Welcome to the Applied Health Solutions Journal. Our ambition for this newsletter is to discuss subjects that we find timely, important, informative, or simply interesting, with regard to aspects of your health. We appreciate feedback, so if you are interested in a subject that you would like to see covered, please visit our Guest Book on the web site and drop us a note.

Our two contributors for this issue are Dr. Mark Force, D.C., and Ms. Helen Olsten.

When I first heard about Ms. Helen Olsten, I was told about how she was working with Aromatherapy and taking advantage of the specific properties and "frequencies" of different essential oils to encourage the healing of various conditions. I later learned she was a prolific reader who read everything she could get that had anything to do with holistic and natural healing. I also learned that she had successfully weaned herself from drugs that controlled her hypertension (which is the subject of her submitted article).

When I finally had the opportunity to meet Ms. Olsten, I found a high energy, vibrant, brilliant person who was busting at the seams with information that she wanted to share. This lady reads about a book per day on a wide range of subjects, and she was looking for an outlet to contribute to the knowledge base of anybody that cared to listen. This newsletter is just one avenue to help her help others. Besides, I wouldn't want her to explode.

Dr. Mark Force has contributed an enlightening comparison between conventional and natural health care. He has also provided a piece on the 'Healing Crisis', or what some of you might refer to as the 'cleansing process'. Both subjects are especially valuable to anyone who has been recently introduced to Natural (or "Alternative") Health Care.

I am delighted that Dr. Force agreed to contribute to this newsletter because I have enormous respect for his knowledge. I also like to say that I 'blame' him for my becoming interested in learning more about this natural health approach to healing.

It has been about 12 years since I first met Dr. Force. I was literally brow beaten to go see him. I had recently lost most of the sight in my right eye and the traditional doctors had thrown up their hands and said, basically, "Oh well, learn to live with it".

They had placed me in the Burrows Neurological Institute in Phoenix (one of the finest facilities for Neurology) and had checked for the life threatening disorders that might be the most obvious cause. I know that this was important to have done because in a situation like a brain tumor or an aneurysm I would need an operation. But once they got done sticking, probing, draining, and filleting me, they declared it was a virus that had eaten through most of my optic nerve, and there was nothing they could do.

So, I believed them and had to learn to get along in life with one eye. This was not as easy as I had first thought it would be. There is a real good reason why we have two eyes. They provide us with stereoscopic input to the brain, which contributes significantly to our interpretation of depth of field, or better known as depth perception.

I quickly learned that this was going to have a significant impact on my life. I was grounded from flying because I could not determine where the runway was relative to the plane (I kept bouncing hard on the runway). I had to quit riding off-road motorcycles because of my incorrect judgement of terrain. I quit playing basketball and softball because I kept getting hit in the face with the ball.

I was finally convinced by my sister to see a doctor who took a more holistic view of health. This required some doing on her part because I had experienced something less than encouraging results with chiropractors in the past. She explained to me that this doctor incorporated more than chiropractor disciplines into his practice. He also incorporated applied kinesiology, acupuncture and nutrition into his program.

I remember the first time I walked into Dr. Force's office and proceeded to tell him that I was not excited about being there. I told him I had very little faith in his field, and that I was basically there against my will. While I was 'venting', he just quietly sat there with his elbows on his armchair and his hands folded in front of his face, grinning. When I finished, he simply said, with the grin in his voice, "We are not getting off to a very good start, are we".

Dr. Force then proceeded to explain, very patiently, what he was going to do for me. He said that fortunately the optic nerve does have the ability to repair itself if it is provided the perfect environment in which to do so. His job will be to help guide me on the path to a state of health, and my job will be to take responsibility and provide the discipline to allow my body to repair itself. By the time he got done talking I saw the logic of what he said. I committed to doing my part.

To make a long story longer, it took almost two years, but I did finally get my sight back. Did that make me a believer? Oh, yes.

Over the years I have sent dozens of my friends and acquaintances to Dr. Force specifically, but more importantly, I have tried to influence countless acquaintances to the validity of alternative practitioners within all disciplines.

