The Herbal Concept of Balance

In today’s world the idea of health seems to be focused on the absence of disease. This is a novel idea but lacks substance. In modern medicine if a person has a weak immune system, it is said that they are immune deficient; they are prescribed an antibiotic with transfusions and the potential for a bone marrow transplant. When someone develops joint pain and inflammation, they call it rheumatoid arthritis and prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs with a few other minor suggestions. My point in bringing up these two examples is that they are both focused on the immune system, and the aid offered lacks the ability to balance or strengthen the body.

When you give someone who has an immune deficiency antibiotics, you are only furthering their deficiency by destroying beneficial probiotics within the gut, and furthermore, allowing for the growth of Candida yeast (a parasitic yeast that thrives in the colon, but can overgrow into every part of the body). Once this yeast becomes dominant, it can cause a variety of nasty symptoms, and yet can still lay undetected by most professionals leading to misdiagnosis. On top of this you are not strengthening but are encouraging weakness within the body by not allowing it to “exercise” its natural function. When a person is weak, they exercise and become stronger; the same goes with the functions of the body. Without proper balance and strengthening, the body becomes weak, and therefore prone to “disease”.

A person dealing with rheumatoid arthritis, who is taking anti-inflammatory drugs with nothing supportive, is ignoring the fact that environmental toxins and the immune system are the key culprits in this event. The immune system is the controller of inflammatory response in the body, and therefore should be the primary focus in these situations. If a person is dealing with toxin buildup within the body for an extended period of time, the immune system becomes exhausted.  When this occurs, it has a tendency to overreact, causing excessive inflammation. When overinflamed, the body has difficulty repairing the damage, and in some cases causes more damage, creating a greater inflammatory response. As you can see, this creates a progressive problem that is not balanced with the sole use of anti-inflammatory drugs/herbs, but simply delays it.

In my experience, the act of using anti-inflammatory, cleansing, and immune-strengthening herbs, along with increased water intake, can offer great results. These results can be undone, though, if proper dietary and lifestyle changes are not adhered to. If the individual has been dealing with this issue for a long period of time, even after the problem has been properly addressed they may still have some lingering joint pain or stiffness caused by excess scar tissue. Unfortunately, this is not undoable, but a far cry better than the alternative.

The concept of herbal balance is one of grace, care, and in some cases, life-changing realization. For some this concept takes years to fully understand, others are quicker to pick it up, and still more can not see it. This concept is one of change, and in this change the herbs are only the first step. Herbs are compact plant sources of chemical and nutritional constituents that, if used correctly, can cause dramatic shifts in balance within the body. This makes herbs a great resource.  But without diet, lifestyle, and exercise changes, the body will tend to move back into a state of imbalance.

So far I have given examples of imbalance and the use of herbs to gain balance but have done little to explain what this balance is. The best description I could offer would be a scale of -10 to +10, with variations between each level on the scale. The point that you would want to reach is a perfect 0. This is a nearly-impossible feat, but the body is in a constant state of change trying to achieve this.  The closer it gets, the healthier it will be. The idea of using herbs to gain this balance requires a deep look at the underlying reason for the problem at hand and determining whether the use of stimulation, strengthening, depressing or feeding the body is appropriate. In many cases, a variety of actions will be used to balance out the body, because when one part is understimulated, others become overstimulated in order to pick up the slack.

To summarize, the herbal concept of balance is one of restoring and maintaining functional, emotional and energetic synergy within the body. This act of balance helps the body to be at its strongest while progressively getting stronger. Ingestion, breakdown, assimilation, distribution, metabolizing, elimination and restoration are the basic concepts of the bodies functions, and if any of these are disrupted, the balance is lost.

~ Article by Nathan Searles, Master Herbalist, of Forgotten Traditions ~

***For more exciting information on Nathan Searles, M.H., please visit IHH’s Guest Authors page.***

Quick Tip:  Magic Socks

Years ago I experienced a really terrible head cold… I couldn’t breathe for days, I had developed a full-blown sinus infection, and I just felt awful in general.  This blessing-in-disguise illness (now I’m able to share this fabulous information with you) caused me to seek out a naturopathic doctor in my area, and boy am I glad that I did!

