Acupressure Access: Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Acupressure Access: Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

My grandson Nolan - working hard!

2012 has come steaming down the track and I've had all I can do to keep out of its way!   For Christmas I had a little helper come to give the tracks a dose of angel dust - and that let us slow down and enjoy the holiday weekend!

Dawn Riley

2012 is seeing some changes in the office - I have a massage therapist "extern" which is such a great added offering for Hands-On Health!   Dawn Riley will be doing her student massage work at Hands-On Health/Acupressure Access.   Come in for a $30 full hour massage!   You are welcome to use your Punchcard if you have punches left!   We've done some revamping at the office, it is now wheelchair accessible and partitioned - we hope to have an open house in January.    But don't wait - call today for an appointment!   (712) 542-1100 or (712) 303-8504 to schedule!

Food is Fuel, How Well Are You Fueling Your Body? Your Children's Bodies?

 Is eating the standard cold cereal like eating a Twinkie in the morning?  Check out this eye opening report of the most popular cold cereal brands.

 Reported  by Environmental Working Group:

Cereals: Best and Good 

December 2011

Read the whole report at:    http://breakingnews.ewg.org/report/sugar_in_childrens_cereals/best_and_worst_cereals/ &utm_source=2011cerealyeand&utm_medium=email&utm_content=image&utm_campaign=food

10 Worst Children's Cereals

Based on percent sugar by weight

1	Kellogg's Honey Smacks	55.6%
2	Post Golden Crisp	51.9%
3	Kellogg's Froot Loops Marshmallow	48.3%
4	Quaker Oats Cap'n Crunch's OOPS! All Berries	46.9%
5	Quaker Oats Cap'n Crunch Original	44.4%
6	Quaker Oats Oh!s	44.4%
7	Kellogg's Smorz	43.3%
8	Kellogg's Apple Jacks	42.9%
9	Quaker Oats Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries	42.3%
10	Kellogg's Froot Loops Original	41.4%

Source: EWG analysis of nutrition labels for 84 children's cereals

 

All cereals on this list pass proposed federal guidelines* on sugar, sodium, fat and whole-grain content. They are free of artificial flavors, colors and artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose.

Best Cereals

Ask your store to carry these brands, which offer cereals free of pesticides
and genetically modified ingredients:
[see full list of best cereals]

• Ambrosial Granola
• Go Raw
• Grandy Oats
• Kaia Foods
• Laughing Giraffe
• Lydia's Organic
• Nature's Path Organics

6 Good Big-Brand Cereals

These meet nutrition guidelines and are easy to find but may include ingredients that are genetically modified or grown with pesticides:

• Kellogg's Mini-Wheats:
  Unfrosted Bite- Size,
  Frosted Big Bite,
  Frosted Bite-Size,
  Frosted Little Bite
• General Mills Cheerios Original**
• General Mills Kix Original**

Source: EWG analysis of nutrition labels for 84 children's cereals.

* The federal Interagency Working Group proposed voluntary guidelines for sugar, sodium, saturated fat and whole grain content (IWG 2011).
** These meet the Interagency Working Group's interim 2016 sodium guideline but not the final guideline scheduled to take effect in 2021 (IWG 2011).

That Cup of Joe............. the Connection Between Caffeine and Kidneys

Caffeine overuse is implicated in many health conditions, but how many of us really know why?   Homeostasis is what sets warm blooded animals apart from cold-blooded.  It is the process by which the body maintains a constant internal environment which includes maintaining a body temperature of 98.6 degrees (in humans,) as well as correct hydration levels so that nutrients are delivered to all parts of the body and wastes removed. The constant infusion of oxygen, fluid and food from the outside fuels these systems. 

Kidneys are the primary filtering agents of the blood, and this filtering process involves maintaining the proper hydration of the body. If a person isn't drinking enough water, the ADH (antidiuretic hormone) kicks in and slows down urine production.   Typically what happens when one does not drink enough water is that urine becomes more concentrated.  This is because the kidney's first job is to make sure there is enough fluid to maintain cellular activity. 

This means that  when you don't drink enough water the kidneys take care of the body fluids first, then what is left over goes to urine output.

The effect of caffeine on the kidneys is enormous. Caffeine overrides the ADH message to slow urine output, instead stimulating the kidneys to produce more urine, even though body systems may need more fluid. This creates dehydration in the body.  What this means in layman terms is that drinking several cups of coffee or caffeinated sodas a day stimulates the kidneys to keep producing urine in unnatural quantities which, in turn, robs cells in the body of needed fluids, as well as creating an extra workload on the kidneys.   

