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holistic healing arts

The Grass is Always Greener on The Otherside?

Healing Procedure May 22, 2022

Whether we acknowledge and take a step to our health concerns, and symptoms or not, we think what other people are going through is much easier than what we are going through.

Well, when I was having terrible flare-ups on my whole body, I thought I was the first person that people would feel sorry for among others. Some told me that they had been having chronic back pain, joint pain, pains during menstruation, IBS, etc. But I didn’t think it was as terrible as the problem is on the skin where other people could see in the eyes.

We are all very unique individuals. What we are healing from has no hierarchy.

While I have never had pains during menstruation, some girls can’t even get out of bed when it happens. While I have never experienced arthritis, some expressed to me that the pain is so unbearable that they could be chronically depressed. But pains are invisible. We don’t know how hard it is what they are going through until we experience the degree of the pain.

I have been healing from chronic eczema and Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW for short). My day-to-day life was mostly downs not so many ups because it was my face and neck where I couldn’t really hide with clothes like other parts of the body. People would ask me if I had an allergic reaction to some foods. People would offer me to use coconut oil, shea butter, or other oils to moisturize the skin where I knew the problem wasn’t the “skin” itself. I was embarrassed about how I looked. I wished it wasn’t my face.

In 2013, I started wearing eyeglasses (I have been wearing contacts in public since grade 6) so that I could at least hide a tiny part of my face. And looking in a mirror became my obsession to look for my “flaws” and “imperfection” instead of telling myself “I love you”. So of course, I never wanted to be social either. I started to hide from everybody.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t mind spending time alone at all, which led me to feel depressed for a really long time.

Just before the end of the summer in 2013, a good friend of mine came back from Brazil. She told me all about her healing journey there in Abadiania. That’s when I learned about John of God, famous for healing people with chronic degenerative diseases. (ADDITIONAL NOTE: Today when I’m writing this blog, he has been arrested for numerous accusations of sex abuse. I didn’t know back then about what was going on and his crimes in the Casa.)

Her story was more than enough to convince me to book flights to visit him after 10 mins of chat. I got return tickets to Abadiania for December that night.

I was so looking forward to clearing my skin while I was there for two weeks and looking “healthy” again but this time not faking it with a cortisone cream.

Did it happen?

The answer is no.

The symptoms got worse when I arrived. My friend told me it was common. But my skin was unbearably itchy so much so that I couldn’t stay still day and night. While everybody visited for their own healing was hanging out in the “Love Bubble”, I stayed inside all day hiding out from people.

A couple of things I tried meanwhile were an in-person session on a crystal bed about 3 days a week for chakra balancing and giving prayers at the casa.

About a week in, I was finally able to get to see John of God after waiting in line for a couple of hours. There was only a little time he could spend with each person and for me, his word was not anything I wanted to hear – “You should come back here three more times. Then you will heal.”

I was disappointed big time.

My anger was at its peak as my skin was red and scally getting worse despite the treatments on the crystal bed, not sleeping at all because of the itch, and feeling lonely and helpless.

Then, the year turned 2014. I heard people counting the time to zero, then screaming, and singing, the fireworks had gone off and celebrating all night.

Me?

I was in bed alone asking the universe to free my spirit from my body.

I lost count of how many times I wished my health challenges were not on my skin and rather inside of the body where they are invisible.

People in the “Love Bubble” in Abadiania looked all healthy no matter how serious their health challenges could be, it didn’t matter to me. When your inside is so rotten by toxicity both emotionally and physically, you envy others and you feel you are the worst victim of life.

Yes, that was me.

What was my takeaway from this trip?

It was “SELF-LOVE”. I got this message from spirits while I was writing a note (“I want healthy skin.”) for the community prayer at the casa. I couldn’t understand it then and for a while after. The message was too simple to connect the dot necessary to heal my skin.

But it was “SELF-LOVE” that I needed to explore deeper in order to get to know ME more. It turns out that my skin healing journey was much bigger than just eczema or TSW, but also the journey to be able to see the grass on my side is just as green as the other side and it’s up to me whether to see the beauty in my grass or not.

When our eyes and minds are on what’s missing or imperfection in us, we are never able to appreciate how authentic we are. When we overlook the authenticity in us, it becomes harder to align with our hearts where we (true selves) can manifest and reflect the outside world from within.

