Fancy a cheat sheet of 10 key probiotic and gut health needle-movers? Dr Jason Hawrelak, one of Australia’s leading researchers, teachers and clinicians in the gut health and probiotics space, is recently back from a global probiotic conference in ITALY, and on this show we cover: 

1. Probiotic recommendations, testing and choline for preconception health and babies. 
2. The question Jason asked world leading leaky gut expert, Dr Fasano: “Given the results of your two pivotal ex vivo studies, where you found gluten (gliadin) could cause temporary changes in intestinal permeability, even in healthy intestinal cells, do you agree with the recommendation, that some have made based on your research, that all humans should strictly avoid eating gluten?”. What did he say?! 
3. Irritable Bowel Syndrome and the use of Partially Hydrolysed Guar Gum? Still a good idea? 
4. Probiotics being bad for SIBO patients: Debunkable? Surely it's essential to have a deep understanding about which ones in which cases might be most helpful? 
5. Ellagitannins - get to know them and get consuming them: here's why...
6. Blasto: Not so black and white as simply being 'bad and must be killed?'
7. Glyphosate effect on Microbiome: What has a new study in November revealed? 

Dr Jason Hawrelak is one of the leading Australian practitioners and educators in gut health and probiotic science. Jason is a researcher, educator, Western herbalist, and naturopath with over 20 years’ clinical experience. He did his PhD examining the capacity of probiotics, prebiotics and herbal medicines to modify the gastrointestinal tract microbiota and teaches worldwide on the topics of microbiota modification and gastrointestinal health. He has published extensively in these areas, including 20 textbook chapters. Dr Hawrelak is on the Medical Nutrition Council of the American Society for Nutrition and is a Fellow of both the American College of Nutrition and the Naturopaths and Herbalists Association of Australia. Dr Hawrelak maintains a busy online clinical practice.  

Connect with Dr. Hawrelak’s work here:

Facebook: @probioticadvisor

Instagram: @probioticadvisor 

Thank you to our Low Tox businesses sponsoring the show and helping you make your swaps with their special offers: 

Time for a Low Tox Bedroom upgrade? The Natural Bedding Co, an Australian business celebrating 40 years in business with a gorgeous website for online ordering,  but also stunning showrooms both in Sydney and on the Gold Coast that you want to call home, they’re so lovely. You have 15% off with the code LOWTOXLIFE with this link to a specially curated, massive selection of products

Humidity, moisture issues, allergies or pollution on your mind? Aus Climate specialise in providing you with the best quality appliances for dehumidification and air purification at ausclimate.com.au - phone orders also available if you have questions to ask. 10% off their already discounted prices and now also including a portable air conditioner, use the code LOWTOXLIFE at check out. 

And of course, join me @lowtoxlife on Instagram and share your aha’s in your stories!

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Ever wonder whether you have the ‘right’ to BYO containers to the stores you shop from - especially with the ‘c*vid times hangover’ when single use was insisted upon for safety, it’s time to revisit this topic with Bianca Cottle, founder of byocontainers.org - Let’s refresh our enthusiasm for reusing containers and bringing our own wherever we go - I am first to put my hand up and say I let things slide during this time, in case anyone’s worried I’m perfect (That’s a HARD NO!) 

In this show, while the focus is on Australian rules, the themes apply to all of us wanting to reduce and reuse more of the things in our lives! We explore: 

1. The challenges of building a fully sustainable house (something Bianca and her partner have done!) 
2. How c*vid set us back in many ways whether it comes to progress for people and planet health but what we can learn from it.
3. What the actual law is on reusing containers and cups
4. Some of the ways we can encourage businesses rather than criticising them, to drive re-use forward faster
5. What exactly the label ‘compostable’ means on bio-plastics and whether perhaps it's too good to be true
6. The best reusable containers for different occasion types and situations

And a bunch more. Enjoy the show, share it, and let’s reduce our single-use items big time in the year ahead! Alexx x

Know more or connect with BYO Containers:

Website: byocontainers.org

Facebook: @yocontainers.au 

Insta: @byocontainers.au 

LinkedIn: @byo-containers

To check out more resources mentioned during our interview, visit lowtoxlife.com/podcast

Thank you to our Low Tox businesses sponsoring the show and helping you make your swaps with their special offers: 

KillaPilla code: LOWTOXLIFE gives you 15% Off the entire purchase with Free Shipping within Australia. Valid 13 November-31 December 2023. Visit killapilla.com.au

Ausclimate code: LOWTOXLIFE for an extra 10% Off their already discounted prices on ausclimate.com.au. Offer applies to over the phone orders too!

