Lani Naturopathy

21/09/2025

Treat the cause, cure the disease.

04/09/2025

IRON DEFICIENT? 🩸 One third of the global population is! 😌 Some things to consider:

~ REDUCED ABSORPTION (low stomach HCl acid, other digestive issues, diets high in iron antagonists).

~ LOW DIETARY INTAKE: Poor diet, junk food, strict vegan or vegetarian diets without suitable considerations.

~ OCCULT (HIDDEN) BLOOD LOSS from the digestive tract (get a faecal occult blood test to find out).

~ MONTHLY BLOOD LOSS OR HEAVY BLEEDING in females.

~ PARASITES: Compete for nutrients & hinder absorption in the gut. More common than you think!

~ DIETARY IRON ANTAGONISTS: Dietary compounds including tannins & polyphenols (tea, coffee, wine, cocoa, some fruits & vegies), phytates (wholegrains), oxalic acid (some leafy greens & nuts), and some proteins found in soy & animal products, may bind to iron or interfere with its absorption.

~ DYSBIOSIS: A common enemy. Altered or unfriendly gut bacteria can change pH balance, affect iron pathways, hinder absorption, and compete for nutrients (usually winning). Beneficial 'friendly' bacteria are critical for healthy iron metabolism.

~ SUPPLEMENTAL IRON ANTAGONISTS: Calcium, zinc, manganese, phosphorus & copper are known to compete with iron for absorption. Always take supplements at least two hours apart.

~ CHRONIC STRESS: Can impair iron metabolism among other factors.

~ DISEASE: Some diseases like coeliac disease & inflammatory bowel disease can damage important sites along the digestive tract where iron is absorbed. Anaemia of chronic disease, or 'anaemia of inflammation', is associated with long-term inflammation or illness, like cancer, autoimmune conditions, or kidney disease. It results from chronic inflammation leading to reduced iron absorption & bioavailability.

DID YOU KNOW that iron deficiency is the number one leading nutritional deficiency in the world? 🫤 If you have any concerns about your iron status, consider any or all of the above and speak to your health practitioner about suitable tests, investigations & interventions ☺️

02/08/2025

01/08/2025

YIN & YANG ✨ Which is better to have an excess or deficiency of? In my experience & research, I have learned that it is more conducive to health to have an excess of YANG than an excess of YIN.

YANG is associated with heat, summer, light, expansion, activity & masculinity, while YIN is associated with cold, winter, damp, dark, contraction, passivity & femininity.

In an ideal body & universe, both work together in harmony & unison ~ complementing & balancing each other out.

However, many of us have excesses & deficiencies of one or the other, and find that our health corresponds directly to these imbalances.

YANG is supported by outward expression, warmth, outdoors, physical movement & active pursuits. YIN is supported by introspection, cool conditions, indoors, mindful inner reflection & passive activities.

How balanced do you think you are in these two energies? ☺️

15/07/2025

FACT: POOR DIETS & EATING HABITS CAUSE MORE DISEASE & CHRONIC ILLNESSES THAN ANY OTHER LIFESTYLE FACTOR … So why are we largely ignoring it? 🤔

The government has passed legislation preventing cigarette and alcohol companies from marketing their products to children. Why have we ignored food?

Even though it is accepted that food plays a major role in many chronic diseases, we allow food industries not only to market directly to children, but also to use our publicly-funded school systems to do it.

The long-term burden of (this) short-sighted indiscretion is incalculable.

✨ T.C. Campbell PhD, 'The China Study' ✨

26/04/2025

"The sun debate is framed as needing to choose between the lesser of two evils: skin cancer or vitamin D deficiency ... (but) studies suggest that low vitamin D levels from sun avoidance may kill more people than the skin cancer from sun overexposure."

Michael Greger MD ✨

24/04/2025

WHY TREAT THE CAUSE WHEN YOU CAN TREAT THE CONSEQUENCES? 🤔 “Our ancestors who lived more than 10,000 years before the toothbrush was invented had almost no cavities. Why? Because candy bars hadn't been invented yet, either. Now, dental cavities may be humanity's most prevalent disease, and sugar consumption is considered to be the one and only cause.

Rather than recommending reductions in sugar intake, sweets industries responded that 'attention would be better focused on fluoride toothpaste.' That's the perfect metaphor for medicine's approach to lifestyle diseases: Why treat the cause when you can just treat the consequences?"

Michael Greger MD

19/04/2025

VITAMIN B12 DEFICIENCY ✨ A Question of Our ‘Too Good’ Hygiene Practices? 🤔 Vitamin B12 isn’t made by plants. It isn’t made by animals either, but rather by microbes that cover the earth. However, B12 produced by the gut bacteria of animals can suffuse through their tissues to provide a human source. The B12 synthesised in the human colon is too far down to be absorbed, so we need to rely on getting it through our diet.

Before modern hygiene practices were introduced, we all presumably got adequate B12 by drinking out of a mountain stream or sipping well water, but today we chlorinate our water supplies to kill off any bacteria, meaning we don’t get much, if any, B12 in our water anymore.

Ironically, this ‘hygiene’ factor means that the more hygienic our food & water, the less nutrient-dense it is and the less B12 we get through these dietary sources. Vegetarians living in poorer, less sanitary areas of the world tend to have a lower incidence of B12 deficiencies for this reason. (FUN FACT side note: Gorillas & some other apes get all the B12 they need by eating their own faeces 💩🦍😁).

