There is no cookbook in the world that can match the best-selling book by the legendary Sally Fallon, the co-author of my book, Performance without Pain and the founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Besides teaching people how to cook fantastic nutrient-dense, traditional foods from all over the world, this book has literally saved the lives of thousands of people through educating them on building health with REAL FOOD based on the infallible work of Dr. Weston A. Price. It is packed with information about nutrition that is so magnetic that you cannot put the book down! When you start reading it, you find yourself still reading at 1:00 AM thinking–this is a cookbook! But this cookbook helped to save my life.

Nourishing Traditions and the real food movement that has grown from it, in itself has begun to turn around the terrible incorrect modern high-fiber/low-fat dictates that have plagued our society since the dawn of industrial farming and the processed food industry. It is helping to change a food supply that has become so corrupted that it is causing epidemics of dietary-caused illnesses in people that have never been seen before. It is the basis of what needs to happen to bring an end to a broken, profit-driven food industry that has no true regard for your health.

In celebration of Sally’s work, Kim Knoch, a mom of teenage twin girls and wife to a picky eater husband, is going to cook all 773 recipes in Sally’s book before 12/31/2011! She states in her note to Weston A. Price chapter leaders that “I am having some challenges switching my family over to the ‘real food,’ Weston A. Price Foundation lifestyle, but we are doing it one step at a time. My blog is about the ‘real face’ of switching over to real food and replacing bad habits with good ones.

Her blog is called The Nourishing Cook. Please share in the celebration of the best cookbook ever written by following this blog.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Subscribe

1 Comment »

As you know from my blog by now–raw butter from grass-fed cows is an amazing nutrient-dense food. It is one of the foods that saved my life. It helped to heal my gut and gave me the important saturated fat I needed to be able to absorb the nutrients in my food. Dr. Weston A. Price found that healthy cultures ate plenty of traditional saturated fats–raw butter being extremely common, especially for the people in the Swiss Alps. In fact, raw butter in the spring time was considered a sacred food! Below is an interesting article I received about butter.

Pass The Butter … Please.

This is interesting …

Margarine  was originally manufactured to fatten  turkeys.  When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put  all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their  heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get  their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal  so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter.  How do you like it?   They have come out  with some clever new flavourings….

DO  YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?

• Both  have the same amount of calories.
• Butter  is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8  grams; compared   to 5 grams for margarine.
• Eating margarine can increase  heart disease in women by  53%  over  eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent  Harvard  Medical Study.
• Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in  other foods.
• Butter  has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and
• only  because  they are added!
• Butter  tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of  other foods.
• Butter  has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine..

• Very High in Trans fatty acids.
• Triples risk of coronary heart disease …
• Increases  total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and  lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)
• Increases  the risk of cancers up to five times..
• Lowers  quality of breast milk.
• Decreases immune response.
• Decreases  insulin response.

And  here’s the most disturbing fact….

• Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away  from being PLASTIC… and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT
• These facts alone should have you avoiding margarine for life  and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is  added,  changing the molecular structure of the  substance).

You  can try this yourself:

Purchase  a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded  area.  Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

• no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it  (that should tell you something)
• it does not rot or smell differently because it has  no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny  microorganisms will not a find a home to grow.  Why?   Because it is nearly plastic .  Would you melt your Tupperware and  spread that  on your toast?

Share  This With Your Friends…..(If you want to “butter them up”)!

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Subscribe

No Comments »

Raw milk and freedom to healthy food won a major victory in Canada last Thursday.  After years of suffering multiple raids to his bio-dynamic farm and being illegally charged with the unlawful distribution of raw milk to his cow share members, Micheal Schmidt’s case has finally been cleared. It has been declared that people who want to purchase raw milk from Michael’s farm through the cow share program can legally do this as Michael is not selling the milk to the public, but to people who knowingly and willingly desire to be part owners of the cows and foods they provide–that people entered in a legal contract that allows them access to the foods from the animals that they own.

The right to choose the foods you eat is an unalienable right.  This ruling will give great momentum to the legality of purchasing healthy food through these type of contracts.

Huge Victory for Michael Schmidt As Canadian Judge Rules Cow Shares Outside Regulators’ Jurisdiction

By David Gumperts–from his blog The Complete Patient
Author of The Raw Milk Revolution

Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 12:18PM

In a decision that took Ontario Judge Paul Kowarsky two-and-a-half hours to read, and sounded much of the time like a thoroughly researched legal treatise, raw dairy farmer Michael Schmidt was exonerated on 19 counts of violating the province’s milk laws.

At first, the judge sounded as if he was going to rule against Schmidt,when he said several times he had “no authority” to pronounce on legislation. His role, he said, was to determine “whether offenses occurred.” He then went through each of the 19 counts against Michael Schmidt, which stem from offenses that first occurred in 1994, when his Glencolton Farm was first raided by authorities.

