• It’s loaded with potassium. In fact, it has 175mg more in a cup than a banana and is considerably lower in carbohydrates. It’s great for folks who suffer from leg cramps, but it’s naturally low in sodium, so you can’t really depend on it to replace electrolytes lost in sweat.
• The coconut water that is packaged has been pasteurized, so it’s no longer a raw food and is not going to be as nourishing as the water from a fresh coconut. From a fresh coconut, water is a raw, live food containing all its natural enzymes and nutrients.
• It can actually help a hangover, because of the hydration from the potassium. Of course, the natural solution to this is to not drink so much that you have a hangover in the first place.
• The high potassium content can actually improve blood pressure.
• It is all carbohydrate, but if you drink the plain water, you get all the health benefits without the added glucose assault. When you drink the mango flavored coconut waters, for example, you add a lot more carbs and you’re better off not having any at all.
• Don’t confuse coconut water (juice) with coconut milk – they are completely different.
• It’s yummy!

Rebecca Rebmann, CTN
Certified Traditional Naturopath

Healing Tip of the Week
Drink some raw, live coconut water, ice cold from a fresh coconut! Enjoy!

Anytime vaccination is brought up, many people feel a surge of emotions on the topic. It’s a highly debated issue. I don’t feel this is a vaccination issue at all. It’s a health freedom issue. It scares me to think that there are laws being passed right now that are forcing people to see a doctor. In fact, there is already a law that makes it legal to vaccinate a 12-year-old child without the parent’s knowledge or consent. That means a classroom of kids can be shown a video of a certain disease and asked if they want to be vaccinated for it without any parent knowing. That is already a law!

There are many ways to achieve optimal health, and there is no one right way. I see people all the time in my practice, who choose to forgo the medical philosophy in health in favor of the chiropractic or acupuncture philosophy and who are very successful. There are also people for which chiropractic or acupuncture doesn’t fit with their lifestyle, so they choose to use pharmaceuticals.

There isn’t one religious philosophy that makes sense to every man, woman and child on earth. We’ve seen what happens when people try to force others into believing what they believe based on, “It’s for their own good.” Why are laws being passed that are forcing people into one health philosophy based on the argument that they are too uneducated to make those decisions for themselves? Unfortunately, that question can be answered all too easily by taking a look at which industry tops the list in contributions (bribes) to our congressman and senators.

It’s important that people know this is happening. These bills are being passed with the public being completely unaware of it. Please let other people know about it, so that it can be opposed.

Paul Fuhrman, DC
Doctor of Chiropractic

Healing Tip of the Week
Educate yourself on California Bill AB 2109. If you agree that this is health freedom issue, oppose it!

NAET is an innovative, natural solution for allergies and allergy-related conditions. It was developed based on the knowledge and techniques of Oriental medicine, chiropractic, kinesiology and nutrition to identify and treat reactions to many substances. This treatment provides relief from adverse responses to allergens and empowers individuals to live a better life in our modern world.

According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), an estimated 40-50 million Americans suffer from allergic diseases and children with food allergies are two to four times more likely to have asthma and other allergies.

An allergy is a hypersensitivity disorder of the immune system. Common allergens are generally classified into nine categories; inhalants, ingestants, contactants, injectants, infectants, physical agents, genetic factors, molds and fungi and emotional stressors. The body responds to the presence of an allergen causing a disturbance in the energetic pathways that leads to an energy blockage, which can cause an exaggerated response.

This may create an unbalanced state eventually disturbing the whole body, including energy meridians, vital organs and their associated muscle groups.

NAET works to eliminate the blockages caused by substances or energetic incompatibilities by clearing and detoxifying it from the body on the physical level (tissues, organs, brain and nervous system), physiological level (circulation of blood, fluids) and emotional level (mind, thoughts, beliefs, emotions). Thus, it enables the body to relax, absorb and assimilate appropriate nutrients to support the proper function of the entire body.
Asthma and sinus problems are the most common conditions we associate with allergies. But any type of inflammation in the body, fatigue, insomnia, high blood pressure, digestive disorders, urinary disorders, reproductive issues, pain, itching, fibromyalgia, cysts, tumors and depression are just a few conditions that may stem from energy blockage of “allergens.”

