TIFA's 'Upleveling Humanity' Winter 2022: BODY Edition

UPLEVELING HUMANITY

EYES: WINDOWS TO THE SOUL

NOCEBO DIAGNOSIS & EFFECT

CHILDHOOD VEGANISM: FRIEND OR FOE?

THE INSTITUTE FOR ALIVENESS

EDITOR

Bernn Alipaopao & Han Pham

TIFA Class of 2022

SEX & HUMANITY

FROM THE EDITOR

Welcome to the future. By now, we all re that the page has turn, the hourglass shifted, and something's "different" a how we perceive reality TIFA promis skate the cutting edge of future hu perception in our rooting in embo research, non-duality, and the mythopo The events of these past few y undeniably unforeseen, will fester in psyches for decades to come. Humanity walked up to a cliff side... and jum Nothing we ’ ve ever known about ourselv a species will ever be the same Li increasing in stakes at a rate faster than of us could endure individually. The Ge principal of the whole’s outcome surpassing the individual's is the clay mold at The Institute For Aliveness As Institute has birthed itself into being and right people have been magnetized in out of orbit, we set forth with one mission: to hold higher standards for species “Upleveling Humanity,” as we The students have dived head first profound change, in what many acknowl as 10+ years of personal growth in jus years. The experience itself is what created the change “It’s not the curricu that’s the course; it’s the journey that’s the course. ” Intense. This pressure cooker for profound transformation is an undeniable straight-shot to facing oneself Looking into the buried parts of ourselves we’d rather not unsettle. Dusting up mud, packed down deep, which unattended, can create humus and mold our mind. So we attend to ourselves, our psyches, our souls The three main semesters of TIFA empower the individual to decipher, separate and dissect the different elements of healing and being human.

From Applied Epigenetics, the Microbiome and lifestyle design to herbal therapeutics, diagnostics, digestion and detoxification, the BODY semester is what you might expect from me. MIND is where we find out what BODY lacks. Rooted in deep study of neurobiology, we stem into trauma and psychosomatics We clarify the lenses we look through to filter our world. We twist our tongue into compassionate communication techniques and untie cognitive dissonance. As we glide into our third semester: SPIRIT, the interconnection of all life's elements becomes apparent. We grace into the unseen, face the laws of karma and dharma, slide into symbolism and look deeply at relationships

Finishing up the year with bioenergetics, sex and Tantra, we leave few stones unturned Each 2022 student is now living their second year of TIFA a completely different being. Physically and psychologically upgraded, refined to a new level of integrity This vulnerable resiliency will ease them through the final six months of the course, writing a final thesis and undergoing a dedicated apprenticeship beside an elder with 40+ years experience in their art We top off the online content with two in-person retreats: a colon hydrotherapy training: our clinical setting to witness the mystery of the digestive system and scale up our emotional intelligence and personal energetic and an in person retreat of deep embodiment, triggers, facing self and spurring the rate of self-knowing.

TIFA successfully gained accreditation from the Global Accreditation Council this past November Our transformational Institute is gaining traction and snowballing in influence upon the world. The only question is - will you join us...? Keep your ears open for 2024 enrollment

FEATURES

13 SHOULD THE BAOBAB BE OUR NEW WEST AFRICAN SUPERFOOD?

AlongwiththeLion,thebaobabisthemajor Senegaleseemblemforculture,tourismand, let'ssay,poetico-esotericattraction.

19 WHAT WE ARE DESIGNED TO EAT

Everyyear,millionsofpeoplediefromnoncommunicable, preventable diseases worldwide.Oneundeniablecauseofdisease that has been given a lot of attention recentlyis…ourdiet!

25 VEGANISM IN CHILDHOOD

Weoughttoreflectonhowdecisionsmade for our children are not solely about our childrenbutalsoaboutourselves.Whenyou hearaboutafellow-parentchoosingtoraise theirfamilywithawholefoods,plant-based lifestylewhatimmediatelysurfacesinyou?

N & HOLY SHIT!

cessarilywhatyoupoop: onstipation and diverse ourholypoop.

OUGHTS ON it,thehumandigestive ongtubewithamouth abum-holeattheother. ooneendthreeorfour hing should come out s.

WS TO THE SOUL

e movement and its position & posture is d to our brains and spartofthecatalystfor dthushowweinteract withourenvironmentfrombirth.

FEATURES

49 DIGGING DEEPER INTO THE GOLDMINE OF EARWAX

Doyouknowwhatisreallygoingon inside your ear? Do you track your earwax growing? The ear canal is the canalfromtheoutereartotheeardrum.It is the place where cerumen is located: yourearwax,whichmostofusknowasa yellowish,fatty,moistsubstance.

54 BATHE YOUR SKIN IN H2OHYDRATION AND THE SKIN

PRE/POST SUN EXPOSURE

Sun protection products come in all shapes and sizes, but what are the commoningredients,andwhateffectsdo theyhaveonourbody?

FEATURES

72 KAMBÔ: A GLINT IN HIS EYE, HIS BACK SHINING GREEN

Kambô is the synonym for the frog PhyllomedusaBicolor,alsoknownasGiant GreenMonkeyTreeFrog,thatisnativeto theamazon,anditshealingapplication

78 NOCEBO DIAGNOSIS & EFFECT

Canbeliefmakeyouphysicallysick?How badcanitget?Whataresignificantfactors playing into nocebo? Does nocebo play a roleinthepatient’sreceptionofadiagnosis ofchronic,geneticand“incurable”diseases?

85 THE CERVIX AND THE VAGUS NERVE. A LOVE STORY.

Whenitcomestosexualitytherearemany questionstoask.Whenitcomestowomen’s sexualitytheremightbeevenmorequestions toask.Whenitcomestothecervix,most peopledon’tevenknowwhattoaskabout.

72

91 CAN FASTING ENHANCE SKIN SENSUALITY, PLEASURE & THE WAY WE TOUCH THE WORLD?

Theskinisthebody’slargestorganaswellas thelargestsenseorgan Itisalsothelargest peripheralendocrineorgan

97 THE PILL VS. IUD

Itisaverypersonaldecisiontochoosethe right type of birth control. It depends on manydifferentfactors.However,younggirls andwomendon’tknowmanyotheroptions thanwhattheirdoctoradvises.

104 HERBAL BIRTH CONTROL: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

Can our body, fertility and period be supported by the use of herbs for birth control?

SHOULD BAOBAB BE THE NEW WEST-AFRICAN SUPERFOOD?

BY MAYA LATRUBESSE

African Baobabs are one of the largest and oldest trees in the world. With a circumference that can shelter a house or the grave of a griot,* and a longevity that can last for a thousand years, it seems to be the quiet witness to human history… at the very place where humanity awakened. Along with the Lion, the baobab is the major Senegalese emblem for culture, tourism and, let's say, poetico-esoteric attraction. However, it’s for another reason that the baobab is called the "tree of life." Senegalese society is shy to reveal the secrets of one of the flagship plants of its pharmacopeia and psycho-magic: each of Baobab’s parts, from the fruit to the roots, can be used by humans as a medicine.

According to the WHO, eighty percent of the West African population use traditional medicine, with many prescriptions referring to it as bouye After Moringa alternifolia and Artemisia annua, the African Baobab seems to be the new fashionable food supplement Export to Europe is slowly but surely increasing, as a successful market is now open, especially in the UK, Germany and France, with the largest consumer market for organic food in Europe But why is this plant so promising? Does it really work miracles? Is it really the new food supplement to have at home? In the footsteps of the marabouts and healers of my neighborhood, I would like to take you on a journey to verify the benefits of the African Baobab, Adansonia Digitata L., the "bottle tree", "the upside down tree" and the implications of its consumption.

BAOBAB USES & HISTORY

Roughly ten thousand traditional medicine practitioners are currently active in Senegal. The future of the profession is assured because of the extremely high price of western allopathic medicine

If you ask a healer what the baobab is used for, he will probably reply: everything! In recent decades, ethnomedicine has been widely interested in the traditional uses of the baobab leaves, bark, pulp and seeds in West African communities Interest lies in identifying and compiling the most interesting properties of this long-lasting plant, including how adaptive and resilient it is Let's see if molecular science verifies the empirical knowledge of local healers.

Served as a daily beverage, cooked as a sauce or a fermenting agent in local brewing, or even sucked on in its natural state by children like a sour candy, baobab fruit is the Western African families’ remedy in case of diarrhea, dysentery, liver damages, smallpox and measles It is known to have immunostimulant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-pesticide properties!

If you ' re wondering what fresh baobab pulp tastes like, imagine biting into a vitamin C tablet: only more astringent and exotic! No wonder "monkey bread" has been used since the dawn of time by primates and their descendants as a tasty supplement But is it truly efficient? According to a study published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, baobab fruit has six times more vitamin C than an orange, six times more potassium than a banana, six times more antioxidants than a blueberry, twice as much calcium as in milk and even more magnesium than in coconut water!

Actually, baobab leaves are even nutritionally superior to the fruit pulp. A good source of protein, high in amino acids such as tryptophan, and a significant source of vitamin A, K, iron, calcium, magnesium, manganèse, phosphorus and zinc… the leaves of the baobab tree are a dietary staple for many populations in Africa

As for the bark, it is the ancestral ally of the savannah hunter, supplying the material for making ropes and hunting or fishing material. It also contains a sap that can be applied directly to wounds to accelerate healing It is a powerful antidote to the Strophanthus species, the principal ingredient in arrow poison, which has to be deactivated before bushmeat can be eaten This alkaloid, named Adansonin (as a derived name of the latin name of Baobab tree) has also been identified to be the active principle in treating fevers. Indeed, the other most common use in traditional medicine comes from the baobab bark decoction as a treatment for malaria

The word baobab comes from the arabic word "bu hibab" which means "fruit with many seeds" The oil produced from it is commonly used in Senegal for inflamed gums and to ease diseased teeth According to the same study, seeds can be classified as both protein and oil-rich. They contain appreciable quantities of crude protein, digestible carbohydrates and oil, as well as high levels of lysine, thiamine, calcium, magnesium and iron. This explains why they are traditionally used in Senegal to prevent child malnutrition in remote rural areas or the poorest urban suburbs.

“If you ask a senegalese traditional healer what the “baobab” is USED for, he will probably reply: everything!”

3CBI-EcoviaIntelligence,“TheEuropeanmarketpotentialforbaobab”,Mars2021 4FathyGueye,“MédecinetraditionnelleduSénégal:exempledeplantesmédicinalesdela pharmacopéesénégalaisetraditionnelle”,2019 5DeCaluwé,Halamová&VanDamme, AdansoniadigitataL –Areviewoftraditional uses,phytochemistryandpharmacology”inAfrikafocus,Vol23,Nr 1,2010

6Sidibe,M,Williams,JT,2002 Baobab Adansoniadigitata FruitsfortheFuture,4 InternationalCenterforUnderutilizedCrops,Southampton,UK,Chap 5 7ChadareFJ,LinnemannAR,HounhouiganJD,NoutMJ,VanBoekelMA “Baobabfood products:areviewontheircompositionandnutritionalvalue CritRevFoodSciNutr 2009 8-9Sidibe,M,Williams,JT,2002 Baobab Adansoniadigitata FruitsfortheFuture,4 InternationalCenterforUnderutilizedCrops,Southampton,UK,Chap5

WHAT IF THE BAOBAB FRUIT COULD BE A POLITICAL LEVER TO STOP DEFORESTATION?

Bouye has all the qualities of what is called in the West a ‘Superfood,’ defined as: “ a food or ailment that is rich in compounds considered beneficial to a person ' s health,” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Could the baobab, truly being a nutrientdense food, without hybridization or any genetic modification, be added to the list of superfoods and thus open the gate to a sustainable international market for Senegal, such as Maca, Camu-camu and Lucuma have for Peru?

That's what I asked Kipp Strodden, a visionary in the natural product industry. Among other experiences, Strodden was CEO of Essential Living Foods, an organic company specializing in cutting edge nutrient dense foods sourced from small farms and indigenous groups around the world He was introduced to nutrition by his mum in the seventies and initiated into the superfood movement by David Wolfe Strodden took it to a whole new level by traveling the world to personally deal with the farmers from whom he imports, helping develop local organic cooperatives and caring about social impact and the ecological effects of the industry. According to Strodden, if we could find a way to combine attractive marketing of the product while maintaining the benefits of the plant, investors would plant more trees, even if they had to wait twenty years for harvest. Moreover, the idea of an African consumable with ecological benefits is a marketing strategy with potential

What if consuming baobab products for the sake of your health was also the solution to support the local economy of the villages, avoid the rural exodus and preserve the cultural diversity endangered by globalization? Better yet, what if the baobab fruit as a superfood constituted a political lever to stop massive deforestation and ecosystem destruction caused by the uncontrolled (sub)urban development in Senegal?

10https://enmatahijuicecom/

11Chalvron,Aglietti,Husser&Getti,TVNewsFrance2,TV5&France24

12Eurostat(EuropeanStatistics),2004Eurostat(EuropeanStatistics)

This is actually the dream of Matahi, a French natural energy drink startup Their product is made from organic, fair trade baobab pulp In 2013, two agronomists set up a fair trade cooperative to develop the fruit of the baobab, providing a living for four hundred families in northern Benin They created a reforestation project "Adopt A Baobab" and surrounded themselves with top athletes to market the high concentration of baobab’s vitamins and minerals. The idea hit the bull's eye and attracted a large-scale organic distribution network, which ended up buying the brand when it was on the verge of bankruptcy a few years later.

In the Matahi case, it took nearly two years of research and development to come up with a recipe that was tasty enough, while still preserving the properties of the fruit (bouye needs to be dehydrated for export) Additionally, at the end of the day, a single seventy-five cubic liter bottle of this vitamin drink costs the price of one day's work for a baobab picker, risking his life at 30 meters high to feed his family The project also didn't leave any financing for the promised plantations. (“Adopt A Baobab” only survived due to donations )

However, since the baobab was granted marketing authorization in the European Union in 2008, other companies have done “better” in Senegal: all exporting the raw material and each with more or less ethically questionable business plans On one side, Baobab des Saveurs buys the production directly from female harvesters (for twice the price they would sell on the local market) and then produces and exports organic certified baobab powder and oil. On the other side of the spectrum, obscure companies appropriate the wild forest’s raw material for their own use It is sold as an ingredient in foreign manufactured products (cereal bars, snacks or food supplements) at the lowest price to maximize margins

This is “ a plundering of wild and local resources in due form,” according to Jean Goepp, founder and CEO of Nebeday NGO. Goepp’s main objective is the participatory management of natural resources by and for local populations relying mainly on women ' s work and children's education, reforestation actions and the creation of a cooperative to sell natural and traditional Senegalese products.

Certainly, a growing demand for the highly nutritious baobab fruit pulp from Europe and North America seems to be an unexpected source of income for rural communities But wouldn't this eventually disrupt the domestic and traditional use of the baobab, to the detriment of these same communities?

13UNCTAD(UnitedNationsConferenceonTradeandDevelopment)-“Marketbriefinthe Europeanunionforselectednaturalingredientsderivedfromnativespecies Adansoniadigitata L Baobab (2005)

Nowadays, the baobab is an important commercial Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP), which are of major significance in international trade Indeed, the import value of the product class of ‘ rare edible dried fruit’ (including baobab fruit pulp) grew by thirteen percent in 2003, and antioxidant substances, such as baobab fruit pulp, are in significant demand due to anti-ageing properties But what about the regeneration of the baobab trees if the fruits are not left on the ground as they used to be? The baobab tree is a wild plant whose sustainability is already endangered by deforestation, grazing, and bushfires, which impact natural recruitment by damaging/killing the seedling or new growth

This is in addition to the impact of climate change revealed by a study in western Tigray, Ethiopia, which predicts that future temperature increases will result in significant reductions in suitable baobab habitat, by forty-one to one hundred percent According to the same study, the intensive harvesting of different parts of the baobab without the implementation of conservation practices by harvesters, combined with global warming, is a serious threat to the viability of the species in this region Lastly, the increased demand for baobab resources could push the market to focus only on price and quality at the expense of social and environmental aspects

Unfortunately, the wheels seem to be in motion already: baobab seeds may soon produce biodiesel. It may also be included in the growing rabbit diet for economic reasons as well as the bark extract inoculated in eggs to fight poultry ‘Newcastle disease ’ From there, even if the desire to have access to an efficient supplementation is commendable, is it not ethically questionable if it costs the disappearance of the species and the loss of this natural, curing and ancestral resource for the local populations? You can participate in planting and development of Senegal’s local bouye activities by supporting: www nebeday org

According to Jean Goepp, the middle path lies in the on-site production of finished products with high added value. Indeed, when the raw material is exported without transformation, even sold at a better price than the local market, it is the importer who benefits from the whole value chain in the end. At the local scale in Kenya, there is Mabuyu, a candy made out of baobab pulp-covered seeds, sugar and food coloring It is in everyone ' s hands, not only to help supply children vitamins, but also to bolster income, particularly for women. The value of baobab per kilogramme is multiplied by twenty-one times through its transformation into a fancy candy

2020,GlobalEcologyandConservation22(2020)

15Buhari,Danbature,Muzakir,&Abubakar,“ProductionofBiodieselfromBaobabSeedOil”

Aside from its nutritional qualities, cosmetic interest solicits baobab seed export today Conceived from the beauty secrets of Senegalese village women from Popenguine, a social, sustainable brand “Chouette Mama” relies on the emollient and skin restorative properties of baobab seeds to spread its know-how to French-speaking West Africa… and of course, to Paris

This is another example of a finished product that allows local communities to remain in control of the raw material for better negotiation and long-term income. And yet, ironically, in a region where access to allopathic care remains the prerogative of a privileged few, the fruit pulp has been evaluated as a substitute for improved western drugs and more broadly, the members of the Bombacaceae family plants as “ an untapped reservoir of chemical principles for research ”

Because baobab leaves are known to be an expectorant, prophylactic against fever, hyposensitive and an antihistamine, they are traditionally involved in the treatment of inflammation, kidney and bladder diseases, respiratory disorders, asthma, fatigue, ophthalmia, ear infections and insect bites.

On closer inspection, there is indeed a significant concentration of amino acids to benefit metabolic processes like: circulation, glucose balance, wound healing and growth hormones, anti-aging of the skin, calcium absorption, fatigue regulation and antioxidation Many of the amino acids contained are lacking in serotonin production, endocrine and nervous system failures (like depression, hyperactivity disorders, Parkinson's, chronic pain and arthritis, spinal spasticity, multiple sclerosis and even Vitiligo)

Due to the rapid deterioration of fresh leaves, which prevents their export, the local production of tincture may perhaps be an avenue for exploration. You do the math: a baobab fruit tincture is sold for just under one hundred dollars per liter in the US, and the Senegalese average salary was one hundred and nineteen dollars per month in 2019 (according to the World Bank) You can imagine how this product may be a way to powerfully increase the value of the leaf. It could even be a powerful incentive for the population to protect the existing baobabs - or even to replant them!

Could we even dream of a baobab seed tincture produced locally and exported worldwide for the treatment of anorexia or even weight gain during chemotherapy?

16DepartmentofChemistry,GombeStateUniversity,PMB 127,Gombe,Nigeria

17Oladunjoye,Ojo&Jamiu“Evaluationofbaobabseedmealasfeedforgrowingrabbits”in InternationalJournalofCurrentMicrobiologyandAppliedSciences:ISSN:2319-7706Volume3 Number6(2014)

14Birhane AsgedomTadesseHishe etal “Vulnerabilityofbaobab(AdansoniadigitataL)to humandisturbancesandclimatechangeinwesternTigray,Ethiopia:Conservationconcerns andpriorities”,ElsevierBV

“IS THE ALLEGED VITAMIN C FROM BAOBAB FRUIT IN MY GRANOLA BAR WORTH ITS SOCIETAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT?”

Regarding the bark, its antipyretic virtues help to overcome fever, while its diaphoretic and astringent qualities promote perspiration to help with detoxification Why can't we elaborate a natural substitute for the classical allopathic antimalarial drug, such as chloroquine or mefloquine, which have harmful side effects?

Furthermore, in 2016, an Indian study showed that the methanolic extracts of the plant, (a light, volatile, colorless, flammable, toxic liquid with a characteristic odor, sweeter and milder than ethanol) has a true potential as an anti-HIV agent, especially on the HIV-1 protease that is essential for the life-cycle of the retrovirus that causes AIDS.

Local resource protection recommendations in a period of expansion of the baobab market focus on the establishment of good harvesting practices. As superfood consumers, we must ask ourselves if this is an enormous hypocrisy The only objective seems to be to open up a Western market, where companies seasoned in research, transformation, and marketing exercises will still alone enjoy the benefits

All the while, the populations to whom its resources belonged to in the first place are the ones who pay This may very well be an opportunity to begin to repair the colonial plunder by transmitting necessary skills for the development of a new economy, one that’s not only fair but also sustainable and with a strong environmental impact.

At our individual level, it’s necessary to reflect on the very meaning of our consumption habits “Is the alleged vitamin C from Baobab fruit in my granola bar worth its societal and environmental impact?” If we ' re not able to support the local West African populations and reforestation of the baobab forests via the purchase of finished products with high added value, wouldn’t eating a "superfood" from our own backyard be wiser? Finally, having seen the underbelly of the superfood’s biosocial economic reality, will we make more informed choices? Is the nutrition in this superfood even necessary for non-locals? Do we not already have everything we need? A balanced, plant-based diet, good hydration, physical exercise, quality sleep, limited stress, a connection to nature and to the people we love, and meaning in life We can access all of this without the slightest impact on our environment or our fellow citizens of the world.

18Sulaiman,Lanre,Oladele,etal,“OvoevaluationoftheantiviralactivityofmethanolicrootbarkextractoftheAfricanBaobab(AdansoniadigitataL”inAfricanJournalofBiotechnology Vol 10(20),pp 4256-4258,16May,2011

19Jäckering,FischerandKehlenbeck, Avaluechainanalysisofbaobab(AdansoniadigitataL) productsinEasternandCoastalKenya”inJournalofAgricultureandRuralDevelopmentin theTropicsandSubtropics(JARTS)Vol 120/No 1(2019)

20-21DeCaluwé,Halamová&VanDamme,“AdansoniadigitataL –Areviewoftraditionaluses, phytochemistryandpharmacology”inAfrikafocus,Vol23,Nr 1,2010 22Pricefor15mlbottleofBaobabfruittinctureonEtsycomon2022/04/09 23lKadi, AntimalarialDrugToxicity:AReview Chemotherapy2007;53:385-391

24Sharma&Rangar

“HIV-1reversetranscriptaseandproteaseassayofmethanolicextractsof AdansoniaDigitataL”inInternationalJournalofPharmacyandPharmaceuticalSciences,Vol8, Issue9,2016

PRASAD MAHES

The mind is like water. When it’s turbulent, it’s difficult to see. When it’s calm, everything becomes clear.

WHAT WE ARE DESIGNED TO EAT: LEARNING FROM OUR CLOSEST LIVING RELATIVES

BY LIUBOV VOLKOVA

Modern humans suffer from a myriad of diseases. Scientific discoveries help find solutions and provide some answers and insights regarding the causes of illnesses. Yet, every year, millions of people die from noncommunicable, preventable diseases worldwide. One undeniable cause of disease that has been given a lot of attention recently is… our diet! To explore the topic and clarify contradicting claims or recommendations, we herein analyze through the lens of the human body’s design by comparing it to our closest living relatives: chimpanzees.

The analysis showed that the human body is designed to eat a frugivorous diet, largely consisting of ripe fruit, leaves and other plants, a small amount of seeds and nuts. As well as chimpanzees, the human body can digest animal foods, but only in insignificant amounts The ability to eat a diverse array of foods, including animal products, is what has allowed humans to survive and evolve However, that does not mean that animal food is required nor essential for humans. The main physical characteristics of the body traits of apes and humans - as well as the microbiome of the gut and its structure - are similar, and both indicate a frugivorous diet. The extremely different acidity levels in the stomachs of chimpanzees and humans (pH=7 vs pH=1.5, respectively) is explained by the low quality and lack of data More research needs to be conducted on the digestive tracts of both humans and chimpanzees to understand the drastic difference While we are waiting on the research to become available, we can simply eat whole-food plant-based, as our closest relatives do and enjoy health, vitality and longevity

INTRODUCTION

Multiple factors affect human health: behavioral (diet & lifestyle), psychological, social, cultural, etc For every person, the combination of those factors will be unique, however, the way our bodies are designed is very similar Two different humans are 99 9% identical (Chakravarti, 2015) and, in other words, all humans are physiologically and anatomically designed to eat similar diets Scientists, nutritionists, anthropologists, proponents of specific diets and others try to understand what we are meant to eat based upon our physiology and anatomical structure. A simple search on Google of the phrase “What we are designed to eat?" returns more than 3,900,000 results Answers have been cited in Internet articles, such as posts on Viva.org and Peta org, and popular books, including The Evolution Diet (Breese, 2005)

There are two key problems with the analyzed texts

First, many are polemical to support a certain theory, often polarized to either vegan or meat-focused approaches to nutrition As a result, the authors have a strong predisposition toward a certain conclusion and tend to employ a fragmented approach, overlooking undesirable facts Second, the majority of articles and other publications are lacking proper citations and references to credible sources and, therefore, are difficult to verify To clarify contradicting and misleading information around the question: “What are we designed to eat?” supported by scientific evidence, here is an overview of the available scientific data to draw a big picture, revealing how one would arrive at this particular conclusion

HUMAN TAXONOMY AND OUR CLOSEST LIVING RELATIVES

According to the taxonomical classification presented in Fig. 1 ("Taxonomy Browser (Primates)," n.d.), our species, Homo sapiens, belongs to the taxonomic family of primates Hominidae (or hominids) Besides Homo, Hominidae include the following three existing species: Pongo; Gorilla; Pan Homo sapiens are most closely related to chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): our nuclear DNA is 98% to 99% identical to that of chimpanzees (Gibbons, 1998) Nonhuman primates are not the best model to reconstruct the evolution of Homo sapiens and our ancestors that became instinct millions of years ago (Hohmann, 2009). However, nonhuman primates and specifically chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, are the best model that we have

Diet and physiological characteristics of different animals can help understand the original human diet anatomically. It is essential to study animals that are the closest to humans in terms of genetics, anatomy, physiology and environmental factors that affect development. Therefore, rather than comparing humans to popular carnivores such as wolfs (Order: Carnivora; Family: Canidae) and lions (Order: Carnivora; Family: Felidae) or pure herbivores, such as cows (Order: Artiodactyla; Family: Bovidae) or any other mammals, we need to focus on the species that belong to the same family as us: Hominidae, also known as the great apes!

Figure1 HumanTaxonomy(“TaxonomyBrowser(Primates),”nd) Gellatley J (2020 November11) Whatisournaturaldiet?arehumansevolutionarily adaptedtoeatanimals,plantsorboth?Viva!TheVeganCharity

DIET: PRIMATES, HOMINIDS, CHIMPANZEES

Physical Characteristics of Body

Like all animals, primates have particular physical characteristics that enable consumption of certain types of food Body traits and environmental factors shape their diet Some of the most important physical attributes that define the dietary choices of hominids are the specifics of their teeth, eyes and limbs

Humans and other hominids have fingers and fingernails that are shorter and softer when compared to other mammals, allowing them to pick up fruits, berries, and leaves, and process them as needed Only some primates, especially hominids, have the ability to process food manually, including peeling the skin of a plant, removing thorns, cracking hard shells of nuts, and washing food pieces before eating them (Hohmann, 2009).

