Quote o' the Day- Martha Graham

"The body is a sacred garment...it should be treated with honor." -Martha Graham

Posted by Juliette Aiyana
www.amazinghealing.com

Sinus Congestion Headache Home Remedy

Got Sinus Conjestion? A Cold, Flu or Headache?
Try a steam inhalation to clear out your stuffy head, temporarily relieve cold or flu syptoms and ease headache pain.

This home remedy is natural, simple, quick and won't cost you much.

All you need is
1. Glass or Ceramic bowl - deep and wide
2. A bath towel and a wash cloth
3. A box of tissues
3. Your stuffy head

4. Optional but recommended- a few drops of peppermint and/or eucalyptus oil
Don't have the oils? In a pinch I have boiled a few bags of peppermint tea into the water for the steam. If you don't have sinus congestion but just have run of the mill headache, try lavender oil.

FOR THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE WITH PHOTOS AND DIRECTIONS CLICK HERE: www.amazinghealing.com/steam.php

If you still can't shake your cold Try Acupuncture. It Works!

Beware the Medical Intern

A recent study published in the NY Times has concluded … “Long Hours Put Medical Interns at Risk.” In other words, exhaustion from on-call shifts lasting 24 hours or more has led to increased risk for the interns to “stick themselves accidentally with needles and other medical equipment.”

I would like to add to that headline that the Medical Interns themselves may not be the only ones at risk. Every year the patients who seek care from these interns suffer consequences too. Many accidents, often careless and preventable, happen in the medical world. True, doctors and medical staff are only human, but anyone who has spent a few days under high stress and very little sleep knows that kind of lifestyle takes its toll. Memory, clarity of thinking, emotional state and judgement all become impaired without adequate sleep. Modern research has just begun to prove that medical staff should take better care of their own wellness to ensure everyone's safety.

Personally, one of the reasons I opted out of medical school was that the whole process of medical school and medical lifestyle seemed unhealthy. As someone to whom other people would trust for providing heath care, it was important to me that my own wellness was a priority. It didn't seem right to go through a training process which forced me to sacrifice my own ideals, and I'm glad that I found a program which included maintaining my own wellness throughout.

It is important to many of my patients that they seek health advice and receive healthcare from someone who sets an example by taking good care of themselves. These medical interns who are at risk soon become doctors- a population notorious for high stress, low sleep, and a schedule too hectic to maintain their own wellness. How does that affect their performance? Tune in to the next warning to find out.

posted by Jessica Silver, L.Ac.
http://www.amazinghealing.com/jessica.php

Freelancer's Union Blogs about Juliette

Check it out! As a member if the Freelancer's Union, I was featured as Freelancer of the Week on their fabulous blog.

http://www.freelancersunion.org/blog/

While we are on the subject, if you are a freelancer you should check out this organization. They offer affordable healthcare insurance(!!!!!!) and they lobby for freelancer's rights. The more members we have, the stronger our voices. Please sign up and get involved. Becoming a member is free!

One big topic on the union's political agenda is to eliminate the NYC unincorporated business tax. As if we don't pay enough taxes! Haven't they heard of Self-Employment tax? It is hard enough to maintain working capital for our businesses without this financial drain. I would think it would be more beneficial to the local economy to funnel this money into hiring more employees or to pay other freelancer's with whom we work on team projects (like my webmaster) or paying our current employees more. Thus we will contribute to workers in the local community and pay tax via payroll tax, etc. The more working people there are and the more money they make, the more they will funnel back into our local NYC economy. Hopefully the government will soon figure this out and give us hard working self-employed a break for the benefit of NYC.

Posted By: Juliette Aiyana, L.Ac.
www.amazinghealing.com/juliette.php

The Lady Macbeth Effect: Washing Away Stress

Shakespeare’s famous Lady Macbeth put careful effort into washing blood off her hands after participating in a murder plot. Although perfecting her hygiene wasn’t enough to ease her guilty conscience, there is a general truth behind the efficacy of that behavior.

A study published last week in the NY Times found that people feel a strong urge to wash their hands after contemplating a despicable act. Those who were able to clean themselves after thinking about being guilty were less troubled by their thoughts than those who didn’t. And keep in mind, none of the people involved in the study were necessarily murderers; this was an exercise in the power of the mind!

Even for those of us who have nothing to be guilty about, symbolic cleansing can be extremely important- and can benefit our health. Throughout daily life, our bodies and brains are processing lots of thoughts, emotions, regrets, and stresses. Because of all that activity, energy in our bodies becomes blocked over time, which can lead to physical symptoms of disease. When the body and mind are able to let these experiences go, we can “reset” our bodies and maintain balance of emotions and energy.

