found the time in her busy schedule. 

If you are struggling with current challenges, try to remain open to hidden opportunities. Change, uncertainty and persistent worries can really diminish our ability to observe new and unexpected opportunity so try to keep your worries in perspective and be open to trying new things and learning new skills.

Check in.

Whether it’s a focussed conversation with your child, an email to a colleague, a phone call to a family member or a text message to a friend, remember to check in. Checking in on the vulnerable and those around you is important. Checking in on yourself, even more so.

If your mental health needs some support, reach out to a friend, a family member or a healthcare professional. Human connection, correcting nutrient deficiencies, managing stress levels and anxiety, regulating mood disorder and enhancing sleep and energy levels are steps everyone can take to improve their mental health. 

For further support or to book an appointment with our Naturopath, contact Belle on 0405 128 213 or via belle@nbip.com.au

Bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhoea, nausea, skin breakouts, anxiety, depression….it’s not normal to feel this way.

Have l gut your attention! The above are common symptoms l hear in clinic daily and the point is they are symptoms and to avoid these debilitating symptoms we need dive deeper and get to the source of the problem. Considering Hippocrates said over 2000 years ago  “all disease starts in the gut”, and so to does all health, we absolutely must understand and optimise our microbiome to thrive. 

Your gut microbiome should look like a flourishing rainforest with beautiful soil, sun, rain, canopies, animals, flowers you get the picture a lot of diversity. When looked after, in return your microbiome gives you optimal health and vitality, a boost in immune system function, improvement in mood, it synthesises important vitamins and assists with waste elimination creating a healthy digestive system.

How do we know if our gut microbiome looks like a rainforest or overgrown with weeds? 

Through comprehensive microbiome testing we eliminate the guess work this allows us to see what your personal gut microbiome looks like, the diversity and most important what job these microbes do to promote health or reduce health. And through comprehensive questions and note taking for every individual client. 

This is conducted via a simple stool swab. Microba’s shot- gun metagenome sequencing allows us to see not only what bacteria (bugs) are in your gut, but what they are doing. The metabiome results provides you with a score, this is an indication of your overall gut health based on the latest scientific evidence. The results are also broken down into Functional Insights, this allows us to understand how these metabolites are impacting key areas including.

• General gut health
• Gut mucosal health 
• Gut motility
• Metabolic health 
• Nervous system health 
• Immune health 
• Inflammatory balance 
• Detoxification 

Microbial diversity is the key to a healthy, resilient gut, improving your diet is one of the most important steps to addressing your gut health. This may be a matter of removing inflammatory foods, foods that create inflammation and irritation, increasing dietary fibre, fibre is food for our microbes and without we lose our gut diversity. 

For change to happen change needs to be made. 

Dietary changes – Food is medicine and we know that our gut microbiome loves fibre especially prebiotic fibre  which is food that will encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria. The way we eat our food can also be the cause of bloating and other digestive symptoms. 

Improving Stress response – Unmanaged stress can lead to the stress hormone cortisol being released causing inflammation

Alcohol intake – Causes inflammation in the GIT effecting diversity and allowing non-beneficial bacteria to increase.

Exercise – Keep moving, a sedentary lifestyle has been shown to effect diversity, moderate exercise has been shown to increase inflammation.

Sleep – aim for 7-8hrs sleep a night this is our bodies time to repair.

Antibiotics and other medications – These can disrupt your microbiome causing inflammation, digestive problems and allowing pathogens to be overgrown which can reduce health.

Environmental toxins – The world we live in today has a big effect on our gut microbiome including what we eat, drink and what we put on our largest organ our skin. What we use in our homes to clean with the fragrances we make our homes smell nice with the list goes on.

What do I need to do?

I would love you to consider mapping your microbiome and empower yourself with the knowledge to rebalance your gut and elevate your health and longevity.

You can book a complimentary 15minute chat with Kylie for more information and to see if this is something that will benefit you and your gut health journey.