The small, flat, dull “canine teeth” of hominids are suitable for chewing fibrous, softer foods such as fruit and other softer plants rather than raw meat (Curtin, 2006). Moving not only up and down, but also side to side, the jaw and presence of molars in hominids indicate the ability to carefully chew food Which food needs to be chewed most to properly digest? Plant-derived, fibrous food! In contrast, predators who rely on meat as their main source of food have long, sharp teeth designed to rip, tear, and cut flesh and swallow it barely chewing (Gerl, 2008)

Trichromatic color vision is another important trait attributed mainly to chimpanzees, humans, and other hominids, while most terrestrial mammals are cone dichromats. An ability to differentiate between colors allows hominids to identify colorful, ripe fruits and identify specific plants In contrast, animals with monochromatic or dichromatic vision rely more on their ability to detect a motion quickly and other senses Translation? If you see colors, you ’ re meant to eat colorful plants! If you see black & white, you ’ re a pro at determining speed to catch prey What do you see ?

Diet Composition

Non-human primates are predominantly distributed in areas rich in fruit, invertebrates, and green plants. They have a mixed diet that consists of a wide range of plant foods and a relatively small spectrum of animal foods. In addition, primates consume nuts as an energy-rich food source that preserves well and can help them endure scarce seasons, when other plant foods are not available. But how did we even get to eating meat today then? Our ancestral Primates’ diet evolved from strictly frugivorous to more omnivorous due to the climatic changes and longer periods of fruit scarcity Consequently, primates were forced to explore alternative sources of food such as meat, nuts, and root vegetables (Rowe, 1996).

However, even the omnivorous version of the primates’ diet largely consists of plant food and a small number of animal-derived foods Analysis of the quantity of plant food items in the diet of primates shows that fruit dominates all other sources Fig 2 demonstrates the proportions of different food sources in the chimpanzee diet. The proportion of a food source in the diet depends on the geographical location or other features specific to a given population. But regardless of the population, the diet composition of chimpanzees primarily consists of ripe fruit, complemented by leaves, flowers, and a highly insignificant amount of animal food and seeds (Rowe, 1996)

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT: HUMANS Vs. OUR CLOSEST LIVING RELATIVES

Digestive tract structure

The digestive tract structure of most primates (such as macaques, baboons and chimpanzees) is simple and allows them to digest various types of food Overall, the gut anatomy and the pattern of digestive kinetics of hominids and humans are very similar This implies that the guts of both groups of animals are designed to digest similar types of food and, perhaps, in a similar way However, the gut proportions are different: modern humans have a smaller digestive tract than other animals of this size. Another difference is the proportional length of the small and large intestines

The small intestine in humans accounts for the greatest fraction of the volume of the digestive tract. In apes, the colon accounts for the greatest volume (Milton, 1993) However, studies show that the length of the large intestine varies significantly among humans, even amongst those with similar genetic makeups (Dunn, 2020) For example, a study of one hundred randomly selected individuals showed that the shortest small intestine identified in the group was half of the length of the one that was identified as the longest small intestine. Also, the same study showed that the ratio of the small intestine to the large intestine in humans varied from 2 6 to 4 5; while the mean ratio of the small to large intestine length for chimpanzees is around 1 0 (Dunn, 2020)

The difference in the proportions of the digestive tract of the chimpanzee and humans likely happened due to the change in the human diet throughout history. A sequence of evolutionary events, such as the invention of fire, climatic changes, migration to colder regions were scarce in fruit, and the advent of agriculture, forced humans to shift from the originally fruit-based diet toward a more animalbased diet, largely consisting of cooked food, grains and starches These shifts in human diet composition began to reshape our intestinal morphology, including shortening in the relative size of the human intestines and changes in the gut microbiome Does that sound familiar?

THE GASTRIC AND INTESTINAL MICROBIOME

Compared to other primates, humans have a uniquely acidic stomach The pH value of the human gut is around 1.5 (Armstrong, 1992; Barrett, 2008) Such a value is more typical to the animals with a carnivorous diet, mostly carrion-feeders, rather than to herbivores. In nature, the more carnivorous an animal is, the more likely its stomach is acidic Based on the available data on gastric acidity of carnivorous, omnivorous and herbivorous animals, humans are an outlier (Appendix A) Acid reflux much?

The literature review shows that data is scarce on the stomach pH in hominoids, apes and humans. Also, robust studies on when and why such an acidic environment evolved are not available (Beasley, 2015). The only available data on chimpanzee gut acidity found in the literature stated that chimpanzees have a neutral stomach pH=7.0 (Brodie and Marshall, 1963). There are two major issues with this data: (1) it is derived from one single laboratory study of an individual captive chimpanzee, and (2) it was performed more than 50 years ago, with less-advanced clinical investigation than today

Some researchers hypothesize that chimpanzees and bonobos have a somewhat acidic stomach and that the extreme level of human gut acidity developed after we split with chimpanzees, our last common ancestor. Laboratory experiments on chimpanzee stomachs and their reaction to the acidity levels show that the bacteria species Helicobacter pylori are more readily established after the chimpanzees have been given antacids Similar dynamics are observed in the case of humans (Dunn, 2020). These observations show that the chimpanzee stomach is not as neutral in pH as some studies suggest (Brodie and Marshall, 1963), it is at least somewhat acidic. How acidic is it, and did the acidity of the chimpanzee stomach evolve? We do not know Similarly, we do not know how human gut acidity has changed over the course of evolution and what exactly shaped our gut pH

Despite changes in the human gut and abnormally high acidity of the human stomach, enough physiological similarities remain between humans and other hominids. Particularly, the composition and function of our microbiomes are similar Studies show that the taxonomic classes of bacteria in the guts of chimpanzees and humans largely overlap Also, we have a large shared proportion of the same families and genera of bacteria in our guts (Dunn, 2020).

CONCLUSION

This characteristic analysis of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, as well as other primates, may help us better understand what our body is designed to eat from knowing our original diet The research has shown that human bodies are designed in a very similar way to chimpanzees. The teeth, eyes and limbs of humans and chimpanzees (as well as the majority of primates) are designed to eat plants, pick fruits, and identify colorful foods, not hunt and eat flesh, as in the case of many other animals. Chimpanzee diet composition largely consists of ripe fruit, leaves and other plants, and an insignificant amount of animal food and seeds This data confirms that the original diet of humans is indeed frugivorous.

The analysis of the digestive tract of chimpanzees and other apes - and its comparison to the human gut - revealed three important conclusions. First, humans have a uniquely acidic stomach, with a pH of around 1 5, typical for animals with a carnivorous diet, while the chimpanzee's gut acidity is close to neutral. (However, not reviewed here is the pH of gastric juices, which would likely show much more acidic in carnivores than humans. Second, the human stomach is significantly smaller, and the proportions of small and large intestines differ from those in the chimpanzee This difference indicates that the food processing time in the human digestive tract is shorter and more attributed to a moreomnivorous diet Third, despite these two differences, humans and other apes share enough physiological similarities, including the similarity in the composition and function of their microbiomes.

This literature review also revealed that the data on the acidity of the chimpanzee stomach is very scarce as are studies on the evolution of human gut acidity Allow this to be a call for more research in the field, specifically around the pH of gastric juice secretion Particularly, there is a need for more research on the stomach acidity of humans with different diets, short and long-term Much insight will likely come from studying different individuals on different diets, eg: frugivorous (raw plants), wholefood plant-based (vegan), omnivorous (Paleo, Mediterranean, Keto, etc.), and strictly carnivorous (both raw and cooked) Perhaps, the acidity of the stomach and its microbiome will change significantly over time and is closer to the gut acidity of chimpanzees with those who eat plant-based diets Another group of studies needs to be dedicated to determining the gut acidity of wild chimpanzees and other apes, taking into consideration the various conditions of their diets and habitats

Based upon this analysis, it can be reasoned that the human body is designed to eat plants, and the optimal diet for the human species mirrors the frugivorous diet The omnivorous or carnivorous diet does sustain life and, in some cases, provide relatively satisfying health (often based upon the simplicity of what is not consumed, like inflammatory oils, grains, etc ) The human body has indeed evolved and adapted to eat various types of foods. This is what allowed our human species to survive. However, omnivorous or carnivorous diets may not provide optimal nutrition and do not allow the human body to regenerate itself. Whereas, the plantbased diet, akin to the chimpanzee frugivorous diet, provides optimal nutrition in a digestible fashion This thereby promotes regeneration and vitality in the human body (less time spent processing food we aren’t designed to eat), allowing humans to live longer lives and fulfill our potential All in all, this leaves it up to you to experiment, and due to lack of data, more research needs to be done to confirm this strong hypothesis!

CHILDHOOD VEGANISM: FRIEND OR FOE?

BY HANNAH BUBIS

At the exact moment when a human is conceived, it begins to develop. At a certain point, that development morphs into deterioration. One might naturally come to wonder how to optimize the development and reduce the deterioration of the human body.

Given what we know about the positive impact of a whole food, plant-based diet, is this lifestyle choice conducive with the physiological needs of all people? Once a baby begins the transition to solid foods, what needs to be taken into account in order to optimize growth and development? Do the needs of the human body change at a certain point in its life cycle?

The basic human need for food, fuel for the body, will be investigated in this article. For optimal health and development, a plant-based diet can be explored We know that the impact of what we ingest has a lifelong effect on the body. Parents, guardians and caretakers, can consider how a plant-based diet is beneficial for their child(ren) both in the short-term and the longterm. When reading this what comes up for you? Do you have an aversion to the thought of experimenting with such a lifestyle? Are you resistant to making that change for you and your family? Indeed, that is often the very human inclination

How can we engage with this resistance? We ought to reflect on how decisions made for our children are not solely about our children but also about ourselves. When you hear about a fellow-parent choosing to raise their family with a whole food plant-based lifestyle, what immediately surfaces in you? Curiosity? Judgment? Will you allow for that curiosity or judgment to crack open possibilities of knowing yourself more intimately?

If we allow ourselves to ponder this debate, answers may not land easily for you, and you may feel inclined to avoid thinking in these terms You are invited to remain in reflection.

With the acceptance of the validity of whole food plant-based eating on the rise comes an inquiry: is this lifestyle appropriate for all populations? A number of sources are available either supporting or undermining this decision. The British National Health Service has declared a vegan lifestyle healthy for all populations, including pregnant women and children, while other similar institutions from around the globe declare otherwise

Ultimately, discrepancies around what healthy looks like will be a factor indefinitely While you may experience this as frustrating, how else could you experience it? As an opportunity, perhaps, to take matters into your hands? Yes, yours The answers to what your body wants can only come from your body The science of your body, the sacred vessel of your life With the rise in vegan popularity has come a rise in research and publication, and so it goes. The only consistency here is the invitation to know and listen to your body

INQUIRY

What do we know about the physiological needs of children and how to foster optimal development? What have we come to understand about the impact of a plant-based lifestyle on the human body? What are the differences in physiological needs between a child’s developing body and an adult’s changing body? Is a vegan diet healthy and conducive with optimal child development?

DETAIL

BACKGROUND

Veganism has been practiced for centuries across the globe, and we ’ ve seen a huge uptick in its implementation over the last decade. As veganism has become more popularized, we find further studies investigating its overall efficacy on human health. A number of factors contribute to this reality, among which include a broader societal understanding of the impact of animal products on the body, and an increased mindfulness of the impact of meat-eating on the environment While the positive impact of veganism on the body is more widely understood, there is still ample debate on the topic For every source emphasizing the positive impact of whole food plant-based eating on the body, there is another that counters.

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What do we know about the physiological needs of children for optimal development?

Nutrition plays a vital role in the overall well-being of any aged human, especially children. We have substantial resources describing the physiological needs of children, some of which will be outlined below. Important to bear in mind that genetic differences may not imply different dietary guidelines Starting with birth, in Western societies breast milk is generally recommended for at least the first 6 months of life Even better, breast milk has been shown to be beneficial long into the toddler years. A soy-based formula has been deemed nutritionally sufficient for optimal growth, metabolism, endocrine health, reproductive health, and neurological health.

“Every interaction with our children is a reflection of our own relationship with ourselves.”

-Dr. Shefali

From infancy, the American Heart association has strongly recommended a diet primarily relying on fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, fish, nonfat dairy products and lean meat. We know that, in children, the daily caloric requirement is calculated based on the age, sex, and activity status of the child A simple formula for determining the need for caloric intake of children: 100cal/kg/day, ages 1 to 3 years need 80 kcal/kg/day, 4 to 5 years needs 70kcal/kg/day, 6 to 8 years needs 60 to 65 kcal/kg/day and 9+ needs 35 to 45 kcal/kg/day One may be able to find any number of formulas for determining these numbers, while the Food and Agricultural Organization, World Health Organization, and United Nations University have simultaneously published reports highlighting the systemic overestimation of the energy needs of children by 10-25%

While it may feel simpler to disregard this overestimation, doing so has the high potential of promoting obesity in one ’ s early years and impacting long-term health. Frustrating? Understandably. Let me remind you of a golden nugget of truth though When you take a good honest look at your child, you have your own parental radar for how healthy they are When a child is hungry, they let it be known You are there to remind your child to hydrate, to poop, to breathe, and to self-regulate The way to optimized health comes from within, and you have a grand opportunity to heed the call and assess your own health, in addition to your child’s Create a journal, observe your child, observe yourself What food is being eaten and at what hours of the day? What is their behavior like afterwards? How hydrated are you and your child? What are you both like when you are not sufficiently hydrated (bearing in mind that most of us never are)? How reactive or regulated do you and your child seem? When you or they are more reactive, what was eaten that day? When were the last bowel movements? What have you both been ingesting that is contributing to pooping frequency?

For every source that guides you accordingly towards what your child’s health ought to look like, there is another source to rebuttal When it comes to your inherent parental instinct, nothing has more validity

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WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF A VEGAN LIFESTYLE ON THE HUMAN BODY?

Before you consider a plant-based lifestyle for your child, and potentially you and your family, it would behoove you to have an understanding of the impact of veganism on the human body Reminder, that for every source that says one thing, there is another to rebut Notice how the following information lands for you, what questions surface, curiosities, doubts, fears, etc… remain curious about the information and how you experience it

Large epidemiological studies with sample sizes anywhere between 22,000 and 96,000 have indicated a link between plant-based diets, lower all-cause mortality and cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, many epidemiological and interventional studies have reported the beneficial health impact of plantbased diets in regards to obesity, type II diabetes and low-grade inflammation Notably, there are other epidemiological studies, like the EPIC-Oxford study and the “45 and Up Study,” with sample sizes between 64,000 and 267,000 that show no correlation between plant-based eating and lower mortality rates. In a 2019 systemic review outlining data from 32 case studies with thousands of plant-based eating volunteers, there were a number of substantial findings: pronounced weight loss, metabolic improvements, mood improvements, and substantially better sleep. Furthermore, two studies of subjects with type II diabetes compared calorieunrestricted vegan or vegetarian to calorie-restricted conventional diets over periods of 6 months and 1.5 years Respectively, moderate sample sizes (n 75 99) with similar caloric intake were in both diet groups. Both studies indicated stronger effects of plant-based diets on disease status, such as reduced medication, improved weight status and increased glucose/insulin sensitivity These results propose a diabetespreventive potential of plant-based diets

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF A VEGAN LIFESTYLE ON A CHILD’S BODY?

Data on the efficacy of a vegan diet for children is limited but notable A longitudinal study among thirty-nine young vegan children published in the 1980’s showed that provided sufficient care is taken, a vegan diet can meet the nutritional requirements of the preschool child It is additionally understood from the 2009 position statement of the American Dietetic Association that ‘appropriately planned vegetarian, including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate. It is stated that they may even provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.

10-11-12-13.EvelynMedawaretal.,BodyandBrain,2019 14-15.Kiely,M.E.(2021).Risksandbenefitsofveganandvegetariandietsinchildren.ProceedingsoftheNutritionSociety,80(2),159–164.

These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes If this isn’t sufficient, there is also substantial evidence that a plant-based diet has been beneficial in terms of a reduction in chronic noncommunicable diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and some types of cancer Additionally, North American nutrition and health organizations consider a well-balanced and well-planned vegan diet to be adequate to ensure healthy development at each stage of life including early childhood However, European professional societies, such as the Swiss Federal Commission for Nutrition, the German Society for Nutrition and the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, do not recommend a vegan diet during childhood

CONCLUSION

One could say we know enough to be able to make an informed decision one way or the other. How one reads this information is just as relevant as the information itself Does the provided data provide sufficient evidence for a confident choice to be made? Ask yourself: in what direction are you hoping to go? Do you feel a sense of relief to read about the impact veganism has on children? Or do you feel a heightened sense of resistance and fear? Both responses are okay, and here to serve Listen inward to where and how you might want to explore? Perhaps, instead of seeking answers from external sources, do some experimenting of your own. Try eating whole food plant-based yourself for a week, and take note of your energy, pooping frequency, overall affect, sleep quality, and whatever else might feel notable to you. It is the societal inclination to seek answers outside of ourselves, yet the human inclination to selfanswer Go forth Stay curious Listen in You know the way

SUMMARY

While the popularity of veganism has been on the rise over the last decade, it is a practice that has been implemented for centuries With knowledge comes responsibility; the world has endured enough sickness for us to take a proper look at our lifestyle choices and integrate our understanding of health in ways that have been ignored We have sufficient evidence to substantiate a vegan lifestyle, and sufficient evidence to refute it We can continue to examine the efficacy of a vegan lifestyle on overall health, and broaden our understanding of its impact on various populations The research has a substantial gap in longitudinal case studies, hopefully which will be rectified in the near future with the rise in vegan popularity

Healing doesn't mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.

AKSHAY DUBEY

CONSTIPATION & HOLY SHIT!

BY KATHERINA ALDUNATE

Holy shit! What you eat isn't necessarily what you poop: an overview of constipation and diverse approaches to enable our holy poop. Here we aim to research scientific approaches focused on the body’s ability to heal itself, sharing inner approaches and lifestyle practices. This study also aims to share awareness of this topic, thereby encouraging experimentation and cocreation of healthier habits to regularize defecation.

Why do we want to look inside instead of using external medicine? The author’s personal relationship with constipation has shown her the connection between physical and mental variables on her ability to “let shit go ” It is also worth questioning the effectiveness of laxatives when a healthy diet could be effective.

“GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER”

We all have used this phrase or have been told that it is important to “get our shit together ” A simple Google search explains this as: “to organize oneself to be able to deal with or achieve something.'' Sometimes people might “get their shit together” and hold it together a bit too tightly, resulting in chronic constipation. This condition impacts our society more than we think Some studies confirm that constipation affects up to thirty percent of the adult population Just for “shits and giggles”, a quick search confirmed that there is no published research correlating goal achievement “by organizing ourselves” with constipation

DEFINITIONS AND SYMPTOM OF CONSTIPATION

In order to start getting into the topic, it is important to define constipation. “Among other definitions, constipation is defined as a symptom and, like all symptoms, it is difficult to define.” What is found is that there isn't a unique or global general definition of constipation, and it varies as much as do the different approaches to measure it within a population On the other hand, the recommendations to treat constipation don’t vary as much and are quite aligned with traditional medicine

1.KurviPatwala,PeterDeCruz.Chronicconstipation.Firstpublished:29November2019

2-4.CONNELL,A.M.,HILTON,C.,IRVINE,G.,LENNARD-JONES,J.E.&MISIEWICZ,J.J.(1965) Variationofbowelhabitintwopopulationsamples.Brit.med.J.ii,1095.

3.J.M.Hinton,J.E.Lennard-Jones.Constipation:definitionandclassification.(September1968)

Some studies try to define constipation by frequency of bowel movements over a period of time One study found that 1/25 people out of 1000+ surveyed self-identified as constipated. Half of those identifying as constipated pooped less than five times weekly Less than one percent of respondents said they defecated less than thrice weekly.

Other interesting findings from a survey of women 20 to 50 years old on the symptomatic definition of constipation was also self-defined as bowel frequency of less than three times a week The study shared that most regarded themselves as constipated and took laxatives regularly

It’s not only women though. Other research mentioned the impact of chronic constipation upon health. “It is approximately twice as common in females, with other risk factors being increasing age and lower socioeconomic status In certain groups of patients, such as the elderly, or those with mobility issues or neurological problems, chronic constipation can be a significant healthcare issue ”

WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT LETTING OUR SHIT GO?

“Disordered defecation,” “slow gastrointestinal transit,” “disordered defecation combined with slowtransit stool, as predictive test cases in order to measure constipation doesn’t seem to be very threatening to our health ” If we think about stress affecting bowel movement frequency, it would be apt to focus our attention as a society on motivating healthy habits to tackle dysregulation As the primary system of elimination, the digestive tract may very well deserve more attention. One report highlights the ways in which regular bowel movements are not valued in the clinical literature: “Constipation is not of clinical importance until it causes physical risks or impairs quality of life Still there is a medical concern about this condition since the chronic symptoms of intoxication might have long term impacts in our health and it can relate with

5.AlexSohYuSen,...Kok-AnnGwee,in

6.StewartRB,MooreMT,MarksRG,HaleWE.Symptomsinchronicconstipation.1997.Correlatesof constipationinanambulatoryelderlypopulation.

7.ClinicalEntericNeuroscienceTranslationalandEpidemiologicalResearchProgram,MayoClinicCollegeof Medicine,MayoClinic,Rochester,Minnesota,USA.

What Do Healthy Pooping Habits Look Like?

In order to continue exploring ways of getting rid of unnecessary toxicity in our body, it’s important to define exactly what healthy pooping habits are What practices would enable us to work on achieving a better lifestyle more than focus on our practices to stop a disease First it is important to be aware of the length and cycle of our digestive tract which are on a healthy Body the time between our food ingested which goes through the process of digestion in a 10mts long organ should take between 17-24hours to be eliminated Being aware of a healthy cycle we can then better measure our own flow from food intake up to elimination .

Another way of checking our pooping habits is as simple as checking how the stool looks, where symptoms of constipation can be seen based on the “ Bristol stool chart that identifies 7 different shapes of human poop that range from constipation to diarrhea“

Treatment nowadays

Now that we have an idea of a healthy benchmark for a frequency and type of poop, we would like to share some options to achieve this healthy flow of elimination Some traditional approaches include mainly the use of fiber, osmotic laxatives, stimulant laxatives, different drugs as prokinetic agents, biofeedback training, and surgery Studies show that these are often tried sequentially and episodically and have little evidence of long-term efficacy Patients often report inadequate relief of symptoms There is room for improvement”.

Other research offer in addition other approaches of “medicine to treat constipation can also be found that Nonpharmacological management of constipation is counted as the first step in the therapy, which consists of diet and lifestyle modifications High fiber diets, increase of fluid intake, response to the urge of defecation, probiotics, and biofeedback training are generally recommended Still Laxatives are indicated as primary pharmacological management, which is divided into bulk-forming, stimulants, and osmotic subgroups ”

8.DrKWHeaton.TheBristolStoolFormScale.Reproducedbykindpermissionofthelate.Readerin MedicineattheUniversityofBristol.©2000NorginePharmaceuticalsLtd.

9.SchillerLR.Newandemergingtreatmentoptionsforchronicconstipation.

HOLISTIC EMBODIED VIEW OF CONSTIPATION

In order to start assessing different lifestyle practices which can support and activate more regular bowel movements, it is also important to have a general awareness of the Connection Digestive System and our Neuronal system. Previously was mentioned as recommended practices for symptoms of constipation to consider Psychology as a variable to treat the symptoms and “biofeedback training defined as a form of operant conditioning in which a patient learns to control certain conditions (e.g., headaches or high blood pressure) by receiving objective feedback e g , by a visual display, or the sounds of an ECG/EKG or EMG related to the deranged condition ” This practice already shows us lights of the connection of our neuronal system and Digestive track behavior, still on a more general and simple level we can embody that only a relaxed body can poop

Our digestive tract has an autonomous functioning but also has a bidirectional relation with our brain known as brain-gut interactions. “This communication is mediated by the autonomic nervous system, i.e., the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. A dysfunction of these brain-gut interactions, favored by stress, is most likely involved in the pathophysiology of digestive diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome or even inflammatory bowel diseases That is why studies are giving us a better knowledge of these brain-gut interactions which has therapeutic implications in the domain of pharmacology, neurophysiology, behavioral and c m s s s

11.Segen'sMedicalDictionary.©2012Farlex,Inc.

12.B.BonazCommunicationentrecerveauetintestinBrain-gutinteractionsCliniqueuniversitaired'hépato-

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gastroentérologie,France.

Sharing is Caring, especially our Holy shit

The survey “Sharing is caring” was created and shared personally to a group of people to simply test the reaction of sharing the topic “of letting our shit go ” , which also brought some interesting insights which will be shared on this paper so we can continue caring together “In this simple survey in which participants were 30 “healthy” between 26-65 years old (70% woman, 30% man) , several questions were made based on the relationship with the concept of constipation Regarding the relationship of the participants with constipation, 80% answered that they either suffer constipation and know someone directly that suffers from it and over 80% define being constipated when you poop less than 3 times per week, where the other options available as pooping 1 time per day and hard stool weren't considered syndromes of constipation ”

Also, interesting results to consider some practices to support our healthy system of elimination on our digestive tract are the current habits which the sample confirmed to already be practicing. Around 60% stated they drink more than 2-3 liters per water and exercise more than 3 times per week, over 80% confirmed eating daily fruits and vegetables and sleeping between 7-9 hours Since these habits already support our Neuronal system and healthy environment for our digestive system, where could we still find room for improvement?

In order to contribute to the importance of this in our lives in an aware, kind and creative manner, some tips and practices will be shared to be able to test them in our lifestyles and check possible positive impacts on developing a healthier digestive system of elimination of our poop A Holistic embodied lifestyle to enable us to let our shit go, consider also awareness and caring approach to it. In the survey only 3% marked they took care about the action of pooping itself, where 30% takes between 5-15 minutes a day to poop, less than 20% has a Squad supporter in their bathrooms and less than 5% mentioned that they don't care actively about their personal comfort while pooping.

Also, on top of the reduced caring of it, the sharing about poop still has options of improvement since less than 15 % consider themself they can share freely about their needs. These results give us an interesting challenge since more than 90% considered that “symptom constipation relevant for our Health and we should learn more about how to let our shit go ” and s 30% of the participants asked for further advice after participating on the survey. In order to contribute to this topic some tips and recommendations will be shared trusting that our bodies always want to heal themselves therefore we can Look at the cure inside to take your poop outside

Spatial Design

Have you ever waited and held on to your poop until you got home if there is a cold, dark, unknown, dirty, basically not comfortable space to poop? Well, if our mind and bodies unconsciously avoid uncomfortable moments or spaces to be able to eliminate our poop, we can also take care consciously of reinforcing positively the comfort of our spaces in order to enable a more pleasant and relaxing environment for it Some quick wins can be to have your favorite book, some candles, a warm space. Also adding specific color on your environment or while pooping can support, as an activation of your bowel movements Adding to our spatial design we can use the practice of chromotherapy on our spatial designs

Chromotherapy

“Chromotherapy provides colors to the electromagnetic body or the aura (energy field) around the body, which in turn transfers energy to the physical body Colors have a profound effect on us at all levels physical, mental and emotional. If our energy levels are blocked or depleted, then our body cannot function properly, and this in turn can lead to a variety of problems at different levels”. Several studies have been made on the effects of different color on our physiology and is “Edwin Babbitt who presented a comprehensive theory of healing with color where related to constipation yellow and orange are considered as nerve stimulants; as specifically yellow as a laxative”.

13.KatherinaAldunateKunstmann,JuneBerlin.SharingisCaringSurvey.2022. 14.BirrenF.Light,ColourandEnvironment.PA,USA:SchifferPubLtd,1988.

