Continually Improving Our Advice to You.....

Our Practitioners regularly attend seminar and learning updates to keep us up date in the latest treatments, products, development and research recommendations and trials being done for a variety of conditions. We also have longterm monthly subscriptions to a variety of nutritional and medical journals. Here we overview a selection of lectures attended.

 

  • Women's Balance - July 2010. Reviewing and updating the effective strategies for intervention into the wide array of health problems that can assail the modern woman when her hormones are negatively impacting upon her health.

 

  • Breaking the Obesity Cycle:Beyond Willpower & Calorie Counting -July 2010 The overly simple concept of energy in, energy out just doesn’t seem to come close to addressing the battle that so many people fight with their weight. This seminar addressed the health and quality of life consequences of being overweight, investigated social, lifestyle and environmental patterns and triggers for weight gain, and considered the frequent complications of medical intervention strategies. This seminar also reviewed the complicated web of biochemical pathways that lead to excessive hunger and outlined the evidence for the most appropriate strategies to address this. The link between the health and integrity of the gut lining and intestinal microbiota is for many a surprising and mostly unconsidered, yet powerful player in addressing the tendency for a person to become overweight, inflamed and generally poor in health.  Also considered were helpful motivational strategies, the role of exercise and which types work best, and many other clinical gems in how to thoroughly address this all too common time bomb of carrying too much fat around your middle.
  • Effective Neurotransmitter Modulation for Balanced Moods - July 2010. Fear can invoke a certain response in the body – the heartbeat quickens, the palms start to sweat, breathing becomes fast and shallow and that “butterfly” sensation appears in the tummy and all of this can occur within the blink of an eye. Our neurological system directs the way we see and interpret our life and how we interact with the world around us and as with the fear response, this can change from second to second. Just as quickly, the act of smiling floods the body with feel-good messengers that can change the way your heart beats, your brain thinks and how you digest your last meal. Clearly, maintaining a healthy balance in our neurotransmitters is important for daily wellbeing and we all have different requirements. Research suggests that making happiness and stress management a priority can extend both the quality and quantity of your life.
  • Hormones in Clinical Practice - May 2010.   In this lecture, we reviewed many hormones such as Testosterone, Oestrogens (different types), Progesterone, Cortisol, Thyroid Hormones, DHEA and Growth Hormone and how their changing levels affect various functions of the human body. Whilst many think of ‘hormones’ as simply  having a role in sexual function and fertility, they are required for everything from heart and circulatory function, for memory , learning, in maintaining immune surveillance, cholesterol and blood sugar metabolism and they affect wide-reaching tissues within the body.

Hormones act as messengers in the body and either a deficiency or excess can contribute to disease processes as the body loses its fight to maintain equilibrium. Some of the area’s  looked into included:   menopause, andropause, premenstrual syndrome, immune dysfunction, hormones during aging and cognitive decline, puberty, prostate health, the role of Sex-Hormone-Binding-Globulin,  low libido and erectile dysfunction, the role of oestrogen in obesity, and how we might affect its clearance, review of the thyroid function and cortisol .

Nutritional, dietary and lifestyle choices combined with environmental awareness to various stimuli can significantly affect our hormone pathophysiology and balance. Additional understanding of how to nutritionally influence hormones, can have significant benefits for a range of disease processes as well as for optimal health and vitality.

  • Haemaview Advanced - May 2010. Despite having over 10 years experience with Haemaview, we attended a repeat course reviewing immune conditions, pain and inflammation, oxidative stress, fatigue, digestive health and detoxification.

 

  • Maternity and Beyond – April 2010. A lecture bringing to the forefront the more recent research on the nutritional needs of pregnancy. Although touching on Infertility, this lecture was aimed mostly at the nutritional needs and changing demands at various stages during a Pregnancy.  The age of first time mums in Australia is certainly increasing, and with this comes reduced fertility, with extra attention not wasted to grow healthy and beautiful babies.  The efforts we make in utero are not inconsequential – research has looked into vitamins D role in reducing the need for C-sections, specific probiotics in dramatic reduction in childhood allergies and asthma, fish oils linked to post-natal depression, acuity and IQ as well as the evidence behind the role Vitamin A during pregnancy, plus more. The lecture also looked into following the birth – supporting mum in the early period - areas such as encouraging milk supply, good nutrition and sleep patterns, restful and happy babies as well as a content and fulfilled mum.

 

  • Clinical Solutions for Allergy & Respiratory Health – March 2010. This lecture looked at the emerging information into lifestyle and environmental factors behind our worsening immune responses to our respiratory systems. Allergic diseases affect approximately 20-30% of most Westernised populations, steadily increasing over the past 50 years.  Respiratory illnesses are the major chronic disease among children.  Here, we looked into factors implicated in allergies and atopy, hayfever, sinus conditions and ways to minimise the inflammatory and immune dysregulation that occurs. Recently, many new formulations have been introduced into our prescribing dispensary using updated information as our understanding of this area is further clarified. We also covered new research and tools into boosting our immunity, keeping viruses and other winter bugs in check, as well as dietary and lifestyle interventions that are too frequently forgotten or inadvertently dismissed in most people.

 

  • Male and Female Infertility  – January 2010. The decision to become parents is a massive one for most – when that decision seems to be taken away from you – it can become crushing. Infertility is more common than most people think, with an estimated 1 in 6 Australian couples being infertile. Whilst 10% are due to unknown causes, problems originating from both female and male are shared at 40% each. So, men need to be very much involved in the whole preconception process.

Whilst we all know that fertility drops for a women after the age of 35yrs,the health of the male in general  is often also reducing as he ages which can have implications not just for fertility, but also for the health of the foetus and subsequent baby throughout its possible lifespan. This lecture covered the many possible reasons behind fertility – both the simple and unexplained, examining blood results and the pathophysiology behind them, as well as how to care alongside a women’s choice to undergo IVF.   It closely examined the many immune aberrations that can result in fertility issues, as well as the lifestyle, environmental , dietary and nutritional influences that affect both men and women individually.  Supporting hormones through the use of various lifestyle and dietary interventions, as well correct prescribing of herbs to improve fertility and/or IVF outcomes is fundamental in the path toward a positive outcome.

November 2009 - Mood Disorders and Cognitive Decline

November 2009 - Natural Approaches to the Treatment of Fatigue

August 2009 - Neuro-Endocrine and Nutritional Imbalances Linked to Weight Gain