An interesting article just came out in the Good Weekend magazine of the Age newspaper written by Mark Whittaker. Basically it outlines how there some new research and scientific studies showing that having low salt intakes are far worse than high intakes, even when it comes to things like heart disease, stroke and diabetes (things we’re commonly told to reduce salt intake to try and minimise the risks of).

Are you confused/overwhelmed with the multitude of advertisements for supplements these days??? Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, shark cartilage, glucosamine, ancient traditional native american hair of a pygmie crossed with goats intestinal flora super aphrodisiac for 25 day erections etc etc? I think you get the drift!!! What to do? Are they for real? Should you take them? Do you really need them?

Remember when you were a little kid, and hours would go by without you even knowing? How did that happen? You were ‘PLAYING’. Whatever it was for you – cars, trucks, Barbie, doctors & nurses, rubbing the inside of your mates undies with ‘tiger balm’ (ouch!) etc etc, you certainly weren’t worrying about work, money or anything else we worry about as adults.

Christmas is the time for reunions, catching up with families, old friends, etc. It’s good because it shows why a few ‘drinks with the boys’ or ‘gossip (er I mean meaningful discussion’) with the girls’ is actually a great boon for your health & well-being.

If you haven’t made the switch already, I want to remind you, that’s it’s the ideal time to switch from drinking cold/room temperature water, to our good old warm/hot water. * Right now, go and get your favourite mug. Boil the kettle and start sipping warm/hot water instead of cold/room temperature water regularly throughout the day.

Solariums / Sun Beds: Rather than a danger could they actually ‘improve’ your health or even ‘save’ your life? How the UV & Vitamin D benefits of sun beds can outweigh the dangers & why they should ‘NOT’ be banned based on both common sense, ancient wisdom and the latest modern science, the ‘intelligent’ use of ‘properly designed’ solariums or sunbeds may NOT only be entirely safe, but could potentially avoid many thousands of cases of serious illness and even deaths throughout the world each year. This might even apply to you or someone close to you. It applies most particularly during the winter months, where vitamin D producing sunshine is rare, or where individuals cannot access sufficient natural UVB radiation.

Big in the media at present (being ‘cold & sore throat’ season), is the virtues of adding honey to hot drinks. I think Boost Juice, even have a lemon; honey ‘hottie’…which I assume is a hot tea. Do you ever do that? Honey is certainly in many respects an extremely powerful medicine – antibacterial, anti-oxidant, anti-viral etc. It can be great for colds*, clearing sinuses/congestion etc etc. However, you should ‘NEVER ADD HONEY TO ‘BOILING WATER’.!!!

Just saw a current affairs TV commercial the other night about new research showing the hazardous effects of commercial mouthwashes. It mentioned how these mouthwashes kill good bacteria in the mouth thus preventing blood vessels there from relaxing and thus increasing the risk of things like heart attack.

If you are a beer drinker, but are conscious of your weight, you might have been sold on the marketing of low carb beers recently. Apparently, since their inception, sales have gone through the roof. Unfortunately, we are the bearer of bad news.

We often emphasise the importance of eating in a settled way to ensure proper digestion and avoiding many of the problems associated with food. So today, I want you to make a special focus on eating a ‘proper’ lunch(or dinner if suits)…and see if you notice the difference. When you can give yourself a minimum of 30 minutes, but preferably a 45 minute break from work, observe each of the following;

After giving you the bad news about chocolate a while back, I wanted to be nicer for a while, but I recently received an email asking if I could explain about ‘microwave ovens’, eating ‘microwave food’ etc (thanks Helen). So here it is. The news is not good, if you prefer ‘ignorance is bliss’, now might be a good time to ‘accidentally’ have something better to do! When we think of ‘natural’ health & wellbeing, it would make sense that we would want to ‘cook’ our food in a ‘natural’ way.

You may not realise but most commercial sunscreens are toxic. Seriously. If you think that because they have been sold in chemists and the like for decades they are safe, you are horribly wrong. What you put on your skin gets absorbed into your body and most sunscreens are full of toxic chemicals.

Like to reduce your chances of suffering from any allergies, hay fever etc this spring or just want to re-energise & trim up after a heavy winter? Spring will soon be sprung so now is the time to eliminate the causes of these imbalances.

Like to add massive anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, digestion/metabolism boosting activity to your body each day? Sometimes we can get so consumed analysing calories, fat ratios, vitamin, etc, we forget about the unbelievable power of traditional herbs/spices – not the KFC variety!!! As a rule, we westerners don’t use spices nearly enough, so if you are not already, add some or all of the following into your cooking to start reaping some amazing benefits.

Which direction does your desk face? Do you think your work performance is affected by whether you are facing North, South, East or West? It does. Fascinating cutting-edge research in the field of neuroscience, shows how facing a certain direction is critical for integrated brain functioning and maximum mental performance.

Is water good for weight loss?Do you know someone (yourself even) that eats ‘moderately’ sized meals, exercises, is always drinking lots of water etc, but still can’t shift those excess kilo’s? Frustrating huh? There may be a reason – here’s something to think about (even if you aren’t trying to lose weight).

Just had my first salt room therapy session. What’s salt room therapy you might ask? It’s a new natural therapy that is showing tremendous potential and results for helping with conditions such as sinus troubles, if ever, asthma, pain, bronchitis, allergies, eczema, snoring and general energy levels.

