By Flavia Kreis, C.N.C.

When was the last time you actually sat down to rest, put your feet up, and closed your eyes for 15 or 20 minutes? You laugh! The demands of career and family on our time and energy and emotions can be all-consuming. We forget about rest and relaxation in our push to meet these demands. We also forget that the body is a bio-chemical machine and like any machine, requires care and maintenance to continue to run properly. Constant stress and poor fuel are enemies of the body and begin a cycle of destruction which may go unnoticed for awhile, but will eventually result in serious health problems. Knowledge of how the body reacts to stress and lack of care may help us make informed decisions about how to handle our lives and prevent future illness.

Fight Or Flight

The adrenal system of our body is a wondrous thing. In moments of danger it kicks everything into high gear so that we are capable of a great spurt of energy, enabling us to either fight or to flee the danger. Jumping out of the way of a car would be a good use of this ability. When it occurs, stress hormones are released which tighten the muscles, increase breathing and heart rate and heighten brain function. It is meant to be a temporary condition. The act of running or fighting would expend enough energy to reverse these emergency responses.

The fight or flight response is meant to handle situations which threaten our survival. In today’s world, survival is linked to job security, our ability to perform, meet deadlines, and control an unpredictable environment. However, our stress responses usually begin at the office, or in our car, and we remain stationary rather than fighting or fleeing. A prolonged stress response, which is not dissipated in action, has detrimental effects on the body. Digestive activity is lessened and food goes right through the body creating a continual need for more food. The immune system is suppressed and normal healing functions are impaired. Frequent use of the stress response can initiate many health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, immune disorders, diabetes, muscle pain, stroke, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, headaches, fatigue and depression. Kept perpetually in this fight-or-flight mode, the body begins to perceive everything as an enemy. It begins to fight many things it wouldn’t normally, such as foods, environmental substances, and even vitamins and minerals.

Allergens

When the body perceives a substance as an enemy, it sets up a mechanism to fight it. We become allergic to that substance. There is an electromagnetic field surrounding each organ and the body as a whole, creating a constant flow of electromagnetic currents in and around our body. When we are allergic to a substance, the energy field of that allergen clashes with the energy field of our body. In this clash, reactions happen that block the electromagnetic pathways. If these blockages continue, or our body is constantly exposed to the allergens, the blockages may spread throughout the system and can result in autoimmune problems, migraines, tumors and mental disturbances.

Digestive Connection

In addition to stress, poor fuel is another enemy of the body. A diet high in meats and grains, and low in vegetables and fruits can create an acidic condition in which the digestive enzymes become less active. A diet high in starches leads to decreased metabolism, making weight gain probable. The allergens we mentioned earlier create cravings which perpetuate the poor diet. We gain weight, and we can’t lose it. We want to diet but we cannnot stop our hand from reaching for that chocolate candy, or that dessert dish. Our energy level sags and we feel heavy and uncomfortable.

Adrenal Burn Out

Continued high stress causes the adrenals to burn out. When the endocrine system is compromised, thyroid function decreases and the immune system becomes impaired; food sits in the intestines and is not digested. Toxins build up in the colon and we become fatigued, experience headaches, gastric distress, and even joint pain. We feel foggy, and irritable and forgetful. We don’t have enough energy to exercise. Eventually we develop chronic conditions stemming from compromised organs and systems.

Supplements Are Not Enough

Most health practitioners think giving correct supplements is enough. Sometimes it is. But what if, as we mentioned before, your body in its fighting mode has determined that vitamins and minerals are the enemy? What if your body’s pH balance is not correct? In this case it will not be able to absorb the vitamins and minerals and they will be deposited in the kidneys and gallbladder.

Strengthen, Balance, Unblock

In order to restore balance and order, we have to look at the big picture and establish a correct sequence of actions. The first thing that should be addressed is the strengthening of the organs and the correction of the pH balance of the body. Until these are accomplished, other treatments don’t work as well. The pH can be corrected with diet, relaxation and supportive supplementation. Enzymes can strengthen the organs. At this time a program to clear the energy blockages in the body’s energy pathways should be initiated, the glands balanced and the immune system, as well as other systems, strengthened. Only when these things are done, will the body be ready to confront the next level of treatment.