He then went through the account of how two undercover agents from the Ontario Ministry of Health in 2006 acquired milk products from Michael Schmidt. The circumstances around that operation wound up influencing the judge’s ruling when he decided he had “reasonable doubt” about whether the acquisition of $6 worth of raw milk cheese from Michael Schmidt constituted a sale. That decision was essential to allowing the judge to then rule on whether cow shares are subject to Ontario milk laws.

In the end, the judge determined that cow shares are outside regulatory oversight based on the following:

• That legislation is subject to a “dynamic” based on cultural, social, and historical factors. In other words, raw milk doesn’t pose the same dangers it might have been seen to pose in the 1930s, when much of Ontario’s dairy legislation was passed.
• That Michael Schmidt wasn’t “marketing” the cow shares. “There was no advertising and sale (of raw milk) to the general public…Cow shares are a legitimate private enterprise that does not constitute marketing in Ontario.”
• Perhaps most intriguing, that “the people who are permitted to buy the milk are fully informed” via a special booklet, identification cards, regular newsletters, and other steps Michael Schmidt took on behalf of his members.  “There is no evidence of any illness” in all the years Michael Schmidt has been distributing raw milk, he observed, and tests by the regulatory authorities never found any evidence of pathogens.

Judge Kowarsky obviously gave the case a huge amount of time and consideration. He In addition to researching other cases, he reviewed cow share procedures in the United States and Australia,and rules regarding sale of raw milk in Europe. It made me wish that the New York state judge who ruled against Meadow Sweet Dairy on a very broad definition of the term “consumer,” might have done the same kind of analysis.

Max Kane, the owner of a Wisconsin raw dairy buyers club facing legal problems of his own, said, “I want that judge for my case.” He drove overnight from Wisconsin to Newmarket to hear the court decision. Another American raw milk “celebrity” in attendance was Tim Wightman of the Farm-to-Consumer Foundation.

Michael Schmidt was all smiles afterwards. “It’s an incredible relief,” he told me. Especially given the judge’s observation that the amount of potential fines had Michael been found guilty could have been “astronomical.”

Subscribe

No Comments »

Berlin pianist, Heather O’Donnell (http://homeengl.heatherodonnell.info/) recently contacted me about the uncanny similarities between our previous performing problems stemming from long-term, debilitating tendonitis, inflammation, carpal tunnel and focal dystonia and the complete cure–a dietary change! (See article below.) I wrote Performance without Pain to help performing artists and the general public understand how poor digestion and malnourishment can be factors in common inflammatory conditions that can drastically curtail our lives and professional careers.

Besides dietary influences, we are now finding several other key factors that may block a person’s ability to overcome chronic conditions and illness that go past healing  and building health with nutrient-dense foods. These underlying problems include heavy metal toxicity from mercury amalgams and health problems caused by root canals, a history of tonsil infection and tonsillectomy as well as energy blocks from scar tissue. The new book, Radical Medicine, by Dr. Louisa Williams has opened a critical door to holistically understanding many previously uncharted keys to healing completely from complicated issues–that one must find and heal the “root” cause to overcome every aspect at hand.

As more performing artists take a look at the integral relationship between diet, poor digestion and malnourishment and chronic inflammation and other serious performing problems like focal dystonia, we may be able to make great strides in the prevention of these debilitating injuries for future generations of artists. As we also learn about other possible blocks to healing, we may be able go even further to help  insure the total recovery of serious performing ailments.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain .

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Monday, June 15, 2009

The Elephant on the Table (or Piano)

I’ve been procrastinating writing this blog for some time now. I knew I wanted my next blog to be on this certain topic, but it’s a big one, and a hard one. And pianists don’t wear their injuries on their sleeves with any small degree of grace, or as a badge of honor. Otherwise we might know more about the physiological reasons behind Horowitz and Gould’s extended breaks from concertizing, and Fleischer may have not responded to the early onset of focal dystonia by “practicing harder and longer”.

My hand problems have been gloriously multifarious, spanning 20 years, and encompassing a plethora of colorful diagnoses; carpal tunnel, tendonitis, overuse syndrome, neck injuries resulting from a falling-out-of-bed incident as a 5 year-old, weak eyesight resulting in ocular muscle-strain, muscular dystrophy, and most titillating of all, focal dystonia, the big Hog Daddy of musicians’ injuries, one that mostly leads to complete abandonment of all musical pursuits. Doctors I worked with often expressed frustration with their inability to pinpoint and treat the problem, as I’d often come back week to week with rotating pains between various parts of my right and left arms and hands. When my right hand improved, my left hand started acting up, as if demanding equal rights for pain and discomfort. More than one doctor gently suggested seeking the aid of a psychoanalyst specialized in extreme cases of psychosomatic delusion. At the worst point, the structure (bridge) of my hands had collapsed, the whole right side of my body sagged lower than the left, and my fourth finger in my left hand shook uncontrollably whenever I put any weight on it. An unhappy conundrum.

