Heal yourself in 15 days - You are what you absorb (part three)

This article continues part three of the 15-part article series called Heal Yourself in 15 Days. In part two, we explored your innate healing potential and saw how powerful your self-healing abilities really are (http://www.naturalnews.com/028060_self_healing_immune_system.html). Here in part three, we look at a powerful principle of nutrition: You aren't what you eat; you are what you ABSORB.

Many people suffer from poor digestion. In fact, you might say that most people aren't able to absorb the nutrients they swallow, so they remain in a state of nutritional starvation even though they're taking supplements that would otherwise be quite helpful.

These people tend to scratch their heads, wondering why all the nutrients they're swallowing aren't having the positive effects they had hoped for. The answer to this conundrum is found in enhancing the absorption of those nutrients.

Strong stomach acid is good for you

Pharmaceutical pill pushers have convinced many people that stomach acid is bad for your health. By promoting diseases like "acid reflux" or GERD, they misinform consumers into believing that heartburn and stomach pain are caused by too much stomach acid. But the truth is that in most (but not all) cases people actually suffer from weak stomach acid and they needstronger stomach acid to properly digest foods.

It's easy to test this by swallowing a teaspoon (or so) of vinegar with your meal and asking yourself whether it feels better or worse. For a surprisingly large percentage of people, the extra vinegar halts the pain they might normally feel after such a meal. This is a strong indication that they lack proper stomach acid production and could benefit from stronger acid. Vinegar is acidic, you see. Not as acidic as stomach acid, but far more acidic than most foods or beverages.

Consumers have been persuaded by drug advertising to swallow over-the-counter antacid tablets -- products that are actually very alkaline and therefore lower the acidity (i.e. raise the pH) of the liquids in your stomach.

What most people don't realize is that minerals require an acidic digestive environment to be properly digested and absorbed. If you lack proper stomach acid, you won't be able to properly absorb minerals even if you swallow them! And this can lead to mineral deficiencies that promote the development of diabetes, cancer, chronic pain, arthritis and even heart problems (among other things).

So how do you encourage the production of healthy stomach acid? In my experience, drinking fresh vegetable juices each day -- especially celery and cabbage juices -- greatly boosts stomach health, ultimately supporting healthy stomach acid production.

Digestive enzymes from living foods

Digestion is a complex process. It requires biochemical and physical processes to break down ingested substances into their nutritional components. This process is significantly aided by digestive enzymes which exist naturally in living foods (fresh, raw vegetable and fruit juices, for example).

Heating foods (cooking them) destroys all digestive enzymes. This is one reason why cooked foods steal life away from people while raw, living foods impart life. Living foods usually come with their own digestive enzymes, aiding your digestive processes in breaking down and absorbing nutrients.

Dead foods -- which include anything pasteurized -- stress your liver, pancreas and gallbladder by requiring these organs to produce extra digestive enzymes that are missing from the foods themselves. Because many people suffer from poor digestive organ function, they have difficulties absorbing the nutrients they've swallowed.

Probiotics

Many people suffer from serious intestinal flora imbalances. Western medicine, for the most part, remains astonishingly ignorant about the importance of intestinal flora to overall health, but those who study more holistic medicine understand the important role that these "inner bacteria" play in your health: The bacteria in your gut actually digest and transform nutrients you eat into other nutrients.

They are, in essence, nutrient transformers that operate inside your body, producing nutrients needed for your health. That's why people who take antibiotics often suffer serious digestive side effects in the days that follow: They've wiped out all the friendly intestinal bacteria that were providing essential nutrients!

It's easy to remedy this imbalance: Take probiotic supplements on a regular basis. This will feed your digestive tract the friendly bacteria you need.

And don't fall for the marketing sham of eating yogurt, thinking it's loaded with probiotics. Virtually all store-bought yogurt is pasteurized, and pasteurization kills the friendly bacteria. This makes most "probiotic yogurt" products nothing more than a dishonest marketing gimmick.

By the way, if you want healthy intestinal flora, it's also important to reduce your consumption of dietary sugars. When you consume more sugars, you alter the bacterial population in your gut, causing a shift toward bacteria that feed on sugars. As you alter your diet to exclude refined sugars, the population of bacteria in your gut follows suit, shifting towards a non-sugar bacterial population.