And of course, join me @lowtoxlife on Instagram and share your aha’s in your stories!

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Clare Press has a way with fashion, a way with words and a passion for finding the threads required to weave a new story for fashion and clothes into the future with her new book “Wear Next” - a fashion world that is kind, just, regenerative, innovative and inclusive - ditching the dark underbelly of exploitation and microplastic-filled materials currently at play in most stores around the world. 

We explore 

• How buying less, upping quality and reusing clothes and fabrics in fashion can practically play out and not lead to job losses en masse
• We explore what's changed - has fashion's sustainability got worse or better? 
• How can we create a more ethical and sustainable fashion future?
• What is the role of technology in fashion’s future? 
• The divide between celebrity ‘art’ fashion and everyday  people’s choices 
• Why did you write this new book, focused on solutions?
• The challenge of books and important work in a fast-info, head-linings-only world

I also read the first couple of pages of Clare’s book in the intro for you to get a taste of the book's journey and now want to start a new career in audiobook reading - it was so fun! 

I hope you enjoy it and remember - buy books. They matter -  authors are awesome! 

Alexx

Clare can be found at: 

Website: https://thewardrobecrisis.com/

Podcast: https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast

Instagram: @mrspress and @thewardrobecrisis 

Facebook: @wardrobecrisis

And her new book online here: https://booktopia.kh4ffx.net/wearnext 

And thank you to our Low Tox businesses sponsoring the show and helping you make your swaps with their special offers: 

KillaPilla code: LOWTOXLIFE give you 15% OFF entire purchase with Free Shipping within Australia. Valid 13 November- 31 December 2023. Visit https://killapilla.com.au/ 

Ausclimate code: LOWTOXLIFE for an EXTRA 10% OFF their already discounted prices on ausclimate.com.au. Offer applies to over the phone orders too!

And of course join me at lowtoxlife on Instagram and share your aha’s in your stories!

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Not every mould situation is a massive problem or leads to complex chronic illness - the good news is there’s a lot you can do with a couple of tools and some literacy, to prevent mould in your home from causing symptoms or damaging soft furnishings. So, in this show, I answer some of the most common questions I’ve received heading into the humid season here in Australia and, in the show notes you have a tonne more resources to support you if you’re currently worried about mould affecting your home, possessions or health. 

So in this show you’ll learn how to: 

• Gauge humidity levels in your home
• Know when it’s time to crank your dehumidification strategy 
• Know what types of units, size/how many you might need if your air management systems in your home don’t manage humidity effectively enough as they are. 
• Know how to not be annoyed by noise or heat generated by dehumidifiers with a simple ‘where we are not’ strategy for rotation. 
• Know how often you need to dehumidify
• Know what testing you can consider if you think your problem in the home is beyond humidity and you need to think about mould testing
• And a bonus given I’ve been asked so much lately: Healing from mould on a budget - practical things you can do! 

Hope it’s helpful and any more questions, let’s keep the conversation going, 

Alexx

Further resources: 

Come say hi on Instagram @lowtoxlife 

Or at lowtoxlife.com 

The “So You Think You’ve Got Mould” resource blog I put together, points you to all the podcasts I’ve done over the years, my mould story (don’t worry the exte4nt of my experience is comparatively rare - this will only happen to a small unfortunate group of people with many factors playing into it)

Access the Mould Festival  An interactive event series I hosted in October with some of the world’s top professionals in building, insurance, legal, health, healing, mould testing, building biology, prevention and more regarding mould from every aspect. 

