Nikki Hawkes

Medical Herbalist, specialist in Gut & Thyroid health

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diet

Why I have a food first approach to optimum health

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People that know me well know that good food is essential to me. I even chose my daughters’ school based on the food they offered. It is the same with my patients. My patients know that I am very interested in what they are eating. I have a food first approach when it comes to achieving optimum health in my patients since proper nutrition is fundamental to feeling and functioning your best.

The importance of good food has as much relevance for unhealthy people as for those with good health, if not more. Right from the start of my practice I knew that if a chronically ill person was not eating well, they just couldn’t get better. Herbal medicine could only get my patients so far on their healing journey. Since no amount of supplementation is going to achieve optimum healing without also getting the foundations right. [Read more…] about Why I have a food first approach to optimum health

Can eating mushrooms reduce dementia risk and save your brain?

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The number of people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is expected to rise at an alarming rate. Currently the World Health Organisation (WHO) believes there are 50 million people around the world with dementia. But this number is expected to triple in the next thirty years.

Yet scientists believe that we can reduce our risk of developing cognitive decline and dementia, and the WHO began a Global Action Plan in 2017, gathering the evidence needed. The WHO published new guidelines this week intended to provide the knowledge needed by healthcare providers and others, to help people reduce their risk of cognitive decline and dementia. It may not come as a surprise that these guidelines favour dietary and lifestyle changes over supplements such as multivitamins. Though vitamins of course have their uses, there is a much wider range of nutrients in wholefoods. [Read more…] about Can eating mushrooms reduce dementia risk and save your brain?

What to eat on the Mediterranean diet

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As I have discussed before scientific studies suggest that the Mediterranean diet is the healthiest way to eat. There are hundreds if not thousands of studies that support the use of this way of eating for improving health as well as reducing the risk of developing a chronic disease, potentially reversing chronic disease and for increasing life expectancy.

The Mediterranean diet should really be viewed as a concept based on a collection of traditional dietary habits that might have been followed by people in the countries that border the Mediterranean Sea, before the mid 1960s.

But do we know exactly what to eat on the Mediterranean diet? For instance, does this suggest that eating pizza or pasta with a cheese sauce are healthy food choices? In fact, pizza is not a traditional Mediterranean food. [Read more…] about What to eat on the Mediterranean diet

Should you eat more whole grains?

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In the news last week we saw many articles similar to this one from the BBC website. These articles relate to a World Health Organisation (WHO) funded review in the Lancet that looked at the amount of dietary fibre people eat and how it relates to their health and risk of disease.

The general impression of the WHO review suggests that we all need to eat at least 25g of fibre per day to lower our risk of disease. And, that whole grains can form a substantial portion of this amount.

I have been talking about the benefits of eating a diet rich in fibre for years. And I’m sure that many people are aware that eating more dietary fibre is good for their health. [Read more…] about Should you eat more whole grains?

Are detox plans worth doing?

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Detox plans are all the rage at this time of year. A New Year – a new you! I get it. And especially after a period of overindulgence over the Christmas holidays, many people are ready to tone it back and get on track. Eat more healthily. exercise more, drink more water and so on… 

I’m not saying that doing detox plans is a bad thing. In fact eating a more healthy diet with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as abstaining or at least reducing alcohol is something I would agree with.  [Read more…] about Are detox plans worth doing?

Why a low fat diet is not the way to go

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It’s not surprising that sometimes people get confused about the healthiest way to eat, whether it’s a low fat diet or low carb or something else. There are far too many contradictory messages in the media about the healthiest type of diet. But, as I’ve been telling my patients for quite some time, nobody is ever going to say that olive oil is unhealthy, right? Well, imagine my surprise this week, when I watched a TV documentary in which several people said just that.

These people were so scared about eating fat, that even solid evidence that olive oil has numerous health giving properties was waved to one side. But why are some people afraid of dietary fat.

Fear of dietary fat began in the 1960s and 70s when, following some dubious science, governments started to recommend low fat/ high carbohydrate diets to lower the risk of heart disease. Over several decades the public responded accordingly and total fat intake decreased considerably. [Read more…] about Why a low fat diet is not the way to go

Alzheimers disease and iron intake

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Alzheimer’s disease was first described in 1906. It was little known at the time and did not even enter medical textbooks until decades later. So, how come this disease is at epidemic proportions and now a leading cause of death in the UK?

We know that certain genes can predispose some people to have an increased risk of developing the disease. Specifically the ApoE4 genotype is known to increase the risk. But our genes do not determine our destiny. After all not everyone with this genotype develops Alzheimer’s disease, and it is not necessary to have the ApoE4 genotype to develop Alzheimer’s. Indeed genetics alone can not explain such a rapid increase in the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. [Read more…] about Alzheimers disease and iron intake

Is your statin increasing your risk of diabetes?

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Statins are a group of pharmaceutical drugs that reduce the level of LDL cholesterol in the blood. Your doctor might recommend you take a statin if you suffer from, or might develop cardiovascular disease in the future. Yet, this study found that some statins can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 46%.

This is a huge concern since type 2 diabetes increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Yes, that’s right – some people take statins to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease, but develop diabetes, which increases their risk of developing cardiovascular disease! However, that’s not all. Statins have a long list of common side effects that includes headache, nausea, digestive problems and muscle and joint pain. [Read more…] about Is your statin increasing your risk of diabetes?

Alzheimer’s disease – is fibre good for the brain?

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Dementia is now the leading cause of death in England, ahead of cancer and heart disease. Yet, while many people might know someone that has survived cancer, how many people with Alzheimer’s disease do you know that have got better, or even improved? Currently conventional medicine has no treatment for Alzheimers disease that does anything but slightly delay progression of the disease. A situation that is unlikely to change in the near future. Not because of a lack of research. A quick search on the Pubmed database reveals over a hundred thousand research papers on Alzheimer’s disease. But, even if a cure for Alzheimer’s was found today, it takes an average of seventeen years to translate findings such as these into treatments available to the public. [Read more…] about Alzheimer’s disease – is fibre good for the brain?

Simple strategies for preventing a common cold

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Are you one of the lucky ones that never seems to catch a cold? If not then you might want to read on. This article is for those people who want to know about some evidence based strategies for preventing a common cold.

Of course there are plenty of remedies for reducing the symptoms and duration of a cold, but isn’t it true that prevention is better than cure? In fact, in traditional medicine systems such as herbal medicine, the ability to resist infections comes down to the innate health and vitality of the individual. A person in robust health is more able to resist infections such as the common cold. So, a herbalist would seek to support the vitality or vital force of the person so that they are less liable to infection and better able to resist disease. [Read more…] about Simple strategies for preventing a common cold