By the time I arrived at the doctor’s office, the sinus infection had progressed to the point that it was turning black under my eye.  I knew that wasn’t a good thing for sure.  The doctor and I had a lengthy consultation, during which we discussed my daily diet and lifestyle, then I got an IV drip containing what’s called a Myer’s Cocktail, as well as other natural therapies that he used to help me feel better that day.  By the time I left his office a few hours later, I was able to breathe out of my nose (which was fabulous, as it had been days), I was armed with a list of herbs and supplements to take to boost my immune system and a new understanding of how to get myself well again if I experienced this in the future (I very rarely experience illness).

One of the fabulous tips and remedies that he communicated to me that day was called “Magic Socks.”  I thought this sounded a bit strange, and in order for me to keep breathing out of my nose — which I really wanted to be able to continue doing – I decided to give it a wholehearted full-steam-ahead I’m doing this!

The Magic Socks treatment is so simple that I was thinking, How can this possibly work?  Well, this is how… The Magic Socks treatment can be used if you are experiencing a sore throat or any inflammation of the throat, neck pain, ear infections, headaches, migraines, nasal congestion, upper-respiratory infections, coughs, bronchitis and sinus infections.  It stimulates the production and activity of white blood cells in your body, increases circulation and decreases congestion in the upper respiratory passages, head and throat.  In laymen’s terms (and how it was explained to me), because you have the cold, wet socks on, your body redirects the bloodflow down to your feet to heat the socks up, thus, directing the bloodflow away from the congestion in the upper part of your body, which translates into you feeling better.  Just a note:  This can be sedating, and some people state that they sleep much better during the treatment.

What you will need for the Magic Socks treatment:

1 pair 100% white cotton socks **
1 pair 100% wool socks **
Towel
Warm bath or warm foot bath

**It is VERY important that the socks are 100% wool and 100% cotton.  If it is a blend of materials, Magic Socks may not work.**

Directions:

1. Take a pair of 100% white cotton socks and soak the foot area completely with cold water, trying to keep the ankle dry. Ring the socks out thoroughly so they do not drip.

2. Warm your feet first. This is very important, as the treatment will not be as effective and could be harmful if your feet are not warmed first. Warming can be accomplished by soaking your feet in warm water for at least 5 to 10 minutes or taking a warm bath for 5 to 10 minutes. Your feet should be a warm “pink” color when they are finished soaking.

3. Next, dry off your feet and body with a dry towel.

4. Then place the cold, wet 100% cotton socks on feet. Cover with your thick, dry 100% wool socks.

5.  Next, go directly to bed to avoid getting chilled.

6. Lastly, keep both pairs of socks on overnight.  The magic part of Magic Socks?  The cold, wet 100% cotton socks will be completely dry in the morning when you wake up!  Yes, it is magic.  :0)

Please note:  The Magic Socks treatment should be repeated three nights in a row for best results.

Feel better.

To your health and happiness…

Fat Facts 101:  The Good And The Trans Fat

Trans fat…  Most people have heard those two words, but do you know what a trans fat truly is or how to identify it on a food label?  Do you know how detrimental to your health that trans fats can be?  Do you know what would be a better choice to make when it comes to ingesting fats into your body?  Hopefully, I will clear some of these questions up for you in this article.

First off, not all fats are created equal.  Healthy fats nourish every cell in our bodies as well as many of our organs.   Healthy fats are amazing for our skin, our nails and our hair.  Believe it or not, we actually need healthy fats in our diet so that our bodies function properly.  Without the proper fats in our diet, all kinds of problems can occur with our health.  

