The Medical Board of Australia is planning drastic changes that limit the way integrative medicine can be practiced in this country.
The Board has issued a consultation paper with the aim of restricting the range and type of treatments that can be offered – your freedom of choice is at stake.
The Medical Board aims to define ‘good medical practice’ in a way that restricts doctors to mainstream, conventional treatments. This will severely restrict our ability to consider emerging treatments and evidence-based therapies, especially for complex and chronic conditions.
The discussion paper is deeply flawed. Medical practice in Australia is already highly regulated and placing extra restrictions on doctors – based on poorly defined characterisations – does not serve the needs of patients.
If you value your freedom to choose the best health care options available for you, it is vital that the Medical Board understands the effects of their proposed regulations on patients like you. We can achieve this by making submissions outlining the value of integrative medicine and demanding genuine consultation in good faith.
To make a submission, simply go to www.integrativemedicinefreedomofchoice.com – here you will find resources to help you:
Making a submission is quick and easy. It will help ensure your continued freedom to seek and choose the most effective medical therapies for you and your family.
One of the options that the proposal considers is:
OPTION ONE – Retain the status quo of providing general guidance about the Board’s expectations of medical practitioners who provide complementary and unconventional medicine and emerging treatments via the Board’s approved code of conduct.
Please tell the Medical Board that you want OPTION ONE to be selected.
IMPORTANT: In your submission, do not mention the names of any doctors or clinics, or any treatments you have received.
Most importantly – SHARE. This kind of restrictive censorship will not flourish in the light of day. The Medical Board of Australia is relying on this discussion paper remaining unknown by the general public, to push through changes that will affect you and the broader community. Once the issue is in the public eye, the Board will be forced to genuinely consider the needs of the community.
We only have until June 12 to make submissions. Please don’t delay. Act now – your future health choices depend on it.
Heart disease and diabetes are usually associated with adults, but a pilot study in the US has found one-third of school students in Years 7 and 8 had high cholesterol or abnormal blood sugar levels – early warning signs of heart disease and diabetes.
Children in Ohio aged between 12 and 14 had blood tests to screen for cholesterol and blood sugar levels. A high proportion, 42%, were either overweight or obese, more than the US national average. In Australia, 28% of children are overweight or obese, increasing their risk of health problems.
The America Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 7% of US children aged between 6 and 19 have high cholesterol, a known risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Many parents are unaware, as there are no symptoms.
Diet is strongly linked to health outcomes, and it is vital for children to develop healthy habits early, including eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, exercising regularly and avoiding a sedentary lifestyle.
Our clinic supports patients of all ages with a variety of health conditions. Click here to learn more.
Doctors in the USA have started writing prescriptions to improve people’s health – not for drugs, but for fruit and vegetables.
Food prescription programs recognise the vital role of diet in overall health, and are having an impact, especially on children dealing with food insecurity.
More than 11% of US households experienced food insecurity at some point in 2017, according to Dept of Agriculture research. Food prescription programs help these people gain access to healthier food, and the approach is now being used to motivate other groups.
Patients with health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity or heart disease may be more likely to change their diet if the advice comes in the form of a doctor’s prescription.
Our injectable nutrient clinic supports patients with a variety of health conditions. Click here to learn more.
Click here to read more about food prescriptions.
More than 1000 people a year are hospitalised with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in Western Australia alone, and the number is rising. Now WA doctors are aiming to collect human poo for a treatment that cures CDI in 90% of cases.
CDI is a potentially fatal infection of the large intestine that kills around 14,000 people a year in the USA. Between 5-10% of people have the CD bacterium in their bowel without experiencing any symptoms, but it can bloom out of control, often after antibiotic use.
Researchers at the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth have trialled faecal microbiota transplantations (FMT) – a treatment that involves placing poo from healthy people into the bowel of CDI patients. The success rate for the treatment is 90%, and now researchers are planning a bank of stool samples for transplantation.
The WA Gut Microbiome Bank will strictly screen donors to ensure they have good gut health, are not overweight or suffering from type 2 diabetes.
