Naturopathy for Chronic Pain & Skin Issues

How I Work

Ananda Mahony Naturopathy is based in Grange, Brisbane, with online consultations available for clients across Australia.

Pain Conditions | Chronic Skin Issues | Complex Health Issues

CLINICAL NUTRITION | NATUROPATHY | PAIN MANAGEMENT

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Do you suffer from persistent pain?

Person sitting on the floor with legs crossed, wearing ripped jeans and a cream-colored sweater, holding their ankle with both hands.

Would you like to get back into life, feel better and move more freely?

Often the cause for chronic pain can’t be clearly explained by a medical model, even when it can, the solutions can be limited or invasive.

Ananda, the Pain Changer, assists clients who have chronic pain to find out what factors are contributing to their pain and then systematically and holistically address them.

With the right support, your body can shift out of survival mode and into a place of lasting relief.

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Resolve skin conditions such as acne, eczema and psoriasis

Are you battling with ongoing skin issues?

Be your best version and achieve clear skin, naturally. You can expect to experience lasting improvements in your skin and your overall quality of life when you work with Ananda.

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Featured Blog Posts

Featured
The Impact of Diet on Rosacea
The Impact of Diet on Rosacea

Understanding why certain foods trigger a rosacea flare is complex and diverse, with some individuals reacting to common triggers, and others not reacting at all. However, there are several categories of foods that can be individually evaluated and avoided if found to trigger flares.

Some things can’t be simplified!
Some things can’t be simplified!

A scroll through socials would have me believe that my skin issue or my pain is not because of the food I’m eating or my dairy intake or the topical products I’m using, but it all comes down to my gut health or my hormones or xxx. And yes, it might be a factor but is it just that simple? Fix this one problem and my xxx will resolve. Well, the simple answer is no!

The link between hormones & psoriasis
The link between hormones & psoriasis

Hormonal effects aren’t always clear cut. It is important to keep in mind that different effects can be seen during different stages of the menstrual cycle, depending on a woman’s individual hormonal fluctuations.

The Skin Microbiome
The Skin Microbiome

A diverse skin microbiome helps regulate inflammation, ward off harmful pathogens, and promote overall skin resilience. Loss of skin microbiome stability (dysbiosis) has been linked with acne, eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, body odour, tinea and a host of other skin conditions.

