To really pull back from consuming alcohol, you have to reduce the addiction to the sugar.  This allows the body to make the change necessary to withdraw from the attachment to the effects of alcohol.  It also helps to reduce the symptoms that are common with any change the body makes.  There are a couple of great ways to beat the sugar demon, making the commitment to abstention a lot easier.  Gymnema is an indian herb that helps to cut the craving for sugar, while restoring normal pancreatic function.  Then a solid 30 days of the FAR Infrared Sauna can do the rest.  This clinically-tested technology not only helps to metabolize the body’s overabundance of sugars, it also sterilizes the body from the bacterial colonies that have been feeding on the sugars, boosting immunity and reducing your chance of illness.  This is what prompted our establishing the 30 day Sauna Club – one price for unlimited sauna sessions.

You don’t have to carry the creature around on your back.  By simply dumping the sugars, you can dump the creature’s hold on your insides.

That’s especially true of your health.  Commitmentphobe clients come into the clinic only when they have multiple symptoms, waiting until they have been feeling like crap for weeks or months, until they just can’t find a solution.  Then they only want to change things for as short a time as possible until they feel better, and can go back to their usual day to day.  They feel as though occasional health is sufficient.  What they forget or ignore is that the body is ticking away day in and day out making cells, creating hormones, using energy.  How often is it the ticking of creation vs. the ticking of a time bomb like cancer?  Cancer isn’t something that drops on us out of the sky.  It begins as one tiny cell that slowly and gradually grows into something that produces symptoms, which is when we have an inkling that something is amiss.

But the clients that are the healthiest, are those that have created their own health by creating the body that expresses that health.  They are committed to their health, not just when they feel like crap, but every day.  The life they live creates, while the life of a commitmentphobe rises only to the median point.  Each time it falls below the line, they do just enough to bring it back to the line, but never moving above the line into uncharted territory.  It’s just like the worker who only does just enough to get by, never going above that median line to actually create something new.

You can choose to get massage therapy when your muscles are so tight you’re in danger of herniating a disc in your back.  But if you committed to the idea of getting massage  on a regular basis, it would actually change your muscles into a pliable system that would allow you to dance through your day instead of simply walking through your day.  It would change your body, not just treat your body.

The same is true of vitamins, whole foods, colonics, lymphatic drainage, ChiroWellness and exercise.  You have to commit to get real change.  It is that change that allows you to create.

When you think about it literally, we are experiencing a Quickening every day, multiple times each day.  Every time we eat, we are taking in the energy of that food, which is what gives us the energy for our day.  So the amount of energy that your food contains determines the amount of energy your body will have that day.  This is the very essence of eating living foods – the more alive it is, the more energy it has.  The more boxed, packaged, cooked, processed, the less energy it has.  Many of us are actually eating dead things, like scavengers.  How much energy will that give us?

Even the word Quickening, gives you a very real sense of what the absorption of energy can do for you.  Do you see older people who are walking slower and slower, bent over, even shuffling?  They don’t have enough energy.  But the truly scary thing is that we are seeing this is younger and younger people because they have been raised on dead food.

And it isn’t just food – it’s also water.  We used to drink water from streams, bubbling springs, waterfalls.  Now we drink water from pipes, stored and shipped and stored again in plastic bottles.  Have you looked at the expiration date on bottles of plastic water – it’s not even in the same year as when it was bottled?  How can drinking water sealed in plastic for more than a year be healthy?  How much energy can you get from that?

This is what led me to my passion for Kangen Water, because it is living water, full of energy.  I even feel different when I drink it, just as I feel different when I eat more vegetables and fruits.  The further from nature our energy source is, the less energy we receive.  Just like the sun.  The closer you are to the sun, the more energy you receive from its light.  We need to pay attention to our need for that Quickening every day, just like Christopher Lambert did.

In fact, my mother is terrified of developing Alzheimer’s Disease like her mother and aunt.  She fears the separation that will occur from everything she knows and loves.  She fears losing touch with what is right in front of her and becoming lost in the images from her memories.  But at the same time, a sort of separation has begun … almost imperceptibly.  She spends more and more time sleeping and living in dreams that vividly return her to those very memories.

Separation I think, is a necessary part of approaching the end of this life.  I almost wonder if Alzheimer’s is a way of prying someone from their life when the ties are so strong and he bonds seemingly unbreakable.  When leaving so much behind would be not just unthinkable, but emotionally devastating.  To witness the tearing away of a loved one suddenly, inexplicably, wrongfully is damage that lasts a lifetime.

