Feeling Derailed

With New Years coming, it's a good time to start fresh, and get things back on track. I feel a little like December got stolen away, first I had three wisdom teeth taken out, and then all the traveling for Christmas, I've been eating poorly, and falling behind on everything, and I feel it.

I have to say, New Year's Eve has always been my least favorite holiday. Mostly because there's always a sort of unspoken pressure to "be" somewhere or "do" something. Last year I decided that this year I would ring in the new year by having some close friends over, and making things that help us fulfill our resolutions, (i.e. non-plastic bags, a meal planning chart, any kind of organizational tool to keep you on track, or just fun crafts) and then I up and moved. I pictured being in a cozy apartment, surrounded by friends, not back in my parents house, surrounded by...my parents.

So once again, expectations must shift. A quiet productive New Years still sounds lovely. And the friends might be included next year. I am going to take some time figuring out what will make my life work better. What the top priorities need to be, and where the motivation comes from to keep at it! I'm wishing you all the time to stop, take a breath and re-align for a happy, healthy 2009.

Mind over Matter

I recently read that if you're having problems with re-occurring, shall we say, obsessive thoughts that if you repeat to yourself factual statements, you can start to break the cycle, or, at the very least, give yourself a respite. I have to say, I was impressed. It can just be very simple statements like "It's snowing outside", or "My feet are cold", etc. It seemed to help using the things in my immediate space to take the place of those re-occurring things.

Iridology

So, as some of you know, I finished my course in Iridology. Which is the study of the iris to reveal the health of the body. Of course, I just read the book, so I don't have a lot of actual experience, but I appreciate those of you who have guinea pigged your eyes for me to study!

Above is a picture of my left eye. According to Iridology, a healthy person's eye will be all one color, usually blue or brown, have tightly woven fibers, and not a lot of spots, yellowing, or "lesions" (those oval shaped "holes"!). As you can see, I have some work to do. The interesting part is that Dr. Jensen talks a lot about toxicity, and how it can settle into our weakest parts. In my eye, you can see that I have two ovals, between 2 and 3 o'clock, which correspond to my neck and shoulder (on the left side, because it's the left eye).

Since I left New York, about 2 months ago, I hadn't really had any alcohol to drink, until Halloween. I didn't have very much, a little whiskey (my usual) and some wine. I felt it a little bit, but I didn't feel an especially low tolerance at the time. Then, the next day, I woke up with a headache, and for the next few days I had a sort of underlying headache and a large rope-like knot going from my neck down into my shoulder on the left side. Right where those ovals indicating a weakness are in my left eye. Maybe it's a coincidence, but suddenly it felt like some things were coming together.

The funny thing about healing is that it seems to come in stages. You can't detox and rebuild before your body is strong enough to handle it, and if you're in the middle of one of those stages, I suppose the worst thing you could do is purposely give your body extra poison/toxins (alcohol) to neutralize and get rid of. So, no more alcohol for me until I've had some serious detoxing and rebuilding happening. Which, besides feeling, I will hopefully see in my eyes. To that end I've been thinking about the other things I have done differently since the move.

Things that have changed since I left NYC:

I get more rest. (This was one of the main things I was missing, and the first thing that seemed to go in nyc. Although, I can't totally blame the city, I think I've had this underlying "fatigue" thing happening since I was a teenager.)

I have less physical stress(though I enjoyed parts of it a lot, the physical stress of my previous job constantly wore me down to nearly nothing.), and virtually no work stress.

I drink no alcohol.

I have almost no refined sugar or flour.

I take vitamins A, B-complex, C and E everyday, and a vegetarian supplement which includes extra fiber and enzymes to help with the detox process (because if your body is using the regular avenues of elimination: liver, kidneys, intestines, lungs, it's less likely to resort to using your skin. Although I'm still getting some chin pimples. Chimples?)

I have at least a heaping teaspoon of coconut oil each day. (It's supposed to have many amazing properties, including boosting metabolism and your immune system)

I drink supergreens most days.

I wouldn't say I'm "energetic", but I think I have more energy. (When I first got here, afternoon naps always sounded like an excellent idea, now, not so much. Small victories!)
I get to think about, study and research things that interest me all day.

I move less, which has affected my circulation (poorly!).

I still have emotional stress from my new environment/slightly vague plan for the future...

I eat more meat(mainly turkey) on salads and sandwiches.

In the near future I'm probably going to start on some herbal remedies, and/or homeopathics. I feel okay most of the time, but my body is very sensitive to too many things, and I get run down much too quickly. And sometimes I feel like death when I wake up in the morning, although I think that's happening less. Bottom line is, I don't feel like I can help others until I have helped myself. And I think my eyes are supposed to be a nice, tightly woven blue.

