Top 3 Supplements for Whole Health

I’m not a huge proponent of taking handfuls of pills for an endless amount of time. I believe our bodies are designed to obtain and absorb nutrients through whole food and drink, not capsules of different sizes and colors. That being said, often our bodies become deficient in certain nutrients due to a poor diet or too much stress on the body for too long. Our food sources are often lacking in nutrients due to poor soil nourishment and over-production of crops. So what do we do when WE become depleted and OUR FOOD is depleted as well? Sounds like a catch-22, but this is where nutritional supplements can help us. Nutritional supplements that come from sustainably produced, whole food and animal sources are the best choice for this kind of support when possible. Here are my top 3 products that will benefit most EVERYONE in this day and age - they cover the basics of macro & trace minerals, vegetable nutrients (vitamins!), and healthy fats and oils:

Whole Food Multi-Vitamin: Catalyn by Standard Process. A harmonious blend of vitamins and macro-minerals derived from plant and animal sources. Get all your concentrated whole-food nutrients in one place! 

Mineral Complex: Trace Minerals B12 by Standard Process. We can’t eat rocks. So we eat plants, because they eat rocks. Kelp is one of the best for mineral nutrients! Vital to hormone health, muscle health, and nerve health. 

Fish or Cod Liver Oil with Vitamin D: For the best quality of high-vitamin fish oil with natural vitamin D, try Blue Ice Cod Liver Oil.  I LOVE to simplify my supplements. Take these two supplements in one for even more convenience. Essential for fertility, vascular, skin, and brain health. 

So if you are looking to be healthier and replenish your body’s nutrient reserves, keep it simple & look to these 3 supplements for whole-body health and maintenance over the long term. A great strategy for the whole family! 

At-Home Detox

There are lots of ways in which you can choose to cleanse. Buy a detox kit from a health store; do a program with a naturopath; try out the ubiquitous Master Cleanse (which is not safe for everyone!). But it can be much much simpler than all that. There are a few common foods you can incorporate into your diet that allow for natural liver and gall bladder cleansing, blood cleansing, and intestinal cleansing. It’s super easy to use these foods if you know a few tricks, and they are far more affordable and undemanding than the harsher alternatives I listed above. These natural detox techniques will benefit most anyone, and are gentle and safe enough to do on your own.

1. Beet & Radish Cleanse –> Grate 1 cup of fresh beet and radish mixed, squeeze ½ lemon, and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Take 2 tablespoons of this mixture 4x day for 1 week to improve gall bladder and liver cleansing function and optimize bile flow to aide digestion. 

2. Liquid Chlorophyll –> Take 1 tablespoon diluted in water daily or 2-3x week for purifying the blood and pulling toxins from the body. Very helpful when trying to quit smoking or during any addiction detox. 

3. Dandelion, Beet Greens, Kale & Green Juices –> Add mineral-rich vegetable greens into your diet whole, blended in smoothies, or juiced. They will support the liver and gall bladder organs, increase bile flow, & stimulate proper intestinal elimination. 

4. Cayenne Pepper –> Take 1 teaspoon daily diluted in water or use in cooking any meal to improve blood circulation, stimulate the metabolism & help release toxic buildup in the joints and bloodstream. 

5. Morning Elixir –> Drink a refreshing or cleansing morning elixir to help purify the body upon waking and hydrate properly. This will flush away impurities that have been processed overnight & bring your energy up in the morning. 

6. *Gall Bladder Flush –> Consider a simple Gall Bladder flush (to be done with the guidance of a health practitioner) to fully clean the biliary and hepatic ducts of old bile accumulation. This helps your gall bladder and liver to function properly and can often erase certain digestive issues and kickstart a healthy path to weight loss. 

Key to Health: MEDITATION

One of my New Year’s commitments for 2012 was to cultivate a simple meditation practice for myself. I have read, heard, and known of the powers of meditation for several years… dabbling in it here, trying it out there-with absolutely no regularity, of course! Is this an American dilemma or just a human one: Knowing what we should do, but not doing it? I also hear this every week from patients. “I KNOW what I need to do. I just haven’t been doing it!” Follow through is my weakness. That is actually one of the reasons behind why I wanted to get serious about meditation this year. Meditation can help you focus your mind, increase mental clarity & mindfulness, calm the nervous system, replenish lost energy, reduce pain, open up your heart, reduce self-judgement. Perhaps, I continue to think, these benefits will help me have better follow through in other aspects of my life in turn. Research shows it also may just be the single most important self-healing technique available to us. 

