This week ft why we suddenly can’t stand people we used to love, vagus exercises, new pestos, DIY non-toxic sunscreen and more. Enjoy x
Why do older women fall out of love and lose friends?
I was chatting to one of you the other day and we mentioned that women in their 50s/60s/70s seem to initiate a LOT of divorce, give up long-term friendships, work partnerships etc.
Feeling emotionally distant, avoiding intimacy, pushing away the people you love. You are not alone. In fact, a 2022 survey by the Family Law Menopause Project [1] found that a staggering 73% of women felt menopause played a part in their divorce.
So many of you think you’re going mad because you don’t care about the people you used to love madly. This is a real physiological thing that is going on with your hormones.
I thought it was simply the bolshyness of menopause shining through in that we don’t put up with as much from rubbish/one-sided relationships as much as we did before because, well, time is running out a little faster, so why should we?!
Whilst I’m sure there’s a lot of that in it, I was quite relieved – and intrigued – to find out that there is actually a hormonal shift that accounts for it! As oestrogen drops, so does the ‘love/bonding’ hormone oxytocin. As oxytocin reduces, we struggle to feel the love we did before, we can become more emotionally numb, we might withdraw from intimacy and just want to be left the hell alone. Blimey.
The person I was chatting to then found and sent me a fascinating article/video all about it. You can read that here and watch the video below:
How fascinating – and relieving! – is that? Keep your oestrogen from dropping too far and stimulate the oxytocin by lots of hugging and get a pet! Your relationships will thank you.
The Voo Breath
I’ve started doing this again as part of my re-regulation of my nervous system thrown out by perfume gate. It’s surprisingly effective. It works on calming the nervous system down and strengthening the vagus nerve tone. Don’t underestimate seemingly simple practices like this – they are pretty powerful. Start with just, say, three voo breaths a day and build up. This is a good simple video of how to do it and why it works.
I also liked this more extensive use of it with the focus on safety. It’s from Insight Timer, one of the meditation apps I recommend in the Healing Plan.
Sensate Vagus Nerve Device
Whilst I’m on that subject…I’ve started to revamp the Mind Body Medicine section of the shop a bit and have added the Sensate device to help you tone your all-important vagus nerve – crucial in any chronic illness. No idea what the vagus nerve is and why you should strengthen it – check my Vagus Factsheet out.
Quote of the week: How hopeful is this – at long flipping last!?
The past few years have exposed the limits of conventional medicine-and revealed the quiet strength of nutrition, detoxification, and metabolic repair. Orthomolecular medicine, long censored and sidelined, is now entering the mainstream.
New Seggiano free-from pastas and pesto range at ND – LOVE that they are now doing more food items! It means we can get good supplements, toiletries and foods from them in one shop – all helps with postage costs! The pestos look particularly yummy – they have black kale, tomato and wild fennel, tomato and, my favourite, raw basil. The latter has no lactic or citric acid in it so is suitable for corn-free TGF peeps – yay! I used to have the Biona pesto – and then they added lactic acid. Sigh.
Ingredients for the raw basil pesto: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, CASHEW NUTS, fresh DOP Genovese basil 30%, sea salt, pine nuts.
Anyway, take a peek at the new Seggiano range here. Much cheaper to make your own pesto, I know. But sometimes I like to have a jar in to stir into lentil, pea or chickpea pasta or ‘rice’. Quick easy dish when you’re pushed for time. I generally add some mushrooms and asparagus, or courgette, maybe some prawns, depends what I have that needs using in the fridge. When the flavour is really good, you use less anyway, so likely better value in the long run. I do also like the look of their red lentil tagliatelle. Might be worth a try. Most lentil pasta I’ve tried has been chewy! Do you have a favourite pasta or pesto?
Subscriber question: DIY sunscreen recipe
V asked this week if I had a sunscreen recipe suitable for TGFs (that’s grain, corn and dairy free). Of course I do.
In terms of making your own sunscreen, the easiest way is to use a base of whatever you can tolerate on your skin and add up to 20% of non-nano zinc oxide powder to it. Zinc oxide is a very effective sunscreen and the non-nano particles are too large to go through the skin, so it forms a kind of barrier.
