Hillarys herbal dispensary

20/04/2026

Mould on dried fruit and grains?

Perhaps this is why people are thriving on grain free diets. Maybe its more than the GMO, pesticide and herbicide-residued grains, fermentable sugars and rancid oils.

This mould that showed up on a test panel recently caught me by surprise. The moulds are attributable to incorrectly stored grains or dried fruit. Other moulds were the kind attributable to air conditioning units and were understandably making someone feel quite unwell.

I appreciate having access to panels of testing that are outside the scope of conventional panels of blood work.
Some tests use breath or stools, urine or saliva relevant to the type of investigation.

Photo courtesy of Tamanna Rumeii

20/04/2026

BLOATING, CONSTIPATION, DIARRHOEA, SHARTS, POO BREATH, EMBARRASSING NOISES AND SMELLS

That ‘gut’ your attention! Gut health cannot be overstated. So many seemingly unrelated symptoms can be traced back to gut health.

Farty noises that never fail to delight a young child make adults cringe with embarrassment. Noises and smells emanating from your digestive system indicate that something is out of balance.

Gut health and immune function

Digestive disturbances like bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, and excessive gas are often dismissed as minor inconveniences, but they signal deeper imbalances in gut flora, stomach acid levels, or intestinal barrier integrity. These symptoms frequently stem from dysbiosis—an overgrowth of harmful bacteria or yeasts which disrupts the gut’s microbial equilibrium and weakens immune function.

The gut microbiome houses 70–80% of the body’s immune cells, meaning digestive dysfunction can cascade into systemic inflammation, nutrient malabsorption, and heightened susceptibility to chronic illnesses.

Root Causes

1. Dysbiosis and Pathogenic Overgrowth: Antibiotics, processed foods, and sugar decimate beneficial bacteria allowing pathogens to thrive. This imbalance produces endotoxins that damage intestinal linings, leading to leaky gut syndrome—a condition linked to autoimmune disorders, allergies, and brain fog.

2. Stomach Acid Deficiency: Contrary to mainstream dogma, acid reflux and bloating often arise from low stomach acid (hypochlorhydria), impairing protein digestion and enabling bacterial overgrowth.

3. Dietary Triggers: Processed foods, dairy, and high-FODMAP foods (e.g. garlic, onions) ferment in the gut, exacerbating bloating and IBS symptoms.

Immune system synergy

A compromised gut lining allows toxins like lipopolysaccharides (LPS) to enter the bloodstream, triggering immune hyperactivity and oxidative stress. Additionally, addressing gut health can resolve "mystery" symptoms like fatigue or joint pain, as seen in cases where correcting low stomach acid reversed nutrient deficiencies.

Testing and Proactive Measures

• Stool Testing: Identifies pathogenic strains and measures microbial diversity.
• Breath testing: Identifies bacteria that has escaped its usual habitat
• Pathology: Blood testing for certain antigens
• Elimination Diets: Remove common irritants (dairy, gluten) for 30 days to pinpoint triggers

The next step

◦ Book a microbiome map to see who is in the village and what is the best approach for treatment for you. Treatment options may vary from restorative to antimicrobial herbal formulas, gut powders, pre- or probiotics, antioxidant or mineral restoration once test results are complete. You have a say over what treatment best suits you.

◦ Adopt an anti-inflammatory diet (organic vegetables, pasture-raised meats) to reduce toxic load

◦ Practice stress management (deep breathing, grounding) to mitigate gut-brain axis disruptions

Persistent symptoms warrant functional testing to uncover hidden infections or heavy metal toxicity, which conventional medicine often overlooks.
By addressing gut health holistically—through diet, microbial balance, and immune support—digestive symptoms transform from embarrassing nuisances into restorative function for whole body revitalization.

16/04/2026

YOU DON'T NEED TO THROW ROCKS!

Supporting your nervous system allows you to take a breath before responding. It allows you to act without being in the fight or flight response.

Basic: Herbal tea - medicine is minimal but often is adequate for those with sensitive systems.

Intermediate: Herbal medicine. stronger support for those with tangibly less resilience! Usually compounded with other nervines and adaptogens for perimenopause to reduce cortisol and its associated symptoms.

The Full Monty: Addressing inflammation, increasing antioxidant status, supporting the nervous system and hypothalamus-adrenal-axis will allow the cells to disarm their lockdown and allow passage of nutrients, hormones etc. into the cell and waste out of the cell.

