It really captured the media when a palliative nurse in Australia revealed the most common regrets of people dying and put them into a book entitled The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. They were:

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

It is possible to avoid such regrets in life and leave peacefully without any sorrow over the past.  There are many things that we don’t have control over, such as other people dying, but we can’t really count them as our own regrets. What is key in a health sense is that Bronnie Ware, the Australian nurse, claimed that those people who settled for a mediocre existence by suppressing their feelings to keep the peace, developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried. This is real acknowledgement of the connection between mind, body and spirit.

She also claimed that every male patient she nursed felt that they had misse dtheir children’s youth and their partner’s companionship through working too hard. These men felt sad that they had spent a large part of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence. 

It’s a real lesson in living life in the present and being aware that you are being true to yourself.  In the words of the author, ‘Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.’

Returning on 22 to 25th March 2012 at Earl’s Court.  Tickets to be won in our Healthy Soul competition.

If recent publicity has put you off cosmetic surgery then Face Yoga could be the safe alternative.  Danielle Collins will be teaching free classes at this year’s Vitality Show – after just one class your face will feel lifted, energised and relaxed. Face Yoga is a natural way of looking younger and healthier using face exercise, face massage, relaxation and acupressure. It works by boosting the natural plumping agents in the skin, lifting and toning the face muscles and releasing blocked tension in the face.

 
Danielle Collins is the UK’s leading Face Yoga expert and outlines a couple of techniques below. Visit http://www.vitalitylive.co.uk  for more information.

Two Face Yoga techniques

The ‘V’: Works the orbicularis oculi muscles to reduce lines and wrinkles around the eyes and to make the eyes appear more open and energised. Put both your middle fingers together between your eyebrows then apply pressure to the outer corners of your eyes with your index fingers. Look up and start to move the lower eyelids upwards, making a strong squint. Then relax and repeat 6 more times. To finish squeeze your eyes shut for 10 seconds then relax.

Giraffe: Works the platysma muscle to tone and lift the neck area. Looking straight ahead place your finger tips on the top of your neck and pull the skin down as you tilt your head back. Bring your head back down and repeat twice more. Then jut your lower lip out as far as possible, place your fingers on your collarbone and point your chin upwards, pulling the corners of your mouth down. Hold for 4 deep breaths.
The Vitality Show this year offers over 60 free fitness classes run by personal trainers, yoga and dance instructors (including Bollywood dancing).  There are free talks on the One Life Theatre, Health and Nutrition Stage or Beauty Expert Stage from a world renowned programme of industry experts, celebrities and motivational speakers.

One of the speakers is Caroline Carr, life coach and hypnotherapist, who works with people whose partners are depressed. She has personal experience to bring to bear, and has written seven books on anxiety and depression.  Her website is www.mypartnerisdepressed.com

 Three kinds of VIP Experiences are on offer– the Pamper Experience was a total sell-out last year and consists of a full body massage or a facial, provided by Return to Glory.  The VIP Salon Experience is hosted by KMS California for a hair grooming session, and the VIP Style Experience consists of luxury manicures or make up consultations.  Bare Minerals offers advice on using the right foundation and how to look glamorous for special occasions.

Tickets for both shows can be purchased from The Vitality Show website and VIP packages are available.  

Go to the Healthy Soul competition to win a pair of tickets.  You need to join the Healthy Soul mailing list to enter the competition.

It’s around about now that the New Year resolutions go out the window, so Healthy Soul asked TV medic, Dr Hilary Jones for some advice about how to remain resolute. 
 
 ‘Number one of the giving up list has to be smoking as it is the most important thing you can do to improve your health. It’s never too late to quit smoking as the body starts to recover as soon as you give up.  Next on my list would be awareness of how much alcohol you are drinking. Current advice is to have two alcohol-free days a week, but this is not any good if you are bingeing on the other days.’

Read  Quit Smoking   and Do We Drink Too Much?

Another priority for Dr Hilary is obesity. ‘People often lose heart if they don’t see any change within the first month. Losing weight often means changing your mindset, taking more exercise and eating healthily.  Rather like smoking and drinking, eating too much can be an addiction.  It is also a psychological issue – we often comfort eat because we’re feeling angry, frustrated or unhappy, and these problems need to be addressed.

‘Apart from their own issues, some people find that their partners sabotage their weight loss programmes, because they don’t want them to become more attractive to other people.’