Ayurveda

In alignment wi some Ayurved constipation like Plexus Chakra associated with r It is said to go “Also the positi ayurvedic medic the navel or the practice of As Marjariasana, Trikonasana, Ardhamatsyendr Paschimottanasan functions of Man

Sleep and Traditio

We also want to c Digestive system of our Neuronal function “There sleep could ha functions studyin disturbance and irritable bowel morning IBS sy quality of sleep was poor the night before and decreased when subjects had slept better”.

Also, alternative medicine as Chinese Medicine has something to say regarding our organs and sleep cycle Based on the “Traditional Chinese Organ Body Clock, where Chinese Medicine divides a 24 hour body clock into 12 two-hour intervals of the Qi (vital force) moving through the organ system to help them determine the organ responsible for disorders of sleep. Related to Large intestine the Chinese’s medicine shows that from 5-7am would be ideal timeline for the movement, and connection with that organ, therefore also advise as an ideal time for ideal bowel movements (BM) and achieve h fi li i i f h d h

As mentioned from the beginning, “getting our shit together” is a popular metaphor to refer to control and management in order to achieve an objective It is popular and useful to control some variables, but not only it doesn’t assure success this might restrict other possibilities This material aims to provide more information about the embodied physical condition of holding the waist of the food we ingested and “getting it together” Also, we aim to develop more awareness of the cycle of our body, healthy habits to make our systems naturally flow and why not maybe also manage to prove by practice that letting our shit go will be a more successful way of achieving something we have been wishing for.

Hopefully with this overview and these diverse approaches we can start to let go of our Holy shit in a more conscious and caring way A Healthy Digestive system not only means that we are able to process our food to get the necessary energy we need to live a happy and healthy life, but it also might mean that we are able to process challenging situations in our lives with ease and confidence, absorbing and learning from those experiences and releasing what no longer serves us

16-17.SmitaJha,SachinG.Khedika.TheInfluenceofManipurChakra(CoeliacPlexus)onAnnavahaSrotas (GastroIntestinalTract).

DOCTORS’ THOUGHTS ON COLONICS

BY KRYSTIE BEAUMONT

WHY ISN T COLON HYDROTHERAPY RECOMMENDED MORE AS A FIRST COURSE OF ACTION TO HELP WITH CONSTIPATION?

Colon hydrotherapists get a first hand look at the amount of waste people are unnecessarily holding onto in their colon (aka the large intestine). It’s undoubtedly clear to many colon hydrotherapists that colonics are one of the best options for constipation; their faithful clients are living proof.

Unfortunately, colonics can receive a bad wrap within the medical industry. This in turn pushes many away from even trying an alternative approach It doesn’t help that science hasn’t really given colonics a chance. The therapists who work within the industry are main advocates for colonics due to hands-on success with entrusting clients

Did you know that fifteen percent of the adult population suffer from constipation? So, why is it that more doctors, nurses, naturopaths, gastrologists and specialists aren’t recommending colonics to their patients? This paper discusses the reasons why colon hydrotherapy isn’t recommended by more medical professionals as a treatment option for constipation.

WHAT IS CONSTIPATION?

If you think about it, the human digestive tract is essentially a long tube with a mouth hole at one end and a bum-hole at the other If you put food into one end three or four times a day, something should come out about that many times You’re meant to have a bowel movement within three hours after each of your meals. Like babies or dogs: what goes in one end, must come out the other How have your bowel movements been going lately?

Did you know that constipation affects between two and twenty-seven percent of the population in Western Countries. William Bulsiewicz, MD (author of Fiber Fueled) has attributed the number one cause of bloating as constipation. He cites “bloating” as the most common digestive complaint from his patients.

Don’t feel constipated? Well, have you ever had any of these symptoms?

Straining

on the toilet

Dropping deer-like nuggets in the toilet during your bowel movements

Only having a bowel movement every other day

Or even worse, only once weekly

And, if you suffer from diarrhea, did you know that this can be a more severe form of constipation known as overflow?

The author has personal experience with this topic, seeing anywhere from fifty to eighty clients weekly in her Colon Hydrotherapy clinic. At least eighty percent of all clients complain of severe constipation, seeking out colonics for relief The most efficient way to feel relief and heal from constipation, according to Dr. Norman Walker is by visiting your nearest Colon Hydrotherapist A series of colonics will purge the colon and get it functioning properly again.

7

5.Van,JeremyDO,Abraham,RanaMS,MD1550.(2019).OverflowDiarrheaintheSettingofUrinary Retention,TheAmericanJournalofGastroenterology.

6-7.Dr.NormanWalker.(1979).“ColonHealth”.

8.RCT,Bsc(Hons),NDR.C.Kelvinson.(2005,January11).Colonichydrotherapy:Areviewoftheavailable literature.ComplementaryTherapiesinMedicine.

WHAT IS COLON HYDROTHERAPY?

A colon hydrotherapy treatment can seem daunting to first timers, as it involves trusting a stranger to insert a well lubricated instrument into your prison pocket to help your colon release! Those who are more conservative in discussing bowel habits may find the idea of colon hydrotherapy scary, daunting or overwhelming.

Colon hydrotherapy has been around for thousands of years, with literature dating back to the 14th century BC From the 1940s, colon hydrotherapy equipment continued to evolve. By the early 1950s, colon hydrotherapy was flourishing in the United States However, towards the mid-1960s, the use of colon hydrotherapy slowly dwindled until the early 1970's. By then, most colon hydrotherapy equipment was removed from hospitals and nursing homes in favor of the colostomy, enema bulbs and prescriptive laxatives.

Let's briefly break a colonic session down and see how it runs. Warm, filtered water is introduced into the large intestine (colon), through a small tool called a speculum, which is gently inserted into the rectum (~40mm). The body temperature water moves into the colon via the tube, and this warm water helps soften and break down any waste build up. The bowel releases the waste, it flows directly out through a closed tube into the sewage

Water fills and empties from the colon several times, whilst the colon therapist gently massages to assist bowel movement and break up hard matter. Unlike an enema, colon hydrotherapy aims to reach the entire length of the large intestine An enema will only reach the descending colon.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND COLON HYDROTHERAPY

Well, we can start by establishing that there’s not much. Aside from millenia of historical beneficial evidence, dating back to ancient Egypt In the 1930s, with the advent of pharmaceuticals, many alternative medicinal practices were swept under the rug because they could not be capitalized upon As stated in the beginning of this article, science backed research on colonics is few and far between. The pharmaceutical industry is responsible for the research, development, production, and distribution of medications. This market has experienced significant growth over the past two decades Pharma revenues worldwide totaled 1.27 trillion U.S. dollars in 2020. In 2015, the costs involved to conduct an FDA-approved three-phase clinical trial of a new gastrointestinal drug was estimated at $44 million USD.

10.ThehistoryofColonicHydrotherapy-GPACT.(n.d.).

11.Mikulic,M.(n.d.).Topic:GlobalPharmaceuticalIndustry.Statista.

Given that Colon Hydrotherapy does not require the ongoing use of a ‘drug,’ and is essentially only using filtered water into the colon (something you cannot make much money from) - the profit margin is next to nothing However, colon hydrotherapy has been documented to provide immense relief from constipation. Thus, this would reduce laxative sales, so perhaps one reason colon hydrotherapy may get a bad wrap is a ) There is no money to be made for the medical-industrial complex, and b.) it’s a preventative practice, thereby potentially decreasing gastrointestinal patients and medication

Let’s look, however, at what clinical research has been done: A study was carried out between April 2000 to April 2004, where 690 patients had colon hydrotherapy prior to a colonoscopy, to prep and clean the large intestine for examination. This study concluded that colon hydrotherapy is indeed an effective and safe means of cleansing the large bowel before undergoing a colonoscopy. It also stated that it is more effective than the use of either oral mannitol or magnesium sulfate as a means of cleansing the large intestines.

A board-certified gastroenterologist since 1972 and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, Robert Charm, MD, of Walnut Creek, California, combines conventional allopathic medicine with Colon Hydrotherapy. He stated: “Colon hydrotherapy is the perfect specific procedure to eliminate constipation and restore normal bowel function.”

W. John Diamond, MD of the Triad Medical Center in Reno, Nevada and coauthor of An Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Cancer said: “For some patients with chronic constipation or extensive yeast problems, colon hydrotherapy works advantageously to get rid of the physical load of pathology in the gastrointestinal tract.”

9.Leonard,B.C.G.S.D.(2000).MedicalJournalistReportValueofColonHydrotherapyVerifiedbyMedical ProfessionalsbyMortonWalker,DPM©Copyright2000byDr.MortonWalkerFromthesignalstageof historysurroundingancientEgypt,practicesofcolon.

12.MooreTJ,ZhangH,AndersonG,AlexanderGC.92018).EstimatedCostsofPivotalTrialsforNovel TherapeuticAgentsApprovedbytheUSFoodandDrugAdministration,2015-2016.JAMAInternMed. 13.Parekh,P.J.,Burleson,D.,Lubin,C.,&Johnson,D.A.(2018).Colonirrigation:effective,safe,andwelltoleratedalternativetotraditionaltherapyinthemanagementofrefractorychronicconstipation.JClin GastroenterolHepatol,2(1),5.

HOW DO COLONICS HELP WITH CONSTIPATION?

It’s physics! If there are hard pieces of mud in a tube, and you can’t get the mud moving through the tube to the other end, you’d simply pour water down the tube to loosen the mud and get it moving to the other end, right? Well, that’s the same as Colonics helping with constipation

A two-year study followed 175 patients who suffered from chronic constipation while they used colonic irrigation as a way to manage their symptoms. It concluded that 100% of all patients had success. This study revealed that colonic irrigation was a well-tolerated and safe alternative to medical therapy for patients suffering with Chronic Constipation.

Another study with eighteen patients, twelve of whom had constipation-dominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS-C) and six with diarrhea-dominant IBS (IBS-D), were randomized into treatments of one to four weeks, where a colonic irrigation was performed twice daily for six consecutive days per week. The results found improvement in abdominal pain, constipation and diarrhea, and the patients were more satisfied with their bowel movements and reported their symptoms as less disturbing.

WHY DOES COLON HYDROTHERAPY GET A BAD WRAP?

It is evident that there is more negative information online about colonics than there is positive. Many allopathic medical professionals advise against getting a colonic for various reasons Without informed knowledge, some might say that it’s dangerous, it can cause electrolyte imbalance, bowel distension or bowel perforation However, these claims too have been made with no real science-based evidence. However, there is evidence revealing bowel perforation in 1 in 1000 colonoscopies conducted, even though colonoscopies are still a very common medical procedure to investigate internal issues of the gastrointestinal tract.

Colon Hydrotherapist and Detoxification Health Coach, Michael Perrine has been practicing for 21 years and has facilitated over 20,000 colonics Perrine believes there are two main reasons why colonics aren’t recommended: “There’s no solid body of studies. When people conduct large-scale studies, they put money behind it, because they’re usually trying to solve a problem, and at the same time justify the solution as a product. I just don’t think there’s any financial motivation to invest in such studies about colonics The second is that there’s a synergistic effect of diet changes, colonics and other bodywork together. So there are plenty of people that never change their eating or lifestyle and then get colonics Although it makes them slightly better, nothing magical happens. There’s no major transformation to speak of But the synergy of all of those good choices and practices coming together has a tremendous effect on people. But that’s much more difficult to prove and study from a medical perspective ” Sarah Moore, owner of Sarah Moore Health in Nashville Tennessee, who has 15 years of colon hydrotherapy experience, says: “Those who say negative things about colonics don’t actually have a clue how it works ”

14.NurseHua,J.H.,Fa,S.Z.,&LinLi,G.(2004).ColonHydrotherapyforpre-endoscopypreparation.Hebei MedicalJournal 25(12).

15.Valueofcolonhydrotherapyverifiedbymedicalprofessionals...(n.d.).

16.MortonWalker,D.P.M.(2000).MedicalJournalistReportValueofColonHydrotherapyVerifiedby MedicalProfessionals.

17.Parekh,P.J.,Burleson,D.,Lubin,C.,&Johnson,D.A.(2018).Colonirrigation:effective,safe,andwelltoleratedalternativetotraditionaltherapyinthemanagementofrefractorychronicconstipation.JClin GastroenterolHepatol.

CONCLUSION

When researching this subject, the science backed information is unfortunately scarce. How is it, that an ancient Egyptian practice, with thousands of years of history, has just been left in the dark and labeled as ‘colonic quackery’, especially in this day and age with our tremendous information access? Is it because colon hydrotherapy is largely unprofitable? Is it because it's ‘too alternative’ or taboo? Is it because many in the allopathic industry have labeled colonics as quackery? Is it that colonics can help to heal and prevent major digestive complaints, resulting in the decreased use of pharmaceuticals and decline of gastroenterology?

Colon therapist and owner of The Divine Healing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Cassondra Klein, has been practicing colon hydrotherapy since 2014 and personally receiving colonics for almost 12 years She says: “I believe colonics get a bad rep because Big Pharma cannot put a patent on water. They are in the business of sickness while we are in the business of healing.”

Without the clinical research, you, dear reader, must open your own embodied experimentation. If you ’ re healthy, see what happens if you gently introduce sterile, warm water into your bum through an enema. Or perhaps see if you can book a gravity colonic appointment near you Whereas there is politics in the world of colonics as well, it is suggested to work with a practitioner who stays in the room with you, using a setup that has minimal commercial input or pressure with the water Until you try for yourself, you’ll never know how much it could help or how great you could feel It's evident that there is a need for more science based research to be conducted on this treatment as a whole.

19.Mishori,R.,Otubu,A.,&AlleyneJones,A.(2011).Thedangersofcoloncleansing.JournalofFamily

20-21.Ernst,E.M.D.,Ph.d.,F.R.C.P.(Edin).(n.d.).Colonicirrigationandthetheoryofautointoxication:A...: JournalofClinicalGastroenterology.LWW.

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18.Hsu,HH.,Leung,WH.&Hu,GC.Treatmentofirritablebowelsyndromewithanovelcolonicirrigation system:apilotstudy.TechColoproctol20,551–557(2016).

Practice.

EYES: THE WINDOW TO THE SOUL OR MUCH MORE?

BY SANDY CLARK

When we think about our eyes and vision, we tend to think about what they look like (from the outside in) or about how clearly we see, not about how they function. The theory of eye movement and its relationship to head position and posture is neurologically wired to our brains and nervous system. It is part of the catalyst for mirror neurons - and thus how we interact with our environment from the moment we are born.

The research thereby hypothesizes that this eye movement - as well as the behaviour that follows, along with the function and relationship to our posture and movement - can be used to test for and measure concussion, whiplash and posture related disorders. Therefore, it could be used as an assessment and treatment platform for these conditions

"I SEE IT NOW..."

How we see, why we see, the description of sight, insight and the grander ‘vision of a yet-to-be-realised future’ (as well as to gain a view into our past) is both a question and a statement These are ideas, ideals and terms we use in general vernacular to talk about our vision and our eyes.

Our eyes and the eyes of others have incited poetry and love letters. Eyes are central to art: to see and be seen The Mona Lisa’s eyes have been cited to “track” you around a room. However, when looking into someone ’ s eyes, can we truly tell what the person thinks and feels? Whether William Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci or the philosopher Cicero said it first: the eyes are a window to our soul Undoubtedly a crucial organ in our lives, the eyes represent one of the five sensory systems in the body They comprise an important part of how we interact with our environment

The eyes and vision have been linked to why and how primates have survived and thrived for so long in the wild. This idea has also been an hypothesis for why humans have colour vision (along with our sense of smell and taste): we can ascertain ripe from unripe fruit. The visible variety of colours guide us to the best nutritional sources of nature-based food for our diet. Pathological mechanisms have been described as part of the actual physiology of the eye as well as the neurological make-up of the primary visual cortex of the brain. There is also the ideas of learned behaviours of vision and cultural, biological and genetic issues at play

1.Evolutionofcolourvisioninmammals.GeraldH.Jacobs:TheRoyalSocietyPhilosophicaltransaction–BiologicalSciences

2.Regan,Julliot,Simmen,Vienot,Charles-Dominique,Mollon.Fruits,foliageandtheevolutionofprimate colourvision.TheRoyalSocietyPhilosophicalTransaction–BiologicalSciences

3.SamuelG.Solomon&PeterLennie.Themachineryofcolourvision.NatureReviewsNeuroscience

4.GerardA.Gioia(2015)Multimodalevaluationandmanagementofchildrenwithconcussion:Usingourheads andavailableevidence,BrainInjury,29:2,195-206

FORMING A HEAD INJURY MANUAL DIAGNOSIS TECHNIQUE?

How can we use: our eyes, our vision, our behaviours of head and neck movement, our body position and adaptability to our postural environment - to show whether trauma has occurred (to the head or neck) that affects the human visual, vestibular and postural systems? In layman’s terms: can we create a novel system of trauma diagnosis through movement examination? This hypothesis encompasses ideas on venous blood flow out of the brain, glymphosis (the CSF lymphatic flow theory associated with blood pressure gradients across the brain) and its effect on intracranial pressure The pressure in turn affects our postural system, eye movement and tracking behaviours These can be seen and tested through standardised head, neck and eye movement assessments.

How would this work? How could a physical injury to the head or neck actually cause a change in eye movement or position of the head and neck? Whether the injury was mildly traumatic, moderately traumatic or majorly traumatic - with or without loss of consciousness - whether there is a subsequent psychological or behavioural response now to the trauma, etc. What about the effects this head or neck trauma has on our postural system or vestibular system? This type of research on concussions has been previously discussed and talked about by Gioia 2015, Echemendia et al 2015, McCrea et al 2014 and even in international conferences discussing the matter since 1997

In all areas of study there is attention paid to correlation vs causation as well as inherent bias There are also different types of research on this topic: qualitative (reported felt sense) and quantitative (dose rates, modes of action etc) The human body is invariably in an area of qualitative variability. It is associated with: a person ’ s ability to cope with going back to work or “Return to Play” (RTP), which both need to be considered. There is a need for quantitative understanding of our qualitative assessment This will allow a professional to say: ‘ yes, there is less risk’ or ‘ no, there is more risk’. Three different studies should be performed: one assessing the qualitative variable, one assessing the quantitative variable and one comparing them to each other, in order to reach a conclusion Matt Parker (a mathematician at Queen Mary University of London) said: “You can find any pattern you want - to any level of precision you want - if you are prepared to ignore enough data ”

5.RubenJ.Echemendia,ChristopherC.Giza&JeffreyS.Kutcher(2015)Developingguidelinesforreturntoplay: Consensusandevidence-basedapproaches,BrainInjury,29:2,185-194

6.MichaelMcCrea,DonnaK.Broshek&JeffreyT.Barth(2015)Sportsconcussionassessmentandmanagement: Futureresearchdirections,BrainInjury,29:2,276-282

7.AubryM,CantuR,DvorakJ,Graf-BaumannT,JohnstonK,KellyJ,LovellM,McCroryP,MeeuwisseW,

SchamaschP;ConcussioninSportGroup.SummaryandagreementstatementoftheFirstInternational ConferenceonConcussioninSport,Vienna2001.

The question of ‘if the data confirms the theory, then how much data didn’t confirm it?’ is alive and true in all walks of study At this point, the human experience and the environmental conditions are such that we have to look at the information a different way This will aid in assessing what we can from where we are at and prove that we have not ignored any aspect of our assumption so we don’t falsify what we believe.

UNDERSTANDING THE EYES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO BODY

To understand eye tracking and its relationship to concussion trauma as well as how it affects an individual, we look at the different types of concussion as “post concussion disorders (PCD).” The sub-types defined as: physiologic PCD, vestibulo-ocular PCD and cervicogenic PCD This paper engages with cerebral blood flow (CBF) as important and perhaps linked with eye tracking to all of the sub types listed above This is as opposed to Ellis et al’s hypothesis, which only links CBF to Physiological PCD.

In general when considering eye movement, we look at the way the human visual system develops and:

How the eyes and vision map and are mapped in the brain as we grow and develop

What happens to our postural systems as we grow

From infantile movements coordinate and help structure our development and the role of the visual system in the continual postural change integration and development, a la: Rolling over

Crawling

Upright seated posture

Traversing along furniture and Walking

From a growth point of view, our eyes develop intrauterine

The eye/brain connections are made early in development of the foetus This continues through to birth It then has stages of development post-nataly until the thirteenth year of life. During this growth and development time, there can be many problems causing ocular abnormalities prenatal, post-natal and externally. Trauma has been viewed as a postnatal or external factor Perhaps there are also instances of intrauterine constraint, nutritional deficiencies or birth trauma All of which could present as head or neck trauma to the developing intrauterine child or the neonate during birth? Vision assessment for infants starts at birth This has been studied from as early as thirty-two weeks gestation (in preterm infants) The visual development of these preterm infants has been done when compared to full term infants In general, our visual system has not finished developing at birth. It is not until two months of age that the oculomotor neurological pathways have started to “wire” or “write” themselves to the occipital visual cortex through the Thalamus (referring to the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus of the central part of the Limbic midbrain) in an area of the brain called the Amygdala. This is the part of the brain linked to emotions.

8.McCroryP,JohnstonK,MeeuwisseW,etal.Summaryandagreementstatementofthesecondinternationalconferenceonconcussioninsport,Prague2004.

9.McCroryP,MeeuwisseW,JohnstonK,DvorakJ,AubryM,MolloyM,CantuR.ConsensusstatementonConcussioninSport–the3rdInternationalConferenceonConcussioninSportheldinZurich,November2008.

10.McCroryP,MeeuwisseW,AubryM,CantuB,etal.ConsensusstatementonConcussioninSport-The4thInternationalConferenceonConcussioninSportheldinZurich,November2012.

11.MichaelJ.Ellis,JohnJ.Leddy&BarryWiller;Physiological,vestibuloocularandcervicogenicpost-concussiondisorders:Anevidence-basedclassificationsystemwithdirectionsfortreatment.

To understand this “wiring or writing” to the cortex, we can entertain the analogy of electrical circuitry In order to turn on a light, you might “flick on a switch” The underlying assumption is that the light will go on We don’t really consider: the wires carrying the electricity, the junction boxes acting as relays for the electricity, the path the wires take through the walls to the main switchboard, the circuit breakers, the power coming in to the home, nor even the substation that the electricity company has installed down the street in order to help get from the power station to your city and your home Thus, something had to happen first in order to get the lights to come on! It wasn’t just you deciding to “flick on the switch”

If we go back to the eyes, in the brain there is an area that is in the mid-line that takes the information from the back of the brain, the visual cortex to the front of the brain, the medial prefrontal cortex (this is the executive function part of the brain that allows you to be aware enough to get the actions of the muscle together to “flick the switch”) Bessel Van Der Kolk (pp 90-91 2014 The Body Keeps the Score) calls it “the mohawk of selfawareness ” , where information from the eyes travels from the front of the brain to the back of the brain before any actions are taken.

Travelling from the front to the back, we have: the orbital prefrontal cortex (taking in the visual stimulus), then to the anterior cingulate (coordin the emotional state with our thinking), then t posterior cingulate (at the very back of the brain we have our physical sense of self, of where w internally, our internal GPS, where we can kee visual internal eye on things, or our vision of w normal inside us), then the signal is past back to of the brain through our limbic/emotional c and finally to the medial prefrontal cortex for a where we take in information from the in (visceral and emotional connection) and pa region (on either side of the brain taking se information and coordinating both the left and sides of our bodies) so we can ‘action our deci that we have seen and felt were needed

In this way, our sense of who we are is a v emotional, sensory experience It requires our e see, our body to feel, our internal organs to se then feeds this sensory experience to our bra sensemaking Once in our brains we coordinat sensory information together through our per experience of “ us ” , our experiences of the pas present and then we put this into action is right… sometimes this takes milliseconds a other times we can’t even decide if we want t on the blue shirt or the red shirt

This all was a simple explanation of what is happening in us so I can link the “how” part of this hypothesis to a clinically relevant application of this knowledge while showing occurrence of head and/or neck trauma This is only for the eyes of someone 13+, once development of these pathways has mostly been completed.

Between 2 months and 13 years old the eyes are used to coordinate head position, neck posture, tone in the muscles of the neck, back and stomach and to coordinate the core muscle programming in order to roll over and sit up. As well as the eyes having to relay information to the vestibular nucleus in the brainstem, we also have to coordinate our eye position, head position, body position and posture and the muscles of our neck This helps visually understand the relationship between laying down on the back, on the belly or sitting up and standing

The eyes also coordinate information from the surrounding environment to our feet and hands This allows us to move and grab things, climb and carry These are all being cortically integrated into our map of self They then become learned behaviours of movement It all started as part of our eye tracking system through our brain/body map. It has been hypothesised by Tosi et al that eye movement affects postural control and reveals further visual disorders previously masked by posture. Therefore,

12.Brémond-Gignac,Dominique;Copin,Henri;Lapillonne,Alexandre;Milazzo,SolangeVisualdevelopment ininfants:physiologicalandpathologicalmechanisms.:onbehalfoftheEuropeanNetworkofStudyand ResearchinEyeDevelopment(ENSRED)CurrentOpinioninOphthalmology

repetitive traumas to major psychological traumas of abuse are part of these trauma types The physical traumas are concussion type episode, including whiplash, that may have a consciousness event as part of its antecedents i e , a loss of consciousness with or without amnesia These range from mild to major physical trauma. The major usually involving a consciousness episode, usually with a type of amnesia and bleeding into the brain which could be life threatening.

While there have been many studies into concussion and various treatments and studies evaluating the evidence-based approaches (Gioia 2015, Echemendia et al 2015, McCrea et al 2014) the agreement of what is and is not concussion is still being studied At the moment, our diagnostic abilities of testing for concussion and treat concussion vary in their validity, their reliability and their ability to assess what is and is not normal and how much trauma has occurred. My hypothesis is associated with using a simple visual assessment tool that records pre and post eye tracking positions through six positions of gaze and 4 positions of the head movement This could be calibrated to the individual pre- and post-game, pre- and post-work or at the start and end of an activity.

A visual reference point for what is normal and when this “normal” becomes abnormal is the aim. This will also give a treating practitioner a visual objective indicator of when physical treatment may be indicated and whether the treatment carried out is helping or not As indicated by Ellis et al 2014 waiting 1 to 2 weeks post-concussion event to “ see if they have recovered” is still one of the diagnostic criteria

It has also been discussed whether too much rest, post concussion, may have an adverse effect on recovery (Leddy, Barker & Willer 2016)

D CONCUSSION

use our eyes, our vision, our behaviours of d neck movement in relation to our body will need to be assessed The body's ity to our postural environment can show trauma has occurred to the head or neck his trauma has affected the human visual postural system? This hypothesis is taking ount the brain's development and function europlasticity point of view however we will consider the neuropsychological point of e , when trauma has occurred, has it changed gical behaviour as well.

oking at physical trauma to the head and re are adverse events that can cause arterial us blood flow issues and these can affect ial pressure or cerebral blood flow (CBF) (Ellis et al 2014). Currently (at the time of writing this paper in April 2022) PhD candidate Dr Alice Cade (chiropractor) in New Zealand is studying the effects of chiropractic adjustments on eye tracking behaviour of mild traumatic head trauma persons

This is an ongoing area of interest. What if instead of studying whether we can do something about this concussion event after it has occurred - that first we understand what is normal? We can learn a simple test to perform before and after an activity with inherent risk of head/neck trauma). This simple test needs to be able to show whether further assessment or monitoring needs to be done, and if any treatment is needed. Further to this assessment we can also then direct a question of: when is treatment not helping, when is treatment successful (and no longer necessary) and when should we not RTP (go back to work)?

