Sunday, July 29, 2012

Extra class this week

I will be teaching 12p Yoga on Friday at the 24 Hour Fitness in the Pearl...

My other classses are as always:
Wednesday 5:30a Bodypump at Tanasborne
Friday 6a Bodypump at Downtown
Sunday 6:30p Yoga at Hollywood

For Equilibrium

This is what I read in Yoga a couple Sundays ago..

By John O'Donohue from "To Bless the Space Between Us"


Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity be lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what's said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough
To hear in the depths the laughter of God.

Yoga Practice for Core Strength

Yoga Practice for Core Strength

This is a great article that talks about the importance of using your entire core and not just strengthening the superficials layers of the core.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Migraines: Sometimes What Doesn’t Kill You


 www.imbuebody.com


By Dr. Peter Borten, LAc, DAOM, Acupuncturist and Herbalist at The Dragontree Spa and Creator of Imbue Pain Relief Patch

I was working an office job about 20 years ago with a nice guy about ten years my senior. We were getting to be friends, and this helped break up the dreary routine of the place. Then he started missing work. A day here and a day there, at first. Then a few days at a time. Then he was absent more days than he showed up. I assumed something was wrong, but I didn’t want to pry. Finally, he told me he had been having severe migraine headaches. They were so crippling, he was considering quitting his job. This was just before I started school in Chinese medicine. I didn’t have anything useful to tell him. I just remember feeling bad for him, and being surprised to find out that migraines could be that bad.
I wish I knew then what I know now. My attitude toward migraines has changed quite a lot. Nearly every case is completely treatable with natural medicine. In this article, I’m going to share a handful of key approaches that can make a huge difference. Here they are:
  1. Acupuncture. I’d estimate I can control 80% of migraine cases with acupuncture alone. Other acupuncturists may fare better or worse than that. Ask if this is an area of focus for your acupuncturist. If not, you might consider someone else.
  2. Massage. Get regular deep tissue massages. Have them focus on the base of your skull, the front, sides, and back of your neck, and especially the upper back, between your spine and shoulder blades. Between massages, or instead, get a lacrosse ball, lie on your back on a carpeted floor with bent knees, and place the ball under you, against the inside edge of your shoulder blade. Find every tender spot, put the ball there, relax for about 2 minutes, then go to the next one.
  3. Hydrate. Drink half the number of pounds you weigh as ounces of water each day, evenly over the course of the day. (For instance, if you weigh 200 pounds, drink 100 ounces of water a day.)
  4. Avoid Caffeine. Even though caffeine is an ingredient in some headache medications (because it constricts the blood vessels in the head), it is a known trigger of migraines. Many migraine cases improve when caffeine is cut out.
  5. Figure Out What Foods You’re Sensitive to, and Avoid Them. The only reliable way to figure out your food sensitivities is by doing an elimination diet (ask a natural healthcare provider knowledgeable in this area for guidance) and then systematically reintroducing foods, one at a time, to see what your reaction is. It’s a good idea to reintroduce foods at least 2 days apart, since the migraine may be delayed by a day. Figuring out your sensitivities and eliminating those foods is often a total cure for migraines. It’s worth the work.
  6. Clean Up Your Diet. Cut out processed foods and eat more live, fresh, healthy, chemical-free foods, prepared by you or someone with a good heart.
  7. Avoid Getting Hypoglycemic. Many migraines are triggered by a drop in blood sugar. This is common a few hours after eating a meal with lots of simple carbs or sugar. In some folks, the blood sugar goes way up and then comes crashing down, in what is known as “reactive hypoglycemia.” Besides potentially triggering migraines, reactive hypoglycemia can be an early precursor to diabetes, so there are multiple reasons to get this under control. Each protein with every meal, and eliminate juice and sweets.
  8. Avoid Aspartame (Nutrasweet). Some migraines are triggered by this toxic stuff. Avoid it even if it doesn’t give you migraines.
  9. Reduce Your Stress Level. Exercise, breathe, do yoga, have fun, get counseling, take breaks, get acupuncture and massage . . . just do whatever you have to do to reduce the impact of your stress.
  10. Avoid MSG. While not a trigger for all migraine sufferers, many people have fewer headaches when they cut MSG out of their diets. Anyway, it’s not good for anyone, so it’s worth avoiding.
  11. Try Magnesium. Many migraine sufferers have low levels of magnesium. Try taking 600mg (you can gradually go up to 1000mg) in divided doses over the course of each day. (Watch out for bowel loosening. If it gives you loose bowels, reduce the dose or spread it out more evenly over the course of the day.)
  12. Try Direct Pressure on Your Head. One study had participants with migraines wrap an elastic band (with Velcro at the ends, so that it could be secured tightly) around their head, covering the most tender spots. They would then place soft rubber discs under the head band at the places of greatest discomfort to apply extra pressue in these areas. Eighty percent of the headaches were improved by more than fifty percent. Of these, seventy-three percent improved by more than eighty percent.
  13. Take a Good B Vitamin Complex. Several of the B vitamins have been shown to be useful for migraines. Just take all of them in one capsule, once or twice a day.
  14. Try a Chinese Herbal Formula. This should be not just any Chinese herbal formula, but one chosen specifically for you by a practitioner of Chinese medicine. The only thing I’ve seen consistently work as well as acupuncture is Chinese herbal formulas I’ve made and ground myself for my patients. They may not be the tastiest thing in the world, but they’re effective.
These aren’t the only things that are helpful for migraines, of course. I had a patient who used to stick Q-tips up her nose – the whole way up – and felt that made a huge difference. Others like essential oils, cold compresses, or decapitation. I encourage you to give my suggestions a try. Then let me know what happens, or share your own favorite remedies, on our blog.

