Every day we challenged in many ways: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. As we have seen in previous issues, these challenges can effect our health. Our goal then, is to establish the maximum health state possible for ourselves and our loved ones, which is a state of wellness.

As described in the eJournal article on Biofeedback, "Stress, especially the chronic high levels of stress we experience in modern living, can waste vast amounts of our energy, weaken our natural immunity to disease, and sap our joy and vitality." [His article is summarized below.]

Hatha Yoga and Breathing Exercises help to reduce stress, and can be practiced at your desk, or anywhere else, without specialized equipment or other facilities.

Click for details in the full article for:

Many of us have heard of Biofeedback therapy for dealing with chronic pain, retraining damaged muscles and other serious medical problems. ... Biofeedback works by "feeding back" information about how our body is functioning so that we can become aware of small physical changes. As this "awareness" develops, it becomes possible to learn to control (self-regulate) our bodily functions. ...

One of the simplest techniques of Biofeedback is called "hand warming." When we experience stress, one dramatic result is that the blood circulation to our hands and feet decreases. We quite literally get cold hands and feet. When the body relaxes as the perceived danger passes, the hands and feet quite naturally become warm again. The more stressed we feel, the lower the temperature at the hands and feet. ...

[Some Biofeedback techniques are:]

Click title for full article.

Evaluation of Nutritional "Quickie" Guide Cards from Wellness Way, by Jennifer Workman, MS, RD

These guides are two-sided, laminated, 8"x 13" color quick-reference guide cards that retail for up to $3.95 in book and health food stores. All of the guides reviewed here except "Nutraceuticals and Homeopathic Remedies" were researched and prepared by Wellness Way Editor, Wendy White, Registered Nutritional Consultant (RNC). The other guide – as well as the previously-reviewed "Herbal Remedies" and soon-to-be-reviewed "Drug vs Natural Therapies" guides – were researched and prepared by Richard Dodd, BSc, ND. Both practitioners had them proofed by professional colleagues. You can see samples of each at the Wellness Way website or by clicking on the charts below.

We caught Jennifer between trips and writing her new book, The Balanced Approach, to interview her about these guides.

These guides are good eye openers to the possibilities for other ways to deal with wellness and health conditions. These ideas will help you create optimal health. They are not a substitute for books or professional advice, but are more a reminder of the key points in their subject area.

Whole Grains and Beans

Easy-to-use guide to 29 different grains and beans – along with their origin, nutritional benefits, sprouting instructions, and cooking tips.

I especially like the info about the different grains. It is helpful to see the gluten and wheat-free grains and it is helpful to know which amino acids are present in which grains.

Fats and Oils

The benefits of essential fatty acids (EFA's) are clearly explained along with recommended sources. Also outlined are the dangers of the eating the wrong fats.

I like the info about the Essential Fatty Acids, and where Omega 3's and 6's could be found. I do think it is important to stress that everyone is biochemically individual, so it is important to find out what supplements are appropriate for each individual. I use Health Equations Blood Testing for that.

Vitamins – How Much is Enough?

Gives the optimum daily supplement levels for 20 vitamins based on up-to-date information. Clearly explains the beneficial effects of each, and any precautions.

The general information is good. However, your best bet is to work with a qualified nutritionally-oriented practitioner who would do a screening, such as test your blood, for your nutrient status. The next best thing is to do a 3-4 day dairy of your meals, then your nutritionist can check your vitamin intake, based on the type and quality of the food. (See the "What Are You Eating?" Card below.)

From this chart, you can see each vitamin, what it's for, as well as some precautions and other tips. The "Tips on Taking Vitamins and Minerals" on the back of the card are good, but some people have trouble taking vitamins and minerals on an empty stomach, so take with meals or 30-minutes after you eat. I urge my clients to take minerals in the evening, before bedtime and herbs between meals.

As the card states, organically grown food is better for you, so support the local organic farmers so they will continue to be there for you – and they often deliver to your door. See a list on my site or the Community-Supported Agricultural Farms Site.

