Uncategorized Archives - Page 17 of 65

June 3, 2019 by Luke 2 Comments

The Remarkable Properties of Collagen

Taking collagen for its health and healing properties has become a popular trend in recent years. Naturally found in the connective tissue of animals, it is the main protein responsible for keeping the tissue that connects, supports, binds, or separates other tissues or organs firm and flexible. Making up 30% of our physical architecture, your body needs plenty of collagen to help it heal and regenerate. As such, supplementing collagen can help to support and enhance the repair of your body. Read on to learn how collagen can help you from the inside out!

Culinary Collagen

Because collagen is found within connective tissue rather than muscle meat, the benefits of dietary collagen are often absent from modern diets. That said, the recent rise of dietary philosophies such as ‘nose to tail’ have re-popularised collagen-rich recipes such as bone broths, helping more individuals gain its nourishing benefits.

That said, the recent rise of dietary philosophies such as ‘nose to tail’ have re-popularised collagen-rich recipes such as bone broths, helping more individuals gain its nourishing benefits.

Beyond this food as medicine approach, collagen can also be used as a protein supplement, ideal for those wanting to ensure adequate protein intake.

The Many Types of Collagen

Over 26 types of collagen have been identified, with the three most abundant forms being types I, II, and III collagen. Whilst all types work to surround tissue fibres and reinforce their strength and flexibility, supplementing with these different types will lead to different benefits. For example, type I and III are found in and are hence best for, your hair, skin and nails. Alternately, type II is found in cartilage sources, making it better for supporting joint health. A deficiency in collagen reduces the body’s ability to manufacture strong connective tissue, resulting in aging skin, brittle hair and nails, osteoarthritis, recurrent joint problems, and a reduced capacity to heal injuries.

Demonstrating this, research shows that adding collagen into your diet can reduce joint pain and enhance mobility. Participants in one study found that after 6 months of adding 10 grams of collagen into their daily routine, they were more able-bodied when it came to carrying and lifting objects and felt less physical discomfort than before taking collagen.

The Elixir of Youth

Research also confirms collagens capacity to reverse the signs of ageing by reinforcing skin tissue integrity. One way it does this is through the regeneration of the deep layers of the skin, improving its ability to retain moisture and reduce sun damage. Individuals taking only 1 gram of collagen per day found that in less than 12 weeks their skin was noticeably more hydrated with a reduction in visible wrinkling. Collagen has also been shown to promote hair growth, increase nail growth and improve brittle nails, showing its capacity to support a healthy glow from top to toe.

Go From Strength to Strength

So why should you take collagen? For all the reasons mentioned above! As it reinforces every cell within your anatomy; from the deepest layers of skin to the stretchy connective encasing every joint in your body, collagen helps you stay strong, youthful and flexible.

As it reinforces every cell within your anatomy; from the deepest layers of skin to the stretchy connective encasing every joint in your body, collagen helps you stay strong, youthful and flexible.

Finding a high-quality collagen product is as easy as finding a Practitioner, as they’ll do all the hard work in sourcing the right type and dose of collagen for your presentation. Helping you both look and feel your best, collagen can help you stay active longer and increase the vitality of your appearance – try it today and you won’t look back!

April 22, 2019 by Luke Leave a Comment

5 Natural Medicines to Calm Your Anxiety

If you’ve ever experienced anxiety, you are likely to be a little more than familiar with the words above. However, if you’re one of the lucky ones who hasn’t experience anxiety, then chances are you live, work and/or socialise with someone who has.

Being the most common mental health condition in this country, 1 in 4 Australians (more than 6 million people) will experience anxiety at some point in their lifetime.

The Aetiology of Anxiety

Whilst 6 million people make up a large part of the population, anxiety is experienced at different time points for different people, and can be a perfectly normal response to a one-off stressful period or worrying event.