And then there were the treatments… soaking my hands in warm wax (comfy! but completely ineffective), a daily hanging from a neck-stretcher (terribly alarming for unsuspecting friends and family members), homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropracty, neurology, hydrotherapy, massage, manual therapy, Feldenkrais, Alexander, muscle training, Yoga, fish-oil supplements, meditation, plain old Aspirin, and exercise (including the infamous episode where a doctor suggested jogging for improving overall condition, advice I followed religiously until I tripped and fell onto my hands the day before a concert and was forced to try to play the Goldberg Variations with what looked like a blessed dose of Stigmata. The audience gasped audibly during the many hand-crossings. This concert was not my finest moment at the piano.)

The problems lingered, sometimes flaring up to levels which paralyzed my playing for some time, but mostly staying at a bearable though immensely frustrating level. Pain has been an almost daily companion in practice and performance for much of the past 20 years. Rather simple elements in piano technique have been extremely difficult to grasp. I had the feeling of having to practice much more than my colleagues in order to maintain a professional level, this over-practicing in turn was a classic Catch-22 which only aggravated problems. There was an uncomfortable feeling of not being in control of my hands, not sensing their intricacy, and “making-do” with pianistic tools that seemed (and were) increasingly inadequate for the tasks they were asked to do.

The explanation for these problems came almost one year ago after a hospitalization for extremely low blood levels (something which also was connected to the health problems). The cause of this suffering is a strange but not uncommon one, though it was a condition totally unknown to me before the diagnosis. I was diagnosed with Celiac disease, an extreme gluten-intolerance that forces the body to react to the confrontation of gluten as a low-level poison, constantly building dangerous levels of antibodies that then turn on the body and attack it in various ways (internal organs, nerve-endings, muscles). The cure is simple, no more bread. Or cookies. Or cake, pasta, soy sauce, beer, chips, crackers, pizza, and most kinds of junk foods. Finding out the cause of these problems is at once an enormous relief but also produces a sinking feeling of having lost a lot of time dealing with the physical, psychological, and emotional effects of not knowing why things were not functioning well.

The pianistic cure is not simple. Deeply ingrained habits that were developed with a faulty physical system in order to find solutions to pianistic challenges must be methodically and pain-stakingly retrained. One example- I always relied on a quick thrust from the lower arms to produce loud chords, which was the only solution I could find at the time though it produced a brittle and ugly sound. Having used this ’solution’ countless times over the past decade or so, it takes a lot of time and patience to introduce new ways of confronting a chord. I had to practice in a way that any Zen master would be proud of. Months and months of work went into single soft tones, using each tone as an opportunity to trace the connection between the finger and the back, with all of the various points in between. When I felt confident that I could play the single tones without immediately resorting to old habits, I could move onto 2-note chords, 3-note chords, etc. I had the great fortune to work with a pianist in Berlin with a deep knowledge of anatomy, neurology, and various pianistic ailments ( I’d be happy to share details with anyone… write me!) who encouraged me to find these kinds of connections. There was a feeling of having great gaping holes in my sensory perception that I had to fill through the strength of imagination (and images provided by this teacher) until the brain finally could confront, understand, and recognize these sensory “black holes”. Practicing had to become non-musical for a long period of time, preoccupation with the physical components of piano playing very much took the foreground . Playing though pieces for enjoyment wasn’t an option, as the hands would respond to this wild abandonment through several days of ’sulking’ with the all-too familiar aches and pains. This kind of hyper-aware practicing is not always enjoyable, especially because it’s often accompanied with uncomfortable sensations of pain, but it did introduce an element for me in being deeply tuned into the messages sent from within. I have gained through this experience a new humility in dealing with my body. I listen to it. I respect its signals. I don’t trespass. I suppose this kind of self-awareness is something common to people who practice meditation. I’m emerging from this experience with a great sense of awe in the subtlety, fineness, and beauty of our capabilities as healthy human beings.

Posted by … at 2:31 PM

Subscribe

8 Comments »

By Lisa Abend Monday, Jan. 25, 2010

On a farm in coastal Maine, a barn is going up. Right now it’s little more than a concrete slab and some wooden beams, but when it’s finished, the barn will provide winter shelter for up to six cows and a few head of sheep. None of this would be remarkable if it weren’t for the fact that the people building the barn are two of the most highly regarded organic-vegetable farmers in the country: Eliot Coleman wrote the bible of organic farming, The New Organic Grower, and Barbara Damrosch is the Washington Post’s gardening columnist. At a time when a growing number of environmental activists are calling for an end to eating meat, this veggie-centric power couple is beginning to raise it. “Why?” asks Coleman, tromping through the mud on his way toward a greenhouse bursting with December turnips. “Because I care about the fate of the planet.”

