National Nutrition Week: Something missing from your diet?

Posted on October 15, 2012 by

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This article appears in APN regional newspapers around Queensland, including The Chronicle in Toowoomba.

It’s National Nutrition Week. OK, great … but is diet advice sometimes a turn-off and more like ‘a big stick’ for you? I’ve been receiving a constant stream of advice about the latest nutrition research via my Twitter stream and RSS media feeds: give up sugar completely; hang on a minute … sugar’s not addictive after all; we need to take omega 3 (which by the way has been disproved); food additives cause ADHD (also disproved); and, so on.

If you’re turning instead to vitamin supplements because of the conflicting information, think again. Continue reading →

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Let your child-heart lead to mental health

Posted on October 5, 2012 by

Wasn’t it comforting in last week’s blog to realise that generosity is innate in us? So are loving others and being honest and kind. Young children demonstrate clearly that it’s not natural to lie around in bed, to be dishonest, to work too much, to eat or drink too much, to dislike ourselves, to be unforgiving, or to expect too much of ourselves or others.

© Stock photos/Glowimages.com

While it’s easy to understand the pressure that teenagers feel today to have that first alcoholic beverage, have you ever considered that as time goes by and we place more and more reliance on drugs or alcohol to feel good that it may be those natural childlike and innate feelings that we are trying to regain?

Thanks to The Chronicle for showcasing one of the entrants participating in Ocsober, Life Education’s annual October fundraiser to raise awareness of the harms associated with alcohol and drug use.

I was interested to find out how many media personalities have either made the decision to give up alcohol for good or never felt pressured to do so: Dave Hughes, Barry Humphries, and Angus Young of AC/DC to name just three. Continue reading →

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Generosity is our first impulse

Posted on September 27, 2012 by

© Stock photos/Glowimages.com

Patrick looked with awe at the chocolate iced donut. Was it all just for him? His immediate response was to break it in two pieces – half for Lani, his much-adored older sister, and half for him. He was quickly reassured that Elena had already eaten her donut while he was having an afternoon nap and that it was all for him. He quickly complied by gobbling it down with sheer delight.

Did you know that people are innately generous? A new study published in the journal Nature finds that when people have to make the choice instantly, their first impulse is cooperation and generosity. Only when they have more time to consider their choice do they behave more selfishly. And this goes for adults too, not just children. The study concludes that generosity is the intuitive human response. Continue reading →

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Health: Predetermined? Fate? For sale?

Posted on September 21, 2012 by

© Stock photos/Glowimages.com

There’s a game where the price for goods that you produce is determined by a god called “Theoi”. Participants have the option of contributing some of their goods to Theoi in the hope of ‘pacifying him’ and becoming more successful.

Recently a group of players were part of a research study conducted at the University of Queensland. Researchers found that there was a belief among both believers (that Theoi made a difference to the outcome) and non-believers that expenditure and sacrifice might somehow reap rewards, even when there was no effect on outcomes. “There seems to be a default belief that people can bargain with the unknown, and they need a lot of evidence to the contrary before it fades away”, researcher Professor Paul Fritjers said. Even when witnessing hundreds of occasions where it made no difference, they kept sacrificing large portions of their income to the perceived source of the problem, Theoi.

Have you accepted the necessary sacrifice to the poker machine, Blackjack, cards or Keno god – hoping for that big win? Continue reading →

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A Mandate for Future Healthcare

Posted on August 31, 2012 by

This article was published on ON LINE Opinion, Australia’s e-journal of social and political debate, as Melbourne Integrative Medicine Conference Points to Holistic Future for Healthcare.

It was fun when the researcher from Sydney University Medical School used the Myers-Briggs personality indicators to divide the workshop participants into personality groups. It felt really good when my group were found to ‘use past experience in an ordered and systematic way to help organise themselves and others’. However, we weren’t so happy to hear that these types of people under extreme stress can suddenly become rigid and directive, and that this could lead down the track to health problems.

