Barefoot Holistic Health

30/01/2026

🌿 Essential Oil of the Week: Cinnamon 🌿

Warmth, vitality, and heart-centred strength.

Some essential oils feel like a gentle breeze… and others feel like a warm embrace. Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) is a powerful plant ally that carries deep warmth, protection, and invigorating life force.

Used for centuries across traditional herbal and naturopathic systems, Cinnamon essential oil supports circulation, immunity, digestion, and emotional resilience — reminding us to reconnect with our inner fire.

Let’s explore why Cinnamon is such a potent and grounding oil for your holistic toolkit. 🔥✨

🌶️ AROMATIC PROFILE:

Rich, spicy, sweet-warm, and comforting — Cinnamon’s aroma feels like coming home. It’s bold yet nurturing, awakening the senses and igniting energy throughout the body.

🔥 Warm | Spicy | Invigorating | Grounding

🌿 Naturopathic & Aromatherapy Benefits

❤️ 1. Circulation & Heart Vitality

Cinnamon is traditionally known as a circulatory stimulant — helping to warm the body, encourage healthy blood flow, and support cardiovascular vitality. Energetically, it carries a strong heart-centred frequency, making it a beautiful oil for:

Cold hands and feet
Low energy or fatigue
Supporting circulation
Emotional heaviness or disconnection

💡 How to use: Diffuse sparingly to gently warm and energise the body. Blend with sweet orange or frankincense for a heart-opening, grounding aroma.

🛡️ 2. Immune Support & Antimicrobial Power

Cinnamon is one of the most potent antimicrobial essential oils, with strong antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. In naturopathic practice, it’s often used to:

Support immune resilience
Help protect during cold & flu season
Purify the air and environment

💡 How to use: Add 1–2 drops to a diffuser blend with eucalyptus or clove to support seasonal wellness (less is more with Cinnamon).

🌿 3. Digestive Fire & Metabolic Support

In traditional herbal medicine, Cinnamon is revered for kindling digestive fire (Agni). It may help support:

Sluggish digestion
Bloating or gas
Blood sugar balance (aromatically or topically, diluted)

💡 How to use: Blend into a warming abdominal massage oil with a carrier oil — always well diluted.

🔥 4. Energetic & Emotional Healing

Energetically, Cinnamon is deeply protective and empowering. It supports courage, confidence, and grounding — especially during times of stress or emotional depletion.

Associated with: ❤️ Heart chakra (warmth, connection, vitality)
🔥 Root & Solar Plexus chakras (safety, strength, confidence)

💡 Try this: Inhale gently from the bottle during meditation or intention-setting to reconnect with inner strength and motivation.

🧴 SAFETY NOTES:

Cinnamon essential oil is very potent and must be used with care:

Always dilute heavily for topical use (0.5–1% max)
Not recommended for use during pregnancy
Avoid use on sensitive skin or with young children
Never apply neat to the skin

Patch test before use and consult a qualified practitioner if unsure.

🛒 Ready to Experience Cinnamon for Yourself?

👉 Purchase directly here: https://barefoot-holistic-health.square.site/product/ausganica-organic-cinnamon-leaf-essential-oil-10ml/18?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=XHWDT6IF77U7X6K6X5WMZW3J

🛍️ Browse all products in the online store:
barefootholistichealth.com/online-store

Invite warmth, vitality, and grounded strength into your week with this powerful botanical ally. 🔥🌿

💛 Want to explore essential oils in your wellness routine?

At Barefoot Holistic Health, I incorporate aromatherapy, naturopathic remedies, and hands-on therapies to support your healing from the inside out.

📞 Nicki: 0478 303 376
🌐 www.barefootholistichealth.com
💻 TeleHealth services Australia-wide

✨ Follow along Barefoot Holistic Health for more oil spotlights & wellness rituals

You can now also find me on Instagram! ❤️

25/01/2026

Hi, my name is Nicki, and I’m the founder of Barefoot Holistic Health 🌿

I’ve been working in natural therapies and holistic health since 2008, with a deep passion for supporting people through complex health challenges and empowering them to reconnect with their bodies, their health, and their innate capacity to heal. My work is grounded in compassion, clinical experience, and evidence-based practice, with a strong focus on understanding the whole person rather than just managing symptoms.

