One of Dr. Connie's Favorite Places to Muse is at the Pacific Naturopathic Retreat Center in Hawaii

On Crisis and Balance

In our recent columns, we have reiterated the observation that these are tough times. We are confronted daily with natural disaster, violent political unrest, financial uncertainty and other unpleasantries. Many of us are faced with both individual and societal crisis. Long ago it was told to me (and many believe) that the Chinese characters for crisis translate as dangerous opportunity. Though etymological evaluation doesn't necessarily support the accuracy of that translation, it still seems useful to think of crisis in this way. While the danger is apparent, the opportunity may not be. A crisis would not be a crisis if it did not hold tremendous energy. Energy is neither good nor bad. It is a potential which can be harnessed and directed, and therein lies the opportunity.

Faced with crisis, there may be the tendency to hunker down and hold on for dear life, or to repeat past ineffective actions over and over in hopes that this time these actions just might offer salvation. The opposite tendency would be to throw out the baby with the bath, hopefully dive deep for inspiration, and engage in something completely different. Being a Libran, and having a life long craving for balance, I would tend to seek an answer somewhere in the middle.

How might this translate in times of individual crisis? A recent patient of mine came in to the office with sudden onset, debilitating insomnia. She related to me that she had spent 6 years deeply involved in monastic living and work. At a certain point, she was, as she put it, "done". She swung to the opposite side, and engaged in months of rather wild socializing. I suggested to her that the insomnia was her body's way to awaken her to the imbalance of her immediate lifestyle, and that it was possible to find some balance between meditative and serviceful activity, and a need to share down time with friends.

Listening to myself speak, I thought of how when I am lost in my own tendencies to pour my energies into one aspect of my life to the exclusion of other aspects, health crises tend to manifest. Balance is critical to health. Too much sleep, too little sleep, too much food, too little food, too much exercise, too little exercise, too many vitamins, too few vitamins all result in ill health. In a larger context, crisis and unrest develop from an imbalance in just about anything.... weather conditions, wealth, power. As we are now under the astrological influence of the Libran scales, in the interest of averting and resolving crises on a personal level, let's examine our lives and seek to address any imbalances we find.

Find out more about Dr. Connie's consulting services at  
www.naturopathichealthconsultations.com   

 Neti Pot For Colds, 

Flus and More

Connie Hernandez, N.D.

We've many times advised patients to purchase a neti pot and use it for nasal congestion, sinus conditions, allergies, and irritating coughs originating in the throat. For those of you who aren't familiar with this device, the pot typically looks like a ceramic or plastic Aladdin's lamp. It is filled with a warm water/salt solution (1/4 tsp salt to 1 cup water) which is poured into one nostril, and drained out the other nostril. Patients occasionally greet our recommendation to pour salt water in the nose with revulsion, but they often return with enthusiastic reports of amelioration of symptoms, and go on to purchase neti pots for friends and family.

For colds and flus, the neti pot is used for initial mild congestion, aided by the drinking of herbal teas, such as ginger tea. Use of the neti is also indicated for coughs and sore throats that result from mucus dripping from the head into the throat. Precise instructions for simple use are included with the neti pot, but healing practitioners may suggest variations.

The neti pot is well known and used to great advantage in yoga and Ayurvedic healing, the traditional healing of India. Tushti, Pacific Naturopathic's own yogini, recently loaned me an invaluable resource
book by David Frawley, entitled Neti: Healing Secrets of Yoga and Ayurveda. David describes how the neti pot can be used to treat conditions in addition to colds and sinus allergies, such as swollen glands, headaches, poor digestion, skin diseases, insomnia, and weak immune system. It is an invaluable aid in any detoxification protocol. The neti pot is also used to help balance the doshas, the constitutional types known as vata, pitta and kapha.

Most important to yogic healing, and with far reaching implications, the neti pot is used to cleanse the nostrils prior to deep breathing, or pranayama exercises. These exercises require the unrestricted flow of breath through the nostrils, and result in an increase in vital energy throughout the body, a connection with specific energy flows in the body, the balancing of the right and left hemispheres of the brain, and far more. Breathing better can transform your life, and the neti pot can help you breathe better! Try it this season, and write us your experiences.

Find out more about Dr. Connie's consulting services at:  

 Eat This Non-Food to Undermine Your 

Immune System

Take a walk in almost any neighborhood and observe the people. What you'll most likely see is that most people are overweight, some very much so. Do some research on the medical problems confronting many of the people you see. What you'll find is a stunning increase in immune system influenced illnesses - cancer, heart disease, diabetes, three-letter viruses -- HIV, CMV, EBV, and more. Yes, yes, we live in an increasingly toxic environment and that has a tremendous negative impact on our immune systems. But there is one other major dietary factor undermining our health: sugar. Sugar consumption seriously and dramatically inhibits immune function. Period.

