Tidbits

There is a lot of talk in the natural health world about adaptogens such as rodiola and boswellia.  I’d like to provide a brief overview as the term is not self explanatory, so that you can perhaps consider supplementing with one or several to enhance your energy and clarity naturally.

• Adaptogenic herbs restore overall balance and strengthen the functioning of the body as a whole without impacting the balance of an individual organ or body system. Adaptogens facilitate these changes by a wide range of actions and energetics, rather than one specific action. Adaptogens can be stimulating and/or relaxing, many help improve focus, support immune system functioning, or provide some other broad-spectrum normalizing influence on unbalanced physiological processes.
• By definition, the active properties of the adaptogenic herb must be safe, non-toxic, and non-habit forming, even when taken over a long period of time. When taken daily as a tea or extract, these herbs can help improve your mental functioning and allow your body to adapt more easily to stressful situations, relieving an overactive adrenal response. However, herbs should not be used to push us beyond our limits and cannot replace the benefits of good restful sleep. These herbs are of better use to our health and healing when paired with the appropriate need or used as gentle tonics.

As I reflect and review what I learned this past weekend from Dr. Raphael Nogier, I am even more blown away by the beauty and complexity of the human form, and life in general.  I’m sure most people realize how complex and mysterious our bodies are, but when we go back to the fundamental laws of nature that govern all life and matter, we find that healing does not have to be so frustrating and intangible as Western Medicine sometimes makes us feel when we get turned away without solutions to our ailments.

Let me tell you some very interesting facts about one small overlooked body part.  The ear.

1. The ear has the most complex innervation of any body part.
2. The ear contains all 3 layers of embryologic tissue: ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm.
3. The size of a point in the ear is 0.2 mm. So tiny!
4. Many ear points consist of a Neurovascular Complex (NVC) containing an artery, a vein, a nerve, and a lymph vessel. This means they hold a direct connection to the immune and nervous and vascular systems!

I just returned from a 3-day seminar in the Washington DC metro area taught by Dr. Raphael Nogier.  He is the son of the famous creator of Auriculotherapy, Dr. Paul Nogier of Lyons, France.  What a weekend! I was humbled to learn from one of the greats of the past half century.  Auriculotherapy is not Chinese acupuncture, but a system based on physics, embryology, and neurology.  Developed in France over the past 60 years, auriculotherapy uses needles, light frequencies, electricity, and pulse to treat a very wide variety of acute and chronic physical and mental-emotional disorders on just the ear.

I am bursting with excitement to start implementing the elegant, simple, yet powerful techniques to take my practice to a new level.  Here are some of the conditions we learned to treat with just the ear, although these are just to name a few of the many.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Sciatica

Chronic Shoulder Pain

Menstrual Cramps

Learning disorders

Stomach Ulcers

Chronic Tendonitis

Migraines

My belief that food senstivities are often implicated were validated by Dr Nogier’s many years of clinical experience resolve asthma, alopecia, MS, and other conditions by finding and eliminating trigger foods.

I will be glad to talk with you about how Auriculotherapy can help you or your loved ones!

I’m often asked, what made you decide to go into this field?

I usually say “It was a process of elimination.  I could not imagine myself doing anything else, but I could imagine myself doing this.”  That’s part of it. But there’s more.

When I was a freshman in high school, I got pretty sick.  Bad abdominal pain, exhaustion, weight loss, loose stools.  I will never forget the PE teacher taking me aside, and telling me that I looked like a ghost, and if I was ok.  I hadn’t realized I’d lost a lot of weight and my face had turned pale.

That year I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and put on a series of anti-inflammatory and antibiotic medications.  When I was 16 my pediatric gastroenterologist put me on a round of Prednisone, a strong steroid, to suppress my immune system as Crohn’s is an autoimmune disorder.

I stayed on these medications, until one day my junior year of college, I went on a three week camping trip, and suddenly stopped taking the medications.  All of them.  I remember I had a bad flare-up, then I was ok.  I started learning about other ways to take care of my body thanks to a guy I started seeing (and yes you guessed it I married him years later).  I learned that diet, homeopathy, acupuncture, and herbs could all aid healing my digestive system.

Since that day in May 17 years ago, I have not taken a prescription medication for Crohn’s disease and have not had a single flare up. I reversed my autoimmune condition! This is not to say everything was hunky dory and my health has been perfect.  It’s a continual journey, challenges become my learning opportunities, and I strive to be strong, healthy, and happy every step along the way.

I hope that by sharing my story, I can inspire you or give you hope that things can get better.  A medical diagnosis is not a dooming sentence for misery.  Take charge of your health, be your own advocate, and always know that you can feel better!