Category Archives: Dr. Palombo’s blog

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The Benefits of Coconut Oil

Coconut Oil Contains a Unique Combination of Fatty Acids With Powerful Medicinal Properties

My Chorale PicCoconut oil is one of the few foods that can be classified as a “superfood.” Its unique combination of fatty acids can have profound positive effects on health. This includes fat loss, better brain function and various other amazing benefits.

Click on this link to read and learn about the benefits of coconut oil.

http://www.realfarmacy.com/cold-truth-coconut-oil-10-facts-need-know/

 

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My Easter Message: Grow Up!

Scan_Pic0002It’s Easter Sunday morning. My wife and I are enjoying a late breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon with a fruit & yogurt side dish of strawberries, raspberries and bananas.  We’re having a wet Easter Sunday here is Louisiana which will likely damper Easter egg hunts (pun intended).

Along a less surface and shallow vein, my thoughts turn to what’s going on in the churches around town and throughout the Christian world and noticing my/our total absence from it all, marveling at the transformation we have gone through over the decades of waking up and growing up spiritually.  For my part, I went from directing the choir for an Easter Vigil Mass in St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans as an young aspirant for the Roman Catholic priesthood fifty-plus years ago to complete non-participation in religion of any kind.  Now I don’t even believe in the “heaven or hell” reward or punishment scenario of what life is all about on this planet.  I’ve come to know, however, that I experience hell here on earth when I break the laws that govern heaven. Hell is living in Heaven on earth while ignoring the laws that govern life itself. The law of Love, for example, governs all of creation and would govern human affairs if human beings would let it.  When I read the Gospels in seminary, I recall Jesus saying “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Turn around – that’s what repent means –  and see that heaven in within you and all around you.  Just look at the picture of that passion flower up top. Click on the picture to enlarge it. Now look and see what heavenly beauty in manifesting through it. What exquisite design! What awful power and control at work!  We are already in Heaven. We just need to turn around and notice it.

On this point, I found this video this morning when I opened Facebook. It speaks for me in all ways. (The video doesn’t appear in email notifications. You’ll have to go to the blog itself.)

My Chorale PicI will leave you to ponder these words in the silence of your heart. Have a blessed Easter/Spring Solstice.  Celebrate Light and Life bursting out all over with flowers and green leaves on winter-barren trees.

To your health and maturity,

Dr. Tony Palombo

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for an interesting article about how sound can extinguish fire.

 

 

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“d-alpha tocopherol” Is NOT Vitamin E

My Chorale PicAre you taking 800 units of “vitamin E” every day? If so, you may be doing more harm to your body than good. Read this report by John Courtney, former head of Research & Development for Standard Process Laboratories for thirty years. When you’re finished reading, you will have a clear understanding of what vitamin E is and is not..

IT’S ABOUT FUNCTION, NOT POTENCY

Functions of Vitamin E: promotes cell repair, anti-scarring, increases tissue resistance to stress, (supports skin, muscles, ligaments, tendons), specific support to cardiovascular system, source of manganese and selenium and aids in pituitary function.

John Courtney: Our VITAMIN E Complex product (CATAPLEX E) presents a situation similar to our other vitamin formulas. Dr. George Goodheart, for instance, who has developed this muscle testing technique, AK, frequently lectures to doctors, and he always calls one up and checks him for vitamin E. He will say: “You’re deficient in vitamin E.” The doctor usually says, “That’s impossible. I take 800 units of vitamin E every day.” So George says, “Take one
now.” So the doctor takes one and George tests him and there is no change. So he gives the doctor one of our two-unit CATAPLEX E tablets and the doctor becomes stronger.

This is what I mean by function. We are interested in making a product that has function, and we give it to the doctor no matter what it looks like on the label. Granted, they would not sell in health food stores because people try to read labels and they don’t understand them. Instead of reading the ingredients, they read how many units of something and that throws them off.

We talked about vitamin E as classified by the government as “tocopherol.” There are seven tocopherols in all, alpha being one of them. The government has decided to rate any vitamin E product according to the amount of alpha tocopherol it contains. The tocopherols are antioxidants, just like ascorbic acid. They are a part of the E complex, but they are not the active ingredients. Their function is to preserve the active factor. Tocopherols are measured on the basis of cell growth.

Kids who have acne have it at a time when their sex organs are beginning to develop and require vitamin E. If they’re not getting enough vitamin E in their diet, the gonads begin to take the vitamin E that would otherwise be used in the maintenance of the health of the skin. So there begins to be abnormal skin growth.

On the other hand, the entire E complex contains the polyunsaturated fatty acids. Vitamin F is part of the E complex, as are Vitamins A and K. There are some forms of vitamin D and manganese in the E complex as well. The traditional source for vitamin E is vegetable oils. But the best quality vitamin E comes from whole vegetables. Green lettuce is one of the best sources, and the pea plant is what we use and is about equally as good. We raise green peas on our farms and press the juice out and vacuum dry it. This is our E concentrate. It is high in manganese. The manganese is combined with the protein, vitamins and other
trace minerals in the plant in the growing process. You could call our CATAPLEX E a “naturally chelated” product.

“Chelated” means “combined.” If you take any high potency laboratory-chelated products, your body has to do some combining in order to make them work. But if you take your minerals the way nature provides them, combined with protein and vitamins through the growing process of plants, they are bound to work.

For example, we could take vitamin E and separate the tocopherols from the manganese. Putting them back together in the laboratory, chelating them artificially, we would find they wouldn’t work. But they worked before you took them apart. Dr. Lee used an analogy to illustrate this point.

The same point applies to all of our products. He said you can give a chemist a watch and he can analyze it for content. Then hit it with a hammer and give it back to him. Although it is the same watch, it has now lost its function. A nutritional concentrate is an organized mechanism that has a function. If you break the function by separating the parts, the body can no longer use the mechanism. High potency’ vitamin E products are made this way.

Tocopherols are broken down and separated from oils, the natural tocopherols are separated from vegetable oil. Then they are packed into a gelatin perle and you have a high potency vitamin E product, a 200 or 500 International Unit vitamin E product. That means 200 or 500 International Units of alpha tocopherol, because the government insists that the potency of the product is measured by the amount of alpha tocopherol it contains. Of course, the reason for doing this is to give the public a “high potency” product. Although the label of such a product will say “all natural” or “organic” – it was taken from oil, a natural source – it’s still not food. It’s an incomplete product. You are getting lots of tocopherols, but none of the active components of the E complex: the F, A, K, D, manganese, etc.

Our VITAMIN E is a two International Unit product. Each tablet contains two International Units of alpha tocopherol. The remainder of the tablet is composed of all the other vitamin E components. How do the high potency vitamin E products work? By preserving the active components of the E complex which still remain in the patient’s tissues. If you recall, the tocopherols are an antioxidant. So the patient’s symptoms, such as angina, will disappear, but often only temporarily. The body is designed to utilize food in its whole form. If you eat incomplete foods, such as refined tocopherols, all the missing factors are borrowed from the tissue reserves in order to make the partial food usable. Sooner or later, depending on the patient’s past eating habits, there will be a deficiency of those nutrients, causing what’s referred to as a “reversal of symptoms.” This means there is a recurrence of the same symptoms, which were causing the problem in the first place, often to a more serious degree.  

Bicknell and Prescott, in their book THE VITAMINS IN MEDICINE, talk about bone decalcification and other problems caused by the use of excessive alpha tocopherol. So, high potency vitamins are similar to drugs in their effect. They cause a masking of symptoms, which eventually creates additional problems. Dr. Lee used to say that using high potency vitamins was like whipping a tired horse; he would be stimulated to run faster but sooner or later he collapses because you never fed him. Sometimes doctors call us for help with patients with cramps. This could be cramps anywhere in the body-the legs, abdomen, heart, etc. They will say, “I’ve tried everything I could nutritionally, calcium, magnesium, etc., and the patient still has cramps.” Then we ask if the patient is taking high potency vitamin E. Many times they are, and the cramps developed after they started taking the high potency vitamin E. Then, of course, we suggest the doctor take the patient off the high potency vitamin E product.

