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Mushroom Magic

Mushrooms have been used for thousands of years as a powerful medicinal ingredient, as well as for their delicious flavour and nutritional benefits in cooking. They are full of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fibre and have potent medicinal properties. Here are my favourite reasons to include mushrooms in my diet:

B vitamins

B vitamins are pivotal to maintain hundreds of bodily functions. The main B vitamins found in mushrooms are Vitamin B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12. They support the body’s energy production pathway, transport iron and are amazing for brain health. They also support the synthesis and regulation of neurotransmitters which may help improve mood.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is crucial for bone mineralisation which reduces the risk of osteoporosis. It also plays a key role in our immune system. Vitamin D is best absorbed from the sun on our skin, however mushrooms are the best plant-based source of vitamin D (D2). To improve the vitamin D levels in mushrooms, place them in direct sunlight before eating.

Beta-glucan

Beta-glucan is a polysaccharide known to have immune-modulating, anti-cancer properties. It is also a source of soluble fibre that remains undigested as it moves through your digestive tract which helps to stabilise blood sugar and support the excretion of cholesterol from your body. It plays an anti-inflammatory role in the body, with studies demonstrating mushroom extracts with beta-glucan having anti-cancer potential! This is an ever-growing space to watch.

Medicinal Mushrooms

Medicinal mushrooms are any mushroom that is safe to eat that has medicinal or health-enhancing properties (there are at least 650 species of mushrooms that fit into this category)! There are a number of them that are becoming more commonly found, such as Shiitake, Turkey Tail, Lions Mane, Reishi, Cordyceps, Maitake and Chaga. You may have already seen some of these in your local health food store!

In addition to beta-glucan, medicinal mushrooms contain triterpenes, metabolites and enzymes that all contribute to supporting the immune and nervous systems, help lower inflammation and assist with energy production to increase focus and vitality. They are adaptogenic, meaning that they increase the body’s ability to resist the damaging effects of stress, as well as work to restore normal physiological functioning. This basically means they go to work on where you need it most. Each medicinal mushroom contains their own active medicinal properties, for example, Chaga is known as the ‘king’ of medicinal mushrooms with anti-viral and anti-tumour properties. Lion’s Mane supports brain health and mental focus, Cordyceps is good for energy and stamina, and Reishi for anti-stress and longevity. A great book to read to understand just how powerful medicinal mushrooms are and how they can support your health and wellbeing is The Rebel’s Apothecary by Jenny Sansouci.

Medicinal mushrooms can be eaten in recipes, however, a common way to include these in your diet are through tinctures and powders. Tinctures are made using a double-extraction method (first by soaking them in alcohol to extract the fat-soluble triterpenes, and then by boiling to extract beta-glucans and enzymes). I have started playing around with making my own small-batch double-extractions of beautiful shiitake mushrooms from Touchwood Mushrooms in Denmark, WA so you can make them yourselves, but, if you decide to purchase a tincture (much easier!), please ensure they are double-extracted so you get the most benefit. My favourite company to purchase these tinctures from is Shroomunity, based in beautiful Byron Bay, NSW (I am not an affiliate, I just love all Shroomunity stand for and am a happy paying customer!) I especially love their Yoga blend.

Lion’s mane mushroom

I hope this post inspires you to try and include more mushrooms in your diet, especially the powerful medicinal kind. It is becoming common to find such tinctures and powders in health food stores now, however, please ensure you purchase from a trusted company that provides double-extracted compounds from organic and wild-harvested (where possible) mushrooms.

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So…what is Reiki?

I was recently honoured to be attuned as a level II Reiki practitioner.  When I talk to family and friends about Reiki (pronounced Ray-Key), I find that most people have heard of Reiki, but they don’t really know what it is.  The more I learn about Reiki, the more I am amazed at its healing power and thought it might be a great idea to provide a bit of an easy explanation!

Reiki, which means ‘universal energy’, is a technique of working with energy that allows your body to clear itself of stress and energetic blockages and promote healing.   It was rediscovered by Mikao Usui in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century.  It is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what provides life. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.

Reiki principles are, just for today:

  • do not anger
  • do not worry
  • be humble
  • be honest in your dealings
  • be compassionate towards all living things

Reiki is safe for everyone, including during pregnancy, newborns and children, animals and even plants!

In a Reiki session, the client lies on a massage table with clothes on.  A blanket is placed over the client and an eye mask over the eyes to ensure the client is able to relax.  Treatments are supported by the client setting an intent for the healing.  Intent is the very first thing that pops into mind (can be around healing, letting go of grief, being open to whatever healing they need) and sets a process in motion. 

The practitioner’s hands and either placed on or above the body (private areas of a client’s body are never touched).  Energy flows through the practitioner’s hands into the client’s body to support the client’s healing.  The practitioner’s hands are purely a vessel for the Reiki to flow through.  A complete Reiki session takes approximately 60 minutes.

Clients may feel coolness, heat, vibration, twitching or movement as the practitioner’s hands are on/over certain points.  This generally means that there is a clearing of energy in the body. 

Reiki treatment

Following a Reiki session, the feeling of absolute relaxation and calm is overwhelming.  Clients draw on the energy they need to clear energy blocks and balance all levels of the body (physical, mental and emotional).

The benefits of Reiki have been researched across many areas which include depression, stress reduction, management of pain, fatigue and pain in cancer patients, the list is continuing to grow. There is currently a clinical trial underway in the US to determine the benefits of Reiki in surgery, as large-scale case studies have shown that patients who have had Reiki before, during and after surgery tend to need less anesthetic and suffer less pain. Reiki is also commonly used in hospitals in the US, UK and Australia is starting to follow suit with five hospitals currently offering Reiki to patients. This is a really exciting time for Reiki practitioners and clients!

