Mother-Well Holistic Health

11/08/2025

Endometriosis New Zealand chief executive Tanya Cooke said adopting the new guideline would bring New Zealand into line with global best practice, and ensure patients received faster, less invasive and more equitable care.

Full story ⬇️

11/08/2025

Amazing opportunity for all clients of the Mother-Well Midwives & Practitioners.

FREE session for pregnant people & partners/support people 

Mother-Well

820 Mt Eden Road

Sunday 24 August 

10-11am

(45mins session & 15mins cup of tea/coffee & chat - please bring a little kai to share)

Cost: FREE 

(this is a one-off opportunity!)

BOOK AT RECEPTION or phone 09 6300067

WHAT'S COVERED:

Breathing techniques to help you feel more comfortable & help you sleep

Practical exercise for partners - feel connected & supported

Relaxation to let go of stress - when you're calm, you're baby's calm 😊

(facilitated by Deb Peters - Calmbirth Educator (& occasional MW Receptionist :-)

https://calmbirth.nz

10/08/2025

FREE for all clients of Mother-Well midwives and practitioners
Prenatal Breathing & Relaxation
Sun 24th Aug 10am

FREE session for pregnant people & partners/support people
Mother-Well
820 Mt Eden Road
Sunday 24 August
10-11am
(45mins session & 15mins cup of tea/coffee & chat - please bring a little kai to share)
Cost: FREE
(this is a one-off opportunity!)
BOOK AT RECEPTION or phone 09 6300067

WHAT'S COVERED:
Breathing techniques to help you feel more comfortable & help you sleep
Practical exercise for partners - feel connected & supported
Relaxation to let go of stress - when you're calm, you're baby's calm 😊

WHO CAN ATTEND:
Anyone who is a client of the Mother-Well Midwives & Practitioners

(facilitated by Deb Peters - Calmbirth Educator (& occasional MW Receptionist :-)

08/08/2025

08/08/2025

New study suggests that replenishing the brain’s natural stores of lithium might be able to protect against and even reverse Alzheimer’s disease! What an exciting finding!

Replenishing the brain’s natural stores of lithium can protect against and even reverse Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a paper published today in Nature.

If confirmed in clinical trials, the implications could be profound. Dementia affects more than 55 million people globally; most have Alzheimer’s disease.

NEWS
06 August 2025
New hope for Alzheimer’s: lithium supplement reverses memory loss in mice
Studies in rodents and humans suggest that low levels of the metal contribute to cognitive decline.
By Lynne Peeples
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Sliced sections from two brains - the left is a normal brain coloured in peach and orange, and on the right is a brain with Alzheimer's disease coloured in pink and green and is a lot smaller
A slice from a normal human brain (left, artificially coloured) contrasts with a slice from the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease.Credit: Jessica Wilson/Science Photo Library

Replenishing the brain’s natural stores of lithium can protect against and even reverse Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a paper published1 today in Nature.

The paper reports that analyses of human brain tissue and a series of mouse experiments point to a consistent pattern: when lithium concentrations in the brain decline, memory loss tends to develop, as do neurological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease called amyloid plaques and tau tangles. The study also found evidence in mice that a specific type of lithium supplement undoes these neurological changes and rolls back memory loss, restoring the brain to a younger, healthier state.

A man was destined for early Alzheimer’s — these genes might explain his escape

“This is groundbreaking,” says Ashley Bush, a neuroscientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, who was not involved in the study. “We only recently have the first disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. But they only target one thing: the amyloid plaques. This approach targets all the major pathologies of concern in the disease.”

If confirmed in clinical trials, the implications could be profound. Dementia affects more than 55 million people globally; most have Alzheimer’s disease. Anti-amyloid therapies on the market slow cognitive decline, but “they don’t stop it. They don’t restore function,” says co-author Bruce Yankner, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

“We don’t yet have the penicillin for Alzheimer’s,” he says.

Old tonic, new role
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, lithium was touted as a mood-altering health tonic, even appearing as an upper in an early recipe for 7-Up. It re-emerged in the 1970s as the gold-standard treatment for bipolar disorder. Scientists soon noticed that among people with bipolar disorder, brain ageing was slower in those taking lithium than in those who weren’t. Meanwhile, epidemiological studies revealed that regions in which water supplies contained trace amounts of lithium had relatively low dementia rates.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02471-4

28/07/2025

Specialized macrophages make up to 10% of the ovary’s volume!

They’re there to clean up debris from failed follicles, but over time, they may contribute to inflammation and ovarian aging.

This discovery could pave the way for future ovarian anti-aging treatments, such as:

⭕ Supporting immune resolution and the clearance of cellular debris.