Our approach is to give the patient the specific food factors which he’s lacking, along with the associated factors, which make it work. In the case of angina, we would recommend CATAPLEX E2. It’s the part of the vitamin E complex, which preserves calcium in the tissues. A person with angina is usually deficient in this food factor, so he develops cramps in the muscles of his heart. One final word about our CATAPLEX E, and this applies to our other products as well. Sometimes tablets from different lots will be different in color, This is due to variables in the conditions under which the peas were grown — moisture in the air and soil, the mineral: content in the soil, etc. Since we don’t color or sugar-coat our tablets, they don’t always look alike. We have always felt this better than having to use artificial dyes or coating in order to give the tablets a uniform appearance.

Now you have a complete picture of what vitamin E actually is. The same applies to so-called “vitamin C” which the FDA says is ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is no more vitamin C than an orange peal is the whole orange. Ascorbic acid is the anti-oxidant envelope in which the active and functional ingredients of vitamin C are contained and protected. More on this in my next blog.

Here’s to your health

Anthony Palombo, DC, ACN – Chiroparctor and certified practitioner of Applied Clinical Nutrition.

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for more informative and inspiring articles.

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Living Medicine Vs Pharmaceuticals, part 3: Herbs that Cure

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When you use a living medicine and get well, you feel that the world is alive and aware and wants to help you. People often talk about saving the Earth, but how many times have you experienced the Earth saving you?

My Chorale PicI’ve been sharing an interview with herbalist Stephen Buhner in THE SUN magazine on the efficacy of herbal medicine and the dangers of placing our healthcare system in the hands of the pharmaceutical industry, which the Medical profession relies entirely on when it comes to prescribing chemical drugs to relieve the symptoms of disease. While drugs do relieve symptoms – the reason people go to doctors in the first place – they do not effect a cure. They’re not designed to. Besides making huge profits for the Big Pharma, drugs are designed to relieve pain and mask symptoms — a purpose that has great meaning and usefulness in a hospice care facility but little if any meaning and value in a facility that claims to render “health care.” Herbs, on the other hand, are designed by Mother Nature to effect a cure. The main requirement, however, is patience on the part of the patient. (Pun intended.)

Herbs do not cure. Rather they give the body living medicine the body can work with to cure itself of disease. It is the inborn Intelligence of the body, of course, that directs the healing process–Life. And Life works within the time frame of its own wisdom and cycles. Drugs interfere with those cycles by nullifying the symptoms of pain and malfunction that trigger the healing process. Herbs facilitate the healing process. It just takes time.

For example, anti-inflammatory drugs reduce the inflammation in tissues and joints that, for one thing, stop us from doing what is damaging the tissues and joints. We won’t do what hurts. That’s the body’s wisdom at work, which we defeat when we take pain killers.  The other and main thing, however, is that inflammation is the first and initiating phase of the healing process. When you nullify this phase, you stop the repair process of the damaged tissue, which means you’ll never experience healing as long as you’re taking Ibuprofen or Tylenol or any number of other pain killers. It’s that simple.  Stephen Buhner tells his personal story working with herbs.

Ahuja: What was your first experience with herbal medicine?

Buhner: When I was thirty-four, I became quite ill with severe abdominal cramping. The doctors didn’t know what it was. I met a local herbalist, and she mentioned that a certain plant growing in the forest around my house was good for my condition. The doctors wanted to do exploratory surgery, but instead I ate some of the plant. The pain was about half as severe the next time it happened, and the next time about half again, until finally it just went away. After that, I began to take control over my own health.

Ahuja: What was the plant?

Buhner: It was a perennial herb called osha. I just dug up the root and began eating it. It’s got a spicy, celery-like taste. Not only did I feel my body getting better, but I could feel, inside, some living entity that cared about me. It’s difficult to explain, because it’s not something we generally talk about in the West. When you use a living medicine and get well, you feel that the world is alive and aware and wants to help you. People often talk about saving the Earth, but how many times have you experienced the Earth saving you?

HERBAL MEDICINES AND THEIR HEALING GIFTS

Here are a few herbal medicines with which I am familiar:

BoswelliaBOSWELLIA – is a natural anti-inflammatory that does not interfere with the healing and repair process. It rather helps it work faster. It is especially effective in the intestines when they become irritable. Cases in point are IBS, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s Disease. I use Boswellia Complex by MediHerb and Standard Process Labs, which is a synergistic combination of Boswellia gum, Celery seed,  Ginger, and Tumeric.  These and other compounds work together to:

  • Support the normal function of the kidneys to clear acidic waste products effectively, like uric acid that causes gout.
  • Maintain and support healthy joints.
  • Promote the body’s normal resistance function.
  • Support healthy circulation.
  • Support healthy response to environmental stresses.
  • Provide antioxidant protection.

Scan_Pic0005ECHINACEA – here is an herb for the immune system, and its healing gift lies primarily in its root and less in its foliage.  This herb does not stimulate or activate the immune system, as is commonly thought, but rather acts as a modulator to the immune system, regulating its response to various stress needs in the body. In the case of infection, it up-regulates the immune response and boosts the white cell count. In the case of autoimmune disease, it down-regulates the immune system. As with all systems in the body, balance is the key to healthy function.

Master Herbalist Dr. Kerry Bone of MediHerb has thoroughly researched this herb and here is what we now know about Echinacea:

  • Echinacea is both misunderstood and underestimated. There are many Echinacea products available which differ according to species, plant part, quality markers and dosages. The wide variety of products available is why there is controversy surrounding Echinacea and its effectiveness.
  • Echinacea is commonly thought of as an herb for winter season stresses and only for short-term use. Kerry Bone’s applications for Echinacea are much broader than this and you may wonder why this is. Kerry has spent many years both researching and prescribing Echinacea for thousands of patients. His passion for Echinacea led to the MediHerb research project and a greater understanding of Echinacea and how it works. For full details of MediHerb’s Research visit mediherb.com and search for The MediHerb Echinacea Research Story on the Echinacea – A New Understanding page.
  • The research results validate the traditional wisdom of Echinacea, and that is to achieve good clinical results you must use only a root preparation with high levels of alkylamides. An important aspect of any herb, or nutrient for that matter, is its bioavailability. Echinacea angustifolia and E purpurea contain high levels of alkylamides which are easily absorbed in the body.
  • MediHerb’s Echinacea Premium is the best Echinacea product on the market because of its high levels of alkylamides. You can tell if the Echinacea product you are taking is derived from the root by how it imparts a persistent tingling sensation on your tongue.
  • Daily dosage with Echinacea Premium (1 a day) will help keep your immune system balanced and ready to respond to the stress needs of the body.

BacopaBACOPA HERB – helps in the retention of memory. I have had students taking Bacopa while listening to lectures and studying for exams. This helped them retain what they were hearing and reading. Then, when exam time came along, they would switch to Ginkgo Biloba, which helps in memory recall.  MediHerb’s Bacopa Complex combines the herbs Bacopa, Schisandra, Eleuthero and essential oil of Rosemary. These herbs contribute key phytochemicals that combine with many other compounds to:

  • Enhance mental clarity and support cognitive function.
  • Support normal memory function.
  • Support physical endurance.
  • Ease the effects of temporary and occasional environmental stress.
  • Nourish the nervous system.

Ginkgo BilobaGINKGO BILOBA – helps in memory recall and has a variety of healthy benefits.  MediHerb’s Ginkgo Forte contains flavonoids, terpene lactones (including ginkgolides and bilobalide) and other phytochemicals that work synergistically to:

  • Support memory and cognition.
  • Promote alertness and mental clarity.
  • Help support healthy mental function.
  • Support good health in older adults.
  • Promote healthy circulation to the brain and peripheral areas of the body which is important for the delivery of oxygen and vital nutrients.
  • Support a healthy cardiovascular system.
  • Support and encourage healthy blood.
  • Provide antioxidant support to help protect nerve cells and other tissues.
  • Support normal hearing.
  • Support eye health.
  • Beneficially modulate cortisol during periods of stress.
  • Reduce the congestive symptoms of premenstrual syndrome.

GYMNEMA SYLVESTRE – is the herb of choice for diabetics in Australia, which many folks use exclusively to regulate their blood sugar. It literally nullifies the sweetness in sugar. When you put a little bit of Gymnema tincture into your mouth, or suck on a tablet, you will not be able to taste the sweetness in candy for several minutes. You will taste the flavor of a mint, but not its sweetness.  MediHerb’s Gymnema 4g tablet and its Gymnema 1:1 tincture deliver a powerful dose of this amazing sugar-destroying herb, which is effective in diabetic and hypoglycemic conditions alike. The complex mixture of saponins (gymnemic acids) and other compounds work together to:

  • Maintain healthy blood sugar levels when combined with a balanced diet.
  • Maintain normal cholesterol levels in a normal range.
  • Help support normal cravings for sugar in the diet.

