Meditation ,,, yoga,,,hypnotherapy

What’s the best thing I can do to improve my health and well-being?” Answers abound as health trends come and go—the latest diet, megavitamin, or no-sweat workout promises to hold the key.
But the foundation of good health is simple: very deep rest. Deep rest neutralizes stress and fatigue. It revitalizes and rejuvenates the mind and body. However, in order to keep up with the hectic pace of life today, rest is usually the first thing that people cut back on. In fact, about 10% of Americans are plagued with life-interfering insomnia, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Beyond relaxation

through the
TM technique
see chart

The Transcendental Meditation technique provides a unique state of profound rest that naturally dissolves deep-rooted stress and fatigue. During a 20-minute session of the TM technique, the mind settles deep within and experiences finer and finer states of thought until it “transcends” thought and experiences its own source—a state of pure awareness and quietness within.
As the mind settles, correspondingly the body relaxes and the breath becomes soft. According to research, the sympathetic nervous system, which controls the body’s stress response, quiets down. As a result, stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline are reduced.
The TM technique is relaxing, but it is much more. It is a unique combination of deep relaxation along with expanded awareness. This state of “restful alertness” sets the TM technique apart from other relaxation techniques and tension taming activities like exercise or music. After meditation, TM meditators report they feel calm, clear and energetic, much like you feel on your best days. The TM technique can help create that experience throughout the day, every day.

What is TM?

What are the other benefits?

Are all meditations the same?

How do I learn?

through the
TM technique
see chart

From better health to personal growth

The health benefits of the TM technique begin with your first meditation and accumulate over time. With regular meditation, the body eliminates not just daily tensions, but deep-seated stresses that may have been causing poor health. Research indicates the TM technique actually slows the aging process making meditators look and function younger than their years. Interestingly, the more years the subjects meditated, the greater the reduction in their biological age.

More than 350 research studies document the health and psychological benefits of the TM technique, for example:

• Decreased need for medical care
• Reduced high cholesterol
• Decreased high blood pressure
• Reduced stress, anxiety and insomnia
• Reduced atherosclerosis

Over the past 20 years, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Washington, DC have contributed over $26 million in funding for studies on TM and cardiovascular health. For example, in a ground breaking nine-year study published in 2009, heart disease patients who practiced TM had almost 50 percent lower rates of stroke, heart attack and death compared to non-meditating controls. Additionally, the meditators experienced a significant reduction in blood pressure and psychological stress.
With daily practice of the TM technique, vibrant health develops in the mind, body and spirit leading to greater enjoyment and happiness.

Stress affects mind and body

• Stress can take the joy out of life
• Stress shouldn’t be accepted as the norm
• An effective stress management
  technique helps prevent health problems
• Reducing stress enhances wellness

Reduced psychological stress

The TM^® technique is twice as effective
for stress and anxiety as other
techniques.

Reference: Journal of Clinical Psychology

Stress affects mind and body

• Stress can take the joy out of life
• Stress shouldn’t be accepted as the norm
• An effective stress management
  technique helps prevent health problems
• Reducing stress enhances wellness

How to reduce stress

The Transcendental Meditation^® technique is a natural and effective method of stress relief. This effortless technique calms your mind and allows you to relax and release the tension caused by stress.

 

 

“In meditation, healing can happen. When the mind is calm, alert and totally contented, then it is like a laser beam – it is very powerful and healing can happen.” - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Only a healthy bud can blossom. In the same way, only a healthy being can succeed.
So,what is it to be healthy?
To attain a perfect state of health, one has to remain mentally calm, steady and emotionally stable. ‘Swasthya’ means health. It also means being in one's self. Swasthya or health is not just confined to the body and the mind but it is also connected with the consciousness. The clearer the consciousness is, the more well-being is gained.

Meditation increases prana (life energy)

Prana (the vital life energy) is the very basis of health and well being, for both body and mind. You can gain prana through meditation. When your body is alive with more prana, you feel alert, energetic, and full of good humor. A lack of prana results in lethargy, dullness and poor enthusiasm.

Dealing with illness - through meditation

It is said that the root of an illness is in the mind/consciousness. So, by attending to the mind, clearing it of any disturbances, the recovery speeds up. Illnesses can develop from:

• Violation of natural law: such as over-eating
• Imposed by nature: such as common cold, an epidemic
• Release of past impressions or Karma

Nature itself provides a cure for these illnesses. Health and illness are a part of physical nature. By practicing meditation, the stresses, worries, anxieties drop off and gives rise to a positive state of mind, which has a positive impact on the physical body, brain and nervous system, then illnesses change.
Health and illness are a part of physical nature. You should not worry too much about it. When you worry about illness, you are giving more power to the illness. You are a combination of health and illness. When you keep that in mind and have a positive state of mind, then illnesses change.

• Heal the mind – through meditation
• Meditation prevents stresses from entering the body system and also releases accumulated stress.Health,happiness and a positive state of Being wells up
• The practice of meditation brings a coolness to the brain, it’s like servicing the whole body-mind complex

Clear emotional pollution - with meditation

A time may come in the future, when people will be fined for being depressed, because they are creating emotional pollution! The words that you hear from people around you, affect your state of mind. They either give you peace and joy, or create disturbance (such as jealously, anger, frustration or sadness). You’re affected because the mind is not in its Self; it is not centered. Meditation is the key to control 'emotional pollution'.

Blossom with meditation

Meditation can bring about a spiritual transformation. As you learn more about life, the mystery of the whole Creation unfolds. Then the questions that arise in the mind are - What is the meaning of Life? What is its purpose? What is this world, what is love, what is knowledge...?
Once these questions arise in you, know that you are very fortunate. These questions need to be understood; you cannot find the answers in books. You have to live through them and witness the transformation. That is perfect health; you are transformed from within. And the bud becomes a totally blossomed flower.

Heal the world through meditation

Meditation purifies the environment. Meditation and Sudarshan Kriya have transformed aggression and violence in people - to compassion, love and care. For example, notice how you feel when you enter a room where someone is really angry ? It leaves you feeling the same!
Similarly, when there is a harmonious or a happy activity, you feel good. You may wonder why. Feelings are not isolated in one's body - they are all around. It is in the whole environment, because the mind is subtler than the five elements (earth, water, fire, air, ether). If there is a fire somewhere, the heat is not just in the fire, it is also radiating throughout the place.
Note: If you are unhappy or depressed, you are not the only one who is feeling it; you are spreading it to the whole environment.
In the current global situation of conflicts and disease, it's important to meditates a little every day. Through meditation, you can nullify the negative vibrations in the environment, thereby creating a more harmonious environment.

The Healing Breath and Meditation

A jewel in The Art of Living is the healing breath, known as the Sudarshan Kriya.
This unique breathing practice is a potent energizer:

• Every cell becomes fully oxygenated and flooded with new life
• It flushes out negative emotions from the body
• It releases tensions, frustrations and anger
• It clears anxiety, depression and lethargy
• It gives relief to both the mind and body

After the practice, one is left calm and centered with a clearer mind. A sense of joy in the moment prevails, and you're able to smile from your heart.
'Do the Healing Breath and meditate. These practices completely transform you, and kindle the love deep inside

