Karen Mazzella

Good grief – I was going to be so onto it this year with keeping my website up to date!

I’m pretty sure I have failed to mention before that I am involved in a Not For Profit organisation called Wellness Agents Inc.

Our tagline is “Thriving in a Changing World”. And, “There is always more to learn.” For us at Wellness Agents, it is important that people take responsibility for their health but, we also accept that this is not as easy as it may sound.

Wellness Agents started back in 2016. We were all set to launch in 2020 with a live event that never went ahead because it was 2020. So, here in 2024, we finally stepped onto the stage, letting people know we even exist by creating YouTube content once a month. The first YouTube link is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVRLmiIrXYc and, there are more after that! Please like and subscribe if you want to be alerted to future productions!

Our website link is here https://wellnessagents.org/ you can subscribe to our newsletters. The Wellness Agents take turns writing on subjects we feel are worth writing about. Take a look by choosing the Articles tab on the website. You can also take the opportunity to check out any upcoming events. Here is my submission for April on the challenges of researching your health issue https://wellnessagents.org/articles/

We are hosting an event in May 2024, “Art Play for Adults” at CASM in Mandurah. This is an opportunity to switch on your creativity with colour, movement, and joy! You get to take home your creation too!

As well as great writing skills, Kelly will lead the art workshop as she’s an accomplished artist as well! And don’t worry if you feel you can’t do art. You’ll be amazed how you can!

The cost of the workshop includes all the materials and, you will get to experience some simple and effective yoga and kinesiology that will get your creative juices flowing!

Anyone that has had a bad night’s sleep knows how it can intrude on productivity the following day!  Have you ever experienced “brain fog”?

As I progress through my studies on dementia, I’d like to share some of the information given by Dr Michael Breus, Ph.D.  He is a Clinical Psychologist and author who is nationally-recognised in the US as an expert on sleep.  All of the information below has come from an interview he gave in the “Regain Your Brain” series by Peggy Sarlin.

He talks about the importance of establishing and maintaining a consistent waking and sleeping routine to assist your circadian rhythm and by doing this assisting your memory.

Questions to ask yourself about sleep – because sleep is definitely about quality and quantity.

• Do I have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep?
• Do I wake feeling rested?
• Do I snore? (you might need to ask your partner this one – and believe them if they say you do!  You’re asleep – you may not know!)
• Do I have sleep apnea (your partner may have to answer that one too!)  This is when you actually stop breathing and may do a big gasp when your body realises it’s running low on oxygen!

According to Dr Breus, if our circadian rhythm is functioning well, our focus will be best earlier in the day as we should have higher levels of cortisol in our system.  In the later part of the day, our creativity is at its best because the cortisol is dropping off and our melatonin levels are beginning to rise.

One way of developing a good sleep/wake routine and reducing the brain fog effect is this:

On waking –

1. Hydrate – have at least one glass of water to make up for the fluid loss overnight.
2. Sunlight and movement – natural light helps shut down the melatonin release.  Exercise gets the blood flowing assisting your body to function well
3. Nutrition – have a protein-based breakfast rather than a carbohydrate loaded breakfast as the carbohydrates elevate melatonin levels.

 “Light (natural) is Medicine” – “Movement is Medicine” 

During the day – Most people can maintain good focus for about 45 – 50 minutes before fatigue sets in.  When you notice your focus is dropping, Dr Breus suggests:

1. Re-hydration – keep the body hydrated – he really stresses this point
2. Walk outside – recharge and turn off the melatonin!  Also getting outside gets you fresh air.  Do exercises that cross the mid-line of your body.
3. Deep breathing (regardless of whether you can get outside).
4. Nutrition – Eat a good, healthy lunch – you can have more carbohydrates in this meal

In the mid-afternoon, there is a drop in energy levels and body temperature so go outside again to get more natural light.

Dr Breus advises a consistent bed-time and wake-up time.  Every body is different but most people need 7 to 8 hours sleep a night and certain behaviours encourage a good night’s sleep followed by a productive day and then a good night’s sleep …  So, before going to bed, there is a little preparation required.

For the healthy, non-medicated person, using the example of their bed time being 10 pm:

• 9 pm to 9:20 pm – turn off all the gadgets – phones, tablets, computer work and do the preparation for the next day – organise anything that you know needs to be done for tomorrow that can be done tonight
• 9:20 pm to 9:40 pm – end of day hygiene – showering, brushing teeth etc
• 9:40 pm to 10 pm – relaxation – find the technique that works for you that allows you to fall asleep.

