Wildcrafting with Sergei Boutenko

The key is on Sergei Boutenko's website

Also listen to Tera Warner's interview with Sergei HERE

School school school

So I'm considering taking classes with Integrative Nutrition to become a Health Coach.
I did some research and this morning spoke to one of the admissions advisers, Shannon, this morning.

Shannon was very sweet and knowledgeable. We discussed the reasons I am interested in the school, my background in studying natural living and holistic medicine on my own and how I will be continuing my studies in Herbalism along with wanting to become a Health Coach.
She explained that there are financing options for when I'm ready to enroll as well.

So why Integrative Nutrition over the other Health Coach schools and programs?
I looked into this school at first because of the many health experts they interview and have lecture for the classes including Andrew Weil, David "Avocado" Wolfe and Deepak Chopra.
As I read I was also impressed by the fact that Integravtive Nutrition not only takes a Holistic view of nutrition (looking not only at diet but also at spirituality, career and relationships) but also offers over 100 different dietary theories including raw foods, Ayurveda, South Beach Diet and other popular theories.
The kicker was when I was looking at graduates of the program. I had actually heard of some of them! I've seen their books, their faces, their products in my past few years of healthy living research! WOW!

Following is some information about the school that I particularly liked:

Here is a Webinar for interested students

Joshua Rosenthal, creator of the Integrative Nutrition program and school, offers his book Integrative Nutrition: Feed Your Hunger for Health & Happiness for FREE! I'm currently on chapter 3 and loving the information I'm learning with each page.

More information is available HERE

Cures for Cancer

Disclaimer: This post is for educational purposes only, please see medical professional about your health problems before carrying on with any method stated here...

I have family, friends, and the family of friends with cancer. Its an epidemic that is being treated incorrectly, in my opinion. Instead of getting the problem out of the body with DETOXIFICATION and boosting the immune system with NUTRITION, allopathic medicine today instead wants to put more and more and more toxins, radiation, and disease into the body! Chemotherapy, injection of viruses, radiation poisoning - only to be told you have a matter of days left and be sent home under hospice (if that) to get their affairs in order.
I'm disgusted and heart broken with every phone call, every e-mail about more and more of the people I love and care about being diagnosed with cancer and never being treated like human beings but rather like large lab rats.

I said this not so long ago to a family member and the response was, "But what can they do? There isn't a cure for cancer yet."
I was shocked. Not too long ago I wrote some articles about Rene Caisse's CURE FOR CANCER - Essiac.
The first article, The Essiac Cure for Cancer, explains how this Canadian nurse found a Native American cure for disease and cancer.
The second, The Ingredients for Essiac, states that the cure is made up for 4 simple ingredients - sheeps sorrel, turkey rhubarb, burdock root, and slippery elm. These ingredients grow in the wild in North America! They have DETOXING and NOURISHING abilities! Exactly what the body needs to allow it to fight disease. The article also explains how to decoct these herbs and use them.

I bring this all up again because I've learned about a second way to cure cancer that follows the same principles of detox and building nutrition and the immune system. The Gerson Therapy created by Dr. Max Gerson has been found to cure not only cancer but also diabetes and other "incurable" diseases.
Dr. Gerson came to America to flee the Holocaust that later killed his siblings. It is said that even Hitler wanted his hands on this amazing doctor because of his ability to treat and cure disease. In America, Gerson's treatment for disease and diabetes was tested on patients with cancer and found to work.

What is the therapy?
Juicing and Enemas. That's it! Now, it is recommended that you participate in the therapy with a qualified Gerson Home Trainer or Doctor (which are rare) but the gist of the treatment is Organic, Raw juices and Organic Coffee Enemas.
Why is this illegal? Its just juice and enemas! But it is illegal to offer this as a treatment for ANYTHING in USA hospitals.

Where can I learn more?
The Gerson Website offers links to buy the documentaries of the method (including donating just $5 to watch one online - thats less than what most people donate to one of the Cancer Awareness groups a month!
The site also offers FREE PDFs on Gerson recipes, treatments, guides to juicers, shopping lists, and lists of supplies and why you need them. SO SIMPLE!

With More than 1 PROVEN method, how can we continue to ignore this and simply Hope that someone will just wave a magic wand and an allopathic doctor tell his or her patient, yes there is a cure and we mad eit in a lab. Here is your magic pill. I'm sorry if I sound cynical but I feel like this is what is being said of adds for a Walk for Breast Cancer Awareness or Leukemia or whatever. We are AWARE! Cancer does exist! THERE IS A CURE!

