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The Gift of Health - by Dr. Melissa Carr
In all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it’s
sometimes easy to forget what it’s all about.
For many it’s reconnecting with friends and loved ones and showing you
care. Of course, you’d likely rather
actually be with those people rather than fighting the crowds at the
malls. It might also be about letting go
of the old and welcoming in the new with the New Year; but perhaps while you’d
like to make some healthy changes, it seems a daunting task. Here’s a solution for both dilemmas—healthy
gifts for everyone, including you.
Healthy Guiding Help with Gift Certificates:
- Traditional Chinese Medicine consultation and/or treatment with Dr. Melissa
Carr—Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, Nutrition, Nutritional Supplements, Lifestyle
Changes
- Homeopathic consultation and/or treatment with Dr. Luis Flores – Homeopathy,
Vega Testing
- Various
health products – see below for some favourites or www.activetcm.com for more information
Oprah has her
“Oprah’s Favourite Things” list. Here’s
mine:
My Favourite "I can't get sick" Remedy: Flu-X
Despite the
name, it's not just for the flu. It can also help combat the
common cold. It's great when everyone gets together, but getting
on a plane, hugs and kisses for all the relatives, and being in close
quarters with groups of people can challenge anyone's immune system.
Flu-X is sprayed right onto the throat (and/or in the nose) for instant action. Shopping Page
My Favourite No Risk Remedies: Bell's Pepper Cream and T-Zone Products
It's got a money back guarantee to help relieve
pain. If you use half the container and don't find that it
helped, you can send it in for a full refund. Capsicum is the
main ingredient, derived from hot peppers. Capsicum has research
to back its claims: Treatment of arthritis with topical capsaicin: a double-blind trial. I also find it helpful for muscle, tendon, ligament, and joint pain and injury.
T-Zone
products are used to relieve pain, improve circulation, speed healing,
reduce muscle stress and fatigue, and decrease inflammation. When
you wear one of their items, your own body heat causes the special
ceramic powder that is injected into the material to emit Far Infrared
(FIR) energy. This warms up the area of the body that is covered,
increasing circulation and releasing toxins. FIR energy is safe,
does not generate electromagnetic fields, and has even been used as an
antidote to some environmental toxins. It comes fitted for
various body parts, including knee, elbow, wrist, lower back, shoulder,
ankle, etc. You can also get their socks, shirts, or gloves.
If you are not satisfied with the results, you can return the
product back with receipt within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.
Shopping Page
My Favourite Anti-inflammatory: Serrapeptidase
It is also my favourite
unusual-source-of-natural-remedy product as it was originally developed
from an enzyme taken from the saliva of silk worms. They used
this enzyme to help them break out of their hard cocoons. Serrapeptidase
is now produced through a fermentation process and it outsells
ibuprofen, brand-name painkillers, and prescription NSAIDs in Europe.
It is also a fibrinolytic, meaning it helps to break down protein
buildups such as scar tissue and mucous. Shopping Page
My Favourite Brain Food:
EFAplex
EFAplex is
a professional-line blend of omega 3, 6, and 9 essential fatty acids. They are the kind of fats that your body needs.
They can help treat fatigue; hair, skin, and nail problems; pain and
arthritis; blood sugar imbalance; poor immune function; poor concentration or
memory; ADHD; and more. Use it to make
your own salad dressing; flavour veggies, rice, or pasta; and add to healthy
shakes, soups, or whatever your cooking imagination might dream up. Just don’t use it as a cooking oil. Shopping Page
My Favourite Sweet Fix:
Stevia
Whether you
are diabetic, trying to watch your weight, or simply looking for a healthy
alternative to sugar, stevia leaf is the answer. It comes in many forms—liquid, flavoured
liquid (chocolate raspberry, valencia
orange), single granule packets, or powder.