One example relates to me… Years ago when I used to eat the Standard American Diet (referred to as the SAD diet), I was always cold, and I mean cold, frigid, freezing… I felt like an icicle most of the time!  I am talking about the fact that I used to drive around in the middle of the summer with the heat on in my car because I was cold.  I even remember one of my friends referring to the inside of my car one time as a “sauna.”   Crazy stuff!!  Are you freezing all the time?  It may be time to look at what fats you are consuming.

After I changed the way I ate and began eating whole foods (real food), I added into my diet Udo’s Choice oil, organic first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, hemp oil, evening primrose oil, flax oil, coconut oil, began eating young Thai coconuts, durian, walnuts, almonds, Brazil nuts and avocados (not all at the same time, obviously!), for example, and my body was able to regulate my body temperature.  My cells were being nourished, and consequently, I am not freezing all the time any longer.  I feel pretty darn good when it comes to body temperature.  Yea for me!   Thank goodness for good information and a few simple lifestyle changes!

Obviously, the fats that I listed above are healthy and are better choices that you can add into your daily meals for you and your family.  Here are a couple ideas that you can use to add some good fats into your daily regime:

• A delicious snack that myself and my boyfriend love is avocado mashed on toasted Ezekiel bread (sprouted grain bread).  Yes, it is only avocado and toasted sprouted-grain bread.  Simple, I know.  It is truly delicious!  I have shared this easy recipe with so many people, and they absolutely love it!   
• Hemp seeds or oil make a fantastic addition to breakfast smoothies.  Here is a little tip… If you are making a smoothie in the morning for breakfast and don’t want to be hungry an hour after you eat it, make sure that you add a healthy fat to it.  When you add a fat to a smoothie that contains fruit, it helps release the sugar from the fruit into your bloodstream at a slower pace, therefore, it provides you with more sustained energy.  You will feel more satiated, and you will not be hungry for a while.
• Try using some olive or flax oil on your salad with some pressed garlic, basil and a pinch of Celtic sea salt… Yum!  It is a healthier choice than store-bought salad dressings, and you know exactly what is being put into your dressing.  There’s no guesswork.  There’s no need to read labels.  Whole foods are fabulous that way… There are no complicated words on their packaging to decipher (mostly because they have no packaging) and no tricky and slick advertising from the big food companies that you need to be worried about. 

This brings me to the reason that I wrote this Fat Facts 101:  The Good And The Trans Fat article  in the first place:  Trans fats.  So what is a trans fat? 

According to Answers.com a trans fat is…

A type of fat created when oils are hydrogenated, which chemically transforms them from their normal liquid state (at room temperature) into solids. During the hydrogenation procedure extra hydrogen atoms are pumped into unsaturated fat, thereby creating trans fatty acids. This process converts the mixture into a saturated fat, which obliterates its polyunsaturate benefits.

So what the heck does that mean?  In this fast-paced world that we live in, many people want to be able to buy a product at the supermarket, convenience store or bakery and have it last for weeks, if not months, and even better, for years.  That’s one of the reasons that trans fats exist.  Food companies were looking for a way to make their products last longer, so they artificially combined hydrogen with a polyunsaturated oil and got a trans fat… a liquid that was turned into a solid.  Becoming a solid makes the fat last longer and also makes it harmful to your health.  So here is a bit of a clarification, just in case you don’t realize it… That is absolutely NOT normal.  Food (real food) is supposed to grow, ripen and then rot.  If a food product is not rotting, it’s full of preservatives, chemicals, and it quite possibly contains trans fats.  When people eat processed foods including margarine, frozen foods, fast foods, baked goods and junk foods (some of the foods pictured above), to name a few, they are likely ingesting trans fats. 

After the public began to catch on to the fact that trans fats are not good for anyone, there was an effort to get a law passed that required food companies to let people know if trans fats are, in fact, contained in the foods that they are selling to the public.  After much of a struggle and who knows what else went on (you never know when it comes to what goes on behind the scenes in Washington), there was a law passed requiring food companies to come clean and let consumers in on the secret of whether their products contained trans fats or not.  Yippie!  It’s a victory for the consumer, right? 

