Pertinent Preparation Pointers For Getting the Most Out of Your Natural Health Appointments

I have put together some Pointers to help you get the most of your appointments whether “initial” or “follow-ups” with your Natural Health Practitioner or even your regular M.D., though some pointers are really only pertinent to a Natural Health Practitioner unless your M.D. prescribes natural remedies for your health problems.

1. Bring a food diary in showing what you ate for the last 10 days, include all meals & snacks and if you noticed if you felt any different eating certain foods or avoiding certain foods.

2. Bring your current supplements that you are taking along with any prescription medications especially to your first appointment.  You can then just bring anything new that you added in to your follow-up appointments.  

3. Bring in your most recent, even if it was 2 years prior, blood work & any other scans or medical diagnostic tests that you have had done to your initial appointment as well as any current results to your follow-up appointments as you get the tests done.  Sometimes it is easier to scan them to your practitioner before you get there so that they can have a look at them right before they see you.

4. Make sure you bring in a diary of your supplements or however you kept track of the supplements you took and if you noticed that you felt better or not after running out of them.  Ie. Sometimes it is easier to notice if something is helping if you run out of the supplement first and then evaluate how you feel.  If you feel worse after running out of a supplement there may be a correlation, but the Practitioner can determine this at the appointment.

5. If you are feeling quite well and most of your symptoms are gone, but are unsure of what to stay on as far as the supplements you were taking, then ask if you can have a shorter appointment time.

6. Once you have determined what is working I would then ask if you can simply pick up remedies that you need.  It is important to note here that buying store brand products that are cheap have very little health benefits & usually contain substances that are toxic. Keep in mind that Health Canada approves products on our shelves NOT because of good quality control…they do not even look at quality control…thus the same herb in different brands can be completely different and you will not get the same results. (Ie. It could be contaminated with animal dander, not the correct medicinal species etc.) If you go to a reputable practitioner they will often give you advice as to what to buy from your local health food store, if you don’t buy from them.

7.  If your symptoms have improved, but you still have the symptoms then make sure you make another appointment.  Keep in mind that the longer you have had a symptom, the longer it generally takes to go away…though not nearly as long as you had it.  Ie. A symptom that you have had for 20 years you may get rid of in less than 2 years, which isn’t too bad considering how long you have had it.  

    I like the car analogy.  If you drove your car for 5 years without maintenance you can expect to pay thousands on repair/maintenance costs.  Now think of driving your car for 25 years without maintenance…this is what a lot of people due to their own bodies.  It will cost you a lot more if you wait until you have symptoms for years, then go for help.  

    My general recommendation is to go for an appointment at least spring and fall even if you feel well, that way health patterns & changes can be noted and addressed before you become really unwell.  Another reason for going every spring and fall is to detoxify & cleanse using herbs to get at the deeper toxins in the body thus increasing the vitality of the liver, thus increasing your own vitality and wellness.

 Disclaimer:  This is for information purposes only and readers take full responsibility for applying these guidelines to their lives.

 

Steps to Healing (adapted from Dr. Mikael Adams N.D.)

 Steps to Healing (adapted from Dr. Mikael Adams N.D.)

These steps are for chronic conditions of the body, which we will all experience at some point in life, whether the beginning, middle or end.  These steps are not necessarily in the order that you will heal, in fact some of them can be done together.  Ie. Psychological/Spiritual help can be done at the same time as taking drainage or detoxification therapy.

These steps are based on the supposition that the person is on the correct diet for themselves & avoiding exposure, as much as humanly possible, to toxins in their environment. (Correct diet, with good, filtered water, preferably alkaline water so it will absorb properly & the avoidance of chemicals in food, air, water and on your skin.)

Step One:  Open the Excretory Organs & drain:  a)Bowels, b)Lymphatic system, c) Kidneys,    d) Skin, & the liver empties via the bowel.  Ultimately you want to get at the CELLULAR level which requires more than just a great diet.  This is where herbs & homeopathic remedies come in.  Herbs can scour the toxins around & inside your cells, the Unda #’s, which are homeopathic remedies, are used to get rid of cellular toxins, & will help you get rid of toxins affecting cellular function & enzyme systems, that rely on nutrients to run.  When your body’s cells are  “cleaned” this way,  then your supplements & even food  you use will be less in volume or calories, but nutrient rich, since your body will run more efficiently and need less calories to do it. So eating nutrient dense foods with less calories will help your body function correctly while you do the cleansing but it will NOT take the place of cleansing.  Eating a diet such as this will not detoxify you at the cellular level by itself…this is a mistake that a lot of people make.  It isn’t all about diet, in this case. (Ie. When you tune up your car, your gas mileage gets better because it will require less to run on.)