Minerals – How Much is Enough?

Chart describes 20 minerals, the role of each in our health, and a recommended daily supplement range. Also listed are five toxic minerals and the supplements that can protect us from them.

This chart is similar to the Vitamins chart, and I have relatively the same comments. Regarding the toxicity of minerals, check where your food is coming from and have your minerals checked as indicated in vitamins.

A healthfood store will provide more information on the sources of their foods. For instance, fish is high in mercury, so be careful of farmed fish, versus wild fish. Also, fish that is farmed do not have the levels of Omega fatty acids that you may be expecting. Again, wild and organic is best.

What Are You Eating?

Color coded chart on the nutrient content of many whole foods including a special guide on phytochemicals. Lists 24 nutrients for each food

This chart would be best for a nutritionist to help guide clients – it could overwhelm a lay person. Regarding phytochemicals, don't use these as cures. Keep in the kitchen to guide meal planning and to make sure that known deficiencies are handled.

Nutraceuticals (one side of the "Homeopathic Remedies and Nutraceuticals" card)

A chart of popular nutraceuticals – along with their health applications on one side of the card, and a quick reference guide to many homeopathic remedies on the other side,

The Nutraceuticals chart looks reasonable and accurate. I like the back too, about homeopathic remedies. Again these are good guides, but not the complete answer. Work with your healthcare professional, using this as your reminder system and points for discussion.

See other guide reviews: "Nutritional Awareness" & "Proper Food Combing" Guides and "Aromatherapy Awareness Guide," as well as "Herbology guides."

Jennifer Workman is a registered dietitian with a Master's Degree in nutrition and exercise physiology. She is the owner of The Balanced Approach™, a nutrition and weight-management consulting company based on the principles of Ayurveda and sports nutrition, based in Boulder Colorado.

We worked with this software off and on for three weeks, then extracted much of this article from their copyrighted websites and collateral materials. The purchase price is $395 which includes the software, instruction and background manual, a finger pulse sensor, and two adjunct publications. A full review is in the eJournal – click title to see.

The Freeze-Framer^® is an educational tool specifically designed to support you in applying Freeze-Frame^® and Heart Lock-In^® – two fast, simple, powerful techniques that quickly bring the emotions, body and mind into balance.

The Freeze-Framer was developed based on scientific research conducted by Doc Childre and the Institute of HeartMath (IHM) in Boulder Creek, California. IHM's research explores the physiological mechanisms by which the heart communicates with the brain, thereby influencing our perceptions, emotions and health. When the brain's rhythms and other biological systems synchronize with the heart's rhythmic beating patterns, we enter a physiological state called entrainment.

Entrainment reflects a harmonious balance between the two branches of the autonomic nervous system. This internal state of heightened physiological efficiency enhances health and promotes optimal performance. Dramatic positive mental and emotional shifts can also occur during entrainment. Often, personal perception of a difficult situation shifts to a more decided outlook, which reduces stress levels and restores the body to a state of balance and well-being.

When we experience heart-felt emotions like love, care, appreciation and compassion the heart produces coherent or smooth rhythms (see the graphic), that enhance communication between the heart and brain. Positive heart qualities produce harmonious rhythms that are considered to be indicators of cardiovascular efficiency and nervous system balance. They've also been shown to produce beneficial effects that include enhanced immunity and hormonal balance.

For more information on this very interesting research, see the detailed and downloadable, Research Overview.

Freeze-Framer site. Click the title for the full review.

Healthcare in the year 2000 and beyond will be as much prevention and preparation as it will be responding intelligently to symptoms. Building strong body systems involves learning some new ways to deal with old problems. Here are some straight-forward answers to typical and complicated medical problems.

Note: Additional help is offered to those who subscribe to the 21st Century Wellness eLetter.

