“You know everything about keeping myself healthy – the doctor won’t be able to tell me how to do that!”

I felt highly complimented during a telephone consultation with a client earlier this week, when they made the above comment to me.  I was also delighted to acknowledge the willingness to take self-responsibility for one’s own health that it displayed.  This lovely lady first came to see me about 10 years ago and using both Nutrition and Naturopathy was able to improve the health issues she was suffering, not discussed here for confidentiality purposes, obviously. My client has given full permission for this post.

Fresh Nutrition is a brightly coloured, alkalising and delicious way to help us keep our energy and our immune system at a consistently high level.  Naturopathy as a range of techniques is a tool kit that helps us to detoxify the body of the acidity that has created unmanageable symptoms of illness.  This lady returned to me for a refresher session to remind her to find some time to get back on track with the Naturopathy as a support, as her diet was already ‘clean’ but stressful circumstances had contributed to growing acidity which was causing uncomfortable symptoms and a visit to the GP in December had not proved productive.

It is so important too, to look at the mental/emotional balance and whilst recognising that time was needed for Naturopathy, this lady also admitted that time was needed for inner reflection, acknowledging her feelings and also for Creativity.  There are many ways available to us now to honour this aspect of our being and establish how our emotional life may be draining our physical body.  Certainly, in all the cases I have taken over the years, it seems clear that there is nothing more acidifying to the body than stressful events and circumstances resulting in negative thought patterns, which prevent us from living with joy and health in the now.

The second part of the statement though is a sad one; that doctors are not associated in the truest sense of the meaning in helping us keep ourselves healthy.  They have an arsenal of drugs now - which can suppress a multitude of symptoms that have arisen once we are unhealthy, or remove organs which seem past redemption, but there is very little in these approaches which will help us return to a full picture of vibrant health, or help us take responsibility for doing so ourselves.

It takes both time and commitment to ‘Look After You’ but long term the benefits of doing so as we get older are enormous!  My father was 80 years old in December and he is still working part time as a self-employed accountant.  He is healthy and mentally well and alert and has no chronic health problems – therefore, he does not take any drugs and has not had any surgery.  I believe he has achieved that state of health at that age, mainly through a freshly prepared diet which is largely vegetarian and high in fruit and vegetables, along with a range of supplements and the moderate exercise he takes each day with his beloved dog.  Many people were surprised that he was that age when his birthday was mentioned last year, he certainly does not look it and he moves with ease, though perhaps a tiny bit less speed these days!

My mother is in her early 70's and equally healthy and as vital and lively as many people 50 years younger, the hours she spends gardening would outpace most people, and the approach she took to supporting well-being by always researching alternative remedies rather than seeking medical suppression was a useful example that has been of great benefit to me and my family.

It is my parents’ early role modelling which has motivated me over the years to maintain health through what I eat and how I seek to support it and I am grateful for that inspiration – my only wish is to help and encourage others to do the same if they seek out my services and to endeavour to share everything I know about how to keep healthy!

Look After You run small retreats only - so that each individual has plenty of TLC and physical space to relax in.  Ty Sidonie is a newly renovated house in the small village of Gare De Motreff in Central Brittany.  The venue is accessible from local airports Dinard and Brest and the seaport Roscoff.  Our press release has photos of the house and garden.  What about some Look After You time?

The Detox Retreat menu is prepared for you and relevant supplementation will be provided.  Each Retreat participant will receive a complimentary Reflexology session. The house is opposite an old railway track which is now a walking and biking track, providing access to the Montagnes Noires (The Black Mountains).  The patio and garden are pleasant places to relax, and a small river runs past the bottom of the garden where dragonflies gather in abundance.

The Retreat is booked from 6^th to 9^th July, 2010 and costs £300.  Full nutritional and naturopathic guidance will be given during your stay and pre retreat guidance will be given on how to make dietary changes so that you gain full benefit from your juice detox.  Please contact Suzy on 01977 612008 or email to suzy@look-after-you.co.uk if you are interested and would like a full itinerary.

The 'Swine 'Flu' Vaccine

Influenza is an acute illness, one that is usually relatively short lived; as opposed to a chronic illness like arthritis which implies longer term symptoms. I feel unsure why there is such great fear of acute illness, apart from the way it is promoted in the media and by the medical profession and drug companies!

Naturopathically speaking, acutes are viewed as necessary, positive events as they allow the body to clear waste; for example, through the skin in the case of fever in the form of sweat or as mucous from nose, lungs etc. After an acute - and that includes the childhood illnesses - we can proceed from a healthier stance, having lightened the body's 'toxic load'. There is a lot of attention in the media at the moment about the 'swine 'flu'.

Recent news is also reporting the imminent arrival of a 'swine flu' vaccine. It is doubtful that vaccine programmes have ever contributed to lowering the incidence of any acute illness. Just to cite measles as a case in point the rate of illness incidence had dropped by 95% by the time the vaccine program of MMR began. There are several disturbing things about the 'swine flu' vaccine.

• Firstly, WHO (World Health Organisation) have declared a global pandemic emergency at level six the highest level which invokes global martial law allowing the enforcement of the 'swine flu' vaccine.
• All 194 member countries have signed up to this and the UK government has allowed it to be agreed by Health Ministers rather than taking it as a motion to be decided by the House of Commons.
• Mysteriously, the Health and Protection Agency are now referring to this 'flu on their website as "pandemic influenza"!
• The information that 800 people have died of the 'swine 'flu' worldwide so far contrasts with the statistics of lower respiratory tract infections including 'flu claiming the lives of 4,170,000 people worldwide in 2004. We seem a long way off those levels at which a pandemic was not declared.
• The last bout of 'swine 'flu' in the 1970's saw the introduction of a vaccine. More people died of the vaccine than of the 'flu. Additionally more than 500 people were left with Guillaine Barre syndrome, the symptoms of which include paralysis.

From a nutrition perspective, if we eat an optimal diet, high in fruit and vegetables laden in anti-oxidants, with adequate amounts of clean protein and some wholegrain carbohydrate we offer our immune system the best chance of negating the need to have a 'flu or cold or some other acute. Add to that, the avoidance of anti nutrients such as alcohol, caffeinated beverages, cigarettes, sugar and salt and our body has an even better chance of maintaining good health, even without the need of an acute.

The earth was generous

"Mr. J.L. B. Maketoni walked across the field, the dust on his shoes, the dried mealie stalks cracking under his feet. The earth was generous he thought: sand and soil could be persuaded, with a little water, to yield such life, and to make such good things for the table. Everything depended on that simple generosity: trees, cattle, pumpkin vines, people – everything. And this soil, the soil on which he walked, was special soil. It was Botswana. It was his soil. It had made the very bodies of his people; of his father, Mr P.Z. Matekoni, and his grandfather, Mr. T. Matekoni before him. All of them, down the generations, were linked by this bond with this particular part of Africa, which they loved, and cherished, and which gave them so much in return."

From: The Kalahari Typing School for Men. (Ladies Detective Series) By: Alexander McCall Smith

I thought the above quote would make a fantastic post for my blog - it really feels as though it is what I am about. I read a few of the books from the First Ladies Detective Series recently, but the paragraph I have quoted above resonated deeply with me and how I feel about what the Earth provides for us, particularly in terms of Nutrition.

If we eat the produce the Earth generously bestows on us - without adulterating or messing about with it it does indeed make the very bodies of our people and makes them strong and healthy.