In addition to CDI, the bank will help researchers trialling faecal transplants in cases of recurrent urinary tract infections, autism and obesity.
Our clinic supports patients with a variety of health conditions. Click here to learn more.
Most of us are familiar with postnatal depression, even if we are lucky enough never to experience it for ourselves. But there is another condition that is very prevalent among mothers of young children, and can be almost as debilitating over the longer term – postnatal depletion.
Postnatal depletion is a syndrome with physical and mental symptoms, brought on by the stresses of modern parenthood, with symptoms including deep fatigue and hypervigilance.
This feeling over being constantly overwhelmed can take a toll on our physical and mental wellbeing, including long-term effects on immune function and gut health. As we know, gut issues can lead to a variety of further health issues.
Our injectable nutrient clinic supports patients with a variety of health conditions. Click here to learn more.
You can read more about postnatal depletion in this article: click here.
A Melbourne woman tells the story of how she overcame the debilitating and painful eczema that had troubled her since she was a toddler.
She had terrific results from making changes to her diet, along with strategies to manage her stress levels.
Renee Mowatt’s eczema once extended across her body, including her eyelids, the backs of her knees and the insides of her elbows. Steroid creams only provided temporary relief, until she decided to look for and address the root cause.
She reduced caffeine, alcohol, gluten, dairy and red meat in her diet, and began daily yoga and meditation to manage stress.
The link between vitamin D deficiency and cognitive disorders has been known for a long time, and new research by Australian scientists may have found the answer.
Researchers at the Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland have shown that a lack of vitamin D affects a brain structure known as perineuronal nets, or PNN. This research could lead to preventive measures, or better treatments for conditions including depression and schizophrenia.
Perineuronal nets are made of proteins and sugars, and form a supportive mesh around certain brain cells, helping to stabilise the contacts between neurons. The researchers found that in mice with a vitamin D deficiency, there was a reduction in PNNs in the hippocampus, an area of the brain crucial for memory formation.
The hippocampus is also vital for our special awareness and perception of reality.
Previously, it was believed that PNNs were fixed by adulthood, so the discovery that they can be broken down is cause for optimism. Under the right conditions, it might be possible for new PNNs to form.
Our injectable nutrient clinic supports patients with a variety of health conditions. Click here to learn more.
Exciting new research from Deakin University in Victoria has found that vitamin C could help people with type 2 diabetes.
Not only does the right dose of vitamin C reduce sugar spikes, it could also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and help to lower blood pressure.
The Deakin researchers found that two 500mg doses of vitamin C each day can lower blood sugar levels and reduce post-meal sugar spikes by 36% – a significant effect.
This means the patients spent three hours less per day in a state of hyperglycaemia. This is good news, as hyperglycaemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease for people with type 2 diabetes.
Participants of the study who had hypertension also found their blood pressure was reduced while taking the vitamin.
Our injectable nutrient clinic supports patients with a variety of health conditions. Click here to learn more.
IV Therapy, or injectable nutrient therapy, is growing in popularity around the world as people become aware of its potential.
At Professional Integrative Medicine, our injectable nutrients clinic supports patients with a variety of health conditions.
While the focus of many articles in the media is on celebrities and lifestyle, intravenous nutrients are becoming more widely recognised in a medical context. At PIM, all therapies are tailored to suit the needs of each individual patient by a doctor, and administered by a registered nurse.
Click here to find out more about our clinic.
This recent news article provides some information on IV Therapies – click here to read more.
Researchers in the US are conducting trials testing the effect of an injections of vitamin C, vitamin B1 and a steroid in the treatment of sepsis.
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition brought on by the body’s response to infection. Before sterile instruments and antibiotics, sepsis was a common complication from wounds and surgery, and still affects more than a million people a year in the USA alone. Between a quarter and a half of those affected die.
The research follows the successful use of the therapy by Dr Paul Marik, MD, chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School. When Marik gave the vitamin cocktail to 47 patients with sepsis, all but four survived. Before administering the treatment, 19 out of 47 sepsis patients died.
