Staying Healthy @ Work – Supplements
24 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
There is an inverse ratio between how far removed we are from the natural world and the quality and enjoyment of the foods that we experience. Where we live in the California Wine Country many of the foods served in the high end restaurant come from within twenty miles from the kitchen. The typical lunch you pick up at a deli market is fresh and delicious.
When we travel around the country, or even in the more urbanized sections of California, I immediately notice the difference in quality. Consider airline food; there is nothing about flying in an airliner that connects to our normal sense of nature, and that explains the food. Let’s take it one step higher; the meals astronauts consume bears little resemblance to what you put on your dining room table. The farther from nature, the farther from vitality and flavor!
The modern work place is a synthetic construct, electrified, plasticized and sealed. At the same time, modern work often requires repetitive motions and physical positions that restrict the human design, which is capable of an amazingly wide variety of motions. Billions have been spent getting robots to do just a small percentage of actions that the body does effortlessly.
If you are going to force your body into a specialized set of actions within a constrained environment, you need to replace those nutrients that consumes at a high rate of speed. This is like any professional athlete. Shooting a basket well requires a repetitive action on a clearly defined environment that stresses the body in unique ways. Professional athletes take large amounts of nutritional supplements, on top of eating a carefully planned diet. If you want to perform at your best in your work environment you need to do the same.
Luckily, a computer isn’t as demanding as a basket hoop, unless you strap yourself to it all day, and then it demands more of certain nutrients than even a full court press. The key is to know what your work demands and then supplement with that. For anyone who works with computers the number one supplement is Magnesium, the relaxing mineral.
Electromagnetic fields make muscles tighten, so the body pours reserve Magnesium into the blood stream to insure an unobstructed flow. Historically humans have never been so continually exposed to electromagnetic fields, so our diet doesn’t provide enough of this important alkaline mineral. Between 500 to 1000 milligrams of Magnesium daily is a great way to reduce headaches, neck pain, constipation and even stress induced heart murmurs.
It will make you less grouchy too. Remember, we get back what we put out, so when you are in a better mood people are nicer to you. If your work place is very stressful, or you sit in what we call an ‘antagonistic position’ that challenges your body, then you need to feed your adrenals. Those little cone shaped glands sitting on top of your kidneys are gluttons for Vitamin C, one of the important immunity nutrients. That’s why stressful work situations suffer from higher than average sick days. But, before you start guzzling orange juice and popping citrus based tablets, let me tell you a secret.
Many people’s ‘arthritis’ symptoms are made worse by orange juice. It is too acidic, and those chewable tables are hard on the teeth and gums. The best source of vitamin C is an herb that you are very familiar with, every time you see a rose bush. Because a rose is not just a pretty face, it has talents too. The red hip that forms after the flowering is a wonderful source of Vitamin C and Vitamin A, in a buffered form that won’t upset your tummy or add to the acid load on your joints. A couple of capsules daily will feed your adrenals, fortify your body, and put a sparkle back in your eyes.
Very important, make sure you use very high quality supplements; otherwise it’s a waste of money and time. On our site we have links to our favorite company, Nature’s Sunshine. Of course, there are other supplements that help fortify our bodies in the work place, but these two, Magnesium and Rose Hips, are a great place to start.
I’m Dr. Ralph de Amicis, signing off in Sonoma.
Happy Chinese New Year for the Metal Rabbit
02 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
One of the most powerful tools in creating healthy work and living spaces is knowing how to identify your personal directions. People have preferences, and personality types are drawn to face specific directions. You see this all the time whenever you set us a room where people can sit facing a wide variety of directions. sometimes it looks like they planned it, as if each team chose to sit together.
It has taken many years of study and experience to learn and codify this, and we love having this tool handy because it is remarkably important to enhancing personal performance. In the course of this process we became, without realizing it, Futurists. In other words, people who pull together a wide variety of information and forecast what is going to happen in a specific field.
The thing about forecasting is that you have to start the forecast somewhere, so we use the Chinese New Year, for a number of good reasons, not the least of which is that it is the most celebrated festival in the world, and it is based on a specific astronomical alignment, the New Moon in Tropical Aquarius. For our forecast we use a combination of cyclic research and some tools from traditional Western Astrology, all combined with an intense attention to global politics and economics in several language. For the past fifteen years we have been doing a location specific, global forecast that we publish on our website.