Instagram

“Sleep doesn’t belong to one discipline — it’s shaped by nutrition, hormones, pain, physiology, and the nervous system.” Sleep is affected by breathing Sleep is affected by pain Sleep is affected by hormones Sleep is af
“Sleep doesn’t belong to one discipline — it’s shaped by nutrition, hormones, pain, physiology, and the nervous system.” Sleep is affected by breathing Sleep is affected by pain Sleep is affected by hormones Sleep is affected by stress Sleep is affected by structure Sleep Matters 2026 brings clinicians from across health disciplines into one room - including me. This Saturday 23rd I will be talking about the role nutrition plays in a good night's sleep. Good sleep is fundamental to health so understanding what contributed to poor sleep is important to recovery and wellness. #SleepMatters2026 #SleepWell #nutritionandsleep
Have you been 'justed'? It's a concept I read about in an article by herbalist Sally Kingsford-Smith. It goes something like this: "It's just heavy periods" "It's just perimenopause" "You just need to relax." "You just need to lose a bit of weight." "You just need to sleep more." 'Just' makes complex, real, lived experience sound like a simple fix you've been too lazy to try. Have you ever been justed by a health practitioner or by yourself? #justed #haveyoubeenjusted
“If I don’t address sleep and nervous system dysregulation, pain stays reactive.” In this short podcast with Dr Karina Patel from Inside Sleep Matters, I discuss the patterns I see repeatedly in clinical practice. Poor sleep, stres
“If I don’t address sleep and nervous system dysregulation, pain stays reactive.” In this short podcast with Dr Karina Patel from Inside Sleep Matters, I discuss the patterns I see repeatedly in clinical practice. Poor sleep, stress hormone disruption, unstable blood sugar, and a nervous system stuck in stress mode often sit beneath chronic pain. When sleep and nervous system regulation aren’t addressed, pain can remain easily amplified. When these foundations are supported, outcomes begin to shift. Pain rarely exists in isolation and for this reason among many others, it reminds me that whole-person care is so important. I will be talking about this and the links between nutrition and sleep at the upcoming Sleep Matters conference. 🎧 Listen to the full episode on Spotify, Inside Sleep Matters, Why Chronic Pain and Poor Sleep Feed Each Other 🔗 Learn more about Sleep Matters 2026 at sleepwell.education #sleepwelleducation #sleepmatters2026
Most chronic pain patients I see have already seen a bunch of health care professionals. Often they've had all the things...scans, physio, anti-inflammatories, maybe surgery but they're still in pain. It is often viewed as treatment failure but I th
Most chronic pain patients I see have already seen a bunch of health care professionals. Often they've had all the things...scans, physio, anti-inflammatories, maybe surgery but they're still in pain. It is often viewed as treatment failure but I think more often than not there is a significant assessment gap. When pain persists beyond tissue healing timelines, we need to start asking different questions. It's no longer "what's damaged?" It's "what has the nervous system learned, and what is sustaining that state?" The nervous system being on high alert is well-established in the pain neuroscience literature. What's less commonly applied in clinical practice is assessing the drivers that maintain it - the immune system getting all turned up and edgy, HPA and then cortisol dysregulation, the gut driving inflammation, sleep architecture disruption as some of the key factors. Swipe through for a breakdown of what this looks like in clinical reasoning and why treating the periphery alone is often an incomplete strategy. #chronicpain #painscience #centralsensitisation #neuroinflammation #naturopathicmedicine
Rosacea and oxidative stress 🍓 One of the more under-recognised mechanisms in rosacea pathogenesis is the imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and antioxidant capacity. Studies consistently show that individuals with rosacea
Rosacea and oxidative stress 🍓 One of the more under-recognised mechanisms in rosacea pathogenesis is the imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and antioxidant capacity. Studies consistently show that individuals with rosacea demonstrate elevated markers of oxidative stress alongside reduced levels of antioxidant production. The result is cumulative oxidative tissue damage that drives inflammation, compromises barrier integrity, and amplifies neurovascular reactivity. Dietary antioxidants can support this system as meaningful nutritional input into a pathway that is under-resourced in rosacea-affected skin. Key antioxidant foods to embrace: 🍓Polyphenol rich foods - generally purple, dark brown, red and blue. So berries of all kinds including blueberries (this is the blue food!), dark rye, black olives, red onions (and yellow actually), walnuts, flaxseeds and hazelnuts. 🍓Dark leafy greens - aren't these in EVERY nutritional prescription ever? But really, they are included for a reason. They are full of lutein, zeaxanthin and vitamin C which support tissue-level antioxidant activity. 🍓Green tea (EGCG) - also a polyphenol but gets its own listing because it is particularly beneficial for rosacea prone skin. It has documented capacity to reduce oxidative skin damage. 🍓Carotenoid-rich vegetables - these are the red and orange foods. They contain fat-soluble antioxidants that work at the cellular membrane level. 🍓Extra virgin olive oil - exert anti-inflammatory effects. 🍓Brazil nuts contain selenium, which is an essential cofactor for glutathione peroxidase, a primary antioxidant enzyme in skin tissue. The clinical focus is not any single food and rather than focusing on cutting out foods (unless they are known triggers), I recommend, that if you can, start to include some of these foods every day. It is building a consistent, varied antioxidant intake that supports the skin's capacity to manage oxidative load over time. Save this if you want to understand rosacea beyond the surface. ⬇️ #rosacea #rosaceaskin #oxidativestress #skininflammation #naturopathicskincare
#reframingpolyvagaltheory #dontthrowthebabyout #keepupthework
‘Hangry’ neurons might be a factor in pain persistence! A recent paper caught my attention examining sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and their relationship with satellite glial cells (SGCs), which are part of the immune
‘Hangry’ neurons might be a factor in pain persistence! A recent paper caught my attention examining sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and their relationship with satellite glial cells (SGCs), which are part of the immune system. Historically, SGC–neuron interactions were viewed as pain promoting. Xu et al. (2026) suggest something different. SGCs can actively suppress acute and chronic pain by transferring healthy mitochondria to DRG neurons. This points toward mitochondrial dysfunction and cellular energy failure as contributors to pain persistence, not just nerve damage or inflammation. Which also raises a broader question about systemic mitochondrial health in chronic pain. What’s the clinical implication? Supporting cellular metabolism, neuroimmune communication and mitochondrial health may represent a foundational strategy in chronic pain care. Even though this research is focused on details, it reinforces my understanding that pain is relational (between systems and parts), metabolic and a whole body issue. #ᴄʜʀᴏɴɪᴄᴘᴀɪɴ #shiftinperpective
