Liver Renewal, PMS Balance, Thyroid Support!                       

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 Hi, This is Tessa of Self-Health Essentials.

I have been enjoying a book called "Juicing For Life" by Cherie Calbom and Maureen Keane.
Mind you, Robert and I have juiced for decades now…we have actually worn out a Champion juicer…which is hard to do if you know your juicers!

This book is so well done with a few exceptions (research has disproved their theories about soy) and a couple of other small points. I really like the way they share simple and tasty vegetable juice combinations. Cherie’s Cleansing Cocktail blew my mind at how a little ginger, a beet, an apple and carrots could taste sooooo good and have my body singing the Alleluia Chorus at the same time!

Anyway…I wanted to share another recipe that I have been enjoying from the book.They include it in their "Seven-Day Liver Cleansing Diet Guideline" pg 312
 

• Take one cup of very finely shredded carrots or carrot pulp from your juicing. The carrots should be shredded to a mushy consistency with a food processor or fine grater.

• Combine 1 Tablespoon of organic extra virgin olive oil and 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice. You can add more but never less.

• Pour this over the carrots and if you like, stir in currants and pineapple.

• If you want a gentle and effective cleanse do this each day for seven days. If you miss a day you need to start over.

My body is loving this simple yet effective nutritional action step. According to Dr. Peat, Ph.D. in his book From PMS to Menopause, eating raw carrots in this version can eliminate PMS, headaches and allergies. The use of oil and vinegar or fresh lemon juice intensifies the bowel-cleansing effect of the salad. If you wanted to try coconut oil instead of olive oil it could offer a thyroid promoting alternative.

Don’t take my word for it….make your step to self-health…..it could change your life!

 ©Self Health Essentials LLC 2012

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"Massage and movement stimulates circulation. Life is in the blood. The body repairs itself when it is functioning optimally. Increased circulation enhances youthfulness and vitality. Everyone needs massage and movement on a regular consistent basis to be optimally healthy. " author unknown

I wanted to share this quote with you because there is so much truth in it. There are as many types of massage as there are massage therapists.Individual and unique yet with common threads running throughout the modality called therapeutic massage.  It simply is one of the best ways to support your precious body in true wellness.

Let’s look at some information about the benefits of massage and movement….
Physical and mental oxygenation through movement and massage can increase  your energy and focus, can raise your metabolic rate, can improve your blood circulation and can activate your lymphatic system’s detoxification.

The mind moves into alertness and mental focus. Your natural chi or life force energy, can be stimulated and enhanced. It can help eliminate stress.

The brain can also move into an Alpha state which thereby creates a peaceful, meditative state of calmness, mind/body healing and wellness. Often after massage or meditative movement we can find ourselves in an altered state.

•  Reduction in muscle soreness, tension, stiffness, body aches and pains.
• Improved flexibility of muscles and joints, more limber – spinal alignment.
•  Improved function and regulation of internal organs and body systems.
•  Improved circulation of the blood – activated lymph drainage and detoxification.
•  Alleviation of stress related conditions – headaches, anxiety, depression.
•  The brain shifts into a relaxed Alpha brainwave state – mental focus.
  
• Steady weight loss correction if under or over weight, or menopausal (plus diet adjustment).
  
• Sound, restful sleep – increased energy, a wonderful sense of well-being.

These are just a few of the benefits one can receive from consistent movement and massage.

If you have never received a massage or do not have gentle movement built into your daily life, please consider exploring this wonderful modality.

©2012 Self-Health Essentials LLC

Nutritional Solutions for Mood Disorders and Depression Part I

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Did you know that it is our brain that makes us distinctly human? It is the basis of our emotions, memories, behaviors and moods. Because of our brain, we can read, write, compose and appreciate music, communicate with others and plan for the future. A balanced brain is the foundation for a life that is happier, more satisfying and one that can sustain healthy aging.  In this article we are looking at the importance of balancing lifestyle with nutrition to support each of us in a healthful approach to mood disorders.

Researchers believe most mood disorders are caused by complex chemical imbalances in the brain. The body responds to all sorts of factors both internally and externally from the thoughts we think to the kinds of foods we put into our body. In the field of nutritional science, we are looking for the most natural ways to support and balance those conditions using diet, supplementation, mind-body exercises and creative relaxation techniques.

