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It's a blessing to hear your 91-year-old client say that although they were once suicidal due to chronic pain, they are now "feeling amazing and free", enough to cut their number of monthly sessions in half. The broad smile on her face as I walked out the door was priceless. This is why I do what I do!

TRUTH!

Eating junk food causes DEPRESSION that most people treat with pills rather than nutrition Depression is on the rise, and there is no shortage of advice out there for the 15 million American adults who suffer from it. Unfortunately, a lot of this advice steers people toward taking antidepressants, which opens them up to a whole other world of problems that can be even more devastating tha

I swear I'll write a book about this one day: I believe in the partnering of integrative and allopathic medicine. Both plant medicine and pharmaceuticals (many of which are derived from plants) have their pros and cons. In general herbs have far less side effects than pharmaceuticals and are therefore often good for managing side effects of pharmaceuticals and for treating chronic, non life threatening conditions. They are also much easier on the liver, making them an excellent option for non-life threatening conditions and conditions that don't require much pain management.

Despite the fact that studies have shown some plant medicines to be just as effective as their pharmaceutical counterparts, the western medicine industry usually dismisses plant medicine and alternative therapies as quackery. Big Pharma wants to maintain its financial stronghold on healthcare at all costs. That said, if you have cancer, need a brain tumor removed or are spouting blood from a severed limb or gunshot wound, plant medicine will not help you like western medicine will. There is also stem cell therapy which is making amazing strides in healing a number of conditions that previously had no cure.

Often plant medicine enthusiasts and those who prefer pharmaceuticals will take opposite sides of the fence. In reality, it's ALL medicine, and a TRULY well-rounded medical practitioner is trained in both types of medicine.

I'm definitely NOT anti-allopathic medicine. But this article DOES give you something to think about. Naturopathic doctors are often considered to be quacks by practitioners of western/ allopathic medicine. I feel strongly that both allopathic and naturopathic medicine have their pros and cons, that much of good doctoring involves bedside manner and intuition and that some quackery exists in the practices of all forms of medicine.

The Problem With Medicine: We Don't Know If Most of It Works | DiscoverMagazine.com Less than half the surgeries, drugs, and tests that doctors recommend have been proved effective.

Dandelion has medicinal properties that are as powerful and numerous as some of the more mainstream herbs, (such as aloe, chamomile, echinacea and mint) yet its benefits aren't widely known by the general population. I myself have used it in seed form as a coffee substitute / bile production stimulant following my gall bladder removal surgery. I have also made a tincture out of it and used it as both a skin toner and a premenstrual diuretic. Checkout this article about its medicinal benefits.

http://www.blessedherbs.com/resources/dandelion-backyard-herbal-remedy/

Dandelion - the Backyard Herbal Remedy Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is a beautiful flower. It is also one of the most potent herbal botanical remedies - healthy from root, to leaf, to flower.

My homemade face oil with chocolate and zinc oxide added for spf. It smells heavenly. :)

As a person with loved ones who deal with ADHD and have had terrible luck with bad side effects from stimulant-based drugs, I find this very interesting.

W**d May Treat ADHD Better Than Adderall, Study Shows High times we're living in

Recently, I saw this written on the wall of a womens' bathroom:

"You are not fat. You HAVE fat, just like you have nails, but you are not nails."

If you've ever been concerned about loosing firmness in your skin, you've probably heard of or used products with DMAE. This naturally occurring chemical is found in abundance in fish oil and improves skin firmness. I got my hands on a DMAE tincture and have put two healthy sq**rts of it (a recommended dose for topical use) into my 4 oz bottle of homemade facial oil. You can do this with any facial cream or oil. FYI for my homemade facial oil, I use olive oil with ten percent titanium dioxide powder (for sunscreen) two liberal pinches of cocoa powder (for antioxidants and cuz....chocolate!) and twenty drops of sweet orange essential oil for vitamin C. I will let you know how the added DMAE works in the next few weeks.

Alright, middle-aged ladies and folks with dry or maturing skin, I am giving you my personal recipe for an awesome natural cleanser. You will need a 4 oz bottle, plain, unscented castile soap, (I prefer Dr. Bronner's) extra virgin olive oil, unsweetened cocoa powder and essential oil. (If you choose. Sensitive skin folks may want to skip the essential oil or use less of it. I like sweet orange cuz it smells great and has exfoliating properties and vitamin C.) Also you may want to use a small funnel for the powdered portions of the recipe.

Fill about ten percent of your bottle with castile soap.
Put about two liberal pinches of cocoa powder inside.
Put about 20-30 drops of your essential oil.
Fill the bottle the rest of the way with olive oil. (You can use more or less oil depending on how oily or dry your skin is.)
Shake like crazy and also stir, if possible.

Use it every morning and night. It will leave your face clean and soft. ALSO! 2-3 times per week, sq**rt a quarter-sized amount of the cleanser into your hand and add enough sugar to make a paste. Use that as an exfoliant. Your skin will love it. :)

Everybody knows that aloe vera is an excellent healing, moisturizing agent for skin. Did you also know that it is effective in treating duodenal ulcers and acid reflux? Check it out: http://www.ehow.com/facts_5602996_aloe-juice-acid-reflux-disease.html

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5602996_aloe-juice-acid-reflux-disease.html

We can be so hard on ourselves when it comes to the appearance of our bodies! This is particularly true of women. A wise woman once said to me, "Your body IS perfect because it keeps you alive."