According to a recent review of 95 previous studies regarding the relationship between nutrition and health, it was found that five portions of fruit and vegetables a day might not be enough to stay clear of serious illness.

“Five a day is good, but more is even better,” said Dagfinn Aune, one of the researchers from the Imperial College London.

It’s a well-known fact that we are supposed to eat a good amount of fruits and veggies to stay healthy and live longer, yet the advice regarding the portion size varies across countries. In the UK, for instance, it’s recommended to consume five portions of those natural goods a day, while in the US they recommend seven to ten. In Australia, the general advice stands at two serves of fruit and five of vegetables per day.

In the latest review, which included studies that followed individuals for between three to thirty years, it was found that people who consumed ten portions of fruit and veg a day had approximately a third lower risk of death from heart disease and cancer (the two most prominent killers in the western world), compared to those who ate none.

It’s not surprising, really. If your diet consists of chips and coke for dinner, and a cigarette for breakfast, the results are quite obvious. It’s simple maths.

The study also found that those who consumed larger amounts of cruciferous veggies, such as broccoli and kale, were much less likely to develop cancer in their later years.

However, the studies reviewed were purely based on observation, meaning that they weren’t controlled and therefore not the most accurate kind of medical evidence. They just observed people’s eating habits and the rate at which they died. This means that there are a number of factors that could have interfered with the results, the most significant one being financial status.

Wealthier people tend to eat have a healthier diet, smoke and drink less, and get better medical care.

But although the chances that the studies were biased are noticeable, they shouldn’t be discouraging. Whether you eat 5 or 10 portions of fruits and veg a day it doesn’t really matter, as long as you do it. Include more of the good ol’ kale and some broccoli here and there, and you’ll be just fine.

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If there’s something teenagers and pre-menopausal women have in common, it’s acne — the bane of their existence. In Western countries, it affects approximately 90% of the adolescent population and 50% of adults, causing mostly insecurities and endless trips to the dermatologist.

Acne is no fun.

And just like someone who’s been lucky enough to have never dealt with it (knocking on wood right now), there are a few populations around the world that are unfamiliar with all the emotional and physical hassle that surrounds this major skin problem.

One such population is the one living in the tiny island of Kitava, located in the eastern coast of Papua New Guinea.

In a study of 1,200 subjects, conducted by a team lead by medical doctor and professor Steffan Lindberg for over 800 days, no signs of acne were ever observed in the entire sample of Kitavans.

Considering that included 300 adolescents, the results were rather surprising.

The study found that their genetics played barely any role in the results, and that they were mostly due to their dietary habits. The average Kitavian diet, in fact, resembles a lot that of cavemen from the pre-historic era that ended with the development of agriculture. It’s rich in fresh, natural foods that include mostly tubers, fruit, coconut and fish, with little to none of processed foods that we are so used to consuming on a daily basis. Coffee, tea, alcohol and dairy products are basically non-existent in their diet. Instead, they opt for foods with low Glycemic Index (GI) and rich in omega-3 fats, as that’s what their picturesque and unspoilt habitat provides them with.

As a result, the locals are also unfamiliar with Western chronic ailments, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and dementia.

These findings are even more shocking when considering the fact that Kitavians don’t even exercise much!

I don’t know about you, but I think I could fit right in with the population of Kitava Island.

So now you know: eat more greens, drink more coconut water, enjoy more fish, and throw those chips in the garbage. They’re not worth it — words your skin and your waistline would say.

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2017 is still young and it is not too late to begin your new years resolution to get fit and motivated. There are lots of things you can do to get into shape, like redeeming that good ol’ gym membership, or going for walks in the sun, and of course, the big one, watching what you eat.

The latter is an obvious one, but is the knowledge of food portions as obvious? I don’t think they are. It’s the fresh produce; the fruits and vegetables that don’t come with labels that give you portion information. So where do you find out? A lot of people don’t know what the basic vegetable intake is for a meal.

A good source for all your health and nutrition enquiries is the Australian Dietary Guidelines, Eat For Health, which has all the serving size information.

As stated by the Australian Government Department of Health, a serving size of cooked vegetables is half a cup, salad vegetables, one cup, dried peas, beans or lentils, half a cup and one medium potato.

According to the Australian Dietary Guidelines, if you are trying to lose weight, you should half the meal you have, and serve it with vegetables or salad as a side dish even when eating meals like pasta, lasagne or risotto. ‘By eating more vegetables in your meals, serves of other foods will be smaller and the overall meal will have fewer kilojoules’.

