Conscioushealthsummer2013

SUMMER 2013

CULTURAL VIOLENCE Finding Our Way to a More Peaceful State

CULTURAL VIOLENCE IS AN INSIDE JOB

LOVE IS THE ANTIDOTE

USE SOUND TO HEAL

AROMATHERAPY FOR SUMMERTIME SELF-CARE

Bridging the gap between all health care traditions and guiding individuals toward self-discovery in wellness.

Our Staff Linda Mitchell Publisher

Summer 2013

Volume 1 Number 2

From the Publisher: Exploring Cultural Violence and Seeking a More Peaceful Way

By Linda Mitchell

6

Cover Story Is the Violence in Our Culture to Blame for Mass Murders?

By Mike Tschappat, Contributing Writer

7

Dawn J. Benko

Photography Editor

Janine M. Torsiello

Editor & Layout Designer

ON THE COVER:

Photo illustration by Dawn J. Benko With Images by Canstock /acme; /focalpoint

Conscious Health™ magazine grew out of the former publication known as MARCI, which was started by Publisher Linda Mitchell, founder of the former Holistic Mentorship Network, in 2002.

Conscious Health

Summer 2013

3

We welcome letters to

We would love to hear from you!

Inside This Issue: Cutlural Violence is an Inside Job

By Ingrid Geronimo

13

More Children Are Getting Shot; Are You Ready to Talk About the Real Root Cause Now?

By Shelly Tzorfas 16

Please write to us at:

ch@conscioushealth-online.com

Contact Information P.O. Box 1337 Montague, NJ 07827

www.conscioushealthmagazine.wordpress.com ch@conscioushealth-online.com Disclaimer The views expressed within articles are not necessarily the views of Conscious Health Magazine™. Copyright for all articles, poems, etc. are owned by the respective authors. Permission to copy or use in any manner is at the sole discretion of the writer. The information in this publication is designed for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for informed medical advice or care. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems or illnesses without consulting your own doctor.

Please consult a doctor with any questions or concerns you might have.

Conscious Health

Does What You Use on Your Hair, Nails and Skin Really Matter?

By Colleen Guber Decker

20

How it is Possible to Use Sound to Heal

By Dorinne S. Davis

22

Columns The Empowering Arts With Beth Olney Working With Spirit With Christina Lynn Whited

24

25

Everyday Acupressure With Susannah Pitman

26

Conscious Parenting With Dr. Beth Haessig

27

Aromatherapy With Christina Martinez

28

The Wellness Workshop With Vilasi Venkatachalam

29

The Naturopathic Physician With Dr. Pina LoGuidice

30

Summer 2013

4

Exploring Cultural Violence and Seeking a more Peaceful Way a message by Linda Mitchell, Co-Founder of Conscious Health™ The theme, “Exploring Cultural Violence, and Finding a More Peaceful Way” came after the volatile shooting of 26 small children and staff members at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Like you, I watched in dismay the media coverage that left us all ill, and questioning societies fault on video games, drugs and alcohol, pharmaceuticals, family responsibility, mental health, guns, war, PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder), disgruntled workers, glorifying of media coverage, legislative rules and so forth.

Shortly after the Newtown shooting, I met with my team at Conscious Health and felt strongly that we needed to address “Cultural Violence” but not leave you hanging on this note. We need to, also, find our way back to a more “Peaceful” state within all aspects where violence may play a part in our lives. I have to say that this theme has been one of the hardest themes to talk about and address to date. Perhaps, that is in part, because there is so much violence that occurs in our world today that we are on overload from the stress of what violence does to us, whether we are intimately involved or not.

I came into the health field, like many of my colleagues to help people heal, recover and maintain equilibrium in their own health and well-being. Both eastern and western medicine plays a significant part in our field of health. Neither is exclusive of each other when it comes to being whole. So why in the world of well-being do we have so much violence in our world and,

Conscious Health

more specifically, in the grand ole USA? It is difficult to wrap yourself around any one specific reasoning to the shooting of young children or an audience of batman heroes or domestic violence, sexual harassment or assault and bigotry in general. We were fortunate to have journalist Mike Tschappat address this challenging, but necessary topic with mental health experts Dr. Michael Stone, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Louis Schwarcz, the president and CEO of the Mental Health Association of Morris County, who was one of the panelist at an event following the Newtown Connecticut shootings, at the Morris County Library in NJ were more than a hundred concerned people came to hear a panel discussion about school safety, gun violence and mental illness.

Shelly Tzorfas, activist and author on children with ADHD, ASD and Dyslexia, has studied and researched the variety of vaccines that are on the market today, legislative bills and the effects vaccines may have on developing brains.

Summer 2013

In her article “More Children are Getting Shot; Are You Ready to Talk About the Real Root Cause Now? “, Shelley states “This is the first US generation where “Well Baby Check-Ups,” are celebrated with 9 - 20 forms of Vaccines in one day. You might think the baby got only four shots but the 4 needles include DPT, MMR, or the new 6 in one shot. Every few weeks there are more shots. They have become the most shot-up generation around the globe.”

So when do we start to wake up to what we are being told is best for us? We need to raise our concerns, ask questions, and listen to our own common sense. I love what columnist Christina Lynn Whited has to say in regards to our theme “Love is the Antidote”, “We all are faced with the opportunity to take responsibility for our own choices, our own lives.”

All life is energy. We can choose “fear or love” to start or end our day. It’s a choice. When life gets hard, seek help whether from a family member, a friend, clergy or taking a meditation class or seeking medical attention. Find a support group that works for you.

You wouldn’t go back to the same hairstylist if you got a bad haircut, or the synchronicity wasn’t there hopefully.

Choose your life carefully; simplify and set examples for the next generation of children. Once you start to take the steps for a happier healthier lifestyle, you will change the way the world smiles back at you.

Peace Out Linda

6

COVER STORY

Is the Violence in Our Culture to Blame for Mass Murders?

V

by Mike Tschappat, Contributing Writer

iolence can be nothing more than a punch in the nose. It will hurt the recipient of the punch and may cause the puncher, after the initial flash of anger, to feel some remorse. Violence can also be the slaughter of innocent children in an elementary school or patrons in a movie theater. It hurts all of us and the perpetrators either wind up dead or remain inexplicable enigmas.

One happens daily around the world and hardly causes us to miss a step in our march through life. The other staggers us and drives us to examine the society of which we are a part.

With the murders of 26 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and the killing of 12 patrons and the wounding of 58 others at a movie theater in Aurora, Col., in 2012, the issue of mental health and how these horrific events might have been prevented has come to the forefront. Mental health professionals are finding themselves on the front lines,

Conscious Health

tasked with identifying individuals who might commit horrible crimes even though many agree it’s an impossible job. At the same time violent video games and movies are coming under scrutiny as possible triggers for antisocial behavior.

Psychologists and support groups are also concerned that mentally ill people who are not violent, and that includes between 93 and 97 percent of them, are being stigmatized by the extreme actions of a few.

Finally, could there be alternative treatments for the mentally ill that might have greater stabilizing effects?

