Elixir Wellness

STOP GUESSING ABOUT YOUR HEALTH. START UNDERSTANDING IT.

You can eat better. Exercise more. Take supplements. Prioritise sleep.

But if you don’t understand what’s happening inside your body, you may still be guessing.

Fatigue. Brain fog. Poor sleep. Hormonal changes. Low mood. Weight changes. Or simply that frustrating feeling that you’re not quite yourself.

Sometimes routine testing provides reassurance that nothing significant has been identified - yet you may still feel tired, foggy, flat or simply below your best.

The Elixir Wellness Assessment takes a deeper, personalised look at your health through advanced pathology and expert interpretation of your biochemistry.

We look beyond a standard health check to explore factors that may influence your:
✓ Energy & fatigue
✓ Hormonal health
✓ Thyroid function
✓ Nutritional status
✓ Inflammation & immune health
✓ Glucose, insulin & metabolism
✓ Cardiovascular health
✓ Liver & kidney function
✓ Minerals & trace elements
✓ And more

Then we bring it all together in a one-on-one consultation, translating complex results into clear, practical information and a personalised wellness strategy designed around you.

Because your health isn’t generic.

Your approach to it shouldn’t be either.

KNOW YOUR BODY. OWN YOUR WELLNESS.

Book your personalised Elixir Wellness Assessment today.

📞 (03) 9008 7474
🌐 www.elixirwellnesscentre.com.au

Elixir Wellness Centre
Advanced testing. Personalised interpretation. Individualised care.

TIRED OF MEETING 3AM EVERY NIGHT?

If waking in the middle of the night has become your new normal, don’t just keep putting up with it.

Poor sleep can have many possible contributors - from hormonal changes and stress to medications, pain, reflux and nervous system disregulation, sleep disorders and other health factors.

Rather than simply asking “What can I take to sleep?”, it may be time to ask a more important question:

“WHY am I waking up?”

At Elixir Wellness Centre, our practitioners can take a broader look at your health, symptoms, history and individual circumstances to help investigate factors that may be contributing to disrupted sleep.

Because another sleeping tablet or supplement isn’t necessarily the answer.

GET CURIOUS ABOUT THE CAUSE.

- Waking at the same time every night?
- Struggling to get back to sleep?
- Waking exhausted despite spending enough time in bed?
- Not feeling like yourself during the day?

Contact Elixir Wellness Centre today and start the conversation about what’s keeping you awake. DON’T JUST COUNT THE HOURS.�START ASKING WHY.

www.elixirwellnesscentre.com.au

THE PERILS OF PERIMENOPAUSE & MENOPAUSE

“My tests are normal… so why don’t I feel like myself?”

Poor sleep. Exhaustion. Brain fog. Anxiety. Mood changes. Weight changes. Hot flushes. Loss of libido. Feeling overwhelmed - or simply not feeling like yourself anymore.

For some women, finding the right support during perimenopause and menopause can be frustrating, particularly when symptoms are complex or difficult to explain.

Dr Rob Angus takes a whole-person approach.

With more than 40 years of medical experience, Dr Rob is an experienced GP with a strong interest in women’s health and holistic, whole-person medicine.

His approach starts with three fundamentals:

1. HE LISTENS.

Your consultation is about more than working through a checklist.

Dr Rob takes the time to understand your symptoms, medical history, concerns and how you’re actually feeling.

Because understanding the whole story can be an important part of understanding your health.

2. HE LOOKS AT THE BIGGER PICTURE.

Rather than considering individual symptoms in isolation, Dr Rob considers factors that may be contributing to what you’re experiencing.

Hormonal changes associated with perimenopause and menopause can occur alongside factors involving thyroid function, nutrition, sleep, stress, metabolic health, lifestyle and emotional wellbeing.

The aim is to understand your individual clinical picture and develop an appropriate, individualised approach to your care.

3. HE BELIEVES IN FOLLOW-UP.

Healthcare doesn’t necessarily end when you leave the consultation.

Where clinically appropriate, Dr Rob reviews your progress, considers how you’re responding and discusses whether your management plan needs to change.

The goal is thoughtful, individualised care that can be reviewed and adjusted according to your needs and clinical response.

Dr Rob combines decades of conventional general practice experience with an evidence-informed interest in holistic and integrative medicine.

If perimenopause or menopause has left you feeling that something has changed, it may be time for a more comprehensive conversation about your health.

Dr Rob Angus - now consulting at Elixir Wellness.

Feel heard. Look at the bigger picture. Receive individualised care.

📞 Contact Elixir Wellness to book a consultation.

INTRODUCING JULIE SANTALL — PSYCHOTHERAPY, TRAUMA & MEDICATION WITHDRAWAL SUPPORT

Sometimes “just reduce the dose” isn’t that simple.