We are living in a time of amazing changes. Never before in history has so much information been available for so many people. We are also standing at a crucial threshold in history where awareness is rapidly expanding on the value of alternative medicine. It is important to weed through the hype, grandiose claims, get-rich-quick charlatans, nay-sayers, promises-in-the-dark and opportunistic lies that are rampant in the industry. But even after all that, we can not deny the validity of the developments we have seen proven, and the results we are experiencing.

We, at Applied Health Solutions, are pleased to be able to contribute, in our own small way, to this movement of growing awareness by sponsoring this newsletter. We thank all those who have come before us and helped to lay the groundwork so that others can build upon their foundation of wisdom and experience.

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I am often asked about the differences between natural and conventional health care. Also, people often want to know the pros and cons of each approach. I recently ran across the following and thought you would enjoy it.

I must add, in all fairness, that the list overlooks the great value of conventional medicine for certain traumas and diseases. Examples here would be a knee injury requiring surgery, degeneration of a hip that requires replacement, or an overwhelming and potentially life threatening infection that justifies the use of antibiotics. There could be other examples, but that gives you the basic idea.

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Often, when people are increasing their health by using natural health care, they feel worse. This usually happens shortly after beginning a health care regimen, but it can occur at any time when using a regimen that improves your health. Sometimes, people go through a number of healing crises before their health is restored. This is especially true for those who have health problems that are very severe or chronic.

The purpose of natural health care is to restore the innate ability of your body to regulate and heal itself. And, as natural health care restores body function, the body will want to "clean house". What follows are some of the more common symptoms that people experience with a healing crisis.

This gives you some idea of the possible symptoms associated with a healing crisis. The list is by no means inclusive.

How can you tell that you are going through a healing crisis and not developing some other health problem? A healing crisis will usually develop after you are starting to feel good from the health regimen that you are using. Many times you will feel wonderful before you get hit with the healing crisis and will feel even better than before afterward. Also, a healing crisis is usually relatively short, usually just a couple of days and rarely more than a week.

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Stroke is the number three cause of death in the US. A major contributing factor is hypertension. Because hypertension does not necessarily have obvious symptoms, the medical consumer who has hypertension commonly does not consider himself in danger of a stroke. Adding to this complication are the side effects of blood pressure medications that patients do not like.

Holistic recommendations to help control hypertension include a low fat diet that will reduce weight and possibly reduce the blood pressure. Adding garlic to the diet may help reduce cholesterol. Celery and celery seed have a factor that helps lower pressure. High potassium fruits and vegetables have value by reducing water retention thereby helping to offset the sodium in foods. Adequate amounts of calcium and magnesium and important minerals to consider implementing. Keeping a low fat and low sugar diet also helps maintain proper energy levels.

Vitamin C and bioflavanoids are also noted in holistic literature to help build strong cell walls and reduce edema. Similarly, Hawthorne berries contain flavonoid as an active component helping to reduce edema.

Hypertension is often synonymous with requiring a low salt diet. What is not realized is that low salt and low sodium are different. Low salt diets incorporate no obvious high salt foods such as bacon, ham, pickles or other salty tasting foods. However, for those who are sodium sensitive there is a large quantity of sodium that is hidden in non salty tasting foods.

For example:

With hidden (not tasted) sodium, the sodium sensitive individual can retain fluid that can create a stress on the blood vessels and raise blood pressure.

There are many choices relating to controlling hypertension. Sometimes, they can be simply a drug that easily controls it and with a hardy constitution an individual may be successful in keeping it under control.

However, chemically sensitive individuals who react to medications adversely, may have to utilize other more holistic measures with their doctor's approval. It boils down to the preference in the choices.

Caution for Hawthorne: It can dramatically lower blood pressure so it is essential to not take it when pressure has already been lowered by other means. Therefore, blood pressure monitoring is necessary if deciding on this course. Also, when pregnant do not self-medicate with natural medicines.

Available today are a number of low sodium or sodium free foods:

Spices add variety and flavor.

The adjustment at first can be difficult but is worth the price for a reduction in hypertension and lessening of the chance of stroke.

Bio: Helen Olsten graduated from Notre Dame College in NH with a BA in Biology and a minor in Chemistry; Interned at Mary Hitchcock Hospital affiliated with Dartmouth Medical College as a medical technologist and is MT registered with the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP);

Helen has a wide range of laboratory analysis experience; worked as an allergy consultant and has done extensive research in holistic medicine.

 

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