If anxiety and depression or a busy brain gets in the way of easily falling asleep then try this technique.  Maintain a “worry journal” – or call it what you like!  Divide the page in 2  and have a “Problem” column and a “Solution” column.  Sometimes the solution will be that you will concentrate on that tomorrow!  Having the problem written down sometimes helps resolve the problem or at least put it into perspective.  This activity should be done before the routine written above.  That is, before you turn of the electronic devices and preparing for the next day.

Things that can get in the way of a good night’s sleep can include:

1. Medications – your doctor/pharmacist can advise you of the best times to take your medication so that sleep problems from the medication are minimised.
2. Pain – Dr Breus works in a pain clinic and specifically mentions that pain and sleep should be treated simultaneously
3. Sleep Apnea – maintaining a healthy weight helps to reduce this problem.  Also using devices that help you to breathe well through the night eg CPAP, mouth devices that keep your jaw forward
4. Nocturia – needing to go to the toilet through the night.  Dr Breus didn’t have any suggestions for this but I would suggest you start by being referred to a Continence Adviser as they have so much knowledge to share.  Nocturia comes into their area of expertise.  You could also consider a Urologist.

Dr Breus’s guide to successful night’s sleep starts with his Banana Tea as it is very high in magnesium – great for a muscle relaxant.

His instructions are:

1. wash the banana (skin intact)
2. cut off the tips
3. cut into half
4. put into a pot of water – 3 to 4 cups
5. boil for 4 to 5 minutes
6. drink the water

This wouldn’t be great if you hate bananas but if you love them, then apparently it is very delicious!

The story behind the drink recipe

The gentleman (I’ll call Bill – not his real name) who shared this recipe with me was given it from a friend of his.  Bill told me that 5 months ago, one of his knees was very painful and double the size it is now and he also used to have dreadful pain in his neck that caused him to stoop – and this is completely gone as well.  He credits these changes to the drink.  What I also saw was a motivated and charismatic elderly man who had a new lease on life! 

Bill attends a clinic where a while back he was delivered the news that he carries the gene that makes him susceptible to Alzheimer’s disease.  He understood what this meant as he had watched family members progress through the disease.  This brought about an initial bout of depression but he courageously picked himself up and decided to make the most of what he had.

Please don’t let your genetics to get in the way of your perception of your health.  If you feed your cells with good food, a healthy attitude and do regular exercise, you’re a long way down the track of living well.  A good read on this topic is “The Biology of Belief” by Dr Bruce Lipton – the Cell Biologist that really put Epigenetics out there.  Epigenetics means “above the genes”.  He does a fabulous presentation on this subject on You Tube as well if you find that easier than reading.

Anti-inflammatory drink

1 heaped teaspoon of turmeric

1 heaped teaspoon of coconut oil (the oil that goes solid in cool temperature)

Make a paste of the above ingredients.

Add a couple of “twists” from dispenser of black pepper to paste

¾ cup of hot water

Add ½ a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon of honey (ensure it is a quality honey – our local SW unprocessed honey has healing properties)

Hold your nose and drink!  (This was Bill’s advice!)

This is how the recipe was handed to me but there are points to note:

Go for quality ingredients –

1. Cocoa powder could be substituted with organic cacao from health food shop
2. Not all honeys are equal! Avoid honey sold at the supermarkets, pay the extra and get honey that will serve you well.  In the SW of Australia we have fabulous suppliers of unprocessed honey from bees in our forests.

I feel so blessed when I come into contact with amazing people and their stories. 

Below is information about each of the active ingredients in the drink – I’ve sourced these off the internet but please do your own research and take control of your own health.  Be aware that you may have an intolerance or allergy to one or more of the ingredients so take responsibility and make healthy substitutes that suit you.

Properties of the ingredients:

Turmeric – anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, boosts Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (improves brain function), contributes to assisting with lowering risk to heart disease, assists with preventing cancer, assists with arthritis, benefits those with depression. https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-662/turmeric

Coconut Oil – Raise HDL levels, contain medium chain triglycerides, a quick source of energy, convert easily to ketones that benefit the brain, increase fat burning, has an anti-microbial, anti-viral and anti-fungal effects.  There are gut side effects so watch your dosages and make changes that suit your body’s response. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-coconut-oil#section9

Black Pepper – Bill told me that he was told that black pepper helps the body to absorb the turmeric.  Other sources advise it’s great for providing manganese, Vit K, Iron and fibre.  It is also an antioxidant, discourages intestinal gas from forming, helps breakdown of fat cells.  Increases the body’s ability to absorb a multiple of nutrients.  https://foodfacts.mercola.com/black-pepper.html

Cacao – an anti-oxidant, it contains protein, and a multitude of nutrients and essential fatty acids.  It contains phytochemicals that can lower LDL cholesterol, improve heart function and reduce cancer risk.  https://foodfacts.mercola.com/cacao.html

Honey – a blend of sugar and multiple nutrients, amino acids.  It has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and antioxidant properties as long as it is unprocessed honey.  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/20/health-benefits-honey.aspx

Water – it’s also my policy to look at the quality of the water you drink and the additives that contribute to your daily intake and therefore health.  Loads to research there!!