References

Everything I've said here is supported by quotations on the website www.NaturalPedia.com where I've assembled over one million unique web pages covering tens of thousands of natural health topics.

For those looking for more specific scientific references, simply use Google.com or Google Scholar to search for the topics described here. You'll even find many of them right here on NaturalNews if you use the search box at the top of this page.

(I'm often amazed when some people demand references for things that can be easily found with a simple Google search. The classic use of article references dates back to the era of library card catalogs when finding information was a laborious task. But today, not even 20 years later, finding information is virtually effortless on the 'net. If you want to find information about howeating sugars alters the bacteria in your gut, for example, just search Google for "eating sugars alters the bacteria in your gut".


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/028067_self_healing_digestion.html#ixzz1zc0amTfi

15 days to heal your self by nature news

(NaturalNews) This article continues our 15-part article series called Heal Yourself in 15 Days. In part one, we looked at why the real secret to rapid healing is to remove the barriers to healing (http://www.naturalnews.com/028053_self_healing_quality_of_life.html). In part two, we look at why your healing potential is so powerful that you can't even turn it off!

When you scrape your elbow, a bit of blood oozes out to clean the wound and wash away bacteria. It then forms a protective scab that keeps out invading microorganisms while your skin has a chance to heal underneath. There, some real magic takes place: Your skin cells innately recognize the need to divide and grow to fill the wound. A cancer-like process is unleashed at the cellular level, activating nearby cells to divide and grow. Your DNA is replicated in the nucleus of each cell with the help of some of the most astounding nanotechnology every witnessed in human civilization. (The best scientists in the world can't even come close to recreating it.)

As your cells multiply, nutrients and building blocks are carried to them through a blood supply that adapts to the particular size and shape of the wound. If a blood vessel was destroyed in your accident, the growth of new blood vessels is spontaneously initiated to take their place, and they grow into the tissues within mere hours.

As your skin cells fill in the previous wound, the replication effort is delicately turned off, one by one, so that replicating skin cells don't keep replicating beyond what they need to -- a process that would cause the creation of a skin tumor. Your body's cells know exactly when to grow and exactly when to turn off, and when it's all said and done, you're left with a perfect replacement for the skin you previously lost.

Completely automatic healing

The truly amazing part of all this is not the cancer-like processes that are delicately controlled by your body wisdom; it's not even the fact that your body has the ability to re-grow lost cells -- it's the fact that all this takes place without any conscious involvement on your part.

Healing yourself is automatic, in other words. You don't have to direct blood to the wound, direct the cells to start replicating, direct the molecular waste products to be carried away and decide when cell replication should be stopped. All this happens without your involvement -- even without your awareness! Much of it happens while you sleep, in fact. While your conscious mind is dreaming, your innate body wisdom is working the biochemistry and energetic transformations necessary to repair your tissues.

You can't stop this process even if you wanted to. You could try to focus all your mental power on your skin not healing, and yet your skin would heal itself anyway.

That's because your body is a powerful self-healing organism. It heals itself automatically, innately, without your conscious awareness or involvement. Your ability to heal yourself is so powerful that you can't stop yourself from healing!

Why we don't always heal

If this is true, then why aren't you healing everything else? Why aren't you always in perfect health? The answer, as you've seen throughout this article series, is because we tend to erect barriers to our own healing. And we often misread the symptoms of sickness that are asking for help, "treating" them in a way that makes the situation worse.

Fact: Many "symptoms of disease" are actually the result of your body's attempt to heal itself.

For example, most people are chronically dehydrated. They don't consume enough high-quality water. Because water is so vital for proper blood composition, when your body lacks sufficient quantities of water intake, it begins to take action to reduce water loss.

A significant portion of the water loss experienced by the body each day is lost through respiration -- a bit of water vapor is exhaled with each breath. So to conserve water, your body attempts to reduce water loss during respiration by constricting your bronchial tubes through the creation of histamines.

