As we get older, I think mobility is incredibly important... but joints tend to become stiffer over time, making them less flexible as we age. 
Why do we get stiffer as we age?  
What are some natural remedies to reduce joint inflammation, stiffness and pain? 
Erin is the co-founder, director, naturopath and yoga teacher at Golden Yogi. She holds a bachelor of science (physiology) and a bachelor of natural medicine. 
Erin O’Hara joined Francesca Rudkin. 
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Mike’s website – goodfromscratch.co.nz 
Pinch and a punch for the first day of the month. 
This week we have been harvesting the start of our kumara. And as you can see, they are huge! 
Note: when growing Kumara they love a hard pan.  
By this I mean, when you plant kumara they are best grown approximately 20 cm below the surface but they need to hit something hard! This will force them to grow outwards and across otherwise they just continue to go down, creating a long skinny tentacle type shape instead of a lovely plum tuber. So, a tip is to dig down and lay some bricks or wooden lengths, or even kitchen tiles so that the kumara hits them and starts growing outwards. 
This soup is by far one of my favourite recipes! 
 
Curried Kumara soup 
Cook time: 35mins Prep time: 20mins Serves: 8–10 
 
2 kg peeled & chopped kumara  
4 white onions, peeled and diced  
4 cloves garlic, peeled chopped  
4 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped  
200 gm unsalted butter  
2 tbsp curry powder  
1 tsp ground ginger  
500ml coconut cream  
1-litre vegetable stock  
 
4 tbsp honey  
250 ml cream  
1/2 tsp salt 
 
Take a large heavy based pot and heat.  
Melt 50g of the butter slowly and then sauté the kumara, onions, garlic and apples.  
Toss in the curry powder and ginger powder.  
Sauté for a further minute before pouring in the coconut cream, honey and stock.  
Simmer for 30 minutes or until the kumara is cooked through.  
Using a hand blender, blitz the kumara until smooth before slowly adding in the remaining 150g cubed butter and finally fresh cream.  
Season with more salt than you think and serve.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike’s website – goodfromscratch.co.nz 
Pinch and a punch for the first day of the month. 
This week we have been harvesting the start of our kumara. And as you can see, they are huge! 
Note: when growing Kumara they love a hard pan.  
By this I mean, when you plant kumara they are best grown approximately 20 cm below the surface but they need to hit something hard! This will force them to grow outwards and across otherwise they just continue to go down, creating a long skinny tentacle type shape instead of a lovely plum tuber. So, a tip is to dig down and lay some bricks or wooden lengths, or even kitchen tiles so that the kumara hits them and starts growing outwards. 
This soup is by far one of my favourite recipes! 
 
Curried Kumara soup 
Cook time: 35mins Prep time: 20mins Serves: 8–10 
 
2 kg peeled & chopped kumara  
4 white onions, peeled and diced  
4 cloves garlic, peeled chopped  
4 granny smith apples, peeled and chopped  
200 gm unsalted butter  
2 tbsp curry powder  
1 tsp ground ginger  
500ml coconut cream  
1-litre vegetable stock  
 
4 tbsp honey  
250 ml cream  
1/2 tsp salt 
 
Take a large heavy based pot and heat.  
Melt 50g of the butter slowly and then sauté the kumara, onions, garlic and apples.  
Toss in the curry powder and ginger powder.  
Sauté for a further minute before pouring in the coconut cream, honey and stock.  
Simmer for 30 minutes or until the kumara is cooked through.  
Using a hand blender, blitz the kumara until smooth before slowly adding in the remaining 150g cubed butter and finally fresh cream.  
Season with more salt than you think and serve.