My latest research has taken me in the direction of Alzheimer’s, dementia and brain health from the mainstream perspective. This is because my nursing work has a restorative focus usually involving older patients with cognitive issues and other health issues generally related to aging.  Even if the aging patient has no cognitive issues then their health issue almost always has a neurological deficit eg Stroke, Parkinson’s Disease or immobility from another cause.

I watched the “Awakening from Alzheimer’s” series that explained the importance of lifestyle changes to reduce the inflammation in your gut and therefore your brain (think microbiome).

Listening to this series offers only optimism for health improvement.  Although these presenters are focusing on Alzheimer’s and memory loss, the information shared is completely on track for how my son’s profound dyslexia (diagnosed as a 6 year old at the Neuroscience Unit in Perth) was reversed after being on a nutritional and kinesiology program in 3 weeks – close to his 7th birthday!  I could not convince his Year 2 teacher of what he couldn’t do in Year 1 as we started the program in the holidays – and his Year 1 teacher had left the town we were living in!  At the end of Year 1 he had around 30 of the expected 100 sight words – yet he was reading individual letters and numbers as a 2 year old.  He now has a tertiary English qualification as a Professional Screen Writer.

For those interested in the way things work!
A couple of weekends ago I was reminded that I really wanted to look at the Methylation Cycle in its relation to chronic health conditions like auto-immunity, thyroid issues, mental health issues, cancer and the list goes on. It is where toxins, infections (bacterial, viral and fungal), heavy metal toxicity etc fits in with health outcomes.
I’d been taught aspects of the cycle particularly in my kinesiology studies courtesy of Dr Igor Tabrizian’s “Visual Textbook of Nutritional Medicine” but hadn’t got to the point of joining the dots until now.  I don’t remember being taught much more than the Kreb’s Cycle in nursing but then maybe they didn’t know the extent of it back in the 80s or maybe I blocked it all back then!

If you’re interested in biochemistry there are some fabulous lectures available on YouTube (I started with the 4 part series called “Methylation Made Easy” and progressed from there!) and some great images of the Methylation Cycle map in Google images to help complete your understanding.

The main point is – stomach acid must be at pH 2-3 (Guyton) and from then on the right balance of proteins, vitamins and minerals in the diet and presence of necessary enzymes needed to cause the chain reactions required for good health.

So when you are told that it doesn’t matter what you eat – the Methylation Cycle tells differently!

Things that can alter your stomach acid pH outside the pH 2 – 3 range:

• poor dietary choices
  • (high starch carbs like wheat based foods, excess potatoes, rice etc)
  • carbonated drinks – particularly those high in sugar (watch “That Sugar Movie” to see just how much sugar is in some drinks that you may not be aware of)
• stress
• medications – particularly those that are designed to bring comfort from reflux and heart burn.

When you are told that supplements “… make expensive wee”.  It is really very important to make sure you are only supplementing under the advice of a qualified practitioner and that you are not buying substandard supplements that can actually cause more harm than good.  An example of this is our milk (dairy and alternative versions) are supplemented with calcium – but not a calcium that is easily absorbed into our body system.  One of the reasons I make my own almond milk if I can’t get the organic version that is not “value”-added.

Cholesterol is needed by EVERY cell in your body.  The body wouldn’t be able to make cholesterol if it wasn’t necessary in the scheme of things!  It is necessary for hormone and isoprenoid production and these are vital for life!

Statins (cholesterol medication) action is to block the process of cholesterol and isoprenoid production via the mevalonate pathway.  This pathway enables cell growth and the replication of DNA.  The replication of DNA is what needs to happen for cell division and cell division is necessary for life.

This very abbreviated explanation comes from a summary of a book “How statin drugs really lower cholesterol: and kill you one cell at a time” by James and Hannah Yoseph.  The lit review of the book is by Zoe Harcombe.  See the link below.

http://www.zoeharcombe.com/2013/10/how-statin-drugs-really-lower-cholesterol-and-kill-you-one-cell-at-a-time/

More information about keeping you informed.

