Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 1 Issue 62 i The Art of Healing

We cannot escape the reality that in developed nations, people are often overfed but undernourished — with damaging results. Vitamin B is a dietary powerhouse, boosting energy levels and enhancing performance of nearly every system in the body. B-vitamins are required for cognitive function, as well as proper functioning of the methylation cycle, monoamine production, DNA synthesis, and maintenance of phospholipids such as myelin. Now, a growing body of literature links poor dietary choices not only to brain health and cognitive function, but to an increased risk of chronic psychiatric illness. A 2017 review of worldwide studies has found that add-on treatment with high-dose B-vitamins (including B6, B8 and B12) can significantly reduce symptoms of schizophrenia — more than standard treatments alone. The research, conducted on the effect of vitamin…

To arrest the intense itch of eczema, several external treatments show promise. Coconut Oil Seals and protects the skin while taming inflammation. It’s antibacterial and anti-fungal action also prevents infection in open sores. Oat Flour and Slippery Elm Powder This mixture can be used in warm baths to coat and calm the skin. Magnesium Chloride Spray Can be applied topically to diminish inflammation. Sunflower Seed Oil Is anti-inflammatory and also serves as an excellent moisture barrier. Sea Salt Add to warm baths. Lends welcome relief from inflammation and pain. Bentonite Clay Detoxifies and comforts the skin when dissolved in a lukewarm bath. Always remember to drink plenty of purified water throughout the day to flush out toxins and hydrate the skin. Sleep and stress-reducing exercise are also important for robust…

More scientific research has surfaced that shows why you should eat your greens. A recent study claims that eating green leafy vegetables on a daily basis could keep your mind years, even decades younger as the brain ages. There is no denying that people who age will undergo some level of cognitive change. Research has shown that ageing affects several basic cognitive functions, most commonly attention and memory. Often, perceptual function also decreases in most older adults. As a result, individuals in their 80s will likely be less adept than a 30-year-old. But what happens if you eat greens more regularly? A study conducted by Dr. Martha Clare Morris from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, U.S. suggests that: “Consumption of approximately one serving per day of green leafy…

Walking into the supermarket these days, you are hit with so many choices on every food product, but none more so than the range of cooking oils currently available. In the past 50 years or so, many new cooking oils extracted from plant seeds and nuts such as canola oil, rice bran oil, vegetable oil and grapeseed oil have entered the market. This has been made possible through the introduction of refinery equipment which uses high heat, high pressure and/or chemicals which bleach, deodorise and neutralise oils to render them fit for human consumption. Researchers from the Modern Olives laboratory in Victoria have conducted two different experiments using the main supermarket cooking oils in Australia to determine which oils are safest and most stable to cook with. The first experiment…

The term ‘microbiota’ refers to the microbial cells themselves (bacteria, archaea, fungi/yeasts and viruses), whereas the term ‘microbiome’ relates more to how these cells function and their genetic/metabolic capabilities. To understand the significance of the gut microbiome and its role in health and disease, it is necessary to understand what the structure and function of the gut microbiome was before it was thought to be altered by modernisation. Questions have been raised as to whether the ‘modern’ human body is still in a mutualistic relationship with the microbiome, or whether the diseases of civilisation are indicating that the gut microbiome is out of ecological balance, representing the ‘new normal’ which is allowing for a different predisposition to chronic health conditions. The question therefore becomes, what is a healthy gut microbiome?…

The ‘powers that be’ say that keeping medicine at arm’s length is all about self-preservation, about not getting too close and allowing yourself to be too affected. It’s quite the opposite for me. If I were to see 35 patients a day and not go within, that’s when I burn out. When you are expected to see people for 15 minutes, they expect you to fix them in 15 minutes. They make it my problem. Here we are, being trained for up to 15 years to become General Practitioners, and then we are given 15 minutes with the patient. In actual fact, the main work is squeezed into six minutes. What profession would train for that long, to squeeze their expertise into six minutes of exchange? It is bizarre. It…

