Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 1 Issue 70 i The Art of Healing

Sustainable purification of wastewater by naturally occurring algae is an outstanding way for regional towns to reuse precious water and reduce a town’s carbon footprint and power usage at the same time, says environmental health Professor Howard Fallowfield. The remarkable wastewater treatment model—which is now part of the World Health Organisation’s sanitation safety planning initiative —has recently won the SA Australian Water Association Infrastructure Project Innovation award. Microbiologist Professor Fallowfield says the latest project near South Australia’s Mid North township of Peterborough is a great example of not only helping the environment, but also supporting better health standards and the local economy. “Before the high rate algal pond (HRAP) was built, all households and businesses in Peterborough disposed of their wastewater on site via septic tanks or disposal, which often…

One evening when I walked into a classroom to teach my Science of Stress course, I found a newspaper waiting for me on the lectern. A student had brought in an article called “Stress: It’s Contagious.” The report claimed that stress is “as contagious as any airborne pathogen” and compared its toxicity to secondhand smoke. Kelly McGonigal writes. As an example, the news story described a study showing that participants had an empathic physiological stress response when they observed another person struggling. One of the researchers commented; “it was surprising how easily the stress was transmitted.” As someone who studies both stress and empathy, I get asked about this research a lot. Does it mean that empathy is a liability, increasing your risk of exhaustion, depression, or burnout? If you are…

Foods have an immense impact on your body and your brain, and eating whole foods is a good way to simultaneously support your mental and physical health. Avoiding sugar and artificial sweeteners is a crucial aspect of preventing and/or treating depression. Both contribute to chronic inflammation and can wreak havoc with your brain function. Recent research also shows how swapping processed junk food for a healthier diet can significantly improve depression symptoms, which really shouldn’t come as a great surprise. Dr Mercola explains. Why Sugar Takes a Toll on Mental Health There are at least four potential mechanisms through which refined sugar intake could exert a toxic effect on mental health: 1. Sugar (particularly fructose) and grains contribute to insulin and leptin resistance and impaired signalling, which play a significant…

WHEN WE ARE FACED WITH AN ILLNESS, WHETHER IT IS A MILD ONE SUCH AS A COMMON COLD, STOMACH UPSET, HEADACHE; OR A SERIOUS ONE LIKE HYPERTENSION, DIABETES, HEART ATTACKS, STROKE, ARTHRITIS, OR EVEN CANCER; WE OBVIOUSLY THINK WE HAVE A PROBLEM AND WE TRY OUR LEVEL BEST TO UNDERSTAND WHY WE FELL SICK. WE GO TO THE DOCTORS, WHO EXAMINE, INVESTIGATE AND TREAT OUR DISEASE (OR PROBLEMS). SOME OF OUR DISEASES GET CURED, WHILE MANY DON’T. MANY OF THESE ILLNESSES ARE CHRONIC DISEASES WHICH WE CONTROL WITH MEDICATIONS, AND WE LEARN TO LIVE WITH THEM. SOME DISEASES, LIKE HEART ATTACKS OR CANCER, ARE OFTEN FATAL, IMMEDIATELY OR AFTER PROLONGED TREATMENT AND SUFFERING. AND WHILE MEDICAL SCIENCE DIVIDES THE CAUSE OF DISEASES INTO CONGENITAL, GENETIC, FAMILIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, INFECTIVE, DEGENERATIVE OR…

This world of ours must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. Dwight D. Eisenhower We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others for their sakes and for our own. Cesar Chavez The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control and outnumbers both of the other classes. Aristotle We must become bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the…

As I write this, we have just experienced some of the worst fires in Australia’s history, both in Gippsland, Victoria and on the south coast of NSW – along with many other fires all around the country. So it does make everything else pale in significance, and has certainly been upper most in my mind as I have bought this magazine together. When it comes to emotions, I really don’t think we have the words to describe how we are feeling at times like these. Certainly, images have been telling a thousand more words. But there are some things we do know; that we are all feeling this. We are all in pain. We are all in confusion. We are looking for someone or something to blame – because we…

Half of the world’s population lives in cities, where there is often a lack of green space. Many studies suggest that green spaces in cities have a positive health effect, including less stress, improved mental health, and lower risk of cardiovascular disease. However, many of these studies only looked at one specific point in time. That is why a new study focussed on longitudinal studies following the same cohort of individuals over several years. Using a simple measure of exposure to green space, the NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index) based on satellite images, nine cohort studies from seven different countries (Canada, United States, Spain, Italy, Australia, Switzerland and China) were analysed. It was found that an increment in greenness around homes is significantly associated with reduced premature mortality. “This is…

THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF THE INTRODUCTORY SPEECH GIVEN BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE 7TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF THE PERSONALIZED LIFESTYLE MEDICINE INSTITUTE (PLMI), JEFF BLAND PHD., “PERSONALIZING NUTRITION THERAPY IN THE AGE OF LIFESTYLE MEDICINE.” Very briefly, I come at the issue of personalized lifestyle medicine as a biologist, ecologist and sustainability scientist. It is what I’ve been doing for the past 35+ years of my career, both in academia and the non-profit sector. So Firstly, Let’s Ask This Question: What Is Healthcare? For most, it’s the delivery of products and services intended to manage disease or deal with trauma. It occurs largely in specific human-made structures we call clinics and hospitals. But it also reflects particular types of business models, politics, economics, globalisation—and of course attitudes and…