Well, this is the shocker… there is — ready for this — a loophole in the law (thank you, again, FDA)!  If you buy a product and it says “No Trans Fats” or ”Trans Fat Free” or any other variation of that, you MUST read the label.  Food companies are allowed to add trans fats to a product if it contains less than 0.5 grams per serving.  “But that’s really not a large number, 0.05,” you say…  I beg to differ.  If you have more than one serving of a product or eat several products together that contain “No Trans Fats” ( just kidding — they really contain trans fats), you are eating trans fats without knowing it.  Very, very sneaky of the food companies.

So what can you do about it?  Read food labels.  I cannot stress enough how important it is to read food labels.  Yes, READ food labels.  I said it again.  :0)

It surprises me when I go to a supermarket and see consumers blindly pulling items off a shelf and depositing them into their carts without even so much as a glance on the back of the product to see what they’re really going to be  eating.  For purposes of identifying trans fats in a product, you can skip all of the calorie, sodium, vitamins and mineral information located in the label box.  Skip right down to the “ingredients.”  What you need to look for are any words, such as, “hydrogenated,” “partially hydrogenated,” and/or “shortening.”  If a product contains any of these words listed on the ingredients label, put it back on the shelf and step away from the item.  It contains trans fats.  Trust me.  You’re better off.  :0) 

 Make it an AMAZING day!  

Quick Tip:  Farm Fresh

More and more people these days are becoming interested in where their food comes from, and rightly so…  With all of the pesticides, herbicides, GMOs, artificial ingredients, toxic additives and questionable factory farming practices that abound, it’s essential to know what you are putting into your body and where your food is coming from.   This Quick Tip is designed to give you a couple of options to help you find the farm fresh food that you are most definitely looking for.

To begin, a fantastic website that can help you locate a farm, a farmer’s market, a restaurant that supports local farms by purchasing locally-grown produce, a grocery store that carries local produce,  or even a community-supported agriculture farm where you can buy a share of the CSA farm’s crop for a season is localharvest.org.  When you visit this information-packed website, simply select what type of business you wish to find, type in your  zip code, and you are on your way to local farm fresh food!

Until I met a fabulous local farmer last year at one of my favorite farmers markets, I believed that the USDA Certified Organic was the only kid on the block.  Not true, as it turns out.  Let me introduce you to Certified Naturally Grown produce, which is “the grassroots alternative to certified organic.”

According to the Certified Naturally Grown website:

“Certified Naturally Grown is a Grassroots Alternative to the USDA’s National Organic Program meant primarily for small farmers distributing through local channels – farmer’s markets, roadside stands, local restaurants, community supported agriculture (CSA) programs and small local grocery stores – the farmers that make up your local landscape!

The CNG Standards and growing requirements are based on the USDA National Organic Program rules. They are no less strict- in fact CNG farmers are constantly improving their soil and striving to increase the sustainability of their farming operations. The primary difference between Certified Naturally Grown and the USDA Organic program is cost to farmers and paperwork requirements.

Why is such an alternative necessary? Simply because once the National Organic Program was implemented in 2002, farmers that proudly referred to themselves as ‘Organic’ for decades were no longer allowed to do so unless they became ‘certified’ by a USDA sanctioned agency.”

Be sure to visit the Certified Naturally Grown website to find a list of CNG farms located in the United States and Canada.  Isn’t it great that we learn something new every day?!?

Now that July is here, so are berries… Yum!  They are one of my favorite fruits!  Yes, there are other fruits that are in season right now, and I happen to be snacking on some organic blueberries and strawberries as I type this, so that’s where my mind is at in this moment.

