The Mindful Times, February 20th, 2012 Edition

Salt. This week we are discussing the taste of Salt. Salt has the most grounding, descending activity of any substance used as food. In Ayurvedic Tradition, the  active quality of the salt is emphasized as markedly strengthening one's energy, to the point of hostility if overused. (1) Salt in the diet is said to influence temperament, and courage.

There is a great controversy about salt in the West about salt being the culprit of a variety of health issues. However, the salt that is used and has been scientifically tested as being the culprit to these problems is a refined chemical variety of salt that is 99.5% or more sodium chloride with additions of anti-caking chemicals, potassium iodide and sugar (dextrose) to stabilize iodine (2).  Salt is classified in Traditional Chinese Medicine as being cooling on the outside and warming in the inside, the yin center. Ayurveda classifies salt at warming, perhaps for this reason. (3) Salt has the ability to tighten some areas of the body and soften others. For example, salt can soften hardened lymph nodes and glands. Salt can promote bowl action by softening abdominal obstructions and swellings. (4) Salt also alkalizes and is craved by those who systems are overly acidic. (5)

Salt can be used externally to purify and detoxify, and internally to to stimulate the Kidneys, promoting a fluid metabolism which creates a moistening effect to dryness in the body. However, because salt can settle in vascular fluids in the body, in instances of high blood pressure, salt is contraindicated. Excess salt can damage kidneys, and deplete absorption of calcium and nutrients. Most current guidelines for daily salt consumption recommend about 3000 milligrams, while the average American diet contains about 17,000 milligrams daily. (6)

A Note About the Sodium/Potassium Relationship
When potassium and sodium are at an equilibrium with one another, the body's water and acid/alkaline balance is stable and the nerves and muscles function properly. When there is deficient potassium relative to sodium, neuromuscular function decreases and the body becomes weak, muscles lose their tone, and reflexes deteriorate. (7) The processing of whole wheat into white flour, removes 75% of the potassium. Coffee, alcohol, and refined sugar contain little or no potassium and are known to deplete the body of potassium stores. (8)

A Note About the Coffee
While many people struggle with coffee addiction, it should be known that many coffee drinkers are at risk for developing specific diseases such as urinary tract and bladder cancers by 20%. (9) Most heavy coffee drinkers are deficient in calcium and other minerals and the acids in coffee may cause as much problem as the caffeine. (10)

1. Dr. Vasant Lad, Lecture, 2008
2. - 6. Healing With Whole Foods, Pitchford. 2002. p. 196 - 199
7. Healing With Whole Foods, Pitchford. 2002. p.200
8. Healing With Whole Foods, Pitchford. 2002. p. 208

The Importance of Sanskrit to Yoga Therapy by Nicolai Bachman

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/12/the-importance-of-sanskrit-to-yoga-therapy/

Excerpt: We have approached a point where standards for Yoga therapists are being addressed for our field, by those in our field. I would like to weigh in on why it is important for a Yoga therapist to be familiar with some Sanskrit, the language of Yoga, and how this can benefit a Yoga therapist in practice. Every profession has its own language. It is important as a professional, especially when a foreign language is involved, to pronounce the terminology properly and truly understand what each term means. Many Sanskrit words, includingshakti, prana, Yoga, cakra, kundalini, Ayurveda, and even some mantras, are part of the vocabulary of Yoga practitioners and therapists.

Body Intelligence

Your intelligence is always with you,
overseeing your body, even though
you may not be aware of its work.

If you start doing something against 
your health, your intelligence 
will eventually scold you.

Your intellgence is marvelously intimate.
It's not in front of you, or behind,
or to the left or to the right.

The movement of your finger
is not seaprate from your finger.

You go to sleep, or you die,
and there's no intelligent motion.

Then you wake,
and your fingers
fill with meanings. 

~ Rumi

The Many Gifts of Cancer (What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You). ~ Jessica Stone Baker

 

We all receive different gifts, you just may not know yet what yours will be.

