To order Bioceuticals products (including their magical Ultra Muscle-eze) phone 1300 650 455 and ask to set up a patient account. You then need to quote them my practitioner code of P06430-06. They will send you products directly. After this you can order from them online.
If you wish to buy Metagenics practitioner products you need to ring Metagenics on 1800 777 648 and ask to set up a patient account. They will then ask you for your practitioner’s number. This is 3245X.
Tips for brewing the perfect cuppa.
You will find the right steeping time for your perfect cup. The teas containing more bark, seeds and root (eg Calm) take longer to steep than the leafier varieties (eg Preggers, Glow).
Don’t throw the herbs away after the first cup, they can be brewed twice. Just add boiling water to the herbs and let them steep at least five minutes. Like all fresh produce, this is best done on the same day, so other creatures such as bacteria don’t start breeding there.
If you don’t own a teapot or prefer to enjoy just one cup, try a tea infuser like this one. Why not buy one of these handy (and particularly smart) Teasticks?
James Green an American herbalist said “the mistake of eliminating the bitter flavour from our daily experience is like eliminating one of the colours of the rainbow.” Unfortunately, in Australia, bitter foods are thin on the ground.
Grapefruit, chicory, radicchio, endives, cress, olives, hops (say yeah for the cleansing ale) and coffee are the only bitter foods that spring to mind. The bitter herb Gentian forms the basis of the European digestifs and aperitifs such as Campari and good old Angustura bitters.
Tastebuds are bundles of nerve endings, located all over the tongue. Their job is to interpret tastes from the chemicals in food, revealing whether food is yuk or yum, and more specifically sweet, salty, bitter or sour. Bitter tastebuds are found at the back of the tongue, sour to either side, sweet at the tip and salty in between. Bitter tastebuds connect to the Vagus nerve, a nerve that stimulates the functioning of the digestive organs; stomach, pancreas, gall bladder and intestine. One of the main tenets of natural therapies is to improve digestion, and stimulating the Vagus nerve will do this, which explains why bitter herbs have been prescribed since Hippocrates.
Symptoms of a suffering digestive system include bloating, burping, flatulence and constipation. These symptoms in particular indicate low stomach acid production. Other signs include peeling fingernails, dry lips and increased susceptibility to parasitic and fungal infections and food poisoning (a gastric tummy). As we age stomach acid production tends to drop. This inhibits absorption of nutrients especially protein, iron and B12.
Tickling tastebuds with foul-tasting herbal concoctions is a favourite sport among herbalists. The main bitter herbs include gentian, goldenseal, wormwood, St. Mary’s thistle and dandelion root. Although taking a tablet would be more palatable, the idea is to taste the bitterness. The more bitter, the better. A teaspoon of herbal bitters in a wineglass of water sipped before dinner will train your digestive system into healthier habits. Bitters enhance your appetite, but will not cause you to overeat.
People with stomach ulcers or women who are pregnant should not take herbal bitters.
You may have read in the papers of a trial reported in the New England Journal of Medicine which concluded that Echinacea has no effect on the prevention and treatment of the common cold. While naturopaths welcome rigorous scientific review of herbal and other natural remedies, this study may not reveal the whole picture.
The participants of the study were given an artificially induced infection after taking a dose of Echinacea for 7 days before and 5 days after the infection.
Unfortunately, it appears there are at least two flaws in the experiment. Firstly, the dose of Echinacea was less than one sixth of the recommended dosage, and secondly the Echinacea herb used was of unknown quality. They didn’t ask a herbalist to be involved in the experiment. As herbalists we are trained for four years. Not only is the correct therapeutic dosage important in treating and illness, the quality of the herb (or any vitamin or drug) is paramount. If it is an inferior product you cannot expect results.
This is why we only stock herbs that have been proven to contain the correct amounts of therapeutic constituents. Over recent years (and especially since the Pan debacle) the good herbal and vitamin manufacturers (and we only stock the best!) have risen to the challenge of adopting best practice procedures in procuring and manufacturing.
The reference for the trial is New England Journal of Medicine 2005; 353(4):341-348
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