MyWellness Network

Philadelphia Healthy Living Events, News and Patient Information Programs and Tips & Guidance Featured as Part of Campaign for a Healthier 2011

Empirical Point, LLC, a leading Philadelphia Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine practice, located in Chestnut Hill, has launched a “Healthy New Year 2011” campaign to give patients more hands-on information and real-world tips about how to live healthier in 2011. This new program kicked off in early February and started with a series of online information and news, which can be found at www.philadelphia-acupuncture.com.

“Along with resolutions and promises to improve our health, the new year also brings a renewed commitment to living well and living healthy,” stated Sharon Sherman, M.S.O.M., D.OM., L.OM and founder of Empirical Point in Philadelphia. “At Empirical Point, we are committed to providing patients with a Chinese medicine and acupuncture practice dedicated to improving their health. I don’t just treat patients. I work together with them to get to the root of their ailments and conditions and to then map out an interactive and holistic plan to improve their overall well being. This Healthy New Year 2011 campaign is just one more way for us to interact with our patients and provide the latest news and tips on how to be well.”

Healthy New Year 2011 kicks off with “Alternative Medicine – Not So Alternative Anymore” – a program that is looking at the growing use and success of alternative medicine in the U.S. Despite the fact that Chinese Medicine and acupuncture have been used for thousands of years, they are just beginning to really take hold in many Western cultures as effective medical treatments. Empirical Point is using its website, blog, social media and events at its offices to explore and provide information about the growth of alternative medicine in the Western world – and how these “alternative” treatments may be helpful for patients who may have not yet considered them for common conditions like stress or chronic pain.

Healthy New Year 2011 campaign will also address the following topics later this year:

• Pain – How to Address and Relieve it with Chinese Medicine
• Building a Strong Immune System…and a Stronger You
• Stressed? How to Relieve Anxiety and Be at your Best

Learn more about Philadelphia Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine on their blog http://www.philadelphia-acupuncture.com/blog/.

By Heather Rudalavage, Registered Dietitian
www.Intuitive-Nutrition.com

How many times have you said to yourself, “I want to get healthier, I want to have more energy, but I just donʼt know where I would find the time?” Here are 5 things you can start doing today to feel better tomorrow. They donʼt take much time, money or willpower, but will add up to a better feeling YOU.

1. Get more sleep. Okay, so this does require a bit more time on your part. You probably know that less sleep means less energy, but did you know that people who get less sleep are also more prone to obesity? Apparently, our bodies are busy breaking down fats whilst we dream.

2. Put your sneakers on every day. I am not saying you have to take 10,000 steps or jog a 14 minute mile, just put some walking shoes on and go out the front door. The walking is the easy part, for most people putting on their shoes and going out the door is the biggest challenge. Once you are outside with your sneakers on, you will
find it easy to start walking – I promise!

3. Slow down when you eat. You may have heard that there is a twenty minute delay between your stomach being full and your brain sending out a signal to stop eating. This is true! That is just one reason why by slowing down, you will eat less. There are
other benefits to slowing down as well, like allowing you to savor the flavors, aroma and even the presentation of a meal. Eating should be more of an experience, not just a chow fest! There is a reason why the French have less obesity in their country, and itʼs not just the wine.

4. Drink more H2O. Did you know that feeling thirsty means you are already dehydrated? Being in a chronic state of dehydration can make you feel sluggish, headachy, and can cause constipation. It can also make you feel hungry when really you are thirsty. By drinking water all day with a goal of 6-8 glasses you can prevent dehydration. Youʼll be amazed at how much better you feel.

5. Make one small change to your diet and stick to that change until it becomes a habit. Making one small change to your diet, such as, swapping half of your carbs for whole grains, cutting back or eliminating soda, using smaller plates or adding an extra fruit into your daily intake can make a big difference over time. Once your change has
become routine or habit, then add another change. Within 3 months you will have racked up between 3 to 12 small changes that will equal you feeling like a new person!

These are just a few ways to start improving the way you feel. Creating a healthier lifestyle doesnʼt have to mean doing a complete 180 from where you are now. Research shows that by consistently making small changes you will begin to feel better, but more importantly, you are more likely to stick with the changes you have already made. Slow and steady wins the race!

And saying goodbye to factory farms, Monsanto and GMO’s.

Yes it’s a long road to this goal. Americans, young and old, are awakening. It is very encouraging. We want to know who produces
our food and where it comes from. Organic, local, healthy…all good.
Farmers are good, the FDA is bad.

