organic food

Back to centre again

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Bear this in mind when you consider even the best-intentioned elimination diet. Cultivating joy is central to everything if we are to thrive in life at all…and its an insider job. Take away your entitlement to prepare, look forward to and then relish, without undue fear, some of the most natural and delicious, healthy, food sources that others take for granted and you are quickly placed on a road to isolation, disillusionment and dispair. You begin to wonder what you have done to deserve such a thing…and this is certainly no route to healing!

Oxalates, pain and autism

~ Helen White ~ 2 Comments

Don’t think this has anything to do with you? Oxalates can be related to a wide range of health issues, from inflammation to urinary frequency, interstitial cystitis, nonspecific joint pain, carpel tunnel, nerve pain, weak bones, vulvodynia, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, tissue destruction, autoimmune diseases, digestive problems, skin rashes, vision issues and just so many chronic pain issues, including fibromyalgia, plus very many more. There's also an intriguing link with autism and EDS...

Religious practice to get us through (no, NOT what you think)

~ Helen White ~ 3 Comments

Adopting healthy habits is the thing that will get us all through this challenging phase and so here's the point I'm making here: The religious practice I speak of here is nothing to do with attending "church" (we need to reclaim that association back, to re-empower ourselves), its to do with devotion…to one's self, one's life…and the conscientious, faithful practice of observances that affirm one's existence as spirit in human form (a long way around of saying “health”); and on this topic I have much to say.

Food as frequency

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Diving in on the assumption that my readers know I talk about the current era as one of evolutionary transition (see footnote below), I want to talk about how my relationship with food has evolved, and revealed itself more fully, over the course of a lifetime. We live in shape-shifting times and our relationship with … Continue reading Food as frequency

Who knows your pain

~ Helen White ~ 5 Comments

When we are in chronic pain, or even an episode of acute pain that seems to go on and on, who do we share that with, can we even expect to share and does it make it better or worse to convey to loved ones what we are going through? Yet, do we need that outlet of saying it like it is and not feeling so isolated in our experience and, if so, where do we get that from, without stirring up the pot to make ourselves feel all the more defeated from over-talking it. This conundrum is familiar territory to anyone who lives with pain, chronic illness, even the disillusionment of daily chronic fatigue. Sharing some home truths, perhaps some helpful perspectives, from my own experience of this highly emotive topic.

Help or hindrance: do IgG tests throw us off track?

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Are IgG tests really the be-all-and-end-all of intolerance testing or can they take us completely off our healing track. My own experiences suggested the latter so I began to formulate a theory why this had happened...and then I read the very same theory from someone whose opinions I respect mightily - Anthony William, the Medical Medium. Here's the conclusion I've reached about the pitfalls of IgG and how, or whether, we should use (or even avoid) them.

The point of a holiday – and the hotel that reminded me

~ Helen White ~ 1 Comment

How do you reconcile a desire to "tread softly on the earth" and all your particular health requirements and preferences with the unpredictability and other variables of travel when you go on holiday? And what is a holiday or vacation meant to do for you? La Vimea is a unique "biotique" hotel in the South Tyrol that helped me to find out what was possible to achieve now and (hopefully) even more easily in the future...

Super-sensitive abroad

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Travelling away from home can be an extra-challenge for those of us with health challenges and sensitivities of any kind because it takes us out of our routine. It's not so much the distance but the upheaval that can be difficult to cope with (on top of the extra tiredness that comes with travel) when you probably have well-established survival tactics in place at home that enable you to cope pretty well with your health most of the time. Booking a holiday can feel a bit like planning to blow all that carefully created homeostasis to pieces in the name of having fun and there have been times when I wonder why I do it; is it even worth it (the answer, by the way, is yes). Changes in sleep arrangements and diet can throw health into disarray when maintaining that balance has become a finely tuned thing.

Is “gluten free”a distraction from health?

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

Is "gluten free" a distraction from health as suggested by this article? I think so; not that its a bad idea but its the way we go about it, focussing on the avoidance and not on what is actively most healthy for us to eat. There's such a core life lesson in this....a reminder to focus on what we DO want, to embrace what is POSITIVE for us, rather than being in resistance mode, avoiding what doesn't work.

Itchy skin – putting out that fire

~ Helen White ~ Leave a comment

An article I chanced upon suggested olive oil for menopausal itch because of the oleuropein that olive oil contains (I take a daily capsule of olive leaf for that very reason as its an excellent antioxidant). Stood in my bathroom this morning, my eye falling on that unused bottle of argan oil, an instinct suddenly told me (as I recalled that olive-like smell..) that argan oil may also contain oleuropein if that's the thing that smells like rancid olives...so I slapped some all over my calves, my hips and especially my chest, which has been feeling like I have a third-degree sunburn for three days now. Voila - pain gone!