We don’t charge for the forecast. Instead we offer it as a traditional Chinese New Year gift to our family, friends, students and clients, hoping that it will provide some helpful insight as they navigate the year ahead.
You can read it on screen or as a PDF at www.SpaceAndTime.com.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis
Why is Ophiuchus showing up in the news recently?
14 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment
Why has Ophiuchus, or as he is known by his other name, Asclepius (the healer) showing up in the news recently? Because of the transits of planetary bodies through that part of the sky! The first thing that I should make clear is that Ophiuchus overlaps other constellations on the ecliptic, Scorpio and Sagittarius are bound together pretty tightly in that part of the sky, and Ophiuchus dips his toe in the little bit of space in between. Before they redrew the constellations in 1930 Ophiuchus didn’t even get his toe near the ecliptic. The stars that make up the constellation sit mostly far north of the path that the planets travel along.
But there are some travelers that wander farther afield and most notable among them are the four most prominent asteroids. Coincidentally, Pallas Athena is currently riding high above the ecliptic among the stars of Ophiuchus. Considering recent events in Tucson Arizona, the fact that Pallas represents advocates, like Congress women, is very telling.
The traditional connection of Ascelepius to healing says a lot about society’s collective attention on the medical treatment and progress that the survivors of the Tucson attack are making. When I heard that the little girl who was killed was born 9-11-2001, in the Sun sign of Virgo, I immediately thought, ‘Where is the asteroid Vesta, related to Virgo, the Virgin, and feminine archetypes?’ When I opened the charts there was Vesta directly south of Ophiuchus and Pallas on the ecliptic, near both Mercury and Pluto.
When you look at the sometimes negative references to this constellation remember that healers in the ancient world were not viewed positively. Generations of medical TV show dramas have engendered a much more heroic connotation, but then, as now the need or arrival of a Physician was seen as a negative experience; it meant there was an accident or disease to be addressed. Not a good thing! Even today healing is not an exact science and physician-caused death is still among the largest killers.
The fact that these three constellations, Scorpius, Ophiuchus and Sagittarius come together at a deeply spiritual point called the Galactic Center says a great deal about the nature, and difficulties associated with healing. Have the recent events spurred society to heal the rifts, the polarities that have blocked cooperation and solutions to pressing problems? When Ophiuchus, the healer appears it makes us focus on the way we live our lives and the way in which we create our own well being, as individuals and as a society.
Ralph DeAmicis
www.SpaceAndTime.com
“Holiday Cheer Without Fear!” (gallbladder health)
06 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in Natural Health Tags: gallbladder, health, liver, Natural Health
With the Holidays right around the corner, we look forward to celebrating with friends and family. Tradition often means Mom’s Twice Baked Potatoes or Aunt Sue’s Butter Cookies. Gravies, sauces, alcoholic beverages and rich desserts are our reward after working hard all year. But we can undo a year of good health in the last six weeks of the calendar if we are not careful. Office parties, family gatherings and special events conspire to undermine the most health conscious among us.
Rich foods put an extra strain on the liver and gallbladder that are already stressed by medications, household chemicals and estrogen dominance. Estrogens affect both men and women since many common foods contain them. They cause bile to thicken, leading to gall stones or worse. Many people lose their gallbladder needlessly instead of taking a few preventive measures.
The jobs of these two organs are to process fats and toxins that enter the body and sort them out from the nutrients that need to be distributed to various other organs. That is a lot of work on a clean diet, let alone the kind of diets we commonly accept in modern society.
The number of young women who lose their gallbladder as a side effect of using birth control pills (BCPs) is astounding. The same risk is true for women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) since both contain synthetic estrogen. Estrogen presents an almost greater risk for men since they are not equipped to handle this hormone in any significant amount. Xeno-estrogen is the term given too many synthetic chemicals commonly found in our environments in the form of household cleaners, air fresheners and OTC and prescription medications. This term means that these chemicals behave like estrogen in the human body.
