Latest Articles

Stress management

By chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

When people mention that they are stressed, they usually refer to relationships, work or finances causing them distress.

There is more to stress than meets the eye, however. Stress is, by definition,

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The top 8 foods to make dairy-free easier!

By  Kelly Horne

When you need to go dairy free it can be hard if you are missing your favorite foods. If you want to be successful with this way of eating, you need to embrace some new foods or use old foods a different way.

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Chiropractic and falls prevention

By Chiropractor Dr. Graham Taylor

We know that falling (called “a fall”) is a major risk for injury in older adults and is a significant cause of death. Life can be very difficult for those who experience a fall.

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Yeah, I feel better, but how does chiropractic actually work?

By Chiropractor Dr. Graham Taylor

Chiropractic was founded in 1895 in Iowa, the USA by Dr. Daniel David Palmer. But in fact, spinal manipulation had been used in several other countries for a long time prior to then.

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Why is good posture important?

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

If you have seen a chiropractor, chances are they talked about your posture. This isn’t just to make you look better, but also because it has a lot of implications as far as how your body functions in the world goes.

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What’s all this talk about tongue tie (ankyloglossia)?

By Chiropractor Dr. Graham Taylor

Did you know that the tongue position in the mouth is very important?

Why? The tongue is a very strong muscle and is viewed by orofacial experts as the “sculptor” of child facial development.

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Be kind to yourself in these difficult times (written during the fires in 2019)

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

These fires are very stressful for everyone. The fear of not surviving is a really visceral one. Even if you haven’t lost a loved one or property, or if you haven’t watched the news,

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What is Preconception Care?

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Many people think that if you want to have a baby, you just stop taking the pill, fall pregnant and have a happy, healthy baby. And are often left wondering why it doesn’t happen like that.

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Wellbeing of Mind, Body and Spirit

By Kelly Horne

When we talk about health at this practice we are not just talking about the absence of disease. It is the total well-being of mind, body and spirit – how many people can truly say they have this?

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How to love your guts!

by Lydia Irving

The role stomach acid plays in your digestion and how this is a key to balancing your hormones.
I refer to our gastric juices as our “Hot Pot”, like a burning hot bubbling cauldron.

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What is one kind of pain relief that’s natural and free and has no side-effects? Sleep!

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

One of the fabulous things about going to conferences is that you pick up little nuggets of clinical wisdom here and there. Research catches up with common sense and traditional wisdom eventually. So here’s a little bit of research we learnt about at the Brisbane conference in March.

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How to prevent winter dry skin – and stimulate your metabolism too!

By Kelly Horne

What is better than a hot shower on a cold winter morning? It’s a great feeling but those few minutes can lead to dry skin for the rest of the day. You can also end up more dehydrated.

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How to avoid winter dehyrdation (a factor in how susceptible you are to the flu!)

By Kelly Horne

So we are more than half way through winter but the nights are still cool and the morning still has that cold bite to it. The sun during the day is beautiful so I hope you are getting out for some warmth and vitamin D when you can.

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Is there such a thing as “not enough” stress?

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Someone asked me that the other day. I will go about answering that question the long way.

Most of us talk about “stress” meaning emotional stress and generally too much of it –

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What are EMFs and why are they important?

by  Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

EMF is an abbreviation for Electro-magnetic field.

Essentially, an electromagnetic field arises anywhere that you have electricity moving or waves of certain frequencies being emitted (tv waves are infrared, for example).

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The impact of small bad habits

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

The problem with small bad habits is that they can cause repetitive microtrauma.

I can literally see the question marks coming out of your ears!

Let me tell you what happened to me a couple of years ago: I bought a new car!

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Love your Gallbladder!

by  Lydia Irving

How often do you think about your gallbladder when deciding what to eat? Do you still even have your gallbladder?

So many adults and even young adults today suffer from gallstones and inflamed gallbladders resulting in the whole thing having to be removed.

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The 1,2,3 of a good night’s sleep!

By Lydia Irving

Can you relate to waking up in, what feels like the middle of the night, and it seems the whole world is sleeping except you?

Sleep arrives in response to a delicate balance of hormones that shut off your mind and sink you deep into slumber.

