The Easiest Christmas cake you will ever make

Baking for Christmas is one of my favourite things and when I was given this fantastic Christmas cake recipe I just couldn't believe it would work let alone taste any good. Now I know in the US there are a few jokes about giving fruitcake as gifts but Down Under we enjoy a good Christmas cake.

Here is the recipe I know you will enjoy.

1 kg mixed dried fruit diced
1 Can apricot nectar ( about 400ml)
2 Cups Self raising flour

Optional Extra - your choice of something to give the cake a little extra Christmas spirit. We used Apricot Brandy or Rum :)

Instead of a large cake, spoon into muffin cases and bake at 175 C for about 25 to 30 minutes. A large cake would take at least an hour and half to bake. Make sure you line it well as the mixture is very dense.

 Start with One Kilo of Mixed dried fruit.

 Add 400ml of canned Apricot Nectar, plus your own favourite Christmas spirit, that's optional.

 Add 2 cups of Self Raising Flour and mix well. 

 The mixture should be sticky but not too dry, add a little extra juice or Christmas Spirit. 

Spoon into paper cases in a muffin tin and Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in a pre heated oven at 175C.

Enjoy!

Feel Better Despite Fibromyalgia

Making it through the Holidays with Fibromyalgia can seem to be a daunting task. Try to follow this easy list of helpful points, you will also find related articles on each of these topics in the archives. 

• Try to get between seven and eight hours of good, restful sleep each night.
• Exercise regularly. Walking and other non-strenuous activities are a good way to begin.
• Adjust your hours at work if your schedule is too demanding.
• Get a chair that's comfortable at work, and talk to your boss about avoiding activities -- including lifting -- that are too challenging.
• Have your spine checked and aligned by your Chiropractor.
• Eat a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet.

Chiropractic its simple really

Simply put Chiropractic is NOT a treatment for colic, reflux, headaches/migraines, Irritable bowel syndrome, lower back pain or any such condition. Chiropractic in any sense is about

 locating and removing one of the most severe forms of interference known to healthy body function - a condition that puts pressure on the nerves and related structures, unbalances our body, generates fatigue, lowers our resistance to disease, and weakens the body in general - in short, affects all the elements of our natural healing ability.

This condition is known as a Vertebral Subluxation(s) or spinal nerve interference. And we as Chiropractors are the ones trained to detect and correct these Vertebral Subluxations through a Chirpractic Adjustment.

Here at Hillarys Chiropractic our vision is

To inspire and be influential in the chiropractic lifestyle for individuals and families so that they can experience a life of optimal health and wellness.

That's how simple it is.

Food additives – uncovering what’s really in our food.

Any basic dictionary will tell you that a food additive is something that is added to our food as part of the processing of the food, for the preservation of that food, to colour that food or to stabilize that particular food. In essence it becomes part of that food directly or indirectly. The original food additives were in fact spices, salt and even smoke.

When you really look at the foods that we are consuming every day, it’s alarming at just how much extra we are getting in our diets in the way of food additives. Are they really that necessary? Are they in fact that safe?

Local Author Julie Eady started out wanting to do what was best for her family in the way of health and nutrition. With a history of allergies and asthma she began a personal project to look into foods that she was putting on the table for her family and realised that they contained many food additives that held some real health concerns. This personal project turned into a fabulous book –

The Essential Information about what’s really in the food you eat, which additives to avoid and why. This book explains clearly and simply which food additives are linked to health problems or banned because of safety concerns, and also shows you how easy it is to avoid them in your shopping.. A must have book and a great gift for anyone who cares about their health and especially anyone responsible for feeding children. Comes with handy Additives to Avoid card to make your shopping simple.

When I found out about this it really hit home. As a mum myself with two young daughters at home, a history of allergies on both sides of the family and asthma, it couldn’t have come at a better time. In fact we were already looking at our diets very closely. We already had the experience of a child with reactions to food colourings and dyes, but didn’t realise just how many foods had the same additives. It was time to clean up our act and FAST.

