One would think that in a nation of tea lovers, a steady supply of water is not a concern. OK, we are mostly made up of water, with only 25% of our bodies being solid matter but is drinking water a yet another passing fad?

However, caffeine poses a slight problem. Unfortunately, when having that cup of tea or coffee, you end up loosing more than you gain. Alcohol and sugar, by the way, also act as dehydrators. Counterintuitive as it may seem, the more of tea, coffee, wine, beer and soft drinks you have, the more dehydrated you become. Caffeine is a well know diuretic and anything that raises blood sugar coerces the body to give up large quantities of water.

The Cost of a Caffeine Rush

Drinking a cup of coffee makes the body relinquish up to three cups of water just to get rid of the toxic caffeine. Caffeine is a nerve toxin and the boost of energy that it stimulates is nothing less than an immune response that rushes to flush this toxin out of the system. The adrenal hormone that stimulates the immune system, gives us a false impression that it is the caffeine that gives us energy. To remove caffeine, the body is forced to take water from the cells. This temporarily thins the blood, which is another reason why we feel good after that cuppa.

Dehydration Alert

Is dehydration really that bad? Yes. It poses severe health risks. Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, stomach ulcers, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, MS and Alzheimers to name just a few are preceded by years of “body drought”. When the cells in the body are not getting enough water, they are in danger of dying so they go into the dehydration alert. When the body thinks that the water supply is cut off, it will hold on to water in any way it can. This means building up cell walls with cholesterol making them rigid and hard. As cells become cut off, vital nutrients struggle to get inside. On top of that, metabolic waster products cannot be removed properly and the body becomes more and more toxic. The body also holds on to water by retaining it in the legs, arms and face causing swelling. Kidneys hold on to water by reducing urinary secretions causing retention of harmful toxins and waste products.

Weight Gain

Caffeine and alcohol remove water from the body faster than the body can absorb it again. This means increasingly running out of water on the cellular level. This constant thirst, however, is mistaken for hunger and people begin to overeat. However, cravings do not get satisfied because what the body is really crying out for is water.

Brain and Water

Our brain cells are 85% water. Because of cellular dehydration, brain cells become damaged and die. As a result, people can become depressed, unable to cope with stress, succumb to fear, anxiety, anger and a host of other emotional problems. Alcohol’s diuretic effect is similar to that of caffeine, which is why hangover is a result of serious brain dehydration. Dehydration is one of the major reasons why alcohol abuse and psychological problems go hand in hand.

Acidity

Aside from coke being dehydrating because of the high caffeine content, it is also hugely acidic not just because of caffeine but also because of sugar, sugar replacements and preservatives. It would take 32 glasses of water at an alkaline pH of 9 (very alkaline) to neutralise the acid from just one can of coke. This is why people soak rusty coins in coke to clean them down! In response to this acidity, the body will have to use its own stored alkaline buffers, mainly calcium from bones, teeth and DNA. If this mechanism were not in place we would simply die from the acidity after just drinking a can of coke! This is my side note rant about coke though to be fair, there was a time when I was happy as Larry cooking ham in coke. If only I knew the full story back then.

Ask your body what it needs to be healed

Drinking water is massively important. For those of you who have had Health Kinesiology sessions with me know that water is usually the first thing that comes up. Kinesiology works with feedback responses from the body. As soon as the body is asked what it needs to be healed, the answer is clear, “water!”

Problems people encounter

OK, so we need to drink water but sometimes it is easier said than done. After years of not drinking water at all, drinking two litres a day (which is recommended for an adult) sounds like too much to bear. Some people don’t even like the taste of water. The good news is, the more you drink water, the better it starts to taste and the more you start to crave it. Its called thirst, I think. You might laugh, but our bodies, stop telling us that we are thirsty if we perpetually ignore its needs for water. Ironic it may seem but people report that as they start drinking more water than ever, they actually become thirstier. That’s their body starting to speak to them again. People also complain that drinking more water makes them run to the toilet all the time. This gets better with time as the body gets used to the water intake and learns how to absorb it rather than it going right through you. A good product that helps with the absorption is Rehydration from Energetix.