Why not use it for a guilt-free solution to holiday baking?! See the recipe below for ideas. Shopping Page
My Favourite Brussels Sprouts Alternative: Genki Grains & Greens
Finding it
hard to get enough of a variety of healthy greens? You’re not alone! The most popular vegetable in North
America is, by far, the potato, especially in the form of
fries. An easy and wholesome solution is
to try an organic greens powder that you can mix in water, juice, or blend in a protein
shake. My favourite is Genki Grains
& Greens. “Genki” means “fun, lively, full of life and energy!” in Japanese. Shopping Page
My Favourite Drink:
Try Something Other Than Coffee
So, maybe I
don’t get the coffee thing, but with teas to treat headaches, improve
digestion, boost energy, and help relieve pain, I’m not missing anything. Healthy Teas
My Favourite Exercise Device: Exercise hand balls
So this
exercise may not make you sweat, but it can help ease arthritic hands. It can also loosen up and strengthen overworked
hands, whether it’s from typing or playing guitar. The Chinese believe the balls also stimulate
points in the hand that relate to the whole body. They are also a nice decoration and are
soothing to use. Shopping page
My Favourite Therapeutic Accessory: Hot Scarves
Hot scarves
are a fantastic new product made in Vancouver. They are made of Canadian fleece, and besides
looking great in a selection of colours, the pockets that hold
environmentally-friendly disposable instant hot packs that stay warm for 7-12
hours are comfortable and therapeutic.
Whether you are outdoors or indoors in a drafty or cold room, wrap one
around your neck to relax your muscles.
You can even go to bed with it and it will stay warm for most of the
night without the worries of it burning you.
Get creative if you like and tie it around your waist to relieve back
pain or menstrual cramps. Shopping Page
My Favourite Stuff for Skin: Works Wonders Salve and Lip
Balm
Works
Wonders is an all natural salve and lip balm that can treat dry and/or itchy
skin, eczema, psoriasis, and other kinds of dermatitis. My only word of caution is that the lip balm
tastes so good (it contains stevia) that you might want to eat it! Shopping Page
My Favourite Household Multifunction Item: Mist Humidifier
This beautiful
piece acts as a humidifier, aromatherapy diffuser, ionizer, and mood
lighting. Great in any room, whether to help you sleep more
soundly or show off to your guests, it will help clean your air, keep
moisture in the air in these cold, dry winter months, and when you add
your favourite essential oils, help keep you healthy. Shopping Page
My Favourite Way to Keep Natural Health Products Available: Holistic Health Research
Holistic Health Research Foundation of Canada is the
first national nonprofit organization dedicated to funding research and
public education in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
There are many anecdotal stories about the significant results of
CAM therapies, but we need a more standardized way to continue the
progress of CAM therapies and products into mainstream practice.
We need to research them. Unfortunately this costs money.
Donations can be made securely online at www.holistichealthresearch.ca or at 1-866-778-4443.
For every patient who comes to see me in December, I will donate $3 to this foundation.
TCM Essentials about Winter
Element: Water
TCM Organ systems: Kidneys and Urinary Bladder
Colour: black or blue – black is always in fashion and blue is a perennial favourite!
Emotion:
fear – push yourself to get past your fears
Flavour: salty
– try natural salty foods like seaweeds (nori is the stuff that wraps sushi), sea salt, Himalayan salt
Body tissue: head hair
– take care of those tresses
Sense organ: ears
– try escaping every now and then from the noises of everyday life
Health Issues to Address: Related
to the Kidneys—the adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys and
are affected by stress; overwork can drain the Kidney energy, leaving
you tired and perhaps also causing sore lower back and knees, hormonal
imbalance, and poor memory.
TCM can help...
- Control stress
- Improve adrenal function
- Relieve joint, back, and knee pain
- Improve sleep
- Treat women's hormone imbalances causing PMS, menstrual cramps, irregular menstruation, perimenopausal symptoms, etc.
- Treat men's hormonal problems including enlarged prostate (BPH--benign prostatic hypertrophy) and impotence
- Boost energy and improve mental focus
- And more...
Solution to Holiday Binges - by Dr. Luis Flores
• What is Homeopathy?
