by | | Curated Content
July 2nd 2025
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WellBeing Magazine
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A holistic cold and flu prevention plan using vitamins, herbs, lifestyle tips and immune support for a healthy, resilient winter.
A 67-year-old recently retired woman was concerned with the coming cold and flu season and wanted a program to protect her from infections. For two to three years, she had been getting the annual flu vaccine from her doctor, but she had been increasingly reacting adversely to the vaccine – getting a worse dose of the flu than she ever used to prior to the vaccinations. Research shows that while the flu vaccines help some people, they are not always as effective in older people as they are purported to be. The figures show that in elderly people, less than 30 per cent find them effective.
She agreed to follow a program for the next few months. These programs are more effective if commenced at the change of season, before the flu season really kicks in. Flu viruses mutate every year, so this is an annual program. She was taking minimal supplementation that was not specific enough for her current situation.
General hygiene is a basic first step. Wash hands regularly in warm soapy water (pure soap does not contain the chemicals contained in sanitisers). Masks are useful if you have a cough and to protect others from your germs – not so much for personal protection.
When tested, her Vitamin D levels were 60 (just inside the lower end of normal range). A measure of 100–120 is significantly more effective for health and respiratory protection, so a combination supplement of Vitamin D3 and K2(spray) was recommended. As winter was coming and her levels were low, it was recommended she take four to five sprays per day after food (if taken on an empty stomach, only about 15 per cent is absorbed).
Zinc is an important antiviral and immune stimulant. A dose of 25-50mg elemental zinc was recommended daily, and older formulas were preferred with relevant cofactors including manganese. Zinc is better absorbed if taken with the night meal. Magnesium is important – particularly if experiencing cramps regularly – along with vitamin A, which strengthens membranes.
Vitamin c is critical. She was taking calcium ascorbate, but this formula is not the most effective. She needed to switch to a mixed ascorbate formula, or one made from rose hips or acerola cherries (or camu camu powder). Vitamin c dose was 1000mg twice a day.
A formula of herbal medicines was suggested that contained echinacea (long-term use of this is not recommended), olive leaf, mullein, elecampane, elder berry and cat’s claw. Olive leaf also has blood pressure-lowering properties – often useful in older people. Andrographis is very effective for some, but be careful of the dose as it can also cause adverse reactions in sensitive people.
It was also necessary to get plenty of sleep, regular exercise – preferably in the early morning sun – and ensure adequate hydration. If she felt a cold or flu coming on, rest was recommended.
Zinc, vitamin c and herbs will stimulate the body to eradicate the pathogen. The second aspect when dealing with infections is to reduce the inflammation triggered by the pathogen that allows it to spread – quercetin (one dose twice per day) was recommended.
In case of infections, doubling the doses of these remedies and taking them three times per day for a couple of days will minimise symptoms and aid in a quick recovery. A spoonful of a good-quality raw honey in a lemon and honey hot drink will help. Raw garlic, onions, ginger and turmeric relieve the inflammation and reduce the infection. Chicken soup (“mother’s penicillin”) supports immunity with its antibacterial and antiviral properties.
Cold and flu viruses create acidic environments, so alkalising is recommended. Apple cider vinegar daily and half to one teaspoon of bicarb soda in filtered water are effective. Eucalyptus oil in an inhalation relieves sore chests or coughing, and salt water (or sage tea) gargles help with sore throats.
A significant part of immune system strength starts in the gut, so ensuring a healthy gut microbiome goes a long way in prevention. Fermented foods such as yoghurt, kefir (based on coconut rather than dairy) and kimchi are excellent.
I saw this woman several years ago and she has followed this program from April through winter and, to date, she has only had one incident of feeling unwell, which lasted a couple of days. She is very happy with the result and feels she has greater control over her health.
Article featured in WellBeing Magazine 216
The post Preventing the winter ills appeared first on WellBeing Magazine.
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Preventing the winter ills
by | | Curated Content
July 2nd 2025
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WellBeing Magazine
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If you’ve ever scrolled through beauty blogs or wandered the supplement aisle, chances are you’ve come across a popular ingredient known for its benefits to hair, skin and nails: biotin. But what exactly is it, and how does it work?