Be well,
Dr. Peter Borten

 









Top 7 Side Effects of Soda

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Challenge of the Week-Drink more water!

Water makes us 60% of our body weight and is essential to keeping us alive yet somehow I tend to have a hard time finding time to drink enough of it! Dehydration can lead to headaches, loss of focus, increased appetite (you falsely believe you are hungry), sleepiness, dry/sticky mouth, constipation, and decreased urine output. None of those sound fun. Drinking adequate water can help clear your skin, eliminate cravings and unnecessary snacking, improve your digestion, and flush out toxins. Remember that tea and any beverages that add things to water is not considered part of the daily water intake that you need. Yes, they count as fluids but they do not support your body as well as clean water especially if what you are adding to your water is full of chemicals. How much water do you need? We all heard 8 glasses a day and that is easy to remember but it varies depending on your activity level, environement, gender and diet. A better way to tell if you are drinking enough is to check your urine..if is is light yellow to clear then you are most likely hydrated. I have heard the rule of thumb to divide your body weight by 2 and that is the number of ounces you need. I know when I drink enough water because I feel better and can tell that I am hydrated. Play around with it and for the most part we could all drink more!
Here are some tips to help you drink more water:

-Wake up and drink a glass of warm lemon water. This is a great way to get some vitamin C and to help cleanse the body of toxins (See one of my posts on this topic)
-Sip on a glass with breakfast
-Drink a glass of water mid morning
-Drink a glass of water 30 minutes prior to lunch
-Sip on some water with lunch
-Drink a glass of water in the afternoon
-Drink a glass of water 30 minutes prior to dinner
-Sip on water with dinner
-Drink a glass of water an hour before bedtime..maybe even warm to calm you down.
-Always drink room temp water if possible with meals. This helps your digestion working at its best!
-Add lemon oil, orange oil, or peppermint oil to your water. Ensure that your oil is of the grade that can be ingested. It adds great taste and can help with digestion.
-Add cucumbers, oranges, lemon wedges or lime wedges to your water for taste.
-When you are craving a snack, drink a glass of water first and decide if you are still hungry.
-Freeze your water for a popcicle after a run.
-Add in some watermelon juice after slicing one and freeze for popcicles or a tasty variation.

Here's to more water this week!

Don’t Use These Oils

 



 
When you buy a “cold pressed” cooking oil, do you assume that the seeds were pressed safely at a cool temperature to protect the oil from rancidity, trans fats, and other toxic processing chemicals?
Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth!
Modern cold pressing heats the oil multiple times to staggering temperatures, rendering most oils rancid.
Additionally, unrefined oils are so delicate that even just one photon of daylight will trigger a chain reaction of free radical damage that creates trans fats and other by-products that experts believe to be even more harmful than trans fats!!


“How can they sell cooking oils in clear plastic bottles that are exposed to the light?” you may ask.
Well, they shouldn’t— but they do!
You will be disturbed to find out what happens to a seed on its journey to become your favorite cooking oil. Join me this week for a detailed look into the process, and learn how to choose oils that are good for you.