For those of you with a disease or cancer, why not try it? Talk to your doctor about the Essiac ingredients - will they interact with the medication you are on? Talk to a doctor or naturopath about how to give yourself an enema properly, will the coffee interact with your medication?
Would it really hurt you to drink some organic fruit and vegetable juice or tea, especially when it could CURE you of your illness.

The Bible says: "The Lord hath created medicines out of the Earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them." Ecclesiasties 38:4

Raw Alaska

Curious, since Alaska is known for its cold climate and winter of darkness, is there anyone up there on a raw food diet?
I did some research and here was my findings.

Kristen Dixon wrote about experimenting with raw recipes on Alaskan Dispatch

Raw Celebrity, Phillip McClusky went to Alaska to speak at the Conscious Living Festival (which I researched and didn't find any information on it after 2009 so I'm not sure if its still going on) and was enraptured by the water in Alaska!

I also came across Raw Alaska, a website and project owned by Chef Jesse Nunley who "is dedicated to making sure that Fairbanks, as well as the rest of Alaska, takes a step in the right direction towards radiant living. With gentle nudges, a little bit of work and a lot of love..." I do think its cool that he offers food subscriptions (and am interested in seeing how much that would cost). I did see that his focus is moving towards having a base in L.A. as well as Fairbanks but I can't help but wonder if that will draw attention away from Alaska...I sent him an e-mail asking about his services, I'll let you know when I learn more about it.

Through Raw Alaska I found information on some locations in Fairbanks such as Julia's Solstice Cafe which is said to have vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and raw options on the menu (but doesn't have a website sadly, the link above is to a review of sorts).
I was also linked to the Fairbanks Co-op and was disappointed to find that Anchorage does not have one but it does have an organic wholesale price club.

Lamber Jules did a 90 Raw Food and Green Smoothie Challenge and discusses how to travel to Alaska on Raw Foods.

Raw Food Repair lists 2 restaurants with raw vegan options on the menu in Anchorage and both offer juices - Juice Kaboose on E. Huffman Road and Organic Oasis on Spenard Road.

So not a lot on here and I'm sure there is more - I didn't link to the vegetarian, vegan, organic or raw meet-ups that group all over Alaska so that right there is like a whole other blog post.

A New Route

Talk about things falling into place!
I believe things happen for a reason. I also believe that if something is meant for me, if I am meant to take a path, and I accept this, then signals will be placed out for me to pick up or ignore.
I am picking up the signals!

As I've said before, I'm moving to Alaska - April 14 or 15th tentatively - and one of the reasons I am sooo excited about this move is the view Alaskans seem to have about herbalism, natural healing and organic or natural living. There are so many herbalists, naturopathic physicians, holistic healing centers, natural birthing centers, midwives, survivalists, wildcrafters, artists, etc just in the Anchorage and Fairbanks areas that I've seen online! My kind of people and places!

So I'm doing my research and thinking, how do I prepare myself for this? I wanna know everything about the local herbs, the gardens and farms, the local herb lore and the native way of healing.
Reading along, I feel like I'm beginning all over again.

I'm taking a break from Herbal Healer Academy lessons as I won't have an address for the school to send lessons to until we get moved, settled and get a P.O. Box. This gives me a break from that path a little bit and while I'm still going in the same direction, I'm deviating from the road onto a lil trail it seems. (I'm I using too many analogies and metaphors?)

While looking at all this information I ran into Tansy and her blog, Field of Tansy, and some blog posts she did called A Life's Journey to Become an Herbalist. Intrigued, I read on and found that the blog posts stemmed form an article by Gail Faith Edwards that discusses the 10-fold path to Master Herbalism.

I was INSPIRED!
This was exactly what I needed in my desire to learn about Alaska-based herbalism.
Taking a leaf out of Tansy's book...er...blog, I'm going to follow the steps outlined by her and Gail and do a year of re-acquainting myself with herbalism.

As I was thinking about this, I signed onto the blog and saw a post by Rosalee de la Foret on How to Choose an Herbal School! How fortuitous! I read it and simply felt I had hit another sign post saying "exit ramp ahead" "turn here" and follow this little dirt trail in your road to herbalism.

While I am taking this trail I do plan to merge back into the path I am taking now with the Herbal Healer Academy for my herbalism certification.
I don't think that this new step will at all be a disadvantage in my studies but a side self-taught course in life and herbs. I think it will be of benefit ^_^

My first step and more links will be available in my next post...

The Great Health Debate

Humans are the only creatures who do not know what they should be eating!