Can you feel your imperfection is your authenticity?

Can you see what’s making you feel resented about your body is actually authentic?

“Look up. Because you are beautiful.”

How Long Does It Take To Heal The Gut?

The answer is…

Everybody is different. It could be only for a few months for some people become completely symptoms and discomfort free but could be years for some to become so.

What makes it difference?

We are all born with strengths and weaknesses. In my practice, I provide an Iridology assessment in order for me to know which organs, systems should be supported first, inherited weaknesses, and to learn potential emotional blockages through associated chakras. And this iris analysis can also tell me how toxic the colon is whether the client is constipated or NOT, or having digestive problems or NOT.

Our colon is the most toxic part of the body and it is from the sluggish elimination system, toxic food and water, medications, high physical and emotional stress, dysbiosis (bacterial imbalance), environmental pollution, and MORE. Symptoms like bloating, constipation/diarrhea, eczema, asthma, ADD/ADHD, acne, food allergies/intolerance, nutritional deficiencies, mood swings, recurrent infections, SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), eating disorders, learning disabilities, etc. are signs that the gut requires healing and sealing. (-> How to and GAPS diet)

I was born with some weaknesses in the immune system as I could tell from my family health history – my grandparents had asthma, eczema, and allergies, and so do my parents. On top of this, in my teenage years, I abused my body with daily laxatives which I took 3 times more than recommended for years, along with hydrocortisone cream as my daily moisturizer. When I decided to cleanse my body in 2012 and be free from anything that is toxic to my body, I had massive flare-ups which we call a “healing crisis”.

Information you can find about a healing crisis tells you that it lasts for a few days, is “temporary”, and “worst comes before better”. But it wasn’t my case. Once I got flare-ups, they lasted for months one after another. I almost felt like it was NOT temporary.

Between 2012 and 2016 was the hardest time of my healing. Long downtimes and a bit and brief up times. You can imagine that for hours I spent searching for “the quick solutions” during this time.

(->MORE healing stories)

After 2016, cycles of the healing crisis started to change – shorter and less frequent. It really took me for good 5 years to finally feel the toxic levels in my body are much less and my gut is working the way it’s supposed to.

I got to be honest. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to say “My gut is HEALED!”.

Why?

I still have small breakouts here and there. Depends on how much sleep I get, how much stress I get, how much exercise I have done, what food I eat, etc. We must know that our body is different every day. Eating french fries didn’t cause any symptoms one day doesn’t mean that your body can handle it every time, especially for people with some weaknesses.
I believe healing is an ongoing process for life. Taking care of our body according to the situation, and the feelings that are part of our intuition never ends.

So for now, I can say a few things regarding this topic.

Be patient.
The timing is always right. When it’s time, your body will know. Meantime, your job is to support the body nutritionally, emotionally, and environmentally.

Trust your body.
Your body knows what to do and working so hard to balance and work at its best. It’s your time to connect and look within.

Know that you’re on the right path.
The moment you decided to commit to your health and wellness, the healing has already begun. Learn to enjoy the ride.

And please know that you are ALWAYS supported by anyone you trust and feel safe with. Reach out to them when started to feel lost, exhausted, and overwhelmed.

Our universe is always there for us.

Lastly, I’d like to share my sort of “Before/After” picture for the first time. I was very ashamed of my skin and the way I looked with inflamed skin from head to toe. For this reason, I even stopped looking in the mirror for a long time and never took selfies till I thought my skin was ready.

But one day, I decided to record my journey to inspire people who are in the same shoes as mine. So here it is. While this still gives me heart aches when I look at it, I’m so grateful for my body.

I was frustrated, hated myself, and depressed for years. Then I learned that self-love was the key to this healing journey. I have been learning a lot more about myself and my family ever since.

Our body never fails us to return as long as we never fail to nurture it.

Would you choose temporary drugs to “cure” symptoms OR the healing to a much more promised long ride for life?

Sick from eating vegetables?

Educational Information, Healing Procedure April 8, 2018

Have you become sicker when you started eating more vegetables?

Have you gotten old symptoms back when you started a healing protocol such as detox program?

If you have, I hope you didn’t go back to your old eating habit but tried to be patient with the body’s reaction.