Each year, almost 44 million Americans experience a mood disorder. 7-14% of children will experience an episode of major depression before the age of 15. While 20-30% of adult bipolar patients report their first episode during their 20s. Almost everybody will be challenged by depression at some point in their life. Research is showing that children are even more impacted by mood disorders than ever before. Statistics are showing pre-schoolers are the fastest-growing market for antidepressants. At least four percent of preschoolers — over a million children– are considered clinically depressed.

There are two primary classifications for mood disorders. They are bi-polar (also known as manic-depression) and depression alone.

Symptoms of Depression can include:                                                              

The second classification is Bi-Polar. It includes all of what is listed above with these following signs added:

What Can I do?

1. Create a plan, which works on changing your depression that includes: nutrition and dietary supplements, exercise and learning more about how to reduce stress and cortisol levels by more rest.
2. It’s important to realize that rest does not need to mean deep sleep. Listening to relaxing tapes or watching fish in a bowl can be restful. People with active mood disorders may need more rest because of the exhaustion from the emotions.
3. Breathing exercises are also very effective in bringing down anxiety or lowering tension and stress.
4. As a dietary strategy, one can use the Ziquin products as part of a nutritional plan for people who are challenged by mood swings and stress. The Mind and Body Tonic, EFA Complete and All Xymatic are foundational to finding balance between mind and body health. They can be useful in balancing the blood sugar, which helps people to stabilize cravings for sugar, feelings of irritability and loss of confidence.  It is important to keep nourishing the body since most people who suffer from depression will stop eating or eat too much of the wrong foods. Eating too many carbohydrates, sweets, caffeine drinks, drugs or alcohol can imbalance the brain. In the Mind and Body Tonic the vitamin B and D help to produce serotonin and melatonin which support the body to rest and relieve distress. 
   

© Self-Health Essentials LLC 2012

An Adrenal Supporting Lifestyle  

Managing the stress in your life is key to supporting your adrenals. The most important factor in managing the stress is understanding the mind-body connection in regards to stress. We know that what makes a situation stressful for one person may not be stressful for another. Remember the example of a person in a car stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic.  It can be perceived as an opportunity for listening to a self-health audiotape or perceived as highly frustrating. Either way the operative word is perception. Whether a situation is stressful or not is based on our perception. And our perception is based on what we believe to be true. Our beliefs determine our perception. So if we believe bumper-to-bumper traffic is stressful, guess what for us it will be. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can learn to change how we perceive things by changing how we look at things and yes even our beliefs. Letting go of our fears is the first step toward creating a fuller, more satisfying life. We need to seek joyful, loving and fulfilling activities, ones that stimulate us to grow and be happy at heart. After all we are worth it! Let this be our mantra. I do those things that give me joy and let go of those things not in harmony with my joy.

Providing nutritional support. Now let’s talk about a day-to-day adrenal supporting plan. 

On a fresh sheet of paper make a heading “health drains” and list everything and everyone in your daily life that are health-limiting factors. The following are examples;

Junk food, alcohol, overwork, chemicalized water, coffee, financial pressures, unhappy work or home environment, prescription or non-prescription drugs, lack of fresh air, tobacco, lack of sleep, soft drinks and chemical pollutants. The idea is to minimize as much as possible those health-limiting factors in your life that take away from supporting your adrenals and overall health.  

Someone who has adrenal fatigue have used up much of the body’s stored nutrients and are in desperate need of new supplies just to continue to function, let alone heal. Good quality food is the best source of these nutrient. Nutritional supplements can increase your ability to heal and speed your recovery.

If you have adrenal fatigue, when you eat is almost as important as what you eat. Low blood sugar is in itself a stressful situation that further drains yours adrenals. Therefore, avoid letting your blood sugar levels drop too low by eating natural, high quality food at frequent, regular intervals. Small high quality meals are ideal. It is important that you eat before 10:00 am. If you eat breakfast earlier in the morning around 8:00 am then you will want to have a snack around 10:00 am. You need to replenish your waning glycogen supply after the previous night’s energy requirements. Then lunch at noon, a snack sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 pm and your evening meal around 5:00 to 6:00 pm. Later in the evening, before bed, just a couple of bites of a high quality snack is often the key to successfully getting through the night without sleep disturbances or feeling wrecked in the morning.