We invited Julie to our office in Hillarys to speak to our patients and what a wealth of information she did bring to us. I highly recommend if you ever have the chance to hear either Julie or another member of her team speak make the effort – you will not be disappointed. You will be shocked at just how insidious some of these additives are in our diet. Julie can be booked from February next year to speak to school communities, parent groups or work groups, please contact her directly on 94032245 or alternatively additivealert@bigpondcom.

Visit Julies website for more valuable information www.additivealert.com.au

Yoga - two great beginner poses

Over the years that I have been in practice I have found that those patients who hold their adjustments the longest are those that participate in some form of either Yoga, Tai chi , Pilates or keep a regular routine of stretches. 

This isn't remarkable really, these disciplines involve focusing on a specific mode of  breathing, look at keeping the ranges of motion in our joints and balancing our muscular strength. They also delve into a form of mediation as well. More of a balancing of all aspects of health.

My two favourite poses in Yoga for beginners are the Thunderbolt pose and the pose of the Child. Both may need to be modified for those that have knee issues, all others should be comfortable. Please do check with your Chiropractor if this is appropriate for you.

The Thunderbolt or Diamond Pose (Vajra-asana) Instruction:

1		The vajra-asana is a seated posture. Begin by sitting back on your heels and placing your knees, legs and feet together.
2		Keeping the back straight place the palms of your hands down on top of your thights.
3		Breath gently thorugh your nostrils and sit in this position for at least three minutes.

The vajra-asana is a versatile posture well suited for meditation and as a rest in between other seated postures.

The Child Pose (Bala-asana ) The bala-asana is one of the more relaxing Yoga postures and can easily be done by beginners.

Starting with the Thunderbolt pose inhale deeply, then exhale as you bring your chest between your knees while swinging your arms forward.The bala-asana can be held for as long as is comfortable. Repeat at least twice if it is held for less than a minute.


Both poses are great for relaxing and calming the mind and body after a long day, its also a great way to wind down once you have done your cool down exercises from any particular sport.

Question: If you dropped a brick on your foot, what’s the first thing you must do to start the healing process?

Answer: Get the brick off your foot!

Sounds simple, but it’s true. Your foot WON’T heal until the offending pressure is removed first. And once the brick is removed don’t expect your foot to look or feel normal right away! It’s going to take time to repair all that damage. The same applies to your Chiropractic care.

A misaligned vertebra – a Subluxation, is much like that brick, causing damage, pain and inflammation. Healing can occur when the offending pressure is removed and kept off with regular Chiropractic care through the Adjustment.

BUT that won’t necessarily bring instant relief.  Simply it’s the first step in a timely process. So if you don’t feel great immediately after your adjustment, don’t be discouraged. With time, the damage tissues will heal and you’ll start to feel like new again. For now, be confident the healing process has at least started because the Subluxation – the brick, has been removed.

Healthy teens part 2

In a study looking into the health and well being of teenagers it was found that teens who smoked, exercised less than twice a week and were overweight or obese were over three times more likely to have recurrent headaches.

By simplying having two of the factors most teens would double their chance of having recurrent headache or migrains.

All of these facotrs are avoidable if not able to be managed so that healthly habits are established before long term side affects are pernanently etched into the childs life.

Source :Health Day

Is your teenager doing exams?

The season for exams is fast approaching. Our year 12 students will soon sit their last exams and parents nation wide will be left wondering and agonising over their children's health and well being.

Are they getting enough sleep?

Are they getting enough exercise, what about their diet.
Could they change their study posture?

A word of gentle advise – don’t try anything too drastic at this time. Definitely support them in their efforts, but if its not something they are already used to, doing it now might be more harmful. Cover the basics of sleep, exercise, nutrition and good spinal health.

If their normal out of exam node sleep pattern is maintained or closely followed that should help to carry them through. Forcing them to get more sleep may just prove to be a waste of time. Sure they need their sleep, but just like when they were toddlers if they didn’t want to go for a nap, they won’t. Encourage them to take breaks from their studying. Eating smaller meals more often might help with maintaining their energy levels and certainly encourage their intake of water. Maintain their regular spinal adjustments.


