When I was diagnosed with psoriasis, the dermatologist did exactly what she was trained to do. She advised I try to suppress the symptoms with drugs, slowly scaling up the potency and danger as the meds got stronger. When I left her office, I was furious. She wasn’t malicious, she was following what she thought was correct, but she had inadvertently taken away my hope….
As someone with a history of inflammatory arthritis, I can tell you it’s no fun. In my case, AS attacked my mid thoracic spine and pelvis, leaving me with permanent damage. If you check my gait, it’s not just a sexy sashay. Sure, you can tell from the way I use my walk I’m a woman’s man no time to talk, the musics loud, the…
Ginger Not that kind ginger, though, let’s just take a moment to admire the socks and sandals combo. Not everyone can make those work. Clearly, I am not everyone. Take a seat, cross the leg, cheeky smile, BOOM. Luckily, rumours of our extinction have been exaggerated (ginger misinformation). This week we are all about this ginger. This spicy, little root, correctly called Zingiber officinale, has…
Migraine is a classic functional medicine/nutrition topic because it all comes down to root causes and one of the key concepts of functional medicine/nutrition is looking for root causes whenever possible. This is where traditional medical care falls down in many areas, especially general practice. The reason is really because of modern medicine’s brilliance in treating acute emergencies. With the advent of new drugs, produced…
One thing I have noticed with migraine patients is the fear of an attack leads to certain behaviours that can lead to more issues. Specifically, medication over use. They will often say that if they get in early with the medication (NASID’s, paracetamol, triptans) then they can stop a full blown migraine. The challenge is that they then start taking them preventatively, and at the…
If you open any glossy magazine, you are sure to find examples of what the tabloids love to call “power couples”. Take your pick Posh and Becks? Jay Z and Beyonce? George and Amal? Kermit and Miss Piggy (we know where the power comes from in that couple…..) Call me nerdy, my personal favourite power couple is vitamin D and vitamin A (in the retinol form)….
Well, we had a hell of a summer, glorious warm weather, but you can now feel it, the autumn is well and truly on its way. The shadows are getting longer and fingers crossed you all know what that means – no more natural vitamin D production (at least, unless you have a vitamin D UVB lamp like me, I love 10 mins on my…
Last week we acknowledged that I love dressing up like Stevan Seagal in the evening by strutting about the place in my jazzy orange glasses. Let’s not make a big deal about it, call it sleep foreplay. Read to the end for the Seagal trivia that will blow your mind….. But beyond that, an easy win to achieve what we call in the course “treatment…
Did you know that 20-30% of the population suffer from insomnia? With 10-20% classified as “clinically significant”. Amongst those in pain, these rates are even higher and may show association, cause or effect? That can be hard to tell. Either way, once it is established, you have to break the vicious cycle. One of the first things we do with patients is assess sleep via…
268 people with “stress disorders” aka depression and anxiety, confirmed on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) 42, plus magnesium levels tested. Half got 300mg magnesium on its own, the other half got 300 mg magnesium plus 30mg B6 (note that is a 10:1 ratio – the exact same ratio we use in Magnesium Plus). They were assessed at 4 and 8 weeks after baseline. The…