Helpful Tips

• Have a cup of warm water upon rising and a cup 30 minutes before each meal.
• To warm the water boil it in a kettle for 10 seconds or so
• Try herbal tea instead of coffee or normal tea
• Have a couple of warm pints of water after “one too many” and do the same in the morning to avoid a huge hang over.
• Avoid drinking with meals as this dilutes digestive juices. Drink between meals instead

My discussion on water is not over yet. There’s still lots of fascinating material that I want to include in newsletters to come. If I’m not careful and stop writing now, this article will start turning into a book.

Still to come:

• How painkillers “short-circuit” the body’s emergency route to water supply
• The relationship between salt and water
• Why we get addicted to being dehydrated
• High blood pressure, gall stones and kidney damage.

Curly Mediterranean Linguini

Supper quick and yummy recipe for those who want to try something healthy and full of raw enzymes, vitamins and minerals!

Ingredients:

2 courgettes
a handful of green olives
one broccoli head chopped into small florets
one cup soaked sun dried tomatoes chopped
2 tomatoes diced
1 table spoon balsamic vinegar
1 crushed clove of garlic
1 cup soaked and chopped oyster mushrooms
Olive oil
some sea salt, pepper and any herb you fancy

Preparation:

Peel the courgette with a wide blade veggie peeler
add all the other ingredient
Give it a good stir and enjoy!

Cellular Communication is the Key to Hydration!

Product Description:

Among the many nutritional needs of the body, water is considered the most important. It not only comprises about 75% of our body, but it also helps keep our physiology working at peak efficiency.

Ironically, most people are chronically dehydrated and therefore cannot absorb the water they need. Picture a dried up houseplant – if you start watering it, most of the water will pass through the soil unabsorbed, the dehydrated cell faces the same dilemma! That’s where ReHydration from Energetix can help.

There are many products that seek to change the structure of water; however, without cellular communication in place, the type of water is not as important as the uptake and utilization of water.

Rehydration utilizes complex homeopathic preparation to assist the body in reestablishing cellular communication levels by supporting the HPA (Hypothalamus/Pituitary/Adrenal) axis and neurotransmitter function.

How to get it

Energetix products are sold only through qualified practitioners. Please get in touch with me if you are interested in trying Rehydration out. Its £16 by the way and lasts for a few months depending on how much water you drink.

Recommended Usage:
Do not take sublingually. Dilute 15 drops in 1 liter of water daily, or as directed.
Key Ingredients:
Taraxacum Officinale 1X, Coffea Cruda 1X, Adrenal 3X, 6X, 12X, GABA 6X, 12X, 30X, Germanium Sesquioxide 4X, 6X, 8X, Hypothalamus 3X, 6X, 12X, Kidney 3X, 6X, 12X, ATP 4X, 6X, 12X, 30X, Serotonin 12X, Silicea Terra 4X, 6X, 8X, Hypericum Performatum 3X, 6X, 12X

Dr Mercola

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. Its the easiest way to give your body the best nutrition for the whole day. Traditional breakfast of cereal, toast, tea or coffee can be the best way to rob your body of nutrients but that’s another story. For breakfast I usually have either juices or smoothies and the great thing about them is that you can through anything in! Its super easy and quick. Mearcola shows his variation.

Have a look if you fancy doing something like that. Alternatively get  in touch for a Kinesiology in Manchester to find out what combination would be perfect for your unique and wonderful self using the muscle testing to tap into your energy wisdom. With Kinesiology you can find out perfect ingredients that will lead you to health and vitality.

I found an article that talks about how Health Kinesiology can help with eczema in Woman’s Weekly Wellbeing: Eczema.

“Every week we team up with our sister magazine Woman’s Weekly and look at a health condition, offering wellbeing tips and simple ways to ease the problem. This week it’s eczema. Try this: Kinesiology. A kinesiologist uses muscle testing to identify imbalances and blockages within your energy system, as these can trigger flare-ups of eczema. The treatment can range from the practitioner holding their hands in certain positions on the client’s body to release a blockage in energy, to placing small weak magnets or essential oils on the body.”