These histamines constrict breathing, making it more physically difficult. Modern (western) medicine misdiagnoses this as a disease called "asthma" rather than the true underlying cause which is often simply dehydration. So instead of prescribing water, which would solve the underlying water shortage and end the body's creation of histamines, western doctors prescribe anti-histamine drugs that force the bronchial tubes to relax and ease air flow. This, of course, promotes further dehydration, leaving the patient in a more severe state of water loss.

So you see, the body is attempting to heal itself, and the symptom of histamine production is a mechanism by which the body is attempting to heal, but it is misinterpreted by western medicine and then made worse by misguided interventions.

Blood pressure

Another good example of this is high blood pressure. High blood pressure is often caused by something I refer to as "sludge blood" -- blood that's too thick and viscous to flow freely through the body's small capillaries. So in order to make sure good circulation is taking place, the heart has to pump harder, thereby raising blood pressure. This is the body's way of making sure this thick blood reaches all the cells throughout the body (cells that don't receive blood will die, and that's bad).

But healthy blood shouldn't be so viscous. It should flow more freely, with less friction. When blood is properly hydrated and nourished with the right fatty acids (more omega-3s in particular), the heart does not need to work as hard to pump it throughout the body, so blood pressure automatically drops. (It's like the difference between sucking water through a straw versus sucking honey through a straw... the more sticky and thick the honey, the more pressure it takes to move it.)

Western medicine completely misdiagnoses this situation and says that "high blood pressure" is itself a disease. And this high blood pressure is attacked with drugs that artificially lower blood pressure by forcing artery walls to relax.

As you might have guessed, this then immediately causes circulation problems because the thick sludge blood is no longer reaching all the cells it needs to reach. That's why people who take high blood pressure medications very often end up with circulation problems. Their underlying problem of "sludge blood" remains unresolved.

Symptoms such as high blood pressure as your body's way of communicating with you to address the underlying causes. In the majority of cases, patients with high blood pressure simply need more water, more living nutrients (such as raw living plant juices), more omega-3 fatty acids and a sharp reduction in the consumption of animal products. Within as little as five days after embracing such changes, blood pressure normalizes as the blood itself becomes more hydrated and free to flow throughout the circulatory system.

Your body knows all this. Western doctors know none of it. High Blood Pressure is treated as a disease unto itself with virtually no thought given to what underlying causes might be creating this measurable symptom.

Your body is trying to heal itself all the time

Both "asthma" and "high blood pressure" are fictional diseases. In other words, they don't really exist as self-contained, standalone diseases. They are merely symptoms of something else that your body is attempting to balance.

In order to activate your body's innate healing potential, you must learn to listen to what your body is really asking for and give it those things instead of intervening with chemical medications, surgeries and toxic therapies like chemotherapy.

Western medicine misinterprets virtually all expressions of physiology. If you wish to be healthy, you must learn to reinterpret your body's messages in alignment with the true principles of health. Difficulty in breathing, for example, may simply be a sign of dehydration. High blood pressure may be a sign of dehydration or poor diet.

Cancer is a sign of cellular miscommunication. A tumor is a sign that cells in your body aren't getting the right message of when to stop dividing. (A tumor is merely a wayward cell that keeps dividing.) Cellular communication can be reestablished through changes in diet, environment, mental state and proper exposure to sunlight (among other things).

So keep in mind that your body is always trying to heal itself. "Symptoms" of disease are often just cries for help from your own biology. The wise patient listens to those cries for help, attempts to understand what they mean, and addresses them through self-care. The unwise patient attempts to silence symptoms through chemical intervention: Pain killers, chemicalpharmaceuticals, surgery and other interventions. Western doctors are not trained in proper symptom interpretation and rebalancing. They are only trained in symptom "management" which means reducing symptoms through artificial intervention.

Why you are such a self-healing miracle

Your body is one of Mother Nature's most miraculous accomplishments. You possess unbelievably complex nanotechnology in your immune system. Your neurology exceeds the capabilities of the most advanced supercomputers in the world. Your sensory systems contain technology so advanced that even the most well-funded laboratories in the world don't have machines that can match what you have right in your nose.

Your reproductive system is a miracle of life; your bones are astounding structural engineering feats (or feets!); and your internal organs such as your heart and liver actually store their own memories and emotions. We know this because organ donor recipients often take on the memories and experiences of those from which the organs were originally harvested.

