Feb Fast involves individuals having the month of February, off the booze. Apart from feeling healthier, happier and fitter, they are also giving their liver a well earned rest!  This initiative raises money that helps thousands of Australian teenagers tackle serious alcohol and other drug related problems and get their lives back on track.

Using food as medicine, we look at a juice that can help support the liver and its detoxification processes.  You can make this juice at home or buy it freshly from your local juice bar.

• 1 beetroot
• 1 apple
• 1 carrot
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 tsp of ginger (optional)

Add all ingredients to a juicer – serve over ice.

Be brave and try it today!

Depression during pregnancy can cause serious distress to both the mother and baby.  Women experiencing depression may be reluctant to use medication over concerns about its safety for the baby.  Recent research has shown that acupuncture is an effective and safe treatment for depression during pregnancy.

Women in the treatment group were given acupuncture treatments twice a week for 4 weeks, and then once a week for 4 weeks.

Researchers found a significant reduction in the severity of depressive symptoms of the women in the acupuncture group compared with women in the control group, and concluded that acupuncture is as effective as standard treatments with relatively few and mild side effects.

Details of the study can be found at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20177281

For more information regarding depression during pregnancy visit http://www.panda.org.au

Funds raised by these hairy individuals are dedicated to improving and bringing awareness to men’s health, in particular, they focus on prostate cancer and depression in men.

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men in Australia. Over 20,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011 and 3300 will die from this devastating disease

On average, one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime, and one in ten men will experience an anxiety disorder in any one year.   beyondblue works to create awareness of depression, anxiety and related conditions, and to break down stigma, which can sometimes prevent men speaking up, and getting treatment.

Men have lower rates of depression than women, but men often don’t seek help or they use alcohol or drugs to try to make themselves feel better. Over 70 per cent of men with a mental illness don’t access services for their mental health.

Depression and anxiety are serious illnesses – not weaknesses. They are illnesses which require treatment; seeking help early is a good first step. With the right treatment, most people recover from depression.

We hope you can support this great hairy health initiative and encourage the men in your life to have regular contact with their health practitioners.

AVNT will donate $1 for each ‘like’ of our facebook page and this blog for the month of November.

Last year we suffered through the worst hayfever season in 10 years!  Essentially, hayfever causes havoc within the immune system resulting in symptoms such as runny nose, sneezing, itchy/watery eyes, itchy nose and mouth and nasal congestion as a response to an allergic reaction.

In the clinic we find that if we use preventative medicine for hayfever, we see a great reduction in symptoms and the reliance on anti-histamine medication and some clients have reported no symptoms at all once spring arrives.

Avoid the pain, book your appointment now!

Massage therapy can assist in treating headaches and migraines by:

• Reducing the duration and frequency
• Inducing relaxation
• Reducing “tightness”
• Relaxing muscle spasms

Treatment mainly focuses on massage of the neck, shoulders and head. It is also important to understand postural issues affecting your legs, hips, pelvis, and back can create the muscular tension at the root of your headaches and therefore a full body approach is required.

A recent study conducted by the American Massage Therapy Association revealed that patients who received massage had fewer migraines and better sleep quality during the weeks they received massage and for three weeks following compared to those who did not receive massage.

Book in with one of our highly trained remedial therapists to help relieve/reduce your headaches or any other aches or pains you may experience.

Click here for our recent newsletter.

Our Winter newsletter looks at:

• IVF support with Acupuncture
• Vitamin D deficiency
• Winter health tips

Over the last few weeks we have seen many clients with poor immune status.  Are you also susceptible to catching every sniffle and cough going around?  Come and see on of our naturopaths to get you fit and healthy this winter.

Keep warm!

Continuing research since the 1960’s has found time after time, the effect oats have on lowering cholesterol levels.    Beta-glucan is the fibre component within oats that is responsible for these positive health effects.   This fibre has the ability to remove excess cholesterol from our digestive system that would have otherwise ended up in our blood stream resulting in unhealthy cholesterol levels. 

We all know we need fibre to keep us ‘regular’ and healthy but the fibre content of oats is not its only benefit.  Oats are also rich in antioxidants, plant sterols, phytoestrogens, manganese and selenium which attributes to the reduction of the development of cardiovascular disease.  One study found a high fibre diet reduced the individuals risk by up to 29%.  Oats also help stabilise blood sugar levels, reducing the development of type 2 diabetes, enhance our immune system, and reduce breast cancer risk in females.

A few things to remember when buying oats:

• They do contain gluten, a very small amount but if you are a gluten sensitive person you need to be careful
• They contain purines that are broken down to acid in the body – individuals who suffer from gout or kidney stones need to limit or avoid oats
• Rolled oats are best
• Avoid flavoured oats – they contain unnecessary sugar
• Quick oats are highly processed and lose their full fibre content

Here is a lovely treat for Easter that is gluten free, lactose free and no added sugar…..sound too good to be true? Try this healthy treat rich in omega 3 fatty acids and fibre this Easter.  A tasty ball of goodness.

1 1/2 cups of pitted prunes
1 cup of walnuts
1/2 cup of coconut (extra to coat balls in)
half a juice of an orange

Place first 3 ingredients into food processer and blend – slowly add juice until mixture forms into a ball.  Roll small balls and coat with extra coconut.

For those with nut allergies you can swap the walnuts with puffed rice.

Enjoy!

Keeping your water intake up in Autumn

With the cooler weather we still have to ensure that we are drinking at least 1.5 to 2 litres of water each day.  If you struggle to have this amount of water, try a few of these tips to increase your intake:

• Add a fresh peppermint leaf or slice of lemon to water for extra flavour
• Herbal teas such as peppermint, chamomile or calendula are all included in your daily water intake
• Keep at water bottle with you at all times and refill as often as possible
• Challenge yourself, drink a little more each day until you are at two litres

Click herefor our Autumn newsletter

Garlic has been extensively researched and the findings are very positive.  They have found that garlic has the ability to:

• Reduce raised cholesterol levels
• Reduce/inhibit plaque deposits in the arteries
• Reduce raised blood pressure
• Has antioxidant properties
• Reduce inflammation
• Has potent antibiotic effects
• Regulate unstable blood sugar levels
• Ward off vampires (still waiting on confirmation for this one!)

Garlic is also rich in manganese, vitamin  C, vitamin B6 and selenium. 

Unfortunately, it is not as simple as having a garlic pizza daily to get the health benefits.  The main problem is that once you cook garlic it begins to lose the good stuff.  Raw is better and garlic must be chopped or crushed to release the health promoting sulphides.

This can of course be a challenge to some, so here a few ways to up your daily garlic intake.  Add raw chopped/crushed garlic to: 

• Homemade dips i.e. hummus, eggplant, beetroot
• Add once a meal is cooked and stir through
• Rub over toast with fresh tomato
• Sprinkle over homemade pizzas once out of the oven
• Add to salad or steamed vegetables