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Nutritional Counseling
How many times have you been told to “eat
healthy and get exercise”. How is that possible if you
don’t know what that means? The truth is, many of the
things that people believe are “healthy” are in fact,
incompatible with their body chemistry. Have you ever
thought that we are just all the victims of a nationwide marketing
campaign? “Milk, it does a body good!”,
“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful”?
“Pork, the other white meat” are some examples of the
marketing we see every day. Where did the individual lose their
ability to be unique?
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I have never been a believer of the “one size
fits all” mentality. It didn’t work with clothes,
and it certainly doesn’t work with food, exercise or relaxation
methods. All we have to do it look around the room to find diversity.
There are tall, short, dark, light, male, female, thin, and not so
thin people… not to mention their ethnic backgrounds, genetic
blueprints and blood type differences. With all of this
diversity, does it really make sense that the same diet and exercise
program will work equally well for all of us?
Customizing your diet to match your body’s
ability to digest and absorb the nutrients from your food will make a
greater impact on your health and wellbeing than any herbal
supplement or magic potion available. A good example of this is
as follows: For example you are told that your body needs
potassium, therefore you eat a lot of bananas because you believe
them to be high in potassium. If you body is unable to properly
digest the bananas, you will also be unable to absorb the potassium
that is in the bananas. This same scenario happens with a
myriad of foods that most of us eat daily. It is the
identification of foods and exercise programs, that are compatible
with your body’s chemistry, and give you what you need, that is
the true key to healthy living.
This is where health counseling begins. I
will help you to understand why specific foods or exercise programs
do not best suit your needs, so you are able to make better choices
for your individual body.
Herbal Supplementation
In a perfect world, we would not need to take
supplements! Personally, I love that thought.
Unfortunately, I know that the world we live in is not perfect, and
we seem to find new ways each day to make it less so. We are
exposed to more toxins on a daily basis than our ancestors would have
experienced in a lifetime. The soil in which the majority of
our food is grown is nearly devoid of all nutrients and the American
diet is filled with foods that have processed the remaining nutrients
out of them. Don’t even get me started on stress,
pesticides and hormones.
For these reasons and more… supplementation
is often necessary to help bring the body back into balance.
What supplementation provides is a concentrated means of building up
specific nutrients in a short period of time to facilitate healing
and balance.
My preference is to work with foods… but if
there was someone drastically low in iron, I could ask them to eat
bushels of beets and mounds of liver daily, or I could offer
supplementation to help facilitate their healing in a little more
convenient and enjoyable way….(that is unless beets and liver
are your favorite foods J).
Essential Oils
(Excerpts
taken from the “Reference Guide for Essential Oils”
compiled by Connie & Alan Higley.)
Essential oils are volatile liquids that are
distilled from plants (including their respective parts such as
seeds, leaves, stems etc.). There is a vast difference in the
quality of essential oils that are available on the market today, and
the therapeutic results of their use will directly correlate to the
quality of the oil used. It is important to use the purest,
therapeutic-grade essential oil possible in order to achieve the
desired results.
The benefits of using essential oils
therapeutically have been known for thousands of years. There
are 188 references to essential oils in the Bible, and Egyptian
hieroglyphics as well as Chinese manuscripts describe their use by
priests and physicians of that time.
The benefits of using therapeutic grade essential oils
are many, however I’ve listed just a few below:
·
Essential oils contain oxygen molecules which help
to transport nutrients to the starving human cells. Because a
nutritional deficiency is an oxygen deficiency, disease begins when
the cells lack the oxygen for proper nutrient assimilation.
·
Essential oils are so small in molecular size that
they can quickly penetrate the tissues of the skin… in face
they can affect every cell of the body within 20 minutes… yet
are metabolized like other nutrients.
·
Essential oils are very powerful Antioxidants,
creating an unfriendly environment for free radicals.
·
Essential oils are anti-bacterial, anti-cancerous,
anti-fungal, anti-infectious, anti-microbial, anti-tumoral,
anti-parasitic, anti-viral and antiseptic.
·
Essential oils are able to work on all levels of
our being… physical, emotional and spiritual.
·
Essential oils are aromatic (most enjoyable so),
and offer a wonderfully health benefiting alternative to commercial
perfumes that come packaged with unhealthy additives and toxins.
·
Essential oils can improve the frequency of the
human body.
Note
the charts below which were prepared by Bruce Tainio and Dr. Gary
Young.
Flower Essences
(Excerpts
taken from the “Flower Essence Repertory” by Dr. Edward
Bach and the Flower Essence Society
Flower essences are liquid extracts, which are used
to address issues of emotional well-being, soul development, and
mind-body health. While the use of flowers has been used for
thousands of years, this precise application was first developed by
Dr. Edward Bach in the 1930’s.