Ever since the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a 2006 report that attributed 18% of the world’s man-made greenhouse-gas emissions to livestock — more, the report noted, than what’s produced by transportation — livestock has taken an increasingly hard rap. At first, it was just vegetarian groups that used the U.N.’s findings as evidence for the superiority of an all-plant diet. But since then, a broader range of environmentalists has taken up the cause. At a recent European Parliament hearing titled “Global Warming and Food Policy: Less Meat = Less Heat,” Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, argued that reducing meat consumption is a “simple, effective and short-term delivery measure in which everybody could contribute” to emissions reductions. (See the top 10 green ideas of 2009.)

And of all the animals that humans eat, none are held more responsible for climate change than the ones that moo. Cows not only consume more energy-intensive feed than other livestock; they also produce more methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — than other animals do. “If your primary concern is to curb emissions, you shouldn’t be eating beef,” says Nathan Pelletier, an ecological economist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S., noting that cows produce 13 to 30 lb. of carbon dioxide per pound of meat. (See where cows eat and what it means for the environment.)

So how can Coleman and Damrosch believe that adding livestock to their farm will help the planet? Cattleman Ridge Shinn has the answer. On a wintry Saturday at his farm in Hardwick, Mass., he is out in his pastures encouraging a herd of plump Devon cows to move to a grassy new paddock. Over the course of a year, his 100 cattle will rotate across 175 acres four or five times. “Conventional cattle raising is like mining,” he says. “It’s unsustainable, because you’re just taking without putting anything back. But when you rotate cattle on grass, you change the equation. You put back more than you take.” (See the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2009.)

It works like this: grass is a perennial. Rotate cattle and other ruminants across pastures full of it, and the animals’ grazing will cut the blades — which spurs new growth — while their trampling helps work manure and other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich humus. The plant’s roots also help maintain soil health by retaining water and microbes. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground and out of the atmosphere.

Compare that with the estimated 99% of U.S. beef cattle that live out their last months on feedlots, where they are stuffed with corn and soybeans. In the past few decades, the growth of these concentrated animal-feeding operations has resulted in millions of acres of grassland being abandoned or converted — along with vast swaths of forest — into profitable cropland for livestock feed. “Much of the carbon footprint of beef comes from growing grain to feed the animals, which requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides, transportation,” says Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. “Grass-fed beef has a much lighter carbon footprint.” Indeed, although grass-fed cattle may produce more methane than conventional ones (high-fiber plants are harder to digest than cereals, as anyone who has felt the gastric effects of eating broccoli or cabbage can attest), their net emissions are lower because they help the soil sequester carbon.

Subscribe

No Comments »

It’s interesting that some of the chemicals we use to create  public drinking water were actually used as poisons beginning in World War l. Chlorine was used in World War l as a toxic chemical weapon and fluoride was the principal active ingredient in rat poison for years before it was added to our drinking water supply after World War ll. While chlorine sterilizes our water, it can also destroy much of our beneficial intestinal flora. Fluoride has been shown to weaken bones and increase the risk for heart disease and bone cancer in young men. Still today 75% of our population drinks chlorinated tap water, much of which also contains fluoride.

To build optimal health it is critical to clean up your drinking water supply. Reverse osmosis does the best job of removing toxins from water, but also leaves the water de-mineralized. Without going to a huge expense of buying your own reverse osmosis system, many grocery stores offer reverse osmosis water very cheaply. If you purchase your own glass jars to store the water, you will have a better supply of drinking water without having to have it delivered. If you want to re-mineralize your reverse osmosis water, you may want to purchase one of the reasonably priced filtration systems–like the system from Nikken–that will do this to your reverse osmosis water.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Subscribe

No Comments »

In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic by accident when he found no staphylococcus bacterial growth around a mold spore (penicillin) that had contaminated his culture dishes. Although the miracle cure was an exciting breakthrough for the infectious diseases that were killing soldiers and civilians during the two World Wars, in 1945, Flemming prophesized in the New York Times that the “misuse of penicillin could lead to a selection and propagation of mutant forms of bacteria resistant to the drug”–an occurrence he had already experienced in the laboratory. Flemming saw that the bacteria could communicate and change their form to survive the antibiotic remedy so quickly that this approach to fighting disease would be like a dog chasing its tail–just as he thinks he’s got it–it gets away!

Since we know this to be true, it seems ridiculous that the medical community keeps chasing bugs, as this kind of health initiative is rather new in the history of health care. Yet the germ theory is preached almost like a terrorist plot–as if we can succeed in outwitting germs! The underlying reason for this insanity is, of course, money!