For more information about some scientific evidence for the effectiveness of Reiki please visit the Australian Reiki Connection website.

Finally, when considering Reiki as a healing modality, please ensure that the Reiki healer is registered with a professional association (such as Australian Reiki Connection).  This membership provides you with assurance that the healer has completed the appropriate training and attunement and that the lineage has been confirmed (lineage is a direct line back to Mikao Usui Sensei through teachers who taught teachers).  My lineage is below:

If you would like to book an appointment with me for a Reiki healing, please click here

Finally, if this blog post has raised more questions for you, please leave a comment and I would be happy to expand further 🙂

So, what is Reiki?

I was recently honoured to be attuned as a level II Reiki practitioner.  When I talk to family and friends about Reiki (pronounced Ray-Key), I find that most people have heard of Reiki, but they don’t really know what it is.  The more I learn about Reiki, the more I am amazed at its healing power and thought it might be a great idea to provide a bit of an easy explanation!

Reiki, which means ‘universal energy’, is a technique of working with energy that allows your body to clear itself of stress and energetic blockages and promote healing.   It was rediscovered by Mikao Usui in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century.  It is based on the idea that an unseen “life force energy” flows through us and is what provides life. If one’s “life force energy” is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy. There are similar belief systems around life force energy, such as Qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Prana in Ayurveda.

Reiki has a number of key principles:

  • Just for today, do not anger;
  • Just for today, do not worry;
  • Just for today, be humble;
  • Just for today, do your work honestly;
  • Just for today, be compassionate to all living things.

In a Reiki session, the client lies on a massage table with clothes on.  A blanket is placed over the client and an eye mask over the eyes to ensure the client is able to relax.  Treatments are supported by the client setting an intent for the healing.  Intent is the very first thing that pops into mind (can be around healing, letting go of grief, being open to whatever healing they need) and sets a process in motion. 

The practitioner’s hands and either placed on or above the body (private areas of a client’s body are never touched).  Energy flows through the practitioner’s hands into the client’s body to support the client’s healing.  The practitioner’s hands are purely a vessel for the Reiki to flow through.  A complete Reiki session takes approximately 60 minutes.

Reiki healing

Clients may feel coolness, heat, vibration, twitching or movement as the practitioner’s hands are on/over certain points.  This generally means that there is a clearing of energy in the body. 

Following a Reiki session, the feeling of absolute relaxation and calm is overwhelming.  Clients draw on the energy they need to clear energy blocks and balance all levels of the body (physical, mental and emotional). Reiki is safe to use on babies and children, in pregnancy, on animals and even on plants!

When considering Reiki as a healing modality, please ensure that the Reiki healer is registered with a professional association (such as Australian Reiki Connection).  This membership provides you with assurance that the healer has completed the appropriate training and attunement and that the lineage has been confirmed (lineage is a direct line back to Mikao Usui Sensei through teachers who taught teachers).  My lineage is below:

If you would like any more information about Reiki, please leave a comment below and I would be happy to provide more detail for you. Sometimes the more you learn, the more questions you have!

Should you like to make an appointment with me for Reiki, please click here and I would love to serve you.

A few good reasons why you might want to rethink Sunscreen

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a passionate advocate for melanoma research. I have spent countless hours researching sunscreen as I truly understand the need to prevent sunburn and skin cancer in general, however, many over-the-counter chemical sunscreens contain the most horrid toxins that I don’t fancy putting on my skin. We are encouraged by public health authorities to use sunscreen to prevent skin cancer, but how about all those cancer-causing chemicals we are lathering onto our skin!

Melanoma is deadly and the only way to avoid the horror that metastatic melanoma brings to the lives of patients and their families is to prevent it (and any skin cancer) in the first place. Some things I found while researching this topic that really got me fired up were:

  • High SPF sunscreens contain higher concentrations of toxins, therefore its better to use a lower SPF and apply more often.
  • Many toxic ingredients in chemical sunscreens are found in urine, breast milk and blood.
  • A common ingredient in chemical sunscreens is oxybenzone, a known endocrine disruptor (hello wacked-out hormones!!) and is harmful to marine life.
  • Other common ingredients in chemical sunscreen include petroleum-derived Homosalate, another endocrine disruptor and when spread on skin increases absorption of pesticides by over 30%. Octocrylene produces Reactive Oxygen Species (pro-oxidant) on exposure to sunlight! This special one is commonly used in baby sunscreen…WHAT THE!!!!
  • If you swim, sunscreen ends up in our oceans and waterways. Up to 6,000 tonnes of sunscreen wash into coral reefs each year!

Alternatives to chemical sunscreens are available. Mineral sunscreens use zinc or titanium oxide to scatter UV rays so they bounce off the skin. I personally love EcoTan Natural Sunscreen which is zinc-based, but there are so many good options these days. A great place to buy natural sunscreens is at Nourished Life, where all products are vetted for any nasties. I have tried quite a few natural sunscreens to find the one I like. It can take time and a bit of trial and error to find the right one for you.

And don’t forget, we need sunshine on our skin for up to 20 minutes a day in order for our body to make enough vitamin D to carry out hundreds of functions. A range of illnesses are caused by a deficiency in vitamin D, including depression, osteoporosis and some cancers. Keep it safe and aim for morning sun, exposing arms and legs to soak up some safe rays of sun.

Hello!

Thanks so much for joining me here. Here I will blog about a range of topics that I am interested in. I am a constant student and super-curious, so if you have a topic in the nutrition/health/reiki space please get in touch and I would be happy to do some research and blog about it!

The reason for making this blog public is that I have found that many of my family and friends ask me for information about health and reiki related topics. By posting the information here, I get to share information I uncover with everyone who might be interested and hopefully can help share useful information to help you live a healthier and happier life. It also helps me create a central place for my research!