Essential Oils for Essential Wellbeing
A gorgeous friend gave me these little rolly bottles and a bracelet made from volcanic rock for absorbing essential oils. I have stopped wearing perfume for a while now because of all the health issues they can cause. I still want to smell delicious though, so wear essential oils instead. The first one I’m making is for immune support to help ward off any sniffles as we come into winter. Using fractionated coconut oil as a base, this one contains orange, clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary. I smell like Christmas! Why not try making your own perfumes from essential oil? I would love to hear what your favourite combinations are. Peace, love and health, Mandah xo
Turmeric Capsules and Arthritis
I absolutely love that I’m the first person my 92 year old grandma calls when she has health issues. Struggling with arthritis in her hands, she’s asked for some pain relief. Using all organic ingredients, I mixed up some capsules for her that have turmeric powder, hemp protein, coconut oil and black pepper. I spent about 1.5 hours syringing them into veggie capsules for her. Turmeric powder is rich in curcuminoids, which is noted for its powerful anti-inflammatory properties. The black pepper and coconut oil are really important for creating bioactivity, which essentially means you’re getting more of the good stuff from what you’re consuming. Hemp protein isn’t yet legal to be sold for consumption in Australia, so please don’t take this as a recommendation for this. I’ve popped it into the combination because I know my Granny dear doesn’t eat enough, and even a little extra protein will help.On the advice of a vet friend, I also give these to the furry members of my family. To read more about the effects of turmeric on arthritis check out this link I’d love to know what your favourite home remedies are. Peace, love and health,Mandah xo
How My Mum Beat Cancer
I posted this a few years ago on my personal Facebook page and now wanted to share this deeply personal and very exciting story with the rest of you… 1 week before this last Christmas I got given the most wonderful present in the world…. here’s what happened. Just over a year ago (October 2014) my mum Alli was diagnosed with breast cancer. As a family we weighed up the different treatment options, carefully investigating research and EBM (evidence based medicine) papers. As a family who has never been one to opt for “drugs as first port of call”, and after a lot of prayer, mum felt convicted to try natural therapies. Mum asked me to support her through this, but as someone who was still studying I didn’t feel well enough equipped to handle this, and as her daughter I didn’t feel that I could be completely objective with her treatment. But that didn’t stop me from researching the heck out of this, asking my mentors for help and finding mum the best damn practitioner I could. Mum spoke with her doctors about her choice and presented them with a comprehensive list of things I’d compiled for her of things she needed to implement. One doctor was supportive, the other was not, despite the thorough EBM and treatment plan presented to him. Thankfully, I know a pretty amazing naturopath who was fantastic in the treatment she prescribed. I’d implemented many things for mum already, so it was nice to know I was on the right track and to have her add a few extra things to the mix. Mum has been amazingly compliant (kudos ma, coz your treatment was tough and rather depressing on the food front!!!) with what was an incredibly strict diet and treatment programme and today was rewarded with the news from her oncologist that she is 100% cancer free!!!!!!!! Not everyone has been supportive of the choice to use natural remedies to treat cancer, with many people being downright nasty during a time that was already difficult and emotional for everyone involved. I was told that I was playing with her life and even had people question if I actually loved my mum because I was stupid to gamble with her health. To those people I say, I will happily be called stupid, naive and a quack a thousand times over if it means that mum could be cancer free without damaging drugs, without radiation, without chemotherapy, without nasty side effects and without 10 to 15 years of follow up treatment. This was such a rewarding experience for me to see the thing that I am so passionate about and truly believe in being proven. Nutritionists and naturopaths often come up against a lot of criticism due to the lack of EBM available as a result of the major deficit of funds available for natural therapies research. This is not to say that natural remedies are always the best option, but that are a credible one. You should always speak with your healthcare practitioner to discuss the best treatment options for you, though I do encourage people to explore the options available to them. Pharmaceuticals are often not the only or best choice for your health and it pays to be educated on what is going into your body. So here’s to nutritional medicine and kicking cancer’s butt!
