Health and Fitness Center

Using Aromatherapy Treatment For Healing Of Diseases
By Evelyn Lim

Aromatherapy is based on a holistic approach to healing. Very often, when you are ill or have a disease, it is not just your physical health that is suffering, your mental and spiritual state may also be in disarray. Aromatherapy treatment can be used to affect mood changes and aid in quicker recovery and healing. What is great about an aromatherapy treatment is that it is totally natural and non-invasive.

Aromatherapy treatment involves the use of naturally extracted aromatic plant extracts. Through the use of essential oils and essences, it seeks to stimulate and enhance the healing process of your body. In fact, natural health experts believe that your body is capable of regulating, maintaining and healing itself. Aromatherapy treatment works on many different levels, including emotional and physical levels, to bring relief.

Aromatherapy treatment is useful in the healing of many diseases and conditions. They include:

- calming the mind for insomnia and moodiness
- treating skin disorders such as dermatitis, acne, eczema, psoriasis
- promoting emotional healing such as for depression, hysteria, lack of concentration and panic attacks
- treating burns, bruises, asthma, bronchitis, flu, muscular aches and pains
- improving digestion such as in the case of constipation.

An essential oil is one which is made by distilling it with either water or steam or by processing it mechanically (especially in the case of citrus rinds) or by dry distillation of natural materials. After the distillation process, the essential oil becomes physically separated from the water phase.

Essential oils are not greasy and many of them do not leave oily marks behind. These oils are very easily penetrated through the skin and quickly absorbed.

If used incorrectly, they can do more harm than good as essential oils tend to be highly concentrated extracts which are obtained by distilling a variety of plant materials such as flowers, leaves, fruit peel, wood, grasses etc.

Hence, if you wish to heal for a specific condition, do seek the advice of a qualified aromatherapy practitioner. The use of essential oils is a precise and learned science. It is important that you ensure you use the highest quality oils and in the right combination best for healing of your disease.

Here is an excellent way to start on an aromatherapy treatment. If you are feeling somewhat depressed, you can burn some aromatherapy candles with a scent known to be calming and soothing for nerves. As soon as you feel more relaxed, you will begin to feel the uplift in your mood.

For more articles, read here on aromatherapy treatment. Evelyn Lim is a writer on various health and wellness topics. Visit her directory site, an online archive of health articles of all topics including diseases and conditions, cancer, health insurance and natural health at www.healthandwellnesscentral.com

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Disease Conditions Diagnosed By Genetic Testing
By Rich Fuller

Since about the 1950’s some major breakthroughs have taken place in the area of genetic testing which have meant that today many conditions may be diagnosed by genetic testing. In this article we will discuss a few of these conditions diagnosed by genetic testing but there is constantly new research becoming available which means that the conditions listed below are by no means a full list of conditions benefited by DNA testing.

One of the conditions that can be predicted using genetic testing is the likelihood of getting certain cancers. A number of cancers appear to be gene linked and as such can be predicted using genetic testing. Breast Cancer for example is linked to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

Huntington’s disease, a degenerative brain disorder, is another condition which may be predicted by genetic testing. It is important to realize however that just because one is shown to contain the gene for Huntington’s disease does not necessarily mean that one will have Huntington’s disease this is dependent on how many cycles of the CAG bases are found within the person’s genes.

Another disease that may be able to be predicted by genetic testing and which is currently hotly debated is autism. New tests may allow geneticists to test for autism using prenatal genetic testing but many people, especially amongst the autistic community are questioning whether this testing is ethical. As a prospective parent you are going to need to decide this for yourself and whether you want to have tests done, especially if your family has a history of autism.

Down’s syndrome is another condition which may be diagnosed by genetic testing, however, the modern methods of DNA testing may not be as accurate for predicting Down’s syndrome as the more traditional methods of testing for this disorder and so a combined testing method using both prenatal genetic testing as well as older, more traditional methods.

In conclusion, genetic testing may be used to diagnose and predict a number of genetic disorders including certain cancers, Huntington’s disease, autism, Down’s syndrome and a number of other disorders and diseases.