This is a very simplistic overview but a very good place to start.

Don't throw rocks! Nurture yourself instead. We can arrange hormonal testing through methods that are effective and give useful information and a game plan.

16/04/2026

Tomorrow Hillarys herbal dispensary Get crafty from 11-1pm with Irina.

13/04/2026

MANDALA WEAVING FAMILY ACTIVITY
$50 PP or $70 per family

Join Irina for mandala weaving on Friday the 17th from 11-1pm to make your own mandala.

All equipment supplied and parents welcome to attend.

Irina will also be offering basket weaving lessons in the near future as well.

Contact Irina on 0426 270 560 for bookings

11/04/2026

MUSHROOM WORKSHOP MAY 26th

Join us an educational evening with Jason from Supreme Shrooms.

Jason is hugely knowledgeable about the uses of medicinal mushrooms and the studies backing them. Mushrooms are not a gimmick, they have been used for centuries throughout Asia but.... only for the nobility, not the villagers....

Sample each individual mushroom tea and walk away with a free 50g bag included in your ticket price.

Photo courtesy of Sebastian Unrau

10/04/2026

We have TWO kinesiologists on this weekend!

Saturday with Tanya from 9 am
Sunday with Kylie from 1pm

Kinesiology is a powerful modality that taps directly into your body and allows your body to speak directly to the kinesiologist about where stress is being stored and how it affects you and where it affects you.

Stress is a word that is commonly strewn about. It is a word that that triggers some and is laughed at by others yet stress is a broad term for that which underpins so many physical ailments from hormone imbalances to heart conditions.

You are not weak - 21st century is fast and furious and I don't think anyone will disagree with me here when I say that time is flying. Trying to stay abreast of all the admin, the relationships, the binge-watching (escapism for a bit, right?), your health challenges and supporting other through theirs, changing work conditions and cost of living.... it is endless and I will wager that most people are struggling to keep up with some aspect of life.

Tanya and Kylie are both adept at their craft of allowing your body to talk to them through muscle testing and reduce the stressors one by one.
- current stress
- past stress
- future stress

Letting go of beliefs, ideas and that which holds you back from being a better human is part of your journey too.

Take time out for yourself and focus your attention inward - where YOU live.

08/04/2026

08/04/2026

Calcium is a team player, not a hero

We get taught calcium for strong bones in primary school and that program stays in our head for life.

Calcium does strengthen bones but where did the rest of the dot points about other minerals that constitute healthy bones get filed?

* Strong bones require many minerals besides calcium.

* Without phosphorous, our bones would be soft.

* WIthout zinc and boron, out bones would not repair

* Without copper, we wouldn't produce enzymes required to crosslink collagen and elastin, may become brittle, weak and poorly structured

* Without potassium and magnesium, metabolic acids may leach minerals from bones e.g. aluminium and lead which displace calcium

* Without manganese, bone matrix wouldn't form and produce cartilage and co-factors for building connective tissue would be missing.

* Without fluoride, (trace amounts found in food, not massive amounts in tap water) bone mineralisation may be weakened.

We have not been given the whole truth, only part-truths. A wide and varied diet of whole foods is the basis for forming strong bones, not dairy alone. Dairy and wheat used to be our primary industries so our supporting our economy prompted its placement in the food pyramid and classroom teachings.

The food pyramid in the 1980's told us that grains should be our staple food. Perhaps before all the hybridisation of wheat and milling of fibre and minerals in the seed casings that might have been okay. We all survived living on sandwiches, after all.

The standard western diet gives us caffeine, sugar, hyper-glutenised bread, seed oils and calcium-laden dairy which can tip the scales of strong bones into brittle and weak bones if this is our standard diet.

Most eateries would not survive if they didn't use cheap foods such as pasta, rice, bread and caffeine. That is, figuratively, their bread and butter. Maintaining a diet without those carbohydrates is challenging when you start relinquishing them.

Teaching nutrient literacy and body literacy is equally important as teaching maths.

If you want to test your minerals, a hair mineral test which shows tissue mineral (+ heavy metal) reserves. Chemistry happens in the tissues, not the blood. The blood carries. Combining testing methods of hair and bloods and you should form a clearer picture of what standing your bones are in.