Elimination Organs

While we are eating fries, bread, pasta with little vegetables, and drinking pops, and other sugary drinks over clean water, our body’s metabolism slows down. Although our body is always healing 24/7, it needs nutrients such as proteins, vitamins, and minerals from foods that we are eating.

There are five elimination organs that are involved in getting rid of toxins from the body. They are lungs, kidneys, large intestine, lymphatic system, and skin.

If we don’t assimilate nutrients from the food we eat, toxins won’t get out of the body through the organs I mentioned above. Even worse, the liver may not be able to properly convert the toxic substances into less toxic. Toxic substances first have to be converted to less toxic in order to excreted from elimination organs. Otherwise, those elimination organs will be damaged.

Nutrients are necessary not just for the energy production but for the other metabolic cycle. Our organs are digesting food as well as helping the detoxification process.

If there aren’t nutrients for digestion, digestive system slows down. Undigested food then becomes toxic to the body. If there aren’t nutrients for detoxification, toxins will circulate in the blood then store in the organs and tissues that are less functional.

It is the vicious cycle without nutrients.

Healing Crisis

When our body starts to heal with right nutrients, toxins stored in the organs and tissues, they will be dumped into the bloodstream. Then we hope that all elimination organs are working optimally in order to eliminate the toxins carried by the blood. If they are not working at its best, toxins may keep circulating in the bloodstream and then eventually stored again.

This is what happens to the body when your diet goes from no nutrients to full of nutrients. Or when you start detoxifying the body with herbs and nutritional supplements.

Especially when you go raw or do a juice cleanse, a lot of toxins will be dumped into the bloodstream and most of the time, elimination organs aren’t ready for that much toxins to be able to handle at once. As toxins circulate all over the body, we get sick and have old symptoms back.

We call this “healing crisis”.

Everybody who tries to cleanse should be informed this to avoid going back to medications because this process is absolutely necessary for healing.

Although healing crisis happens during the healing process, we can minimize the degree of it by utilizing homeopathy. But usually, people figure the best pace and amount to go on healing procedure for themselves by trial and error.

Make sure you reduce the amount of the food (raw, fresh juice, vegetables, etc) you are eating or supplements you are taking when started having a healing crisis. If vegetables cause gas and bloating, start with small amount of fermented food and supplemental probiotics to balance bacteria.

Besides going slow with the amount, try herbs to help support elimination organs so that toxins will optimally be eliminated when they are released from organs and tissues.

If necessary, please advice your practitioner before you get really sick that you can’t handle.

Hering’s Law of Cure

The nineteenth-century European homeopathic physician, Constantine Hering expressed the principles of healing, “All cure starts from within out, from the head down, and in the reverse order as the symptoms appeared.”

When we start searching for what’s best for healing by using our head, healing has already begun. In other words, healthy mind heals rest of the body.

If you see your skin is irritated, you always have to work on your internal toxicity. Nothing that topical cream could “heal” your skin unless that’s purely external injury.

Do you give up or be patient?

I have experienced many many healing crisis which weren’t easy physically nor emotionally. Generally speaking, healing crisis lasts for few days. Mine lasted for months. I didn’t even know when it was over as multiple healing crisis occurred one after another.

But I didn’t give up. I believed my body’s ability to heal itself.

Someone once told me they couldn’t eat any fermented food nor cruciferous vegetables because they hurt her stomach. When she eats KFC, she doesn’t get sick.

This is a typical example that her body is storing toxins rather than “eliminating” them.

Sometimes people react to vegetables and fruits because of the chemicals sprayed on them. Once they switch to organic from conventional vegetables and fruits, symptoms get better. So make sure you eat organic.

Healing takes time. Nothing heals overnight. Trust the process and be patient. You are healing as long as you are doing things that help the body do its job.

Practice for mindful traveling

Make Choices, Spirit for Healing April 6, 2018

When it comes to commitment to the healing, traveling is the best or the worst enemy you can fall for. A lot of my clients are very inspired and commit to spending a good amount of time for daily self-care after having a session with me. But when they go on a vacation or business trip, this is when they stop following their daily regimen.

What can you do?

Pack your own snacks before flying

Make sure you preplan and pick up something to bring with you before leaving home so that you can snack on while you are at the airport. You may have to spend up to two hours waiting for your plane to takes off.

