“Be a wellness revolutionary” 
Dr. Frank Lipman

This week is back to the home routine. Vacations are wonderful but it is so good to be home and to be back with our fur babies as my house sitter calls them.

Integrative Medicine

I loved everything about this week’s subject matter especially the lecture by Dr. Frank Lipman.   Dr. Lipman is the Founder and Director of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York.  He calls himself a health coach addict.  He learned early on about the support system outside the medical practice through his interaction with “sangomas” in his native South Africa.  Sangomas are native or traditional healers and he discovered sometimes they could help when Western medicine could not.  I loved his analogy of Western Medicine to Eastern Medicine – In Western Medicine the body is a machine and when ill there is a war conducted on the disease.  Health is considered the absence of disease.  In Eastern Medicine the body is a garden and health is cultivated in partnership with doctor and patient.  Health is considered as integrity, adaptability and continuity.  A theory that I identify with quite happily.

Alternative Healing Practices

We also had two lectures by Paul Pitchford
on Heal your Health with Whole Foods. His lectures advocate the nurturing of Yin and following Yang.  Being aware of what you are eating and employing mindful activity in your daily life.  He discussed quite a bit about the Asian diet and how it is changing with the arrival of the golden arches.  The statistics are pretty scary.  He believes that low carb diets weaken the immunity and affect regeneration of cells and brain function.  He also says that your genes are not your legacy that you can change them and just because you have a history of heart disease or diabetes in your family does NOT mean you can’t do something about it and change your outcome through dietary changes and life-style changes.  This pleased me very much as I believe the same thing.

We were introduced to soaking and sprouting of seeds and beans.  Mainly to help them be more easily digested.  We also talked about Bone Health which is a real interest of mine because my mother suffers from osteoporosis and has had many fractures in the last 15 years.  He said that while increased calcium has been recommended there is a higher number of fractures in regions that have a higher consumption of milk products.  To strengthen bones, eat leafy greens (5 to 7 portions a day), make homemade stock using bones, eat sunflower and pumpkin seeds, eat modest amounts of whole grains for fiber and complex carbohydrates, consume beans and naturally raised animal protein (yes, yes), opt for butter and oils like EVO, flaxseed, unrefined sesame and …drum roll please…exercise for at least 30 minutes every day.  AVOID, refined sugars, honey, white flour because it causes an acidic condition that leaches minerals from the body.  AVOID milk products.

Explore Medicinals

Another area that resonated with me was the discussion regarding vitamins and supplements.  Bio-individuality comes into play here in a very big way.  I know that I can be quite zealous about my vitamin and supplement regime.  Well, I was trying to cure myself of some diseases and since I was following Dr. Mark Hyman’s “The Blood Sugar Solution” I also followed the recommendations for vitamins and supplements.  I was intrigued with the idea of  rotating your vitamins and supplements.  Don’t always take the same ones at the same time every day.  When eating a well balanced healthy whole food diet it should not be necessary to add in anything extra.  Experiment with your own reaction to going without supplements, in other words find your “zero point” and go from there.  I know that I have adjusted my intake of vitamins and supplements and I do try different brands and some make a difference and some don’t.  I do try to keep some of the basics like a multi-vitamin for women for me and one for my honey that is for men, and I do take fish oil every day and Vitamin D and one other which will stay and that is Lutein. Others come and go.  Maybe I need to reexamine what I am taking and see if I can make some changes.

Primary foods are also a supplement so supplement with a hug when you are feeling down.  The final quote which I loved was “Food and lifestyle work in the beginning you are less likely to need heroic remedies at the end”  Joshua Rosenthal of IIN.

We discussed natural antibiotics too and now I have a list of things that might work before I jump to the heavy duty stuff.  I told my friend, Dr. Tom, that I didn’t want to take antibiotics if I didn’t have to so that when I have to they will work.  They wreak havoc on your system and destroy not only the bad bacteria but the good stuff too.  The last time my mum was on antibiotics for pneumonia the doctor and the pharmacist both recommended a very strong probiotic.  I had never seen or heard that before and I was thrilled.  Mum not so much!!

We also talked about Water and Air.  Most folks don’t get enough water and dehydration can be a cause of a number of problems.  You can live for quite awhile without food, you can live for a few days without water but only a few seconds without air.  So get out in the fresh air as much as you can.  Water recommendations, on average, men 3 liters (13 cups) and women 2.2 liters (9 cups) but this can vary a great deal on individual situations.  You need more water if you live in a dry climate like the desert.  The air I am around right now is the beautiful marsh air and it is very sweet.  Windows open even when the pollen is flying around.

A final note, for three years I have been pretty strict about what I eat and what I do not eat.  I have allowed myself some treats during that time, without guilt, but I always come back to eating the way that makes me feel the best.  This article really hit me and I am going to read it again and again because I have a tendency to be similar to the person who is described here.  Fearless Health.

This is rather a long post but believe it or not, with our big test coming up in a couple of weeks this helps me to really put things together.  Thank you for reading.  Hope you have a great weekend and upcoming week.

 Happy St. Patty’s Day for the Irish among us.  Lou