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	<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> The research literature on Hypnosis is extensive. The endorsements of Hypnosis for its healing effectiveness continue to mount. In a recent report, it was revealed that a panel of the National Institutes of Health has endorsed the wider use of Hypnosis for use in conjunction with conventional medical care. Numerous clinical studies have been conducted substantiating the effectiveness of the Hypnotic state in changing individuals' lives. Some of these experimental studies have utilized poor controls for supporting generalization of results beyond the specific experimental trial reported. The research studies cited below are some of the thousands clinical trials that HAVE utilized solid experimental technique and report reliable, valid findings. These studies report a sample of the multitude of applications of Hypnosis in human living: MEDICAL APPLICATIONS <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]--> PAIN, MISCELLANEOUS: 1. Ernest Hilgard (1977) and coworkers: in extensive investigations, using experimental paradigms to induce pain (typically either a tourniquet cutting off the circulation to a limb or plunging the limb into cold water), they have demonstrated that various types of pain can be reduced by Hypnotically induced analgesia. In these studies, 66% of the high susceptibility group, but only 13% of the lower and 17% of the medium susceptibility groups, were able to reduce their pain by 1/3 or more. Twenty-six percent of the high, 57% of the medium, and 31% of the low susceptibility groups were able to reduce their pain by 10-32% when compared to controls. 2. Experimentally induced pain, while undeniably noxious, is different from the experience of patients in the clinical setting. Whereas experimental pain is brief, undergone voluntarily, and can be terminated at any time by the subject, in the clinical setting, pain is often longterm, comes against the wishes of the individual and is usually experienced as being outside of personal control. Moreover, it is a part of a disease process that directly alters both physical and mental functioning. 3. In a neurochemical study of Hypnotic control of pain conducted by Domangue (1985), patients suffering arthritic pain showed a correlation among levels of pain, anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression were inversely related to plasma norepinephrine levels. Depression was correlated with dopamine levels and negatively correlated with levels of serotonin and beta endorphin. Following Hypnotherapy, there were clinically and statistically significant decreases in depression, anxiety and pain, and increases in beta endorphin-like substances. 4. The relationship between pain and endorphins is a complicated one. In his study, Guerra (1982) found that only particular forms of the beta endorphins found in peripheral blood during painful experience are associated with the Hypnotic response. 5. Hilgard (1982) studied children with cancer. He found Hypnosis to be effective in reducing the pain and discomfort associated with repeated unpleasant medical inventions. 6. Stam (1986) reports that patients with chronic facial pain show a greater responsiveness to suggestion as measured by the Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale (CURSS) than do normal controls. These patients had higher Hypnotic susceptibility scores than did controls, showing a high susceptibility score to be a good predictor of response to Hypnotic treatment among such patients. 7. Domangue (1985) conducted a study of 19 patients with a variety of musculoskeletal disorders. He reported significant reductions of pain and dysphoria following Hypnosis. The reductions were associated with significant increases in plasma beta endorphin. 8. Barabasz and Barabasz (1989) studied sample of 20 patients with a variety of chronic pain syndromes. They utilized an Hypnotic technique known as Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST). All of the patients were initially rated as having low Hypnotic susceptibility on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (SHSS). Following exposure to the training technique, the subjects demonstrated significant increases in both SHSS scores and in pain reduction when compared to controls. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> HEADACHE PAIN: 9. Evidence accumulated to date suggests that a number of Hypnotherapeutic approaches are highly effective in the treatment of patients with chronic migraine headaches. Although no one Hypnotherapeutic technique has been demonstrated to be most effective, all the methods appear to be superior to a standard treatment relying on pharmacological approaches alone. 10. In a study conducted by Anderson (1975), migraine patients treated with Hypnosis had a significant reduction in the number of attacks and in their severity compared to a control group who were treated with traditional medications. The difference did not become statistically significant until the second six-month follow-up period. In addition, at the end of one year, the number of patients in the Hypnosis group who had experienced no headaches for over three months was significantly higher. 11. In a controlled trial conducted by Olness (1987), self-Hypnosis was shown to be significantly more effective than either propranolol or placebo in reducing the frequency of migraine headaches in children between the ages of six and twelve years of age. 12. In a research conducted by Schlutter (1980), Hypnosis was also found to effective in dealing with the relief of tension headache. 13. Alladin (1988) reviewed the literature on Hypnosis, identifying fully a dozen different Hypnotic techniques that have been used in the treatment of chronic migraine headaches. Of these, Hypnotic training emphasizing relaxation, hand warming (which, according to Anderson, 1975) seems the simplest method of establishing increased voluntary control of the sensitive vasomotor system) and direct Hypnotic suggestions of symptom removal have all been shown to be effective in reducing the duration, intensity and frequency of migraine attacks during a ten-week treatment course and at thirteen-month follow-up when compared to controls. 14. A study (Gutfeld, G. and Rao, L., 1992) was conducted on 42 patients suffering from chronic headaches. These patients, all of whom had responded poorly to conventional treatments, were split into two groups. One received Hypnotherapy to relieve their daily headaches; the rest acted as a comparison group. The Hypnotherapy group experienced reduced frequency and duration of headaches, cutting the intensity by about 30%. "These results are impressive in such a difficult, hard-to-treat group of patients," commented Egilius Spierings, M.D., Ph.D. director of the headache section, division of neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> CANCER: 15. Speigel and Bloom (1983b) reported that a study of women with metastatic breast cancer showed that patients who received group therapy with training in Hypnosis over a one-year period were able to reduce their pain experience by 50% when compared to a control group. 16. In addition, at a 10-year follow-up of these same women, the Hypnosis treatment group had a mean survival rate of 36.6 months compared to 18.9 months for the controls. This suggests that the intervention may be both important quantitative and important qualitative effects (Spiegel 1989a). 17-18. Both adolescent and adult cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy were reported by Cotanch (1985) and by Zeltzer (1984), in separate research, to have fewer symptoms of anticipatory nausea and vomiting following Hypnotic interventions. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONS, GENERAL: 19. In research by Bernardi (1982), hypertensive patients showed themselves to be significantly more effective at controlling cardiovascular responses to stressors in Hypnosis than they were in the normal waking state. This was particularly true for subjects with more marked Hypnotic ability. 20. In a study by Sletvold (1986), normotensive subjects were shown able to either increase or decrease their blood pressure significantly with Hypnosis. 21. In a 1979 research study by Jackson, subjects with Hypnotic ability were shown to improve their aerobic performance significantly in response to postHypnotic suggestion. In addition, subjects with high Hypnotic susceptibility significantly improved their performance in physical exercise using postHypnotic suggestion. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> HYPERTENSION & STRESS: 22. Kuttner (1988) found that a Hypnotic approach emphasizing storytelling and imagery was significantly more effective than behavioral techniques or standard medical practice in alleviating distress during bone marrow aspirations in young children with leukemia. 23. Hypertensive subjects were found to have characteristic patterns of increased cerebral blood flow that were most marked in the left hemisphere. During Hypnosis, they could reduce cerebral blood flow more dramatically than could normotensive controls. The changes noted in this research by Galeazzi (1982) were associated with decreases in vascular resistance and diastolic blood pressure in the rest of the body. 24-25. Friedman and Taub (1977, 1978) reported the results of a trial comparing Hypnosis with biofeedback or a combination of both in essential hypertension. At the end of four weeks of treatment, all groups showed a significant reduction in blood pressure. But at six-month follow-up only the patients receiving Hypnosis had maintained the reduction. 26-27. Generally speaking, literature review supports the value of Hypnosis in analgesia and stress reduction in a number of disorders, whether following the dissociative formulation (Miller, 1986) or a social psychology approach (Noland, 1987). <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> RESPIRATORY CONDITIONS: 28-29. In studies by Maher-Loughnan (1962, 1970), Hypnosis was shown to alleviate the subjective distress of patients with asthma. This change was measured either by the number of attacks or the amount of medication that was needed when compared to supportive therapy. 30. In further study by Maher-Loughnan (1970) asthmatic subjects were randomly assigned to either Hypnosis or relaxation therapy. The results showed both treatment modalities of benefit to the patients, but the improvement in the Hypnotherapy group was significantly greater. There was a peak of improvement between the seventh and twelfth weeks of treatment. In addition, only the Hypnotic subjects showed improvement in physiologic measures of respiration (forced expiratory volume). 31. Ewer and Stewart (1986) reported a randomized control trial of Hypnosis in patients with moderate asthma. Patients with a high Hypnotic susceptibility showed a 74.9% improvement in bronchial hyper-responsiveness (to methacholine challenge), a 5.5% increase in peak expiratory flow rate, a 26.2% decrease in the use of bronchodilator and a 41% improvement in daily ratings outside of the clinic. Twelve patients with a high Hypnotic susceptibility score showed a 75% improvement. However, a control group of 17 patients and a second group of 10 patients with a low level of Hypnotic susceptibility showed no change in either objective or subjective measures. 32. A study by Olness (1985) showed that children trained in self-Hypnosis could significantly alter their tissue levels of oxygen as measured by transcutaneous PO2 measures. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> STRENGTHENING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM: 33. Hypnosis strengthens the disease-fighting capacity of two types of immune cells, reports Patricia Ruzyla-Smith and her co-workers at Washington State University in Pullman. Thirty-three college students who achieved a Hypnotic trance easily and 32 students who had great difficulty doing so were recruited for the study. Students who underwent Hypnosis displayed larger jumps in two important classes of white blood cells than participants who received relaxation or no method. The greatest immune enhancement occurred among highly Hypnotizable students in the Hypnosis group. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> INTESTINAL CONDITIONS: 34-35. Whorwell (1984) reported successful treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome using Hypnosis in a controlled study of a group of patients who had a severe chronic form of the disorder and had not responded to conventional therapies. Patients were randomly allocated to either psychotherapy or Hypnotherapy groups. The psychotherapy patients showed a significant improvement in measures of pain, distension and in general well-being despite a lack of change in bowel habit. In contrast, the Hypnotherapy patients showed a dramatic improvement in all measures which persisted at a two-year follow-up. (Whorwell, 1987). Hypnotherapy, including suggestions for improved gastrointestinal function and pain reduction, was significantly better than Hypnosis for simple deep muscle relaxation. 36. Harvey (1989) reported a similar improvement following Hypnotherapy in 20 of the 33 patients with refractory Irritable Bowel Syndrome at three-month follow-up. 37. Colgan (1988) reported a randomized trial of 30 patients with frequently relapsing duodenal ulcer disease. The subjects were treated for ten weeks with either Hypnotherapy or ranitidine or the drug alone. At a twelve-month follow-up, all of the drug-only patients, but only half of the drug-plus-Hypnotherapy patients, had relapsed. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> HEMOPHELIA: 38. Swirsky-Saccetti (1986) reported on research with hemophiliacs. Over an eighteen-week follow-up, a group of hemophiliac patients who were taught self-Hypnosis significantly reduced both their level of self-reported distress and the amount of the factor concentrate they required to control bleeding when compared with a control group of patients who did not undergo Hypnosis. 39. A 30-month follow-up by LaBaw (1975) with hemophiliac patients demonstrated the effectiveness of group procedures for self-Hypnosis in reducing distress and the amount of blood products required when compared to control groups in patients ranging from five to forty-eight years of age. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> SURGERY: 40. Patients undergoing head and neck surgery who were trained with preoperative Hypnosis had significantly shorter postoperative hospitalizations than did matched controls (Rapkin, 1988). 41. Swedish researchers studied 50 women prior to surgery. Twenty-five of the women were assigned to the experimental group who were briefly Hypnotized each day for several days before their scheduled operations. Twenty-five were assigned to a control groups who were not Hypnotized. While in a Hypnotic state, the women in the experimental group heard suggestions to relax and feel hungry. After surgery only 10 had nausea (15 experienced no nausea), compared to 17 in the no-Hypnosis control group (8 experienced no nausea). <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> CHILDBIRTH: 42. In 1963, Schwartz reported on a study in which Hypnotherapy was used successfully to prolong pregnancy and prevent premature delivery. 43-45. Omer (1986a, 1986b, 1987a) found that frequency of physical complaints and the general level of anxiety were correlated with premature labor and premature contractions. A brief technique emphasizing the use of self-Hypnosis was employed as an adjunct to pharmacological treatment. The prolongation of pregnancy was significantly higher for this group than for the medication-along control group, and infant weight was also significantly greater. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> MISCELLANEOUS CONDITIONS: 46. In a careful single-case controlled study of a patient with Raynaud's disease, Conn (1984) showed a rapid and dramatic vasodilatation in response to Hypnotic suggestion. 47. In research reported by Spanos (1988), a pair of randomized, carefully designed studies were conducted with a group of people who had warts. Subjects who were given Hypnotic or nonHypnotic suggestions were significantly more likely to achieve wart regression than placebo or no-treatment groups. 48-49. In a report by David Spiegel in the Harvard Mental Health Letter, the following research was cited: a) Several controlled experiments have shown that Hypnosis can be effectively used to eliminate warts; and b) Studies have been done on persons suffering from pseudoseizures, in which they lose consciousness or motor control and make jerking movements typical of epilepsy (but without the associated brain damage). Such patients have been taught to limit or eliminate these symptoms by using Hypnosis. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> PSYCHOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS ANXIETY: 50. In a report by David Spiegel in the Harvard Mental Health Letter, the research was cited that Hypnosis methods have been used successfully for anxiety associated with medical procedures. 51. Two hundred forty-one patients who were undergoing percutaneous vascular and renal procedures were randomly tested on three testing regimens, one of which was Hypnosis. Patients rated their pain and anxiety on 1-10 scales before, every 15 minutes during, and after the procedures. Pain remained flat over the duration of procedure time in the Hypnosis group; pain increased linearly with procedure time in both other groups. Anxiety decreased over time in all three groups; the sharpest decrease was in the group that was hypnotized. Procedure times were significantly shorter in the Hypnosis group. In addition, Hypnosis showed itself to be superior in improving hemodynamic stability. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> PHOBIC REACTIONS: 52. In a report by David Spiegel in the Harvard Mental Health Letter, the following research was cited: One seven-year study showed that 50% of patients afraid of flying were improved of cured after Hypnosis treatment for a fear of flying. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> DEPRESSION: 53. In a neurochemical study of Hypnotic control of pain conducted by Domangue (1985), patients suffering arthritic pain showed a correlation among levels of pain, anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression were inversely related to plasma norepinephrine levels. Depression was correlated with dopamine levels and negatively correlated with levels of serotonin and beta endorphin. Following Hypnotherapy, there were clinically and statistically significant decreases in depression, anxiety and pain, and increases in beta endorphin-like substances. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--> BIBLIOGRAPHY Alladin, A. (1988). "Hypnosis in the Treatment of Severe Chronic Migraine. In M. Heap (ed.), Hypnosis: Current clinical, Experimental and Forensic Practices. London: Croom Helm. pp. 159-166. Anderson, J.A., Basker, M.A. & Dalton, R. (1975). "Migraine and Hypnotherapy." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 23, 48-58. Barabasz, A.J. & Barabasz, M. (1989). "Effects of Restricted Environmental Stimulation: Enhancement of Hypnotizability for Experimental and Chronic Pain Control." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 37, 217- 231. Bernardi, L. Galezaai, L. & Bardelli, R. (1982). " Hypnotic Responsivity of Cold Pressor Test in Normal and Hypertensive Subjects," Paper presented at the International Society of Hypnosis, 9th International Congress of Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine, Glasgow, Scotland. Colgan, S.M., Faragher, E.B. & Whorwell, P.J. (1988). "Controlled Trial of Hypnotherapy in Relapse Prevention of Duodenal Ulceration." Lancet, 1299-1300. Conn, L. & Mott,k T. (1984). "Plethysmographic Demonstration of Rapid Vasodilation by Direct Suggestion: A Case of Raynaud's Disease Treated by Hypnosis." American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 26, 166-170. Cotanch, P., Hockenberry, M. & Herman, S. (1985). "Self-Hypnosis Antiemetic Therapy in Children Receiving Chemotherapy." Oncology Nursing Forum, 12, 41- 46. Domangue, B.B., Margolis, C.G., Lieberman, D. & Kaji, H. (1985). "Biochemical Correlates of Hypnoanalgesia in Arthritic Pain Patients." Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 46, 235-238. Ewer, T.C. & Stewart, D.E. (1986). "Improvement in Bronchial Hyper-responsiveness in Patients with Moderate Asthma after Treatment with a Hypnotic Technique: A Randomized Controlled Trial." British Medical Journal, 293, 1129-1132. Friedman, H. & Taub, H. (1977). "The Use of Hypnosis and Biofeedback Procedures for Essential Hypertension." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 25, 335-347. Friedman, H. & Taub, H. (1978). "A Six Month Follow-up of the Use of Hypnosis and Biofeedback Procedures in Essential Hypertension." American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 20, 184-188. Galeazzi, L. & Bernardi, L. (1982). "Cerebral Rheographic Variations by Hypnosis," Paper presented at the International Society of Hypnosis, 9th International Congress of Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine, Glasgow, Scotland. Guerra, G. & Guantieri, G. (1982). "Hypnosis and Plasmatic B-Endorphins," Paper presented at the International Society of Hypnosis, 9th International Congress of Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine, Glasgow, Scotland. Gutfeld, G. and Rao, L. (1992). "Use of Hypnosis with Patients Suffering from Chronic Headaches, Seriously Resistant to Other Treatment," As reported in Prevention, 44, 24-25. Harvey, R.F., Hinton, R.A., Gunary, R.M. & Barry, R.E. (1989). "Individual and Group Hypnotherapy in Treatment of Refractory Irritable Bowel Syndrome." Lancet, pp. 424-425. Hilgard, E.R. (1977). Divided Consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action. NY: John Wiley. 1977. Hilgard, E.R. (1982). "Hypnotic Susceptibility and Implications for Measurement." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 30, 394-403. Jackson, J.A., Gass, G.C. & Camp, E.M. (1979). "The Relationship Between PostHypnotic Suggestion and Endurance in Physically Trained Subjects." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 27, 278-293. Kuttner, L. (1988). "Favorite Stories: A Hypnotic Pain-Reduction Technique for Children in acute Pain." American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 30, 289-295. LaBaw, W.L. (1975). "Auto-Hypnosis in Haemophilia." Printed in the Journal Haematologia, 9, 103-110. Lang, E.V.; Benotsch, Eric; Fick. L.J.; Lutgendorf, Susan; Berbaum, M.L.; Berbaum, K.S.; Logan, Henrietta; and Spiegel, David (2000). "Surgery: Complications and Treatment." Lancet, 355, 1486. Maher-Loughnan, G.P., MacDonald, N., Mason, A.A. & Fry, L. (1962). "Controlled Trial of Hypnosis in the Symptomatic Treatment of Asthma." British Medical Journal, 2, 371-376. Maher-Loughnan, G.P. (1970). "Hypnosis and AutoHypnosis for the Treatment of Asthma." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 18, 1- 14. Miller, M.E. & Bowers, K.S. (1986). "Hypnotic Analgesia and Stress Inoculation in the Reduction of Pain." Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 6-14. Nolan, R.P. & Spanos, N.P. (1987). "Hypnotic Analgesia and Stress Inoculation: A Critical Reexamination of Miller and Bowers." Psychological Reports, 61, 95- 102. Olness, K. & Conroy, M. (1985). "A Pilot Study of Voluntary Control of Transcutaneous PO2 by Children." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 33, 1-5. Olness, K., MacDonald, J.T. & Uden, D.L. (1987). "Comparison of Self-Hypnosis and Propranolol in the Treatment of Juvenile Classic Migraine." Pediatrics, 79, 593- 597. Omer, H., Elizur Y., Barnea, T., Friedlander, D. & Palti, Z. (1986a). "Psychological Variables and Premature Labour: A Possible Solution for Some Methodological Problems." Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 30, 559-565. Omer, H., Friedlander, D. & Palti, Z. (1986b). "Hypnotic Relaxation in the Treatment of Premature Labor." Psychosomatic Medicine, 48, 351-361. Omer, H. (1987). "A Hypnotic Relaxation Technique for the Treatment of Premature Labor." American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 29, 206-213. Rapkin, D.A., Straubing, M., Singh, A. & Holroyd, J.C. (1988). "Guided Imagery and Hypnosis: Effect on Acute Recovery from Head and Neck Cancer Surgery," Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Asheville, N.C. Ruzyla-Smith, Patricia et al. (1993). As reported at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association. Schlutter, L.C., Golden, C.J. & Blume, H.G. (1980). "A Comparison of Treatments for Prefrontal Muscle Contraction Headache." British Journal of Medical Psychology, 53, 47-52. Schwartz, M. (1963). "The Cessation of Labor Using Hypnotic Techniques." American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 5, 211-213. Sletvold, H., Jensen, G.M. & Gotestam, K.G. (1986). "Blood Pressure Responses to Hypnotic and NonHypnotic Suggestions in Normotensive Subjects." Pavlovian Journal of Biological Science, 21, 32-35. Spanos, N.P., Stenstrom, R.j. & Johnston, J.C. (1988). "Hypnosis, Placebo and Suggestion in the Treatment of Warts." Psychosomatic Medicine, 50, 245- 260. Spiegel, D. & Bloom, J.R. (1983b). "Group therapy and Hypnosis Reduce Metastatic Breast Carcinoma Pain." Psychosomatic Medicine, 45, 333-339. Spiegel, D., Bloom, J.R., Kraemer, H.,C. & Gottheil, E. (1989a). "Effect of Psychosocial Treatment on Survival of Patients with Metatastic Breast Cancer." Lancet pp. 888-891. Spiegel, David, author. Report in the Harvard Mental Health Letter, September 1998, vol. 15, p. 5-6. Stam, H.J., McGrath, P.A., Brooke, R.I. & Cosier, F. (1986). "Hypnotizability and the Treatment of Chronic Facial Pain." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 34, 182-191. Swirsky-Saccetti, T. & Margolis, C.G. (1986). "The Effects of a Comprehensive Self- Hypnosis Training Program on the Use of Factor VIII in Severe Hemophilia." International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 34, 71-83. Whorwell, P.J., Prior, A. & Faragher, E.B. (1984). "Controlled Trial of Hypnotherapy in the Treatment of Severe Refractory Irritable-Bowel Syndrome." Lancet, pp. 1232-1234. Whorwell, P.J., Prior, A. & Colgan, S.M. (1987). "Hypnotherapy in Severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Further Experience." Gut, 28, 423-425. Zeltzer, L., LeBaron, S. & Zeltzer, P.M. (1984). "The Effectiveness of Behavioral Intervention for Reduction of Nausea and Vomiting in Children and Adolescents Receiving Chemotherapy." Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2, 683-690.