I had a pizza while out with some friends some time ago …yes, I said a pizza!!! “oh my God, the health guy eats pizza”!!! It’s true, but don’t tell me you too have been brainwashed into thinking pizza’s are necessarily ‘bad’ or too heavy for dinner. If you get a gourmet vegetarian pizza and take off the excess cheese (easier if you get cheese cubes not melted), what do you have??…toasted bread & vegetables.

BACKGROUND (FROM MARK) For pretty well all of our married life, my wife (Karen) and I experienced the cancer journey. Karen was diagnosed with breast & bone cancer throughout much of her body just a few months after we were married. Amidst all the usual challenges and difficulties we all appreciate with such journeys, for the most part it was also an amazing time full of the most wonderful things in life. A great marriage and a generally very blessed life.

Why on earth could consuming the same amount of foods like fish, bananas, tomatoes, cashews etc over the next few months as you did during winter, have a significantly different effect on your health? Well, because summer is just around the corner and just as the seasons change, the clothes we wear change, the foods we eat should change also. Naturally we do this to some extent (more salads less casseroles, more seasonal fruit, cooler drinks etc) but often due to our focus/pre-occupation with calories, fat levels etc, we tend to overlook the different ‘qualities’ in food (how heating/cooling they are, if they are sweet or sour etc). In Maharishi Ayurveda, the overall effect of these qualities has a tremendous bearing on your level of balance, health & happiness. Eating too much of certain foods at certain times of the year can directly lead to health imbalances & conversely eating certain foods can eliminate problems & create perfect balance.

The more you pay for runners …the more likely you are to get injured! It’s true, the multimillion dollar industry around the technology and science of creating running shoes is a farce. About a year ago, I had this intuitive feeling to start walking and running on soft grass. Instead of pounding the pavement in my runners and gradually sensing that my knees and joints were getting sorer, I started to take my shoes and socks off and start jogging on a grass oval near where I live.

Back in 1990, Victorians will remember that Collingwood won their first premiership in a few decades (I wish it was a few decades longer!). As a 19-year-old, I went with a few of my mates to party at their home ground – Victoria Park – after they won. As I was just about to raise a glass stubby of Victorian Bitter Beer (I was all class back then!) to my lips, a mate of mine smacked me in the back of the head (as you do) causing me to chip my front tooth on the stubby. While it certainly didn’t stop me from having a big night partying, I later found out that I had a pretty reasonable chip to my tooth, which later needed root canal therapy to remove the nerve.

In the classic Western way of making things black and white—salad is good, fat is bad—salt has been put in the ‘bad’ camp. However, the ancients treasured salt and knew it was one of the most critical ingredients for a healthy body. Almost 5000 years ago, the Chinese pharmacological text, the Peng-Tzao-Kan-Mu, listed the medicinal effects of 40 varieties of natural salt. In the ancient world, before money or gold, salt was used to represent trust and value. You might have been ‘worth your salt’ or considered the ‘salt of the earth’. We are now paid a ‘salary’which comes from the same word as salt. Roman soldiers used to be paid in salt because it was universally ‘trusted’ or relied upon. This was when people ate real salt. Real or ‘good’ salt contains 80 or more naturally occurring minerals and healing ingredients, other than sodium chloride, that are synergistically put together by Mother Nature. Way back before the time of ancient Rome and Greece, this type of salt was known to strengthen, balance and heal the body.

Like to know a simple way to reduce snoring, asthma (& other breathing problems), sinus/congestion problems, tiredness, stress, colds/infections, free radical damage etc etc and …increase/improve mind-body integration, mental clarity, concentration, fat metabolism, the health of your spine & all your vital ‘internal’ organs…etc etc? It’s all possible, simply by BREATHING how Nature intended.

Wish you could eat like the French – lots of oil, cheeses, creams, wines and still be slim and healthy? Well you can, you just need to …..eat like the French!!! This is taken from an article written some time ago. It’s quite detailed, so I’ve highlighted main points if you just want to scan.

The evening meal – a key to super energy, good sleep and weight loss … or to sickness and suffering Food that we do not digest by the time we go to bed sows the seeds of sickness and disease. If there was a pill that could give us up to 50% more energy, significantly reduce our risk of chronic disease and almost guarantee a healthy weight for the rest of our life, many people would probably pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for it. Ironically, 90 – 95% of us (Westerners) do something each and every day that, if changed, could deliver all the above benefits and more. It doesn’t take any more time out of one’s day, actually saves money, and is a hallmark of the healthiest, longest living people throughout time. It is the most basic, simple, yet rarely followed wisdom of ‘eating light at night’.

Would you like the worlds most powerful drug for reducing stress, completely detoxing & rejuvenating your whole mind & body, preventing premature ageing, and almost guaranteeing a long, healthy life. Well, the reality is, you already ‘naturally’, have access to something that does all that everyday…and it has no side effects & doesn’t cost a cent. It’s called ……..’Proper Sleep’. And the best thing for Proper Sleep, is arguably the world’s oldest, most prescribed health advice of all time.

Most people greatly underestimate the effect travel (particularly flying), has on their body. The combination of being out of routine, pressurised (dehydrating) cabins, poor food (if you can call airline food, food), being seated for extended periods & possibly added stress of rushing for flights/flight changes etc, can really take it’s toll – especially if you have to travel regularly.

Do you have trouble getting to sleep, get to sleep but wake up during the night or think you sleep well yet don’t wake up refreshed? We did a seminar with some night shift workers. As they have to sleep during the day, and thus miss their body’s natural sleep rejuvenation cycle, getting good-quality sleep is really important for them.