For as long as I can remember every time I put on sunglasses I felt dizzy and visually unsettled, a bit like my eyes couldn't orient properly and I I persisted, I ended up feeling nauseous. So, most of the time I would last about 5 minutes (and only
For as long as I can remember every time I put on sunglasses I felt dizzy and visually unsettled, a bit like my eyes couldn't orient properly and I I persisted, I ended up feeling nauseous. So, most of the time I would last about 5 minutes (and only in very bright sunlight) before packing them away again. Then my friend and fellow naturopath (Katrina - thank you!) pointed out something I hadn’t thought about: that lens colour matters for the nervous system. She generously took me off to an optometrist to try different coloured lens glasses. Turns out my nervous system is a fan of orange and rose tints. I had none of the the previous reactions and I felt a sense of visual calm (or something like that) wearing them. So these are my new rose-tinted lenses and I can wear them as often and for as long as I like. More than that, my body actually settles when I put them on. I was reminded strongly through this process that sensory input and visual processing is one of the ways my nervous system interprets safety. Apparently I love a rose tinted world! And it reminds me to keep coming back to the premise that if something “should” work (like wearing sunglasses for eye protection) but your body says no, to listen. For me this was an example of changing the input, rather than pushing through it. #rosetintedworld #selfregulating #shifteinperspective
How you talk to your body matters in chronic pain. In persistent pain states, the issue is rarely tissue damage alone. Pain is shaped by nervous system sensitisation, prediction, and context. Research from pain science and psychology, including Ell
How you talk to your body matters in chronic pain. In persistent pain states, the issue is rarely tissue damage alone. Pain is shaped by nervous system sensitisation, prediction, and context. Research from pain science and psychology, including Ellen Langer’s very early work on mindset and physiology, shows that interpretation and expectation can meaningfully influence bodily outcomes. From a pain neuroscience lens, this is expected. The brain is constantly asking: Is this safe or is this a threat? Language, beliefs, and self-talk act as threat or safety cues that influence pain processing. When the message is: “My body is damaged,” “I can’t do this,” “This will make things worse,” the nervous system stays in protective mode, amplifying pain signals. When the message is: “Let’s explore this gently,” “This is uncomfortable but not dangerous,” “Capacity can change,” the nervous system has more room for down-regulation, movement variability, and recovery. Trying a new movement, revisiting an avoided activity or challenging a long-held pain story...these are not just positive thinking exercises. They are inputs into a sensitised nervous system. The question is not whether your body is listening. It always is. The clinical question then becomes is the internal messaging we use reinforcing pain and protection, or supporting safety and adaptation? #sorebutsafe #chronicpainnaturopath
With neurodivergence, the risk profile for physical illness is meaningfully different from the general population. 🔹 There is more than double the prevalence of connective tissue differences, particularly joint hypermobility. 🔹 Rates of chronic pa
With neurodivergence, the risk profile for physical illness is meaningfully different from the general population. 🔹 There is more than double the prevalence of connective tissue differences, particularly joint hypermobility. 🔹 Rates of chronic pain, chronic fatigue, dizziness, and autonomic dysfunction (dysautonomia) are significantly higher. 🔹 In people with Ehlers Danlos syndromes, the likelihood of being autistic is approximately seven times higher, and the likelihood of having ADHD is around five higher than population norms. These overlaps reflect shared biological pathways involving connective tissue integrity, autonomic regulation, sensory processing, and neuroimmune signalling. The core problem arises when these presentations are treated as separate and unrelated conditions. In practice, this fragmentation leads to: 🔹 Missed diagnoses of hypermobility, dysautonomia, or connective tissue disorders 🔹 Under recognition of physical drivers of pain, fatigue, and cognitive load 🔹 Misattribution of physiological symptoms to anxiety, behaviour, or emotional dysregulation alone Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable. It is not uncommon for pain related avoidance to be labelled as school refusal, autonomic symptoms to be framed as anxiety, fatigue and sensory overload to be interpreted as poor motivation or emotional instability. In these situations, the focus shifts toward managing the behaviour rather than investigating why the body is struggling. The result is that the visible response becomes the problem, while the underlying physical reality remains unrecognised and untreated. An integrated assessment is needed, where neurodevelopment, connective tissue health, autonomic function, pain, and fatigue are viewed as part of the same clinical picture rather than competing explanations. #EmbraceComplexity #edschronicpain #neurodivergencechronicpain
“Sleep doesn’t belong to one discipline — it’s shaped by nutrition, hormones, pain, physiology, and the nervous system.” Sleep is affected by breathing Sleep is affected by pain Sleep is affected by hormones Sleep is af
Have you been 'justed'? It's a concept I read about in an article by herbalist Sally Kingsford-Smith. It goes something like this: "It's just heavy periods" "It's just perimenopause" "You just need to relax." "You
“If I don’t address sleep and nervous system dysregulation, pain stays reactive.” In this short podcast with Dr Karina Patel from Inside Sleep Matters, I discuss the patterns I see repeatedly in clinical practice. Poor sleep, stres Most chronic pain patients I see have already seen a bunch of health care professionals. Often they've had all the things...scans, physio, anti-inflammatories, maybe surgery but they're still in pain. It is often viewed as treatment failure but I th Rosacea and oxidative stress 🍓 One of the more under-recognised mechanisms in rosacea pathogenesis is the imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and antioxidant capacity. Studies consistently show that individuals with rosacea
#reframingpolyvagaltheory #dontthrowthebabyout #keepupthework
‘Hangry’ neurons might be a factor in pain persistence! A recent paper caught my attention examining sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and their relationship with satellite glial cells (SGCs), which are part of the immune For as long as I can remember every time I put on sunglasses I felt dizzy and visually unsettled, a bit like my eyes couldn't orient properly and I I persisted, I ended up feeling nauseous. So, most of the time I would last about 5 minutes (and only How you talk to your body matters in chronic pain. In persistent pain states, the issue is rarely tissue damage alone. Pain is shaped by nervous system sensitisation, prediction, and context. Research from pain science and psychology, including Ell With neurodivergence, the risk profile for physical illness is meaningfully different from the general population. 🔹 There is more than double the prevalence of connective tissue differences, particularly joint hypermobility. 🔹 Rates of chronic pa

