Veggie broth your thyroid will love

This recipe is a simple and effective way to get in some of the key thyroid minerals into your diet. In particular this broth is full of iodine and selenium, which can be found in kombu, an iodine rich seaweed vegetable(1), and shiitake mushrooms, a great source of selenium(2). As modern day Australian soils tend to lack in these minerals, it's important to looking further abroad and incorporate some 'exotic' foods into your diet to keep these minerals in check(3).*

This mineral rich veggie broth is perfect for the cooler months and can be enjoyed by itself or as a wholesome base to any soup or risotto.

* If you aren’t sure what state of health your thyroid is in, or if you are already supplementing to support your thyroid, check with your practitioner before trying this recipe.

Image courtesy of Pommes Pommes

Ingredients

• 5 cups water

• 2 (2-inch width) pieces kombu

• 1/2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms

• 2 carrots, , sliced

• 1 zucchini, sliced

• 2 stick celery, diced

• 3cm knob ginger, sliced

• 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced

• 3cm knob of turmeric, sliced

• 1 whole brown onion, sliced

• Salt and pepper to taste

Makes about 4 cups

Method

1. Combine the water and kombu in a larger saucepan and soak the kombu for at least 8 hours or overnight.

2. Add in the vegetables, turmeric, ginger and garlic and place the saucepan over low heat and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer and then remove the kombu from the water just before it comes to a full boil.

3. Add the shiitake mushrooms, and continue simmering for about 10 minutes.

4. Remove the saucepan from heat and let the shiitake mushrooms steep in the broth for 5 minutes more.

5. Remove the shiitake mushrooms and vegetables from the broth and pour the broth through a fine-mesh strainer set over a large bowl.

6. Add salt and pepper to taste

Created by Naturopath Rachel Larsson

When to get help and when to do it alone.

We live in a wonderful time when we can access any information we want with just one easy click of the button.  For example, when I typed ‘gut health’ into Google I got a massive 133 MILLION hits! There is so much benefit to having access to this information, as you can get inspired, cultivate hope and discover some tools to help manage your health. However, having this much information has its down sides and can leave you feeling confused, overwhelmed or can even be dangerous.

In clinic I frequently hear my patients start a sentence with ‘I was reading about…’ or ‘I was Googling the other day and…’ Whilst I love hearing that they are taking an interest in their health, unfortunately the sentence usually ends with ‘now I’m confused’ or ‘I don’t know what to do’.

So, how do you know when you are out of your depth in addressing your health alone and when you need some professional help? To help you decide when you need to close the laptop and pick up the phone, ask yourself these five questions.

1. Does your diet or supplement provide you with an immediate improvement and/or if you were to stop your treatment, would this effect be long-term?

If not, you have probably been providing yourself with Band-Aid support and not addressing the underlying issue.

A great example I see a lot in clinic is constipation. Before coming to see me many patients have developed a dependency on strong coffee, laxatives or supplements to ensure a daily bowel motion.

It needs to be understood that constipation is symptom of something else going on(1) and can be tricky to treat. There are many causes of constipation including an imbalance of your gut flora, SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth)(2) or nervous system issues, such as a side effect from a medication or low intestinal serotonin levels. Did you know 95% of the serotonin in our body is found in our gastrointestinal tract? Having enough serotonin is important because it signals the muscles along our digestive tract to contract and relax. This is called motility and it is necessary for regular bowel movements(3).

2. Do you feel overwhelmed, stressed or anxious when thinking about your health?

If so, these emotions may be making your symptoms worse(4). 

When your body experiences these emotions, it enters a state of fight or flight which causes our nervous system to tip into sympathetic nervous system dominance(5). Our sympathetic nervous system is necessary for our survival, as we use it when we need to escape danger or act quickly. However, this part of the nervous system inhibits our ability to rest and digest properly(6)(because who cares about digesting when you are running away from danger).

Experiencing daily stress, anxiety and overwhelm regarding your health may only be making you health worse. How ironic! A proven example of this relationship is stress and its ability to worsen or flare symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome(7). 

3. You have a sense that there is something else underlying the issue and are finding it difficult to get the big picture?

The perfect example of this is acne and congested skin. I meet many people that have ‘tried everything’; they have invested a lot of time and money into topical treatments, medications and diets without any improvement. Potentially this is because they are only treating one part of the problem.

Acne and skin congestion is considered a complex multi-system disease, rather a skin condition. Our skin is a huge organ and the health of it is a result of your diet, nutritional status, gut health and gut bugs, nervous system, hormones and immune system (8). So whilst the oral contraceptive pill or antibiotics may help manage your skin (9,10) if you stop these, your skin may go back to where it started. To make an effective long-lasting change in your skin, you need a holistic inside-out and outside-in approach.