It is very hard to find something that doesn’t break your healthy eating habit.

Booster juice? Starbucks smoothie? Well, could be a better choice than fries, potato chips, muffins, etc. But what’s even better? You prepare your own food that you know there are no chemicals or additives in it.

Packing your own lunch box is a great idea, or chop vegetable sticks (celery, cucumber, broccoli, etc), just grab one or two apples, and mixed nuts and seeds (fat) can make you feel full for a while.

Mindful traveling starts from the day you started getting ready for the mindful traveling happen. Anything is possible as long as you really want to keep you on track.

Drink plenty of water

When I had my first trip after I made my commitment to my healthy eating, I didn’t know whether I could carry on my own food that I bought. So I had never had my own snacks to fly with. I never really wanted to buy something from the airport either. All I did was to drink plenty of water.

As much as I believe in nutrition from whole foods, I also think it’s healthy to fast for a half day by drinking just clean water. By clean water, I mean a bottled “spring water”. Although I’m a no supporter of plastic bottles, when we are traveling, we got to give up certain things that we have no control over.

Show your gratitude. This is mindful traveling.

Search for local stores and restaurants

When I go traveling, one of my favorite things to do is to search for local organic restaurants, health food stores, and kombucha brewers. I love to find different products they sell than where I live. Since the “health” is my passion, my first priority is to eat healthy no matter where I am. Plus, I will be spending my money on local artisans when I’m eating a restaurant uses locally grown organic produces.

Once you find the stores and restaurants with where you can stay with your healthy eating habit, you feel like you are actually not traveling.

Once I was in the UK, I had a hard time finding one healthy food store around the hotel. I had a choice eating out in a non-organic restaurant. I gave my prayer over the plate and appreciated the food that I could eat. I believe what’s important is to accept and appreciate what comes to me. Disappointment and anger won’t help us digest any food that we put in our mouth.

Take time for yourself

Whether you are traveling on your own or with somebody else, it’s easy to lose track of time. Staying up late and waking up early can exhaust you before coming home. Take your time at least 10 mins daily to connect with your self. Set your mind and body peaceful.

Even though you might not be able to perform some self-care regimen that you do at home, you can easily get back on track if you don’t lose completely.

Have fun

While a lot of people fell behind of their daily regime, some want to stick to their daily habit while they go on traveling. They don’t want to forget the multiple supplements they are taking every day so that they are stressed whether they packed enough amount, and worry about the food they might or might not be able to eat during the trip.

We all adapt ourselves in a different environment. The important thing is to be easy when our environment changes. If you forget to take supplements, then forget it. You can’t stress about it like the end of the world.

As I mentioned above already, you will do your best to stay on track. And again, it’s possible. But if you fail, you may or may not have your health challenges back. It’s a learning process.

You can’t live based on your fear.

So enjoy while you are away.

If you lost it, you challenge yourself the next time to stay on track a bit longer.

How to … “Oil-Pulling”

Educational Information, Healing Procedure, Spirit for Healing March 19, 2018

How to – Oil-Pulling

Make sure to perform the oil pulling up on waking before eating, drinking anything, or brushing your teeth.
Swish 1-2 teaspoons of cold pressed organic oils such as coconut oil (the best!) and sesame seed oil for 20 mins.
Spit out the oil and rinse with warm salt water.
Brush the teeth as usual.

** Time your oil pulling. As 20 minutes is definitely the ideal timing to dissolve the plaque and weaken or kill bacteria but not long enough that the body starts re-absorbing the toxins and bacteria that the oil chelated from the mouth. The oil will get thicker and milky as it mixed with saliva during the swishing but make sure not to swallow.

** If you are using coconut oil, spit out the oil in a trash can. Do not spit in the sink as it may solidify as the temperature goes down.

** Try this 3-4 times a week for the improvement.

Reference:

Oil Pulling Therapy by Dr. Bruce Fife

What are FREE RADICALS?

Educational Information, Healing Procedure, Make Choices, Spirit for Healing December 21, 2017

Free radicals are not new in nature. They have been around for millions of years along with vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids (EFAs), and protective anti-oxidants found naturally in food. A free radical is an atom or molecular fragment with an unpaired electron. It is very unstable, highly reactive particle, because it hates to be alone and like to be paired. Therefore, it will draw an electron from wherever it can, including other molecules pair in the body, causing them to change structure. These molecules then become free radicals creating a chain reaction with millions of molecules being affected in nanoseconds.