Recently, my uncle took me aside at a family gathering. He is a survivor of prostate and testicularcancer. He just had his second go-around with chemo, radiation and other treatments at age sixty. His first time was thirty years ago. He said, “You know, we all get gifts from going through cancer. Cancer is different from other illnesses.” He explained to me how he was significantly “smarter,” and more intelligent. Basically, he felt he had achieved much more in his career over the past thirty years because of having gone through treatment for cancer. He had a totally different outlook and his personality was different. Lou said to me: “We all receive different gifts, you just may not know yet what yours will be.”

My surgeon, a Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor, diagnosed her first year in medical school, related a similar story to me. She said her personality was different and the cancer journey had changed it. She said I would get gifts too, and explained that it might sound odd, but that I would.

Steve Jobs also alluded to gifts he received from his cancer journey, and during his Stanford speech, related:

“Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

Steve Jobs’ gifts were many and hard to count. His global and human impact, immeasurable. His perspective on life, death, living, working and creating were so profoundly impacted by his journey with cancer; these words are precious from someone who has walked into the space of acknowledging death, discomfort, and cancer.

Some might even argue that his three greatest and most innovative contributions occurred after his diagnosis — the iPad, iPhone and the MacBook Air.

And for myself, I always saw the cancer as a teacher, a teacher that you ask to leave your body, but a teacher nonetheless. I was married in October 2010, and diagnosed in January 2011. I learned very quickly that I married the right partner with whom to journey through cancer and treatment. I didn’t step into a supermarket for four months, because Chris, my husband, did every single errand on my list for me. He did it joyfully, and at the end, climbed into bed with me and did Reiki on my belly. I never would have seen this part of him without this experience in both of our lives. Our relationship deepened dramatically.

There were others who magically appeared as if on divine appointment to assist me with essential components of my life affairs and healing. Their presence was simply healing and cathartic. I also learned how to let go and when I needed to let certain folks, or issues go from my life, they simply fell away. I lost over forty-five pounds since I was diagnosed. I let food go.

I would sit in my body while it felt weak, debilitated, and in total pain, knowing that it was just a part of the journey, just as feeling great and strong is part of the journey. As an athlete, body worker, yogi and Kapha, my endurance was high level. I rarely was injured, and recovered rapidly.

Getting winded walking up a flight of stairs (side effect of chemo drugs) and losing my appetite, struggling withneuropathy, were all physical challenges that my surgeon likened to a type of endurance training akin to that of a high performance athlete, but slightly different. I concur.

It is still so difficult to meditate on your physical pain and be present with that while it is going on. And many people around you may not be able to handle your “constant” pain or understand that you are just not able to relate with them while you are in such a state. However, as long as you have one, two, or three special people who are able to hold that space, their compassion could be likened to a precious nectar of life. Every little drop keeps you going.

After my fourth chemo, I began to head into what I call “no man’s land,” a place where you feel the split in the road – one side leads to health and life, the other to death and decay. It’s a scary place to be and the only thing you can tell yourself when you’re there is — here’s what I’m going to do when I’m ready to get out of this damn bed and dream of all the trips you will take, all the beautiful places you will visit and all the dreams you will accomplish when you are no longer sitting in the grips of cancer. Let that frustration, anger, disappointment and possible fear, motivate you to kick some serious ass when you are ready to begin taking baby steps toward some of your new goals.

Chemo and cancer changed my personality by deepening my level of seriousness and integrity in life. My time is precious, and I want to make the most of every minute. Goodbye laziness, goodbye complacency. See you later excuses. Hello commitment, passion, desire for achievement, focus, perception, consciousness and compassion (that’s a big one). Goodbye fear. (When you’re stuck in a bed with pain and exhaustion, and you really, really want to write to that friend you’ve been thinking about but have no energy to type, or think, compassion is a word that comes to mind.) How many times have you gotten frustrated at someone else for not doing something? Realize that there are some deep factors going on for other people that holds them back from doing certain things (physical or emotional) and welcome compassion.

Many don’t understand when you’re in no man’s land, and your fingernails are falling off (Literally! And you usually work with your hands!) that there is something very pivotal happening with the way your perception is being bent, twisted, shaped, challenged and opened, allowing you to grasp essentials and discard anything but what you need to be a streamlined machine of love and compassion with a mission. No more resentment, no more bitterness, no more discouragement, no more anger. In my journey, it’s clear that letting these things go must happen because they are the manure to grow the karmic seeds of “dis”-ease.

