​ Gallstones, cholicystitis and other gallbladder related issues seem to be prevalent.  There seems to be a fairly high incidence of gallbladder issues here in Ireland.
 
There are a number of reasons this may be happening:

• Too much cholesterol in your bile
• Too much bilirubin in your bile
• Gall bladder not emptying properly

 
Risk factors:

• Age – over 40
• Female
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Weight issues
• Pregnancy
• High fat diet
• Low fiber diet
• High cholesterol diet
• Family history of gallstones
• Rapid weight loss
• Diabetes
• Estrogen containing medication
• Liver disease

 
My way of helping my clients with Gallstones it with the use of Herbal Medicines, nutrition and lifestyle advice.  With some simple changes in diet you can help prevent further stones, herbal medicines can help with dissolving certain forms of gall stones and lifestyle changes can help with both.

Here are some of the remedies I use in clinic:

• Gravel root – more traditionally used with Kidney stones, but I like the results its yields

• Globe artichoke – this is a lovely all around liver herb
• Milk Thistle – another lovely Liver herb used for gallbladder issues
• Apple Cider vinegar – 1tsp – 1tbsp in hot water in the morning
• Psyllium husks – added to foods
• Castor oil packs – placed over the gallbladder and apply heat
• Dandelion – yes, that pest that you are always trying to get rid of
• Activated charcoal
• Lipase enzymes
• Juices – specific for gallstones

 
Other ways to help reduce the incidence of gallstones are:

• Weight management
• Avoid fad diets or rapid weight loss
• Get an anti inflammatory diet
• Become more active

 
Always consult your doctor first if you think you may have gallstones.
 If you are considering a gallstone flush get some expert help and supervision.  If the stones are too large you may cause more issues than you resolve. 
 
Always get professional advice from a Naturopath when dealing with health issues naturally for safe and relevant advice.  There is an abundance of information on the Internet, but you need to sieve through it to find what works and what is safe to follow.
 
 
 
 
 
To find out more, you can contact Carina at
T -(087) 0978880,
E -  info@itsanaturalchoice.com
W - www.itsanaturalchoice.com,
A - Lisnolan, Manulla, Castlebar, Co Mayo, F23 C922

​Are you bloated?  You’re not alone!  The majority of clients I see are dealing with some form of bloating and discomfort.
 
So many chronic issues stem from an underlying digestive issue, and so many of us have digestive issues.
 
This can be as a result of:

• Modern eating habits – fast foods, processed foods, eating on the run, skipping meals, microwave reheating, sugar intake and more
• Stress – stress has a huge impact on our digestion
• Medications – many medications can affect the digestive tract, this is why so many people are placed on antacids with their medications.
• Poor gut bacteria – this is why we are seeing an increase in mentions for probiotics.  As a Naturopath I would always choose a probiotic capsule over the drinks.
• Food intolerances – this often comes back to one of the above

 
So what can you do?
There is a lot of advice out there, some true, some false and some misleading.  It gets really confusing and each week there is a new health trend you can follow.    So here are some basic principles to follow (if you are on medication seek the professional advice of a Naturopath like myself to be safe):

• Take probiotics
• Digestive herbs can help – my favorites are slippery elm and marshmallow
• Check for food intolerances – I provide professional testing in clinic
• Clean your diet – half of your diet should come from vegetables
• Ditch the sugar – it feeds these issues
• Stress management – find what suits you – reflexology, reiki, meditation, yoga, nature walking, breathing techniques, time with friends, talk, journal.
• See a Naturopath - get to your root cause

 
When it comes to bloating, don’t ignore it, it can be the sign of an underlying issue that may be affecting your health and more often than not can be resolved simply.
 
 
To find out more, you can contact Carina at
T -(087) 0978880,
E -  info@itsanaturalchoice.com
W - www.itsanaturalchoice.com,
A - Lisnolan, Manulla, Castlebar, Co Mayo, F23 C922

I decided to become Vegan last October and my experience has not been what I expected.

From the beginning
It was 1990, I was 15 years old and was really struggling to eat my dinners without imagining what the animal was doing before it was on my plate.  