I don’t know definitively what the SPF would be, but I note that many of the ready-made zinc oxide based sunscreens market themselves as SPF 30 – that one looks pretty TGF safe actually, now I look at it, yay :). Just probably check the source of the tocopherol although it is usually sunflower nowadays rather than wheatgerm, and what are the extracts made with? Someone check and let us know?? Bless you.
Anyway, then I thought: well how are you going to get hold of good quality zinc oxide (much says it is non-nano, but it isn’t)? So off I went on a hunt for a good source of cosmetic ingredients for you. I’ve listed them on the shop – I’ve used them for years.
Check out the new shop sections – I’m bounding along, adding all sorts of useful bits and bobs for you so you can start to think of it as a kind of one-stop shop for non-toxic, excellent quality wellness stuff.
OK, back to how to make your own DIY sunscreen.
Note that you will need to mix the zinc oxide in well as it can leave a white appearance on the skin, try a patch test obviously to make sure you are OK with it before slathering it everywhere – it can irritate some skins – and don’t inhale it – wear a mask or keep well back as it’s a very fine powder. I think that advice is mostly for when you’re using nano-size powders, but it’s wise for any powder.
Jojoba and hazelnut oil are both natural sunscreens so they might be a good oil base. I have often combined it with raspberry seed oil (or the NHR one is here), which has sunscreen ability – note not as high as the 28-50 SPF you read about – much lower than that, but still useful.
I did find a good general sunscreen recipe here for you but, as it says there actually – I have just done the ‘add 10-20% of zinc oxide powder and a dash of raspberry seed oil to a base I know I tolerate thing’ and that works, for me anyway. Don’t rely on it like you would a lab-tested SPF-known sunscreen obvs.
Bonus Tips: I would use babassu oil (solid) instead of the waxes and shea butter in the above recipe as it has a natural sunscreen ability. Use aloe vera gel with lavender and frankincense if you do catch the sun and go red. Use peppermint spray in water for prickly heat.
Please use my new shop suppliers if making stuff like this – it all helps me keep this newsletter and Purehealth going, thank you.
Oh and don’t forget that you will be absorbing some zinc by putting it on your skin – only a little as it is large particles, but bear in mind with your usual supplement levels.
Don’t forget these resources…
I am often adding useful videos in the Extras playlist on my You Tube channel – and I forget to tell you, lol! Here’s a reminder – one of you said I should send one out, so here it is!
Whilst I’m at it – also don’t forget my Pinterest boards – again, often adding stuff to them and forget to tell you – there’s a theme here, ha ha! I just had a shock – there are now 1.1k pins on there for you – free-from recipes galore – wheat, dairy, gluten, grain, corn, AIP, paleo, keto and more. And over 500 of you follow me there – I do love a bit of Pinterest browsing, myself; it can be quite addictive!
Clinic News: Omnos/Regenerus shipping costs rising 4th August
Just had an email from the lab to say
Effective Monday, 4th August, our UK shipping rate will increase to £9.
This increase continues to offer great value for money and enables us to provide next-day delivery of test kits to you, plus return of samples via medical express to ensure sample integrity
I know that’s a hike and a half as it’s currently £3.50! Apparently, they’ve just absorbed all the increases from the global uptick in costs everywhere for the past 8 years, so they had to increase. But also they want to make sure that test samples are getting back to them in a viable fashion – which doesn’t always happen – so they’ve upgraded the return service. It’ll mean higher postage costs for all Regenerus/Omnos test orders – get in quick before 4th August! Lab tests are here.
A tiny And Finally for you….we watched this and this on ITVx recently – enjoyed both – we don’t watch a lot of ITV as I can’t stand the adverts! Now watching the Humans docuseries on BBC – fascinating, if a little repetitive. I got some new transition lenses glasses to help with light sensitivity recently – they are so much better than they used to be. I got the ones that work indoors and in the car – SO helpful. I got mine through Lensology – a lot cheaper than high street places. Meantime, my electric voile blind is working a treat in the lounge. And with that, I’m off to sit on the terrace with a cuppa. Have a great week x
July 25
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