For their nerves and stress levels - I have to quote my own Mum here. She would see me getting all bent out of shape about something and it would detract me from my task of studying so she would say " Ok sit and worry for 10 minutes, then get back to work".

Get it out of your system and then move on.


Good luck to all those in exams.

Do you want to carry LESS weight on your shoulders?

“For every inch of Forward Head Posture, it can increase the weight of the head on the spine by an additional 10 pounds.” -Kapandji, Physiology of Joints, Vol. 3


To convert that to metric for you, the average head is 12lbs or 5.44 kgs, if you slouch forward one inch or 2.54 cm your shoulders are now wearing 14.51 kgs. Move it forward some more (another inch/2.54cm) and it now puts 19 kgs of weight on your spine at the junction of your shoulders. 


For every centimetre you move forward another 1.78kg of weight is felt by your spine.


In the long term this puts your neck under so much stress that the vertebrae themselves will change structurally due to the stress. Wear the weight over your shoulders as you were designed to and less weight will be experienced by your spine.

Blood pressure drops when overweight children lose small amounts of weight.

The strains of being overweight on the body mentally and physically are numerous.  Blood pressure is but one of the factors that can change with an increasing waistline and in children it sets them on a rollercoaster of long term health issues.

Our blood pressure is a measure of the force at which blood courses through our system. 120/80 has been set as the normal reading for blood pressure and is taken in measurements of millimetres of Mercury. The reading 120/80 is in fact two measurements. You would read this as 120 over 80 mm of Hg(Mercury). This is a measure of amount of force pushing against your artery walls when the heart is contracting and when the heart is at rest. The first figure corresponds to when your heart is contracted – the Systolic pressure. The second figure is the Diastolic pressure- when the heart is at rest.

Reading taken above the norm are given the term Hypertension – hyper meaning raised, therefore high blood pressure and readings lower than the norm are classified as Hypo-tension – hypo meaning low or decreased.

For anyone either of the two extremes have serious health outcomes. But for a child to experience hypertension – High blood pressure describes a condition that places their heart at risk, in fact their whole cardiovascular system. Literally their whole system is always operating under stress, being forced to work above the level that it can tolerate.

A Canadian study has also shown that obese children have the arteries of an elderly person.The aorta in particular is seen to be severely under stress in these children.When the aorta is placed under constant pressure it loses its elasticity and stiffness occurs, this then is associated with complications of the cardiovascular system and even early death

Reducing the Childs weight through effective healthy lifestyle changes promotes a responsible long term solution for that child. Small weight changes have been shown to decrease blood pressure in the severely overweight child. Education is the key here, BEFORE the use of medication. 

Prevention, being proactive and setting long term goals is vital in this situation.

Increased chance of breast cancer with HRT

The studies are coming through now that point the finger directly at the increased chance of aggressive forms of breast cancer amongst those women who take HRT – hormone replacement therapy. Recent studies had suggested that only those types of cancers that were more treatable had increased in this group, however not so with the latest study.

This recent study looked at specifically the HRT that was based on estrogen-plus-progestin, or combined hormone therapy, not estrogen-alone therapy. Over all the rates of all cancers have increased with HRT use, so that the only reason why some women are still given HRT is to combat the effects of menopause that haven’t responded to non-hormonal therapy.

 It is strongly recommended that every effort to exhaust all non-hormonal therapies before HRT is contemplated.

Breast Feeding protects your child

"Exclusive breast-feeding helps protect infants against common infections and lessens the frequency and severity of infectious episodes not only in developing countries but also in communities with adequate vaccination coverage and health care standards," 

SOURCE: Archives of Disease in Childhood

simple stretches for our children

Getting us oldies to change our routine is often fraught with excuses and dramas, but teach a child something early on in life and they will accept it more readily into their routine.

Straighten Up was also designed to be brought into the school curriculum to teach our children about looking after their spinal health.These simple exercises are a great way for children to learn to look after their bodies and keep them in a regular habit of exercising.

