Health
Let’s be specific about health conditions & Solutions
Inflammation
Inflammation is a leading factor of ill health, it’s at least partially responsible for many health conditions I see each day, but most people don’t believe it affects them.
What is inflammation? Very simply put – we have an immune system that is usually ready and willing to stand up and be counted on when we’re attacked by a foreign invader, be this a virus, bacteria, or even something as benign as pollen. The immune system will send out defenders in the form of white blood cells to overwhelm and surround the invaders, imagine you’ve cut yourself on a knife, if it is kept clean and dry it should be fast to heal but it could also become inflamed: red, swollen, irritated, painful, weeping if its not looked after. Next consider what happens when our immune system believes its facing a threat because we’ve eaten something it doesn’t like, something that is part of our diet each day, or when we’re in the midst of spring when pollen is extensive. The immune system doesn’t shut down, it keeps defending, but becomes less capable of eliminating the threat and the tissues we can’t see like those in the digestive system can become inflamed.
The main way of reducing the impact of inflammation is by avoiding inflammatory foods, making healthy food choices.
which means:
- LESS processed foods; sugar; alcohol; coffee, check for food sensitivities and avoid them, and reduce stress.
- MORE fresh vegetables, some fruit, protein with each meal (which as aside can make a significant difference to energy levels, anxiety and depression), plus drink plenty of water each day.
Stress
Everyone I know has some level of stress, its insidious, affects us all, and many do not know how to stop it from becoming a health problem. There is a certain level of stress which is good for us, this is called eustress and it motivates us. However when stress begins to or continues to impact our sleep, digestion, hormones, moods, we need to act. I’ve had clients who have not suffered period pain until stress began, or who can’t sleep, or have panic attacks, or feel depressed, or can’t eat, or their liver function is affected since stress can directly affect the liver. Basically stress affects every function in our bodies.
- Abdominal breathing exercises are ideal as they can be done any where, practice each night so they can be used when required, and they’ll help with settling for sleep.
- The same healthy food choices applies to stress as they do to inflammation – see above
- Think about where your thoughts are, what I mean is if you are so busy worrying about your next meeting, what you’ll have for dinner, what your boss thinks about that last piece of work you did, why your partner was grumpy this morning, why someone was peeved and looked at you the wrong way in the cue at lunch, then how much energy do you have left to support the running of your body. Call your thoughts back and check in with you, your breathing, your heart beat, the feel of water while washing your hands – anything to centre your thoughts within your body.
- Consider supplementing with B vitamins, they’re necessary for energy production, and stress management and because they’re water soluble they’re not stored within the body so have to be replaced regularly, if you’re not digesting properly because you are stressed, you won’t be absorbing nutrients adequately so you’re probably low on nutrients.
- Prioritise sleep! If you find it difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep try stopping caffeine 8 hours before sleep so its no longer providing a stimulating effect, try taking a course of magnesium, adequate protein intake during the day can improve sleep.
- Exercise is very important, 20-30 minutes per day produces feelings of calm in many people and can reduce the stress hormone cortisol. Studies have shown that 120-160 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week improves sleep quality
- Connect with other people, allow time for socialising, maintain a loving connection with family and friends
- Practice keeping a gratitude journal, its difficult to remain stressed when we’re busy looking for things to be grateful about.
Healthy Periods
I’m appalled that so many women of all ages, from teens to peri-menopausal, do not realise that suffering during their monthly cycles is not normal. Why have we accepted this as fact?
Signs of a “Normal” period:
- 21-35 day cycle;
- 2-7 day bleed;
- No pain or PMS;
- Approx. total of 80ml bleed
When we experience a cycle that is not normal – we need to look at why? Why is my body suffering? What is my body trying to tell me?
Is your monthly cycle so painful that you can’t go to school or work, does PMT cause intense emotional feelings, maybe grumpy, irritated, angry or tearful?
Perhaps its that food intake is not enough, too little protein and other nutrients will mean the body is not able to support a period, or it could be that the diet has too much inflammatory foods (refer to info on inflammation above).
It could be that there is too much stress in which case again the body doesn’t feel safe enough to support a period. Stress comes in all shapes, and affects almost everyone, consider what we do to relieve stress, sometimes to excess, for example – over or under exercising, binge eating, excessive alcohol intake – if we didn’t have stress would we feel a need to do these things? When we overindulge we’re not supporting our body.
One of the first changes I suggest for my clients is to trial removing dairy, this is to do with the inflammation dairy can create which makes it the first part of understanding the puzzle. So if you’re reading this then please trial eliminating dairy (milk, cheese, butter, ice-cream, cream, sour cream) for 2-3 months. If you are still not having normal periods after that change then there are other things to try, including improving gut health, taking specific supplements that support healthy ovulation and therefore healthy periods, herbs to support metabolise/eliminate built up oestrogen.
Endometriosis occurs in approximately 1 in 10 of women, and can take many years to diagnose. It may not be hormonal as much as it is a symptom of whole body chronic inflammatory disease. So yes reducing inflammation within the body can help but medical intervention may still be required.
Heavy irregular periods in peri-menopause are another common issue. One of the causes of these are anovulatory cycles when ovulation does not occur in a particular cycle. However oestrogen is still produced and bleeding still occurs, but no progesterone is released. Anovulatory cycle may also be either regular or irregular, so it you’re experiencing shorter cycles this could be why.
Get in Touch
Feel free to get in touch with me any time to talk about your health.
Locations
Upper Hutt
Plateau Road
Tue, Thu, Fri, some Sat
Lower Hutt
Body of Work
Wed
Online
Day and time as requested (except Wed & Sun)