Dr. Michael Stone, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons who also works at MidHudson Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, has studied murderers and serial killers. He hosted a Discovery Channel program “Most Evil” on which he interviewed murderers from around the country. Based on those experiences, he wrote a book, “Anatomy of Evil.”

He isn’t optimistic about the chances of fingering mass killers such as Adam Lanza (Newtown)

Summer 2013

8

Illustration by Dawn J. Benko

From Columbine to Newtown, violent shootings at schools and universities and theaters have been making the headlines too often lately and causing Americans to rethink safety and gun control laws.

or James Holmes (Aurora) before they strike.

“They tend to be paranoid or grudge-holding men,” Stone said. “But there’s a lot of those. And some of them have been fired from a job recently or their wife has walked out on them or their girlfriend has jilted them or they’ve suffered some humiliation of some sort. But the point is those events, even though they’re very common in immediate past lives of men who go on to commit mass murder, there’s so many men who have such experiences … that you wouldn’t be able to single out which ones are actually going to do it.”

Stone cited the example of Patrick Sherrill, a postman who shot 20 co-workers, killing 14 of them, in Edmond, Oklahoma., in 1986, inspiring the phrase “going postal.” Stone characterized him as a loner, paranoid and altogether a peculiar person. He had been reprimanded by his supervisors the day before and may have been concerned he was going to lose his job.

“He belongs to the typical group of men that goes on to do these things,” Stone said. “Probably on that

Conscious Health

day that he committed his 14 murders, there were seven other postal workers who were fired from various jobs around the country who were also loners or men who don’t have very much diplomatic skill or way of making friends but just took their lumps.”

Many men across the country, according to Stone, share the same characteristics and circumstances as mass murderers, yet never commit such violent crimes. What, then, triggers those who do?

Lanza has been described as an avid video game player. A classmate of Holmes said he was obsessed with video games. Violent media are coming under greater scrutiny for glorifying mayhem and anesthetizing game players to the ramifications of shooting a real person.

Studies, some dating back as far as the 1980s, reveal a connection between playing violent video games and violent behavior. Many were the result of questionnaires filled out by people after playing video games. Others measured stress and heart rate. cont’d on page 10

Summer 2013

9

Photo by Canstock

Some studies show that people who engage in violent video games might see the world as a more hostile place and become desensitized to the impact of violence.

Blame

continued from page 9 Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University, in conjunction with two foreign colleagues, conducted a study that measured aggression in young people after playing violent video games. On three successive days, one group played Condemned 2, Call of Duty 4 and The Club, all violent games. A second group played nonviolent games such as S3K Superbike.

After each day’s play they underwent two tests. In the first they were told to complete a story that might begin with a driver crashing into the back of the main character’s car.

Those who played the violent games were more likely to think of aggressive responses by the

Conscious Health

main character.

In the second, the participants were told they were competing in a game against an unseen opponent. The loser would be subjected to an unpleasant noise through earphones, the duration and loudness to be determined by the winner. Players of the violent video games tended to produce louder and longer blasts of noise to their defeated opponents (who in fact did not exist).

Bushman, in a posting on the Ohio State Web site, said: “People who have a steady diet of playing these violent games may come to see the world as a hostile and violent place. These results suggest there could be a cumulative effect.”

Stone agreed that violent video games may play a role in instigating violent behavior.

“I think for a certain proportion of vulnerable young

Summer 2013

people, it does desensitize them to the impact of harming other people,” Stone said. “But how to measure the strength of the factor is very difficult.”

He believes that the makers of video games and movies could rightly point out that the percentage of young people who play these games and behave in a sociopathic manner is relatively small. The risk is even lower for those from good, stable families.

Of greater concern for Stone is the effect of drugs on potentially violent people. According to all accounts, Jared Loughner, who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed six other people in Arizona in 2011, used drugs and hallucinogens.

In his position at MidHudson Forensic Psychiatric Hospital, Stone sees a large number of violent offenders. “I would say that drug abuse, especially cont’d on next page

10

Blame

continued from page 10 using marijuana before you’re 18, then going on to do cocaine and whatever else, is a way bigger risk factor for violence than watching a lot of crap that is on the television,” Stone said.

On a Wednesday evening in February, more than a hundred people crammed into a conference room intended for many fewer at the Morris County Library in New Jersey. They were gathered to hear a panel discussion about school safety, gun violence and mental illness.

Although a majority appeared to be 2nd Amendment supporters, the panel included mental health experts. Kinnelon Mayor Robert Collins served as moderator and managed to maintain civility at the potentially volatile gathering.

Conscious Health

Among the panelists was Louis Schwarcz, the president and CEO of the Mental Health Association of Morris County.

The non-profit, charity organization offers support for people with mental illness.

Among the services it provides are helping people adjust in moving from a psychiatric hospital to residential living, finding homes for the mentally ill people who are homeless, promoting self-help services, and educating the community about mental illness. Thirty-nine percent of the staff at the association have a mental health problem, helping to prove mental illness isn’t a hopeless affliction.

When it was his turn to speak, Schwarcz focused on the lack of funding for mental health, commitment laws that he said made it easier to get into Harvard than get someone into a psychiatric hospital, and the lack of longterm care options.

Summer 2013

However, he was also concerned with the way people with mental illness are perceived.

When he sat down a few days later in the offices of the Mental Health Association for an interview, that concern still seemed foremost in his mind.

“It’s not normal or acceptable to kill 25 people,” Schwarcz said.

“You can’t attribute that just to mental illness. It’s not fair to other mentally ill people who wake up every morning and work on their recovery and work every day … and try to be good moral people. They don’t deserve to be lumped in with murderers.”

Schwarcz believes that many people who commit awful crimes are not mentally ill, simply devoid of conscience, or any sort of moral compass. That said, he feels the mental health community and enforcement agencies may have suffered a cont’d on next page

11

Blame

continued from page 11 lapse in the cases of Loughner and Holmes.

Since Newtown, the focus has shifted to what mental health professionals can do to prevent further tragedies.

“Newtown seems like it changed the environment for us,” he said, “that people were saying, ‘What about the small percentage of people who go untreated? What are you going to do about that?’ So I do think we need to take some responsibility as a mental health community and address that small percentage. But that shouldn’t overshadow the broader message of hope and recovery.”

Part of the problem is the misconceptions about mental illness, the stigma that mental illness has, quite apart from the violent acts of the past few years.

Schwarcz said one mother told him she wished her son had cancer rather than schizophrenia.

Education, then, is one of the primary missions of the Association.

“If we continue to reduce the stigma, we will find more and more people identifying themselves,” Schwarcz said, “because there is hope. We just have to be able to have a discussion about it and show people it’s not hopeless.”

Fulfillment of that hope involves treatment. Schwarcz believes firmly in traditional methods of treating mental illness – therapy and medication.

However, he recognizes secondary treatments such as exercise, nutrition, spirituality and creative writing can supplement mainstream approaches.