Endogenous (from inside the body) Sources of Free radicals:

Free radicals are intermediates of the normal chemical reactions taking place in the body, including oxidative reactions to produce the energy that our cells require for detoxification, nutritional assimilation, and more. Our body’s immune system also produces free radicals which it uses to kill bacteria, viruses and fungi. If the immune system becomes chronically over-activated by chronic inflammation such as allergies and major operations, there is an extra burden of free radicals in the body.

While those oxidative reactions and immune responses are vital and absolutely necessary, unpaired electrons involved in oxidation can damage molecules in cells and tissues. And this becomes free radical stress, also known as oxidative stress in the body which leads abnormal, toxic, and biologically unsuitable substances to cause degenerative health conditions such as cancer.

Also, it is so important to mention about emotional stress. Emotional stress significantly increases the release of hormones (epinephrine/norepinephrine/cortisone) which in excess act like free radicals creates bio-chemical changes and damages the cells and tissues.

Exogenous (from outside the body) Sources of Free radicals:

Preservatives and other chemicals in food
Pesticides, antibiotics, synthetic hormones in non-organic food
Alcohol and smoking
Prescription drugs
Pollution
Radiation and microwave
Toxic metals like mercury, aluminum, and lead
Trans and hydrogenated fats

Luckily, our body is so incredible that it uses antioxidants like Vitamin C, E, A, selenium, CoQ10, as well as enzymes that contain minerals like zinc, manganese, and copper to neutralize free radical toxicity.

How Free radicals become “Bad” guys?

As I mentioned above, free radicals are produced from our body’s biological reactions besides exogenous sources and they can’t cause cell destruction when protective antioxidants are present in the body.

But in this fast-paced modern society, nutritional deficiencies are on the rise, especially vitamins and minerals (antioxidants!).

We eat packaged foods that are highly processed (often with chemicals), heated with high temperature in vegetable oils, and exposed to the light and oxygen. Those are perfect candidates for free radical damages in the body. There is no doubt that free radicals cause degenerative health conditions but the root cause for this is the nutritional deficiencies. By addressing the deficiencies, we could tame the free radical stress.

When I was working in a health food store, people asked me if it was really beneficial to take Omega-3. They were informed by Mr. “google” or some doctors didn’t know much about the benefit of Omega-3 that they cause the free radical damages rather doing the good.

YES. Omega-3s (and Omega-6s) are very sensitive to light, heat and oxygen (I have written about fats here.). Special care needs to be taken in processing, packaging, and storing rich in EFAs in order to avoid free radicals damages. However, to set such conditions costs labour and time. As a result, the necessary care is not usually taken.

Some haters (or just got a job writing about health and wellness) focus on this fact that scares readers without proving the solution to it. I think it is so important to intake Omega-3 either from food or nutritional supplements if you are dealing with asthma, eczema and other health conditions chronically. If you are scared of free radicals from processing the EFAs, eat more whole foods that can protect the cells with antioxidants.

It is so twisted if you are eating highly processed packaged foods and scared of free radical damages from bottled EFAs that could protect your cells. But only if your body has vitamins and minerals that assimilate the fat and act as antioxidants. Again, those have to come from whole foods or nutritional supplements.

Nature does its best to protect our body. Our job is to listen and take action.

References:

Organic restaurants are safe and healthy choice when going out for food?

Make Choices, Spirit for Healing December 21, 2017

When we are just about to enter the healing journey, eating out isn’t the first one to cut out of your life, because we have our social lives to keep. So we start suggesting friends to go to restaurants that serve more vegetables, gluten free, vegan/vegetarian options, and better yet they are either partially or completely organic. As far as I know, most of those restaurants support local farmers. That’s great! We feel less guilty eating fries if they are made in “healthy” restaurants.

Are they really healthy?

I have worked in different restaurants such as a bar, oyster house, and vegan/vegetarians’ over the years as a cook. And I have never found any restaurants that satisfy my way of eating when it comes to the way those restaurants make food, and ingredients and the way they are combined in a dish.