Eat Wild - What Your Animals Eat

Eat Wild - What Your Animals Eathttp://youtu.be/1R2F9f2Cl6Y

You Are What Your Animals Eat

by Jo Robinson Printer Friendly Version

In my investigation into pasture-based farming, I've stumbled upon an alarming state of affairs: few animal scientists see any link between animal feed and human food. "Feed animals anything you want," say the experts, "and it makes no difference to their meat, milk, or eggs." Because of this mindset, our animals are being fed just about anything that enhances the bottom line, including chicken feathers, sawdust, chicken manure, stale pizza dough, potato chips, and candy bars.

Here's a glaring example. A 1996 study explored the desirability of feeding stale chewing gum to cattle.(1) Amazingly, the gum was still in its aluminum foil wrappers. Wonder of wonders, the experts concluded that bubblegum diet was a net benefit---at least for the producers. I quote: "Results of both experiments suggest that [gum and packaging material] may be fed to safely replace up to 30% of corn-alfalfa hay diets for growing steers with advantages in improving dry matter intake and digestibility." In other words, feed a steer a diet that is 30 percent bubblegum and aluminum foil wrappers, and it will be a more efficient eater. With a nod to public safety, the researchers did check to see how much aluminum was deposited in the various organs of the cattle. Not to worry. The aluminum content was "within normal expected ranges." As always, there was no mention of the nutritional content of the resulting meat.

When I first read the bubblegum studies, I assumed that no one would actually feed bubblegum to their animals, despite the "positive outcome" of the research.. Then a professor of animal science drove me by a Beechnut gum factory in upstate New York where dairy farmers bought truckloads of bubble gum to feed to their cows.

The view from the other side of the fence is just as sobering. Most experts in human nutrition are equally blind to the feed/food connection. To them, beef is beef, eggs are eggs, and milk is milk. Thus, when the USDA says "eat less red meat," the edict applies to all red meat, whether it's a fatty steak from a grainfed cow, or a lean steak from a grassfed cow with its invisible bounty of omega-3s, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and CLA.

I've spent the past four years trying to forge the missing link between animal and human nutrition. It's been tough going, especially when it comes to pasture-raised animals because virtually all the studies focus on feedlot animals. To fill in the gap, I've searched through yellowing journals published before the advent of factory farming, pieced together small studies financed by farmers, and combed through the research from Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand—parts of the world where animals are still kept home on the range.

Finding the amount of vitamin E in grassfed meat has been one of my biggest challenges. I began tthe search when I learned that grass has 20 times more vitamin E than corn or soy. Given the magnitude of this difference, I reasoned that meat from grassfed animals must have an extra helping of vitamin E.

At long last, I located one American study that broached the subject. The impetus for the study came from disgruntled Japanese buyers who complained that American beef spoiled more quickly than Australian free-range beef. Knowing that vitamin E helped prolong shelf life, the American researchers investigated the amount of vitamin E in the two types of meat. Lo and behold, they discovered that the meat from grassfed cattle had three to four times more vitamin E than feedlot beef, thanks to all that vitamin E-rich grass.

Now, what did the researchers do with this finding? True to form, they began studying how much synthetic vitamin E to add to synthetic feedlot diets. I doubt that it even occurred to them to investigate pasture-based ranching.

Why this lack of interest in the natural model? Much of our animal research is funded by commercial interests—specifically the grain, chemical, pharmaceutical, farm equipment, and meat-packing companies. Together, these vertically integrated behemoths have a multi-billion dollar stake in perpetuating factory farming. The USDA, meanwhile, aids and abets the feedlot industry by focusing virtually all of its efforts—and our tax dollars!—on tweaking the system. For example, the USDA Meat and Animal Research Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, is more willing to spend $100,000 researching how quickly feedlot manure seeps into the water table than to spend a similar amount of money investigating pasture-based ranching, the holistic model that keeps the contamination from happening in the first place.