It is best to combine fat, protein, and whole food carbohydrates at every meal and snack. Eating sugar or sugary foods is hard on your body. It makes blood sugar rise too high, too fast, and subsequently fall too low, leaving your body starving for fuel again.

Salt craving is a common symptom in all stages of adrenal fatigue. Most people with adrenal fatigue have low blood pressure, not high. Salt is a welcome addition to the diet in adrenal fatigue because it not only helps increase blood pressure, but also helps restore some of the other functions related to sodium loss within the cells. If you have concerns about taking salt and high blood pressure check with your doctor. We recommend natural unrefined sea salt and Ziquin Nanomeds. Another way to naturally increase sodium levels are to take sea vegetables like kelp and dulse.       

Vegetables that are high in sodium and helpful in supporting adrenal recovery include the following; kelp, dulse, green and black olives, beet greens, celery, zucchini, and Swiss chard. Please refer to the recipe for adrenal recovery soup that is posted on our blog.

People with adrenal fatigue are hugely lacking in several vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids and this is where high quality supplemental can speed recovery. Both Ziquin’s mind and body tonic and EFA complete is crucial to supplying the body and adrenals of the nutrients it so dearly needs. 

Summary of what to eat: Eat a wide variety of whole, natural foods. Combine a fat, protein and carbohydrate source with every meal or snack. Eat lots of vegetables, especially the brightly colored ones. Use unrefined sea salt if you crave it. Eat mainly whole grains and vegetable sources of carbohydrates. Eat high quality foods.

Adequate rest. For people with adrenal fatigue, it is important to be in bed and on your way to sleep by 10:30 pm. Although most people’s schedules do not allow it, it also helps to sleep in until 9:00 in the morning. For those who have a day job, sleeping in on the weekends until this time is highly beneficial. Sleeping in until 9:00 am gives your adrenals a chance to rest, allowing your cortisol levels to rise. Normally cortisol levels rise rapidly from 6:00 to 8:00 am, but quite often in adrenal fatigue these levels do not rise as high and/or drop faster than normal. Also when your cortisol levels are lower, as in adrenal fatigue, it takes longer to feel fully awake in the morning. Sleeping in, therefore, is not only restorative for your adrenals but also helps you feel much better when you wake up and during the rest of the day.

If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep this is a sign that your cortisol levels are probably low due to depleted or exhausted adrenal function. As mentioned before the reason you awaken in the middle of the night is due your body releasing adrenaline instead of cortisol to raise your blood sugar. This works as a brain stimulant, which naturally keeps you awake. To help counteract this have a light snack that contains protein, unrefined carbohydrate, and a high quality fat before going to bed, such as a slice of whole grain bread with almond butter.

1)     Be sure to get enough physical exercise during the day. Rapid breathing expels volatile gases out of your body that become harmful if they build up. The increased blood flow helps keep plaque from building up in your arteries while stimulating your liver to perform more efficiently. Cell function improves with accompanying acceleration of carbon dioxide, oxygen and nutrient exchange. Exercise normalizes levels of cortisol, insulin, blood glucose, growth hormone, thyroid, and several other hormones and puts more oxygen into your brain. Exercise also decreases depression.

2)     Avoid coffee, caffeine containing beverages and chocolate because they act as stimulants. These can interrupt sleep patterns and increase morning lows.

3)     If you are having difficulty going to sleep and usually watch TV or work on a computer late at night, try having an 8:00   PM limit on these visual stimuli.

4)      Some common herbs used to promote better sleep are hops, catnip, valerian root and licorice root.

5)     Try to schedule breaks around times when you feel more tired so that you can lie down for 15-30 minutes. Lying down is much more restorative than sitting, for the person with adrenal fatigue.

6)     Laughter. Norman Cousins found that two important keys to rebuild your adrenals are laughter and vitamin C. He laughed himself back to health from a debilitating disease. We recommend a whole food natural source of vitamin C like Acerola cherries.

© 2012 Self-Health Essentials LLC

All rights reserved

 Useful Magic

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Hello, this is Tessa from Self-Health Essentials. The story below so touched me I wanted to share it with you in this form. This is a sharing from one heart to another. I know I am only the conduit for the possibility that is available to each one of us. It is an honor for me to witness and facilitate Self-Health Energetics (Matrix/Access/Yuen + more) sessions like this one.