Natural, Normal and Necessary

One of the books I read as part of my correspondence course (Health and Wellness, by Dr. M. Ted Morter) made the very helpful distinction between three words and what they should mean with regard to our health and wellness.

Natural, in this context refers to the state of a healthy body, without any conditions, or ailments, functioning the way it was meant to- healthy!

The next distinction is normal. What is "normal" these days is not necessarily natural, in any sense of the word. Examples of this would be the idea that urine is supposed to be yellow (it should be almost clear-unless you're taking b vitamins, or something else that changes its color); or being on blood pressure medication at age 35 (or younger). These are things that have become accepted as "normal" because they happen so often, not because they are natural occurrences.

The word "necessary" in this context refers to what the body can and will do to keep you alive. A good example of this would be developing osteoporosis...or having a weakening in the teeth. We don't want to think of this as a natural occurrence, and an Allopathic (Western medicine) view of the body would see this as a malfunction. But if we know that there is an innate wisdom in the body, we know that a problem is occurring because the body will do everything in its power to stay alive, and its priorities are in order. Number one is : keep the blood clean. If there are toxins, or acids in our bodies (and therefore blood) because of our environment, our food consumption or our emotions, our body will buffer it and eliminate it. If it doesn't have enough organic sodium (not table salt!) to buffer, the second best thing to buffer the toxins is calcium. Guess where we keep our calcium? That's right, teeth and bones. So on the surface of the situation, we see a problem with our teeth and bones weakening, but the body sees it as doing job number one: keeping the blood clean.

This is true for so much of what we call disease. If we never trace a symptom or symptoms back to its origin, and instead call that group of symptoms some disease name, how can we expect the body to properly heal?

Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

I was prompted to look up exactly how prescription drug commercials are regulated, because I noticed that each of them includes some different elements these days. It struck me that, while we used to hear a long list of possible side effects by a fast talking male voice(sometimes including "death"!), now, more often, there is a lovely woman doctor, talking to a patient about the possible "risks" involved with taking the certain drug. It's much easier to swallow that way (no pun intended)...

The FDA allows this because (according to Carol Rados) "Recognizing the time constraints of broadcast ads, FDA regulations provide that a broadcast advertisement may include, instead of a brief summary, information relating to the major risks." Okay. There's really no good way to go about this, and it is definitely controversial to advertise on television at all. This article on the FDA website is actually really interesting, and shed some light on how it all works. And it tells you the three different kinds of ads, each with its own set of restrictions (or lack thereof). You can find it here.

I know, not everyone can stop the medications that they are taking, and no doubt there's something to be said for prescription drugs at certain points in certain peoples lives, but my question is, at what point in medical school do future doctors get taught to ignore the fact that all drugs are poison? If drugs weren't toxic they would have no side effects, and all drugs have side effects. Scientists have been working very hard to build "better" drugs that "outsmart" the body instead of trying to work with the body to promote healing. Unfortunately the end product of that is we are left with a series of chemicals that mask the problem, and the cause of the problem stays hidden.

The body has an amazing capacity to heal itself when given what it needs. We need to come back to that faith in it. Not just faith, it IS scientific, all the body systems interact with one another, so isolating them and treating parts(with toxins/poisons), naturally would work against healing. Maybe this is obvious to most of you, maybe I'm feeling the need to rant. But if we are going to get some sort of truly affordable healthcare now, I think it should absolutely include a preventative system. That means covering non-invasive so-called "alternative" treatments before our bodies are further poisoned by drugs or surgeries to remove organs that have very specific and important jobs to do (contrary to popular belief, the gallbladder is not just an evolutionary relic)!

We can all change the way health is handled by taking an active interest in our own. That includes talking to your doctor about ALL the options available, and being up front about what you are okay with and what you aren't. They have years of training, yes. But you are the one who has to live (literally, live IN the body) with the treatments they prescribe. They are not the only authority, and there is no magic pill.

Circulation

I've been getting a lesson in circulation these days. When I lived in NYC, I walked everywhere, rode my bike a lot, and always had jobs where I was on my feet most of the day. I can't say I felt great because of it, mostly I felt exhausted, but moving to a place where I'm suddenly much more sedentary I am definitely feeling the affects.

I remember years ago, most winters, my hands and feet would always get cold, to the point of never warming up until I got into bed. But the last few years, my hands and feet have been fine in the winter, cold, but not unmanagably, unwarmably, cold. And now, once again, they are like little blocks of ice. And I blame my suburban studious sedentary lifestyle.