Also known as vitamin B7, this water-soluble nutrient plays a key role in the body’s metabolic functions. It helps convert carbohydrates, fats and proteins into energy, supporting vitality, brain function and digestion. While often linked to beauty benefits, it’s essential for overall health too.
The natural beauty connection
Once little-known, biotin has now become a regular part of beauty routines thanks to its visible results in skin, hair and nail health. Let’s explore how it supports natural beauty from within.
Hair growth and strength
By promoting keratin production, biotin helps hair follicles stay nourished and resilient. This can lead to thicker, shinier hair and may help reduce thinning or breakage. People with low levels of this nutrient often experience hair loss, making it a go-to for healthy hair support.
It also plays a part in preventing split ends and encouraging growth, especially for those aiming to maintain long, strong locks.
Nail resilience
Struggling with brittle or peeling nails? Biotin may help strengthen them and support growth. It’s known to increase nail thickness and reduce breakage, especially useful during cold seasons or times of stress.
Healthier skin
For your skin, biotin can make a noticeable difference. It helps maintain the integrity of the skin barrier, supporting elasticity and hydration. Some find it helpful for managing conditions like eczema, acne and dermatitis due to its anti-inflammatory support.
Clearer complexions
By balancing fatty acid metabolism and oil production, biotin can also help reduce breakouts and improve overall skin tone.
How to boost intake naturally
Luckily, this vitamin is easy to incorporate into your diet. Found in many nutrient-dense foods, it fits well into a whole-food lifestyle.
Start your day with a breakfast rich in biotin – think scrambled eggs with spinach and avocado, or a smoothie made with berries, almond butter and chia seeds.
Here are some of the best food sources:
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Eggs (especially the yolk)
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Nuts and seeds, including almonds and sunflower seeds
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Legumes like chickpeas and lentils
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Avocados, full of healthy fats and this essential vitamin
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Sweet potatoes, which also provide skin-loving vitamins A and C
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Berries, offering antioxidants that pair well with biotin
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Leafy greens such as spinach and kale
If you’re not getting enough from food, a natural supplement might help. Choose a whole-food-based biotin option, and consult a healthcare professional before beginning any new regimen.
The takeaway
Adding biotin to your daily routine is a simple, natural way to support radiant beauty and lasting wellness. When paired with a balanced diet rich in whole foods, it offers benefits that go beyond the surface—strengthening your hair, nourishing your skin, and giving your nails a healthy boost.
Just remember: beauty starts from within, and biotin is only one part of the holistic wellness picture.
Article featured in WellBeing Magazine 216
The post Beauty benefits of biotin appeared first on WellBeing Magazine.
Read the full article here:
Beauty benefits of biotin
by | | Curated Content
July 2nd 2025
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WellBeing Magazine
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Discover Bali’s west coast – uncrowded waves, lush rice paddies, local surf culture and authentic, off-the-beaten-path escapes.
This Balinese sunrise is hours old when I hit the sand, pausing on the palm-fringed edge of the sea to watch the rolling waves. Stretched before me, a broad wedge of grey sand tempers the crashing swell and a handful of riders shoot through barrels and peel off to do it all again.
Down the beach in the softer waves, some new-to- surfing girlfriends are practising their moves, riding gentle tumblers to shore on their bellies and knees. I kick off my thongs and take the plunge, ducking and diving and soaking up this unhurried scene – the warmth of the water, the crumbling cliffs that line the beach and an utterly old-school surfer vibe I never knew still existed in Bali.
Denpasar’s “hello mister” hustle puts a lot of travellers off Bali and sends them in search of wilder, more remote slices of Indonesian island life. So, while Kuta and I still don’t see eye to eye, a mere two-hour drive away, I find myself utterly wooed by Bali’s rugged west coast wilderness.
Love it or hate it, there’s nothing beige about Bali, and the best of it –the wild beaches, uncrowded waves, authentic cuisine and vibrant village culture – begins at Balian Beach. We’ve come to Bali – my family and I – in search of all the things that most travellers want from Indonesia, but to incongruously find myself enjoying them in the absence of a crowd.