How to read your cholesterol blood results.

On the report there should be a breakdown of different results.  These are:

1. Total cholesterol – as it states.  This number on its own means very little without the breakdown of the total and sometimes this can be the only result the lab sends back to the GP.
2. LDL – this stands for low density lipoprotein – this is made in the liver and is produced when the body is stressed.  If it is deemed this level is too high, this can be improved by improving your diet to whole foods, and making changes to bring in more calm and relaxation into your life.  It is seen as “bad cholesterol” in mainstream – but it has a very real function in the body and it is just as harmful for the level to be too low.
3. HDL – this stands for high density lipoprotein – if this is too low then the best food source are the good oils eg. olive oil, avocado etc – the essential fatty acids.  Unfortunately for some, if they have had their gall bladder removed any oil intake can be difficult/painful.  Also, some doctors will tell their patients to stop taking fish oils as it can have consequences with some blood thinners.  It is the blood thinners that should have to work in with the fish oils – not the other way around!  I did actually meet a patient who had that attitude and a balance was reached.
4. Triglycerides – this is all about what you eat.  If this is raised, then it is up to you what changes you make but you do have changes to make if you want to choose good health.
5. Cardiac Risk Ratio – based on the ratio of the above results gives an indicator of your heart health.

At the end of the day, what is really important is that we learn to manage the stresses in our lives.  The word ‘stress‘ in this context is anything that upsets our body from operating at it’s best.

Therefore, if your diet could be adjusted to low sugar and starch carbohydrate intake (think ketogenic diet) – one slice of bread has equal effect on the body as 6 tsp of sugar (http://www.wheatbelly.com).  Judge your food by how much human intervention was required before you eat it (excluding the farmer – although consider what chemicals he/she may have used!).

Be aware that any carbonated drinks – from soda water to champagne and all those sugary/diet soda drinks in between – will have a negative effect on how your stomach can perform in breaking down food.  The bubbles immediately raise the pH in your stomach.  We need the pH to be low enough (very acidic) to start the breakdown of proteins.  Without the adequate breakdown of proteins your body has difficulty making hormones and neurotransmitters.  If you suffer reflux/heartburn it is more likely that your stomach isn’t acid enough rather than too acidic. There’s a whole other story to write about Proton Pump Inhibitor medications and how they contribute to the down hill slide of our health.  They also raise the pH to minimise symptoms but do nothing for the cause and have their own host of side effects.

Look at the side effects of the medications you are taking.  See the Better Health Channel link further down to assist that search.  When you develop a new symptom that can be immediate or take a couple of weeks for the impact to develop think back to the possibility of it being a side effect.

A GP told me several years ago, there is a professional expectation placed on them that if an individual is diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, then within 12 months that individual could/should be on 5 different medications. Four medications for the side effects of one of the others!  I hope this isn’t the first time you have read this but Type 2 Diabetes is reversible by making lifestyle changes.  I have sat through Diabetic education delivered by Diabetes Educators who teach Practice Nurses and patients alike that their condition is now lifelong.  They are following the guidelines from Diabetes Australia and my research and experience has shown this “fact” not to be true.  Sure, if you go back to bad habits the symptoms will return but you can live without the symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes even if you once had it as a diagnosis.

There are some very good texts out there that will help anyone gain information on this type of medication and I encourage everyone to read up and understand what they are about.  Authors include Dr Sandra Cabot and Dr Peter Dingle to name a couple.  There are some great You Tube presentations by well qualified individuals.  Watch the sites that you go to to ensure the information is reliable.  A very helpful website to all things healthy but not necessarily aligned with the mainstream way of thinking is http://www.greenmedinfo.com/

If you want to check side effects to medication you may be taking, the site I use the most for my clients is www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au – put in the drug name and click on the PDF option.  Here you will get a patient-friendly extract from MIMS  (the guide the doctors use) although I suspect it doesn’t contain all the information your doctors have access to.

I smile when I see shared on Facebook the memes that say something like – “disregard my medical / nursing / whatever degree or so many years of study because you know more through Google”.  The thing is, if you have done your research – you can then formulate the questions you want answered.  I see this as taking responsibility – but also take responsibility for finding out from more than one credible source.  This is not easy, is very time consuming and at the end of the day can be confusing.

References:

Cabot, S. & Jasinska, M. (2011).  Cholesterol – the real truth.  Australia.