What will it take to draw more scientific attention to pasture-based ranching? Pressure from an enlightened public. And what will it take to enlighten the public? The national media.

I have a fantasy how this might happen. First, a prominent media source such as "60 minutes" or The New York Times will decide to spotlight pasture-based farming. Building on this ground-breaking work, an award-winning TV producer will create a documentary that deepens the discussion. The program will conclude—as it must—-that raising animals on pasture is better for consumers, the animals, the environment, and small farmers. Before long, dozens of news shows, newspapers, and magazines will follow suit.

As the momentum builds, grassfarming will become the talk of the town. Serving organic meat won't win points in Los Angeles anymore unless it's grassfed as well. Meanwhile, Ted Turner will stop sending all of his bison to feedlots to be fattened like cattle, and by 2005, his "Turner Reserve Grassfed Bison" will be the thing to serve at celebrity gatherings. Propelled by this groundswell of interest, private and government institutions will finally devote more time, money and energy to exploring pasture-based farming.

Will grassfarming ever become the darling of the media? Only time will tell. But even if the media misses the boat, the good news about grassfarming will keep spreading on the grassroots level, one satisfied customer at a time!

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Jo Robinson is a New York Times bestselling writer. She is the author or coauthor of 11 nationally published books including Pasture Perfect, which is a comprehensive overview of the benefits of choosing products from pasture-raised animals, and The Omega Diet (with Dr. Artemis Simopoulos) that describes an omega-3 enriched Mediterranean diet that may be the healthiest eating program of all. To order her books or learn more about grassfed products, visit http://eatwild.com.

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1) Wolf, B. W., L. L. Berger, et al. (1996). "Effects of feeding a return chewing gum/packaging material mixture on performance and carcass characteristics of feedlot cattle." J Anim Sci 74(11): 2559-65.

Note: I wrote this article in 2000. Since then, pasture-based farming has been featured in:

• The Smithsonian
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• The Wall Street Journal
• The Dallas Morning News
• Mother Earth News
• Wine Spectator
• The Oregonian
• The LA Times
• The San Francisco Chronicle
• CBC News Marketplace
• Delicious Living
• House and Garden
• The Atlantic Monthly
• The National Review
• National Public Radio

smoothies

4 peaches, pitted

10 medium strawberries (fresh or frozen)

2 teaspoons chia seeds, soaked for 10 minutes

1 head of baby bok choy (or 3-5 leaves + stalks of big bok choy)

4 to 6 ounces of filtered water

Blend together until smooth. Best to add the bok choy last. Contains 349 calories, 74g carbohydrate, 9g protein, 5g fat (Omega-3's the kind you need!) and 15g fiber.




1-2 handfuls of fresh spinach
• ½ frozen banana
• ¼ cup frozen berries
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 scoop of your favorite protein powder
• A few ice cubes
• Add water until desired consistency is met




1 large orange, peeled and segmented
1/2 of a large banana, cut into chunks
6 large strawberries
2 cups spinach
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt (I use Chobani 0%)
1 cup iceSergei’s Green Power Smoothie1 cup spinach
1 cup Swiss chard
1 cup collard greens
1-2 stalks of celery with dark green leaves
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 peach, pitted
1 pear
½ avocado
4 dates, pitted
2 Tablespoons bee pollen (optional)Add enough water to blend everything in the blender. Blend until smooth and enjoy!




1 tablespoon lemon juice,
 1 cup of cubed cantaloupe,
 2 slices of pineapple,
 1 cup of golden kiwi or papaya,
 1/2 cup plain, organic low-fat yogurt and
1 tablespoon of honey


 1 large beetroot,
1/2 cup carrots,
1/2 cup peanut butter,
 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil,
1/2 cup boiled rhubarb,
1 cup tender coconut water


1/2 cup blueberries,
 1 tablespoon whey protein,
 1 cup grape juice, 1 cup apple juice
 1/2 cup raisins.

endometriosis and Dandelion once again

 

Once again dandelion one of my favorite thing and this is just one more thing it is good for.

Endometriosis

For those who suffer from endometriosis, it can be a painful and very frustrating disease. In this condition, tissues that are normally found inside the uterus are found outside of the uterus and the result is painful.
Women who suffer from endometriosis often have painful or even irregular periods and may often have fertility issues later on that would require immediate attention. There is definitely a genetic link to this condition as well for which individuals should be aware of if they have a family history of it.
It is highly recommended that a woman who believes she is suffering from the symptoms of endometriosis seek medical attention. There are a variety of reasons that a woman may have painful or irregular periods, but it’s necessary that a woman get a proper diagnosis to ensure an appropriate treatment plan.
It’s essential to get the diagnosis as soon as possible so that there aren’t any further complications down the line. There are surgeries or even medications that may help with the condition, but there are some home remedies for endometriosis that can also prove to be quite helpful. They should be considered to help with the pain and to even help with the condition overall, and can certainly go hand in hand with any other prescribed treatments.

Home Remedies for Endometriosis:

Regular Exercise:

Not only can exercise help you to get in shape and be part of a healthy lifestyle, but it can also work wonders for endometriosis.
Exercising regularly can keep estrogen levels down and this can help to ensure that the condition does not worsen. It is therefore quite important to exercise all the time, but particularly around the time of your monthly cycle.
You will find that exercise is a great home remedy for endometriosis and can help the symptoms to subside.

Omega-3 Fatty Acid:

Omega-3 fatty acid is good for so many different conditions, and so it’s not surprising that it shows up as an excellent home remedy for endometriosis. Here we see that it can slow down prostaglandin production which greatly contributes to endometriosis.
Taking an Omega-3 fatty acid supplement is of great help as is eating foods rich in it such as salmon and flaxseed.

Rosemary and Dandelion:

Taking supplements such as roots and leaves of rosemary and dandelion can be your very best home remedy for endometriosis.
These can work to improve the hormonal metabolism and natural balance that can assist with endometriosis and its’ symptoms.
It is highly recommended and if taken daily may help to alleviate the condition altogether.


One or two more articles :When a woman has endometriosis the lining of the uterus that should have been eliminated during menstruation instead migrates and attaches itself to other parts of the body outside the uterus. These parts can be varied, including other organs of the body. It can entwine itself around the ovaries, fallopian tubes, bladder and intestines and in some cases can travel to distant areas such as the lungs.

Endometriosis symptoms include premenstrual and menstrual pain that intensifies each month. Bleeding can be heavy during menstruation, together with spotting or bleeding between periods. Another common occurrence is pain during intercourse. Other areas can also be affected, such as the stomach or lower back.

Natural medicine considers this condition to be a hormone related disease. Either the body is producing too much estrogen or too little progesterone or the liver is not breaking down the active estrogen in a timely manner. Therefore, emphasis in treatment is placed on supporting the liver and digestive system with the proper nutrients and supplementation, together with balancing the hormones with herbs.

The following natural treatments are used in treating Endometriosis:

The first is to cut back on animal fats, especially high-fat dairy, red meat and fish. These animal fats contain dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) which have been associated with endometriosis.

Nutrients that help in the balancing and metabolic process of estrogen are found in foods such as Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, and bok choy.

Additional beneficial foods and herbs include:

* Flavones, celery and parsley of which are an excellent source.

* Flaxseeds, which are high in lignans and fiber.

* Chaste-tree berry.

Progesterone cream may relieve the pain experienced during menstrual periods and it is thought to slow the growth of abnormal tissue.

Studies have indicated that Omega 3's may be beneficial when addressing endometriosis. These can be found in fish such as salmon, mackerel, sardines, and anchovies. However, because of the dioxins and PCB's that they contain, it may be preferable to take an Omega 3 supplement that contains a minimal amount of these environmental chemicals.

Excess cortisol also plays an important role in the progression of endometriosis. Prolonged stress leads to the elevation of this hormone which may result in hormonal imbalance. It is important to eliminate unnecessary stress or relieve and learn to cope with the stresses brought on by day-to-day life. Relaxation exercises, meditation, and breathing exercises are effective in developing these coping mechanisms.

Herbs and supplements recommended for stress relief include ashwagandha, B-Complex vitamins, vitamin C, zinc, calcium and magnesium. Calcium is necessary for the proper absorption of magnesium. When taking these supplements it should be on a calcium magnesium ratio of 2:1 or 3:1. Other beneficial supplements include vitamin E, folic acid, and selenium.

Herbs that support the liver and digestive system are goldenseal, dandelion, artichoke, milk thistle, and burdock, while xanthoxylon, ocotillo, goldenseal, and witch hazel improve pelvic circulation. Ginger tea may be effective in relieving the nausea associated with endometriosis.

Hydrotherapy is also recommended by many alternative practitioners.

Instead of relying on pain relievers, there are natural alternatives that will relieve pain, such as crampbark, black haw, valerian, and wild yam.


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/028673_endometriosis_natural_remedies.html#ixzz2PEMKPCZe

NaturalNews) Increasingly, Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is being put to the test by Western scientists -- and the results are sometimes not only successful but downright astounding. A case in point: a new review of CHM research by British scientists just published in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews shows treating endometriosis with Chinese herbs may not only relieve symptoms of the disease, CHM appears to have comparable benefits to drugs and even laparoscopic surgery with fewer adverse effects.

This is important news because endometriosis is a huge problem in the US and Western medicine has yet to come up with any viable treatment that doesn't have serious side effects. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), at least 5.5 million women in North America alone have the disorder and 30 to 40 percent of them are infertile. A condition that causes tissue that normally lines the uterus to grow on the ovaries, bowels, and bladder, behind the uterus or elsewhere, endometriosis often produces debilitating pain that can keep a woman from going to work or school and put enormous strains on relationships. Endometriosis commonly causes severe cramps during menstrual periods, excessive bleeding during periods, chronic pelvic discomfort that can spread to the lower back and pain during or after sex.

The cause of endometriosis remains unknown so doctors tend to treat it with prescription pain medications, hormones that can have devastating masculizing effects and even surgery to remove the endometrial growths. In some cases, doctors remove a woman's reproductive organs to try to reduce pain. As the Cochrane review points out, however, surgery doesn't always lead to long-term improvement in symptoms and drug treatments can cause a host of new problems such as hot flushes, acne and weight gain.

The new study is the first English language systematic review of CHM for the treatment of endometriosis. The researchers analyzed, in particular, two trials of 158 women. In one clinical trial, therapy with Chinese herbs provided a reduction of symptoms that was comparable to the relief provided by the hormone medication gestrinone. However, the herbs, unlike the drug, caused few side effects. In the second trial, CHM was even more successful in treating endometriosis than the hormonal drug danazol. Once again, the Chinese herbs produced far fewer side effects than the Western medication.

"These findings suggest that Chinese herbs may be just as effective as certain conventional drug treatments for women suffering from endometriosis, but at present we don't have enough evidence to generalize the results," said lead researcher Andrew Flower of the Complementary Medicine Research Unit at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom in a statement to the media.

A growing number of scientists are actively studying the efficacy of CHM for other conditions, as well. For example, as reported previously in Natural News, researchers have found Chinese herbs can relieve menstrual cramps better than drugs (http://www.naturalnews.com/022969_menstrual_pain_drugs_Chinese_herbs....) and CHM may also be a successful treatment for type 2 diabetes (http://www.naturalnews.com/024051_diabetes_bitter_melon_medicine.html). Earlier this year, scientists reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that Chinese herbs appear to help asthma patients, too.