CLINICAL HISTORY

Recognition and diagnosis of concussion in sport and in general lifestyle activities has its challenges (not to mention the ignorance of officials and participants of concussions significance to brain function) The knowledge in hospitals and front line emergency staff is improving however we need parents, players/participants, safety officials and coaches to be the primary driver for this assessment and they need to have some understanding of risk Therefore the assessment tool has to become more simplified and easy to interpret At the moment the initial signs and symptoms associated with acute concussion are largely reflective of global neurological dysfunction, and obvious injury or incidence Then an assessment that requires equipment that is not easily carried on the sidelines of a field of play, in a playground or carried in a vehicle is required

16.MichaelJ.Ellis,JohnJ.Leddy&BarryWiller(2015)Physiological,vestibuloocularandcervicogenicpostconcussiondisorders:Anevidence-basedclassificationsystemwithdirectionsfortreatment,BrainInjury,29:2, 238-248

g , , , difficulty focusing, slowed speech, lightheadedness and fatigue. Impairments in cognitive processing and/or memory There may also be retrograde or anterograde amnesia (impaired memory) , changes in blood pressure and head pressure without headache. (Halstead et al 2010) These signs and symptoms may be elucidated from an adult patient “postconcussion”, however children or adolescents may not be able to recognize or verbalize these issues

Even though it has been stated that… 80–85% of patients with concussion will recover to their neurological baseline within 1–2 weeks. The remaining 15–20% will have persistent symptoms and the guidelines for management have not been established. (McCrory et al 2013).

Concussion and its sub-types are defined as: physiologic post concussion disorder (PCD), vestibulo-ocular PCD, and cervicogenic PCD Although many patients may demonstrate symptoms reflective of more than one sub-type, it is believed that the above scheme is helpful in localizing persistent impairments to specific neurological sub-systems or higher- order cerebral dysfunction As I’ve stated above, I hypothesize that all concussion has a cerebral blood flow issue and that impaired Vestibulo-ocular reflex. It is also possible that changes in resting heart rate or altered HRV could all be indicators of neurological changes that are related to concussion as well as Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) could be used to elucidate changes to the neurological state of an individual and therefore that individuals ability to RTP

In the area of concussion type events, post-concussion disorders and cervicogenic injuries, it has been discussed by Ellis et al (2013). that traumatic brain injury (TBI) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) are involved in the acute phase of concussion The paper goes on to state, with referencing, that second-impact syndrome may be an issue Ellis et al 2013 also produce some well thought-out and explained data with reference to physiological post-concussion disorders (PCD), Vestibu lo-ocular PCD and cervicogenic PCD.

possible that the InM is partly involved in the initiation and consequences of all the PCD’s relating to concussion

THE INTERMEDIUS NUCLEUS OF THE MEDULLA (INM)

The intermedius nucleus of the medulla (InM) is a small peri hypoglossal brainstem nucleus, which receives afferent information from the neck musculature and also descending inputs from the vestibular nuclei, the gustatory portion of the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) and cortical areas involved in movements of the tongue The InM sends mono-synaptic projections to both the NTS and the hypoglossal nucleus It is likely that the InM acts to integrate information from the head and neck and relays this information onto the NTS, where suitable autonomic responses can be generated, and also to the hypoglossal nucleus to influence movements of the tongue and upper airways. (Edwards, Deuchars, Deuchars 2009)

To understand the role of the InM and the possibility of concussion as part of the event sequelae, we first need to study what is normal for eye movement, what is abnormal for concussion, and where does eye movement and concussion cross over in the data. As the data for concussion is growing the next stage therefore is to study eye movement and tracking behaviours in the general population and then compare this to the concussion population so we can correlate the data between eye movement, tracking and concussion.

What we are looking for here is: can a simple eye examination reveal the truth about concussion type events. The focus being that if this is shown to be valid it will then have the potential to guide treatment, guide capacity to return to work/play and to guide further assessment and referral to appropriate specialists assessments and treatment What if we had a test that was more accurate, more reliable, easier to administer, faster to reach a conclusion and could be performed by a wider range of people with limited skills?

17.HalsteadME,WalterKD.AmericanAcademyofPediatrics.Clinicalreport–sport-relatedconcussionin childrenandadolescents.Pediatrics2010;126:597–615.

18.McCroryP,MeeuwisseWH,AubryM,CantuB,DvorakJ,EchemendiaRJ,EngebretsenL,JohnstonK, KutcherJS,RafteryM,etal.Consensusstatementonconcussioninsport:The4thInternationalConferenceon ConcussioninSportheldinZurich,November2012.

19.IanJ.Edwards,MarkL.Dallas,SarahL.Poole,etal.TheNeurochemicallyDiverseIntermediusNucleusof theMedullaasaSourceofExcitatoryandInhibitorySynapticInputtotheNucleusTractusSolitarii.Journalof Neuroscience1August2007 20.IanJEdwards,SusanADeuchars,JimDeuchars.JChemNeuroanat.Theintermediusnucleusofthemedulla: apotentialsitefortheintegrationofcervicalinformationandthegenerationofautonomicresponses.

CONCLUSION

In scientific studies I have mentioned it has been found that a comparison of quantitative vs qualitative correlation has not been evaluated In order to continue studies in this area, this will have to change as evaluating the human component of these conditions is essential. This will require different fields of study both physiological and psychological, in order to collect the data that will show actual lifestyle and life capacity improvements, which in turn give us directions to reach clarity and possibly for further areas of study.

What if we had a test that was more accurate, more reliable, easier to administer, faster to reach a conclusion and could be performed by a wider range of people with limited skills In order to do this we will also have to understand how physical trauma to the head and neck in a concussion type even can transpire to, or include, psychological trauma. Also how this could play a role in our response to behaviours of movement and posture when comparing types of concussion trauma. Is it also possible that the best person to test for a concussion will in the future be the optometrist or even your camera phone?

When we consider how the brain works, how we integrate information into our higher cortical areas, how our actions and movements become conscious and how we develop and grow (developmental behaviours associated with movement), my wish is to link the “how” part of this hypothesis to our current ability to apply this knowledge in a clinically relevant way. I am focusing this hypothesis on a foundation that will be able to build research that:

can show head and/or neck trauma may have occurred to an individual; that this trauma is evident in eye movement and postural behaviours after the trauma; and when compared this to pre-trauma, a correlation is seen

This hypothesis is laying the foundation for a fundamental shift towards a simple assessment criteria of eye movement, head movement and posture that can be used to quickly and easily assess that a trauma has occurred and that this trauma has changed postural and eye movement behaviours This can then be used to direct further assessment, care, treatment, continuity of care and need /or not of further follow up care.

Without a basic baseline test of an individual's pre-concussion state, there is always going to be a question regarding the reliability of a “postconcussion” test and therefore when return to play (RTP) after a concussion event is appropriate

1. 2. 3

When you focus on the good, the good gets better.

ABRAHAM HICKS

DIGGING DEEPER INTO THE GOLDMINE OF EARWAX

BY NIKLAS SANDÉN

Do you know what is really going on inside your ear? Do you track your earwax growing? The ear canal is the canal from the outer ear to the eardrum. It is the place where cerumen is located: your earwax, which most of us know as a yellowish, fatty, moist substance. Herein we will look into why, for some individuals, this earwax turns brown during fasting. We will also look into any possible connection with the vagus nerve, as the cause of brown earwax may be stress related.

INTRODUCTION

The ear consists of three parts (see picture 1): the outer ear, middle ear and inner ear The outer ear consists of both an elastic bony part called the audacity or pilla, the visible part we see and normally call the “ ear, ” as well as the ear canal, which is softer tissue The ear canal is about 2,5 cm long and 0 7 cm in diameter. It ends in the eardrum, which is also known as the “tympanic membrane ” From the middle ear inwards, sound waves hitting the eardrum will transfer (via bones in the middle ear) into electrical signals to the vestibulocochlear nerve From there, it will transfer into the temporal lobe of the brain and register as sound The middle ear is also responsible for balance, and there is connection to the throat via the eustachian tube. This pathway is usually collapsed, but when flying or scuba diving you need to equalize the air pressure between both sides of the eardrum. This is where you do it.

However, the skin cells in your ear are trapped alongside wax, sweat, dust, sebum and various other particles like hair spray, shampoo, shaving cream, bath oil, cosmetics, dirt and the like! It is like a garbage disposal, and the way the body gets rid of this is by the earwax binding this foreign material and removing it upwards by the motion of the jaw while chewing or speaking There we have itanother reason to chew your food 40 times per bite! So it is like a self cleansing system that usually works. After the wax has reached the surface of the outer ear canal it dries up and flakes off or just falls off at its own pace. It is also a lubricant, like tears, and therefore beneficial, as it will prevent the ear canal from getting dry and itchy The primary role of earwax is to protect your ear canal and eardrum from foreign substances Without it, your ear canal would be more susceptible to infections and irritation. So, say “thank you!” to your earwax.

1

WHERE DOES EARWAX COME FROM?

Wax is most commonly found in nature as beeswax or lanolin from sheep. In humans, it is only found in the ears The technical term for earwax, cerumen, only refers to the secretory product of the ceruminous glands in the external auditory canal It is just one component of earwax These glands are classed as apocrine glands, as they secrete sweat into a hair follicle and not straight out to the skin Many will use cerumen as synonymous to earwax, but herein the term earwax will be used for what it actually is, even though it has a bad sound to it, perhaps a little disgust, and not many people in public talk about it. One author suggested using the term “recycled skin” instead so that we might change our relationship to earwax, as more than half of it is skin cells and the keratin sheets they produce.

The wet part of earwax comes from two different secrational glands inside the ear canal. One produces sebum from sebaceous glands, and the other modifies sweat from the ceruminous glands mentioned earlier. These two secretions are released into hair follicles and emerge into the ear canal to combine with the solid debris. earwax has recently been seen to also contain alkanes, alkenes, fatty acids, esters, triglycerides, cholesterol esters as well as cortisol

1."EarCanal."Wikipedia,theFreeEncyclopedia. 2.LaunerJ.”Waxinglyrical:takingearwaxseriously”PostgraduateMedicalJournal97(2021),475-476.

3.Coon,AllixM,etal."Two-DimensionalGasChromatographicandMassSpectrometricCharacterizationof Lipid-RichBiologicalMatricesApplicationtoHumanCerumen(Earwax)."ACSOmega7,no.1(2021) 4.Herane-Vives,Andresetal."MeasuringEarwaxCortisolConcentrationusinganon-stressfulsampling method."Heliyon6,no.11(2020)

Figure 1. Ear anatomy.

There is also a smelly component to earwax; people may find it either repulsive or enticing It appears to result from oxidation of the resulting mixture and modification by bacteria.

The most common encounter people have with earwax is earwax impaction, a stuckness, that has effects six percent of the general population in the UK, ten percent of children and more than thirty percent of the elderly. It is estimated yearly that million people in the United Kingdom suffer problems with earwax needing treatment, resulting in fourmillion ears syringed each year. Hair can get in the way of clearing earwax as well It is recommended to. treat this with three percent hydrogen peroxide if you get itchy ears, as anaerobic bacteria and fungi can thrive in compacted earwax Recommendation is not to use cotton swabs or fingers for that matter, as it will only push the earwax further in A doctor’s rule: “Don't put anything smaller than your elbow inside the ear. ” There are cases where more than ninety percent of health workers found objects like cotton buds, ballpoint pen covers, matchsticks and chicken feathers in ears. Nine percent reported injuries to their ears as a result of cleaning Cotton swabs can introduce bacterial and fungal elements into the ear canal, and if the epithelium is traumatized, infection can easily set in Also, ear candling (melting the wax inside with a flame) is reported to do more harm than good.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF EARWAX

Earwax is classified as either wet or dry. Wet earwax is in turn subdivided into soft and hard. There is a genetic factor here, as the wet type is more common in Caucasians and Africans. It is more yellow to brown in color and has an odor. While the dry type is most common in Asians and Indigenous people and has a gray brownish colour. Earwax comes in many colours: from light golden yellow to black Pale yellow to yellow is the most common type, and it indicates good health. Thick, dark or black coloured earwax is due to increased stress levels in the system The glands produce more under stress and work overtime, resulting in a collection of old earwax, which, if stuck for a long time, turns black! This is an indication that it is time to clean your ears Gray coloured, dry earwax indicates dust collection in the ear canal. If blood is present, it indicates an infection or ear drum rupture, and you should seek medical advice directly. Stress causes earwax production. Just as you sweat more during stress, you also secrete more earwax The apocrine sweat glands in your ear respond to stress Strong emotions like fear can cause an increase in earwax production Cortisol is also found in earwax and used as a test for stress in patients.

5.Cheng.”PreventionorTreatmentofHumanEarPain,ItchorVertigo(Dizziness)CausedbyCerumen (Earwax)ImpactionandEarHairs.”

6.LeeM,etal.”Cottonbudandearcleaning-Aloosetipcottonbud”.MedJMalaysia.Vol60,No1March(2005)

7.Tonga,A.”WhathealthprofessionalsattheJosUniversityteachinghospitalinsertintheirears”.(2013)

9.HeinrichM,”9factsaboutearwax.”Hearinglossassociationjul/aug(2017),43.

EARWAX & THE VAGUS NERVE

The vagus nerve ’ s auricular branch innervates the external auditory canal This is also called Arnold's Nerve, named after the German anatomist Friedrich Arnold (1803-1890), who noted that he could induce a coughing reflex by stimulating the ear There are now therapies in development to stimulate the ear in order to modulate the heart rate as well as diagnose diabetes However, these therapies are applied to the outside of the ear, where you put electrodes. So it is similar to ear acupuncture, with needles on the outer ear for all kinds of remedies, as in Chinese Medicine, the ear represents the whole body.

PERSONAL OBSERVATION, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After day three or four of my first Institute For Aliveness’ INITIATION juice fast, my own earwax turned brown, when it had always been yellowish before I also interviewed another male at TIFA experiencing the same after day three of fasting Additionally, the usual itchy ear I am accustomed to disappeared during the final few days of the weeklong juice fast According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, brown earwax is older earwax, and it was coming out as I was purifying my body I then sent out a question in our group of 64 members in TIFA, where everyone has done some kind of fasting. However, no one else aside from me and this other male had experienced this Perhaps one part is that people are not aware of their ear wax norms, as it is extraneous to normal attention Creating awareness might lead to more people noting it. The other part as to why perhaps there weren’t many replies is that there a majority of the group are women (52 of 64) There may very well be more earwax buildup in men, as we have more hair in our ear canal, so we must resort to creative ways of clearing it, as the hairs stops the earwax from getting out.

8.Naz,Iffat."TheAssessmentofantimicrobialactivityofcerumen(earwax)andantibioticsagainstpathogenic bacteriaisolatedfromearpussamples."MicrobiologyResearch11,no.1(2020)

10.Nomura,Sakashi,andNoboruMizuno."CentraldistributionofprimaryafferentfibersintheArnold'snerve (theauricularbranchofthevagusnerve):AtransganglionicHRPstudyinthecat."BrainResearch292,no.2 (1984)

EARWAX IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

If you follow the jaw bone, the first part of the outer ear you meet has a sort of lock just outside the entrance of the ear canal This is called the tragus Its position makes sound possible to echo back into the ear canal, meaning you can locate sounds from behind you In the animal world, this is mainly seen in bats that have the same structure, using sonar for localisation. The name tragus comes from ancient greek tragos, meaning ‘goat’ Perhaps a reference to the fact that older men grow hair here, thus making it more difficult for earwax to get out?

Blue whales accumulate particularly huge earwax plugs, as long as 25 cm! Analysis shows evidence of the whale’s age, exposure to chemical contamination of the oceans, and stress levels over time, due to hunting and climate change

CONCLUSION

Earwax has more to it than meets the eye! Seeing earwax change colour when fasting from yellow to brown is a good thing. It means that the body is detoxifying Even when not fasting, if you find your wax turning colour, it could be a sign that you are stressed. Also, if you are constipated, one may be able to see this in the condition of your earwax Looking into the vagus nerve connection, there is a connection to the ear and handling stress.

It is what the vagus nerve does, in tandem with the mechanism of breath for regulating the parasympathetic nervous system A constant mechanical stimulation in the inner ear by cotton sticks risks pushing the earwax further in towards the eardrum However, movement in that area may relax you, and thus reduce stress and further earwax buildup There is a link to mechanical stimulation, reducing coughing when removing stuck earwax when washing. There are also therapies for auricular vagus nerve stimulation, an emerging field, mainly focused on electrodes attached to the outer ear. Although it is seen that the production of earwax goes up under acute stress, like at a final exam for medical students There have now been diagnostic tests developed to measure cortisol levels in earwax, and it may very well be a useful development in the field of diagnostics, as it is cheaper and easier than a blood sample.

The link to cortisol levels is however interesting, but it is more of a general view of how the body is doing. The main thing of interest is that stress itself produces more earwax, and the vagus nerve does control the switch to the parasymphatic, relaxing, nervous system hus, the initial question herein: if fasting produces less earwax, which changes to a darker color could be true not only as a detoxifying mechanism by the body, but also as a response to the overarching parasympathetic reset that occurs while in the fasting state More research on the hidden gold mine of earwax is needed and hereby called for across interdisciplinary fields.

11.Murray,AaronR,etal."Thestrangecaseoftheearandtheheart:Theauricularvagusnerveanditsinfluence oncardiaccontrol."AutonomicNeuroscience199(2016) 12.ZoeNash,Tifafaculty,emailcorrespondense2022.

13.Cheng.”PreventionorTreatmentofHumanEarPain,ItchorVertigo(Dizziness)CausedbyCerumen (Earwax)ImpactionandEarHairs.”OpenscienceJournalofClinicalMedicine7(2)(1999)

14.YongE.”Thehistoryoftheoceansislockedinwhaleearwax.”TheAtlantic(2018). 15.Mohamed,RahmaS.,MohamedAfify,andManarA.Kamal."AcuteStressInducesCerumenSecretion:Case seriesofFourMedicalStudentsduringExams."(2021) 16.EldehanM,etal,”Effectofvagusnervestimulationduringearwash.”SciJofAl-AzharMedFacGirls2Vol 5,3(2021)

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food

BATHE YOUR SKIN IN H2O: HYDRATION AND THE SKIN PRE/POST SUN EXPOSURE

BY ADAM THOMPSON

There are countless studies that examine sun exposure and its relation to sunburns and skin diseases. Many of them assess factors that include whether sunscreen was applied, the SPF value of that sunscreen, the use of sun hats or the use of long-sleeved clothing. Age, sex, location and ethnical origin have also factored into the studies. But what about water intake and hydration?

Could this impact the way our skin responds to the sun? In this paper, we explore the idea that there may be another way to enjoy our time in the sun without developing short-term or long-term maladies. Ultimately, this paper signifies a call for more research. Can we examine the effects of the sun while also analyzing for hydration?

INTRODUCTION

The sun. The powerful hydrogen ball that watches down on us It cycles across our sky, and as its energy emanates down upon earth, it gives every organism inhabiting this planet the ability to exist. The sun ' s core rages at approximately 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, while its outermost layer, the corona, is approximately 10 million degrees Fahrenheit It is hard to comprehend how powerful and blazing hot that really is! It is no wonder that prolonged exposure to the sun can be quite harmful to us You’ve perhaps seen or felt its effects before through sunburn or heatstroke. Yet, not enough exposure to the sun can be as equally harmful, leading to low vitamin D levels, and consequently, depression and cognitive impairment.

In 2016, the United States sun care market size was estimated at 1.95 billion US Dollars. Most of this market consisted of sun protection products with some of the market consisting of self-tanning and after care. Imagine yourself purchasing a bottle of sunscreen for $10-$20 to get an idea of how much sunscreen it takes to profit 1 95 billion dollars

Sun protection products come in all shapes and sizes, but what are the common ingredients, and what effects do they have on our body? Is it possible that the risk of exposure to those ingredients outweighs the reward of avoiding sunburns? Could it be possible to explore an alternative path? Is it necessary for us to layer ourselves in these creams, laced with potential nano-particles of poison? There are different directions that we could take on this journey, but hereforth we will look at the role hydration plays before, during and after prolonged sun exposure This paper proposes a solution as simple as reassessing your intake of water before, during, and after sun exposure.

AN OVERVIEW OF OUR SKIN

The skin is an important interface between a human and their physical, chemical and biological environment It is an important portal of entry for potentially hazardous agents; it is a vulnerable target tissue. Our skin is composed of two primary layers: the epidermis and the dermis The outermost layer, the epidermis, possesses four distinct layers within it that contain distinct morphology and biochemical function Let’s take a look at them in order: from deep to superficial.

Source:McGrathUitto(2016)

The lowest layer, the basal layer, is where the epidermal tissue originates the process of constant regeneration This layer - one cell in thicknessgenerates skin cells called keratinocytes, and it gradually moves them outwards into more superficial layers Outside from the basal layer, we move through the spinous layer, the granular layer. And finally the stratum corneum, the outermost layer, which is composed of dead, flattened or “cornified” cells. Now follow along as we learn a bit about the sun ’ s rays and how they impact this blanketing organ that coats our body from head to toe

PROTECTION FROM SOLAR RAYS

The light from the sun, or energy if you will, is complex when broken down However, for the sake of this article, we will only look at one aspect of this: UV The sun ’ s rays contain ultraviolet radiation (UV) This ultraviolet radiation exists in the form of waves, which are a part of the electromagnetic energy spectrum Other waves that exist on this spectrum include: X-rays, microwaves, radio waves, and infrared waves.

Source:JointDoctrineNote3-16

3.“USSunCareMarketSize,Share|IndustryTrendsReport,2018-2025.”n.d.GrandViewResearch. 4.Suskind,RaymondR.“EnvironmentandtheSkin.”EnvironmentalHealthPerspectives20(1977)

5.King,AllisonL.,MichaelS.Finnin,andCorinneM.Kramer.“AnatomyandWoundInjuriesoftheSkin.” SignificanceofOpenWoundsPotentiallyCausedbyNon-LethalWeapons.InstituteforDefenseAnalyses,2019.

1.“TheSun.”2017.NASA.

2.Biniek,Krysta,KemalLevi,andReinholdH.Dauskardt.“SolarUVRadiationReducestheBarrierFunctionof HumanSkin.”ProceedingsoftheNationalAcademyofSciencesoftheUnitedStatesofAmerica109.

of wavelengths: UVC radiation (200 280nm, predominately filtered by the ozone layer), UVB radiation (280-320nm, mainly absorbed by the epidermis), and UVA radiation (320-400nm, which penetrates deeper into the dermis but interacts with both the stratum corneum and epidermis as well) The penetration of UV radiation into the skin can initiate detrimental photochemical reactions. This causes both acute conditions, such as erythema, and chronic conditions, such as photoaging You know that one well, as photoaging is the main contributor to changes in skin’s appearance with age Sun-caused skin cancers are also well known and feared, like cutaneous malignant melanoma, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma

UVB of all ultraviolet wavelengths in particular is seen to be particularly harmful Yet, exposure of skin cells to ultraviolet radiation is essential for the production of Vitamin D

relation to sunburns and skin diseases Many of them may very well be industry driven: assessing whether sunscreen was applied and the SPF number (a value indicating the level of protection a sunscreen provides against sunburn, the use of sun hats and long-sleeved clothing There is no examination of hydration levels in any of these studies. Promisingly, primary and secondary prevention programs are now showing positive outcomes. This can be seen with sun avoidance campaigns taking precedence over sunscreen as the primary preventative approach Yet, no evidence of hydration practices has been seen as a focus before and after prolonged sun exposure.

A 2009 study examined the prevalence of sunburn in nearly 10,000 randomly selected Englishspeaking residents of Queensland, Australia It assessed factors such as sex, age, ethnic origin, employment status, household income, skin colour, skin sensitivity and more Again however, hydration data was not collected nor examined.

Based upon Google Scholar review, hydration and sun exposure is an area that hasn’t been studied extensively Thus, it may be an exciting opportunity to explore what could be a missing link in the sun equation. Studies could be conducted examining sunburn and skin disease with hydration levels assessed before, during and after sun exposure. Factors such as the water’s PH level, mineral content, volumes and more could be analyzed

HYDRATION’S EFFECT UPON THE BODY

Water is undoubtedly the most important part of our diet, and it’s the only nutrient that can be lethal within days if deficient. The effects of water on daily performance and short and long-term health are evident Insufficient water intake is characterised by a decrease in well-being, thirst, loss of body weight, reduced work capacity, and more serious health consequences when body losses exceed four percent Simply put, water is essential to health and life.

6.Gasparro,FrancisP.“Sunscreens,SkinPhotobiology,andSkinCancer:TheNeedforUVAProtectionand EvaluationofEfficacy.”EnvironmentalHealthPerspectives108(2000).

7.“SunburnandSunProtectiveBehaviorsAmongAdultsAged18–29Years—UnitedStates,2000–2010.” MorbidityandMortalityWeeklyReport61

8.Duke,Janine,FionaWood,etal.“TrendsinHospitalAdmissionsforSunburninWesternAustralia,1988to 2008.”AsiaPacificJournalofPublicHealth25

9.KØSTER,BRIAN,etal.“PrevalenceofSunburnandSun-RelatedBehaviourintheDanishPopulation:A Cross-SectionalStudy.”ScandinavianJournalofPublicHealth38

10.Autier,Philippe,MathieuBoniol,andJean-FrançoisDoré.2007.“Sunscreenuseandincreaseddurationof intentionalsunexposure:Stillaburningissue.”InternationalJournalofCancer121

11.Purdue,MarkP.,LoraineD.Marrett,LarryPeters,andJasonK.Rivers.“PredictorsofSunburnamong CanadianAdults.”PreventiveMedicine33,no.4(2001)

hydrated is a solid investment for better overall health and disease prevention But how does the intake of water impact your skin? And what does this mean for preventing and healing sunburn?

Water is important in the plasticization of the stratum corneum The extensibility of the stratum corneum depends on its water content and hygroscopic substances. Hygroscopic substances are those which attract and hold water molecules through sorption The mechanical properties and their relationship to water content have been investigated mainly because of their possible relationship to skin condition Dry skin is thought to lack the ability to retain water, therefore reducing the pliability of the stratum corneum Read? Dry/dehydrated skin may thus be easier or more likely to burn under the sun. Think of something cooking on the pan The wetter it is, the less likely it is to burn. Remember, the sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit… *Insert sizzle sounds here*

AUTHOR EXPERIMENTATION

As a professional beach volleyball athlete, I have had much experience with exposure to the sun over the years I have applied various types of sunscreens before sun exposure, reapplied when necessary, and I’ve been mindful to limit my exposure times when possible I have also applied aloe vera topically after prolonged sun exposure - regardless of whether I had an obvious sunburn or not Many times, I have wondered about what potential negative impacts may lie in frequent application of sunscreen. We are the only organism on this planet that covers themselves in these inorganic solutions This led me to considering another, much simpler way.