If you're on a diet for your new years resolution, you should check this out! Also, anyone should check this out who cares about health, longevity, vitality, etc. 8 or 9 days of health experts debating the pros and cons of diets from raw vegan to standard American.
I'm signed up for sure ^_^
The Great Health Debate

Osteoporosis and Calcium

 I read some interesting thoughts and figures about osteoporosis and where to get your calcium I thought I should share seeing as I have so many people in my life who suffer from this issue.

John Robbins, in Diet for a New America reports:

The National Dairy Council has spent tens of millions of dollars to make us believe that osteoporosis can be prevented by drinking more milk and eating more dairy products. Yet throughout the world, he reports, the incidence of osteoporosis correlates directly with protein intake. Recent research has shown that with a greater intake of meat and diary products, there is a higher rate of osteoporosis…not the other way around! In fact, the world health statistics show that osteoporosis is more common in precisely those countries where dairy products are consumed in large quantities: the United States, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

In his book, Living Foods for Optimal Health, Brian Clement agrees: “Unfortunately the meat and dairy industries speak louder then medical journals. Their multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns ignore what even the most conservative medical investigators no longer deny - excess protein robs our bodies of strength. With their high protein content, milk and meat actually contribute to the accelerating development of osteoporosis. Certainly most people do not know that one teaspoon of sea kelp mixed in a glass of water gives approximately a thousand times more calcium (without animal protein) then an eight ounce glass of milk. You can bet you won’t hear that information pop up in a catchy jingle.

The more protein in our diets, the more calcium we lose. Eating a high protein diet rich in dairy products is not a good way to get your calcium. Your best sources are green, leafy vegetables such as collards, kale, cabbage, lettuce, along with apricots, figs, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, and other raw foods.

~ Alissa Cohen in Living on Live Food

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that calcium supplementation has no effect on the rate osteoporosis occurs as compared to women who took no supplementation.

10-28-10

Hello Readers,

I'm sorry that I haven't posted or been on the computer at all this past week. Been very busy...

Lysine
So I got a horrible fever blister 2 days ago. It took up a large portion of my upper lip and hurt badly. I asked my mom if she had anything for it (expecting one of those foul smelling balms) and she gave me her bottle of  generic brand Lysine supplements. Having never heard of it, I was a little wary but went ahead and took the double dosage my mom recommended along with making a paste of 1 pill, 1 drop of Tea Tree oil and a couple of drops of water to put directly on the blister.
Today (2 days later) my fever blister is practically GONE! I totally recommend this, so far...having not done any real background research into the supplement. I've never had any medicine for fever blisters or mouth sores ever act so fast or so well.

November Monthly Herbal Poll
The poll is up! Pumkin, Sage, Apple, and Cranberry - 4 herbs that I associate with fall and Thanksgiving.
I know the poll is up a lil late this month so...The poll will not end until the 6th, so you have a whole week into November to vote!

Mother Daughter Raw Interview!

Today was a very cool interview on Raw Mom Cooked Dad with Karen Ranzi and her daughter Gabriela. Karen is a raw mom with raw kids as well as the author of Creating Healthy Children and teaches Raw Food Fun for Kids.




On another note entirely...I got a big bag of beeswax today at the farmers market from Apiarist Keith Green, owner of Honey Dew Apiary Pure Honey and genuinely nice guy who will proudly show you his state fair award winning honey and comb segment. You can contact Mr. Green about his honey, wax, and bees at red_123@bellsouth.net

Raw Mom Cooked Dad and the Library

Went to the library again today. I'm excited about a book on natural health and remedies for dogs and cats. I don't have a dog but I do have a beautiful tabby named Halloween and her birthday is this month ^_^

Also today was an interview on Raw Mom Cooked Dad with Dr. LindaJoy Rose. Dr. Rose, or LJ, is an expert in the Subconcious Mind and is a relatively new raw foodist, three years. She just wrote a book that is coming out this fall called Raw Fusion: Better Living through Living Foods. The book kind of combines raw and cooked food, which is perfect for a household of both raw and cooked foodists.
When asked about what sort of foods raw foodists eat on their 'vacation' from the raw path, Dr. Rose mentioned making a TLT (twist on BLT) with tempeh sauteed in coconut oil along with some avocado 'mayo', lettuce and tomato on some gluten free bread.
I like that she wasn't one to put pressure on every raw foodists needs to be 100% raw. It simply may not be natural for everyone.

10-11-10

I hope everyone had a great 10-10-10 and congrats to all the newly weds who chose that auspicious day for their wedding, I know there were a ton of you out there.