Flower essences (although resembling other remedies
which come in dropper bottles), do not work because of their chemical
composition, but because of the life forces derived from the plant
when is then contained within the water-based mix. Similar to
homeopathic remedies, they are highly diluted substances whose action
is vibrational in nature.
The impact of the flower essence can be compared to
a particularly moving piece of music, or inspirational work of art.
Although the action is very subtle, it is wonderfully powerful at the
same time… helping individuals to surface repressed emotion
without the emotional struggle.
Homeopathy
Homeopathy was “discovered” by a German
physician named Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in the early 1800’s.
Disillusioned by the barbaric medicinal practices of the time (like
blood letting etc.) he abandoned his medical practice and turned to
medical translating to make a living. While translating
Lectures on the Materia Medica by a Scottish professor, Hahnemann
stumbled onto the secret to curing the sick.
In essence, homeopathy works on the principle of
the “Law of Similars”, which states that “a remedy
can cure a disease if it produces in a healthy person symptoms
similar to those of the disease.” Confusing I know…
maybe I can give you a better example.
If you were to take (as a healthy person) the
homeopathic remedy quinine, it would produce the same symptoms as are
experienced by someone who has malaria. Thus by taking the
quinine, you can relieve the malaria symptoms.
Homeopathic remedies work by producing an
artificial disease in the body. The body in turn reacts to this
artificial disease, and cures the real disease (malaria) in the
process. “The baby gets thrown out with the bath
water.”
It is phenomenal how efficiently homeopathic
remedies work once you find the correct one! Additionally,
homeopathic remedies don’t hinder the body’s ability to
heal itself like some medications do, but actually make your own
healing process more efficient.
Last but not least, homeopathic remedies are so
diluted that they have literally no crude substance left in them,
thus they work on a vibrational level. This means that there
are no negative side effects on our liver, kidneys etc.
Homeopathy as a therapy has been around since
the early 1800’s, it really gained respect in 1918 during the
Spanish flu pandemic where it is estimated that 24.7-39.3 people
world wide lost their lives to the virus. While allopathic Doctors
were experiencing a mortality rate of 25-30%, homeopathic doctors
were experiencing mortality rates of 1% and under. This gained
tremendous recognition for homeopathy as a viable treatment option.
Reflexology
Reflexology is not a new science or therapy.
The first recorded reference to reflexology is a pictograph in a
physician’s tomb in Egypt which is dated at 2500 B.C. The
pictograph shows 2 men receiving reflexology by two practitioners.
Reflexology was introduced to the United States by a gentleman named Dr. William Fitzgerald. After studying abroad
under the guidance of Dr. H. Bressslar, they collaborated on a book
entitled “Zone Therapy”. Returning the the U.S.,
Dr. Fitzgerald practiced zone therapy on his patients, utilizing
clamps etc. to apply pressure to the feet or hands to induce an
anesthetic affect in other parts of the body, even completing
surgeries with no other means of anesthesia.
Upon attending a course taught by Dr. Fitzgerald on
zone therapy, Dr. Joseph Riley and his wife were very impressed by
the information began to use it in their practice. It was Dr.
Riley’s assistant, Eunice Ingham, who truly transformed zone
therapy into the practice of reflexology that is used world wide
today.
There are 7200 nerves in the bottoms of each
foot. These nerves represent energy pathways to all areas of
the body including the organs, glands, muscles etc.
Reflexology is an enjoyable therapy that utilizes
the thumb and fingers to reflex (or manipulate) those energy pathways
in both the feet and the hands.
The goal of reflexology is to…
·
Stimulate the different areas of the body via the
manipulation of the nerves in the feet
·
Bring the body into balance
·
Relieve Stress
·
Relieve inflammation
·
Break up congestion
·
Stimulate endorphins and…
·
Improve circulation to the central nervous system
Polarity Therapy
Polarity therapy is the use of magnets to balance
the polarity of an individual as well as their electro magnetic
fields. The earth has a natural electromagnet field that
surrounds it, protecting it and its inhabitants (namely us) from the
ravages of the atmosphere. This electromagnetic field presents
a negative charge on all living creatures on the planet. This
is a good thing, because the human body thrives in a negatively
charged environment. Unfortunately, there are a number of
things that we are exposed to on a daily basis, that emit a positive
electromagnetic charge, having a detrimental effect on our bodies.
Electronic equipment, electrical wiring, cell phones, riding around
in metal cars, being sheltered in metal buildings are just a few of
the things that can project a positive charge on our bodies.