Could I say I’m smarter now? Definitely! Wiser in the human sense, absolutely! Wiser about disease process and healing — yes! Wiser about the hooks, or Shenpa (as Pema Chodron might refer to them) and how they are being dissolved by the power and magnitude of facing death – lying in bed gives you a lot of time to reflect on what parts of yourself you could adapt to burn old karma. And my fear of death is so much diminished now after the chemo, radiation, and surgery. I feel like I took a journey in that direction and now I’m so much less afraid of loss and of my own transitions and journey. I trust that my traveller will introduce themselves when I am ready.

But for now, I’m ready for two lifetimes worth of work in one lifetime. You will find me in a swirl of energy and creation, wanting to contribute, and give something that matters. I have gained a new gift/skill I did not have before, which was being able to tell others to nicely fuck-off when I had no interest in partaking in their drama.

The gifts of cancer are many, and uncovered to me on a daily basis. These gifts facilitate a more profound and precious consciousness state than I could have ever imagined on my journey. Cancer and cancer treatment is just a state, like other forms of Buddhist dialogue and theory. Really, one can find and make treasures in any state of this human existence. How beautiful and liberating to always have a choice, even if that choice is — what will I drink or eat today, or telling someone that you love them.

Excuses go away. Welcome Enlightenment.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jessica Stone Baker is a compassionate practitioner who believes in trusting and listening to the wisdom of your own body. Her bodywork integrates the concepts of Ayurveda, Yoga, and Zen Shiatsu as well as Western concepts of anatomy and body systems to meet the client exactly where they are in the moment. As an Ayurvedic practitioner, she has tremendous respect for the vastness of the Ayurvedic system of medicine. Jessica is on a path of continuous learning as a bodyworker and a healer and she is a proponent of wellness in one’s own life through self-empowerment and education. She enjoys the unique learning and awareness that takes place with each client.

Jessica is also a breast cancer survivor and she is pleased to share her personal experiences to assist others in self-education, or for those who are going through similar circumstances. She integrates her personal journey into practice by emphasizing a greater compassion for the life condition of all human beings in the mind, body and spirit. You can read more about her at www.amindfulbody.com.

 

Five Ways to Beat Cancer while Creating Inner Vitality by Jessica Stone Baker

In January 2011, I was diagnosed with Stage 3c Breast Cancer at the age of 36. After a mastectomy, axillary lymph dissection, 6 rounds of chemotherapy and currently in process of 33 radiation treatments, I am cancer "free." The malignancy in my left breast was actually discovered in 2007, but because of poor detection measures (a faulty mammogram), my cancer progressed until I detected it with my own hands in December 2010. I hope to offer my learning and knowledge through Ayurveda, massage therapy and personal experience, to make your journey and quality of life better. I am currently available for Ayurvedic Consultation. I will be returning to my bodywork practice by the new year.

1.Eat Well. Alkalize.

I had no idea how much sugar and yeast was in my system until I began chemotherapy and felt the thick coating in my mouth and throat as a result of the imbalance in my system caused by all the good bacteria being eradicated. It was disgusting and I realized that while I ate many foods without feeling the results for many years, now that I was in chemotherapy, I could feel the results of a poor food choice immediately! I have always had a stomach of iron, eating most foods without any problem, and I have never had candida or other internal yeast issues. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of reducing or eliminating processed sugar (cane sugar) from the diet as well as, dramatically reducing flour, wheat and acidic grains. Increasing the amount of green leafy vegetables, other veggies, and fresh fruit is vital. Every day, a year prior to my diagnosis, I made myself a freshly pressed veggie juice with kale, ginger, carrot, celery, apples, broccoli, fennel and whatever else the seasonal garden would bring, like dandelion leaf, or pears. Changing the PH of your body can make a huge impact about how your body will function, your current energy level, and your vitality and immunity.

2.Exercise.