In other words, you are a miracle of nature, and your body has such powerful healing potential available to itself right now that the only way you can even stop the healing is to interfere with it (with pharmaceuticals, for example).

And yet, sadly, that's what most people do: They numb their bodies with painkiller medications. They shut down their immune systems with chemotherapy. They shock their neurology with vaccines containing inflammatory chemicals. They interfere, override and interject all sorts of artificial chemicals, procedures and unnatural therapies. This is what shuts off healing. This is what leaves patients unable to heal in the way they are capable of healing -- automatically, unconsciously and with zero effort.

So if you really want to heal yourself, first recognize that you are a miraculous self-healing organism. And secondly, recognize that if healing is not happening, it may very well be because you have inadvertently interfered with the healing process by introducing artificial chemicals or other elements that hold your healing potential prisoner.

Attaining health requires allowing healing to take place

Healthy people aren't healthy just because they eat superfoods and drink living juices all day long. They are healthy because they avoid poisoning their bodies with pharmaceuticals, artificial sweeteners, MSG and other processed food ingredients. They avoid the chemicals in cosmetics, personal care products, household cleaning products and lawn care products. They avoid consuming meat from animals who have been pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. They keep their bodies as free from pollution as possible, and as a result, their innate healing powers are always working for them!

You have exactly the same healing potential as I do. Your body can heal itself from cancer, from diabetes, from heart disease and from other "made-up" disease names like asthma and high blood pressure. All that's really required is for you to embrace the healing potential you already possess, and then avoid all those things that interfere with it.

If you believe in God and Creation, then take comfort in the idea that your body is created in God's image, meaning that you are a perfect healing being as is He.

If you believe in evolution and Darwinism, then take comfort in the idea that your body is the result of millions of years of evolution that have given you a successful, proven DNA blueprint for preventing sickness and disease -- long before vaccines and western medicine ever came along.

No matter what your philosophical approach, either way you still believe that your body is an amazing self-healing organism. And that's good news because it means you already have the blueprint for powerful healing.

Now simply activate it!


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/028060_self_healing_immune_system.html#ixzz1zc036gyD

health

Day 1 - Rethink "health"

For many people, the first barrier to healing is found in their mental definition of "health." A lot of people believe that health is defined by having blood certain tests return results within a specific range: Your LDL cholesterol needs to be between X and Y, for example, and your blood pressure needs to be lower than Z. Conventional doctors tend to define health in this way, too, only spreading this misconception even further.

Health isn't defined by a range of numbers. It doesn't mean merely shrinking the physical size of a tumor while the patient continues to waste away. Health isn't measured solely by the number of days someone is kept alive on life support equipment...

Health means exactly what you intuitively thought it meant before you were subjected to so much influence and misinformation by drug company advertisements, conventional doctors and friends or family members -- health means quality of life.

And what is quality of life? Being able to sleep at night, walk without pain, eat and enjoy food, have a working memory, and achieve things in your life that mean something to you. Health means time with family, a walk in the woods, a positive mental outlook and an ability to handle stress without flipping out. Health means treating your body with respect and experiencing the joy of feeling it work well in return. Health means vibrant energy, daily optimism and even good sexual energy, too (and much more).

These are important elements of health and yet none of them are really answered by western medicine. Most of them aren't even considered in the medical textbooks. Modern medicine does not believe it really has any concern about the quality of your life. If you have a problem sleeping, the conventional medical approach is to simply overload your brain with pharmaceutical chemicals that force you to lose consciousness -- and then they call it "sleep." But it isn't really sleep. It's not quality sleep, and it doesn't create quality living.

And that's why if you wish to achieve real quality of life, you must broaden your horizons beyond the limiting laboratory numbers of conventional medicine and explore what "health" really means to you. This doesn't mean laboratory tests can't be useful diagnostic tools; it just means to be cautious of letting the chemical measurement approach to health be your one source of answers for attempting to achieve health and happiness in your life.

So today, I'd like you to think about this for yourself: How do YOU define health? What would you like to do in your day, or FEEL in your day, or experience day to day that would equate to the concept of "health" in your own mind?

Once you have a clear picture of that element, you'll quickly come to realized that pharmaceuticals will never provide that for you. The real answers to health must come from somewhere else... somewhere that's more aligned with the real definition of health that you intuitively know to be more meaningful.

