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Positive News & Interviews

Dr. Masaru Emoto (Sneak Peak) Exclusive Interview

by Patrick May 1, 2009

written by Patrick

On the day he finished work on latest book, “A Person of Love and Gratitude”, we here at Positive Life we’re fortunate enough to have an exclusive interview with the world-renowned researcher and author of “The Message From Water”, Dr. Masaru Emoto. The full interview will appear in the Summer issue of our printed magazine, but for now, have yourself a sneaky peak at what’s in store.

Dr. Emoto: As you might already know there is an epidemic of Pig Flu, and this news is frightening all of the people in the world, so I feel that now is the time to strongly express the theories that I’ve been studying. From the Hado point of view, everything has a vibration, and the vibration of Love and Gratitude can boost our immune system to protect us from infectious diseases.

To learn more about Hado and the work that Dr. Emoto is doing, as well as our exclusive insights into his life and expectations for his trip to Ireland, be sure to check out our new Archive page and pick up a copy of our Print Magazine when it lands in stores this June.

May 1, 2009 0 comment

Positive News & Interviews

Spring 2009 issue – OUT NOW!!!

by Patrick March 12, 2009

written by Patrick

Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside the Spring 2009 issue of our printed magazine, available now from health stores, holistic centres and health spas. Read all the latest views, news and reviews months before they appear on our website.

Spring Vibes

Angel Light Creations

Friday 27th & Sunday 29th March, 7pm-10pm at Oscailt, 8 Pembroke Road, Dublin 4

Janine Thorp will be holding a workshop introducing people to working with universal energies and how to have clear 2-way communication with them. … The skills introduced here can be used for any project you’d like to have help with, including your health, business, art, or even an unknown project, that you would like to take on under the inspiration and guidance of your soul and the universal energies that are your helpers. €100euro (€50 payable in advance)

For more info www.angellightcreations.com or 0879806280 …

Understanding the Gods in the Skies in the build-up to 2012 – Part 1

There is a lot of interest at the moment in the astrological transits of 2012, particularly as they coincide with the ending of the Mayan calendar. As a Psychological Astrologer, one of my roles is to enable individuals to understand the planetary energies that are coming together in the sky over the next four years so that we can work with them in a creative and constructive manner. The manifestations of actual events will be dependant on the choices and decisions of each and every one of us as we are all deeply interconnected yet fundamentally individual. …

Where are you right now?

“Awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.” John O’Donohue

Did you know that, on a forty-minute car journey, we only pay attention to our driving for two minutes. For the other 38 minutes, we’re usually thinking about where we should be, what we have to do, what the person walking down the street is wearing. It goes on and on. …

Spirituality and the City

Sundara O’Higgins

Costume Designer

In the past two years, I’ve lived in three different cities; Galway, Melbourne and Dublin. A lot of people said I was mad to go to Melbourne with just €200 and a place to stay for a week, but of course, when I got there, I met the coolest, kindest people in the most random of places and got a job within two weeks.

It really makes me realise that there are no strangers in a city, or anywhere really. It takes one second to make a friend, to make a connection, and that feeling of fear and danger that can be propagated by the media around big cities is really unnecessary.

Cities can reflect the best and the worst of the human condition. Its about humanity and everything that it can teach us on a personal level. The more we can learn about ourselves from our experiences with others, the more we can give out and share and vice versa. …

Positive Personality: Sara Mackenzie

You can’t learn enough about health. I qualified out of The French culinary institute in New York in 2000. I was on my feet 16 hours a day and I was under a lot of physical stress, but I was really enjoying it because I loved what I was doing. However, I was feeling tremendous fatigue.
It took two years for me to get a proper diagnosis, all the while being told, “Oh you‘re depressed. You need an anti-depressant. ” It just didn’t add up that the reason I felt like there were weights in my legs was because I was depressed. Eventually I had a second thyroid blood test that came back abnormal and I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. …

Neural Stimulation

The Key to Wellbeing is in your hands!
Does stress, anxiety, depression and illness rule your life? Does the news fill you with fear and hopelessness? Does the chaos of society seem to be leading to madness? All these factors can affect our wellbeing and, specifically, the Nervous System. … Neural Stimulation, a technique that is being used in hospitals, schools, and offices around the world, can be an answer. By the conscious use of the hands and only five minutes a day, it works directly on strengthening the nervous and immune systems and regulating the blood. …

The Behaviour of Change

On the campaign trail last February, Barack Obama spoke on the issue of change: ‘Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek’.