Watch this inspiring young man and future organic farmer, 11 year old Birke Baehr, explain what’s wrong with the American food system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Id9caYw-Y\

Here is some other great info:

How to stop the usage of GMO’s Within a Week

The Future of Food (from Forbes Magazine)

Toxin From Biotech Corn Detected in U.S. Streams, Study Finds

“Toxins In Toxins Out (Part II)”, by Matt Monarch – Raw Food World

The following information is for education only and is not meant to diagnose, prescribe, or treat illness. It is valuable to seek the advice of an alternative health care professional before making any changes.

It seems that a VAST number of people got inspired by my article from two weeks ago entitled, “Toxins In, Toxins Out”. In that article I discussed that detoxification is a natural, ongoing body process that is continually in motion, no matter what type of diet you eat. I believe that one of the reasons people were motivated by this article is because they realized that they will be going through detoxification whatever they eat, whether it’s a 100% Raw Food Diet or a Standard
American Diet; so they thought that they may as well choose a healthier route.

I have heard of many people attempting to go raw now, after reading that article. This article today is a kind of sequel to “Toxins In, Toxins Out”, so if you haven’t read that first article yet,
it might be a good idea to do so, HERE. The
purpose of this article today is to shed light on the difference between detoxification when you are in the overall process of becoming cleaner
compared to when you are on a gradual trajectory to becoming more toxic, while at the same time hopefully giving you some extra inspiration and motivation to plow on forward.

In the previous article, we stated that a person is either becoming cleaner or more toxic every single day, based on whether they are eating less or more than their average consistent diet. When a person is eating more than their average consistent diet, they are gradually becoming more toxic and the detoxification that they experience usually doesn’t have the opportunity to go much deeper than what they consumed the day before. However, if you start to eat less than your consistent diet, you can easily detox what you ingested the day
before, PLUS you can start to move onto older waste matter that has built up in your cells, bloodstream and body in general.

This older waste matter is usually MUCH more concentrated and uncomfortable to release than the simple elimination of residues from your daily diet. For most of us, we have been building up this kind of toxic old material within our bodies for quite some time. Instead of this old waste matter being COMPLETELY visible in your appearance, one
way your body stores away this toxic waste matter is in a gaseous form within your cells. This built-up storage of toxins within the cells enables the body to adapt to certain conditions more easily, such as toxic diets, poor air conditions and other toxic situations. If you consistently fill up your body with toxins, instead of these toxins
always showing up in your outward appearance, these toxins can instead become more and more concentrated within your cells and body. Now, if you “open the floodgates” by improving your diet, a miraculous outpouring of concentrated DENSE toxins is released. The only way to stop this outpouring is to take a step backwards and eat along the lines of your previous diet, so that you continue to get your “fix”, just like the heroin addict desperately looking for a hit.

This outpouring of CONCENTRATED toxins when a person improves
their diet is the reason why people get sick when they eat a 100% Raw Food Diet. It is also one of the reasons why many raw foodists
report to have outrageous gas elimination that sometimes burns and smells like death. The outpour of these CONCENTRATED toxins is, I feel, the number one reason why people have a challenging time going
100% Raw. For me, the practice of periodic colon hydrotherapy has been the primary reason I have been able to succeed on a 100% Raw Food Diet for almost 14 years now, as hydrotherapy pulls these CONCENTRATED toxins right out. We go raw and we are scrambling around and shaking for our fix of the toxins from our previous addictive diet. Although not as extreme, on a physiological level, we are going through withdrawals just like a heroin addict goes through withdrawals when eliminating heroin.

Here is an excerpt from my FAVORITE raw food book on the planet, ‘Man’s Higher Consciousness’; a staff nurse in a certain hospital accepting drug addicts tells of her experience in caring for such patients. She says:
“If I had ever been tempted to take drugs, I had discarded the
idea quickly after working in a hospital ward for drug addicts for the past two years. There can be no torment of the damned that exceeds
the agonizing pains that a drug addict goes through to conquer the habit.

All our patients entered the hospital ward voluntarily, but as they were
not released until completely off the drug, it was a pitiful sight to watch them. The first day they were bolstered up by friends’ and relatives’ good wishes, and had mustered up every bit of will-power that the drugs had left them. By the second or third day all will-power had vanished as the dosage of the drug was slowly reduced, and they became abject, tortured, screaming idiots as their nerves begged for the drug.”