He recommends Lighter Life’s weight loss programme which provides emotional support to people losing weight from the start and while they are shedding pounds.  Their CBT (cognitive behaviour therapists) help people to deal with the emotional issues behind their weight gain. For a full explanation of how Lighter Life has helped many people to lose weight see the Healthy Soul article: Emotional Eating  or go to www.lighterlife.com

‘Exercise shouldn’t be under-estimated either, but it’s better to do something you enjoy.  The body is designed to exercise and it has all the following benefits:
• Speeds metabolism.
• Helps you to sleep.
• Reduces blood pressure.
• Encourages weight loss.
• Lowers cholesterol.
• Reduces incidence of heart disease.
• Lessens chances of getting diabetes.
• Helps the joints.

‘You do need to enjoy what you are doing though,’ Dr Hilary sums up.

More people would enjoy the benefits of complementary therapies if they were available free on the NHS. One of the big advantages of our health service is that you can go to the doctor and receive treatment free of charge, but while you may be given a prescription for drugs or referred to a specialist, what are the chances of being sent for a massage or a session of reflexology to ease your stress?

 
The answer is that the chances are quite slim and again it is a bit of a geographical lottery. If you live in areas where the GP practice (or Primary Care Trust) is in favour of such therapies you may find it much easier, than one where only traditional treatments are available. 

 
Both osteopathy and chiropractic are regulated which means that they are accepted under NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) guidelines, yet surprisingly they are not as available as you might expect.
Acupuncture is, however, widely available in the NHS but provision is still patchy and you may not get it wherever you live.

Some people believe that having a more integrated medical system including therapies would help to cut NHS bills by preventing illness before it became more serious – and more costly. 

Click here to read about if it’s possible to get the following therapies on the NHS, and if so where:

• Acupuncture
• Alexander Technique
• Aromatherapy
• Chiropractic
• Counselling
• Herbal Medicine
• Homeopathy
• Hypnotherapy
• Manual Lymph Drainage
• Nutrition
• Osteopathy
• Reflexology
• Reiki
• T’ai chi 

To read about some inspiring GP practices and clinics click here

Now is the worst time of year for coughs and colds, flu and other nasties. You can try going to the doctor but there’s often little they can do, so why not try some natural remedies to ease the pain? They don’t work like magic but they can help to soothe symptoms.

There is no substitute for medical advice when someone is really unwell but for more minor ailments there are plenty of alternatives.  

COLDS

Serious illnesses are not cured with complementary medicine, but symptoms can sometimes be managed with a healthy eating regime and use of therapies.

We’re more likely to get colds when we’re run down, stressed and tired. They are most common between September and March with peak time around Christmas. People still work when they have a cold, but rest and sleep are a good way to get better.

Symptoms include:

• sneezing
• runny nose
• blocked up nose
• sore throat
• earache
• sinus pain
• low grade fever

• Keep taking Echinacea to boost the immune system and help to clear up the cold faster
• Chew grapefruit seeds or take the liquid extract, according to Suzanne Woodward, medical herbalist
• Steam inhalations help to clear stuffed up noses – put a few drops of eucalyptus, tea tree, or lavender oil in a bowl of boiling hot water and breathe in the vapours
• Try ginger root tea– one inch of peeled and chopped ginger boiled in water

Echinacea photo courtesy of A.Vogel Bioforce

A great combination is Yarrow, Peppermint and Elder, often prescribed by herbalists as a tea – Yarrow fights fever, Elderflower eases catarrh, and Peppermint cools and calms.

The other great soothers for colds:

• Plenty of Vitamin C – nutritionists claim that 200 mg a day or more is safe when in need
• Garlic boosts the immune system – take capsules or if you can bear it put it raw into soups and casseroles.

Cautious note: always check with your GP if taking prescribed medication BEFORE having herbal remedies as they may contraindicate the medicines.

• Antibiotics don’t work for viruses, such as colds and flu
• Taking too many can lower the body’s defences when it needs to fight more serious infection

Echinacea can be taken at the first signs of aches and pains (unless you are on medication in which case you should check for contraindications), as well as homeopathic remedies:

• Gelsemium for aches and pains, rising temperature and constant aching;
• Rhus Tox for aches and pains which get better when moving around;
• Belladonna for sudden high fever, with or without sweating, cold hands and feet.

Boneset is an excellent herbal remedy for someone who has had flu for a couple of weeks, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better.

SORE THROATS:

Antibiotics should only be offered for infections like tonsillitis but natural remedies can help to soothe the throat. If a sore throat seems to be signalling the start of a cold the homeopathic remedy Aconite can stop it progressing.