Dr. Eric Riss and his wife, Dr. Miriam Riss, licensed psychologists in New York City,

Conscious Health

go a considerable step further, practicing what they call natural psychotherapy. Drawing on the theories of Thomas Szasz, who wrote “The Myth of Mental Illness,” they deny that depression or anxiety or schizophrenia are diseases. They are, Eric Riss contends, the result of stress. They are psychosocial, as he puts it.

Chemical imbalances do occur in the brain. Riss agrees with that. But whereas mainstream psychiatry maintains the imbalances cause psychological problems, Riss says they are responses to the problems.

“In natural therapy we try to stress that no matter how one feels and how hopeless one feels, one doesn’t have a permanent biological medical illness that has to be treated with drugs,” Riss said, “but rather has problems in living that one can learn how to deal with in more constructive ways.”

For Riss therapy entails offering a guiding hand rather than forcing his ideas on his patients.

“I try to help them find new ways of looking at the problem,” Riss said. “I can’t make it easy for them, because that will be my solution. It may not work for them. They kind of figure out, hey, what would be another way to deal with this situation.

This applies to couples therapy, individual therapy, family therapy.”

Riss believes that even for violent patients psychotherapy offers a path out of the wilderness. He suggests that for some, extreme video games are a means of expressing anger, because they can’t relate to their parents or their teachers.

“If they had really extensive therapy, verbal therapy, problem-solving therapy, had somebody to talk to, somebody they could trust, they might not be just focusing on violence and violent video games … and they

Summer 2013

might be less angry,” Riss said.

“And then they wouldn’t be as risky as they are now.”

Another panelist at that February meeting was L. Michelle Borden, chief operating officer at NewBridge Services. Located in Pompton Plains, N.J., NewBridge offers counseling and educational programs on mental health issues.

Borden noted that mental illness, not mental health, tends to enter the public eye when horrible events such as Newtown occur. She stressed that some of the perpetrators are not what a professional would call mentally ill.

She asked two questions: “How do we make mental health and the need for supports for mental health a routine part of our lives from birth to death?

Why can’t we weave some of this into the fabric of our regular health care system in a way that is constructive and open and honest?”

Although she didn’t say so, implicit in her questions was the possibility and the hope that if we found answers maybe there would be no more Newtowns.

Mike Tschappat is a journalist who wrote for two newspapers in Morris County – the Daily Advance, now deceased, and the Daily Record.

He worked at the latter paper for 30 years as a sportswriter, sports editor, news writer and assistant features editor.

He now does freelance work, writing mostly about classical music and opera. He is also a photographer who specializes in nature, portrait, event and street photography.

12

Cultural Violence is an Inside Job

by Ingrid Geronimo When I was growing up, I remember fewer news reports regarding violence in town or even around the world. Of course, my television watching was censored ,ensuring that I only got to see major world reports such as when President John F. Kennedy was shot and when Martin Luther King was killed.

What was ironic was that, while we were watching what to us children was obviously an act of violence outside in the world, we were experiencing our own bouts Photo by Canstock of violence within our inner world.

When Sometimes cultural violence is happening in our homes and families but we are taught to be quiet and keep it to ourselves, causing more damage. you talk to anyone from our culture (Hisrelatives who came to visit. They initely wasn’t. Knowing what to panic) and from the era that I were quickly shuffling off, if an and “not” to say around “comgrew up in, you would find that argument was brewing between pany”, as they called visitors, bedomestic violence was a com- any of the couples present. It came a learned skill that would mon theme. Looking back on it was obvious that no one wanted garner all kinds of rewards afall, I realize that the violence that to witness others abusing or be- terward. Ice cream, staying up would be intolerable now, was ing abused, physically. They a little later that night, watching very much tolerated by every- surely stayed around for the a show you normally would not one. In fact, many neighbors and verbal abuse, because in my cul- be allowed to watch, etc., were family friends turned a deaf ear ture that was believed to be part all great prizes for keeping your to it, thinking that it was none of of the “machismo” or male ego “trap” shut. The thought was their business. I often heard the and something to be witnessed that no one needed to “air their statement, “You better stay out amongst the men of the culture. dirty laundry out in public” (or of other people’s business before Back then, “hush, hush” and let everyone know our inside you’re labeled as a nosey-body.” the shame and blame game kept family business).

This was often coming from us all pretending that everything However, what I vividly rethe mouths of friends or even was okay, even when it most defcont’d on next page

Conscious Health

Summer 2013

13

Inside

continued from page 13 member still to this day is the screaming and the sound of my father’s slurred words as he found my mother and began to thrash on her in ways that a child should never hear or experience.

The abuse was not only to my mother and not only from my father, but when you raised children in an abusive family then, everyone seemed to play a major role in the abuse. It was brothers against brothers, when the parents weren’t around or uncles and aunts fighting with each other, where it then turned to someone getting beaten. Yet, I remember the good times as well as I do those times. Having experienced

Conscious Health

all of that and seeing my parents still together and having reconciled all of those times makes my heart jump with glee.

Knowing that they were able to reconcile their past and that we turned out okay makes me wonder what went wrong that today we have so much violence and in such grave proportions.

The violence, now, is across cultures and is having a detrimental impact on our nation and even closer to home. We can no longer see any violence anywhere as merely violence that’s happening over there. Violence is an inside job, and we have to start seeing it as that and handling it in each of our individual lives, with our own families and then in the families of our dearest friends.

Ingrid Geronimo is a motivational speaker and intuitive coach whose

Summer 2013

purpose is to empower women to be able to live a life of joy and bliss. Her unique approach to life and business coaching comes from her true desire to help others and her commitment to deliver on the promise of personalized strategies for success.

To her clients, Ingrid is more than a professional partner. She is a wise friend who helps them get past their own fear by helping them recognize their self-worth and teaching them how to re-connect with their ability to make decisions with confidence.

Her comprehensive programs seamlessly integrate business-building with emotional awareness allowing her clients to move forward with personal change and financial growth.

Ingrid’s services include individual coaching programs, group presentations and corporate workshops, as well as intuitive readings and community outreach.

14

More Children are Getting Shot; Are You Ready to Talk About the Real Root Cause Now?

By Shelly Tzorfas Nothing happens in a bubble and there is a reason that children are killing children. There are reasons why we suddenly have a generation of sick kids dependent on psychotropic, mood elevating, behavior modifying, mind controlling drugs. At one time mind altering drugs were sold on the street at strip mall parking lots, while orders were placed over the phone.

Supplies were measured in ounces and pounds, carefully weighed on scales, and placed in neat little plastic bags. Almost all of the young entrepreneurs went on to college.

Sometimes I ponder,”Where are those kids now?” and “How did they turn out?” They were too young to have been exposed to the anti-materialistic philosophy of the previous 60s generation. Next, Generation X came along, then Generation Y. But it is the kids born from the 1990s to the 2000s that are the most mind altered and chemically different. This group of kids is nearly grown now.