When I announced that I wanted to try vegetarianism there were mixed responses.  Mainly that it was a phase I was going through and I'd outgrow it, that I was just trying to be trendy, mainly I was dismissed as being silly.

The ironic thing was that at 15 years old I really didn't like vegetables (I never did take the easy options).  This lead me to become a very sick teen, pale, no energy, constantly getting sick.  Eventually I went to the Dr.  I thought at the time I was just hoping for some help, maybe to be referred to a nutritional therapist so I could get some guidance, even at that age I knew I couldn't survive on cheese sandwiches and feel good.

The Dr scoffed at me, told me I was being ridiculous eating a vegetarian diet and I would just have to eat meat again.

For anyone who knows me, knows that was like waving a red rag in front of a bull.  I decided, after calming down, to look into it myself.  I took control of my diet and started to feel better, as a vegetarian.

Why now?
I have been vegetarian for 28 years, so why did I choose 2018 to go vegan?  I have thought about following a vegan diet many times over the years, I was never comfortable with still eating dairy and eggs, but could never bring myself to make the leap.  Maybe part of it was remembering the reaction I got when I decided to be vegetarian.  Vegetarian in the early 1990's is similar to the reaction Vegan's get today.  The other reason was I just thought it would be a big step and difficult to keep on top of.  I mean it's bad enough trying to eat out as a vegetarian!

The reason I made the leap from vegetarian to vegan in 2018 was simply health.  I had been gradually getting more and more swollen, sluggish, cystic, toxic.  My health was being affected and the only food I could pinpoint (my diet was very healthy) was dairy, even though the majority of my dairy wasn't cow's.

I got to the point where my need was stronger than my fears.

Going full blown Vegan
Within days I could feel the swelling going down, my sleep improved, my skin improved, my energy improved, and it just kept getting better.

My first 21 days was amazing.  I was getting interested in new food and recipes (I love cooking).  Everyone kept telling me how well I was looking, they couldn't get over the difference in me.  I felt great!

Then I got lazy!  I started to rely more on bread, something I had really cut out of my diet for a long time, I was trying out the vegan products to share my thoughts with you guys and my clients.  I stopped following my own number one rule, Keep it natural and simple.  My energy started to drop, my skin got worse, I was tired again when I woke up, found it hard to get out of bed.


How to keep it healthy
I kicked my own butt and started to get back on track.

So what do I do?

• Use nutritional yeast in my cooking (boost B12)
• a minimum 1/2 of my diet is vegetables (fresh)
• Juice - I juice daily - my nutrient top up
• Eat brekkie
• Minimize products - I use very few products, but I'm no food Hitler
• Variety - keep trying new recipes
• Keep it natural and simple - I eat a whole food diet
• Keep the water intake up
• Listen to my body - if I'm not feeling right look at what I'm putting into it as fuel.

Advice tidbits
So if I could pass on any advice to any other newly Vegan friends, it would be this:
Just because it's Vegan doesn't mean it's good for you (look at the popularity of Vegan Junk food), I mean as far as I know, LEGO is vegan but I wouldn't eat it.  It's not all about what's not in your food, but more about what is in it.  Keep your diet healthy to keep yourself healthy
Listen to your body​
You can feel great on a Vegan Diet but you have to do it healthily. ​
Drop the shame - for yourself and others, just do your best and learn to be happy with that.  If you want others to respect your choices you really have to respect their right to choose too.

Sending this out with lots of love and hoping it might just help make this journey a little easier for some of you.

​

​The buzzword for 2018 was Self-Care, and it was about time.  I was so glad to see so many people starting to release the guilt for looking after themselves and starting to see the health benefits that came as a result.
 
If we respect ourselves, care for ourselves, love ourselves, we can make so many improvements in our lives, and therefore in the lives of the ones we love.  Everything starts from showing ourselves some love – health, success, abundance, love, happiness.
 
So what will be the buzzword this year?  Well I hope Self-Care will continue, but alongside that it would be nice to see clean eating as the word we focus on this year.  Realizing how much control we have over our own health and wellbeing, helping our bodies to heal.  Now this doesn’t mean stopping all other treatment but it does mean you can help your outcomes improve by giving the body the building blocks of health.
 
