Do you suffer from fatigue, or exhaustion? We live in a culture that doesn’t value unproductive time, yet without sufficient rest and relaxation, our health will eventually suffer. With Covid-19 going through the community, many find they are not bouncing back as quickly as others. It may be time to learn the lost art of convalescence.

I write a fair bit about evidence-based complementary medicines. I enjoy research. Yet much of my own life is lived on another level, more in the energy world. The subtle worlds of nature, energy, prana. The plant world around me. My inner life.

Such as the gotu kola plant that I am watching grow all over the outdoor fireplace lately. I pick a few leaves and put them in a salad or casserole, to help with the connective tissue issues of menopause. But I also delight in the way it is growing wildly in my garden.

When our parasympathetic nervous system is dominant, we digest our food best. This is our “rest and digest” nervous system, when our body produces optimal digestive enzymes. The body directs adequate resources to digestion and absorption, metabolism.

When we eat in a stressed, distracted, busy or anxious state,……

Long Covid is caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus and refers to the lingering of symptoms from weeks to months to years after the initial acute infection. The malaise that can linger for many months, in fact now for some people years, is very like ME/CFS…….

Pacing is a skill that has become important to the post viral syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome communities, but it is something that many more people could benefit from learning.

Those people who find themselves fatigued easily for any reason, or suffer from grief, exhaustion, or any number of debilitating symptoms, could do well to learn to pace themselves.

It simply means….

There is plenty of good evidence that positive emotions, emotional intelligence programs that encourage better handling of stress and negative emotions, and being aware of and attuned to one’s emotional state, are all associated with better cardiovascular health.

With this virus doing the rounds, one of the best things you can do, after vaccinating, is to make sure your Vit D levels are optimal.

Some tips for a healthy Christmas

Are you somewhere in mid or later life and getting more joint pain, muscular pain, and related fatigue? In my 40s I started to develop chronic joint and muscular pain, and so it’s been an area of personal interest for me. For clients, joint or all of body, or shifting pain are symptoms their doctor has often not been able to easily diagnose, let alone treat. So this newsletter I thought I would cover this topic and some of its causes.

Mind you, even if you do get a label from a medical professional such as fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthiritis, they may not be able to do a lot to help after that. The incidence of chronic pain diseases is increasing, but so far, not much gain in effective treatments.

Most of these conditions if not all, involve inflammation.

There are some evidence-based and practical and even simple ways to nurture your immune system against viral based illnesses. Please note this does not mean it will prevent them, or provide any guarantee, it simply strengthens our immunity so that we have a stronger resilience- we increase our chances of handling them better.

However, viruses that our body has not had contact with before, such as sars-cov-2, can be quite challenging for many people, as we have seen. Especially for those people with underlying health conditions, the extra support may just make a difference…..

Many people are currently getting vaccinated against covid and I want to write a post to help them support themselves. I know some are feeling anxious leading up to their appointment.

Side effects are common……

Have you heard of the term ‘oestrogen dominance’ but are not quite sure what it is referring to?

Oestrogen dominance is related to long term stress, which causes “sympathetic dominance”.This refers to our “fight or flight” system being chronically activated. This leads to fatigue, often called “adrenal fatigue” or “chronic fatigue”….

I find most of the women I work with need to hear and appreciate hearing me say things like:

Looking after kids is already a full time job- then you do paid work as well? It’s a lot you are managing, no wonder you are tired/exhausted etc

Women’s work doesn’t tend to be recognised or acknowledged, so we feel we have to do more and more...but look at everything you are doing.....

As women, mothers and/or wives, we tend to look after all the details of the family life and schedule, often including our husband/partner’s details. There is so much detail to keep track of in today’s world!

Studies have shown that one of the most important factors in health and longevity, is proper social nutrition. We are social creatures….

Many people who come to me want to lose weight, but also have long term disordered eating patterns through calorie restriction, binge eating, trying different extreme diets that demonise things like carbs, sugar, fat or dairy. One of the most important things in my approach is to make sure you are well nourished, because….