However, for some, anxiety can persist and become a chronic mental health condition. In this instance, the triggers for chronic anxiety are multi-factorial, encompassing genetic predisposition, work stressors, traumatic life events, family or relationship issues, abuse, and physical disease. Personality traits of low self-esteem and/or perfectionism can also predispose individuals to experience anxiety.

Therefore, the key to reducing or eliminating anxiety lay in addressing these underlying causes. However, making big life changes or processing large emotions can often take time, and aren’t always possible to rectify right away.

So what can you do each day to reduce your symptoms and boost your ability to cope in the moment? In these instances, it can be really important to amass some tools that will help to manage and reduce your symptoms.

The Calming Force of Nature

In addition to the plethora of dietary and lifestyle interventions available, several nutrients and herbs are also available that work to calm the nervous system and nourish a stressed body and mind. Five of my favourites include:

- When anxious, your body actively eliminates magnesium, which is a catch 22, as a magnesium deficiency actually leads to releasing more stress hormones.Magnesium:
- Ensuring healthy levels of magnesium inhibits the stress response and increases the activity of your calming neurotransmitter gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA),working brilliantly to reduce anxiety.
Glycine:
- Promoting an inhibitory effect on the nervous system, this amino acid has shown particular benefit in improving sleep quality. As anxiety often disrupts sleep, and poor sleep is a primary trigger for anxiety, ensuring a good night’s sleep goes a long way in helping to reduce anxiety levels.
B vitamins
- The neurotransmitter adrenaline, and the adrenal hormone cortisol, are the primary drivers of stress in the body. B vitamins are required to synthesise both of these, with anxiety therefore increasing the body’s demands for these vitamins.
- B vitamins are also needed for your brain to produce several key anxiolytic neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, serotonin and GABA.
- By taking a B complex, you can support your body during times of increased stress, while ensuring the production of calming brain chemicals.
Passionflower
- This herb works fantastically to increase the activity of your master anxiolytic neurotransmitter GABA, and does so without causing drowsiness (unlike benzodiazepines).
Zizyphus
- Holding a long history of use for states of nervous tension, this herb inhibits excess stimulation within the brain that occurs during stress; calming anxiety, frustration and irritability, and promoting sleep.

Note: always check with a natural healthcare Practitioner to ensure any natural medicines are safe to take alongside pharmaceutical medications.

Creating Head Space

As a Naturopath, I have seen firsthand just how well natural medicines work to combat anxiety, both acutely and in the regulation of anxiety long term. This longer term modulation of the stress response is particularly useful, as it’s hard for your brain to construct solution-focused and proactive thoughts when it’s constantly in ‘fight or flight’ survival mode. This is important, as it’s having control over your thought patterns that allows you to create strategies and routines that’ll address the triggers of your anxiety in the first place.

This where I see the real strength of the ingredients such as those listed above – whilst they can’t undo a traumatic life event or cause a transfer out of an anxiety-inducing job, they calm your mind, support your body, and give you some breathing space to address the cause head on.

April 22, 2019 by Luke Leave a Comment

Leg Cramps: Why They Happen & How to Defeat Them

Have you ever experienced the sudden, painful seizing of a leg cramp? Ranging anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, the onset is typically rapid, and can occur during exercise, sleep or at rest. Whilst a cramp can come and go, they are normally pointing to a larger imbalance occurring within your body. Let’s have a look at three reasons you may be getting leg cramps, and what you can do to avoid them.

1. Magnesium deficiency

The first, and perhaps biggest reason cramps can occur is due to a magnesium deficiency. Within muscle cells, calcium works to contract muscle fibres, and magnesium triggers them to relax. If your body does not have enough magnesium, your muscles are able to contract but struggle after this to relax. This prolonged contraction then manifests as the stabbing and intense experience known as a muscle cramp.

The primary reason this deficiency arises is dietary intake. Incredibly, up to 30% of Australians aren’t consuming enough magnesium on a daily basis.

