Managing persistent or chronic pain is complex. Frequently there is a lack of objective reason for persistent pain yet it is real, personal and subjective and people with persistent pain are of then desperately seeking effective pain relief. I recently attended an “Explain Pain” course in Cairns (which was lovely and warm), which looks at… Continue reading Relief with opioid discontinuation
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Food marketing to kids?!?
Have you ever perused the food options on the shelves of the supermarket looking for the healthiest option, and then read the ingredients only to find it was loaded with sugar…or something that sounds like sugar but you just can’t be sure? A recent Australian study (Pulker et al., 2018) sought to understand the impact… Continue reading Food marketing to kids?!?
Awe-inspiring
For Christmas I received a subscription to New Scientist. It is my favourite magazine and prior to getting my own copy each week I regularly pilfered my Mum’s copy (thanks for the present Mum). In a recent edition (Issue 3136) I read an article about the benefits of feeling small as a human when compared… Continue reading Awe-inspiring
Stress gets under the skin
From a health perspective, my skin is my vulnerable organ; for me everything shows up on the surface. Stress in particular is a ‘skin trigger’. I have changed my health significantly since the days of breakouts and chemical sensitivity so they aren’t issues anymore, but my skin still tends to be reactive in response to… Continue reading Stress gets under the skin
More benefits of Vitamin D
Memory and Vitamin D In other memory related news (see previous post), a 2017 randomised trial in healthy adults showed that high levels of vitamin D improved visual and non-verbal memory, resulting in higher-level cognitive function. This trial was conducted in healthy adults so the mechanism isn’t necessarily about correcting disordered function related to a… Continue reading More benefits of Vitamin D
Kitchen Table Wisdom
Come and see me talk about 'Real Food for Real Nutrition' at the inagrual Kitchen Table Wisdom event.
The importance of Human Connection
Loneliness hurts. You feel it in your body like a physical pain. Why? Because that sensation of pain we experience when we feel socially isolated or all alone in the world has the similar underlying processes as physical pain. Our body has an amazing detection system, one which alerts us to both the possibility or… Continue reading The importance of Human Connection
Go outside and play!
Go outside and play! As a child I heard this refrain a lot and luckily ‘outside’ was a mountainside of bushland and green space. Spending time in nature has long been promoted as healthy but recently the concept of forest bathing has hit social media. In Japan, forest bathing, or as it is known ‘shinrin… Continue reading Go outside and play!
Brain power from plants
I have a confession to make - I don’t like kale! Which is a shame because it is full of nutritious compounds that have potential health benefits. A recent study has shown that two of the health-giving compounds in kale, lutein and zeaxanthin (zee-axe-an-thin), can help to improve brain function particularly in older adults. Psychologists… Continue reading Brain power from plants
Overcoming sleepless nights…
For about 5 years insomnia was a regular and generally unwelcome companion of mine. Over this time I managed to function well, most of the time but there was this nagging belief that I ‘should’ be able to heal myself if I just found the right solution. Well that thought wasn’t overly helpful because there… Continue reading Overcoming sleepless nights…