Please visit the link below for a great exercise routine to share with your children.

http://www.straightenupamerica.org./Handouts/files/page2_2.pdf

Please Note: Check with your Chiropractor or other healthcare professional before starting "Straighten Up" to make sure these exercises are appropriate for your specific needs.

Straighten Up Australia

If you're looking for a daily stretching program that enables you to get that overall stretch happening - then Straighten Up is for you. Designed by Ron Kirk of Life University, this program is being used to promote spinal health throughout the USA.

During my studies at Life Uni, Ron was a keen advocate of daily spinal health. We as students all took his spinal health care classes as part of our curriculum. This routine takes 3 minutes to complete, does not need fancy special equipment and can and should be done easily at home.

Done routinely, these Straighten Up exercises focus on getting your body ready for the day ahead. They can be done before your day even commences or even in a break during the day. Theses exercises form a great platform for an active healthy lifestyle.

For how to do these exercises click on this link. Straighten Up


Please note : Check with your Chiropractor or other healthcare professional before starting "Straighten Up" to make sure these exercises are appropriate for your specific needs.

GI and GL values of food

Have you ever eating a meal, felt full and then soon after felt hungry AGAIN?  Surprising it’s not the amount that you might have eaten but what you have eaten. Different foods have the capability of leaving you feeling fuller for longer because of their GI and GL values.

So what are GI and GL values?

They are the classification of foods based on their effect on our blood glucose levels. Mostly this classification is given to carbohydrates. It replaces the older classification of simple or complex carbohydrates. After we have eaten, food is digested and converted to the base compound of glucose. The amount of glucose that is produced differs according to the food. A food that produces a high spike of glucose in our blood would be classified as a High GI food. A low GI value food would slowly release glucose into the blood and for a longer period of time. So GI values are about the quality of the food and the bodies’ ability to turn it into sugar. GL values are about quality and quantities; assessing the impact of the food (how much of that food is in fact made up of the carbohydrate).

For example

Watermelon has a GI value of 72 (into the high range). The average serve of watermelon is 120 grams. Of that 120 grams, only 6 grams account for the carbohydrate (relatively only a small portion of the total). So the GL value is 4, because the potion that is carbohydrate is small in comparison to the total amount.

Whereas for a white potato baked, without the skin, and baked in no fat, has a GI value of 98(again a high value). The average serve would be 150 grams. Of that 150 grams, 27 grams is the carbohydrate content (a higher proportion). The so the GL value is 26.

But now compare that to another type of potato, a Pontiac without the skin and baked in no fat, is still high at a GI value of 93, the serving size is still 150 grams but the carbohydrate content is only 18 grams. Making the GL value far lower at 17.

The ranges for GI are

High values greater than 70         Medium 56-70                   Low below 55

The ranges for GL are

High greater than 20                       Medium 11- 19                  Low below 10

Generally speaking foods low in GI value will be low in GL value also. Foods in the medium to high range in GI value can range from low to high GL ranges like the example of watermelon.

What can they do for your health?

Foods with a high GI value can be detrimental to our health because it pushes our body to extremes. Low GI level foods don’t stress our bodies as much and provide nutrients and energy levels on more of a constant level. Therefore keep you satisfies for longer periods of time.

So what are the benefits?

• Low GI carbohydrates reduce hunger and keep you fuller for longer
• Low GI carbohydrates prolong physical endurance
• Low GI diets help people lose and manage weight
• Low GI diets increase the body's sensitivity to insulin
• Low GI carbohydrates improve diabetes management
• Low GI carbohydrates reduce the risk of heart disease
• Low GI carbohydrates improve blood cholesterol levels
• Low GI carbohydrates can help you manage the symptoms of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome PCOS
• High GI carbohydrates help re-fuel carbohydrate stores after exercise

Does that mean I can’t have certain foods?

No, the aim is to have a higher proportion of your meal from the low GI values of foods and the smaller portion of high GI values. Also the choices of the type of foods that you eat can make a vast difference. For example if you wanted to keep the GI values down in your meal and it was based on rice instead of choosing Jasmine rice you could opt for Basmati rice. Jasmine rice is notorious for making you feel full and sated quickly only to leave you hungry again soon after. That is because it has a GI value of 89 – into the high range and a GL of 37. While Basmati rice has a GI of 69 it has a far lower GL value of 28, still high but far lower than the Jasmine rice.