Don’t eat late in the day when these organs are naturally slowing their functions. Gallbladder time is 9PM when it has to stop worrying about everyone else’s needs and concentrate on rebuilding itself. Liver time is 1AM when the liver has to devote energy to renew itself instead of looking out for everyone else. Digestion should be over long before 9PM so this renewal can be given the attention it requires.
Enzymes, especially lipase to digest fats, really help the liver and gallbladder do their jobs more easily and completely. It is in the digestive process that the nutrients are separated from the toxins. The liver and gallbladder are the gatekeepers that keep the riff raff out and allow the elite through the door. When enzyme levels are low, digestion is incomplete and often the toxins are bounced out and sometimes the honored guests get booted with their cruder bystanders. Enzymes help to ensure that the digestive process allows for the easy separation into their appropriate categories.
Hi-Lipase is a must for digesting fatty Holiday fare. Food Enzymes are another choice if you still have your gallbladder and want to keep it! Since Food Enzymes contains bile salts, it would be irritating to someone who has already had their gallbladder removed. In that case, choose Proactazyme as your enzyme supplement to ensure proper digestion.
Silymarin found in Milk Thistle has been shown to renew liver cells. It sure soothes a cranky liver! Many people have used it to repair after a bout of hepatitis. A much researched active, studies have noted that silymarin even has a beneficial effect on cells damaged by cirrhosis. With Holiday Eggnogs and Champagne toasts on the horizon, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you’ve already overindulged, nip that hangover in the bud with some Milk Thistle for breakfast! The Timed Release formula is a great way to feed your liver all day long.
Ginger, Fennel and Wild Yam are just some of the herbs that help both of these organs to function properly. Gallbladder Formula contains these plus Oregon grape, Cramp bark, Peppermint and Catnip; 7 herbs and only one bottle to open! Sounds a lot like a healthy version of a Holiday Dinner right there!
Fresh lemon juice in water makes a terrific daily cleanser. The juice of one half a lemon daily can do wonders for a stressed liver and gallbladder. Add a few drops of Lemon EO to your shower gel and use over the liver area! A citrus fresh way to start the day!
Drs. Ralph & Lahni de Amicis, NDs are natural health educators living a healthy lifesylte in beautiful Sonoma, CA. They can be contacted through their westie at http://herbsarefood.net
Calcium and the Paleo Herbalist
22 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Paleo Herbalist Tags: calcium, caveman, diet, Paleo
One of the oddest things about adopting the Paleo diet is the way it affects our choice of supplements. For example, one of the premises of physiology is that the foundation of the nervous system is calcium. So, when you are dealing with stress you add load up on calcium. But, one of the oddities of the SAD diet, or Standard American Diet is that grains and beans block the absorption of calcium and other minerals.
When you abandon those foods the large mineral sources in animal protein and vegetables are absorbed much more effectively. This is where it gets interesting. Thanks to the high level of electromagnetic exposure many people deal with thanks to computers, cell phones and AC wired houses, their needs for magnesium has gone through the roof.
Magnesium and calcium are polarities, the first relaxes and the second tightens. When you consume supplements that are high in calcium the body constricts, this may result in tight muscles, headaches, chest pain and heart palpitations. During the pre-Paleo days we wouldn’t have this reaction, and to such small amounts. For instance, I sometimes use an herbal combination from Natures Sunshine called Stress J. One of the ingredients that you notice from the scent is Valerian. That worthy herb is very high in calcium, and while I never had a problem with it before, now taking more than one gives me a calcium headache.
Now, we walk our talk and take a good number of supplements, and Lahni is the Countessa, she loves to count and is a wonder of accounting. So, imagine my surprise when she told me that our supplement costs were down 30%. That happened while we have been feeling much better. For instance this year Lahni has been driving wine tours in our little transportation company. I couldn’t imagine her doing that last year. From last season to this our cost for car washes are down dramatically despite our tours being up 25% or more. Why, because I washed the cars myself much more often because I felt better.
Last year I would head to the car wash to wash our one car because I was tired and in pain. This year I washed the two cars because it saved me money and was good exercise, and then I’d head into the office to write out tour books, Apps and Blogs.