So often, we want to make changes in our lives in relation to health and lifestyle. We usually know what makes us feel good and what changes we would love to make. Yet often, despite all our good intentions, we cannot effect change. Why? What are the most common barriers to change? …

Rolfing: Balance your Body

The name Rolfing® originated from its creator Dr. Ida P. Rolf. Dr. Rolf was, in many respects, a remarkable woman. She received her doctorate in biological chemistry in 1920, after which she worked for the Rockerfeller Institute for 12 years; a major achievement for a woman in the 1920’s.

Rolf had an inquisitive and inquiring mind and she could have made a mark in any field of her choosing. Her inquiry into the structure and alignment of humans came from personal health problems, as she suffered from spinal arthritis. This inquiry led to an investigation of Osteopathy, Yoga, Alexander Technique and Gestalt Therapy, which lead to the work that became know as Structural Integration or Rolfing. …

Eckhart Tolle

Charisma is a curious thing – magnetic, inspiring, unforgettable. In today’s world, an obvious holder of that certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ is Barack Obama; a not-so-obvious one is a little Yoda-type character with a shining presence and a soft snorting chuckle who also casts a spell wherever he speaks.
Organisers say his Irish talk to an audience of over 1,000 could have sold out three times over, he was in such big demand. And since then, so impressed was Oprah by him that they did a 10-week webcast class together, tuned in to by millions.
A spiritual guide of our time, Eckhart Tolle is a master at getting people to see how often they spend their lives ricocheting from thoughts of the past to plans for the future without stopping to embrace that thing called the present.
As he puts it: “There is only one moment and it’s always now”. …

2012 – A whole new world

There is a lot of speculation about what will happen on the planet in the year 2012. In his book, Secrets of the Light, Dannion Brinkely claims that “by the year 2012, humanity will experience unprecedented mental and spiritual transformations, coinciding precisely with the Earth’s passage through great physical upheaval.” From my own research into the subject, amid the speculation, I have found some facts.
There exists a Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, used by the ancient Mayan civilisation, which counts down a period of 13 b’ak’tuns, or 394 solar years. This calendar will finish it’s 144,000 day cycle on December 20th, 2012. Then, as the Winter Solstice Sun rises on December 21st, a major astronomical alignment will take place between the planet Earth, our Sun and the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy. …

The Good Life 2.0

Web 2.0 is the term that has come to signify the new upgraded internet, which is community based, interactive and user-driven. What I want to explore in this article is a ‘Good Life 2.0’ – an upgrade for the 21st century of the ideas of the 1970’s self-sufficiency movement.

Do you remember The Good Life, the TV show that ran from 1975 to 78? It was one of Britain’s favourite sit-coms, which popularised the notion of getting out of the rat race and being self-sufficient. In some ways, it probably did more to put people off even trying. Tom and Barbara, Richard Briers’ and Felicity Kendal’s characters converted their suburban garden into a farm, kept pigs and chickens, and grew their own food. On one memorable occasion they even converted their car to run on methane, which kept on breaking down. In a light-hearted way, they showed how hard it was, and is, to be different to those around you, and the kind of courage it takes to be so. …

A New Concept in Makeup

For ten years I sought a skincare that could heal my problematic skin. Needless to say, when our skin isn’t looking good, most of us try to hide it under heavy makeup. I found it tough having to endure the breakouts as an adult, especially when there was no acne during my teen years. I became aware of our skin’s ability to rebel against everyday chemicals found all around us. Switching to natural/homemade products was my first step, and then I discovered powdered mineral makeup. …

Positively Newsworthy

A Delicious Deal of a Meal

The team here at Positive Life magazine recently went for a belated Christmas dinner in Oliver‘s Eatery at Vaughans Eagle House, Terenure. While organising the night out, Paul told me that the restaurant he chose had received a Michelin Star. This evoked in my mind, images of posh, rich people eating the highest quality food. On the way there, Paul told me it was in a pub. This evoked a whole other set of images in my mind. It wasn‘t until I got there and experienced how these two could combine so perfectly that I realised what a blessing Oliver‘s Eatery truly is. …

Client Attracting Secrets offer you 3 simple goals.