It is the same process with food. Many people seem to have no real
concept of how far we’ve come with our diets in the opposite direction
from what man may have originally consumed. If I were to take a shot
of heroin right now, it would surely kill me. However, in one generation
a human can build up tolerance to be able to handle quite a bit of heroin. It wouldn’t be erroneous to say that over MANY generations,
man has adapted SO FAR from his original diet that we would be going through detoxification quite intensely by choosing to eat raw. Luigi Cornaro lived on 12oz of food per day in the 15th century and outlived the MASS majority, despite having a ‘weak constitution’ from birth. After four decades of eating this 12oz diet, a friend convinced him to eat 14oz one day and it almost killed him, just like taking a shot of heroin would surely kill me. There is no doubt in my mind that the original diet that man consumed when he first arrived on this planet was absolutely MINIMAL in terms of solids, if indeed it involved any solids at all. It makes sense to me that a human would not come into existence if everything he needed to survive was not already there in his IMMEDIATE environment (i.e.: pristine air).

YES!… no matter who you are, you are detoxing every single day. However, when you improve your diet, the detoxification intensifies
and usually becomes much more uncomfortable. One of the first keys
to success on your journey to becoming “cleaner” is to understand the
reasons that you may be having difficulty with your new lifestyle. In my opinion there is no better way to transform and rid the body of these old, deep-rooted toxins than to eat a “cleaner” diet, while at the same time to cleanse the colon on a periodic basis: this combination helps dramatically to relieve the detox symptoms.

“The Benefits of Systemic Enzymes” by Matt Monarch of www.therawfoodworld.com

I go into depth about systemic enzymes in both this video and article below…

All of the Healing Health Food Institutes that I know of help people heal from various degenerative diseases. The three most common tools these Institutes use to assist healing are…helping a person improve their diet, cleansing the colon A LOT, and giving
everyone green juices (vegetable juice and/or wheatgrass).
I like to term this fabulous trio… the ‘Healing Antidote’.

Over the last couple of years, many of these
health institutes have started incorporating a fourth piece to the puzzle… Taking Systemic Enzymes on an empty stomach.
Also sometimes termed as ‘Therapeutic’ or ‘Metabolic’ Enzymes,
these ‘Systemic’ Enzymes have the potential to expedite the
healing process. Generally, people usually think of enzymes
as a digestive agent taken with food, which will help digest
the food being consumed. However, research shows that when
you take enzymes on an empty stomach, they go into the
metabolic processes of the body, which include healing
damage. I have heard many expert authorities on natural
healing state that taking systemic enzymes on an empty
stomach has the potential to help with dissolving cancerous
tumors. I have personally witnessed many people rid
themselves of cancerous tumors by utilizing systemic
enzymes in conjunction with a healthier dietary lifestyle.

I feel that the technological advancement of creating
systemic enzymes for human consumption is an example of
science at its BEST!!! Enzymes are catalysts and they are
responsible for accelerating positive chemical reactions in the
body. When they do this they retain their own structure and
do not become part of any action they perform. Working
as catalysts, enzymes group together any wandering
inactive molecules and transform these molecule
structures into new active-molecules that can be of
use to heal the body. Once an enzyme catalyzes one
group of molecules, making them active to help heal
the body, the enzyme then moves on to the next
group of inactive molecules. These “God-sent” enzymes
do not die out after one positive chemical reaction.
They keep going and going until their life force is
completely depleted.

These inactive wandering molecules at some point may be
of use to the body when they naturally connect with
whichever counterparts they need to become active,
however, with enzymes present, these reactions can
proceed much faster, sometimes a million-fold times
faster. As an anaology, I am in Arizona right now…
If I wanted to go to New York, I could walk, but if I were to take
an airplane, that airplane would act as a “catalyst” and
expedite my trip to NY 1000-fold or more.

All enzymes taken on an empty stomach will work to help the
body… even digestive enzymes. However, some enzymes are
much more POWERFUL than other enzymes. If you use
standard digestive enzymes, you will need A LOT more to
accomplish the same task compared to most systemic
enzyme blends on the market. The two most POWERFUL
enzymes that have the potential to help with inflammation and
tumors are serrapeptidase and nattokinase. I have witnessed
HUNDREDS of people utilize these enzymes with GREAT SUCCESS.

The recommended dosage for ‘maintenance’ with
our systemic enzyme blend is 1/2 a teaspoon, 2 – 3 times a
day. I personally am an ‘extremist’ and have built up to taking
over a teaspoon of enzymes on an empty stomach 2 – 3 times
a day. I have been taking these dosages for around two years
now. I know of some cancer patients who wanted to heal so
badly that they chose to take up to 5 tablespoons of these
systemic enzymes a day on an empty stomach, based on the
recommendation of their holistic practitioners.