The only mineral that I take daily anymore is a Magnesium Combination. There is more than one kind of Magnesium and they work on different systems. I used to take large amounts of essential fatty acids. Now I take one Omega 3 and one Super GLA every other day. Because we live in wine country, a place subject to large amounts of airborne yeast, I take daily Flora. One of the things that you learn around the wineries is that bacteria and other microbes compete. So I focus on getting the friendly ones working for me.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are Master Herbalists and Naturopathic Physicians. You can find their books and other products plus a wealth of useful information at http://www.SpaceAndTime.com and you can contact them at Lahni@spaceandtime.com
Tumors and the Paleo Diet
13 Nov 2010 1 Comment
in Paleo Herbalist Tags: Cancer, diet, Paleo, solutions, tumors
A friend contacted me about a member of his extended family who was diagnosed with cancer of the liver and gall bladder. The patient was in his eighties and was otherwise pretty healthy. I can hear what you’re thinking, ‘The man has cancer, how can he be considered healthy?’ Well, tumors and cancers are just things the body deals with, and they take their cues from the body’s overall level of vitality.
If the body is experiencing a high growth rate, as in a young child, that rate translates rapid growth. If the person is elderly the cancer will grow very slowly, because the person is growing slowly. Often times during autopsies tumors and cancers are discovered that the body has walled off, the way that an oyster encapsulates a grain of sand into a pearl. As far as that oyster is concerned there is no reason to get rid of that grain of sand, because it has been handily taken of care of. The problem for the oyster comes from being pulled from the sea and the pearl being dug out.
In the same way, the problems escalate when squeezing the breast for a radioactive mammogram burst the protective capsule, spreading the toxin pathogen throughout the system. Invasive surgeries to biopsy can let the nasty genie out of its bottle. Sometimes the best thing to do is keep that cork in place and encourage the body to dissolve the tumor’s hold in the body.
As part of the process of addressing that, let’s look at why breast, reproductive and children’s cancer are so dangerous. Because they are about growth and renewal and when the conditions in the body let a tumor get a foothold it taps into that and thrives. The key is to create conditions that don’t let them get a foothold, and when a tumor is entrenched, create the conditions that help the body dissolve and dislodge it.
The first thing to do is drive out the yeast and then eat a diet that doesn’t promote it. The Paleo diet is one of the best that I’ve seen for that. Without the sticky, sweet grains, sugar, beans and dairy the yeast loses its main foods. Adding in herbs like Pau D Arco, Olive Leaf, Juniper and Uva Ursi help reduce the yeast load while strengthening the glands and organs which are most impacted by the nutritional aberration called the Modern American Diet.
If high sugar levels persist a small amount of Golden Seal daily brings that down. It has the additional advantage of cleaning out infections and healing old scar tissue. But we mean small amounts, low blood sugar, with its weakness, fogginess and anxiety attacks is something to be avoided. Too much Golden Seal, just like too much GTF Chromium, can reduce the blood sugar levels quite quickly.
A sweet, sticky environment is perfect for a tumor to nest in. In the same way an inflamed body, with its rough surfaces gives the tumor something to hook onto. If you look at an athletes muscles under a microscope after a marathon the surface looks like a minefield with frayed and broken strands. A continuing state of inflammation does this as well, abrading the tissue. The Paleo Diet is powerfully anti-inflammatory.
When you add Omega 3 oil from cold water fish, and for women, natural progesterone sources like wild yam you add the necessary lubricants so the surfaces slide against each other smoothly, reducing damaging friction and heat. Progesterone is one of nature’s most powerful anti-inflammatory materials, manufactured in the ovaries and placenta to prevent rejection of the fetus. Mexican wild yam contains very similar materials that the body can use to feed the hormonal system. But the key is to not cause the inflammation in the first place by consuming the irritating foods that have no place in the Paleo Diet.
