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Homemade Soft Drinks
Soft drinks are not healthy beverages. Loaded with sugar, sugar substitutes, high fructose corn syrup, caffeine, and phosphates (which leach calcium from your bones), they actually erode your health.
Soft drinks once were health tonics. Root beer, ginger ale, and many others were bubbly beverages made from herbs, trace minerals (from real salt, not table salt), probiotics, and lacto-fermentation. You cannot buy these in stores easily, but you can easily make them at home.
I make a number of ginger ales, orange soda, and “red pop.” I will admit, the root beers are a bit tricky so start with something easier.
Don’t have time? This is a GREAT thing to let the kids do! Just make sure to supervise, and expect some extra clean-up!
Gut Reaction: Environmental Effects on the Human Microbiota
Gut Reaction: Environmental Effects on the Human Microbiota is an excellent introduction to the large body of current research being done on the digestive tract that takes into consideration the gut “flora” and the implications of probiotics on illness, disease, and digestive problems.
This is a scholarly article published by the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) but it is easy to read. Click here to read the full article.
Probiotics and Developmental Disorders
Abstract
Gut and psychology syndrome (GAPS) offers diagnosticians an alternative to the DSM-IV-TR Axis II symptoms-driven diagnosis. GAPS offers clinical signs for diagnosis of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral developmental disorders based on biological medical markers. It also offers treatment protocols known to cure two out of three patients using natural methods. Developed by Natascha Campbell-McBride, M.D., Ph.D., after pioneering research by Andrew Wakefield, M.D., the treatments eradicate neurotoxins by balancing intestinal flora using “industrial strength” therapeutic doses of soil probiotics not found in retail health food stores. These treatments offer medication-free cures in longitudinal case studies of 10 years, for persons with autism, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning disability (LD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, and other Axis II disorders.
Full Article
I have written a research paper on this subject, which includes the treatment protocols and where you can find resources for pursuing treatment. Read the full article here.
To learn more about the diets recommended for autism, ADHD, ADD, and other developmental disorders, you can find books on the subject here.
Safe enough for over-the-counter use, you can purchase Bio-Kult here, the specific probiotics prescribed by doctors to treat properly diagnosed patients including soil probiotics and those necessary for removal of heavy metals.
6 Common Foods That Compromise Your Health
Proper diet is a foundation of Oriental medicine. Your body loses its natural ability to heal when you eat foods that are not natural, or have not been a part of the human body’s diet for thousands of years. Unfortunately, most food on the market shelves today is not natural. . . and most people eating it are not healthy as a result.
Here is a nice introduction to how to change your diet for the better. It’s written by a certified nutritional consultant for the Weston A Price Foundation journal. The ideas are simple. The commitment is up to you.
Read the article Kitchen in Transition here. If you do not have access to a healthy grocery store near you, please check out my page Healthy Pantry to have items shipped to your doorstep. If you have any questions about what you’re eating, send me an email and I will get back with you as soon as I can.
Science Finds Acupuncture Channels
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Many scientific observations have supported the existence of acupuncture points and channels as they have been perceived by doctors, patients, scholars, and others in Oriental medicine. These include low electrical activity at acupoints, radio-isotope tracing, thermal and sense propagation, and galvanic currents.
Now, scientists have injected magnetic nanoparticles into living flesh and traced their movement along natural pathways using magnetic fields. The natural pathways travelled by the nanoparticles do not correspond to any physical anatomical structure visible to the naked eye; they do, however, correspond to acupuncture channels as described by acupuncture medicine.
Reference: Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2007 March; 4(1): 77–82
Read the full article on PubMed or read the scientific study and see more images here.
Home Remedies for Menstrual Cramps
Menstrual cramps are unique for each woman. Oriental medicine is special because it treats your cramps according to your pattern; more precisely, it treats you. Until you can get diagnosed and treated by a doctor of Oriental medicine, here are some ideas that you can try at home.
