Laurence Axtens - Osteopath

26/09/2025

Asthma can be fatal … put a puffer in your first aid kit

As the weather continues to warm up, NSW Health is warning residents of the risk of asthma related to thunderstorms, particularly for people already prone to hay fever and asthma.

Thunderstorm asthma refers to episodes of asthma symptoms which occur when high pollen levels are combined with a thunderstorm.

In NSW, the peak period for a higher risk of thunderstorm asthma is between October and December, when pollen levels are higher and thunderstorms become more common with warmer weather.

Senior Staff Specialist in Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Professor Connie Katelaris, explained that thunderstorm asthma requires very specific conditions to occur together.

“We do know that specific thunderstorm conditions related to moisture and airflow can increase people’s exposure to high concentrations of very small fragments of pollen,” Professor Katelaris said.

“This exposure can trigger symptoms wheeze, chest tightness, breathing difficulty and cough. Symptoms can escalate very quickly and may become life threatening”
In NSW, high levels of rye grass pollen appear to be associated with thunderstorm asthma in some areas.

“Anyone with diagnosed asthma should continue to use their preventor and have access to their reliever medication during this high-risk period,” Professor Katelaris said.

“Even if you don't have asthma, pollen is at its highest throughout spring and may spark problems in people with allergies like hay fever or those who have undiagnosed asthma."

Thunderstorm asthma events can occur anywhere where there are both high pollen levels and thunderstorms. The greatest risk of thunderstorm asthma is in areas across southern NSW and the Riverina but events have been recorded west of the dividing range from Tamworth to Albury.

Residents in the Riverina area can register for an automated notification system which notifies registered residents by SMS or email of high thunderstorm asthma risk in the area.

There are some simple steps people can take now to prepare. These include:
- If you have ever been diagnosed with asthma or have hay fever, make sure you have an up-to-date action plan in place, including how you should manage your symptoms if they flare-up.

- If your child has asthma, provide any updated asthma action plans to their preschool, childcare centre or school

- check that you or your child's asthma reliever medication and spacer is up-to-date and stored in an easy spot for you to get quickly

- know the warning signs of asthma like wheezing, breathlessness, feeling tight in the chest or persistent cough and when to seek advice from your doctor or urgent emergency care

- when there is high pollen and a thunderstorm, where possible remain inside and keep windows and doors closed.

The symptoms of thunderstorm asthma can escalate very quickly and may become life threatening. These include:

- difficulty breathing
- laboured breathing making it difficult to speak in full sentences or lips turning blue
- asthma reliever medication providing little relief.

In an emergency dial 000 to call an ambulance.

For more information on thunderstorm asthma, visit: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/environment/factsheets/Pages/thunderstorm-asthma.aspx

16/09/2025

We’re being railroaded into engineering options that will only worsen the situation and create increasingly dangerous situations at the end life of the engineering works. Nature based solutions are the only sustainable options but they’re not even on the table. We have to face this nonsense down.

Sue Higginson – NSW Greens MP

30/06/2025

Honest practice is based on self reflection and the willingness to adopt the changes that requires. Few things are more difficult than changing aspects of your practice particularly if they make up the core of your presumptive work.
I’ve always been a higher risk higher reward clinician.
Now I don’t believe those risks are worth those rewards any longer.
I feel the level of investigation required to reduce the risks to acceptable is beyond my scope and that other practitioners would be better emotionally suited to taking those risks.
This is my high rise plumber moment.
For years plumbers can walk along girders on high rise then one day they just can’t. Their self belief fails and the fear wins and I’m ok with that.
We all need to know our own limitations.

04/02/2025

Send a message to learn more

08/01/2025

Back on deck folks for treatment and management of your somatic discomforts.

26/10/2024

I’m at the Osteopathy Australia National Conference in Sydney.
The profession seems to be having a bit of an identity crisis.
Here is the problem.
Increasingly there is a confluence of theory and practice between ourselves, physiotherapy and chiropractic as we all becoming increasingly ‘evidence based’ in our approach.
Definitely a good thing I’d agree … however as we become more alike the more we lose our uniqueness, what makes us special or different.
We can always argue that unlike the others we have an underlying philosophy but aren’t those core beliefs also mainstream?
Doesn’t every manual primary care therapist understand that the body is unified, that function and structure are intimately related, that blood flow is essential to complex life and that rational intervention would be based on these concepts.
I think they’re pretty simple fundamental axioms that we all share now.
So how are we different?
I would propose that all primary care manual therapists are different and that choosing a therapist is about assessing each therapist individually.
I’ve always disliked being labelled .. why does my qualifications as a Ayurvedic therapist or as a remedial masseur vanish because I’ve also been taught Osteopathy?
I don’t want to be just an Osteopath.
I like being myself … I encourage people to live beyond their labels.
My aim at the moment is to broaden my diagnostic skill set by studying Traditional Chinese Medicine.
I’m increasingly fascinated by balance and the harmony of relationships necessary for its maintainence.
Life is for learning. Labels limit us. Let’s all live beyond our labels.
“There is a crack in everything - that’s how the light gets in” Leonard Cohen.

08/08/2024

Happy birthday to the founder of osteopathic medicine, Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO! Today, we celebrate 150 years of his pioneering principles and the impact they've had on health care. Thank you, Dr. Still, for inspiring generations of DOs.

17/01/2024

I’ve been taking this approach to my central obesity. It isn’t easy … it seems to me that the toxins that are released in long stored fat keep me mildly nauseated. I am winning though on 16-8 schedule. Anyone keen to learn or support my journey can message me.

Losing weight via intermittent energy restriction can curb brain activity related to eating behavior and increase microbial diversity in the gut in individuals with obesity.

09/01/2024

Clinic closed for cleaning and practitioner reinvigoration till January 23.

21/03/2023

Finally back at work - and open for booking

10/08/2021

Learn about AZ vaccine

Summary All living organisms are continuously exposed to a plethora of viruses. In general, viruses tend to be restricted to the natural host species which they infect. From time to time viruses cross the host‐range barrier expanding their host ...