Once you provide this kind of low inflammation, yeast free environment it is much easier for the body to work at dissolving and dislodging tumors, because the pearl is no longer needed.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are Master Herbalists and Naturopathic Physicians. You can find their books and other products plus a wealth of useful information at http://www.SpaceAndTime.com and you can contact them at Lahni@spaceandtime.com
Arthritis and the Paleo Herbalist
16 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in Paleo Herbalist Tags: arthritis, diet, pain relief
A report came out the other day stating that 1 in 5 Americans suffer from arthritis. That is a horrific statistic and the entire fault of it can be laid at the feet of the dysfunctional Standard American Diet. The other day I was wine touring with a Naturopathic Physician from Seattle, a lovely woman, smart, healthy, educated and dedicated. Even though we all spent most of the day talking about wine country, she and her husband had Googled us and knew about our other work, healing.
Drs. Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are Master Herbalists and Naturopathic Physicians. They run a Paleo Herbalist support group conference call/webinar for those who share those combined interests. For more information and join the group email Lahni at Lahni@spaceandtime.com. You can find more information about their books at www.SpaceAndTime.com.
They had seen how involved we are in the Paleo Diet of which she is also a big fan. She cut right the core benefit when she said, “It is so anti-inflammatory”. She is so right! One of the first things you notice when you adopt the diet is your pain levels drop. If you have been taking Glucosamine, Condroitin and MSM to rebuild damaged joints steer towards the Paleo Diet and see those supplements work for you like never before. Nature’s Sunshine’s Everflex combination includes these in a body of wonderful herbs. The body is complex, that’s why combinations with their diverse elements work so well for certain problems.
Anytime the letters ‘itis’ is added to a word it means inflammation. The biggest cause of inflammation is excessive acid in the tissue. All foods are a combination of acid and alkaline in varying proportions. Grains, beans, dairy and sugar are all predominantly acidic foods. So are lean meats, fish and nuts. The former group provides small amounts of protein and includes components that block mineral absorption and slow metabolism. That’s why Paleo avoids them. The latter group provides large amounts of high quality protein without restricting absorption. That’s why Paleo embraces them. The body is mostly protein and it needs to be replenished on a regular basis to maintain high vitality.
When a person consumes lots of acidic foods that don’t provide the essential material necessary to rebuild the body’s tissues they break down and become inflamed by the excessive acids. When it happens in the joints it’s called Arthritis and currently one of every five people you know suffers from that. No wonder they are grumpy. Improve your diet, pass on the word about Paleo and make a happier world.
Attitudes and the Paleo Herbalist
13 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in Paleo Herbalist Tags: attitudes, diet, food
One of the odd results of living with the Paleo Diet is the sense of wonder at what people eat! Honestly I’m used to this. I started studing natural healing in my teens and in my early twenties started my first herbalist shop. My life has been a nutritional experiment, something that many people can relate to. As far as I can recall I’ve never survived on the SAD diet, as in Standard American Diet.
Like many twenty year olds I was briefly a vegetarian. 90% of vegetarians are still in their 20’s. Being a big athletic guy it didn’t sit well with me. Later on I realized that there are no ‘old’ vegetarian societies, the deficiency of the amino acid l-Carnitine, so important to the heart and other muscles, creates a nutritional hole that wears down the vegetarian vitality at an early age. L-Carnitine is only found in abundance in animal or fish. The lack makes vegetarians wrinkly.
Over the years my diet has been quite good and supplemented by high potency herbs and other nutritional products. Early on in my 20’s I steered away from soy products. This was something Jethro Kloss in his book ‘Back to Eden’ espoused, but my body never liked the results it yielded. I still consider it too estrogenic, and like most beans it blocks the absorption of minerals. Every time I hear someone ordering a soy latte I gather my resolve to knock it out of their hand and save them from themselves, but I rarely do.
Not surprisingly I’ve spent years watching people eat things that I don’t even consider food, but as we’ve adopted the Paleo Diet that experience has escalated. We used to eat rice pasta, so when I saw someone having a bowl of wheat pasta as least the illusion was there, it might be rice. But then we gave up rice along with the other grains and now it just looks like a bowl of paste to me, sticky white paste. Real appetizing! The other day clients asked me for a cheese suggestion to go with wine. After telling them that I don’t eat dairy and haven’t for years I suggested a nice Fontina. I remember what it tastes like; I just don’t want to feel the way it makes me fill, stuffy and sluggish.