Over recent years doctors have been advised to cut down on handing out antibiotics yet research shows that 44 per cent of people who see doctors when they have a cold are given a prescription for antibiotics. The downside of this is that when they get a serious illness they may be antibiotic-resistant (as we’ve seen with many hospital infections).

Propolis is made by bees from natural ingredients to protect their hives from infection and invasion, and gargling with it soothes a sore throat. Gargling with a few drops of tea tree oil or a pinch of salt in a glass of warm water also eases the pain.

HEADACHES

Too many painkillers can suppress headaches and make them recur. The causes of a headache may be tension, hormonal imbalances, blocked sinuses, or back and neck problems. If headaches persist you should always consult a doctor, but if there is no serious problem you might find that a chiropractor or cranial osteopath can find the problem and ease the pain.

Trying to get rid of a headache can be really difficult, and one approach is to put strong smelling eucalyptus or camphor on the skin above the sinuses or on the forehead as so many headaches are caused by blocked sinuses. There are now several sticks available that make this easy to do, except you must be sure not to get it too near your eyes or they will pour.

Feverfew is the herbal answer to painkillers and Belladonna homeopathic remedy, is good for a throbbing headache, particularly in children.

GLUE EAR/EAR ACHE

Often children with ear problems have repeated prescriptions for antibiotics which run down their immune systems. Homeopathy works well for glue ear and Pulsatilla is the most common remedy when there is lots of discharge. In cases of repeated ear infections a visit to a professional homeopath can be invaluable.

For adults earache can be cleared by putting a drop of lavender oil on a piece of cotton wool and placing it in the ear, but the vapours are quite strong and may not be recommended for children. For a desperate child you could try the old fashioned remedy of a baked onion, cut in half, wrapped in muslin and placed on the outside of the ear. Jenny Jones, herbalist, explains, ‘The vapours from the onion oils are antiseptic and anti-inflammatory, and they go into the ear and the heat of the warm onion is also soothing.’

The National Institute of Medical Herbalists, 01392 426022, www.nimh.org.uk
For a list of homeopaths contact: The Society of Homeopaths, 01604 621400, www.homeopathy-soh.org
Jenny Jones, Creative Health Centre, Leamington Spa, 01926 316500

Losing weight is never easy. First of all you have to be in the right state of mind and determined that you want to succeed, and secondly you have to identify what you should and should not be eating.

Most health experts agree that eating healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, pulses, fish, chicken and seeds and nuts, while drinking plenty of water enables you to adopt a diet that is sustainable and filling but enables you to lose weight. This also means cutting out coffee, tea, colas and alcohol, sugar, and saturated fats.

 The 21st Century Epidemic

Currently 24 million adults are overweight, and predictions are that half of the population will be clinically obese by the year 2030. The government is particularly concerned because obesity is one of the main risk factors for cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

A recent survey claims that the so-called ‘hourglass’ figure will no longer exist as waist sizes for women which currently average 34 inches are going to go up to 42 inches in 50 years’ time if we keep getting bigger. The research was commissioned by the magazine Prima which found that women’s waists are now 7 inches larger than their grandmothers were! According to the Daily Express the 1950′s woman had a waist of 27.5 in and now it is 34 in. So no longer the 36, 24, 36 that was considered so desirable, with busts now at 39 in as opposed to 37 in and women an inch taller now at 5ft 4in on average.

People who are classed as obese have a body weight of over 30 BMI (body mass index), while anyone of 25-30 BMI is considered to be overweight.

Body mass index is obtained by dividing a person’s body weight in kilos by their height in metres squared (times itself) For example, you might be 1.6m (5ft 3in) tall and weigh 65kg (10st). The calculation would then be: 24.8 BMI – just below the overweight bracket!

Unfortunately highlighting the issue can make obese people feel as if they are being persecuted. There are so many reasons why someone becomes overweight and it may be better viewed as an addiction, like alcohol or drugs, to be treated with compassion.

Emotional factors:

‘It’s like shedding the layers of an onion getting to the real cause behind obesity,’ according to counsellor, Bar Hewlett. There could be any number of factors that lead people to have mixed feelings about food including:

• Conflict at the dinner table as a child;
• Dysfunctional families and sibling rivalry;
• Discipline based around food – ‘you’ll go without your tea for that!’
• A need for attention seeking;
• Self-loathing

The result can be one of two extremes – obesity or anorexia. It’s too trite to blame obesity on overeating – the question is why do some people need to eat more than others? Some people feel that when things go wrong in their lives their way of gaining control is to eat.