I hold a Bachelor of Health Science and have been practising Naturopathy for over a decade, supporting individuals and families through a wide range of acute and chronic health concerns. My clinical experience includes working with inflammatory bowel disease and other gut disorders, mental health and mood conditions, hormonal imbalances, perimenopause and menopause, fertility and preconception care, thyroid conditions, and complex, multi-system presentations.

As a mum of three, I am very much a family-focused practitioner. I have extensive experience supporting babies and children, as well as women through every stage of motherhood — from preconception and fertility, through pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond. I understand the realities of family life and aim to provide practical, realistic, and supportive care that fits into the rhythm of everyday living.

I am a certified M.I.N.D.D Practitioner (Metabolic, Immunologic, Neurologic, Digestive, Developmental) with specialised training in the natural management of paediatric conditions such as ADHD, asthma, allergies, autism, chronic illness, depression, learning and language delays, and digestive and behavioural concerns. My approach is always gentle, evidence-informed, and tailored to the individual child and family 🌱

I am also a certified G.E.M.M Practitioner (Gut Ecology and Metabolic Modulation) with advanced training in nutrigenomics — the science of how nutrition, lifestyle, and plant-based compounds interact with our DNA to influence health and disease expression. I utilise evidence-based nutraceuticals, functional foods, and targeted nutrigenomic formulations to support gut repair, metabolic balance, immune function, and long-term health resilience.

My clinical approach integrates functional medicine principles, comprehensive pathology testing, and detailed case-taking to identify underlying drivers of imbalance. This allows me to create truly individualised treatment strategies, including nutritional therapy, herbal medicine, and practitioner-only supplementation, prescribed with intention and precision to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Alongside my naturopathic training, I am also a somatic healing practitioner 🤍 I strongly believe that the nervous system plays a central role in health and healing, and that our lived experiences — including stress and trauma — can shape how imbalance and disease manifest in the body. I bring a trauma-informed, nervous-system-supportive lens to my work, helping clients build safety, regulation, and resilience alongside biochemical and physiological healing.

Barefoot Holistic Health offers naturopathic consultations via telehealth 💻 allowing me to support clients wherever they are, while maintaining the same depth of care, clinical rigour, and connection. Consultations are thorough, collaborative, and focused on empowering you with understanding, clarity, and sustainable strategies for your health.

If you’re ready to take a deeper, more compassionate approach to your wellbeing — one that honours both the science and the lived experience of your body — I would be honoured to support you on your healing journey ✨

To learn more about me or to book a telehealth naturopathy consultation, visit
www.barefootholistichealth.com

If you haven't already, head to Barefoot Holistic Health to read more about me and like my page 👍🏼

You can also find me on Instagram ❤️

23/01/2026

A New Chapter: Moving Online & Expanding My Healing Work 🌿

After recently moving to Cairns and practicing remotely over the past few months, I’ve made the intentional decision to transition my business to a 100% online model. This shift supports both my family commitments and the natural evolution of my work

Recent visits to the chiropractor and X-ray imaging have highlighted changes in my spine related to nearly 20 years of hands-on massage practice. While I continue to deeply value bodywork as an important part of the healing process, I’ve made the conscious choice to no longer personally offer massage therapy.

Instead, I now embody this approach through yoga and somatic healing sessions, supporting the body in a way that also honours my own long-term health. I will always advocate for regular massage as a healing and supportive modality — it’s simply no longer something I personally practice.

My website has been updated to reflect these changes, with massage services removed and a stronger focus on TeleHealth naturopathy and somatic healing sessions. I’m also now offering health and nutrition workshops, along with on-request yoga and somatic healing sessions.

These services are well suited to health expos, community events, seminars, corporate wellness programs, and retreat settings, and I’ll be dedicating more time over the coming months to developing and expanding these offerings.

Another exciting addition is the ability to order functional medicine testing online.
Functional medicine and pathology allow for an individualised, targeted approach to health — working with your unique DNA, genetics, physiology, and lived experiences. While these services have always been available through consults, you can now access them online as well.

Please note that functional medicine and pathology results should always be reviewed and interpreted by a qualified practitioner to ensure safe, appropriate, and personalised care.

