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

Eliminating Old Concepts

At Pacific Naturopathic Retreat Center, on January 1st each year, we gather with friends, neighbors and guests around the Peace Pole in our hidden garden. Through music, poetry, and extemporaneous expression, we collectively set the intention of peaceful and calm relationships on the planet.

Prior to declaring new intentions, it is helpful to eradicate thought forms

Burn away old concepts

that prevent the realization of those New Year's resolutions and intentions.  Fire ceremonies

are one way to do this. In a fire ceremony,we write those thoughts that no longer serve us, and burn the paper on which they are written in a bowl of fire. Another technique that is often used is to wear a thick rubber band around your wrist, and snap yourself each time you dwell on an unwanted thought. (This technique works on learning through avoidance of pain, but be gentle!)

Weed old concepts

In preparing the gardens for the peace pole gathering, I've found that pulling physical weeds is another powerful way to uproot mental weeds from consciousness, allowing space for those new intentions and resolutions. As I pull each weed, I consciously eradicate one dysfunctional thought or another .... a powerful cleansing with instant and tangible results.

As this issue of the newsletter is focusing on cleansing and restoration of health, I might add that, in working in the Peace Garden, there is the vitalizing energy of the air and of the sun (the vix medicatrix naturae, or healing power of nature, that infinite source that heals and harmonizes all processes of body, mind and soul). The physical contact with the earth balances the earth element within each one of us, and the contact with the earth's stabilizing electromagnetic energy prevails over the destabilizing electromagnetic frequencies we pick up as we wander through the electronic vibrational field that now cloaks our world.

All of that through the simple act of weeding!

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

Connie Hernandez, N.D.

Most commonly, when thinking of purification, cleansing, or detoxification, people think of the diet they will choose to follow... which foods to eat and liquids to drink, which not to eat, and when. A great deal of the discussion in a consult re cleansing is about these things.

There are many potential additions and revisions to the dietary protocol. In planning a detox, it is therefore helpful to know why and from what you intend to detox. Is the detox a quarterly or semi annual cleanse for reasons of health? Is the detox intended to prevent or treat a particular condition? Is there evidence of heavy metal toxicity above and beyond the norm in contemporary society? Is there an increased need to address radiation contamination or electromagnetic influences? Or do you just want to pull yourself out of lifestyle habit patterns which aren't working for you?

According to your needs and preferences, you and your health practitioner can choose from many modalities to assist you in your cleansing: flower essences, orchid essences, homeopathics, nutritional therapies, herbal formulas, spagyric drainange remedies, affirmations, home hydrotherapy practices, freeing body work, foot reflexology. These therapies are directed at kidney, liver, and colon function, and at cleansing the lymphatics and extracellular matrices. Nasal lavage with a neti pot clears the nostrils, frees the breath, and clears the lungs.

In addition to the above modalities, I encourage my patients to use their skin as the body's largest organ of elimination. Infrared sauna is the ideal way to do this. Toxins melt away with the sweat. In the infrared, there is a lower ambient temperature in the sauna itself, and a deeper penetration into the body than there is in a conventional sauna. Numerous studies have shown the efficacy of sauna treatments in eliminating toxins from the body.

Elimination through the skin is also fostered by dry skin brushing and various baths. We all have access to baking soda, apple cider vinegar, and Epsom salts, and these are cleansing on many levels. Advanced detoxification through bathing is available in the form of Dr. Chi's botanical formulas, chelating bath salts from Dr. Gordon, and bulk magnesium flakes.

There are safe and effective chelators which can be used whenever

heavy metals are involved, and there are chelators which require testing to see if your body in general and kidneys in particular will handle the chelation process. If your body is well and able, you would then do a pre and post urine test with and without the chelator to see what you have in your body and what the chelator effectively chelates out.

Taking detoxification to an entirely other level, we advise clients to work to eliminate unproductive thought forms. We advise fire ceremonies and other rituals of cleansing, and the use of affirmations and declarations to bring conscious and superconscious awareness to the process, augmenting the efficacy of these more mental methods with flower essences and other energy medicines.

At Pacific Naturopathic, we offer a generic 10 day protocol which can be tweaked for your needs in a 30 minute consult prior to your beginning. We recommend a pre consult and another 30 minute consult midpoint in the cleanse, so we can help you assess where you are and re-introduce a wider diet. (If you've done the protocol before, simply reorder the cleanse protocol from us or through our Metagenics store on line.) If this is all totally new to you, and you'd like a more thorough evaluation, please schedule a first office call if you're not already a patient, or an hour long return office call if you are a patient.