For people who have taken psychiatric medication long-term, reducing or stopping can sometimes be an incredibly difficult experience.

Changes in sleep. Anxiety. Physical sensations. Emotional overwhelm. Difficulty concentrating. Feeling constantly on edge.

And when trauma is also part of the picture, the nervous system can become even more overwhelmed.

That’s why we’re delighted to welcome Julie Santall to Elixir Wellness.

Julie brings more than 35 years of frontline clinical experience across emergency nursing, major trauma, mental health, alcohol and other drug services, crisis counselling, medication support and recovery.

Her particular area of interest is the intersection of:

Psychotherapy • Trauma • The nervous system • Medication withdrawal • Hyperbolic tapering

WHAT IS HYPERBOLIC TAPERING?

One of the biggest misconceptions about medication reduction is that every reduction in milligrams produces an equivalent change in the body.

It may not.

The relationship between dose and biological effect can be non-linear, meaning that as doses become lower, apparently small reductions may represent proportionally greater changes in effect.

Hyperbolic tapering recognises this.

Instead of automatically reducing medication by the same amount at every step, reductions may become progressively smaller as the dose decreases, with the approach individualised according to the person and their response.

For some people, that distinction can be extremely important.

MORE THAN A MEDICATION DOSE

Julie understands that withdrawal doesn’t occur in isolation.

It can affect sleep, mood, anxiety, concentration, relationships, work, confidence and day-to-day life.

For someone with a history of trauma, unfamiliar physical or emotional sensations can also activate an already sensitised stress response:

Symptoms → fear → nervous-system activation → increased symptoms → greater fear.

Breaking that cycle begins with understanding what is happening.

Julie provides a confidential, trauma-informed therapeutic space where clients can explore their experiences, recognise patterns and triggers, develop emotional regulation and coping strategies, and feel supported through periods of significant change.

Her career has taken her from Emergency Nursing and Advanced Trauma Life Support in the UK, including teaching nurses and doctors at Brighton University, to Melbourne’s Alfred Trauma Centre, emergency departments, overdose prevention, homelessness services, drug and alcohol counselling, crisis intervention and medication support and recovery.

She also teaches Crisis Counselling, helping other counsellors develop the skills required to support people experiencing crisis.

Julie works with people experiencing:

• Trauma and complex trauma
• Anxiety and emotional overwhelm
• Stress and burnout
• Grief and difficult life transitions
• Addiction and substance-use concerns
• Medication withdrawal
• Hyperbolic tapering support
• Emotional regulation difficulties
• Crisis and significant periods of change

Her philosophy is refreshingly simple:

People experiencing trauma, withdrawal or crisis deserve to be heard, understood and supported as individuals — not rushed through a one-size-fits-all process.

Medication prescribing and dose changes remain under the direction of the client’s prescribing medical practitioner. Julie’s role is to provide psychotherapy, education and emotional support and, where appropriate and with consent, work collaboratively with the client’s healthcare team.

Julie Santall is now consulting at Elixir Wellness.

If you’ve been looking for someone who understands that trauma, the nervous system, emotional wellbeing and medication withdrawal can be deeply interconnected, Julie brings an extraordinary depth of experience to that conversation.

📞 Contact Elixir Wellness to learn more or make an appointment.

MCAS: WHEN YOUR BODY’S ALARM SYSTEM WON’T SWITCH OFF

Imagine having rashes, flushing, gut problems, headaches, brain fog, wheezing, heart racing, dizziness and reactions to seemingly random foods or medications - yet test after test keeps coming back “normal”.

For some people, the missing piece may be Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS).
And it’s far more complicated than simply having “too much histamine”.

WHAT ARE MAST CELLS?

Mast cells are part of your immune system’s frontline defence.

Think of them as microscopic security guards stationed throughout the body — particularly around the:

🧠 Nervous system
🫁 Airways
🩸 Blood vessels
🧴 Skin
🍽️ Gastrointestinal tract
🦠 Interfaces between your body and the outside world

Their job is to detect potential threats and respond rapidly.

When necessary, they release powerful chemical messengers to help defend against infection, toxins, venoms and tissue injury.

That response can be lifesaving.

But what happens when the alarm system becomes too sensitive?

THAT’S WHERE MCAS GETS INTERESTING

In Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, the problem isn’t necessarily having too many mast cells. The problem is how they behave.

Mast cells may become hyper-responsive and release inflammatory mediators excessively or inappropriately - sometimes in response to things that ordinarily shouldn’t cause a major reaction.

And because mast cells exist throughout the body, the symptoms can appear almost anywhere.

That can mean:

🔸 Flushing, itching, hives or swelling
🔸 Abdominal pain, bloating or diarrhoea
🔸 Reflux or nausea
🔸 Wheezing or shortness of breath
🔸 Headaches or migraines
🔸 Brain fog and difficulty concentrating
🔸 Palpitations or changes in vascular tone
🔸 Dizziness or symptoms of autonomic dysfunction
🔸 Reactions to foods, medications, heat, cold, exercise or stress

The pattern can be confusing because one person’s MCAS may look completely different from another’s.