As I continue to grow and expand, there will be many exciting opportunities and new adventures to share. I’m grateful to have you here and look forward to what’s ahead.

Light and love,
Nicki 💚🩵

For more information or to book an appointment:

💻 www.barefootholistichealth.com
📞 Call or text Nicki on 0478 303 376

If you haven’t already, head over to Barefoot Holistic Health to learn more about me and like the page 👍🏼

You can now also find me on Instagram ❤️

14/01/2026

Tailored Vitamin D: A Natural Way to Halve Heart Attack Risk ❤️‍🩹

Heart disease is still one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and if you’ve ever had a heart attack, you know prevention is everything 💪❤️. Exciting new research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2025 shows that vitamin D may be a powerful tool for heart health—if it’s done the right way.

The TARGET-D clinical trial looked at adults with heart disease who had already experienced a heart attack. Instead of giving everyone the same vitamin D dose, researchers used a personalized approach, adjusting supplementation to bring each participant’s blood levels into an “optimal” range of 40–80 ng/mL (100–200 nmol/L) 🌞🧪.

🌟 The Results Are Amazing

Participants with tailored vitamin D doses had a 52% lower risk of another heart attack compared to those whose levels weren’t managed.

More than 85% of participants started below 40 ng/mL—levels considered insufficient for heart protection.

Nearly half of the treatment group needed over 5,000 IU daily to reach protective levels.

No significant side effects were reported, thanks to careful monitoring of vitamin D and calcium levels.

💡 Why Personalized Vitamin D Matters

Many people are unknowingly vitamin D insufficient. Standard doses aren’t enough for everyone, and one size does NOT fit all. This study proves what many holistic and integrative practitioners have long recommended: testing and targeting optimal levels matters.

🌿 A Holistic Heart-Healthy Approach

From a naturopathic perspective, this research highlights some core principles:

Personalized care: Lab-guided vitamin D dosing ensures you get what your body actually needs. 🧬

Proactive prevention: Optimizing vitamin D may protect your heart, not just prevent deficiency. ❤️

Safety first: Regular monitoring prevents toxicity and keeps supplementation effective. ✅

Patient empowerment: Knowing your vitamin D levels gives you control over your heart health. 🙌

🫀 The Bigger Picture

Vitamin D is a piece of the heart-health puzzle. Combining nutrient optimization, whole foods, stress management, movement, and quality sleep builds a foundation for long-term heart protection 🌱💤🏃‍♀️.

This study confirms what many natural clinicians have practiced for years: vitamin D isn’t just about bones—it can be a powerful ally for your heart 💛.

For anyone with heart disease or a history of heart attacks, testing your vitamin D and adjusting it to optimal levels could be a simple yet impactful step toward lifelong cardiovascular health 🌞🩺.

For more information or to book an appointment:

💻 www.barefootholistichealth.com
📞 Call or text Nicki on 0478 303 376

If you haven't already head to Barefoot Holistic Health to read more about me and like my page 👍🏼

You can now also find me on Instagram! ❤️

Adults with heart disease who had a previous heart attack and took vitamin D doses tailored to reach ‘optimal’ blood levels reduced their risk of another heart attack by more than half compared to those who did not, according to a preliminary study presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2025. The meeting held on November 7-10 in New Orleans, was a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science.

Previous studies found low vitamin D levels are linked to worse heart health. The TARGET-D randomised clinical trial included 630 adults with heart disease who also had a previous heart attack. More than 85% of participants began the study with vitamin D levels in their blood below 40 ng/mL (100 nmol/L). Unlike earlier vitamin D randomised trials that used standard doses, the TARGET-D trial personalised the doses based on the results of each participant’s blood test.

“Previous clinical trial research on vitamin D tested the potential impact of the same vitamin D dose for all participants without checking their blood levels first,” said Heidi T. May, principal investigator of TARGET-D and an epidemiologist and professor of research at Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, Utah. “We took a different approach. We checked each participant's vitamin D levels at enrolment and throughout the study, and we adjusted their dose as needed to bring and maintain them in a range of 40 to 80 ng/mL.”