Do other people go through this, looking in wonder and mild disbelief at what people eat? Feel free to share.
I’m going to write an open letter to Whole Foods and explain that I don’t need such a big store. Just leave the produce section, including the frozen, the meat and fish section, condiments and oils, spices, coffee and wine, the prepared food section because we get busy and the sparkling water section. You can include the chips because sometimes you need a little crunch in your life. Oh yeah, don’t forget the coffee section because that’s where I get my Sunday San Francisco Chronicle. If they shrunk the store imagine how much they would save on electricity. Opps! I forgot the books, keep the books too because knowledge is the key to improving the quality of life!
Drs. Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are Master Herbalists and Naturopathic Physicians. They run a Paleo Herbalist support group conference call/webinar for those who share those combined interests. For more information and join the group email Lahni at Lahni@spaceandtime.com. You can find more information about their books at www.SpaceAndTime.com.
Thyroid and the Paleo Herbalist
07 Oct 2010 2 Comments
in Paleo Herbalist Tags: Paleo Diet, protein, thyroid
We were talking with friends about the Paleo Diet the other day and one of the things it pointed out was how much people don’t know about foods. This was a person who had worked in the food industry for many years. He had bought and shipped millions and millions of dollars of food for his own company and for other companies. One of the companies that he worked with sold their products through Whole Foods. They had been with them for years and it had helped make them a very large operation.
Yet his sense of what made a good protein source came out of the same misconceptions many people suffer from. I was explaining that a key part to boosting the metabolism was eating lean protein first thing in the morning. That’s something like tuna or white turkey breast, 60% to 90% lean protein. He was thinking nuts, 30% lean protein.
Most people think of metabolism as the sole territory of the thyroid. But Chinese medicine quite correctly sees metabolism as coming from three sources, the proverbial triple warmer. Heart and thyroid is one center, digestion is another, and reproductive is the third.
The key here is that when you consume lean protein first thing in the morning it makes the body work harder to use that nutrition and in the process the metabolism cranks up. Once it’s up to speed it tends to stay there. In the same way having the ‘hots’ for somebody cute definitely gets the hormones going and warms up the entire system. Working hard and stressing the heart warms the system.
Thyroid drugs have been among the most prescribed in the nation for many years, but the thyroid, like many glands is very small. The amount of hormone excreted is tiny yet powerful. But, hormonal glands are moderators. The problem our society has is that we depend upon the glands to be prime movers. If you give the body the correct foods; lean meats and fish, vegetables and fruits, nuts and seed and pure water you don’t have to goose the hormonal system with drugs like prodding an animal with a cattle prod.
www.spaceandtime.com
Weight Loss, Tight Skin and the Paleo Herbalist
30 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
Anyone who has lost a lot of weight knows that saggy skin often results. Over time it tones up but is there any way to help that along? Fortunately the Paleo Diet is high in lean protein containing l-Carnitine. This amino acid creates the long chain protein strands that tighten the skin. Help the process by supplementing with l-Carnitine daily, preferably on an empty stomach.
All of the amino acids benefit from being taken on an empty stomach because stomach acid can work on them to full effect. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and part of stomach acid’s job is tearing apart incoming protein into those building blocks. A Protein has a Program and your digestive system is designed to not let those outside proteins inside.
Spider and snake bites and most other toxic invaders are proteins; they have programs that are different from yours. By taking the amino acids or any protein on an empty stomach you optimize the conversion into something useful. Another product that helps restore the skin is collagen. Nature’s Sunshine’s Collatrim is a good source of this product. For weight loss take it in the evening on an empty stomach. The first couple of hours of sleep are when protein production takes place, fat is burned away and lean muscle produced.
One of the side benefits of consuming protein and amino acids on an empty stomach, or without the sticky grains, beans, dairy and sugar excluded on the Paleo Diet, is a much better mood. A lack of the amino acids that contribute to the brain’s neurotransmitters is a cause of depression, anxiety and related issues. Plenty of lean protein and amino acids throughout the day boosts the mood while it tones the skin. What a nice coincidence!
More at www.Spaceandtime.com
