All posts by Kathryne Pirtle

Dogs and Cats and a Nutrient-Dense Diet, Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods

Dogs and Cats Thrive on Nutrient-Dense Diets Too!

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Once you study the work of Dr. Weston Price–Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, and Dr. Francis Pottenger–Dr. Pottenger’s Cats–you will never be the same! We took in a beautiful 4 year old dog from the shelter about 5 years ago. Her name is Lexi. She is a cute, medium-sized blond-colored sweetie. She looks like a mix of Beagle and Shar Pei–with her wrinkly skin.

When Lexi came to us she was nervous and skittish. I knew I was going to feed her a diet based on the work of Weston A. Price and Dr. Pottenger–a species-appropriate raw diet. I found a fantastic book called Switching to Raw and got busy. What I realized after reading the book is that Lexi would be eating a lot like me–except I don’t do the raw bones and I don’t eat raw meat exclusively–but do bone broth soups and lightly cooked meats–sometimes raw. I alternate her diet between one day of raw chicken necks and backs from the farm, which I cut in smaller pieces, with raw meat or liver mixed with raw egg yolks, cod liver oil and butter oil the next day. She always has a little bowl of raw milk kefir to drink alongside her water.

As you might imagine, Lexi at 9 years old has never been sick, she is no longer skittish and her coat is drop-dead gorgeous! She went from a shy dog to being a dog who is happy, playful–yet calm–and a friend to all. What a beautiful miracle she is and her exceptional health is a joy to observe.

Although I do not have a cat, I know if I did, I would follow Dr. Pottenger’s recipe for cat health. Raw meat, raw milk, raw egg yolks, cod liver oil and butter oil and learn if ground-up raw bones is also recommended.

When you feed your pets nutrient-dense foods, they can recover from illness and develop a high-level of health and hopefully, many more years of life.

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.

Breast Health and Cancer Prevention, Children's Health, Environmental Toxins and Health, Mercury Toxicity, Performing Artist's Health

Are Your Teeth Making You Sick?

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Most people who are interested in holistic medicine, the real food movement and organic foods understand how terribly toxic mercury amalgams and root canals are. I wrote an important post on mercury toxicity and candida overgrowth on my blog just after hearing the remarkable 6 hour seminar of Dr. Louisa Williams at the Wise Traditions Conference. Her book Radical Medicine should be required reading for every person on this planet!! Radical Medicine is not for people who want to keep their head in the sand–it’s for those of you who want to know “why” we are struggling with so many health issues. It’s for people who truly want to get better and know that diet–even the best Weston A. Price diet in the world is not enough!!!

I had all of my mercury amalgams removed about 20 years ago by a leading biological dentist. If you have read my book, you know that I got a cavity in each of my molars at age 16. Had I not had those amalgams replaced with composite fillings, I am certain, from what I know now, that I wouldn’t have recovered from my life-threatening illness. Let me tell you why!

Although I had all my amalgams removed, up until Monday, Feb. 1, 2010, I had one crown on the bottom right side of my mouth over my first molar. I needed that crown after I cracked my tooth on popcorn at age 20! This crown was porcelain with metal at the bottom and it enclosed a mercury amalgam-filled tooth. If you know anything about bad dentistry–this scenario describes one of them, because when you mix metals, you get what is coined “Dental Galvanism.” In Dorland’s medical dictionary, this is defined as:

“A physiochemical phenomenon in which two or more dissimilar metals that have been used to restore or replace missing teeth produce the flow of an electric current.”

Because amalgam fillings are made of a mixture of metals and people often have other metals in their mouth like gold or crowns made with metal, they can be suffering from severe heavy metal toxicity. Dental galvanism causes an amplification of heavy metal toxicity in the body. In fact, to protect the vital organs, the body will try to displace the toxic metals through neural pathways to less important parts of the body, like the breasts and the reproductive organs, thereby protecting the brain, liver , kidneys and heart.

This is what was happening to me with only ONE toxic piece of dental work in my mouth. Last summer I noticed a lump in my RIGHT breast, which I was able to massage away through the self-breast massage technique I talked about in an earlier blog article. I also was experiencing sinus drainage behind my RIGHT eye and eyebrow area this last summer and thought it was an allergy–only on the RIGHT side?–Not making sense is it! My RIGHT eyelid has had a recurring twitch for years. My RIGHT tonsil often was sore. My RIGHT ear was sometimes sore. I had shingles on the RIGHT side of my face years ago–excruciatingly painful. Was this my body’s way of trying to detoxify this ONE piece of bad dentistry left in my mouth. Of course! What else could it be.