In part two of this article series, we'll explore how to unleash your innate healing potential by altering your frame of mind about how healing really works. Check back here on NaturalNews.com to read that in a day or two.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/028053_self_healing_quality_of_life.html#ixzz1zbzD9NVX

Web designers who need a coach

I need help.. I talked to one women who said she was a web designer and offered to trade juice fasting services for free for web help.. She has not called yet. So I offering this same deal to any one. please call. I turned on my answering machine. but if you call after 4:00 most days I'm here.

kukui oil

Benefits of Kukui Oil

Kukui Nut Oil has been widely used in Hawaii, Polynesian islands and Indonesia, however it has only just recently  become known to the rest of the world. The oil is cold pressed from the Kukui seeds to produce a light non greasy oil that has  numerous skin benefits including being beneficial for skin conditions such as eczemaand psoriasis. The Kukui Tree is Hawaii’s official state tree, and Kukui means ‘enlightenment' in Hawaiian. Itis valued for its  rejuvenating and soothing effects upon the skin, without leaving a greasy or oily film. Kukui Nut Oil is invaluable  providing moisture and nourishment to dry, mature, and sun damaged skin. Traditionally, babies in Hawaii  were anointed with Kukui Nut Oil to protect their skin from the sun, salt and other elements. In addition, it was  used on skin irritations, wounds, and burns.

Benefits of Kukui oil  Kukui oil is known to help skin conditions such as Psoriasis and Eczema.  It is rich in EFA’s which makes it especially beneficial and nourishing for  the skin, it is high in linoleic and linolenic acids which are essential  fatty acids, vital for the metabolism of healthy skin.

Kukui Oil is a fabulous moisturiser, and quickly penetrates the skin leaving a silky-smooth non-greasy  feeling. It is often used for dry or damaged skin, immediately relieving symptoms because of its quick  absorption into the skin. It can leave even the roughest and driest skin feeling smooth, soft and hydrated.  Kukui Oil contains Vitamins A, C, E and F, providing anti-oxidants that help to protect from the skin.  Kukui nut Oil is good for anti aging, revitalising and especially restoring sun damaged skin. This unique  oil is able to penetrate into the deepest skin layers, while creating a protective shield that locks in  moisture. It is a hugely popular natural sun relief oil and perfect to take on sun drenched holidays as an after sun oil to replenish and soothe the skin  Kukui oil is prefect for those with sensitive skin, aging skin helps in preventing wrinkles when included in your daily beauty regime. It’s high content of antioxidants are beneficial for fine lines  and crows feet, while gently massaged in daily as a moisturiser.. It is also beneficial for the burns – including: sunburn, windburn, radiation burns, and heat induced burns. This wonderful oil can also be used as for an oil treatment on dry hair and scalp, or add a few drops to  your bath water for a luxurious treat. Fushi’s Kukui Nut oil is organic and cold pressed and sourced from sustainable sources in Indonesia. Guess who is using Kukui oil in her new products? Yes it's me coming soon. Please check out my store www.bydenazdezign.com     it is growing more every week. Beside JUICING it is my passion... Anything you put  on your skin CHEMICAL FREE . I'm changing things every day. I'm product line will look different soon. I'm switching  to brown Apothecary bottle ...

What new in my store www.denazdezign.com

There's changes a comin...

Can wait.. Please check out my store every week for the new stuff.  www.bydenazdezign.com 

  I'm putting new things up every week. I'm changing things every day. I'm product line will look different soon. I'm switching 

to brown Apothecary inspired bottle and labels. Looking some what like this.

Or thisI've always been a sucker for  Antiques,,old bottles.. So I'll 

enjoy this even more. Trying to make the label look as close to the old ones as I can will be fun.

black pepper oil

Believe me when I say never knew of this oil. I learn something new every day. So let me pass it on.

Health Benefits of Black Pepper Essential Oil

The health benefits of Black Pepper Essential Oil can be attributed to its properties like digestive, diaphoretic, carminative, aperient, anti spasmodic, anti rheumatic & anti arthritic, anti bacterial, anti oxidant etc.