First of all, you don’t know what you are about to eat is really fresh. The food prep is usually done at least a day or two ago. If restaurants were slow on those days, they could be sitting in a fridge for days. Vegetable are exposed to oxygen and lights after being cut into pieces. Nutrients will be lost quickly, especially when they were pre-cooked.

Secondly, I like to mention about kitchen equipments. Among the restaurants I had worked in the past, some restaurants used teflon frying pans and aluminum pots besides stainless steel or cast iron ones. How about dishwasher they use? Do you think they use chemical free dish soap? Unfortunately, they don’t. That’s so rare to find places completely chemical free. Once dishes are washed with soap full of chemicals, they stays as they dry out. And you will be eating your food with toxic chemicals on the plates.

Lastly, yet most importantly, the biggest concern of mine is the oil. Especially, the vegetable oils such as canola oil, sunflower oil, olive oil, avocado oil, and other vegetable oils. I have written more about oils here.

The word free radicals has been well-known since a lot of scientists and doctors confirmed that they were responsible for the health crisis and degenerative diseases. They are created from our body’s natural metabolism but the problem here I want to talk about is the way we consume oils is hugely contributing the free radical toxicity in the body.

When oils are heated, exposed to light or air, they change the chemical structure and become active as unpaired electron in the structure tries to pair up with other electron. This unpaired electron acts like a knife in the body damages the tissues and organs. This is so called free radical damages in the body.

Some oils such as coconut oil, palm oil, butter, ghee, and refined oils like high oleic sunflower oil, or high oleic safflower oil are more stable in the heat. But ideally all oils should not be heated especially when we are healing from degenerative conditions.

Restaurants consume so much oil a day so that they have to buy oils in huge bulks which usually come in plastics. When they are used for cooking, usually they are heated in high temperature.

Everybody has their own unique healing abilities. And there are differences how fast you degenerate your health or heal from health conditions. Because we all have weaknesses and strengths in different tissues and organs. So we can’t really compare with others who could be eating McDonald’s for years and they could be having no problems at all (or not paying attention to their health. Usually they are on medications masking what really is happening to their body.).

I come back to the question “How bad you want your health back?”. We can’t force anyone to do what they should do. It’s always up to us whether we want to commit to our health.

Love in food that we are eating!

I also believe in healing property of the food we are eating. When we make food our own with love and healing energy, the food become more nutritious and will be assimilated optimally in the body.

If a cook in a restaurant had a bad day and making your food with anger, or is having a super busy moment and making your food with the pressure, your food could be burnt (which is carcinogenic) and carries on the stress as its energy.

Especially, when you are willing to reverse the health condition, take time to make your food with prayer and good healing energy.

That’s probably what you would be doing if you are trying to impress someone who you really like. So why don’t you for yourself? (This is SELF-LOVE!)

Do you blame on genetics?

Healing Procedure, Spirit for Healing October 31, 2017

The word genetics is mentioned a lot from people, especially who faced health challenges at some point in their life – allergies, hay fever, candida, etc. In fact, almost every health problem is commonly blamed on genetics. My parents also believed eczema, allergies, and asthma that were running in the family were brought by genetics.

We pollute the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breathe with industrial and nuclear wastes and when we get ill we blame it all on genetics. We deplete our soils of minerals and other nutrients and replace them with pesticides, organophosphates, weedkillers and lots of other chemicals, we grow our crops on these soils, we eat these crops, we get ill and blame it all on genetics. We damage our children’s immune systems with vaccinations and antibiotics and blame it all on genetics. we regularly consume processed foods with virtually no nourishment for the body that are full of chemicals and detrimental to health, and when we get ill we blame it all on genetics. We regularly intoxicate ourselves with alcohol, tobacco and drugs and when we get ill we blame it all on genetics.(1)

How about all the epidemics of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression, anxiety, learning disabilities, autoimmune disorders, obesity, etc.? These are all conditions starting at young age which doctors very rarely encountered a hundred years ago. Have our genetics gotten very poor so quickly to cause those degenerative diseases?

Genetics are a very convenient excuse. It is something we are born with, I would call them some strengths and weaknesses of our constitution. Therefore, there is nothing we can do about it at the moment. If we were born with weaknesses in kidneys, we have potential to have problems in kidneys genetically. If we have strengths in processing alcohol, we may be able to drink more than people who don’t. But does this mean we have no responsibility for our food that we eat, environment or lifestyles? Can we conveniently blame our state of health on our genetics?

