April 2008
In This Issue:
Anemia: Silent Drain on Your Health
Taking Vacations – Vital to Your Health
Have you ever been told that you have anemia? Do you ever struggle with low energy, weakness or shortness of breath after exercise? This common health problem can come from blood loss (heavy/frequent periods/fibroids), vegetarian diets, pregnancy, growth spurts, pinworms, alcohol consumption and even certain drugs. Ever had problems with ulcers, heartburn or acid reflux? This can cause anemia as well. If you were told that you have anemia years ago, what did you do about it? Did you make sure it didn’t come back? We run into people who were told that they have a slight anemia years ago at a physical, but were told not to worry about it. “Sure, your brain is getting almost enough oxygen” – is that what you want to hear?
Why does anemia matter?
Every cell in your body needs oxygen and food to make energy. If one of these is low, energy cannot be produced. So a lack of oxygen via anemia (no matter what type of anemia) equals a lack of energy. This means that your liver cells detoxify your body slower. Your body’s need for energy is not met; which stresses out your adrenal glands. Your brain thinks slower. Every system is affected. So if you want to have your health, you have to have food and oxygen at the cellular level to make energy to live.
What can we do about your anemia? We can test for anemia with blood tests that look at red blood cells seven different ways - anemias can be tricky to find and it is important to know which type is present if we want to treat it effectively. We can test your iron levels in several different ways including your iron reserves. Looking at these iron stores can be useful in finding iron deficient anemias early. Monitoring these blood tests can tell us if your treatments are working and if we solved the root problem that is causing your anemia.
When was the last time you took a vacation? One of the biggest impacts you can have on your health is taking some time off. Your mind is running 24/7 keeping track of your environment. It can be hard to turn that off, for instance, when trying to go to sleep or meditating. Or do you notice that you’re easily distracted? Having a hard time remembering things? That’s another sign of your brain working on over-time. (And here are Will and Marlene on vacation last week in Mexico!)
Vacations are great! Getting away and leaving many stressors behind has a huge impact on your health. Your mind is running 24/7 keeping track of your environment. It can be hard to turn that off, for instance, when trying to go to sleep or meditating. Ever notice how you sleep differently on Sunday night than on Friday night? Or do you wake up a few minutes before your alarm no matter when you set if to go off? This is evidence of your brain keeping track of things. Even if you don’t notice these things there are other signs that we over-think when in our local environment. Do you relax into a semi-coma with acupuncture or bodywork? These physical treatments can work like a mini-vacation that has an effect for days afterwards. Not only is the mind relaxed, but the stress response is greatly diminished. This is part of what drives our adrenal problems that cause so many health problems. There aren’t many health problems that are not related to the stress response.
Don’t forget that we live in one of the worst countries for taking vacations. Every developed nation takes more days off than we do. So you may feel like you take as much time off as anyone else – and that may not be a good measure!
Is your skin clear and healthy-looking? Do you love how it looks? Or do you deal with break-outs, dryness, dullness, blotchiness, itchiness, rashes? If great skin is something you want, or you’re at least wondering why yours is not, here are some reasons why.
Have you done a Cleanse in the last 6-12 months? It’s time for some Spring cleaning! Medications, pollution and hormones you have been exposed to in the last year are still in your tissues. If you want to clear up your skin, clean your liver. The liver digests the fatty nutrients such as Vitamin A, which helps your skin stay healthy. Vitamin D, cholesterol, and essential fatty acids all contribute to healthy skin. These are all digested by the liver.
Ever notice how a smoker’s skin is often times dull and greyish? Smoking keeps the liver busy with extra chemicals to detoxify and creates many free radicals both from the chemicals but also from the products that are only part-way detoxified (phase 1) by the liver when it is overwhelmed. Using a detoxifying cleanse gives your liver the nutrients it needs to complete detoxification (phase 2) and fiber to help the bowels remove the waste from the liver. The Chinese were acutely aware of how the liver and bowels influenced skin health. We find digestive problems in the bowels of every patient with skin disorders and the Cleanse is an important part of recovery.
The Cleanse also is rich in foods like kale, Brussels sprouts and buckwheat which all have Vitamin C complex to help build healthy collagen for supple skin and hair. Vitamin C also stops bruising and improves the immune system. Most people lose weight while on the Cleanse simply by eating well, balancing blood sugar and detoxifying fat cells. Your body may fill up fat cells to get toxins out of the circulation. They will remain there until the liver has time and resources to deal with them. Your blood sugar needs to be balanced to allow your fat cells to release anything, whether fats or toxins.