I have begun personal experimentation of prolonged sun exposure sans sunscreen. These experiments have been carried out on multiple occasions during Canadian summer. My legs, arms, upper body and face have been directly exposed during these experiments The main factor that I have focused on has been to hydrate before and after prolonged exposure. During the experiments, I drink one litre of water before sun exposure and another two and a half litres throughout the day for every three hours of sun exposure that I had accumulated, during and post-exposure

13.Rogers,Carla,MarinaKvaskoff,etal.“PrevalenceandDeterminantsofSunburninQueensland.”Health PromotionJournalofAustralia20

I noticed that after being exposed to the sun for approximately three hours, I would experience erythema, redness or mild irritation, on my skin On each occasion, I made sure to consume my two and a half litres per three hours of exposure - and also another three litres the following day When doing this my skin would feel like it did before the exposures Visibly darker complexions were noted Typically in the past if I were to experience erythema and irritation symptoms I could expect pain and peeling for several days Simply by putting my focus on my hydration (as opposed to layering myself up with topical suncare products) I have been able to drastically minimize symptoms in the short term, meaning: I do not get anywhere as burnt as I would have previously without sunscreen. As it stands, long term effects are unknown

Other factors worth noting are that three litres of water were consumed within the 24 hours prior to prolonged exposures. My diet was plant based, consisting of various fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and beans Added oils, salts and sugars were used very seldomly, if at all, in my diet. Pre-experiment sleep periods were approximately eight hours

CONCLUSION

There is a collective preventative mindset to sun exposure and its repercussions Most preventative methods involve shielding ourselves That could be with topical creams, oils and the like, or by wearing garments as armour from the sun ’ s rays Some may “shield” by avoiding the sun altogether. This can be seen as an outside-in preventative approach. What would happen if we tried an inside-out approach? An approach in which we take medicine into our bodies that prepares us for our environment. Not a medicine in the form of a pill, but simply something that we take into our body daily for our well-being. The intake of water may be a simple and logical solution to prepare our skin for sun exposure and perhaps help it heal afterwards. This article is a call for more research to examine hydration’s effect upon sunburns for possible sunburn prevention Regardless, I know how this has impacted my body. h ill l i i

15.Bresson,Jean-Louis,AlbertFlynn,etal."Scientificopinionofthepanelondieteticproducts,nutritionand allergies."EFSAJ.822(2008)

16.Takahashi,M.,Kawasaki,K.,Tanaka,M.,Ohta,S.,Tsuda,Y.(1981).“Themechanismofstratumcorneum plasticizationwithwater.”In:Marks,R.,Payne,P.A.(eds)BioengineeringandtheSkin.Springer,Dordrecht.

12.McCarthy,WilliamH.2004.“TheAustralianexperienceinsunprotectionandscreeningformelanoma.” JournalofSurgicalOncology86

14.Popkin,B.M.,D'Anci,K.E.,&Rosenberg,I.H.(2010).Water,hydration,andhealth.Nutritionreviews, 68(8),439–458.

Before you heal someone, ask him if he's willing to give up the things that make him sick. HIPPOCRATES

BRONCHIAL ASTHMA AND SELF HEALING

Can Herbal Medicine Be Used To Leave The Medication Cycle?

BY ANDREA MATUSCHEK

You wake up in the night and feel the tightening in your chest. You gasp for a deep breath, but your lungs don’t expand. A wheezing sound floods your ears, and it feels like something is wrapped around your lungs. Mucus coats your throat. No matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to breathe enough air. There is no choice: this is the moment to reach for your medication. “Seeeeeeep!” You inhale, and a few minutes later you can breathe normally. You tried to do it without medication. But this vicious cycle feels incarcerating.

This paper addresses this issue and is meant to provide an overview of certain possibilities to activate your self-healing process As health is a summary of a variety of aspects, the paper focuses on the question if herbal medicine can be used to leave the circle of medication intake? Therefore, the paper will first give an overview of what asthma actually is and what is going on in the body. It will explain the inflammatory process and why it is important for the body to survive The ying-yang synergy of inflammation is explained and with that some lifestyle factors To get an overview of what lifestyle change means, the paper will provide a short introduction to it. Moreover, the circle of medication intake is explained. Based on an experienced herbalist the leading question of this paper is answered

ASTHMA: CHRONICALLY INFLAMED BRONCHIAL TUBES

Three-hundred and thirty-nine million humans worldwide are affected by asthma, with an increasing prevalence. Predictions show that both asthma incidence and severity will increase in the future Asthma is a chronic lung disease characterized by airway inflammation, leading to limited airflow with symptoms like: wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, cough and enhanced mucus secretion.

See what you just did there? Yes, you breather You involuntarily do this 20,000-26,000 times each day. With every inhale, the air passes through your nostrils and nasal canal, down the throat (pharynx) to the windpipe (trachea), and reaches the bronchial tubes From there, air goes to the tiny air sacs (alveoli) of the lungs, where the oxygen diffuses into the blood through the blood vessels. With every exhale we take, carbon dioxide diffuses back from the blood vessels to the air sacs and is exhaled “Pheeewwwww ”

With every breath you take, your airways inhale more than just oxygen Depending on which environment you are in, the air around you is alive: bacteria, viruses, fungi and mold spores as well as dust, smoke, parfum or fumes from gas cooking stoves To protect against irritants, the body produces inflammation of the airways. Through inflammation, the airways swell, and less air can pass through If less air is coming through, inhaled toxins are also reduced. Thus, the body protects itself by narrowing the bronchial tubes Inflammation is a key reaction of the immune system, protecting us from unsolicited invaders. Inflamed tissue is able to kill invading germs, and inflammation creates the conditions to repair damaged tissue. With the narrowing of the airways and excessive mucus production, chemicals are released that make the inflamed airways more sensitive to irritants (Figure 2) Thus, the body reacts in hypersensitivity even to harmless compounds Asthma is a vicious cycle of chronically inflamed airways.

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BALANCING INFLAMMATION

Inflammation is necessary for the human body to survive. The modern environment increases the potential for increased inflammation Different components can trigger the body’s inflammatory response. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, the mood we have, where we live and other factors trigger inflammatory responses of the body. These factors are all part of the inflammation-balancing equation

4-6-7.Meggs,WilliamJoel,andCarolSvec.2004.InflammationCure,The.London:McGraw-HillPublishing

5.,HumanBodyClipart-TheRespiratorySystemLungDiagramBreathing.

8.Lorig,Kate,DianaLaurent,VirginiaGonzalez,DavidSobel,MarianAMinor,andMaureenGecht-Silver. 2006.LivingAHealthyLifeWithChronicConditions.3rded.Boulder:BullPublishingCompany.

Figure1|TheRespiratorySystem

Figure2ThebronchialtubeofanAsthmatic

Inflammation is an ideal sample of the yin-yang synergy (figure 3). If pro-inflammatory and antiinflammatory factors are balanced, the body functions properly. If the body is confronted with more pro-inflammatory factors, it can react with extreme inflammation reactions out of balance

Chronic illnesses like Asthma begin slowly and proceed slowly A prevailing pro-inflammatory lifestyle can cause inflammation and become chronic. Thus, the body needs more time for healing (figure 4)

Allopathic medicine prescribes mostly antiinflammatory drugs to open up the airways as well as to reduce swelling and inflammation Medication minimizes the symptoms of asthma, but it won’t heal the disease or treat the root cause Thus, the endless cycle of medication intake begins (figure 5). If the asthma isn’t cured and only the symptoms are addressed, one must take medication on a regular basis But what if there was another way? Is there a possibility to substitute the drugs with herbal medicine?

Figure3Theyin-yangsynergyofinflammation

Figure4|Timeofthebody'sself-healingcapacity

Figure5|Thecircleofmedicationintake

9.Meggs,WilliamJoel,andCarolSvec.2004.InflammationCure,The.London:McGraw-HillPublishing

10.Lorig,Kate,DianaLaurent,VirginiaGonzalez,DavidSobel,MarianAMinor,andMaureenGecht-Silver. 2006.LivingAHealthyLifeWithChronicConditions.3rded.Boulder:BullPublishingCompany.

HERBAL MEDICINES - MOTHER NATURE'S HUG VARIETYS

Medicinal herbs are plants or plant parts (the lea flower, stem, root, fruit or bark). Depending on th herb and its chemical compounds, it has differen forms of medicinal intake: capsules, extracts, tea essential oils and ointments. Of the 250,000 500,000 plants in the world, only around 5,000 have been researched for their medicinal effect on the human body. Herbs have multiple natural chemicals that affect the body in antiallergic, antihistamine, antiasthmatic, anti-inflammatory and more ways.

Herbal medicine has the potential to support the body in the body’s own instinctive self-healing process. Ethnobotanical texts reveal so many indigenous cultures who have a long history and knowledge of using herbs. Therein is an enormous variety of herbs for treating asthma The aim of this paper is to inspire other approaches to manage asthma more than to simply list herbs that you can take Please consult a herbalist for a tailored, specific self-healing process with herbs Mother nature has a huge variety of medicinal plants, and every herbalist has his/her own favorite herbs The author of this paper interviewed Lucie Bradley, medical herbalist trained at the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine.

HERBAL MEDICINE FOR ASTHMA

“Anti-asthmatics” are herbs used for treating respiratory issues, which relieve the symptoms of asthma These specific herbal medicines can act as expectorants, antispasmodics, bronchodilators or a combination of each. A large group of them are: Belladonna, Black Haw bark, Comfrey, Ephedra, Elecampane, Euphorbia, Evening Primrose, Gelsemium, Irish Moss, Lobelia, Mullein, Senega, Storax, Stramonium, Wild Cherry Bark and Wild Yam

Most herbal prescriptions contain various components Of the variety used in Chinese Medicine to treat asthma (appendix 1), some of the more common plant medicines include: Ephedra (Ephedra sinica) or ma huang, Magnolia, Minor Blue Dragon combination and Scute.

Since the body acts as a holistic system, it is important to take the whole body into account. Rather than focusing only on the respiratory area for treating asthma, a holistic approach sees the human body as a unified field. Thus, for treating asthma, it is important to also take the nervous, cardiovascular and digestive systems into account. In Chinese Medicine, the lungs and the large intestine are operating together in what’s called a “marriage”

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THE PSYCHOSOMATICS OF ASTHMA

It is also very important to consider the emotional aspects like grief, sadness, anxiety and stress from chronic dispositions of the respiratory tract The psychosomatics for the lungs is about grieving, and the aphorism for its partner the large intestine is “letting go ” Thus, Asthma is related to the inability to grieve or let go. Anxiety is a significant symptom experienced by a high number of asthmatics

Thus, adding a nervine herb like Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is recommended to address anxiety. To balance the effects of the herbs, it is recommended to address this aspect in a prescription and have a balanced combination of herbs. The treatment of Asthma needs drying herbs as well as moistening ones. Additionally, it is important to address the over or underactive immune system reaction against invaders to either regulate it up or down A good herb for immune modulation is Echinacea (Echinacea angustifolia) It helps to modulate the immune system in the needed direction (down- or upregulation) For boosting the immune system, a mixed herbal tea of yarrow, elderflower, peppermint and echinacea loose leaves can upregulate immunity

The skin is the largest organ and a main elimination system for toxicity after the digestive tract Therefore, increasing sweating for elimination (to remove pathogens from the body) supports the respiratory tract A group of herbs called “diaphoretics” (like elderflower) increases perspiration. To open airways, one can take the aforementioned Chinese Medicine herb ma huang (Ephedra sinica)

To activate the self-healing process of the respiratory and digestive tracts, herbal tea and tinctures are recommended. Moreover, from the viewpoint of Chinese Medicine, healing the respiratory system is strongly related to a balanced diet. As with asthma, there is significant mucus production, and thus a mucus-drying diet is recommended All mucus is produced in the stomach. What if the asthmatic experimented with no longer eating dairy or other acidic foods?

13.But,Paul,andChristopherChang.1996."ChineseHerbalMedicineInTheTreatmentOfAsthmaAnd Allergies".ClinicalReviewsInAllergyAndImmunology14 14-15-16-18-19-20-21-22-23-24-25-26-27.Bradley,Lucie.2021."HerbsForTheRespiratorySystem".The InstituteForAliveness,BODYSemesterContent.

ESCAPING THE CYCLE OF INHALERS: IS HERBAL MEDICINE THE GAME CHANGER?

The question is not if herbal medicine can be your game changer, but rather… are you willing to become your own doctor and can listen to what your body is telling you? Have you been conditioned to take your medication to feel safe? How could the placebo effect of your doctor’s prescription play into your thoughts? Every time you take medication, you are demonstrating your expectations and belief system. What happens if you ask yourself: “Do I take the responsibility for my own health, or do I delegate it to someone else?” If the latter, how would this person know better than you what is going on in YOUR body?

Departing from the cycle of mediation means finding your own way out Let’s investigate several different options. First, changing one ’ s diet to a more fruit-and-vegetable-based diet (3-4 times the quantity that you eat now) may reduce mucus buildup, inflammation and help detoxification through the large intestine with increased watercontaining, fibrous matter Also, long term juice cleansing or fasting can help, as well as increased hydration and increased elimination through sweating All of these aspects and more, improving them as daily habits are starting points. Any individual is capable of self-healing Choose where to start, and integrate it slowly. Habit by habit. Day by day. Many people find it easier to associate health with taking medication If that mindset is what trapped you in the cycle, then perhaps consult a herbalist to get an alternative, individualized prescription as your starting point

FURTHER THOUGHTS

Your body is its own healer and, given time, patience and habit change, most common symptoms will likely improve The chronic airway inflammation of asthma is a common disease worldwide, and it affects the daily life of those who suffer Without inflammation, you would die If proand anti-inflammatory aspects are leveled, the body is in a balanced condition What inflames you? Where in life do you see imbalances for you - not only physically, but mentally?

Those who adopt an inflammation-reducing lifestyle will see improvements in overall health However, you want to begin to reduce inflammation is your choice. Medicinal plants are a strong starting point for activating the body's self-healing capability The high amount of varieties of medicinal plants is enormous, and thus consulting a herbalist for a personal prescription is recommended Herbs have a vast variety of chemical compounds to boost all the body's systems.

Over time, our daily habits become part of who we are. Changes in your daily habits may be difficult or initially uncomfortable However, these changes are some of the most powerful health tools we have to fix anything that’s not working. Of all the changes anyone can make, the single biggest health improvement comes from the decision to change itself Any individual is capable of self-healing You are in charge of your health Give your body time, space and the right conditions to heal. After reading this, you now have a choice: do you want to th i l i ?

True prevention is not waiting for bad things to happen, it's preventing things from happening in the first place

DON MCPHERSON

AYURVEDA'S POTENTIAL IN AN AGE OF MODERN MEDICAL & TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

BY NIKETHANA VENKATESAN

The history of medicine goes back as long as human beings have existed on Earth. Allopathic western medicine, currently accepted largely across the globe as ’ conventional’ medicine, has developed incrementally across the years through scientific and research efforts of the practitioners.

Modern medical science is currently in the midst of a quiet revolution which is likely to dramatically alter our theories and practice of medicine similar to the radical shift that happened to western medical science with the advent of antibiotics The mechanistic model emphasising 'calculability, predictability, and control’ is gradually collapsing. Efforts of dedicated researchers are looking beyond the allopathic model's flaws recommending the integration of more holistic aspects that works on multiple levels including improving the general quality of life, clean environment, and psychological, and spiritual dimensions of life.

Ancient living systems such as Ayurveda and Chinese medicine remain the foundations of modern medicine These systems are experiential, intuitive and holistic, whereas that of modern medicine is based more on analytical and reductive reasoning As the need for holism and integrated medicine is increasingly emphasised, these ancient systems become potentially important sources of future medicine and therapeutics This paper will explore Ayurveda as a living system, examining its current state and relevance in the modern era and what contributions the Ayurvedic system could yet make, especially in the field of epigenetics and preventive health Can the future of medicine be holistic, personal and innovative for both the individual and their community? The paper will first review Ayurveda and its current practice and then explore the potential for Ayurveda in the modern medical and technological realm including in the fields of artificial intelligence, genomics, epigenetics and wearable technologies

AYURVEDA: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Ayurveda is one of the oldest healing systems believed to have existed for more than 5000 years in India. ‘Ayu’ means life and ‘Veda’ means science. The ayurvedic knowledge was passed down across generations through sutras or small phrases found in key source texts such as the Charak Samhita ( on internal medicine) and Sushrut Samhita (on surgery) The original philosophical basis of Ayurveda is in Sankhya meaning knowing the truth. Health is defined as a state of equilibrium with one ’ s self (svasthya) but which is inextricably linked to the environment. Ayurvedic philosophy strongly believes that the human being is a microcosm of nature and in whom all the five basic elements of nature are present. In practice, Ayurveda is an ‘applied, clinical, medical discipline The principal aim and objectives of Ayurveda are 1. Maintenance and promotion of health,

2 Prevention of disease, and

3 Cure of sickness through a suitable diet, lifestyle, purification therapy and transformation.

CURRENT STATE OF AYURVEDA

Even as Ayurvedic medicine continues to be widely practiced in India (approximately 70% of Indians still use traditional medicine as their primary medicine), it is today seeing a dynamism and revival. Contemporary Ayurveda has been formalised and institutionalised in areas like education, clinical approaches, pharmacology, and medicine manufacturing In the post-independence period in India, it has been recognised and legitimised as one of the formal healthcare systems of the country With the establishment of the AYUSH ministry and more concerted attempts to bring a scientific verification of long held practices, there is an effort to re-dynamise and integrate Ayurveda into the current time. There have been efforts related to research and practice that must be acknowledged These include some noteworthy attempts especially by the Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (CCIH) in the Savitribhai Phule Pune University related to research and practice include creating rigorous Ayurvedic drug reporting standards through the CONSORT program, robust clinical protocols for comparing effectiveness of complex Ayurvedic and conventional treatments, introducing Ayurgenomics (which will be explored below), creating AyuSoft, a support system for patient classification decisions (which will also be explored in this paper), introducing a national program on Ayurvedic biology, introducing good clinical practices guidelines, establishing a digital helpline for Ayurvedic research support, etc

It is important to note that it has been reported that Ayurvedic practitioners have increasingly adopted allopathic practices in urban India rather than a living, personalised system of diagnosis and prevention of disease. There needs to be systematic documentation in the public domain on the actual practice of Ayurveda, leading to a need for verifiable data on the actual use of the enormous resources and wisdom of the Ayurvedic classic source texts Issues related to appropriate research methodologies, or lack of information on current treatment protocols for Ayurveda still need to be sufficiently addressed As per current regulations in India, there is no requirement of scientific or clinical data for manufacture and sale of classical Ayurvedic medicines Quality control, good pharmaceutical manufacturing practices, and technologies for Ayurvedic medicine are still evolving As such, the irregulated nature of the Ayurvedic medicine manufacturing has led to a global mistrust in the medicines themselves as unsafe levels of lead, arsenic, mercury etc have been found in the medicines.

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Even as issues remain with the quality of medicines produced and attempts made to regulate their production, Ayurveda still has immense potential in the field of individualised, personalised medicines However, in this paper we focus on the potential for ayurveda in preventive health over its potential in treatment of disease.

AYURVEDA, GENOMICS AND EPIGENETICSTHE RISE OF ‘AYURGENOMICS’

In Ayurveda, ‘Doshas’ are the dynamic principles which govern a person ’ s physical, physiological and psychological functions. Ayurveda describes three doshas namely vata, pitta, and kapha Each person is born with a unique percentage of ‘tridosha’ or the three doshas that is determined not just by genetics but also factors throughout fetal development This balance of doshas in the context of each individual is called ‘Prakriti’ which is established at the moment of birth and cannot be fully altered during one ’ s existence. As such Prakriti could be seen as human phenotypes.

Genomics has brought us closer to an age of ‘predictive, preventive and personalized’ medicine, creating increased possibilities of a paradigm shift in medicine in the near future from the current generalised symptomatic approach to an individualised approach that is based on a person ’ s genetic makeup A number of research groups have or are now investigating the correlation between Ayurvedic prakriti and individual human genotypes Different studies have shown various correlations between different prakritis and genotype expression. One showed that different Prakritis metabolised drugs at varying rates, another showed significant correlation between certain genotypes and the three major Prakriti types Another exploratory study evidenced that individuals of contrasting Prakriti types exhibited clear differences at the biochemical and genome-wide gene expression level All this has led to a new science called ‘Ayurgenomics’ that studies individual variability rising from genetic variations across generations This science is exploring establishing better, faster and more accurate medical diagnosis/ prognosis of patients on the basis of their prakriti

As the field of genomics evolves it has branched into the science of ‘epigenetics’, a rapidly growing area of science that focuses on the processes that help direct when individual genes are turned on or off It is felt that detailed understanding of Ayurvedic concepts like Prakriti may actually facilitate this process. ‘Ayurgenomics’ has a basis in epigenetics where one of its key considerations is the possibility of an individuals’ prakriti to determine their potential for susceptibility to certain diseases and potential response to environment, diet and lifestyle.

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As the focus has turned to one of understanding where there is human agency over their genetic inheritance, healthy individuals can adopt a curative and preventive regime before they are symptomatic for any form of illness This science of epigenetics is seen as a future hope to get answers to many mysteries still in the medical field and to enable the way forward for individuals and communities to regain agency over health

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND AYURVEDA

With the advances in computer technology came the possibility of Artificial Intelligence (AI) The father of Artificial Intelligence, John McCarthy defines it as “The science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs ” AI is a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates disciplines like linguistics, computer science, basic programming, maths, engineering, technology etc in order to simulate aspects of human intelligence such as problem solving, analytical thinking and learning. What uses then in the field of health care? Owing to swift developments in this area of AI in the past few years, there has been a boom of multidimensional research in healthcare which had not been possible before.. AI enables machine intelligence to work with immense amounts of complex medical data and uses learning algorithms and software to imitate human intelligence by seeing patterns and using logic in interpreting and processing this data to deliver solutions with as little human intervention as possible. So far, such AI algorithms cannot answer to questions of causality or the question of ‘why’ but have incredibly precise predictive capacities Among artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, machine learning and deep learning methods have seen increasing success for Big Data analysis. They are powerful algorithms able to classify and predict clinical outcomes, extract high level information, and identify data patterns that traditional data-processing systems do not have the capacity to handle

Two applications of AI and Big Data analysis in the field of Ayurveda are briefly mentioned below.

A AyuSoft:

Over the past 15 years a number of prakriti diagnostic tools have been applied in various Ayurvedic research studies but only a few of them have been standardised. AyuSoft is an increasingly used prakriti diagnostic instrument developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, India. This is a software consisting of 90 items based on ancient Ayurveda scriptures involving elements of both history and examination

A practitioner can use this tool to check the proportion of the three doshas (vata, pitta and kapha) for an individual. AyuSoft has been used in number of research studies including Ayurgenomic studies thereby enabling Ayurvedic research to analyse vast amounts of data that previously had not been possible to do.

B. Jiva Ayunique

In 2021, another diagnostic protocol for Ayurveda developed by a private enterprise known as Jiva Ayunique was launched in order to make root-cause based diagnosis in a structured, standardized and data-driven manner This protocol is a huge data analytics project that was initiated by Jiva Ayurveda in 2015 with the help of Big Data analytics and machine-learning techniques Unlike AyuSoft which revolves around prakriti diagnosis, the intention here is to use big data analytics in Ayurveda in order to show its efficacy in treating chronic diseases.

Since Ayurveda has little scientific documentation and big data analysis, these two protocols have demonstrated a lot of potential to show for the first time interesting patterns and the possibilities for use in preventive healthcare. Questions still remain however as systemic carelessness and falsification of data in the Indian research setting and changes in the education system and stricter monitoring protocols would be required to improve quality of results

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AI, AYURVEDA AND WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY:

In the 21st century, considerable progress in technology, both in hardware and software have fundamentally altered the habits of individuals, society and business. Sensor capacity, precision and accuracy have increased with innovations in hardware. The introduction and spread of the Internet of Things (IoT) has made possible accelerated, fast connections between devices, objects and environments . Modern devices are extremely interconnected, they are accessible to vast numbers of people and are very effective in terms of their capacity to collect, share and analyse large amounts of data Among these modern devices, wearable modern devices have received a lot of interest in the field of health care. Wearable devices include a variety of accessories that can be attached to a person ’ s body, clothing or carried on their person. These accessories incorporate computer and microsensor technologies which can easily integrate with external sensors Devices such as the pervasive smartphones or smartwatches can thus capture a variety of biofeedback data such as motion, location, temperature, sleep patterns, oxygen levels, heart rate, blood insulin level and many other parameters from the person using the device. Such data is crucial information for the functioning of many healthcare applications Nowadays, most wearable devices are equipped with highly performing machine learning algorithms, which allow them to monitor one ’ s daily lifestyle and healthcare

Ayurhythm

An interesting innovation to watch for in the field is the development of a new mobile app called ‘Ayurhythm’. Ayurythm is a patent-pending digital application that calls itself the world’s first app to detect one ’ s naadi pariksha (pulse diagnosis), which is performed via a simple fingerprint impression captured through a smartphone camera The app is reputed to compute seven vital signs namely heart rate, rhythm, systolic BP, diastolic BP, pulse pressure, arterial stiffness, and pulse morphology, and then correlate these vital signs to Ayurvedic biomarkers. An AI algorithm calculates the prakriti which is used to form the user ’ s holistic wellness index which includes an assessment of their ideal and current body type. Ramanath, the founder of this app, says, “AyuRythm has solved this issue with an easy-to-use and accessible digital mobile platform The registered users need to answer 30 questions one time and take 30 seconds pulse diagnostic test using their smartphone camera. The users ’ holistic wellness state is analysed and solutions combining yoga, breathing exercise, meditation, food, and herbal remedies are suggested. The more tests the user takes, the system can track more of their holistic wellness variation, and offer a personalised solution”.

An initial read into some of the reviews indicates that the Ayurhythm app has flaws in accuracy and is limited still in user reach but it indicates a scope for improvement as technology continues to innovate. The existence of such apps also indicates the potential of Ayurveda and modern technology in the field of self-diagnostics and epigenetics to allow the user to take agency over their own health and genetic predispositions by modern innovations giving them biofeedback to increase their capacity to act on behalf of their own bodies and change the expression of their genetic inheritances

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CONCLUSION

Even as Ayurveda has already contributed much to modern medicine (through ethnopharmacology ingredients such as turmeric, neem, gooseberry etc, reserpine, plastic surgery), this author agrees with Patwardhan, B. who argues that Ayurveda’s real contributions are yet to be made The most potential impacts lie in Ayurveda’s vision and potential to move modern medical science in teaching people not just avoiding disease but how to proactively determine the activation (or non-activation) of their gene (epigenetics) through self-knowledge, through decisions made around their diet, lifestyle and environment - i e to gain agency over their own health

As Patwardhan, B asserts, “ we are in the modern world where physical, chemical, biological and computational sciences are converging in sophisticated technologies like genomics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, cybernetics and robotics New theories based on non-linear, holistic and systems approaches are evolving. Discussions about science and spirituality, consciousness, mind–body interactions, ecological sensitivities, value systems and the searching questions about the purpose are finding new grounds We seem to be completing the circle by creating new bridges between science, philosophy and spirituality”

Further questions can be raised with regards to all the technologies so far explored Does the presence of technology only further increase the disconnection and reductiveness that underpinned the mechanistic model of health? Given the intuitive, experiential roots of Ayurveda, can machine learning ever be able to replace human intelligence and wisdom which is the underlying truth of Ayurveda? It is important that Ayurveda is not reduced from its complex, multidimentional roots Prakriti understood as mere biological markers rather than a nuanced understanding of the human body-mind-spirit journey in the macrocosm of the cosmos as well as in the microcosm of the human being then reduces Ayurveda to analytical and reductive reasoning thus repeating the mistakes of the mechanistic model of medicine It is also critical that as machines become ever pervasive in human life and increase in capacity to support human self-agency in aspects like health, that there is a simultaneous movement to awaken link mind-body connections, to connect science with spirituality, to link ecology and health and generally expand current conceptions of health as merely being free from disease. The post-modern scientific perspectives and methodologies in systems biology, genomics both in pharmacology and nutrition, personalised medicine, quantum and chaos theory, the ideas around the ecological human being, etc., are perhaps today better equipped to engage in a dialogue with Ayurveda than through the medium of conventional biomedicine It is more important than ever to emphasise and reawaken the practice of Ayurveda as a living, fluid system that is governed by nuance, plurality and complexity and one that can offer multifaceted approaches to healing

This paper has thus explored Ayurveda’s potential in the field of epigenetics and preventative health in the current zeitgeist of technological expansion and innovation It has raised various questions as to the potential pitfalls of such approaches without sufficient integration of the underlying philosophy of Ayurveda but still sees the immense potential for the future of Ayurveda and modern medical science as experimentation continues It is more important than ever that paradigm shifts in current understandings of the world, body, mind, spirit and human agency continue to move humanity forward into its next evolutionary stage.