Given our recent celebrations of fifteen years of producing The Art of Healing magazine, I have been reflecting on how the world has changed since I started it in 2002 – specifically in the context of health and healing. When we began, the knowledge base – and acceptance of natural therapies, was so small. There was of course an established ‘natural healthcare’ industry in Australia, so we came along after this, but there was so little exposure of what was going on … so I am referring to media coverage of things like naturopathy, herbal medicine, acupuncture, Ayurvedic Medicine, Chinese Medicine, reflexology, aromatherapy, kinesiology and so on. So when you cut to 2018, it really is amazing to realise just how far we have come, and how ‘conscious’ we are…

We really just don’t know what the long-term generational effects of such widespread use of ADHD medications will be on our society and the individuals who’ve been taking these meds their whole lives. There have never been longterm studies because the medications have not been around for very long, yet the FDA and Big Pharma are perfectly comfortable pushing these pills onto the public. The truth is that they do not want people to be healthy and free of dependency on pharmaceuticals, they want customers and cash flow and don’t care if children as young as a year old are being put on these drugs. If these institutions actually cared for our wellbeing and welfare, they would undoubtedly strive for as few people as possible to be these meds. They…

Fast fashion has transformed the way we shop. Fuelled by the advent of more accessible and affordable fashion, consumers are shopping for clothes more than ever before. The number of garments bought by the average shopper each year grew by 60% between 2000 and 2014 alone. With new lines added on a weekly basis, consumers no longer need to wait for the seasons to change to buy the latest trends. High street chains have come to dominate the market, so much so that fast fashion giant H&M is now twice as valuable as Chanel. However, while many welcome the fashion revolution, accidents such as the Rana Plaza tragedy and accusations of exploitation have embroiled popular brands such as Zara, leading to questions over the industry’s ethics. Critics have also highlighted…

Breakthrough research confirms two unique compounds extracted from seaweed have significant cancer-inhibiting properties. A series of animal studies undertaken at the prestigious McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston (UTHealth) have shown that the seaweed extracts known as fucoidan have reduced tumour growth in selected cancers and significantly improved the effectiveness of the common chemotherapy drug tamoxifen. The breakthrough demonstrates the potential for fucoidan to be safely used as a complementary cancer therapy alongside traditional chemotherapy. The extracts, developed and manufactured by Australian biotechnology company Marinova Pty Ltd, were tested in six human tumour mouse models, including cervical, breast and ovarian cancers. Fucoidan extracts were orally administered to mice for 30 days and compared to controls. Ingestion of the fucoidan extracts decreased the growth of a…

There are times when we find ourselves experiencing periods of melancholy; some are born with a melancholic temperament (like Eeyore from A.A. Milne’s books about Christopher Robin and Winne the Pooh). Sometimes it is there when you awake. Other times, as English poet Keats puts it, “the melancholy fit shall fall, sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud.” Books, songs, paintings and plays have been written about the bittersweet emotion that is melancholy. Melancholy Has Value Melancholy is a wise place to be as we sift and sort through things. It is a pensive time of inner reflection and rumination where we can look into our lives, the wounds and insults we have sustained and make some kind of sense of them - without rage and bitterness. It is not…

Firstly Manuela, where were you born and can you talk us through your education? I was born in Milano, Italy. The high school I attended was the exclusive ‘class liceum’, a school which is dedicated to the teaching and learning of subjects such as literature, Ancient Greek and Latin, philosophy and physics. During the last year at this school I entered a national literacy competition and was one of 10 students who won, which catapulted me into the limelight. I subsequently enrolled at the University of Milan to study journalism. My life path then took a new turn when I chose to come to Australia for a holiday with my boyfriend, who was also an Australian doctor. I travelled extensively around Australia with him and fell in love with the…

Bullying Cultures While most of us have not directly experienced the pain of serious bullying, we all know of someone who has. As a society we are genuinely horrified by stories of people whose lives have been destroyed by bullying. We have heard enough of them from schools, children’s residential homes, youth detention centres, refugee detention centres and workplaces. Bullying Cultures complements the many anti-bullying programs for schools and workplaces by explaining the social and psychological dynamics that contribute to a bullying culture and what must happen to break that culture. To stop bullying, change needs to happen at a very fundamental level in how we relate to each other. Stopping bullying becomes everyone’s responsibility. Time To Draw The Line Time To Draw the Line is a film about the…