I mostly meditate in the afternoons, between clients. Facing our picture window or even outside when it’s not too hot. We have an enchanting backyard - birds sing, a heron builds its nest, flowers bloom, and butterflies swirl around. I can see my acupuncture studio which makes me happy. It’s a good place for finding peace and also allows for curious exploration of nature and myself. I encourage you to find such a place in your life where you can use 5 minutes to your advantage and meditate. I have posted a good audio/video tool above to give you a simple way to get started. If you need more guidance, search YouTube for more meditation videos that don’t make you laugh or roll your eyes, or try a local resource in Austin: http://www.austin.shambhala.org/. 

Let it go

I have to admit, writing a “healthy living” blog has it’s perks. I can keep up to date with current healthy news, keep pushing myself to try new things and experiment, practice what I preach, keep trying to learn more about my field and spread the word. But some of you may think, “Whoa, this girl is so health-obsessed does she ever have any fun? Does she ever let it go?” Mind you, I find my food and cooking style completely fulfilling… so always fun, and also YES! I definitely let it go every once in a while. 

One of the wonderful things about living a healthy lifestyle is the guilt-free card that comes along with it. My husband doesn’t approve of the whole “guilt” emphasis. He thinks it’s totally okay to indulge and no one should EVER feel guilty about having fun and being joyful. And, I agree. But we have that luxury because we DO eat very well 80% of the time. So I call it “guilt-free” indulgence. I know that I eat super-healthy most days of the week, so when we go out for burgers at Elevation Burger, and we get a side of delicious fries to share… I feel absolutely 100% happy with it. And this happens once or twice a month. I should mention there are a few other cravings I often have: Pie, Chips & Queso, Red Wine, Chocolate, and Downton Abbey. 

I guess what I mean to say is this: Don’t be too hard on yourself. Don’t cut out all the indulgences in life. No need to be so serious! Living a healthful, active, nourishing life gives you the freedom & flexibility to do that. Chinese medicine is all about moderation and balance, and it works.

The holidays are here and it’s a time of celebration, libations, giving, loving, and most of all, eating. Sweets mainly, and that means lots and lots of SUGAR. While I make it a point to never start a nutrition program with someone over the last couple weeks of December (worst idea!) - there is a lot to say about the cycle that sugar-consumption starts in our bodies, and the necessity of moderation in our diets or even full omission when it comes to Sugar in general. Not to be a TOTAL GRINCH! as I do believe there are natural phases and moments in life where indulging and letting go are good things… but I’m hoping for you all (and for me!) that the Holiday phase doesn’t linger too long and the new year brings positive changes with it. 

Here is a great video that I like to recommend to patients about Sugar - if you haven’t watched it, it is VERY motivating. I know it’s long, but even spending time to watch 20 minutes here and there will open your mind. A brief version of the video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ZIKOQkTiM

Herbs for Colds & Congestion

I’ve probably come into contact with 100 people lately (in the clinic & out) who have been sick…were getting sick… or in the prime of sick. This season it seems like it’s going around & around & around! Even more than usual. Seeing as it’s been almost a month since it all began, I thought I was home free… until Monday morning when I woke up with a congested nostril, sore throat, and blocked up ear. Great. Looks like this year I’m not getting away without some sort of ‘invasion’, as we call it in Chinese medicine. So, what do I do? A lot of you, like me, can’t just stay home and wallow in it - and who wants to anyway! I’ve got things to do and patients to see. I need a good arsenal of herbs to kick this thing in the butt before it really gets me down. Above is a picture of the 3 main products I always turn to when I feel those first symptoms of a cold or sickness coming on. They have never failed me!! Congaplex by Standard Process will combat any bacterial infection and promote your thymus gland to kick into gear and start fighting back. Gan Mao Ling is a Chinese herbal formula that expels pathogens in the upper body, and Yin Chiao…. well, it’s magic. 

I used to joke with a friend that even if the only bit of knowledge we came away with from four years of acupuncture and Chinese medicine school was finding out about Yin Chiao, it would have been worth it. This is one of those products EVERYONE should have at home at all times. At the first sign of a sore throat, itchy throat or nose, swollen glands - start taking this every few hours and Poof! You won’t get any further symptoms. You can take it in the pill version above, or in powder or liquid form as well. A definite First Aid herbal product! It has saved me now, as it has countless times in the past. 

Pick up these products at your local natural pharmacy, or call us to start building your Home Herbal Medicine Cabinet - these are the first 3 items to get!