B12 deficiency can lead to a wide range of problems related to the nervous system, gut, brain & blood which in turn can have serious health consequences including irreversible neurological damage, severe nerve disruption, and anaemia leading to heart failure.

In our modern, (over)sanitised world, this nutrient can be only reliably be found in animal products, B12-fortified food, and supplements.

Vegans, vegetarians & elderly people often need to supplement with this nutrient, at around 50-100 mcg a day (of cyanocobalamin, its most stable form). B12 absorption is increased when it is mixed with saliva, so chewing a tablet or placing it under the tongue will increase its absorption up to tenfold.

Although our modern-day hygiene practices prevent many diseases & infections, they can also be a double-edged sword. When we do things like chlorinate our water, it does its job of killing off the bad bacteria, but unfortunately it does a broad sweep & wipes out all the good guys too ~ including those helpful little microbes that generate this precious & essential nutrient 🦠

26/03/2025

“No seed can develop without le terrain, the soil to nourish it; no infections can establish without the body, by deficit, enabling a sympathetic environment for colonisation to occur.” ✨ Louis Pasteur 💕

08/02/2025

HOMEOPATHY 🌸 Homeopathy is the treatment of disease with substances derived from animal, plant or mineral matter that would, in a healthy person, elicit the symptoms of that disease.

The remedies work by invoking an artificial illness within the body in order to stimulate natural defences.

A simple example is the use of Coffea cruda, an extract from unroasted coffee beans, used for symptoms associated with sleeplessness ☕️

The word homeopathy comes from the Greek “homoios” meaning similar, and “patheia” meaning suffering; homeopathy therefore translates as “like cures like”.

Samuel Hahnemann, homeopathy’s founder, formalised the concept of the Law of Similars, deducing that it was possible to cure a patient’s illness by matching his symptom complex to the drug picture of a particular remedy, considering mental, emotional & physical symptoms.

Homeopathic remedies are prepared through a gradual process of succussion (vigorous shaking) and dilution, resulting in a “dynamised” mixture said to exert a vital influence on the patient whose condition matches the remedy’s profile.

Paradoxically, the more dilute a homeopathic medicine is, the more potent it is said to be in its curative powers. Although the progressive dilution essentially removes physical molecules of the ‘mother substance’, it leaves behind a subtle energetic ’imprint’ or ‘memory’ of the original material, which account for its healing effects 💕

Image: Chamille White 💫

24/01/2025

I AM SO GLAD THERE'S NO SUBSTITUTE FOR ALCOHOL 🍷 HERE'S WHY ... There's a thing called 'ni****ne replacement therapy' (NRT). Basically, NRTs are used as aides to give up smoking. They include patches, lozenges, nasal spray, gum, inhalers, and 'v**es' (e ci******es).

The purpose of NRTs is to provide ni****ne without the harmful chemicals found in ci******es; reduce the frequency & intensity of cravings & withdrawal symptoms; and help to reduce the risk of relapse in the early stages of quitting.

But here's the catch. The addictive compound in ci******es is NI****NE. Therefore, the problem with NRTs is that they are merely replacing one form of ni****ne with another, keeping the CYCLE OF ADDICTION ACTIVE.

I'm certainly not discouraging anything that ultimately stands a chance of helping someone overcome an addiction of any kind. My issue though, is that to conquer the addiction, we must REMOVE THE SUBSTANCE THAT IS PERPETUATING THAT ADDICTION.

This is why the common act of 'va**ng' is not working & has in fact now become a scourge. While va**ng started out as a perfectly 'innocent' NRT, whose main objective was to help people quit smoking by making cigarette withdrawal symptoms more tolerable, it has now overtaken smoking as a pastime. In other words, those who take up va**ng are now enjoying 'inhaling a v**e' as an enjoyable activity in & of itself. This is not therapy. This is just another harmful addiction. Moreover, many of those who are va**ng were never smoking ci******es in the first place, so are not using v**es for their original marketed & intended purpose: as an NRT.

And this is why I am so glad there is NO SUBSTITUTE FOR ALCOHOL. In other words, there are no 'alcohol replacement therapies', or substitutes which replace one form of alcohol for another.

One reason no ARTs have ever been developed? Quite simply, because, unlike NRTs, there is NO SAFE FORM OF ALCOHOL. All alcohol, in almost any amount, is harmful to the human body.

On the other hand, a piece of ni****ne gum is far less harmful than a cigarette, so it is a helpful tool in the cessation of smoking. But there is no helpful form of alcohol.

Which is a good thing. Because if there were, many of us would switch from one form to another, only to find that the cycle is increasingly difficult to break.

The only way to quit alcohol is to quit alcohol. Period. There's no way around it. And that's okay. In fact, it's more than okay. It's good. Because I feel for those who are trying to quit smoking & turn to an NRT, only to find themselves addicted to the NRT.

I can attest to this, when I became dependent on ni****ne chewing gum a few years ago when I quit smoking. Then it took me years again to GET OFF THE GUM! Talk about defeating the purpose of trying to jump off the addiction train once & for all! 😄 With the gum, I was still riding that train, with every stop calling me to either step off the train to freedom, or stay on it by taking another hit of ni****ne 🚂

And that is why I'm glad there are no ‘ART’ substitutes out there for alcohol. Because I'd rather quit entirely, than to remain in a so called 'therapy'-induced cycle of addiction 🤔