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The best six doctors anywhere, and no one can deny it are: sunshine, air, water, diet, exercise and rest. These six will gladly attend if only you are willing. Your mind, they’ll ease, your will, they’ll mend, and charge you not a shilling.

WAYNE FIELDS

KAMBÔ: A GLINT IN HIS EYE, HIS BACK SHINING GREEN

BY TURIYO STOJANOV

What are the Effects of Peptide Stimulation from Frog Poison?

THE ANCIENT LEGEND OF KAMBÔ

A legend by the Kaxinawa tribe of the amazon shares about their ancestors who went very ill, and their medicine man had done everything that was possible to cure them All medicinal herbs and modalities known were used, but none helped Under the effect of ayahuasca and his intention to provide healing (a psychedelic brew that is sacred to the tribe), he entered the forest Whilst there, his visions expanded and guided him to a frog. He then received the instructions on what to do with it and how to apply it. A white secretion that had the potential to heal those in need. Coming back to the tribe he taught about this frog, the application and was able to cure those in need. From then on, the tribe called him “Kampu”, the medicine man. This green frog has a very evolutionary advantage in the jungle (Nogueira et Al.) 13 Due to this white secretion, it has no predators that are hunting these amphibians It is thus not only protecting them against bigger predators it is through the following described peptides, protected against bacteria, fungi, parasites and so forth Encountering the frog, it has a very calm nature. The tribe learned to mimic the sound of the frog while receiving an actual answer and a move towards the individual making the sound In the process of discovering this effective cure the tribe is careful in deep respect towards it As it brought so much healing to the tribe - there is a great effort to make as little harm as possible.

Today, Kambô is the synonym for the frog Phyllomedusa Bicolor, also known as Giant Green Monkey Tree Frog, that is native to the amazon, and its healing application. This secretion that is collected for its medicinal value is gaining more and more attention Sometimes even referred to as “vaccina del sapo ” - the vaccine of the frog. The use of this secretion is being repeatedly used for the healing of a great variety of sickness Among desires for general healing, it is being applied for infections of all kinds, chronic inflammations, autoimmune diseases in general, weakened immune system, detoxification, Lyme disease and more.¹

In the following, the aim is to display the current discoveries on the therapeutic potential of Kambô, use cases as well as questions and inquiries that open from these. Based on this information - the question of holistic treatment will also be addressed (Furthermore, this document will also provide information if the reader is considering pursuing this treatment for his journey to alleviate his experience of pain and sickness - not serving as medical advice )

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY OF KAMBO TO SCIENCE

In 1937, the Italian scientist Vittorio Erspamer of the University of Rome was the first to discover “Enteramine” - the “good mood hormone” - which today is commonly known as serotonin (a name picked by the first company, Upjohn pharmaceuticals, that synthesized Enteramine) (Lattanzi 2021) ² .

In the following years Erspamer kept researching Enteramine/Serotonin which then led him to look closer at these amines and active peptides These were the beginnings of the category of peptides He and his team researched mainly on amphibian skin tissue and invertebrate tissue In the late 1980’s, Peter Groman, was the first person who experienced the application of Kambô and reported it. Erspamer, who was already researching a different array of peptides from the Phyllomudasinae subfamily of amphibians, was very curious about this frog and asked Groman to bring back one of these frog’s he would meet in the Amazonian tribe, the Matse’s, he was going to In a letter to Groman, Erspamer then replied “the Sapo (a tribal name of the frog), was a fantastic chemical cocktail with potential medical applications - no other amphibian skin can compete with it ”³

Erspamer discovered, from the total weight of the frog 7% are potently active peptides, easily absorbed through burned, inflamed areas of the skin. “Of several dozens of peptides - 7 have been found to be bioactive for the human body.”² “The scientific research on the bioactive peptides is still unfolding nowadays so far sixteen peptides have been isolated in the secretion of the Phyllomedusa bicolor.” (Rucker and Seth 2021) ¹⁰

1.Majić,Tomislav,MeikeSauter,FelixBermpohl,andTimoTSchmidt.2021.“ConnectedtotheSpiritofthe Frog:AnInternet-BasedSurveyonKambô,theSecretionoftheAmazonianGiantMakiFrog(Phyllomedusa Bicolor):MotivationsforUse,SettingsandSubjectiveExperiences.”JournalofPsychopharmacology35.

2.Lattanzi,Giovanni.2021.KamboIbogaAyahuasca:SynergyofEntheogens.EditedbyLellaAntinozzi. TranslatedbyKatherineEMCroll-Knight.

3.Gorman,Peter,andMorganMaher.2015.SapoinMySoul:TheMatsésFrogMedicine.Vancouver,British Columbia:GormanBenchPress.P.36.

4.Thompson,Caitlin,andMartinLWilliams.2022.“ReviewofthePhysiologicalEffectsofPhyllomedusaBicolor SkinSecretionPeptidesonHumansReceivingKambô.”ToxicologyResearchandApplication6(January)

What happens when the secretion is applied?

The traditional application of the secretion happens by “burning” the top layer of the skin - the peptides mix with the water present in the wound and get transported through the lymphatic system into the bloodstream - which then creates a cascading effect on the whole body. “Within a few minutes the application causes the heartbeat to speed up dramatically, a sensation of warmth in the head and/or throughout the body, nausea, vomiting, and stool ejection The most intense phase of the process lasts about 15-20 minutes The feeling is very similar to that experienced during a flu or fever.”²

WHAT IS KAMBO’S SECRETION CHEMICALLY?

The results of Ersparmers and countless other researchers on peptides is its activity to modulate (upregulate or downregulate) physiological processes in the body. This happens through the release of chemicals into the bloodstream which then go on affecting the nervous system - in comparison to “neurotransmitters' ' that increase or decrease signaling mechanisms in the body through affecting the nervous system directly This means that the peptides in the secretion take more time before the body reacts to them It is important to mention that the discoveries in the peptides have been found in vivo (on a living organism) and in vitro (a test-tube experiment like a petri dish) The data that is still not sufficient is a clinical trial on humans. Following I will go into the peptides that do the work

Phyllocaerulein and Sauvagine are very similar to each other They induce low blood pressure and a racing heart. It directly affects the hormonal system of the body triggering the digestive system, immune system and many other processes It cleanses the hormonal system and improves the ability to deal with pain Moreover, it triggers the body to get into higher capacity to deal with stress! These stressors are psychosomatic – it greatly improves the body’s ability to deal with illness as well as for the psyche to deal with challenges

Tribal application refers here to a state best described as euphoric, with increased stamina, clarity of thoughts and an increased capacity for hunting. Kambô is being used there as a ritual to enhance the hunters’ capabilities to provide for the tribe – this would account for the psychic improvements after the application of the secretion ²

Bradykinin-related peptides and Phillokinin appear naturally in animals and play a role in immune responses. While these peptides also explain the visual display of a person who undergoes the treatment with Kambô (swollen face, redness of skin) they act as the safety net. These peptides contain the triggers as well as provision of a “safe” container for the body Think of this like a burning fire yet the water is coming with it so it can be extinguished.⁴

Bombesins, Phyllolitorin, Leu8, Litorin and RohdeiLitorin play a huge role in the stimulation of the whole digestive system as well as their connection to the nervous system It regulates the circadian rhythm, thermoregulation, anxiety, satiety and behavior See following table by a study group from 2021 after repeated safe use of the secretion on 386 participants.¹

Tachykinins. Phyllomedusin belongs to the category of the Tachykinins. This peptide is involved in the nervous system as well as the cardiovascular system It has neuroprotective & neurogenerative properties A potential application for conditions such as chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome and asthma ⁴

Deltorphins and Dermorphins serve as a painkiller alongside all other peptides Beside a calculated 40-1000 times potency than that of morphine depending on the tissue. Another benefit of these peptides is the supportive capacity to change behavior. Through this peptide the experience is bearable – again the “fire extinguisher” is coming along!⁴

Dermaseptins (DRS) is a very special peptide that serves antimicrobial, antiviral and fungicidal Besides its strong capacity to fight bacteria, viruses, tumors, microbial illnesses it serves to regulate cellular metabolism ⁴

5.Heiblig,Maël,VincentAlcazer,AdrianaPlesa,HélèneLabussière-Wallet,andPierreSujobert.2021.“Howto TransformanExceptionalCaseReportintoaTherapy:FollowingtheFrogoutoftheBox.”

6.Margolis,KaraG.,JohnF.Cryan,andEmeranA.Mayer.2021.“TheMicrobiota-Gut-BrainAxis:FromMotility toMood.”Gastroenterology,January.

HUMANITY ALTERNATIVE HEALING APPROACHES THE TIFA JOURNAL

Documented applications

In one use case a leukemic patient experienced a complete remission after seven treatments with the secretion 4 and a half years later he was diagnosed with a new form of Leukemia that had a sharply different profile than the first ⁵ Another important reference is the interview with Caitlin Thompson, an active researcher on the subject from 30.04.22. In this Conversation Ms. Thompson shared her experience of Lyme disease and the fact that she has virtually no symptoms since the application of Kambô Besides this she works with a great number of patients suffering from Lyme disease / Lyme syndrome and her upcoming research will consist of a great deal of investigation into the healing potential Considering the description that the Dermaseptin Peptide provides, the experiences of applying Kambô on Diagnostics such as Lyme Disease seem to be promising.⁷

Lastly, in one study, the peptide Cerulein has been injected into the pancreas which induced it to resume insulin production – working like a “reset” for the pancreas – a potential treatment for diabetes ² As one observes the peptide activity mentioned - it indicates a capacity to make significant lifestyle changes due to the physiological process that is triggered by Kambô All these peptides have a very similar structure to what is present in the human body

Lack of method to observe synergy

In the Interview with Caitlin Thompson from 30 04 22 she commented by saying: “part of the challenge of conducting research on the whole experience is that empirical science really wants to reduce everything down to one molecule And they want it to be standardized And the rations of the peptides between individual frogs, they are all over the map there There is not a lot of consistency in the composition And therefore, it would be really difficult to use the natural substance and take it through, like rigorous human trials, because you cannot actually quantify what is in it, and then have everybody get the same thing [ ]

That’s a big, big challenge I still think it should be done But I think ultimately, what’s probably going to happen is we are going to have to make a synthetic version of Kambô, in order to study the effects of very measured standardized proportions of peptides combined And maybe that’s a good thing Maybe that makes it more accessible by being able to integrate into conventional medical models. I don’t know. It’s hard to say what the best path forward is ”⁷

WHAT IS THE TRIBAL PERSPECTIVE?

Here the tribe refers to “Panema” “It can be translated as bad luck, but it encompasses shades of meaning we could characterize with words such as depression, laziness, sadness, lack of motivation, fear, indecision, indiscipline and so on Amazonian natives consider it a negative condition that attracts trouble and illness They imagine it as a gray cloud covering our ” energy field”. When a male member of the tribe fails in a task, when his blowpipe does not hit the target, or when he is listless, demotivated and behaves in an unsociable way, members of the Amazonian tribes consider him to be affected by Panema in these situations, Kambô is applied ²

7.CaitlinThompson,TuriyoStojanov,30.04.2022,“Interviewaboutherlatestresearchpaper2022,Kambo,its applicationandthePeptides”

8.Aixalà,Marc,RafaelG.dosSantos,JaimeE.C.Hallak,andJoséCarlosBouso.2018.“Psychedelicsand Personality.”ACSChemicalNeuroscience9.

10.Rucker,JamesJ,andPallabSeth.2021.“Psychedelics:OldDrugs,NewTrips.”JournalofPsychopharmacology35

9.Zalar,Bojan,AlexanderHaslberger,andBorutPeterlin.2018.“THEROLEofMICROBIOTAinDEPRESSION -aBRIEFREVIEW.”PsychiatriaDanubina30.

As it is cited “Panema” points to one piece of the interconnectedness of the indigenous people live by Changing the perspective - observing “Panema” one can connect statements like the following: “In recent years, there have been an increasing number of studies showing that patients with Major Depressive Disorder have an altered gut microbiome composition when compared with healthy controls, although the nature of the alterations in each study are diverse. This variation in outcomes is likely due to similar reasons as those noted for irritable bowel syndrome. It is worth noting that studies have also shown that transferring the microbiome of a depressed individual into a healthy rodent can induce depressive-like behaviors in the murine recipient, suggesting the possibility of a causal role for the microbiota in pathophysiology of depression and opening up the concept of targeting the microbiome for mental health benefit In another paper,⁶ the conclusion reads as follows: “[ ] insights into how gut microbiota shape patho-epigenetics of the gut-brain enteric[related] microbiota axis in both healthy volunteers and a clinical population The review comprises inflammatory and neuroactive pathways involved in depression and thus has a bearing on several other psychiatric disorders characterized by inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes ”⁹ Now here we can see how the tribe already figured something out where science starts to begin how connected the mind/body complex is Science starts to understand that things like the microbiome do have a strong effect on us. If it is taken care of and in good shape – it is arguably similar to what the tribe refers to when Kambô is applied and the “Panema” is lifted. Still noting that by saying this I highlight just one aspect of the portfolio of this treatment While this citation refers to more severe forms of depression - having a treatment such as Kambô in order to alleviate disbalances in the human physiology will inevitably alter the psychosomatic experience for the better. “Finally, 87,31% participants stated that Kambô had improved their current sense of personal wellbeing or life satisfaction.” [...] The vast majority of users claimed beneficial effects including changes in consumption patterns towards a more healthoriented behavior, whereas long-lasting negative effects leading to help-seeking behavior were reported only by few.”¹

It is important to note that “Kambô affects mainly the circulatory system, in which case its application wouldn’t be recommended specially for persons with a clinical history of high blood pressure or heart disease as being the main concern before application ⁸ Besides Caitlin Thompson mentioned that the electrolyte levels should be sufficiently saturated as being the most important indicator for complications Giovanni Lattanzi stated:

“Westerners use and sometimes abuse chemical medication. Liatrogenic diseases are or were unknown to tribes who didn't take chemical medications. Some diseases are typical of westerners. Hypertension for instance, weak heart conditions and addictions are also quite common in western countries. I had to acknowledge a big difference between the traditional way of application and what I have been developing. The idea for instance that kambo is good for everybody. Experience showed that in the west this is not true. There are contraindications, which are important to know. I bow and respect kambo tribes traditions. Still the traditional application I find it's not always safe if not even risky if applied without some scientific knowledge. I give you an example: Hyponatremia has caused many incidents That's excessive water intake and lack of electrolytes.”

Having stated so - always be in the Hands of a professional practitioner.

11.Schmidt,TimoTorsten,SimonReiche,CarolineL.C.Hage,FelixBermpohl,andTomislavMajić.2020. “AcuteandSubacutePsychoactiveEffectsofKambô,theSecretionoftheAmazonianGiantMakiFrog (PhyllomedusaBicolor):RetrospectiveReports.”

12.GiovanniLattanzi,TuriyoStojanov,30.06.2022,“FacebookChatexchangeabouthisBookKamboIboga Ayahuasca”

13.Nogueira,ThaisA.,IgorLuisKaefer,MarcoA.Sartim,ManuelaB.Pucca,JacquelineSachett,AndréL.Barros, MoysésB.Júnior,etal.“TheAmazonianKambôFrogPhyllomedusaBicolor(Amphibia:Phyllomedusidae):Current KnowledgeonBiology,Phylogeography,Toxinology,EthnopharmacologyandMedicalAspects.”Frontiersin Pharmacology13(2022).

SUMMARY

The aim of this exploration was not only to expose the reader to a potential treatment but to show how intelligent nature already provides a holistic understanding if we are open to it. The fact that an indigenous tribe has the capacity to find a cure such as Kambô is remarkable Through findings like this, modern culture can start to remember these ways of living with nature. The vast array of processes that are triggered due to Kambô opens very potential gateways in the body that serve like a strong reset of the whole organism The way these peptides work together is special While the body runs into a form of extreme stress it simultaneously stimulates the release of morphine-like hormones making the experience less painful It pushes the body to contract a great array of cells and organs, so the release of toxins and sickness related cells are pushed out of the body, it recharges and rejuvenates the process in order to create a balance. and even uplifts the persons to a degree that is supportive and wanted for hunting Yet this points towards the body itself doing the work Kambô is triggering these processes which are inherently present in the body. It is as if the body has a button, and this frog secretion is able to push it. Kambô is a possibility where the body is being invited to come back into a state of homeostasis - a true balance of the organism Other possible treatments like fasting, herbal therapeutics, psychedelic experiences, and meditation and many more have the same aim Specific applications like the mentioned leukemia and the Lyme disease are important and provide a very positive outlook The understanding and the results of the Kambô experience today is way more in the hands of those who offer it. Science is slowly finding its way into it - with the example Caitlin Thompson and Giovanni Lttanzi who work with this substance Their clinical observations and understandings surpass the findings that can be described - therefore their endeavor to go deeper into the objective research is of utmost importance in order to offer understanding These active peptides and their portfolios are unique to find all of them in one species

THE OPEN INQUIRY

Human beings have a vast complexity Everything is interconnected One process is supporting another. How can we come to an understanding of what health actually means? How can we make it tangible? These tribes have been forced to research for themselves - we have always been researching - like these peptides that create a cascading effect - living with nature is a cascading effect. Being scientific is natural - as long as it is not based in a reductionist view.. If we choose to open our eyes in this way - every activity that the body is expressing – guide us to find the next best discovery on the research of existing as a human being. As cited in the work of the microbiota - having a confused microbiome leads to a variety of experiences - depression is just one of them But what would happen if this confused microbiome, and the depression just try to make us understand to take better care? To dig deeper and research what it tries to convey to us? By working with this understanding, it will lead to the alleviation of suffering –where the signal begins, body, mind or spirit is not so important – important is, are you willing to follow the thread to discovery? Making it a practice to take care of “Penema” in our lives supports in living a great and satisfactory life That is what Kambô offers That is what these tribes understand Nature remembering the forgotten

THE NOCEBO & DIAGNOSIS EFFECT

BY LUCAS BOCK

In this paper, we will be looking into the phenomena of the Nocebo Effect, including the scope, observed causality, physical and psychological correlations as well as underlying mechanisms. The literature review was sparked by a personal experience of the author, leading to the question, how Nocebo might play a role in the reception of diagnosis and recovery success rate. Concluded by exploring possible approaches of mitigating its effects in diagnostics and treatment.

INQUIRY

Can belief make you physically sick? How bad can it get?

What are the significant factors playing into nocebo? Does nocebo play a role in the patient’s reception of a diagnosis of chronic, genetic, and “incurable” diseases?

What might be helpful in countering nocebo? Might experience of agency be an answer for dealing with nocebo?

WEB SEARCH & DIAGNOSIS

It was a humid, enjoyable Sunday afternoon in South India, and I walked in the house with a smile on my face after a beautiful day I basked in the afterglow of lovely shared human encounters, engaged, alive and active, surrounded by nature, now soaking in the red-golden tinge of the setting sun Arriving into the evening calmness, I decided to get down to exploring research for this paper The search led me from the vagus nerve and anxiety, breath and the parasympathetic nervous system to look into certain symptoms I had experienced in my life - something close to home. Wanting to understand the root causes of these symptoms, I came across a genetic disease It was one that my sister had mentioned years ago, which back then I had dismissed. Now upon closer inspection, the case looked very different, and I quickly came to recognize several familiar patterns.

From one moment to the next, it was a complete turnaround. From afterglow to holding my breath, intensifying tension around my eyes and jaw, and a mixture of hot and cold flushes I had identified with the diagnosis of a genetic disorder, and the picture it painted was rather bleak High danger of heart complications, loss of sight, pain and limited mobility of joints, a life expectancy between 30 to 40 years I felt abominably sick, exhausted, depressive and anxious upon the possibility of sudden heart failure and incapacitation for life. The medical websites did offer treatment options - treatments of symptoms, not cures - beta blockers preventatively, heart and eye surgery in the case of deterioration.

I read that beta blockers come in a variety of types, so the effects may vary Generally, they slow down the heart rate and reduce blood pressure by blocking the hormone adrenaline (epinephrine) from docking to the heart muscle receptors It said side effects include: fatigue, dizziness, hypotension, poor circulation, gastrointestinal problems, sexual dysfunction and weight gain - amongst a few rarer and more ‘unpleasant’ ones

1.Kennedy,WalterP."Thenoceboreaction."Medicalworld95(1961).

2.Rief,Winfried,YvonneNestoriuc,etal."DifferencesinadverseeffectreportinginplacebogroupsinSSRIandtricyclicantidepressant trials."DrugSafety32,no.11(2009).

The attempt is to calm the heart and peg it to a low rate, side effects resulting from the slowed heart, unable to adapt to changing demands of life However, the beta blockers promise to keep the risk of rupture under control For this condition, that’s the recommendation - for life In my inner eye it evoked a bloodless heart patient, slowed and fatigued, dismissed, arthritic and myopic I had identified myself with this patient; identified myself with this diagnosis - an online self-diagnosis notably, but a convincing one at that

From a Sunday of aliveness, within moments of reading the description and contemplating the chance, my physical state had deteriorated immensely Sweat running down my back, constricted breath, tension in shoulders and neck, forward leaning posture, a rigid face, narrowed vision and a knot in my belly Splashing some water in my face, I saw reflections of anxious eyes, a tense jaw line and a general bleakness masking my visage. My joints already felt stiffer, and I anxiously sensed my heart

“Are you ok, dear heart?”

I saw my mind imaging bleak futures, a short and meaningless life, incapacitated, weak, a painful and dependent existence. I felt constriction in my chest, heart and lungs; my vision began to cloud and my lower joints grew rigid. This is the worst case state, if indeed my heart were inflicted by this condition I felt hopeless, depressed, cast under a shadow of myself - a wreak of my nervous system. I felt a sense of being cast away, an otherness, marked by weakness, I felt doomed I had it! I have this disease! This identification led to quivering nerves, a scattered heart beat, a breath so tight The mind in despair screaming behind closed lips, fishing for anything or anyone really:

“I absolutely need to get beta blockers!” “Help! Help! Help!” “What can I do?!” “Tell me what I can do!” “Please!”

But it is genetic Incurable.

Only manageable.

A deep hopelessness followed me into the night Gone the happy, healthy, alive self, I had been minutes before All from a WebMD wormhole

THE NOCEBO EFFECT

What had happened in this episode clearly had its roots in the mind, as physically, the author had not been exposed to anything that would have created these symptoms. This is an explicit account of the nocebo effect

3.Juergens,MeikeC.,BettinaSeekatz,RainerG.Moosdorf,KeithJ.Petrie,andWinfriedRief."Illnessbeliefsbeforecardiacsurgerypredict disability,qualityoflife,anddepression3monthslater."Journalofpsychosomaticresearch68,no.6(2010).

4.Enck,Paul,UlrikeBingel,ManfredSchedlowski,andWinfriedRief."Theplaceboresponseinmedicine:minimize,maximizeor personalize?."NaturereviewsDrugdiscovery12,no.3(2013).

WHAT IS THE NOCEBO EFFECT?

The term was first coined by Walter P. Kennedy in 1961, from his observation of adverse effects of placebos in clinical trials The word originates in the Latin nocēbō for “I shall harm,” and it is also known as the “negative placebo effect ” Basically, something harmless does harm to a person, because (s)he believes it will.

The effect causes adverse physical reactions due to a belief, expectation, or anticipation of negative effects and consequences without actual physical causation It is usually observed in the context of pharmaceutical treatments Induced phenomena encompass the negation of the treatment's effectiveness and the induction of harmful symptoms, à la side effects Some surgeons go so far as taking a patient's faith in the outcome of treatment into account and not operating on those who have a fatalistic outlook on the effectiveness of the surgery

NOCEBO CASES FAR AND WIDE

There are many cases showcasing extreme physical symptoms induced by belief Patients regularly drop out of clinical trials due to complications - both from the actual as well as the control group, treated with placebo Legally, participants have to be informed about possible side effects of a treatment, which easily allows for an unintentional nocebo effect.

Take the example of a clinical trial patient for novel antidepressants, who in a bout of desperation, swallows all 29 pills Regretting his decision, he rushes for help. In the hospital, he exhibits severe symptoms of overdose and stress on the systemheartbeat, breathing rate out of control, excessive sweating and nausea. The medical staff struggle to stabilize his heart rate over several hours Finally a doctor overseeing the clinical trial arrives, and the patient normalizes, his symptoms vanish within minutes All due to the clarification that he ‘overdosed’ on sugar pills He was in the control group. (To any of you thinking the ‘symptoms’ may have been from sugar overdose, the actual quantity of sugar in 29 pills would have been less than the sugar in one soft drink.)

This sugar pill case could easily be dismissed merely as extreme signs of fear rather than production of symptoms of overdose Consider, however, amongst the many examples, the famous case of ‘Sam Shoeman’ (name changed) Sam Shoeman was diagnosed with widespread metastatic carcinoma after a surgery on his esophagus. His prognosis was a life-expectancy of three months: “lucky if he lived to celebrate Christmas with his family ”

6.Meador,CliftonK."Hexdeath:voodoomagicorpersuasion?."SouthernMedicalJournal85,no.3(1992).

Nearly on the dot, Sam Shoeman indeed did die on January 2nd He was dead within 24 hours after being admitted to the hospital In the autopsy afterwards, absolutely no body-wide metastasis was anywhere to be found He merely had a tiny tumor in his liver, a nodule of just 2 cm, which could not have been the source of his death. In an interview one of his doctors later remarked,

We have seen that belief can induce physical symptoms, and it can even kill. Furthermore, the nocebo effect is not only individual, but it is also collective and transmittable Social contagion by word or image - leading to mass phenomena of psychogenic (psychosomatic) symptoms

There are many examples of mysterious symptoms spreading through communities: Deaths and illnesses predominate in traditional cultures due to Hex and Voodoo curses, where people often die within 24 hours of knowing to have overstepped a taboo There is also a record of widespread belief and connected stigma in Chinese migrants that all forms of cancer are infectious

It is not limited to ancient traditions and superstitions but is very much existent in modern times From induced symptoms related to wind turbines, electrosensitivity to phone signals, and electro-radiation from high voltage lines, to manifestation of effects in concussions, after having heard of their possibility. Symptoms spread and intensify after increased media coverage, especially if negatively angled

Amongst the many group-think phenomena, let us consider a case from the 90s One school teacher developed symptoms of headache, dizziness, shortness of breath and nausea, after having noticed a gas-like smell The school was evacuated, and nearly 100 students and faculty declared for medical attention Though, in the end, no trace of toxicity in the air was found.

PHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS AND CAUSALITY

The induction of nocebo is multi-causal Spanning from the personality of the patient, prior negative exposure (and thus conditioned behaviors), the personality of the medical staff, and their relationship to the patient, the environment and atmosphere, as well as the presentation and delivery of the pill or treatment All of these can play a role in the outcome; even the colour and shape of a pill produces varying effects

“He didn’t die of cancer, but from believing he was dying of cancer.”

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However, beyond the aforementioned observable psychological components, are there chemical or neuronal mechanisms underlying the nocebo effect?