To get more clients, make more money and have more time off to enjoy it all!
By Siobhan Guthrie and Kieran Haughey

I have to be honest, when people talk about being a complementary practitioner, rarely do they consider themselves to be in business. Let’s face it, as practitioners, we are driven more by helping others than making millions. In fact we’ll often hear “money’s not important”, especially when it comes to deciding what you’ll charge! …

A Juicy Business Opportunity

The Apple Farm in Tipperary was set up in 1968 when William and Ali Traas moved from Holland to grow apples. At that time a lot of Dutch farmers left Holland, as there was not enough land to farm.
In the early years in Ireland, the family grew many crops, including fields of flowering tulips and vegetables such as peas and brassicas. However, the flavour of the apples here was spectacular, and the farm came to specialise in fruits such as apples, pears, plums, strawberries, raspberries and cherries, most of which are sold directly from a shop on the farm. …

Turn over a new Tea leaf

Solaris Botanicals, a Galway-based Organic Tea company specialises in blending internationally award-winning organic Speciality and Herbal Teas. The Solaris Tea range has won 6 Great Taste Awards in 2 years and was awarded Best Irish Organic Grocery Product in 2007 & 2008. Joerg Mueller, founder of the company is a Medical Herbalist and Master Tea Blender.

Tea is the second most drunk beverage after water in the world. …

Cherry Good For You!

John Carey, a man who lives and breathes his nutritional cherry juice product, CherryActive, believes it literally cured him of his crippling gout. John had always enjoyed a healthy, fit lifestyle and, like many young people, took his health very much for granted. But ten years ago, aged only 28, he woke one day with an excruciating pain in his right toe, which was horribly swollen. …

The Truth about FAT

In today’s fat-phobic culture, an important message has been lost: ‘Fat is essential to life’. Despite the advent of the low-fat diet revolution over 20 years ago, obesity rates are on the increase and eating less fat has in fact made us fatter!

Saturated fats are found mainly in animal products. Although they have important roles in the body such as protecting our internal organs and transporting fat soluble vitamins, over consumption can raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol that increases the risk of coronary heart disease. However, small amounts are great for using in high heat cooking (baking, roasting etc), as they are not easily damaged by heat. …

Spring Recipes

Spring is in the air, a new beginning, a time to shrug off the excesses of winter and get ready for Summer. There is a natural urge to lighten our diet, get up early with the sunrise and be more active. All of this is in preparation to help our energy rise up just like the sap in the trees for the more active and energetic days ahead.

Tabouli is a Middle Eastern dish traditionally using couscous. Here, Dorene Palmer, CEO of Divine Foods, uses quinoa, an ancient South American grain, packed with protein, calcium and gluten free. It is light and easy to digest. …

IRISH INTERNATIONAL MIND BODY SPIRIT FESTIVAL

The Mind Body Spirit Festival is a unique day out, offering visitors the opportunity to experience the world of complementary health, holistic therapies and natural healing techniques, with over 200 exhibits. This extensive programme which includes demonstrations and more than 120 free lectures, performances, and workshops, makes the festival a great day out for everyone and paves the way for alternative approaches to lifestyle development.

Here at Positive Life, our own experience of past festivals has been life-changing, with new insights being discovered, new friendships being forged and new healing techniques being tried and tested, sometimes with amazing results. Some things work for some people and others for others, and we advice you to trust your intuition when looking at what will work for you. …

Homocysteine Health

We are all becoming more aware to the importance of being health conscious, and feel the effects of our modern day lifestyles which include convenience foods and little or no exercise.

The media are making us more aware of the importance of eating a balanced diet, full of fresh fruit and vegetables, and how we should try to avoid foods high in sugar, fat and salt. Smoking is completely out of the question, and drinking alcohol should only be done in moderation. If we follow these guidelines we will be more likely to live longer healthier lives. …

March 12, 2009 0 comment

Positive News & Interviews

Secrets to Successful Living

by Patrick March 12, 2009

written by Patrick

by Thomas O’Duffy

pl_full_web_page_46_image_0001 If you’ve got the guts, you can really change your entire life, starting today. Here is what you need to know:

We humans are creatures of habit. Habits are automatic behaviours that we do without thinking, and you’ll keep living the results of your habits, good and bad, until you change them.

