My Tea Habit

Isn't it a wonderful relief that Summer is finally over! Three solid months of 35 degrees plus just isn't fair on a pregnant chick! But now it's cool at last. And that means I can drink tea again!




Antonio cultivating his tea habit

His favourite is chamomile













Herbal tea drinking is a habit I cultivated. My family's tea habit is a traditional Irish addiction to very strong cups of English Breakfast many times a day! While I don't object to a 'propper' cup of tea, I found it much more useful for me, health-wise, to cultivate a habit of drinking herbal teas. It's a perfect example of how to choose a health enhancing option over a health degrading one. (There are many stories floating around about how wonderful tea is for our health. The truth is the benefits are outweighed by the effect of the tannins on the stomach. A leather stomach doesn't digest food very well.) So during my years at the Perth Academy of Natural Therapies, where the student's common room kitchen was well stocked with some "out there" herbal blends, I learned to love the stuff.

I mean really love the stuff! I'm very proud of my extensive and eclectic tea cupboard! I feel that my approach to tea drinking is probably akin to that of our ancestors. Thousands of years ago, and until recently, people drank tea as a tonic, choosing herbal blends to suit the time of day, the season, their constitution or state of health. I use it simultaneously as a source of comforting warmth, a gesture of self care, and as medicine. I often turn to a tea for relief before any other treatment, if I feel 'below par'.

Right now my tea choices are influenced most by my pregnancy. During the first two trimesters I choose nettle and rosehip, sometimes separately and sometimes blended together. Rosehip is a great source of vitamin C, while nettle is a great iron source, as well as a good kidney tonic. After the 30th week of the pregnancy I will add raspberry tea, to strengthen and tone up my uterus for birth.

If I was feeling bloated or overfull,  I might choose peppermint tea, which is a calming and uplifting digestive aid. Chamomile is calming and soothing, and also a wonderful remedy for an unsettled stomach. I might even blend it together with peppermint for this purpose. I often order these teas when I'm out for a meal, partly because they're often the only ones available, and partly because they can be an antidote to any dietary indiscretions that may have transpired!

When a cold strikes I actually use tea as a primary source of relief. Besides taking such things as garlic tablets and tablespoons of coconut oil, I take teas containing such herbs as sage, calendula and golden seal. These three are antibacterial and help with lymphatic drainage, alleviating sore throats from glandular enlargement or infection. I also squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a cup, add a splash of water and drink this several times a day as it is a strong antiviral remedy, and I find it very relieving. Last week I had a cold, and, being pregnant, these gentle remedies became some of my only options. I also ate a handful of small, young nasturtium leaves daily as an immune boost. The cold was mild and lasted all of three days before I was fully recovered.

If I felt anxious or stressed I might choose white tea, vata tea (see below) or chamomile. Any of these would bring me down to earth. If I was feeling sad I might choose peppermint, lavender, rosemary or my personal indulgence tea, a cup of chai! (I've posted the recipe as I make it in the thermomix below)

Teas are a part of my beauty regimen. My beauty regimen is almost entirely focused on keeping my gut healthy, I do very little to my skin on the outside as I consider it too late by the time the skin cells have reached the surface! Ginger tea is especially good for the stomach and intestines, helping them break down the food we eat. Green tea is also a digestive aid, and mild liver tonic. In addition to gut health, hydration is important for the complexion. Any herbal tea is hydrating, while tea and coffee are dehydrating.

Ayruvedic medicine, which is the ancient Indian medicine system, offers tea tonics as wonderful daily balancers. I discovered in college that 'Vata' tea helped to relieve my period pains. Vata tea is also a wonderful digestive aid, and soothing to personalities prone to stress and anxiety. However if you are a 'hot' type of person, say you might suffer from reflux, or arthritis, dislike eating chilli and work in a creative or athletic capacity, the Pita tea is for you. Finally the Kapha tea is for those of us who are 'smell the roses' types, heavier set, robust and grounded people. Kapha tea can get you motivated and help with weight loss, sinus congestion, a sluggish bowel and even help alleviate depression.