“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” was state of the art health care for thousands of years. As we return to this approach and build our immune systems with nutrient-dense, pasture-raised foods, we can live in harmony with “bugs.”

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Subscribe

No Comments »

Please become a member of the US and Canadian Alliances for Raw Milk (ARM) and Sustainable Food Freedom

Where you put your dollar everyday matters. What quality of food you purchase everyday matters. What quality of food you put in your mouth every meal matters. Your health is your wealth. The health of your children is their wealth. The health of our country is our wealth. The health of our planet is our wealth. Pastured foods–sustainable farming–small family farms–the direct small farm to consumer relationship—these are all necessary for the permanent healing of our planet and people.

This is an important article link from the Journal of Natural Food and Healing that discusses the new international alliances that are forming for raw milk and sustainable food freedom. http://wp.me/phmll-Ul

US and Canadian Alliances for Raw Milk and Farm Food Freedom have just formed. New recruits and entire groups can freely sign up to see action. Everyone is needed. Please join the alliances on Facebook by clicking the links below.

U.S. ARMi http://www.facebook.com/l/8b180;tinyurl.com/yaz8q9u
CANADIAN ARMi  http://www.facebook.com/l/8b180;tinyurl.com/yfwa8me
ONTARIO http://www.facebook.com/l/8b180;tinyurl.com/ycoponp with links to BC ARMs

Ohio ARM http://www.facebook.com/l/8b180;wholefood.meetup.com/165 w/ links to the 6 major cities– also for IN,KY,WV,PA,MI currently
Wisconsin ARM and surrounding states http://www.facebook.com/l/8b180;tinyurl.com/ydwp6n2
Other state ARMs are PENDING

Please become involved–we need every person now!

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Subscribe

No Comments »

Dr. Louisa Williams, author of  the book Radical Medicine, writes today of a very important partner in the journey of holistic healing. Her work with helping people find a constitutional homeopathic remedy through the new Sankaran System of homeopathy is extremely beneficial in strengthening a person’s ability to overcome serious compromises to health in today’s toxic environment. We commend Louisa’s dedicated work in this area.

Removing the “Ghost” Inside Us

The Revolutionary New Sankaran System of Homeopathy

By Louisa Williams, MS, DC, ND

The Success of Acute Homeopathy

Many holistic health advocates are familiar with homeopathy. Originating through the brilliant mind of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in Europe in 1789 (7 years before the first vaccine was given by Jenner), this energetic system of healing has been exceptionally curative for over 2 centuries. This has especially been the case with acute homeopathy. (Acute refers to the use of a remedy that is prescribed based on the outstanding pathological symptoms of a patient, for a recent illness or injury and for a short period of time.) For example, the use of Arnica Montana for the treatment of acute injuries, sprains and strains, and even head trauma is well known in the holistic community, and has proven to be remarkably effective. Historically the use of acute homeopathic remedies has also been dramatic. During the great flu of 1918, 80% of those who were treated with allopathic medicine (drugs) died, whereas 80% of those treated with homeopathic remedies lived (Naumann, E., Homeopathy for Epidemics). More recently, homeopathic medicine has been proven to be as effective and safer than Prozac at treating moderate to severe depression (Oxford University Press, July 09).

Past Frustration with Constitutional Homeopathy

However, although acute homeopathy has been proven to be remarkably effective, homeopathy prescribed for chronic or constitutional treatment has not enjoyed the same level of success. (Chronic or constitutional homeopathy refers to a single remedy prescribed to treat a patient’s unique physical, mental, and emotional symptoms for his/her lifetime.) In fact, a not insignificant number of homeopathic patients have experienced quite a bit of frustration over the years, after receiving one constitutional remedy after another, with no real improvement in their symptoms. This is not due to a lack of trying from many earnest and well-meaning homeopaths, but simply from ineffective systems of analysis.

A Revolutionary New Method

Fortunately this has all changed with the advent of a new system developed by Rajan Sankaran, MD. Due to the efforts and knowledge from this Indian homeopath and his Mumbai colleagues, the Sankaran System has recently become a teachable and highly successful method to ascertain an individuals’ lifetime constitutional homeopathic remedy. There are many principles that make this new system – well, more systematic, and have transformed homeopathic case-taking (the interview) from an often frustrating and confusing process to a very clear roadmap of exactly which specific remedy the patient is expressing.

One of the major paradigms constituting the Sankaran System is that patients typically fall into one of 3 major categories: a plant remedy, an animal remedy, or a mineral remedy. Plant remedy patients will express the fact that they are highly sensitive and reactive, and deeply affected by their environment. An animal remedy will describe issues of survival as well as attack and defense, either as a predator (aggressor) or a prey (victim) – or both. Mineral remedy patients express themes of lack of support, a feeling of being incomplete, and not having enough stability and strength. Sankaran-trained homeopaths first endeavor to determine which of these 3 kingdoms the patient is in, and then assess the subkingdom (for example, the rose family in the plant kingdom, or the cat family in the animal kingdom, or the second row of the periodic table in the mineral kingdom). Finally, the homeopath must determine the specific remedy within this subkingdom family.