This is due to the average Australian diet being low in magnesium rich foods wholefoods, as it is often high in refined and processed foods. Instead, magnesium is best sourced from green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains. Magnesium supplementation is also recommended as it has been shown to improve muscle relaxation.

2. Exercise

Whilst there are countless benefits to regular exercise, muscle cramps are one of the most common side effects experienced from being active. This is primarily due to the sweating that occurs, which not only depletes water levels within the body, but levels of electrolytes too.

Electrolytes are a collection of minerals made up of sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphate, and magnesium. These minerals dissolve into the water in your body, where they ensure your nerves, heart and muscles work properly, and oversee the passage of fluids in out of your cells. As they’re found within water in the body, profuse sweating not only leads to water loss, but electrolyte loss too.

This means, beyond the need to re-hydrate, a big workout can deplete you of the minerals, such as magnesium and sodium, which your nerves and muscles need to contract and relax properly.

This means, beyond the need to re-hydrate, a big workout can deplete you of the minerals, such as magnesium and sodium, which your nerves and muscles need to contract and relax properly

Consuming a quality electrolyte formula when you exercise, especially one that contains magnesium, may then diminish your chance of experiencing cramping.

Overtraining can also cause leg cramps. When your muscles are contracted vigorously and repetitively (such as during a spin cycle class), this doesn’t allow for adequate recovery, and cramps may result. To reduce cramping from overexertion, stretch frequently, modify the intensity of your exercise regimen, and schedule in rest days to allow your muscles to recuperate.

3. Prolonged sitting or standing

Your body is designed to move, rest and recover, then move again. When you spend all day seated at a desk or standing for hours on end, leg cramps can occur due to lack of movement. To prevent this, simply stretch your muscles regularly, go for a walk, or break out some star jumps – do whatever you feel like, just get those legs moving!

Don’t let cramps cramp your style!

You can reduce your chances of experiencing leg cramps by consuming magnesium-rich foods, replenishing your electrolytes after exercise, and ensuring frequent and varied movement throughout your exercise and daily routine. A magnesium supplement can also be a great way to quickly replenish your levels of this nutrient if deficient.

February 27, 2019 by Luke Leave a Comment

Did you know the battle to retain private health insurance rebates for Natural Medicine is not over yet? email me if you would like a copy of the letter to send to the Minister for Health

Did you know the battle to retain private health insurance rebates for Natural Medicine is not over yet?

Your Health Your Choice, Australia’s largest consumer campaign to protect people’s choice in complementary healthcare, has written a formal request to Australia’s Health Minister, Greg Hunt, to exercise his power to amend the Private Health Insurance (Health Insurance Business) Rules 2018, to allow private health insurers to offer rebates for Natural Therapies.

The letter warns against the drastic cuts and proposed changes, outlining the risks involved in moving forward with the new private health insurance rules, which would restrict healthcare choices by making them less affordable, making it difficult to conduct research into Natural Therapies and impacting the viability of multiple Australian small businesses.

If you would like a copy of this letter to send to the Minister for Health, please email me directly on info@lukeclarke.com.au Since the Your Health Your Choice campaign put out the call mid-last week, well over 6,000 people have responded with individualised emails, and this is growing daily.

Help protect the credibility of our profession – make the choice to take action with one last effort to get the message out there.

February 27, 2019 by Luke Leave a Comment

Subsidies for Natural Therapies Abolished by Australian Government

Subsidies for Natural Therapies

From 1^st of April 2019, the Australian Government will be removing private health insurance subsidies from a range of natural therapies, including Naturopathy and Herbalism. This surprising decision was made in response to a review, conducted by the National Health and Medical Research Clinic (NHMRC) in 2015 assessing the efficacy of 17 natural therapies, ranging from yoga to Naturopathy. The former Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer stated “there was no clear evidence” behind these therapies – a great leap, when you consider the limited information included in the review. The report has since undergone further scrutiny, with critics claiming that it did not follow recognised guidelines or standards in reviewing evidence, lacked transparency and it withheld critical information. The findings conducted by the NHMRC are now under investigation by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The government says that while consumers can still choose to access these services, they will no longer be able to claim benefits from their insurer. Understandably, this has upset a large number of the Australian public, who proactively utilise natural therapies. It has also caused confusion as to how this decision has been passed.