Your habits are your destiny.

Think about your personal success like a game of snakes and ladders.

Your good habits (those ways of thinking and behaving that propel you forwards and increase your well being) are the ladders. The more good habits you have, the more successful you’ll be!

Your bad habits (those ways of thinking and acting that rob you of vitality and enthusiasm and interrupt your progress) are the snakes. Your bad habits are liabilities that will keep costing you and holding you back until you get rid of them.

Familiarity Gravity

Most people are about as successful in getting rid of their bad habits as they are in sticking to their new year’s resolutions. This is because humans gravitate towards the familiar.

Doing something new and different pushes us out of our comfort zones and creates healthy stress that we can grow from. Most people, unfortunately, have a habit of retreating to what is familiar when they encounter stress, even if what is familiar isn’t good for them.

The Silent Invisible Epidemic

Familiarity Gravity is reinforced in our modern society where our senses are constantly bombarded with text messages, advertisements, phone calls, instant messages, emails and a vast amount of information and choices. This continuous sensory barrage leads to our feeling overwhelmed and at the same time, distracts most people too much from dealing with that overwhelment and resulting stress.

Life Changing Secrets

When you take care of the important things, the other things tend to solve themselves. Here are seven practices you can use often (until they become good habits) to totally transform your life:

1. Eliminate distractions & disruptions
Figure out which personal and professional activities will create the most value for you, and then switch off your cell phone, email software, web browser and screen out any other potential distractions for a few hours each day to totally focus, undistracted, on what’s most important for you. You’ll get more done and feel less overwhelmed.
2. Prioritize your rest & renewal
To perform at your highest level; you need to get the best kind of rest. Make sure you get enough sleep and include in each day some activities that help you process stress and increase your well-being. Life goes in the right direction when there are more sources of well-being than stress.
3. Eat for energy (not for entertainment)
When you are choosing what to eat or what food to buy, ask yourself “Am I choosing to eat this for entertainment (the taste) or for energy (the way the food leaves your body feeling)?” When you chose to eat for energy, you’ll get more joy and entertainment from your whole life.
4. Make the most of your morning.
What you do for the first hour after you wake up determines how well you feel for the whole day. Dedicate the first hour of your day totally to your own well being by doing some light exercise, stretching, listening to inspiring music and eat the healthiest breakfast you can.
5. Improve gradually and continuously.
Each day, focus on doing something slightly better than the day before and enjoy the process. If you can improve your life by 3% each day for a month, your life will be twice as good.
6. Hang out with positive successful people
Their attitudes and wisdom will rub off on you and they’ll hold you to higher standards for your own good.
7. Invest in life changing experiences
Do whatever you need to so you get rid of your bad habits and build better ones. For example, take a course, read a book, find a friend who can be your success partner, or if you need to, research the right Therapist, Hypnotist, NLP Practitioner or Coach to help you change what you can’t change by yourself. You’ll be glad you did.

With the above, you can do a Saint Patrick on your life and get rid of all the snakes and create a life you love living. To your success!

Thomas O’Duffy is a Life Coach & Advanced Master Practitioner of NLP.
He offers personal sessions in Dublin. You can reach him on +353 85 110 1111 or visit his website www.lifechanging.ie for a free video based life coaching course.

March 12, 2009 0 comment

Positive News & Interviews

in-SPA-rational – Feel Rested, Renewed & Ready to Embrace Life, Mary Berkery

by Patrick March 12, 2009

written by Patrick

pl_full_web_page_44_image_0002 Traditionally in the 16th Century, Spas were communes where people gathered to partake in the mineral and sometimes thermal springs and baths. They were places of rest and renewal with a detox element to aid in the elimination of the excesses of a rich diet.

These places often revolved around towns or resorts, which had thermal or mineral springs. The mineral springs often contained salts and trace minerals. The warm water bathing aided relaxation and the high salt and sulphur content helped skin conditions. Drinking the water was believed to aid digestion and the elimination of toxic overload.