AND HERE’S THE REALLY IMPORTANT PART…

MCAS IS NOT JUST ABOUT HISTAMINE.

Mast cells can release a huge range of biologically active substances, including:

➡️ Histamine
➡️ Tryptase
➡️ Prostaglandins
➡️ Leukotrienes
➡️ Cytokines
➡️ Chymase
➡️ Heparin
➡️ Growth factors and other inflammatory signalling molecules

This matters. Because someone may take an antihistamine and improve somewhat - but still have significant symptoms.

Why?

Because blocking histamine doesn’t necessarily address all of the other mast-cell mediators and pathways potentially involved.

MAST CELLS EVEN “TALK” TO YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM

This is one of the most fascinating areas of mast-cell biology. Mast cells are often positioned close to nerve endings. Nerves can release chemical signals that influence mast cells…

…and mast cells can release mediators that influence nerves.

It is a two-way conversation known as neuroimmune crosstalk. This interaction is being investigated across conditions involving pain, migraine, gastrointestinal symptoms and autonomic regulation.

WHY CAN THE TRIGGERS SEEM SO RANDOM?

Mast cells possess an extraordinary variety of receptors.

They can potentially respond to signals associated with:

🌡️ Temperature changes
🍷 Foods and alcohol
💊 Medications
🦠 Infection
🏃 Exercise
😰 Stress
🌸 Allergens
☀️ Environmental exposures
🩸 Hormonal fluctuations

So when someone says:

“I seem to react to everything.”

The reactions may not actually be random.

There may be an underlying biological pattern worth investigating.

MCAS CAN ALSO BE DIFFICULT TO RECOGNISE

MCAS is distinct from systemic mastocytosis, where abnormal mast-cell proliferation can occur.

In many people being evaluated for MCAS, mast-cell numbers are not dramatically increased.

The concern is inappropriate mast-cell activation and mediator release.

That distinction is important — and it is one reason assessment requires careful clinical evaluation rather than simply assuming every unexplained symptom is MCAS.

The prevalence of MCAS is still uncertain, diagnostic criteria remain an area of active discussion, and many symptoms associated with MCAS can also occur in other medical conditions.

Good medicine means investigating the whole picture.

THE TAKE-HOME MESSAGE

Mast cells aren’t the enemy.

They’re extraordinarily sophisticated immune cells designed to protect us.

But when their signalling becomes dysregulated, the consequences can potentially reach multiple systems throughout the body.

If you’ve been struggling with unexplained, fluctuating symptoms affecting several different systems — particularly when certain foods, medications, temperature changes, exercise or stress appear to trigger them — mast-cell activation may be one possibility worth discussing with an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
Sometimes apparently disconnected symptoms aren’t disconnected at all.

The challenge is finding the thread that connects them.

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome & FOOD: WHY FRESHNESS MATTERS

Living with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) can make food feel like a minefield.

But here’s something many people don’t realise:

Histamine isn’t just about WHAT you eat.

Histamine levels can increase with ageing, fermentation, processing and storage - meaning the freshness of your food may matter too.

Foods commonly reported as triggers include:

🧀 Aged cheeses
🥓 Cured meats
🥬 Fermented foods
🍷 Wine, champagne & beer
🐟 Smoked or canned fish
🍅 Tomatoes
🥑 Avocado
🍫 Chocolate
🍆 Eggplant
🥗 Vinegar-containing foods

But there’s a BIG catch…

MCAS is highly individual.

A food that triggers one person may be completely fine for another. That’s why the answer isn’t necessarily eliminating more and more foods.

A SMARTER APPROACH

When appropriate, consider a short, structured low-histamine trial, followed by careful reintroduction.

Focus on fresh, minimally processed foods and:

❄️ Freeze leftovers promptly
🥩 Maintain adequate protein
💧 Prioritise hydration
📓 Keep a food & symptom diary
🔄 Reintroduce foods systematically
🧬 Identify and correct confirmed nutrient deficiencies

And remember - food may only be one piece of the MCAS puzzle.

Symptoms can also be influenced by:

😴 Sleep
🧠 Stress
🏃 Exercise
☕ Caffeine
🍷 Alcohol
🌡️ Temperature
🌸 Fragrances
🚬 Smoke & environmental exposures

Most importantly:

The goal should NOT be to live on an increasingly tiny list of “safe” foods.

The goal is to understand your triggers, your tolerance and your nutritional needs — while maintaining as varied and nourishing a diet as possible.

Your MCAS is individual. Your nutrition strategy should be too.

For personalised nutritional and clinical support, speak with the team at Elixir Centre for Wellness.