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

Metabolic Detoxification: So Much Better Than Fasting 

A systemic cleansing and detox is definitely the way to go after each holiday. It is the key to fighting high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, and other health-related illnesses.
-- Lee Haney

 

Years ago, when I was first starting to tune in to natural medicine, fasting was one of the pillars of health maintenance and restoration. I tried the Master Cleanse, the grapefruit juice cleanse, the watermelon cleanse, the cider vinegar cleanse, plain old water cleanse, and many more. Water fasting is no longer advisable. In fact, it may be downright dangerous.

During fasting, fat cells are rapidly broken down. Fat cells are where most toxins are stored and releasing them so quickly into the body can overwhelm the liver and other detox organs and create a potentially dangerous situation. Consider the following:

-- Each year, more than 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals are released into the environment. Many of these chemicals accumulate in the body and dramatically impact overall health.

-- We can't avoid the toxins.We are all exposed to them in the foods we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. What many people do not know is that we also produce toxins within our bodies in the processes of digestion and elimination that also accumulate in body tissues.

-- Symptoms of toxic overload are vast and varied and include physical fatigue, brain fog, poor memory, joint pain, asthma, allergies, constipation, indigestion, heartburn, bloating, gas, pre-mature graying, high cholesterol, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, frequent headaches or migraines, skin blemishes, excessive gas, bad breath, constipation, diarrhea, allergies to foods and chemicals; environmental sensitivity, chemical intolerances, sugar cravings, sleep disorders, depression and others.

-- Severe illnesses result from toxin buildup in our tissues, including many cancers, and neurological, cardiovascular and digestive disorders.

Nothing new, right? Most readers of this column know that we are poisoning the planet and ourselves as well. Enough bad news. A bit of good news is that modern naturopathic medicine has an evidence-based method of helping reduce the toxic overload - metabolic detoxification.

Metabolic detoxification is exactly what the words mean: the elimination of toxins from the body's cells that we have been exposed to externally from environmental sources, and internally from products generated by ongoing, normal daily cellular processes, like hormone processing. The liver is the principal player in the detoxification process, and modern studies clearly show that the liver's detoxification system is nutrient-driven. This means that the liver cells involved in the detox process need certain nutrients to do their work. Low nutrient levels equal poor detox function.

The body also eliminates toxins through the kidneys, intestines, lungs, lymph and skin. However, when any of these systems is compromised, impurities aren't properly filtered and every cell in the body is adversely affected.

Detoxification is about resting, cleaning and nourishing the body from the inside out. By removing and eliminating toxins, then feeding your body with healthy nutrients, detoxifying can help protect you from disease and restore your ability to maintain the highest level of health possible.

The cleanses we offer at Pacific Naturopathic supply nutrients that are designed to give the liver, as well as other organs and tissues, the necessary nutritional support for the detoxification process.

Don't be taken in by faddish, unsupported claims found on the internet. Most of these programs are not science-based, and some actually deplete the body of the vital nutrients and energy that support the natural elimination process.

One note of caution: detoxification is not for pregnant women, nursing mothers or children. Although people with chronic degenerative diseases, like cancer, multiple sclerosis and others can greatly benefit from metabolic detoxification, they should be monitored by a qualified health care practitioner. If you have questions about whether detoxing is right for you, seek guidance from your health care provider.

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

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].

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.

Normal Thermographic Pattern

A goal in breast thermography is the tracking of breast tissue changes. In the complementary packet we send to each client after their initial breast thermogram, we include instructions in how to do lymphatic breast massage. When we are looking at a breast thermography report in which the risk rating is average, but in which we are not alerted to an immediate need for further evaluation, we often recommend lymphatic breast massage. It's easy to learn, and pretty much works for you if you just do it.

Comparative breast thermography after 3 months of lymphatic breast massage generally indicates a lower risk rating, resulting from tissue changes brought about by work with the lymphatic system. To augment the efficacy of the breast massage, we advise the use of our European spagyric drainage remedies. Itires is a low potency combination homeopathic directed at eliminating waste through the lymphatic system. It comes both in a cream form, which can be massaged over the breasts and lymph nodes, and a liquid form, taken at 15 to 20 drops three times daily.

(Itires, of course, is beneficial in whole body lymphatic detoxification as well, and, in that case, may be combined with apo Hepat and Renelix, spagyric drainage remedies directed at liver and kidney detoxification. Ask us about these any time you have an interest in cleansing protocols.)

The cost to you of breast thermography is $225.

Thermography at Pacific Naturopathic

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.