We are excited to welcome local permaculture figure Jenny Blagdon as our April club night guest speaker.

Nurtured by Nature – the science behind how nature affects your health.

Research into the health benefits of spending time in nature has increased substantially over recent years although it is still in its infancy. Jenny will outline the most up-to-date science about ‘nature deficit disorder’ and how it affects us, particularly our children. She’ll then explore the many positive health outcomes that can come from spending time in natural environments. In doing so she’ll detail what’s occurring in our bodies, particularly our gut and our brain, when we’re in nature, and how the loss of biodiversity in nature has led to the recent coining in the literature of two new concepts: ‘nature deficiency’, referring to a nature loss in the human body that influences health, and ‘microbiome rewilding’, techniques that cultivate a diverse pool of environmental microbes in order to seed healthier microbiomes in humans and wildlife.

Finally she’ll explain how the mounting evidence means daily exposure to nature and fresh air has become the, as yet unofficial, seventh pillar of Lifestyle Medicine (a branch of medicine focused on preventive healthcare and self-care dealing with prevention, research, education, and treatment of disorders caused by lifestyle factors and preventable causes of death such as nutrition, physical inactivity, chronic stress, and self-destructive behaviours) and what this might mean for healthcare in the future.

Jenny has had a career spanning over 40 years, with a strong focus on researching and teaching about health and wellbeing at both the individual and community level. She is a certified Lifestyle Medicine practitioner with the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine, and an avid permaculturalist.

After living through a period of extreme stress in her early 30’s Jenny developed first one, and then a further two, autoimmune diseases. For more than 20 years she lived with significant pain and ill health. During this time she sought relief from her symptoms everywhere to little avail. Eventually her research led her to Lifestyle Medicine, where lifestyle change is the primary modality for treating chronic conditions. Jenny now lives pain free and works as an edible gardener while also supporting people in her lifestyle medicine practice. She has recently been contracted to offer her Lifestyle Medicine program to a public health service in rural Victoria, one of the first such initiatives in the country.

CLUB NIGHT

Location: Cooroy Memorial Hall, 23 Maple St, Cooroy

Open at 6:00 pm.

Markets: Plants, Seeds, Produce and more!

At 6:30 pm our presentation begins.

Raffle: Our community raffle is a community effort. Please bring anything you wish to donate to the raffle, whether it be excess produce, homemade goodies or little crafty bits and bobs! Please place any items in the box inside the front door.

Supper: Dahl ($6/bowl) and Chai ($4 bottomless cup, keep cups welcome!) will be for sale on the night plus we welcome you to bring a plate to share for a snack and chat together after the meeting.

Entry is a $5 donation for non-members. There is no charge for members.

Do consider bringing friends or neighbours to our meetings. It’s how we grow the group and may be inspiring to them as well. As always, you will leave the meeting better informed and hopefully better connected to others in the community!

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