© Stock photos/Glowimages.com

Are you the highly ambitious, rigidly organised, competitive and impatient Type A personality or the more relaxed, creative and reflective Type B personality? Continue reading →

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Big Brother Enlightens Us

Posted on August 23, 2012 by

© Stock photos/Glowimages.com

This article was written for and first published by the Queensland Telegraph, Rockhampton on 1 September 2012 as “Big Brother ‘traffics in unreal situations”.

Is there anything good to be said about Big Brother? Of course, I’m referring to the latest version of the reality TV program in Australia where for three months 14 participants live in ‘the house’ together and contend for $250,000. Winner takes all.

Much to my surprise, I quite enjoyed meeting the participants on the first show as individual strengths shone through during their interviews. Most were looking for love and/or fame. All had aspirations for a big win.

But when it came to the first opportunity to vote someone out of the house, many of them were reluctant to be part of the process. Continue reading →

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Loneliness, depression and Olympic fairy-tale endings

Posted on August 3, 2012 by

This post was first published on ON LINE Opinion - Australia’s e-journal of social and political debate.

There is nothing like the feeling of standing on the stage or dais clasping your hard-won medal in two hands to the sound of thunderous applause. Mine was for ballet, along with competitors from the suburbs of Sydney. Olympians and Paralympians are basking in the glow of ‘best in the world’ status for excellence in hockey, breaststroke, wrestling or athletics, to name just a few of the sports represented at the London Olympics.

Are the winners happy? You bet! But what keeps them motivated to train day in, day out? Well, I found it was the love of working out, of perfecting that move, the thrill of improvement, and sometimes the camaraderie between athletes.

However, many athletes spend large amounts of time in training and alone. I’ve heard it said that their preparation time can be a lonely time for them. And what of the sadness when they return home having failed, or to years of training for the next major event? Continue reading →

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Olympic Spirit Triumphs

Posted on July 25, 2012 by

The Olympics is sure to be in your thoughts right now as our athletes line up with the world’s best in London. With around 100 athletes hailing from Queensland some would say that there must be ‘something in the water’ here. And one who excelled in the water was Kieren Perkins. When asked how he achieved such feats he answered, “Being your best is not so much about overcoming the barriers other people place in front of you as it is about overcoming the barriers we place in front of ourselves”.

Society as a whole is finding out at breathtaking speed that health, like sporting success, is not just about what’s going on physically but what’s happening mentally. We’re hearing a lot more about how what we believe can make an enormous difference in what we experience. We’re hearing more about the role of spirituality in health, making people better physically as well as emotionally. Continue reading →

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Are you a very good patient?

Posted on July 20, 2012 by

Don’t we smile when a friend or loved one says, “I’m just not a very good patient” or “he’s like a bear with a sore head – he just can’t handle being sick”.

But you know, health practitioners are no longer asking us to ‘be a good girl or boy and take our medicine’ without having any input.

The CareTrack study reported in the news recently that only 57 per cent of Australians receive appropriate care from health care providers. While it was a mixed report highlighting both excellence and many inadequacies in treatment and care, a standout finding in my view was University of NSW, Prof Jeffrey Braithwaite’s statement, “Best care is a partnership between very good doctors and very good patients”. Continue reading →

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Obese Nation or Opportunity for New Health Model?

Posted on July 12, 2012 by

This post was first published on ON LINE Opinion, Australia’s e-journal of social and political debate, as Connect the dots out of an obesity epidemic to ‘picture of health’.

My childhood friend was getting quite plump, had trouble running and became the victim of chubby and fat jokes by kids and adults alike. This was back in the ‘60s when most children were quite slim.

If you’d seen her a year later, you wouldn’t have recognised her. She regularly rode her bicycle, played tennis and had established a healthy diet despite being part of a family who often overindulged. And her slender appearance hasn’t changed during the ensuing five decades.