Finally, my indulgence tea is another Indian inspired one, chai! I love a good chai. When I feel a hankering I take a teaspoon of black leaf tea and put it in the thermomix with a stick of cinnamon, some cloves, some cardamom pods, a star anise, a good chunk of fresh ginger and some peppercorns. I blitz them for 10 seconds on speed 9, then add a cup of water. I boil this at 100 for about 7 minutes, then add raw honey and raw milk, and strain into a big mug! Sometimes I make a big batch of the brew (before adding milk and honey) and put it in the fridge in a milk bottle. Then I can use it as a cold chai smoothie. I put a third of a cup of the brewed tea into the thermomix with a banana, some raw or nut milk, 2 raw egg yolks and some honey and blitz at speed 7 for 20 seconds. Great breakfast on the go!

What is your tea habit? Get eclectic and try something different next time you have a tea break!

Candidiasis - my journey

I've been meaning to write about Candidiasis for a while now, and I've even been asked to by patients who struggle with it, but I haven't yet. This is because it's such a boring subject by itself. A description, some recommendations...yawn...

Yet it's totally integral to good health. Without good intestinal health, we can't be healthy at all, physically, mentally or emotionally. The intestines are the crux of our total health.

Candida albicans is a yeast which lives in our gut along with many other microbes (bacteria such as acidophilus & friends, e-coli etc) which function in a perfectly balanced ecosystem to digest our food. When we mistreat our 'intestinal flora' (the collective name for all these yeasts and bacteria) with sugar, alcohol and excessive antibiotics, the candida becomes too prolific, because the others can't keep it in check. This results in poor digestion of food and poor absorption of nutrients, and without enough nutrients no system can be healthy, including our immune system (allergies, colds & flu, recovery time etc), liver, kidneys, heart, muscles, bones, hormones (which affect weight, fertility, stress) and nervous system (and therefore emotions). This situation is known as 'malabsorption syndrome'. Then of course there are the other little complications such as bloating, gut cramps, oral and vaginal thrush, urinary tract infections, and other rashes and fungal infections anywhere else on the body.

I learned the importance of balanced gut flora the hard way, and it's probably the reason I became a Naturopath. So instead of listing all the treatments for intestinal candidiasis I'm going to share my story, which may be very familiar to you, because it's common amongst little kids. Some of us lucky ones are taken to a natural health professional and recover, others continue with modern medicine and the story continues into adulthood.


As a small child (I'm told) I had many recurrances of urinary tract and ear infections. Each time my Mum would take me to the doctor and I would be prescribed antibiotics. Over and over again. That many courses were probably enough in themselves, but I was also consuming cereal and milk and bread daily, and possibly too many biscuits at Grandma's house! So, by the time I was 8 or 9 I had such a rampant case of candidiasis that I developed very bad vaginal thrush. I remember this part well; no 9 year old should ever have to endure thrush. At the time it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. At her wit's end, my poor Mum took me to a Naturopath. This Naturopath, though I don't remember her at all, changed my life. I was sent home with an eating plan which involved eliminating all sugar in all forms. That is lollies, cakes, biscuits, commercial fruit juice, soft drinks, dried fruit, bread, pasta and other wheat products, and dairy, (with the exception of plain, natural pot-set yoghurt). These high GI foods are what candida albicans loves to eat. I was also given a probiotic powder (these days we have capsules, I did it tough!) to recollonise my gut with good bacteria (the ones the antibiotics killed), and the most vile liquid herbal, to kill the excess candida, both to be taken daily.

Now as a Naturopath I would struggle to believe any 8 or 9 year old would follow this regimen. And of course it is largely up to the parents to ensure the programme is followed, however I remembered and remember still what that thrush felt like. I was more than willing to do whatever was required to ex it. And when I noticed one day that my bloated tummy was now flat, I was hooked!