When it comes to eating out, portion control can be hard to maintain. So here are some tips to stick to your portion recommendations:

1 – You can take half your meal home with you, or even ask if half your meal can be doggie bagged before it is even served.
2 – Share your meal with another person or just get an appetizer as your main meal.

The post What’s a Portion Size and How Do I Find It? appeared first on CrowdInk.

There is nothing fun about feeling bloated and puffy for no apparent reason. A pair of normal fitting jeans can turn into your worst enemy when you’re feeling bloated. With this is in mind, we spoke with health experts to find out their tips for fixing bloating- fast.

Note that bloating can be a sign of something more serious, so if you’re worried its best to get checked out by a doctor.

Stay away from salt

“Salt can cause the body to retain water, resulting in temporary fluid weight gain. To avoid excessive sodium consumption, opt for foods that are closest to their natural state (such as fresh fruits, vegetables and grains)”- Jessica Matthews, ACE personal trainer, health coach and yoga instructor.

Take a probiotic

Probiotics help to restore the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gut according to gastroenterologist Sita Chokhavatia. She recommends a two week course to see if there are any improvements.

Slow down your eating

“When you take big bites of food and don’t chew properly, so you end up swallowing a tremendous amount of air” says Jeannie Gazzaniga-Moloo from the American Dietetic Association. Her advice is to take 15 to 20 minutes to eat each meal to stop air trapping in your system.

Detox with herbal tea

Nutritionist and Author Lola Berry recommends slippery elm powder or drinking chamomile tea. “[They both] work a treat for bloating and helping to calm the lower tummy,” She says.

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“If you’ve been diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), like me, you probably feel like you’ve reached a dead end, alone and an outcast from ‘real life’.   But please know, you’re not on your own” – Melissa Madgwick

If you’ve been diagnosed PCOS, like me, you probably feel like you’ve reached a dead end.

At least 1 in 10 women are diagnosed with PCOS during their lives and 10% of women between 12 and 45 are told EVERYDAY ‘You have PCOS’. There is hope. You can get your life back as millions of women have and I have too. In this article I’ll share a few of my experiences, failures, learning and successes on how to heal from PCOS. I’d like to open your eyes to the diversity of polycystic ovarian syndrome as well as natural interventions for overcoming it.

Firstly, you can speak to your health professional about your ideas and craft a plan together as you move forward. Your health professional knows you and your personal medical history. I have not attended medical school nor been licensed by any committee or board or government to give any health advice. I am simply a normal person like you: but I have found the road to recovery.

I have read hundreds of blogs and poured many hours of research into the journey of healing myself. Because this information has made such a difference in my own life, I’ve made it my mission to pass it forward forever and help as many women as possible live the same vibrant healthy life that I now enjoy—that vibrant life that I once feared I had lost.

My PCOS Story

Hi I’m Melissa Madgwick. A real 29 year old woman who is on the other side of healing from polycystic ovarian syndrome – naturally.

I was a professional dancer in ballet, tap and jazz for 15 years. I have a university degree and am a passionate entrepreneur.
I was someone who had it all— active, sociable, loved life, and was healthy as you though you could get—however I started seeing awful PCOS symptoms back in September 2013. It felt as though my life was going down the tube in front of my eyes. I actually hid in my house for 2-3 months because I was so tired, my face and body broke out in severe acne and I gained 8 kilos. I had no clue what was happening.

Although I was eating a healthy diet and taking supplements every day, I did not feel healthy. In fact, I was depressed. For eight long years my ‘normal life’ consisted of terrible acne breakouts lasting three months at a time, terrible menstrual pains and heavy bleeding. My weight was always fluctuating, I had zero sex drive and I was horribly moody. On top of all this, I have an underactive thyroid (only half of the gland is present in my body)!

I became so lethargic I did not want to get out of bed. Although my eating patterns did not change, I started gaining weight. Massive, painful pimples appeared all over my chin and jawline, then spread all over my face, chest and back. They were big painful cysts under the skin, not your average pimples.

Thinking it was caused by a hormone deficiency, I went back on the birth control pill. But the acne persisted fiercely. I visited my local doctor and arranged for blood tests on all my hormones. The results came back and I was shocked. My estrogen, progesterone and estradiol levels – all the vital female hormones – were so low they were actually non-existent! The birth control pill was doing nothing.

What was going on? I asked. My doctor had no idea. All she could give me was a suggestion to take oral antibiotics, and to see a dermatologist for my skin issues and go on Roaccutane ®.