I will continue sharing information about popular herbs and their benefits in my next post in two weeks. Until then, here’s to your health and natural healing.

Anthony Palombo, DC

CAUTION: Herbs are powerful natural medicines and should not be used indiscriminately. None of the above information should be construed to diagnose or treat any disease nor to preclude sensible medical care and professional supervision. Medi-Herb and Standard Process products are only available through licensed physicians and certified healthcare professionals and should only be used under the supervision of an certified herbalist or healthcare practitioner.

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for an interesting series of articles about the Golden Age of Aquarius.

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Living Medicines Vs Pharmaceuticals, part 2: Healing Herbs

“When you use a living medicine and get well, you feel that the world is alive and aware and wants to help you. People often talk about saving the Earth, but how many times have you experienced the Earth saving you?”

Healing Herbs
Stephen BuhnerI find it interesting that toxic plants often move into damaged landscapes. Some specimens are harmful to cattle or sheep who graze the land. Others interfere with industrial agriculture or threaten people. They all have the same purpose: stopping the source of the damage so that the landscape can regenerate itself. —Stephen Buhner

My Chorale PicTo heal means to make whole again that which has been fractured or fragmented. What Stephen Buhner describes above about “toxic plants” moving in where landscapes have been damaged speaks to the intelligence of healing herbs. These botanical plants have a living, functioning intelligence. As part of our Mother Earth from which our physical bodies arise, their energetic fields are connected to our energetic fields by way of which they speak to us. When we give them our attention, ask them the right questions, and then listen to their answers — which may come in the form of an attraction toward them, or even an aversion — they reach out to help us with their healing essences.

We’ve all had the experience, when out in Nature, of being attracted toward certain plants and flowers. Could that attraction and repelling be telling us something about the gift of healing being offered to us by the plants and flowers?  Of course, some plants warn us to stay away from them, such as poison ivy or poison oak, if we have an allergic condition.

I love the way Stephen Buhner goes about introducing his clients to herbs in this interview by Akshay Ahuja in the December, 2014 issue of The SUN magazine.

Ahuja: How do you go about treating patients as an herbalist? 

Buhner: It’s a relationship, not a technique. My clients often feel lost and alone in their suffering. They need human companionship and also a sense of companionship with the living world. If I can, I’ll take them into the woods and introduce them to the plant that will be helping them. 

In my book “The Lost Language of Plants” I tell the story of a twenty-eight-year-old woman who was going through a messy divorce. Her periods were extremely irregular, with heavy cramping and bleeding, and her hands were always cold. I could see that her whole body was closed off, curled in on itself. Her fingernails were chewed back deeply, as if she were eating herself alive. 

I told her there was a plant I thought she should meet. We went for a walk through a pine forest, and when she saw the plant at the edge of a stream, a kind of force drew the woman and the plant together. The plant was Angelica, which has been used for thousands of years to help treat menstrual cramping. She spent a long time with it, then said a prayer and asked for help, and then we went to look for just the right Angelica. When we found it, she dug up the root, which has a beautiful smell. On the walk back she held it close to her. She was already carrying herself differently. The healing had started. 

She took a tincture made from the root, and within a month her period had normalized.

HERBS GROW WHERE THEY ARE MOST NEEDED

We are more connected to our immediate environment than we may be aware. I am convinced that many of the viruses and bacterial infections we encounter are an integral part of our local habitat — unless they are transported by travelers from other parts of the world, as was the case with the Ebola virus.  It’s common knowledge as well that for every disease and ailment there’s a plant remedy in the botanical world. I would be curious to know what kind of herbs are growing in that part of Africa where the Ebola virus erupted. I am equally as curious to know what kind of herbs grow abundantly in my neck of the woods. Buhner addresses this subject in the interview:

Ahuja: Many of the plants in Herbal Antibiotics aren’t native to North America, Do you think people should look first to the plants around them for medicine?

Buhner: The book was written to offer alternatives to people who might die of a resistant infection, so I wanted to list anything they could reliably use in that circumstance. Still, many natural antibiotics do grow in the United States. I live in the Southwestern desert, and Bidens grows all around our house. It’s invasive. Sida grows along the Gulf Coast, and some Sida species grow in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. They’re all considered invasive. In fact, the most potent medicines for emerging infections tend to be invasive botanicals that people are busy trying to eradicate.

These invasive plants don’t move into a region for no reason. Take, for example, the berberine-containing plant Phellodendron. Berberine-containing plants are used to treat parasites and infections from yeast, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Goldenseal was probably the most potent berberine plant in the U.S. until it was harvested to near extinction in the late 1800s. Phellodendron, which is a massive tree,is invasive in exactly the same range that goldenseal was removed from. And if you cut just one branch, you’ve got enough berberine
plant to last a year.

I’ve found that if people are ill, the plants they need are almost always growing in their vicinity. I’ve watched plant populations change around me in places I’ve lived for thirty-some years, and they seem to shift in response to changes in my own disease complexes. This sounds airy-fairy to the Western reductive mind-set, but people have been commenting on it since Hippocrates. Plant populations rise and fall according to the needs of the ecosystem in which they grow, and that includes the animal life there, which includes us.

Ahuja: Yet we act to remove invasive plants from ecosystems.

Buhner: Yes, these plants are seen as alien invaders…. It‘s not understood that dandelion and burdock and a host of other common plants are non-natives that moved in and established a balance with local ecosystems, or that many of the plants targeted for eradication happen to be effective against the exact diseases that local people are contracting. Japanese knotweed is invasive all up and down the East Coast, and its root is the most specific medicine there is for the treatment of Lyme disease. There‘s a Lonicera species – a honeysuckle that reduces mosquito egg–laying wherever it grows. The mosquitoes that it discourages happen to carry dengue fever and a number of other viruses that cause encephalitis – inflammation of the brain. And it turns out that the plant is also a treatment for inflammation in the central nervous system.When plants move into an ecosystem, they do so because the ecosystem has been disrupted. The problem is that people don‘t ask, Why is this plant here?

Buhner offers suggestions on treating specific health conditions which I thought my readers would find helpful.

Aruja: My father is around sixty. I don‘t think he could imagine being without his daily blood-pressure pills. What are some alternative treatments for his condition? 

Buhner: Regular fasting will lower blood pressure and keep it low. Certain kinds of simple, focused meditation will lower it. And many herbs, such as hawthorn and garlic, will do the same.

Ahuja: Have you worked much with cancer? 

Buhner: I haven‘t. The only type I have regularly treated is skin cancer, usually on the face. I learned the use of a traditional herb for it from a Mexican curandera many years ago. The root of Swertia radiata – also known as monument plant or green gentian – is finely powdered, then mixed with Vaseline (nothing else will do) and applied to the cancer. It‘s left covered for three days. Once the bandage is removed, the cancer generally comes with it or lifts off with minimal effort. I have never had that treatment fail. It is easy, efficient, and noninvasive. . . . 

I apologize for the lengthy excerpts, but I wanted to share with you the spirit and energy of the interview as well as the content, which sometimes direct quotes best convey.  We will explore some of the more specific uses of healing herbs in the next post. Until then, here’s to your health and haling . . . naturally!

Anthony Palombo, DC

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for inspiring articles on various topics. Current theme is “Golden Age and Golden Race.”

Also visit Laurence Layne’s Herb Shop online at HerbShop.HealingWatersClinic.com for great information about herbs along with easy ordering of products.

Credits: The picture above is by Roger Davies and is used in the article in The SUN which I am referencing.

CAUTION: Herbs are powerful natural medicines and should not be used indiscriminately. None of the above information should be construed to diagnose or treat any disease nor to preclude sensible medical care and professional supervision. Medi-Herb and Standard Process products are only available through licensed physicians and certified healthcare professionals and should only be used under the supervision of an certified herbalist or healthcare practitioner.