So, eating Soy is bad for me? Why?

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We receive many inquiries from our clients about Soy. One dear friend drinks soy milk as often as she can hoping it will assist her body with healthy aging.When in fact it is quite possibly speeding up her aging process.

There are many, many studies available to offer another view. The following comes from Dr Mary Eng and Sally Fallon in their book Eat Fat Lose Fat.

Today, many dieters try to meet their health requirements by eating foods based on soy, promoted as beneficial in many popular books and weight-loss plans. However, soybeans contain several toxins, and high-temperature chemical processing adds many more. As early as 1972, a soy-industry textbook (Soybeans: Chemistry and Technology) listed a number of well-documented toxic effects from soybeans—everything from endocrine disruption to undesirable changes in many organs.

The most serious problem with eating soy while you’re trying to lose weight is that soy is a goitrogen, that is, it depresses thyroid function. When your thyroid gland malfunctions, you tend to gain weight even when you eat very little. Dr. Dan Sheehan and Dr. Daniel Doerge, government researchers at the National Center for Toxicological Research, discovered that the anti-thyroid component of soy is the isoflavones or phytoestrogens, which inhibit the synthesis of thyroid hormone. All soy foods, including tofu, soymilk, protein bars and meal replacements, contain these thyroid-inhibiting isoflavones. In 1999, these researchers actually wrote a letter urging FDA to require a health warning on soy foods, rather than the health claim the agency eventually approved.

Soy foods also contain anti-nutrients known as phytic acid which blocks mineral absorption, and enzyme inhibitors that block the enzymes needed for protein digestion.

Reading labels is very useful especially when it comes to soy. Over the years we have removed soy from our diet and happily so.If you would like to learn more about this topic, the book, The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, is a must read. This is an area that one is best served as a Self-Health sleuth!

Nutritional Supplementation….

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It is a myth that we get all the vitamins, minerals, trace elements, enzymes, antioxidants, amino acids, fatty acids, and other unknown factors needed on a daily basis in our diets. Our foods lose essential nutrients at every step of the process from their growth to our dining tables. It starts with the nutrient-depleted soils in which the crops are grown, then the loss accelerates during food shipping, processing, storage, and finally, cooking.

Even if we ate a balanced diet, our food has less nutrition to begin with because it is raised using synthetic chemicals, and then it is stored and processed to within an inch of its life. Literally!

So supplementing our diet with vitamins and mineral is a good idea. It is a good way to makeup nutrients missing in the soil and to makeup for lost nutrients in the processing and handling of our food. And, it is a good way to pay back the nutritional debt that most of us have acquired from a deficient diet and stressful lifestyle.

Once we decide that taking some form of vitamin and mineral supplement is a good idea; we face another problem and that is what form of supplement to take. First, you should know that not all supplements are created equal. We have been led to believe that our bodies do not know the difference between vitamins synthesized in a laboratory and vitamins that occur naturally in fruits and vegetables. This simply is not true.

You will find three types of vitamins sold today: first, natural whole food supplements, second, fractionated vitamins, and third, synthetic vitamins.

Whole food supplements come from whole foods and the foods they come from are usually printed on the label. They are obtained by taking a vitamin-rich plant, removing the water and fiber in a cold vacuum process, free of chemicals, and then packaged for stability. Temperatures above 112 degrees start to destroy the enzymes that are important to the vital life force of food and the supplements made from it.

Fractionated vitamins start with whole food but the food is processed under high heat, solvents and chemical distillation processes. These processes destroy almost all of the enzymes, antioxidants, trace elements and other factors that are needed for your body to use these vitamins. These processes actually can cause vitamin deficiencies even though that is why we take them, to alleviate vitamin deficiencies. Companies that make fractionated vitamins claim that their products come from whole foods, which is true, but as you now know most of the nutrients in the food have been destroyed in the processing.

Synthetic vitamins are created in a chemist’s lab. They take chemicals and duplicate the molecular structure of a nutrient found in nature. There are some problems with this process. First, a single nutrient is not the whole vitamin complex from which it was derived. For example, synthetic vitamin C is usually labeled as ascorbic acid and most people consider this to be the real vitamin C found in whole foods, but this is not so. The isolated nutrient, in this case, ascorbic acid, is not the vitamin C complex that is found in nature. The vitamin C complex in nature contains, in addition to ascorbic acid: rutin, bioflavonoids, Factor K, Factor J, factor P, tyrosinase, ascorbinogen, and other nutrients; some known and some unknown, synergistically packaged in a way that is readily recognized by our bodies.