It wasn't easy at first though. Back then there weren't as many wonderful alternatives to wheat as there are now. The bread for my school lunches was dry and had a nasty habit of crumbling. The wheat free pasta was woeful, I'd rather have eaten brocoli than the wheat free biscuits of the day and all of it was hard to source. Forget the existance of a health food asile in the supermarket. There were no wheat free breakfast cereals that were also sugar free so on schoolday mornings I ate puffed something-or-other, which tasted like cardboard, with either goats milk or yoghurt. We soon abandoned the cereal/milk thing in favour of real food; fruit, yoghut and nuts or eggs or baked beans or rye bread toast with almond spread. (Now I have a lot of porridge too, but Mum has bad childhood memories of the stuff and couldn't bring herself to feed it to us.)

One of my Mum's favourite memories of my first couple of days was about 72 hours into the programme, when I announced that "I feel better in my feelings". When asked to explain I said that the girl down the road was "still annoying, but I don't feel like killing her anymore."

There was pent up irritability that just disappeared. There were loads of physical symptoms that disappeared, including the bloating, and the infections. I was a much happier kid in general, and I never forgot the instant difference the treatment plan made for me. After a while I discontinued the herbal, and only took a course of the probiotics here and there, but I stayed on the diet for the most part. There were, of course, times when it wasn't possible, like our family trip to Rome over Christmas when I was 9 and a half. Thanks to the abundance of sugar and pasta and bread (mmmmmm) some symptoms returned. It's happened like that over the years; I start eating sugar and flour and after a week or so I feel different. But it's never been severe and out of control again. I now know how to manage my gut flora and still live a normal, restaurant-loving Melburninan life.

Now that I'm about to start a family of my own I hope that I can help them to maintain gut flora balance, and prevent all that pain and discomfort. Here are some of the things I will do to ensure their health:

Breast feed and never give formula. There are herbs I can take if there's a supply problem.

Ensure they eat real food at all times, ie fruit, veg, nuts, seeds, legumes, meat, fish, real yoghurt, oats, rice and quinoa. This ensures they get plenty of nutrients and don't get sick much in the first place.

Ensure they never drink soft drinks and grow up knowing that they're poison

Ensure they dont drink processed cow milk

Keep sugary foods (including breakfast cereals) for very special occasions like Christmas, Easter and Birthdays, and even then keep it to a minimum

At home, cook mostly wheat free foods, so that when they are out it's not as big an issue.

Treat ear infections with a drop of garlic oil and a homoeopathic, no need for antibiotics

Treat colds with homoeopathics and (when they're older) herbs unless it's a critical situation


So these are the preventative measures you can use for candidiasis. The great thing about raising kids this way is that they'll be really healthy in general, and you'll never know what other diseases you've prevented. You'll most certainly use less pharmaceuticals because there will be less need for them. They are less likely to develop allergies because their little livers will be clean, and they'll be more emotionally balanced and mentally at their best.

If you're treating yourself for candidiasis, these are the two products you can get from your pharmacy or health shop









Or you can see your Naturopath for an individualised treatment plan. If you also have thrush I find garlic tablets work very quickly, and they don't have to be fancy ones, Natures Own Odourless Garlic works fine, 2 tablets 3 times daily til it's gone, in conjunction with the diet, probiotics and herbs. With garlic treatment thrush is usually gone in a day or so.

If you need to take a course of antibiotics, and I stress the word 'need', as I believe they should be used in very rare circumstances, then always take a course of probiotics immediately after you finish them and spend some time on the diet as well.

Exercise and sleep are also important for treating candidiasis. Exercise is known to boost the immune system in several ways; by increasing happy brain chemicals and by encouraging good quality sleep. During good sleep our bodies replenish, and the immune system is strengthened. If you're not waking feeling refreshed then you're not getting good quality sleep. The clean eating plan alone will probably recitfy this.

It's important to remember that candidiasis is endemic to the westernised world, where we consume highly processed foods every day and feed them to our kids, and overuse antibiotics. As a Naturopath I tend to find it at the core of most of my client's ill health, because we can't be healthy without a perfectly balanced intestinal system. The good news is that the intestinal system regenerates itself very quickly; in 3 months it's an entirely new gut. This means that if you remain on the treatment for 3 solid months you have a gut that's made from good food, and will be functioning beautifully.