This group of children seems to be always connected to something. Always wired; a laptop, IPhone, IPAD, texting, and they are a generation of kids asking, “Why Not?” This group of kids was hovered over in after-school programs, sports programs, and enrichment programs, and were rarely left alone or unsupervised. These kids didn’t meet outside after dinner to run to the street and play kickball, stickball, or other unorganized activities. They were pushed to have better standardized test scores, better SAT scores, and generally over inflated quarterly marking period

Conscious Health

Photo by Canstock

This is the first US generation where ‘Well Baby Check-Ups’ are celebrated with 9 - 20 forms of Vaccines in one day.

scores formally known as report cards. This generation caused more parents to be ‘digitized’ as well. The parents went to the computer to look at the child’s grades then emailed the teacher while texting the school aides.

Despite all this overwhelming attention, this generation has the highest incidence of ADHD, Autism, Tourette’s Syndrome, Seizure Disorders, Bipolar Imbalances,

Summer 2013

Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD), and others.

This is the first US generation where “Well Baby Check-Ups” are celebrated with 9 - 20 forms of Vaccines in one day. You might think the baby got only four shots but the 4 needles include DPT, MMR, or the new 6 in one shot. Every few cont’d on next page

16

Shot

continued from page 16 weeks there are more shots. They have become the most shot-up generation around the globe. Consequently, their bodies and brains have been damaged with toxic adjuvant cocktails, added to trick the immune system, of Aluminum, Embalming fluids, Ether, Polysorbate 80, Antifreeze, Fetal cells, parts of rats brains, dog kidney cells, pigs, cows, caterpillar parts, Thimerosal, Formaldehyde, Squalene and one of my favorites, peanut by products leading to Anaphylactic shock and increased sales for Epi Pens.

This science experiment has had mostly tragic results. The kids are bouncing off the walls instead of playing with balls. They are aggressive, angry, learning disabled, and out of control, particularly the boys. I contend that the chemicals have damaged their brains. The chemicals have interfered with normal functioning as a whole. It is no longer one or two ill children that stand out, but whole groups of children that are increasingly affected.

One in every six children in the US has a Developmental Disability. one in every five children has Neurological Impairment. One in ten is estimated to have Attention Deficit Disorder.

Even school teachers are diagnosing and recommending medications. This was not the case until the US passed a law that said you could never sue a vaccine maker in regular courts. The vaccine industry was given permanent immunity. Thus, by this generation, kids went from a few vaccines to more than 70 vaccines, 36 of which are administered before the age of two.

I am as moved by the recent Newtown shootings as you are.

However, I am hopeful that this tragic incident ushers in a conversation that gets to the very ROOT

Conscious Health

of the problem. Perhaps this can be, “The Shot Heard Round the US?” The very root of the problem is that our kids are being assaulted with dangerous toxic substances from birth through the use of needles, and this mad science experiment must stop!

Remember that Science includes observation, and you can easily observe the ill condition of today’s children in any movie theater, shopping mall, or area of congregation.

Some people think that guns are to blame. Others think that single moms are to blame. Some believe that just the psychiatric medications are to blame, followed by the problems of genetically al- Shelly Tzorfas is the author of the book, ‘Retered foods and video games. covering Autism, ADHD, & Special Needs.

These issues contribute to totowards the brain and cause miniday’s problems but are not at strokes. The previously mentioned the core.

When you inject so many poi- dangerous toxic adjuvant chemisons into a developing nervous cont’d on next page system, even in utero, it can head

Summer 2013

17

Shot

continued from page 17 cals forever alter the children’s ability to regulate themselves via temperature, mood, feelings, and more. I long for the ‘good old days’ when the only drug dealer we worried about was the kid up the street.

Remember, vaccines are drugs.

People in white coats are drugging kids. The innocent kids have been perpetually shot up since birth in the “name” of health. By the time the infant is 3 hours old he has received a shot to prevent a sexually transmitted disease that they could not get unless he or she is an IV drug user, having sex, or if the mother has Hepatitis B. Common sense would be to test the mother’s blood to see if she has Hepatitis B, but rather than perform this simple task, the pharmaceutical industry preferred to have each newborn shot for profit. Not only that, it is one of the only shots created that is not really intended to benefit the baby, rather they hope that in 20-30 years from now Hepatitis B MIGHT decline.

Added to the list are injections given to pregnant women whose fetuses are exposed to Flu shots containing Thimerosal (49.6% ethyl mercury) and Diptheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus shots, more commonly known as a DPaT. It matters little that the Pertussis portion has been ineffective, as evidenced by the ongoing epidemic in which the majority of children with Whooping Cough were already vaccinated multiple times yet still succumbed.

Researchers have pointed out the Whooping Cough is now at its highest incidence since the time that vaccine was invented, despite all the many shots given for it.

Many parents claim their child’s seizures or collapsing began right after the second or third DPT shot but, that continually falls on deaf ears. They are religiously told that their child’s sudden fever is just a coincidence; “the baby must have already had a virus”. They were

Conscious Health

NOT told that the package insert for the vaccine that the doctor receives says, ”May cause Autism, May cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, May cause Diabetes.”

Enough time has lapsed to see the results of over-vaccinating our kids. They have become chronically ill, increasingly threatening to themselves, their parents, schools, and neighborhoods, as well as a financial burden to all of society. Is it any wonder that these already chemically brain damaged children, who wound up requiring psychiatric medications for conditions ultimately caused by their vaccines, commit such violent crimes that we see today when kids decide to pick up guns and shoot their classmates.

When it comes to the art of wellness and immunity, let’s put the

Summer 2013

needles down and stop shooting innocent kids; thereby, rolling back the need for psychiatric medication, because after all … “Less is More.” Now stick out your tongues and say, AHH. With more than 2 decades of experience Shelley Tzorfas has been teaching and recovering children with ADHD, ASD,and Dyslexia in her 1 to 1 program,”Specialized Tutoring/Learning Assessments.” Shelley believes that with early intervention and detox kids can recover.Her youtube video introduces the subject and her upcoming book.http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=QY_DXCmhK0g Shelley’s witty articles are published throughout the US and Canada. She holds an MFA degree and is a member of the International Dyslexia Assoc. and holistic organizations. She can be reached at stzorfas@gmail.com

19

Does What You Use on Your Hair, Nails and Skin Really Matter?

by Colleen Guber Decker It’s funny; I never really thought much about the products I used.

To be honest, as I can imagine most people do, I have always been one to “get the deals.” Something on clearance or next to nothing, I’m there; it’s mine.

Three and half years ago I had somewhat of an epiphany. Being a hairdresser I was surrounded by chemicals every day. I used hair products, make-up and nail pol-

Conscious Health

ishes from every brand in every price range on my own body as well as my guests. I never really gave it one thought. Hey, our skin is our shield right?

My epiphany occurred when I opened my own salon and started researching products to carry.

Having a thyroid disorder, I’ve been struggling with all types of issues since 12 years of age.

Around the same time of opening

Summer 2013

my salon I attended a seminar regarding diet, product ingredients and your thyroid. I started eating differently, removing processed foods from my diet and eating a more whole food based diet.

That’s when I asked, “Why would I use CHEMICALS on my body if I didn’t want to put them in my mouth?” After all, 60% of everything you put on your skin cont’d on next page

20

Photo by Canstock If properly used, truly good products are not watered down, thus making them more concentrated, meaning they will last longer than cheaper brands. Let’s also take into account that eating better and using better products that are not toxic for our bodies may just give us better health.