Who can benefit from this type of diet?

We all can basically, but those who need to control their blood sugar levels and energy levels need to pay close attention to a low GI/GL diet.

Routine is not a dirty word.

Whether we are talking about a new born, toddler or teenager, routines make sense. Babies respond to the cues we give them about what’s going to happen next.  They might have a bath to start their night time routine progressing towards going to bed. Toddlers can take on responsibility knowing that part of the day requires different things of them, like getting out of bed and dressing themselves. And teenagers know routines in the form of what to pack in the school bags for after school commitments.

Now how well they complete these tasks is totally up to the individual, but it’s only with practice that the child is able to learn and grow. 

Doing the Hokey Pokey

Work smarter not harder

Have you often looked at just what your doing whether its how you sit at your desk or how you walk and really thought about the actual movement itself. Could you be doing the same thing day in day out just because that's the way you've always been doing it? It might be time to look at things from a different perspective and look at doing it smarter not harder. A small adjustment in the "how" might lead to long term better posture and muscle tone, let alone not causing you any amount of pain.

Take for example the example of sitting at your desk. Been doing that for ages? Spend alot of time at the keyboard tapping away and then using the mouse with a death grip? How about changing hands to use the mouse? Do you think your other hand is totally useless, that it would be too hard, that you wouldn't be able to work as fast? Well lets think about that, just how fast were you when you first started to use the computer, how dexterous were you. It's all a matter of training. Start with those activities that you can take your time on - maybe reading through your emails and get the hang of just scrolling with the mouse in the other hand. Then add another activity every other day as you get used to things, switching back as you lose correct form. Remember you want to work smarter not harder.

Then as you build up strength and speed you can increase the amount of time that you spend with the mouse in the other hand. Your dominant hand does a fair more work than the other hand does, so sharing the load helps reduce the overloading and provides you with a chance to do things differently and correct long standing poor habits.

Chiropractic works when traditional methods fail.

Dr Esteb writes a Monday motivational email that many Chiropractors subscribe to. I would like to share with you one of his Monday motivational emails and expand on this topic in my own words. Hopefully this will give you an insight into some of the principles of Chiropractic.

"Chiropractic works when traditional methods fail." William D. Esteb

1.    Is the original stress still present? If subluxation is the body's attempt at accommodating physical, chemical or emotional stress, and the stressor is still present in the patient's life, the likelihood of chiropractic working is less assured. 

Teaching patients to work smarter not harder has to be part of their treatment. It’s like a mechanic performing a wheel alignment and balancing the tyres, then teaching you not to hit the potholes on the way home. If you continue to do what you’ve always done – you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. Looking at the small daily things that you do is a great place to start. It could be how you are sleeping at night, how you sit at your desk at work, how you exercise or don’t. Otherwise you’re only putting a bandaid over the whole issue and not getting to the cause.

2.    Limitation of matter. In the same way we can't regrow lost fingers and toes, there are limitations to what is possible based on a patient's age, conditioning and their willingness to follow recommendations and make lifestyle changes.

Getting the best outcome for our patients needs to be taken into perspective, we just aren’t able to make you into your younger self (lets think about it – Do you really want to be) But what we are able to help you with is being the best you can be at this stage of your life. That is, progressing towards your true health potential with you, not as many patients seem to think that we do this for you. Your healing is your body’s responsibility; we merely give it the adjustment and allow it to heal itself.

3.    Is the patient invested in their recovery? Some may enjoy secondary gains from their poor health and aren't fully committed to healing. Harnessing the mind/body connection is essential and one reason to employ effective chiropractic patient education.

 It’s an often unspoken subject that someone could be gaining from their ill health, but it is more common than you think. We receive attention; we receive sympathy and empathy from often even strangers. Helping ourselves is the first step to healing and it’s fraught with the unknown for many people. So while there is still a benefit from being ill, stepping into the unknown may not be something we are willing to do and this paradox holds people in limbo for years.