The real danger of drinking too many caffeinated drinks is that people often substitute them for water, which magnifies the dehydration effect on the body. 

Excessive use of caffeine over a long period of time contributes to kidney disease because of  the increased stimulation.   Kidney disease is an increasingly huge problem, filling the dialysis clinics with younger and younger people.  For the sake of your body, limit caffeinated drinks and drink plenty of pure water daily!

Flowers are more beautiful in a pain-free world..........

 Flowers are more beautiful in a pain-free world.........Update on my pain client: Prior to the beginning of treatment, he was taking 2 pain pills every 6 hours, and watching the clock for the last hour. After 1 month of treatment, 2 per week, he's taking meds every 8 hours and cut dosage to 1 1/2 pills! He is also working on some self-help to reduce appt schedule! Other nagging issues like right foot dragging, more pain with weather change has disappeared as well. Acupressure is amazing! And there are no bad side effects.

Acupressure for Pain Management

I have a young man coming to me for chronic pain.   He had an extensive surgery ten years ago, and has been on daily pain medication since then.    He had relief from the first treatment, and after 3 or 4 sessions he has been able to go 8 hours or longer between medications, even forgetting to take his med sometimes.   He has taken pain medication every six hours for years, and he told me that it had gotten so bad, he watched  the clock for his next pill.   That isn’t true anymore;  he still has to take it before the pain gets too bad, or it is harder to get it under control, but the pain isn’t the cutting sharpness that it was before, and so is more tolerable.   The challenge now is to get his body stabilized and teach him to do his own healing treatment.   Acupressure is a powerful, underutilized tool for pain management.    

Vivaxis - is your energetic umbilical cord in balance?

Acupressure is so much more than body work.   I’ve been working with some new modalities that really bring the emotional component into the work.   There is no “counseling” as such, I don’t get tearful confessions, or even know the issues:   it isn’t important to what I am doing.   But people shift, attitudes adjust, and often the client is able to move out of a pattern that has ceased to function effectively.    The most startling example is that of a woman who came to me with a myriad of symptoms – pain here or there, depression over a fading relationship that she’d been stuck in for about a year.   Her job was unsatisfactory and she had lots of “stucks.”     One of the first corrections that came up was for ‘vivaxis,’ which is a person’s connection to his/her place of birth.   

Because we have an energetic connection to our place of birth, when we live far from that place, we sometimes experience a vague sense of not belonging or dislocation.  I asked where she was born (out of state) and whether she suffered from homesickness, or any desire to return.   ‘No, not at all,’ was the reply, and it was somewhat emphatic.

We did the correction, which is a strange process, and one I hadn’t done many times.    In all, she did less than ten sessions over a period of a few weeks.

She called a few weeks after the last session and told me she’d spent a week with her family in her home state,  she’d broken off with her boyfriend and had found some job opportunities near her folks. She would be moving as soon as she could pack.   She sounded more animated than I’d ever heard, and she said she felt at peace and that this was what she’d been needing.  She thanked me and told me she knew that the Body Talk (the modality I’d used) had helped a lot.  

If a doctor told you to get acupressure therapy to decrease the healing time for a broken bone, it would decrease that healing time, and it wouldn’t be a pill that would cause mood swings or stress your heart, in fact it would help those issues.    That’s why I do acupressure.

Hoarding..... in mind, body & spirit

Old Shoes.   As I put on this crummy old pair of shoes, the right toe flapping loose, the whole shoe swimming slightly on my foot – it occurred to me (actually, I had an epiphany) I could throw these shoes away!   What an idea!  The only reason I have all of this old crappy clothing laying around is that I don’t throw it away!   Does anyone else find herself(himself) with ratty, old stuff that you somehow can’t (don’t) get rid of?!    It’s a large intestine issue.   In Traditional Chinese Medicine, holding on or hoarding are functions of an imbalanced large intestine meridian.   Often it also is reflected by … you got it …. Constipation.     It isn’t that uncommon for me to do a session with someone and they will say later his/her constipation went away.   One of the great ‘side effects’ of acupressure are the side effects!    So.   If you are constipated, try throwing something away, or clean a closet …. Or recognize and honor and release an old hurt, grudge or grief.    Our bodies hold our joy and our hurt just like we hold onto unusable shoes.    Happy Monday – may we all have joy in the beauty around us, and within us!