Homeopathy is a gentle, safe, and effective scientific healing
method that has existed for 250 years. Developed in Europe, and using
what we call ‘dilutions’ of vegetables, animals and
minerals, homeopathy stimulates the vital energy of the organs in a
very specific way. The remedies have been proven on healthy people and
are based on the premise of similarity, i.e. “like cures
like”. Homeopaths apply remedies with similar properties to the
ailments that the patient complains of with excellent results.
The advantages of homeopathy are that, by using energetic remedies, we
avoid side effects and get stimulation at an energetic level in the
body of patients of all ages. Even those with fragile constitutions can
safely use homeopathic treatments when directed by an experienced
Homeopath.
Homeopathy has been studied and proven in depth. There has not
been a need to change a thing in all these years, proving it to be a
real scientific method.
We know the remedies well enough now that we can accurately identify
the individual organs on which each remedy acts or has major actions.
These remedies are not placebo, meaning that results are not just in
people’s minds. If this was the case, the obvious question would
be how to explain the fantastic results we get when homeopathic
treatment is given to a baby or a pet. It is the gentle force of
a well-indicated remedy stimulating the vital energy of a system that
has, in it, the capability to heal. All that is needed is a little push
in the right direction to be able to achieve the balance that most of
us were born with.
The scientific world is just starting to “understand” how
homeopathy belongs to the field of quantum physics. When we
dilute a substance to the point where, in the plane of the material
dimension, there is nothing left, that is when the energetic properties
of any substance prepared in a homeopathic way can produce effects in
the energetic field of the patient, resonating and producing positive
changes on health. This is important when we try to stimulate or
support certain organs such as the liver or kidneys.
• Why is it important to detoxify?
In our modern world, we are exposed to an incredible amount of toxins,
chemicals, electromagnetic pollution, etc. Our grandparents were lucky
not to have this problem. Some examples of environmental problems
that we are exposed to are:
- The gradually diminishing amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.
- Ozone layer depletion.
- GMO foods, lower quality of foods, and a huge abundance of processed foods.
- Electromagnetic forces that our body is exposed to every day from cell phones, radio, TV, computers, etc.
- Thousands of manmade chemical substances that we expose our bodies to every day.
It is difficult to believe that the body of any person living in the
western world has to process more than 4 pounds of chemical substances
every year! For some scientists and health professionals, there
is a clear link between this and the increased amount of degenerative
diseases that are rampant in the twenty-first century.
Our liver, kidneys and lymphatic system are always overloaded,
especially in those who drink alcohol, use pharmaceutical or
recreational drugs, have a poor diet, etc. Most people do not even
realize that they are pushing their organs too hard with their
lifestyle.
The symptoms of chronic toxicity are like the Monster of A Thousand
Heads. We can present with any multitude of problems, from fogginess of
memory, tiredness, aching joints and muscles, lack of energy, chronic
fatigue syndrome, headaches, poor digestion, and skin problems, to
mention just a few.
Having said that, we must remember the following facts:
• The body is made to regulate and repair
itself. We have been designed to be healthy. The percentage of the
population that is genetically predisposed to be sick is only
approximately 2%! The rest of us get sick from a faulty lifestyle that,
in the long run, catches up with us.
• Toxicity interferes with good cellular
function and, therefore, causes problems in the organs and systems.
• There are different factors that inhibit
cellular function; lack of nutrients and insufficient oxygen are
factors that can be corrected with lifestyle changes. However, there is
a third factor that disrupts good function of the organs: poor waste
removal.
• We produce a lot of waste products every day,
which is the reason why we have systems in place to get rid of the
byproducts. We call them Detoxification Pathways.
• The body utilizes a number of detoxification pathways to neutralize and eliminate toxins.
The major organs in this task are the kidneys, liver, gastro-intestinal tract, and lymphatic system.
The Kidneys, among their various responsibilities, are required for
detoxifying the blood and eliminating waste, toxins, and drugs and
their metabolites.
The Liver is a metabolically active organ responsible for many vital
life functions. The primary functions of the liver are numerous, the
most important being excretion of cholesterol, hormones, and drugs, and
blood detoxification and purification. Due to this, the liver is
exposed to a number of insults and is one of the organs most subjected
to injury.