Another dear friend of mine has an aging aunt who is so close to the end of her life that it’s become the agony of waiting.  In this time, her aunt has begun to see people in her room that aren’t there.  Friends, loved ones have gathered at the foot of her bed who have made this journey before her.  Each time my friend visits her aunt, she’ll find her aunt staring over her shoulder at the corner of the room passing silent words of understanding to whomever is standing there.  It is gradually populating the empty space with another reality to ease the separation from this reality.

I think the specter of separation is an incredible presence within our experience.  It is another example of our body’s capacity for protecting us psychologically and emotionally.  In fact, it may be our body’s last act on the stage of life.

So whether we are taking something natural or a synthetic pharmaceutical, we may still be self-medicating.  The trick is the concentration.  Concentration is not just the concentration of a single dose, but also the concentrated effect within the body over time.  That is a big difference between juicing and eating the whole food.  In juicing you are removing the fiber, which is what slows the absorption process of that food, reducing its concentrated nature.  In other words, it is the way nature made it.  I have had more than one orange client, just because of the volume of carrot juice they consume.  It is so highly concentrated that their melanocytes and skin tissue are flooded with the carotene in carrots.  This is the side effect of that concentration.

So even something as healthy as a carrot can produce a side effect and go beyond the healthy effect if it is concentrated enough over time.  Even supposedly natural products such as Juice Plus, Barley Green or Nutrilite contain synthetic ingredients that are not nutritional at all.  And many of the nutrients are added, not inherent.  Some have herbs, many are simply stabilizers or colors, some have acidophilus or digestive enzymes, while most are in such high concentrations, we would never eat that much per day.  So is it food or is it medicine?

What we need to look at is that there is a distinct difference between finding a problem and providing therapy and treatment to resolve the problem and simply feeding the body’s normal, daily function.  Feeding is a daily need, while treatment is not.  This is the underlying philosophy of hundreds of years of health.  Feeding needs to be done no matter what, while therapy is done when needed for as long as needed, in other words sporadically.  Therapy is intended to create progress and change that heals and restores.  So even the most natural of substances like herbs, homeopathics and other remedies are therapeutic.  They have a therapeutic purpose and we even speak in terms of the therapeutic use of an herb.  This means we are saying it is used to bring back full function.

So why are people taking herbs for years?  Why flood your body over time with highly concentrated therapeutic substances in lieu of nutrition?  Why ignore the basic fact that nutrition is essential, treatment is limited.  In my practice, I always give nutrition: essential fatty acids, whole food raw powders, whole protein sources.  Herbs, homeopathics, fat-soluble remedies, cleansing formulas are all designed to be given therapeutically, in other words, when I find something that requires more than just nutrition to be resolved and for a limited period of time.

Here is my mantra – food is best.  When food isn’t enough, then concentrated food is second and beyond that therapeutic concentrates are third.  In some instances, the imbalance has lasted so long with such far-reaching effects that only pharmaceutical drugs can reduce the symptoms.  However, at that point, you will never return fully to natural balance.  Pharmaceuticals do not resolve an issue, they simply override the imbalance and then you have to handle the side effects that occur.

But start early enough and your body will attempt to resolve any imbalance using food that you eat.  If you don’t eat the right things, or the right amounts, then it will remain unresolved and then over time it will take food in a concentrated form to make up the difference and resolve it.  If it goes beyond that point unresolved, then you need therapy to resolve enough of the imbalance and its effects to reach a point where the concentrated food will be sufficient to finish the job.

So taking herbs every day, even if you are taking different herbs every day, will not take the place of food or nutrition.  Taking a drug every day does not take the place of what nutrition does for your body, and often will actually suck up your nutritional resources leaving your body with even less.   So think about food and nutrition first.  When you experience symptoms, turn first to whole food in pill or powder form and see if you can resolve your issue.  If that doesn’t resolve, then it’s time to seek the advice of a practitioner and look at herbs, homeopathics, aromatherapy and other remedial therapy.

It really is feeding every day and then therapy when you find an imbalance.

Then it hit me … She is drowning out her inner voice.  The more her inner voice began to speak, the more she needed to drown it out.  In order to heal, you have to be able to trust that your body has an innate knowledge of balance and healing.  This intelligence knows exactly what needs to occur in the body in order for health to be your constant companion.  When you interfere with the flow and direction of this body intelligence, then it creates a disturbance which makes it difficult to handle challenges and to heal from immune assaults.

When I was first studying Naturopathy more than 30 years ago, one of my mentors said to me that you have to trust in this innate intelligence, which is a continually unfolding force for balance, health and goodness which is constantly at work in all dimensions.  We can occasionally touch this force when we are very quiet and listen to what the body tells us.  When we raise our voice, when we fill the space around us with noise, we block our ability to tap into the current of this force.  With all the noise, our feeble attempts to touch the current actually cause us pain like an electrical current.  It scares us because we have lost our ability to trust the inner voice.