Skin Care

continued from page 20 goes in. As I researched more products that we were using every day I was mortified to know they were filled to the brim with toxic chemicals -- everything from hormone disrupters to nerve numbing agents, not to mention ammonia and formaldehyde in our shampoos, make-up, nail polishes and the list goes on and on. The funny part is that there are many people, like me back then, who take great care to eat the right things and exercise but continue to use “the best deal” on their hair products, skin care regiments and nail care. This is concerning.

There is no doubt that there

Conscious Health

is a direct correlation between good health and what we are putting in and on our bodies every day. Somewhere along the way we lost doing what is best for us to what’s easiest and cheapest. I constantly hear comments in my business about how expensive it is to be healthy and while I agree it is more expensive to buy good whole foods and products, we have to realize that the more we eat and use “cheap” products the cheaper they become. Big box companies can afford to manufacture items in mass quantities driving down their cost not to mention using cheaper ingredients, like water and manufactured chemicals to stretch out a batch of products to make more of it and even cheaper. If properly used, truly good products are not watered down, thus making them more concentrated, meaning

Summer 2013

they will last longer than cheaper brands. Let’s also take into account that eating better and using better products that are not toxic for our bodies may just give us better health.

True we are surrounded by things that are deemed bad for us in one way or another everyday and everywhere we go, but if you can be the difference for not only yourself but your family in just one little piece of your universe, why wouldn’t you? If we want better products it’s up to us to advocate for ourselves and make it a priority to find out the truth and make it most important for our own health and the ones we love.

Colleen Guber Decker is the owner of Salon FiG in Newton, NJ. Visit on the Web at http://www.salonfig.com, to ‘Experience the Organic Difference,’ or call 973-300-4247(HAIR).

21

How it is Possible to Use Sound to Heal

by Dorinne Davis Do you love to listen to music?

Does it make you feel alive? Feel better? Be more focused? Get you through difficult times? If music does this, imagine how much more powerful the response could be when the smallest pieces of music in frequency and vibrational patterns are combined in the specific ways that your body wants and needs for you to feel better. These patterns are sound patterns coming from your cellular rhythms and the rhythm with a newly identified subtle energy system in the body called The Voice-Ear-Brain

Connection©.

Numerous philosophers have said that sound is the medicine of the future. While the final pieces haven’t been developed, the process has begun with The Davis Model of Sound Intervention©.

This model sets the foundation for future applications of specific sound interventions.

What has Been?

For thousands of years, sound healing has been used by civilizations to make people feel better.

One of the oldest known usages

of sound was with the Egyptians in 4000 BC using vowel chanting. Over the years other civilizations have used bronze bowls, crystal bowls, whistling vessels, drumming circles, tuning forks and more to energize and balance emotions and physical overall wellness.

The Current The Davis Model of Sound Intervention has been evolving for 21 years. The process has grown, cont’d on next page

Photo by Canstock

CFor thousands of years, sound healing has been used by civilizations to make people feel better.

Conscious Health

Summer 2013

22

Sound

continued from page 22 been modified, adapted, and finally has developed into a process for future generations to use.

The concepts behind the model are three-fold: 1) There are 5 laws that support the existence of a subtle energy system between the voice, ear and brain. Collectively this is known as The VoiceEar-Brain Connection. The voice produces what the ear hears.

The ear emits the same stressed frequencies as the voice. When complementary frequencies are re-introduced to the ear, the voice regains balance or coherence and the body maintains its overall wellness. 2) Every cell of the body emits its own frequency. These frequencies have been correlated with the voice. 3) The ear can be considered a global sensory processor, not just a hearing mechanism, because with sound vibrational stimulation all senses are impacted.

The model uses The Tree of Sound Enhancement Therapy® as the developmental flow chart for the correct administration of the many different sound-based therapies that exist. The Diagnostic Evaluation for Therapy Protocol (DETP®) determines if, when, how long and in what order any or all of the many existing soundbased therapies should be appropriately used.

By balancing or repatterning how a person receives, processes, uses and integrates sound vibrational patterns from inside their body in resonance with those sound vibrational patterns that are outside the body, each person remains whole and balanced. Difficulties occur in the form of illness, disease, learning challenges, emotional imbalances, cognitive weaknesses, general anxiety and so much more when the body is out of balance vibrationally.

Conscious Health

The body has the potential to self-heal but sometimes the outside influences are too much for the body to re-balance itself without the help of sound-based therapies. The Davis Model of Sound Intervention provides the system to bring the body back into balance. The DETP® is the place to start.

Moving Forward Once the person’s resonance is in balance within their VoiceEar-Brain Connection, the selfhealing process is easier to maintain. The technique for keeping the body in balance is the technique known as Ototoning. In this process, each person’s most important ear emission is identified and then toned back into their body.

At this level of balance, imagine a world where you wake up each morning and identify what your body most wants and needs to function best that day. The sound coming from your ear will identify what you need and the voice will then support your body towards self-healing. This will be possible in the near future.

Summer 2013

Resources: Davis, D. Sound Bodies through Sound Therapy. Kalco Publishing, LLC, Landing, NJ 2004 Davis, D. The Cycle of Sound: A Missing Energetic Link. New Pathways Press, Newton, NJ 2012.

Dorinne S. Davis, MA, CCC-A, FAAA, RCTC, BARA, is the President/Founder of The Davis Center, Succasunna, NJ. She is the author of 5 books. Davis is credentialed in 21 different sound-based therapies and her background as an audiologist, educator and sound therapist provides the foundation to The Davis Center’s unique Total Person approach, called The Davis Model of Sound Intervention. She was asked to establish a radio show for AutismOne. org. Her program entitled, “Sound Effects with Dorinne Davis, discussing how Sound Affects the Person with Autism” is played on www.autismone.org the second Thursday of every month at 12:30 p.m. She expanded her program on CBS radio and is heard every Tuesday 12 p.m. (EST) on www.newskyradio.com. Websites discussing her work are www.DorinneDavis.com, www. thedaviscenter.com, www.cycleofsound. com and www.ototoning.com. She writes Sound Sense the Wellness Blog at www.dorinnedavis.wordpress.com.

23

may feel powerless and helpless, we are capable of moving through our pain. Life is daring to be.

There are numerous ways to resolve inner conflict. One suggestion is to write out our feelings. Writing has a wonderful way of slowing our thinking. The essence of our thoughts tends to emerge in phrases of clarity.

