Better Health Naturally

Are herb safe and what exactly are they?  In Ezekial 47:12 the Bible tells us that the leaves of the trees and plants are for our healing.  Some plants are too strong to use for food, such as rosemary, but can be used for seasoning in small amounts.  Many can also be used for natural medicine.

            Most drugs are simply synthetic copies of the natural chemicals in the plants.  The chemicals in the plants are in the colors and the essential oils.  That is why essential oils must be used with caution and with knowledge of the chemicals they contain and what affect they have on the body.  Along with the natural chemicals in plants that stimulate healing, God also place natural buffers that keep us from taking too much.

            One such herb is lobelia.  Lobelia is what is known as a “thinking” herb.  It simply “knows” where it is needed in the body.  It’s major function is to open tubes in the body.  It may help open bronchials in one person and arteries and veins in another.  If you accidentally take too much, you will automatically throw up and rid your body of the excess.  This would be considered a side effect, but a good one and certainly not dangerous.

            One herb that was given a bad reputation through mis-information is ephedra.  Ephedra is a plant that contains chemicals that stimulate bronchial dilation.  Taken as an herb or as a tea (the tea was never taken off of the market) it is perfectly safe.  The products that were proven dangerous were the weight loss products.  The companies would extract about 40 times the amount of stimulant found in one dose of ephedra and put it in one pill along with caffeine and others herbal stimulants.  If taken along with a poor diet and extreme exercise it was very dangerous.  Also, Sudafed and other cold medicines were put behind the pharmaceutical counters.  Instead of banning the processed products that were dangerous, the court banned the herb ephedra, which had never killed anyone.  Fortunately, a later court overturned that decision.

            Plants in nature that are poison are not harvested and sold to the public.  That would be insane, wouldn’t it?  Those that are available promote Better Health, Naturally.

When I was in high school, stress was a physics term.  In today’s world, everyone from grandmother to grandchild knows what being stressed out means.  Excessive stress can mimic all diseases.  Just as physical stress applied to a building can cause that building to crack or collapse at the points of structural weakness, emotional stress trapped in the body can cause physical damage at the points of inherent weakness.     

            We all have many weaknesses that have been passed down to us from our predecessors.  These are not curses, merely warnings to compensate for those inherent weaknesses.  For example, let’s say that you have inherited weak lungs.  That might mean that when you are under unusual stress your breathing becomes labored.  You could take a drug to open those airways, or you could take preventive measures and learn to prevent that kind of stress.

            Some symptoms of being over stressed are headaches, tightness in neck, loss of appetite, excessive eating, pounding heartbeat, forgetfulness, depression, trouble sleeping, anger, hostility, feeling preoccupied.  I am sure there are more.

            How do you bring that stress level down?  I believe the first step is gratitude.  We are made for praising the Lord.  If you start to thank Him for the challenges in your life, instead of struggling against them, that is the beginning of real stress relief.  Second is to meditate on scriptures.  Psalms one is a good beginning.  Picture yourself as the tree.  Third is to eliminate all caffeine and sugar from your diet.  These two drugs will magnify the stress level you are feeling.  The fourth natural remedy for stress is exercise.  We are designed to do work.  This natural process stimulates the production of hormones that make us feel better and release excess stress.  The fifth thing is to get enough sleep.  If you do the first four steps, the fifth will come naturally. 

            The Bible calls it peace that passes all understanding.  I call it your natural remedy for stress and all of the disease it brings with it. 

What does it mean to be a wholistic health practitioner?  The word wholistic is used quite a lot now.  Very simply it means we treat the whole person.  Humans are created in God’s image and are three in one, body, mind and spirit.  Sometimes, in order to truly heal from the inside out, you have to treat all three and not just the body.

            The body is the physical.  We treat the body with herbs, homeopathics, essential oils, vitamins, minerals, and of course our food.  The medical world treats the physical with drugs, surgery and physical therapy.

            The spirit is the part of us that longs for God.  As a Christian I believe that when we accept Jesus as our Savior that is the beginning or birth of our spiritual healing and will continue throughout this physical life.  The answer for continuing to grow in peace and health is to associate with other people of like faith and teaching and essential oils (as mentioned in the Bible) help us heal on a spiritual level.

            The mind includes the will and emotions.  This, I believe, is where much of our physical illness begins.  We choose, through our will, to eat the things that make us sick or “choose” not to eat the things that heal us. We choose to use mind altering substances that open our minds to outside control.  Our emotions can become very “toxic” because of our experiences and exposure to the sin and evil in this world.  The remedies for these mental and emotional problems include homeopathics, Bach flower remedies and essential oils.  These heal not only on a physical level, but also on an emotional level.  I also use a form of acupuncture that helps to release these “emotional” hot potatoes that overload the mind and the senses and eventually cause physical disease.

            Sometimes it is necessary to treat the “whole” person in order to have “Better Health, Naturally”. 

What is a colon cleanse and do you need one?  The colon is the large intestine.  It is approximately 6 feet long and consists of five layers of muscle.  It starts in the lower right hand side of the pelvic area just above the appendix, comes straight up the abdomen, is attached to the body in that corner, goes across the body just below the rib cage, is attached to the body on the left side and then continues down the body more towards the back on the right side, then empties into the rectum.  This is just one of the many tubes and pipes in the body.

            The colon is the main sewer pipe for the body.  It should be about two inches in diameter, but can expand as wide as the width of your expanded hand from thumb to little finger.  It will expand and be tender and painful if you are full of gas or if your colon has layers of plaque from a poor diet.  This also becomes the perfect environment for parasites or mold/yeast/fungus infections.

 Your nutrition is absorbed in the small intestine and the waste is emptied into the colon.  At this time it is still liquid.  As it comes up and over it should begin to dry out and become solid.   This multilayered muscle continues to move the waste along and eventually empties it from the body.  As with any sewer system, eventually the pipes need to be cleaned out. 

            There are many wonderful herbs that will scrub and clean the colon, absorb toxins and stimulate the muscles action that moves the waste out.  I recommend that you do a colon cleanse at least twice a year, along with a parasite cleanse.  If you have bleeding in your stool or constant diarrhea or if you are pregnant, do not use herbs that stimulate and clean the colon without first consulting your practitioner.

            Cleaning your colon is a great way to have Better Health, Naturally.

What does it mean to truly heal? When I was in high school we had total belief that by the year 2000 medical science would have eliminated all disease. Who could have known that the “bugs” would adapt and morph into stronger strains that would resist modern science? As our drugs become stronger and stronger, so do the “bugs”.

Naturopaths believe that our bodies were created to be self-healing bio-mechanical machines. If your body is not healing as it should, one of three possibilities is true. One, you are not obeying the laws of nature through your lifestyle choices, two, you experienced a trauma that is blocking your healing or three, you are genetically predisposed for the problem and have not taken steps the compensate for the inherited tendency.

A natural healer would address all three of these possibilities to stimulate the body to heal itself. Herring’s Law of Healing states that the body heals from the head down, from the inside out and in reverse order of how you got sick. The Chinese believe it takes one month for every year you have been sick to truly heal. I find that it can happen faster if you really make a commitment to change your lifestyle.

Most of the chronic disease today is caused by lifestyle choices that you make that diminish or destroy your immune system, cause your body to be very acidic (a perfect home for the “bugs”) and cause glandular exhaustion. The good news is that there is hope through remedies that are non-invasive and non-poisonous.