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Living Medicine Vs Pharmaceuticals, part 1: The Antibiotic Crisis

Stephen BuhnerPhysicians continue to utilize antibiotics without much thought. We focus on the misuse of painkillers, when the most dangerous thing we do is overuse antibiotics. Resistant bacteria are a more severe problem for the survival of this civilization than oil depletion, global warming, topsoil erosion, and water scarcity. —Stephen Buhner

“Stephen Harrod Buhner On Plant Intelligence, Natural Healing, And The Trouble With Pharmaceuticals”

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The December issue of SUN magazine carried an insightful, though sobering, interview with an herbalist that I thought would be an inspiring and deeply meaningful article to review and share in my Health Light Newsletter blog.  The interview is by Akshay Ahuja, writer for the SUN and production manager for Ploughshares, an organization that works with churches, governments and civil societies, in Canada and abroad, to advance policies and actions to prevent war and armed violence and build peace.

Stephen Buhner was born in 1952 in the Midwest where he was introduced to his healing ministry through his great-grandfather, a country physician in rural Indiana.  At the age of sixteen he left home to attend college in California. From there he traveled and settled in the high mountains of Colorado, where he built a “turn-of-the-century cabin that he lived in for four years.” His path to becoming an herbalist started out with a personal healing of severe abdominal cramps with the perennial herb osha root.  His encounter with this herb was more than remedial and had a spiritual and vital quality to is, as he recalls in the interview.  He currently lives in Silver City, New Mexico.

I just dug up the root and began eating it. It’s got a spicy, celery-like taster. Not only did I feel my body getting better, but I could feel, inside, some living entity that cared for me.  It’s difficult to explain, because it’s not something we generally talk about in the West. When you use a living medicine and get well, you feel that the world is alive and aware and wants to help you. People often talk about saving the Earth, but how many times have you experienced the Earth saving you?

I love this man’s insight into the natural botanical world of herbs and his thoughtful perspectives on both the natural healing and modern medical models. He covers a lot of territory, so it may take a couple of posts to do the interview justice. This is, I feel, a very timely and important mile-stone article.

Let’s start with the heart of his message: the overuse of antibiotics that has resulted in the evolution of bacteria into “superbugs.”  To gain a perspective on how this has come about, we need to consider the history and evolution of our medical system. Buhner, who has spent his entire life exploring herbal medicine and has published several books on this and related topics, gives some very thoughtful consideration to this in the interview, which can best be presented in his own words. In his 1999 book “Herbal Antibiotics” he speaks to the heart of the “flaws” of what he calls “technological medicine.”

“By declaring war on bacteria,” he writes, “ we declared war on the underlying living structure of the planet.” Buhner maintains that, through indiscriminate use of antibiotics, we have created “superbugs” with few effective pharmaceutical treatments, wreaking havoc in hospitals and making future pandemics likely.

Asked what is wrong with the medical system in the USA, Bunher gives a very interesting synopsis of its relatively brief history, starting at the close of the nineteenth century when homeopaths were plentiful and allopaths were fewer and the poorest of the various groups of physicians.  The discovery of penicillin changed all that.

Allopathic physicians argued that their training was based on science and was thus more legitimate than other medical traditions and would provide safer interventions. With a lot of lobbying, they managed to get control over medical practice and have the other approaches outlawed. After the discovery of penicillin in the 1920’s, antibiotics became a primary aspect of allopathic practice. The drugs were so effective against previously difficult-to-treat problems, such as infections in burn patients, that Western cultures completely embraced allopathic healing. In 1942 the entire world‘s supply of penicillin was 8.5 gallons – about seventy pounds. By 1999 the production of antibiotics in the U.S. alone reached 40 million pounds per year.

Unfortunately medical researchers‘ beliefs about bacteria were very wrong. Researchers said it would take roughly a million years for bacteria to develop widespread resistance to antibiotics through spontaneous mutations. They assumed bacteria were stupid, when in reality bacteria are highly sentient. They communicate by means of a sophisticated language – as sophisticated as ours. They recognize their kin. They protect their offspring. They create chemicals designed to produce specific outcomes in living systems, which certainly fits any definition of tool-making.

We‘ve tended to view bacteria as a collection of single-celled entities, but when many of them join together, it‘s more proper to look at them as a swarm intelligence. And complex organisms such as plants, animals, and insects are, in essence, communities of bacteria.

Ahuja: How does bacterial resistance challenge the current medical model?

Buhner: Since the end of World War II, the medical establishment has been promising that we are heading for some sort of disease-free future in which we will live to be 120 and never get sick. They almost imply that they can cure death. Scientists’ inability to predict the bacterial response undermines the entire world view that the allopaths disseminated – and still disseminate – about disease and the nature of the world around them. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that, in 2011, 722,000 people picked up infections in hospitals. About 75,000 of those patients died during their hospitalizations. And some sources give a much higher figure for annual deaths from hospital-acquired infections.

The allopaths’ lock on medical practice, which they insisted would create safer outcomes for the public, has not done so. All it has done is give one orientation toward healing a virtual monopoly on practice.

Ahuja: How would you treat a resistant infection with herbs?

Buhner: One woman who had undergone multiple antibiotic regimens over several years for a resistant staph infection (MRSA) came to me for help. She was about to lose her foot to the disease. It took a month to turn her condition around using an African herb called Cryptolepis sanguinolenta. Commonly used to treat malaria, it is also a broad-spectrum, systemic antibacterial with no side effects – at least, after twelve years of use, I have seen none.

Vancomycin is the antibiotic often used for staph infections. Besides being frequently ineffective, it has a long list of side effects. In general, herbal medicines have fewer or no side effects. They are composed of hundreds of synergistic compounds, whereas pharmaceuticals have just one compound, or perhaps a few. We have been at this antibiotic business only a century or so. Bacteria have been around for 3.5 billion years:

This begs the question, will not bacteria eventually become resistant to plant medicines? I love Buhner’s answer.

Buhner: With a pharmaceutical, the bacteria analyze the single compound and generate solutions to it, which they then pass on to other bacteria. Plants, on the other hand, generate multiple compounds that deactivate resistance mechanisms in the bacteria and enhance the activity of the plant’s natural antibacterials. Bacteria cannot easily counteract that kind of complexity. Also, plants aren’t trying to kill all the bacteria on Earth. They merely want to create a balance in which the plants and bacteria set limits on each other’s behavior.

Ahuja: There seems to be a general view that herbal medicine is fine for coughs and colds, but when something gets serious, you go to a conventional doctor.

Buhner: The pharmaceutical companies’ advertising campaigns are very good. We have been trained to think of technological medicine as the only reliable type and other approaches as outdated remnants of a prescientific age. Yet the majority of people I have met don’t much like doctors or hospitals. The one thing modern medicine is good at is trauma. If I get hit by a car, I will go to a hospital. But other than antibiotics and some surgeries, hospitals have little they can offer to cure disease. They can only address the symptoms.

Pharmaceutical companies are in business to make as much money as they can. They try to develop drugs you have to take for years and years, such as medicines for high blood pressure or depression. You don’t get well; you just keep taking the drug.

Buhner then cites an example of herbal practice in Africa, where the people can’t afford Western drugs and the infrastructure there doesn’t support drug manufacturing.  Local healers in Nigeria, for example, were asked what herbs they were using. Researchers then took the seeds from the best and most effective herbs and gave them to the people so they could grow their own plant herbs. This had a very empowering impact upon the people, not to mention its ecological friendliness.

I will continue sharing Stephen Buhner’s perspectives in the next post. I will close this post with words of a colleague in the healing field. “Nothing is wrong. Everything matters.” Allopathic medicine has played an important role in healthcare and continues to play a crucial role in the emergency room of our hospitals. On the other hand, pharmaceutical medicine’s days are numbered. Already pharmaceutical companies are getting out of the antibiotic business for two reasons. One, they don’t make a lot of money with the drug’s short-term usage. Two, “they know antibiotics are going to fail, and they don’t want to be the one holding the bag when they do.” According to Buhner’s latest information, the U.S. Government is taking over antibiotic research and production and will take all the blame when it crashes, and crash it will. “As David Livermore, the top antibiotic resistance researcher in Britain, put it, “It is naive to think we can win.”◊

Until my next post, here’s to your health and prosperity throughout the coming New Year.

Anthony Palombo, D.C.

Visit my HealthTones.org blog for more exploratory articles in the field of healing and transformation.

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Don’t Trade Perfect Love For Ebola Fear

My Chorale PicPardon me for turning to Sacred Scripture for inspiration during our current health crisis. But we definitely live under a fear-based governance promoted by the news media.  If it isn’t the “threat” of ISIS — which has taken second place to Ebola in the media’s more current entertainment agenda — then it’s the scare of an Ebola pandemic.  But don’t you let your guard — and your immune system — down.  Perfect love not only casts out fear but it keeps what you are being led to fear at bay. Remember what Job cried out in his troubles: “…that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” Actually, that entire scene of chapter three is a perfect meditation piece to dwell upon for the length of this post.