I know it is easy to head to the supermarket and buy a container of these wonderfully sweet and delicious treats, and have you ever considered picking your own?   Picking your own food is more fun than you can imagine!  Adults love it, kids love it, and even my dogs love picking berries off of the wild trees in my backyard.  If you’re thinking, Oh, no… I don’t have any wild berry trees in my backyard.  No worries.  Pickyourown.org is a fantastic resource to help you locate pick-your-own farms and orchards.  This website also offers tips on preparation, canning, freezing and a whole host of other useful information you will simply have to check out for yourself.

What is the Slow Food Movement?  Slow Food International/Slowfood.com says…

“Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.  To do that, Slow Food brings together pleasure and responsibility, and makes them inseparable.”

According to slowfoodusa.org…

“Slow Food is an idea, a way of living and a way of eating. It is a global, grassroots movement with thousands of members around the world that links the pleasure of food with a commitment to community and the environment.”

These two websites offer various programs, events and information.  Slowfoodusa.org even lists local chapters, of which there are over 200 across the United States as of today.  They are both a great resource to help you and your family become aware of food issues and to hop on the nutritional train to a healthier and happier life.

I know that in this day and age people are busy, busy, busy.  You say that you don’t have time to head out to farmer’s markets, to pick your own berries, and you can’t even fathom slowing down for the Slow Food Movement, there are many online stores that ship organic, sustainable produce right to your home.  One of my best friends gets a shipment from bostonorganics.com every other week for $29, and she gets a BIG — I mean big — box of fresh organic fruits and vegetables that her and her family are able to prepare together and enjoy.

Other amazing websites that offer this type of home-delivery service are papasorganic.com, greenling.com, doortodoororganics.com, urbanorganic.com or farmfreshtoyou.com.  Remember to check each website individually before you order, as some of these sites offer nationwide delivery, some don’t, and some will be right in your own neck of the woods, which is even better.  :0)

Happy Eating!

What is Tuina?

Tuina was originated in China over 5,000 years ago. It is one of the oldest treatments recorded of medical massage for trauma and other conditions for both children and adults. Tuina uses the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and the flow of Qi through the meridians/channels as its basic therapeutic premise. Through the application of massage and manipulation techniques, Tuina seeks to enhance the network and to establish a more harmonious flow of Qi. The network increases the flow of healthier Chi, boosts the blood, and enhances the internal systems to allow the body to naturally heal itself. Tuina is one of the six major therapies in Traditional Chinese Medicine theory (TCM).                        

Tuina:    Medical massage & Physical therapy               

Acupuncture:    Needle on an acupoint                        

Herbs:    Herbal Medicine and Dietary Supplements (seasonal adjustment)               

Moxibustion:    Burning an herbal stick above an acupoint and/or over a needle                     

Cupping:    Vacuum suction cups on the skin

Therapeutic exercises:    Tai Chi, Qi Gong and many others

How does Tuina work?

Tuina includes the use of thumbs, hand and arm techniques to massage the soft tissue (muscles and tendons) and the fascia of the body. Tuina stimulates the acupressure points to directly affect the flow of Qi energy through the system of channels and collaterals. Tuina uses manipulation techniques to realign the muscular-skeletal and ligaments, to re-establish a healthier relationship with the body’s internal and external systems. External herbal compresses, liniments and ointments are used to enhance the therapeutic process.

What conditions are helped with Tuina?

Tuina helps with:

Chronic pain, Headaches and Migraines, PMS, Fertility, Muscular-Skeletal problems (cramps, spasms, numbness, inflammation, stiffness), Arthritis, Digestive problems, Neurological conditions (MS, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, Neuropathy), Chronic stress disorders, Cancer, Emotional conditions, Circulatory and Heart conditions. It breaks down tension, increases circulation, improves muscular functioning and networks the internal systems to work together to promote healing and better health.

Who benefits from Tuina?

Tuina benefits both adults and children (every age group). Children with ADD, ADHD and autistic-related disorders, sleep problems, eating disorders, chronic ailments (earaches, stomach cramps, digestive problems) and other emotional issues.

• Would you like to learn more about Tuina?
• Would you like to have a treatment of Tuina?
• Do you have questions about how Tuina could benefit you?