Learn more about DNA tests on our site. You ll also find other information such as genealogy test and paternity testing. GeneticDNATestingHelp.org is a comprehensive resource for people who are interested in gentic DNA testing for paternity, genealogy, or medical reasons.

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Various Types of Herbal Medicine: Used for Thousands of Years to Successfully Treat Diseases
By Danny Siegenthaler

Interest in medicinal herbs is on the rise again and the interest is primarily from the pharmaceutical industry, which is always looking for ‘new drugs’ and more effective substances to treat diseases, for which there may be no or very few drugs available.

Considering the very long traditional use of herbal medicines and the large body of evidence of their effectiveness, why is it that we are not generally encouraged to use traditional herbal medicine, instead of synthetic, incomplete copies of herbs, called drugs, considering the millions of dollars being spent looking for these seemingly elusive substances?

Herbs are considered treasures when it comes to ancient cultures and herbalists, and many so-called weeds are worth their weight in gold. Dandelion, Comfrey, Digitalis (Foxglove), the Poppy, Milk Thistle, Stinging nettle, and many others, have well-researched and established medicinal qualities that have few if any rivals in the pharmaceutical industry. Many of them in fact, form the bases of pharmaceutical drugs.

Research into the medicinal properties of such herbs as the humble Dandelion is currently being undertaken by scientists at the Royal Botanical Gardens, in Kew, west London, believe it could be the source of a life-saving drug for cancer patients.

Early tests suggest that it could hold the key to warding off cancer, which kills tens of thousands of people every year.

Their work on the cancer-beating properties of the dandelion, which also has a history of being used to treat warts, is part of a much larger project to examine the natural medicinal properties of scores of British plants and flowers.

Professor Monique Simmonds, head of the Sustainable Uses of Plants Group at Kew, said: “We aren t randomly screening plants for their potential medicinal properties, we are looking at plants which we know have a long history of being used to treat certain medical problems.”

“We will be examining them to find out what active compounds they contain which can treat the illness.”

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, this group of scientists appears to be looking for active ingredients, which can later be synthesized and then made into pharmaceutical drugs. This is not the way herbs are used traditionally and their functions inevitably change when the active ingredients are used in isolation. That’s like saying that the only important part of a car is the engine - nothing else needs to be included

So, why is there this need for isolating the ‘active ingredients’?

As a scientist, I can understand the need for the scientific process of establishing the fact that a particular herb works on a particular disease, pathogen or what ever, and the need to know why and how it does so. But, and this is a BIG but, as a doctor of Chinese medicine I also understand the process of choosing and prescribing COMBINATIONS of herbs, which have a synergistic effect to treat not just the disease, but any underlying condition as well as the person with the disease - That is a big difference and not one that is easily tested using standard scientific methodologies.

Using anecdotal evidence, which after all has a history of thousands of years, seems to escape my esteemed colleagues all together. Rather than trying to isolate the active ingredient(s), why not test these herbs, utilizing the knowledge of professional herbalists, on patients in vivo, using the myriad of technology available to researchers and medical diagnosticians to see how and why these herbs work in living, breathing patients, rather than in a test tube or on laboratory rats and mice (which, by the way, are not humans and have a different, although some what similar, physiology to us).

I suspect, that among the reasons for not following the above procedure is that the pharmaceutical companies are not really interested in the effects of the medicinal plants as a whole, but rather in whether they can isolate a therapeutic substance which can then be manufactured cheaply and marketed as a new drug - and of course that’s where the money is

The problem with this approach is however, that medicinal plants like Comfrey, Dandelion and other herbs usually contain hundreds if not thousands of chemical compounds that interact, yet many of which are not yet understood and cannot be manufactured. This is why the manufactured drugs, based on so-called active ingredients, often do not work or produce side effects.

Aspirin is a classic case in point. Salicylic acid is the active ingredient in Aspirin tablets, and was first isolated from the bark of the White Willow tree. It is a relatively simple compound to make synthetically, however, Aspirin is known for its ability to cause stomach irritation and in some cases ulceration of the stomach wall.

The herbal extract from the bark of the White Willow tree generally does not cause stomach irritation due to other, so called ‘non-active ingredients’ contained in the bark, which function to protect the lining of the stomach thereby preventing ulceration of the stomach wall.