RBD Oils: Refined, Bleached, and Deodorized

Udo Erasmus, author of the book, Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill, claims that, “Cooking oils are highly processed, using manufacturing methods that are destructive to oil molecules. These practices are utilized primarily to lengthen and stabilize the shelf life of oils.”
He goes on to explain the manufacturing process:
“After oils are pressed or solvent extracted from seeds and nuts, they are degummed, refined, bleached, and deodorized. The result is known as an RBD (refined, bleached, deodorized) and these oils, as a result, become colorless, odorless, and tasteless.”
In addition, valuable beneficial ingredients are removed during processing, including:
Antioxidants – like naturally occurring vitamin E, carotene, and others, which protect the oils from oxidizing as bad cholesterol in the blood.
Phytosterols – which support and protect immunity and cardiovascular function.
Chlorophyll – which fertilizes the gut with pre-biotic support for the proliferation of good bacteria, and is a rich source of magnesium, which is essential for heart, nerve, muscle, and blood sugar function.
Lecithin – which helps to emulsify fats, making sure they are easily digested.
Naturally occurring flavor molecules, color molecules, and other oil-soluble beneficial molecules.

Cooking Oils – Then and Now

Traditionally, seeds were hand pressed under very low temperatures and delivered to homes like milk, in dark amber bottles due to the volatility of these oils. Today, as a result of such massive processing, most vegetable oils are so refined that they can be sold in clear bottles. In my opinion, these should be thrown away.

Modern Cooking Oil Processing

reprinted from www.madehow.com








Note: Cold pressed oils can legally state that they contain no additives, preservatives, or special flavorings, because the vast majority of the chemicals added during processing are subsequently taken out. The question is: which chemical residues remain, and how many nutrients, vitamins, and minerals are lost?
Step 1: Cleaning and Grinding
During this process, the seeds are washed, cleaned, de-hulled and de-skinned. The coarse material is then ground into a matter from which the oil will be pressed. The grinding process adds significant heat from the grinding friction, rendering volatile oils rancid.
Step 2: Cold Pressing
The material is then put in a screw press, where temperatures can reach anywhere between 130-200 degrees Fahrenheit. Most oils go rancid when temperatures exceed 125 degrees.
Step 3: Solvent Extraction
Most seeds are not suitable for cold pressing, because it would leave many undesirable trace elements in the oil, causing it to be odiferous, bitter tasting, or dark. Because of this, a solvent extraction technique is commonly used.
Hexane is typically used as a solvent to dissolve the oil out of the seed cake after pressing, and is then reabsorbed through evaporation and distillation.
Step 4: Refine, Bleach, and Deodorize
  • The oil is then refined to remove color, odor, and bitterness, along with many minor but important constituents of the oil. Refining can heat the oil to between 107 and 188 degrees, and involves mixing chemicals, like sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate, into the oil.
  • Oils are also degummed at this time by treating them with water heated to dangerously high temperatures—between 188 and 206 degrees Fahrenheit—with steam, or a combination of water and acid. The natural gums, most of which are phosphatides, precipitate out.
  • The oil is then bleached by filtering it through bleaching clay, which absorbs certain pigmented material from the oil, making the oil tolerant to light, and thus stable enough to be packaged in a clear bottle. Again, so many more vital nutrients, minerals, and other beneficial components are lost here.
  • The oil is then deodorized, because processing incurs rancidity from significant free radical damage, giving the oil a terrible smell. The deodorizing process involves passing steam over hot oil in a vacuum at between 440 and 485 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • The oil is now dead! It is refined, odorless, tasteless, colorless, indigestible, and void of most any nutritional value.

The Good OilsBye Bye Oilves, Hello Olive Oil by ChrisP

According to Dr. Erasmus, all oils, except extra virgin olive oil, have been processed by these destructive methods. Extra virgin olive oil, while not damaged by processing, is a poor source of essential fats, as it contains less than 1% omega-3s and only 10% omega-6s.
When extra virgin olive oil is fried, it is extensively damaged. It should not be used for cooking, but can be added to foods after they are removed from the heat.
Oils made with health (rather than shelf life) in mind are:
  • Pressed from organically grown seeds and nuts.
  • Protected from light, air (oxygen), and heat during pressing, filtering, and filling.
  • Sold in dark glass bottles that say “unrefined” on the label.
  • Look for expeller pressed (screw press) oils by manufacturers that make an effort to keep the pressing temperature low. A manufacturer concerned about overheating oils will mention expeller pressure temperature on the label. Look for pressing temperatures below 122 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the European standard for cold (expeller) pressing.
These oils are safe and desirable – but are not to be used for cooking!
The best oils to safely use for cooking are:
Coconut Oil Giveaway by Chiot's Run
  • Coconut oil
  • Palm kernel oil
  • Palm oil
  • Cacao oil
  • Shea nut oil
  • Ghee
  • Butter