Participants in the TARGET-D study were randomised to two groups: The standard of care group did not receive management of their vitamin D levels, and the treatment group received tailored vitamin D supplementation, with doses adjusted every three months until their vitamin D blood levels were above 40 ng/mL. Once the vitamin D level was above 40 ng/mL, levels were checked annually and doses adjusted if levels dropped below that target.

Researchers monitored both vitamin D and calcium levels for the participants in the treatment group throughout the study to prevent vitamin D toxicity. Doses were reduced or stopped if vitamin D levels rose above 80 ng/mL (200 nmol/L).
The study’s key findings include:

• People who received personalised dosing of vitamin D supplements to achieve vitamin D levels greater than 40 ng/mL for nearly four years had a 52% lower risk of heart attack compared to participants whose vitamin D levels were not managed.
• More than 85% of participants had vitamin D levels below 40 ng/mL when they enrolled in the study.
• Nearly 52% of participants in the treatment group required more than 5,000 IU of vitamin D each day to reach the target blood levels of greater than 40 ng/mL.
• There were no significant adverse outcomes from the vitamin D intervention
Researchers found that tailored vitamin D doses did not significantly reduce the primary outcomes of death, heart failure hospitalisation or stroke; rather, supplementation appeared to be beneficial for preventing heart attacks specifically.

For several years, informed by a broad reading of clinical and observational research, I have aimed for a minimum serum vitamin D level of 100 nmol/L (40 ng/mL) in my patients. In many cases, patients self-fund testing, as vitamin D measurement is often deprioritised in mainstream practice and higher target ranges are regarded as lacking clinical relevance beyond deficiency prevention.

This study provides important support for the clinical value of targeting higher vitamin D levels—an approach long adopted by many natural and integrative practitioners.

For more information see: https://bit.ly/49kHooj
and
https://newsroom.heart.org/news/heart-attack-risk-halved-in-adults-with-heart-disease-taking-tailored-vitamin-d-doses

14/01/2026

🌟 There Is Only One You: That Is Your Superpower 🌿

In a world that constantly compares, it’s easy to forget one simple truth: there is only one you. 💛 And that uniqueness? That is your superpower. ⚡

From a naturopathic and holistic perspective, this idea goes deeper than mindset—it’s about recognising that your body, mind, and spirit are as unique as your fingerprint. ✨

Your health, energy, and wellbeing are shaped by your individual genetics, lifestyle, environment, and experiences. What works for one person may not work for another—and that’s okay. In fact, it’s more than okay—it’s your advantage. 💪

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🌿 Embrace Your Individuality

Holistic health is all about seeing the whole person, not just a set of symptoms. Each person has their own “health blueprint”:

▪️Your digestion might respond to foods differently than your friend’s. 🥗

▪️Your stress response may require unique strategies for balance. 🧘‍♀️

▪️Your energy patterns and sleep needs are yours alone. 🛌

By honouring your individuality, you can make choices that support your unique body and mind, rather than chasing someone else’s version of health. 🌟

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⚡ Your Superpower in Practice

Here’s what embracing your unique health superpower can look like in everyday life:

1️⃣ Listen to Your Body

Your body speaks—sometimes in whispers, sometimes in shouts. 👂💬 Pay attention to how foods, routines, and environments affect your energy, mood, and digestion. Over time, you’ll learn what truly nourishes and supports you. 🌱

2️⃣ Personalise Your Nutrition

There is no one-size-fits-all diet. 🍎 A naturopathic approach looks at your unique nutritional needs, your gut health, your metabolism, and even your mental wellbeing. Simple swaps—like choosing hydrating, low-sugar drinks 💧 instead of soft drinks—can have a bigger impact when tailored to your body’s needs.

3️⃣ Support Your Mind and Spirit

Holistic health isn’t just about the physical body. 🧠💚 Meditation, mindfulness, journaling, and connecting with nature 🌳 are all tools that nourish your unique mental and emotional wellbeing.