Ask yourself, which would I choose - Side effects, or no site effects? - It’s a very simple answer. Isn’t it?

So why then are herbal medicines not used more commonly and why do we have pharmaceutical impostors stuffed down our throats? The answer is, that there’s little or no money in herbs for the pharmaceutical companies. They, the herbs, have already been invented, they grow easily, they multiply readily and for the most part, they’re freely available.

Further more, correctly prescribed and formulated herbal compounds generally resolve the health problem of the patient over a period of time, leaving no requirement to keep taking the preparation - that means no repeat sales no ongoing prescriptions no ongoing problem.

Pharmaceuticals on the other hand primarily aim to relieve symptoms - that means: ongoing consultations, ongoing sales, ongoing health problems - which do you think is a more profitable proposition?

Don’t get me wrong, this is not to say that all drugs are impostors or that none of the pharmaceutical drugs cure diseases or maladies - they do and some are life-preserving preparations and are without doubt invaluable. However, herbal extracts can be similarly effective, but are not promoted and are highly under-utilized.

The daily news is full of ‘discoveries’ of herbs found to be a possible cure of this or that, as in the example of Dandelion and its possible anti-cancer properties. The point is, that these herbs need to be investigated in the correct way. They are not just ‘an active ingredient’. They mostly have hundreds of ingredients and taking one or two in isolation is not what makes medicinal plants work. In addition, rarely are herbal extracts prescribed by herbalists as singles (a preparation which utilizes only one herb). Usually herbalists mix a variety of medicinal plants to make a mixture, which addresses more than just the major symptoms.

In Chinese medicine for example there is a strict order of hierarchy in any herbal prescription, which requires considerable depth of knowledge and experience on the physicians part. The fact that the primary or principle herb has active ingredients, which has a specific physiological effect, does not mean the other herbs are not necessary in the preparation. This is a fact seemingly ignored by the pharmaceutical industry in its need to manufacture new drugs that can control disease.

Knowing that medicinal plants are so effective, that these plants potentially hold the key to many diseases, are inexpensive and have proven their worth time and time again over millennia, why is it that herbal medicine is still not in the forefront of medical treatments, and is considered by many orthodox medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies as hocus-pocus. hmmm.

About The Author

Danny Siegenthaler is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and together with his wife Susan, a medical herbalist and Aromatherapist, they have created Natural Skin Care Products by Wildcrafted Herbal Products to share their 40 years of combined expertise with you.

Join our Natural Skin Care Newsletter - it’s fun, free and Informative and you receive a free eBook on natural skin care.

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Weight Loss Motivation Guidelines
By Anne Collins

Introduction
If there is one thing that all dietitians and obesity experts agree on, it is that personal motivation is the foundation of all weight loss success. No matter how healthy the diet-plan, or what combination of calories and nutrition it contains, it won t help anyone lose weight unless they follow it for long enough. Their willingness to do so depends entirely on how motivated they are to change their eating and exercise habits in order to achieve their weight loss goals.

Motivation Advice Hard To Find
The Internet offers a bewildering array of diets and weight loss eating plans, but advice on motivation when dieting is in extremely short supply. Given the strong link between diet-compliance and motivation, this lack of motivational help is surprising to say the least. It may stem from the fact that many diets are created by people who lack hands-on experience of helping people to manage their weight. Perhaps they see weight loss as a biological rather than a human process. If so, I think it s a mistake.

Motivating Yourself To Lose Weight
I tell all my clients that starting a weight loss diet is like starting a journey. And like any journey it requires preparation. We need to look ahead and plan how to overcome problems that occur along the way. By doing this we take control of the process and greatly increase our chances of success.

Unfortunately, many dieters don t plan ahead. Instead, they take things as they come, and rely upon two things: their initial enthusiasm, and (when this wears off) their willpower. But enthusiasm and willpower aren t enough to overcome the temptations and difficulties which we face when we try to change our eating habits and lifestyle.

Stop for a moment and imagine taking your family on a camping trip. Do you rely on your enthusiasm and willpower for food and shelter? Of course not. In all probability you spend hours beforehand carefully packing and preparing for every eventuality, and the whole trip is carefully planned out in advance.