I can give you example after example of how people have
expedited the process of their healing with these magical
sparkling catalysts. My friend from college healed herself
from PCOS (Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome) by
taking enzymes, drinking vegetable juice, cleansing the
colon, and improving her dietary lifestyle. The process
of healing herself so rapidly seemed to be miraculous,
and I feel that wouldn’t have happened SO QUICKLY
without the use of these systemic enzymes. You can read
about her story by clicking HERE, or watch the video up above.

By Heather Rudalavage, Registered Dietician

One of the most challenging pieces of the the intuitive eating approach is that people don’t see how it can work. People don’t trust themselves. They believe they won’t be able to stop eating chocolate or cake or pizza. Maybe it’s because the diet message is so pervasive in our society, or maybe we are just narcissistic in nature, but it continues to astonish me how much my clients rely on external sources to know what, when and how much to eat. Odd because hunger is a physiological response similar to breathing or having to pee. When we visit the restroom, we don’t say, “did I pee too much?” When we take a breath, we don’t say, “it’s not time to breathe yet”. But clients ask me all the time, “how much should I eat?” Or, “I am hungry all the time.”

I just finished reading a wonderful book called, “The Only Diet There Is”, among emphasizing that loving yourself and forgiveness, is the best diet there is, she also addresses the impact of guilt and negativity on our weight. Science may have not been able to prove this exactly, yet, but it seems that our body’s react more strongly to how we feel about the food we eat than the actual content of the food. Astonishing! If we think the food we are eating is “fattening” than our body will treat it as thus.

So, I just can not emphasize enough, the answer lies within. If you drop the dieting mentality and the voices in your head that tell you that a particular food is bad, you will be able to tune in and when you tune in, your body will tell you what, when and where to eat. Sometimes your body may say, chocolate and sometimes it may say a tuna melt, but whatever your body says, listen, because it is the right choice for you at that moment.

Here is the link to a nice article about guilt and intuitive eating : article

Whole Foods Market Plymouth Meeting
500 W. Germantown Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462
phone 610-832-0020
wholefoods.com/stores/plymouthmeeting

Thursday, March 18th
6 pm – 7 pm
FREE!
Please join us in welcoming Doctors of Naturopathy, Jackie and Angel Giordano, as they invite us on a journey on how to enhance your well being in preparation for spring! This class will cover the basics on how to support the healthy structure of your body through the use of nutritional supplements, diet, and lifestyle, as well as clearing the congestion in your personal space to enhance optimal living conditions. There will be a 15 minute personal tour of the Whole Body Department immediately following the class! Sign up required.

An Afternoon at the Spa
Saturday, March 20th
12 pm – 3 pm
FREE!
Come discover one of the best kept secrets at Whole Foods Market Plymouth Meeting – our Whole Body Department! You’ll have the chance to chat with vendors and sample their unique products while snacking on light fare right in the department. You can even enter to win a spa goodie bag, packed with all of our favorite Whole Body Department products! You don’t want to miss this educational, relaxing event.

Country Life – Vendor Lecture
Tuesday, March 23rd
6 pm – 7 pm
FREE!
Join us in our Community Room for an hour-long information session with a representative from Country Life. Learn all about their products, so your next trip to our Whole Body Department will be even better! Sign up required.

Companywide Healthy Eating Initiative Features Educational Tools, Recipes & Programs to Improve Health; Team Member Support & Additional Store Discounts Provide Incentives for Optimum Employee Health

Press Release Source: Whole Foods Market On Thursday January 21, 2010, 10:30 am EST

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — To help shoppers and Team Members who want to improve their health easily and naturally, Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFMI), a leader in natural and organic foods, announced today that it has launched its “Health Starts Here” initiative at all 289 locations in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

“We opened our first store 30 years ago to provide natural foods as a delicious and healthy alternative to the increasing amounts of highly processed foods with artificial ingredients,” says Margaret Wittenberg, global vice president of quality standards and leader of Health Starts Here at Whole Foods Market. “Over the years, we realized that providing the healthiest foods available is simply not enough. We are now deepening our commitment to healthy eating by providing education and support tools to inspire interest in foods that help improve and maintain health and vitality.”

Health Starts Here is the first major program to be launched since Whole Foods Market added a new core value to its mission in October 2009: “Promoting the health of our stakeholders through healthy eating education.” The new program is based on these simple principles for everyday healthy eating:

* Plant-based – Focus on fresh vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Get healthy fats in moderation from fresh plant sources such as nuts and avocados.
* Nutrient-dense – Eat foods with high nutrient content in comparison to total calories. Build menus around plant-based foods to emphasize nutrient-rich meals containing a variety of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants. These foods are naturally lower in fat.
* Whole foods – Choose foods that are real, fresh and natural. When possible, opt for food that is organic, local and seasonal. Avoid highly processed and refined foods, and those with artificial ingredients.