To stay with the original meaning of the word, a Spa must offer hydro treatments. Ideally, it should also offer juices or specialized waters to aid in the elimination of heavy metals. Heat treatments were also part of their traditional offering. Bath in England was a traditional Spa town. In Germany many towns with the name Boll or Baden had an original Spa resort as part of their town services.

Nowadays, the word Spa is attached to almost every hotel, plus many stand alone day retreats. There can be many treatments on offer, from chocolate body wraps to make-up lessons and deep-tissue massage. It can often be difficult for regular punters to chose the best treatment or even understand what is on offer. The better Spa’s offer consultations prior to treatment choice. These consultations take into account what is happening for a person that needs rebalance and care. The therapist then advises on a program based on these needs.

So, what should you expect from your Spa visit today? That you leave feeling rested, renewed and ready to embrace your life again. That your skin is glowing and you look great. That some of the nasty habits of having too much sugar, caffeine and refined foods have released their grip on you. Stiffness and tightness in your being and muscles has loosened and you feel softer and more flexible both mentally and physically, with more openness to receive all that Life wants to offer.

My favourite Spa is in Florida, the Oasis Therapy Spa, which is attached to a clinic where one can partake in juice fasts, an alkalizing diet, and rest by the salt-water pools. The deep-tissue massage and the natural facial treatments combined with the dietary cleanse leave me totally renewed and looking younger for my years. I try to get there once a year for two weeks

Another place in Southern Colorado, with its natural outdoor thermal pools in the San Luis Valley, is slightly more rustic but again a place for renewal of body and soul. In Ireland my getaway is Cloona Holistic Health Spa in Westport. It is not a pure Spa as such, but the closest I can get to that renews me in every way. A total pamper without the detox, if one wants to also indulge in rich food is Samas Spa in Kenmare.

In a time where we are racing and under much pressure with little time to be and think, Spa’s are the new sanctuary and places where people experience the ‘Sabbath” in their busy week. They should be restful and quiet and allow one to be.

It is better that there is an holistic element in the treatment menu, with treatments such as Rolfing Massage, Reflexology, Shiatsu and Deep Tissue Muscular Release, Mystic Therapy, Light Therapy to name a few. Natural beauty treatments that aid lymph flow and use totally natural cosmetics are also a must.

You should go back to your home and work with less toxic overload ,mentally, spiritually and physically. Feeling refreshed and renewed in your mind to take on the challenges that life brings.

A banker friend of mind in Chicago sees spa time as an investment his business. He says he makes clearer business decision as a result of those retreat days. That is what a good spa offers you in today’s climate. Enjoy. Take time. The rewards will be so worth it.

Mary Berkery, Founder and CEO of Heaven and Earth Day Spa, is a Beauty, Massage and Reflexology therapist and tutor. Mary is also qualified in macrobiotic diet and living food nutrition. Her seminars and workshops on Body, Beauty and Soul care are an inspiration on living with beauty health and awareness in today’s world.
www.heavenandearth.ie

Positive Life also recommends:

Temple Spa www.templespa.ie

Brooklodge www.brooklodge.com

Kilronan Castle www.kilronancastle.ie

March 12, 2009 0 comment

Positive News & Interviews

Thriving With Grace

by Patrick March 12, 2009

written by Patrick

In today’s fast changing corporate and business world our bodies and our minds are being pushed to their limits at speeds we have never had to deal with before. This is why so many in the corporate world are having exhaustion breakdowns and stress related illness. When we allow our lives to reach this stage of total unbalance we become un-centred. Yoga is one of the many ancient wisdoms and techniques of age-old Indian culture that compliment our modern times issues.

Through my extensive travel of Asia, I began to understand the secrets and magic keys the Indian people naturally embraced, which gave them such grace and balance in living in what looks to a newcomer like an overcrowded, unorganized, chaotic environment, which held many extreme weather challenges.
One of the magic key foundations which holds all of India together is its understanding that our corporate, cultural and spiritual lives are all intertwined and are one. The essential principles of modern day Hinduism and Buddhism arose from ancient texts known as the Vedas. The Vedas explain that how we are with our bodies is how we are with all daily aspects of our lives. Every corporate, cultural, spiritual, personal belief in our daily lives in connected at all times. In India, all you see once you can see through the veils of chaos is pure grace and peace of mind in the people. The word Business means only Busy-ness. This too is done with grace.
When we begin to balance and learn the techniques and keys of thriving with grace then we are in the flow of balance. It is just like doing our daily yoga. Once we place our minds to that area of our body and balance our heart-beat with the rhythm of our breath, we have created thriving with grace through our yoga practice.

