Tiny's Blog

Tiny's Blog

Tiny's Blog

Coming Soon(ish): the Tiny Pioneer Cookbook!

Coming Soon(ish): the Tiny Pioneer Cookbook!

Regular readers will know that I place huge importance on the importance of gut health when it comes to maintaining good physical and mental health. When I receive emails or phone calls from newly diagnosed interstitial cystitis sufferers, I almost always enquire about their digestion and make recommendations that they try to adopt some dietary changes as part of their quest for improved bladder health.I have blogged about such matters extensively in the past, including in these posts:Why I Don’t Rate the IC DietTiny Tips for Dietary Approaches to Chronic Health IssuesFood Intolerance Testing for Chronic Health IssuesAre Interstitial Cystitis and Leaky Gut Connected?Crohn’s and Colitis: What I Wish Your Doctor Would Tell YouOne of the questions that I am asked most often when I recommend that people eliminate gluten, dairy, confectionary items and alcohol is, “But what can I eat?” This is usually followed up immediately with, “What do…

Read the full article
Which Ancestral Supplements Might Help with Interstitial Cystitis?

Which Ancestral Supplements Might Help with Interstitial Cystitis?

Last year we welcomed the Ancestral Supplements range of products to the store. They’ve been extremely popular and I already love them – every time I add a new one to the site, I seem to add it to my mental list of products I want to try!  The one that has impressed me the most so far has been the Blood Vitality, which is a brilliant, natural way to keep my iron levels up, but there are loads of items that I haven’t had chance to try yet!I originally wanted to bring the Ancestral products to the store because I thought they could have a role in helping people with interstitial cystitis. I have decided that this month, I will talk about a few of the Ancestral products that I feel might have applications in addressing bladder issues.Please note that I am not a doctor and nothing in this…

Read the full article
Could Iron Help with PGAD? Let's Investigate!

Could Iron Help with PGAD? Let's Investigate!

This month’s blog post is going to be rather short and vague, but I hope it will turn out to be valuable! The PGAD survey has been running for over 18 months now and I always have a skim read of the answers when I print them off. Although I haven’t started to do any in-depth analysis yet, I have noticed that a lot of respondents who meet the criteria for PGAD are listing iron deficiency anaemia as a comorbid condition. This is interesting, because there is a small amount of research to suggest that iron status might be a factor in Restless Legs Syndrome, which is thought to be closely related to Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder. Speaking from personal experience, my own PGAD became worse when I stopped taking an iron supplement, but quickly improved once I started again.I would therefore suggest that if anyone would like to assist…

Read the full article
What Supplements Does Tiny Take? (April 2021)

What Supplements Does Tiny Take? (April 2021)

When people phone to ask me about a particular supplement, they often want to know whether I take it myself. If I say yes, they’re keen to know why I take it and whether I like it. If I say no, they’re keen to know why I don’t take it and what I take instead. I have no idea whether there is a wider interest in what my supplement regime looks like, but I thought this month I would tell you!One of the reasons I have decided to do this is because I am also sometimes asked about how to schedule a large number of supplements into a day. People who are at a relatively early stage in their healing journey often find themselves overwhelmed at the volume of products they need to take. If, for example, someone is addressing leaky gut and interstitial cystitis, perhaps alongside another chronic health…

Read the full article
How to Look After Yourself During and After Antibiotics

How to Look After Yourself During and After Antibiotics

I was very pleased to receive my issue of ‘Your Bladder Health’ magazine from Bladder Health UK this month, because I had been struggling for blog ideas! I always get a bit panicky if I’ve not thought of a topic by mid-month. To be honest, I’m amazed that I keep managing to find stuff to write about – one of these days I will run out of ideas! Anyway, ‘Your Bladder Health’ arrived a couple of days ago and I thought I’d read through it and see if there was any inspiration to be found there. Thank goodness, there was!On page 37, there is an announcement that the book ‘Cystitis Unmasked’ by Professor James Malone-Lee was released earlier this year. I wasn’t aware that he was writing a book, but I ordered my copy a few minutes before I began writing this blog and I very much look forward to reading it…

Read the full article
Your Pelvic Physiotherapy Questions Answered!