Neurobiologically, the involvement of cholecystokinin, endogenous opioids and dopamine is noted. At least in the case of verbally-induced nocebo hyperalgesia (intense experience of pain, without physical cause), neuroendocrine and biochemical correlations have been observed:

Hyperactivity in the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis is assessed through stress hormone levels in the blood When treated with anti-anxiety medication, the nocebo-induced pain vanishes This thus indicates a link between nocebo and anxiety Other endocrine involvement was shown with mixed cholecystokinin (CKK), the blocking of which had no effect on anxiety levels but did on the perceived experience of pain Endogenous opioid and dopaminergic responses could be linked to placebo and nocebo in pain perception. Activation of these neurotransmitters due to anticipation in placebo - and a shutdown of these systems in the case of nocebo

There are observable physiological components (especially biochemical) at play in these phenomena Much more research is needed, however, to establish the chain of causality, from physical to psychological or vice versa Thus far, psychological components are dominantly indicated in inducing the physiological responses “It’s in your head ”

NOCEBO-PRONE?

We clearly observe the complexity of the issue. Perhaps we can gain more clarity through asking what exactly makes someone prone to the nocebo effect? Let us first consider its prevalence in syndromes The mind is able to conjure up physical symptoms, even to the degree of death However, the key areas in which placebo/nocebo are most prevalent are: pain perception, anxiety, depression, motor functions, the endocrine and immune systems. Pharmaceutical trials have shown placebo and nocebo causing the following side effects: headaches and migraines, concussions, diabetes and fibromyalgia, asthma, cardiovascular complications, ulcers, arthritis, allergies, autoimmune responses, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, etc.

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THE DIAGNOSIS EFFECT?

As we could see, the nocebo effect is not limited to side-effects of drugs, but it is able to produce a vast variety of symptoms In the case of the author’s introductory tale, a diagnosis led to physiologicallyobservable phenomena This has been termed: ‘the diagnosis effect ’ As we have seen in numerous cases, the proposition does not seem far fetched. If the mind can induce side effects of extreme nature in the body (just by being told of the possibility), equally, a fatal, chronic, genetic or incurable diagnosis might lead not only to symptoms of fear and pain but also to inducing nocebo

In this context, it is noteworthy, that in the Framingham Heart Study, it was found that, “(w)omen subjectively believing to be likely to have heart attacks actually had a 3 7 times higher probability of dying because of coronary disease than women not considering themselves prone to cardiovascular pathology” This study only looked at women

Mental health diagnosis, for example addiction or recurring episodic depression, may lock people into images of being a ‘sick person ’ , remaining a patient and impeding recovery The self-image is then upheld by the person him/herself as well as the environment. The topic of mental health goes beyond the scope of this paper, but is mentioned here, as it indicates a similar trend: be cautious with offering negative images to susceptible minds, particularly from a leveraged position of authority This was formerly theorised about in the time of witches, priests and shamans, but it is now topical to the white clad authority of the physician

It may be argued that “ignorance is bliss,” but clearly ignorance does not protect from consequences There are many positive benefits of knowing one ’ s problem, and this is not to suggest scrapping diagnosis at large It rather struck the author as a reminder to take into account these phenomena, which are evidently prevalent Perhaps the middle path would be to develop sensitivity to these phenomena. Find a balance between acknowledging the symptoms while not fixing or limiting patients (and oneself) to the ‘chronic’ nature of a disorder Nocaebo must be taken into account especially when delivering diagnosis to anxiety-ridden, noceboprone (or hypochondriac) types.

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15.Witthöft,Michael,andG.JamesRubin."Aremediawarningsabouttheadversehealtheffectsofmodernlifeself-fulfilling?Anexperimental studyonidiopathicenvironmentalintoleranceattributedtoelectromagneticfields(IEI-EMF)."Journalofpsychosomaticresearch74,no.3(2013).

A positive attitude does seem helpful in evoking placebo, but does it mitigate nocebo? For someone with engrained pessimistic and negative thought patterns, it might be very difficult to muster control over the (vastly unconscious) mind, and make oneself truly believe in the positivity of the situation Perhaps agency is the crucial factor in dealing with nocebo. Agency, in this context, refers to the capacity for intentional living instead of habitual or unconscious living

Instead of a benevolent authority outside of us making something positive happen, it is the experienced capacity to act and to deal with the situations we face in life that releases fear

”Even though I might be afraid, I know I will be able to deal with it.”

Moving from:

“Life is happening to me” to

“I can direct my own life” to

“I can choose how I react to what happens to me.”

It boils down to basic trust. Trust in the world might not be sufficient, because terrible things do happen. Trust in others might fail, because people are fallible Then what about trust in oneself? This trust might be the antidote to angst It is not the fear that protects us from touching the hot stove but the angst that makes us sick. Sick - due to ‘nothing’ but figments of the imagination. Trust in oneself and your own ability to respond is helpful and empowering But is it enough? Because situations in life can incapacitate and overwhelm Perhaps another trust is needed?

The Trust that

16.Jones,TimothyF.,AllenS.Craig,DebbieHoy,ElaineW.Gunter,DavidL.Ashley,DanaB.Barr,JohnW.Brock,andWilliam

NewEnglandJournalofMedicine342,no.2(2000).

17.DeCraen,AntonJM,PieterJ.Roos,A.LeonardDeVries,andJosKleijnen."Effectofcolourofdrugs:systematicreviewofperceived effectofdrugsandoftheireffectiveness."Bmj313,no.7072(1996).

18.Faasse,Kate,TimCundy,andKeithJ.Petrie."Thyroxine:anatomyofahealthscare."Bmj339(2009).

19.Benedetti,Fabrizio,MartinaAmanzio,CaterinaCasadio,AlbertoOliaro,andGiulianoMaggi."Blockadeofnocebohyperalgesiabythe cholecystokininantagonistproglumide."Pain71,no.2(1997).

20.Planès,Sara,CélineVillier,andMichelMallaret."Thenoceboeffectofdrugs."Pharmacologyresearch&perspectives4,no.2(2016).

21.Benedetti,Fabrizio,MartinaAmanzio,SergioVighetti,andGiovanniAsteggiano."Thebiochemicalandneuroendocrinebasesofthe hyperalgesicnoceboeffect."JournalofNeuroscience26,no.46(2006).

22.Scott,DavidJ.,ChristianS.Stohler,etal."Placeboandnoceboeffectsaredefinedbyoppositeopioidanddopaminergicresponses."Archivesof generalpsychiatry65,no.2(2008).

23.Polich,Ginger,MaryA.Iaccarino,TedJ.Kaptchuk,LeonMorales-Quezada,andRossZafonte."Noceboeffectsinconcussion:isallthatistold beneficial?."AmericanJournalofPhysicalMedicine&Rehabilitation99,no.1(2020).

“Whatever happens, happens for a reason - and in hindsight you’ll see the benefit - however unpleasant, unsettling, dangerous or painful it may be in the moment.”

Schaffner."Masspsychogenicillnessattributedtotoxicexposureatahighschool."

CONCLUSION

These rudimentary explorations and projections of trends reveal a compelling case of how allopathy’s approach to dis-ease in the human body may do more harm than good. However, more research is needed to uncover what changes might be helpful for allopathic diagnostics and communicating a diagnosis. This is especially important in the context of fatal, chronic and genetic diagnoses. What might happen if instead of blindly trusting and believing in “their” disease, people believed in their health? Because belief might just make it happenfounded in reality or not.

Believe in your health - not in your disease

Whatever this whole episode was about for me, it did have some positive side-effects. First, the contemplation of mortality and the possible disruption of “what I know to be” at any moment, has brought about increased focus on being present in the presence of right now Time might be short, so there is none to kill.

I am able to observe the image of a chronic or genetic disorder still whirling around my mind - cooking up and projecting possible futures, warning me that I must take care of my heart now

Prospective hell is indeed a good motivator. This leads to aspiration for a peaceful world and thus for a peaceful, calm and happy heart (because where else should come from?). This has been a guiding star throughout my life Whether my self-diagnosis is true or not, the possibility has been enough thus far. Instead of taking life-long medication, building a strong habit to balance myself ‘naturally’ (e.g. with my breath), is a continuous helpful nudge to stay on track toward calm

Another lesson learnt: caution is advised with self-diagnosis online As we could see: believing, self-identifying and the subsequent consequences materializing from that happen very, very quickly. Take care of what you believe. Because true or not - it might just end up killing you… or, it might bless you with a long, healthy and happy life

24.Häuser,Winfried,ClaasBartram,etal."Adverseeventsattributabletonoceboinrandomizedcontrolleddrugtrialsinfibromyalgia syndromeandpainfuldiabeticperipheralneuropathy:systematicreview."TheClinicaljournalofpain28,no.5(2012).

25.Isenberg,SusanA.,PaulM.Lehrer,andStuartM.Hochron."Theeffectsofsuggestionandemotionalarousalonpulmonaryfunctionin asthma:areviewandahypothesisregardingvagalmediation."Psychosomaticmedicine(1992).

26.Wechsler,MichaelE.,JohnM.Kelley,etal."Activealbuterolorplacebo,shamacupuncture,ornointerventioninasthma."NewEngland journalofmedicine365,no.2(2011).

27.Moerman,DanielE."Culturalvariationsintheplaceboeffect:ulcers,anxiety,andbloodpressure."Medicalanthropologyquarterly14, no.1(2000).

28.Fragoulis,GeorgeE.,GerasimosEvangelatos,etal."Nocebo-pronebehaviourinpatientswithautoimmunerheumaticdiseasesduringthe COVID-19pandemic."Mediterraneanjournalofrheumatology31,no.Suppl2(2020).

29.Price,DonaldD.,JasonCraggs,G.NicholasVerne,WilliamM.Perlstein,andMichaelE.Robinson."Placeboanalgesiaisaccompaniedbylarge reductionsinpain-relatedbrainactivityinirritablebowelsyndromepatients."Pain127,no.1-2(2007).

30.Benedetti,Fabrizio,MicheleLanotte,LuanaColloca,etal."Electrophysiologicalpropertiesofthalamic,subthalamicandnigralneuronsduring theanti‐parkinsonianplaceboresponse."TheJournalofphysiology587,no.15(2009).

31.TheDiagnosisEffect:ThePoweroftheMindChelseaRoff|TEDxStLouisWomen” YouTubevideo,18:00,“TEDxTalks”,November22,2017.

Essentially, all life depends upon the soil… There can be no life without soil and no soil without life; they have evolved together.

DR. CHARLES E KELLOGG

THE CERVIX AND THE VAGUS NERVE, A LOVE STORY.

BY ANNA-LOTTE KOPATZ

When it comes to sexuality there are many questions to ask. When it comes to women ’ s sexuality there might be even more questions to ask. When it comes to the cervix, most people don’t even know what to ask about.

If you want to meet the cervix, you have to go deep into the unknown, the dark unexplored territory. Get prepared.

Female sexual organs can be classified into two categories by location: the inner and outer organs. The more well known internal female sexual organs are the ovaries and uterus. The lesser-discussed internal organ is the cervix. Located between the vagina and the uterus, the cervix is a type of gatekeeper

In the following overview, we will look into why it is a common scientific, anatomical belief that there are no nerve endings in the cervix as well as survey recent research showing otherwise. What are we missing by ignoring the research pertaining to female physiology of the cervix? What does it mean for women ’ s sexuality, wellbeing and health? Could we reap significant benefits by exploring this threshold?

Most women first experience cervical sensations when visiting the gynecologist, during a papsmear In many parts of the world, this routine screening provides early detection of cellular abnormalities to prevent cervical cancer. Another time when the cervix comes into focus is pregnancy and birth The cervix is especially important, as it keeps the fetus in utero It works as a barrier so that no microorganisms from the vagina enter the uterus During the process of labor, the widening of the cervix allows the baby to travel from within the womb out into the world The function of the cervix during pregnancy and birth merits an entirely separate article. As to not digress, we will skip over the wonders of the cervix during the birthing process and herein focus upon the innervation of this hidden part of female anatomy.

This paper shines a light on and gives new ideas about the possibility that the cervix also may provide pleasure, as it is connected with the nervous system and plays a role in overall health and wellbeing of every woman

1.O’Conneletal,“Theanatomyofthedistalvagina:towardsunity”,JSexMed.5,no8(August2008).

2.Ginger,V.A.T.,Yang,C.C.,“FunctionalAnatomyoftheFemaleSexOrgans”In:Mulhall,J.,Incrocci,L.,Goldstein,I.,Rosen,R.(eds) CancerandSexualHealth.CurrentClinicalUrology.HumanaPress,2011.

3.LauroBucchietal,“Estimatingtheimpactofanorganizedscreeningprogrammeoncervicalcancerincidence:A26-yearstudyfrom northernItaly”,InternationalJournalofCancer144,no5(March2019).

4.JamesP.Nottetal.2016.“Thestructureandfunctionofthecervixduringpregnancy”.TranslationalResearchinAnatomy2(March2016).

5.AlfredC.Kinseyetal.SexualBehaviorintheHumanFemale.Indiana:IndianaUniversityPress,1953.

6.BarryR.KomisarukandGiorgioSansone,“Neuralpathwaysmediatingvaginalfunction:Thevagusnervesandspinalcordoxytocin”. ScandinavianJournalofPsychology44,no3(July2003).

7.BarryR.Komisaruketal,“Brainactivationduringvaginocervicalself-stimulationandorgasmsinwomanwithcompletespinalcordinjury: fMRIevidenceofmediationbytheVagusnerves”,BrainResearch1024,no1-2(October2004).

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE CERVIX SO FAR

Let’s start with looking at where we are now in regards to the cervix as well as how we got here Based on the report of Dr. Alfred Kinsey in 1954, it is widely thought and acknowledged that the cervix is devoid of sensory nerves and “that the cervix is the most completely insensitive part of the female genital anatomy ” His statement is based on a misinterpretation of the findings, that when the cervix was “gently stroked” with a “glass, metal or cotton-tipped probe,” only five percent of 879 women reported they could feel it. He didn’t consider in his stated results that 84 percent of the same 879 women reported they could feel it with “distinct pressure ” using “ an object larger than a probe.”

Seven decades later, research now proves cervical sensitivity based upon cervical nerve endings. In 2003, Komisaruk and his team found that there is “ a novel pathway that can convey sensory activity from the cervix, adequate to induce orgasm, via the vagus nerve This pathway bypasses the spinal cord and projects directly to the medulla oblongata ” The vagus nerve (cranial nerve 10) connects the brain to major organs of the body The vagus nerve by-passes the spine, which is different to the other brain-nerves

A year later, researchers investigated brain activation during vaginocervical self-stimulation in women who had previously endured spinal cord injury. Without stimulation of the clitoris or any other sexual organ, it was concluded that women can orgasm through vaginal-cervical self-stimulation (CSS). What does this mean? The cervix is proven to be orgasmic! The fact that women with severe spinal cord injuries could feel pleasure from the CSS indicates that it is indeed the vagus nerve connecting the cervix and the brain Additionally herein, besides many other interesting findings, we have evidence that the cervix does indeed have nerve endings

The nerve endings in the cervix are connected to an important part of the nervous system, which greatly impacts our health and well-being (what we ’ re going to look at later).

This perspective hasn’t yet been considered in medical procedures nor in the female approach to sexuality and sexual pleasure for women Those areas are still influenced by the assumption that the cervix is devoid of any sensory nerves and insensitive. You will not find anatomical diagrams of the vagus (the “vagrant” wandering nerve) finding its way down to the cervix Medical procedures don’t take it into consideration or know about side effects that occur by the damage on the vagus nerve through those. In a cone biopsy, a common procedure to diagnose and treat cervical cancer “the doctor removes a coneshaped piece of tissue from the cervix.” This method diagnoses pre-cancers and cancers This is done in different ways, either using a surgical blade (cold knife cone biopsy), a laser beam or using a thin wire heated by electricity (LEEP/LLETZ procedure) In later cancer states, there might be a removal of the whole cervix or uterus (simple or radical hysterectomy). Side effects, like anxiety and worry after colposcopy or LLETZ, are not currently correlated to possible nerve damage in the cervix.

What happens if we damage the cervix nerve tissue, knowing about the connection to the vagus nerve? What might be possible if we care for the sensitivity of the cervix and utilize its connection to the nervous system? The stimulation of the vagus nerve for treating disease is already something the medical world is curious about, as cited below.

8.TheAmericanCancerSocietymedicalandeditorialcontentteam,“CervicalCancerSurgery|HowtoRemoveCervicalCancer''.cancer. January3,2020.

9.SusannaKolaandJaneC.Walsh,“Patients’psychologicalreactionstocolposcopyandLLETZtreatmentforcervicalintraepithelial neoplasia”EuropeanJournalofObstetrics&GynecologyandReproductiveBiology146,no.1(September2009).

10.RichardCamaraandChristophJ.Griessenauer,“AnatomyoftheVagusNerve”NervesandNerveInjuries1,(2015).

11.Howland,RobertH.,“VagusNerveStimulation”,CurrBehavNeurosciRep1,no2(June2014).

12.SigridBreitetal,“VagusNerveasaModulatoroftheBrain-GutAxisinPsychiatricandInflammatoryDisorders”,FrontPsychiatry9 (2018).

13.ColemanOMartinetal,“Theeffectofvagusnervestimulationondecisionmaking”,NationalLibraryofMedicine40,no4-5(Sep-Dec 2004).

14.Howland,RobertH.,“VagusNerveStimulation”,CurrBehavNeurosciRep1,no2(June2014).

carries sensory information from the body to the brain through afferent nerves (80%). Signaling with afferent and efferent nerves is important for the communication and coordination between the brain and the function of many of our organs to maintain homeostasis in the body By doing all of that, it controls mood, immune response, mediates antiinflammatory processes, digestion and heart rate Hence, the vagus nerve could be a key to unlock many diseases, like psychiatric (for example depression or PTSD) and gastrointestinal disorders (like inflammatory bowel disease) Studies show that the vagus nerve also plays a role in decision making. With vagus nerve stimulation, people made “ more adventitious choices ” These findings suggest that “the vagus nerve is a conduit for afferent somatic signals that can influence decision-making ” It is not a grand leap to then say that how we treat the vagus nerve is important for our health and well-being.)

VAGUS NERVE STIMULATION

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) describes any technique that stimulates the vagus nerve (manual or electrical) This has become a treatment for some of the dysfunctions mentioned above. The most common is electrical stimulation, when a pulse generator device is surgically implanted into the chest region on either side of the body. For that, as mentioned, you need surgery, and without changing any of the conditions that lead to the disorder, it is not a root-cause, holistic approach.

16.JessicaMigala,“HowtostimulatetheVagusNerve:8ExercisestoTryforCalm”,parsleyhealth.com,June2021.

17.RoderikJ.S.GerritsenandGuidoP.H.Band,“BreathofLife:TheRespiratoryVagalStimulationModelofContemplativeActivity”, FrontiersinHumanNeuroscience(October2018).

the body The experience of stress and anxiety after those procedures might be a result of the stress that is put upon the vagus nerve A systematic review on psychological outcomes by O’Connor et al finds that “procedures for abnormal cervical cytology can cause adverse psychological outcomes among women, acknowledging that little is known about predictors of the outcomes.” More research needs to be done on the effects and consequences of these procedures, after symptoms and reports from women are documented and seen as a side effect and in correlation with the procedure

18.SusannaKolaandJaneC.Walsh,“Patients’psychologicalreactionstocolposcopyandLLETZtreatmentforcervicalintraepithelialneoplasia” EuropeanJournalofObstetrics&GynecologyandReproductiveBiology146,no.1(September2009).

19.M.O’Connoretal,“Adversepsychologicaloutcomesfollowingcolposcopyandrelatedprocedures:asystematicreview”,BJOG123,no.1 (January2016).

15.ClevelandClinic,“5WaysToStimulateYourVagusNerve”,Clevelandclinic.March2022..

VAGUS NERVE STIMULATION & THE CERVIX

There are influencers who made their own embodied research about pleasure and sensations on the cervix and have shared it with others. One of them is Olivia Bryant with Self:Cervix On her own healing journey, she realized that her cervix was numb, knowing as a sexological bodyworker about the powerful place of pleasure that it could be. Curious, she began to work with herself, and after months of determination, she began to feel her cervix again and her “orgasmic capacity shifted tremendously.” Online she met many women who faced the same: numbness or pain on their cervix, often as a result of medical procedures like LEETZ. She reports that they felt helpless, because no one could explain or help them with the stress, anxiety, loss of libido or other symptoms that they experienced.

She created online programs in which women could explore in a community their sexuality and cervixes. A study analyzed the impact from practices offered, like: “education about genital anatomy, self-massage to release pain and numbness in the genital area especially the cervix (called ‘dearmouring’), mindfulness techniques to increase pleasure, and learning about consent ” The results show that the women had increased sensitivity and orgasmic experiences and a heightened sense of empowerment and selfcompassion They also reported reduction in cervical pain and numbness.

It is time to update what many think about sexual practices and penetrative sex to make it more conducive to the anatomy of the female body - considering what we ’ ve learned about the cervix! Knowing about the vagus nerve and its effect on the parasympathetic nervous system, this could also be a way, like meditation, to increase health and wellbeing through improving the function of the nervous system It is important to spread this information for women to decide what they want to choose for their bodies in medical procedures, considering side effects and giving support for those arising

In true TIFA spirit, let us allow our bodies to be living laboratories! Many know meditation, what if we also bring in new practices by connecting to our insides, to our cervixes? Massaging at the far end of the vaginal canal, holding a finger on the cervix in loving presence, bringing gentle movement to this area with our breath and changing our lifestyle to include this practice Perhaps we will see our lives changing from within. If you feel open, curious and cu=ourages (or even terrified) perhaps this could be a sign to try cervix awakening for yourself for a while to do your own research and see if you feel the changes in your nervous system What happens to our cervixes is important, either bringing bliss and joy or dis-ease and difficulty Active engagement and presence with this potent portal of the female body is at the tip of your fingers Explore!

20.OliviaBryant,“Self:CervixAbout”,self:cervix.2022.

21.KatharinaWeitkamp,MailinLauesandThomasSchnell,““PracticalSelf-Love”-AQualitativeInterviewStudyonWomenparticipatingin Self:Cervix:AnOnlineSexualMindfulnessandSensitivityCourse”,SexualandRelationshipTherapy(2019).

What am I *really* hungry for...? We are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for.

CAN FASTING ENHANCE SKIN SENSUALITY, PLEASURE AND THE WAY WE TOUCH THE WORLD AROUND US?

BY ALICE BEE CHEN

As long as our hearts are still beating, we experience life through our human senses. These senses connect us to the environment inside and outside of our bodies. Humans have five basic senses: sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. Each of these bodily sensations provide unique information about ourselves and the world around us.

THE SUMMER DAY

by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

1.Zouboulis,HumanSkin,9-26.

2.MontagnaandParakkal,StructureofSkin,4.

3.Fulkerson,TheFirstSense.

4.YuichiSakano,Humanbrainactivity.

5.NicolaLuigiBragazziet.al.,Fastinganditsimpacts,249. 6.NuriaMartinez-Lopezet.al.,System-wide856-857. 7.MohammadBagherniyaet.al.,Theeffectoffasting,183-197. 8.MehrdadAlirezaeiet.al.,Short-termfasting.

The skin is the body’s largest organ as well as the largest sense organ It is also the largest peripheral endocrine organ (aka: external hormone releaser) It covers our entire body, protects us against microbes, helps regulate body temperature, contributes to attraction, and it is where we get our sense of touch.

When eating, nutrients are absorbed to fuel the body and to create energy To get this energy, the digestive system breaks down food into smaller and smaller pieces for the body’s absorption. All parts and functions of our body need energy to function The body uses energy to breathe, to make heart beats, to regulate the nervous system and even to digest If it takes energy to digest, then what happens to the excess energy when the body is fasting?

In fasting periods, the body has extended time to rest and to heal. The energy not used during digestion may be distributed to other areas of our body for cell repair During these longer durations of abstinence, the body triggers autophagy.

WHAT IS AUTOPHAGY?

As the largest organ, the human skin plays an important role It is the body’s primary protector against the environment It keeps the body warm on a cold day and cool on a hot day. It is a way to identify one other, and studies have shown that the quality of facial skin impacts attractiveness Lastly, the sense of touch is used daily to interact with and explore the world What can be done to keep it healthy and full of vitality? Fasting studies have shown to stimulate the growth of new skin cells, to reduce inflammation and balance hormones New skin growth has also been linked to longevity as well as anti-aging components. Is it possible that fasting is the mythical fountain of youth?

For the purpose of this article, we will define fasting as an intentional and willful abstinence from eating fibrous food for an extended period of time It is a century-old practice and a method of ancient medicine used by Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine People all over the world and across many cultures have practiced fasting for both physical and mental health as well as a way to deepen their spiritual practices There are many types of fasting, and there is no one-size-fits-all method. Similar to all practices around holistic health and the teachings at The Institute For Aliveness, there are many unique factors that play into what health is and means for each individual Different fasting approaches work for different people and their individual level of current toxicity.

Autophagy is a metabolic process where the body recycles and cleans out damaged cells in order to create space to generate new healthier cells It is the body’s natural way to cleanse cells The word itself means “self eating” where “auto” means ”self” and “phagy” means “eating ” Autophagy is commonly activated when there is a lack of nutrients. This causes our body to prioritize which cells to give energy to and which ones to toss into the recycling bin Fasting is one of the best ways to stimulate autophagy.

Have you ever noticed what happens to a plant when you trim the deadheads (i.e. the damaged cells)? Once the damaged cells are removed, the plant then has space for new healthy growth The human body does the same and its cellular governance intuitively knows which cells to toss out

WHAT IS INFLAMMATION?

Inflammation is when the body responds to offending agents and/or toxins by sending inflammatory cells to trap and prevent possible spreading. They are the first responders of the immune system When this occurs, skin may experience reddening, rashes and swolleness By trapping the offending agent or toxin the body will begin the healing process Inflammation is an involuntary process evoked by the body to protect itself. Microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi exist on and inside much of the food that exists today. These create inflammation in the body when ingested When microorganisms enter the body, our immune system becomes activated in order to prevent them from spreading which kicks off inflammatory processes9

“It is through touch that we are able to interact directly with the world; it is our primary conduit of both pleasure and pain. Touch may be our most immediate and powerful sense—’the first sense’ because of the central role it plays in experience,” said Matthew Fulkerson in 2013 in his book titled The First Sense."

9.JaniceKiecolt-Glaser,Stress,Food,andInflammation,365-369. 10.StefanJordanetal.,DietaryIntakeRegulates,1102–1114. 11.SonneveldandSchifferstein,TheTactual,53.

12.NicolaLuigiBragazziet.al.,Fastinganditsimpacts,249.

13.EvaBianconiet.al.,Anestimation,463-471. 14.RLEckert,Structure,Function,andDifferentiation,1316-1349. 15.SonneveldandSchifferstein,TheTactual,53. 16.NicolaLuigiBragazziet.al.,Fastinganditsimpacts,249.

Fasting reduces the amount of dietary inflammation in the body. It also gives the body time and space to heal due to the digestion process being on pause The energy that was once being used to digest food then becomes available for healing. This reduces systemic inflammation, which includes epithelial inflammation

SKIN ANATOMY

As our body’s largest organ, the skin stretches approximately 1 5-2 square meters, is 0 5-4mm thick (depending on where on the body), is about 15-20 percent of our body weight and contains 2.03 ± 0.30 trillion skin cells That’s a lot of cells! The skin has three layers, the visible epithelial layer of the skin is called the epidermis. The prefix “epi-” means “ upon ” or “ over ” Therefore, the epidermis is the layer upon the dermis, which is the second layer of skin. Beneath that is the hypodermis. The prefix “hypo-” means “under,” and “dermis” means “skin”

There are two types of skin that cover the body. Areas such as the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are covered by glabrous (hairless) skin. The rest of the body is covered by hairy skin Different sensations of touch occur in these areas The glabrous skin is suited for active touch in exploring ways to bring the world closer to our bodies by grabbing and holding The hairy skin is for passive touch and is sensitive to light touch and vibration.

