A recent article in from the Alliance for Natural Health USA tells a disturbing story about the recent slew of attacks on Dr. Oz.  I know first hand from my classes with people with chronic health issues how Dr. Oz's advice on healthier diet, meditation, Tai Chi, etc. has improved people's lives and understanding of their own natural healing abilities.

The following article excerpt, from the Alliance for Natual Health, explains how bizarre these attacks on Dr. Oz are. We hope you'll read the entire article at the link below, and also share it widely, posting it on all your social networks.

Article excerpt:

Acknowledging that he wants to "bring down" Dr. Oz, Mazer claims, with no basis whatsoever, that Oz is giving advice "that was really not great or had no medical basis." Mazer specifically denounces Oz's diet and supplement recommendations as being an inferior and dangerous alternative to diabetes drugs. "It might sound harmless when you talk about things like herbal pills or supplements," Mazer said. "But when the physicians' advice conflicted with Oz, the patients would believe Oz [italics ours]." 

 

Mazer actually said that diet and supplements are less effective or more dangerous than diabetes drugs, when in fact, the opposite is true:

 

The government-funded Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) study, designed to evaluate medication protocols for reducing heart attacks in patients with type 2 diabetes, was shut down two years early because study participants in most intensive drug regimens-the ones aimed at driving down blood sugar-had much higher cardiovascular death rates (250% to 300% higher than the death rate of those taking a placebo). 

 

A particular class of common diabetes drugs, sulfonylureas (which are in dozens of popular medications currently in use), carry a black-box warning stating that they dramatically increase death from heart attack. A third class of diabetes drugs, thiazolidinediones (the notorious Avandia is an example), are still prescribed in the US despite their having been banned in the EU, New Zealand, and South Africa. Government experts estimate that Avandia may have caused as many as 100,000 heart attacks since coming onto the market in 1999. 

 

Dr. Joseph A. Mercola notes that drugs for type 2 diabetics "nearly universally" cause more damage then good. Drugs that lower blood sugar, he reports, may increase risk of death from all causes, not just cardiovascular complications.

 

Even the FDA is investigating the risk of pancreatic cancer that is associated with some diabetes drugs.

 

In natural medicine, the first line of defense against diabetes is diet. The key step is to avoid foods high on the glycemic index (which turn into blood sugar rapidly), but that is only the start. Next comes exercise and movement, and finally, some supplements which clearly help control blood sugar or slow down the release of glucose into the blood. For the whole program, see LEF.org and Mercola.com. Sophisticated blood testing is also important, since blood sugar problems are often silent, and is also available at LEF.org.

Everyone should keep in mind that a program designed to avoid diabetes will also help both heart health and the prevention of cancer. It is not very well known, but high blood sugar is a major risk factor for cancer, because cancer cells depend on the sugar.

 

One of the biggest differences between natural health programs for diabetes and drugs is that the former can not only prevent the disease but also cure it, while the latter cannot and introduces serious new risks.

 

Why would a medical school student not know any of this? Partly it is his own fault for not finding out. But partly it is the fault of a medical education system that is often in bed with Big Pharma. Drug companies are increasingly teaming up with top schools, and also try to subsidize students in a variety of ways.

Tai Chi grandmaster, Henry Look, was also a professional architect. Master Look had great insight into the fact that at their core, Tai Chi and Qigong are high forms of human architecture enhancement. Slight little adjustments of posture and motion can make a powerful difference in performance.

Tiger Woods studied Qigong as a young boy with his father, and his golf coach at Stanford University believed that this was why he was able to drive the ball farther than any other human being.  

Sitting Qigong's internal mindful awareness can enhance our ability to sense movement from the Dan Tien, and also the all important postural alignment. See the above video for a short tutorial on how to "feel" the Vertical Axis.

When we do Tai Chi and Qigong, because of 12 plus years of formal education, we try to hold the ideas of things like Dan Tien and Vertical Axis in our heads. However after we practice for 20 or 30 years, we look back and realize that the way we really LEARNED the deep architectural aspects of our body and the internal arts, was not by thinking about the concepts, but by FEELING them, again and again and again.

The above video will help you FEEL VERTICAL AXIS, rather than just thinking about it.

Do you suffer from Paved Earth Disease?

 

"How to Bend the Knees for Tai Chi or Qigong" Video excerpt, courtesy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong

T'ai Chi and Qigong movements are ALWAYS done with the knees slightly bent. You can avoid possible knee injury by following a rule: Do not bend the knees more than where you can see the tips of your shoes over your knee when you look down.

If you are like me, you may violate that rule sometimes. BUT, I am hyper conscious of how movements make my knees feel, and that inner awareness enables me to back off at the slightest discomfort. I never PUSH through the pain, or any masochistic approaches to me Tai Chi or Qigong.

Sitting Qigong [see video near top of newsletter] can be a GREAT tool to enhance "inner awareness" and can help us avoid injury by feeling more subtley what's going on inside in our practice, long before it becomes a permanents injury.

By doing Tai Chi and Qigong with knees slightly bent, we avoid the Paved Earth Disease. Tai Chi masters have said that before the world was paved people had to move with their knees bent, becaues the earth surface was un-even.

Then when the world was paved flat, as most of our world we use is today, we began walking with straight knees. This puts alot of pressure on your knees and lower back.

High heels or high heeled cowboy boots can make your lower back hurt. Why? The push your but out. Stand up and lock your knees right now, with your back of your hand on your lower back, and you'll feel your rear go out a bit.

Leave your hand on your lower back, and then sink down into the horse stance, and you'll feel the tail bone go down, and you'll lose some of that curve out of your lower back, and it will take alot of pressure off of your back.

The Horse Stance is the opposite of high heels, and it can help cure the Paved Earth Disease. See below video.

"Sinking Your Qi - Sinking into the Horse Stance" Video excerpt, courtesy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong 's nearly 150 web video support videos