Contemplation may lead to meditation and/ with or images in our mind’s eye. When we hear Elizabeth Olney something that stirs us, we can then physically move to the sensation we’re given; whether we gently flex our toes or dance like there’s no tomorrow. Or, if we capture an image we can act upon it by painting and let the colors take us We exist in tumultuous times. The Earth where they will. A swirl of chaos often inspires erupts with quakes and storms and anger so creative ideas and incites harmony. violent sometimes that it’s difficult to “Art places the central responsibility for fathom, let alone accept. Meanwhile, change upon the individual, rather than we cannot afford to deny what is making him rely exclusively upon imposed going on, because we are an integral treatment from the outside.” part of the collective whole of — Edward Adamson, in “Art as Healing” Oneness. Though we need not stare Mind you that the efforts we make with at violence, for we don’t want to fuel the action we take, radiates. There exists it with attention, we are responsible a subtle vibration of energy so profound to at least glance. To deny our that it’s seemingly intangible as all is one. reactions to it could be even more When we self-actualize creativity, we not harmful personally and worldly. only become more equipped to handle We’re all affected by the what’s to come; we have more love to turbulence of violence whether we give. Our efforts may also lead us to take realize it or not. Violence causes Photo by Elizabeth Olney further action with others as a community stress, mental anguish; hearts break This was taken at a force for change. It is the collective spirit of www.howglobal.org funand yet, we need not stay broken. actions taken by each of us that wills the draising event and was To those who are especially hurting painted by children. creation of world peace. over something, may you be open to “Peace is not the absence of conflict but the the loving support of others. Love is presence of creative alternatives for responding the ultimate healer. Meanwhile peace to conflict....”

— Dorothy Thompson comes from within, fundamentally, and in order May we wear and share our love graciously. to heal we must deal so we may return to a state of well-being.

Elizabeth Olney acquired her MA in The Arts Once we are aware of an unpleasant for healing as an Expressive Therapist of NETA, occurrence, we are led to admit that it actually 1991.

She is a multi-media artist and has presented occurred. Failure to admit its reality prevents us art workshops in dance-movement, Mandala-work from coming to a place of acceptance. Just know and sensory stimulation at conferences for Integrative that the courage it takes to face heinous acts Medicine and Expressive Therapy in NYC, Saratoga helps to deflate fears and emerge from darkness NY, Eastern PA and San Fransisco, Elizabeth’s back into the light. showed her artwork and that of the clients she’s Of course accepting doesn’t necessarily mean served at the Vasarely Gallery in Soho NYC, UCP liking something, it simply means that we of NYS and Morristown Medical Center. She has choose not to deny truth. Though we can neither taught her course “The Dynamics of Creativity” and reverse what’s happened nor change others, we facilitated numerous creative workshops in NJ, NY can take time to transform our discontent for and PA. She implemented Art Therapy for Heartshare a return to a loving condition. Once we reach Human Services of NY and continues to consult with acceptance we are ready to take action and educators and health practitioners about the benefits transform our discord to a harmonious state. and healing affects of creative productivity for all ages “All works of love are works of peace.” and health conditions. Elizabeth and CAW Creative —Mother Theresa Action Works is offering one-to-one art sessions and Then what do we do ? What can we do ? How art workshops. cawobeth@gmail.com. can we regain our peace of mind ? Though we

The Empowering Arts

Healing over violence

Conscious Health

Summer 2013

24

choice to follow the path of Love, you are choosing to set fear aside, to embrace the possibilities inherent in the moment. You are choosing faith that a force greater than the self is at play in any given situation.

We all are faced with the opportunity to take responsibility for our own choices, our own

with Christina lives. We are a world based on free will; it is a

Lynn Whited right and a responsibility.

Act now to send feelings of Love to each part of your life, to areas of concern, to weather systems, to countries devastated by war and ravaged by floods.

Love is the antidote to all forms of fear. Step We are living in a time when there is a great back from fear and deal of turmoil – no recognize that the news flash there. behavior that caused Our country has the problem will not been involved in cure the problem. two wars, the Holy Love is the only Land continues to be antidote, the only embroiled in discord, answer. terrorists visit mayhem Sending Love throughout the world, to an area where and Mother Nature there is turmoil does responds with storms, not mean that you floods, tornados, condone the turmoil hurricanes, and more. or the bad behavior.

Our thoughts and It simply means that feelings create our you recognize the experience. As a need for more Love people, we feed energy in that situation. to both the planet Love is the one and the atmosphere. thing that we never Storms echo our inner run out of, we can confusion and chaos. always create more The upheaval in the – we have an infinite environment is a result supply. of our own disordered Christina Lynn thoughts and feelings.

Whited has been Love is the antidote featured in People to terror, to upheaval, Magazine, on CNN to global warming, and Geraldo, and in to discord and strife. the New York Post, There are two primary The Los Angeles paths in life. One is Times, The Chicago labeled FEAR, the other Tribune and many Photo by Canstock is tagged LOVE. The other papers. Her There are two paths we can take.

One path is Fear and the other choice is there for each is Love.

Both of these can be just as powerful but fear generally work has also been of us –which path will leads to more discord and disharmony and Love leads to an lauded by such you choose? embracing of the possibilities inherent in any moment. notables as Dr. Wayne Following the path Dyer and Dr. Joe of Fear leads to greater Vitale. Christina heads discord, increased The Circle of Intention School of Intuitive Sciences disharmony, and even more fear. The road and the Church of All Creation, both in High Bridge, marked Love has results that are just as potent, yet, New Jersey. diametrically opposite. By making the conscious

Working with Spirit: Subtle Energy

Love is the Antidote

Conscious Health

Summer 2013

25

crystals were formed. When thoughts such as “you make me sick” were used, the crystals were jagged and appeared diseased. This study revealed how profound violent and negative thoughts can have on water, and given that the

with human body is approximately 60% water, we Susannah Pitman can assume that violence has a deep effect on ourselves.

During her acupuncture treatments, one of my patients takes the opportunity to think positive healing thoughts and direct them to different parts of her body. She came to me a little over two years ago with a diagnosis of Stage 4 Breast Cancer and wanted to try Sometimes when I am giving an acupuncture acupuncture for neuropathy as well as curbing treatment, the person receiving the treatment any side effects from her chemotherapy. wonders what is going on. Where is the needle While receiving acupuncture as well as going? What is it going into? chemotherapy treatments, she thinks about What is it doing? A general answer I can white, healing energy moving through give is that the needle is often times going into different parts of her body. She gets so specific connective tissue that is surrounding blood that she sometimes vessels, nerves thinks of healing and lymphatic energy moving channels, on a cellular allowing the level. Amazingly, tissue to relax not only has she and expand experienced few so that blood, side effects from nerve signals chemotherapy and lymph but her tumors can move have shrunk more smoother and than her doctors more efficiently. expected. While This increase she and I know of flow of these that we are not substances can using acupuncture enhance organ to “cure” her function and of cancer, we overall health do know that while relieving Photo by Canstock her positive pain and many In studies, concentrated thoughts are directed to water as it is other symptoms. forming crystals captured by a microscope with a high speed camera. thoughts during her acupuncture In addition to the When thoughts such as love and gratitude were aimed toward the water, beautiful, elaborate crystals were formed. When thoughts such and chemotherapy physical release treatments are key of the connective as ‘you make me sick”’ were used, the crystals were jagged and appeared diseased. in helping her live tissue, I think a good quality life. something even If we froze her water, I imagine her crystals deeper may be happening, and the power of would be amazing! thought plays a huge part in the success of the Susannah Pitman, MS, LAc, is a NCCAOM treatment. certified Diplomate in acupuncture and is a Some of my favorite studies are Masaru licensed acupuncturist in the state of New Jersey.