My Journey
I was searching through my laptop recently and stumbled across some old photos, one of which prompted me to share my personal story with you. 6 years ago I lost all my hair. What didn’t fall out ended up snapping off. I was in an abusive relationship at the time and it caused me immeasurable stress, eventually resulting in alopecia. Alopecia is an autoimmune condition, which essentially means that the body attacks itself. Great fun 😏 I spent tens of thousands of dollars seeking help – everything from doctors, to dermatologists to hair loss specialists (similar to Ashley and Martin), only to be repeatedly told that there was nothing that could be done. I should buy a nice wig and learn to live with it.Talk about deflating! You don’t realise how much your femininity and womanliness can be tied up in your hair until you suddenly don’t have any. It’s confronting and honestly, rather depressing.However, it prompted me to leave my abusive relationship and start my journey on healing and self respect. I’ve grown up in a family that rarely goes to the doctor (we aren’t anti, we just believe it’s not always the BEST option) and I was determined to find an answer, even though numerous experts had told me there wasn’t one. Thank goodness I did! A friend encouraged me to see a naturopath and I figured that after all the consults I’d been to, I had nothing to lose. I honestly can’t remember my practitioners name or what I was prescribed, but I do remember bursting into tears of disbelief and gratitude when she told me that she thought my condition could be treated. I told her not to play with me because I was so deflated and emotional. Well, within 12 weeks my hair was starting to grow back. It was fluffy like a chicken, but it was growing!!! It took forever, but after 2 years of wearing wigs, I finally had my first (rather atrocious) haircut! I sometimes still battle with balding when I’m under extreme stress, but now I’ve learned how to manage it. I’m thankful I didn’t listen to the doctors when they told me there was no cure, because now my hair is long, thick and strong and it guided me into a career as a nutritionist. Doctors don’t always have the answers – ask questions, do research. Peace, love and health, Mandah xo
Free Yourself
Have you ever noticed how many people take ownership of their health issues? Time after time I meet people who talk about things like “my arthritis”, “my diabetes”, or “my asthma”. As a kid I thought my parents were really weird (ok, so nothing has changed there!) when we used to sing a silly song our nanny taught us with the line “my eyes are dim, I cannot see” and my parents encouraged us to change it to “my eyes are fine, I clearly see”. It may seem picky to change a small detail in what was just some silly fun, but now as an adult and a practitioner I see the value in this. Words are powerful and I really believe that when we take ownership of our health issues, we are accepting them.I dont know about you, but I don’t want any health issues hanging around!! I shared recently about having alopecia and I too have been guilty of owning health issues in the past. I have made an effort to be mindful of this. Instead of saying “my alopecia”, I changed it to just “alopecia”. I even took it as far as saying “my hair is growing”, when there was absolutely no sign of improvement…yet. As shared in my previous post, my hair grew back, despite experts telling me it wouldn’t. Mindfulness and a great nutritional programme were key.The thing about nutrition, which differs greatly to current medical practice, is that we treat the WHOLE person. This means actively restoring balance to the mind, body and soul, because if one of these is experiencing an imbalance, the others will too. I encourage everyone with any health issues to stop owning your condition and to start distancing yourself from it. It may very well be the first step in your journey to health. Peace, love and health, Mandah xo
Hemp Seeds
Hemp seeds! We are still battling to have these legalised as a food product in Australia, but in the meantime we can purchase them for beauty use. For those of you lucky enough to be able to use hemp freely, let me tell you about some of the benefits. Hemp seeds are a complete protein, which is especially exciting for vegetarians and vegans who are looking for balanced protein sources. Hemps seeds are highly nutritious, containing EFAs, antioxidants, amino acids, B vitamins, calcium and much more. What a great little ingredient to boost your health! The other great thing is that hemp is gentle on the stomach and easy to digest, so it’s often a great choice for those with digestive issues. Peace, love and health, Mandah xo
Little Miss Perfect
So, as a nutritionist I obviously have an impeccable diet. Wait, I mean mostly perfect diet. Well, pretty good. Actually, sometimes my diet downright sucks. Why am I telling you this? Because I think it’s really important that people (yeah, I mean you) stop beating themselves up when life isn’t all green tea and mung beans. We live in a society that has become obsessed with image and food elitism (being seen to eat the organic, paleo, gluten free, vegan, activated, blessed by a shaman, superfoods).Sure, these things have their merits, but it’s also important to live a little. Sometimes we need to eat things simply because they make us happy and feed our soul.Obsessing over always eating the perfect diet will actually cause more damage to your health than the occasional treat. Do I sometimes eat more treats than I should? You bet! Sometimes I’m stressed, tired, busy, excited or just want to eat my emotions and that makes me…normal.The best thing about life is that it’s never too late to start again with our diet. If you’ve had a bad run lately, be kind to yourself and encourage yourself. Don’t set yourself up to fail by setting yourself impossible goals, just take each day at a time, each meal at a time.So, coming up to the weekend I thought I’d share one of the best things I was ever told in relation to treats … to always remember that the first bite tastes the same as the last…. Peace, love and health, Mandah xo