Desensitization

Desensitization means re-educating the body so that it no longer considers certain substances to be enemies. It is based on principles found in acupuncture, chiropractic and kinesiology. By means of this treatment a message is sent to the brain that the former allergen enemy is now a friend. The result is desensitization to the allergen. The first substances to be handled are the basic components found in foods, followed by any vitamins and minerals to which the person may be allergic. After this, environmental allergies are addressed in the same manner.

Once the body has been desensitized to the above substances, it is once again checked for specific food allergies and these are handled. Often by this time, many of them will have already disappeared.

Prevention

You have several options for intervening, lessening, and even preventing this destructive cycle of stress in your life. You might want to reevaluate your priorities and find a more successful way to manage your time. Exercise is an invaluable tool to get your body into action to burn off the extra energy initiated by stress. A diet high in vegetables and fruits, which includes protein, and de-emphasizes starch and sugars, will go a long way toward creating the right pH balance for absorbing necessary nutrients, and increasing metabolism. And don’t forget relaxation. Take that 15-minute break, sit down, put your feet up and close your eyes. Give the body a chance to balance itself, and it will give you many more years of carefree service.

In our modern fast paced world, more and more people are looking for personal help to better deal with the stresses of life, the dilemmas of being overweight or diseased.

We all long for a lean healthy body that moves lightly and efficiently without effort, a clear, productive mind, feelings of contentment and complete satisfaction.

As we experience the feeling that relaxation brings our body returns to its normal state of plenitude and all that we long for can be realized.

At Anew Health Center we pull from many genres of healing to guide you on your path to higher vitality.

This is the place where you find creative ways to cope with modern life, ways to de-stress and get your mind/body/spirit together.

Our place is a center of wellness and peace. We offer enzyme therapy, food allergy elimination, saliva and urine analysis, chiropractic and therapeutic massage.

It is complex protein that causes a specific chemical change in other substances without being changed themselves. Enzymes catalyze and regulate nearly all biochemical reactions that occur within the human body. Life is based on enzymes; any living thing contains enzymes.

Wild animals manage to have fewer diseases than humans and are not overweight because they eat raw foods, which have food enzymes. Enzymes are needed for every chemical reaction that takes place in the human body. No mineral, vitamin, or hormone can do any work without enzymes.

What is enzyme therapy?

In the modern days most people don’t eat raw foods especially meats, partly because we are not use to it and partly for hygienic reasons. Heat destroys enzymes therefore by cooking the food that we eat becomes deficient in food enzymes and our digestive system undergoes a major stress trying to digest the food which doesn’t contain itself the food enzymes necessary to predigest it.

For example our pancreas becomes enlarged because it is trying to breakdown the food all by itself without the precious help of the food enzymes, the gallbladder cannot break down the fats and the liver gets intoxicated. Food is the fuel for our bodies and when it is not digested and absorbed properly, the body starts to deteriorate just like any machine; the only difference between us and machines is that we experience pain and discomfort when things don’t work because we are alive.

The enzyme therapy focuses in the replacement of these foods enzyme so our internal organs don’t overwork and become weak and they help our digestive system to become healthy and every single cell can obtain the nourishment it needs. I have learned this precious knowledge from Dr. Howard F. Loomis seminars given by his assistant Dr. Louis De Palma. Dr. Loomis developed through years of extensive research a system of recognizing food enzyme deficiencies.

Authorities in the field of enzymes are Dr. Edward Howell with his book Enzyme Nutrition; Dr. Howard F. Loomis with Enzymes The Key To Health. I have learned from the best authorities in the field of enzyme therapy and I have seen miracles happening with appropriate individualized programs tailor-made for each individual.

Anew Health Center has been providing nutritional consultations and allergy eliminations since 1999.

The Future of Food (2004) available at Netflix and Blockbuster, a documentary which discusses in detail GMO (Geneticially Modified Organism) foods and how they are created and the allergies some people experience with them.

Super Size Me (2004) also available at Netflix and Blockbuster, a documentary which discusses fast-food, its effects on health, and marketing strategies. In this film you see the effects of eating only fast food for one month, the immediate weight gain, and how it took almost one year to lose the weight gained during that one month, along with resolving the other health issues experienced.

by Flavia Kreis, CNC.

Read the original article here.

These days people of all ages are increasingly suffering from such problems as depression, anxiety, insomnia, bloating and weight gain. These problems can have a number of causes, not all of which are obvious. In this column I try to address a few of them.