The antibiotics didn’t work. I decided to see an endocrinologist – a doctor who specialises in women’s hormones. After only one consultation, the endocrinologist said my symptoms were screaming out PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome). I had heard about PCOS previously. My cousin Leanne from Perth, Australia was diagnosed years ago with this. I remember distinctly she was told she was unable to have a second child. I felt sick.

As soon as I arrived home, I tackled every resource I could find. I read about women who had overcome the symptoms naturally, including facial acne. I learned how to create a regime of eating healthy, low-GI foods, avoiding toxic foods, taking pharmaceutical-grade supplements and doing the right physical exercises. After only one month, my periods started to regulate for the first time since I was 16. I was getting the nutrients my body needed, and I started to feel better.

My endocrinologist arranged a myriad of blood tests. She wanted to know the levels of every single hormone, and thought we should check if I was coeliac or resistant to insulin. She also arranged scans on my ovaries and thyroid gland. In short, she wanted to know if I was suffering from what she thought.

On the day I came in to see my test results, she told me I had a small clump of small cysts in my right ovary. My hormone levels were all out of whack, and my thyroid levels were extremely low. It turned out she was right. She diagnosed me with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) and insulin resistance. She proceeded to write a prescription drug to regulate my insulin levels and then sent me away.

I waited four weeks to see her. All I got was a fifteen-minute debriefing. She did not take time to discuss how I was going to cope with all my symptoms. Was there a way to heal? Was there a support group? I needed comfort and support and all she gave me was a prescription that was going to act as a Band-Aid.

The drug was called Metformin, and it was supposed to regulate blood sugar levels. Some women take it and they are fine, but after only two days I became terribly sick and lethargic. I craved sugar and was reaching for anything sweet in sight. This wasn’t like me. One afternoon at the local shopping centre, my blood sugar levels were so low I felt as if I was going to pass out in the food court. I bought a salmon wrap and threw it back up within the hour. I discovered Metformin does not agree with sugar or high-carb meals.

After continuing for another two days with horrible side effects, I rang the endocrinologist and decided to ditch Metformin and manage my insulin resistance without drugs.

I have discovered that the right food and nutrition, a good mindset, a supportive environment, and most of all knowledge are the most powerful tools to heal yourself with PCOS. I’m feeling more alive and I know you will too.

6 Steps to Healing PCOS

What do you need to overcome PCOS, like I did? Knowledge is power, so put that first.

Knowledge of who you are, what type of PCOS you have and what your body needs to combat the root cause, is essential to becoming free from hormone imbalances, with the myriad of symptoms that follow.

1. Know your type.

Firstly, start with knowing what type of PCOS you have. In my Book ‘Heal My PCOS’ I discuss the 4 main types of PCOS – what they are and how to manage each. Once the insulin resistance and auto-immune issues were addressed in my case, my PCOS symptoms faded.

2. I made myself number one.

I found it takes focus and dedication to heal yourself. I would always put everyone ahead of me and hence the reason why I became sick. You cannot rebalance your hormones if your career is Number One, your spouse or boyfriend is Number One, your education is Number One, your friends are Number One, or your kids are Number One. If you care for other people more than you do for yourself, chances are you will not have the energy to heal yourself. Making yourself Number One is the only way to ensure long term success in your relationships and career. You cannot be much help to your kids, spouse, employer, clients, friends or community if you are not looking after yourself first.

3. Take charge of your own healing.

Forget about relying on someone else – your doctor, a friend, a spouse, or a pill – to do it for you. They do not have any power to heal you. The power lies within you. We are taught to believe there is a magic solution for every medical problem, and the pharmaceutical industry likes to perpetuate this myth. It takes the power out of your hands and prompts you to reach for your wallet. It trains you to see the symptoms and ignore the causes, and this in turn tends to perpetuate the disease itself. This benefits big pharmaceutical companies, not you. 

4. Positive mindset and lower your stress.

A positive mindset is so important! When you understand yourself and your body, you’ll be able to view everything about yourself in a very different way. You are in control of your body – and stress is a major cause of hormonal imbalances.

My tip is to lower your stress levels is to start meditating for 10 minutes per day whilst doing deep diaphragm breathing. Do not be overwhelmed! Take baby steps until it becomes a habit.

5. Nutrition and supplements.

Your body doesn’t need just any food and nutrition; it needs the right food and nutrition. Cut out the empty calories and instead nourish your body with foods that build you up, give you energy and help eliminate toxins. Read about my Low GI PCOS eating plan in my eBook ‘Heal My PCOS’, then take the time you need to shop for, prepare, and enjoy eating real food. You’ll be surprised how different you feel.