This is not the case with synthetic vitamins. In fact scientific studies have shown that naturally occurring nutrients have a right-hand spin at a molecular level whereas synthetic vitamins have a left-hand spin. Try as they may chemists have not found a way to duplicate nature in this regard. Quite simply, our bodies do not recognize synthetic vitamins and treats them as toxins. Your body naturally tries to eliminate toxins but it takes nutrients and energy to do this. So, by taking large doses of a part of the vitamin C complex, like ascorbic acid, instead of making up for lost nutrients, the body expends more energy to rid the body of a substance that was intended to help it.

The human body cannot use a synthetic vitamin as it can natural vitamin complexes, which easily find their way into cells and tissues of the body. Instead, a synthetic vitamin has a drug-like effect in the body, it masks or covers over symptoms, but does not alleviate a nutritional need.   

Please beware that the vitamin industry is dominated by six pharmaceutical companies that produce about 97% of all materials for the synthetic vitamins we find on store shelves. These vitamins are made from coal tars and use artificial colorings, preservatives, coating materials, and other additives.

Whole food supplements from food sources that are properly prepared preserve the vital “lifeforce” of the original food that synthetic vitamins cannot duplicate. This lifeforce is the synergy of nature, and synthetic vitamins lack this capacity. 

Living things can be produced only from living things, never from non-living matter. Chemically pure, refined, fractionated, and synthetic vitamins are dead, inert materials, non-perishable, and devoid of enzymes. Natural foods contain live vitamins, organic minerals, enzymes, and other vital, functional, alive, components, all organized by the sun, water, and living soil. Whole food supplements preserve this natural organization and are therefore the only vitamin supplement that truly supports and revitalizes the body.

This article is copyrighted© Self Health Essentials LLC 2012, but you have my permission to share it through any medium as long as the proper credit line is included.

What are the Therapeutic Benefits of the CZ Infrared Heater?

Far-infrared heat has many therapeutic effects on the body due to it’s penetrating ability deep into the tissues.  Other forms of heat or light do not penetrate as far below the surface of the body.
As the Infrared heat penetrates the skin, the light energy is transformed into thermal energy.  This deep tissue heat in turn produces many health benefits such as:

• Improved circulation
• Stimulates cellular metabolism which increases oxygenation and detoxification of the cells
• Stimulates regeneration and healing
• Reduces inflammation, swelling and pain
• Increases flexibility in muscles and joints
• Provides penetrating warmth

Far-infrared has gained tremendous popularity and is widely used now in many applications, from providing warmth for premature and newborn babies in incubators to adjunctive treatment in cancer therapy.

An additional and important component of the CZ Infrared heater is the interaction of the infrared waves with the copper ionization panels in the heating chamber, generating beneficial negative ions which are released into the air.

Negative ions have a profoundly enhancing effect on overall health and well-being.  It is that supercharged invigorating feeling that you get when standing by a waterfall or after a rain.

Negative ions also have a cleansing effect on the atmosphere, neutralizing pollutants such as smoke, dust and many other pollutants.

Conventional heat sources produce just the opposite, positive ions, which cause irritation and fatigue and general malaise in the body.  Positive ions are abundant in areas where there is high pollution and smog.

The CZ Infrared heater not only produces the most efficient and effective heat, but it is the only heater that actually improves your overall air quality as it heats.  Besides it’s production of therapeutic far-infrared heat and it’s negative ion generating ability, we have also added a lifetime electrostatic air filter that filters out dust particles.

We have received some wonderful feedback from our customers with health challenges that have remarked on how better their joints feel, and how much easier their breathing is and how much less skin and sinus irritation they are experiencing, even so much as to mention that they notice a lesser incidence of colds and flus in the winter since they started heating with the CZ Infrared heater.

Diminished indoor air quality caused by most heaters in the winter is one reason that the body is more susceptible to colds and flus and sickness during this season.

Truly, the CZ Infrared heater is so much more than just an effective heater. It provides wonderful, fresh, oxygen rich air and very comfortable, cozy, soft, natural therapeutic heat.

Copyright © Self-Health Essentials LLC