The Non-Human Song, or “Ghost” Inside Us

How do these plant, animal or mineral patterns affect us? Literally these patterns are like living with a ghost – hence the title of this article. This inner ghost, also referred to as a non-human distortion pattern, adversely affects us in every aspect of our lives – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Dr. Sankaran describes this distortion pattern as “the other song” that is playing within us, causing discord with our natural human song:

“There exists a duality. On one hand, each individual has his life as a human being, singing his own human song. On the other hand…there is a non-human world inside him that seems to sing another song altogether…The other spirit inside us is in itself melodious and complete. Yet it is out of place because it is not innately human, but is a reflection of a pattern we have borrowed from nature from the plant, animal, or mineral kingdoms. This different song in a human being creates disharmony and conflict. Further, the suppression of this non-human song crystallizes in physical and mental pathology.”

Rajan Sankaran, MD

The Other Song: Discovering Your Parallel Self

The correctly prescribed constitutional remedy resonates with this plant, animal or mineral distortion pattern, and slowly (or quickly in some cases) but surely dissolves this non-human energy that is inappropriately residing within us. Over time the volume of this non-human song reduces, and eventually is completely muted, thus allowing our human song –that is our truly human self – to more fully emerge, grow and develop.

A Great Fit with Psychospiritual Work

Many of us have learned in our psychological work that we are adversely imprinted and shaped by our unresolved past experiences (negative self-images, feelings of deficiency, suppression of painful memories, etc.), resulting in a habitual personality pattern that obscures our true self, or soul. What is little known, however, is that our soul is also greatly affected by another pattern – one that is non-human.

Similar to the most effective psychospiritual schools of healing (Somatic Experiencing by Levine, the Diamond Approach by Hameed Ali, John Welwood and other transpersonal psychologists, rebirthing and other forms of breath work, etc), a key principle of the Sankaran System is that the most effective cures – and the prescription of the correct remedy – occur at the sensation level. This level – which is significantly deeper than the physical, emotional or even mental planes of experience – can be reached through both psychotherapy and homeopathy. (The sensation level is where one directly experiences the felt sense of their body such as feeling stiff, heavy, squeezed, light, pressure, brittle, dazed, paralyzed, burning, trapped, floating, and so forth.)  Thus, both these cutting edge schools of holistic healing have independently arrived at the same conclusion – whether it’s psychospiritual work or constitutional homeopathy – real change, and thus real cure, can only be achieved through reaching this deepest sensation level.

Further, homeopathy and psychotherapy are exceptionally synergistic. That is, while the correct constitutional homeopathic remedy is working to dissolve the non-human distortion pattern within us, psychospiritual work is invaluable to help the emerging being more fully develop. In fact, even those of us who have done decades of psychological work have noted a mild to moderate feeling of being rather unsettled and even estranged from ourselves at times on the correct homeopathic remedy. Thus, even though the constitutional remedy can be truly miraculous in removing our non-human patterns, it can be a bit disorienting to lose these self-sabotaging yet very familiar defensive patterns our egoic personality has structured itself around. (Of course, dysfunctional family dynamics also engender these egoic patterns, and quality psychological work is essential in helping to clear and dismantle these resulting egoic patterns as well.) Therefore, in perfect conjunction with the ongoing dismantling of our non-human patterns through taking the homeopathic remedy, effective psychotherapy helps us simultaneously become more familiar with our humanness. Thus, as the homeopathic remedy catabolizes (breaks down) our false personality shell, effective psychospiritual works in an anabolic (building up) manner, encouraging the individual to fully develop by experiencing more and more his/her soul, or true self.

Conclusion

Homeopathy has been a proven and effective form of natural healing for over 2 centuries. However, acute homeopathy has enjoyed more success than chronic, or constitutional, homeopathy. Recently this has changed with the advent of the revolutionary new Sankaran System. This amazing system of analysis has proven so successful that it is now being taught to dedicated homeopaths all over the world.  In the author’s experience of over 25 years as a holistic physician, the Sankaran System of constitutional homeopathy is the single most curative form of healing presently known.

Dr. Louisa Williams is director of Marin Naturopathic Medicine in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the author of Radical Medicine. More information on the new Sankaran System is available on her website, www.marinnaturopathicmedicine.com, or call her office at (415) 460-1968. Constitutional homeopathic interviews can be done in the office in person, or by phone or SKYPE.