Davis, W. (2014).  Wheat Belly.  HarperCollins.

Harcombe, Z. (2016).  How statin drugs really lower cholesterol & kill you one cell at a time (Review).  www.zoeharcombe.com

Good websites:

www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au

www.drdingle.com

www.greenmedinfo.com

In the middle of May 2015, I completed a week of Brain Integration 2 training.  This involved a very detailed “ins and outs” of the nerve pathways in the brain that may need some help “flowing”again.

In September I am planning to complete Brain Integration 3 and that will see me having gone through the full process of all the Brain Integration units once and Brain Integration 1 twice.

Brain Integration can be useful for anyone but is particularly the kinesiology of choice for learning difficulties and anything that comes under the auditory processing umbrella.

Through the use of formats using the meridian system from Eastern therapies, Dr Charles Krebs has put together a protocol to target neural pathways and get them flowing again. He explains it well in this You Tube presentation.

Since the end of December 2014, I set myself a project of writing a journal article on the value of Vitamin D.  I knew it was important for many areas of health but I wanted to understand more of the “why” and decided I would write the article with a focus towards nursing education.  I graduated from my Bachelor of Science (Nursing) in 1988 and then Post Graduate Certificate in Preventive Medicine in 2007, and in neither of those courses do I remember receiving much focus on the biochemical importance of vitamins and minerals.  We studied biochemistry but not with an emphasis on deficiencies or excesses of vitamins and minerals.  So, I knew it was well past time that I did some research.  I thought the article may take about a month to complete and now it is mid March and although it is well on the way to completion – there is more to do to make it a readable and useful document.

Probably the biggest lesson I have learned to date through writing the article is how we have been taught a simplified way of thinking of our physical  health.  Even back in the mid to late 80’s we were being taught to practice holistic nursing – look at the patient as a whole – but this always seemed to me (back then) to be more about the patient’s relationships, environment and just a little bit about their diet.  Let me use Vitamin D as an example of how complex things can get!!

To make active vitamin D we must either have unprotected exposure to direct sunlight – optimally in the middle of the day – and/or ingest foods containing the inactive form [7-DHC].  This inactive form of vitamin D from sunlight and food is then transported to the liver for conversion to another inactive form [25(OH)D3] and then is transported to the kidneys for the final conversion to active Vitamin D [1,25(OH)2D3].  But here comes the if, buts and provisos!

If you have insufficient magnesium then each stage of the conversion process cannot occur (at the skin, liver and kidneys).

If you have insufficient zinc then the vitamin D receptors will not be able to carry the vitamin D through the conversion process and at the cellular level.

If you have insufficient vitamin K2 then your vitamin D cannot perform the function of calcium being transported to the target sites (eg bones).

If you have insufficient vitamin A then vitamin D cannot read the DNA code

And, if you have insufficient Boron then vitamin D cannot effectively play it’s role in mineral metabolism, hormone synthesis and brain function.

So yes, vitamin D is really important – but it just isn’t as simple as supplementing your diet with vitamin D because the other co-factors have to be in adequate supply for the whole process to work!  Not one is more important than the other.

So let us extend our minds to taking this one step further to add to the complexity!  Each of those co-factors also has a set of co-factors!!

If you look at zinc as an example, it can be blocked from absorption by copper, cadmium, mercury, aluminium and antimony.  If you don’t have adequate stomach acidity then you cannot absorb zinc and if you don’t absorb zinc then you can’t make stomach acid!  If your diet is high in sugars (including starch carbohydrates) or you are taking medication that raises your stomach acid pH (making your stomach less acidic) then you cannot make or absorb zinc and this means you cannot absorb vitamin D. (That’s just one nasty story about inadequate stomach acid and would equate to more than one article).

To be told you only have to eat a healthy diet is not helpful. You really need to know that you are eating what you need to be and that you are getting the nutrient value out of your meals.  Know that Western Australian soils are extremely depleted in necessary minerals for our health and so the only way to ensure you are ingesting what you need is through supplementing.  But as I have pointed out already – this is not as simple as taking a supplement but needs a well qualified naturopath/nutritionist that understands the biochemical implications of a vitamin and mineral excess or deficiency to guide you to avoid a biological problem in the form of disease.  Also – only use quality supplements.  Do not buy your supplements from the supermarket – supplements in some forms can actually be harmful and these are usually the cheaper brands. The best place to purchase supplements other than a naturopath/nutritionist is at a health food shop or a pharmacy that has a resident naturopath/nutritionist.  Not all supplements are created equal so get your advice from the professional that has actually studied or been taught the information you are needing.