Join the Low Tox Club - $49AUD ($30 US/Euro) and receive support from me and fellow low tox community members on all low tox topics but also workshopping mould situations and health. 

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Dr Ben Reebs, founder of the Portland Clinic of Natural health joins me on the show today and it is a brilliant look at Complex Chronic Illness and the biggest things that he’s found to be helpful as a doctor. The questions I ask him are: 

How did you arrive at 7 laws of healing - not just for your book but in the way you practice medicine? 

Those laws are Vitality, Disease, Cure, Compensation, Resonance, Synergy, Intention and I’m looking forward to diving into some of them… 

You start your book with a quote about commitment from William H Murray and my mind went to a bit of an aha “Today, in our modern world we have to commit consciously and proactively to our health, instead of it being culturally and naturally a way of life - we have to choose it because our instinct and surrounds to help us ‘be it’ are mostly gone… is this why health might feel ‘hard’ to people in modern life? It can be a lot of energy to constantly swim against the tide, right? 

At the very start of discussing vitality you say “No one can heal you. There is only self-healing in the laws of nature”. I love this because for the main people are so disempowered in their health journeys and often forget it’s an inside job and you need to find the right supporting partners to help facilitate that healing - so often I hear “I’ve tried everything” and they’re in a really bad way, eating 4 foods, reacting to everything, inflamed, in pain all over: when someone is in that “I’ve tried everything” boat - what are some gentle words of wisdom to share as they look within and look to find a better way forward? 

You talk about a move from acute infection-style illnesses, to chronic illnesses such as autoimmune, as vitality wanes - what is the mechanism of this change in the immune system? 

Talking about signs and symptoms that are trying to promote balance/get our attention - how can we listen to them more effectively and act accordingly rather than medicate them to make them go away - almost feels like medicating is a part of the reason we’re forgetting to speak the language of vitality/homeostasis ( outside of an SOS context for physical mental health challenges that require that short term ‘get out of crisis’ to work on the long game of course) Thinking back to all those tylenols to fix the headache, instead of ‘hmm maybe it’s the fragrance cloud I’m working in at the department store every day, not a Tylenol deficiency, right? Can you give us some more examples of seemingly innocent quick fixes we use, leading us down the path of potential chronic disease because we’re not listening enough? 

At the end of the Vitality chapter you invite us to simply list 5 things that bring us vitality - and prescribe MORE of them, and 5 things that make us feel LESS vital and do less of them. I love this. It’s like a little ‘stock take’ - how often do you do this in your own life and check in? 

Then we look at the Law of disease and we’re reminded that when we go against nature’s order it produces toxicity, deficiency and disease. 

Do you see the many modern environmental and lifestyle changes of the past half century as the culprits of this draining of vitality and creation of chronic disease?

Something doctors - naturopathic and integrative/functional have answered the call to is supporting people with these… Lyme comes up a lot; Mold too. With your deep understanding of these infections, can you shed light on how our modern lifestyles and environments might be exacerbating the risks of these conditions? It’s never just ‘the tick bite’ or ‘the mold exposure’ is it? 

And can we go a bit granular on some of the things that set the stage for chronic illness and talk about ‘leakiness’? Gut, brain, cells… basics/deep dive, would love to spend some time here…

Enjoy the show

Alexx

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How intuitive are you? Oh this is a juicy exploration for you this week…

I welcome Karin Luise PhD, to join us and explore intuition and harnessing the wisdom in what we can’t see, to ditch low-vibe shame (and realise how often it’s in the mix and hindering us!) and so much more: 

• How can we feel in-power with big decisions in life
• How can we come back to being like a baby - unapologetic for our needs, able to follow instinct? 
• How we can become more aware of just how much we’ve ‘stuffed’ down because good kids don’t cry and what that sets us up for. 
• The power of making the switch from ‘need/should’ and the underlying self-judgement of ‘need/should’. 
• How to feel like your time is YOURS
• How to not feel selfish for doing what you want (Self-first is NOT selfish!) 
• How to identify what you might need to un-learn that’s holding you back. 

And so much more. 