The results of this small study are remarkable, and prompted a larger scale study involving hundreds of patients in multiple hospitals in the US.
Our injectable nutrient clinic supports patients with a variety of health conditions. Click here to learn more.
You can read more detail about these studies by clicking here and here.
The UK press reports on a woman who no longer suffers from the chronic eczema that made it so painful for her to get dressed that she was unable to go to work.
The treatment? Intravenous nutrient therapy including high doses of vitamin C.
Previously, doctors had prescribed steroid creams, which only offered short-term relief from symptoms without addressing the problem. Antihistamines made her drowsy without improving the condition at all.
A few sessions of IV vitamins have cleared up her skin dramatically.
At our injectable nutrients clinic, each patient receives a program of therapy tailored to suit their medical needs, as diagnosed by a doctor. Click here to learn more about our clinic.
Insomnia is complex and can have many contributing causes: a vitamin or mineral deficiency is one possible culprit.
Vitamin D can be implicated in a lack of sleep, either from having too much or not enough. Too much can make you feel sleepy during the day, affecting your sleep cycle at night, while a lack of vitamin D can lead to fewer hours of sleep per night.
Vitamin B12 is another possible nutrient with an effect on sleep. A B12 deficiency is known to bring on symptoms of depression, along with a lack of sleep.
Magnesium plays a role in enzyme production, and the neurotransmitter GABA that controls our feelings of sleepiness. A lack of magnesium is also linked to other breakdowns in body functions.
A lack of iron, also known as anaemia, can result in restless legs syndrome, a condition that makes your legs twitch, resulting in disturbed sleep.
Some of these deficiencies can be corrected with diet, in other cases supplements may be necessary. In any case it is best to discuss your concerns with a doctor.
You can talk to Dr Timothy Hall about nutrients and insomnia, or any aspect of your health and wellbeing. You don’t need a referral from a GP, just call 8379 1124 today to make an appointment.
Click here to read more about nutrient deficiencies and insomnia.
New research has linked women’s gluten intake during pregnancy with subsequent type 1 diabetes in their children.
The study of 67,500 women shows that women who consume more than 20 grams of gluten per day are twice as likely to have a child with the condition than women who consume less than 7 grams.
This study shows similar results to previous research on mice.
If you have concerns about your diet and nutrition, you can talk to Dr Timothy Hall. You don’t need a referral from a GP, just call 8379 1124 today.
Diet advice can be so confusing. Low fat, low carb, low sugar – there is a lot of conflicting advice. Sometimes “commonsense” advice like consuming fewer calories can be misleading, as this article suggests.
A theory known as the Carbohydrate Insulin Model (CIM) suggests that high-glycemic-load carbs like refined grains, potato products and sugars raise insulin levels. This sends your body into fat storage mode, putting the calories you consume into fat cells and not leaving enough for you – you put on weight but you still feel hungry! Then, when you eat less, your metabolism slows down, making it hard to shed any weight at all.
These foods have become much more prevalent since low-fat diets first appeared 40 years ago, which coincides with increasing levels of obesity in our society.
The CIM theory is supported by this year-long study, showing the changes in metabolism prompted by different diets and concluding that the low-carb diet has the greatest potential for long-term weight loss.
If you have concerns about your diet and nutrition, you can talk to Dr Timothy Hall. You don’t need a referral from a GP, just call 8379 1124 today.
Our injectable nutrient clinic supports patients with a number of health conditions.
Men, remember this advice – eat leafy greens, red and dark orange vegetables, berry fruits, and orange juice.
Men who eat a diet rich in these foods have a lower risk of decline in memory and thinking skills as they age.
A study at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston followed 27,842 men for 26 years, analysing their dietary habits and finding a link between eating fruits and vegetables and brain health.
The men who ate the most vegetables were 34% less likely to report a decline in cognitive function.
We know diet and nutrition are essential to many aspects of our health and wellbeing. You don’t need a referral to talk to Dr Timothy Hall, just call 8379 1124 to make an appointment.
Our injectable nutrient clinic supports patients with a number of health conditions.