In a recent American Heart Association (AHA) study, the average adult in the United States consumes 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day, or an almost unbelievable 150 pounds a year.  Even people who watch their sugar intake are at risk, considering that highly refined sugars occur in various guises like sucrose (table sugar), concentrated fruit juice, dextrose (corn sugar), and high-fructose corn syrup. Continuing

Amount of Sugar in Cokes

on the research track, go to Safeway and read labels. Especially look at foods like bread, breakfast cereal, mayonnaise, peanut butter, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and most prepared microwave meals. Then, keeping away from the health food section, find ten other packaged products that don't contain one of the above-mentioned sugars.

MSN just published on-line an article based on the AHA study mentioned above, "The 6 Scary Side Effects of Sugar."   These effects include diabetes, acne, heart disease, depression, yeast infections and cancer. We're especially concerned about cancer because it is the ultimate immune system breakdown.

In 1973, an article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that ingesting as little as three ounces of sugar at one sitting significantly inhibits the ability of white blood cells, which are the heart of the immune system, in destroying bacteria and viruses. This applies to all sugars, including fruit juices.

Many other studies have also documented the immune system depression caused by sugar, leaving us vulnerable to opportunistic infections (colds, flu and other infections) that our immune systems would normally keep under control.

In the 1973 study reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers at Loma Linda University gave volunteers the amount of sugar found in a liter of soda. The researchers then drew blood from the volunteers and mixed it with bacteria. They found that infection-fighting white blood cells from people who had just been dosed with the sugar neutralized many fewer bacteria than those who had just fasted or eaten an unsweetened starch. This immune suppression starts about 30 minutes after the ingestion of sugar and can last for up to five hours.

In the 1970's, Linus Pauling and other researchers found out that that Vitamin C was needed by white blood cells to destroy viruses and bacteria. Interestingly, glucose and Vitamin C have similar chemical structures, so when sugar is ingested it competes with Vitamin C to get into the cells. If there is more glucose around, there is going to be less vitamin C allowed into the cell, resulting in a reduced ability to fight off colds and flus and other opportunistic infections.

The conditions mentioned in "The 6 Scary Side Effects of Sugar" are not a complete list. Simple sugars have been observed to aggravate asthma, provoke mood swings and personality changes, cause nervous system disorders, certainly cause diabetes, and heart disease, and play a part in gallstones, hypertension, and arthritis. This is only part of the story.

But wait - there's more. Refined dietary sugars lack minerals and vitamins so the only way they are going to be absorbed into our bodies is by robbing body's micronutrient stores. When these vitamins and minerals are gone, severe metabolic compromises occur and disease is a result.

And there is even more. Sugar has absolutely no nutritional value. It has no minerals, vitamins or fiber, and has a profound deteriorating effect on all major body systems. I don't know who is eating my 150 pounds of sugar a year, but I wish them luck. They're going to need all they can get.

Find out more about Dr. Marcel's work with men at:

To book a visit with Dr. Corrine, please phone the office at 650-917-1121

Elijah Free, MH, CMI, CMT  

Elijah Free's approach to helping his patients deal with physical pain has been described as bordering on miraculous.  Elijah is also a Master Herbalist who designs and produces all of his own herbal products for his healing practice. He is an herbal product designer for Ridgecrest Herb Co. Elijah also holds a patent for his herbal fibromyalgia formula.   

To contact Elijah, please either call the clinic at 650-917-1121 or e-mail at [email protected].

Eat Well to Live Well

Nutrition Education and  

Health Counseling

with

Sarah Rose

Sarah Flanagan

Do you feel like you have run out of healthy meal ideas?

Would you like to have more energy and vitality in your life?

Have you ever wanted something in your life, but felt like you couldn't achieve it on your own?

As a Nutrition Educator and Health Counselor, I can help you with all this and more!

Health Counselors are trained, knowledgeable advisors who provide ongoing support and guidance as you set goals and make sustainable changes that improve your health and happiness. As your Health Counselor, I will listen carefully and help you to navigate the world of contradictory nutrition advice to determine what changes are necessary for you.

Your personalized program will radically improve your health and happiness. Together, we will explore concerns specific to you and your body and discover the tools you need for a lifetime of balance.

As a client of my health coaching program, you will...

* set and accomplish goals in a way that is empowering and exciting

* work to achieve and maintain your ideal weight

* understand and reduce your cravings

* increase your energy levels

* feel great in your body

* learn about new foods and how you can easily incorporate them

* improve your personal relationships

* discover the confidence to create the life you want

To decide if health coaching is right for you, I invite you to schedule a free initial consultation with me. During this session, we will discuss your health and lifestyle to determine how I can best support you in achieving your goals.

To schedule an appointment with Sarah contact Pacific Naturopathic at 650-917-1121.