Aside from hand-scrubbing, here are some ways to “wash” your body and mind clean of less than desirable experiences, emotions and events, and feel better. The following tips can help bring harmony back to our physical and emotional selves, and detox the body, smoothing out energy flow:

1. Sitting in a comfortable position, close your eyes and visualize sitting by stream of water flowing gently by. When thoughts come into your head, they are part of the stream, just flowing by you. Allow yourself to consider the thought and then let it go on its way down the stream, not getting caught or lingering too long in your mind.

2. Breath slowly and deeply. On the inhale, fill your lungs, chest, and belly completely with fresh clean air. On the exhale, release out all the air, along with the tension and built-up thoughts and stresses from the day. Oxygen will circulate throughout the lungs and entire body, opening clogged areas and releasing tension from your mind and muscles. Many times during the day we don’t realize how shallowly we have been breathing.

3. Firmly brush your limbs off, from the trunk of your body outwards. Start at the shoulders and brush out to fingertips, and past them, as if brushing a thick dust off each sleeve. Then, sitting with your legs straight out in front of you, start at the hips and brush all the way down to feet. Energetically, this releases negative or stagnated energy, and refreshes the natural balance of the body, enhancing circulation and washing impurities out of body and mind.

Lastly, at the end of a long day, consider this wisdom from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

So although hand washing alone may or may not wipe the slate clean, conscious breathing and positive energy will surely provide some relief for the body and mind.

Posted by Jessica Silver, L.Ac.
http://www.amazinghealing.com/jessica.php

Meditation Classes at Tibet House NYC

Tibet House is hosting Sharon Salzberg, a wonderful meditation teacher, on Tuesday evenings from 7-9 p.m. beginning in October.

http://www.tibethouse.org/programs/meditation.html

Sharon's classes are suitable for beginners or for experienced meditators. She opens the class with a 20-25 minute silent, seated meditation session, followed by a brief talk on a particular topic related to stages of meditation. She takes questions, then there is about a 20 minute break. She then talks a bit more then ends with another silent meditation.

I have been studying with Sharon for about 3 years and have taken this class at Tibet House 3 times. Each time I learn something new and different, and/or I am just finally ready to hear the same thing she has said before. LOL. Either way, for me, it is always important to maintain and cultivate a beginner's mind.
http://www.tibethouse.org/programs/meditation.html

For more info about Sharon and meditation check out this link:
http://www.amazinghealing.com/medit.php

Posted by: Juliette Aiyana, L.Ac.
www.amazinghealing.com/juliette.php

Quit Exercising to Lose Weight!

Tired of exercising to lose weight? Bored with your routine? Not motivated to move and stay moving?

We all know that exercise can help us reach long-term goals like losing 10 pounds, or preventing heart disease, arthritis and osteoporosis. Yet sometimes that is not enough to get us off our duffs and stay active. That is why I titled this article “Quit Exercising To Lose Weight.” Okay, okay, I don’t really mean, quit exercising. Rather, instead of always focusing on exercise, focus on fun. And instead of focusing on some long term goal like losing 25 pounds, which in the beginning may seem difficult to achieve, we could shift our focus inward into the here and now of exercise or sport. Focusing inward can actually become a powerful enough tool to help you climb out of your Lazy Boy and turn the drudgery of ordinary exercise into a fun and satisfying experience. Of course the long-term goal is a good idea to keep in mind. Author of, "The Courage to Start," John Bingham, talks about his experience as a runner, yet I believe it relates to all styles of exercise:

“For running {exercise} to become a part of your life for the rest of your life then there has to be a way of finding a reward in the activity itself that is both immediate and sustained. Running has got to feel good right now. It must allow you to feel good in the afterglow of the effort. And it’s got to do that on a regular basis…It may do all sorts of things for your heart and lungs but in the end it’s got to be fun”.

One of my acupuncture patients suffers from chronic back pain and depression. She finds immediate reward in her activity. “After about ten minutes on my elliptical trainer, my body goes euphoric. I turn on the music really loud, and I just go.”

Read the Rest of This Article:
http://www.amazinghealing.com/exercise.php

Posted by: Juliette Aiyana, L.Ac.
www.amazinghealing.com/juliette.php

Compassion

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. --Albert Einstien

Posted by:Juliette Aiyana, L.Ac.
www.amazinghealing.com

FDA Issues Warning About E. coli Tainted Spinach

It may be better to buy fresh spinach from a local farmer than from the bag.