4️⃣ Celebrate Your Wins, Big and Small

Every step you take toward better health is progress. 🎉 Focusing on your journey rather than someone else’s is how your superpower grows stronger every day. 💫

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🌿 Why Uniqueness Matters in Naturopathy

As naturopaths, we understand that health is personal. 👩‍⚕️ Two people with the same symptoms might require completely different approaches. By honouring your unique body chemistry, lifestyle, and life story, we can design strategies that support long-term wellness—not just quick fixes. 🌱

Your individuality isn’t a limitation—it’s a source of power. 💪 By trusting your body, listening to its signals, and honouring your unique needs, you unlock your true potential for health and wellbeing. ✨

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💚 Takeaway

There is only one you. No one else can live your life, experience your body, or journey through your mind. 🌸 Your uniqueness is a gift—and when you treat it as a superpower, your health and happiness follow. 🌞

🌱 Nurture your uniqueness.
👂 Listen to your body.
🧘‍♀️ Support your mind.
🎉 Celebrate your superpower.

For more information or to book an appointment:

💻 www.barefootholistichealth.com
📞 Call or text Nicki on 0478 303 376

If you haven't already head to Barefoot Holistic Health to read more about me and like my page 👍🏼

You can now also find me on Instagram! ❤️

14/01/2026

🌿 Hot weather? Instead of soft drinks, reach for something truly nourishing, hydrating, and supportive for your body 🍋🫐

When the temperature rises, it’s easy to reach for sugary, highly processed soft drinks. From a naturopathic and holistic perspective, these drinks may feel refreshing in the moment, but they often place extra stress on the body rather than truly hydrating it.

🚫 What soft drinks can be doing to your body:
Most soft drinks are loaded with refined sugars or artificial sweeteners, synthetic colours and flavours, preservatives, and acidic additives. These can:

▪️Spike blood sugar levels, followed by energy crashes and cravings

▪️Contribute to inflammation and metabolic imbalance

▪️Disrupt gut health and beneficial bacteria

▪️Increase mineral loss and place added strain on the liver

▪️Leave you feeling more dehydrated, not less

In hot weather, your body needs hydration that supports cellular function—not a chemical cocktail it has to work hard to process.

✨ Looking for flavour without the sugar and potentially toxic ingredients?
Try a refreshing alternative that actually nourishes you.

🍹 Blueberry Basil Lemonade!

💙 Why this drink supports your body:

▪️Blueberries provide antioxidants to help protect cells from oxidative stress

▪️Lemon supports digestion, gentle detoxification, and hydration

▪️Basil offers calming, anti-inflammatory, and digestive support

▪️Water hydrates deeply—without refined sugars or artificial additives

Refreshing, nourishing, and delicious—this is hydration your body recognises and appreciates. 🌱

This summer, choose drinks that truly support your wellbeing.

🔗 For full recipe details, click the link below 👇🏼

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UiDIlqWfJrVSTFr4lBG4xsQzIryaPb7T/view?usp=sharing

For more information or to book an appointment:
💻 www.barefootholistichealth.com
📞 Call or text Nicki on 0478 303 376

If you haven’t already, head to Barefoot Holistic Health to learn more about me and like my page 👍🏼

You can now also find me on Instagram ❤️

05/01/2026

✨ New Year, New You — Beyond Resolutions, Toward Lasting Change ✨

As a new year begins, it’s natural to reflect, reset, and hope for change 🌱 Everywhere we look, we’re met with quick fixes, rigid resolutions, and the latest wellness fads promising instant results. But real, meaningful health doesn’t come from extremes or short-term motivation—it comes from sustainable habits, self-discovery, and compassionate support 🤍

A New You isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about reconnecting with who you truly are 🌿

🌿 A Holistic View of Health

From a holistic and naturopathic perspective, health is never one-size-fits-all. Each of us is shaped by our unique biology, physiology, genetics, lived experiences, and past traumas 🧬 These deeply influence how we respond to food 🍎, stress 😮‍💨, movement 🧘‍♀️, sleep 😴, and life itself.