We are collectively hoping for some chilled, beginner waves to surf, a comfortable villa in a laidback village and the chance to eat, stretch and connect with Balinese life. I scour online booking sites for some place beyond the Denpasar mayhem and, two hours later, tumble out of a Grab car in front of a cluster of villas that stud glistening rice paddies above Balian Beach.
The scene is so surreal that I half expect Julia Roberts to ride past on her bicycle, but instead it’s the local rice planters who stop to welcome us with waves and beguiling toothy smiles. From the terrace of our air-conditioned villa, it takes just five steps to reach the pool, which we happily have all to ourselves.
An old coconut grove shades our private nirvana. and the lovely Lena arrives each morning to cook our breakfast to order – fresh tropical fruit platters and strong Balinese coffee, followed by omelettes, pancakes or spicy Indonesian fried noodles. It’s included in our modest room rate and sates appetites until late in the day when we return from the beach ravenous to sip icy ale beers and shakes and dangle our feet in the pool until dinnertime.
Bali’s backwater
There’s an untamed aura about Balian Beach. It’s sea- ravaged volcanic crags and tumbled pebble-strewn beach endure a daily pummelling from the Indian Ocean swells that all-knowing surfers arrive daily to ride. It’s an untrammelled slice of heaven known mostly to these wave riders, and its distinct lack of nightlife and distance from downtown Kuta evidently keeps visitor numbers in check.
There is a generous choice of tourist villas in the surrounding village of Lalanglinggah, but traditional Balinese compounds vastly outnumber guesthouses. These rectangular walled compounds – unique to Bali – cluster together three or four generations of family members around the all-important family temple. In Balian, local people go about their business with a smile and a wave, and there’s none of the street-side badgering that tires travellers elsewhere in Bali’s west coast.
A single road leads through Balian to the beach where travellers commune by day to catch the sea breeze and surf. A pair of places rent surfboards and arrange lessons, there’s a solitary (and highly recommended) yoga shala and just enough al fresco cafes to sit, sip and dine.
The beach at Balian is long enough for a proper leg stretch and extends across the river mouth where bull sharks famously gather after the big torrential downpours that sideline surfers.
When we arrive at Balian, the strong, southeasterly trade winds are already wreaking havoc, chopping up the swell as the high tide recedes. Early mornings are the best time to grab a board and hit the water, and surfers credit Bali’s cool mountain air blowing offshore over Balian with carving out its fun-riding clean waves.
This early morning convection breeze blows reliably from April to October, until the trade winds kick in and end sessions by noon. A sacred river joins forces, magnifying even the smallest of swell and ensuring that Balian’s mellow and non-competitive three breaks stay consistent year-round.
The peak breaks slowly left and barrels fast to the right, while across the river, Ketuts provides an intense, high-performance, right-breaking ride. The far west throws novice surfers a cruisy ride, proving there’s something for all skill levels on this one beautiful beach.
Inner peace
If Balian had a word, it would surely be “authentic”. It’s laidback and unhurried in a way that Kuta hasn’t been for decades, it’s beach breaks are uncrowded, and its jungle, rural backdrop is breathtaking and beautiful. The scenic rice paddies that rise towards the jungle flanks of Batukaru Mountain are some of the loveliest in Bali’s west coast, if only for the lack of other onlookers sharing your views.
Board riders might have discovered it first, but non-surfers are hot on their heels, drawn to Balian for all that it offers ashore too. We connect with Balinese yoga instructor Nicky Sudianta at his open-air Balian Spirit Yoga shala, located high above the beach.
After a long day by the sea, I’m keen to unwind, but Nicky’s afternoon hatha flow sessions aren’t the kind that keep you lying down for long. Our salutations are slow but rigorous, moving with intention and purpose, and despite Nicky’s calm and patient vibe, this is practice all the same.
I’m definitely in holiday mode but my too-tight hips need some work, so while I’m grateful for the chance to loosen up, I’m relieved when Nicky finally pulls out the singing bowls and orders us all to relax on our mats.
There are two daily sessions at Nicky’s shala – morning vinyasa and afternoon hatha flow – and tackling both could turn a Balian holiday into your own personalised yoga retreat, bolstering mind, body and soul with long walks into the rice paddies and fresh Balinese cuisine.