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A guide to good digestion Part 5: The Large Intestine: The Gut Microbiome

By Lydia Irving

The large intestine is the final stage of the digestive tract before the guts’ contents and waste leave your body. There are many interesting functions of this tube-shaped organ. The large intestine extends from the small intestine down near your right hip,

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A Guide to Good Digestion Part 4: The Small Intestine

by Lydia Irving

Here we are at the small intestine. By this stage of the digestive process, the mouth, stomach, liver, gallbladder and pancreas have broken down macronutrient (proteins, fats and fibers) food bits into micronutrients.

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The significance of Tongue and Lip ties (and what to do about it): a case study

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Recently, I had a young baby girl referred to me by the lovely lactation consultant Alissa in Port Macquarie. Baby was about 6 weeks old at that point, and had such a hard time breastfeeding because she couldn’t latch properly and would actually gag while trying to feed,

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Have you ever been heart-broken?

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

What does broken-hearted actually mean?

A little while ago, I read in a mainstream newspaper a little article that said that research had been done that showed that people whose hearts had been broken (emotionally) showed the same changes in heart physiology as those who had had a physically broken heart (heart attack).

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A Guide to good Digestion Part 3: The Liver, Gallbladder and Pancreas

By Lydia Irving

How exciting to make it this far down the digestive tract! We are almost halfway. By the completion of these articles I hope you feel much more connected and appreciative of the journey your food goes on after it disappears down your gob,

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A Guide to Good Digestion Part 2: The Stomach.

By Lydia Irving

Welcome to the second part of my introductory guide to digestion. In Part One, we learned all about the mouth and the important role of saliva and chewing in starting the process of digestion.

After the mouth,

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A Guide to Good Digestion Part 1: Digestion begins at the mouth

By Lydia Irving

A healthy gut is essential for wellbeing. Duh, right? It’s only something we’ve known about for 2,000 years! As the ‘Father of Medicine’, Hippocrates, famously said “All disease begins in the gut”. The opposite is also true: good health also starts with the gut.

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Bugs and Us

By chiropractor Dr. Graham Taylor

She said she’d like to bathe in milk and he said, “Alright sweetheart”.

And when he’d finished work one night, he loaded up the cart.

He said,

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SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth)

by Lydia Irving

My main focus as a practitioner (and human being) is the digestive system – the gut. The gut is the center of health, it is where most of our immune system resides, where we turn food into nutrients and where most of the 100 000 trillion microbes inhabit our body.

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Flu Season Survival Guide

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

NSW is experiencing a significant flu season this year. Chances are that you or someone you love has been affected by it. So what can you do to avoid or minimize the flu?

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Science is catching up with our gut feeling!

By Chiropractor Dr. Graham Taylor

Giulia Enders, author of the international best seller “Gut”, says; “Our gut is almost as important to us as our brain and our heart, yet we know very little about how it works”.

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Nourishing your body in winter

by Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Ok, so we are not experiencing your average Canadian or Norwegian winter (actually, it’s probably more like their summer), but our bodies are still in tune with the seasons, and each season has its’ own culinary delights (sounds promising,

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The Hibernation Hormone

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

We are currently finding ourselves in the part of the year when the days are shortest. Do you find yourself wanting to sleep more? Are you feeling less energetic and putting on a little weight?

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The Vagus nerve. Does it act as a sort of radar and does it influence how we relate with others and our world?

by Chiropractor  Dr. Graham Taylor

How do we know that the person we just met is ok? What tells us how welcoming to be towards someone? How do we decide if this new activity is safe to do?

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Home-made chocolate recipe

By Chiropractor  Dr. Annika Jende

All of the ingredients are available at the health food store.

Melt cacao butter over the lowest heat you can in a pan. You can also use coconut butter, but it does make the final product melt much more easily.

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How to have sweetness in life – without the sugar

by  Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Just as a PS to the most recent post: Sugar is the ultimate carb, just in case that wasn’t clear.

We are born wired for bliss. What does that mean? When we are born,

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Is your waist circumference more than half your height? Carbohydrate intolerance

By chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

If you have been paying even a little bit of attention in the last couple of years (eg. That Sugar Movie), you will have realized that sugar is the new tobacco as far as the world’s favourite new health hazard goes.

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Science catches up!

SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE ESTABLISHED FOR NEURO EMOTIONAL TECHNIQUE (NET)

by Chiropractor Dr. Graham Taylor

Evidence for NET stress reduction technique used at Spectrum
Isn’t it fantastic when science actually catches up with our lived experience or ‘reality’?

