OjaiHealing.com

Last month a panel of FDA advisers voted in favour of a proposal that children under the age of 6 should not be given cold and cough medicines, because they have not been proven to be effective or safe. The experts advice will now be considered by FDA regulators, who are likely to take action against these type of over the counter products.

One person who was delighted with the decision was Dr. Michael Shannon, pediatrician with Children's Hospital Boston and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical: "I think they are neither safe nor effective," "The problem is the risk-benefit ratio," he said.The benefits are non-existant "These drugs are not effective. They do not work to relieve the symptoms of a cold." Meanwhile the risks are real, more than 500 million doses are administered annually and the two primary problems are overdosing and ill effects from mixing different medications.

Dr. Daniel Rausch, director of the pediatric hospitalist program for New York University, underlined these concerns saying that cold medicine is only effective at doses that are just too strong to be safe for young children. His recommendation is a more traditional treatment with no overdose risks - chicken soup.

But besides chicken soup is there anything else that is risk-free and effective in helping children recover from coughs, colds, flus, earaches, sore throat and other minor ailments?

Happily there is – HOMEOPATHY. Homeopathy is so amazing that if you haven't come into contact with it before it may even sound too good to be true, but bear with me! Imagine a system of medicine that has been established for over 200 years, is ecologically sustainable and is used by 500 million people and whose fans over the years have included some impressive and savvy people.

Dizzy Gillespie gave it a rave review: "There have been two great revelations in my life; the first was bebop, the second was homeopathy." Another greast musical genius Yehudi Menuhin agreed "Homeopathy is one of the rare medical approaches that carries no penalties. Mahatma Ghandi acknowledged "...Homeopathy cures a larger percentage of cases than any other method of treatment".

Lest you think all homeopathy fans are on the other side Sir Paul McCartney confessed “I can't manage without homeopathy. In fact, I never go anywhere without homeopathic remedies.” Cindy Crawford said much the same thing on Oprah recently.

Yet although Homeopathy is a world renowned system, it still has a relatively low profile in the US and that is a great loss for the citizens of the US, struggling as they are with an economic meltdown and a failing, horrifically expensive healthcare system.

The current pharmaceutical approach to healthcare is little more than symptom management and it comes at a huge economic and physical cost to the individual involved and to our environment. On the other hand, Homeopathy is a completely ecologically sustainable medicine because it uses natural substances in tiny amounts, it is completely patent-free, inexpensive, safe and effective, with no harmful side-effects, it does NOT pollute the water supply or the environment and is tested on human volunteeers, not animals.

Perhaps best of all with very little effort you can use homeopathic medicines at home in first aid situations and for minor illnesses. More than any other holistic medicine it is the most user friendly for the beginner. So what should you do to get started? For about $100 dollars you can buy a book and a homeopathy kit. There are lots of free online trainings too.

If you want to "try before you buy" take the Arnica challenge.ARNICA is by far the Number 1 Best-selling Homeopathic Medicine in the World. Millions of people have become totally convinced of the benefits of Homeopathy after using Arnica. Next time you have the misfortune to suffer any of the symptoms below, try Arnica and discover the amazing benefits for yourself.Then once you are convinced upgrade to a kit.

Physical shock, trauma
Especially helpful after the classic shock response after an accident or severe emotional upset. The person insists they are fine, when they clearly aren’t. Usually don’t want to be touched or fussed over.
Head injury
Reduces the risk of complications following a blow to the head, reduces pain and swelling
Bruising
Take it and watch your lumps and bumps disappear almost before your eyes.
After childbirth
Will reduce recovery times dramatically, take as you would a painkiller, repeating as needed.
Exhaustion
Of course it’s cheating and you will have to rest up later, but if you really must keep going take Arnica. Tour de France cyclists swear by it and so do women in labour. Ideal for when you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do!
Jet lag
Take Arnica for second wind and you can keep awake long enough to get onto local time.

My name is Mary Aspinwall, I am a Classical homeopath, new to Ojai and really loving it here. Please feel free to comment or ask questions and I will do my best to respond. I wish you and your loved ones the best of health.

Posted by Mary Aspinwall at 02:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

TAT: Tapas Acupressure Technique — Releasing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

We live in a world that is largely shaped by PTSD. Most of us are carriers. Something that occurs to us as traumatic happens and we make a decision to respond is a specific way that in the moment is a good intelligent response. The “disorder” comes from our continually responding in the same way to similar incidents.

High on the PTSD scale are incidents of violence. These can be physical, emotional or both. It may be singular incidents like being beaten during a robbery, rape, an auto accident... It may be patterned incidents like child abuse, spousal abuse, constant humiliation by a parent or spouse... It may be finding oneself “accidently” near violence like a witness to crime, war... It may be being involved in violence that one thinks is necessary like defending oneself, being in the military and acting violently...

The stress of the incident or incidents causes a rupture in the fabric of the mental-physical integrity. This wound seems to cause our reactions to stick on this one note out of all the possible melodies we could play in response to living.

I became deeply aware of a pattern of mine about a year ago. I’d seen it occasionally for years, but when it came into focus I saw how pervasive it was. How it colored everything I did. Everything I thought. Every action and reaction I made.

I grew up in a violent house. My mother would occasionally flip out and beat me. Her way of reacting to her stress of having a kid around was to make me wrong by belittling and humiliating. I never knew when one of these arrows was going to come my way. They seemed to come at random. For no discernible reason. I couldn’t find any connection between my behavior and her reaction.

My conclusion was that the world was not safe. And I developed a very finely tuned radar system to watch the safety of the world. I got good at it, and was able to avoid many attacks by feeling the bow being strung, the arrow being taking from the quiver and was able to change tactics to get her to disarm. These are useful skills. BUT, they are not useful when they are always already running the show.

In other words, what I deeply saw was that my radar was on all the time. It did not have an off switch. And I began to see how this veil was between me and the world. I kept me from fully interacting because I was always assessing how “safe” it was.

A friend told me about this simple technique TAT. I printed out the process from the website — www.TATlife.com, read it, held it as a possibility. In a couple weeks I got that I needed to do it. He’d suggested that for major issues that I work with a practitioner, so I made an appointment with Tapas.

I went fully open to it working and willing for the pattern to be broken. In about an hour session we totally turned off the pattern. I found the switch... leaving it available as a tool when and if needed, but no longer the controlling context for my interaction with life.

I’ve since used TAT on other lesser issues and found it to be incredibly useful. My friend just got back from China used it to realign himself with the magnetic and energetic forces here as he got off the plane. No jet lag! I’ve used it to clear blocks to having conversations. Blocks to taking actions. I’m still exploring, but I’m told that it can be used for just about anything that you feel stuck with or on. I’d assert here that anything that feels stuck is a symptom of PTSD. Maybe a mild form, but a disorder of the same design.

Got something in mind after reading this? Check out TAT at www.TATlife.com and experiment on yourself or get assistance. If you want to discuss any question you have regarding this simple process, you can email me at wynfinity@mac.com.

Be Well...

.wyn

Posted by Wyn Matthews at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)