If you want more info on candidiasis or you want to share your story, please comment or email me


Wishing you great gut health!

"Catching a Cold" - Germ theory and the immune system

How and why does sickness occur? This is truly a multi billion dollar question. Yet to me it's fairly simple. Here's my take on illness.

I hear people around me make reference to "catching a cold" from someone, or blaming their illness on germs in their environment. It makes me realise what a fantastic job advertising is doing for chemical cleaning products. If it was essential to douse our homes and children with pine-o-clean in order to prevent illness, why is it that we're more unwell now than we were before it was on the market?

In the 19th century in France there was a guy called Louis Pasteur. He proved the theory that disease was caused by pathogenic microbes, which became known as "germ theory". He also provided several solutions to common causes of poisoning, and this is why we now pasteurise milk, to make it hygenic and increase shelf life.

In the time since then we began to discover the fabulous complexity of the human immune system. We still have not finished discovering its fabulousness and complexity, but we do know that its role is to protect us from these nasty germs. In the 19th century the germ was an important discovery which saved many lives, however, in these hygenic and sanitised times of the 21st century, I think we're ready for the next step. It's time we took responsibility for our own immunity.

To my mind, germs are a part of our environment, part of our ecosystem. They inhabit our bodies (skin, mouth, throat, intestines etc) at all times and always have. They live in harmonious balance with our immune system. That is, unless our immune system is under assault. This is inevitably the case for all us city dwellers. In order for our immune system to function well there are several things we need. They are:

Clean air, free of pollutants and chemicals
Clean food, free of pollutnants and chemicals
Clean water, free of pollutants and chemicals
Exercise and
Sleep

In addition to these basics, other immune strengtheners include anything that feels good, such as massage, laughing, dancing, hobbies etc.

Therefore the reason our immune systems are under assault these days is because

our air is full of pollutants and chemicals, from industry and cars etc
our food is full of pollutants and chemicals, from modern farming techniques, refining of foods and food additives
our water is full of pollutants and chemicals, such as flouride and 'cleaned' with chlorine.
we live increasingly sedentary lives
we don't sleep well thanks to caffiene, electricity, stress and late nights

So if these are the true reasons why we're sick, should we treat with more chemicals? I would suggest not. I'd also like to point out that when it comes to germ killing, few chemicals come close to being as effective as a single drop of essential oil. The best choices for cleaning are eucalyptus, tea tree, lemon and lavender. In addition to these, I use Eco Store cleaning products in my home. But when it comes to my immune system, I choose to eat organic foods, limit sugar, dairy and refined foods, drink filtered water, and get good sleep and regular exercise. There's not much I can do about the air, short of vote Green! And I could certainly use more massages! I honestly never get sick unless I'm stressed and or eating badly. I can even cope with a certain amount of sleep deprivation provided my diet is really good. For me, this is totally worthwhile.

Recently I treated a woman who came to me complaining that she'd had a cold for two years continuously. She was on a high daily dose of rhinocort and nothing she took was helping at all. She was certainly not pine-o-clean deficient. I'm sure her home was very hygenic. As it turned out she had a severe milk intollerance. One week later she was symptom free (and rhinocort free) after eliminating the dairy products from her diet. It's worth remembering that dairy is a common cause of excess mucous production, which can lead to cold symptoms and sinus infections.

Finally, my advice if you do have a cold is see your Naturopath! A Naturopath can help you to kill the infection and also bring your health back to 100%, where it belongs, by identifying and treating the cause of the problem. For ideas on how to treat yourself at home, check out my blog "Get Well Soon" from May last year.

Get Well Soon

The ancient medical philosophies of Europe, India and Asia all acknowledged that the seasons affect the human body in a profound way. Each season was said to influence the body as it influences the world around us, creating more dryness and heat in Summer and moisture and cold in Winter and so on. Illness was thought to arise from an imbalance in these influences, for example too much cold increased the chance of infection and heat increased inflammation. Though we no longer give much consideration to this diagnostic system, we are still governed by the natural laws of the world around us.