I have exercised almost 5 days a week for my entire adult life. I played sports in grade school, high school, and college. I have always been an avid gym goer. Does exercising mean you won't get cancer? In my case, no. Every factor plays a role from emotional life, and diet, to weight and exercise. But exercise releases the inner pharmacy of the body, balancing the hormones and supporting immunity. Choose exercises that are diversified, such as swimming, yoga, biking and hiking so that you don't just turn on the exercise routine, but actually feel the power of your body in every moment. If you'have ever spent an extended time in bed feeling weak, getting out there and feeling your body in it's power is very a precious gift.

3.Support yourself first.

Often times, we are caught up in the needs of our loved ones, friends and family. This comes from a place a love most of the time, but sometimes we make choices that aren't supporting ourselves first. When you take care of yourself first, you are honoring those you love. Ultimately, supporting your own needs first sends a powerful message to your body about how you value yourself.

4.Be Happy.

Be around other people who make you happy, do things that make you happy, and follow your bliss. When we experience grief, sadness, loneliness, and isolation, this can impact our inner body balance. Emotions play an important role in Ayurvedic Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Western medicine is so new -- follow the sages to recognize that your spirit, and emotions play an integral role in your health. If there are elements in your life creating disharmony, or grief, support yourself in letting them go! Supporting a regular meditation practice can increase self-awareness, inner peace, joy and strength.

5.Invest in holistic health care as preventative care.

Do the small steps along the way with holistic health care to build a solid support system of wellness. When I was 25, I began working with an acupuncturist to regulate my menstrual cycle. We resolved major hormonal issues to create balance, that allowed me to have a solid resource for my body when I needed to go through chemotherapy. I went through massage school receiving bodywork three times a week for one whole year. The inner pharmacy of the body is released during massage, the effects being limitless and barely researched yet. Used also as a tool for healing from surgery or chemotherapy, massage has made my recovery staggeringly quicker. My range of motion in my shoulder girdle shocks all of my doctors, and my physical therapist. Doing the small steps along the way helps create more balance in your body so that when you face a health crisis, the healing powers you hold within can be harnessed with greater ease. Health is not the absence of disease, but the ease with which you are able to transition between wellness and "dis"- ease.

Pregnancy massage reduces prematurity, low birthweight and postpartum depression.

Abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19646762

Pregnant women diagnosed with major depression were given 12 weeks of twice per week massage therapy by their significant other or only standard treatment as a control group. The massage therapy group women versus the control group women not only had reduced depression by the end of the therapy period, but they also had reduced depression and cortisol levels during the postpartum period. Their newborns were also less likely to be born prematurely and low birthweight, and they had lower cortisol levels and performed better on the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment habituation, orientation and motor scales.

Field T, Diego M, Hernandez-Reif M, Deeds O, Figueiredo B.

Published in: Infant Behav Dev. 2009 Dec;32(4):454-60. Epub 2009 Jul 30.

Touch Research Institutes, University of Miami Medical School, PO Box 016820, Miami, FL 33101, USA. tfield@med.miami.edu

A TOUCH OF MASSAGE THERAPY, WALL STREET JOURNAL, MARCH 15, 2011

Mimi Ritzen Crawford for The Wall Street Journal Wendy Miner, program coordinator of touch therapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, performs a Reiki treatment.Reiki, a therapy in which hands are placed lightly on the body or just above it, is increasingly being used to reduce cancer-related fatigue, anxiety, nausea and pain. Several studies suggest a benefit to patients, but scientists say more large, rigorous studies are needed.

Cancer patients—due to the disease and to side effects of chemotherapy—often suffer from severe mental and physical fatigue, doctors say. Anxiety, nausea and pain are also common. In recent years, many cancer centers have been offering Reiki, a form of healing which originated in Japan in the early 1900s, according to scientific literature. In a session of Reiki, hands are placed lightly on the body. Each spot is treated for three minutes or longer and sometimes therapists place their hands just above the body without touching, says Donah Drewett, a Fairlee, Vt.-based Reiki therapist who works at Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Lebanon, N.H.

Extra care is needed with cancer patients. Therapists must avoid sensitive areas on the body such as ports used to administer medications, doctors and therapists say. The gentleness of Reiki is appealing to cancer patients, many of whom are too ill to tolerate a deep-tissue massage, doctors say.