cancer food bible - Anti-Cancer, A New Way of Life

www.anticancerbook.com

If you have been diagnosed with cancer, or someone you love has been, the “must read” food bible is David Servan-Schreiber’s  Anti-Cancer, A New Way of Life.    This is a surprisingly readable handbook for eating to “not” feed the cancer while you fuel your body.   There are so many amazing stories in this book that it is hard for me to pick one out.   Servan-Schreiber is an MD and PhD as well as a cancer survivor, and makes the point that if you don’t change your life and the way you deal with it, the possibility of survival dramatically declines.    A friend asked him (after his successful cancer treatment) what he’d done to change his life to avoid recurrence.   The idea that he needed to change his life hadn’t even occurred to him.   When his cancer recurred, he got the message.   This book is an excellent chronicle of our changing (changed) environment and how it has changed the food we eat, including simple steps to minimize impact in your life.   Every person should read the book whether they’ve looked cancer in the face or not.

The Cleanse - aftermath

Quick update on “The Cleanse”   I feel great!  I still have a sore place at edge of right rib, but I think that’s a bruise from leaning over a gate!! It was worth it!!   I don’t have that feeling of rocks in the gullet.

My Personal Gall Bladder Cleanse

What I have noticed about Body Talk, a body tapping type of bodywork, is that it is very detoxifying.   While that is usually good, I began to notice that I had a pain under my right rib.   That pain is a classic symptom of gall bladder pain.   Since the gall bladder stores bile for the liver, it is also a great holding place for stones and all kinds of debris.   If my body is detoxifying,  it only makes sense that the liver is detoxing, too – and sending gunk to the gall bladder.   Adding that to our typical American diet which already stresses the gall bladder and liver.   I’ve researched liver/gall bladder cleanses before, but never done one.   Now I have.   I will admit it isn’t fun.   I used a combo of Paul Pitchford’s “Healing with Whole Foods” and Dr. Hulda Clark’s detox programs.    The steps are pretty simple.   Step 1:  eat a lot of apples, preferably green, and drink apple juice for one day.   That softens the stone.   Step 2:  drink a concoction of Epsom salts and water 2 times toward evening (even worse than it sounds!).  That relaxes and opens the bile ducts.    Step 3: drink an olive oil/grapefruit/lemon juice concoction and go to bed.  This purges the liver and moves the stones and junk out of the gall bladder.    This morning I was supposed to drink 2 more drinks of Epsom salts to clean the bowels.   Since that seemed to be happening pretty well with what  I’d already taken, I passed on the grand finale.    Today the program is light eating – fruit, vegetables, whole grains, no fat, meat or dairy.   By tomorrow I’m supposed to feel like a new woman.   I’ll let you know – but the pain in my mid-section is gone.    Liver/gall bladder cleanses are recommended twice a year, according to Dr Hulda.   Maybe that’s enough time to forget how that Epsom salts tastes.

Ps.   I chose not to do an intense analysis of the results, so I have no evidence of stones or other interesting keepsakes.   So don’t ask.  But I do feel better!

Where’s the Research in Acupressure and Alternative Therapies?

I was searching for documented alternative therapy cases for an article.  That turned out to be a lot of work and not much reward.  Over and over I read, “results could not be reliably duplicated,”  “results could not be confirmed.”  

When a new drug comes onto the market it has been tested and reviewed ad nauseam - and a lot of money has been poured into that process.    There is a lot of research and development around drugs for the simple reason that drug companies have a lot of money to invest (and a lot of money to gain) from successful testing.  

There isn't a lot of money to invest in acupressure research.  First of all - where would you start?   There are so many modalities, all independent and often independently developed, that the research and "reproducible" elements required for documentation would have to categorized and put into a clear, concise format used by all practitioners.   That alone would require a major organizational effort, but inroads are being made.   The benefits to the health care system are easily recognized – less cost, fewer negative side effects, and increased general well-being. 

Slowly alternative therapies are being included in doctors’ rehabilitation plans.   Our local hospital, Clarinda Regional Health Center, now offers massage therapy and hypnosis, and we are investigating ways to add acupressure to the list.  This is good news on many levels, not least being that there will be more clinically documented results as hospitals and clinics around the country add more alternative therapy options.

My point is that the lack of research isn’t lack of results -  just complications in documentation.   Be your own judge and try acupressure today!

Comments to share?    Just click on the “Comments” button at the bottom,   or do you have a story to share?   Email me at  bethsteeve@gmail.com    I’d love to hear from you!

Beth Steeve, Licensed Acupressure Practitioner

Acupressure Access and Hands-On Health

www.acupressure-access.abmp.com