Triggering The Birth Process

Triggering The Birth Process

I recently attended a seminar on Brain Gym® where the instructor Renate Wennekes shared some fascinating information of how the birth process kicks in. As it turns out, it’s the baby that starts the contraction process.

First, the mother’s hormones send a signal to the placenta telling it to stop delivering nutrients to the baby. This lack of nutrients forces the baby’s body to secrete hormones that start the birth process.

In effect, the mother’s body is saying to the baby, “if you’re hungry, you’d better get out of here.” It then takes three days of the baby pushing against the mother’s womb for it to open and the baby to be born. This lack of food also primes the baby to want to breast feed as soon as it’s out of the womb.

All I can say is pretty fancy process to get us born!

Treating Varicose Veins

Treating Varicose Veins

Back in November 1999, Dr Julian Whitaker reported on a review of 13 clinical studies which found favorable results treating varicose veins with horse chestnut extract.

Eight of the studies found horse chestnut to be superior to a placebo for decreasing edema, pain, itching and fatigue.

Five of the studies compared it to prescription medications or compression stockings and found it to be equally effective.

These results appear to be caused by the active ingredient in horse chestnut extract, called escin, which enhances the structure, function and tone of veins, which helps to prevent vascular leakage, pain and swelling. To order the extract, you can call 800-722-8008.

So…if you’ve got varicose veins, give horse chestnut extract a whirl.
(Whitaker Newsletter)

Bank Relights Entire Building with Full Spectrum

Bank Relights Entire Building

One of our clients, a bank in Indiana, did some experimenting with the full-spectrum lighting that I talk about at many of my programs.

At my suggestion, they lit the lower level of the bank offices, where there are no windows, with full-spectrum lighting.

The feedback was so positive that they have now relamped the other two floors of the building!

For Video Testimonials from business and individuals, you can watch them all here: Full Spectrum Videos

The New Way To Protect Our Foods – Cinnamon

The New Way To Protect Our Foods – Cinnamon

Yep…you read it right – cinnamon.

Cinnamon is being acknowledged as a way to protect our foods from molds and fungus. It turns out that cinnamon kills microbes. As an example of the impact of cinnamon, researchers took bread that was already tainted with mold and covered it with wax paper made with 6% cinnamon oil. The cinnamon wax paper inhibited mold growth by 96% and prolonged freshness by up to 10 days.

A separate study reported in the International Journal of Food Microbiology found that adding a few drops of cinnamon essential oil to carrot broth inhibited the growth of bacteria for 60 days. The results were so powerful that the researchers called cinnamon a viable “alternative to traditional food preservatives.”

Maybe it’s time to eliminate some of the chemicals that are going into our foods, and to preserve them with cinnamon. So…anyone want a hot chocolate with cinnamon or apple cider with cinnamon?

(Reported in The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, August 13, 2008)

The Way You Talk To Seniors Can Affect Their Health

The Way You Talk To Seniors Can Affect Their Health

Did you know that the way health care professionals talk to older people that can actually affect their health? Some examples are:

· When the doctor talks to adult children about their elderly parent, who is right there, instead of talking directly to the person;

· The clerk who assumes that an older person needs to be addressed slowly or in a loud voice; or

· An older person is addressed by the health care worker using the familiar term “dear”, rather than the person’s name.

As reported in The Virginian Pilot, these innocent insults can have health consequences. A long-term study of 660 people over age 50 in a small Ohio town was published in 2002 by Rebecca Levy, a Professor at Yale University. Levy found that those who had positive perceptions of aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer.

Other studies found that older people exposed to negative portrayals of aging performed worse on memory tests, walked slower and had higher levels of stress. One study, to be published in December, used video tapes of older people with mild to moderate dementia and their care givers. It was observed that when the nurses used phrases like “good girl” or “How are we feeling?” patients were more aggressive and less cooperative or receptive to care.

The health care workers in those videos thought the statements that they were making conveyed that they cared. Instead the patient was interpreting the message as saying that the older person was incompetent.

So…when you are with an older person, talk to them and treat them as an adult.

Making Sure You Have Enough Vitamin D In Your System

Making Sure You Have Enough Vitamin D In Your System

As I’ve reported before, Vitamin D is becoming more and more important in disease prevention and healing. We are also discovering that many of us are deficient in Vitamin D.

Even though your own body can create it by being out in the sun without sunscreen, most of us spend very little time in the sun. This means we need to consider taking supplemental Vitamin D3 (D3 absorbs the best).

So how do you determine what level of Vitamin D you have in your body? You can get a baseline measurement by having a blood test, but you need to make sure your doctor is requesting the right one.

The best blood test is called 25(OH)D which translates to 25-hydroxyvitamin D. For optimum health your results should be higher than the normal range. Normal is 20-56 mg/ml, while optimal is 45-50 mg/ml. Also, make sure your level is never below 32 mg/ml.

Finally, ask what analysis system the lab is using. One testing method called the Quest system gives false results that appear to be 25-40% higher than the better test, the DiaSorin assay, which is available at LabCorp. In addition, the LabCorp test costs less than half of the Quest test.

So…get your Vitamin D level measured make sure it’s the right test and it’s being done via the right method.