The latest science is in on chronic inflammation, and although it is being used to promote a pharmaceutical solution, there are natural ways to stop this occuring in the body – a problem that is now linked directly to the top five killers on our planet: heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and diseases of the gut, primarily. Inflammation, as has been suggested by ancient medicine from China to South America to India, is the source of almost all disease. Stopping it would therefore stop most diseases from developing or progressing. Here’s why it is so critical to understand inflammation: The human being has a normal inflammatory response any time it is injured or a foreign pathogen enters the body. While modern medicine has been trying to throw medicine after medicine…

A painful and often debilitating disease, eczema is a skin disorder that is suffered by millions. Frequently treated with steroids, the immune system is further compromised, inflaming the dermis and creating a vicious cycle that is difficult to break. Toxic vaccinations also aggravate this distressing malady. Mercifully, natural remedies provide an intelligent option, curing eczema gently without the side effects of conventional treatments. Connecting The Dots Between Eczema, Immunity And The Gut The first line of attack in overcoming eczema is healing the gut. Since a majority of those suffering from eczema experience leaky gut syndrome, it is important to take care of the digestive tract. When the intestinal wall becomes overly permeable with this syndrome, toxins pass into the bloodstream, which triggers an inflammatory response. Allergies and food reactions…

Did you know that your cell phone technically microwaves your brain? And did you know that there are some natural substances which have proven radioprotective properties that can reduce your risk of adverse exposures? Cell phones and the communications infrastructure that makes them possible are ubiquitous today, making complete avoidance of their significant radiotoxicity next to impossible. Plenty of evidence already exists showing that cell phones emit a type of electromagnetic radiation - in the microwave range - which are capable of adversely affecting our organs and nervous system. Below is a sampling of some of the adverse health effects noted in biomedical literature: • Liver damage • Interruption of sleep • REM cycle disruption • Heart damage • Foetal harm • Brain tumours • Kidney damage • Acoustic neuroma…

The information on this page is taken from the Mental Health Services In Australia government website which presents information on prescriptions for mental health-related medications; both subsidised and under co-payment. Mental health-related medications reported in this section comprise antipsychotics, anxiolytics, hypnotics and sedatives, antidepressants, psychostimulants and nootropics (cognitive enhancing supplements) prescribed by all medical practitioners. For further information, please visit the website shown at the end of this article. Data in this section was last updated in May 2017. • There were 36 million prescriptions for mental health-related medications (subsidised and under co-payment) provided to just over 4 million patients in 2015–16, an average of nine prescriptions per patient. • There were a total of 24.2 million prescriptions for subsidised mental health-related medications in 2015–16, which was nearly 7 in…

Your digestive tract is home to trillions of microbes, that together make a colony termed the intestinal microbiome. Far from harming the body, this abundance of beneficial organisms carry out a myriad of useful functions, including regulating immunity, reducing inflammation, synthesising neurotransmitters (for healthy mood), helping to harvest energy from food, and producing both vitamins (for you) and short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) to fuel gut cells and other beneficial bacterial species living in the gastrointestinal community. Once you understand the huge impact these faithful allies can have on your health, it makes sense to want the healthiest microbiome possible! However, if you’re looking for the ideal microbiome to model yours on, you’re likely to run into trouble. This is because each person’s microbiome is as unique as their fingerprint;…

I have seen the light break throughto illuminate a small field for a whileand gone my way and forgotten it.But that was the pearl of great prizethe one field that had the treasure in it.I realise now that I must give allthat I have to possess it.Life is not hurrying on to a receding futurenor hankering after an imagined past.It is the turning asidelike Moses to the miracle of the lit bush.To a brightness that seems as transitoryas your youth oncebut is the eternity that awaits you.…

In the first part of the film Becky meets some older women at a local retirement village to get a sense of what domestic violence was like in their day. She learns that when they were younger they didn’t intervene in other people’s affairs. Domestic violence was a taboo topic and was seen as ‘private business.’ “Well it’s difficult to talk about a thing that we didn’t talk about. We didn’t have a term to speak about it like domestic violence.” - Maggie Today, at least we are talking about domestic violence. However Becky is still surprised when she reads the latest statistics: • 1 in 4 Australian women suffer abuse from an intimate partner • Women aged 18-24 are the highest at-risk demographic In the next segment of…