This is from the NY Times:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Consumers nationwide should not eat fresh bagged spinach, say health officials probing a multistate outbreak of E. coli that killed at least one person and made dozens of others sick.
Food and Drug Administration and state officials don't know the cause of the outbreak, although raw, packaged spinach appears likely. ''We're advising people not to eat it,'' said Dr. David Acheson of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
Washing the spinach won't solve the problem, because the E. coli bacteria is too tightly attached, another FDA official warned on Friday.
''If you wash it, it is not going to get rid of it,'' said Robert Brackett, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Nutrition.
Eight states were reporting a total of 50 cases of E. coli, officials said Thursday.
The death occurred in Wisconsin, where 20 people were reported ill, 11 of them in Milwaukee. The outbreak has sickened others -- eight of them seriously -- in Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah. In California, state health officials said they were investigating a possible case there.
The outbreak has affected a mix of ages, but most of the cases have involved women, Acheson said. Further information on the person who died wasn't available.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Wisconsin health officials alerted the FDA about the outbreak at midweek. Preliminary analysis suggested the same bug is responsible for the outbreak in all eight states.
The warning applied to consumers nationwide because of uncertainty over the origin of the tainted spinach and how widely it was distributed. Health officials did not know of any link to a specific growing region, grower, brand or supplier.
''Typically we would try to narrow it down as focused as we could,'' Brackett said in an interview. ''The fact that it was distributed all over the country, the fact that people are getting seriously ill from this, warranted us to have an abundance of caution and just to say 'OK, stop now until we figure out exactly what's going on.'''
Brackett noted that most of the spinach crop at this time of the year comes from California. A special effort is under way in the Salinas Valley of California, a major leafy-vegetable growing region, to look for any possible source of contamination there.
Amy Philpott, a spokeswoman for the United Fresh Produce Association, said that it's possible the cause of the outbreak won't be known for some time, even after its source is determined.
''Our industry is very concerned,'' she said. ''We're taking this very seriously.''
Reports of infections have been growing by the day, Acheson said. ''We may be at the peak, we may not be,'' he said.''
E. coli causes diarrhea, often with bloody stools. Most healthy adults can recover completely within a week, although some people -- including the very young and old -- can develop a form of kidney failure that often leads to death.
Anyone who has gotten sick after eating raw packaged spinach should contact a doctor, officials said.
Other bagged vegetables, including prepackaged salads, apparently are not affected. In general, however, washing all bagged vegetables is recommended. Thorough cooking kills the bacterium.
''We're telling people if they have bagged produce and they feel like it's a risk, throw it out,'' Michigan Department of Community Health spokesman T.J. Bucholz said. ''If they feel like they have to eat it, wash it first in warm water.''
E. coli lives in the intestines of cattle and other animals and typically is linked to contamination by fecal material. It causes an estimated 73,000 cases of infection, including 61 deaths, each year in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sources of the bacterium include uncooked produce, raw milk, unpasteurized juice, contaminated water and meat, especially undercooked or raw hamburger, the agency says on its Web site.
Last October, the FDA warned people not to eat certain Dole prepackaged salads that were connected to an outbreak of E. coli infections in Minnesota. At least 11 people were sickened.
------
On the Net:
CDC E. coli information: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/escherichiacoli--g.htm

Posted by Juliette Aiyana
www.amazinghealing.com

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
http://www.jccmanhattan.org/category.aspx?catid=1625#14134

Are you dealing with stress, chronic illness or pain? This course includes instruction in mindfulness meditation practice, gentle stretching and yoga, group dialogue and inquiry, and provides daily practice support materials. Modeled after the renowned program developed at the University of Massachusetts over 25 years ago, MBSR can bring you lasting changes in physical and psychological symptoms, greater energy, improved self-esteem, and increased ability to cope with pain and stress. Evening and morning classes available. Taught by Elaine Retholtz, teacher of MBSR and acupuncturist in private practice.

For more information, call 646.505.5726.
Co-sponsored by NY Insight.
Registration Code: MAKMSR00F7
The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan344 Amsterdam Ave. @ 76th St.New York, NY 10023Membership: 646.505.5700Registration: 646.505.5708

You can also visit this website to get a class on CD (although class work with guidance of an instructor is highly recommended by me) and more info about MBSR:
http://www.mbsr-nyc.com/htm_c/mbsr_c.htm

Posted By: Juliette Aiyana

Some Pills Make You Taller and Some Pills Supress Your Period

I just ended a conversation with a patient about the possible ill effects of hormonal contraception. Then when I sat at my computer, I found an e-mail from my collegues at the Red Web foundation. It included a link to a strong editorial article about the questionable saftey and effectiveness of medically induced menstural suppression written by Leslie Botha.
It was published on www.womensnews.com

If you are considering any kind of contraception or switching to a new form, you have got to read this first.