If you want to try Health Kinesiology in Manchester for skin problems or know someone who could benefit from it then call 07854 822 056 to book an appointment.

Here are the dangers of cortisone that I found in the medical reference book in the hospital. What the doctors don’t tell you! The main three side effects are adrenal gland atrophy, immunosuppression and detrimental psychiatric effects.

The damaging effects on the immune system mean an increased susceptibility to infections including fungal and viral.

Psychiatric side-effects listed are: nightmares, insomnia, irritability, mood swings, suicidal thoughts, psychotic reactions and depression.

Furthermore cortisone has been found to cause hypertension (high blood pressure), sodium and water retention and potassium loss.

I’ll sum up some the research that I’ve done.

Steroids such as cortisone mimic the action of the adrenal glands, the body’s most powerful regulator of general metabolism. The problem is, like antibiotics, steroids appear to be a miracle “cure”. In cases of arthritis or asthma, the wheeze, the swelling and the pain go away so doctors turn to steroids first, rather than last in attack for anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects. Far from being a wonder drug “cure all”, steroids cannot cure one single condition. All they do is suppress your body’s ability to express normal response (like an alarm in a car that I told you about). Unfortunately, what doctors don’t tell you is the immediate, devastating and permanent damage. We are only now realizing just how quickly damage can occur even from small dosages.

Alternatives

There are however natural alternatives to cortisone.
• Wheat and barley grass has P4D1, which has exceptional anti-inflammatory properties, amazingly even more powerful than those of steroids such as cortisone.
• All green foods and spirulina are high in chlorophyll (anti-inflamatory)
• Flax seeds release pain and inflammation (Omega 3)

You have to be careful with supplements as many of them are actually ineffective due to the nutrients being killed off during manufacturing. For example, super-green powders that would have wheat and barley grass in them are mostly freeze dried that destroys all the goodness. A much better option is making your own wheat grass juice.

Detox

It is also important to improve your body’s ability to absorb the nutrients through various cleansing techniques. Very important as when intestine walls are clogged, liver doesn’t function properly and so on, the supplements are not getting to their intended destination as they should be. At your Health Kinesiology session a tailor made detox regime can be arranged to achieve the best results from your healing program.

Natural Balms

Siberian Health company has a range of wonderful natural anti-inflammatory balms. They are applied to the skin, which make them a lot easier to absorb. This makes them effective even before doing the detox. A warming balm has a pronounced anti-inflammatory, anesthetic and relaxing effect. Improves mobility of joints, stimulates circulation, relieves pain and fatigue in the muscles.

Allergy Work

Allergies can cause a huge ordeal. However, they are very easily addressed with Health Kinesiology. An allergy to anything from food, to dusts, pollens, chemicals and metals can be identified and then quickly and easily treated. The great thing about doing allergy work with Health Kinesiology is that as soon as you find out what you are allergic to, the alergy is gone! I just love it

Get in touch to get more information on anti-inflammatory supplements and balms, to place an order and to book in for a session of Health Kinesiology in Manchester, allergy testing and treatment in North West and Manchester.

Call on 07854 822056

Oksana’s Health Kinesiology

Milk seems to be one of the most controversial products around. Some say that people and especially children need to drink plenty of milk to grow and develop strong bones and teeth. Others says that we should stay well away from it. So who do we believe? I’ve done some research on the matter and will let you draw your own conclusions.

Acidic

Similar to refined grains, dairy is very acidic. Lactose is a sugar found in milk. When it decomposes, if feeds harmful microforms. Even before breaking down, dairy products just like most animal foods contain microforms and mycotoxins.

Lactose

A lot of people are lactose intolerant. This is mainly because they don’t have enough lactase to break this milk sugar down. Most people produce less lactase after two years of age.

Hormones, antibiotics & pesticides

On top of that, dairy products contain hormones and antibiotics that cows are given. Due to poor quality of feed, there’s also pesticide residue in the milk. Modern cow milk has 40% more pesticides than an equivalent sample of grain or vegetables.