Science has just found out that men and women experience pain differently. 
We can never fully know how somebody else experiences pain – especially when it’s caused by something we’ll never experience ourselves such as gendered pain like childbirth (or man flu). 
Now a new study published in the journal Brain – https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awab408/6551129 – concludes that pain is not experienced by male and female bodies equally. 
Studies have found that women are more responsive to painful stimuli. Women are also much more likely to be impacted by chronic pain with women more likely than men to report back, neck and neuropathic pain. Statistically twice as many women report migraines and headaches. 
Interestingly when it comes to pain research, almost all of the research has been exclusively carried out on men (or male animals) meaning there is very little information out there that is gender representative. 
This study was unique in that it included the study of female humans as well as men looking specifically at the superficial dorsal horn. 
If you didn't know that you had a horn, you do now! It's a region on the outskirts of the gray matter inside your spinal cord. 
The researchers examined horn tissue that had been donated post-mortem and discovered that there was a difference in the way that the different genders responded to BDNF. 
BDNF is brain-derived neurotrophic factor and it plays an important role in pain processing, by amplifying pain signals in the short-term and reducing them in the long-term. 
The technical discovery was of a "pathological coupling between KCC2-dependent disinhibition and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) potentiation within superficial dorsal horn neurons was observed in male but not female rats" 
In short, male and female bodies process pain differently and it's hormonally (estrogen) mediated. They were able to prove this by removing the ovaries of the female rats in the study and found that the difference in pain signaling between the males and females disappeared. 
Not only does this open up new research into how pain medication should be prescribed (especially as most pain medication trials are carried out on men) but also helps with the understanding of how to help treat chronic pain. 
Dr Michelle Dickinson, Nanogirl, joined Francesca Rudkin. 
LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Science has just found out that men and women experience pain differently. 
We can never fully know how somebody else experiences pain – especially when it’s caused by something we’ll never experience ourselves such as gendered pain like childbirth (or man flu). 
Now a new study published in the journal Brain – https://academic.oup.com/brain/advance-article/doi/10.1093/brain/awab408/6551129 – concludes that pain is not experienced by male and female bodies equally. 
Studies have found that women are more responsive to painful stimuli. Women are also much more likely to be impacted by chronic pain with women more likely than men to report back, neck and neuropathic pain. Statistically twice as many women report migraines and headaches. 
Interestingly when it comes to pain research, almost all of the research has been exclusively carried out on men (or male animals) meaning there is very little information out there that is gender representative. 
This study was unique in that it included the study of female humans as well as men looking specifically at the superficial dorsal horn. 
If you didn't know that you had a horn, you do now! It's a region on the outskirts of the gray matter inside your spinal cord. 
The researchers examined horn tissue that had been donated post-mortem and discovered that there was a difference in the way that the different genders responded to BDNF. 
BDNF is brain-derived neurotrophic factor and it plays an important role in pain processing, by amplifying pain signals in the short-term and reducing them in the long-term. 
The technical discovery was of a "pathological coupling between KCC2-dependent disinhibition and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) potentiation within superficial dorsal horn neurons was observed in male but not female rats" 
In short, male and female bodies process pain differently and it's hormonally (estrogen) mediated. They were able to prove this by removing the ovaries of the female rats in the study and found that the difference in pain signaling between the males and females disappeared. 
Not only does this open up new research into how pain medication should be prescribed (especially as most pain medication trials are carried out on men) but also helps with the understanding of how to help treat chronic pain. 
Dr Michelle Dickinson, Nanogirl, joined Francesca Rudkin. 
LISTEN ABOVE

NZ music docu-series Give It a Whirl: 
Kiwi rock music is loaded with great sounds and stories, as this collection demonstrates. The Give It a Whirl collection is built around the 2003 TV series, which explores five decades of popular music in Aotearoa.  
The new judges have been announced for MasterChef NZ.  
The new-look trio of judges is led by MasterChef Season 2 winner, celebrity cook and entrepreneur Nadia Lim, who is joined by renowned three-hatted chef Vaughan Mabee, most famous for being executive chef of Queenstown favourite Amisfield, and multi-award-winning restaurateur Michael Dearth of Auckland's The Grove and Baduzzi. 
Steve Newall, editor at flicks.co.nz, joined Francesca Rudkin. 
LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NZ music docu-series Give It a Whirl: 
Kiwi rock music is loaded with great sounds and stories, as this collection demonstrates. The Give It a Whirl collection is built around the 2003 TV series, which explores five decades of popular music in Aotearoa.  
The new judges have been announced for MasterChef NZ.  
The new-look trio of judges is led by MasterChef Season 2 winner, celebrity cook and entrepreneur Nadia Lim, who is joined by renowned three-hatted chef Vaughan Mabee, most famous for being executive chef of Queenstown favourite Amisfield, and multi-award-winning restaurateur Michael Dearth of Auckland's The Grove and Baduzzi. 
Steve Newall, editor at flicks.co.nz, joined Francesca Rudkin. 
LISTEN ABOVE

Today is the first day of NZ music month – and it would be rude if we didn’t kick it off with some great Kiwi music. 
The theme of this year's New Zealand Music Month is ‘Level Up Our Local Talent’ – calling on the music industry to support our next wave of musicians. 
One of those up and comers is Tauranga based singer/songwriter Georgia Lines. 
Georgia has announced a tour this week and will be playing as part of NZ Music Month. 
Georgia Lines joined Francesca Rudkin and performed her new single "Leave Behind" on air for the first time. 
LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today is the first day of NZ music month – and it would be rude if we didn’t kick it off with some great Kiwi music. 
The theme of this year's New Zealand Music Month is ‘Level Up Our Local Talent’ – calling on the music industry to support our next wave of musicians. 
One of those up and comers is Tauranga based singer/songwriter Georgia Lines. 
Georgia has announced a tour this week and will be playing as part of NZ Music Month. 
Georgia Lines joined Francesca Rudkin and performed her new single "Leave Behind" on air for the first time. 
LISTEN ABOVE

Do you fancy unlimited annual leave from work? 
It would be great, wouldn’t it? 
Well, one Auckland company is leading the way and has implemented just that, unlimited annual leave for their staff. 
Actionstep’s Vice President of Engineering, Stevie Mayhew joined Francesca Rudkin. 
LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.