Homeopathy For Better Health
By Jackie Christensen, BS, HHP, NC, MH
Faculty Member of GCNM
It was once said by Mahatma Gandhi that homeopathy cures a larger percentage of cases than any other method of treatment. Today homeopathy remains to be one of the most successful systems of health care available. The history of homeopathy begins with its founder Samuel Hahnemann. Hahnemann started his practice as a German physician, but after many unsuccessful attempts at treating his patients he quit practicing allopathic medicine and became a medical translator. The Law of Similars had previously been described by Hippocrates and was utilized by many cultures, but it was Hahnemann who cataloged the Law of Similars into a systematic medical science. He also coined the word "homeopathy." "Homoios" in Greek means similar, "pathos" means suffering. The Law of Similars is the first major law in homeopathy.
Homeopaths believe that we express ourselves through the symptoms we experience and it is these unique expressions that create our unique wholes. Therefore, a homeopath will work with the symptoms to expel them from the body. During a visit with a homeopath the client will go through detailed questioning. The client will be asked to describe all their symptoms and reasons for the visit as well as everything that characterizes them, especially their feelings, sensations, sensitivity, psyche, and all concerns in terms of energy, sleep, appetite, digestion, etc. This thorough and initial interview may require two to three hours. The better the homeopath understands the patient and his or her problems, the better they can individualize to find the most similar remedy for the client's condition. The chosen remedy must reflect the totality of those symptoms and best match the patient’s state of being. If homeopathic remedies are used in a suppressive manner, for example to treat disease and not the whole person, they will act in a palliative manner, which may force the disease deeper into the body. Homeopathic treatment is about letting go and removing the layers of suppression.
Homeopathic remedies are made from animal, mineral, or plant matter and all remedies have a profile which includes a list of symptoms for which that remedy is best suited to treat. All homeopathic remedies start with a solution of established chemical strength, called a mother tincture. The mother tincture is diluted with water. The dilution is thoroughly succussed or agitated. Then the potency is further diluted and successed. If the dilutions are done properly the medicine will maintain its ability to cause a homeopathic response. Potencies commonly come in X, C, or M. X potencies has a dilution factor of 1:10 so one drop of tincture is added to 9 drops of water. C potencies, the dilution factor is 1:100, one drop of water is added to 99 drops of water. M potencies have a dilution factor of 1:1000; one drop of water is added to 999 drops of water. The more diluted and successed a remedy is the stronger it becomes.
There are literally hundreds of high quality, published basic sciences, pre-clinical and clinical studies proving homeopathy’s success. Currently, it is estimated that there are between 1,000-2,000 medical doctors and osteopaths, 750-1,000 naturopath physicians, 500 veterinarians, 300-500 dentists and several thousand chiropractors that practice homeopathy in the United States. Experience has proven homeopathy, yet it has been slow in showing its power to the world. It has had exceptional results when working with children, in both chronic and acute diseases and is universal in its ability to be applicable to all diseases. Homeopathic journals all over the world are full of cures in cases such as asthma, respiratory disorders, anemia’s, skin afflictions, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, kidney and lung disease, chronic headaches, and mental disorders. Its proven ability is the reason it has survived the test of time. It is practiced in nearly every country and has alleviated millions of people. Homeopathy is extensively covered in GCNM’s Master of Science Program, both in theory and practice.
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Book Review
Secrets of the Alkaline Body: The New Science of the Colloidal Biology
By Annie Padden and David Jubb, PhD.
Annie Padden Jubb and David Jubb, PhD are the co-authors of LifeFood Recipe Book which promotes their approach to a raw food diet consisting primarily of blended foods like smoothies, soups and nutmilks. They are very enthusiastic about educating others about the benefits of consuming raw foods. They promote blended foods that enable your body to absorb maximum nutrition from foods and also provide the body with the enzymes from food that would normally be killed by heating to temperatures above 118 degrees Fahrenheit. In this subsequent book they explain the biology of colloidal solutions and the biology of nutrition, what they call LifeFood Nutrition.
LifeFood Nutrition involves a vegetarian diet comprised of fresh uncooked organic in-season fruits and vegetables, soaked and sprouted nuts and seeds, fresh pressed oils and some fermented foods, whole food vitamin and mineral complex supplements, and what they define as super foods, spirulina, bee pollen, marine minerals, whey from goat’s milk, raw organic cheese made from goat’s milk, and beneficial herbal remedies. In addition, LifeFood refers to foods from plants that can reproduce themselves in nature using sustainable agricultural methods that promote shade. This diet is without grains, legumes and animal flesh.