Reference:
Flower A, Liu JP, Chen S, Lewith G, Little P. Chinese herbal medicine for endometriosis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD006568. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006568.pub2.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/026829_endometriosis_Chinese_herbs.html#ixzz2PEMgMn8d
 

ENDOMETRIOSIS

ENDOMETRIOSIS NATURAL REMEDIES

Endometriosis home remedies and natural cures can be pretty effective if correctly used. Listed below are some of the home remedies which are recognized as effective methods for endometriosis: Juice Therapy Fresh Fruit and vegetable juices are recommended for endometriosis. Try juice therapy - dark grape, mango, papaya and pineapple juices. Drink fresh fruit and vegetable juices maintained at room temperature. Ice Pack or a Heating Pad Place an ice pack or heating pad on the lower abdominal area. This will give relief in the symptom. Ginger Tea Nausea is often a troublesome situation in endometriosis. Ginger tea could relieve the nausea that can occur with endometriosis. It is suggested that ginger can reduce the level of prostaglandin hormone (that activates cramps, pain, etc) in the body. This can help in treating menstrual cramps and pain. It is recommended to drink a cup of ginger tea twice every day for about a month. This is well tested and affective homemade remedy for treating nausea in the endometriosis. ENDOMETRIOSIS BIBLE Endometriosis Bible Stop Suffering the Living Hell of Endometriosis Vegetables and Flaxseeds There is evidence that a group of plant chemicals called flavones can inhibit aromatase, the enzyme that converts androgens to estrogens. Good food sources of flavones are celery and parsley. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, and bok choy, contain compounds called indoles, which appear to improve estrogen metabolism. Flaxseeds are high in lignans and fiber, which have been found to be beneficial for estrogen-related conditions. Try to include vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, bok choy and kale in your daily menu. These vegetables are having indoles which are tending to improve the estrogen metabolism. Including flaxseeds and estrogen friendly vegetables like broccoli, cabbages and Brussels sprouts in your meals will give you an opportunity to try out one of the best natural remedies for endometriosis as well. Warm Bath or Heating Pad Warm Bath and/or Heating Pad are well known as an effective method for the Treatment of Endometriosis. Taking a warm bath can relieve muscle spasms and alleviate cramping pain, thereby treating endometriosis. As an alternative, it is possible also place the heating pad on the lower abdomen. This can also relieve cramping pain of endometriosis. Hydrotherapy A contrast sitz bath is often recommended by alternative practitioners for endometriosis. It is a home remedy and has not been studied. A contrast sitz bath involves sitting in a small basin or tub filled with hot water for three minutes, then getting up and sitting in another basin filled with cool water for one minute. The hot water-cold water cycle is repeated another 3 times. It is not usually done during menstruation. Omega-3 Fatty Acid Experts suggest that omega-3 fatty acid fishes such as salmon, mackerel, herrings, sardines, anchovies can reduce the level of prostaglandin hormone in the body. Omega-3 fatty acids are also available in fish oil capsules, which may be the preferable form because good brands contain minimal amounts of PCBs and dioxins. This can help in treating endometriosis. One might include such fishes in regular diet to treat endometriosis. Several studies have found that omega-3 fatty acids may be beneficial for people with endometriosis. For example, an animal study by the University of Western Ontario found that fish oil containing two specific compounds, EPA and DHA, can relieve pain by decreasing levels of an inflammatory chemical called prostaglandin E2. Researchers also found that fish oil could slow the growth of endometrial tissue. Calcium-Rich Food Calcium-Rich Food for the Treatment of Endometriosis is recommended. Clients with endometriosis can take about 800 mg of calcium in their daily diet to treat endometriosis. Some calcium-rich foods are nuts, milk, salmon, tofu, spinach, broccoli, baked beans, etc. It is suggested that deficiency of calcium especially during menstruation can lead to muscular cramps. Calcium can treat muscular cramp caused due to endometriosis by maintaining normal muscle tone. Magnesium-Rich Food Experts suggest that magnesium can help in increasing the capacity of our body to absorb calcium, thereby relieving menstrual cramp. This is why the magnesium-rich food is recommended during endometriosis. Endometriosis clients should include foods such as whole wheat flour, tofu, buckwheat, salmon, vegetables, nuts, etc. in daily diet to treat endometriosis. Bacterial or yeast overgrowth William Crook, author of “The Yeast Connection” believed there was a strong connection between endometriosis and candida yeast overgrowth. A study by the Woman's Hospital of Texas examined 50 women with endometriosis and found that 40 women showed bacterial overgrowth. After eight weeks of treatment, here was a significant reduction in symptoms. Exercises Regular walk Exercises definitely help relieving the symptoms of endometriosis. Latest studies reveal that certain yoga posture and breathing technique like ‘Pranayama’ helps treating the endometriosis. Exercise regularly. It will reduce the estrogen levels and hence slow down the growth of endometriosis. It is also suggested that regular walking can promote circulation of pelvic organs and reduce scar tissue build up. This might help in relieving symptoms of endometriosis. Herbs Herbs such as cramp bark, chaste berry, cohosh and false unicorn root relieve symptoms of endometriosis. Certain Ayurvedic herbs like Ashwagandha, Kumari, Ashoka and Jeeraka are also considered to be good and effective home remedy for endometriosis. Leaves and flowers Leaves and flowers of rosemary, leaves and roots of dandelion, milk thistle seeds and vervain herb are effective in improving hormone metabolism and bile-bowel function. To restore the hormonal level, metabolism and bile-bowel function it is recommended to take leaves and flowers of rosemary, leaves and roots of dandelion, vervain herb and milk thistle seeds. They are proven to be beneficial in condition like endometriosis. Useful Advices for Endometriosis Progesterone Cream Progesterone cream may relieve the pelvic pain and/or pain experienced during menstrual periods and it is thought to slow the growth of abnormal tissue during endometriosis. Natural progesterone cream is applied to the wrists, inner arms, inner thighs, or upper chest at a dose and schedule that should be recommended by a professional. It's important to be supervised and to have progesterone levels monitored on lab tests, because too much progesterone can cause such side effects as mood changes, depression, water retention, weight gain, and absent or abnormal menstrual bleeding. Reduce Chemical Intake There is increasing evidence that chronic exposure to the environmental chemicals dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is associated with an increased prevalence and severity of endometriosis. One way to reduce intake of these chemicals is to cut back on animal fat, especially high-fat dairy, red meat, and fish. Dioxin and PCBs both accumulate in animal fat and it is our main route of exposure. Stress Reduction Try to avoid stress especially when you are suffering from endometriosis. Excess cortisol also plays an important role in the progression of endometriosis. Prolonged stress leads to the elevation of this hormone which may result in hormonal imbalance. It is important to eliminate unnecessary stress or relieve and learn to cope with the stresses brought on by day-to-day life. Relaxation exercises, meditation, and breathing exercises are effective in developing these coping mechanisms. One study involving 49 women found that cortisol levels were significantly higher in women with advanced endometriosis compared to women who didn't have this condition. Tampons Avoid using tampons during periods. Diet for Endometriosis The first is to cut back on animal fats, especially high-fat dairy, red meat and fish. These animal fats contain dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) which have been associated with endometriosis. Nutrients that help in the balancing and metabolic process of estrogen are found in foods such as Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, and bok choy. Eat Vitamin B and fiber rich food; Eat fish; it contains omega-3 fatty acids which help in suppressing prostaglandin production. It is advisable to take fruit juice or vegetable juice. Don’t go for chilled or cold juice. These juices are to be stored at room temperature. Dark grape, papaya, pineapple and mango are considered to be beneficial in endometriosis. Avoid dairy products as much as possible. They are considered as triggering factor for endometriosis. Avoid fatty diet, spicy food and non-vegetarian items. Alcohol and smoking are highly contraindicated in condition like endometriosis. Avoid caffeine, sugar, red meat and alcohol. Avoid all dairy products. Avoid fried foods and processed foods. Eat a low fat and fiber rich vegetarian diet. Fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, salads, flax seed oil and cereals are good sources of fiber. Eat vitamin B rich food and fiber rich vegetarian diet. Whole grains, salads, flax seed oils and cereals are rich sources of fiber which help to relieve some pain in the case of endometriosis. This is one of the simple home remedies for endometriosis. One should strictly avoid animal fat, high dairy fatty products and meat. These have chemical called polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxins. These chemicals are considered to be very bad especially in the condition like endometriosis. Try to include the diet having rich in vitamin C, magnesium and zinc. These elements help in preventing endometriosis. Preventing an intake of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls by reducing animal fats particularly red meat and fish from your diet is undoubtedly one of the best natural remedies for endometriosis that you can avail.

hormone threat

Hormone disrupting chemicals a 'global threat   

A new technical report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Environment Program (UNEP) made a remarkable splash earlier this month, raising worries that hormone-disrupting chemicals currently on the market pose a "global threat" to human and ecosystem health.

In the paper, State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs), scientists flagged serious concern about the level of endocrine-related diseases and disorders on the rise, including: low semen quality and non-descended testes in young males; breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers; early onset of breast development in women; and developmental effects on the nervous system in children.
Endocrine disrupting chemicals, known in the scientific community as EDCs, interfere with the hormone (endocrine) system, causing developmental, neurological, reproductive and immune harm in humans and wildlife. And these chemicals can cause significant health harms even in extremely low doses.
Here in the U.S., we're exposed to EDCs from a diverse array of products from plastics (like BPA) to flame retardants. Some commonly used pesticides are also EDCs. Atrazine, for instance, is a frequently used herbicide found in 94% of our drinking water.

A call for global action

This recent WHO/UNEP report — thought to be the most comprehensive study on EDCs to date — suggests that it's well past time to get a handle on these chemicals in our environment. "An integrated, coordinated international effort is needed to define the role of EDCs in current declines in human and wildlife health and in wildlife populations," note the authors, who recommend that public health officials take the following steps:

1. Focus on reducing exposures by a variety of mechanisms, and
2. Close the knowledge gaps that "hamper progress towards better protection of the public and wildlife."

WHO Director for Public Health and the Environment Dr. Maria Neira concurs, citing the organization's commitment to address the global threat EDCs pose:

"The latest science shows that communities across the globe are being exposed to EDCs, and their associated risks. WHO will work with partners to establish research priorities to investigate links to EDCs and human health impacts in order to mitigate the risks. We all have a responsibility to protect future generations."

Why you dont want to be dehydrated and this is just some reasons.

d 25 percent solid matter. To provide nourishment, eliminate waste and conduct all the trillions of activities in the body, we need water. Most modern societies, however, no longer stress the importance of drinking water as the most important "nutrient" among nutrients. Entire population groups are substituting water with tea, coffee, alcohol and other manufactured beverages. Many people don't realize that the natural thirst signal of the body is a sign that it requires pure, plain drinking water. Instead, they opt for other beverages in the belief that this will satisfy the body's water requirements. This is a false belief.