6. Nourish yourself.

Once you have appointed yourself captain of your healing, the primary way to turn your life around is to nourish your body with real food. Although there can be secondary causes of hormonal imbalance, garbage food is the main culprit. And while there are several other factors that will help you heal, real food is your most powerful medicine. Eat real food. Your body loves real food. When you digest natural nutrients that your body can actually use, you feel satisfied, comfortable and energised. Real foods contain digestive enzymes that help you digest the food itself. The more organic or raw, the more digestive enzymes they contain.

Processed foods contain virtually no digestive enzymes. If you eat a tomato, you are giving yourself maximum goodness. When you eat tomato sauce cooked on top of pizza or spaghetti, you are not getting much tomato goodness.

Your Road to Recovery

You might ask, can simple tools such as new knowledge, a positive mindset, a supportive community and the right nutrition – really improve your life? IT CAN. I am living proof.

Every woman is different. PCOS reflect symptoms that SOMETHING is out of balance in your body – largely due to what you are eating, thinking and/or how you treat yourself. I’m excited to share new tips in my new edition and to help you on your road to recovery.

Where I am Today

It’s now 2015 and its a few years since my life fell apart when diagnosed with PCOS. I’m more than happy and feel peace with myself for the first time in my life.

I’ve moved interstate from Sydney to Perth (where I’ve always wanted to live), fell in love, I readily focus on my health (as a beautiful gift that I give back to myself), I run a successful branding and digital design business, I am writing more books on various health topics and building a health community on healing people of PCOS, acne and other health related issues I’ve suffered naturally.

Now it’s up to you

If you can take away at least three things from this chapter and put my advice into practice, you will eventually heal yourself from polycystic ovarian syndrome and improve your health. I know I did after three months!

You can rebalance your hormones, get back your menstrual cycle, feel sexy again and bear children. When you know where your most pressing health issues are, you can take the steps laid out in my chapter and my book to overcome these issues through simple lifestyle changes.

I hope my words give you the strength and knowledge you need to act as your own advocate, and the power to create change in your life… starting today. Many women have healed themselves from PCOS naturally, like me, and you can too.

The tools that helped me heal are in my eBook ‘Heal My PCOS’ which can be found via: www.healmypcos.com. Stay strong and learn to love the beautiful person you are!
P.S Do you want extra support on your PCOS journey?. I have put together a video course which explains the best PCOS diet, the supplements you need to be taking, the perfect exercises to do, downloadable shopping lists you can take to the shops & more!! Hundreds of women have taken up this offer and I’d love for you to kick PCOS for good too.

I’m offering a special discount only for the first 10 LADIES to join me to BEAT PCOS for good!

Click here, to grab this limited offer now: http://bit.ly/1hrGeKk
I wish you all the best & look forward to hearing from you!

With love,

Melissa Madgwick

The post Overcoming Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) – A Real Life Story appeared first on CrowdInk.

An airport in Germany has taken a strong stance against fidget spinners by stopping 35 metric tons of the toys from entering the country in May.

Now the Frankfurt Airport Customs team have decided to destroy the seized toys, after deeming them unsafe.

The customs officials said they all contained LED lights which could easily be detached and swallowed by small children.

Over the past few months, there have been multiple cases of children worldwide swallowing parts of fidget spinners and requiring surgery. It poses a major health risk as it gets stuck in their oesophagus and can constrict their airways.

LED spinners are said to be the most dangerous, “with internal button batteries which are a choking hazard and designs with star or blade like spinners that pose laceration and puncture risks,” said a NSW FairTrade spokesman.

According to employees of the Central Customs Office on Friday, the CE mark, required for the protection of consumers, was also missing from the shipments.

The hand-held spinning devices had flown over on several flights from China and were set to be sold to shops.

What do you think? Is it fair to destroy the fidget spinners?

The post German Customs are Going to Destroy 35 Tonnes of This Item. appeared first on CrowdInk.

We’ve all been through the feeling. You skip lunch and find yourself snapping at everyone around you.

The internet coined that feeling as being ‘hangry’, which combines the words hungry and angry. And now finally science has caught up with what we already know. That hangry is a real phenomenon.

Thanks to a report by New Scientist, we not only know that a lack of food can change your mood, but we also have an explanation for it.

Turns out that there is a link between your blood sugar levels and the hormones that trigger aggression and anger. So when your blood sugar’s low, it can be difficult to concentrate, resulting in anger.

As scientist and columnist Simon Oxenham discovered, low levels of blood sugar prompt the body to release cortisol and adrenaline, two chemicals associated with heightened stress.

There is also an increase in the neuropeptide Y levels, which is the hormone connected to aggression.