⭕ Modulating macrophage activity and reprogramming them to a more anti-inflammatory state.

Link: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2025/07/21/new-molecular-mechanisms-of-ovarian-aging-discovered/

28/07/2025

This is a very important message that is rarely discussed and only comes to people's radar when it happens. When you are the caregiver to a small person and have injuries, it can be challenging.

At Mother-Well we have a great team that can help in a range of ways
- Pelvic Physio - Shivani Ahuja
- Oestopath - Kim Collard
- Arvigo and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy - Sheena Roberts. Sheena also helps with Birth trauma

“People care more about their children than they do themselves.”

28/07/2025

Wow! They body never ceases to amaze. There needs to be more research and resource put into such life saving treatments. It would be such a cost saving to our health care system.

"It was a desperate act."

Jane began a series of home-administered faecal microbiota transplants (FMT), or "poo transplants", with the hope it would "take the edge off" her mental illness.

Read the full story via link below 🔗

22/07/2025

After thyroid hormone replacement therapy, approximately 15% of patients remain symptomatic despite achieving normal serum TSH levels. The pathophysiology of persistent hypothyroid symptoms despite adequate hormone replacement therapy is not well understood. Ginger has long been used in traditional medicines as a hot remedy for the treatment of cold temperament symptoms and signs such as tiredness, constipation, obesity and menstrual irregularities. Since these are quite like hypothyroid symptoms, scientists in Iran aimed to evaluate the efficacy of ginger in relieving such persistent symptoms in treated hypothyroid patients.

In this randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 60 overt hypothyroid patients on hormone replacement therapy aged 20 to 60 years and with normal serum TSH concentrations were randomly allocated to ginger (500 mg twice a day of dried powder) or placebo for 30 days. Hypothyroid symptoms were evaluated as the primary outcome using the Thyroid Symptom Rating Questionnaire (ThySRQ) before and after the intervention. Anthropometric measures and laboratory indices including TSH, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TChol), and fasting blood sugar (FBS) were assessed as secondary outcomes.

A significant lower mean total ThySRQ score (8.63 ± 5.47 vs. 15.76 ± 6.09, P < 0.001) was observed in the ginger group compared to the control group. Ginger led to significant improvements in the mean scores of the weight gain, cold intolerance, constipation, dry skin, appetite, memory loss, concentration disturbance and feeling giddy or dizzy domains (P < 0.001). However, no significant improvements were observed for hair loss, nail fragility, hearing, hoarseness, speech, and depression or feeling down (P > 0.05).

Ginger also led to a significant decreases in body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, serum TSH, FBS, TG, and TChol levels compared to the placebo. Generally, these changes were of a magnitude that is clinically relevant. For example, TSH fell by an average of 0.89 in the ginger group versus an increase of 0.95 in the placebo group. Similarly, body weight fell by an average of 2.43 Kg for ginger versus an increase of 1.12 Kg for placebo.

For more information see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35096113/

15/07/2025

This is what most dentists miss:
Brushing and flossing are mechanical tools.
They can remove food debris and plaque.
But they can’t reverse the metabolic impact of a diet that feeds dysbiosis.
They can’t rebalance the ecosystem of your mouth.
They can’t change the architecture of a growing child’s face.

To do that, you need fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, K2) for remineralization.
You need fibrous, mineral-rich foods that stimulate saliva.
You need meals that stabilize blood sugar so your salivary glands stay active and your enamel stays bathed in magnesium, calcium and phosphate.

Your toothbrush can’t do any of that.

This doesn’t mean you should stop brushing. But if that’s all you’re doing, you’re playing defense with the wrong team.

When your diet is high in sugar or simple carbs (think goldfish crackers, juice, granola bars), it feeds acid-producing bacteria in your mouth. These bacteria don’t just erode enamel. They hijack your oral microbiome, crowd out protective species, and kick off chronic inflammation that travels through your body.

You might not feel it yet. But over time, this shows up as poor sleep, insulin resistance, even jaw growth issues in kids.

Want more advice like this from a dentist of 40+ years? 👉Comment NEWSLETTER and join a community of over 75,000 people getting Dr. B’s advice each week.

15/07/2025

WOW! This is incredible. It will be so interesting to see what other advances AI can bring to our health.

Researchers at ETH Zürich have developed MenstruAI, a first-of-its-kind device that detects disease biomarkers through menstrual blood. Built into a sanitary pad, the sensor changes color if certain markers are present, offering a non-invasive way to spot potential health issues early.

“To date, menstrual blood has been regarded as waste,” said Lucas Dosnon, the study’s lead author said. “We are showing that it is a valuable source of information.” This is a bold step toward a future where women’s health is prioritized and destigmatized.