Common Beverage Substitutions Lead to Dehydration

It is true that beverages such as tea, coffee, wine, beer, soft drinks, sports drinks and juices contain water, but they also contain caffeine, alcohol, sugar, artificial sweeteners or other chemicals that act as strong dehydrators. The more of these beverages you consume, the more dehydrated your body becomes because the effects they create in the body are exactly opposite the ones that are produced by water. Beverages containing caffeine, for example, trigger stress responses that at first have strong diuretic effects, leading to increased urination. Beverages with added sugar drastically raise blood sugar levels. Any beverage that provokes such a response coerces the body to give up large quantities of water. Regular consumption of such beverages results in chronic dehydration, which plays a part in every toxicity crisis (the body's effort to rid itself of accumulated toxins).

There is no practical or rational reason to treat an illness (toxicity crisis) with synthetic drugs or even with natural medications and methods unless the body's need for hydration has been met first. Drugs and other forms of medical intervention can be dangerous for the human physiology largely because of their strongly dehydrating effects. Most patients nowadays are suffering from "thirst disease," a progressive condition of dehydration. Some parts of the body may be dehydrated more than others. Unable to remove toxins from these parts due to insufficient water reserves, the body is faced with the consequences of their destructive effects (toxemia). The lack of recognition of the most basic aspects of water metabolism in the body more often than not becomes a "diagnosed" illness, when it is really the body's desperate cry for water. What doctors generally refer to as disease, is largely an advanced condition of dehydration and the resulting inability of the body to rid itself of waste materials and toxins.

Recognizing Dehydration

Those who have lived for many years without proper water intake are the most likely to succumb to the buildup of toxins in the body. Chronic disease is always accompanied by dehydration and, in many cases, caused by it. The longer a person lives on a low water ration and/or on a high ration of stimulating beverages or foods, the more severe and long-lasting will be the toxicity crisis. Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, stomach ulcers, hypertension, cancer, MS, Alzheimer's, and many other chronic forms of disease are preceded by years of "body drought." Infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses cannot thrive in a well-hydrated body. Drinking enough water is, therefore, one of the most important disease-prevention measures you can take.

Those who do not drink enough water, or who unduly deplete their body's water reserves through overstimulation for a period of time, gradually lower the ratio of the volume of water that exists inside the cells to the ratio of the volume of water that is found outside the cells. Normally, the water ratio inside cells is higher than the one found in the cell environment. Under conditions of dehydration, the cells may lose up to 28 percent or more of their water volume. This certainly undermines all cellular activities, whether the cells in question are those of the skin, stomach, liver, kidney, heart or brain. Whenever there is cellular dehydration, metabolic waste products are not removed properly. This causes symptoms that resemble disease, but they are really just indicators of disturbed water metabolism.

Since more and more water begins to accumulate outside the cells in order to dilute and help neutralize the toxic waste products that have accumulated there, the dehydration may not be apparent to the afflicted person. He may, in fact, notice that he begins to hold on to water in his legs, feet, arms and face. His kidneys may also begin to hold on to water, markedly reducing urinary secretion and causing the retention of potentially harmful waste products. Normally, cellular enzymes signal to the brain when cells run low on water. Enzymes in dehydrated cells, however, become so inefficient that they are no longer able to register the drought-like condition. Subsequently, they fail to convey the emergency situation to the brain, which would normally push the "thirst alarm button."

Demetria, a 53-year-old Greek woman, consulted me to find relief for the painful condition of gallbladder disease. Her skin was dark gray, indicating a high concentration of toxins in her liver and throughout her body. Seeing how dehydrated (and swollen) her body was, I offered her a glass of water. She said, "I never drink water; it makes me sick!" I told her that her natural thirst signals were no longer working due to cellular dehydration, and that without drinking enough water, her body could not return to balance. It was obvious to me that her body would use any amount of water she drank to instantly remove some of the toxins lurking in her stomach, giving rise to nausea. In her case, any therapy other than drinking water would have been a waste of her time and money. Demetria's difficult condition required that she begin sipping small amounts of hot, ionized water every half hour (see directions in "General Guidelines" of Chapter 6, Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation, www.ener-chi.com) to help remove these toxins until she was able to drink larger portions of regular water.

A dehydrated person may also be suffering from a lack of energy. Because of a shortage of water inside the cells, the normal osmotic flow of water through the cell membrane becomes severely disturbed. Similar to a stream running down a mountain, the movement of water into the cells generates "hydroelectric" energy, which is subsequently stored as ATP molecules (the main source of cellular energy). As a rule, the water we drink keeps the cell volume balanced, and the salt we eat maintains the balanced volume of water that is kept outside the cells and in circulation. This generates the perfect osmotic pressure necessary for cellular nourishment and energy production. In a dehydrated state, the body fails to sustain this vital mechanism, thereby leading to potentially serious cell damage.

The Pain Connection

Another major indicator of dehydration in the body is pain. In response to an increasing shortage of water, the brain activates and stores the important neurotransmitter histamine, which directs certain subordinate water regulators to redistribute the amount of water that is in circulation. This system helps move water to areas where it is needed for essential metabolic activity and survival when facing such a shortage, as may occur during a drought. When histamine and its subordinate regulators for water intake and distribution move across pain-sensing nerves in the body, they trigger strong and continual pain. These pain signals may manifest, for example, in rheumatoid arthritis, angina, dyspepsia, low back problems, fibromyalgia, neuralgia, migraine, and hangover headaches. They are necessary to alert the person to attend to the problem of a widespread or localized form of dehydration.

Taking analgesics or other pain-relieving medications such as antihistamines and antacids can cause irreversible damage in your body. They not only fail to address the real problem (which may be dehydration), but they also cut off the connection between the neurotransmitter, histamine, and its subordinate regulators, such as vasopressin, Renin-Angiotensin (RA), prostaglandin (PG), and kinins. Although the action of pain-killing drugs can relieve localized pain for a while, it also precludes your body from knowing the priority areas for water distribution. This can greatly confuse your body's internal communications systems and spread chaos throughout the body. Antihistamines -- oftentimes referred to as allergy drugs -- effectively prevent the body's histamines from ensuring balanced water distribution.

The problem worsens once the body has reached a certain pain threshold. In addition to jeopardizing the water-regulating mechanisms, these painkillers become ineffective because the brain takes over as a direct center for monitoring pain perpetuation (unless, of course, the body is properly hydrated again). If your body produces lasting pain for no apparent reason (not caused by an injury), before drawing any other conclusions, you should interpret this as the body's cry for water and its attempt to remedy an unbalanced condition. Prescription pain medication suppresses the body's primary signal of dehydration. Pain killers "short-circuit" the body's emergency routes for water supply; they also sabotage proper waste elimination and sow the seeds of chronic illness.

There is enough documentation to show that pain medications may have fatal side effects. They can cause gastrointestinal bleeding, which kills thousands each year. The morphine-type compounds these legal drugs contain can also lead to serious, life-altering addictions. When the famous radio host, Rush Limbaugh, announced on his radio program that he was addicted to pain medication, his life was in shambles. But he is not alone in this. There are millions of people who initially started off by taking an "innocent" Advil for the occasional headache, but ended up being unable to live without strong painkillers. Once you start using dehydrating medications like these, you will mostly likely develop the same kind or even worse pain over and over again.

The most recently documented and widely popularized side effects of pain killers, such as Vioxx, Celebrex and the over-the-counter drug Aleve (Naproxen), should tell you that there are no safe painkillers. These drugs were found to increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes by at least 50 percent. Aspirin and other "harmless" drugs belong to the same class of painkillers as the above. Today, there are millions of heart disease sufferers, who out of ignorance and misguided trust in the medical system, the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry, believed that taking a little innocent baby pill wouldn't do them any harm. The revelation that this little pill could destroy their heart or damage their brain if they took it for more than 10 days may be no less than shocking. But how many people listen to such warnings if all they want is to "get rid of that annoying pain"?

Taking a "harmless" little pill that makes you feel better within a matter of minutes and allows you to get on with your life may feel like the right thing to do. And, if the pain medicine tastes delicious, the "miracle drug" couldn't possibly do you any harm, or could it? Tylenol Extra Strength "cool caplets," the latest craze among painkilling medications, makes these dangerous drugs appear harmless. It's both a breath mint and a pain reliever. But is it really a sound idea to add the temptation of flavoring to a pain-reliever that, by the FDA's own admission, plays a role in at least 100 reported (a fraction of the real figure) unintentional deaths each year? This may change now that the scandals surrounding drug approval and the revelations concerning shoddy research are increasingly being exposed; or will it? If you were to ask people on the street if they considered acetaminophen to be a completely benign medication, most would respond with a "yes." That totally undeserved reputation may only be reinforced when mint flavoring is added to the mix.

Once you decide to end a drug addiction, life is not going to be easy. Those who are able to afford a rehabilitation treatment, can choose a rapid anesthesia detox for about $5,900. To become truly rehabilitated, though, they will need to deal with the underlying causes of the pain that originally led them to take addictive drugs. The bottom line is this: The body's natural pain signal is a perfectly normal response to an abnormal situation -- simple dehydration. In many cases, the body's blood vessel walls, liver bile ducts, lymphatic ducts, kidneys, intestinal tract, and other organs of elimination are so congested that chronic dehydration becomes inevitable. To restore health, the body needs to be cleansed and nourished properly, which is the main theme of my book.

Most people have no real understanding of what pain is. They rarely perceive it to be an important part of the body's healing efforts. Pain is always a sign of resistance to what moves or flows naturally. The resistance can occur either as a result of some physical obstruction, such as constipation or lymph congestion, or from an emotional resistance to a particular person or situation. Once recognized, the causes of resistance can usually be resolved. Fighting pain tends to lead to more pain, whereas releasing the resistance lessens the pain. Even if you experience some pain while supporting the body through cleansing, rest and good nutrition, the pain actually helps to accelerate the healing. If you stay with the pain, rather than suppressing it with drugs, you will find that it will decrease naturally in a matter of hours or a few days. Trying to combat every ache or pain with painkillers, on the other hand, is an addiction that causes much fear and more pain in your life. Feeling one's pain with an attitude of acceptance removes all kinds of fear from your life. In addition, the pain experience itself will stimulate the secretion of the body's own natural painkillers and healing hormones -- the endorphins. Overall, once you have identified and dealt with the causes of the pain, it is just a matter of time before the pain disappears altogether.

Of course, in the rare case that the pain becomes simply unbearable, the use of painkillers may be unavoidable. At the same time, the pain-afflicted person should get on a hydration and cleansing program, as well as end any dehydrating influences in his life.

"Body Drought" - The Strongest Type of Stress

The human brain, working round the clock, requires more water than any other part of the body. Typically, the brain contains about 20 percent of all the blood that circulates through the body. It is estimated that brain cells consist of 85 percent water. Their energy requirements are not only met by metabolizing glucose (simple sugar), but also by generating "hydroelectric" energy from the water drive through cell osmosis. The brain depends greatly on this cell-generated source of energy in order to maintain its hugely complex processes and efficiency.