This is the link and I have copied half the article below--
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2845/context/archive



This month, doctors are being trained to implant a contraceptive in women's forearms that can suppress menstruation for up to three years. Leslie Botha says research on such menstrual suppressants is inadequate and women should think twice.
Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews.

(WOMENSENEWS)--Forty years ago I lauded the introduction of the birth control pill.
At that point I saw the Pill as a way for women to gain crucial control over their family planning and attain the time and energy for life pursuits beyond labor, delivery and all the joys of child care.

Today I stand with a growing number of academicians, researchers, educators and activists who are concerned about extending synthetic contraceptive use to do away with normal menstruation.

The marketing of such drugs upon unsuspecting women has been going on for more than 15 years.

Norplant arrived in 1990; it was six silicone rods inserted into the skin of a woman's arm effective for up to five years. In 2002 it was quietly taken off the market in the United States because of complaints of menstrual irregularities, headaches and nausea, scarring from botched insertions and removals which led to hundreds of lawsuits. Norplant is still widely used in other countries.

Then came Depo Provera in 1998: an injection suppressing the period for three months.
Seasonale arrived in 2003, reducing women's periods to four times a year. Lybrel was introduced in 2006, eliminating a woman's period for up to a year.

On July 18 the Food and Drug Administration approved yet another form of contraception that will eliminate the menstrual cycle for three years.
Implanon is a medical polymer single rod the size of a matchstick that can be implanted under the skin of a woman's upper inner arm where it secretes synthetic hormones that will suppress the production of natural hormones for up to three years, depending on body weight. Implanon's maker, Organon International, is beginning to train doctors to administer it this month.

Side Effects and Significance
Organon states that this product has been successfully tested on 250 million women in 30 countries for the past eight years without significant side effects.
So why worry?

Well, first there is the track record on this kind of claim to consider.
Some of you may remember, for instance, that side effects reported by Puerto Rican women in the 1960s were dismissed as "psychosomatic" in the rush to get the first birth control pill on the U.S. market.

Then came 100 premature deaths linked to the Pill, Senate hearings and Barbara Seaman's groundbreaking 1969 book "A Doctor's Case Against the Pill" about the dangerous side effects. Not until 1988, however, did drug companies, at the FDA's urging, remove the original high-dose oral contraceptives from the market. Also, what exactly is a "significant" side effect?
Implanon's disclaimer says "the most common side effect is changes in bleeding pattern ranging from amenorrhea (lack of a period) to spotting (chemically controlled bleed, not a natural bleed) and-or irregular or prolonged bleeding."

It appears that "significant" side effects encountered by women are dismissed as "insignificant" by the industry.

Currently over 100 million women worldwide use oral contraceptives, but there are no studies on how the elimination of the menstrual cycle for an extended length of time will affect our reproductive system as well as our health.

Some have argued that women will benefit medically from fewer menstrual cycles. The real question is, can that response be safely produced with artificial suppression?

Read the rest of this article---
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2845/context/archive

CNN.com Health News: Fast-food Eaters Underestimate Calories

On September 6th CNN.com published an article about a health research study which suggests that no matter how big or small the fast food customer is, they all underestimate the caloric value of meals and individual food items from the menu which land on their tray.

This study helps to dispel beliefs that only larger people are undereducated or lazy about fast food choices and that is why they gained weight. And it may help us to understand why thinner people are gaining weight of epidemic proportions. According to the NIH about 97 million Americans are overweight or obese and that number is expected to rise.

If we as a society are unaware of caloric food values then we all stand to gain weight and lose health. One mistake fast food eaters make is ordering the salad thinking it is lower in calories then the basic burger. But once you add that dressing they give you, it may even be higher in calories then the burger. Another tip is to avoid super sizing the meal to keep calories lower. Or you can do what I and many Americans do which is to avoid fast food restaurant eating at all costs.

For the full article and a short 4 minute video with great tips for eating out more healthfully check out this CNN.com Health Page:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/09/06/diet.portion.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latest

For more tips also check out my previous post about simple steps you can integrate into your daily life to boost your health and lose weight.

Posted by: Juliette Aiyana, L.Ac.