An Interview with Jill Davey – Author of ‘The Menopause Cure – Hormonal Health’
I recently spoke with Jill Davey to discuss her book and the reasons why she feels so passionate about helping women navigate their way through ageing and menopause. The menopause is a delicate word which proclaims old age – this, however, depends on which angle you’re scanning life from. Truth be known, it’s a new era, a new beginning! Jill’s advice is to embrace it, not shy away from it.
As a little girl Anabela Aurora always had an innate affinity with plants and nature. Her grandmother nurtured this part of her, teaching her how to make natural herbal remedies, and this grounding in plant based medicine from a young age played a large part in determining Ana’s path into naturopathy as an adult. As a child it was also clear that Ana possessed unique abilities as a channel and spirit guide, and this combination of gifts parlayed her into a career as a healer. Ana’s greatest joy is helping others experience growth and happiness through the aid of natural therapies.
Over the years I’ve done many different detoxes, including the ‘Master Cleanse’ (I lasted 3 days on essentially lemon juice and maple syrup), a 5-day juice and nut milk only detox (I lasted 3 days before I couldn’t face another liquid meal), colon cleanse powders, and various detox supplements. Nothing had any profound results other than making me utterly unbearable to be around.
Have you ever walked out of the dentist having had an ‘aha!’ moment, feeling enlightened and emboldened to take charge of your health? No? Well up until recently neither had I. But after my recent visit to Clinica Peralta Silverstone this is exactly what I experienced. Let me explain.
Being a New Zealander I live in fear of the sun. We were brought up acutely aware that the ozone hole over our fair country would have you burnt to a crisp within minutes unless you layered on the sunscreen with vigour at the first signs of summer. A few years back however, I started hearing whispers that sunscreen is not all it’s cracked up to be. I had even heard that it may actually CAUSE cancer, which completely negates its purpose! Since then I’ve been in constant turmoil about whether to religiously apply SPF everyday to protect my skin and keep those dreaded wrinkles at bay, or to go chemical free and bare-skinned, and just try to avoid frying myself. What to do!?
Luckily there is an answer, and that answer is mineral sunscreen.
When I was a child my grandmother had a giant aloe vera plant outside her front doorstep. At any sign of a burn or skin problem she would cut off a piece of the plant, split it with a knife and smear the gel all over the affected area leaving me sticky until my next bath. The cooling sensation was immediately soothing, and most of us have used some form of aloe vera topically in the same way before.
Everyone wants a nice smile but we’re often guilty of procrastinating with our dental checkups. Achieving healthy teeth takes a lifetime of care, and your dental health is important to your overall health. We sit down with our favourite holistic dentist on the island, Daniel from Clinica Dental Peralta Silverstone to chat about how the latest wellbeing crazes affect our teeth, and what natural tips we can implement to give our teeth the care they deserve.
For going on five years I’ve had this weird thing happening with my left knee. Every time I bend it to climb stairs or squat down in any way, it makes this horrendous crunching sound. There’s no pain accompanying the sound, but it’s very unnerving to hear I can assure you! What have I done about it? Well to tell you the truth my solution thus far has been to turn up the headphones, talk a little louder, or simply just ignore it. Not the most proactive approach.
Now that I’m a bit older and wiser I thought I should probably get it looked at, and hope like hell that I haven’t caused years of irreversible damage by leaving it so long. So off I went to visit Lauren Rigg at Mallorca Physiotherapy to see what the prognosis was.
Do you find your mood and energy levels slump as autumn sets in, and continues on through the winter months? Perhaps you just put it down to the winter blues and suffer through it. You’re not alone. This type of depression is known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and is not at all uncommon. Let’s take a look at why we feel this way, and a few things we can do to reduce the SAD symptoms.
Since the age of about 14 I can remember having problems with my back. I’ve never been entirely sure why, perhaps being over exuberant in my sporting pursuits, perhaps poor posture (maybe both) but I have memories of lying in bed as a teenager unable to turn my head with tears streaming down my face. At that age my mother was always sending me off to various specialists in the hope of getting it sorted. For that reason I would say I’m fairly well versed in most of the treatment modalities used for back and neck pain.
This is why I was somewhat surprised when I was recommended a naprapathy treatment, having never heard the word in my life. Naprapathy? What could it be? I was willing to give anything a whirl, considering I had been doing a bit too much laptop work (from my actual lap on the couch which is never a good idea) and my neck was definitely complaining about it.