In light of this, William has rephrased the original statement to be “Chiropractic often works when traditional methods fail”.

Of mice and men.

Testing on animals is always going to be controversial. A recent study into the effects of supplementing our diet with Omega 3 fatty acid, found that in mice, it had a positive effect. However when it came to the effects in humans, many of these animal studies miss the mark. Mice are chosen in these tests for their close link to us genetically - strange but true. So to test on mice, it would seem reasonable to assume that we would be seeing similar results in us too.

This study in particular, while understanding the downfall in this assumptive link, still sites that supplementing our diets with Omega 3 fatty acid can have a positive effect, especially to reduce the inflammation response in our bodies. This is the case with Diabetes in particular. While it is still in the individuals best interest to manage their weight and include a level of exercise in their daily activity it can have no known ill effect to also supplement with Omega 3 fatty acids to reduce the effect of inflammation.

On the positive side of things, the study did find that Omega 3 fatty acid worked by blocking the inflammatory process in the cells. Since chronic inflammation can lead to insulin resistance this could help in reducing the onset of type 2 diabetes.

A new Diabetes link.

"Diet and exercise are widely known to impact the risk of type 2 diabetes, but few people realize that breast-feeding also reduces mothers' risk of developing the disease later in life by decreasing maternal belly fat," said Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, an assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology, and obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, in a news release from the university.

So what is Diabetes?

Diabetes refers to two conditions centred on your blood glucose levels. Your body is fuelled by glucose, all the food that you digest is broken down in vitamins and mineral and fuel – glucose. Managing how much glucose is in your blood stream is your Pancreas job.

Having too high levels of blood sugar levels or too low levels causes the body stress. Normally your pancreas responds to these altered levels and controls the level of glucose in the blood by releasing insulin. Insulin is a hormone; it helps to move glucose out of the blood stream and into your cells to give them energy to carry out their normal functions.

Type 1 Diabetes stems from a problem with the pancreas that does not produce insulin or very little at all. Leaving the body to cope with rising levels of blood sugar that go unchecked. In the long term this can produced devastating results and damage, especially to your heart eyes, kidney, nerves and gums and teeth. This type of diabetes is often developed in childhood or in young adults. However other ages can be affected
.

The typical symptoms may include

• Being very thirsty
• Urinating often
• Feeling very hungry or tired
• Losing weight without trying
• Having sores that heal slowly
• Having dry, itchy skin
• Losing the feeling in your feet or having tingling in your feet
• Having blurry eyesight

Type 2 Diabetes is a different issue. The insulin that your pancreas produces to move sugar out of your blood stream and into your cells in this case becomes ineffective – the body is resistant to the effects of insulin. Unlike type 1 where the solution would be to provide an external source of insulin for the body, type 2 is not as easily helped. A far better solution would be to prevent this from even occurring.

Management of weight and regular exercise is at the core of type 2 diabetes prevention. Now with the new study it looks like mothers that breast feed their babies can also reduce their chances of developing this type of diabetes.The symptoms of type 2 diabetes can develop slowly over a long period of time
:

§  Increased thirst and frequent urination. As excess sugar builds up in your bloodstream, fluid is pulled from the tissues. This may leave you thirsty. As a result, you may drink — and urinate — more than usual.

§  Increased hunger. Without enough insulin to move sugar into your cells, your muscles and organs become depleted for energy. This triggers intense hunger.

§  Weight loss. Despite eating more than usual to relieve hunger, you may lose weight. Without the ability to use glucose, the body uses alternative fuels stored in muscle and fat. Calories are lost as excess glucose is released in the urine.

§  Fatigue. If your cells are deprived of sugar, you may become tired and irritable.

§  Blurred vision. If your blood sugar is too high, fluid may be pulled from the lenses of your eyes. This may affect your ability to focus clearly.

§  Slow-healing sores or frequent infections. Type 2 diabetes affects your ability to heal and resist infections.