Our attempts to direct this force only interferes with it.  Our willingness to relax into it and to accept the uncomfortable feelings that come from moving out of our rut and into this current bring us the benefit of its working on our behalf.  Without faith and trust in this force, we are frantically trying to control what is not our business to control and to fix what is not in our power to fix.  What we are trying to control is much better off without our interference, and what we’re trying to fix can’t be fixed by us anyway.

I caused pain to this client.  Her response was to lash out with her emotions.  My hope is that something will bring her to a place where she will be able to step into the current and endure the effects of the change.  Because when she does, she will be able to stop struggling and finally have the support she so desperately wants.  The support of her own body.

If you see your early life as being a day by day travel along a path, and then see the choices you have made, the situations you have faced, the rough waters that you have navigated … you will see where you have “left” your path.  As soon as you leave that path, you will develop an uncomfortable physical symptom.  That symptom will continue while there is still time for you to acknowledge that you are lost in the woods, and return to your path.  If you don’t, your body will learn to live with your journey on the new path and the symptom will dissipate.  But now things will be more of a struggle because are not walking with the energy of the universe aiding your journey.  Instead you are tacking into the wind, and your sail is flapping madly which creates uncomfortable and even dangerous vibrations throughout your entire being.

I know.  This sounds a bit Twilight Zone, but I honestly have found this to be inherently true.  No matter what, do not lose your connection with your inner voice, with that intuitive guide.  If you think something is wrong, then something is wrong, no matter what your doctor or anyone else might say.  Do not simply accept a diagnosis or a situation as fact, when your intuition tells you it isn’t.  When you hear something that is true for you, you will have an emotional reaction to that, which is exactly what happens every day in my office.  Why do you think I have kleenex and a couch?

People need to process that reconnection and reinfuse their entire body, every cell and tissue, with their soul.  It is this reconnection that allows their body to begin to heal, to bring forth all the imbalances and unresolved issues they have experienced since leaving their path, just like briars, thorns, leaves and debris that you accumulate as you stride through the depths of the woods.  You have to shed all of that for your body to free up the energy it needs to heal.  As you heal, you retrace your steps back to the path and when you finally step onto your path, the ease with which you breathe, make decisions and live is astounding.

It is my job, my passion and my talent to help you find your way back.  That is the beauty and miracle of holistic health.

Your parotid glands sit just behind your lower jawline and under the ears.  They are technically salivary glands, but they secrete more than just lubricating saliva.  They secrete the first step in digesting starchy carbohydrates and they also secrete lysosomes which are part of our immunity.  For this reason they also are strongly tied to the lymph system with their own series of nodes that filter the lymphatic fluid from the parotid glands.

Now I can’t count the throngs of people that come in with TMJ, headaches, chronic sinus issues and even thyroid problems, and in every case the only area that is tender to the touch is …. drum roll … you guessed it, the parotid glands.  They swell quite easily and can really put pressure on the ear canal causing tinnitis and can be affected by everything from jaw tension to frequent cell phone use.  Adam Yauch, of Beastie boys fame, died of a parotid gland tumor that he was certain evolved from his non-stop cell phone use.

So take a moment and poke around behind your jaw.  Is it sensitive?  Does one side look swollen compared to the other side?  Do you have the sensation of something in your throat when you swallow? Then you may want to get your glands checked out.  You might be amazed at how a little Parotid therapy can change everything!

My mother is on numerous medications, some for high cholesterol, some for high blood pressure and some for various other ailments and side effects of the first group of medications.  The problem is that these are all based on the few times my mother is in front of the doctor or in front of a test, but not daily throughout her entire day.  As a result, my mother is overprescribed for her blood pressure and it has had times where it is so low she can’t even move.

My second issue is that most doctors don’t have the first clue about what is healthy to eat or drink.  Case in point … my mother said her doctor thought it was fine that she drink a liter or more of diet coke every day in place of water.  He even suggested she could switch to zero coke for less sugar.  Please!  Are you kidding?  Telling someone that drinking a chemical concoction that takes blood off the roadway after an accident is perfectly healthy?  Or telling a colitis patient that living on mashed potatoes is fine.  Or reassuring a professional basketball player that the fact he eats three meals a day at McDonald’s has no bearing on his lack of healing from injury.