Mucus forming

Because of all these toxic and acidic qualities, dairy is the leader of all foods in forming sticky mucus. After all, mucus is designed to coat and draw the toxins out of our system so they don’t do even more harm.

Strain on the liver

Furthermore, milk is designed for calves. It is full of components that are of no use to us. The body must use extra energy and resources to convert it to absorbable form or be eliminated as toxins. This puts extra strain on organs such as liver.

Calcium?

Some people say that the advantage of dairy products is that it is a good source of calcium. However, where does the cow get the calcium from? There are plenty of plant sources of high quality calcium. Leafy green vegetables and grasses such as wheat and barley grass are very high in calcium. Other sources are celery, cauliflower, okra, onions, green beans, avocados, black beans, chickpeas, tofu, almonds, hazelnuts, mesquite, carob and sesame seeds.

Calcium from plant sources is of a much better quality. Calcium from cow’s milk, however, is too concentrated and is difficult for the body to absorb. Furthermore, to ensure the best uptake, the body needs the right calcium-magnesium ratio. Plant sources of calcium provide a better ratio of these two minerals than dairy products. There’s ten times more calcium than magnesium in cow’s milk, which is very unbalanced.

Casein

Dairy also contains casein, which comprises 85% of protein in cow’s milk. It makes milk even harder to digest. When casein reacts with the stomach acid it forms large clumps. These are difficult to break down into molecules that can be absorbed. Casein intake has even been linked to autism and cancer. A safer source of protein is plant based.

Saturated Fat

Another disadvantage of dairy products is that it is high in saturated fats which promote the production of arachadonic acid. When there ‘s too much arachadonic acid in our system, it can lead to inflammation and exacerbate problems such as eczema and asthma.

Puss

One cubic centimeter of commercial cow’s milk is allowed to have up to 750, 000 puss cells before it is kept off the market.

Processed

Finally, milk goes through such rigorous processing that any nutrients that may have been there are destroyed. During the process of pasteurisation, beneficial bacterial are killed as well as harmful bacteria. Furthermore, enzyme, proteins, vitamins and minerals are largely destroyed. The higher the temperature, the more nutrients are destroyed. Robert Young says that pasteurisation doesn’t even work. When pasteurised milk is left out it rots and skinks where as raw milk curdles naturally and solidifies.

Nutrients

The advantage of best quality raw organic dairy products is that does supply protein, vitamin B12 and other nutrients that could be of benefit, especially to vegetarians. According to Chinese medicine, milk is yin and benefits thin and weak people with tendency towards dryness.

The Dilemma

Its a dilemma many people have of whether to drink milk or not. I don’t want to leave you facing a brick wall. In the short term you can start cutting milk down. Less tea, coffee and cereal are obvious ones, which will have other health benefits. Try herbal teas and fruit for breakfast. There are also healthy alternatives to milk such as soya, rice, almond or my personal favorite oat milk made by “Oatly“. You can get dairy alternatives from Unicorn, wich is an organic vegan shop in Manchester.

So, it seems to me that if having any milk at all, it is better to opt out for organic and raw. However, because of strict regulations in the UK it is very difficult to find raw milk unless you have your own cow! Pasteurised cheese is not so hard to get. You can find them in organic shops like “Wild at Heart” in Manchester.

This image made me laugh. Cows are not my pet of choice!

Type II Diabetes is self inflicted through diet and lifestyle. This means that you can treat it quite simply by improving your diet and lifestyle! LA Times Reports on Patients Eliminating Diabetes Meds Through Diet, Exercise

Diabetes is NOT a blood sugar disease like you may have been led to believe. It’s a disease caused by insulin resistance and faulty leptin signaling, both of which are regulated through your diet.

When your blood sugar becomes elevated it is a signal for insulin to be released to direct extra energy into storage. A small amount is stored as starch called glycogen in your body, but the majority is stored as your main energy supply – fat. Thus, in this regard insulin’s major role is not to lower sugar, but to take the extra energy and store it for future times of need.