So if you think that your mercury amalgams are not causing you harm, or your mixed metal crown with a mercury amalgam underneath is just fine, or your root canals are not causing any symptoms in your body that you know of—THINK AGAIN! Read RADICAL MEDICINE and think again–it could be the best thing you ever have done to protect your health besides eating a nutrient-dense diet!  If you have any dental work done, it is imperative that you work with a highly qualified biological dentist.

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.

Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods, Personal Rights and Food Freedom, Sustainable Farming, Health, Soil and Environment, USDA Dietary Guidelines, Nutrient Deficiencies and Degenerative Illness

Whole Foods–Please Don’t Change to a Vegan Approach!

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Whole Foods is an awesome store for finding many of the nutrient-dense, pastured and wild-caught foods we need to build optimal health through the principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation. They are carrying pastured butter, meats and yogurt. They also carry high quality eggs, a wide array of wild-caught seafood and traditionally fermented vegetables and drinks. In fact, Whole Foods is helping to save the lives of thousands of seriously ill people who are desperately trying to find a source of these foods–Whole Foods is their only source.

I just received a disturbing letter from a dedicated reader who is concerned that Whole Foods may be turning into a vegan store:

“I have been shopping more frequently at Whole Foods and I notice they have a selection of health books that are all based on being a vegan or low fat vegetarian. Then when I was checking out, I was offered a pamphlet by the young man bagging my groceries. The pamphlet told me to implement the following: low fat, plants mostly, and to cut way back, or completely eliminate all animal foods. It encourages nutrient dense foods but seems to say that these come from plants only. Even a look at the books they promote now seem to be mostly along the lines of vegan, vegetarian, and low fat.  Since when did Whole Foods get into the business of telling people how to eat? Makes me think they will do away with their seafood and meat departments at some point!”

For years before becoming deathly ill, my diet consisted of large amounts of organic salads, vegetables and fruits, grains, a little meat and eggs and no animal fat. I had chronic pain for 25 years on this diet, then acid reflux, then a serious inflammation in my spine followed by chronic diarrhea. Without learning about the work of Dr. Weston A. Price and the Weston A. Price Foundation–not only would I have lost my national career as a performing artist–I would have died at 45 years old!!! I am not alone in this story of ill health from this kind of diet–it simply will not provide a person with enough nutrients to be healthy over their entire life.

Now at 52, I have healed my digestive tract, been pain-free and have vibrant health from eating a nutrient-dense diet for the last 8 years. Whole Foods has been one of my partners in achieving this level of health. In my seminars across the United States, I recommend Whole Foods over and over.

We need Whole Foods to continue to be a partner to people of all dietary needs–not just veganism–because veganism may be a choice for some people, but it is not the answer for the majority. If this is an environmental issue for Whole Foods, please remember that sustainable agriculture based on traditional pasture farming is the ONLY way we will build our exhausted, nutrient-poor soils, as animals on pasture that provide nutrient-dense foods and build soil fertility are our sole vehicle to this means.

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


Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods, Recipes for Traditional Foods

New Blog Covering the 773 Recipes in Sally Fallon’s Book, Nourishing Traditions, a la Julia & Julia Style

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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.

Cholesterol, Traditional Fats and Your Health, Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods, Inflammation and Healing Diet, Mood Disorders and Diet, Recipes for Traditional Foods

Interesting Article on Butter

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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

Personal Rights and Food Freedom, Sustainable Farming, Health, Soil and Environment

Huge Victory for Raw Milk and Freedom to Healthy Foods in Canada

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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.”

Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods, Personal Rights and Food Freedom, Sustainable Farming, Health, Soil and Environment

How Cows (Grass-Fed Only) Could Save the Planet: Time Magazine

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Sustainable farming finally made Time Magazine! People are beginning to catch on all over the country that sustainable farming is the only farming that will build the soil, produce nutrient-dense foods and bring health back to our lands, environment, livestock and people. Spread the word! Support sustainable farming! Vote with your pocketbook!
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

TIME.com in partnership with CNN

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.

Breast Health and Cancer Prevention, Children's Health, Environmental Toxins and Health

Chlorine and Fluoride in our water since World War l

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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

Antibiotics and Health, Children's Health, Digestive Disorders and Healing Diet, Performing Artist's Health

Even the Founder of Antibiotics Prophesized Serious Problems with Their Misuse

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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

Homeopathy and Healing

Removing the “Ghost” Inside Us–The Revolutionary New Sankaran System of Homeopathy

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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.