HEALTH HUB Latest Articles
Healing Autoimmune Disease: A plan to help your immune system and reduce inflammation
Brand new book from Dr Sandra Cabot and Margaret Jasinska Autoimmune disease affects approximately one in 20 people and is one of the most significant health problems in Australia. There are more than 80 different autoimmune diseases. Many common health problems are autoimmune, yet the average person is not aware that an underlying immune disorder is to blame. Examples of autoimmune diseases: Psoriasis Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (causes under active thyroid) Graves’ disease (causes an over active thyroid) Arthritis Lupus Crohn’s disease Ulcerative colitis Multiple sclerosis Coeliac disease This book covers those conditions plus many more. An autoimmune disease occurs when a [...]
Time to get out in the sun and shine
How is your training going? The weather is finally picking up and everything is easier with more sun. Try and focus on training outside now and forget about the treadmill for a while. It is great for cadence work but can put a strain on your Achilles. A great way to break the routine of your training is to include some drills and run troughs in each of your work outs. Pick 3 good drills online and do them over 20m with a walk back. Focus on posture, contact on the ground, feet speed and arm position. Repeat those 3 [...]
The Link Between Elevated Prolactin and Infertility
The link between elevated prolactin and infertility By naturopath Margaret Jasinska Abnormally high levels of the hormone prolactin are a common cause of infertility, an irregular menstrual cycle and hair loss. Prolactin is a hormone made by the anterior pituitary gland in the brain. The function of prolactin is to enhance breast development during pregnancy, and to induce lactation. However, all women and men make low levels of this hormone continually. The normal range for women is 85 - 500 mIU/L. Elevated prolactin can cause anovulation (lack of ovulation), infrequent menstrual periods, a shortened luteal phase (second half [...]
Spring in your step
How is your training going? With spring around the corner, the motivation should be on the way up! Time to put a race calendar together. How do I do this? Pick a main goal race about 3 months away and pick a race each fortnight that you will do as part as your training. Those races have to be between 5 and 15kms. If you run longer in races that often, you will risk getting sick and getting injured. Better to keep the focus on training itself. But why race then? To practice race rhythm and condition, to practice hydrating [...]
Vitamin D deficiency significantly raises the need for C-section delivery
By naturopath Margaret Jasinska Studies have shown that women who are vitamin D deficient while pregnant are much more likely to experience difficulties during labour that result in the need for a caesarean section. According to Anne Merewood, an assistant paediatrics professor at Boston University School of Medicine, vitamin D deficient pregnant women are nearly four times more likely to end up having a C-section. "Vitamin D is definitely involved in muscle strength…. contractions of the uterus [made of smooth muscle] may not be performing as well as they could be". Strong uterine muscles are required in order to push [...]
Hair Loss in Women and Men
It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman – if you start losing your hair or it starts to thin – this can cause you much distress and loss of self esteem. Hair loss is a common problem and, unfortunately, it is happening to people much earlier in their lives than ever before. There was a time when it was primarily the domain of older men to have completely bald heads yet many younger men are suffering from thinning hair in their 20s and 30s and, so, choose to remove all their hair rather than live with [...]
Strong link found between coeliac disease and cirrhosis of the liver
By naturopath Margaret Jasinska People with cirrhosis of the liver are more than twice as likely to be coeliacs. A new study published in the Journal of Hepatology has found that coeliac disease is present in cirrhosis patients at more than double the rate found in the general population. Putting these patients on a gluten free diet brought about improvements in their liver health, which improved the prognosis of the cirrhosis. The authors of the study stressed that all patients who are diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver should be screened for coeliac disease, as following a gluten free diet [...]
Why everyone is going crazy for bone broth
There has been much publicity lately extolling the virtues of bone broth and the recipes vary considerably, so care is necessary to obtain the healthiest result. Here are some reasons for everyone to invest in making bone broth a valuable part of their cooking and an important daily dietary component What we are referring to is what your grandmother called stock and, when you make it at home from scratch, you know exactly what has gone into it and so you can ensure no nasty additives. It is also a lot less expensive than manufactured products. To make broth there [...]
Training in Winter
How is your training going? It can be harder to recover in big loads of training, especially in the winter months. What are the best ways to achieve this apart from good nutrition and hydration? I use Cabot Health Magnesium Complete tablets and Glutamine Pure powder to help me recover better, leg soak or thermal recovery which consists of getting in hot water (37ºC) for 5min, then 5min in cold water (10 to 15ºC), then hot again and finish by cold water. This will flush the toxins out and will help heal to inflammation and damage from the training load [...]
Our children’s health – who is really in charge?
by Victoria Herrera These days, way too many people are finding themselves with fatty liver disease and, in the vast majority of cases, this is because of their diet. It seems strange to me that people don’t really believe that their daily diet of highly processed, convenience food - which is super high in sugar and industrial seed oils - means that they are actually walking a very scary, yet quite deliberate, path to ill health – regardless of their age. I remember when I was in my teens and early adulthood, it seemed to me that I, and almost [...]