But don’t worry we’ve got a cure: Pack lots of snacks.

The post Science Has Confirmed What we Already Know: Being ‘Hangry’ is Real appeared first on CrowdInk.

A recent study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and Imperial College London has concluded that the general consumption of coffee is associated with reduced risk of various causes. With news like this hitting an increasingly health conscious and coffee crazed Melbourne, I expect to see people doing backflips in the streets with a coffee cup in one hand and hot coffee all over them.

This fantastic news doesn’t mean that people should go overboard with their coffee consumption, though. I for one am prone to over doing it and getting caffeine jitters or coffee-induced headaches.

What it does mean is that you can hit your local café and enjoy a delicious latte with a clean conscience. Although if you’re getting your coffee takeaway consider bringing a reusable cup, we don’t want to push our 50,000 takeaway cups per half hour rate any higher.

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A new Australian study has found that being deficient in vitamin B3 (niacin) when pregnant not only greatly increases the risk of miscarrying, but also renders the baby susceptible to developing birth defects.

The research team at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, state that most birth defects arise out of low levels of the nico­tinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) enzyme, which helps assist the development of organs in the womb.

They conducted an investigation on the effects of niacin on developing rodent embryos and found that before the vitamin was introduced into the mothers’ diets, the embryos were either miscarried or the babies were born with defects. However, when niacin was introduced, these problems were ultimately prevented.

Another study found that women who take vitamin supplements when pregnant still have insufficient levels of vitamin B3, suggesting that relying on vitamins supplements alone has very little health benefits.

Luckily, increasing your vitamin B3 levels is really easy. In fact, if you’re Australian, chances are you won’t have to worry too much about being deficient, as our famous Vegemite spread, fiercely loved and present in almost every Aussie household, contains an extremely high niacin content.

However, if you absolutely cannot stomach Vegemite, fear not. Other foods high in niacin include breakfast cereals (most are fortified with the vitamin), beverage powders like Milo and Ovaltine, chicken breast and peanuts. Most foods high in protein, like meats and nut butters, tend to be naturally high in niacin as well

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Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have triumphed with their recent development of self-propelling medicines used to treat bacterial infections in the stomach. The nifty little healers are called micromotors and, true to their name, they’re just half a hairs width in size. Micromotors rely on a magnesium core that reacts with gastric acid, creating hydrogen bubbles that propel it around the stomach. Once the bubbles have brought the stomach’s acidity down to the appropriate pH level, the micromotor releases the antibiotics.

The new tech was tested on rats with stomach ulcers and found to be more effective than the regular alternative. This is because protein-based pharmaceuticals and anti-biotics are particularly sensitive to gastric acid, often dissipating before they can take effect. The micromotors cut out the need for taking separate medication to reduce gastric acid and any long-term detrimental side effects that they may cause.

The team has taken the success in their stride and is already researching new potential gastrointestinal applications for their micromotors.

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It is easy to get lost in the gigantic sea of diet fads and lifestyle tips thrown at you from dietitians and doctors. 

Pete Evans, a celebrity chef and proud Paleo advocate, recently claimed the “whole notion of eating three meals a day” is not as healthy as we’ve been told to believe.

Some health experts have hit back at him, claiming this is all a load of BS, but the truth is, skipping breakfast and fasting is becoming increasingly utilised in the world of fitness and nutrition.

Contradictory to what you’ve been taught your whole life about breakfast being the most important meal of the day, people in the fitness field are now praising an intermittent fasting (16 hours of fasting per day) and high fat diet, where you get all your nutrition and calories from one or two meals late in the day.

Breakfast is claimed to be very beneficial for kids as they are growing and need the nutrition, but research also shows that skipping breakfast and fasting is very effective for adults wanting to lose weight.

The idea is not to starve yourself, but to rather incorporate enough healthy fats into your diet, so you don’t feel the need to eat every 4 hours, as though you were on a carbohydrate diet.

Evans is on the extreme side of this case, claiming this diet can cure diabetes. It’s crucial to remember that no one diet fits all — we are all different, meaning our bodies react to nutritional choices in different ways. You might have been lied to your whole life, but if it teaches us one thing, it’s to take nutritional advice with a grain of salt (no pun intended).

The post Have You Been Lied To Your Whole Life? appeared first on CrowdInk.

Deep down we all know that if our gut is telling us we’re spending way too much money on something, than we most likely are, even if that one article on Google tells us otherwise! If, like me, you feel like you’re spending too much money on succulents in cute, yet overpriced ceramic pots, you no longer need to feel bad about this anymore!