Black Pepper is a condiment (spice) which is very common and popular worldwide. It is extensively used in culinary. It tastes hot and has a nice appetizing aroma. Black Pepper is the dried fruit of pepper plant, whose scientific name is Piper Nigrum.

Once upon a time, it was considered sacred and even used as currency. It was so valuable that it was traded in exchange with gold (gold was considered cheaper to Black Pepper) and was one of the most priced trade items exported fromIndia to the rest of the world. The main components of its essential oil are Limonene, Pinene, Myrcene, Phellandrene, Beta Caryophyllene, Beta Bisabolene, Sabinene, Linalol, Pinocarveol, Alpha Termineol, Camphene and Alpha Terpenene. Apart from them, black pepper is rich in minerals and vitamins like Calcium, Manganese, Iron, Vitamin-K, Beta Carotene, Phosphorus, Potassium and Selenium. Let us see what health benefits Black Pepper Oil has in store for us.

• Digestive: It is remarkably beneficial for digestion. It stimulates the whole digestive system, right from the salivary glands in the mouth to the large intestine, promoting secretion of digestive juices like acids and bile into the ingested food, thereby facilitating digestion. Black Pepper can be safely used as a spice to the food of those who are on a bland diet or otherwise forbidden to have chilies (those suffering from ulcer of the mouth of the digestive system or jaundice or extreme acidity are forbidden to consume chilies).
• Carminative: Black Pepper Oil is carminative and helps remove gases and prohibit gas formation in the stomach and in the intestines. It also helps inhibit bacteria which are responsible for formation of gas.
• Aperient: The Black Pepper oil has mild purgative properties and it is safe too, unlike other purgatives like Castor Oil. It helps clean the intestines and at the same time, cure infections in the digestive and the excretory system.
• Anti Spasmodic: It is an effective anti spasmodic and gives good relief in cases of cramps, muscles pulls, spasms, convulsions etc.
• Anti Rheumatic & Anti Arthritic: These are two of the best qualities of the Black Pepper oil. It is warming, stimulating and improves circulation, thereby giving immediate relief in rheumatism and arthritis, particularly in winters when the symptoms aggravate. It is also effective in removing toxins like uric acid from the blood, thereby benefiting people suffering from chronic rheumatism and arthritis, gout etc.
• Diaphoretic & Diuretic: Black Pepper oil, when ingested, increases sweating and urination. Both of these properties play an important role in removal of toxins from the body, clearing of the pores in skin and also disinfecting the body. Sweating and urinating help lose extra water and fat from the body, thus reducing weight, lowering blood pressure and making the body relaxed. These properties are also helpful in reducing inflammation.
• Anti Oxidant: This is yet another beneficial property of Black Pepper oil. It protects the body from damages done by oxidants (free radicals) and also helps repair them. It also delays adverse affects of aging such as vision loss, macular degeneration, wrinkling of skin, degeneration and loosening of muscles, loss in mobility of joints, nervous disorders, memory loss etc.
• Anti Bacterial: It has good anti bacterial properties and that too, without side effects. It is very effective in curing bacterial infections in mouth, colon, digestive system, urinary tract etc. It also disinfects food stuffs in which it is added and protects them from bacterial infections for long.
• Other Benefits: Black Pepper oil is rich in certain very useful minerals and vitamins too. For example, there is vitamin-A (Beta Carotene) in it, which is very beneficial for ocular health as well as is a very good anti oxidant. It has vitamin-K which is essential for maintaining proper circulatory and metabolic functions, muscles, bones etc. Then it has calcium, potassium and selenium. While calcium is good for bones and potassium for regulating blood pressure, selenium is essentially required for proper formation of bones, nails, hair, follicles and teeth and for proper functioning of brain.

Few Words of Caution: As such, there is nothing to be scared about Black Pepper oil, except that if taken in large quantity, it may cause uneasiness, unrest, vomiting, loose motions, irritation and inflammation of the intestines, sleeplessness etc. being hot and pungent. But there is nothing serious about these symptoms.

Blending: Black Pepper Oil can be blended with Lemon, Lime, Lavender, Sage, Sandalwood, Mandarin, Ylang-Ylang, Juniper, Bergamot, Clary Sage, Clove, Ginger, Geranium, Coriander, Grapefruit, Fennel and Frankincense Oil.