Wellness and the Fine Arts – Victoria A – February 19th

Greetings! I am a graduate student of the Creative Arts Therapies, and am on a quest for information about programs that incorporate the fine arts into wellness approaches. Sometimes these programs come under the heading of arts medicine, which I have used as a keyword to search your wonderful site. I will continue to search under art, since any search is only as good as the keywords entered, but would appreciate any information that you could forward to me. I am in Pennsylvania, but am eager to learn of programs around the US and the world. Thank you for your time and consideration! Sincerely, Vicki A

Thank you for your question. Here is our initial response for a search on "Wellness" and "Fine Arts" in SavvySearch.com [14 websites]

Signed up for free newsletter, looking forward to the time when studies allow for leisurely reading – especially the leads you sent to me about arts medicine. Thank you for such an informative response!

It will be a long journey from these days of knowing that active creativity has much to do with healing, and seeing this knowledge being practiced on a wide scale. Thanks for your interest and input. Sincerely, Victoria A

Osteopaths Who Manipulate the Body – Allison C – February 24th

I would like to find an osteopathic physician to treat my sacroiliac joint pain which has become chronic (2 years). I live on the central Oregon coast near Newport. I am willing to drive to Corvallis, Eugene or ?? Please recommend a qualified doctor who uses hands/on, manipulation techniques. I already saw a local DO, but he talked a great deal about injections (Prolo therapy) but never examined me nor tried to manipulate. Thanks for any information you may provide.

Osteopathic Medicine, though broader in its philosophy and more holistic than Conventional Medicine, does not enjoy as much use of additional complementary therapies – Body Manipulation, Craniosacral, etc – as we would like. In fact, only 6-7% of Osteopaths do manipulation at all.

An Oregon search at EarthMed.com for Osteopathic Practitioners yields 162 doctors. You will need to narrow the search by nearby zip codes, then call to ask each Osteopath if s/he does manipulation before making an appointment.

Looking for a Practitioner – February 23rd-29th

Who in the Wheeling WV area does deep massages? Anthony

I was hoping that you could send me a list of healthcare therapists in my area. Ilive in Sonoma County, California. I need this information for my senior nursing project on therapeutic touch. Thank You! Stephanie B

Please advise as to how I might find a colon hydrotherapist in Boston or Cambridge, MA. Thanks, Fred P

We are interested in getting information about clinics that do colon hydrotherapy in in our area, the state of Georgia. We would appreciate any information that you could give us. Thanks. Candace B, Ambrose GA

Thank you for your question. The easiest way to find a practitioner is to go to EarthMed.com and select the PRACTIONERS tab, or go directly there. Everything else is self explanatory. Enjoy this excellent web site – a CompWellness Network affiliate.

Also, try searching for "wellness," "complementary" or other subjects using the Search WebSites section near the upper left of either these pages.

Yours, Kent

P.S. Locations are important, but a zip code is needed to narrow the search within a state in EarthMed's 100,000-practitioner database.

See Q&A, Wellness and the Fine Arts for some interesting comments on "Arts Medicine."

Health and Detox, Deborah Baker, D.C., MSc(Nutrition), DIHom, February 27th

Hello Kent: Just visited your site ... looks great ... lots of good info. I joined up for your newsletter as well. I have been in practice for over 22 years, specializing now in the mercury detox post amalgam removal. The dentists I work with and myself trained back in 1993 at the Huggins Institute in Colorado. Beautiful country, you have there. We are located in Huntsville, Ontario Canada, some 100 miles north of Toronto. It is Ontario's lakeland area/cottage area and is full of forests and small clear lakes. Great environment.

Just wanted to wish you the best and have a look at my site. Maybe we could link, and email me for a free newsletter. Have A Great Day! Deb Baker

News reports summaries on Healthcare and Wellness follow. We have most of the articles on file in case you look for the web references after they are cleared.

