Embracing Winter

There are many things we can do to make sure Winter is enjoyed, and not just endured. Here are the top things on my list.

Move your body

Although there is a natural inclination to hibernate during Winter, it is also important to get regular exercise. As well as helping to stop us becoming sluggish and put on weight, regular exercise is important for our immune system.

 
Wash your hands!

This may sound a little odd, or obvious, but regular hand washing is an effective strategy against contracting infectious illness. Special anti-bacterial soap is not necessary - just plain soap and water, with a proper scrub of the hands is all that's needed.

 
Warming foods
Ok, so it's fairly obvious that at some point I was going to mention food! During the colder months it's important to eat warming foods - this includes soups, casseroles, roasts. The root vegetables come into their own during winter and can form the basis of a meal by just cutting up and roasting in a pan, with some olive or coconut oil and a sprinkling of herbs such as rosemary. Garlic is immune enhancing and can be added near to the end of cooking lots of soups and casseroles for maximum benefit.

Orange

It is no coincidence that many of the vegetables in season now are orange, such as sweet potato, pumpkin and carrots. Orange vegetables are high in Vitamin A which is strengthening to the mucous membranes of the respiratory system.

 
Raw and green are good too

As well as enjoying the delights of winter comfort food, include some greens on a daily basis. Winter provides an abundance of green veggies - silverbeet, spinach, parsley, broccoli and salad greens all grow well. Some raw greens will give your body beneficial enzymes and fibre.

 
Drink warm drinks

Remember Enid Blyton books always contained the characters having 'steaming mugs of hot chocolate'?? A warm drink is very comforting. Beyond the usual tea and coffee, there is a whole world of herbal teas to try. Some good ones to start with are Licorice, Ginger, Dandelion root and Y.E.P (yarrow, elder and peppermint). The occasional hot chocolate is a winter treat to be enjoyed, not to feel guilty about!

 
My favourite immune nutrients
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is effective in preventing and treating common respiratory infections such as the common cold and the flu. It is most effective when taken right at the start of the infection, when you first suspect you might be ill. It is possible to take quite high amounts by taking small doses regularly over the day. Vitamin C is absorbed in the bowel, and maximum absorption is attained when taken in divided doses rather than one large amount.

 
Zinc
Zinc is an essential trace element that is involved in many aspects of immune function. It is essential for the normal development and function of many immune cells. Zinc lozenges are very useful at the start of a cold, and can be taken in conjunction with Vitamin C. Just be careful when taking Zinc, not to take it on an empty stomach as it can make you feel nauseous.

 
My favourite immune herbs

If taken early and often enough, the immune enhancing herbs can stop a cold from developing. At the very least they can lessen the duration and severity of a cold. My favourite ones are Andrographis, Echinacea, Elder and Ginger. They can be taken in tablet form or as liquid extracts. In order to be effective though, they have to be quality herbs taken at the right dose.

 
A cold or two over the winter months is to be expected. However, by taking care of yourself and boosting your immune system, you can make sure they are mild and not debilitating. Embrace the goodness of winter while it's here.

Chamomile

Chamomile (Matricaria recutita; Chamomilla recutita) is a herb that has been used since ancient times. Traditionally it was considered to have two specific fields of action: the nervous system and the digestive system. It works particularly well therefore on nervous conditions that affect the digestive system. Chamomile has always been used with children, indicating that it is considered a very safe and gentle herb.

 
Actions:
Chamomile has the following actions:
anti-inflammatory
antispsamodic
carminative (soothing to the gut wall, and reduction of gas),
mild sedative,
antimicrobial,
vulnerary (wound healing) and
diaphoretic (promoting or inducing a sweat).

You can see that is a lot of actions for a little common herb! Do not under-estimate the humble chamomile.

Conditions treated:

A herbalist might use chamomile to treat the following conditions:
Irritable bowel syndrome
Food sensitivities
Flatulence and colic
Diarrhoea
Gastrointestinal inflammation
Infantile colic
Gastritis, peptic ulcers, reflux
Restlessness and anxiety
Topically for eczema (dermatitis)

Quality
You can use chamomile yourself at home to also treat the above conditions. A cup of chamomile tea may not seem like strong medicine, but if it is made correctly with quality dried herb, it can have the same actions as outlined above. Beware though, a cup of chamomile tea made with a teabag from the supermarket is not the same thing! We are very lucky here in Victoria to have Southern Light Herbs, a family run business that grows and sources the very best quality herbs for their teas. Visiting their farm made me aware of the vast difference in quality between their organic loose leaf herbal tea, and what is packaged and sold as tea in teabags. Their tea is available from organic whole food shops, health food shops, and many naturopaths.

Making a cuppa:

Get yourself some real dried chamomile flowers. Add 1 - 2 tsp per person to a teapot or a cup with a lid. It is very important when making a cup of chamomile tea that the tea is enclosed either by a lid or in a teapot, or else many of the active constituents may escape. Leave to steep for at least 5 minutes. Make it as strong as you enjoy, but I think the stronger the better!