Gastro Intestinal Tract is a complex system that carries out digestion
and absorption of nutrients, while continually protecting us form the
harmful effects of ingested pathogenic microorganisms such as
parasites, bacteria, and viruses, as well as other toxic substances.
The lymphatic system is the last one of these organs in charge of
detoxification, and probably the most underrated of all of them. It is
in charge of producing and transporting all of our white blood cells
that have everything to do with the proper functioning of our immune
system. The lymphatic system also cleans the extra cellular space
of waste products. It is required to keep us healthy. Things like
an imbalanced pH and increased rate of oxidative stress have been
linked to the lymphatic system not functioning adequately.
Regulating the “cell milieu system”, it is also part of
every inflammatory and defense process. The lymphatic system is thus
responsible for all basic vital functions.
The greater the level of toxicity in the body, the more severe will any disturbance manifest in the organism
• The aforementioned points can lead to a build
up of dangerous chemicals in the cell environment. This will eventually
produce changes in the tissues and organs. That is when we often end up
in hospitals, trying to repair what we could have prevented.
• DETOXIFICATION has been an integral part of many natural healing paradigms, especially:
o Ayurvedic medicine from India
o Naturopathic medicine from USA
o Traditional Chinese Medicine
o Traditional health spa
o Old naturopathic adages: “Disease begins in the colon”
o There are many ways to help the body to clear the
toxins out of our bodies. Things like saunas, hydrotherapy have been
use in a very empirical and successful way by many cultures for a long
time.
Homeopathic treatments offer an organ targeted approach without any of
the side effects that are commonly seen with other types of
detoxification methods, like herbs or natural supplements. The other
important point about this powerful energetic healing method is that,
since it primarily stimulates the own energy of the patient, it is the
most natural, effective way to detoxify, especially when combined with
adequate dietary life changes pertinent to the individual.
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Taiji (also spelled Tai Chi)--by Anthony Lee
 Chronic
disease usually develops over a long period and as time progresses, so does the
disease. This is usually compounded by so many factors such as stress,
medications, the food that we eat, living life styles, etc. Yet the
individual/patient usually expects that the doctor will immediately heal all
sickness.
Taking
responsibility for one's health is a challenge and requires time, dedication and
commitment. Yet with the right understanding, this challenge can be enjoyable,
rewarding and quite fulfilling.
Taiji has
been practiced for centuries in the orient to achieve balance and to maintain
wellness and has been referred to by some as the "Gateway to the Miraculous".
PROGRAM:
The program that I would like to offer this Winter the
"Sun Style - short form" also known as "Taiji for Arthritis" was developed by a
Dr. Paul Lam of Australia in conjunction with a team of Taiji and medical
experts. Scientific studies have shown that this program is effective in
relieving the pain and stiffness associated with Arthritis and as a result
improves the quality of one's life. Even
though this program was developed with Arthritis as it's focus, it is ideal for
ailments caused by "Qi" irregularities. Additionally, it is an excellent
form for people new to Taiji.
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Winter
Foods
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Vegetables:
Bok
choy, broccoli, burdock root, brussel sprouts, cabbage, chard,
cauliflower, daikon, garlic,
ginger root, horseradish, kale, leek, onions, parsnip, potatoes,
pumpkin, rutabaga, seaweed, spinach, sprouts, squash, sweet
potato, turnip, yam
Beans:
Adzuki, black, carob, garbanzo, kidney, lentil, lima, navy, soy, white
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Fruit:
Apple, cranberry,
date, dried fruit,
grapes, kiwi, kumquat,
mandarin orange, navel orange,
pears, persimmon,
pomegranate,
tangelo, tangerines
Grains:
Amaranth, barley, buckwheat, corn, kasha, millet, quinoa, rye, wheat
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Nuts:
Almond, brazil, cashew, filbert, pecan, walnut
Seeds:
Flax, pumpkin, sesame, sunflower |
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