Water deficiency in the brain tissue cuts down the brain's energy supply, and thereby subdues many of its vital functions -- a situation most people call depression. With a lower than normal level of brain energy, you are unable to meet your physical, personal and social challenges and subsequently succumb to fear, anxiety, anger and other emotional tribulations. You may feel drained, lethargic, stressed and depressed. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), for example, is mostly a symptom of progressive brain dehydration that results from the inability to readily remove all metabolic waste matter and cellular debris from the brain and other vital parts of the body. What CFS sufferers refer to as "brain fog" is actually an accurate description of the congestion that occurs in the brain. CFS is not a vicious disease that somehow gets hold of a person for no apparent reason. It may disappear quite spontaneously when the afflicted person stops stimulating the brain with such things as caffeine, tobacco, medication and animal products and begins a consistent program of cleansing, hydrating, and nourishing the body. [For more information on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS), please see the articles page on the author's website, (www.ener-chi.com)]

The Stress Response

When dehydrated, the body has to put up the fight of a lifetime -- similar to the one experienced during a famine or a "fight or flight" situation. It responds to such a crisis by mobilizing several powerful hormones, including adrenalin, endorphins, cortisone, prolactin, vasopressin, and Renin-Angiotensin (RA). Endorphins, for example, help us to withstand pain and stress and allow the body to continue most of its activities. Cortisone orders the mobilization of stored energies and essential raw materials to supply the body with energy and basic nutrients during the crisis. This hormone actually allows the body to feed off itself, a situation that is warranted during a famine. Of course, this is also very stressful and potentially dangerous for the body, as can be seen by such emotional expressions as, "I cannot cope anymore," or "This is really eating at me."

Many patients with rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis (MS) or other degenerative diseases take cortisone drugs, which often give them a boost of energy and morale for a relatively short period of time. The "success" of the drug, however, only lasts for as long as the body can tap into any energy and nutrient reserves still left. Once the body has used up its emergency provisions, it will barely function anymore, and the symptoms of disease will worsen considerably.

Constriction of blood vessels

When the cells in the body are under-supplied with water, the brain's pituitary gland produces the neurotransmitter vasopressin, a hormone that has the ability to constrict blood vessels in areas where there is cellular dehydration. During dehydration, the quantity of water in the bloodstream is reduced. Vasopressin, as its name suggests, squeezes the vascular system, i.e., the capillaries and arteries, to reduce their fluid volume. This maneuver is necessary to continue having enough pressure in the vascular system to allow for a steady filtration of water into the cells. This gives vasopressin a hypertensive property. High blood pressure is a common experience among people who are dehydrated. A similar situation occurs in the liver's bile ducts, which begin to constrict in response to water shortage in the body. Gallstone formation is a direct result of dehydration.

Drinking alcoholic beverages suppresses the secretion of vasopressin and thereby increases cellular dehydration. If alcohol consumption is excessive, cellular dehydration may reach dangerously high levels. The typical "hangover" that occurs after alcohol abuse is nothing but an extreme state of dehydration of the brain cells. To survive the alcohol-induced "drought," the body has to secrete more stress hormones, among them the addictive endorphins. With regular consumption of alcohol, that is, having a drink every day for several months or years, dehydration increases even further, and endorphin production becomes an addictive occurrence. This may lead to alcoholism, a disease that has devastating consequences on a person's personal and social life.

Water Retention and Kidney Damage

The Renin-Angiotensin (RA) system becomes activated whenever there is a shortage of water in the body. This brilliantly designed system is used to direct the body to hold on to water wherever possible. It instructs the kidneys to inhibit urination and tightens the capillaries and the vascular system, particularly in areas that are not as vitally important as the brain and the heart muscles. At the same time, it stimulates an increase in the absorption of sodium (salt), which helps the body to retain water. Unless the body returns to its normal level of hydration, the RA system remains activated. But this also means that the pressure of the blood against the walls of the blood vessels remains abnormally high, thereby causing the damage that is known as cardiovascular disease.

Hypertension and the retention of urine in the kidneys may lead to kidney damage. Conventional treatments for this condition consist mostly of diuretic (urine-forming) drugs and restricted salt consumption. Both can have severe drawbacks. Diuretic drugs, which are used to normalize blood pressure, as well as reduced salt intake, strongly undermine the body's emergency measures to save the little water it has left for normal cellular activities. The resulting stress response causes a further increase in dehydration, and the vicious cycle is complete. Many of the kidney transplants performed today are a result of chronic dehydration, which is caused by something as simple as not drinking enough water, consumption of alcohol, eating foods high in animal protein, or overstimulation of the nervous system.

The Caffeine and Alcohol Drama

The caffeine contained in such beverages as tea, coffee, soft drinks and most power drinks, not only stimulates and stresses both the central nervous and immune systems, but also acts as a powerful diuretic. For every cup of coffee or tea you drink, your body has to relinquish up to three cups of water to remove the toxic caffeine. It cannot afford to give up this water without suffering some sort of damage. The caffeine-containing soft drink beverages work in a similar way. Caffeine, being a nerve toxin, stimulates the adrenal glands to secrete stress hormones and to trigger a strong immune response that may give you the false impression that this newly found energy and vitality was somehow provided by the consumed beverage.

The secret behind these stimulants is that the immune reaction mobilizes enough energy for you to feel perked up and clear-headed, at least for as long as your body remains stimulated. To remove the caffeine from the blood, the body is forced to take water from its cells. This results in cellular dehydration and temporary thinning of the blood. Because the thinning of the blood makes you feel good, you won't notice the imminent danger of dehydration. The dehydrating effect of the caffeine in soft drinks is ample reason to avoid them. Unfortunately, caffeine is not the only culprit in soft drinks.

Soft Drinks May Seriously Harm Your Health

New evidence confirms that soft drinks cause serious cell damage. Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Coca-Cola, Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA -- a problem more usually associated with aging and alcohol abuse. This can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's. The findings reveal serious consequences for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who consume carbonated beverages. They also reopen the debate about food additives, which have been linked to hyperactivity in children.

The biggest concern centers on the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the $150 billion global carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid. It is used in large quantities to prevent mold from forming in soft drinks such as Sprite, Oasis and Dr Pepper. This common preservative is also added to pickles and sauces.

In the past, sodium benzoate had already been identified as an indirect cause of cancer. When mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it produces benzene, a carcinogenic substance. Now, Dr. Peter Piper, professor of molecular biology and biotechnology at Sheffield University, England, has released the results of his research on the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. Professor Piper discovered that benzoate damaged an important area of DNA in the "power station" of cells known as the mitochondria. He told The Independent on Sunday, May 27, 2007: "These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether. The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it -- as happens in a number of diseased states -- then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA -- Parkinson's and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all, the whole process of aging."

While referring to outdated tests done by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization, Professor Piper said, "The food industry will say these compounds have been tested and they are completely safe. By the criteria of modern safety testing, the safety tests were inadequate. Like all things, safety testing moves forward and you can conduct a much more rigorous safety test than you could 50 years ago."

It is obvious that the government is not going to take a stand against the powerful food and beverage industry. It is up to everyone to protect themselves and their families against the careless policies and practices of those in charge of public health. Not allowing your children to drink soft drinks is one of the most important things you can do for their safety and good health. The same applies to sport drinks, which according to a report issued by the University of Californian in Berkeley can raise body weight a stunning 13 pounds each year if only one 20-ounce bottle is consumed each day.

A new study conducted at Boston University School of Medicine (released August 2007) shows that drinking as little as one can of soda -- regular or diet -- per day is associated with a 46 percent increased risk of metabolic syndrome which plays a major role in heart disease and diabetes. According to the study, other harmful side effects of soda, both diet and regular, include:

* A 31% greater risk of becoming obese.

* A 30% higher risk of having a larger waist line.

* A 25% higher risk of developing high blood triglycerides or high blood sugar.

* A 32% greater risk of having low levels of good cholesterol.

* A trend toward an increased risk of high blood pressure.

Over the long term, the effects of the acidity, sugars, artificial flavors and sweeteners, and such preservatives as E211 contained in soft drinks can be devastating to the body. It would take 32 glasses of water at an alkaline pH of 9 to neutralize the acid from just one 12 oz. cola or other soda. In response to ingesting a cola, apart from risking dehydration, the body will have to use up reserves of its own stored alkaline buffers, mainly calcium from the bones, teeth and DNA. This raises the body's alkalinity levels in order to maintain proper blood alkaline pH levels. Once these reserves are exhausted, your life is at risk. There are enough acids in one soda to kill you, if your body didn't possess a mechanism to neutralize them. How long it takes before your body succumbs to the acid attack and suffers an acidosis depends upon how soon your mineral buffers are depleted. Acidic blood levels are a leading cause of death!

Caffeine, which is a major component in most soft drinks, removes water from the body faster than the body can absorb it again, thereby generating constant thirst. People who frequently drink soft drinks are never really able to quench their thirst because their bodies continually and increasingly run out of cellular water. Some college students drink as many as 10-14 cans of cola a day. Eventually, they confuse their bodies' never-ending thirst signal with hunger and begin to overeat, causing swelling and excessive weight gain. Apart from its diuretic action and its addictive effects on the brain, regular caffeine intake overstimulates the heart muscles, causing exhaustion and heart disease.

Alcohol's diuretic effect on the body is similar to that of caffeine-containing beverages. For example, drinking one glass of beer results in the body forfeiting up to three glasses of water. As mentioned before, a hangover is the result of alcohol abuse, which causes the brain to suffer severe dehydration. If this occurs repeatedly, a large number of brain cells become damaged and die. As a result, many important brain functions slow down or become depressed. Recovery is possible to a certain extent if alcohol consumption is discontinued. To properly rehydrate the body, please carefully follow the directions in Drinking Water — The Greatest Therapy, Chapter 6 (of Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation).

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/023441_body_water_pain.html#ixzz2OTYPL4QZ


The kidneys truly are the body's "master chemists." They not only remove waste products and excess fluids from the body via the urine, but they also maintain a critical balance of salt, potassium and acid -- not a small feat for such relatively small organs. The kidneys produce a hormone -- erythropoietin (EPO) -- that stimulates the production of red blood cells. Other kidney hormones help regulate blood pressure and calcium metabolism. The kidneys even synthesize the hormones that control tissue growth. When the kidneys become damaged, other organs suffer as well.

Kidney Stones - A Cause of Many Ailments

The main responsibility of the kidneys is to keep the blood pure and healthy and to maintain proper fluid balance in the body. To accomplish this enormously complex feat, the kidneys need to constantly monitor normal blood volume and filter out the right quantity of urine. There are many interfering factors that could disrupt this mechanism and cause congestion in the kidneys. These factors include overstimulation, dehydration, fatigue, overeating, consuming highly processed foods, gallstones, blood pressure disturbance, digestive disorders (especially constipation), prescription or narcotic drugs and vitamin supplements.

When the kidneys are not able to separate the necessary amounts of urine from the blood, part of the urine keeps circulating around the body, thereby depositing urinary waste products in the blood vessels, joints, tissues and organs. This implies that fluids and waste products are trapped in the body and begin to accumulate. The ultimate result is potentially extreme swelling and symptoms of uremia (an overload of toxic byproducts) or kidney failure. Many skin diseases, strong body odor, sweating of the palms and feet, water retention, lymph congestion, abdominal swelling, rapid weight gain, weakness, high blood pressure and other disorders, are all indications of toxic blood caused, to a large degree, by the presence of obstructive urinary deposits, such as sand crystals and stones, in the kidneys.