I happened (past tense) to be one who developed a mysterious ailment that brought misery to my life for the most part of a year. I thought of myself as always healthy, until I came back from a trip to China in late 2001. It all started on the plane ride home when I looked in the mirror and my eyes were bloodshot red. From there, within the next few weeks, my eyes became itchy, rashes developed all over my face, neck and other parts of my body. The itching was relentless! Prednisone (corticosteroid) was a life saver, but was not without its side effects (ravenous appetite, weight gain, moon shaped face and to top it off, I developed a kidney infection). I was seen by many different specialists from opthamologists to allergists and dermatologists. I was given the diagnosis of dermatitis and used prescription eyedrops, creams, and corticosteroids. If I stopped taking the meds, the itching came back. It looked like I aged 20 years over night! I felt tired all the time because the energy of my organs were functioning at a low rate. In my desperation, I searched the internet for possible treatments and found the light at the end of the tunnel. I found an acupuncturist who was a practitioner of NAET. I started receiving treatments and within a few weeks my life started to change. The itching completely stopped after a few treatments and my body started to heal. I was completely well within a couple of months. It felt like a miracle to feel and look normal again.

If you suffer from allergies, try NAET to eliminate them, instead of taking pharmaceuticals to just mask the symptoms.

Rebecca Rebmann, CTN
Certified Traditional Naturopath

What we smell and taste is a way for the body to monitor our outside environment, alerting us to toxins or nutritious foods. Aromatherapy has been used to positively influence health by manipulating smell. Hearing and listening are ways our body monitors our environment as well. I recently watched a fascinating talk on hearing and how what you listen to can affect your health.

Sound can be both very detrimental and very beneficial when it comes to health. In Europe, studies have shown that hundreds of thousands of people suffer from health problems associated with background industrial noise. I’ve always felt that a whirling fan at night when I’m sleeping left me feeling not very rested in the morning. Headphone use is also huge nowadays. Aside from the usual hearing damage associated with headphones used at too loud of a volume, there also are theories that say that creating a disconnect between what you hear and what you are seeing can be detrimental to you in some way. I don’t think there is much evidence on this but it’s interesting to think about.

Sound can also be very healing. In medicine and chiropractic, ultrasound waves are used to stimulate soft tissue repair. Sound is also used as a non-invasive way to break up kidney stones. On a more subtle level, what we consciously listen to can have great effects on our mood and sense of well being. No one can deny how relaxing it feels to sit or camp next to a waterfall or stream, wake up to the sound of birds chirping, or fall asleep on warm sand to sounds of waves pounding the shore. It’s no wonder that water fountains are usually a place people tend to hang out. Silence is beautiful as well. Science also brings evidence that sound is good for our intelligence. Musicians typically have larger brains than non musicians.

No one knows how little or how much these sounds affect us. Notice how different stimuli affect your mood and well-being, and take active steps to surround yourself with more positive ones and cut out the negative ones. It’s important to try to be conscious of what sounds are stimulating our minds and our bodies. And when it comes down to it, being more conscious is what it’s all about.

Paul Fuhrman, DC
Doctor of Chiropractic

Healing Tip of the Week
Watch the talk where I got the information for this blog. It’s very short but fascinating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELgvDMTKyBE&list=FLoNMgysrOJX7Vol7VMoXm7Q&index=1&feature=plpp_video

Rebecca Rebmann, CTN
Certified Traditional Naturopath

Healing Tip of the Week
If you need a sweetener, you’re better off using a natural sugar, like pure organic grade B maple syrup, raw honey or organic raw sugar.

In the 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted a study in which a group of people were kept in total darkness for 14 hours a day for a month. Once their sleep regulated (by the end of the fourth week), subjects had settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern consisting of two four-hour sleeps with a two-hour break between.

There is also historical evidence that proves humans used to sleep in two chunks. According to historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech, people were quite active during their two-hour waking period. They would get up, use the toilet, smoke tobacco, visit with neighbors, read, write, pray, meditate or enjoy sex. In fact, a doctor’s manual from 16^th Century France advised that the best time for couples to conceive was “after the first sleep,” when “they have more enjoyment” and “do it better”. Ekirch found that the idea of the two chunks of sleep started disappearing in the 17^th Century among the urban upper classes in northern Europe and filtered to the rest of Western society during the next 200 years.

