Articles
Detailed information on how you can improve your health conditions, including anxiety / stress, auto immune, insomnia, hormonal imbalance, thyroid, weight loss - just to name a few.
10 Top Tips for Weight Loss Success
Goals are like a roadmap to success – they show you where you want to be, help you plan your way there, and show you when you are off track. Before you embark on any weight loss program choose SMART goals. These are goals which are:
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Specific,
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Measurable,
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Attainable,
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Relevant and
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have a Timeframe.
Spring is In the Air & so are Allergies
The warmth of spring brings with it an increase in hay fever and allergy symptoms like sneezing, nasal discharge, itchy throat and eyes, sinus or asthma symptoms.
What to Do to Strengthen Your Immune Defences?
A healthy diet is essential for healthy immunity:
Your Body’s Communication Superhighway: The Vagus Nerve
Many of you may not have even heard of the vagus nerve. It is one of our cranial nerves and is in fact the longest cranial nerve in the body that regulates the gastrointestinal tract and also affects the cardiovascular, immune, endocrine and respiratory systems. As a result it is a significant nerve in the human body like a superhighway communicating between our brain and organs. Like muscles, nerves need constant stimulation to be healthy. Ninety percent of the brain’s output goes through the brainstem. If a poorly functioning brain does not stimulate the vagus nerve, the result is reduced activation of the gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular, immune and respiratory systems. So when that nerve is dysfunctional, you can imagine it can have some serious side effects.
Building Resilience Against Stressors
Whilst a healthy diet, nutrients and herbs are a key part of managing stress it is important to consider lifestyle factors which may be contributing to your stress load. In this issue we explore recommendations to help you cope with the demands of daily life in our ever increasingly busy world.
We have two branches to our nervous system our “Fight or Flight” sympathetic branch which is mediated by adrenaline and cortisol from our adrenal glands and our “Rest and Digest” parasympathetic branch which is where we should be when we are consuming meals and winding down at night in preparation for sleep.
Solutions to Beat Stress
In our last article we looked at key nutrients that can support our nervous system in times of stress. In this edition we explore these in more detail.
Remember, when we are under stress, our adrenal glands (which sit above our kidneys) secrete more of the stress hormones cortisol, adrenalin and noradrenalin. This increase in stress hormones requires even more nutrients than usual. This is because our body needs vitamins and minerals to produce these hormones and neurotransmitters (the brain’s messengers) required to adapt to the stress and bring the body back into balance.
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