Insulin lowers your blood sugar as a side effect of directing the extra energy into storage.

Treatments that concentrate merely on lowering blood sugar while raising insulin levels can actually worsen rather than remedy the actual problem of metabolic mis-communication. It just trades one evil for another. Loosing some extra pounds, on the other hand, is a sure step towards reversing diabetes.

Leptin

Leptin, a relatively recently discovered hormone produced by fat, tells your body and brain how much energy it has, whether it needs more (saying “be hungry”), whether it should get rid of some (and stop being hungry) and importantly what to do with the energy it has (reproduce, regulate cellular repair, or not).

In fact, the two most important organs that may determine whether you become (type 2, insulin resistant) diabetic or not are your liver and your brain. It is their ability to listen to leptin that will determine this. This means that it is very important to detoxify to aid the liver.

Insulin Resistance

In early stages of Type II Diabetes insulin is produced but the cells are unable to use it properly as they are resistant to the signaling of the insulin. Cause of insulin resistance is the breakdown in communication between insulin, which is a chemical messanger and the receiver of the signal called GLUT-4 transporters. GLUT-4 transport glucose inside the cell. If there’s no message, sugar doesn’t go into the cell and stays in the blood. This means that pancreas has to produce more insulin and thus “knock louder” on the cell walls. Normally, insulin production is about 31 units per day. In insulin resistant diabetes the pancreas produces about 114 units of insulin a day, which makes it overworked. As pancreas wears out, Type II Diabetes becomes advanced. Eventually, when beta cells in the pancreas is burned out, it can no longer produce insulin thus leading to a Type I Diabetes (Insulin Dependent Diabetes)

High glycemic foods

High GI foods: sugar, flour, white rice, honey, maple syrup, alcohol, potatoes, cooked root vegetables (carrot, squash, pumpkin, yam, parsnip, sweed), most fruits (bananas, apricots, peaches, grapes, mangoes, pineapples, kiwi, pear, papaya, dates, figs, dried fruit)

Eliminate High Glycemic Index foods that your body will react to by creating insulin, which includes all types of sugars and refined carbohydrates. This means avoiding all breads, pasta, cereals, rice, potatoes, and corn. You may even need to avoid fruits high in sugar such as bananas until your blood sugar is under control.

Fibre

High in Fibre: Nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, pulses, whole grains.

Fibre is part of the plant that can’t be digested.

Water soluble fibre delays the pace at which food is passed through the stomach and therefore slows down the rate of glucose absorption into the blood stream.

Fat

Diets rich in fat block utilisation of insulin. High fat diets cause liver stagnation. This causes spleen-pancreas imbalance and makes insulin secretion less effective.

Exercise

Exercise acts like taking an insulin shot as by burning up energy it lowers blood sugar level. It also improves circulation, which tends to be poor in diabetics.

Acidity/Toxicity

Diabetes often involves acidic blood and general toxicity. This is why it is important to avoid highly acidic foods such as coffee, sugar, alcohol, too much red meat, refined grains, dairy.

Chlorophyll

High in Chlorophyll: green vegetables, especially raw leafy greens like spinach, wheat grass juice, spirulina, chlorella

Chlorophyll has an alkalising, detoxifying as well as anti-inflammatory effect. It will also maximise utilisation of chromium, zinc, magnesium and other minerals.

GLA

Good Source: evening primrose oil, spirulina

Gamma Linoleic Acid regulates insulin. Delta 6, which is necessary to convert linoleic acid into GLA is inhibited in diabetics.

Stress

Experiencing stress is associated with the release of hormones that lead to energy mobilization – known as the ‘fight or flight’ response. Key to this energy mobilization is the transport of glucose into the bloodstream, resulting in elevated glucose levels, which is a health threat for people with diabetes.

Anti-Diabetes Foods

Jerusalem artichoke –high in inulin

Cabbage- lowers blood glucose level

Cucumber –helps pancreas to produce insulin

Celery- calms nervous system, balances Ph

Garlic- anti-diabetic, antibiotic