§  Areas of darkened skin. Some people with type 2 diabetes have patches of dark, velvety skin in the folds and creases of their bodies — usually in the armpits and neck. This condition, called acanthosis nigricans, may be a sign of insulin resistance.

For further information visit Diabetes WA

Scones

This is not an original recipe of mine, but its one that I use without fail. Believe me, before this recipe came into my life my scones looked and tasted more like ice hockey pucks!!

 

4 cups Self raising flour

300 mls of thickening cream

300 mls of water ( measure this out in the container that the cream came in - do you really want to wash any more than you have too!!)

 

Preheat oven to 200 C.

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Use your hands or a knife to bring it all together. Turn out onto a floured board and cut scones to shape required. I use a standard scone cutter most of the times, but if your after a different size use any floured glass to do the cutting. Using flour stops the dough from sticking to the glass.

I spray a quiche dish with cooking spray and use a scone cutter to cut out the scones. Place them into the dish close together. And then bake for approx 20 mins.

I have used light cream, sour cream and a mixture of all of these to the same result.

I've even turned out the mixture into the dish and scored it into wedges - works just as good. Apparently you get more jam and cream to scone ratio with this.

Enjoy 

Helping new mums

Two recent studies with new mums in mind give us valuable information in regards to how we can help our new mums.

Researchers have found a common link between those that experience depression and their brain chemistry and Mums that experience postpartum depression. Both groups showed an elevated level of an enzyme that breaks down two common brain substances – serotonin and melatonin. Therefore this would lead to low levels of the two in the system.

Serotonin –is a neurotransmitter, involved in the transmission of nerve impulses. It is manufactured in your body using the amino acid tryptophan. Release of serotonin or other drugs (depending on the type of nerve) causes the other nerves to fire and continue the message along the "cable”. It is also a chemical that helps maintain a "happy feeling," and seems to help keep our moods under control by helping with sleep, calming anxiety, and relieving depression.

Melatonin –is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain. It helps regulate other hormones and maintains the body's circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is an internal 24-hour “clock” that plays a critical role in when we fall asleep and when we wake up. When it is dark, your body produces more melatonin; when it is light, the production of melatonin drops. Being exposed to bright lights in the evening or too little light during the day can disrupt the body’s normal melatonin cycles.

When low levels of serotonin are found it may increase the intensity of depression and anxiety. While low levels of melatonin, decrease the quality of sleep.

Helping a new mum in the first few weeks after the birth of her child might mean looking at her diet to boost the production of these important brain chemicals. Two such compounds that are needed in the diet to help form serotonin and melatonin are Tyrosine and Tryptophan.

Tyrosine is an amino acid which may be good for those who have prolonged and intense stress. A dietary source of Tyrosine is found in soy products, chicken, turkey, fish, peanuts, almonds, avocados, bananas, milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, lima beans, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds.

Tryptophan is an amino acid needed for normal growth in infants and for nitrogen balance in adults. It is an essential amino acid, which means your body cannot produce it -- you must get it from your diet. In order for tryptophan in the diet to be changed into niacin, the body needs to have enough: iron, riboflavin and Vit B6.
Tryptophan can be found in: cheese, chicken, eggs, fish, milk, nuts, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, soy, tofu and turkey.
To help with increasing the levels of serotonin having up to five servings a day of each tryptophan and tyrosine could help to moderate the effects of depression in a new mum.

Another study also reported that it isn’t about the amount of sleep new mums are getting its more about the quality of sleep. They might be accumulating the hours but because the circadian sleep cycles are being interrupted the quality of sleep is poor. Sleep cycles last about 90 minutes to 2 hours. And when a new mother’s sleep is interrupted it is often difficult to maintain the correct cycles for a healthy sleep pattern. That also explains why cat napping during the day may not “top up “the sleep that she misses out on. A better solution would be to “sleep when the baby sleeps”, especially in the first few weeks. This would help to maintain a healthy sleep routine and provide the mother with enough quality sleep. Or we need to find other opportunities for the mother to gain more quality sleep, maybe express milk for a night feed so that someone else could feed the child.