We do not have to stop that flow and grace once we have left the yoga mat. We can, like most Asians, continue the essence of thriving with grace into the rest of our daily lives. Like yoga, it is the practice of the one position for some time which brings us to the feeling of ease and effortlessness in that position.
It is the same for our corporate environments. We can practice the new thriving with grace approach and watch how, once we move into the ease and effortlessness, we bring a new force with immense clarity others will slowly follow. We do not need to achieve or approach our goals in the business world with a “divide, conquer, grab, pillage and plunder” attitude. This is only short-term achievement.

“As does the dolphin with fun and grace out manoeuvre the shark so too we do this with Thriving with Grace in the corporate world with ease and effortlessness”. Bernice M Paolozzi –Inner Coach

Once we decide, like in yoga when moving from one position to another, to transcend through and above to a further point of stretching and reaching, we can achieve our corporate business goals with grace. We receive the feeling of rejuvenation and regeneration, balanced with clarity through to the next part of our journey in the world of financial freedom and respect through valuing our worth.
Like in yoga, our body we respect as a temple, our beliefs and views of the practice to thrive with grace in the corporate business world and become the pioneers to bring our yoga bodies and mind into every aspect and moment of our lives, is the foundation of the secret and golden keys of India and its people.

Ó2008 Bernice Maria Paolozzi
Let’s Get Moving Together!!
Bernice Maria Paolozzi
info@bernicepaolozzi.eu
www.bernicepaolozzi.eu
Tel: +353 87 23 42 859

March 12, 2009 0 comment

Positive News & Interviews

YOUR HEALTH – YOUR CHOICE

by Patrick March 12, 2009

written by Patrick

by Robert Verkerk

pl_full_web_page_41_image_0001 I am fascinated by the different ways people choose to manage their physical health. Some seem content to treat their bodies rather like a rent-a-wreck hire car, handing it over to the men and women in white coats once they run into difficulties—usually sometime in their fifties. This dependency continues until the vehicle is ready to be recycled.
Others can’t conceive of letting anything other than organic, macrobiotic raw foods pass their lips, whilst never indulging in common vices like alcohol. City streets are no-go zones given the fumes. Yet others choose to follow the path of one of the ancient non-European systems of healthcare, such as Ayurveda or Traditional Chinese Medicine. Many of us sit somewhere in-between.

How reliant are you on your GP?

My fascination is such that I frequently ask my audiences how many have seen a GP in the last 12 months. Within natural health-aware circles, it’s unusual to get more than a very small show of hands. Often no one raises a hand. At a recent London trade show only one person responded—and that lady was wheelchair bound.
Those of us who choose to self-manage our health—or, if the need arises, see a practitioner of one or other natural medicine modality—are effectively moving through uncharted waters. Governments and the medical profession have no studies to prove whether we are more, or less, healthy than our counterparts who’ve handed responsibility to pill-pushing GPs and their medical colleagues. However, they might realize, from the copious anecdotal evidence available, that the majority of us who have chosen to use natural healthcare appear to enjoy a greater level of health than those reliant primarily on drugs or surgery.
Most importantly, they know that, despite regular attacks mounted against natural medicine by the orthodoxy and sceptics alike (and fuelled by well-oiled PR machines and a receptive media), we are not altering the way we manage our health. In fact, natural health and complementary medicine continue to grow. The pharmaceutical industry, in stark contrast, is struggling in the wake of increasing public recognition of the limited effectiveness, high cost and unacceptable side effects of many drugs.