Addressing the emotions that make people want to eat is the best way to lose weight. See Emotional Eating.

Healthy Soul advocates healthy eating, exercise and addressing emotional issues where weight is a continuous and serious problem for you.

Organic Weight Management Plan

Viridian has launched an Organic Weight Management Plan that consists of four food supplements to encourage your body to lose weight. This isn’t some faddy new ‘miracle’ diet but a sensible balance of nutrients to help stabilise blood sugar levels and metabolism, regulate gut flora, restore the correct balance of acid/alkalinity so that the body is not too acidic, and help to safely detoxify leading to loss of weight. It consists of:

• Organic Green Tea in capsule form
• Organic Soulfood Greens
• Organic Mineral Complex
• Organic Nopal

Green Tea has a number of properties that help in weight loss – it increases metabolism, thereby increasing core temperature, which burns more calories. It also is high in antioxidants and has been shown to increase the detoxification of enzymes.

Organic Soulfood Greens consists of Spirulina, wheatgrass, barleygrass, alfafa leaf, wild wrack, seaweed and chlorella which provide a huge array of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids and antioxidants to raise energy levels, restore normal acid/alkaline levels in the body and help to detoxify.

Organic Mineral Complex contains over 80 essential trace and macro minerals together with nettle and horsetail herbs which help to eliminate excess fluid.

Organic Nopal comes from natural dehydrated leaves of the prickly pear cactus, which is very high in nutrients and fibre. The high fibre content increases its own volume in the stomach making you feel full up and as it digests slowly it regulates glucose in the body, stabilising blood sugar levels. It also reduces fat absorption, regulates gut flora which improves digestion, and can have a diuretic effect, reducing fluid from the body.

The Organic Weight Management Plan from Viridian, includes 90 veg caps of each of the above with a daily dose of three of each at each meal time, and a 24 page informative booklet on losing weight. It costs £65.00 from Nutricentre.

You’ve had a hard day at work, the children are playing up and there’s no-one to talk to about it all. So you pour a drink – just one won’t hurt and then you pour another. And before you know it that’s half a bottle in one evening and so it goes on all week.

Drinking is an acceptable social pastime and relaxant but for many people in Britain it is getting out of hand.

• 1.3 million children have parents with alcohol problems
• One in ten people drink double the government guidelines (see box)
• 5.9 million Britons are binge drinkers
• One in 20 of us can’t get through the day without a drink
• Alcohol accounts for 3.5 per cent of deaths and disability worldwide, while illegal drugs account for 0.6 per cent

A drink problem?

There are many mixed messages out there and we live in a drinks culture. It is true that moderate consumption of red wine is good for your health, but when does what you are drinking become too much?

Around 25 per cent of women in the UK are drinking above safe levels and although it may appear to be socially acceptable alcohol causes long term damage to health. If you find you can’t go a day without a drink, that you are preoccupied with getting that first glass, get into trouble when drinking or conversely find that you are completely tolerant to alcohol you may have a problem.

Safe drinking

Women: between 14 and 21 units a week
Men – between 21 and 28

A unit is one small glass of wine, one measure of spirits, half a pint of beer equivalent to 10ml of pure alcohol. According to the Dept of Health a pint of ordinary strength lager such as:

• Carling Black Label or Fosters is two units
• A 175ml glass of red or white wine is 2
• An Alcopop is around 1.5 units

If you are drinking to relieve depression be aware that alcohol is a depressant and in the long term it will make you feel worse. As well as health problems such as high blood pressure, liver damage, increased likelihood of cancer, heart disease and strokes, and untold problems for unborn babies, excessive drinking has many social effects.

People often find they cannot maintain relationships, they become aggressive or depressed and are unable to keep on top of everyday tasks or jobs. Even slightly too much drinking can disturb sleep patterns, induce skin rashes and poor complexion and make people forgetful and confused. Many who give up for a while find they feel more alert and energetic.

What can you do to relax?