What is clean eating?

• Cooking from fresh
• Using produce over products
• Drinking clean/filtered water
• Buying organic where possible
• Using lots of vegetables
• Food that is in it’ s natural state

 
There is no one diet that fits all, but there is one rule that helps all – eat fresh produce and increase your vegetables – this change can have great impact and can be made part of whichever diet you are following.
 
If you need advice with a health issue or are simply looking to give your body a well deserved boost, contact Carina at the clinic for a professional, tailored plan.
 
To find out more, you can contact Carina at
T -(087) 0978880,
E -  info@itsanaturalchoice.com
W - www.itsanaturalchoice.com,
A - Lisnolan, Manulla, Castlebar, Co Mayo, F23 C922

​It’s that time of year when lots of us think about detoxes, but what is the best way to do a detox?
 
Well that depends on lots of factors:

• The time of year – warming in winter and cooling in summer
• Which organs you need to target for your needs – liver, kidneys or lymphatic system
• Your age
• Your health status
• Your diet

 
Signs you may need to detox your system:

• Unexplained fatigue
• Sluggish elimination
• Irritated skin
• Allergies
• Low-grade infection
• Puffy eyes or bags under the eyes
• Bloating
• Menstrual problems
• Mental confusion

 
There is a lot of conflicting information out there, one argument is we need to detox regularly whereas another argument is you don’t need to detox as your body has it’s own detoxifying processes.
 
Let me quickly explain my thoughts on this
 
Yes your body has systems in place for detoxification, but like so many other systems in our body’s, it’s under extreme pressure from modern life, diet and stress and cannot sufficiently deal with the level of toxicity thrown at it, much like we have a cardiovascular system but many people still have high blood pressure, we have a digestive system but many people still have IBS.  Our body sometimes needs a little help from us to function properly.
 
There is more than one way to detox:

• Clean diet – go vegan for a month
• Juice –fresh vegetable juice daily (add ginger in the winter)
• 7 day detox - more suitable for spring/summer
• 30 day detox
• Remove processed foods for 1 month
• Body brushing
• Epsom salt baths
• Sauna

 
So if you think you need a Detox program contact Carina to find out if one of her programs would suit you.
 
“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.”
– Arnold H. Glasgow
 
 
To find out more, you can contact Carina at
T -(087) 0978880,
E -  info@itsanaturalchoice.com
W - www.itsanaturalchoice.com,
A - Lisnolan, Manulla, Castlebar, Co Mayo, F23 C922

​2019 is here and it’s going to be the year for reaching your goals.  I’ve seen with so many clients, that 2017 and 2018 were years for learning from hard experiences, but 2019 is the year to move you forward to where you want to be.
 
So this year, get rid of the Resolutions, they only last a month, if we’re being honest with ourselves.  Get yourself some goals! 
 
Ask yourself:

• Where do I want to be in 3/6/9/12 months?
• If I had no obstacles what would I love to be doing?  The sky is the limit!
• Who/what do I want in my life?
• Who/what don’t I want in my life?

 
Once you have that part figured out then write down the steps you need to take to get there, simple small steps that will eventually help you reach your goal.

• What steps are involved in reaching your goal?
• Who’s help do you need to reach that goal?
• What are the obstacles that could hinder your progress, how do you remove them?

 
If your goals are health and wellbeing related, I will be running a number of programs this year that might help you with those goals:

• 3 month wellness program
• Vegan in a nutshell – healthy way to start or continue your vegan journey, great detox, learn some great vegan ideas if a family member has gone Vegan
• Fertility program
• Reiki courses – become a Reiki practitioner.

 
Whatever you do, do it with compassion for yourself and others, as the serenity prayer says:
 
Grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change; 
courage to change the things I can; 
and wisdom to know the difference
 
Wishing you all a truly magical 2019!!
 
 
To find out more, you can contact Carina at
T -(087) 0978880,
E -  info@itsanaturalchoice.com
W - www.itsanaturalchoice.com,
A - Lisnolan, Manulla, Castlebar, Co Mayo, F23 C922