So here we are – we say goodbye to the arbitrary line in the sand of one year and embrace the unclear beginning of a new one. For many, they are pleased to see the back of a difficult year that is historically likely to be referred to as unprecedented.

Today, our evolving understanding of the gut-brain connection has re-connected the mind with the physical, requiring that we use integrative therapies.

My day job involves a relatively repetitive task in some respects. Going through a first appointment with a new client generally involves the same process and questions, although the answers are always distinctly unique to the individual and their life context.

Supportive relationships protect health, but some relationships have a more powerful effect on health than others. These are called our attachment relationships and we experience the first of these in our parents/caregivers, then our close peers, romantic partners, and significant mentors or health professionals.

I had the pleasure of putting together some words for the last Ancestral Health Society newsletter for 2019. Here are some thoughts from me on reviving after another full year - it’s not always what we do for ourselves that helps, sometimes it is what we do for others.

Let’s talk about scurvy, shall we? Trust me, I promise it’s relevant.  Scurvy is extremely rare these days, but back in the 1700s it was a huge issue facing men and women at sea. We now know that scurvy is caused by a deficiency in Vitamin C – but we didn’t know that back then.

Here is the “rethinking mental health” section of a collaborative mental health venture - a talk titled “Rethink/Recharge” - which was given for the 2018 Australasian Turf Grass Growers Association Conference in Wellington.

While I covered off the “rethinking mental health” portion of our presentation, this section was tackled by my friend and Ancestral Health Colleague Jamie Scott (Nutritionist with several other strings to his bow).

Originally associated with bone health, vitamin D – termed the “sunshine” vitamin by Nair and Maseeh (2012) - is pertinent to immune system functioning and implicated in mental health concerns. More than a vitamin, it is actually a neuroprotective hormone and is super important in embryonic and brain growth over formative years as well as health and immunity over the lifespan.

Are you Living your Life how you Want to be Living it?
This is a question I often check with myself and encourage anyone I ever sit with for a consultation to consider. While there is no wrong time to be reflecting on life, the end of a year - and decade - marks a uniquely poignant time for doing so; hence the well-known term New Years resolution.

After connecting a while ago over our respective work in the nutrition and mental health space, I recently asked Francesca if she would share some thoughts on nutritional interventions for OCD that can give the best bang for your buck. Here are her thoughts on one powerful step.

While our basic human physiology is largely unchanged, never in history have we collectively contended with as many unremitting and insidious insults to our wellbeing and vibrancy as we do today.