Step Two: Eliminate Environmental Toxins & the predisposition to “collecting” them in your body.  This can be done by treating your “constitution” and your “tendencies” that  you were born with.  This is usually through homeopathic remedies that release the negative tendency and “neutralize” its influence.  These are chronic conditions like; scoliosis, schizophrenia, alcoholism, diabetes, weak lungs, weak joints etc.

Step Three:  Stimulate the enzymes & substitute where necessary.  Using certain herbs to increase digestive power or using the Unda #’s to clean off the enzyme systems can help the person’s body to digest & assimilate their food much more effectively.  (I always say “you are what you assimilate.”)  In this way, all the organs and the systems made up from the organs will function more effectively creating a stable energy flow through out the day with no dips to the energy.  Remember, we are a human chemical factory and if there is a blockage in any of the enzyme systems the liver will try to push wastes through another enzyme system, if it does not work, you will store the toxins often in your bowel, lymphatic system and your between your cells causing you to become lethargic.  This is gradual of course and is often why people do not pick up on their problems quick enough since they believe it has to do with “old age” or working too much etc.  Cancer and other degenerative dis-ease starts here…at the cellular level.

Step Four:  Dysbiosis Therapy which is basically working on your gut and making sure that you are eating fermented foods daily like; water kefir, milk kefir, sauerkraut, fermented veges etc.  (Pickled food is not fermented.)  You may also need some herbs for the gut if you have a parasite or an overgrowth of bacteria in the gut which can lower your B12 levels and cause low energy.  Having a gut with the correct amount of healthy flora will help you produce B vitamins, enzymes etc.

Step Five:  Reduce Stress & Tonify the Qi.  Herbs & diet combined can help to tone the Qi & reduce stress in our body. If you compare this to your car engine, the gas will flow freely to the engine to combust with little waste left over and give your car the energy it needs to run smoothly. This is when you will have the best energy, no blocks to your energetic system.  The herbs & diet you need to maintain this energy or Qi will depend on your body type & individual idiosyncrasies, which is why it is important to get checked out by a professional.  Since just because a certain herb/regime helped someone else does not mean it is the best for you.  It will save you time and money to actually get checked out by a Holistic Professional of your choice since you will not have to guess what you need and waste money trying it out.

Step Six:  Nutritional Support, like Vitamin & Mineral supplements or nutritive herbs can also work well or green smoothies or juicing etc.  Anything to get your nutrient quotient up.  Think organic veges with some fruit in season.

Step Seven:  Constitutional therapy especially for the way you express and feel emotions & your body’s tendencies to certain dis-ease.  Healing your emotions or the way you express them can be challenging for some people.  Ultimately, the way you express yourself or do not express yourself is the way you were built and conditioned.  Certain homeopathic remedies can be helpful for those whose emotions are “stuck” and cause havoc in the body.  Ie. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or any chronic disease has an emotional element to it plus some so called “genetic” dis-eases can be helped by this type of therapy.

Step Eight:  Organ & Enzyme regeneration are sometimes required and organotherapy (a specific form of homeopath aimed at a specific organ to help it function normally) can be useful here.  Even some high strength antioxidants either in foods or herbs are very useful here to restore and protect the liver especially, but also the cardiovascular system, kidneys etc.  This will keep the body from degenerative diseases by protecting the body against the pollutants we have no control over as in the “air you breathe”.  Ie. We all need protection from air pollution.

Step Nine:  Spiritual/Psychological Healing:  Personally, I believe all that we do is spiritual, even if it is just the body, since the body houses the soul and we are one unit.  But sometimes people experience trauma in their life and it will create a vortex that uses up a lot of energy, since the person will be reacting to things that set them off without control.  So these traumas need to be healed and can be released through EMDR methods quite effectively or even talk therapy,  if you get the right professional for yourself.  Also, having a faith in someone bigger than your world can be essential to healing as it will give meaning to the suffering we all endure to one extent or another and hope, to get through it or be healed in the next life, in heaven.

