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Have you ever wondered what gluten actually looks like?

You’ve surely heard of gluten free foods, gluten free diets and celiac disease, but what actually is gluten? The word gluten derives from the Latin word glue, and once you see this video you’ll understand why. Gluten provides elasticity to dough and helps bread to rise. These structural properties also make it extremely difficult to digest.

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Articles Essential Reading Weight Loss Case Studies

Case study: No weight loss on a low fat diet

Elizabeth was a lovely 53 year old lady who came to see me for help with weight loss. She needed to lose approximately 35 pounds and she’d been trying to lose it for the past 8 years. She did manage to lose some weight on her own, but it was the same four pounds that she kept losing and regaining again and again. Elizabeth’s health was fairly good although she did complain of a few things: Her muscles and joints were achy, particularly her knees first thing in the morning. Elizabeth’s hair was very dry and brittle and her nails were weak. She often experienced a bloated abdomen and felt so uncomfortable after eating lunch at work each day that she desperately wanted to undo the buttons of her trousers, but of course she couldn’t. I was confident Elizabeth would be able to lose weight and improve her health with a few simple diet changes. As with all my patients, I asked Elizabeth to tell me the types of foods she eats each day for meals and snacks. The first thing that struck me was all the low fat items that appeared in the list.

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Articles Liver & Gallbladder Health

Cholesterol and the liver

What does the liver have to do with cholesterol? Are you concerned about your cholesterol level? Have you tried unsuccessfully to lower it by watching your diet? Did you know that the vast majority of the cholesterol in your body was made by your liver? On the whole, cholesterol is a beneficial substance in your body. It is so essential in fact that every cell of your body requires it. Having too much cholesterol in your bloodstream can be problematic though; particularly if you have other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure and abdominal obesity. If you want to achieve a healthy cholesterol level, it is vital to improve the health of your liver. The types of fats that are found in your bloodstream include-

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Articles General Health

Experts predict the antibiotic crisis will be a bigger problem than AIDS!

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in coming years people will be dying from common infections because antibiotics are losing their effectiveness. According to a report by Dr Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Security, "A post-antibiotic era — in which common infections and minor injuries can kill — far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century." He went on to say "Unless we take significant actions to improve efforts to prevent infections and also change how we produce, prescribe and use antibiotics, the world will lose more and more of these global public health goods and the implications will be devastating.”

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Success Stories Articles Essential Reading Weight Loss Case Studies

Case Study: Tired and Overweight

Recently I had the pleasure to meet an interesting 63 year old lady who came to see me complaining of extreme fatigue and increasing weight gain. Not surprisingly all the joints in her lower limbs were aching because of the extra weight she was carrying. Her liver enzymes were elevated and this was due to her diagnosed fatty liver. She was 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 290 pounds and her blood pressure was 170/100. When I reviewed her long list of prescribed medications I was shocked. Her poor liver had a great deal of work to do in breaking down these drugs.

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Articles General Health

An extraordinary herb!

The herb St Mary’s thistle can help to prevent scar tissue forming in the liver. This is referred to as anti-fibrotic activity. This is quite a remarkable ability of this extraordinary herb. It is a very valuable function because scarring in the liver is what causes most damage in several different liver conditions. The ability of St Mary’s thistle to inhibit scarring in the liver was first demonstrated in clinical trials on rats whose bile ducts were blocked for research purposes. This condition would normally lead to a build up of pressure within the liver and eventual scarring. Rats given St Mary’s thistle experienced far less scarring.

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Articles Liver & Gallbladder Health General Health

Do you struggle with addictive, impulsive or compulsive behavior?

Do you struggle with addictive, impulsive or compulsive behavior? New research has shown that the natural substance NAC (n-acetyl cysteine) can help. Research has shown it may help individuals with addiction to nicotine, cocaine and even gambling! NAC is a type of protein and the body uses it as a building block to produce the powerful detoxifier called glutathione. Glutathione is considered to be the most powerful antioxidant in the body and helps to reduce the damaging effects of oxidative stress.

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Articles General Health

Spring clean detox

Do you feel as well as you could? Perhaps you need a spring clean detox? Those of you living in...

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Articles General Health Hormone & Thyroid Health

Gluten can cause elevated levels of the hormone prolactin

Prolactin is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland in the brain and it enables women to produce breast milk...

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Articles Essential Reading Fatty Liver Liver & Gallbladder Health Case Studies

Case study: Fatty liver and Epstein Barr virus (mononucleosis)

Maree came to see me for help with a fatty liver, excess weight and chronic exhaustion from long term infection with Epstein Barr virus. She brought along an ultrasound scan of her liver and the accompanying report, which stated there were fatty changes in her liver, consistent with mild to moderate fatty liver. Maree was 35 pounds overweight and carried the majority of her excess weight over her abdomen. She had been trying unsuccessfully to lose weight for the last 8 years. She noticed some mild discomfort over the right upper part of her abdomen after rich meals or after consuming alcohol.

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