Tightening the noose on natural medicine

One of the greatest threats to natural medicine is the complex regulatory regime emerging from Brussels. It comes in the form of a clutch of EU Directives and Regulations targeted at natural health products, like food supplements and traditional herbal medicines. The regulations also aim to limit what can be said (literally!) or written on product labels, websites or any other commercial presentation to what is agreed by the highest ‘authority’ on food in Europe, the Parma-based European Food Safety Authority.
One complication is that there are many pieces of legislation to keep your eye on, whilst the main chance to lobby on these is whilst the laws are in the proposal phase. It’s also hard to convince people of the real threats posed when the spin- machine working on the other side is so well funded.
Worse than this, once a piece of law comes into force it generally has very little effect as there is a slow phase-in period. In fact many of the laws have transitional phases in which some provisions are not brought in for 4, 7 or—as in the case of the ban on implied health claims on brand names in the EU’s Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation of 2007—more than 14 years. This delayed impact is actually quite insidious, particularly as any legal challenge by judicial review (such as that conducted by my organisation, the Alliance for Natural Health, between 2003 and 2005) must be initiated within 3 months of a given EU law coming into force. In political terms, the slow boil of European laws on natural health is called ‘gradualism’; it helps everyone to adjust to each new, incremental level of restriction.

What’s in the pipeline?

This article is no place to bore you with the details. You can look at our website at www.anhcampaign.org if you would like to educate yourself on this subject. But I think it’s worth pointing out a few of the many timelines, known or estimated, that we’re up against:
January 2009: expected publication by the European Commission of its plans to limit maximum daily dosages of vitamins and minerals in food supplements. Early indications suggest these levels will be considerably lower than those typically present today in Ireland, the UK and other more liberal EU Member States. Germany, for example, is pushing for maximum daily levels of beta-carotene equivalent to that which you’d find in just half a large carrot, whilst it wants selenium levels no higher than those found in one-third of a brazil nut. It might take another year or two for these proposals to make it into law and there is everything to play for right now

1 January 2010: an EU-wide ban on any food supplement containing a vitamin or mineral, or form of vitamin or mineral, that is not on the European Commission’s ‘positive list’. Fortunately, we’ve already managed to secure natural sources of vitamins and minerals outside the scope of this Directive, they now being subject to the same General Food Law that governs the safety of a loaf of bread

2010 (date yet to be set firmly): all health claims about foods or natural health products and supplements, to be banned unless specifically approved by the European Commission and the European Food Safety Authority. This includes using published scientific references to support claims, unless they have been approved—which is in itself an arduous and expensive process requiring unequivocal evidence from multiple human studies

31 March 2011: the date that the transition phase of the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD) expires. Depending on what happens between now and this date, many EU Member States might use it as a time to ban many herbal products currently used in food supplements, on the basis that their only acceptable usage is as licensed herbal medicines under the simplified drug authorisation scheme offered by the THMPD. They seem relatively unconcerned that the provisions of the Directive, as they currently stand, simply exclude, from a technical standpoint, a huge array of products associated with great traditions such as Ayurveda, Unani, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tibetan and Amazonian herbal medicine, to name but a few.

The global Codex agenda

The EU, with its population now exceeding half a billion people, is one of the key drivers in global guidelines and standards on food. This is partially because the heart of both the World Health Organization (WHO), in Geneva, and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), in Rome, are both in the ‘Euro zone’ (in the non-monetary sense). It’s also because Germany, with one of the most restrictive domestic legislatures on natural health and food supplements, has for decades headed up the key committee on nutrition in the inter-governmental organisation responsible for global guidelines and standards on food, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, itself a progeny of the WHO and FAO.
So, where do we go from here?