Today I got my library card and Stephanie Tourles' book Organic Body Care Recipes: 175 homemade herbal formulas for glowing skin & a vibrant self. I'm looking forward to trying out and personalizing a few of these recipes and passing them along to you if they work out.

I also listened to the Raw Mom Cooked Dad interview with the esteemed David Wolfe, which I totally recommend you rushing over and listening to it today. The part I wanted to share with you was a piece of Wolfe's sign-off statement, "If you really are into the Love, then get out of your Ego!"
Yesterday's interview with Alissa Cohen was also warm, heartfelt and fun. I look forward to more interviews tomorrow.

Homeopathy to help with Allopathic Treatments

I was inspired to write my article, Homeopathic Remedies for Medical Shock on Suite 101, by the video below from The Raw Food World. I was curious about what homeopathic remedies could help when you have to go to the doctor, especially for those people who would rather avoid allopathic/conventional medicine all together. I hope you enjoy the video and the article and please comment, on my Suite 101 article and on my blog. I love hearing about your experiences with natural medicine including homeopathy.

I am not a homeopath, please speak to your homeopath or medical professional before you take this as medical gospel, as always. Everything on my blog and in my articles come from research and/or personal experiences and beliefs.

The Wonders of the Hive

Bees create such amazing products, like bee pollen and royal jelly. Almost every product created by bees are considered superfoods and can either be eaten or made into medicine for human use.
Check out this information in my article, The Benefits of Bee Products on Suite 101 about all the benefits of these 4 bee products and how they aid everything from burns and boo-boos to diabetes and tumors!
I'm definitely looking at my honey differently.

Hemp For Victory

Hemp for Victory was a video created by the US government in the 1940s that promoted hemp as a crop that would aid our country in the war.
This video was put into "hiding" after hemp was demonized by the government, an act paid for by the big oil companies that saw hemp as a threat to big business. Jack Herer, the "Emperor of Hemp," brought the video back into the public eye after some investigating in the Library of Congress record.

Here is a compressed Hemp for Victory video found on YouTube. Enjoy.



Jack Herer also wrote the book The Emperor Wears No Clothes that explains hemp's amazing qualities and its many uses.

The Oil Story

I recenly bought
Natural foods;: Eat better, live longer, improve your sex life
at the local used book warehouse. The book so fare has been very informative with information about food and nutrients as well as why the body needs nutrients and what foods have them in abundance.
Wendy Pritzker, author, also includes some literature from Organic Merchants of Los Angeles, CA that informs the natural shopper about oils, called The Oil Story by Ezra Hendon.

In The Oil Story, the three ways of extracting vegetable oils from nuts, grains, beans, seeds, or olives.
First is by hydrolic press, an ancient and best method. Only olives and sesame seeds can be pressed without being cooked first and they are the only ones that can be truely considered cold pressed.
Secod is expeller pressed. "This used a screw or continuous press with a constantly rotating worm shaft. Cooked material goes in one end and is put under continuous pressure until discharged at the other end with oil squeezed out." (Lowdown on Edible Oils)
The last methos is solvent extraction, which is dangerous as it used petroleum based solvents to extract the oils from the plant. This method is universally used by big oil companies because it gets the oils out faster and cheaper.

The terms like "cold pressed" and "virgin" are meaningless in most cases as there is no legal definition adn mean whatever the manufacturer wants them to mean.

So how do you tell if the oil you are buy is crude, cold pressed, and unrefined if the label isn't always truthful?
Buy from a trusted consumer. Make sure your local health food market is legit by asking questions about their products.
Buy trust products. Research brands and companies to see exactly how they make their oils and foods.
Buy local when you can, talk to the manufacturer, even take a tour through the factory if possible.
It all comes down to educating yourself about what it is you are putting in your body.

The Raw Debate!!!

This is a wonderful debate between Brigitte Mars and Susun Weed, both are held in high esteem among natural living and healing promoters.
This is a 6 part program and above is #5. I recommend that you watch all 6, I simply wanted to share a piece of it.

My question to my readers!
How do you feel about raw after watching this video?

Easy ways to remove Toxins from your life!

Most people find it difficult to switch to an All-organic diet or change out all their chemical cleaners for lemon juice, white vinegar, and baking soda. Here are a few ways to make the first step towards healthy living without cutting out all inorganics and non-green cold turkey:

Use unbleached coffee filters.
Bleached coffee filters contain Dioxin from the bleaching process, which is a chemical that, among other nasty things, worsens ailments such as endometriosis. Your filter doesnt have to be bleached for you to use it (it turns coffee brown anyways) and unbleach filters can be found right next to the bleached ones in the coffee isle of your regular supermarket.