But life is tough and if you haven’t got your bottle of wine and bar of chocolate to look forward to what can you do? Time is often at a premium particularly if your children are young and you don’t have much help but even so maybe it’s possible to squeeze in a bit of ‘me’ time

• Learn meditation – it is calming, helps you to focus the mind and can lower blood pressure
• Or try to spend 20 minutes a day lying or sitting quietly with eyes closed or listening to relaxing music – tell the family this is what you’re doing and ask for them to leave you alone (they’ll appreciate a calmer you)
• Go for a walk or jog with the children if necessary – it’s free
• Get a dog to take for a walk but be aware that it’s another commitment
• Join a gym, a tennis club, go swimming or whatever takes your fancy
• Go to yoga or t’ai chi classes which are good for mind, body and spirit, incredibly relaxing and calming
• Get a mini bouncer for the garden if you are tied to the home

• Use Bach Flowers Rescue Remedy to calm you down instead of alcohol
• If feeling very fraught try taking Valerian, Passiflora or Avena Sativa herbal calmers, but if you’re on other medication check with your GP first
• Experts suggest having more sex, but this may be easier said than done!

Tips to cut down on drinking:

• Choose wine over spirits as it has health benefits
• Sip the drink slowly
• Drink a glass of water for each glass of alcohol you drink
• Only drink on weekends and have Monday to Thursday alcohol free
• Don’t buy in bulk – buy as you need it (it will save you money)
• Don’t drink before you eat – the French only drink with meals and handle their wine well
• Meet someone in a café or go to a cinema instead of going to the pub
• Think about your friends – can you enjoy some people’s company without a drink and if so could you avoid the heavy drinking set?

Complementary therapies:

If you have addiction problems you may get a referral from the doctor to clinics that use complementary therapies such as acupuncture which works on the cravings, hypnotherapy which changes your thinking about alcohol or herbal medicine – there are some remedies that relieve cravings for alcohol. If you can afford these therapies they may help to relax you and support you through cutting down.

The Gateway Clinic in Lewisham uses Chinese Herbal Medicine and acupuncture for people with addictions – if in the area ask your GP for a referral as it’s available on the NHS.

Getting Help

Drinkline: 0800 9178282

Talk to Frank: 0800 776600

Alcohol Concern, http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk and www.howsyourdrink.org.uk

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) – every Yellow Pages has a local listing. Meetings involve structured group therapy with people discussing their problems in a caring environment.

Ten million people every year reach for an antibiotics prescription, and despite repeated warnings by the Chief Medical Officer some doctors still hand them out for colds, flu and sore throats, all viruses for which they are usually ineffective. Consequently,  antibiotic resistance is growing with superbugs rife in hospitals and some serious illnesses not responding to treatment.

 
Even though people insist that some infections only respond to antibiotics, that’s not entirely true either.  Complementary therapies such as acupuncture, reflexology, herbal medicine, and homeopathy have good success rates with a wide number of ailments, enabling the body to heal itself much quicker without drugs.

 
The average child in the UK has had 10 courses of antibiotics by the age of 16, seriously upsetting the microflora in the body which may never recover if steps are taken to improve it. This also means that when babies are born they are inheriting unhealthy bacteria from their mothers’ guts. And to add even more salt to the wound, meat eaters who do not eat organic may be getting traces of antibiotics routinely fed to animals as prophylactics. The good news about this is that the European Parliament is considering banning routine antibiotics in farm animals.

Recent research published in Nature, outlined the long-term changes to beneficial bacteria in the gut when people take antibiotics, which kill the ‘healthy’ bacteria as well as the ‘hostile’.  It was claimed by Dr Blaser, chairman of the Department of Medicine at New York University,  that overuse of antibiotics was also prompting an increase in obesity, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, allergies and asthma.

The alternative to antibiotics

• Probiotics encourage the healthy growth of microflora in the gut (see ) so anyone who has had (or is taking) antibiotics should take them routinely.(see) You can eat probiotics naturally in live yoghurt or take them in capsule form.  Read: Keeping Your Microflora in Good Shape  

 
• Prebiotics lay the right foundations for probiotics to flourish, and are prevalent in chicory, 
onions, wheat, barley, garlic, rye, oats, bananas, or can be taken in capsule form. See: Prebiotics not Probiotics

Probiotics has become a household word due to advertisers of yogurts and other products containing them. But what are they for and how can they protect our health?

We hear all the time how our modern lifestyles are causing us to suffer from more allergies, minor ailments, skin problems, and unexplained illness such as chronic fatigue syndrome. Every year there are more than a million deaths from food poisoning and much of the reason for all of this is that hostile bacteria take over our gut – the digestive tract, stomach and intestines – and knock out the so-called friendly bacteria which boosts our immune system and helps us to fight disease.