SKIN AGING AND EPITHELIALIZATION

Skin aging is complex with many factors to consider, like: decreased collagen, breakdown of elastin fibers, inflammation and a decrease in our hormone levels One way to think about skin aging is as a type of wounding where epithelial cells are no longer able to maintain homeostasis A relatively new study of aging over the past two decades introduced a new term: “Inflamm-aging,” first named by Franceschi et al. in

Epithelialization is a cellular and molecular process of covering the epithelial surface once it is striped. It is the replacement of damaged cells with new cells and is a method of the skin’s rejuvenation As we age, the rate of epithelization will slow down.

Additionally, with aging there is a decrease in hormones such as estrogen, testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and growth hormone The reduction of these hormones impact the skin for both men and women. For men it may lead to acne and oily skin For women, the skin may become thinner, drier and display more wrinkles. Research has shown aged skin to be less sensitive to touch and vibration

Fasting and autophagy studies have shown to enhance re-epithelialization as well as increase the rate of collagen production. Additionally, new studies on nutrition in inflammaging have shown the prevention of inflammation by regulating our metabolic pathways. Many of these results continue to display a correlation of fasting and anti-aging Perhaps the mystical fountain of youth isn’t a myth after all

SKIN RECEPTORS AND SKIN SENSITIVITY

All three layers of the skin (the epidermis, the dermis and the hypodermis) as well as both types of skin (the hairy and the non-hairy) have sensory receptors. There are three main types of sensations:

Touch, pressure and vibration sensations come from mechanoreceptors

16,17

Temperature sensations come from thermoreceptors

Pain sensations come from nociceptors

The skin is also composed of free nerve endings that are unencapsulated sensory neurons Free nerve endings are the most abundant nerve endings and are located between the epithelial layers of the skin near blood vessels Free nerve endings are sensitive to pain, temperature and to physical touch. But what about pleasure? How does the skin perceive pleasure?

There’s been minimal research on pleasure sensation, as it’s easier to measure pain However in 2013, research confirmed that mice enjoy the sensation produced by gentle and firm strokes. This indicates the possibility that there are specialized sensory receptors for pleasant sensations. The stroking neurons in mice are similar to those on neurons found in the human hairy skin This suggests that we might produce similar pleasant sensations as a response to stroking as well!

17.PhillipsandDemircryandSahu,Hormonaleffects,661-672. 18.FranceschiCetal.,Inflamm-aging,244–254. 19.ZhuangandLyga,InflammaginginSkin,153-161. 20.MirandaA.Farageet.al.,CharacteristicsoftheAgingSkin,5-10.

21.KarolinaStrnadovaet.al.,Skinaging:thedermalperspective,326-335. 22.DavidHoltet.al.,Effectofageonwoundhealing,293-298. 23.PhillipsandDemircryandSahu,Hormonaleffects,661-672. 24.AstridM.Horstmanet.al.,TheRoleofAndrogensandEstrogens,1140-1152.

Another study discovered hairy skin contains a system of slow-conducting unmyelinated sensors. When touched lightly by a brush these sensors produce a faint sensation of pleasant touch This finding also suggests that this system of sensors has a role in our behavioral and emotional responses to caress-like skin-to-skin contact between individuals

Many systems decline with age and so does the body’s sensory system One cause of this deterioration is a decrease in circulation to the nerve endings Amongst earlier mentions of fasting as anti-aging, studies have also shown a reduction of blood pressure and increased circulation as another benefit

There is so much in this sensory universe to explore. The sense of touch plays a large role in our human experience When the skin is touched, stroked, soothed or warmed, the body releases oxytocin (known as a “bonding hormone”). Oxytocin may also induce the release of other “well-being” hormones such as dopamine and serotonin.

Fasting, specifically Intermittent Fasting, has been gaining popularity over the last decade. Intermittent Fasting is a pattern that cycles through periods of fasting and eating According to the International Food Information Council, in a 2020 survey about 10% more Americans follow Intermittent Fasting; making it the most popular diet. Although some would say that Intermittent Fasting is actually a lifestyle Scientists have discovered it is not necessarily what you eat that is important In contrast, focusing on when you eat promotes longevity and healthy aging.

No research was found that directly showed a correlation between fasting and skin sensuality and pleasure. However, as mentioned throughout this article there are many compelling links indicating that fasting results in greater skin health From an increase in re-epithelialization to reduction in inflammation to balancing hormones. These age-reversing changes (resulting from an intentional and willful choice to abstain from eating) point to the possibility of enhanced skin sensations

Does this mean that we ’ ve found the mystical fountain of youth in fasting? Perhaps. But we don’t have all the data yet For now, only your body knows its unique truth But one must be on the quest to find said truth! It may be that the answer lies in Mary Oliver’s question “what is it you plan to do, with your one wild and precious life?” Perhaps there is more to fasting, health and vitality than we know We at TIFA aim to do much more research on this topic over the years to come.

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Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

THE PILL VS. IUD WHICH ONE

IS WORTH YOUR

HEALTH?

BY ANAIS CARPENTIER

When asked: “Are you on the pill?”

Most women in their twenties answer: “Yes.”

At first glance, the pill looks like a practical, all-around care-free package when it comes to contraception. Taking the pill daily isn't too different from taking a daily vitamin supplement: uncomplicated with a few desired side effects (clear skin, regulated and easy period, ability to skip periods for convenience, etc.)

THE HISTORY OF THE PILL & THE IUD

The First World War was winding down. As men are coming back to their girlfriends and wives, an air of celebration takes over town halls and basks in bedrooms. But what if war broke out again? Was it quiet yet the time to conceive uncontrollably?

Activist and nurse Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921. Their goal was to educate women in America about possible contraceptives in order to protect them from unwanted pregnancies and life-threatening abortions It was not enough for her just to change legal policy. She aimed to convince doctors and scientists of her idea to develop a reliable contraceptive for women

Sanger was not only an activist but also an organizer She threw international birth control conferences in Berlin, London and Zurich. She met Ernst Gräfenberg, MD from Berlin, who was doing research with an intrauterine ring Having tested 1,700 rings, he was finding great success. His failure rate was very low (3 1% with the silkworm ring and only 1 6% with the silver ring) Here are images of some of the first experimental birth control.

When he, with the help of Sanger, was able to flee from the Nazis to the USA, he worked for Sanger in her clinic In addition to his medical observations, which led to the development of today's spiral, Ernst Gräfenberg is also known for the description and publication of the “G-spot” in 1950, carrying his name.

In 1952, Harvard biologist Gregory Goodwin Pincus submitted a report to Planned Parenthood, with proof that an orally administered dose of 10 mg progesterone suppressed ovulation in 90% of rabbits tested. This greatly aroused the interest of Sanger. Funded by a wealthy widow, Professor Pincus, a physician named Dr. John Rock, and two chemists, they succeeded in synthesizing progesterone and estrogen They also discovered by chance that estrogen made taking the pill more tolerable. The cost of developing the pill was originally estimated at $125,000, but ended up costing around $2 million (which was a good sum in the mid 20th century!).

In 1957, after clinical testing on innocent women from Puerto Rico and Haiti, the product they developed, Enovid, was approved in the United States as a remedy for menstrual cramps In 1959, it was launched as the official contraceptive. In Germany, the pill was released in 1961 under the name “Anovlar,” available only for married women with children against menstrual cramps.

HOW DOES THE FEMALE CYCLE WORK?

Knowledge about fertility awareness (FA) among people of childbearing age is low to moderate. If it were about our children, we would want to know everything in detail. But why not when it's about our own bodies and the female cycle? What exactly happens during the female cycle, and how is our cycle influenced by the pill or the IUD spiral?

The female body is controlled month by month by an ensemble of hormones. It is also influenced by other factors, such as stress The cycle starts with the first day of menstrual bleeding until the onset of the next bleeding. The female cycle is divided into two halves - the follicular phase, in which the ovum forms, and the luteal phase, in which the uterus prepares for the possible implantation of the fertilized ovum In between is the middle of the cycle: the ovulation. An average cycle length is 28 days, but menstrual cycles can vary in length from

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PHASES OF THE FEMALE CYCLE

1st half of the cycle (1st - 14th day of the cycle): follicular phase → ovarian follicle maturation phase

Mid-cycle (~14th day of the cycle): ovulation → ovulation (fertile days)

2nd half of the cycle (15th - 28th day of the cycle)

Luteal phase → uterus prepared for pregnancy

Ovulation

An increase in estrogen stimulates the pituitary gland to release luteinizing hormone, which triggers ovulation. The mature egg cell (oocyte) is released, and it travels down the fallopian tube. After ovulation, the egg cell is capable of being fertilized for around 12-24 hours.

Luteal Phase (15 - 28 days)

Follicular Phase (Days 1 - 14)

This begins on the first day of menstruation, after the onset of menstrual bleeding It is known as the “first half” of the cycle. During the menstrual bleeding phase - lasting approximately five days - an unfertilized egg from the previous cycle phase is excreted together with the uterine lining (this is termed desquamation)

At the same time as menstruation, the hypothalamus releases the hormone GnRH (gonadotropinreleasing hormone) This serves as a signal for the pituitary gland to release follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH)

FSH causes the follicles in the ovaries, which contain the egg cell, to mature Usually only one follicle reaches full maturation. Though, sometimes more than one follicle can reach maturity, and this can lead to twins A mature follicle produces estrogen, which triggers the growth of the uterine lining (endometrial layer) This is known as the proliferation phase, which creates an ideal environment for a fertilized egg cell. Then “liquefaction” of cervical mucus in the uterus occurs to also create an ideal environment also for sperm This is when discharge is most liquid.

The end of ovulation marks the beginning of the second half of the cycle, which ends one day before the start of menstruation As soon as ovulation is triggered, the remains of the follicle form into what’s called the corpus luteum (“yellow body” from Latin) and produce its subsequent hormone, progesterone Progesterone prepares the uterine lining for implantation of the fertilized egg If the egg cell has not been fertilized on its way through the fallopian tube, the corpus luteum shrinks. The lining of the uterus that has built up in preparation is no longer needed and thus is shed. Hello menstruation! Back to the beginning of the cycle.

7.DhanalakshmiK.Thiyagarajan,HajiraBasit,andRebeccaJeanmonod,"Physiology,MenstrualCycle",in StatPearls(TreasureIsland(FL):StatPearlsPublishing,2022)

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HOW DOES HORMONAL BIRTH CONTROL AFFECT THE FEM The Pill

Definition:

The most well-known contraceptive method is the pill. This is an whereby the contraceptive is taken orally

Mode of Action:

The pill contains the hormones estrogen and progestin As a result, t longer releases the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), causin to release less (or hardly any) FSH and LH. As a result, ovulation is weeks of pills is followed by one week of no pills, which induces br induced by hormonal absence. In essence, your hormones becom you from an external source Whereas this cycle looks the same fro the entire cycle becomes artificial and the woman is disconnected f hormone production. Her body perceives that she is pregnant for t the “breakthrough” bleeding Hormonal contraception also causes t become impermeable to sperm by becoming liquid

The Different Types of Pill

A distinction is made between the mini pill, which only contain micro, a combination of estrogen and progestins.

The micropil can be further subdivided into:

Phase preparations: These are doses of hormones that remain entire female cycle. The pill pack contains 21 pills to be taken ora pills for the subsequent 7-day bleeding. Then you start taking it fr

Two and multi-phase preparations: these contain different am during the first intake phase than in the second intake phase Thi closely mimic the hormone fluctuations during a normal cycle, t are still external, synthesized, unnatural and do not encourage hormonal production

Pearl Index

The Pearl Index indicates how sure a method of contraceptio contraception will not occur) The basis of the index is the pregnancies occurring per 100 women using a contraceptive me Pearl Index, the more sure the contraceptive method The nam American John Hopkins biologist Raymond Pearl. The Pearl Inde the index of the micropil is 0.2 - 0.7.

Benefits of the combination pill:

Improvement in acne

Less menstrual cramps

Shorter, lighter periods, or fewer or no periods

Premenstrual syndrome relief

Lowers the risk of colorectal, endometrial, and ovarian cancers

Reduced symptoms of endometriosis can do this Reduce

Benefits of the mini pill:

Lowers the risk of endometrial cancer

Can be taken if you have a history of these health conditions a control that contains estrogen like blood clots, migraines, high blood pressure, or a high risk of heart disease)

9."CombinedHormonalBirthControl:Pill,Patch,andRing"

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12,.TorgnyKarlssonetal,“Time-DependentEffectsofOralContraceptiveUseonBreast,Ovarian,and EndometrialCancers,”CancerResearch81,No.4(15February2021)

Side Effects:

emotional lability (mood swings) depression/ depressive mood decrease and loss of libido (reduced or loss of sex drive)

migraine

nausea

breast pain

unscheduled uterine bleeding (bleeding between periods), genital tract bleeding (vaginal bleeding)

not further specified

venous and arterial thromboembolic events

Tumors

liver tumors

erythema nodosum (a skin condition characterized by tender red nodules)

women with hypertriglyceridemia (increased blood fats resulting in an increased risk of pancreatitis when using combined oral contraceptives)

high blood pressure

chloasma disturbed liver function

occurrence or worsening of conditions for which a link to combined oral contraceptives is not definite: jaundice and/or itching related to cholestasis (blocked bile flow); gallstone formation; a metabolic condition called porphyria; systemic lupus erythematosus (a chronic autoimmune disease); haemolytic uraemic syndrome (a blood clotting disease); a neurological condition called Sydenham's chorea; herpes gestationis (a type of skin condition that occurs during pregnancy); otosclerosis-related hearing loss in women with hereditary angioedema (characterized by sudden swelling of eg the lips, tongue, eyes, mouth, throat etc.) external estrogens may induce or worsen symptoms of angioedema changes in glucose tolerance or effect on peripheral insulin resistance

Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis

hypersensitivity (including symptoms such as rash, urticaria)

Unknown long term affects

IUDs

Definition:

An Intrauterine Device (IUD) is a small T-shaped, soft and flexible plastic device that is placed by a gynecologist inside your uterus There are two types of IUDs available: the copper IUD (non-hormonal) and the hormonal IUD

Mode of Action:

With a hormonal IUD, the hormone levonorgestrel is released. Levonorgestrel is a synthetically-produced progestin. It inhibits the maturation of the ovum and thickens the cervical mucus, making it much more difficult for sperm to reach the ovum. In addition, the implantation of a fertilized egg is made more difficult by thinning your uterine lining

Your periods will likely become shorter and lighter, because the progestin thins your uterine lining Bleeding may also decrease over time. Depending on the preparation, the hormonal IUD can be worn in the uterus continuously for three to five years The Pearl Index of the hormonal IUD is 0.1, meaning pregnancy while wearing it is highly unlikely

The copper IUD is a soft, flexible T-shaped plastic device wrapped with a thin layer of copper around the arms and stem. The copper IUD creates an inflammatory reaction in the uterus. It continuously releases copper ions into your cervix, which prevent sperm from ascending into the fallopian tube. And can stay for up to 10 years in your uterus By using the copper IUD, you will still ovulate and have menstrual bleeding. The Pearl Index of the copper IUD is 0.3 -0 8, comparable to the micropil

Benefits of Hormonal and Copper IUD:

long-term (for 3 to 10 years) reversible contraception

no estrogen

15."HowKyleena®IUDWorks",KyleenaUSPatient202011120

16.MaríaElenaOrtizandHoracioB.Croxatto,"Copper-TIntrauterineDeviceandLevonorgestrelIntrauterine System:BiologicalBasesofTheirMechanismofAction",Contraception75,No.6Suppl(June2007)

Side Effects of the Hormonal IUD:

Ectopic pregnancy and intrauterine pregnancy risks

Life‐threatening infection

Perforation expulsion

Pain, bleeding or dizziness during and after placement

Changes in bleeding

Cysts on the ovary

sepsis

Risks with intrauterine Pregnancy

pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)

inflammation or infection of the outer part of your vagina (vulvovaginitis)

abdomen or pelvic pain

headache or migraine

acne or greasy skin

painful periods

sore or painful breasts

mood changes

Side Effects Copper IUD:

Life-Threatening Infection:

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) or Endometritis

Embedment

Changes in Bleeding: heavier or longer periods with spotting in between

cramping

Contraception Alternatives

Method

1.Condom

2 Diaphragm

3 Natural family planning, cycle tracking, body temperature

4 Vaginal Gel

5.Non-hormonal diaphragm

6 Patch

17.Bayer(Pty)Ltd.(n.d.).KyleenaIUD.

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Pearl-Index: 2 - 12

1 - 20

6.9

19."Paragard®IUDSideEffects&SafetyInformation|OfficialSite”,Paragard®IUD(blog)

CONCLUSION

Putting in artificial hormones day after day into a woman ’ s body will not go unnoticed Unfortunately, only the life-threatening side effects make headlines. The rest is dismissed as “subjective sensitivities ” Only a few doctors take the complaints of women suffering from hormonal contraception seriously Very little longitudinal effects of birth control have been researched. Perhaps the hormonal manipulation could be related to the skyrocketing amount of breast and ovarian cancer seen in Baby Boomers and Generation X?

It is a very personal decision to choose the right type of birth control. It depends on many different factors However, young girls and women don’t know many other options than what their doctor (who may or may not get a kickback from the pharmaceutical company) advises. What may happen if women took their own hormones, fertility and health back into their own hands and searched for natural alternatives against menstrual cycle complaints and then listened to their bodies? Hormonal contraception like the pill should not be seen as the new "blue pill" - a panaceaand distributed without second thought by doctors What would happen if the root cause of the symptoms should be sought and treated?

Usually when you feel trapped in your symptoms or when you hear from a friend about hormonefree contraceptive alternatives, you are more willing to do things differently Perhaps, dear reader, you can share this article with a friend and even change their life.

BY SOPHIE VAN HEEK

We live in a world where trust and focus on health mainly lies with disease management or pharmaceutical drugs This field of western medicine is called Allopathy In this system, we can find pharmaceutical birth control solutions as easy as buying candy in a candy store. Hormonal birth control, also known as “the pill,” is quickly prescribed to prevent or avoid unwanted pregnancy It’s a form of oral contraceptive, a combination of estrogen and progesterone. These two female hormones react within the female body to block fertility by interfering with ovulation Effective when taken on a daily basis at the same time for a set number of weeks, “the pill” is many women ' s go-to

The pill is offered by a doctor as soon as a woman expresses that her menstrual cycle is painful, heavy or just all around bothersome It’s prescribed for many symptoms and conditions outside of pregnancy prevention, like symptoms of acne, irregular periods, migraines and amenorrhea (absence of menstruation) In 2021, the use of contraceptive methods among women reached 49 percent, yet varied greatly from one region of the world to another.

Most common side effects of the pill are breakthrough bleeding, nausea, headaches, abdominal cramping, breast tenderness, increased vaginal discharge and decreased libido. There is limited study on the potential long term effects You are the walking lab rat

CAN OUR BODY, FERTILITY AND PERIOD BE SUPPORTED BY THE USE OF HERBS FOR BIRTH CONTROL?

1.FrédéricMichas,Shareofwomenwhousecontraceptivemethodsintheworld2021,Aug5,202.

2.LoriSmith,Medicalnewstoday.Commonbirthcontrolsideeffects.September29,2020.

OUR PERIOD

A woman ' s period is not just a random monthly occurrence Your period provides insight into your hormones, nutritional status and your overall health The length of the menstrual cycle varies from woman to woman, but on average the cycle renews every 28 days (just like the moon) Regular cycles that are longer or shorter than this, from 21 to 40 days, are common Girls have their periods anywhere from age 10 upwards, but the average first menstruation is around 12 years old. Your discharge can tell you a lot. For example, brown discharge can be a sign of low progesterone levels and left over blood from your last period Having too high or low levels of estrogen can cause clots in your menstrual blood as well as short and scanty periods. A healthy blood color ranges from bright red to dark red or brown

Fertility is defined as “the natural capacity to conceive a child,” and it’s an increasingly huge subject these days There are a range of factors that can affect a woman ’ s fertility. Infertility may be caused by conditions like pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, premature ovarian failure, uterine fibroids as well as environmental factors

The hypothalamus controls the pituitary gland, which directly controls most other hormonal glands in the human body. Hormones control you everyday. They affect your libido, mood, skin, mental clarity, fertility, weight, sleep, periods and so much more Our endocrine system (including the ovaries, thyroid, adrenal glands, pituitary gland, thymus, pineal gland and the hypothalamus) directs your daily experience of being human.6

The hormones in “the pill” form of hormonal birth control chronically suppress your own hormone production, tricking your body into thinking it is pregnant all month. Thus, estrogen levels remain high throughout the whole month. As blood is feared in modern culture and thus there is a collective negative stigma around menstruation. Worldwide, this creates a lot of unnecessary psychological pressure on women and their period It’s something shameful that needs to be hidden. As soon as a woman is grumpy or responds agitated, it gets blamed on their period Many women even find their menstrual blood disgusting.

Could it be something powerful, healing, protective and sacred? Taking this “magical” pill gives you control in your monthly cycle and no more condom interruption in your foreplay but is it really healthy for your body?

MENSTRUATION FROM A LENS OF HOLISTIC HEALTH

Most of us grew up within the allopathic system, in which symptoms and diseases are treated using pharmaceuticals, radiation or surgery The root cause is rarely inquired about. A holistic approach understands the interconnectedness of the human mind, body and soul and zooms out to look at any disorder from a whole-being perspective.

A holistic view of fertility has been made much easier with technology. Nowadays it’s a lot easier to identify your fertile window with smartphone period calendar apps, ovulation tests, temperature readings and cervical secretion monitoring.

As technology has risen, so has a resurgence of herbal medicine. Herbal contraceptives have been used by indigenous people and were also discussed in ancient civilizations. The Egyptian literature “Ebers Papyrus” of 1500 B C mentions one of the oldest herbal contraceptives: made by mixing Acacia tips with honey in the form of suppository, inserted into the vagina

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hormones, the hypothalamus controls the pituitary gland, which directly or indirectly controls most other hormonal glands in the human body Thus, alterations in the chemical signaling from the hypothalamus may affect the pituitary gland, ovaries, thyroid and mammary gland, hence, resulting in hormonal abnormalities.

Hormonal imbalance has a lot to do with the digestive tract, and it may often be a sign of over toxicity The microbiota plays a major role in the reproductive endocrine system throughout a woman ’ s lifetime by interacting with estrogen, androgens, insulin and other hormones As the gut microbiota exerts various effects on the intestinal milieu which influences distant organs and pathways, it is considered to be a fully developed endocrine organ.

Hormonal imbalance around menstruation could likely be linked to generalized bacterial imbalance. The human microbiome affects every stage and level of female reproduction, from follicle and oocyte maturation in the ovary, fertilization and embryo migration, implantation to the whole pregnancy, even childbirth. Alterations in the microbiome, particularly in the gut, have specific impacts on the reproductive endocrine system Correcting abnormal microbiomes may lead to improved reproductive outcomes

g medicinal

This is due (flavonoids, aponins) that regnancy by ng abortion. avonoid and pt pregnancy e ever to be eutical pill he pill, herbal multitude of addressing a uctive system

The thyroids TSH, is a the anterior stimulus for hyroid gland significantly both T3 Thus, nettle bleeding, a symptom of hormonal imbalance. When hormones start to regulate, the excessive bleeding reduces Raspberry leaf (Rosaceae) tea supports healthy menstruation, tones the uterus, reduces inflammation and is said to decrease heavy blood flow and painful menstrual cramps.

According to………………, Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is one of the best liver cleansing herbs, and a healthy liver is vital for hormone balance. Excess estrogens get filtered out of the body through the liver

8.XinyuQi,ChuyuYun,YanliPang&JieQiao,Theimpactofthegutmicrobiotaonthereproductiveand metabolicendocrinesystem,2021Mar15.

9.SeyedAliKeshavarz,MohammadHassanEftekhari,Therelationshipbetweenironstatusandthyroid hormoneconcentrationiniron-deficientadolescentIraniangirls.

Oatstraw (Avena sativa) strengthens the nerves, calms the body, strengthens the blood, stabilizes moods, strengthens digestion, soothes the stomach, balances the endocrine system (hormone producing glands), supports the skeletal system (due to its abundance of bio-available calcium, magnesium, and silica), and it even calms the central nervous system Perhaps this could be a winner for balancing hormones?

Maca (Lepidium meyenii) has been used for centuries by the Peruvian people for fertility, hormonal balance, libido and endurance. It does not produce hormones but rather works as an adaptogenic herb This means that it adapts to each body’s circumstances and balances hormones, depending upon that person ’ s needs.

Turmeric, cardamom, coriander, cumin and dill are kitchen herbs positively indicated for improved digestion. They all help to promote a healthy microbiome, decrease inflammation in the gut and promote the breakdown and absorption of nutrients. Thus, the foods you eat can be able to deliver the micronutrients your body needs

Given everything we ’ ve seen thus far, it seems that herbal medicine is a viable option for a replacement for pharmaceutical hormonal birth control, without the negative and unknown side effects Could this perhaps be the future?

Disclaimer: The above is not medical advice Everything you ' ve read about herbal medicine is for informational purposes only When you decide to change your journey to the holistic way: talk to your doctor about breaking down and/or stopping your medication, go see a herbal specialist to get the right prescription. Most importantly: take good care of your beautiful body!

10.VitaeHealthylifestyle,NutritionHerbstobalanceyourhormones,17May2021.

11.RajendaMehtaandHarmeetKaurKala,MedicinalPlantsasasourceofalternativemedicineinbirthcontrol, March204.

What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now. BUDDHA

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WHAT WE ARE DESIGNED TO EAT: LEARNING FROM OUR CLOSEST LIVING RELATIVES

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CONSTIPATION & HOLY SHIT!

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EYES: THE WINDOW TO THE SOUL OR MUCH MORE?

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DIGGING DEEPER INTO THE GOLDMINE OF EARWAX

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BATHE YOUR SKIN IN H2O: HYDRATION AND THE SKIN PRE/POST SUN EXPOSURE

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KAMBÔ: A GLINT IN HIS EYE, HIS BACK SHINING GREEN

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TIFA arose out of moral imperative When Andi left her public-facing career in health, there was no one out there doing the full-spectrum work of awakening It’s not just about a healthy diet or the right mindset. The science of Applied Epigenetics and art of transformation are skills honed in through escalated self awareness. The Institute trains practitioners from around the world in an 18month interdisciplinary certification program. TIFA also sponsors one-week online fasting retreats with www.THEINITIATION.co. If you're already excelling on a personal level, you find a global collective to ground your continued self-development. This collective is a network many dream of. We truly understand the power of a container to do deep work and be held accountable in our becoming.

THE CURRICULUM

BODY

Month1:Lifestyle&Disease

Month2:EmbodiedAppliedEpigenetics

Month3:Plants&Nutrition

Month4:MedicinalSystems&Embodiment

Diagnostics

THE TIFA VISION

To birth the next generation of health revolutionaries and applied epigeneticists Empowering people to take their health back into their own hands We envision a world where humans thrive, not just survive No more sniffles nor cancer. People re-connect to their bodies, learn practices of right living, psychosomatics, agency and trauma healing

SPIRIT

Month 9: Interpersonal Dynamics

Month 10: Divination & The Mythopoetic

Month 11: The Life Cycle

Month 12: Quantum Entanglement

There is no other program as comprehensive nor effective out there The personal growth required for graduation is a baseline from which you will start to work with others With our global presence of hundreds of students in 50+ countries, we are rebirthing the collective Focused on deep embodiment, we make ideas and concepts to alive in every cell. It's not about studying; it's about becoming

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