Subscribe

No Comments »

We have discussed the severe problems with mercury-laden silver fillings. Mercury is one of the most toxic metals in the world and amalgams contain 45% mercury. Dr. Louisa Williams’ important book called “Radical Medicine” points to research done by Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt in the 1990’s that shows how mercury amalgams initiate candida overgrowth.

He states that:
“Mercury suffocates the intracellular respiratory mechanism and can cause cell death. So, the immune system makes a deal: it cultivates fungi and bacteria that can bind large amounts of toxic metals. The gain:the cells can breathe. The cost: the system has to provide nutrition for the microorganisms and has to deal with their metabolic products.”

Although the removal of dental amalgams is a very complicated process and a biological dentist must thoroughly assess the health of the patient before removal can be recommended, the eventual removal of these amalgams is a prudent step in long-term health. Removing mercury amalgams along with a nutrient-dense diet will help to alleviate the pervasive health problems associated with Candida overgrowth and dysbiosis significantly.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Subscribe

4 Comments »

Buying food from good sources–organic farms that pasture their animals–is essential to the future health of our population, animal kingdom and planet. Below is a shocking letter by Al Sears, MD from Florida to one of his patients.

The drugs in the commercial beef you buy at your local supermarket are getting so bad, even the vultures are dying. I just read a report that millions of vultures died in South Asia after eating cattle carcasses tainted with two drugs used to treat livestock. As scavengers, vultures have an iron-clad digestive system. Look at their diet – the birds eat nothing but putrid meat day in and day out. Yet their numbers have decreased – almost to extinction in some cases – because of the deadly effect of drugs we inject into cattle.

Imagine for a moment what would have happened had the meat made its way into your refrigerator. For millions of years, beef has been a healthy part of our ancestors’ diet. But our ancestors never had to deal with the commercial farming practices of today. I want to stress the importance of making certain the meat you eat is not commercially raised. My two biggest concerns are antibiotics and hormones…

Commercially raised cattle are force-fed grain laced with antibiotics – not because they’re sick, but to:

• Increase daily body-weight gain
• Improve food-to-weight gain ratio
• Increase the voluntary intake of food

Did you know that 70% of all antibiotics in the U.S. are used – not in people – but in “healthy” livestock animals?  This is a major crisis for us, because antibiotics create drug-resistant strains of bacteria that live in the food we eat. Because of this, many life-threatening diseases – such as E.coli, Salmonella, and Campylobacter – are almost impossible to treat.

The other major issue is hormones. Most beef in the U.S. is injected with synthetic hormones that are transferred to people. They are dangerous to children, dangerous to adults, and also cause cancer. It’s such a health concern that there’s been a ban on hormone-treated U.S. meat throughout the European nations since 1989.

It’s a sad commentary. I was lucky enough to grow up eating grass-fed beef. My mom and dad made sure we had locally grown, healthy, grazing beef from neighboring farms. They simply didn’t trust the commercial beef industry; my dad said they kept too many secrets. But they did trust what they could see in our neighbors’ fields and farms.

Finding quality grass-fed beef is tricky sometimes. Grocery stores often label meat as grass-fed because at one time in their life, a cow grazed on grass, but later was put on a grain diet. So it’s important to investigate.

By Al Sears, MD

Please know the source of your foods! Your health depends on it. The Weston A. Price website has a listing of co-ops throughout our country that have grass-fed, organic meats, poultry and dairy.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Subscribe

No Comments »

Besides building health through eating a diet of nutrient-dense traditional foods, utilizing many effective ways to help our bodies detoxify toxic chemicals, metals and microbes should be an ongoing pursuit. Recently, we have posted articles on some of the detoxing and health building benefits of both organic sulfur and Original Quinton Marine Plasma.  The oil pulling therapy of Dr. Karack is another helpful protocol you can try.

Below is a great description of Karack’s Oil Treatment, which is highly recommended by many holistic practitioners including Dr. Louisa Williams in her book Radical Medicine. In Chapter 2 of her book, “Detoxification of Toxic Metals and Chemicals,” she discusses this Ayurvedic treatment’s benefit for use immediately after the removal of mercury amalgam fillings. However it can be used by anyone on a regular basis for aiding the regular detoxification of the body. Besides using unrefined sesame oil, we have also heard of people who have used organic coconut oil.

DR. KARACK’S OIL THERAPY TREATMENT

Procedure

In the morning before breakfast, on an empty stomach, take 1 tablespoon of cold pressed unrefined sesame oil in the mouth, but do not swallow. Swish the oil around the mouth, “chew It”  and mix it with your saliva for 10-20 minutes. Then spit it into the toilet bowl.

Chewing activates the enzymes which draw toxins out of the blood. And In 10-15 minutes, the blood from the entire body has had the opportunity to circulate through and around the mouth. After 10-20 minutes the oil should be thinner and white. If it is still yellow, you have not held it in your mouth long enough. (10 minutes the first week is usually sufficient, then increase to 15-20 minutes as you get clearer.)