Healthy v hostile bacteria

The gut is like a wild garden with over 400 different species of bacteria weighing some four to five pounds. In a healthy person the ‘friendly’ microflora cling to the wall of the intestinal tract like barnacles preventing harmful bacteria getting a hold. But they are constantly under attack from hostile bacteria which become prevalent when we suffer from stress, take antibiotics or the oral contraceptive, eat poorly, become ill, travel abroad, or drink too much alcohol.

Stress sets off a chain of activities in the body resulting in excess mucus being produced in the gut, which allows the microflora to slide off the wall of the intestinal tract, leaving space for the dangerous bacteria to take over. When we travel overseas we may get a double whammy – added to the stress of getting ready to go away and travelling for hours it’s possible we might eat food that contains harmful bacteria as well as drinking unsafe local tap water.

Once diarrhoea sets in all the friendly bacteria are completely flushed out and need to be replaced. If antibiotics are prescribed for the upset stomach they kill of pathogens in the gut, but also destroy everything in their path including microflora. Oral contraceptives and steroids have the same effect, so consequently the immune system is weakened and we are left defenceless.

A proliferation of hostile bacteria in the intestinal tract creates the right environment for the yeast, candida albicans, to multiply and take on its fungal form. Candida grows roots which pierce the cell membranes giving it free access to the blood and tissues.

Candida is frequently the source of debilitating symptoms such as irritable bowel syndrome, digestive problems, eczema, exhaustion, cystitis, headaches and migraine. When candida spreads through the intestinal tract into a woman’s vagina it becomes thrush.

Boost your immune system

Help is at hand in the form of Probiotics, a word which literally means ‘for life’ and a word that is slowly creeping into the popular vocabulary mainly due to advertising for yogurts containing probiotic bacteria such as Lactobacillus.

The generic term, Probiotics covers a number of strains of friendly bacteria which naturally occur in food or can be taken as food supplements. In Sweden a packet of Probiotics is routinely provided alongside a prescription for antibiotics to try to prevent too much damage being done.

Probiotics supplements consist of live microbial cultures which inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria, promote good digestion, boost immune function, stimulate the growth and activity of microflora, and improve the balance of healthy bacteria in the intestinal tract.

There are a number of friendly bacteria strains which can be found in the gut, some of which are resident and others which pass through without staying. The primary residents are Lactobacillus and Bifidus bacteria, while thermophilus is transient. Most of the organisms create an acid environment which is hostile to harmful bacteria, and they assist in digestion. Lactobacillus acidophilus and bulgaricus also fight the harmful bacteria.

Some manufacturers add Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) to their supplements. FOS are found in tomatoes, onions, bananas, garlic, wheat, artichokes, leeks, asparagus, and chicory nourishes, encourages the growth of both Bifidobacteria and Lactobacilli in the colon. These are prebiotics which are like the ‘fertiliser’ to encourage the growth of the healthy bacteria found in probiotics.

Nutritional advice

Nutritionists and complementary therapists often prescribe probiotics for people with digestive problems who are suffering from excess candida, but to kill off the candida they usually suggest herbal antifungals as well. The analogy of a lawn has been made – before putting down the grass seed it’s important to get rid of the weeds!

Patrick Holford, author and broadcaster and the founder of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition in the UK, recommends a specific four-point programme. ‘Firstly, I would put a patient on a diet which excludes sugar, then use antifungals, boost the immune system with whatever minerals and vitamins the patient is lacking, and finally give them probiotics.’

The number and type of strains which are contained in probiotics varies from one manufacturer to the next although some companies produce a wide range which includes most of the major strains.

There are so many sites in the gut where bacteria can live and one strain cannot populate the entire gut. Different bacteria like different growing conditions and it is important to find a probiotic which contains the bacteria that populate every part of the gut.

Probiotics in the diet

Live yogurt is an excellent source of probiotics but it is necessary to eat a vast amount every day to equal the amount contained in tablets. Eating live yogurt several times a day is, however, very beneficial and is often recommended by complementary therapists, provided that dairy has not been excluded from the diet. Soya is a good substitute but it’s important to check that the yogurt is live.

A note of caution – some of the probiotic products on the market contain sugar too – which is counterproductive for anyone who is suffering from candida. Check the ingredients before buying!

Further reading: The New Optimum Nutrition Bible, by Patrick Holford, published by Piatkus.

For further information visit: www.patrickholford.com
The National Candida Society: www.candida-society.org