Climate change due to increases in atmospheric CO2 and global warming is predicted to impact global agricultural production, food security and human health and nutrition, however the extent to which this will happen is still not clear. Reduced Biodiversity And Reduced Food Variety The extensive use of agrochemicals to control weeds and other pests also causes species loss. Many varieties of crops have been lost due to a focus on maximising productivity of select crops to the detriment of others. Loss of habitat through the clearing of forest, grassland and wetlands results in a loss of both plant and animal species, some of which are key food sources. Their loss decreases dietary diversity for some of the most vulnerable populations who rely on foraging and hunting for food. As a…

Wellness in fashion has provided the inspiration and framework for a new trend: how the market and mindset around fashion is moving from unhealthy to more well. Presenting at the annual Global Wellness Summit (GWS) 2019 held in Singapore, CEO of BudDhaGirl, Jessica Jesse, has provided the inspiration and framework for this new trend, suggesting that the ‘well’ fashion concept will be better for the planet, better for the people who make clothes, and better for the people who wear them. In this excerpt from the GWS 2019 Wellness Trends Report, Beth McGroarty describes what some of these new trends look like. In our Western culture, a lot of fashion consumption is based on a fast fashion/mall-rat mentality, and this has its costs. In America for example, the average person…

We usually think of a country’s wealth or capital in terms of its financial bottom line, it’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But New Zealand (NZ) has challenged the world to assess wealth in terms of a very different commodity, it’s Gross National Wellbeing. To Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the purpose of government spending is to ensure the health and life satisfaction of it’s citizens. Jacinda believes that wealth or economic growth is not the metric by which a country’s progress should be measured. “GDP alone does not guarantee improvement to our living standards—nor does it take into account who benefits and who is left out.” The five specific wellbeing goals Jacinda is including in her new metrics are: • bolstering mental health • reducing child poverty • supporting indigenous peoples…

It’s time to write about Indigenous Australian place relationships in a new way, in a language that speaks in Indigenous terms first, to convey a rich meaning of Country and best identify its deep ecological and social relevance to Aboriginal people. Flinders University anthropologist and Matthew Flinders Fellow, Professor Amanda Kearney, explain the need for this shift in an expansive research paper that considers themes of species maintenance and place engagement. Amanda’s research, undertaken with long-term Monash University collaborators Associate Professor Liam Brady and Associate Professor John Bradley, was conducted in Yanyuwa country, around Borroloola in the south west Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia. Yanyuwa have been collaborating with these researchers for many years to document the terms of their Country for future generations. “Based on our long-term ethnographic…

In functional medicine we know that health is a complex and dynamic force. Someone who appears to eat a junk diet may have glowing health because of the positive influences of a low-stress lifestyle, a supportive social group, and lots of exercise. Someone else may eat like a health rock star, throwing back kombucha and kale salads on a daily basis, but may be withering from loneliness or the crushing stress that can trigger serious health issues. Even if we limit our focus to food alone, one person’s health food may be inflammatory for another person—that kale you eat may give someone else digestive issues, and the dark chocolate your friend seems to enjoy without consequence may give you a migraine. This is why dieting dogma is antiquated and has no place here. Dr Will Cole…

In report, change changes as temperature, precipitation and wind over extended periods of time. Changes in the earth’s orbit, volcanic eruptions, variations in solar radiation, the movement of crustal plates and natural changes in greenhouse gases have continued to shape the earth’s climate over billions of years, as have weather conditions such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) effect. Historical fluctuations in the earth’s temperature have been identified, but there is evidence that since the start of the industrial era, anthropogenic (human) activities have further contributed to the expected rate of change of the earth’s surface and atmospheric composition, resulting in a net increase in the global mean temperature. Simply put, the earth is getting warmer. This is mainly due to ocean warming which dominates the heating rates and…

Medicinal plants are a valuable source of new drugs with over 25% of medications currently prescribed in the developed world being derived from wild sources. It is estimated that 80% of people in developing countries totally depend on herbal medicine for their primary healthcare. The use of medicinal plants is growing rapidly with an increasing demand for herbal medicines, natural health products and secondary metabolites from medicinal plants. It is estimated that plant species loss is 100 to 1,000 times higher than the expected natural extinction rate and the earth is losing at least one potential new drug every two years. Preservation of medicinal herbs must be a priority given 80% of people in developing countries totally depend on traditional herbs as their primary form of healthcare. According to the…

Katherine Droga is the founder of Australia’s first Wellness Tourism Industry Summit which will be held in Noosa, northern Queensland on March 19-20, 2020. Katherine worked for Tourism Australia for 10+ years and is currently Chair of the Global Wellness Institute’s (GWI) Wellness Tourism Initiative. She is Advisor to the Transformational Travel Council and is passionate about the transformational effect travel can have on people and the planet. In this Q&A we asked Katherine to describe wellness and transformation travel, and how it can benefit us as individuals. Katherine, can you firstly tell us how you would describe wellness? Of course. Initially I would say wellness is different things to different people. Personally, and from a health perspective, I would see the medical approach as being more reactive, and the…