Phytotherapy Blog

Phytotherapy Desk Reference

In an effort to simplify my blogs and improve their content and deliverability, I am consolidating my various newsletters and other writings into two blogs. If you would like to receive my blog posts as newsletters, please sign up via the links below. This blog will be retired soon. Every Decade Healthspan and Longevity Newsletter The first newslet...

Time Restricted Eating

By Jonathan Johnston, University of Surrey; Alex Johnstone, University of Aberdeen, and Peter Morgan, University of Aberdeen. Some of the most popular diet advice in recent years has centred around the idea that the right timing for your meals can make a big difference in the amount of weight you lose. It was long said that if you wanted to lo...

Daily multi-nutrient formulation but not cocoa improved cognition in older adults

The COSMOS-Mind study is a sub-study to a larger parent trial called COSMOS. It investigated the effects of cocoa extract and a standard multivitamin-mineral on cardiovascular and cancer outcomes in more than 21,000 older participants. In COSMOS-Mind, researchers tested whether daily intake of cocoa extract vs placebo and a multivitamin-mineral vs ...

Prolonged fasting has profound benefits compared to intermittent, short fasts (calorie restriction). I urge everyone to better understand the effects of the different types of "fasts" such as time restricted eating, alternate day fasting, 5:2 calorie restriction and prolonged water or fasting mimicking diets. The Fasting Mimicking Diet has been sho...

Ginkgo

A recent review examined the potential use of Ginkgo biloba extract in the management of COVID-19 (Al-Kuraishy et al. 2022). Other herbal medicines suggested for Covid-19 include Scutellaria baicalensis, Echinacea spp., Glycyrrhiza spp., Camellia sinensis, Nigella sativa, Allium sativum, Zingiber officinale, and Hypericum perforatum (Boozari a...

Low Carb versus Balanced Carbs: Same effect. Debates on effective and safe diets for managing obesity and type 2 diabetes in adults are ongoing. Low-carbs diets are widely promoted as being more effective for weight loss than other diets. A Cochrane Systemic Review of 61 RCTs (n= 6925) concluded that there is little to no difference in weight reduc...

Fasting for long COVID?

Undertaking the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) during COVID has not been tested so we have no data and can therefore not recommend ProLon during an active case of COVID. Likewise, we have no data guiding a decision to abort the FMD if the user develops symptoms or tests positive for COVID while on the FMD programme. The user should seek advice...

Sinclair Podcast

Australian born, Harvard Professor and sirtuin, resveratrol and longevity researcher, Sinclair is a person to follow. Just listened to episode 2 and really enjoyed it. I am very familiar with the research and even though this is aimed at the general public, the research is not dumbed-down and I encourage all health practitioners to listen to these ...

Animal studies have shown that ovariectomy is associated with weight gain and fatty liver. During the reproductive years, high plasma content of oestrogens is associated with the blockade of de novo lipid synthesis and changes in lipid transport, with increased clearance of LDL (low-density lipoproteins) and VLDL (very low-density lipoproteins), sy...

In conclusion, perhaps it isn't the research that is lacking but that scientifically researched products are difficult to identify in the marketplace. And why not adopt a global standard for consumers and health professionals to inform choice and help people find Natural Health Products with specific evidence?Read the full article#herbalmedicine #p...

Astragalus membranaceus and cancer treatmentBy Michael Thomsenwww.michaelthomsen.com.au #HerbalMedicineWeek #NHAA #Naturopathy #WesternHerbalMedicine #PhytotherapyDeskReferenceInteraction Astragalus may be used to assist in the detoxification of anticancer drugs, and in the restoration of immunity following chemotherapy. Astragalus has been shown t...

We used to add sprigs of rosemary to our roast vegetables. However, the sprigs are quite woody and you either have to remove the sprigs or, if you want to eat the rosemary, remove the leaves from the woody bits. A few years ago we started to use a spice grinder to grind our own rosemary. I don't know why we didn't do it earlier because the quality ...

Once a year, in the last week of October, we celebrate all things herbal with National Herbal Medicine Week.#HerbalMedicineWeek #NHAA #Naturopathy #WesternHerbalMedicine #PhytotherapyDeskreference Herbal Medicine Week - Naturopaths & Herbalists Association of Australia (NHAA) The aim of this week is to promote herbal medicine to the public, edu...

You are invited to join a case-based educational meeting series, with the first month at no charge. This independent education is being hosted by the Natural Health Science Foundation (NHSF), a non-commercial New York based not for profit organisation. The NHSF Grand Rounds meeting entitled "Integrative Cancer Care – Challenges and Possibilities" i...

Curcumin. One of the great extracts with enhanced bioavailability is Longvida from Verdue Sciences. It has been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier so it may be the extract of choice for anything brain related. Interesting interview by Nigel Pollard from the Natural Health Science Foundation and Grand Rounds with the CEO of Verdue Sciences.

When I was a scout in Denmark, it was an accepted idea that we would probably eat 7 pounds of dirt each year and that it was somehow good for us. We now know it is may improve our microbiome: "New indicate that new parents shouldn't be afraid of a little dirt — or fur. After monitoring a cohort of nearly 1,200 infants, Lynch and her colleagues foun...

A little while ago, I read about a woman who had been told for 3 years that her chest tightness was anxiety only to be diagnosed with Three Vessel Disease (3VD: the left anterior descending, right coronary and circumflex arteries). And the other day I heard of a woman diagnosed with asthma while she was actually having a heart attack. Did you know ...

Withania somnifera Overview - May 2021 By Michael Thomsen, MSc, ND Michael Thomsen is herbalist and naturopath. Originally from Denmark, he completed studies in Naturopathy and Herbal Medicine in Sydney, graduating in 1986. Michael specialises in integrative oncology supporting patients with lifestyle and dietary advice, nutritional and herbal...

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) is used in Ayurvedic medicine to promote youthful vigour, enhance muscle strength and endurance, and improve overall health. Introduced to Australian practitioners of Western Herbal Medicine in the mid-90s, withania rapidly became a much-loved herb and is now one of the top selling herb in Australia and even in the ...

Cyclic mastalgia is premenstrual bilateral and diffuse breast pain that presents cyclically and affects up to 80% of women in their reproductive years. It usually presents mid to late in the luteal phase and is associated with latent hyperprolactinemia due to the insufficient inhibitory effect of dopamine on the pituitary gland. The hypersecretion ...