Dr Rob Angus - Experienced Holistic GP Care for Women Navigating Perimenopause & Menopause

Something has changed. You know you don’t feel like yourself - but you’re not sure where to start.

For many women, perimenopause and menopause can bring significant changes to how they feel, sleep, think and function day to day.

Hormonal changes can be complex. Thyroid health may also need consideration. And sometimes what women need most is a doctor who will take the time to listen, investigate appropriately and look at the bigger picture.

We’re delighted to welcome Dr Rob Angus to Elixir Centre for Wellness.

With more than 40 years of medical experience, Dr Angus has a particular interest in women’s health, perimenopause, menopause, hormonal health and thyroid health.

His approach starts with the individual - not the set of symptoms.

Whether you’re experiencing changes in your cycle, hot flushes, disrupted sleep, fatigue, brain fog, changes in mood, weight or simply a sense that “something isn’t right”, Dr Angus provides the opportunity to have a thorough conversation about what you’re experiencing and what may be contributing.

He brings together decades of conventional general practice experience with an interest in evidence-informed lifestyle, nutritional and integrative approaches where appropriate.

Most importantly, you’ll be heard.

And you don’t need to live in Melbourne.

Dr Angus offers Telehealth consultations Australia-wide, giving women across the country access to his experience from the comfort of home.

If you’ve been struggling through perimenopause or menopause, have questions about your hormones or thyroid health, or simply want a more comprehensive conversation about your health, now is the time to book.

Appointments with Dr Rob Angus are now available.

📞 Call Elixir Centre for Wellness on 03 9008 7474
💻 Telehealth available Australia-wide

Book your consultation with Dr Angus and start a more informed conversation about your health.

www.elixirwellnesscentre.com.au

LUXURY. PERSONALISED SKIN SCIENCE

Meet one of the stars of the Elixir Compounding Pharmacy skincare collection - our exquisite Niacinamide 15% Serum, expertly crafted in-house for skin that deserves something exceptional.

This isn’t mass-produced skincare.

It’s a high-strength, pharmacist-crafted formulation, combining 15% Niacinamide with Hyaluronic Acid, Pro-Vitamin B5, Vitamin E and carefully selected supporting ingredients to create a beautifully lightweight serum designed to brighten, balance and refine.

Lightweight, elegant and fast-absorbing. Suitable for all skin types, including sensitive and mature skin.

At Elixir, we believe beautiful skincare begins with exceptional formulation.
Our Niacinamide 15% Serum is made with the same attention to quality, precision and ingredient selection that has helped make Elixir an award-winning compounding pharmacy.

No hype. No complicated 10-step routine.

Just beautifully formulated skincare with premium ingredients and a serious concentration of one of modern skincare’s most celebrated actives.

Welcoming Dr Rob Angus to Elixir Wellness Centre

We are delighted to welcome Dr Rob Angus to the team at Elixir Wellness Centre.

With more than 40 years of medical experience, Dr Rob brings a remarkable depth of knowledge gained across Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. His career spans General Practice together with extensive hospital experience in Emergency Medicine, Dermatology, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, Psychiatry, ENT, Anaesthesia, Ophthalmology and more.

A Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRACGP), Dr Rob has a particular interest in skin cancer prevention, detection and treatment, while also embracing a whole-person approach to healthcare.

Dr Rob believes that exceptional medicine is about more than treating symptoms. He takes the time to understand each patient’s unique circumstances, considering lifestyle, nutrition, sleep, stress, activity and overall wellbeing alongside evidence-based medical care. His thoughtful, compassionate and collaborative approach empowers patients to make informed decisions and achieve better long-term health.

Whether you’re looking for a trusted family GP, preventative healthcare, skin cancer checks or a doctor who takes the time to listen, Dr Rob is committed to providing personalised, high-quality care for every stage of life.

Appointments with Dr Andrew (Rob) Angus are now available.

📞 Contact Elixir Wellness Centre today on 03090087474 to book your appointment and experience healthcare that’s focused on you.

Discover Your Skin’s New Daily Essential

Healthy-looking skin starts with a thoughtfully formulated skincare routine.

Our Advanced Peptide Serum combines premium hydrating ingredients with an advanced multi-peptide complex to help support skin that looks smoother, softer and more radiant.

Why we're sure you’ll love it:

• Multi-peptide complex featuring Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7 & Heptapeptide-8

• Hyaluronic Acid & Glycerin to help attract and retain moisture

• Niacinamide to help support the skin barrier and promote a brighter-looking complexion

• Vitamin E for antioxidant support

• Rosewater Concentrate for a refreshing skincare experience

• Lightweight, fast-absorbing formula suitable for most skin types

Beautiful skincare begins with consistency.

Experience hydration, comfort and a naturally radiant-looking complexion—every day.

Available in store or online at www.elixircompounding.com.au.