Northern Beaches Health and Fertility

Want to get pregnant? STOP Are you a healthy weight?

22/9/2017

Karen Latter, Naturopath, Nutritionist & Herbalist

Obesity Australia estimates that 1 in 3 Australian women are overweight or obese prior to conception which results in serious health risks to the mother and developing foetus. In the following Q&A, I explore what a healthy weight is and if you are overweight/obese what to do to reduce your weight and risk factors.

Q: How do I know if I am a healthy weight?
A: We find out via measuring your weight, height, Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and fat percentage through Bio Impedance Analysis (BIA). A healthy range consists of a BMI 18.5 – 24.9, a waist circumference under 80cm and a fat percentage of between 21-33 per cent.

Overweight BMI is 25-29.9 and Obese BMI 30 and above. A waist circumference of 80cm increases your risk of metabolic conditions like diabetes, and a waist circumference of over 88cm vastly increases this risk.

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Factors that can contribute to an abnormal Pap smear

15/9/2017

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Lisa Whealy, naturopath

According to the NSW cancer council 1 in 10 pap smears shows some abnormality. These cell changes in the cervix can vary in severity from mild, reversible changes to cervical cancer.

Women can lower their risk of cervical cancer by avoiding the high risk factors that have been linked to the development of cervical cell abnormalities and the subsequent progression of these changes to cervical cancer.

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What's causing your acne?

25/8/2017

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Author: Hayley Stockbridge naturopath

Acne vulgaris is a condition that affects the skin's oil glands. The small holes in your skin
(pores) connect to oil glands under the skin. These glands make an oily substance called sebum. The pores connect to the glands by a canal called a follicle. Inside the follicles, oil carries dead skin cells to the surface of the skin. A thin hair also grows through the follicle and out to the skin. When the follicle of a skin gland clogs up, a pimple grows.

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Good Mood Food

18/7/2017

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Author: Merrilee Linegar herbalist & nutritionist

Living in this fast paced world and being constantly ‘on-call’ with little or no downtime can certainly have a negative impact on our health and mood. As Hayley mentioned in last week’s blog a cascade of physiological events takes place in the body that triggers changes in mood and our general wellbeing.
So much of our lives seem beyond our control – genetics, the environment, externally imposed stressors - so let’s look at things we CAN control if we really put our stressed out minds to it – diet, exercise, scheduling time out for self nurture.
For this week’s blog, let’s focus on diet.

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5 Simple Steps to improve your resilience to stress

18/7/2017

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Author: Hayley Stockbridge, naturopath

On a daily basis, adrenaline and cortisol are pumping around our body, changing our biochemistry and having huge effects on our health. Our body cannot keep this high level of activity for very long without causing harm.
….Headaches, fatigue, brain fog, irritable bowel syndrome, high blood pressure, sugar cravings, fatigue, weight gain, thyroid issues, poor immunity, low libido, hot flushes, anxiety, depression, insomnia, inflammation…
These are all symptoms of chronic stress!

What you can do about it....

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What is stress and how is it affecting your health?

12/7/2017

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Author: Hayley Stockbridge, naturopath

As we reach the middle of the year, there is one theme that seems to be recurring with every patient I see…. Stress, fatigue, anxiety, lethargy, low mood. We are all over worked, burnt out and stressed. ‘Stress’ is a word that we hear used often. We have all felt what it is like to have a ‘stressful’ day or week (or year!). However the correct meaning of stress does not just refer to how we feel emotionally. It refers to a process of changes that occur in our body when our body is put under intense pressure or workload. To understand stress, we need to understand about the fight or flight response.

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Herbal teas to beat colds and flu

23/6/2017

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Author: Merrilee Linegar Nutritionist & Herbalist

The donning of my scarf and warm jacket and sight of swimmers with wetsuits is to me a heralding in of the winter months and with them, an awareness that cold and flu season is upon us.
Some of my favourite remedies to ward off such ills come in the form of hot brews of herbal infusions. These medicinal herbal teas can not only provide much relief for many cold and flu symptoms but some herbs are actually powerful immune system boosters, helping to destroy the dreaded lurgy even faster.

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Staying Well This Winter… Top 10 Immune Boosting Food Tips

16/6/2017

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Author: Hayley Stockbridge Naturopath

With the temperature dropping, the cold and flu season has well and truly set in. I have had many poor patients turning up in the last few weeks already suffering with the dreaded common cold. And while a cold or two a year is very normal, please remember that a healthy immune system means you should not be suffering for more than a few days. Cold symptoms lingering for weeks on end is not normal! However, this doesn’t have to be part of your winter.

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Hello from the five of us

9/6/2017

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We are coming up to our year's anniversary in our Fairlight clinic and what better way to celebrate then starting a blog so we can reach out to our Northern beaches health & fertility community.

Amazingly, we have been running for 1 year and we are so grateful for the swell of support – thank you.

So let me introduce the 5 naturopathic practitioners who work at Northern beaches health & fertility from left to right - Hayley Stockbridge, Alison Maunder, me (Karen Latter), Merrilee Linegar and Lisa Whealy.

Over the next weeks we will be sharing some immunity tips for winter and also a little more about each of us. We hope you enjoy them, and if you would like us to focus on any specific topics please let us know J.

P.S. To book a consult with one of our naturopathic practitioners email info@nbhealthandfertility.com.au or call 02 9949 4411.

P.P.S important credit goes to our fabulous photographer - Emma Leslie
https://www.facebook.com/emmalesliephotography/

About Northern beaches health & fertility - we are five naturopathic practitioners. Between us, we have over 40+ years of naturopathic clinical experience, we are members of professional associations ATMS or NHAA and we have been living and working on the Northern Beaches for many years.

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Making soup

9/6/2017

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Author: Karen Latter, Naturopath, Nutritionist & Herbalist

One of the pleasures of winter is enjoying warming food and on the top of my list is homemade soup – it is easy to make, relatively quick and can double as a hearty dinner and leftovers make a good lunch.
All cultures have some type of soup within their cuisine – the variations are numerous and the possibility for creation limitless. Macrobiotic cooking sees soups as strengthening the body’s fluids as well as balancing for meat-centered diets. This is because the water of the soup helps to dilute and predigest proteins and fats in meat.