There are many books on the market about raw food diets; however I think this one provides a more scientific approach and presentation of information explaining exactly why raw foods may be the optimum diet for the human body. This review will attempt to convey some of the theory and information Annie and David Jubbs share in this book.
The chapter on the acid and alkaline body explains that the science of colloidal biology views the body’s vital functions as a synergy, with the blood and lymph nourishing the cells with electrons. Healthy cell tissue is dependent on carbon dioxide, oxygen and nutrition. Colloid forms of minerals and other nutrients help to promote blood vessel dilation, opening up the channels for the flow of the blood and lymph, and very interestingly, they say that sunlight alone activates more than two hundred enzymes.
A colloid is a substance that consists of ultra-fine particles suspended in a medium. One example given is insoluble minerals suspended in water, and colloid minerals are typically 0.01 to 0.001 microns in diameter, so small that a billion of them can be put into a cube that measures a mere 400,000th of an inch. In the science of colloidal biology the basis of healing is to maintain homeostasis, which involves the correct blood and tissue pH for proper acid/alkaline balance bringing about a therapeutic effect. Proper pH balance will bring about this therapeutic effect by maintaining enzymatic activity, generating electrostatic conditions for biochemical reaction, aiding the necessary biomechanics needed because of physical stresses and traumas, increasing the flow of blood and lymph by helping maintain cell metabolic activity which cleanses the body of accumulated dead cellular debris, and increasing immune function because of the flow of nutrients in an optimum biologically available form.
I found the chapter on feeding the Light Body interesting and will try to impart some of this information in an understandable manner here. As holistic health practitioners we are familiar with the energy body and quantum physics, and discussions about how our thoughts are energy much the same as light and sound are energy. The authors explain that we have both a physical body and a light body, and that both require the nourishment that LifeFood provides for growth and proper cell respiration. By feeding our physical body nutrients in an absorbable form and understanding Colloidal biology we become more alive and conscious. The light body is described as the end result of two waves that are both equal and opposite, that implode and cancel each other out, leaving behind a zero–point residuum wave. This zero-point residuum wave is a form of energy resonance that can both create or destroy electrons. The zero–point residuum wave feeds our light body. It creates our inner light and causes our bioenergetic field. The zero-point wave energetics and superconduction create our aura. This is called the Meisner effect. By feeding our light body this inner light grows to exceed the physical body, which is what is happening when we observe someone who appears to glow. A nice example we can all relate to is that of new love, when it charges up the light body and the lovers emit a golden glowing light as their aura.
The authors put forward that having spare electrons enables this glow to become permanent. When one learns how to properly feed their light body with LifeFood, which is very pure and retains its electrical life properties one can evolve to a state of joy and ecstasy, enhance their natural abilities to be psychic, telepathic and empathic. This make it rather compelling to rush out and buy their first book the LifeFood Recipe Book and try this interesting way of feeding ourselves raw, mostly blended foods, to see how it manifests and enhances our abilities as holistic health practitioners doesn’t it!
I found the following herbal recommendation very interesting. Apparently drinking a tea made from the herbal colloid made of chamaebatiaria nelleae (chamae) releases its abundance of light–bearing phytochemicals that feed the light body. This will enhance blood and pineal gland function. The blood carries the highest vibrational frequency in the body, approximately 80 kHz. The pineal gland has a vibrational frequency of 70 to 75 kHz. Drinking the tea of Chamae, which has its own resonant frequency of 88, kHz can raise the vibrational frequency of the pineal gland to 88kHz, which is considered to be quite a high vibration.
Our vital health requires some ninety minerals per day. The absorption of minerals is aided by the presence of friendly bacteria. The absorption process occurs when we transmute one element into another by biologically exchanging protons with an atom’s nuclei and assemble the required element. Our body’s cells can’t absorb minerals from cooked foods because the cooking process causes the available colloidal minerals to lose their anionic charge and become cationic. The cell membranes are made primarily of hydrogen ions that tend to be positive. Cationic minerals also have a positive charge and two positive charges will repel each other. The bioavailability of a nutrient is a measure of the nutrient’s ability to cross through the cell membrane. The bioavailability of minerals also depends on the mineral being in a colloidal form and the presence of digestive enzymes.
Other material covered in this book includes an interesting chapter on living blood and information on beneficial enzymes. LifeFood Nutritional Fasting is recommended as an aid to enhancing immunity and to heal the body. Proteolytic enzymes have the ability to activate macrophages, the garbage men of the immune system, and Natural Killer (NK) lymphocyte cells. Enzymes act as beneficial mediators to help control inflammation and produce tumor necrosis factor (TNF), produced by the immune cells and body cells to dissolve cancer cells. The macrophages produce neoplastic cytokines and cachectin.