4. Are you following advice that is supposed to help you and yet you feel worse?

You’ve starting eating healthier and have invested in cupboard full of supplements, yet you feel worse than ever with less energy, stomach pains, poor sleep and your mood has taken a turn. What could be going?

It’s no surprise that we are all different - what works for someone may not work for you. A great example of this is if you have an underlying histamine issue. Histamine is a naturally occurring substance that we create in our body and is present in many foods. It is especially high in aged foods including bone broths, fermented foods, kombucha and kefir (11) and in some probiotics, which are readily promoted for gut healing (12). If you have tried any of these and feel worse, histamine sensitivity may be your issue. Perhaps you need the guidance from someone who acknowledges or understands the issue of histamine to help guide you back to health.

5. Is integrative medicine a better fit?

That is, are you required to take medications or are you under the care of practitioner who has limited understanding, interest or awareness of the role diet and gut healing plays in our wellbeing?

If you answered ‘yes’ and you are trying to make supplement and dietary changes alone, you may be putting yourself in danger.

Thyroxine (thyroid medication) is a great example of something that needs to be monitored closely. A change in supplements, medications and diet may alter the dosage needed to keep your thyroid in balance. If these interactions aren’t understood and accounted for, you may start to experience symptoms of thyroid imbalance (fatigue, shakiness, anxiety, gut issues)(13, 14). A practitioner that will consider these interactions is important in ensuring you a safe road to good health.

Closing Thoughts

Before you have lost all hope and motivation, spent years of your time and a mountain of money, reach out and get some professional support.  We love that you have taken the initiative in trying to help yourself and we want to be there for you to reach your health goals in a safe and effective way.   

By Naturopath Rachel Larsson      

How seeing a naturopath can better your health.

As a naturopath, we often see patients that have suffered years of ongoing, unresolved complaints and have been searching for answers without any luck. You may have a feeling that 'something more can be done', looking for a natural approach or are sick of getting prescribed antibiotics for the common cold. What about a desire to understand your body or wanting to have optimal, thriving heath and not feeling like you are just surviving? Does any of that sound familiar? If so, naturopathy may be for you. 

Naturopath's have the exciting, complex and rewarding job of looking and treating you as a whole person. What does this actually mean? This means that when you come in with a concern, for example you feel tired all the time, we will look beyond how much sleep you are getting. We will also consider your personal health history, family history, blood tests, medications, stress levels, physical examination, diet, allergies and so much more. We do this because we want to understand your unique situation as we appreciate the many causes that contribute to you feeling this way. An understanding of who you are is so important in giving you the best treatment.

The beauty of naturopathy is that the therapies we use are well tolerated and can actually be a support to conventional medicine. Although our remedies have traditional beginnings, many of them have substantial scientific evidence that support there use and efficacy. Naturopathy is also wonderful and unique in that there is no 'one fix' approach to a problem. It has a broad scope of treatment and can use the following remedy options according to your circumstance. 

• Herbal medicine as liquids, tablets and teas
• Dietary advice to promote food as medicine and nutritional supplements
• Lifestyle and environmental advice to promote mindfulness and wellbeing
• Flower essences have an energetic basis and can enhance the emotional aspects of healing.   

Using the example above, if your 'feeling tired all the time' was caused by high levels of stress we could look at using one or a combination of diet modification, herbal medicine, nutrient supplementation and mindfulness techniques. Interestingly this means that if your friend were to need help because they also felt tired all the time due to stress, we may actually consider completely different herbs, nutrients and dietary advice because we would consider their unique circumstances.  

In essence, naturopathy is based on the principle that the body has an inherent ability to heal itself. We follow these six philosophies when treating you:  

1. The healing power of nature  (Vis Medicatrix Naturae)
2. Identify and treat the cause (Tolle Causum) 
3. Treat the whole person (Tolle Totum)
4. Do not harm (Primum Non Nocere)
5. Doctor as teacher (Docere)
6. Prevention (Preventare)

At Narayani Wellness, your naturopathic experience is truly unique as we have a supportive community of passionate naturopaths and integrative doctors working together. We believe more can be achieved by having these two approaches as it has greater potency and efficacy than doing things separately. Our approach to patient care embraces the combination of traditional philosophy with functional testing, and we find we get better results with our patients with the addition of functional testing. Functional testing allows us to look at the finer processes that occur within our bodies. This includes looking at how our cells function, our energy production pathways, how we clear toxins, how we make our brain chemicals, hormone profiles and how we can achieve healthy bowel functions. Our focus is to put you first and we realise the best relationship is one built on trust. All of this keeps us on our toes which motivates us to do professional development and stay current with research to continually benefit you.

We realise that Spring is a time we focus on our health and 'recover' from Winter woes. For some, this means the annual struggle of hay fever or a time to address old health issues that flared up from a change in your diet and exercise. With Spring well and truly here and the excitement of warmer days coming, maybe this is the right time for you to see a naturopath and regain your health.