 A study published last year by Harvard University shows that living amongst plants and greenery improves stress levels, mental health and can actually decrease mortality rates.

The 8-year study of 108,630 women in the United States found that the mortality rate of those living in the greenest surroundings was 12% lower than those living in the least green areas. This proves that plants do not only clean our polluted air, their mere presence boosts our creativity, our mood and can extend our lifespan! Other studies suggest that owning a pot-plant can reduce our feelings of anger, anxiety, depression, confusion and fatigue.

So next time you’re at Bunnings having a mental discussion with yourself about whether or not to spend those extra bucks on yet another plant to accompany the other 24 in your apartment, just do it! You deserve to live a long and happy life.

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According to new research, Australia’s youth are drinking and smoking 50 per cent less than youth a decade ago.

Over a (very fitting) period of 18 years, more than 124,440 people aged 14 to 79 were surveyed to analyse how many VBs and vodka cruisers young Aussies were smashing.

Led by Dr Michael Livingston from the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, the study showed that Australians teenagers and young adults were drinking much less than previous generations. In fact, about half as much alcohol is being consumed by teenagers now than it was 10 years ago.

“We’re seeing both a decline in the choice to drink, and amongst those who do choose to drink, a decline in the amount they drink,’ Dr Livingston told ABC Melbourne.

But it’s not just booze. Illicit drug use was also significantly reduced among teenagers and young adults, suggesting that Australia’s youth aren’t just switching from one vice to another – they’re actually forgoing vices substances altogether.

For young people, alcohol often goes hand in hand with socialising, and indulging in a bit of your social lubricant of choice is a tradition heavily ingrained in Australian culture. So what has prompted this significant social shift to stay sober?

Put simply, the reason why young people are drinking less still remains unclear. But it has been suggested that the rise of technology, and consequent shift in how young people are socialising, could be a contributor.

“My favourite theory of the many is that it is something to do with the way interaction has changed,” Dr Livingston said.

“This is a cohort of young people who have grown up embedded in online interactions … the way they’re meeting each other, the way they interact with each other is quite different to previous generations.

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Research led by the Harvard School of Public Health has found that the risk of autism is doubled when women are exposed to high levels of air pollution during pregnancy. 116,000 participants across all 50 US states were analysed to find that autism rates increased alongside the levels of exposure to pollution. Women are at their most susceptible during the third trimester, however pollution levels before conception and after birth were found to be irrelevant. Moving forward the researchers will be striving to understand exactly how pollution causes this effect on the unborn brain.

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Yoga studios are a dime a dozen in fitness-crazed Melbourne. Whether you’re a seasoned yogi or looking to take your first class, it can be overwhelming Googling studios and checking them out one-by-one. But take it from someone who’s been practicing yoga for 4 years – Estuary Yoga is a cut above the rest.

Having recently launched on August 19^th, Estuary Yoga is the brainchild of Lucy Lawes, a passionate, free-spirited Kiwi living in Melbourne. Lucy’s love for the arts and desire to feed her creative sensibilities culminated in the decision to open her own studio after experiencing the physical and mental benefits of yoga after her initial few classes. The first time she rested in savasana was a game-changer, in fact, the sweeping sensation of inner peace was so enlightening it inspired her to journey deeper into the practice, ultimately completing an Advance Diploma of Yoga Teaching at the Australian Yoga Academy.

You’ll be in good hands with the Estuary teachers. Most have been practicing yoga for over a decade, studying under the guidance of some of the most highly respected mentors, both within Australia and overseas. With their diverse life experiences (Hannah is a avid runner, Yunn is a yogi-slash-lawyer), each bring unique insights and teaching methods to the mat. Yet what they all have in common is a commitment to sowing conscientiousness, compassion and courage within their students.

At Estuary, yoga isn’t just a physical practice – it’s a lifestyle. While striving for personal improvement on the mat is an important aspect of harnessing respect for one’s holistic wellness and Mother Earth, sustainability is a core tenet upon which the brand was conceived.

The studio space is a physical manifestation of these values. Everything in it is ethically made and/or locally sourced. Lucy beams with pride in explaining how she and her husband Andrew built the reception area and shelves from scratch and how she personally hand-dyed the changing room curtains!

Lucy’s decision to create the studio from the ground up is representative of the lesson she hopes for members to internalize: the importance of process over product, especially in today’s goal-driven culture. She aims to grow a community of ‘more embodied, empowered and conscientious beings’ by including more classes in the timetable and hosting yoga/sustainability/health workshops and community events.

