Article Archive

The Roots of Disharmony - Part 2

Emotional & Lifestyle Factors

Emotions, of themselves, are not a problem. Everyone experiences a range of emotional feeling throughout their lives: Sadness, anger, joy, worry and so forth. They are a natural part of our embodied experience and a normal response to our environment. They are neither positive nor negative. They only become problematic when they are notably intense and excessive and, especially, when prolonged over a long period of time, without expression or acknowledgment. Everyone feels anger at times, but it is normally a strong, but short-lived, response to a direct and immediate stimulus.

Essential Elixirs

Herbal Oils for Health, Healing and Happy Clients

On a sunny windowsill are rows of glass containers. The liquid within them glows in delicious shades of smooth yellow, warming amber and fiery red. Some jars contain fluids that look like they were squeezed directly from the earth — juicy greens and dense ochre. The contents resemble something an ancient alchemist whipped up with thunderbolts and lightning. But looks can be deceiving. Herbal oils are remarkably simple to create, requiring only a little patience and some basic cooking utensils.

Mental Health

10 Ways to Keep Your Brain in Top Shape

1. If you’re over 60, take supplementary vitamin B12. One in five people over 60 and two in five over 80 can’t absorb B12 properly from food. Since the vitamin is necessary for proper neurologic operation, including the functioning of neurons in the brain needed for memory, it’s best to play it safe. Even people who can’t absorb B12 from food can absorb it from
supplements.

Laboring Naturally

Lifespan

Even with today’s medical advances in childbirth, one simple truth remains — a woman must eventually do most of the work herself. Understanding how to best utilize a woman’s inner strength and harnessing her body’s wisdom can make the process that much easier and healthier for both mother and child.

Get Out of the Way

The use of complementary therapies is one of the best ways to harness that wisdom and strength, giving a woman in labor the tools to control her fear surrounding childbirth in an instinctive and natural way.

Weekend Warriors

Enhancing Performance with Massage and Bodywork

In June of this year, a medical team traded in their lab jackets for bicycle shorts to embark on the grueling Race Across America, a 2,922-mile course from San Diego, Calif., to Atlantic City, N.J. The goal of the team, representing Florida Orthopaedic Institute (FOI) in Tampa was to raise money for the Arthritis Foundation. The goal of their team massage therapist, Clinton Wynn, was to keep them racing at peak performance. Providing massage in the back of a rolling motor home, Wynn worked all hours of the day and night. He didn’t sleep much.

Stretching Facilitates Well-Being

News Note

Yoga may ease nausea and anxiety in breast cancer patients undergoing treatment, according to a recent study conducted at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. Subjects included 126 women with an average age of 53, and most with stage I or stage II breast cancer. One group was assigned to 12 weeks of classes, three times a week, and daily home practice, while the control group was put on a yoga class wait list.

A Healthier Junk Food?

News Note

McDonald’s announced in June that by the end of 2004 the fast-food chain will be serving antibiotic-free beef and chicken, calling on its suppliers to change their agricultural protocol to a more natural process. The declaration comes in response to the growing alarm over the effect of routine antibiotic use in animal production, a practice that undermines the effectiveness of antibiotics in people and has been banned in Europe.

Battling Bad Breath

News Note

Natural chemicals found in black tea, called polyphenols, help fight the bacteria that cause bad breath, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Bad breath, also known as halitosis, is caused by volatile sulphur compounds produced by bacteria that thrive in oxygen-lacking environments, such as the back of the tongue and deep gum pockets. In the laboratory, polyphenols not only inhibited the growth of oral bacteria, they also suppressed by 30 percent the enzyme that catalyzes hydrogen sulfide, a halitosis culprit.

Meditation Eases Kids’ Stress

News Note

Kids who meditate are happier, have higher self-esteem, get along better with other students and cope with stress more effectively than students who don’t meditate, suggests Rita Benn, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Michigan. Aged 10 to 14, the Detroit students of Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse practice non-religious transcendental meditation (TM) for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon to reduce stress — a growing concern for parents and child psychologists who note that kids are dealing with more pressure than ever.

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