That’s why lasting change requires an individual approach, not a generic plan pulled from the latest trend ✨

True wellbeing honours the mind, body, and spirit—all beautifully interconnected 💫

🔄 Moving Beyond Fads and Resolutions

Rather than setting rigid resolutions that often fade by February, consider focusing on positive, sustainable habits 🌱:

▪️Nourishing your body in ways that suit you 🥗

▪️Supporting your nervous system and stress response 🧠

▪️Improving sleep, energy, and digestion—gently and gradually 🌙

▪️Creating space for emotional healing and self-awareness 💛

▪️Building routines that feel supportive, not punishing 🌸

▪️Small, intentional shifts lead to powerful long-term change 🌈

🧡 Guided, Compassionate Support

You don’t have to do this alone. With guidance from a qualified, experienced, heart-centred practitioner, healing becomes safer, clearer, and more sustainable 🤲

At Barefoot Holistic Health, support is grounded in:

▪️Compassion, empathy, and genuine care 💕

▪️The latest scientific research 🔬

▪️Modern functional medicine testing 📊

▪️Deep respect for your individual story 🌿

This is about meeting you where you are—and walking beside you as you move forward 🚶‍♀️✨

🌟 Your Year of Self-Discovery

Let this be the year you listen to your body 👂, trust your intuition ✨, and invest in your long-term wellbeing 🌱 Not through pressure or perfection—but through curiosity, kindness, and consistency 🤍

📅 For more information or to book an appointment:

💻 www.barefootholistichealth.com
📞 Call or text Nicki on 0478 303 376

👍🏼 If you haven’t already, head over to Barefoot Holistic Health to learn more about me and like the page

You can now also find me on Instagram ❤️

✨ Here’s to a new year of balance, healing, and becoming more you ✨

✨ 🌿 🤍
💫 🔬 🌱
🌈 🤲 👣

04/01/2026

✨ We’re back! ✨

We hope you all had a nourishing and restorative holiday season and are feeling inspired for the year ahead — we certainly are. 💛

As of today, Barefoot Holistic Health is officially open again. While we are currently operating online and via TeleHealth as we search for a new clinic space in the Northern Beaches of Cairns, you can still access professional, compassionate naturopathy and somatic healing support from the comfort of your home.

As a qualified naturopath specialising in women’s, family, and children’s health, my approach is heart-centred, trauma-informed, and grounded in the latest scientific research. I believe deeply in combining traditional wisdom with evidence-based care to support the body’s innate capacity to heal.

✨ Available now:
• Naturopathy consultations
• Somatic healing sessions

🚫 Currently unavailable:
Massage, yoga, and hands-on bodywork services (these will return once a new space is secured).

If 2026 is the year you’re ready to gently reset, rebuild resilience, and feel more at home in your body, I’d love to support you on that journey. 🌿

📅 For more information or to book an appointment:

💻 www.barefootholistichealth.com
📞 Call or text Nicki on 0478 303 376

If you haven’t already, head over to Barefoot Holistic Health to learn more about me and like the page 👍🏼

You can now also find me on Instagram ❤️

23/12/2025

When Science Loses Its Roots: Why Organic Still Matters 🌱

From a holistic and naturopathic perspective, truth, transparency, and respect for nature are the foundations of real health. That’s why recent news about glyphosate—the active ingredient in Roundup—matters to anyone who cares about clean food, ethical science, and long-term wellbeing.

A major toxicology journal has officially retracted a highly influential study that for years was used to claim glyphosate was safe. The reason? “Serious ethical concerns” and unresolved questions about the integrity of the research. This paper wasn’t obscure—it sat in the top 0.1% of most-cited glyphosate studies and shaped policy, regulation, and public opinion for decades.

What changed?

🧾 Internal Monsanto emails, revealed during court cases, suggested the company helped ghostwrite the paper while independent scientists were listed as authors.

⚖️ The study was later used in legal defenses against people who developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after glyphosate exposure.

🔬 The paper relied heavily on unpublished, industry-produced data, while excluding other relevant studies—tilting the scientific balance.

Even after these revelations surfaced years ago, the paper continued to be cited and trusted—until now.

Why this matters for holistic health 🌿

Naturopathic principles teach us that the body thrives when it is supported—not burdened. Chronic, low-level exposure to chemicals designed to kill plants raises important questions about long-term impacts on:

Soil microbiomes 🌍
Gut health 🦠
Immune balance ⚖️
Overall ecological harmony 🌱

When science is influenced by corporate interests, nature—and people—pay the price.

Organic is not a trend. It’s a precaution.