I love, love, loved this conversation and hope you do too, 

Alexx x

Share the show on Instagram to share your ahas - don’t forget to tag @lowtoxlife there so I can share it too! 

Connect with Karin here: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctorkarin/ 

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrKarin/ 

Website https://doctorkarin.com/ 

And for your low tox swaps, our sponsors this week are: 

Bio-First Official is a sponsor this month and USA + Aussie peeps get 15% off site-wide with the code LOWTOXLIFE  to try/stock up on their brilliant remedies for the skin, crafted by Dr. Jude, and designed to support and heal, with no steroids or nasty hormones disruptors/preservatives: https://bit.ly/biofirstofficial

Ausclimate with 10% off their air purifiers and dehumidifiers with the code LOWTOXLIFE - Helping Aussie homes avoid excess moisture by having a good dehumidification strategy, and clean healthy air with the WINIX air purifier range. https://bit.ly/ShopAusclimate

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Dr Staci Whitman has an audacious goal: A cavity-free world. 

Here’s what we talk about:

1. How to navigate the road towards better teeth for you and your kids if you have them, without freaking out - leaving your guilt at the door! 
2. Babies needing fillings now - what!?
3. The health or lack of health in our mouths is relevant to the prevention of, and our risk factors for over 100 diseases - that we know of so far. How? 
4. A timeline of the biggest changes as humans and how they impacted our oral health. 
5. Toothpaste and brushing aren’t No.1 on the list for cavity prevention - but they help! 
6. The best ingredients for your toothpaste to have
7. Flossing for the win - if it’s pink in the sink you’ve got work to do!
8. The biggest deficiencies driving tooth decay - hint, fluoride isn’t one of them.
9. Endocrine disruptors/plastics and tooth decay - a new finding makes even more of a case for reducing endocrine disruptive ingredient use & exposure
10. Assessing your dental procedures from a low tox/recovery perspective
11. A day in the life of a pediatric dentist’s dental care regime

An hour of power. Enjoy! 

Alexx

And for your low tox swaps, our sponsors this week are: 

Bio-First Official is a sponsor this month and USA + Aussie + NZ  peeps get 15% off site-wide with the code LOWTOXLIFE  to try/stock up on their brilliant remedies for the skin, crafted by Dr. Jude, and designed to support and heal, with no steroids or nasty hormones disruptors/preservatives: https://bit.ly/biofirstofficial

Ausclimate with 10% off their air purifiers and dehumidifiers with the code LOWTOXLIFE - Helping Aussie homes avoid excess moisture by having a good dehumidification strategy, and clean healthy air with the WINIX air purifier range. https://bit.ly/ShopAusclimate

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the 3rd time joining me on the show is Dr Jade Teta. I can tell you all of Jade’s ‘technical’ and ‘medical’ qualifications, being a physician, having written 5 books on health and metabolism; his having written chapters for naturopath medicine text books, but what I think is more important is that Jade is an evolver and upleveller; He’s a philosopher, he’s passionate about transpersonal psychology and is currently doing a PhD in this space. Today we’re inviting you to uplevel your thinking and use pain as purpose, with us by exploring the following: 

• Transpersonal psychology is what you’ve now turned your hand to, currently on the PhD journey… what is tpp? 
• Pain as a path to purpose - how has this shown up for you at various times in your life, Jade? 
• Why is self-betrayal the worst kind? 
• Physical injury and mental pain are more similar than we give them credit - can you help us make the link?
• Hurt as a way to help - I love this one because it helps us shift from victim to victor by helping others, a favourite Next Level Human example of mine, to use your terminology… Let’s 
• Fake it Till you make it - Please don’t, you say: SO what do we do instead when we want to be in the room where it’s happening but we don’t feel we deserve to be there… Being it until you see it! 
• A lot of the things that happen in our lives that we feel are ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ like relationships ending, someone passing away, losing a job feel like endings but let’s talk about them as beginnings and how the story we tell ourselves about these stories paves the way for whether they might result in being a positive force for our lives… 
• How can we start to unpack our stories written in the subconscious? 
• Why do stories we tell ourselves, that are unhelpful, and we sometimes even KNOW they’re unhelpful, seem so hard to dismantle? 