Emoto’s water crystal studies. In these studies, She is the owner of Balance Acupuncture Center concentrated thoughts are directed to water as in Boonton, NJ. She founded The Harmony it is forming crystals that are being captured by Journal, an online blog about complementary and a microscope with a high speed camera. When alternative therapies. She also creates and teaches thoughts such as love and gratitude were self-help acupressure classes. aimed toward the water, beautiful, elaborate

Everyday Acupressure

The Power of Thought

Conscious Health

Summer 2013

26

Conscious Parenting

with Dr. Beth Haessig

Sometimes It’s Love, Other Times Change In Love with the New Sun in love with the new sun the cherry blossom forgets the night’s frost

— a poem by Ivan M. Granger

remind ourselves that this will pass, this will change, that this is like the night’s frost that will disappear by morning.

Recall the stages of your newborn. One week was completely different from the next. Every day seemed like a new challenge emerged, and then it was gone as quickly as it came (usually).

The teenage years move a bit more slowly, with big problems seemingly lasting forever. But the undying desire for all of life to lean toward growth, movement, and creation makes even our teenagers want to evolve from certain behaviors...to grow up.

I’m in love with the new sun -- the sun that rises anew, everyday; the sun that sets on yesterday’s problems, arguments, and bad moods, and brings a new perspective to today.

Take hold of the forgetfulness of the cherry blossom when you are amidst the travails of parenting. The sun brings us a new day.

Dr. Beth L. Haessig, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist, When we are body-centered in the midst of psychotherapist, a difficult stage and a Kripaluof parenting certified yoga our children, it teacher. She is hard to have works in schools, perspective. We in a Newark tend to feel like hospital, and this particular, has a private annoying practice in behavior will Denville. Her last forever. mind-body Whether it’s interventions sleepless nights are experiential, or picky eating body-focused or long showers, and skill based, we suffer the as she views experience with her client’s a layer of angst. challenges as Consider the sourced in a stage your child lack of mindful is going through Photo by Dawn J. Benko awareness & now. Name the Each sunrise brings a new day. When you are experiencing issues with skills rather than parenting, it is a good idea to take some time to reflect on the new beginning behavior that is pathology.

She that each day can bring. driving you crazy. specializes in Is it forever? Is it trauma, anxiety based on their age? and depression, Is it their way of adapting to a change? These eating issues, and relationship difficulties.

Additional are important questions to consider in order to (R) , Trauma training includes Core Energetics know if your task is to accept and love, or to Resiliency Model (R), LifeForce Yoga (R), Exceptional inspire a change. Most often, no intervention Marriage (R) and MySelf Design (R) (bariatric is required. And to worry or fret keeps parents counseling). Her clients are children, adults, and from seeing the delightful dimensions of your families. child’s life-stage. We have to consciously

Conscious Health

Summer 2013

27

Aromatherapy

with Christina Martinez

has been used for centuries to help dry skin and is known for its anti-aging properties. The Egyptians used it in facial masks to rejuvenate the skin. This, too, can be applied directly to the skin or diluted with organic olive oil. Lastly, LavaDerm® Cooling Mist is a medicine cabinet must. This spray contains lavender oil and aloe vera to help promote relief in sun-affected areas.

Insect Repellant Yes, we love our Summer and so do bugs!

Let’s hope mosquitoes don’t feast on you. A natural way to repel those critters is by using the essential oil blend of Purification®. It also soothes insect bites. Some oils included in this blend are: citronella, lemongrass, rosemary, and There’s something sweet about Summertime. melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree). I like to apply it I’ve noticed when we take time to tune into the after sundown when outdoors. Note: This oil is vibration of the season, there is a more relaxed, photosensitive so do not apply it when you will peaceful state in the air. Could it be summer be in direct sunlight. vacation? More sun? Or perhaps the feeling or A word of caution to educated consumers: permission we’ve somehow given ourselves to tips provided here apply only to the use of take life a little easier Young Living Essential Oils. at that time? Either Why? Because this world leading way, it’s all good. company holds the highest and With Summer fun most stringent standards for purity comes joyful beach and efficacy. Caveat emptor... adventures, endless other companies may claim to be days outdoors and, “therapeutic” while adulterating of course, sunburn! their oils with chemicals, synthetics, Although we’ve and/or fillers which means you don’t been told to pile on get the real therapeutic benefits of the sunscreen, we aromatherapy. sometimes forget May the joy and scents of summer because of the make you smile throughout the year. excitement of living Christina Martínez is delicious moments.

Photo coourtesy of Christina Martinez passionate about empowering I have. When I jump Lavender essential oil can help heal sunburned clients to live healthy, joyful out of bed eager for skin. .LavaDerm Cooling Mist can also help relieve and harmonious lives. She is a my weekend long runs, sun-affected areas. Frankincense can help with holistic health educator, wellness all I can think about is dry skin and has anti-aging properties. consultant, and keynote speaker putting on my running with Sky Diva Oils, a division of clothes, sneakers, Rising Above, LLC. Her holistic Garmin™ watch, and hitting the road! Hours health and wellness company provides workshops, later, I come home with rosy cheeks and a red consulting, and alternative healing tools specializing nose. So, how do we care for our body using in aromatherapy. essential oils during the summer?

Featured on CNBC On the Money and Cablevision For the Health of It; she has also been Skin Care a contributing expert in Latina and Garden State Did you know that pure, therapeutic-grade Woman magazines.

Christina is a Certified Clinical Lavender essential oil can serve as an excellent Aromatherapist, Certified Raindrop Technique tool to heal sunburned skin? Apply it directly to Practitioner, Reiki Master, and intuitive who travels the affected area or make your own Lavender internationally as an educator.

She speaks Spanish spritzer by mixing the oil with distilled water and French. in a small, dark colored, glass spray-bottle. It Visit her at: www.SkyDivaOils.com and follow her can cool the body and help promote the healing on Twitter @christinaintl. process. Another great oil is Frankincense. It

Summertime Self-Care

Conscious Health

Summer 2013

28

Wellness Workshop

with Vilasi Venkatachalam

Restoring Vitality The heartbeat of this Workshop is rejuvenation, reverence and return to wholeness.

It is reconnection to rhythms, rituals and relationships between what we eat, what we sow, what we reap and the irreplaceable role of it all in the tapestry of cosmic rhythms.

Our Original Diet was defined as a manner of living – with its 6 spokes – the 6 S’s of the Vitality Wheel ( see photo). Longevity studies have thrown in two wildcards that appear to electrify and extend lives, making some of us nonagenarians and centenarians, and very, very happy ones at that. We will explore the spokes and more healing principles in the coming seasons.

Summer.

“Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape.”

– Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird Season’s Strategy – Feast on the Summer Harvest – Healing Principle -1 Restore healing depots in your body with brilliant, healing colors, scents and flavors of the summer harvest….they are stored in your organs including skin, brain, heart, prostate and liver.