Healthy Eating Partners

Whole Foods Market is featuring two unique third-party healthy eating partner programs to provide easy-to-follow guidance for shoppers and Team Members. Both offer 28-day “getting started” plans while providing plenty of room for personal choices to help those who are interested in starting on their own journey down the road to optimum health.

* Eat Right America’s Chief Medical Officer, Joel Fuhrman, M.D., has discovered through years of research on thousands of patients that a body rich in micronutrients will quickly seek its ideal weight and stay there, while reversing most diet-related chronic conditions. He has also equipped patients with eating plans to help improve their overall health, conquer food cravings, reverse chronic conditions and have more energy. The secrets of superior nutrition, along with many menus and delicious recipes, are offered in a series of books, including “Eat for Health,” as well as audio CDs and DVDs. Also available at Whole Foods Market, or online at www.eatrightamerica.com/wfm, is Eat Right America’s personalized nutritional assessment tool, called “Nutrition Prescription,” which offers individual nutrition and health assessments combined with personalized eating plans.
* The Engine 2 Diet is a plant-strong plan that can help with weight loss, lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of disease. Rip Esselstyn, former pro athlete and firefighter, outlines the plan in his “Engine 2 Diet” book and has always taken great interest in achieving optimal health through food. In his book, he combines the wisdom of some of his medical heroes — including his father, the renowned heart specialist, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn — with the real-life account of Rip helping his former firehouse colleagues change their health for the better by eating differently. The book can be purchased at all Whole Foods Market stores. More information can be found at www.engine2academy.com.

In-Store Education

Whole Foods Market will feature free information, recipes, in-store lectures, events and support groups. A selection of supporting educational books and cookbooks will also be for sale alongside the “Engine 2 Diet” book and “Eat Right America” program materials. To help shoppers identify healthy, nutrient-dense foods, stores will post signs with Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) scores. Created by Dr. Fuhrman, ANDI scoring scale evaluates levels of micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidants per calorie in various foods. The higher the concentration of micronutrients in a food, the higher that food will score. For instance, a serving of kale, a dark leafy green, scores 1,000, placing it at the top of the index, while a serving of soda only scores 1.

“We are excited to promote wellness and encourage healthier lifestyles by emphasizing the value of eating nutrient-rich foods and showing people how simple it can be, no matter what dietary path you follow. I like to think of it as ‘Take charge, eat well, feel great,’ as eating for health can truly be delicious, nutritious and enjoyable,” says Wittenberg.

Team Member Support and Incentives

To reiterate the company’s commitment to its newest core value and its long-time “Supporting Team Member happiness and excellence” core value, Whole Foods Market’s Health Starts Here initiative also includes two internal programs for Team Members.

* The Team Member Healthy Discount Incentive offers increased discounts for full- and part-time Team Members (enrolled in the company’s medical plan) who do not use nicotine products and satisfy certain healthy biometric criteria for blood pressure, total cholesterol (or LDL) levels and Body Mass Index (BMI). Team Members already receive a 20 percent discount on purchases at Whole Foods Market stores as an employment benefit, but now, those who voluntarily opt to participate in the incentive plan could receive up to an additional 10 percent discount.
* The Total Health Immersion Program offers Team Members intensive health and wellness education programs geared toward sustaining long-term, positive lifestyle changes, including healthy eating, fitness and empowerment. There will be two rounds of immersion programs offered annually at three different locations in the United States. Participating in the immersion program will allow Team Members, who qualify and who are ready to take charge of their own health, to receive more direct support in making positive lifestyle and dietary changes under the guidance of a medical professional, and at no cost to them.

Shoppers can expect to see information in some stores immediately, while other locations will incorporate this initiative throughout 2010. More information about Health Starts Here can be found now at www.wholefoodsmarket.com/healthstartshere.

Water, water everywhere

I live on the beautiful Tohickon Creek (ed. in Bucks County PA). The first year I lived here, that first Spring, I saw a variety of fish, turtles and a blue heron who makes his/her home a few yards downcreek from the house. In the Summer, when I walked the creek, I found shards on the creek floor from an old, now defunct, glass factory some small shells and beautiful stones. It was lovely. But something was wrong and I wouldn’t know what it was until four years later. Because, now when Spring comes there are otters, beavers, mussels and many many more fish and turtles. The problem was pollution and as the creek cleans up, life is returning to it. It is exciting, reaffirming and hope-filled to see nature return our waterways to vitality because water is essential for all life on this unique planet we inhabit….this planet we share with the Earth’s flora and fauna and, moreover, this planet that we are bound to protect.
Besides, we NEED water to have healthy minds, bodies, and spirit….never mind the rest of the Flora and Fauna. Lets get selfish here. We NEED water and it behooves us to be the stewards we’re meant to be for our sakes as well as for the rest of life. Selfish is good sometimes.