The other thing that comes to mind is that this entire medical community coaxes us into a state of somnabulance (don’t run to the dictionary – it’s sleep walking).  They convince us that a prescription drug is our solution to a symptom or an illness.  They never explore why we develop a symptom or an illness, nor what the root cause is.  I have so many patients that say “Why doesn’t he want to figure out the cause?”.  The answer is because he can’t.  He has been taught to diagnose which drug to administer and when to provide surgery.  He has had no nutritional training as that is generally offered as an elective in medical colleges and poorly attended at that.

And what about hospitals?  Have you eaten the food provided in hospitals?  A place where people are supposed to be provided with the tools and treatments that will help them get well.  In point of fact, it is more that they try to keep you from getting worse, or from developing some infection that could end your life right under the doctor’s nose.

I know I make it sound bleak.  It is bleak.  You can’t even go into the hospital without having someone to advocate for you.  Otherwise it is a slippery slope into multiple problems, not the least of which is nutritional deficiency on the order of a military excursion into the arctic.  We cannot rely on doctors to provide us with the answers we need.  We have to take responsibility for our own health, wellbeing and solutions to our health problems.  A doctor can give you a band-aid, but he can’t heal the wound.

Don’t let your mother end up lying on a sidewalk … it’s not pretty.

Now recently in the last few years, I have struggled with a lot of body symptoms that were very unusual for me.  Like a good naturopath, I looked at my diet, my stress, my nutrition, my bloodwork, in fact, just about everything except my treat – alcohol.  As Dr. Rogers, my favorite chiropractor on the planet, has been working with me this last year, it has become glaringly apparent that my liver is trying to run away, escape on the first train and take the gallbladder, stomach and pancreas with it.  My bile duct is quietly on strike, and headaches have become a persistent companion.

What I have realized is that whenever I drink alcohol now, even half a glass of wine, I will get a headache and/or hot flashes which is a pain in the ass when I am trying to focus on an intensive seminar that I paid an ungodly amount of money to attend, and all I can do is think about rolling around on a glacier in Iceland – which I recently did, but not because of hot flashes.  That sounds bad doesn’t it???

Well anyway, I am coming to realize that despite the fact that we think we will never change, not really, the truth is, we do.  Books I bought years ago and never got around to reading, I now look at and wonder if I was comatose when I bought it thinking it was so interesting.  I used to love music, but now love silence.  I used to be able to stay up until 1:00 and then sleep like a dead rock.  That is definitely not the case now!

And the same is true of my relationship to alcohol.  I just can’t drink it without experiencing a negative reaction.  So as my liver is getting healthier, my ability to tolerate challenges to the liver is getting less. If I want to keep my liver from jumping ship, I have to pay attention.  And here are a few facts to consider during this month of Alcohol Awareness:

First, many alcoholics are addicted to the sugar in alcohol which is why they are advised to eat ice cream to cut alcohol cravings.  Gymnema, an incredible Indian herb, is the best solution for this.  4 Gymnema tablets each day can make a dramatic difference in the desire for alcohol.  Not to mention, the donuts, the cupcakes, the ice cream, etc.

Second, the liver is the most rejuvenative organ you have.  It can completely replace itself given the right nutrition.  To feed the liver and help restoration, take 6 Livaplex and 4 Hepatrophin PMG daily for three months.

Third, you need to take the protection of your liver seriously.  You are exposing yourself to many things, not only through alcohol, but through pollutants, toxins and carcinogenic substances.  Most pharmaceutical medications have liver damage as a typical side effect and even exposure to radiation and electrical power lines can affect liver function.  Take Silymarin tablets daily to protect the liver.  There is nothing better and clinical studies have proven it.

Fourth, the liver works in conjunction with the pancreas, the kidneys, the lungs and the gallbladder.  Often symptoms in these organs that recur are actually due to their stepping in for a weakened liver function.  The best combination to address these sisterly organs to the liver is 4 Albaplex, 2 Collinsonia Root, 4 Antronex and 2 Betafood daily for two months.  The changes you experience will tell you just how connected these organs are.

The last thing to consider is that the liver is related to the emotion of anger in Traditional Chinese medicine.  In fact, this may explain why alcoholism tendency runs in families.  Because many families learn coping mechanisms to deal with anger issues, and that can carry from one generation to another.  Learning how to understand and dissipate anger is key in keeping your liver healthy.  Just doing this, whether through Reiki, counseling, meditation or anger management classes, can make a huge difference in your liver and your relationship to alcohol.

I can’t say that I’m going to step away from the Bellini when offered at my favorite Venetian spot by the Grand Canal, especially if someone else is buying, but it does make me spend more time focusing on my liver, focusing on my health and realizing that the choices I make affect me more now than ever.