Today, most people are adapted to the eight-hour sleep pattern. However, many people still naturally wake after the first four hours of sleep. Rather than appreciating and using the time, they worry that they can’t go back to sleep. According to Ekirch, sleep maintenance insomnia, where people wake and have trouble getting back to sleep, was first reported in the 19^th Century, at the same time accounts of segmented sleep disappeared.

According to sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs, waking during the night is part of normal human physiology. “The idea that we must sleep in a consolidated block could be damaging,” he says, “if it makes people who wake up at night anxious, as this anxiety can itself prohibit sleep and is likely to seep into waking life too.”

Jacobs also suggests that a waking period between sleeps, when people were forced into periods of rest and relaxation, could have played an important role in the human capacity to regulate stress naturally.

Have you adapted to the eight-hour sleep pattern? It’s possible you have not. Each person’s sleep pattern is different. If you have continuous sleep troubles, there may be an energetic imbalance that needs to be addressed. Make an appointment with me at the Advanced Wellness Center, and we’ll work together to correct the imbalance.

Source: BBC News Magazine, “The Myth of the Eight-Hour Sleep,” by Stephanie Hegarty, BBC World Service

Dr. Allen Arnette, DC, LAc
Doctor of Chiropractic, Licensed Acupuncturist

Healing Tip of the Week
When you wake in the middle of the night and can’t fall immediately back to sleep, don’t worry. Take some deep breaths, relax and assure yourself that waking in the middle of the night is part of normal human physiology.

There are several possible reasons for this occurrence. The most common is “stress incontinence”, which is due to weakened pelvic floor muscles. This is more common in women and even more common after childbirth and/or around menopause. When menopause begins, there is a decrease in your estrogen levels. Estrogen helps keep the muscles strong. So, when there is a sudden pressure on the bladder walls, and the muscles are weak, there will be a tendency to leak or dribble urine.

The simple fix is to do “Kegel exercises” as these will help strengthen the muscles in the pelvic floor and help you gain control. The exercise works the muscles that help you start and stop urine flow. So, every time you urinate, attempt to stop the flow of urine several times. These muscles build quickly, and it will get easier to do. Urologists recommend practicing this start and stop action until you can do it 50 times in a row several times a day.

This is something I would recommend even if you do not have a problem, just to keep the area strong. So, all women, start squeezing, not only when you urinate but frequently.

There can be other issues involved that would require medical intervention. Try these exercises and see if this doesn’t do the job. If not, consult your physician.

Barbara Shur, DC
Doctor of Chiropractic

Healing Tip of the Week
Every time you urinate, stop and start the flow several times. This will build the pelvic floor muscles and help manage stress incontinence.

In response to this, I started to “fast” from the news. In essence, I wanted to turn off reality television and tune into reality. We unplugged the TV and stored it in the garage. On my drive to work, I turned off the radio and visualized great things happening in my day. On the way home, I listened to a great album or stimulating speaker on my iPod to unwind. I gave up the newspaper and limited Internet use to only when I was in the clinic; none at home.

There were times when I was incredibly bored at home. I had to revert back to reading books daily. When I couldn’t get myself to read, I’d rent a movie from Blockbuster. I figured at least there would be no advertisements in a rented movie. I started playing board games and having dinner with friends on the weekdays and spending a great deal more time playing with the dog. I went to bed earlier. I was able to be more present with my patients, and my results with them improved. When I did happen to catch a news piece or ad, I felt it was easier for me to read between the lines and see what message they were really trying to convey to my subconscious. In short, I think I was able to focus my mind more on the “now” and less on the negative messages and distractions media presents that have no bearing on my day-to-day life.

There are negatives to tuning out. I can’t follow politics or sports very well. I feel like an irresponsible citizen. I have no idea who I will vote for or even if I’m informed enough to vote. In my case, however, the positives outweigh the negatives.