So lets read on about one of our most valuable assets.

Seeing Water

In the Journal of Active Aging, Sept. 2005, Dr. Oladele Ogunselian, a social ecologist talked abut the effect that water, trees, and flowers have on positive attitudes. He maintains that there is a positive link between a restorative environment and emotional well-being. His research has lead him to determine that bodies of water are one of the environmental features that are viewed as enhancing emotional health by subjects in the tests. Furthermore, in these studies, landscapes with complex designs were not seen as healing. the Term topophillia refers to a study of environmental perception, attitudes and values, including the emotional affective bond between environment and human beings. I suspect this may be true because there is a beautiful creek that flows past my house and it is a source of healing and peace to me and from what other say…well, I suspect it may be true.

Hearing Water
fountain The sound of water has a soothing effect on the human brain. There is an area in the human brain located near the brain stem called the inferior colliculus where cells respond to sound, (frequencies, rate and volume) and process the sounds and identify them. This area of the brain interprets these sounds sending signals to other parts of the brain causing neurological firings to occur. Water calms! Researchers Monti Escari and Heather Read are doing research on the effects of sounds, including the sounds of flowing water on brain function linking sounds with mental wellness. While they are doing their research we know that there are already CD’s of flowing, dripping, streaming and swirling water sounds, table top fountain and wall fountains are found in lobbies, living rooms, offices and even in the salon where I have my hair done. Very soothing. Close your eyes and think about lying on the beach, feeling the warmth of the sun and listening to the waves crashing on the sand. If it weren’t so soothing it would be intoxicating. And, the quantity of water oceanside provides an enormous amount of negative ions that creates a positive mental state. Why, there are even screensavers with pictures of water accompanied by the sounds to calm and sooth when you turn on your computer.

Drinking Water

More research. The brain is 85% water (although some say 78% but whose counting). Water regulates body temperature, carries nutrients and oxygen to the blood, cushions joints, protects organs and tissues, removes toxic waste and more. Dehydration leaves us tired, irritable and foggy, can lead to poor stress management, depression and can induce anxiety. (That 3:00pm slump??? Dehydration!) Furthermore, lace of water creaates a physical reduction of the ionic composition of the fluid surrounding brain cells or neurons which swirls the brain into over activity resulting in a headache.

Feeling Water: Warm water when it is cold outside, cool wataer on a hot day. Doesn’t get better than that. But more good news about water. When I have been exposed to toxic energy I just get in the shower and let the water carry the negative energy down the drain, into the earth, were I belive and hope it get neutralized. Its a little like washing your energy field. Another benefit from being in water is that it removes the pull of gravity relieving your body of stress and physical weight on joints, muscles and tendons. So showering in the morning starts the day our refreshed. If it was a hard day take another soapless shower at night, (don’t want to dry your skin out) and float any chance you get.

Water abounds in our lives so use it to provide the mental and physical well-being it offers. The Center for Personal Reflection also is a resource for mental and physical well-being for individuals and couples. As you plan out your strategy for continued growth please avail yourselves of all the Center offers. Stay well.

Marianne Harms, LCSW
Center for Personal Reflection
3694 Spruce Hill Road
Ottsville, PA 18942

America has become the greatest “Pop” culture in the world… as in popping pills to make us feel better. Got a headache? Take an aspirin. Can’t sleep? Take a sleeping pill. Depressed? Take an anti-depressant, and so on. Men over 40 are urged to pop a “love pill” in order to be able to “perform” in bed. The mantras of the pharmaceutical industry are being chanted to us over and over again; each time we turn on the TV we are bombarded with commercials that tout the miraculous effects of such-and-such a drug, followed by a myriad of
possible side effects, including death! But the mantra goes on, chanting us into a dangerous illusion that everything will be alright if we just take that pill…

Wait a minute… Is there not something terribly wrong with this picture? Are our bodies so innately dysfunctional that we have no other choice than to hope the doctor will figure out which drugs or surgery are going to solve our problem? The answer to the last question is NO. I have nothing personal against doctors – in fact, I probably wouldn’t be here today without them. However, the system into which they have been trained – and entrained – more often than not, doesn’t respect the natural healing mechanism of our bodies, assuming instead that when a function goes wrong it must be “fixed” by drugs or surgery. Diet
and nutrition are wholly underestimated in the healing process, as are lifestyle and relationships. Medicine has become so compartmentalized and specialized that we tend to concentrate on the details of a particular ailment and lose the greater picture of what is actually happening for the patient. The myth that the medical industry has all the answers is so prevalent that the bodies that it is supposed to heal have little or no say in their own healing process.