As with the rapidly increasing numbers of modern epidemic sufferers, there is a genetic predisposition to the disorder rather than a genetic cause. That said, there has to have certain environmental conditions before any predisposition materializes into a disease. Diet is a major part of this environmental conditioning as our diet profoundly influences on gene expression, in other words what we eat could change our genetics throughout our lives. By changing the environment (diet, lifestyle, pollution, stress, infections, etc.), we can make sure that whatever genetic predisposition we may have, this predisposition won’t develop into a disease. And at the same time we can alter gene expression with the correct diet which will indirectly improve our genetics.

We don’t need to have the same disease that our family members have. We may have the predisposition, weaknesses, or genes that had expressed as symptoms. But it’s completely up to us whether we want to struggle with it or not. When we wisely choose what we eat, the way we live, and healthy relationships with others, we are not only healing ourselves but the future generations.

**Here I am not talking about clearly identified genetic conditions like haemophilia and many others where specific faulty genes have been discovered. They are not the main concern as what I wanted to discuss here was the epidemics that are becoming the real problem in the modern world.

(1) GAPS™ Gut and Psychology Syndrome Dr. Natasha Campbell-Mcbride MD

Food Combining

Healing Procedure October 20, 2017

Healing requires the good digestive system. The way you eat food is as important as what you are eating because we want to support our body to digest food. And not to mention, nutrition that our body absorbs is what’s important.

Our body isn’t like a garburator. It’s not like your job is to eat something and our body will do the rest. If you don’t take care of it, it will eventually break and stop functioning.

A lot of people aren’t really aware this fact that metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess fat) starts from maldigestion and malabsorption besides too many carbohydrates (“sugar”). Our body needs to absorb minerals and vitamins from food that we eat. In order to do this efficiently, it needs to digest food properly.

How?

When I talk about improving digestion, my first option to suggest is “Food Combining”. It is also easier for people to follow. When we search food combining online, there are so many types of it will show up. For example, some are based on “acid” and “alkaline” and some follow a much complicated version of it.

What exactly am I suggesting?

Very simple.

Carbohydrates + Green leafy vegetables

Proteins + Green leafy vegetables

Fruits by themselves

Food Combining Chart3

The chart above is a bit more detailed. Carbohydrates are meaning of starchy vegetables (potatoes, etc), rice, bread, pasta, and any products made out of those. Proteins are meaning of any nuts, beans, eggs and meats. I generally suggest to eliminate all the processed food, even though they are “organic”, “gluten-free” or any other supposedly “Natural” and “Healthy” processed foods.

This may sound still super difficult to follow if you are a “beginner” of healthy eating for the better digestion or so used to eat rice and fish/meats or beans and/or bread and eggs, ham or sausages. Sometimes, you may get sandwiches or lunch boxes come with those combinations. And that’s the only choice you have at the time while it could be just for your convenience.

Well, then. Maybe start with one meal? Three meals could be hard to start. I would rather you to stick to one change that you make for a long time. Try one meal of food combining for a month?

Why not carbs and proteins?

Carbohydrates (except for fruits) take only 20-30 mins to get digested. They don’t require stomach acid, therefore they won’t stay in the stomach as long as the protein foods do. Protein foods require stomach acid for digestion and they take 2-6 hours (or more. Depends.) to be digested.

When we eat those carbs and proteins at the same time, carbs which supposed to pass the stomach quickly stay in the stomach with proteins for a long time. And they start being fermented and then eventually feed bad bacteria. They cause gas and bloating. Moreover, when this happens in the stomach, the rest of the organs that secrete digestive enzymes and juices won’t do their job. As a result, undigested foods will enter the small intestine causes problems such as the excessive immune response (allergies and other inflammation), IBS, leaky gut, etc.

Also, when our digestive system struggles, the organs (especially liver) have to work so hard to digest food for hours rather spending some time to clean the body from toxins and by products of the natural body metabolism. This will cause organ damages, hormonal imbalances, and so forth.

In my opinion, it is much easier to follow the food combining when you avoid the pre-made food and processed foods altogether as they often have carbs and proteins.