After chatting with Lucy, I attended a Yin class with the team. The sound of rhythmic ocean waves playing through a small speaker, coupled with Lucy’s soothing voice, instantly eased the tension in both my mind and muscles. The class began with Qi Gong in an effort to connect breathe with movement and to flood the joints with oxygen for the deeper stretches to come. Over the next hour, we held poses for up to 5 minutes, using props to open up the joints and connective tissue, increasing mobility and improving circulation. There’s very little muscle activation in Yin but boy can it hurt!

Post-class, my shoulders and hips were noticeably looser than they were previously and my mind was far less erratic than usual. I felt incredibly calm and the initial sleepiness gave way to a boost of energy and mental clarity.

With Estuary located just 15 minutes from Flinders Street by tram, and their 2-week, unlimited-classes pass costing a mere $35, there’s no reason not to check them out. I’ll see you there soon!

Estuary Yoga

• Address: 640 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, VIC 3051
• Website: https://www.estuaryyoga.com.au
• Email: hello@estuaryyoga.com.au
• Instagram: @estuaryyoga

The post Why Estuary Yoga Is Melbourne’s Best New Yoga Studio appeared first on CrowdInk.

If a bill introduced to their parliament is successful, Scotland might be the first country in the world to make all sanitary products free through facilities in all schools, universities and colleges. The news come right after two South Australian high schools installed free sanitary vending machines on their campuses.

Reports from both the UK and Australia show that female students are missing school during their periods because sanitary product are unaffordable and unavailable. This also shows to be more common within remote Indigenous Australian communities, where girls are often found to use toilet paper, socks or rags as replacements.

The reports also show that law-abiding girls were forced to steal pads rather than purchasing them as a result of unaffordability.

While several Australian schools have started providing these items, there is no nation-wide program to ensure students have access to it. If the Scottish bill is successful it will make the country a world leader regarding the issue, and hopefully more countries will follow in their footsteps.

Earlier this year a bill to merely remove the sanitary product taxes was voted down in the Australian federal Senate, so making the products free in schools and universities nation-wide might be a bit of a long-shot. But individual schools taking initiatives to make young girls’ lives easier might just start a chain-reaction.

In a generally well-off country like Australia it is easy to forget that not everyone has the extra money to afford these products. Sanitary products need to be accessible to girls and women everywhere, because menstruation shouldn’t be a barrier to your daily life.

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When you hear the words ‘eating disorder’, what do you think of? A person with a restricted relationship to food, who is so obsessed with being skinny and end up loosing so much weight it almost kills them? You are not alone.

Most people’s perception of an eating disorder is what’s typical portrayed in media — that of, what resembles, a skeleton. What most people don’t know is that you can look perfectly healthy and still have an eating disorder.

Australian model and Instagram persona, Stephanie Claire Smith, shed light on this in a recent YouTube video where she talks about her personal struggle with ED. If you scroll through her Instagram profile, she looks healthy, fit and happy. You would never be able to tell on her body that she struggled with the disease. But as she talks about in the video, even though her binge eating resulted in a bit of weight gain, the real battle was the mental toll of it.

Out of the 914 000 people living with EDs in Australia, majority are battling binge eating or Orthorexia Nervosa — disorders where, more often than not, there aren’t any visible symptoms. But this shouldn’t mean it is less valid of a disease. Like any other ED it puts you in a vicious cycle of self-loathing, depression and isolation. It might not look like the ‘traditional’ eating disorder on the outside, but will still be the source of excessive mental restrain and exhaustion.

There hasn’t been much open discussion around the issue, maybe because it hasn’t been classified as “severe” enough. But just as with other mental illnesses, it is important to remember that people’s battles are not always visible.

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According to a recent review of 95 previous studies regarding the relationship between nutrition and health, it was found that five portions of fruit and vegetables a day might not be enough to stay clear of serious illness.

“Five a day is good, but more is even better,” said Dagfinn Aune, one of the researchers from the Imperial College London.

It’s a well-known fact that we are supposed to eat a good amount of fruits and veggies to stay healthy and live longer, yet the advice regarding the portion size varies across countries. In the UK, for instance, it’s recommended to consume five portions of those natural goods a day, while in the US they recommend seven to ten. In Australia, the general advice stands at two serves of fruit and five of vegetables per day.

In the latest review, which included studies that followed individuals for between three to thirty years, it was found that people who consumed ten portions of fruit and veg a day had approximately a third lower risk of death from heart disease and cancer (the two most prominent killers in the western world), compared to those who ate none.

It’s not surprising, really. If your diet consists of chips and coke for dinner, and a cigarette for breakfast, the results are quite obvious. It’s simple maths.

