Recommendations and Treatments for promoting optimal health
 

This may be attributed to:

• Soil depletion of over worked farm lands
• Poor lifestyle choices
• Pollution
• Stress
• Unhealthy diet

Many of us, even those who feel they eat well, do not eat a balanced diet. Almost 40% of the kilojoules we consume come from highly processed convenience or snack foods high in fat and sugar. These foods contain few of the vitamins and minerals we need. In fact, as the body processes certain 'junk' foods, important nutrients are lost requiring replacement from other sources.

No supplement is a substitute for a good diet, yet a good diet is not always enough. Environmental and lifestyle stresses can sometimes increase the need for essential nutrients to more than can be obtained from the diet, Ensuring adequate levels of essential nutrients is now a fundamental aspect of achieving optimal health Long term nutrient depletion can adversely affect health and vitality, as well as possibly contributing to serious degenerative diseases.

Factors that contribute to nutrient depletion:

• Stress
• Strenuous exercise
• Alcohol
• Caffeine
• Dieting
• Processed foods
• Illicit drugs
• Prescription drugs
• Illness
• Pregnancy

Every bodily function depends on energy producing chemical reactions in the cells.  These reactions depend on vitamins and minerals. Without adequate vitamins and minerals, together with essential protein, carbohydrates and fatty acids, your energy is reduced, your vitality diminishes and illness may occur.

Adequate nutritional intake has a large effect on your energy and vitality. In fact, without proper nutrients, your body is unable to continue the biomechanical and metabolic processes which produce cellular energy.

Wellness program
Having achieved control of your main health disorder and symptoms, it will then be time to consider an ongoing wellness program to protect your from other diseases, while enhancing health and vitality.

Health is not merely the absence of disease, it is a vibrant state of wellbeing and enjoyment of life
Your healthcare practitioner's job is to have you feeling better as quickly as possible and to prevent health problems from recurring. If you want to achieve a new state of wellbeing, thus maximising the quantity and quality of your life, you and your practitioner must not only treat the symptoms, but also the underlying cause of your disease. Your specialised program may involve various exercises and dietary changes, plus some key protective nutrients and herbs to maximise your resistance to infection, allergies and chemical toxins and to help you achieve total wellness.

Your practitioner requires your assistance so that you can benefit from any recommended treatment. Part of that assistance is to use the nutritional and herbal products selected specifically for you. If you have difficulty collecting medication, just phone the clinic on (07) 4638 9600  and delivery can be arranged for a nominal fee.

Part of the wellness program is to keep you up-to-date with the latest breakthroughs in Natural Medicine. You will be provided with important information about the use of Natural Medicines in various disease states, free of charge. You will also receive other important notices about seminars and educational events conducted for the benefit of the whole community. This will help you to understand the background of many treatments and allows you greater control of your health.

Stress free living

We are all constantly under some form of stress in our lives and generally we cope very  well.  However, many situations increase stress to a level which can cause troublesome physical and emotional problems.  There are numerous things we can do to manage stress such as nutrient and herbal support which has been shown to be helpful for many people.

The complaints that arise from too much stress vary widely and include:

• Tiredness
• Muscle pain
• Anxiety
• Sleep disturbance
• Poor concentration
• Poor concentration
• Restlessness
• Irritability
• Headaches

When stress levels build, stress related illnesses start to appear.  These include:

• Peptic ulcers
• Headaches
• Mouth ulcers
• Impotence
• Depression
• Drug abuse (including drinking problems)
• Irritable digestive system
• Irritable bladder
• Dermatitis
• Heart disease
• Cancer
• Asthma

Many types of stress can lead to ill health.  Examples include the death of a spouse or a close family member, work, divorce, marital separation, imprisonment, personal injury or illness, retirement, sex difficulties, pregnancy, guilt over a wrong doing and similar traumas.  This list reflects only a portion of everyday stressful situations.  We all know how hard it is to deal with problems, and some people may need help to control their stress levels.  Talking with someone may help you find a solution to a problem and can often help you cope better.   Most health practitioners have had counselling training and can help you to 'get it off your chest.'   Nutrients and herbs are known to help manage stress.

Multivitamins

Simply put, along with exercise, taking a comprehensive "multi" is arguably the single best and easiest decision you can take to improve your health and wellbeing.  Inadequate vitamin intake has been associated with fatigue, poor immune resistance and difficulty coping with stress.

Despite, or perhaps because of, all our modern advances, in agriculture and food processing, vitamin and mineral intakes in 'Western' diets are often less than ideal.  Compounding this, our modern, stressful lifestyle increases our requirement for certain nutrients.

Supplementing with vitamins and minerals has been associated with improved health and reduced risk on chronic disease.  A recent Harvard university study recommended the daily use of multivitamin and mineral supplements for all adults and this practice is also supported by a large body of scientific research.