 Job was utterly depressed to the point of despair.  Have you ever been there and cried out like Job: “I wish I had never been born!”

(Vs 3-5)    Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

Wow! He was in a very, very low state of mind and spirit. Job goes on with a tirade of words condemning the day he was born. I wonder if those who have contracted the death-dealing plague of the day feel as Job did as they face certain death. Apparently, Job’s boils and great loss of family and wealth appeared  to him to be harder to bear than had he been born dead — “. . . as infants which never saw light….[where]…the wicked cease from troubling; and…the weary be at rest.”  Then he says something very interesting a few verses down at the end of this chapter:

(Vs 23-26) Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?  For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.  For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.  I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

Job was not an individual but was a representation of the body of Humanity on earth at that time. Job was a people, in other words; a collective body of humanity — like the Lemurians or the Atlantians —  “whom God hath hedged in.”  Hedged in, protected from harm, and immune to disease. But by what?  What would hedge us in so that we would be immune to the Ebola virus, or to any and all forms of pestilence and plagues?

Well, Job named the conditions that broke down his hedge of immunity: “I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet.”  Hmm. Not in safety — exposed, in other words. Had no rest — tired and worn out.  Was not quiet — busy doing to keep from being worried about the future and the consequences of living out of one’s integrity.  

Safety can be seen as doing the right things for our bodies, minds and hearts. Such as eating healthful foods and exercising regularly. Supplementing with wholefood nutrients where healthy foods are not readily available, and where one is eating on the run — which is not very safe healthwise — and dosing daily with immune system modulating herbs like Echinacea and antioxidants. It can also be seen as pertaining to living in the moment, the only place that is safe and real, and where life is.  That has to do with conscious living, doesn’t it. You’re not safe if you’re mind is not present while driving your car or carving the turkey, just to name a couple of activities that put us in harm’s way if we’re not mindful of what we are doing. It also pertains to our hearts and emotions, our spiritual life, in other words.

Rest speaks for itself. The body needs rest as much as activity. Balance needs to be maintained between work, play and rest.  Play can be a rest from work. Rest, of course, is essential to the revitalization, repair and growth of cells in the body. Six to eight hours of sleep are generally recommended for adults. Children need as much as nine hours simply because they are in a growth cycle and expend a lot of energy playing hard.  Rest also pertains to presence of mind and a heart that is at ease with what is, not judging things and wishing they were different. Accepting what is simply as what is.

Quiet, of course, is what most are not these days.  A “noisome pestilence” invades our space every moment of the day, and even into the night in some big cities.  The traffic, the television chatter, the daily newspaper and national and local news hours — the “daily crime report” is what I call our local evening news.  But the real noise is not out there. It’s inside the hearts and minds for most. That’s why they need noise around them: to balance and drown out the noise inside. The so-called “music” of our young generation is a sad example.  Even commercials have noisome background sound tracks to get the attention of potential buyers away from their inner troubled thoughts.  Sometimes the commercials are more “entertaining” than the program. 

A friend wrote a poem with this verse in it:

Busy thought and troubled feeling Trespass not in virtue’s wise serenity Where firm control and awful power eternally abide.  Here earth’s pains are healed And cruel chaos of mind’s spawning Is called again to order and to beauty.

Meditation is an essential spiritual practice for one who wishes to be in a place of safety, rest and quietness of mind and heart. Just five or ten minutes of quietness and solitude — like the revitalizing “catnap” we older folks take — can give one a recharge of energy and an opportunity to gather one’s substance together in one place: the eternal Now.  One’s substance can get spread out pretty thin at times, and that’s asking for trouble.  Your substance is your hedge, especially strong and impenetrable when charged with the energy of love and joy.  “Perfect love casts out fear.”  Fear dissipates your hedge and opens your body temple to defilement by the noisome pestilence, and to viruses like Ebola.

Just as a side note: it’s interesting that the flu kills over fifty-three-thousand people every year and yet doesn’t engender nearly as much fear as the Ebola virus has in just a few weeks. Notice the “Get Your Flu  Shot” signs in front of drug stores. Even while shopping at the super market the music coming over the speakers is interrupted by messages about shingles. “If you’ve had the chicken pocks, then you have the shingles virus in your body.” Fear drives our healthcare delivery system.  Little wonder we are so weak and susceptible to diseases.  Ebola has given the medical world a new reason to rev up the fear mode.

I will close this post with my favorite Psalm 91 as a meditative piece to secure our sense of safety, rest and quiet.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.  

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adler:  the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

Who are “the wicked” that are receiving their reward in the wars and plagues of today?  I will answer with the The Teacher’s response to a similar situation: “Let he that is without sin cast the first stone.” We as a race of human-doings are the wicked, and we are reaping our reward in the Middle East with ISIS and in Africa with Ebola. The Earth is fighting back to rid Herself of the parasitic plague we have become.

And what is the “snare of the fowler” from which we need deliverance?  The bird-catcher.  Birds are like thoughts that fly in and out of the belfry towers up in our heads. The mind snares thoughts that fly through it every moment of the day and blows them up into issues we should all be afraid of and fight over. Does your mind snare unwanted thoughts, crows and vultures sometimes?

“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him in trouble.” What have I set my love upon? My life, perhaps?  “He that loveth his life shall lose it.”  

What we fear about Ebola is the loss of our life. Death seems inevitable without proper medicine.  The only way through that fear is to love death itself as the perfect outworking for one’s life, given all the factors at play.   It’s the only way back Home these days.  By embracing the worst case scenario — death in this case — we take it within our hearts — in the “secret place of the Most High” that is within us, where the “shadow of the Almighty” prepares a place of safety where death has no sting. Death, even death, cannot come nigh me, for I cannot die. I am life and I am alive forever more.  

Don’t let fear of Ebola overshadow your love for the Lord, who is perfect — your love for that which is perfect in yourself: life and truth, peace and tranquility, thankfulness and appreciation, honesty and integrity.  Then get on with your life and LIVE! Be safe, and don’t let your heart be troubled by the troubles of the world. 

Here’s to your health and to Life!

Anthony Palombo, DC

Visit my Healing Tones blog for more inspiring reading. The current theme is “The Hero’s Journey.” Comments on my blogs are always welcome and I look forward to them every day. So, share your thoughts.

Here’s a great song about being brave and fearless. Enjoy!

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Depression: Its Causes and Cures, part 3: The Endocrine Connection

Tony pic

WE MOVE IN THE DIRECTION OF OUR RESPONSE

Oh, this is too good to not pass on. Just when I’m preparing to write this third post on depression, Spirtual Ecology posted this amazing study on Facebook. No wonder there’s so much depression on the planet.  We’re using up all our oxygen bitching and complaining. 

New Study Finds Most Of Earth’s Oxygen Used For Complaining

NEWS IN BRIEF • Science & Technology • Lifestyle • ISSUE 50•28 • Jul 17, 2014

SEATTLE—Following a multiyear study of atmospheric gases and their role in organic processes on earth, a team of researchers at the University of Washington reported this week that the majority of the oxygen on the planet is used for complaining. “By carefully measuring the processes of gas exchange, the respiratory capacities of living organisms, and resulting metabolic activities, we discovered that most oxygen molecules in Earth’s troposphere are used for the purposes of sighing, whining, and most commonly, complaining,” said the study’s lead author, James Lauderio, who noted that an adult human converts an average of 19 cubic feet of oxygen per day into petty grievances about acquaintances, nitpicking objections about popular media or the weather, criticisms about tasks they are performing, and general fussing with family members. “And while humans are the species most responsible for transforming oxygen into complaints, it’s important to note that other animal life, including mammals, birds, and reptiles, also convert massive amounts of O2 into displeased growls and screeches about their habitats and food sources.” Lauderio added that the research team has not been able to determine a verifiable upper limit to the number of complaints that can be produced from a single inhalation, with many human subjects reportedly producing upwards of 40 or more complaints with each breath.

Chronic complaint can lead not only to oxygen depletion but to clinical depression. It has to do with your hormones. 

