60 seconds with The Health Shed!

Sian Leigh from The Health Shed has taken 60 seconds out of her day to share her passion for health! 20 years ago Sian compressed discs in her back snowboarding and began living on painkillers and anti-inflammatories. On top of this, Sian contracting a couple of parasites while traveling, partied too much, and lived in ‘fight or flight’ mod for years when her kids were little with terrible allergies and colic. This all took its toll on Sian’s gut bacteria and health...

Auto-Immune Diagnosis After being diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or ME as it is commonly known, Sian decided to take her health into her own hands and for the last 8 years she has worked on healing her gut and supporting her microbial mates - in order to live a healthy, happy and stress free life. Sian is a qualified health coach and yoga teacher with a degree in psychology.

Hi Sian, thanks for joining us today! Tell us a little bit about The Health Shed and your health philosophy?

The Health Shed It is a place where people can come to garner information and support if they want to work on improving their health. I support people as they make changes based food/life information I provide for them. Everyone is so different so there’s no specific diet I recommend or any particular regime, but we work together to find out what suits their lifestyle and what they are capable of maintaining to get them in a healthier state 6 months down the track.

A common trait I am seeing over and over is that people are SO burned out these days. This manifests itself in so many different ways, and often they can’t see the wood for the trees by the time I start working with them. We start with the basics so people have the strength to make bigger changes, and by the 6 month mark people are living the life they want to live.

What do you think is the biggest problem with the current medical system? I don’t want to knock doctors, they are amazing in their specialist fields and look and modern medicine, it is incredible in so many ways. I think the problem has arisen in that people have lost control of their own health. Half way through last century people turned it over to their GP, and thought everything needed to be cured with a pill (or a big bottle of brightly coloured syrup). Unfortunately the current generation is paying the price resulting in auto-immune diseases and dicky microbiome. The current medical system doesn’t look at the big picture ‘oh you have migraines, let’s treat that with a pill’, not stopping to look at what else is going on with that person and seeing it as a symptom, not the root cause.

Unfortunately because the big pharmaceutical companies hand out drugs willy nilly it’s too easy to think oh I’ll just take a pill and feel better. We were in the UK last week and I couldn’t believe the drugs that were so easily available in Sainsburys - I mean these are really gut damaging drugs - panadol, ibuprofen, nurofen, voltaren, anti-histamines, sleeping aids, cold and flu syrup, not to mention the stuff available for kids…. But it’s this world we live in, no-one has time to go to bed for a week. I’m not preaching here, I was the worst at it, I used to take whatever I could to get back on my snowboard and I didn’t know that I was doing long term damage to my gut which in turn would make me, and my kids, so sick.

What 3 things do you do EVERYDAY to ensure great heath? DRINK at least 3 litres of water. BE THANKFUL I swear every single day I thank whoever is up there for my family’s good health (nothing like being chronically ill to make you appreciate your health). I am beyond thankful for the life I am living. COMMUNITY I make contact with my family and friends in NZ. I talk to my mum and dad via some medium every day. Those little e-mails/texts/messages from friends and family make me feel loved and connected with my community. It can be very isolating living on a ski slope!

What does the future hold for you? This year has been a huge year for me, living in a totally different culture, settling the kids into 100% French school (when they didn’t speak a word of French), finishing both my yoga training and my studies in nutrition and holistic health, so I have to say I really haven’t thought about the future to be honest. I can only really think a week ahead at the moment! That said I have realised this year just how much I LOVE studying! I would love to do a Masters in the microbiome, because a healthy microbes are the key to everything. We are quite literally what we eat, and the sooner the world understands that eating those things with e-numbers and colouring and taking pharmaceutical drugs is going to kill their microbiome and eventually them and future generations, the better. So I guess, for now, my short term goal is to continue to work with people via The Health Shed, continue to learn myself and in turn educate, support, guide, and change peoples lives, by helping them take control of their health again.

Check out Sian's yoga vids here :

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