So at the change of season we may notice changes in our bodies. Some of us feel instantly more energetic as Summer approaches, others prefer the cool of Winter, yet others struggle through Spring with hay fever. But at some point in the year we will feel that our bodies are in some way affected by a change of season.

As the Summer and Autumn blends into Winter, it’s quite common to feel the body begin to wind down to Winter mode. There may be an increased desire for sleep as the days shorten. There may be an inclination towards warm, dense foods. And most common of all, there’s the common cold.

A cold may occur at this time of year if the body’s increased need for sleep and TLC is not met. In other words, we continue to power through our busy lives, and often haven’t even registered the subtle difference. In this way, a cold can serve to slow us down, enforce a few days of (by now much needed) rest, and strengthen our immunity (by giving it a training session) for the coming Winter months. It’s important therefore to take the opportunity to rest and entirely recover. It’s also important to use remedies that stimulate the body to heal itself, and this is why it’s not advisable to use an antibiotic, which will do the work of your immune system for you. Save that treatment for more serious situations. Excellent remedies at this time include warm teas with lemon juice, essential oils like eucalyptus for sinus congestion, and herbal treatments to simulate immunity. These remedies, teamed with adequate sleep and good food, will assist a thorough and much faster recovery than many other treatments. It is certainly and by far the healthier option than the ‘soldier on’ approach of certain band-aid pharmaceuticals.

Some fun and effective home treatments are;

Lemon and ginger tea:
Grate some fresh ginger, about a tablespoonful, into a saucepan, add one cup of cold water, boil, then simmer for 5 minutes with a tight lid on. Strain into a mug, add the juice of ¼ of a lemon and sip slowly. You can also use a drop of ginger essential oil, in which case skip the saucepan part and pop a drop straight to the mug. Drink this 3 times a day. You can make it all in one batch then reheat it twice, just add a little more ginger and two more cups of water.

Foods:
If you do feel hungry during a cold, make sure the foods you eat are exceptionally clean and fresh, by which I mean organic and whole foods. Fruit should be the first line of hunger busting. You can stew or juice them if your throat is sore. If you require a more substantial meal, soups (not canned) are the best warm option. If you’re making this yourself, make a quick veggie stock* by throwing any veg you have in the fridge (add leafies like spinach or silverbeet last and keep rather than straining out) along with a halved onion, plenty of garlic and some chilli (fresh or flaked) some sea salt and fresh ground pepper into a pot and covering with water. Boil then simmer this for a couple of hours, covered. Strain the stock and while still hot add a beaten egg or two in a thin stream while stirring. But ideally family or friends could do this for you. Other great snacks include fresh avocado dip with carrot sticks or a salad of fresh baby spinach or roquette leaves, avocado, vegetable sticks and some boiled egg, dressed only with lemon juice and olive or flax oil.
*I would avoid using a commercial stock as they’re much too high in salt and often contain additives such as colour and flavour enhancers.

It is so important that you avoid the following to speed recovery;

• Milk; milk and other dairy stimulate mucus production and challenge immunity,
• Fried fats; avoid these at all times anyway, but especially during recovery,
• Sugar and starch; this includes flour based foods. These deplete the body’s vitamin and mineral stores.

Essential oils
It’s just incredible how fast these work. Often you can prevent a cold entirely just by using a drop or two of a well chosen oil at the first sign of a cold. My favourite for this is Young Living’s Thieves oil. The cloves and cinnamon will warm the body and stimulate immunity, eucalyptus clears sinus congestion, rosemary cleanses the whole system and the lemon, as with all the other ingredients, is a powerful antimicrobial.

Herbs:
Equally as effective is a well chosen bottle of liquid herbs, like my Get Well Soon blend. This is made up of 5 great antibacterial and immune stimulating herbs to give you a speedy and full recovery in a couple of days.
If you choose to support yourself in this way, not only will your recovery be quick and complete, but you will actually feel better than you did before you came down with the cold. You’ll most likely have more energy, get better sleep and feel emotionally more balanced than you did previously. If you’d like more information about how you can feel this good every day, make an appointment for a Naturopathic consultation.