DEPRESSION:THE ENDOCRINE CONNECTION

Hormones are designed to convey spirits into and through the body temple. They are produced by spirit and not by the brain. Your endocrine system of seven ductless glands is the sole domain of the spirit– your spirit.  St. John describes them as “lamps of fire” in his Book of Revelation:

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices; and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. (Rev. 4:5)

The “throne” in your body temple is your Pineal Gland, the seat of  the Spirit of Love. “Fire” is an apt way of depicting the expression of spirit through the human capacity of the heart. The heart is the capacity for expression spirit, which issues forth as a flame at times . . . even as “lightnings and thunderings.” These lightnings and thunderings can be terribly destructive or terribly creative. It’s our choice as to which they will be.

I made a tone-setting statement in the first post of this series on depression which I will bring forward here.  

Depression is fundamentally about the suppression of energy.  In a certain sense, it is a spiritual event. All energy is love. Love is all that IS. Energy expresses through form, and when that expression is thwarted, suppressed or shut down, pressure begins to build behind the dam of resistance to whatever is trying to find expression, which is love or joy.  The expression of love and joy allows for release of this energy. Elation is the result. On the other hand, suppression of love and joy prevents the release of this energy. Depression is then the result.

This is fundamentally and biochemically true.  It’s also bio-energetically true.  The life energy that courses through your body will flow in the direction of your response to environmental events; even if those events are feelings stewing inside your heart and mind.  Your response to those events is what determines the production of hormones in your endocrine glands. (See my first post of this series for how this works.) Those hormones, by design and purpose, will be encoded by the kind of spirit that is brewing in your heart to deliver your message to your world. That spirit will accurately manifest the thought forms and intentions that you project in your expression. The end result will be your creation . . . and your experience.  Look down in complaint and criticism and you will go down. Even your words fall to the ground. And you will become depressed. Your circumstance will deteriorate even further. 

By the same principle of response, look up in praise and thanksgiving and you will go up. Even your words will rise to inspire and uplift your circumstance rather than cast it down in complaint and dissatisfaction. And you will quickly come out of your depression into elation. That’s the way the principle of response works. We move in the direction of our response. It’s a great principle. We can use it to our advantage or disadvantage, especially when we are under pressure. Just like the proverbial bar of soap that will pop up or down depending on the direction in which you point it. Look down and go down. Look up and go up. In this principle lies the cause and cure of depression. All other approaches from without in are but therapies, which have their use. 

IMBALANCE IN BRAIN CHEMISTRY AN EXCUSE

I frequently hear what I will call the excuse that a person’s depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. This can be so and is the case in what is called “clinical depression.”  Brain chemistry imbalance is at the root of such conditions as manic depression and bipolar disorders and paranoid schizophrenia. Well, what system produces brain chemistry? The endocrine system of hormonal glands. Who controls the endocrine system? I do. You do. We control our hormonal output by the spirits and attitudes we harbor and express through our feelings, thoughts words and actions. We are not victims subject to our brain chemistry and hormones.  We are the masters of our brains and hormones.  In the case of depression and all other forms of dis-ease in our body-mind-spirit continuum, we are their perpetrators not their victims. We victimize our endocrine system and brains. By the same token, we are their saviors and redeemers. 

I am reminded of a story my mentor, Dr. Bill Bahan, used in his whole-health symposiums. This Italian fellow came to work with his lunch box every day.  When he opened his lunch box to eat his lunch, he would always complain: “Ugh! Cream-a- cheese sandwiches! I hate-a-cream-a-cheese sandwiches!” Every day, when he sat down with his buddies to eat lunch, he would open his lunch box and exclaim: “Ugh! Cream-a-cheese sandwiches? I hate-a-cream-a-cheese sandwiches!” Well, after several days of hearing the same complaint every day, one of his buddies said: “Every day you bring the same lunch to work and complain about your cream-a-cheese sandwiches. Why don’t you have your wife make you a different sandwich?”  To which this fellow replied: “My wife?!  I’m-a-not-a married. I make-a-them myself!”

Laughter’s the best medicine, especially when we can laugh at ourselves. I’m not suggesting in this series of posts that appropriate medications should not be taken in cases of clinical depression and bipolar disorders of the brain. What I am offering is an opportunity to look more deeply for the cause and cure of depression. While you’re medicating your brain, take time to meditate on cause. If complaint brings you down, then try a little thankfulness. Some say they can’t be thankful and optimistic “under the circumstances” they find themselves.  To that I would say: “Come up above your circumstances by expressing a spirit of joy and appreciation.  Will it work? you ask. You won’t know unless and until you try it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, to use an old cliche.  

The Biblical guidance is: “In all things give thanks.” That would be a constant and continual source of blessing to your body, you brain and your heart. A greatly needed blessing to our world.

Here’s to your health and healing,

Dr. Anthony Palombo

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for inspiring articles on sacred energy.

WELCOME GUAM!  Someone in Guam visited my blogs yesterday (July 28, 2014).  Guam, a United States territory, is the largest of the Micronesian Islands, located just south of the Mariana Islands  in the Pacific Ocean with the Philippine Sea to its east.  This makes 118 countries that have visited my blogs.

 

 

 

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Chiropractic Rationale: A Turn in the Right Direction

Anthony J. Palombo, DC August 15, 1963

Anthony J. Palombo, DC.”
August 15, 1963

THE PRECIOUS FEW

A colleague and very close friend up in New Jersey called me a few days ago in response to my last post, “Expression Allows Release,” in which I candidly allowed that my well had dried up; that what has needed saying has all been said, by me over two decades of publishing my HealthLight Newsletter and by so many other clarion voices with much larger audiences than I’ve ever had. He is Dr. Ken Harris, one of the “precious few” I referred to in that post who have maintained, lived and practiced the original truth that Chiropractic’s founder and developer, Daniel David Palmer and Bartlett Joshua Palmer respectively, brought to the healthcare arena. You can visit Dr. Harris’ Facebook page and read his posts on Chiropractic. He’s a man who walks his talk, and in so doing shines a bright and unwavering light on the path toward health and vibrant living. He and I shared a passionate mentor along the way in our careers in Dr. William H. Bahan, “Bill” as he was endearingly known and called by the hundreds of chiropractors who came to the light of his shining in deep heartfelt response to his clarion call.

“Keep writing,” my friend said, and with that encouragement I dip down once again into my reservoir of topics. The one topic I could never run out of words to write about is Chiropractic, particularly the philosophy and rationale for its science and art of adjusting the spine to correct misaligned vertebrae that encroach on nerve roots choking off the flow of vital nerve energy, life itself, from “Above, down, inside, out” to the body’s organs and tissue cells. There, that just about says it all in one sentence, and I want to say more. But first listen—and listen deeply—to these succinct words of wisdom from one of the precious few “principled chiropractors” who carried the torch for so many years, Dr. James Sigafoose, explaining in simple words the rationale of the Chiropractic Adjustment:

I just love his opening words because they articulate an eternal truth; a truth that awakened my heart and mind fifty years ago and turned me completely around in my thinking about health and healing and answered so many core questions. Questions like: “What is healing and how does it work in the body? What power and force drives it? How does the spirit of God touch and imbue the flesh of man with the Breath of Life? How can we stop dying if dying was indeed introduced to human experience as a result of ‘original sin’? What would the alternative reality be?”

“DEATH IS COMPLETELY UNNATURAL!”

I remember during one of Dr. Bahan’s symposiums hearing him drop this bombshell into our eager ears: “Death,” he said with deep conviction and absolute authority, “is completely unnatural! If it were natural, then why do we strive so hard to avoid it?” Why, indeed?  My God, we spend our entire lives struggling to stay alive. We’ve even developed an entire industry to this end: to fight disease and stave off the inevitable for as long as possible. That’s because deep down inside our subconscious minds we know that death is not natural. Death IS completely unnatural . . . and we remember a time when death was not a part of life. Life is what’s natural. We were not made to experience the death and decay of our bodies, the very temples of the Living God!  Oh, I’ve written passionately and poetically about that, too, in my first publication Sacred Anatomy. My second publication, Rediscovering the Soul of Chiropractic, was my meager contribution to the revival of the spirit of my beloved profession, which was undergoing an identity crises at the time.