Choosing organic foods and supporting regenerative agriculture isn’t about fear—it’s about informed care:

▪️Fewer synthetic herbicides and pesticides
▪️Healthier soil and ecosystems
▪️Greater alignment with the body’s natural detox pathways

As this retraction shows, “safe” can sometimes mean “not fully disclosed.” Organic choices are one way individuals can reclaim agency while larger systems catch up.

A gentle reminder ✨

Health is not built on a single study—or a single chemical—but on patterns of respect: for evidence, for transparency, and for nature’s wisdom.

🌱 Eat consciously. Question deeply. Support food systems rooted in integrity.

For more information or to book an appointment:

💻 www.barefootholistichealth.com
📞 Call or text Nicki on 0478 303 376

If you haven't already head to Barefoot Holistic Health to read more about me and like my page 👍🏼

You can now also find me on Instagram! ❤️

A major toxicology journal has retracted a w**d killer study backed by Monsanto, citing ‘serious ethical concerns’. The highly cited paper was used as evidence that the widely used herbicide glyphosate (Roundup) is safe.

In 2017, a lawsuit uncovered internal emails from Monsanto that suggested its employees helped ghostwrite an influential paper that claimed to find no evidence glyphosate caused cancer. Now, the scientific journal that published the 2000 paper has announced it has been retracted.

The paper was withdrawn because of “serious ethical concerns” and questions about the validity of the research findings, toxicologist Martin van den Berg, co-editor-in-chief of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, wrote in a scathing retraction notice released on 28th November. “This article has been widely regarded as a hallmark paper in the discourse surrounding the carcinogenicity of glyphosate and Roundup,” wrote van den Berg, who works at Utrecht University. “However, the lack of clarity regarding which parts of the article were authored by Monsanto employees creates uncertainty about the integrity of the conclusions drawn.”

The decision, which came more than 8 years after the initial revelations, can be traced to the work of two scientists who this year filed a retraction request with the journal after documenting the staying power of the disputed paper. “My worry is that people will keep citing it,” says Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science at Harvard University who sought the retraction along with her then postdoctoral researcher, Alexander Kaurov.

In July, the duo published an analysis showing that the now-retracted paper was in the top 0.1% of studies cited in glyphosate-related academic research. They found that citation rates barely budged after the revelations of Monsanto’s hidden involvement, and the paper continued to be used in policy documents. With the retraction, Oreskes hopes “the word will get out” that the study shouldn’t be used as a trusted source of information.

Questions about the paper emerged during a lawsuit against Monsanto, filed by people who claimed their non-Hodgkins lymphoma stemmed from glyphosate exposure. It brought to light internal company documents showing company officials debating how to respond to a 2015 finding by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) that glyphosate was a probable human carcinogen. One tactic they considered was to help academic researchers publish papers that supported the company’s claims that the chemical was not a risk to people. A way to do that, a company executive wrote in an email, would be to approach scientists who would “have their names on the publication, but we would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just sign their names so to speak.” The email notes that “this is how we handled” the now-retracted paper.

Gary Williams, the paper’s lead author and a former New York Medical College pathologist who retired in 2018, did not respond to a request for comment. The retraction notice states that Williams also did not respond to the journal’s concerns about the paper. The two other authors, Robert Kroes and Ian Munro, are no longer alive.

In addition to the apparent involvement of Monsanto, the retraction announcement notes that the authors only reviewed unpublished studies produced by the company, and neglected to include a number of outside studies that were also not published in peer-reviewed journals. That could have skewed the study’s conclusions, van den Berg wrote.

The paper’s retraction could remove one hurdle for plaintiffs suing Monsanto, says Robin Greenwald, an attorney at the New York City–based law firm Weitz & Luxenberg who is overseeing glyphosate cases for hundreds of individuals. Monsanto “can’t rely on it anymore,” she says.

There may be more retractions coming. Kaurov, who is now studying for a PhD in science in society at New Zealand’s Victoria University of Wellington, says he and Oreskes recently submitted a retraction request to Critical Reviews in Toxicology for a 2013 paper published under the names of two other authors that does not fully disclose the role Monsanto played in the paper. “It’s not the end of the story,” he says.

For more information see: https://bit.ly/4pGMUY6
and
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901125001765