Step Ten:  Removal of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMG) & Geopathic Stress from cell phones, cell phone towers and zones that cause geopathic stress in houses or buildings that people reside in.  Generally, EMG and Geopathic Stress cause Cancer over time but also very low energy and other inflammatory conditions of the body in the mean time.  There is a lot of evidence out there now where you can see the research on the cause and effect of these sources of radiant energy.  These types of energy will affect the body’s electrical system and cause the  bodys’ energy field  to be over-powered by the energy fields from phones & cell phone towers especially, but also geopathic stress will do this also.  One of the protectors I recommend are the Pulsor products which contain various strengths of Piezo Electric Crystals which will emit a field over your own energy field and strengthen it so that you are not affected by the fields that surround you.  (I have experienced this personally around large pieces of automated chemistry equipment while working in the hospital and the Pulsor Crystals saved me.  Very low energy was my symptom…so low that I could hardly function at the end of the day.)

 

Disclaimer:  Please note this article is strictly for information purposes only.  It is not meant to diagnose or prescribe or give advice.  Each person must take responsibility for their own health and get the advice specific for their own situation from a professional of their choice.

 

Long Life Winter Soup

Long Life Winter Soup                                                                     

Use a small handful of American Ginseng root cut up is best, a small handful of  Rehmannia root, 125 mL Wolf Berries, a medium handful of Codonopsis root, 5 large slivers of Reishi Mushroom, 6 dried Shiitake Mushrooms and 5 large Bay Leaves.

Use as follows to make your soup…you can adjust the taste as required like use more Codonopsis than Reishi to increase the sweetness of the soup.

 

1. Put herbs in 1 gallon pot along with 2 large onions cut in quarters,

2. 3 carrots cut in chunks,

3. 3 big, fat fresh burdock roots, cut in chunks,

4. and 1 whole organic chicken or 5 or 6 beef marrow bones (optional, of course). 

5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and partially and cook for  1.5 hours. Cool.

6. Pour through a colander to strain herbs, veggies and chicken or marrow bones, discard. Use herbs only once, then discard.  You can use this base for any soup that you want to make and can add whatever other spices you want to make it a tasty soup. (Ie. sea salt, seaweed, italian spices, curry, cayenne etc.)

 

Adapted from Patricia Kyritsi Howell, RH (AHG), original recipe for Winter Soup by Monica Hirai NHPC #3812, Registered Holistic Practitioner.

Tips to Increase Your Energy

 1. Remove all white flour, white sugar and white rice from your diet.  Replace 

with whole grain flour, whole grain sugar cane and brown rice….according to your ABO blood type.

2. Eat the “beneficials” off your blood type chart.

3. Food combine.  Proteins and veges.  Starches and veges.  For more information read about it in the “Body Ecology Diet” book.

4. Drink hot water with fresh lemon squeezed into it.  It helps to unclog the liver.

5. Do a liver/gallbladder flush after doing a series of colonics.

6. Do a liver cleanse with herbs and a series of colonics to flush out the toxicity from your body.

 7. Use fiber drinks and bowel tonic herbs to increase your elimination.

 8. Eat raw veges at lunch and at dinner.

 (compatible with your blood type.)

 9. Juice vegetable juices and drink 2 to 4 – 8 oz glasses daily.

 10. Drink wheatgrass juice in lemon water or in unfiltered, organic apple juice.

 11. Go on a cleansing diet of raw vegetable juices and raw vegetable salads with lots of green veges and sprouts…do for 4 to 10 days if you can.  Come off of it with light proteins.

 12. Drink non-chlorinated water.

 13. Have a bath with 35% hydrogen peroxide in it….soak at least 30 minutes.

 

Allergies

Allergies

       After a long hard winter in Alberta spring comes and we are waiting for it!  For those with allergies, there may be a mixed reaction to spring.  I will explain how I think allergies should be approached without having to resort to antihistamines.

       There are 2 types of allergies.  One is what I call “toxic allergies” and “true allergies”.  The first type relates solely to the liver.

       Spring is “liver” time, so that when you have allergies in the spring they are always improved by cleansing the body which involves the liver, or the “blood filter” of the body.  This type of therapy is called “Blood Purification.”

       This can be accomplished by going on a cleansing diet with nothing but whole, raw foods (veges & fruit) to doing a juice fast with veges & fruit and herbs that cleanse the liver & blood. In both cases cleansing the colon is important.