Yet when you start a diet-journey, many of you set off without any kind of planning or preparation. It s as if you are convinced that everything will go smoothly. But let s face it, what diet ever runs smoothly? Answer: none! So what happens when we encounter a big problem? Answer: we wobble, and often quit.

We Need To Plan New Thinking Habits
Planning a diet-journey doesn t involve packing equipment, it involves packing “new thoughts”. We need to rehearse and adopt new ways of thinking in order to overcome problems during our journey. This isn t psycho-babble - this is plain common sense. After all, successful dieting is largely a matter of motivation and attitude. It s about what goes on between our ears!

The Most Common Dieting Problem
The most common problem we face when dieting is boredom. This typically occurs when our initial enthusiasm for losing weight wears off, and we become tired of watching what we eat. We become dispirited, and slightly depressed at the idea of having to maintain our “sensible eating habits” while everyone else seems to be having a good time.

Losing Direction Leads To Boredom
We get bored when we lose our sense of direction. So to overcome it, we need to reestablish exactly where we are going. Remember, dieting is not an aimless process, it s a journey from A to B. Here s how we think when we lose direction:

“I m really bored with dieting, it s such a pain. I don t have any freedom any more. I can t eat this, I can t eat that… I m fed up. I can t share food with the girls at work, I can t eat at my favorite restaurants, I have to keep saying No to food when I visit friends, I have to watch my family eating in front of me, I don t have time to exercise properly, I m never going to lose weight and I m feeling really miserable. Heck! Life is too short for this…”

This kind of thinking is totally demotivating. It focuses exclusively on the negative aspects of dieting and signals complete aimlessness. No weight loss goal is achievable when we think like this.

A Better Way of Thinking
Now let me show you some better alternatives. Please compare them with the above example.

Example 1
“Hmm, my diet isn t going so good. But I m not going to make excuses. I ve wasted enough time making excuses to myself. From now on, no matter what happens, I m going to be honest with myself. So what do I want? I want to lose weight and get myself into shape. Why? Because I really want that beach holiday (or other very selfish goal) which I promised myself. I want it so bad I can touch it! Okay, so I need to learn how to eat properly - big deal! I can easily do this if I put my mind to it. Heck! Eating good food isn t difficult. What s difficult is seeing myself being overweight for the rest of my life. I want something better. Something a lot better than a fistful of nachos or a dollop of fatty dessert.”

Example 2
“Hmm, my diet isn t going so good. So let me remind myself why I m dieting. All my life I ve been eating to please other people. My mom said “eat this”, so I ate it. My school friends said “have some of this”, so I had lots. My work colleagues now say “have a slice of this”, so I have two! And my kids say “you must try this”, so I try it. And every time I make an effort to lose weight, everyone says “forget about your diet, eat some of this” so I do. Well that s enough! No more eating to please other people. Today I m going to start eating to please me. And what pleases me is the idea of wearing a size (?) dress to my daughter s wedding (or other very selfish goal). I realise I need to eat properly, but this is a ridiculously tiny price to pay for achieving my goal. Heck! Eating good food isn t difficult. What s difficult is carrying my excess weight around all day. I want something better. Something a lot better than a 4-cheese pizza or a box of cookies.”

Example 3
“Hmm, my diet isn t going as smoothly as I thought it would. Never mind, I m sure this is quite normal. I can t expect to change my regular eating habits without a few hiccups along the way. Besides, I m looking for more than the few minutes of pleasure I get from filling my stomach with junk. I want a lifetime of pleasure - real pleasure from looking good and being taken seriously and who knows, maybe finding a great partner. I know other people see me as a fat person - goodness, at times I do too! - but this is exactly WHY I want to change. I m tired of being fat. Real tired. And if this means learning how to eat good food, then let s do it! And when it gets tough I m going to login to Anne Collins forum and get help. All I know is, I want to make it happen!”