Bill’s bombshell was surprisingly met with strong resistance from another clarion voice in our profession, Dr. Reggie Gold, a devout and almost fanatic “straight” chiropractor. Reggie Gold was one of Bill’s disciples up until Bill dropped this golden nugget of truth into our consciousness. He vehemently opposed this declaration to the point of leaving Bill to start his own following. So, there were points along the cutting edge of the sword of truth some of our leaders were wielding that caused division and separation. But that’s the nature of truth. It’s a fine and uncompromising light, and some of us simply could not handle the truth back then. Today we are more open to all possibilities, including the possibility that death is not eternal for us on Earth. Life is what’s eternal.   

In truth, death was not a part of life for human beings in the Beginning when the Creator walked among us in a garden state in Eden. We brought death upon ourselves, along with the disease process that is Life’s way of unwinding forms it creates in the three-dimensional world of material existence that no longer serve a purpose. Our forms age and fail to give us freedom of movement at some point; and life is movement in chiropractic’s way of thinking. Death, then, is natural at this level. We fell from a much higher level where life in Eden was an experience of birth, life and ascension. That’s the alternative reality.

RESTORATION . . . THE TRUTH OF HEALING

The truth of healing, then, includes at its essential core purpose the restoration of man to an Edenic state of consciousness, a state of radiant life and health, and that was Bill’s point in making that declaration. There is even a Biblical reference to this restoration in the Book of Revelation, which I love reading from time to time just to remind myself of my mission and purpose as a physician.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God our of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athrist of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Rev. 21: 2-6) 

We were all thirsty for truth back then. I was very thirsty for some truth, coming away as I was then from seven years in Catholic Seminary utterly disillusioned in my father’s and his father’s religion, where I had once asked my “spiritual adviser” the burning question in my heart: “If eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil brought death upon us, then why can’t we simply stop eating that fruit and live?” His answer was a real put-down: “Go study your Latin.”  Latin, of course, is a dead language, which was ironically appropriate for a fear-based and death-centered belief system. That was 1960. My answer came seven years later through Bill’s mouth: “We can stop eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and live!”  And he went on to describe how that was possible . . . and, more importantly, what eating of the fruit of that tree entails. Basically, judgement, which Bill called the only addiction there is. Think about it: how addicted we all have been to judgement of good and evil! “Alcohol is good. But alcoholism is bad. Sugar is good, but diabetes is bad. You won the lottery! That’s good. You spent all the money and are now broke. That’s bad.” Etc. But, then, that’s another subject matter. 

Bill’s most memorable declaration, however, is embodied in those words from John’s book: “Behold, I make all things new.” And that’s the promise Chiropractic re-focused for the healing field and for the world. That was Bill’s passionate mission in his life of service. “Behold, I make all things new.”  And he did just that, in his service and in his living. He brought his profession to the Fountain of Life and extended an irresistible invitation to drink from it by letting it pour out through each and every one of us who were willing to BE a fountain of living water ourselves for our patients and for our worlds.   

But first he had to wake people up so they could drink without drowning. He used to say shocking things so as to wake up his sleeping patients who would say to him that their suffering was, of course, God’s will. “Then get out of my office,” he would exclaim. “I wouldn’t want to change God’s will!” Bill wouldn’t let a single opportunity slip by to wake people up and turn them in the right direction. He once told me, when I felt my Catholic beliefs being challenged to the point where I had to let either them or him go, and I cried out “But, Bill, I am a Catholic!”—to which he replied without hesitation, “No you’re not! YOU are a Human Being made in the image and likeness of God!” How can one deny that truth? His words turned my world upside down . . . or rather me right side up. 

That’s what Chiropractic brought: a turn in the right direction. People don’t want to change. That’s what I’ve learned in my fifty years of service. The same passive state of consciousness prevails: “I broke it. You fix it. But don’t ask me to change the way I live my life.” And, if you wanted to stay in practice, you complied with this demand—and it is a demand, and we make this demand on every self-serving service we’ve put into place in our social, economic, religious, and governmental structures of governance by fear of consequences. As a people, we live our lives out of a consciousness of entitlement . . . and we get out of life exactly what we ask for and are entitled to: no more nor less than what we give into it. 

And—as the old Indian chief in the movie “Dances With Wolves” so eloquently ended his brief inputs into the tribe’s powwows—“That is all I have to say about that. We will talk again.” Until then, 

Here’s to your health and longevity,

Anthony Palombo, D.C.

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for inspired articles. This post is “The Body Electric, part 4: Ascension Harmonics. Enjoy!

 P.S. That picture of me is my” graduation picture from Chiropractic college. I was so serious about my new-found purpose and career in life.  

Welcome new visitor in Luxembourg. You are the 116th country to visit my blogs. I send blessings of love your way.

 

  

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The Blessings of Functional Medicine

Tony Pics for SA BookTHE BLESSINGS OF FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE

The human body functions much as a temple. Within its hallowed walls dwells the divine spirit that created and maintains it, and which all body-cells serve. A temple typically has columns that hold it up. The columns of the body temple are the functional systems that manage life in the body and facilitate the processes involved in transforming minerals and vital amino acids (vitamins) into the building blocks of the temple. These processes are what comprise our metabolism.

Our metabolism is a twofold creative process that includes the building up (anabolism) and tearing down (catabolism) of the various structures in the body – for one thing to keep them in good repair and working order. It also includes the chemical processing and conversion of foods into energy.

There are ten of these functional systems:
Endocrine System (hormonal glands),
Nervous System (brain, spinal chord & nerves),
Circulatory System (heart and blood vessels),
Respiratory System, (lungs and bronchial)
Lymphatic System, (thymus & lymph glands)
Genitourinary System (includes reproduction)
Digestive System, (liver, stomach, intestines)
Skeletal System, (bones & joints)
Muscular System, (ligaments & muscles)
Integumentary System (skin and fascia).

Cellular Level Health Care

At the macroscopic level, these systems are comprised of organs and glands, arteries and veins, connective tissues and ligaments, muscles and bones, fluids and marrow. At the microscopic level, all of this functional anatomy is comprised of cells, trillions of them, each one a living organism with systems identical in their functions to those in the larger body they comprise. In other words, cells breathe, eat, excrete waste, grow, reproduce and die. The cell is the basic unit of life in the body. As the cells live and die, so does the physical body. It is important, then, to maintaining cellular health and function.

This is essentially what functional medicine is all about. As its self-defining name implies, functional medicine concerns itself with the function of cells, organs and systems in the body, and the means and methods by which abnormal function may be normalized. Function is at the core of every condition known to medical science. There is not one disease, for example, that does not have at its root cause the failure of one or more organs and/or systems to function normally. Therefore, it follows logically, as well as clinically, that the correction of malfunction leads to healing and recovery.

This is not merely theory. It has been proven out over and over again in clinical settings throughout the civilized world where the natural approach of functional medicine is being used in the treatment of the whole person and not merely the disease. Chiropractic and clinical nutrition lead the way in the field of functional medicine.

Allopathic & Functional Medicine’s Forte

The treatment of disease is the forte of allopathic medicine, which uses drugs and surgery to intervene in the disease process and to relieve its painful symptoms. The restoration of function, and therefore of health, is the forte of functional medicine, which uses natural forces to support the healing process and thereby address the cause of disease. Both bestow their unique blessings, especially when and where they are allowed to work together. Our work is all about removing interferences to normal function in the body.

Wholistic Health Care

Wholistic health care concerns itself with the whole person and the various factors that go into manifesting healthy function in the body. For example, Chiropractic concerns itself with the correction of nerve impingement in the spine to free up the nerve supply essential to normal communication between the brain and the body’s parts and, therefore, normal function. Clinical Nutrition addresses the balancing of blood and body chemistry, both of which are essential to normal function. Bio-Energetic Synchronization Technique (BEST) helps to restore normal function in the body as well as in the mind by removing interferences in the sub-conscious mind and feeling realm in the form of memories of past trauma. These memories can actually be “erased” so that they no longer trigger defensive emotional reactions that keep a person’s physical body in a stress response mode.  In a stress-response mode, the body cannot heal itself nor grow its health.

So, we can see how wholistic (or holistic) health care is more about treating the whole person than about treating disease and pain with “alternative medicine.”  We are more than vitamins and minerals, muscles and bones, organs and blood vessels. We are whole persons. 

Energy Medicine

A whole person is made up of spirit and matter.  The matter of our bodies is shaped and maintained by spirit, namely the spirit of Life.  In Chiropractic philosophy we call this spirit Innate Intelligence and see it as a part of Universal Intelligence (God, if you prefer).  The Innate Intelligence of the body runs the whole show without the input of our educated intelligence, but not without its cooperation.  It knows exactly what’s going on in the body at all times, including what it needs in the way of external help and assistance in correcting deficiencies and structural damage and mis-alignments (such as in the joints and spinal column).  We have learned how to access this information through Kinesology (muscle testing). This in Energy Medicine at its practical best.