       The way this works is; when you cleanse your body you are cleansing your blood and liver which will remove toxins from your mucus membranes which make your allergic response either disappear or not as reactive.  A clogged liver and colon means a clogged nose/sinuses!

Cleansing in the spring is for everyone, not just for those with allergies.  But if you do have allergies it is much better to get the toxins out than to “suppress” the symptoms with anti-histamines since one of the ways toxicity shows up is through allergies.  Histamine will also disappear with proper water intake.  The average person needs 2 to 4 liters of purified, alkaline water per day.  Some allergies are simply dehydration!

      I have seen severe allergies disappear with a “heavy metal cleanse” or by simply using some herbal allergy formulas, allergies have been kept at bay without going on antihistamines.  Sometimes simple herbs like Licorice (avoid in high blood pressure) can be helpful, but most often a formula is required and it is individual. The one food that causes a lot of allergies is dairy products and wheat, so avoiding these two items can be very helpful in eliminating allergies of all kinds.

      The “true” allergies are usually best treated with homeopathic remedies.  These allergies will be apparent when you are done cleansing and will be allergies like; horse, cat, hay fever type allergies.  Most chemical allergies are from Candida overgrowth and leaky gut which requires a whole other program of gut healing.  But the simple pollen allergies can often be addressed with homeopathic remedies or sometimes even using pollen in very small amounts can help build your tolerance up to pollens in the air.  Do this with caution and NEVER do this if you have anaphylactic reactions.

      Grass allergies can often be dealt with with “Green” powders that contain grasses like Barley Grass & Wheat Grass etc.  Again, start small and go up to where you can tolerate a larger amount.  These formulas will often give you more energy as will the Bee Pollen.

       In conclusion, simple allergies can often be treated easily with simple remedies like Bee Pollen or Licorice but more advanced allergies need a formula and require expert advice.  Those with Horse and Cat allergies typically need Homeopathic care.  

       One remedy for allergies that everyone requires is DRINK PURIFIED, ALKALINE WATER!  

Remember 2 to 4 litres at least!  

        Have an allergy-free spring!

 

God Is Holistic. Our Medical System is not. Which will you choose?

God is Holistic.  When He created us we were created as one unit; body, mind, free will, spirit & emotions.  As this world became less than what it was intended to be, we have lost connection between all our parts.  But God gave us ways to ease our suffering until we see His face.  God created all the healing plants and the people who developed remedies from all parts of the earth like Samuel Hahnemann who created Homeopathy.

Unfortunately, our medical system is tainted with greed.  It started with the dissolution of the Eclectic Schools of Medicine, when a very rich family started putting their money into Medical Schools that promoted pharmaceuticals only.  This was because there was and still is very big money in drugs because they can be patented.  Greed has hit the Holistic side as well and you will find some remedies promoted for the sake of cash only.  It is too bad, but it is the way this world is right now and to get through it to make good health choices for yourself you must be discerning and find a professional to help you with the problem you have.   In fact, it is good practise to have more than one person on your health team.

The important nugget of information I want to get across is that drugs can be useful at times, with the exception of Type 1 Diabetes, most drugs should be used temporarily because they tend to suppress functions of the body and this suppresses the symptom or symptoms deeper int he body which will give you a new set of symptoms.  This is NOT a holistic approach at all.  This is SUPPRESSION.  In fact, did you know that the word ALLOPATHY, actually means to INCREASE SUFFERING.

Now having said all that, I will say I am not against drugs.  What I am against is the way our health system makes us believe it is “free health care”, when in fact, since we are one of the most taxed countries in the world…….where do you think some of that money goes to?  Especially when you consider that some drugs are marked up 3,000 per cent and it is covered by the government when this is given out in hospitals.

I believe we need health reform.  Not sure if that will happen.  But it can happen with you.  Take the time to find the cause of the problems you are having and if you pray about it see where God leads you.  Sometimes it might be pharmaceuticals, but many times “no”.  There is  a whole world out there in Natural Medicine that might have been discovered had the Eclectic Medical Schools had the money to stay open.  There is people like me that hold to their philosophy around healing you just have to seek us out.

Check out this article:http://www.planetherbs.com/history/what-is-eclecticism.html

It describes in detail Eclectic Medicine.

My heart goes out to a suffering world with huge medical expenses due to the greed of a few visionary people.  It doesn’t have to be this way.  We are the change.  We are holistic, because we were made as one unit…think about it.