With a rental scooter and an ability to tear yourself away from Balian’s beachfront, you could discover nearby Luhur Srijong Temple or ride an hour south to the iconic Tanah Lot Temple, accessible only when the tide retreats. After deciding that west is best, we pack our bags and jump aboard a local bus headed further up the coast.
Point break
Yeh Sumbul’s tricoloured coastline appears utterly endless: a grey-sand beach awash with a seething blue sea and a verdant swathe of old rice paddies turned grazing grasslands. Studding the road that parallels the sea, we spy the odd villa or resort, too few to call this a holiday haven, and beachside development that’s barely there at best.
The 20km-long “au-natural” beachfront is refreshingly wild, but a shortage of beds means dropping a few stars off our hotel choice. We book Yeh Sumbul’s last room at a surf camp of sorts, and push beds together to accommodate us all. These are rough, budget-priced digs for a family of three – windowless and hot with a peculiar smell that incense can’t hope to remove – so we hastily drop our bags and start exploring.
We wade south across the river at low tide to watch the brave take on Medewi’s iconic, point break – at 300m, this is Bali’s longest left-hand ride. We sample menus from all three of Yeh Sumbul’s simple beachfront cafes, ordering spicy gado gado smothered with rich peanut sauce, fresh coconuts and icy pineapple shakes.
Our hopes for novice-sized surf are unexpectedly dashed by conditions that build the swell into monstrous, pounding waves. Dangerous currents sweep swimmers far down the beach, so we take our restless bodies on long meandering walks instead.
After two nights in shared beds, I finally tap out, stuffing backpacks at dawn and stopping for a soul- restoring round of coffee and cream-filled bomboloni before jumping aboard a Kuta-bound bus. We stop one beach short at over-touristed Legian Beach and unexpectedly end the trip on a high.
Surfing at sunrise, the waves are Goldilocks-right – measured and consistent all day long. We rent $10-a-day boards without any hassle, share a leisurely beachfront lunch with friends and, at day’s end, retreat to soothe our sun-kissed cheeks in a blissfully bug- and mould-free, air-conditioned room.
A hot shower and icy beers follow, and when we give Legian’s busy backstreets a chance, authentic warungs ply us with the tastiest of vegan meals for pocket change. That we manage to enjoy all this after wild times on Bali’s western shores, brings balance to our unexpected watery adventure. Bali is much more than the sum of its hotspots, and I fly out of Denpasar with a much-shifted mindset, vowing to return to Bali’s untarnished west coast.
Escape routes
Go
Balian is located on Bali’s west coast, a two-hour taxi ride north of Denpasar Airport and Kuta Beach. Drive another hour west to reach Yeh Sumbul. Qantas, Virgin, Air Asia and Jetstar link all capital and some regional cities to Denpasar.
Visit
Bali’s best weather comes in the dry season. Expect clear skies and sunshine from around April to October, with peak- season crowds from June to July.
Stay
Close to Balian Beach, villas at Pondok Hari Baik are set among rice paddies, a 2.5km walk or scooter ride from the coast. Villas suit two, three or four people, and there’s a pool, cafe and in-house massages (from $47/double, booking. com). For beachside stays at Balian, book at Pondok Pitaya Balian Hotel (from $95/ double). In Yeh Sumbul, book ahead at West Break Bali Medewi (from $53/couple, breakfast included).
Eat
Rama Balian Surf and Coffee serves kombucha, coffee and breakfasts. Warung Makan OCA creates possibly the best tempeh burgers in Bali. Balian Beach Cafe offers unbeatable sea views, classic Indonesian food and icy fruit shakes and beer. In Yeh Sumbul, Nal’s Kitchen serves good food and beer, Bombolonis Bali serves the best coffee and Holy Tree offers smoothie bowls and vegan feasts, plus surfboard rental.
Do
See Ronny at Balian Surf School for lessons and rentals, and join daily yoga classes just down the road at Nicky’s Balian Spirit Yoga (8.30am and 4pm, balianspirityoga.com).
Article featured in WellBeing Magazine 216
The post Untamed Bali appeared first on WellBeing Magazine.
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Untamed Bali