Contact Reflex Analysis (CRA)

Contact Reflex Analysis, System Strength Analysis, Nutritional Response Analysis are all energetic methods of “reading” the body’s systems and communicating with its Innate Intelligence, which is more than willing to share with the practitioner information that will guide him in determining an appropriate approach to resolving health issues. This is a non-invasive procedure that is a hundred percent accurate.  I’ve been using CRA for many years and have never found it to be inaccurate.  It not only lets me know what to do but also in what order of priority.  It is truly a gift from God.  There is no question one cannot obtain an accurate answers to with muscle testing when one’s intentions are right and honorable.

Attunement — Vibrational Healing

I offer an energy-healing service called Attunement.  Although Attunement is not a healthcare modality as chiropractic and clinical nutrition are, it does help mend, clarify, and enrich the connecting substance of pneumaplasm with our core spirit and thereby bring about peace, order and harmony within. When body, mind, heart and spirit are functioning harmoniously together, there is peace and harmony in the physical body. In a climate of peace and harmony, the cells of the body are able to function without disruption and interference. This essentially is what vibrational healing brings to the health care field. Everything we do in our service is done for the sole purpose of restoring normal function in the body so the body can heal itself.

How Vitamins Support Function

Vitamin A – supports the function of the eyes and immune system (infection control), the gums and nervous system, and the healing of skin. It’s necessary to cell metabolism, respiration and blood cell generation (platelets).

Vitamin B – supports the function of the heart and blood vascular system, the adrenal glands, the pancreas in producing insulin and digestive juices, and the nervous system. It stimulates and promotes appetite and normal digestion, promotes growth and vigor, and is necessary for carbohydrate metabolism and cell respiration, for normal pregnancy and lactation, and in maintaining muscle tonus.

Vitamin C – supports the function of the adrenal glands, the connective tissue, and the bones. Essential to health and integrity of endothelial tissues (raises resistance to infections), proper development of teeth, to oxygen metabolism, and to blood cell regeneration. It also maintains proper blood-clotting time.

Vitamin D – supports bone regeneration. Essential to proper mineral metabolism; absorption from alimentary tract, utilization and excretion of calcium and phosphorus. Necessary to successful pregnancy and lactation; for normalizing and reducing time of labor; to maintain blood platelets at normal level; to normal respiratory function. Maintains bone growth, muscle tonus and increases strength of capillaries.

Vitamin E – supports the skin, endocrine system (pituitary), heart, and sex-hormone production. Necessary to prevent irreparable sterility in male. Necessary to maintain mental alertness, growth and vigor. Possibly to prevent carcinoma. Necessary to resistance to infections.

Vitamin F – (Essential Fatty Acids) transports calcium from the blood into bones and tissues; necessary to cell respiration, hair health, and to brain function; supports prostate; converts sunlight into Vitamin D in skin.

Vitamin G – is one of the Vitamin B factors and supports circulation and brain function. Necessary to growth and development and cell respiration. As a growth stimulus, promotes normal repair processes and thereby delays senility. Necessary to blood regeneration.

Vitamin K – is not a single nutrient, but the name given to a group of vitamins of similar composition. The two main groups of vitamin K that occur naturally are vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) and K2 (menaquinone). K1 is found in many vegetables and K2 is produced by bacteria. It is more popularly known as a blood coagulant.  However, it appears vitamin K, and vitamin K as MK-7 in particular, plays an important role in keeping calcium in the bones and out of the arteries. (Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD – see her article for important information about Vitamin K)

Note: Standard Process product labels prefix the vitamin with the word “Cataplex,” as in Cataplex A. This is due to the fact that vitamins do not stand alone in foods but are accompanied by complex co-factors that facilitate their function and preserve their integrity.  Commercially processed supplements do not afford these same benefits. This is why I use Standard Process wholefood supplements.

How Minerals Support Function

There are 12 organic minerals and some 72 trace mineral that support the function of vitamins and the production of enzymes in the body. They also conduct energy into and throughout the body.

Calcium – supports the bones and teeth, helps with blood coagulation, reduces neuromuscular irritability, facilitates and provides fuel for muscle contraction and nerve conduction in the heart muscles.

Magnesium – supports tooth formation, enzyme activation, nerve conduction, and muscle lubrication.

Sodium – plays a large role in acid-base balance, osmotic pressure, blood pH, muscle contractility and nerve transmission.

Potassium – plays a role in muscle activity, nerve transmission, intracellular acid-base balance and water retention, and energy management. It assists in escorting glucose into muscle cells for energy.

Phosphorus – in closely associated with Calcium and its functions with bone and teeth formation. It is used in establishing and maintaining acid-base balance, is a component of nucleic acids and is involved in energy production.

Iron – assists in the formation of hemoglobin and myoglobin, contributes to the production of certain enzymes and iron-sulphur proteins.

Fluorine – is used in bone and tooth formation. Chlorine – is used in acid-base balance, osmotic pressure, blood pH and kidney function.

Silica – plays a role in the alchemical production of bone tissue through a process of “biological transmutation.” It may also play a role in memory storage, similar to that of the silica microchip in the computer.

Manganese – is essential to the function of the Pituitary, the tone of ligaments and cartilage, and plays a component part in the makeup of certain enzymes.

Sulphur – is an antibiotic that also helps with joint motility.
Iodine – is essential to the production of thyroid hormones for metabolism, growth and development.

The seventy-two or more trace minerals play empowering roles in the balancing of body chemistry, especially with the hormones. Just to site a few:

Selenium, found in wheat germ oil, plays a key role as part of the Vitamin E complex in the cardiovascular system.

Chromium promotes the utilization of glucose by the muscle cells, thereby supporting the glucose tolerance factor in the bloodstream.

Molybdenum is a transitional metal that forms oxides and is a component of a coenzyme essential to the activity of enzymes involved in preventing toxic levels of sulfite, xanthine and aldehyde (such as formaldehyde) in the blood stream.

Gold is essential to balanced and clear mental function. Silver is a protective element against pathogens, such as harmful bacteria and viruses.

Levels and Ratios Critical

These elements of the mineral kingdom are not only present in a healthy body, their levels and ratios to one another are critical to maintaining healthy function, strength and vitality in the body. Calcium is in critical ratio to Phosphorus, Magnesium and Potassium; Sodium is balanced by Potassium; Copper and Zinc need to be in balanced ratio, as well as Sodium and Magnesium, Copper and Iron. The degree to which these minerals are present in their proper levels and ratios, the body is healthy. To the degree they are not, the body is sick and dying.

While Copper intensifies cellular activity, activating estrogen in cell proliferation, Zinc, which activates progesterone and testosterone, cools it down. The body contains two to three grams of Zinc, found mainly in bones, teeth, hair, skin, the liver, muscle, leukocytes and in the testes. It plays a role in skin integrity, enzymes, wound healing and growth.

Whole Food Supplements Best – Function the Key Factor

Seeing as how vitamins and minerals  depend on one another for balance and orderly function, it becomes obvious that they are best taken into the body in whole-food form and not as isolated fractions, whether “natural” or synthetic, in “high potency” commercially prepared supplements.  They’re not “natural” if they are not part of their natural environment where they can best function, and are essentially and functionally drugs as they are designed to stimulate or suppress rather than nourish. As such they really should be under the control of a regulatory agency and prescribed and administered by licensed healthcare professionals.

Therapeutic foods, such as those Standard Process provide practitioners, are best administered by a licensed healthcare practitioner.  SP’s products can only be obtained in this manner. ❧

This concludes this reprint from Health Light Newsletter archives. This article was first published in May of 2007 as the last hard-copy publication and marked my semi-retirement from 45 years of practice. I thought it might be helpful to publish it in my blog for many more to benefit from it.  Until my next post,

Here’s to your health and healing.

Anthony Palombo, DC, ACN (Applied Clinical Nutrition)

Email: tpal70@gmail.com

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for interesting and inspiring considerations around subject that pique my interest, such as the current article “Sonic Geometry and the Music of the Spheres.”

For deeper and inspiring reading on the body as a temple, you may like to review my book Sacred Anatomy.