Another compelling discussion in this book heightens our awareness of eating electrically charged alkalinizing live foods in contrast to the processed, packaged dead foods that come to us in after being contaminated by chemicals, pesticides, herbicides fungicides, antibiotics, hormones and preservatives and packaged in plastics and toxic metals. The contrast between live foods and dead foods is made very startlingly obvious by the author’s explanations of the impact of understanding colloidal biology and their message about their health enhancing LifeFood diet. For further reading on this subject read their LifeFood Recipe Book too.
Reviewed By Moira Khouri NC, MH, HHP, CCP
Faculty Member of GCNM
Exercise of the Month
Exercise Description: Glute Raises
Target Muscle: Glutes
Instructions:
Begin the exercise by lying down with knees bent as shown. Lift up buttocks. Lower and repeat.
Additional Article
Traditional Herbal Medicines: Green Cardamom (Eletteria cardamomum)
By: Moira Khouri NC, MH, HHP, CCP
Moira Khouri NC, MH, HHP, CCP
Ancient Roots
Cardamom is in the zingiberaceae family, and is a tropical shade-loving perennial plant that grows from a rhizome. Another variety is known as Thai cardamom, Amomum krervanh.
Cardamom is indigenous to India and Sri Lanka, and was harvested wild from the rain forests until the 20th century when cultivation began.
Classical sources mention Cardamom as an ingredient in Egyptian unguents, and it was imported into Greece to be used in perfumes according to writings of Theophrastus. It is called Sha ren in Chinese, Elaichi, Illaichi and Eylachi in Indian dialects, Ela in Sanscrit, the language of the ancient Ayurvedic Tradition of India, Hal in Arabic, Habahan in modern Egyptian Arabic, Kakoules in Greek, Kakule tohomu in Turkish, and Kardemomme in Danish.
In culinary use Cardamom compliments savory and sweet dishes, but is a pungent spice to be added sparingly. The bright green pods are crushed in a mortar and pestle and simmered in curry sauces and teas. The tiny seeds inside are finely ground and used in baking and other cuisine. Its many uses include being used in Danish pastries, cakes, biscuits, fruits such as pears and apples, in biryani rice dishes, in many curry spice blends, garam masala, satay and tagine spice blends. The finely ground seeds are often added to coffee in the Middle East to enhance the flavor, but it also reduces the acidity of coffee. It is one of the ingredients in Yogi Tea, which is similar to Chai, along with fresh ginger, whole cloves, cinnamon sticks and hot milk.
It is believed to have been traded by the Greeks in the fourth century AD although there is some confusion over the exact species of Zingiberaceae, because it was described, as being a vine plant so may not have been the same plant used today. In Rome in the first century AD it was being imported in large quantities and was considered one of the most favored Oriental spices in their cuisine. In addition to cuisine it was used to clean the teeth and sweeten the breath, a good strategy after meals laden with garlic!
Properties, Actions and Uses
In Ayurvedic traditional medicine Cardamom is aromatic, refreshing, slightly astringent, pungent and sweet, with a spicy, warm energy. Its actions are stimulant, expectorant, carminative, stomachic, and tonic. Organs and meridians affected are the spleen, stomach, lungs and kidneys. It is used to treat gastralgia, involuntary urination, spermatorrhea, phlegm, indigestion and gas. It is a good herb to include in lung tonics due to its anti-mucus stimulant effects. In TCM it is thought the small green cardamoms (Sha ren) are best for the kidneys, and the large white cardamoms (bai dou kou) are best for the lungs. In Ayurveda it is said to enkindle Agni, the digestive fire, and awaken the spleen, relieve gas, relieve pain, stimulate and strengthen the heart bringing joy, strengthen the lungs, open breathing, and refresh the mind bringing clarity. It decreases Kapha dosha (water & earth) and Vata dosha (air & ether), and increases Pitta dosha (fire & water). The essential oil of the plant consists of D-borneol, borneolacetate,
d-camphor, nerolidol, and linalool.
Nutrients
Per one teaspoon of ground Cardamom there are 18 calories, 1 mg of sodium, 4g of carbohydrate, 2g of fiber and 1g of protein. Cardamom is considered a good source of Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, potassium and zinc, and a very good source of dietary fiber, manganese and iron.
Sources:
Ayurveda, The Science of Self-Healing, by Dr. Vasant Lad
The Yoga of Herbs, by Dr. David Frawley and Dr. Vasant Lad
Planetary Herbology, by Michael Tierra, CA, ND
An Ancient Egyptian Herbal, by Lise Manniche
The Spice and Herb Bible, 2nd Edition, by Ian Hemphill http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/spices-and-herbs/176/2
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Search online for values in the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference.