Yes, I did say “bodies”, and not “people”. The point I am trying to make here is that we tend to forget that our bodies are not just machines that could use an oil change from time to time. They have their own “consciousness”, and often try to tell us things that we don’t necessarily want to hear. When our body experiences pain, it is telling us that something is wrong and needs to be attended to. Annoying as it can be, pain serves a vital function and must be respected for the message it conveys. Which is not to say that nothing should be done to alleviate the pain, once the message has been acknowledged.
This is a dilemma that modern medicine has created, since it is based on symptomology, which dictates that we treat symptoms instead of taking a look at the bigger picture and figuring out “the cause of the cause of the cause”, just as Hippocrates once stated. Instead of running around trying to put out the fire wherever it pops up, we need to find the reason behind it, whether it be purely physiological, mental, emotional, or even “energetic”. Some of us believe that disease has an energetic cause, meaning that it originates in the energetic field of the person. Looking at health in this way is called a “holistic” view. This term has been overused and abused, but it still has a meaning that no other word can convey: “whole”. And this is the way that we came into this world, as “whole” beings, not just a digestive tube or a nervous system, or a bunch of limbs, a trunk and a head. We are Whole beings, complete with our own unique energies that enable us to function as physical, mental, emotional and spiritual beings.

Looking at things from a greater perspective, one could make the analogy between how our cells work together to create harmony in our bodies (homeostasis) and how our human societies work. As long as our bodies, and our societies, have the necessary elements (healthy food, clean air and water, shelter and clothing, good relationships with self and with one another), both bodies and societies can live in harmony. In our bodies, our cells work hard to build new cells, create tissues, organs and systems, get rid of waste, etc. However, at this time in history, they are constantly being bombarded with new and strange chemicals that they don’t recognize and have no clue what to do with them. Communicating amongst each other, stressed and overworked, they find solutions to deal with these chemicals, such as creating specific, delineated areas to dump the toxic waste, that we call tumors. But when the toxic waste becomes so abundant that the cells can’t even perform their basic functions, the “toxic waste dumps” become overloaded and run into the rest of the body, which could be what we call metastasis. If enough toxic waste overruns the vital systems, the organism shuts down and dies. This is an oversimplified
representation, its purpose being to demonstrate movement and flow, not to prove a point.

In a similar way, human societies are dealing with an overload of unnatural stimuli (drugs, alcohol, toxic TV, artificially imposed work hours, etc.), which push a certain number of us into erratic, unhealthy behavior, such as addiction and violence. Wanting to stop the damage, the system puts those individuals who cannot cope with the system’s constraints into delineated areas (prisons, mental institutions, special schools) but doesn’t realize that its own obsessive behavior (imposition of rules dictated by a few to control the masses) is the cause of the diseased society in the first place. If the cells of the brain suddenly
decided to dictate to the kidneys what they are supposed to do, the body would disintegrate into chaos. It is actually the cells of the kidneys that inform the brain of the levels of sodium and potassium, as well as the blood volume; the brain cells in turn produce hormones to regulate those levels. But one cannot work without the other, and a brain cell has no more importance than a kidney cell to the life of the organism.

This brings me to the crux of this article, which has to do with vaccinations. Vaccinations are the ultimate example of how we, in this society, have been fooling our bodies, and thus fooling ourselves into believing that we are doing something good for our bodies, and thus for society, by getting vaccinated. According to Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com, there is no hard scientific evidence supporting the idea that vaccines can somehow trick our bodies into protecting us from disease. Most of the diseases that we receive vaccines for have disappeared, not because of the vaccines, but because of improved hygiene. Take a look at some vaccine history, gathered from reputable sources like “The Lancet” and “Journal of the American Medical Association”, appearing here thanks to Natural News:

In the 1970`s a tuberculosis vaccine trial in India involving 260,000 people revealed that more cases of TB occurred in the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. (The Lancet 12/1/80 p73)

In 1977, Dr Jonas Salk, who developed the first polio vaccine, testified along with other scientists that mass inoculation against polio was the cause of most polio cases throughout the USA since 1961. (Science 4/4/77 “Abstracts” )

‐ In 1978, a survey of 30 States in the US revealed that more than half of the children who contracted measles had been adequately vaccinated. (The People`s Doctor, Dr R Mendelsohn)

‐ In 1979, Sweden abandoned the whooping cough vaccine due to its ineffectiveness. Out of 5,140 cases in 1978, it was found that 84% had been vaccinated three times! (BMJ 283:696‐697, 1981)

‐The February 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90% of obstetricians and 66% of pediatricians refused to take the rubella vaccine.