Marla Cunningham, the Head of Clinical Research and Innovation at Metagenics, recently wrote an informative article titled “How Did the Australian Government Conclude ‘There’s No Evidence for Naturopathy’?” In this article, Marla refers to a number of reviews and scientific evidence on Natural Medicine that raise question over whether the government has made the right decision especially in the face of a burgeoning economic health care crisis. The full article can be read here.

Did They Review the RIGHT Evidence?

Many Australian’s have stumbled across robust evidence on the individual therapies that are employed by Natural Medicine Practitioners. As an example, omega-3 fish oil, probiotics, magnesium, turmeric, the Mediterranean diet, meditation, just to name a few, all have significant evidence to back up their ability to improve various health outcomes. Yet, one of the major flaws in using this NHMRC report to guide public health policy is that it only reviewed studies that looked at Naturopathy as a complete health service. Articles of this nature are rare. Few choose to study Naturopathy as a whole service, and instead prefer to study the effectiveness and safety of the component therapeutics employed by Naturopaths such as specific herbal and nutritional therapies, diet and lifestyle practices. Not considering the numerous reviews on these treatments of naturopathic practice, is akin to saying there is no value in seeing a doctor for high cholesterol, without any consideration for the pharmaceutical medications they prescribe to manage cholesterol. As Marla states;

“The one systematic review on whole practice Naturopathy that was found by the report – a review of six randomised controlled trials in North America – did provide positive evidence for the practice of Naturopathy. In fact, the review concluded that Naturopathy was effective in improving patient health for a range of chronic health conditions, including anxiety, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal conditions.³”

Number of articles published in the last five years on the following individual therapies:

Probiotics – 9171

Turmeric- 2034

Curcumin – 6259

Fish Oil – 8471

Omega 3 – 8727

Is the Government Missing the Point?

Complementary medicine is just that – it can ‘complement’ orthodox treatment. By taking your doctor’s advice, blood tests and pharmaceutical prescriptions into consideration, Naturopaths are able to provide a holistic and personalised solution prescribing herbal and nutritional supplements, diet, exercise, and lifestyle advice to assist in healing to address the underlying cause of your presenting concern. Their treatments have been shown to optimise the results achieved with conventional treatments and minimising the risk of potentially harmful side effects of prescription medication. Naturopathy, when utilised as first port of call, has the ability to reduce the burden on the traditional healthcare system significantly. Numerous reviews and studies have identified the benefits of natural therapies, and Marla also acknowledges the following studies in her article;

A comprehensive review which looked at the nature of complementary medicine usage within Australia, found it to be commonly utilised by patients with these diseases,⁴a trend that is supported by a wealth of evidence on the effectiveness of natural medicines for these conditions. For example, in the priority area of mental health, highlights high quality (scientifically rigorous) evidence for several herbs in the treatment of anxiety (including passionflower) and depressive disorders (including saffron).

A 2014 Frost and Sullivan report predicted the potential healthcare savings if at-risk Australians utilised just a handful of natural medicines for the prevention or treatment of key conditions – B vitamins and omega-3 for cardiovascular health; magnesium, calcium and vitamin D for bone health; lutein and zeaxanthin for eye health; and St John’s wort for depression⁵”

These ingredients, along with many others, are common components of Naturopathic treatment and due to their accepted efficacy are considered to be medicine. There are countless studies and trials demonstrating many more ingredients within the domain of Naturopathic practice, should become staples in everyday healthcare. It is important to keep the naturopathic industry healthy and thriving so it can continue to feed optimal solutions to the medical community.