Healthy People 2010, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, January 2000. "Healthy People 2010 outlines a comprehensive, nationwide health promotion and disease prevention agenda. It is designed to serve as a roadmap for improving the health of all people in the United States during the first decade of the 21st century. Like the preceding Healthy People 2000 initiative – which was driven by an ambitious, yet achievable, 10-year strategy for improving the Nation's health by the end of the 20th century – Healthy People 2010 is committed to a single, overarching purpose: promoting health and preventing illness, disability, and premature death."

The "Opening" is the 60-page introduction to the 1,244-page document, available in print or on CD-ROM at their Publications page.

David Satcher, MD, PhD, Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General: "Healthy People 2010 reflects the scientific advances that have taken place over the past 20 years in preventive medicine, disease surveillance, vaccine and therapeutic development, and information technology. It also mirrors the changing demographics of our country, the changes that have taken place in health care, and the growing impact of global forces on our national health status.

"We have witnessed a great deal of progress in public health and medicine since our Nation first embarked on the national planning process for the Healthy People initiative. The process began in 1979 with Healthy People: The Surgeon General's Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, which was followed in 1990 by Healthy People 2000. Healthy People 2010 represents the third time that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has developed 10-year health objectives for the Nation."

Healthy People 2010 Objectives are outlined in the Appendix. A few jumped out:

We are cautious about objective 14, and will monitor it carefully:

The Risks of Overcooking Food, by Nancy Appleton, PhD, Well Being Journal, March/April 2000. "There is enough evidence to show that the more a food is cooked, the more difficult it is to digest and metabolize. This is true of any food. The higher the temperature at which a food is cooked, the longer it stays in the gut and the more difficult it becomes for our digestive mechanisms to digest it. This makes it more difficult for the food to absorb and work on a cellular level where it needs to work. When the food cannot work on the cellular level, the cells can become deficient and/or toxic, which leads to deficiency and toxicity of the whole body, making it less able to function optimally."

Every food has a heat labile point. The heat labile point is the temperature at which food changes its chemical configuration. ... When food is heated past the heat labile point, its chemical configuration changes. Pasteurization, deep frying and barbecuing are all forms of cooking where food is heated past the heat labile point. The body does not understand these new chemical configurations and does not have the enzymes to digest the food easily.

When the food does not digest properly, it can sit in the gut, unable to be assimilated completely, and it can start to become toxic. ... Since it is the liver's job to detoxify toxins, the liver becomes overloaded and unable to perform its task. ...

Finally, the immune system comes to the defense of the body and converts these undigested particles back into substances that the body can use or escorts them out of the body. The immune system is asked to do the job that our digestive system did not do. ...

There is evidence that shows if you cook food past 112º Fahrenheit, you will make the enzymes in the food unavailable; therefore, you will need to use your own enzymes to digest the food. Our pancreas makes enzymes that help digest food, but we do not want to overtax this system. There is also research that shows that the immune system can become activated when fried, pressure cooked or barbecued food is eaten. ... The more food that you can eat raw, the better. If you do cook your food, the best way to cook is to lightly steam, bake, stew or stir fry, or use a slow crock cooker. Eat as few overprocessed and overcooked foods as possible. The body has a difficult time digesting fried, barbecued, pasteurized, dried and other overprocessed and overcooked foods, such as cake mixes, dried milk, dried eggs, pizza mixes and dairy products.         Bon apetite au natural.

Nancy Appleton, Ph.D., is a nutritional consultant working is Santa Monica, California. She is author of Lick The Sugar Habit, Healthy Bones, and The Curse Of Louis Pasteur. For more information, see her website.

Click title for full article.

Seminars on NeuroEnergetic Release,^® a highly-effective bodywork methodology. Donald Kipp, NCTMB, developed NER and says, "It quickly removes recent and long-term blockages creating the conditions of health necessary to heal from most musculoskeletal ailments."

Visit the Denver Area then Colorado – superior business and vacation facilities as well as wonderful practitioners. Make arrangements two-three weeks in advance for the best rates with Josephine Hehnke – your Colorado travel specialist – at 1-888-Go-with-Jo.

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