Mother Teresa was asked one time, “What can we do to promote world peace?” She replied simply, “Go home and love your family.” For myself, it’s more important to feel connected, focused and engaged to the people and events within my day-to-day life rather than be up-to-date every hour on the latest political scandal or cruise ship disaster on the other side of the globe. What’s most important to you?

Paul Fuhrman, DC
Doctor of Chiropractic

Healing Tip of the Week
Try it for yourself. Do a one month news fast. Try to use the extra time you gain to do something fulfilling, engaging, or fun. Share what you discover with others. It can be a very enlightening experiment.

When exploring detoxification and cleansing options, one can find themself at a fork in the road: one path has the very popular “Pills, Powders, and Potions,”(3P) approach and another is the Whole Foods/lifestyle approach. Although both can be effective in the short run, I prefer to inspire my patients through the most natural options available for cleansing the body and mind thus creating a sustainable approach. This method aids in the improvement of medical conditions, as well as providing for the development of lifelong habits for wellness and longevity. The problem with “diets” (including “detox diets”) is that they end with no developed habits for sustaining health in the future.

The goal of any detoxification and cleansing program should always be a long-term lifestyle change, as opposed to an “event” every now and again. The main problem with the 3P approach is that one cannot take pills, powders and potions forever. However, eating whole foods is sustainable. Eating in a way that balances the body’s internal functions sets a foundation for health today as well as in the future.

The purpose of any program is to encourage the body’s tendency for an acidic (and phlegmy) state to balance towards a more alkaline state; the acid/base balance in the blood is dynamic and not static. Your body’s pH levels are affected by many internal and external factors. It is important to take a holistic approach when seeking balance. No single act (3P) will restore the pH permanently. Only sustained efforts towards balance will set the stage for the body’s natural corrective mechanisms to do their job efficiently.

Researchers will tell you that the pH is always taking care of itself and therefore needs no specialized approach to balance it. This, however philosophically compelling, is untrue in the clinical setting. EVERY filter in the world needs cleaning. So, in turn, internal bodily filters and organs of elimination do too.

Clinically, organs need to be addressed in a full-body detoxification in the following order:

• Bowels
• Kidney
• Liver
• Gallbladder
• Lungs
• Lymph
• Skin
• Mind

Many people often consider cleaning the bowels to be a complete detoxification, but however helpful it may be, moving the bowels barely scratches the surface. Your body requires a deep tissue cleansing, so it is vital to address all of the above listed organs to successfully accomplish detoxification and cleansing for the purpose of health and vitality.

Timing is also a very important factor to consider when beginning a program. Both your body and mind must be prepared to handle the change. Beginning a program when you are feeling sick, or under a lot of stress, may very well make things worse. When properly scheduled and fully executed, a detoxification and cleansing program can bring unprecedented health benefits that go beyond a patient’s expectations. Below are some real-life examples from past program participants:

• Dropped 53 points in Triglyceride levels in three weeks.
• A previous migraines sufferer successfully eliminated migraines (symptoms and medicines).
• A patient who suffered from osteoarthritis claims that the only “medicine” that was effective for ridding the pain from her body was cleansing with whole foods.
• A hypoglycemic patient reverted back to normal sugar levels after four cycles (two years) of detoxification.
• Several allergy sufferers eliminated their allergies altogether and have sustained that status over the ensuing years.

I do what I teach. I have been cleansing and detoxifying since I was a child growing up with open-minded parents. There is very little in this field that I have not personally tried myself over the decades. Truth in health transcends cultural beliefs, barriers and biases. The techniques used in cleansing are tried and true from years of testing on humans throughout the world. Be wary of “new” findings as they have not been tested for safety over the test of time. As Hippocrates (the Father of Western medicine) says “let food be thy medicine.” By the way, the Chinese and East Indians agree on this statement.

At the Advanced Wellness Center, we create treatment programs to address each individual’s needs for cleansing and detoxification. We offer complementary approaches with Western medicine for the patient who wishes to combine philosophies. We also offer “alternative” approaches for the patient who wants a completely natural method for the restoration and management of health, vitality and longevity.

We invite you to come in for a free 15-minute consultation so that we can discuss what we can do for you.

Dr. Allene Arnette. DC, LAc