The new paradigm: sustainable healthcare

No amount of legislation, I believe, will stop people from accessing nature to help support the countless self-healing systems that abound in our bodies. Even the politicians realise this. And that’s when you start to appreciate that the primary driver of the ever-increasing raft of legislation affecting natural health is much more about cornering trade than it is about protecting consumer health, the latter being the oft-repeated claim of over- zealous regulators. Internet sales and black markets may be the last-stop café, but as Roosevelt and others recognised during ‘the prohibition’ (of alcohol) in the 1920s in the USA, it’s very difficult to stop people doing what they really want. When it comes to natural health, people feel very strongly.
In fact, in 1994, more Americans demonstrated against the planned ‘medicalisation’ of dietary (food) supplements than on any other issue in US history. While the composition of our diets gradually deteriorates, no thanks to the efforts of Big Agri and Big Food, many people have a strong urge to make up for the losses by ingesting concentrated nutrients. My belief is that this unshakeable and increasing interest that humans as a species have in consuming concentrated sources of nutrients, in the form of food supplements, is actually an evolutionary adaptation to the dietary simplification that abounds in both the industrialised and non-industrialised world.
This dietary simplification is the central plank to the five major chronic diseases, namely cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis, that now provide by far the largest burden on healthcare systems around the world. Drugs and surgery have done very little to offset these diseases. The World Health Organization, one of the most authoritative bodies in healthcare, in recognition of this, have established the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health (see www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/en) which promotes diet, nutrition and physical activity as the key means of combating these chronic diseases. Ironically, these approaches are the primary domain of Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM), and tend to be ignored or viewed as peripheral in orthodox medicine.

Industry, politicians and the general public have begun to understand that nature is central to any sustainable approach, be it in agriculture, forestry, energy or tourism. All we need to do now is help them to appreciate that the same goes for healthcare. To find out more about the Alliance for Natural Health’s sustainable healthcare initiative, go to: www.anhcampaign.org/campaigns/sustainable-healthcare

March 12, 2009 0 comment

Positive News & Interviews

YorkTest Food Intolerance Testing – Case Study

by Patrick March 12, 2009

written by Patrick

“my dress size dropped from a 16 to an 8 in a matter of months and I wasn’t even trying to lose weight – I was just trying to get better.”

pl_full_web_page_38_image_00011 pl_full_web_page_38_image_00021 Name: Emma Holland
Lives: Dublin
Age: 30
Occupation: legal secretary
Result: lost 4 stone ( down from a dress size 16 to 8 )
Symptoms: acne, bloating, tiredness, extreme constipation
Foods: wheat, gluten, dairy, egg, kidney beans & brazil nut.

Emma says…

Despite being a regular gym user, I found myself putting on weight. I’d tried lots of diets but all they did were make me ill and pile on the pounds. The health aspect was something I had been seeing my doctor about because I’d not felt well for maybe eight years ever since I moved to Dublin in 2000.

My doctor put me on tablets and sent me for tests suggesting my condition was IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). At its worst, I suffered from bloating to the extent where people would give up their seat for me on the bus because they thought I was pregnant. The constipation was very unpleasant for me because I would go weeks, sometimes a month, before I could go, and you can imagine what was going through my mind as the pain increased.

I was also becoming increasingly tired and my face was covered in terrible acne. The spots on my forehead were really sore to touch and none of the creams ever helped. It also did nothing for my self-confidence and nights out were an ever-decreasing rarity. Nothing really worked until my mum put me on to a food intolerance test called foodSCAN 113.

As the test I took was a blood test, I thought it would be more accurate because it sounded more scientific, so I gave it a go and what a decision that was. When the results came back, I had to cut out wheat, gluten, dairy, egg and yeast. It was tough. The difference though has been amazing. The acne and stomach pain have all cleared up, but most amazing is the weight: I have lost 4 stone and gone from a dress size 16 to an 8. The only problem I have now is my wardrobe. I had to buy a new dress recently when I went to Amsterdam and I measured a size 8.

Finding the right ingredients hasn’t always been easy but once I knew what I could and couldn’t eat and found the right places to buy the food – life was much easier. I got some food over the internet. It’s tough but with the right recipe books and of course the right test, I can live a normal life again. I’m not sure about Christmas yet, but at least I know what foods trigger off the symptoms so as long as I stay away from those I should be fine.”

Emma’s partner Colin Cox says…

“It is amazing the change in Emma and even I have been feeling the benefit of a better diet. To go along with Emma’s new regime, I haven’t been drinking any milk and I’ve got loads more energy too.”

Emma Holland took a €30 first step food intolerance test from YORKTEST laboratories. The test offers a negative/positive result from a tiny amount of blood which the customer sends off to a laboratory in the UK. In Emma’s case, her results identified a positive so she then upgraded to the second step or a foodSCAN 113 (RRP €350). Using the same blood sample, this test will identify the actual foods causing the food intolerance and the degree of severity.

To take a food intolerance test please call yorktest.ie on 01 2022701 or visit the website

March 12, 2009 0 comment

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