Although night time is the classic time to drink a cup of chamomile tea to help with sleep, it can be enjoyed at almost any other time of day. Make a cup to soothe an upset stomach, to decrease period pain, or to relieve a tension headache.

Chamomile - small herb - big actions!

If you have never been to a naturopath, or are new to the naturopathic world, you may be unfamiliar with how we treat. The main modalities I practice are Herbal medicine, and Nutrition. Both are wonderful and effective entities in themselves, but when used therapeutically together, they can be outstanding in their effect on people, helping them to become well.

Herbal medicine is under utilised by our largely Western society in Australia. However, from a world-wide point of view, the majority of medicine taken around the world are herbal remedies. Herbal medicine is not a primitive form of treating that has been superseded by modern medicine. It still has relevance and so much to offer to people in the 21st century. It is my wish that more people are going to learn about and turn to herb medicine. The 'world of the weed' has so much to offer!

 
Some of the herbs I use in my dispensary would have been familiar to, and used by the Greeks and Chinese 3000 years ago. This is exciting. Remedies would not be handed down over thousands of years if they weren't effective. Our ancestors had a different concept of illness than today's modern medicine. Back then they viewed diseases as imbalances to be corrected, rather than invasions to be attacked. Herbal remedies were used to adjust patterns of disorder, and gently nudge a body back to health.

 
One of the most wonderful things about the herbal world is that herbs behave as more than just an assembly of chemicals. Whereas many drugs are used for only one action on a specific disease state, most herbs can be used across different body systems, and have multiple actions. I may be a bit biased, but I think that's tremendously exciting.

10th July, 2012

These seven words sum up the philosophy of professor and journalist Michael Pollan. On Sunday night Michael Pollan gave a talk for the Wheeler Centre at the Melbourne Town Hall. He was an excellent, entertaining speaker, but I have a feeling his talk was falling on the ears of the already converted. If only his message could be spread further to the general public, and not just be received by those with already strong or professional interest in food and diets.

His message is very simple, but has a lot of research behind it. He believes that if we got back to our traditional food wisdom, and didn't look to big corporations to feed us, we would dramatically improve our health. He doesn't claim to be an expert on nutrition, but can see very clearly that we have gone horribly wrong with our current western diet.
I think the first part of his message is the most powerful, but at the same time it is easy to miss. Eat Food. The processed food products that make up much of the western diet are not, in fact food, but rather 'food like substances'. These products have many additives, and scarily long shelf lives. To make his point, Michael brought with him a bag full of products he had bought from Woolworths. None of them were what people from a generation or two ago would recognise as food. And interestingly, most of them were in brightly coloured packaging that was making some form of health claim, or boasting the addition of the latest talked about nutrient (e.g. omega 3's).

If any 'food' makes a health claim it is probably wise not to eat it. The foods that are genuinely good for us don't make any health claims. Fruit and vegetables will not come in bright wrappers broadcasting their health giving properties. If any food product contains an ingredient that a third grader wouldn't be able to pronounce, don't eat it. If a product contains more than five ingredients, don't eat it.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Naturopathic Wisdom

Last night I went to a talk given by a woman who was one of my lecturers during my Naturopathy degree. I hadn't heard this woman speak for many years, and it was a wonderful experience to sit and listen to her wise words again. She trained as a naturopath in the 'old' days, over 30 years ago. Back then Naturopathy hadn't been complicated by the need to be evidenced based and scientifically valid, which is now the case. Most courses now only teach evidence based treatments. It is considered progressive and more desirable to make naturopathy more scientifically accountable. Prior to the last 10 -15 years, there was a strong emphasis on teaching students naturopathic philosophy. Naturopathic philosophy hasn't changed for the last couple of hundred years, but is at risk of being forgotten, or over-shadowed, by evidence based treatments, and dare I say it, a need or desire to sell lots of products or supplements.

If naturopaths are focused on prescribing products to their patients, they may not be focused on understanding their patient, and viewing their disease or condition through a naturopathic paradigm. In this instance there is little to distinguish a naturopath from a medical practitioner. The only difference will be in the prescription - drugs versus herbal and nutritional supplements.

A naturopath that remains true to naturopathic philosophy will not sell you a product to treat each symptom that you present with. Naturopathy has so much more to offer. A good naturopath will investigate how the condition or illness you present with is being experienced in your body. The basis of naturopathic philosophy is that the body is self healing. Therefore, what processes have occurred or not occurred to allow this condition to take hold in your body? How do you operate energetically, metabolically, and emotionally? It is the job of the naturopath to determine how healing has failed for their patient, and what processes are not functioning well to allow the disease process to take hold.

This is the strength of naturopathy. We are able to do this through having a longer consultation time with people, and asking many questions, and also through using Iridology. Sometimes a thorough case history may provide all the information, and sometimes Iridology can be used to understand a person and what is happening in their body more deeply.

Knowledge of scientific research and evidence based treatments is necessary, but allowing naturopathic philosophy to determine a patient's treatment protocol is essential to provide good naturopathic care.