And the sad part is, I know that this is much more than just an inconvenience. If my blood isn't circulating very well, then my whole body is running at a much lower level than it should be. Oxygenated blood coming from my heart might not be reaching all of my organs, and the blood that is returning to the heart might not be getting there as quickly as it should. The cleaning mechanisms may be slower, or may be missing something. My lymphatic system won't be up to par either, so I could have more trouble fighting off infections, and building up my body and detoxifying.

So, those of you that know me, know I'm not much of an exerciser, but that's not even what this is about, it's about movement! So I'm starting out slow, going on the mini-trampoline for 10 or 15 min a day, and stretching on top of that. I'll probably have to do much more, but that's my first step. I'll try to update about the temperature of my feet. Ha. Snow flurries are in the forecast for tomorrow. Yikes!

vegetarians

It's funny how defensive people get about food. It is a rather sensitive subject, what other thing do we all have in common, that we need to survive, but that is also intricately connected with our families, heritage, emotion, mood, health, vitality and more?

When I started eating more vegetarian, 10 years ago, I had the idea that it was best for everyone, those other people just didn't know that yet. I don't think that anymore. I do think, that we, as a nation, consume too much meat, of all kinds. But the idea of one diet being perfect for everyone seems very far from the truth. Each of us has a different body, different blood, different cells, and different genetic predispositions. While some of the basic workings are the same for everyone, if you don't pay attention how your body responds to what you consume, you are missing a big piece of the puzzle.

Aside from the general question of health, with so many issues bound up with the question of food (not least of all emotional), my question is, how do we start a dialogue with everyone, with each other, about food and health? I was introduced to someone last week who took one look at me and said "You're so skinny, I hope you aren't a vegetarian!"... Unfortunately, the person who introduced me, mistakenly said that I was. I tried to explain, that I'm not a strict vegetarian, I have added fish and poultry into my diet, that it's not about restriction...but it was too late.

She tells me "Oh I tried that once, but it just doesn't work". Already, I'm unsure what she means, what didn't work? What did she want it to do? Does it mean that everyone who is doing it now is wrong? But she seemed uninterested in dialogue. As she was walking away she tries to get in one last assertion, sure that she won't have to have a conversation to back it up: "You need protein, people need protein" (or maybe she even said "meat").

And so I'm left with the question, how do we start a dialogue? She made me feel attacked, and even insulted, as if I don't know that people need protein? It felt pre-emptive, as though she was afraid I would have taken a hard line, tried to convert her.

All I can do is try to stay open. I think what's more important than restrictions, especially at the beginning of learning about health, is how to add in positive, healthy foods to your normal routine. When you realize that eating fresh green veggies and whole grains might even make you feel better than you normally do, it makes you want to eat them again!

So what are our barriers to eating better? Some of mine are: social situations, energy or time to cook or plan delicious and nutritious food stuffs, expense of buying the good stuff or the better stuff as opposed to the crappy stuff, feeling still hungry after making a yummy nutritious meal which feels discouraging...

I think if we put our heads together we can overcome some of these difficulties. It's worth it when you know you'll be living better and longer and healthier.

Chewing food

I was going to comment back to Anonymous's comment on the saliva post in a comment, but it's getting a bit long, so here's another post....

Dear Anonymous,
It is really important, I don't know if I'd ever get anything done if I chewed 100 times, but hey, what works works.

I've read some about digestion times varying depending on the kind of food you have just ingested. But that becomes like a complicated rule book that's much too long to describe here.

From what I understand, people recommend not drinking anything (or less than 4-6 oz) during a meal because it dilutes the digestive enzymes in your stomach. I would add that if you are using liquid to help soften the food before you swallow, you probably haven't chewed your food enough to mix the enzymes that come from your saliva into your food.

Another thing to think about is that if you skip that first step, of chewing your food well, once the food reaches your stomach, the enzymes that came from your saliva are deactivated by the hydrochloric acid, and the other gastric digestive enzymes. So you are essentially making your body work much harder, and raising the chances that your food will not be properly digested. Or only partially digested. If that happens, not only could you become gassy and bloated, but you aren't receiving the vital nutrients you need from the food you just ate. (Of course I'm assuming that you are eating healthy whole foods that contain vital nutrients...)

But back to the question, should we drink tea immediately after eating? They say ginger is good for digestion, so maybe ginger tea would be the exception. The Weston A. Price foundation has a lot of great information about food and they recommend not drinking liquid 20-30 min before or after meals. You can read their seven tips to enhance digestion here.