Still not convinced?

Someone told me a while ago that she still thought to do the food combining for one meal a day was difficult for her to do after I explained why it was so important to help digestion.

Well.

How bad you want to get better? How bad you want to reverse your conditions?

You don’t need to stick to this forever! The purpose of the food combining is to improve your digestive system. Once it gets better, you feel much better eating rice and beans without gas or bloating!

Allergies too. I tell people that they don’t need to avoid certain foods once their gut has healed. Because the gut is the root cause of allergies! In order to heal the gut, we need good digestion and nutrients from it.

You have all sort of symptoms and are struggling with digestion. And still don’t think you could make a little change, then you are not ready. It means that it’s not the time. When the timing is right, and you are ready for it, they will happen.

I was the same back then.

The Principles of Proper Food Combining Here.

Are supplements necessary?

Healing Procedure October 15, 2017

When I started my healing and cleansing protocol which I had to become an expert on my own, I wasn’t a supplement person. I had never taken pills (common cold pills, birth control pills, nor any medications!) before. I wasn’t feeling very convinced to take any until I started getting flare ups from my very first detox program.

I bought probiotic and fish oil (high in EPA). Those bottles cost more than $100 together. And the more I learnt about supplements in school, the more I become obsessed with new supplements I thought I should try to help heal.

I bought so many kinds of supplement I thought they would help me including homeopathic remedies. I was lucky or not, worked in the health food store where I had opportunities to take educational courses from supplement companies then. So wherever I hear about products that could help heal the skin then I had to try.

The truth is… I still have so many bottles, whether they are already open or not, in my drawer from years ago (2013~). Some of them looked very stale I had to get rid of them after a couple of years.

I have done many trials and errors along the way. It cost me a fortune to buy all those supplements. But I was 100% committed to get better. I economized on clothes and entertainments. I had rather spend all of my earnings on organic groceries and supplements. So I did.

While I was working in the health food store, almost 90% of the people needed help to find the supplements for their health conditions, they never asked me how to eat, what foods are nutritious. This is very tricky because people nowadays are more into “natural” healing instead of medications. But still, they want a “quick fix” which they refer to supplements, the pills. And that won’t give them what they want.

I wanted to become a nutritionist because I believe in nutritions that help heal us. Our health goes downhill when our diet doesn’t feed our body and/or too much toxicity the our body can’t get out of our system because of malnutrition. Our body needs vitamins, minerals, and fat (cholesterol) for enzymatic activities and regeneration.

The GAPs diet recommends minimal of supplements. And I strongly agree with it. It is super time consuming and hard to find the best quality supplements. When I talk about supplements, I’m not talking about supplements you get from Costco or dollar stores. They won’t do any good rather do harm to your body.

Because it was my responsibility to recommend the best quality supplements to customers in the store, I did a lot of research on supplement companies and talked to rep which I was very careful that I wouldn’t be biased by their information. I spent a lot of my own time to research the additives and such. And this helped me to pick supplements for myself too.

If you were to decide to take supplements, please do your own research. Call the company to know how they manufacture their products, the source of the products (a lot of vitamins are made out of corn. Ask them where it’s coming from), and safety (heavy metal contamination, etc). Companies want to show you the studies and researches done, either by their own company or general information from studies done by pharmaceuticals, that their products are effective to certain health conditions. And that’s very appealing. But what’s important is your body assimilates the nutrients from the supplement without any harm.

While I don’t completely disagree to take supplements, there are risks of what you may be getting into your body unless you know how and where they are coming from.

It is like going out for food. You don’t know what could be in the food you were about to eat unless you make it yourself.

I have become a practitioner educates my clients how to get nutrients from real foods. I still suggest some supplements such as probiotic, fish/cod liver oil, chlorella, and some liver herbs. But nutrients are more bioavailable for our body when they are coming from the right source. Supplements are nutrients that are isolated mostly from corn. Those isolated forms won’t be recognized by the body as easy as food in order to be assimilated. If nutrients from supplements weren’t absorbed by the body, it will be excreted as urine.

I think spending your precious money on organic local foods makes more sense than wasting it to make expensive urine.

Organic Local Farmers

Heal Eczema From Insideout

Skin Reflects Internal Health Both Emotionally and Physically