Immediately brush your gums, teeth, and tongue with warm salt/soda water
1 cup water to 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp soda, or with food grade hydrogen peroxide diluted in water. Then gargle and spit with the remaining salt/soda water. It is also helpful to tip the cup under the nose and gently sniff up the water to clean the nasal passages. Then gently blow the nose.
The sink should be cleaned afterward because the saliva contains harmful bacteria and toxic bodily waste.

Repeat this procedure two to three times a day, before meals, on an empty stomach. Continue this procedure until you are healthy I (few weeks to years…).

Discussion

This procedure has been helpful to curative in almost every disease or dysfunctional immune state that Dr. Karack has encountered.
We have found the same amazing results. especially in patients who are detoxing their petroleum solvents. Remember that petroleum solvents are lipophilic and will readily be absorbed into the oil. Additionally, the toxic metals/minerals form soap complexes with the oil, and can then be easily eliminated through spitting.

This oil technique has also had a major effect on chronic, severely toxic patients. Although neural therapy is excellent for a mild to moderate toxic tonsil focus, severely damaged tonsils can often be saved from surgery with the addition of Dr. Karack’s technique. And since the tonsils are the first filtering system in the body for orally ingested toxins, this treatment helps boost everyone’s immune system functioning through increased lymphatic cleansing of that area. Remember, too, that even If you have had a tonsillectomy, the lymphatics in the tonsil area are still trying to function as a filter, and neutralize ingested toxins and manufactured microbes in the oral cavity.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Subscribe

No Comments »

Asthma is one of the serious epidemics we are seeing in our population. Since just 1995, the number of diagnosed cases of this illness has jumped from 14.9 million to 34.1 million! Although one would assume this jump is a direct result of toxins in the air, this is not the underlying cause in many cases. You may be surprised to learn that 41.1% of non-smokers who have a chronic cough and 60% of those who have asthma also have acid reflux!

How does acid reflux cause asthma? First, the refluxed liquid may cause people to inhale tiny drops of acid into their lungs thus aggravating the delicate pulmonary lining and initiating spasms in the airways triggering an asthma attack. Second, the digestive acid may damage the esophageal lining and expose some of the nerves that are connected to the lungs. The irritation of the nerve endings can create a constriction of airways, thereby causing an asthma attack. Additionally, the acid can cause inflammation of the throat and larynx. To make things even more complicated, some asthma medications that dilate the bronchial tubes can produce acid reflux symptoms as they may cause the cardiac sphincter to relax—allowing acid to escape up through the esophagus. Therefore, treating the symptoms of asthma without looking at the possibility of acid reflux is like holding your finger over the hole of a sinking boat!

If the acid reflux issues are symptomatically treated with yet more medications, there may be a risk for serious long-term health issues. Acid reflux is most often treated with acid-lowering drugs.  However, the true source of most acid reflux problems is a Candida, or yeast overgrowth, in the stomach that is actually caused by low acid in the stomach itself! A yeast overgrowth slows down digestion and foods will ferment under these conditions. As Candida will also paralyze the esophageal sphincter, the gases from the fermentation push the food up through the weakened esophageal muscles.

Because candida only grows in low acid conditions in the first place–acid lowering drugs are going to further compromise digestion. As Candida proliferates,  it can promote severe dysbiosis, or poor intestinal flora. With poor intestinal flora, foods are not digested properly, nutrients are not absorbed, intestinal damage is forthcoming and eventually malnourishment will occur. Besides compromised nutrient absorption, intestinal damage causes leaky gut, which can initiate allergic tendencies such as asthma!  Therefore, one problem incorrectly treated cascades into more problems.

If we can find the source of the asthma and acid reflux epidemic, we will have the answer to help millions of people. Both asthma and acid reflux have grown exponentially since the industrialization of our food supply that spurred the creation of processed, denatured and low-nutrient foods. Before this time, most people’s diets included foods that were high in nutrients and supported good digestion like meats, poultry, eggs and dairy from grass-fed animals and cultured dairy and vegetables like kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut and pickled beets. They also ate ample traditional fats like butter, lard and coconut oil and foods with natural sources of vitamins A and D like cod liver oil, liver and egg yolks, which are necessary for good digestion and nutrient absorption. With good digestion and a nutrient-rich diet, a person will diminish the probability of suffering from an illness like acid reflux, allergies and it’s related condition–asthma.

By returning to traditional farming and the foods that our ancestors ate, we will diminish the exponential growth of illnesses rooted in poor digestion. If we can move from the symptomatic treatment of asthma to solving the problem, we will help to support better health for generations to come.

For more information building health and treating acid reflux and its related illnesses such as asthma with nutrient-dense foods, see our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Subscribe

2 Comments »