Is Australia Lagging Behind?

While Australia lags, globally, other countries are leading the charge accepting nutritional and herbal treatments as effective, everyday medicine. For example, in Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Council acknowledge that complementary medicine meets statutory regulations when it comes to effectiveness, and guaranteeing high quality and safety.⁶ Hence, services such as homeopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine and herbal medicine, are covered by mandatory health insurance. In India, traditional medicine is widely used, especially in rural areas where 70% of the Indian population lives. Services such as, Naturopathy, homeopathy, and yoga are all recognised by the Government of India.⁷Whilst the Australian government is balking at providing support for these services, 70% of the Australian population use over-the-counter natural medicines and one third of the population use complementary therapies such as Naturopathy, massage therapy and chiropractic – showing huge public endorsement. What’s more, as per Marla’s article, “There are a number of health conditions which have been identified as national health priority areas by the Australian Government based on their contribution to the burden of disease in Australia – dementia, obesity, arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions, asthma, diabetes, mental health, injuries, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. ⁸

42% of Complementary Medicine users take these medicines to address national priority health conditions.

Your Health is Your Business.

As Benjamin Franklin said, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Naturopaths shift the emphasis from ‘managing’ disease and symptoms to building and maintaining the best possible health. The principle objective of Natural Medicine is prevention, through educating and empowering people to attain better health through adopting a more natural lifestyle, eating a healthy diet, exercising, regulating sleep, and regenerating themselves physically, emotionally and spiritually. Rather than providing a band-aid that covers up symptoms, the goal is to identify and treat the cause with non-invasive, safe and effective natural therapies. All of these therapies of which have an abundance of research behind them, even if the entire practice of naturopathy as a ‘health service’ has yet to be extensively studied.

When it comes to your health, your freedom of choice should never be confined as to what the Government stipulates as ‘good for us’.

Despite what the Australian Government has concluded, embracing a health-enhanced lifestyle and working alongside a natural healthcare professional, can provide those with presenting health concerns with a greater quality of life.

A 2017 study of 252 Australian individuals aimed to assess patients perceptions of clinical care in complementary medicine. It concluded that complementary medicine practice is characterised by a patient-centred, empathic and empowering approach – with 99.2% of patients claiming they felt seen and heard as a unique individual by their complementary medicine practitioner.

As a result of education initiatives such as the How Dare They Campaign, saw at least 5315 letters be sent to members of parliament to resist the change, and reached over 780,000 people on social.

I Support Natural Medicine and I Vote had 1700 shares and 100,000 views on Facebook.

The Australian Public is invested in natural medicine practitioners and the therapies they offer.

¹http://www.nhmrchomeopathy.com/ombudsman-exec-summary.html

²http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/private-health-insurance-reforms-fact-sheet-removing-coverage-for-some-natural-therapies

³ Australian Government. Department of Health [Internet]. Canberra ACT: Department of Health; 2017 [updated 2017 June 29; cited 2018 Aug 3]. Available from: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/phi-natural-therapies

⁴Reid R, Steel A, Wardle J, Trubody A, Adams J. Complementary medicine use by the Australian population: a critical mixed studies systematic review of utilisation, perceptions and factors associated with use. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2016 Dec;16(1):176.

⁵ Shanahan C, Lorimier R. Targeted use of complementary medicines: potential health outcomes and cost savings in Australia. Frost & Sullivan (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Sydney. 2014 Oct;116.

⁶https://www.echamp.eu/news-and-events/news/complementary-medicine-in-switzerland-now-a-mandatory-health-insurance-service

⁷ http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jh2943e/8.4.html

⁸Australian Government. National Health and Medical Research Council [Internet]. Canberra ACT: National Health and Medical Research Council; 2016 [updated 2016 Aug 31; cited 2018 Aug 3]. Available from: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/book/nhmrc-corporate-plan-2016-2017/nhmrc-s-strategic-direction/major-health-issues