Some of the effects of positive magnetic energy fields
are…
·
Decreases cellular oxygen
·
Holds fluids and gasses
·
Increases swelling
·
Stimulates wakefulness
·
Accelerates microorganism growth
·
Inhibits biological healing
·
Can increase inflammation
·
Increases pH acidity
·
Increases pain
·
Promotes mental over-activity
·
Promotes depressed affect
·
Etc.
The concept behind polarity
therapy is to intentionally expose the body to the negative magnetic
fields for limited periods of time to help throw off the positive
fields and strengthen the north field within the body.
There are numerous
products available utilizing the use of magnets, with wonderful
stories of success. Many of these products can be used for
magnetic therapy. It is however important that these products
be used in limited amounts… (not continuously), as studies have
shown that the positive benefits of their use are reversed if used
continuously.
Color Therapy
Color therapy was first developed by a man named
Dinshah P. Ghadiali who was born in India. He produced a
piece of equipment that would use incandescent light to shine very
specific colors on different parts of the body to facilitate
healing. The original preface for color therapy was that via
sunshine (the basic source of all life and energy upon the earth), we
obtain the entire spectrum of colors. Each of those colors has
an effect upon the body with the warmer colors (the red side of the
spectrum) having a stimulating effect and the cooler colors (on the
blue side of the spectrum) having a sedative effect.
Although Dinshah worked with color therapy
extensively, it’s began to get real recognition when a Doctor
by the name of Kate W. Baldwin (Senior Surgeon for 23 years at
Philadelphia Woman’s Hospital) presented a paper entitled
“The Therapeutic Value of Light and Color” at a clinical
meeting of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania.
In her presentation she said “For about six
years I have given close attention to the action of colors in
restoring the body functions, and I am perfectly honest in saying
that, after nearly thirty-seven years of active hospital and private
practice in medicine and surgery, I can produce quicker and more
accurate results with colors than with any or all other methods
combined- and with less strain on the patient. In many cases,
the functions have been restored after the classical remedies have
failed. Of course surgery is necessary in some cases, but the
results will be quicker and better if color is used before and after
the operation. Sprains, bruises and trauma of all sorts respond
to color as to no other treatment. Septic conditions yield,
regardless of the specific organism. Cardiac lesions, asthma,
hay fever, pneumonia, inflammatory conditions of the eyes, corneal
ulcers, glaucoma, and cataracts are relieved by the treatment”.
Color therapy is a non-invasive, simple and
inexpensive therapy that can easily be added to other more mainstream
therapies to enhance the healing process. The therapy is
generally done with the client lying comfortably on a massage table
with the appropriate color light being shown on the appropriate body
part for one hour.
Energy Work
The term energy work includes a number of healing
therapies such as Reiki, Light Work, Light Healing Touch etc.
Although each of these therapies may have different protocols, they
all have one thing in common…vibrational energy is used as a
healing tool.
Here’s how it works.
The trained practitioner directs life-force energy
(often called chi) through their hands into their clients to
facilitate the healing process. This is done by learning to
hold a high vibrational energy in their hands, which in turn creates
an amazingly powerful healing energy field. Through a natural
process called “resonance and entrainment” the
client’s energy automatically matches the high vibration of the
practitioner thus facilitating the client’s own healing
process.
In its simplest form, examples of energy work can
be seen in daily life.
·
During a headache, people often hold their head in
their hands.
·
A child bangs their knee… the first action is
usually to hold the injured knee in their hands.
·
Often during bouts of extreme stress, grief or
anxiety, individuals often hold their head in their hands…
These motions wouldn’t be so widely practiced
if they weren’t effective… in some way.
By learning to focus the vibrational energy, the
practitioner is able to strengthen the power of these natural motions
to a greater lever, making them more effective as a healing modality.
Bio-Cleanse Ionized Footbaths
Bio-Cleanse is an ionized foot bath designed to
restore the body’s energy and balance, while facilitating and
aiding the body’s natural detoxification process. It
balances and restores the body’s pH and electromagnetic
energy.
The Bio-Cleanse footbath works by conducting direct
current into the water and generating an ionic field that transfers
into the body. The bubbles coming from the array indicate the
ionic field is being created as the hydrogen and oxygen particles
separate. The warm water that fills the tub allows the feet to
sweat, opening the pores, and allowing a greater absorption rate
through the skin.
This therapy is great for reducing toxic buildup,
digestive issues, allergies, pain and achiness etc.. Use of the
ionic footbath supports a proactive regime for chronic illness and
speeds recovery from acute illness and can help to move things
forward when your progress has reached a plateau.
This therapy is a wonderfully relaxing way to detoxify
your body and balance you pH.
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