Drink filtered or bottled water.
Studies show that the chlorine in city water leads to cancer of the bladder and rectum. There are a lot of toxins in tap water (not the least of which is Flouride which enamels the pinneal gland). Drinking water in general aids the body in ridding itself of toxins, so make sure you're not adding toxins to your system instead of removing them.

Lower your Sugar and Caffiene intake.
Caffiene, accordin to Dr. Robert E. Svaboda, is a credit card that the body cannot pay. Caffiene is also one of the those excitotoxins in the media lately (akin to MSG and Apsartame). Caffiene also destroys good bacteria in the digestive system, allowing fungus and parasites to grow (like Candida).
After lowering or cutting out caffiene intake, the body balances itself out (yes there will be headaches at first but they will go away in a week or so). You will certianly find a change for the better in sleep, attitude, and energy.
Sugar is certainly not healthy for those with diabetes and other similair problems. There is a lot of literature out talking about the dangers of sugar's processsing including bleaching (so use raw sugar when you can!). Sugar is also food for Kapha (for those of you reading Prakriti by Svaboda) and bad bacteria (Candida), allowing its growth in the body.

Cut out the Aspartame!
Aspartame is poison, plain and simple.
The FDA alone counts 92 serious side-effects!
Check out DORway for more issues attributed to this chemical that creates formaldyhide in the body.
Apsartame is found in sweeteners, sodas, even yogurt! Just read the labels.
If you can't use sugar or honey but don't want aspartame poisoning and still desire that sweet taste in your tea, try Stevia. Its a safe herb thats been used for years.

Two Trees and Healing

Chief Two Trees is a well kown healer in the Appalachian region and to any reader of Raymon Grace's books.
I had not heard of him until tonight as I sat talking with my soon-to-be mother-in-law about herbal healing.
Chief Two Trees treated my fiance and his sister as children when they were suffering from worms and allopathic doctors of the area could/would not help. Their mother took them to Two Trees who knew immediately what the problem was as soon as he set eyes on her two children.
He prescribed a list of remedies including Sorbic Acid and Swedish Bitters. Within days, both my fiance and his sister were worm free.

Two Trees also treated the family for shingles with a remedy involving urine that I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to try but worked to cure the ailment within hours.

I am told that there might be the startings of a book by Two Trees that was never finished due to his death in 1995. I'll be checking with the local college to see if they have any more information on this work.

The point of this post is that there are many people who have been treated with natural remedies and haven't thought much of it (my fiance never even thought to mention the above to me before). I am grateful to my mother-in-law-to-be for having written down these remedies and letting me copy them into my own journal for later research and use (hopefully I won't ever need to use them myself).

My MILK Problem

I want to start out by saying I don't like Milk, never have so I in my research I am trying not to bias my facts by leaning towards studies showing that milk is unhealthy.

In Ayurveda, according to Dr. Robert E. Svaboda, Milk is the perfect food. Milk is the only food given willingly and with love (as it is a mother giving milk to a child, normally). In some Ayurvedic medicine, milk is the only substance given to someone suffering Vata-type illness. (Milk is not for those with a lot of Kapha in their system). Svaboda also recommends that Milk never be drunk cold (cold drinks and food slow the digestive process) and is best for those with strong digestive fire (Pitta).

However,
Gisella Hoffman, and many other people who study nutrition and health, do not recommend milk, indeed they believe that it is unhealthy for adult humans to drink milk at all!
Cow's milk is made for an animal with 4 stomachs (not 1 like humans).
In Nature, milk is not meant for adult use at all, only for babes who cannot find nourishment for themselves.

As for the nutritional value of processed milk?
Hormones given to cows are proven to not be that great for human consumption.
Many people advocate the use of organic, non-pasteurized milk (milk straight from the cow in other words). However, this form of the milk can cause other illnesses such as parasites in the body (i.e. tapeworms).

Milk in general is praised for its Calcium and Vitamin D, but what about other sources?

Calcium Sources:
Sesame seeds, seaweed, dulse, kelp, green/leafy vegetables, almond (I do like Almond Milk), filbert, brazilnut, citrus peel, and sunflower seeds.

Vitamin D:
SUNLIGHT!

What have you found in health and education lectures, magazines, documentaries, etc about Milk?
What is your opinion about milk, how its processed, its nutritional value?
Do you like milk?