Taking multivitamin and mineral supplements has been shown to:

• Reduce heart disease risk
  Elevated homocysteine (a harmful chemical in the blood) is a strong independent risk factor for coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death and disability in Australia.  A daily multivitamin is the most prudent approach to minimising homocysteine levels and reducing cardiovascular risk in adults.
• Protect against free radicals and reduce the risk of cancer
  Exposure to pollution, sunlight, toxins and chemicals in our food leads to free radical exposure (oxidation).  Oxidative damage may be a factor in many chronic diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular diseases, the two major causes of illness and death in the Western world.  Studies show that the regular use of multivitamins is directly associated with a reduced risk of cancer.
• Improve women's health
  Multivitamins have been shown to reduce the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome as well as lowering the risk of serious birth defects, premature delivery and low birth weight by 50%, as well as improving maternal health during pregnancy.  Women of child-bearing age likely to fall pregnant are routinely advised to take a multivitamin containing folic acid daily.
• Essential for the elderly
  Multivitamins supplementation is considered especially essential for elderly people, because they are at higher risk of deficiency than younger adults.  This is due to the limited diet that many older people consume, combined with a reduction in their ability to digest foods properly.  Nutritional supplementation can reduce the risk of infection and reverse some of the immune dysfunction associated with advanced age.  Supplementation improves the micronutrient status in the elderly and reduces their risk for several chronic diseases, including dementia.
• Support children's growth and development
  Many children are fussy eaters and have a small range of foods they will eat, which can create deficiencies.  In addition, children are going through very rapid growth, which creates additional demands.  Nutritional deficiency has been associated with learning and behavioural disorders, poor immune resistance and increased risk of health problems in later life.  A multivitamin for children should be in a pleasant tasting, powdered form, which makes it easy to administer and provides a full range of essential nutrients.

Magnesium

Magnesium is one of your body's most important minerals

It plays a vital in helping your body to:

• Produce energy
• Maintain healthy cellular function
• Metabolise protein, carbohydrate and fat (in other words how your body uses food)
• Regulate calcium metabolism, helping you to keep your bones strong
• Keep you blood pressure low and improve blood flow.  Magnesium deficiency has been associated with potentially fatal complications such as heart arrhythmias, angina and even sudden death from myocardial infarction

Magnesium stores not readily available
Magnesium is so important that your cells have special membrane pumps to keep it inside them.  So around 99% of your magnesium is locked up inside your cells.  Effectively this means your day-to-day supply of magnesium of dependent of your diet and/or daily supplementation.

Most diets are deficient in magnesium
The bad news is that while magnesium is found in a wide range of foods, especially green vegetables, grains, nuts, legumes and chocolate, an adequate supply of magnesium is difficult to achieve, particularly in view of the increased demand for its associated with many common diets and lifestyles.

Everyone needs it - some more than others
The list of conditions that can benefit from magnesium supplementation is enormous and includes:

• Tiredness, lethargy and fatigue (not having enough energy to get through the day)
• Fibromyalgia
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Eating high levels of fat, sugar and salt (the typical 'western' diet)
• Nerve and muscle conditions:
• Stress, anxiety, panic disorders, dementia and epilepsy
• Premenstrual syndrome (PMS), infertility, pregnancy, pre-eclampsia and osteoporosis
• Heart and blood vessel disorders
• Prolonged diarrhoea

Choosing the right magnesium supplement for you
Your healthcare practitioner is the best one to advise you about the right magnesium supplement for you.

Zinc

What is so important about zinc?
Zinc is arguably the most important trace mineral.  To date, researchers have found more than 200 enzymes (molecules that make things work in the body) that are zinc dependent, in all the major biochemical pathways in the human body.  That's more than all the other mineral-dependent enzymes in the body combined.

Zinc if vital for the growth and repair of all tissues;  the activity of  many hormones; and for a healthy immune system.  Symptoms and signs of zinc deficiency in humans include slow growth, poor wound healing, rashes, diarrhoea, and decreased immune and sexual function.

Zinc supplementation has been found to be effective in assisting in the management of:

• recurrent infections
• anorexia
• poor appetite
• poor sense of taste and smell
• eczema, acne and other skin problems
• hair loss (alopecia)
• low sex drive
• infertility
• behavioural and emotional disorders (ADD, depression)

Take zinc only when you need it
If it's important, you might think that it would be a good idea for everyone to take high doses of zinc all the time.  This is not the case, as it's been found that a high intake of zinc for prolonged periods of time can cause a copper deficiency.   This comes with its own set of health problems.  Zinc should therefore be taken only when deficiency is indicated.

How do I know if I need zinc?
Zinc is intimately associated with your ability to taste and smell.  It has been found that your taste response to a specially prepared zinc solution, taken orally, it can determine if you need supplemental zinc.  This zinc taste test is based on the activity of a zinc dependent enzyme in the taste buds of the tongue, and has been demonstrated to accurately represent functional zinc status.  Your healthcare practitioner will be able to do this test for deficiency.

Probiotics

Probiotics are 'friendly bacteria' that live in your stomach and intestines.  Different specific probiotics can provide specific health benefits, such as restoring friendly bacteria after long-term antibiotic and/or contraceptive pill use, or aiding in the maintenance of a normal healthy immune and gastrointestinal system.  But while most people understand that probiotics are important, few people know just how important these 'friendly bacteria' really are.

Why are they called 'friendly' bacteria?
Normally we associate bacteria with infections (e.g. the infamous "golden staph").  But did you know that your stomach and intestines contain over 400 different species of bacteria?  In fact, it is essential that you are outnumbered cell-for-cell, about 10 to 1 by the bugs in your gut!  The reason you have these enormous numbers of bacteria inside you is not because you have been infected, but because humans have developed a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with them.  We give the bacteria somewhere to live, and in return they help us digest food, make certain nutrients for us that we cannot make ourselves (such as vitamin B12), and help maintain our immunity, gastrointestinal health and general wellbeing.

The benefits of probiotics for your overall health and wellbeing cannot be underestimated.  Your healthcare practitioner will be able to advise you about the right probiotic for your needs.