Sea Salt Compress
Saute about 4 cups of sea salt in a frying pan until all the popping stops. Do not put any oil in the pan to fry the salt! Just “dry fry” it. The purpose is to get the moisture out. The salt will turn dull and darkened.
Pour the salt into a towel or cloth, and bundle up the top like you would a compress.
Being careful not to burn your skin, apply directly to where it hurts. This may be on your lower front abdomen over the womb, or on your low back.
The salt holds the heat in for some time. You can reheat the salt and do it again as often as you like.
Sea salt contains trace minerals not found in table salt or salt substitutes. Trace minerals relax muscles and improve nerve conductivity. Oriental medicine uses sea salt because it treats Kidney. Kidney refers not to the organs the kidneys, but to the collection of functions and channels that are the foundation of the menstrual cycle and reproduction.
Ginger Tea
Here is a warm and tasty beverage to help your body have the energy to send the blood down and out through your menstrual cycle. Ginger is used to “downbear” the stomach. In Oriental medicine, the “Chong Mai” is an energetic pathway that links the uterus and stomach (for example, when it is “disturbed” with a fetus, often women get morning sickness or nausea).
Bring grated or sliced fresh ginger to a boil. Use as much as ginger as you can tolerate. If it’s too strong, you can always dilute it with water later.
When it boils, simmer it for at least 20 minutes. Add sugar to taste. Use white rock candy sugar if your pain is dull and diffuse across a general area. Use red sugar if your pain is intense and localized to specific places, sharp or stabbing. Use red sugar if you have heavy bleeding. [Red sugar is a dark brown red rock candy like sugar that you can find in Oriental groceries. The white rock sugar is also available in Oriental grocery stores.]
It’s ready to drink as soon as it’s cool. The Asian tradition is to pour the tea into teacups without handles. When the cup is cool enough to hold in your hand, it is cool enough to drink.
Chinese Herbs for Menstrual Cramps
Be sure to stock your medicine cabinet with Chinese herbs for cramps. One fast-acting formula is called “Sudden Smile” because it works so well it makes women break out into a smiling face. Another formula that has Sudden Smile in it is called “Calm in the Sea of Life.” Be sure to check with your acupuncturist to make sure these formulas are suitable for your pattern of cramping, or they might not be effective.
If you’re interested in getting a correct treatment based on your diagnosed pattern, please contact me to arrange a free 15 minute consultation. Or simply book an appointment.
My goal is to create a treatment plan unique to your needs and empower you with tools for self-care, disease prevention, and complete recovery.
How Dangerous Are Your Prescription Drugs?
Prescription drugs save lives, no doubt about it. But what are your options? If you are taking medication, there are things you should know that your doctor, pharmacist, and certainly the drug companies may not be telling you.
Generally speaking, pharmaceutical drugs are not designed to cure illness; only to mask the symptoms of your illness. This is important. If they cured you, you would eventually be able to go off them. That would be a bad thing—for the drug companies! The drug companies do not want to cure you; they want to make a profit off you. They will keep you sick, dependent on their drugs to make you feel better by masking your symptoms.
In time, people can become increasingly dependent on their prescription drugs. They may need more. As prices increase, what happens when you can no longer afford the drugs you have become dependent on? This is a problem facing many Americans today. It is a primary reason people come see me. They simply cannot afford their medications any longer. They must find a new way to manage their health.
Fortunately, Oriental medicine can offer you a new solution, based on an old medicine—one that has worked for thousands of years before prescription drugs ever existed. Rather than diagnose a disease, Oriental medicine diagnoses the origin of your illness: the unique patterns of imbalances in your body. When the imbalances are corrected, the body heals itself naturally. I have seen many patients restore their health enough that their doctors are able to reduce or eliminate the number of drugs these patients need for diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, pain, depression and anxiety, hormone imbalance, sleep problems, reflux, etc. You could be next!
Should you consider getting healthy so you can eliminate the need to take prescription drugs? Is it worth it to you? Here is an article that might make you want to think twice about being dependent on medications if you could heal your body instead. This article is all about the dangers of prescription drugs.
Read it HERE.