The study also found that those who consumed larger amounts of cruciferous veggies, such as broccoli and kale, were much less likely to develop cancer in their later years.

However, the studies reviewed were purely based on observation, meaning that they weren’t controlled and therefore not the most accurate kind of medical evidence. They just observed people’s eating habits and the rate at which they died. This means that there are a number of factors that could have interfered with the results, the most significant one being financial status.

Wealthier people tend to eat have a healthier diet, smoke and drink less, and get better medical care.

But although the chances that the studies were biased are noticeable, they shouldn’t be discouraging. Whether you eat 5 or 10 portions of fruits and veg a day it doesn’t really matter, as long as you do it. Include more of the good ol’ kale and some broccoli here and there, and you’ll be just fine.

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Business women and professionals alike have been living under the impression that stress and tension are inevitable and unsolvable parts of life. And so, they spend large sums of money on treatments that don’t work and go through their days unfulfilled and unhappy, all under the impression that stress is a permanent fixture in life.

But this is far from the truth.

Stress doesn’t have to linger at the back of your mind all day, or rear its ugly head every time a difficult situation presents itself. Stress can be completely removed.

Here’s why stress “management” just doesn’t work.

When you visit those stress management facilities and scroll through stress gurus and health professionals, you aren’t looking for a way to put a stop to it. You are looking for a way to hinder it.

And hindering does not stop it completely, all you are really doing is lazily throwing a sheet over the problem until it starts to get in your way again.

The problem with that is, it’s still there. And if you throw a blanket over it, you’re still going to trip over it and be forced to deal with it when it clutters your mind and gets in the way of the more important things. So what’s the real solution? Throw it out, of course! Which is just what stress resolution is.

Celine Healy isn’t a guru here to help you manage your stress, she’s here to resolve it. Celine’s Stress to Success program is a step by step guide to completely destroying that stress and debunking the myth that stress is a permanent fixture. For the professionals, the hard workers, the business women and the people just feeling outright drained and worn out, Stress Resolution is for you.

Stress is much more serious than others would have you believe. Stress is a leading cause of a number of physical, mental and emotional problems. This stress can then lead to a number of unhealthy habits which can even turn into self-medication. People tend to ignore it as a problem, so the issue never goes away, only further fuelling the stress filled fire. Celine herself has been through this very same stage, and it lead her all the way down to burnout.

But, she made her way out of it, and her experience and training have helped her compile the best methods and techniques to help others avoid that nasty burnout, and return back to a positive, happy, stress-free state. Celine’s testimonials and her background in education, counselling and a number of brain integration methods, have given her the best skills to help you turn into the best you possible.

So stop letting all that stress control you and start making a change! Go from Stress to Success today!

Celine Healy provides training, packages and webinars that are created to give you the skills to truly resolve stress. Her latest book, Boost Success in all Areas of Your Life, is also available, with a free PDF of the first chapter on her website.

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If there’s something teenagers and pre-menopausal women have in common, it’s acne — the bane of their existence. In Western countries, it affects approximately 90% of the adolescent population and 50% of adults, causing mostly insecurities and endless trips to the dermatologist.

Acne is no fun.

And just like someone who’s been lucky enough to have never dealt with it (knocking on wood right now), there are a few populations around the world that are unfamiliar with all the emotional and physical hassle that surrounds this major skin problem.

One such population is the one living in the tiny island of Kitava, located in the eastern coast of Papua New Guinea.

In a study of 1,200 subjects, conducted by a team lead by medical doctor and professor Steffan Lindberg for over 800 days, no signs of acne were ever observed in the entire sample of Kitavans.

Considering that included 300 adolescents, the results were rather surprising.

The study found that their genetics played barely any role in the results, and that they were mostly due to their dietary habits. The average Kitavian diet, in fact, resembles a lot that of cavemen from the pre-historic era that ended with the development of agriculture. It’s rich in fresh, natural foods that include mostly tubers, fruit, coconut and fish, with little to none of processed foods that we are so used to consuming on a daily basis. Coffee, tea, alcohol and dairy products are basically non-existent in their diet. Instead, they opt for foods with low Glycemic Index (GI) and rich in omega-3 fats, as that’s what their picturesque and unspoilt habitat provides them with.

As a result, the locals are also unfamiliar with Western chronic ailments, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and dementia.

These findings are even more shocking when considering the fact that Kitavians don’t even exercise much!

I don’t know about you, but I think I could fit right in with the population of Kitava Island.

So now you know: eat more greens, drink more coconut water, enjoy more fish, and throw those chips in the garbage. They’re not worth it — words your skin and your waistline would say.

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