By Halcyon

Whole Beauty took a break while we introduced you to new features, but it’s back in force now! In this issue, Halcyon delves deeper into the nuances of holistic care. Please remember that it’s always advised to discuss changes in your regimen with your doctor or other health care provider, as he or she will be in the best position to address not only your personal needs and special concerns, but also the safety of alternative treatments, as herbs and supplements may interact not only with medications, but also each other – however, if you’re interested in holistic care, we hope this article will provide you with some opening discussion points!

The Holistic Body

In this edition, we’ll look at ways in which the entire body can be treated naturally. These methods are also known as alternative healing or alternative body treatment, and may include:

• Eating Whole Foods
• Acupuncture
• Aromatherapy
• Cupping
• Juicing
• Vitamin Therapy

Allopathic vs Holistic

Allopathic (traditional) medicine focuses on attacking one particular symptom. For example, if you have an allergy, the allopathic approach would be to suppress your body’s immune system to stop the sneezing (ex. giving an antihistamine). The problem with this is that sneezing is your body’s defense mechanism, ridding your body of harmful toxins. Suppress that sneezing and the toxins will go deeper, causing greater harm to your body in the long run. However, the holistic method treats the person as a whole by trying to combat symptoms without suppressing the immune system (source: www.joyfulhomesteading.com).

Let me give you a brief glimpse into why some of these holistic methods are advantageous to your health and why you may want to give it a try.

Whole Foods

I could write an entire series of articles on the benefits of whole foods and why we should be eating them, but for the purpose of this article, we’re just going to cover Powerful Food Combos (source: www.lauraconrad.com).

10 Powerful Food Combos

• Tomato + Avocado = Fights Cancer
• Sweet Potato + Coconut Oil = Healthy Skin
• Oatmeal + Peanut butter = All Day Energy
• Black Beans + Lime = Healthy Lungs
• Apples + Dark Chocolate = Heart Health
• Almonds = Yogurt = Bone Strength
• Hard Boiled Eggs + Banana = Energy Boost
• Lemon + Kale = Muscle Strength
• Kombucha + Cashews = Immunity Boost
• Garlic + Salmon = Anti-inflammatory

Acupuncture: Five Reasons To Give It A Try

• Head: 20 sessions of electroacupuncture (where a small electronic current is applied to the needle) can reduce the number of monthly migraines.
• Immune System: Well placed needles can boost immune activity and cells and destroy infections.
• Sleep: Acupuncture can rev up the production of neurotransmitters associated with relaxation and sleep, helping with those with insomnia.
• Weight: Acupuncture helped obese adults shed up to 9lbs over a span of 2 weeks to 4 months.
• Back: About 10 sessions of needling was found to retrieve lower back discomfort for 6 months.

Aromatherapy

This is a type of holistic treatment aimed at the physical body and soul. It includes healing with both scent (aroma) and touch (body massage).

Scent triggers an area in the brain called the limbic system. When stimulated, the limbic system releases endorphins and other “feel-good” chemicals. You can achieve this effect through either direct inhalation or diffusion.

Aromatherapy also works through the absorption of essential oils by the skin and into the blood stream. The best way to experience this is through massage therapy, which sometimes combines carrier oils with specific essential oils.

Five Ways Aromatherapy Can Help You

• Relaxation and stress relief
• Create balance and well-being
• Boost immune system, respiratory and circulation system
• Enhance mood
• Aid cardiovascular system and digestive system.

Five Ways To Utilize Aromatherapy

• Bath
• Compress
• Massage
• Inhalation
• Diffusion

Three Of My Favorite Oils

• Lavender: Improves cognitive performance as well as mood. It has also long been known for its mild sedative and calming effects.
• Lemon Oil: Has some anti-depressant type effects, making it a good choice for stress relief and elevating mood. Some also say it can help improve focus.
• Rosemary: With its distinctively woody fragrance, rosemary has been used for centuries for a variety of health and beauty benefits from mental clarity to skin care. My favorite use for rosemary is for migraine. Apply directly to the temples and forehead, or cup oiled hands to your face and breathe in.

Editor’s Note: Essential oils are highly concentrated, packing many compounds into small doses. Even those originating from edible sources may become toxic at the levels found in pure oils, resulting in anything from skin irritation to acute poisoning. Because of this, nearly all essential oils must be diluted with a carrier oil as mentioned above. Please do your research to be sure you’re using essential oils safely!

Cupping – What Exactly Is It?

Cupping is essentially a form of body therapy that uses suction from the cups to achieve the desired result. This stimulates blood flow and provides many other health benefits. There are two methods of cupping:

• In a single area (static cupping).
• By moving the cup around to several places (similar to massage, but with the addition of suction).

Does It Work?

In the theoretical sense of what cupping does and how it is performed, it makes sense that cupping can reduce pain and support healing. However, when it comes to clinical evidence, things are inconclusive. There have been few quality, large-scale trials, and it is difficult to use information from trials because the focus on a collective group may ignore individual differences. This means that while cupping may work for someone with tight back muscles or a herniated disc, it may not be as effective for someone with sciatica or joint problems, but the trials do not look at those specific differences.

A Few Of The Benefits Of Cupping

• Release illness-causing stagnation: Allergies and colds are often said to be a result of stagnation of the lungs. The darker the color of the cupping mark, the more stagnation is released.
• Pain and inflammation: As massage techniques manipulate blood flow to muscles to release trigger points and flush out inflammation, cupping therapy can do the same for areas of the body with less fatty tissue, like the back and shoulders.
• Increase circulation and speed healing: Cupping can sometimes stimulate blood and lymph flow to areas of stagnant injury.

Juicing

Experts recommend at least six to eight servings of fruist and vegetables a day. Sadly, most of us don’t get that amount regularly. It’s not necessarily because we don’t like it, but because busy schedules often mean we’re eating on the run. There is also, in some cases, an inability to wolf down that amount of fruit and greens in one sitting. Juicing to the rescue!

• Juicing allows more nutrients to be absorbed without throwing a huge monkey wrench of fiber into the works for you to digest. If you struggle with IBS or IBS-D, then you understand what I am talking about.
• Similarly, juicing helps to lower blood sugar by allowing you to consume more fruits and vegetables without overloading your digestive system.
• You may be able to consume a wider range of vegetables, which allows your body to get more nutrients.
• Juicing helps fight cancer. Okay, I’m in no way saying it cures cancer, but it can only help your overall health and definitely boosts your intake of the antioxidants known to be cancer fighters. Besides, prevention is better than a cure!
• Juicing is great for lowering cholesterol. There’s much more involved to lowering cholesterol than juicing alone, but if you include it in a diet of no saturated fat, no beef, and no pork, while adding more fruits, oats, seafood, and chicken, it can provide further assistance.

Vitamin Therapy (AKA Vitamin Drips)

This delivers vitamins, minerals, and amino acids directly to the body for maximum absorption at a cellular level that would not be tolerated orally. Some benefits include:

• Increases energy
• Aids weight loss
• Improves mood
• Decreases anxiety
• Improves chronic pain and migraine
• Boosts the immune system
• May help PMS

I hope some of these ideas and methods for treating your body holistically have helped, and if so, that it gives you a start to setting you on a path for a healthier and happier life!