Adelaide Poschelk, a Gold Coast-based Naturopath, aims to transform how we approach hormonal health and gut balance. From period pains to skin flare-ups, she’s delivering solutions with an effortless blend of science and nature.
Name: Adelaide
Day job: Naturopath
Location: Currumbin, Gold Coast
Describe your work in one sentence:
My work is rewarding, interesting and honestly a dream!
What are the top things people come to you for?
Hormonal concerns, such as heavy, painful, irregular or missing periods, as well as skin concerns and nervous system support.
How do hormones impact skin during menstruation, and how can you manage it?
Hormonal fluctuations are completely normal throughout your cycle; however, if there is an imbalance, this is where skin concerns tend to flare. For example, oestrogen and progesterone can impact skin texture, and androgens (like testosterone) can drastically increase oil production, leading to acne.
My tip, if you’re experiencing skin concerns during your cycle, is to focus on reducing anything inflammatory, such as food or drinks, environmental toxins like vaping or exposure to plastics, and seek the support of a practitioner to narrow down specific drivers for you.
How can women naturally detox their skin before or during menstruation?
Increasing cruciferous vegetables is a great way to enhance your detoxification pathways. This includes foods like broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts. Ensure you are well hydrated—aim for a minimum of 2.5L per day—and liver-loving juices like fresh beetroot, coconut water, celery, and lemon are a great combination.
Can you explain how diet and nutrition impact hormone levels?
Firstly, balance is important, but you should mainly eat whole foods that are not processed. Include a balance of healthy fats, carbs, protein, and fibre. Reduce refined sugars. Food is medicine, so how can you fuel your body to function optimally without eating nutritious foods?
What natural remedies do you recommend for menstrual symptoms?
This is one of the main reasons why I created our Detox blend. It is amazing to support your detoxification pathways, which can become overburdened and contribute to bloating. Always ensure you have warm foods in the lead-up to and during your period. This helps to reduce any stagnation. Hot water bottles or heat pads are a win for discomfort!
How does a healthy gut impact digestion, immunity, and mental health?
You may have heard the saying before that “your gut is your second brain” – it highlights the significance of gut health. Your gut health is filled with beneficial microbiomes at the core of your digestion, immunity and mental health. Poor gut health opens you up to a compromised immune system, impacted mental health, poor digestion and nutrient absorption, and lowered energy - you name it, it’ll relate to gut health.
How does gut health affect hormones and menstrual flow?
The short answer is yes! Firstly, our beneficial gut microbiome supports oestrogen metabolism by regulating and excreting excess. Poor gut health is linked to systemic inflammation, and when your body is inflamed, it’s under stress, contributing to hormone imbalances. Both factors can then impact flow through excess of certain hormones that haven’t been excreted efficiently.
What are signs your body isn't working optimally?
Cramping and a heavier flow are common symptoms that your detoxification pathways are under burden and need some extra support. You essentially want to support your detoxification pathways daily rather than doing a hard and fast detox. Slow and steady wins the race here for optimal detoxification and hormone support.
What diet or lifestyle changes do you suggest for better gut health?
Warming foods like ginger, cinnamon, and garlic can easily be added to cooking. Secondly, bitter foods. They’re so crucial for optimal digestive system function to support digestive enzymes. An easy at-home trick you can do is add a squeeze of fresh lemon to a small glass of water and shoot before meals to get your digestive juices going!
What are three gut health tips for period pain and inflammation?
Reduce refined sugar, improve your detoxification pathways and reduce toxins (e.g. don’t eat/drink out of plastic; your gut does not like this!).
What dietary changes support gut health for women with PCOS or endo?
For PCOS, the management of insulin levels is important. Ensure you eat regularly and have a high protein and lower carbohydrate diet. For endometriosis, reduce inflammatory foods and drinks - so sugars, too much alcohol, endocrine disrupting chemicals (swap to glass containers and pleaseeeee stop heating in plastic).
If you had all women's attention, what's your top health message?
Reduce your toxic exposure. This can be via environment, occupation, food, drink, clothing, and cosmetics. As a population, we are so overburdened by toxins, and this drastically takes your body away from its ideal balanced state. If you had a plant that wore plastic clothing (hello activewear), vaped/smoked, and consumed unfiltered water with forever chemicals, cosmetics and fragrances daily… it would struggle to thrive, wouldn’t it?
Finally, how must we change the conversation around menstrual health?
I think being open about it is so important. I recall growing up speaking about periods, and you were made to feel like it was such a “gross” topic when it shouldn’t be. It would be so healing if we no longer suffered in silence. Periods are normal and they should be celebrated.
YOUR WISHLIST RIGHT NOW...
- TO SEE: A concert of any kind!
- TO HOLD: A griffin (a dog that I so desperately want!)
- TO VISIT: Somewhere that’s hot, and the margaritas are cold!
MY CYCLE
- My period in 3-words: Healthy, restful and occasionally a bit crampy.
- Period self-care means: Naps, cancelling plans, doing my own thing.
- Period self-care toolkit: A heat pack, warm bath, Scarlet Period High Waisted Brief and a Ceremony Cocoa!
- Best period hacks: Warm foods in the lead-up, nothing cold or freezing! Keep your body warm too!
- On day one, you’ll find me: relaxing at home and being MIA!