It’s a thought provoking show that I hope will help you in your life. 

Alexx

And for your low tox swaps, our sponsors this week are: 

Bio-First Official is a sponsor this month and USA + Aussie peeps get 15% off site-wide with the code LOWTOXLIFE  to try/stock up on their brilliant remedies for the skin, crafted by Dr. Jude, and designed to support and heal, with no steroids or nasty hormones disruptors/preservatives: https://bit.ly/biofirstofficial

Ausclimate with 10% off their air purifiers and dehumidifiers with the code LOWTOXLIFE - Helping Aussie homes avoid excess moisture by having a good dehumidification strategy, and clean healthy air with the WINIX air purifier range. https://bit.ly/ShopAusclimate

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mikki Williden, PhD joins us to discuss the personalisation piece, regarding healthy ageing, metabolism, exercise choices, recovery from exercise, protein on different diets and more. If any of the following is something you want a calm, science-backed voice on, this is a must-listen: 

• Health in kids - surprising research and simple fixes as we look at how metabolic issues can begin early in life
• Only 3% of people are doing of the 5 things considered to be essential for health - how do you fare? 
• Exercise from your 40s and onwards - do I have to ‘give up’ my favourite cardio for weights now? 
• Recovery after exercise and how ‘what’ you do after exercise needs to change as you get older, to preserve muscle mass - one doctor tells you ketones, the next health professional tells you carbs - what is the science telling us and can it be different depending on the person/age?
• Protein requirements for all types of eaters and how to ‘get it in’ when you’re doing intermittent fasting/narrower eating windows. 
• How we can mitigate issues and bounce back from ‘go with the flow moments’ in life as we get older and are less carbohydrate sensitive (ie less tolerant to them)

A great, clear explainer of all of the above, Mikki is a calm and encouraging voice in an often stressful “You’re not doing it right!” health world. 

Enjoy the show

Alexx

Share the show on Instagram to share your ahas - don’t forget to tag @lowtoxlife there so I can share it too! 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PCOS (Polycystic ovarian syndrome) is a multi-faceted syndrome that has the potential to be very successfully managed as well as the potential to wreak havoc on brain development, toxin-burden, weight, fertility and more if left unchecked. Depending on age and stage in life there are different effects and challenges, too. The more you know and the more proactive you are with a practitioner who can support you, the better life is. Period! Here’s what we cover in this mammoth exploration of PCOS (complete with many women’s health tangents along the way!) 

• PCOS - Different types & criteria
• Genetic and wider endocrine challenges that play into the PCOS types
• Getting diagnosed and the niggles that should ensure you at least rule it out
• The implication of PCOS at puberty, untreated and what to do to mitigate the associated symptoms and risks. 
• PCOS and fertility/miscarriage risk (and the good news!) 
• PCOS and pregnancy - hot chips and toast have a logical reason but it’s not a free pass!
• PCOS and perimenopause/menopause
• And women’s health general tangents on pregnancy, hormone replacement therapy considerations and more…

Share the show on Instagram to share your ahas - don’t forget to tag @lowtoxlife there so I can share it too! 

Connect with Leah Hechtman here: 

Instagram - @leahhechtman 

And for your low tox swaps our sponsors this week are 

@weledaaustralia with an amazing 20% off the range with the code LOWTOXLIFE, helping you stock up on favourites (those creamy shower bars, the fresh, Rose Face cream, the indispensable Burns and Bights gel, the Baby Calendula range and the new Skin Food face care range is delicious! https://bit.ly/ShopWeleda

@ausclimate with 10% off their air purifiers and dehumidifiers with the code LOWTOXLIFE - Helping Aussie homes avoid excess moisture by having a good dehumidification strategy, and clean healthy air with the WINIX air purifier range. https://bit.ly/ShopAusclimate

Enjoy + I hope the show’s super helpful for you this week - share it far and wide to help as many women as possible who need it, 

Alexx x

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