I think it's probably a good idea to wait a little. But the best thing is to listen to your body. Every body is different, and will probably let you know if things aren't digesting so well!

garlic tea

here is the link to that garlic, honey, lemon tea...since it might be buried soon. click here.

saliva

yesterday i learned that in addition to supplying us with lots of needed enzymes (which is why you should chew your food carefully and not drink much liquid when you eat: digestion begins in the mouth!) saliva is also slightly antiseptic.

so when you see a child throw their pacifier on the ground and then you see the parent pick it up, stick it in their own mouth before giving it back to their child, however unappetizing it may seem...it's actually a good call. nature's double antiseptic!

Integers

I haven't posted because I've been learning things that are more like facts, than things you might want to hear about. Like this:

(+)(+)=+ (-)(-)=+ and (-)(+)= - !
(okay, so it was more like "re-learning")

Also, the parathyroid glands control calcium. And Aldosterone (a steroidal hormone produced by the adrenal cortex) controls sodium in the blood. These two things are going to be very important in understanding the scientific basis for the acid/alkaline eating philosophy, but I don't have all the pieces yet.

In the meanwhile, it got cold here. Feel free to post some yummy soup recipes...I'm craving the daily homemade varieties from The Garden...Pickle soup anyone?

Colds and congestion

A friend requested that I post some of these tips for dealing with colds:

First of all: Rest! A cold is a way for your body to encourage you to slow down and nourish it so that it can take care of a problem (or toxification) before it grows into something more unwieldy. Oftentimes we suppress colds or infections instead of letting them run their natural course which only leads to a worse problem down the road.

Dad's tip: If you feel a sore throat coming on, put a dribble of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water and drink it. It kills the bacteria in your throat, and maybe it's just because I grew up with it, but it really doesn't taste so bad at all. I also like(well "like may be a strong word, but it works) to gargle with tea tree oil and water when I feel some thing coming on in the back of my throat (it's also good for cuts or canker sores in the mouth). You have to put it in a sealed jar so you can shake the oil and water together before you put it in your mouth to gargle.

Mom's tip: Especially for head congestion, alternate hot liquids and cold liquids every hour.
When you take a gulp of the hot liquid, hold it against the roof of your mouth (soft palate) for a few moments before you swallow. This really loosens nasal congestion gets things flowing out. Make sure you spit out everything that comes out, it's gross but worth it. Take advantage of your body giving you the chance to get rid of it immediately!

Also hot showers help, stay in and really breathe in the moisture and let the water beat some of the toxins out of your muscles.

The nourishing gourmet blog (link to the right) has a recipe for a garlic, lemon and honey tea that is supposed to give a big boost to the immune system.

We also used to always take Vitamins A, E, and C...but avoid the Vit C at first if the cold has definitely come, because although it boosts the immune system, it is very drying which inhibits the flow of mucus that you want to happen.

Voices

I had a conversation recently with a friend about voice training. It struck me that maybe it's something everyone should have or at least try out, not just singers or musicians or actors. Your voice is so connected to who you are, and I think, in the past, I have actually been kind of afraid of my own voice. Not because the actual voice was weak, but because of how psychic-ly connected (as in, to the mind) it is to your person.

My viola teacher (hi catherine!) once made me sing each note out loud before I played it. How excruciating that was...but mostly because it was something I hadn't done. I hadn't exercised that part of my body. Sure I sing along with songs and all that, but I hadn't ever had to try to hit notes, with just my voice, alone.

Imagine if every child, while they were still forming ideas about who they were or how they fit in, gained complete mastery of his or her vocal chords, it seems to me it would make a much more secure, confident, person in the long run, knowing how they can sound, and having the confidence to do so outloud.

Of course that wouldn't account for temperment or habit, you would have to actually choose to use it. But it seems like a positive step in that mind-body connection.

Inflammation

I'm reading "Anti-cancer" by David Servan-Schreiber, he's a doctor that got a brain tumor and starting researching natural ways to stave off cancer...I'm also studying "The science and practice of Iridology" by Dr. Bernard Jensen, it's funny how similar they are.

One thing I didn't realize is that our bodies actually create inflammation in order to heal wounds. And sometimes, when our fight-or-flight response is activated, our bodies send out messengers that create inflammation before a wound occurs so that it will heal faster.

Unfortunately for us, that fight-or-flight response (the sympathetic nervous system), which is normally a very good thing, can be activated by stress, anxiety, fear, etc...and can remain constantly "on" in our lives if we don't find a way to cope, and relax. Also a big problem: Cancer needs this inflammation to grow and flourish. So do a lot of other chronic diseases and disorders.

There are plenty of foods widely available that are anti-inflammation, (Nordic Naturals fish oil being a very good one that comes to mind) but it still surprised how much emphasis both authors (writing over 50 years apart) put on the mind, and finding emotional balance. Maybe because it's easily overlooked, maybe because it's a such hard thing to do...