08/04/2026

Stay strong this Easter when you come home from the holidays 😷Keep your kids safe and healthy with alternative tinctures from Hillarys herbal dispensary 💊Like their Elderberry Glycetract, an alcohol-free alternative for cold and flu medicines!

08/04/2026

Your body's symptoms are not separate from the accumulation of your daily experiences.

Your heart, your mind, your intuition is not separate from your body.

There is always a thought, a feeling, an emotion behind what your body presents. Your body symptoms shout what your heart whispers.

07/04/2026

WHICH ORGAN IS THE 'DISCONNECTOR'?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the colon (large intestine) is often thought of as the “waste manager” or “disconnector”

If the stomach is the village and the small intestine is the editor, the colon is responsible for final decisions around what must be disconnected and released

Its role is simple, but vital:
• Reabsorb water and electrolytes
• Form and move waste efficiently
• Eliminate what the body no longer needs
• House beneficial bacteria

In TCM, the large intestine is closely linked with the process of letting go — not just physically, but functionally and even emotionally. When this system is working well, elimination is regular, complete, and comfortable.

But when it’s not, we begin to see signs of imbalance — and this is where things can become more complex.

There is a distinction between physically and functionally releasing.

Physical letting go is the most literal:
• Elimination of stool
• Clearing metabolic waste
• The mechanical, tangible process happening in the colon

Emotional letting go relates to the Lung–Large Intestine pairing in TCM:
• Releasing grief, sadness, or attachment
• The ability to move on from experiences
• Not holding onto what is no longer serving

Functional letting go sits in between those two — it’s less tangible than physical, but not as abstract as emotional. It refers to how well the system carries out its role as a process.Think of it as the efficiency and regulation of the mechanism itself:

• Is the timing of elimination appropriate? (not too fast, not too slow)
• Is peristalsis coordinated and effective?
• Is fluid balance being regulated properly (not too dry, not too loose)?
• Is the body signalling and responding to the urge to eliminate?

So someone might:

Be physically eliminating (so technically “letting go”)
But not functionally doing it well (e.g. incomplete evacuation, urgency, alternating bowel patterns)

In that sense: Physical = that it’s happening and Functional = how well it’s happening.

TCM often pays close attention to this functional layer — because it reflects the quality of regulation in the body, not just the presence or absence of symptoms.

This functional layer often bridges the other two: when function is off, physical symptoms appear… and over time, there can also be an emotional “holding” that mirrors it.

DYSBIOSIS

Dysbiosis refers to an imbalance in the gut microbiome — where beneficial bacteria are reduced and less desirable microbes begin to dominate. This can occur due to stress, poor digestion upstream, antibiotics, or dietary factors.

From here, pathogenic overgrowths (including certain bacteria, yeasts, or parasites) may take hold. These organisms can:
• Interfere with normal fermentation processes
• Produce gas and toxins
• Irritate the intestinal lining
• Disrupt bowel regularity

Over time, this can contribute to bloating, irregular stools, inflammation, and reduced resilience in the gut environment.

In iridology, I often observe "ballooning" at the colonic flexures (especially the hepatic/right and splenic/left), where gas commonly becomes trapped.

The colon isn’t a smooth tube — it has sacculations (haustra), the characteristic pouch-like segments. When thick, greasy, or oily chyme lingers in these pockets, it creates a low-oxygen environment that encourages overgrowth of harmful bacteria, known as dysbiosis.

When digestion is compromised or dysbiosis is present:
• Gas production increases
• Movement through the colon may slow
• Pressure can build at these bend points

This can lead to discomfort, distension, and that familiar “stuck” or bloated feeling under the ribs. This is often not just a colon issue — it reflects what has (or hasn’t) happened earlier in digestion. Poor stomach function and incomplete breakdown in the small intestine can feed directly into imbalance here.

What supports the colon:
• Proper digestion upstream (stomach, liver, pancreas & small intestine)
• Adequate hydration
• Fibre appropriate to the individual
• A balanced microbiome
• Regular, unhurried bowel habits

What derails it:
• Chronic stress and holding patterns
• Processed, low-fibre diets
• Repeated antibiotic use
• Poor digestive function higher up
• Ignoring the urge to go

The colon teaches one final lesson in this digestive sequence: Take what is useful. Let go of what is not. True health depends just as much on what we release, as what we take in.