Your Pelvic Physiotherapy Questions Answered!

I have a very special post for you this month! For the first time ever, I’m welcoming some guests to the blog! Ever since I went to the Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy conference in Cardiff, I have found myself recommending pelvic physiotherapy to more people. I didn’t know much about it before that event, but being there and speaking with so many specialists made me realise what a valuable resource it can be for people with pelvic pain disorders. I’ve never actually had pelvic physiotherapy myself – until I read ‘The Interstitial Cystitis Solution’ by Nicole and Jesse Cozean, I was actually quite sceptical about it – but the things I’ve read and heard over the last few years have completely changed my opinion of it. It was thanks to that book and to the aforementioned conference that I plucked up courage to try the EZMagic wand for my…

Read the full article
Introducing Tiny Pioneer Simply PEA: our first own-label products!!!

Introducing Tiny Pioneer Simply PEA: our first own-label products!!!

Hello! I’m so excited about this month’s blog post that I actually don’t know how to start it. I’ve spent ten minutes already writing and deleting things! I ended my December blog by saying that things have been very hectic at Tiny Towers recently. Those of you who have been here a while probably know that we VAT registered last year, had a few hoops to jump through before we could get Ancestral Supplements on the shelves, and then we had Brexit to contend with! What none of you knew was that we were also working on something very special: Tiny Pioneer’s first own-label products! I’ve been passionate about nutrition since my late teens, so this is something of a dream for me and I’m really proud and excited to be able to share it with you.In November, I wrote a blog post all about palmitoylethanolamide (PEA). I am delighted…

Read the full article
PEA for Pee and Other Chronic Pain: Palmitoylethanolamide!

PEA for Pee and Other Chronic Pain: Palmitoylethanolamide!

Have you heard of palmitoylethanolamide? I first heard about it a few years ago from a customer, who told me that it had helped with her interstitial cystitis enormously. She used it alongside high-potency aloe vera capsules and said they were a great combination. I’ve been researching it a lot recently and thought I’d devote this month’s blog to telling you a bit about it, as I think it’s something a lot of you might like to try.Let’s start with its name, as it’s not the easiest word in the world to read at first glance! It helps to break it down into three chunks: palmitoyl-ethanol-amide. It is pronounced parm-it-oil-eth-a-nol-a-mide and both ‘a’ sounds are short. (Personally I think this is an incorrect way of saying it. In my opinion, because we say the word ‘amide’ with the ‘a’ as in ‘hay’, the word ought to be pronounced parm-it-oil-eth-a-nol-ay-mide. I…

Read the full article
Welcome, Ancestral Supplements!

Welcome, Ancestral Supplements!

The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed a new brand hitting our store a few months ago. Unfortunately, no sooner had it arrived than it was gone again, meaning we never got to give it the welcome it deserved. I’m delighted to announce that it is back and this time we hope it is here to stay! I’m talking, of course, about Ancestral Supplements, which come to us all the way from Texas. In this post, I want to tell you a bit about the brand and explain why it disappeared!Ancestral Supplements manufactures a range of grass-fed, freeze-dried beef glandular products. Throughout human history, until the very recent past, cultures which ate meat routinely consumed almost the whole animal. I know there are a lot of different diets around nowadays, each with no shortage of devotees to tell you why theirs is the best. My own belief is that a…

Read the full article
What's Up Down There? Your Quick Guide to Genitourinary Conditions

What's Up Down There? Your Quick Guide to Genitourinary Conditions

My last few blog posts have been quite heavy and have entailed lots of research. They’re boring enough to read, I’m sure, but can you imagine writing them?! I hope you don’t mind, but I fancied something a bit lighter this month. I’ve been watching quite a lot of ‘Friends’ recently – I was a bit too young to appreciate it when it was first on TV in the nineties. I like the way all the episodes are titled ‘The One…’ so you can easily identify them. It occurred to me that there should be a similar system for pelvic pain conditions, or conditions that otherwise affect the genitourinary system. There are so many of them, often with very similar symptoms, and have you noticed that a lot of them seem to begin with the letter V? I don’t know about you, but I get very confused about them all…

Read the full article