The bibliography that follows is from my journal article.  I will post the article on this site once it is completed.

Bibliography

Australian Government. (2015). Ultraviolet (UV) Index Forecast. Retrieved from Bureau of Meteorology: www.bom.gov.au/wa/uv/index.shtml

Balch, P. (2010). Prescription for Nutritional Healing. New York: Penguin.

Binkley, N., Novotny, R., Krueger, D., Kawahara, T., Daida, Y., Lensmeyer, G., . . . Drezner, M. (2009). Low vitamin D status despite abundant sun exposure. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 92(6), 2130-2135.

Bowker, N. (2010). Understanding Vitamin D. Retrieved from You Tube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=onSPZ0aBUKM

Chen, T., Chimeh, F., Lu, Z., Mathieu, J., Person, K., Zhang, A., . . . Holick, M. (2006). Factors that influence the cutaneous synthesis and dietary sources of vitamin D. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Vol 460, Issue 2, , 213-217.

Epilepsy Action Australia. (2011, Jan). Seizure Smart. Retrieved from Epilepsy Action Australia: http://www.epilepsy.org.au

Grober, U., & Kisters, K. (2012, April/May/June). Influence of drugs on vitamin D and calcium metabolism. Retrieved from Dermato-Endocrinology Vol4 Issue 2: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3427195/pdf/de-4-158.pdf

Helmer AC, & Jensen, C. (1937). Vitamin D precursors removed from the skin by washing. Studies Inst Divi Thomae, 207-216.

Holick, M. (2004). Vitamin D: importance in the prevention of cancers. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, p362-371.

Holick, M., & Jenkins, M. (2003). The UV Advantage. New York: iBooks.

Johnson, J., Maher, J., DeMaria, E., Downs, R., Wolfe, L., & Kellum, J. (2006). The long-term effects of gastric bypass on Vitamin D metabolism. Retrieved from Annals of Surgery: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1570540/

Lucas, R., & Neale, R. (2014). What is the optimal level of vitamin D. Australian Family Physician Vol 43, No 3, 119-122.

Moorthy, D., Cappellano, K., & Rosenburg, I. (2008). Nutrition and Crohn’s disease: an update ofprint and Web-based guidance. Retrieved from Nutrition Reviews: www.nutritionreviews.oxfordjournals.org/content/66/7/387

National Institutes of Health. (2014). Vitamin D – Fact sheet for Health Professionals. Retrieved from US Department of Health & Human Services: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/

Nowson, C., McGrath, J., Ebeling, P., Halkerwal, A., Daly, R., Sanders, K., . . . Mason, R. (2012, June 18). Clinical Focus: Vitamin D and health in adults in Australia and New Zealand: a position statement. Retrieved from The Medical Journal of Australia 196 (11): https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2012/196/11/vitamin-d-and-health-adults-australia-and-new-zealand-position-statement

NPS Medicinewise. (2012). Retrieved from NPS Medicinewise: http://www.nps.org.au/

NPS Medicinewise. (2014, November). Vitamin D Tests Fact Sheet. Retrieved from NPS Medicinewise: www.nps.org.au

Oh, S. (2011, Sep). Proton pump inhibitors – Uncommon adverse effects. Retrieved from RACGP Reprinted from Australian Family Physician Vol 40, No 9: http://www.racgp.org.au/download/documents/AFP/2011/September/201109oh.pdf

Ontometrics. (no date). D minder. Retrieved from Ontometrics: www.dminder.ontometrics.com

Osiecki, H. (no date). The Nutrient Bible 8th Edition. Australia: AG Publishing.

Rheaume-Bleue, K. (2013). Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a little known vitamin could save your life. Ontario, Canada: John Wiley & Sons.

Tabrizian, I. (no date). Visual Textbook of Nutritional Medicine – First Edition. Australia: NRS Publication Education Series.

US National Library of Medicine, NIH. (2012, Oct 8). Stomach acid test. Retrieved from MedlinePlus: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003883.htm

Vitamin D Council. (no date). How do I get the Vitamin D my body needs? Retrieved from Vitamin D Council: www.vitamindcouncil.org

Wortsman, J., Matsuoka, L., Chen, T., Lu, Z., & Holick, M. (2000). Decreased bioavailability of Vitamin D in obesity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 690-693.

Yeomans, N. (2000, March). Drugs that inhibit acid secretion. Retrieved from Australian Prescriber: http://www.australianprescriber.com/magazine/23/3/57/9