What changed for her? There was more going on than just seeing-out the ‘puppy fat’ years. It was pretty clear that there was a major change in her thinking when she realised that she could take charge of her life. Continue reading →

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Aboriginal spirituality spearheads the way to health

Posted on July 2, 2012 by

NAIDOC Week – Spirituality is linked to Aboriginal social and emotional wellbeing

Holistic health and wellbeing in community – PEPA http://www.pepaeducation.com

I’ve just finished reading one of a series of discussion papers about the spiritual life of aboriginal people. That’s timely, because it’s NAIDOC Week from 1-8 July.

By no means an expert on this subject, I discovered that many of my Aboriginal friends find it hard to comprehend events or elements of this world without also considering their spiritual import. It seems to me that the Western world has lost somewhat the recognition of the importance of spirituality to the minutiae of our lives – and this has been to our detriment. Continue reading →

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Respect transforms and heals

Posted on June 28, 2012 by

An inspirational, personal account of how respect and spiritual identification heals, told by health blogger Keith Wommack from Texas USA.

I didn’t know George. He’d called me out of the blue and asked if I could take him shopping. I reluctantly said, “Yes.”

George had heard that I took Hugh, a friend of his, to the grocery store just about every Saturday. Hugh was my father’s age or older. He was quite the jokester. I valued my mornings with him. Hugh and I would eat brunch and then do the shopping. We both enjoyed our metaphysical discussions and shared books on spirituality and healing.

George didn’t say a word when I picked him up, and not a word all the way to the store. Continue reading →

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The Missing Element of the Health Equation

Posted on June 21, 2012 by

This post first appeared on ON LINE Opinion, Australia’s e-journal of social and political debate.

Who make the health science laws of the day? Medics? Researchers? Drug companies?

Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist Brian Schmidt stated on Q&A this week, science is about ‘testing theories’ that when proven lead to reliable knowledge. Scientific theories that become laws have a constant, consistent outcome when tested.

Medical researchers will agree that the health sciences are often unsure what causes disease or the best ways to treat it. There is a fairly universally held belief that certain drugs and treatments provide beneficial effects for specific diseases. However, double-blind studies often prove inconclusive and other studies show that the placebo effect is the only reliable effect. Considering that a drug needs to be only 15% effective to be approved for use in many countries, there’s a very strong case for concluding that drug-effectiveness is often random and not governed by a law at all. Continue reading →

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Gratitude proving to be key component of health

Posted on June 14, 2012 by

Gratitude pays. Just ask Dr Robert Emmons. My guest post today is by Eric Nelson, who has been published and featured in numerous newspapers, online publications, and radio talk programs. He speaks from years of experience in the mind-body field, especially as it relates to health. In addition, he is the media and legislative spokesperson for Christian Science in Northern California. Visit Eric at his website and twitter. 

Is there a link between a grateful heart and a healthy heart? Do we have more control over our health than we thought? Photo: ©iStockphoto.com/PeskyMonkey
 

Last week the John Templeton Foundation announced that they were giving Emmons, a psychology professor at U.C. Davis $5.6 million to fund a three-year project to promote evidence-based practices of gratitude in schools, offices, homes, and communities. But as Emmons himself would likely say, the real payoff isn’t in the number of dollars his research is attracting, but in the impact that gratitude is having on people’s lives; perhaps most importantly on their health. Continue reading →

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Health – what’s love got to do with it?

Posted on June 8, 2012 by

Where does the love that heals come from? I think my guest blogger today answers this question really well. Check out today’s post by Anna Bowness-Park, media spokesperson for Christian Science in British Columbia, Canada.

Have you ever stood in a store line where a dear elderly gentleman is taking ages to go through his wallet to find that extra needed dime, while he talks to the cashier about what he ate for breakfast? Of course, you’re late for work, and your car is at a ticking meter, so you never really look at the eyes of the clerk, who understands the needs of this dear man to talk a little and to feel connected.

There is much positive and encouraging research on the benefits of meditation and mindfulness. However, for me, an even more important concept is love, and how tenderness, listening and compassion – the more spiritual aspect of our lives – play such an important part in our health and well-being. It’s interesting to me because these are feelings that are relational rather than solo, as in meditation. Continue reading →

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