Reiki is often described as a treatment that helps life energy to flow in a patient—an explanation not generally accepted by scientists. Barrie Cassileth, chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, calls the energy theory "absurd" but says light-touch therapy can have a "great relaxing effect" on cancer patients "who are constantly poked, prodded and given needles."

Adds Deborah Steele, manager of patient and family support services at Norris Cotton: "How it works is a mystery, but we see anecdotally the amount of delight" it brings patients.

Some scientists think the benefits may be as simple as the warmth of human touch and the feeling that someone is caring for you. "We do have a reciprocal effect between the mind and the body. if you relax one, you relax the other," Dr. Cassileth says.

At Memorial Sloan-Kettering, treatment for inpatients is available at no extra charge; outpatients pay $90 to $110 a session. At Norris Cotton, trained volunteers administer treatments free of charge—often while patients are at the hospital receiving intravenous chemotherapy treatments. Insurance typically doesn't pay for Reiki.

Other centers don't offer Reiki, citing insufficient evidence. "There isn't a good evidence base for its utility in cancer care as of yet," says Lorenzo Cohen, a professor in the departments of general oncology and behavioral science at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

David S. Rosenthal, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and medical director of the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, co-authored a January study on Reiki that was published in Cancer. The study found twice-weekly, 50-minute sessions reduced anxiety in 18 men with prostate cancer, but the benefit wasn't statistically significant compared with a control group. A larger study is needed to determine if a benefit exists, Dr. Rosenthal says. "The evidence for Reiki is still slim, but there are trends and we have to show whether those trends are real," he says.

A 2004 study of 1,290 cancer patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering found a light-touch massage, standard Swedish massage and foot massage all helped symptoms including pain, depression anxiety, nausea and fatigue; the study didn't have a control group. In a 16-person study published in 2007 in Integrative Cancer Therapies, a team of Canadian scientists found five daily Reiki sessions of about 45 minutes improved quality of life and general well-being reported by cancer patients on a 28-question survey significantly more than resting for about the same period.

Study co-author Linda E. Carlson, a psychologist and an associate professor in the oncology division at the University of Calgary, says she thinks it is possible that a good rapport between the Reiki therapist and the patients could be the reason for the positive result.

—Email aches@wsj.com

Write to Laura Johannes at laura.johannes@wsj.com

Pay for Massages With a Flexible Spending Account (from the New York Times)

NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE 

The article currently topping The New York Times hit parade (otherwise known as the most e-mailed list) is about new research suggesting that even a single session of massage can cause positive biological changes.

Clearly, there are a lot of massage therapists zapping this around the Internet. What many of them may not know, however, is that potential customers could be getting treatments at a significant discount by using the health care flexible spending accounts that they may have through their employer.

Here’s how this works.

First, you need to sign up for a flexible spending account. Your employer (and a third-party administrator of some sort) will pull money from your paycheck before they take out income taxes. You decide how much to deduct each year for health care expenses that insurance doesn’t cover, keeping in mind that if you don’t use the money within a year or so, you lose it.

Then, ask the administrator of your account whether massages are expenses eligible for reimbursement. If they are, you will probably need a prescription from your doctor for massage therapy for a particular ailment to use your account to pay for the massage. Most doctors are happy to oblige once you explain the reasoning to them; I know this from experience, having been in on this nice little loophole for years.

(If the employees at your administrator won’t approve the expense, you can point them to the study that the article cites and remind them that the giant flexible spending account run by the federal government will approve reimbursement for massage if a doctor believes it to be medically necessary).

Finally, make your massage appointment. You’ll probably need to pay upfront and then apply for reimbursement (don’t forget to submit your doctor’s note or prescription). If a rubdown is going to be a regular routine, you can ask the therapist for a volume discount.

The result? In a high-income-tax state, you’ll probably be getting at least one third off the retail price since you’re paying no income taxes on the money you’re using to cover the massages. Combine that with all of the massage deals that sites like Groupon regularly offer and this hardly even seems a luxury anymore.