These oils are the most heat tolerant.
Sources
1. Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill, Udo Erasmus. Books Alive. 1993
2. www.madehow.com
3. www.udoerasmus.com

Additional Classes this Week

Hi friends,
I will be teaching the following classes this week..hope to see you there!
Tuesday: 6:15a Yoga at Downtown 24 Hour Fitness
Wednesday: 5:30a Bodypump at Tanasborne 24 Hour Fitness
Thursday: 6:15a Yoga at Downtown 24 Hour Fitness and 6:45p Yoga at Murray Shoals 24 Hour Fitness
Friday: 6:00a Bodypump at Downtown 24 Hour Fitness

Possibly some weekend classes too so stay tuned!
Have a great week!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

8 Awesome Uses for Coconut Oil

 

My new favorite pair of words to drop: coconut oil. I can't stop talking about it, using it, smelling it, and eating it. And it seems, I am not alone. Whether you're a self proclaimed health nut, or a skeptic, the beneficial properties are undeniable. Below are eight of my favorite ways to use this godly grease:

1) Make up remover. Ladies, this one will blow your mind. I put this on my eyes nightly to remove mascara, and then rinse, and then, (drum roll please)....put it on again as an eye cream. Coconut oil also has anti-aging and anti-wrinkle properties.

2) Massage oil. Talk about sweet and sultry. Who doesn't love an edible massage oil? Your lover will thank you with macaroon kisses for this one. For extra stress relief, use it on your temples and rub in a circular motion. (My personal favorite)

3) Pre-shave and aftershave. Coconut oil will moisturize pre and post shave for a affordable and organic, clean shave without clogging pores. Your skin will thank you.

4) Deep hair conditioner and split end treatment. I am a sucker for hair products. There is nothing that makes me feel more feminine than awesomely soft and voluminous hair (besides some red hot lipstick, of course). I've been experimenting with putting this on my ends instead of Moroccan argon oil. The result? It works just as (if not more) effectively for about 1/4 the price. If you do nothing else with coconut oil, use it on your hair. It works miracles.

5) Burn relief and scar reduction. I had a recent run in with a coffee press. The end result....well, ended up all over me. It was not pretty, but thanks to coconut oil, my burn healed better than ever. Coconut oil in itself has a cooling effect on the skin and when applied generously will keep skin supple, moisturized and will prevent peeling, blistering and scarring.

6) Toothpaste. Holy sparkle, your teeth will love this. Measure equal parts baking soda and coconut oil and mix together. Store in refrigerator to keep it at a favorable consistency.

7) Oil Pulling. Think of it like a total-body-detox-mouthwash. Our mouth is like a dive bar for toxins. Toxins linger in your mouth waiting for that perfect other half to walk in and take home (into your body), often blocking other important minerals from being absorbed. The oil pulling method pulls bacteria and toxins from the mouth. You are not only drawing out toxins from the mouth but from deep within crevices between teeth and gums and also from the teeny tube-like structures inside of your teeth, which are rarely tended to. When toxins are absorbed through the oil, the body can start to absorb proper minerals and heal itself. Oil pulling can improve conditions such as allergies, chronic fatigue, diabetes, migraine headaches, PMS, and chronic skin problems. I have also known people with cancer to use it in their natural healing process. To do this, stick a spoon full of oil in the mouth (weird at first, I know), and pull it through your teeth. Repeat twice a day for about 20 minutes and rinse. Like anything, consistency is the only way to get results.

8) Put it on your plate. If taking a straight spoonful is not your thing (oil pulling), try working it into your pallate. Replace standard cooking oils with coconut oil. The thing about coconut oil that has my vote: it can replace almost any fat without feeling like a compromise or loss. In fact, it tastes better, more full and well rounded.

And there you have it. Happy coconut-ing grease gods and goddesses!

Published June 29, 2012 at 9:10 AM
 
About Linnea Jensen

I believe in authenticity, laughter, and telling the truth. I believe being yourself is the best business. Sweating is godly. Green juice heals. Tension creates new pathways for expansion. I teach you how to play and glow, one chaturanga at a time. I love connection. All kinds. "Like" Linnea Jensen Yoga, Follow on Twitter.