Protect them.

Arugula, Asparagus, Basil and Beets Blueberries and Broccoli Cucumbers and Corn Fiddleheads and Greens Melons, Mint and Nectarines Peaches and Squashes Strawberries and Scallions Tomatoes and Thyme…and many more The Daily Dose Interrupt your blessed day with cleansing breaths. Reset your hormones and blood pressure.

(These counts are for - Inhale - Hold - Exhale – Hold) Energizing breath – 6 – 6 – 6 – 1 Relaxing breath – Inhale – 6 – 1 – 10 – 1

Conscious Health

Balancing breath – Inhale – 6 – 2 – 6 – 2 Sprinkle a pinch (1/8th tsp) cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom to your hot or iced, tea or coffee. It amplifies the healing potential.

Healing Principle - 2 Grind black pepper over anything – it increases the absorption of colorful molecules from whole foods. Healing Principle - 2 Drink water, lemonade and teas with fresh fruit and herbs for potent, inflammation quenching, rehydration and rejuvenation.

Healing Principle - 2 Lazy Summer Weekend Rub yourself with coconut oil-herb-rootelixirs, followed by invigorating showers.

Nap in the summer shade Float lazily, meditating in cool waters…

Walk on the grass to trails of honeysuckle...

Marinate your meats before you fire up your grill. Drench everything in the tart juices of succulent summer fruits and berries, generous green sprinkles of fresh healing herbs and sweetsavory spices…let it sit as long as it wants to, in a really cold place, like your fridge or freezer – Grill the meats to done…not charred.

Healing Principle -3 You will cleanse and reset your body and realign your stress, sleep, sugar balancing hormones with the rhythms with nature.

Vilasi Venkatachalam, MS, RD, is a multimedia storyteller, transformation teacher, and guide. She leads live and multimedia Wellness and Transformation Safaris through Cuisines, Cultures and Cures. Together, with generous sprinklings of curiosity, creativity and imagination, she guides her audience to An Inspired Palette© Her 27 labors include degrees in Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Nutrition.

Summer 2013

29

The Naturopathic Physician

with Dr. Pina LoGuidice

A Gene-Test for Your Kid’s Best Mood In my clinical practice, I have the privilege to work with many behavior-challenged kids and their parents. Often times, I will see kids with trouble sitting still, getting to sleep, or concentrating in school. Other kids can be overly aggressive and defiant. In many cases, I have witnessed first-hand how diet, family and lifestyle changes, along with appropriate nutrient supplementation and natural remedies will change these behaviors, and help avoid pharmaceuticals in the process. My experience tells me more natural and gentler means can achieve positive results, address the underlying factors, and avoid side effects that can come with medications.

How Do I Treat MTHFR Defects?

When I check this gene on a young patient and find it is defective, I will usually recommend certain natural versions of folic acid and some other B vitamins, which can bring things back into balance. It is important to remember that the regular folic acid found in most vitamins will not help, and some studies suggest they can make certain problems worse. The natural form, called methyltetrahydrofolate, is what you want to supplement with. Depending on the situation, I may also recommend an amino acid called methionine and a nutrient called betaine as well.

MTHFR and the Big Picture Of course, we will also start to work with the lifestyle and diet. I think it is very important to encourage a good sleep ritual, and to bring in as many healthy green vegetables (which have some of the natural folic acid already there) into the diet as possible. It is also imperative to limit or eliminate foods with preservatives, sugary foods, work on food allergies, minimize TV and bright screen time (cell phone, iPads, etc…), as well as consider environmental stressors and toxins – all of which can play a role in your child’s behavior issues.

I have been very impressed with the changes in kids, and adults after running this test and then prescribing the right vitamins and naturopathic changes. And, I am thrilled when kids can avoid medications and use treatments that truly heal the underlying problems.

What’s this MTHFR All About?

One underlying factor I wanted to discuss today is working with an underutilized blood test called the MTHFR (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) gene test. While I am not a fan of having kids take blood tests when not needed, this is one lab test that parents should consider even though most pediatricians may not have heard of it. This test looks at the two copies of the MTHFR gene in your child’s body, which plays an important role in mood and behavior. MTHFR is a gene that makes an important enzyme called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. This enzyme helps your child’s body convert folic acid into a much more helpful and usable form. The test can tell us whether one or two of the genes are defective.

When these are abnormal, your child’s body has a hard time making any MTHF.

References: Boris M, Goldblatt A, et al. Association of MTHFR Gene Variants with Autism. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. 2004 (9);4: 106-108.

So What Does MTHF Have to Do with my Kid’s Mood?

MTHF is very important for good mood because it helps keep the right balances of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine.

Conscious Health

Neurotransmitters are some of the brain chemicals that are responsible for mood. It has been shown that there are much higher rates of autism, attention deficit challenges, depression, and even schizophrenia or bipolar disorder when one or both of the MTHFR genes are defective.

MTHFR doesn’t just affect mood. Defects will also play a role in cardiovascular disease and cancer. Because of this, I am now checking this on most of my adult patients as well. I am finding about 70% of patients have one gene mutation, and about 40% of adults and kids have defects in both genes. Research studies also suggest a high percentage of the population have this gene defect.

cont’d on next page

Summer 2013

30

LoGuidice

continued from page 33 Gokcen C. et al.

Methelenetetrahydrofolate reductase Gene Polymorphisms in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Int J Med Sci 2011(8)7:523-528.

LoGiudice P, Bongiorno PB. ADHD: A Ten Point Naturopathic Medicine Plan. Education. com accessed at http://www. innersourcehealth.com/news_ published.aspx?EntryID=242 on December 18, 201 Recognized as a natural medicine expert, Dr. Pina LoGiudice has appeared on national TV numerous times, including regular appearances on the Dr. Oz show, and multiple appearances on major news media.

Photo by Canstock

It is important to bring in as many healthy green vegetables (which have some of the natural folic acid already there) into the diet as possible.

Dr. LoGiudice is a naturopathic doctor and licensed acupuncturist, and is co-director of InnerSource Natural Health and Acupuncture in New York. ‘Dr. Pina’ focuses her work on holistic fertility, women’s

medicine, and pediatrics, and is building the first truly naturopathic center for women’s health, pregnancy and children in the Northeast.

She can be contacted through www.InnerSourceHealth.com.

Find out how to get free product.

Refer three – get yours free…. that simple.

Wrinkles

Sun Spots Acne

Stretch Marks H T T P : / / I M AG I N E YO U R L I F E . N E R I U M . C O M F I N D O U T H OW E A S Y I T I S T O B E A B R A N D PA R T N E R

Conscious Health

Summer 2013

31

Purchase your hardcopy of SUMMER 2013

CULTURAL VIOLENCE Finding Our Way to a More Peaceful State

CULTURAL VIOLENCE IS AN INSIDE JOB

LOVE IS THE ANTIDOTE

USE SOUND TO HEAL

AROMATHERAPY FOR SUMMERTIME SELF-CARE

at http://www.magcloud.com/webviewer/534033?__r=29973&s=w