This article was contributed by Aparup Mukherjee

Wow I am in the middle of making dinner let me go add more black pepper to it. My son should love me. LOLO

traditional chinese medicine

Here something interesting I found. I will be investigating this more. I believe it may help with detoxing. There may be areas after a juice fast and body detox that may need more attention. This may help with clues. 

If a person has never fasted or detoxed. This may be enough to help them decide it is time.

In traditional Chinese medicine, emotions and physical health are intimately connected. Sadness, nervous tension and anger, worry, fear, and overwork are each associated with a particular organ in the body. For example, irritability and inappropriate anger can affect the liver and result in menstrual pain, headache, redness of the face and eyes, dizziness and dry mouth.

A diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine is highly individualized. Once an organ system is identified, the unique symptoms of the patient determine the practitioner's treatment approach.

Using the liver again as an example, breast distension, menstrual pain, and irritability during menses are treated with certain herbs and acupuncture points, and migraines headaches, dizziness, and inappropriate anger with redness of the face point to a different type of liver pattern and is treated in a different way.

What does the liver have to do with migraines? Organ systems in the traditional Asian sense may include the Western medical-physiological function, but are also part of a holistic body system. The liver, for example, ensures that energy and blood flow smoothly throughout the body. It also regulates bile secretion, stores blood, and is connected with the tendons, nails, and eyes.

By understanding these connections, we can see how an eye disorder such as conjunctivitis might be due to an imbalance in the liver, or excess menstrual flow may be due to dysfunction in the liver's blood-storing ability. Besides emotions, other factors such as dietary, environmental, lifestyle, and hereditary factors also contribute to the development of imbalances.

Spleen

• Emotions - worry, dwelling or focusing too much on a particular topic, excessive mental work
• Spleen Function - Food digestion and nutrient absorption. Helps in the formation of blood and energy. Keeps blood in the blood vessels. Connected with muscles, mouth, and lips. Involved in thinking, studying, and memory. 
• Symptoms of Spleen Imbalance - Tired, loss of appetite, mucus discharge, poor digestion, abdominal distension, loose stools or diarrhea. Weak muscles, pale lips. Bruising, excess menstrual blood flow, and other bleeding disorders.

Lung

• Emotions - grief, sadness, detached.
• Lung Function - Respiration. Forms energy from air, and helps to distribute it throughout the body. Works with the kidney to regulate water metabolism. Important in the immune system and resistance to viruses and bacteria. Regulates sweat glands and body hair, and provides moisture to the skin.
• Symptoms of Lung Imbalance - Shortness of breath and shallow breathing, sweating, fatigue, cough, frequent cold and flu, allergies, asthma, and other lung conditions. Dry skin. Depression and crying.

Liver

• Emotions - anger, resentment, frustration, irritability, bitterness, "flying off the handle".
• Liver Function - Involved in the smooth flow of energy and blood throughout the body. Regulates bile secretion, stores blood, and is connected with the tendons, nails, and eyes.
• Symptoms of Liver Imbalance - breast distension, menstrual pain, headache, irritability, inappropriate anger, dizziness, dry, red eyes and other eye conditions, tendonitis. 

• Emotions - lack of enthusiasm and vitality, mental restlessness, depression, insomnia, despair.
• Heart Function - Regulates the heart and blood vessels. Responsible for even and regular pulse. Influences vitality and spirit. Connected with the tongue, complexion, and arteries.
• Symptoms of Heart Imbalance - Insomnia, heart palpitations and irregular heart beat, excessive dreaming, poor long-term memory, psychological disorders. 

• Emotions - fearful, weak willpower, insecure, aloof, isolated.
• Kidney Function - Key organ for sustaining life. Responsible for reproduction, growth and development, and maturation. Involved with lungs in water metabolism and respiration. Connected with bones, teeth, ears, and head hair.
• Symptoms of Kidney Imbalance - Frequent urination, urinary incontinence, night sweats, dry mouth, poor short-term memory, low back pain, ringing in the ears, hearing loss, and other ear conditions. Premature grey hair, hair loss, and osteoporosis. 

Kidney

Heart