‐ In the USA, the cost of a single DPT shot had risen from 11 cents in 1982 to $11.40 in 1987. The manufacturers of the vaccine were putting aside $8 per shot to cover legal costs and damages they were paying out to parents of brain damaged children and children who
died after vaccination. (The Vine, Issue 7, January 1994, Nambour, Qld)

‐ In Oman between 1988 and 1989, a polio outbreak occurred amongst thousands of fully vaccinated children. The region with the highest attack rate had the highest vaccine coverage. The region with the lowest attack rate had the lowest vaccine coverage. (The Lancet, 21/9/91)

‐ In the USA, from July 1990 to November 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration counted a total of 54,072 adverse reactions following vaccination. The FDA admitted that this number represented only 10% of the real total, because most doctors were refusing to report vaccine injuries. In other words, adverse reactions for this period exceeded half a million! (National Vaccine Information Centre, March 2, 1994)

The yearly influenza vaccines are prepared using guesswork, not knowing at all which strains of the virus will be predominant. Many people receiving the flu shot do actually get the flu, and often experience flu symptoms more severely than those who are not vaccinated. There have been thousands, if not millions, of vaccination-related accidents, resulting in death or serious impairment of mental and/or physical capacities. These accidents are not always documented, as we saw in the statement released by the National Vaccine Information Center, and never publicized by the drug companies, whose financial interest comes before public welfare. Again, I have nothing against the individuals working for these companies, who are just trying to do a good job and make a
living in a system that caters to the rich and tricks the rest of us into believing we somehow have a chance to “make it rich”. However, the people at the heads of these pharmaceutical giants need to take responsibility for their actions, and instead of asking the Secretary of Health for blanket legal immunity in case of adverse reactions from the H1N1 vaccine, should be taking every precaution to make darned sure that no one will ever have an adverse reaction of any kind to their flu shots. Cut to 25 year-old Desiree Jennings, victim of a flu shot that
robbed her of her ability to walk forward, or to speak coherently. She can walk backwards and run forward, and incidentally when she runs forward her speech becomes normal. Even a one-in-a-million chance of this happening should never be tolerated!

There are many ways of helping our bodies improve their natural immunity, without having to inject toxic waste into them. Eliminating artificial molecules found in our diets and medicine is a good start – drinking clean water is essential, and of course breathing fresh, clean air. Even if we don’t necessarily have access to a totally natural, organic diet and clean water and air, we can still help our bodies to build their own immunities by making sure that we deal with our stress, by getting enough exercise and sunshine, and by learning to breathe in a slow and rhythmic way. Consciousness is the key to living a
healthy, happy life. Becoming conscious of our movements, our bodies, our thoughts and feelings, will help us to go within and listen to our bodies, listen to ourselves. For we have the answers to all of our questions, if only we allow ourselves to go to that place where they are found, in the center of our being where all exists, and all is one.

I realize that this may be difficult for many of us, but I must insist on the fact that most of the difficulty resides in the mind. Our minds are fabulous instruments, but only when they serve our greater purpose, and not the other way around. The analogy I evoked earlier applies here as well: one group of people in power does not serve the greater good very well. In our society, the intellect has been propelled into an all-important role, leaving intuition and emotional intelligence in the dust. By putting the intellect back in its place and giving our other mental and emotional functions their due respect, we increase our chances of becoming happy, healthy individuals, and thus helping to create a more just, healthy and happy society.

So popping pills is not the answer. Nor is getting a vaccination. The only real answer to questions about our health lies within ourselves, and within Nature, who has provided us for millions of years with all the remedies we could ever dream of. We walk upon the Earth, who has supported our lives and our societies for generations, and has never asked for a thing in return. Perhaps we owe her some respect, recognition for all that has been offered to us, instead of
pillaging and raping all that can be exploited from her. In native societies, rape does not exist. Women are treated with the respect that the Mother Earth deserves, and gets. We would do well to learn from these native societies, and treat our bodies, and ourselves, with the respect that we deserve.

Sarah Dickinson Murray,
Medical Intuitive and Natural Health Consultant
Wilmington, Delaware
October 28th, 2009