Normal Thermographic Pattern

Most younger women and an estimated 40% of women over 40 have breast tissue which is dense enough to confound findings on mammograms. Developing cancers may be missed, resulting in a false negative reading on a mammogram, or dense tissue may result in a false positive reading on a mammogram. Accordingly, the California state legislature has passed a bill (yet to be signed) requiring that providers notify patients with dense breast tissue that their mammogram findings may not be reliable, and that additional screening may be required. While the California Medical Association opposes this law, citing the lack of evidence that additional screening would save lives, researchers are looking at screening options such as 3-D x ray images and molecular breast imaging. These techniques provide anatomic screening, as do mammograms.

While more accurate anatomic screening is a very good idea, we at Pacific Naturopathic would like to emphasize that women with dense breast tissue already have a screening option available to them that provides a different and complementary type of information. Breast thermography identifies physiologic change in the breast, rather than anatomic structure. It does this by revealing temperature differentials between breasts and symmetry and irregularity of vascular patterns. Looking at both anatomic and physiologic information is clearly more informative than relying on only one type of finding. We encourage young women and other women with dense breast tissue, as well as other women with ambiguous mammogram findings, to consider breast thermography as a non invasive means of obtaining additional information on their breast health.

Thermography at Pacific Naturopathic

 

A Typical Day at Pacific Naturopathic Hawaii

 

 

Openings From October and Into the New Year    

Sunset from the View House lanai

 

Imagine that you wake up in the morning to the songs of tropical birds. The sunrise is filtering through the palms, jacaranda and orchid trees, creating shadow patterns on the walls of your bedroom. The soft, gentle rain that fell through part of the night created a soothing cadence on the metal roof of your lovely quarters. You have slept well.

 

Pacific Naturopathic Hawaii September 13, 2011

 

Sliding open the large glass door, you step from your bedroom out onto the lanai, take a deep breath of pure ocean air, do a few stretches and gaze out over the deep blues of the Pacific Ocean. The trade winds are light. It is a sparkling clear day. Across the channel, Maui is shrouded in a slight mist.

 

Donning a sarong, you walk down the lanai steps into the orchard to collect your fruit salad.

All this food is from the Hawaii retreat orchard

A couple of ripe papayas, a passion fruit or two and a starfruit tumbleinto your harvest basket. A hand of tasty apple bananas awaits you on the kitchen counter. A huge, round butter avocado and a couple of Tahitian limes complete your breakfast.

  

What to do after breakfast?

 

Should you pack a picnic lunch and hike 40 minutes through the miles of preserve bordering the estate to the spectacular coastal views from the cliffs overlooking the ocean? Perhaps a beach trip to the legendary Waipio Valley, just four miles away? Or a 5-minute trip into town to browse the galleries and have a cup of tea? There are so many things to see and do on the island, like visiting the volcano, driving up to the Mauna Kea observatories, exploring the lush drive to Hilo. Maybe you'll just lie in the hammock for a while and think about it. Or lounge in the spa. After all, it is a gorgeous day, and you are here to relax and rejuvenate.

Our Local Beach Just 4 Miles Away

 

See our websites for more details. Phone 808-775-1505 for reservations, or email    

[email protected]

www.hawaiipeacegardenvacationhouses.com   

www.naturopathicretreatcenter.com

Click HERE to Visit Our Hawaii Retreat on  

To Men Over Fifty:  

Your Answers to These Questions Can Save Your Life

Do you have:

1) need to urinate often at night

2) frequent or urgent need to urinate

3) difficulty in starting or stopping the urine flow

4) inability to urinate

5) weak, decreased or interrupted urine stream

6) dribbling at the end of urination

7) straining while urinating

8) a sense of incompletely emptying the bladder

9) burning or pain during urination

10) blood in the urine or semen

11) painful ejaculation

12) bone pain (especially in the back, hips, thighs or neck)

13) weight loss

14) fatigue

15) low red blood cell count (anemia)

If you answered "yes" to more than two of these questions, you need to be further evaluated by a doctor.  Questions 1 through 11 may fit a variety of conditions, mostly involving the prostate.  If you answered yes to any question between 12 and 15 as well, it is even more imperative that you find out as soon as you can what is going on. Dr. Marcel is available for consultation either by telephone or in the Pacific Naturopathic offices.  Please dial 650-917-1121 for an appointment. 

About Dr. Marcel's work:

Looking for a conscious, meaningful, caring gift for a birthday or special occasion? A gift certificate to a Pacific Naturopathic practitioner lets a special person know you really care about their well-being. 

Gift certificates for all practitioners and modalities offered at Pacific Naturopathic are available by phoning our front desk at 650-917-1121, or just stopping by.

Because we would like to make this newsletter responsive to you and your needs, you are invited to send health questions you would like to see addressed to us at

[email protected]     

We would also like to invite you to share with other readers your experiences of health remedies that have worked surprisingly well for you.