Health & Wellness Naturally

22/08/2025

Sooo true!

Awareness about the importance of gut health is steadily growing, which is a positive shift.

There is a misconception, however, that our diet alone, or a supplement alone can heal our digestion.

While healthy food and supplements can make a big difference, healthy digestion is far more complex and is dependent on our habits before, during and after eating.

Factors such as cephalic digestion, gastric acid secretion, chewing, posture, movement and hydration impact how well we digest and absorb our food.

Practitioners, share the blog post with your patients: https://buff.ly/SnilCRs

24/07/2025

Gastrointestinal mucosal integrity plays a central role in host defence and immune system regulation. Comprised of both physical and biochemical mechanisms, the mucosal barrier helps maintain immune tolerance while protecting against pathogenic exposure.

The gastrointestinal mucosa supports immune discrimination, allowing for the absorption of nutrients and cohabitation with commensal microbiota, while preventing the entry of non-beneficial organisms. This activity is regulated by a range of gut-associated lymphoid tissue, secretory IgA, mucosal immune cells, cytokines, and the gut microbiota.

Mucosal cells account for approximately 70% of the body’s entire immune system, therefore insults to the mucosal surface, whether through infections, food allergens or inflammation may impact not just local gastrointestinal immunity, but systemic immune regulation.

Loss of oral tolerance, increased intestinal permeability, and impaired microbiome-immune crosstalk may contribute to inappropriate immune activation and systemic immune burden.

From a clinical perspective, supporting mucosal integrity is a key consideration when addressing both local and systemic immune health.

Practitioners, head to the BioMedica website to access our latest resources, research, and practitioner education on how to support your patients with their gastrointestinal mucosal immunity.

22/02/2025

Jason Hawrelak our very own Australian guru of the gut microbiome.
Love his post here on assistance I. Protecting our microbiome antibiotic treatment is needed for acute health support.

Please reach out for an acute consultation and preventative support if needed.

19/01/2025

02/03/2023

Did you know that progesterone is a "stress-buffering" hormone? That's according to new research, which found that low progesterone during second puberty (age 35-55) is associated with higher perceived stress and an increased risk of depression.

See my updated blog post about "the great progesterone crash of perimenopause": https://www.larabriden.com/real-reason-stress-hits-hard-in-your-40s-adrenal/

From the blog post, I link to the new research paper "Estradiol and progesterone as resilience markers? – Findings from the Swiss Perimenopause Study."

19/10/2022

15/09/2022

Insight, Australia's leading forum for ideas, returns with host Kumi Taguchi, who each week will use her unique skills to guide a lively debate on a single topic.

23/08/2022

Brocolli Salad

This is a delicious nourishing and fresh salad that pairs nicely with a simple protein choice for a complete nutrient dense meal option. Definitely one of my favourites! PREP TIME: 10 MINS  COOKING TIME: 0 MINS SERVINGS: 4-6 SERVINGS INGREDIENTS 1 head of brocolli shredded f

01/06/2022

This couldn’t be more true 🌿

Everyone is made up differently, so it seems obvious to us that what everyone needs to be healthy is not going to be the same!

The foods that make one person perform at their best could be worlds apart from someone else’s, and that’s why our program is completely personalised to each client.

Our Metabolic Balance® food plans are made up using your blood tests and personal health history, to ensure you get the nutrition that is right for YOU.

Great health starts by knowing what foods you need to eat!

https://bit.ly/3GtTMCp

20/05/2022

14/01/2022

I couldn’t agree more with this!

The best strategy for a long and healthy life is to eat your medicine—get your drugs at the farmacy, not the pharmacy! Food is far more than just calories or energy to fuel our bodies. It is information, instructions that regulate every function of our bodies in real-time.

Food is not only a source of energy, joy, connection, and pleasure; it can also rejuvenate us and even reverse disease. When we think of food, we think of protein, carbohydrates, fats, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. But the most important parts of food may be the tens of thousands of medicinal compounds embedded in plants and even animal foods that regulate, modulate, and influence nearly all of the 37 billion billion chemical reactions that occur in our bodies every second. I call this process symbiotic‐phytoadaptation. It means our bodies use chemicals found in food to beneficially influence each of our biological systems.

Through evolution, we have borrowed the molecular magic embedded in foods to optimize and supercharge our biology. For example, we can’t synthesize vitamin C or omega-3 fats; we have to get these from nature. And it’s not just the obvious essential fatty acids, amino acids, and vitamins and minerals we get from our food; we also get important molecules called phytochemicals.

There are 25,000-plus phytochemicals in the plant kingdom identified to date, and they’ve only recently been deemed critical for health. Surprisingly they are also found in animals, such as in grass-fed cows, who consume a wide array of nutrient-dense plant foods. While deficiency of these phytochemicals may not result in an acute disease like scurvy or rickets or in protein malnutrition, it can lead to long-latency deficiency diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, dementia, depression, and more.

The only way to take advantage of these disease-fighting compounds is to focus on our food quality. Deeply colorful plant foods, organic and grass-fed meats, and wild fatty fish are abundant in compounds that protect our cells and fight off invaders. Every time you take a bite of food, consider that you are programming your biology for health or disease.

05/01/2022

Lara Briden, a naturopathic doctor, is the author of a couple of my favourite female hormone books. This is a great article on protein and clearly explains why, how much and when we should be eatling our protein.

According to the satiety index, the most filling foods are whole foods high in protein, fibre, and some types of starch such as potatoes.