Healthy living is everyone's business

Helping people to lead healthy lives is a cherished aim of Gabriel and Bernadette Donohoe, who have just opened their new health food store and natural health clinic in the Realta Shopping Centre in Ballyconnell. Body Mind Vitality, as the new business is called, offers a large range of organic and gluten-free foods, personal care products, herbal, homeopathic and other supplements. Their natural health clinic practises cutting edge techniques in natural healing, which have been adapted from the most recent research in the USA and elsewhere in the world. For Gabriel and Bernadette, who have been living in Co. Louth for the last 30 years it is a case of returning to their roots. Gabriel was born in Milltown as was his late mother Phyllis (nee McGovern). Phyllis's father Pat was born and raised just outside Ballyconnell. As a young man Pat served with distinction in the US infantry in World War 1 and was wounded in action. He later opened a grocery store in Milltown, where he lived until his death in 1972. Gabriel's father, the late John Donohoe, was born and raised in Ballyheady home of several generations of the Donohoe clan. John spent many years in the pub business in Bawnboy and Enniskillen and latterly owned a service station and grocery store in Derrylester, Co. Fermanagh. There is no other health shop in Ballyconnell and previously people had to travel to Cavan or Enniskillen to find one. Body Mind Vitality does a wide range of herbal teas, carrot and beetroot juices. There is a fine choice of organic grains, seeds and nuts and the store also stocks an attractive range of breakfast foods including porridge oats. Gluten free flour as well as spelt flour are also stocked. "We have organic baby food, olive oil, sunflower oil and peanut oil," said Bernadette. "We do all chemical free household products and chemical free body care including toothpaste, shampoos and conditioners," she explained. Aromatics (pure essential oils) are now much in demand and are also among the magnificent range of health foods stocked. Like many a Breffni warrior before him, Gabriel raided deep into Fermanagh and captured his bride, Bernadette, from the Maguire stronghold in Killesher. Bernadette is the daughter of Mary Kate (nee Magee) and the late Eddie Maguire. They both have many friends and relatives in the Ballyconnell area, including Gabriel's brother Padraig and wife Mary and his sister Eilisheen. Padraig and Mary own the Realta Centre where the health store and clinic are located and where Eilisheen also works. Gabriel has been involved in business in Dundalk for many years and in the last 10 studied natural health and medicine extensively. He trained in bio-energetics under the highly regarded South African mentor, Rex Johnson ND, D.Hom, DHP. Then, over the following years Gabriel completed his Diploma in Advanced Kinesiology with the Association of Systematic Kinesiology of Ireland. He is listed on the ASK website as a registered practitioner of Kinesiology (kinesiology.ie). Pursuing his deep interest in natural healing, Gabriel travelled to Chicago to train in blood microscopy and flow systems auditing (urine and saliva), revolutionary procedures that utilise key body fluids to better understand and correct imbalances in health and nutrition. This unique system is popular in America and parts of Europe but is relatively unknown in Ireland. Gabriel also trained as a Shamanic practitioner and counsellor with the Irish Centre for Shamanic studies in Dunderry Park, Co. Meath. Bernadette trained as a nurse in Musgrave Park Hospital, Belfast, in the 1970s and has always been interested in the caring profession. Consequently, she spent several years doing voluntary work in Dundalk and acted as assistant co-ordinator of the local Community Parenting Programme. In their natural health clinic they teach their clients how nutrition and lifestyle affect their health and wellbeing. "We test the body fluids like urine and saliva and show people where nutrition can either help or hurt their wellbeing," explains Gabriel. "We also take a tiny pinprick of blood from the finger and show them their own blood on a computer screen, where they can see whether diet and nutrition affects their red cells and white cells, platelates and other micro forms in the blood," says Gabriel. "This can determine a person's health, whether they are taking the wrong type of food or whether they are living a stressful life. The key then is to balance the body with nutrition," he informs us. As a qualified kinesiologist, Gabriel can decide which supplements are required to rebalance the client's body. "The best foods one can take are alkaline foods because we here in the Western world are much too acidic in our bodies. Disease grows in acidity and can't grow in an alkaline body," he explains. According to Gabriel if you want to live long you need to have proper nutrition over your lifetime. Body Mind Vitality in the Realta Centre is open five days a week, Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm. The health clinic is by appointment only; contact Gabriel can at 086-2893773. Bernadette and Gabriel are imbued with a deep love of what they are doing and it is reflected in the air of positivity one can feel as they speak of their hopes and ambitions for their new project in Ballyconnell. They are heartened by the growing consciousness among people of all age groups of the need for a healthy nutritional diet. Indeed they are pleasantly surprised by the number of older citizens from the area who have visited the store seeking particular herbals and health foods, indicating a knowledge of this whole area of natural medicine, something which they may have inherited from their parents and grandparents. Young mothers are also aware and are passing this knowledge about healthy eating on to their children which offers hope for the future, they say.