Frequently

Asked

Questions

  • Yes. Naturopathy takes a holistic approach to pain by exploring underlying factors such as inflammation, nutrition, gut health, stress and hormone balance. Through personalised nutrition, herbal medicine and lifestyle support, many people experience long-term improvement in pain and mobility.

  • Pain can persist even when scans or blood tests appear normal. This is often due to nervous system sensitisation, nutrient imbalances, stress, or lifestyle triggers. A naturopathic assessment looks beyond structural causes to address these contributing factors.

  • Yes. Collaboration with GPs, physiotherapists or other physical therapists, or psychologists is encouraged where appropriate to support integrated care and sustainable results.

  • I commonly support clients with acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis and other chronic skin conditions. Each presentation is unique, so your treatment plan is tailored to your symptoms, triggers and overall health picture.

  • That’s common. Skin problems can stem from deeper imbalances in the gut, immune system or hormones. These are areas that aren’t always addressed by conventional treatments. Naturopathy works alongside your dermatologist’s care, not against it.

  • Ananda Mahony Naturopathy is based in Grange, Brisbane at Vibe Natural Health with online consultations available for clients across Australia.

    • A calm, collaborative space where you feel heard

    • Strategies that go beyond symptom relief to support long-term wellness

    • Investigative, root-cause exploration

    • Education and support so you feel confident in your body and your choices

    With the right support, your body can shift out of survival mode and into a place of real, lasting relief.

    If your ready to move beyond chasing symptoms and start addressing the root, I’m here to walk the path with you.

  • As a polyvagal informed practitioner, I work from the understanding that the body is always communicating.

    Polyvagal Informed practice recognises the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and our capacity for safety, connection, and healing.

    When we understand that responses like shutdown, anxiety, or disconnection are intelligent survival adaptations rather than flaws, we stop fighting the body and start working with it.

    This lens shapes everything in my practice: how I hold space, how I sequence sessions, and how I support clients in building the felt sense of safety that makes change possible.

Have a discovery call and see if it’s right for you.

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