Example 4
“Hmm, my diet isn t going as smoothly as I thought it would. This morning I watched my colleagues eat a whole birthday cake - it looked delicious - and I sat there feeling miserable and deprived. Then I went for lunch with a friend and chose a tuna salad while she ate half a pizza followed by two slices of cheesecake. It was torture! But then I started thinking to myself “what s more important - a few slices of cheesecake, or a really lean shape?” And I decided that looking good was what I really wanted. I know that it s not going to happen overnight, but if I can persevere and learn good eating habits along the way, I know I m gonna make it…”

Example 5
“Hmm, my diet isn t going as smoothly as I thought it would. But at least it s not a race. So who cares if I have a few wobbly moments, as long as I get where I want to go. At 26 I m in the prime of my life, and I want to make the most of it. I m tired of my slim friends getting all the best guys. I want to turn a few heads myself. I want the attention and I want to be taken seriously, and if I have to spend 12 months dieting - heck! I m gonna do it. Last week I saw a friend of mine in hospital who lost a leg in a car crash. The doctors say it s going to take her 12 months to relearn how to walk. Now that is tough. By comparison, my journey is easy. And as long as I keep reminding myself of this, I ll be fine.”

Points To Remember
1. A diet is a journey from A to B.
2. Feeling bored is a sign we are losing our direction.
3. When we lose direction we need to regain it, fast!
4. The way to regain direction is to remind yourself why you are dieting.
5. You are dieting because you want something better than a plate of fattening food.

Getting Help To Lose Weight
Changing our eating habits is much easier when we get support from other people. So make sure your online weight management plan includes membership of a forum. Because only people can offer you the sort of encouragement you need to achieve your personal weight loss goals.

Anne Collins, 54, is a qualified nutritionist and full time weight management consultant with over 23 years experience. Her clients range from top celebrities to ordinary people of every age and shape. Her website, http://www.annecollins.com attracts 9 million unique visitors per annum, and her weight loss forum is one of the most active support centers on the Internet.

Weight Loss Program

Weight Loss Forum

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Food Addiction: Is It Real?
By Carol Solomon

Do you feel addicted to food, especially sweet treats?

If you struggle with addictive-like behavior when it comes to sugar, you are not alone. Researchers know that our brains are wired to love sweets, and are studying the food addiction qualities of foods high in sugar, flour and fat.

Even attorneys are getting into the act. While large companies such as Kraft (maker of Oreos), say that their research is not “aimed at creating consumer dependency”, they do share expertise with their corporate counterpart, Phillip Morris.

The attorneys who won huge settlements against the tobacco companies believe they could repeat their wins, if they could prove that food companies hid any addictive qualities of their foods.

Moments after you indulge in sweet treats, your brain’s pleasure center releases opiate-like substances.

The same brain chemicals that create narcotic highs also keep you coming back to sugary treats.

Food addiction is real.

Early studies on lab rats showed that rodents have a ravenous taste for Oreos. In experiments, the rats poked the cookies, sniffed them, and ate them to excess.

Many rats even took them apart and licked the fillings . . . just like humans.

According to Ann Kelley at the University of Wisconsin, “even bacteria swim toward sugar.”

The same sort of opiates that create the rush of drugs such as heroin also shape how the brain gets pleasure from food, especially foods high in fat and sugar.

Brain scans in human subjects have shown that Oreos and other sweet snacks act on the same brain pleasure centers that respond to addictive drugs.

The thought and sight of ice cream set off the same neurological pleasure centers in healthy subjects as the images of crack pipes did for drug addicts.

Of course, all this doesn’t PROVE that food is addictive, and some people have more of a problem than others.

But addiction researchers are coming to a more certain conclusion - sugar is like alcohol and other addictive substances.

Our brains and bodies respond in very similar ways.

Food has the ability to change your appearance, your health, your mood, and your self-esteem.

When you think about it that way, I hope it makes it easier to make more conscious and healthy decisions . . . peacefully.

Carol Solomon, Ph.D. is a psychologist and personal coach who specializes in helping people who want to lose weight and eliminate food and weight issues.

By going from food obsessive to charge neutral (i.e. Did I eat today?), she became dedicated to making it easy for others to step off the vicious cycle and live free of anxiety about food and weight.

She is the author of “Lose Weight Now Stay Slim Forever,” a practical “how-to” manual for learning to lose weight without dieting.

Sign up for her free email newsletter, Slim Forever at: http://www.lose-weight-now-stay-slim-forever.com

http://www.LoseWeightWithEFT.com
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