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Why be more alkaline? Because then you’ll be less acid…..

By Chiropractor Dr. Graham Taylor

Have you ever heard a friend say they are trying to become more alkaline? What does that really mean? And is this yet another new fashion in diets? Well when I look at the foods recommended I find elements of the Mediterranean diet and perhaps Paleo but also common sense.

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Health Clues in the Fingernails

By Bek Walker

We may not pay that much attention to them, however the fingernails can give some very clear indications as to the state of our health. The most significant things to look for include the colour,

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Massage and Trigger Points

by Don Foote

Trigger points are palpable nodules within tight bands of muscle fibres (contracted “knots”). They are generally created when muscles are stressed or damaged through injury, e.g. repetitive strain, sports injury or work injury.
Trigger points are an extremely common cause of pain and discomfort.

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Handy Medicinal Teas

By Bek Walker

There’s something so soothing about the ritual of making tea, and taking the time to enjoy a nice hot cup of it, don’t you think?

Well, if you’re not already into it, herbal teas come with some extra benefits and qualities that can be wonderful aids in times of unwellness or general lowness.

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When was the last time you felt joy in your body?

By chiropractor  Dr. Graham Taylor

We are sensory beings, designed to feel sensations. Not all sensations are pleasant and indeed some people do live with chronic and terrible pain, physical or emotional.  But joy and bliss are also part of the array of feelings we are designed to feel.

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What is your health philosophy?

By chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Did you know you had one? Most of us don’t, but it reflects in our health choices – even if we don’t know we have choices! So here are some insights that will allow you to get to know your philosophy.

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Muscle Memory

By  Don Foote

We are products of our day to day activities; whether we are on the tools or at a desk, we are creating memory in our physical bodies. This repetitive behaviour works the muscles continuously in set patterns which do not work the body in an even way.

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Fats

By chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Fats are actually an essential component of our bodies – our brains, for example, are 90% fat, and, let’s face it, for most of us, our brains are pretty important. Every single cell has a membrane that consists of two fat layers.

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Is your bathroom killing you?

By  Bek Walker

You may not realize the cocktail of chemicals that can be found in the average bathroom – and we’re not just talking about cleaning products here – everyday personal care products can contain known carcinogens and chemicals that have the potential to harm your health over time. 

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Mattresses

By chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

I am often asked how to decide what mattress to purchase. It is a vexed issue! Especially when you consider that you probably don’t spend so much time anywhere else.

If you go for anything with a pillow top on it,

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Wallets and Handbags

This is for the gentlemen:
If you put your wallet in your back pocket and then sit on it, that side of your pelvis will be elevated, and your pelvis and spine then has to compensate for this. If you do this often enough and for long enough,

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Sunscreen

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Have you ever read the ingredients list on the sunscreen you use?

A good rule of thumb is: don’t put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t eat, because it enters your blood stream through the skin (this is why nicotine,

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Scars are important

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Scars are meant to be fine lines that are hardly visible. If you have scars that are red, raised or tender, it means that the scar is posing problems.

It works like this: the body is held together by a fine mesh,

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You have a cold? Congratulations.

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

This is the time of year for “solider on” ads. Every time I see it, I cringe, and here’s why:
The part of the immune system that deals with viruses and bacteria and fungus also deals with tumours.

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I need good supportive shoes!

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Our feet are just amazing! Think about how the slender bones of the big toe not only carry but propel our entire body-weight with each step we take.

The bones in the foot are arranged so that there can be three arches: one in the instep,

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Can stress be good for you?

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

When we say “stress”, we generally mean mental-emotional stress, but technically, stress is anything the body has to adapt to. There is this concept in physiology called “homoeostasis”, where everything is in perfect balance in the body.

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Stress: The Adrenal Glands

By chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Normally when we talk about glands, people think of the kind of glands that swell up in your neck when you have a cold, or the ones that get taken out when there is cancer surgery.

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How to get a good nights sleep: Melatonin

By Chiropractor Dr. Annika Jende

Melatonin is the hormone that makes us ready for sleep and it is secreted when it is DARK. Melatonin is unusual in as much it’s both a hormone as well as an antioxidant,

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