Stones in the kidneys start off as tiny crystals and can eventually become as large as an egg. The tiny crystals are too small to be detected by x-rays, and since they do not cause pain, they are rarely noticed. Yet they are big enough to block the flow of liquid through the tiny kidney tubules. Crystals or stones are formed in the kidneys when urinary constituents, which are normally in solution, are precipitated. Precipitation results when these particles occur in excessive amounts or when urine becomes too concentrated. The crystalline particles or stones usually have very sharp edges or angles. Once released by the kidneys along with the urine, they may cut and wear away the inner surface of the urinary canal (ureter) during their passage to the urinary bladder. This can cause severe pain in the loins and/or lower back. There may even be blood in the urine, pain running down the legs, numbness in the thighs and difficulty in passing urine.

Most crystals or stones originate in the kidneys, although some may also be formed in the bladder. If a large stone enters one of the two ureters, urinary discharge becomes obstructed. This can lead to serious complications, such as kidney infection or failure. Regardless of where in the kidneys the blockage occurs, it restricts their ability to remove and regulate water and chemicals, causing these delicate organs to suffer injury. The kidneys' various functions may be affected separately, so urine output may seem to be normal despite significant kidney disease.

The Types of Stones and Their Effects

The most common solutes involved in the formation of crystals and stones are oxalates, phosphates, urates, uric acid and the amino acids cystine and cysteine. Eight varieties of crystals or stones can be formed from these solutes, for various reasons.

Foods or beverages that contain large amounts of oxalic acid cause oxalate stones. A cup of regular tea (not green or herb tea) contains about 20 mg of oxalic acid, which is far too much for the kidneys to excrete. Initially, the body uses calcium to neutralize the acid. By doing so, oxalic acid turns to calcium oxalate. If tea drinking becomes a regular habit, any excessive calcium oxalate in the kidneys is deposited in the form of tiny crystals. Chocolate, cocoa beverages and chocolate ice cream are also high in oxalates. Anyone who has consumed or now consumes these foods on a regular basis may be growing oxalate stones in the kidneys, especially children whose kidneys are still very small and delicate. Also, if you ingested over 200mg of Vitamin C per day, some of it would be converted into oxalate. Except for a tiny amount that is actually used by the body, the rest would be excreted in the gut and urine. Vitamin C is not as harmless as many believe it is, especially in its synthetic and isolated form.

Uric acid crystals make up another type of kidney stone. Uric acid is a waste product that is formed from purines in food. Foods with the highest purine content are:

* Tea

* Beef

* Bacon

* Calf tongue

* Carp

* Chicken and Chicken soup

* Codfish

* Duck

* Goose

* Halibut

* Sardines, canned

* Liver

* Kidneys

* Heart

* Meat extract, broths

* Salmon, canned

* Gravies

* Scallops

* Herring

* Smelt

* Roe

* Liver sausage

* Meat soups

* Perch

* Pike

* Pork

* Rabbit

* Mutton

* Shellfish

* Trout

* Turkey

* Veal

* Yeast

* Sweetbread

* Anchovies

* Lentils

As you can see from the list, protein foods derived from animals and fish make up the bulk of uric acid-generating foods. Once the proteins are broken down in the liver, the uric acid is passed on to the kidneys for excretion with the urine. If the kidneys are unable to remove all the uric acid, its concentration in the blood rises. As a result, the extra uric acid is deposited first in those areas of the body that have the poorest circulation and oxygen supply, that is, the toes of the feet or fingers of the hands. These deposits of uric acid and other harmful substances in the toes and fingers can make the joints rigid, stiff and unbending. (Check particularly the small toes of your feet, which show the condition of the bladder.)

Naturally, wherever waste products are stored inside or outside the body, specialized bacteria will also be present to help break them down. Accordingly, any deposits of uric acid in the body attract certain aerobic bacteria to decompose this waste product into ammonia. If the bacteria feeding on the uric acid crystals invade these waste-saturated tissues in sufficient numbers, inflammation and pain result. Gout and arthritic conditions are the most common symptoms of this involuntary "cleansing response." The uric acid crystals in the toes are made from the same material as the uric acid stones in the kidneys.

A similar situation may occur in the heels. Heel spurs are due to deposits of uric acid and various phosphates. The uric acid attracts bacteria, leading to pain, and the phosphates are responsible for causing rigid and hard structures. Swelling or edema around the foot or ankle, caused by poor kidney and adrenal functions, may accompany this condition.

As discussed earlier, the kidneys and adrenal glands regulate water and salt levels throughout the body. If their functions are subdued due to stones in the kidneys, your body may thus be holding water in the feet, legs, abdomen, face, arms and organs.

Many kidney stones are formed as a result of insufficient water intake and the consumption of foods or beverages that have dehydrating effects, including meat, artificial sweeteners, sugar, alcohol, tea, coffee and sodas. Also, smoking cigarettes or watching television for too many hours has a dehydrating effect on the body and causes urine to become overly concentrated. This increases the precipitation of urinary constituents.

Eating lots of strongly acid-forming foods, such as meat, fish, dairy products, baked goods, candy, sugar and the like, forces the body to release many of its valuable minerals, thereby altering the pH (acid/alkaline balance) of the urine. This not only causes mineral deficiencies in the body, especially in the bones and teeth, but also turns the normally acidic urine filtrate alkaline. In alkaline urine, other substances may be precipitated, including phosphates.

Phosphate stones are formed, in particular, from eating too many foods that are high in phosphate and low in calcium, such as meat, processed breakfast cereals, breads, pasta and nuts, as well as all carbonated beverages. To neutralize the highly acidic phosphate, which could easily burn the delicate kidneys, the body leaches extra amounts of calcium from the bones and teeth and uses whatever magnesium it can obtain from such foods as green vegetables. As mentioned earlier, it takes over two gallons of water to neutralize the acidity of one can of soda. So be kind to your kidneys and substitute water for any soda you may be in the habit of drinking.

The presence of phosphates generates an acidic environment in the body, which literally dissolves bones, leading to osteoporosis and shrinkage of the body frame. It also causes tooth destruction, coronary heart disease, digestive disorders, cancer, and any other diseases that are related to calcium deficiency. A person who eliminates more than 150 mg of calcium with his or her urine in a 24 hour period -- an emergency measure taken by the body to combat excessive acidity -- is in the process of rapidly dissolving the bones. Some of the calcium combines with the phosphates, forming various calcium phosphate crystals, which can lead to hardening of the arteries and common arthritis.

Please also be aware that excessive sodium chloride (table salt) in the diet predisposes a person to kidney stones. In addition, for every gram of sodium chloride that your body cannot get rid of, your body uses 23 times the amount of water to neutralize the salt, which can lead to fluid retention, unsightly cellulite, arthritis, gout, rheumatism and gallstones. This is primarily an issue for people who mostly dine on prepared foods (90 percent of Americans), which are loaded with table salt (very toxic). The average American eats 4,000 to 6,000 mg of sodium chloride each day. Unrefined salt does not have the same effect, though. In fact, real salt is an essential nutrient without which the body would become seriously ill.

Why Do a Kidney Cleanse?

More than twenty million Americans suffer from kidney problems. These problems include urinary tract infections (UTIs), kidney stones, kidney cancer, polycystic kidney disease (PKD), nephrotic syndrome and genetic disorders. The kidneys make a tremendous effort in their attempts to keep the blood clear of toxic substances such as lead, cadmium, mercury and other heavy metals (although these are difficult to pass). The kidneys also maintain fluid and electrolyte balance and regulate the pressure that the heart creates to force the blood through their filtering system. Kidney stones greatly undermine these vital functions, which may further increase the chance of accumulating heavy metals in the body and raise its general level of toxicity. This may lead to infection, high blood pressure, heart disease, brain disorders, cancer and many other imbalances.

The following signs indicate the presence of crystals and stones in the kidneys or bladder:

* A dark or whitish color under the eyes.

* Puffy or swollen eyes, particularly in the morning.

* Deep wrinkles under and around the eyes.

* Tiny whitish, tan-colored or dark lumps under the eyes, which can be felt or made visible when stretching the skin outward toward the cheekbones.

* Overlapping of the upper eyelid.

* Chronic pain in the lower back.

* Swelling of feet and legs.

* Constant fear or anxiety.

In the proper amounts, a number of herbs, e.g., Marjoram, Cat's Claw, Comfrey Root, Fennel Seed, Chicory Herb, Uva Ursi, Hydrangea Root, Gravel Root, Marshmallow Root, an Golden Rod Herb, can effectively dissolve kidney stones within a period of three to six weeks. (See the updated kidney cleanse protocol in Chapter 7, Employing Nature's Healing Powers, of the author's book, Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation.) Those of you who follow the author's liver and gallbladder protocol are recommend to do a kidney cleanse every 3-4 liver flushes. (See details in The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush, by Andreas Moritz.) You can mail order/purchase the guaranteed fresh and already mixed kidney cleanse herbs from The Present Moment Herbs & Books in Minneapolis, toll free 800-378-3245 or 612-824-3157 (USA). (Regardless of whether someone has been diagnosed with kidney stones or not, doing a kidney cleanse once or twice a year has tremendous curative and preventive benefits. The kidney cleanse not only improves overall physical health, but also reduces stress, fear and anxieties.)

The above article is an excerpt from the author's bestselling book, Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation, available at (www.ener-chi.com) and (www.amazon.com) .


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/023440_kidneys_body_urine.html#ixzz2OTZG6F4G

dehydration

Are you dehydrated or are you just thirsty? There is somethings that keeps you from hydrating no matter how much water you drank. A customer asked about it.
I have another one I believe is on here so check  on earlier posts. I'll go in to me notes at home and see if I can find it.
Few people think of salt when they are feeling thirsty, but many findings suggest that what you add to your water may be as important as the water itself. Many emphatically believe that a high quality sea salt can do more to help combat dehydration than water alone. This new understanding has many people adding salt to their water bottles.
Sea salt has been used throughout history for optimum health. It is effective due to its natural mineral content. Recent data lists over 90 essential nutrients present within pure sea salt. These healthful components combined with filtered water have many wonderful benefits for the individual.
Sea salt, which is nothing more than dried seawater, often appears discolored, grey or slightly dark, and has a natural touch of moisture. This moisture does not mean that the salt has absorbed humidity or that it is spoiled. Sea salt should not be used in shakers unless they are specifically designed for the product. Instead, you will need a spoon or you can pinch it with your fingers.
Many people notice that no matter how much water they drink, they still feel dehydrated. This is due to the lack of healthy salt inside the body. Adding sea salt to your water and food satisfies thirst longer because the mineral content holds more of the water you drink within your body.
Table salt has virtually no health benefits because of its processing; it is bleached, heated, and ground to produce the hard white powder, leaving it devoid of nutrients. Due to the chemicals added to table salt to prevent caking and to preserve the substance, standard table salt often causes a range of health problems and can aggravate edema (fluid retention caused by dehydration.) It is also addictive due to the lack of minerals in the white seasoning. After consuming table salt, the body subsequently craves more salt, not for flavor, but because the body’s requirement for nutrients was not satisfied. Table salt also worsens thirst due to its tendency to dehydrate.
Sea salt comes in a variety of brands and forms, one such popular type being Celtic sea salt. This form alone contains iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and a host of other healthy nutrients. When purchasing sea salt, it should be raw, unrefined, and without additives. The salt itself should be slightly grey in color and it should have a good degree of moisture.