Trouble in the endocrine system is one cause. This system of glands is like an orchestra; when an individual gland is unbalanced the rest of them cannot be in harmony. Oftentimes, due to our environment of toxins, artificial hormones, antibiotics and pesticides containing heavy metals, our endocrine system stops functioning optimally, causing adrenal exhaustion (can’t sleep or wind down) and the symptoms mentioned above.

Another cause is food allergies and sensitivities. When we think of allergies, most of us picture sneezing, watering eyes, stomachache — but in fact it can manifest itself in many different ways, and can occur long after the time of exposure to the allergen. This is why most allergies and sensitivities go undetected by conventional tests.

The many manifestations of allergies vary from person to person, and include headache, fatigue, lack of concentration, bloating, weight gain or loss (sometimes three pounds or more from one day to the next), hot flashes and skin problems, to name a few.

In children, the manifestations can include restless behavior, irritability, bed-wetting, inability to fall asleep easily, infections (especially of the ear, nose or throat) and asthma.

Keep in mind that the physical health of your body can trigger or reduce the manifestation of an allergy; the healthier we are, the faster our immune system responds to any form of invasion, whether it is from food or some other source. Our immune system responds better to attacks when we are rested, well-fed (organic foods), have some form of spiritual outlet, take necessary supplements and exercise.

We get a constant bombardment every day from chemicals. When our body is fed by nutrient-depleted foods which are also GMO-altered — by radiated meats, antibiotics, synthetic hormones, pesticides and chemical preservatives — what do you think is going to happen inside? Nothing good, obviously. But most of us are in denial about this.

The reason we’re in denial boils down to habits: They’re hard to break. The truth is, many people are averse to change. But others are willing to invest the time and money in a better quality of life, including better quality food, and are healthier for it. After all, we cannot change parts of our body like we do with cars.

Either we take personal responsibility and educate ourselves, or we rely completely on the promotion and advertising of for-profit companies and accept what they and others tell us is good food for us.

A few decades ago we didn’t have all the autoimmune diseases and allergies that people are experiencing today. Just in the last 15 years many more people developed allergies to foods that once were not a problem, such as wheat.

We live in a very toxic world — foods are altered with synthetic hormones, antibiotics, radiated and genetically engineered. Heavy metals from amalgams and pesticides and many different chemical compounds pollute the air, soil and water. Also, we use more prescription and/or recreational drugs, alcohol and over-the-counter medications than ever before.

These substances pollute the bloodstream, the liver and other excreting organs like kidneys, liver, lungs, large intestine and skin. When these excreting organs are bombarded daily by these substances, an accumulation occurs, and the organs can no longer perform their jobs efficiently. At this point, auto-intoxication takes place.

Inflammation is one of the first signs of impaired organ function. Inflammation is a warning sign that something is not working right, something inside our body is stuck and is not being processed or eliminated correctly. Often it is a substance that our organs or systems cannot process because it is unrecognizable by them.

Taking anti-inflammatory drugs will not correct such a problem; it will just suppress the symptoms, and later the internal imbalance will show up again, maybe somewhere else, and can worsen.

Toxicity and inflammation create free radicals that damage your cells and can predispose your body to various diseases like chronic fatigue, IBS, Crohns, and more serious ones like arthritis, multiple sclerosis, lupus and cancer. Also, there is a connection between toxicity and weight and skin problems, because when the body’s excreting organs do not work properly an accumulation of waste and fat takes place. This manifests in acne, psoriasis, eczema and obesity.

How do we keep our body functioning correctly? The first thing is to eliminate or reduce the exposure to unnecessary sources of chemicals, and to use environmentally safe products to clean your house. Buying organic foods is also recommended.

Keep the use of over-the-counter medications to a minimum. If you experience migraines, there may be a straightforward physical cause for it. You might have allergies to some foods you are not aware of, or your liver is congested from too many toxins, or there is a deficiency, or a combination of all of these problems.

A competent health practitioner can help you to detoxify your body by finding what organs are having trouble and balancing them using natural remedies. The over-the-counter medications usually don’t resolve these issues, they are just a Band-Aid, and your pain will return.

Ask your health care practitioner what kinds of tests are available to detect which organs are not functioning optimally, and the types of natural approaches they offer to help re-establish a healthy internal function.

Flavia Kreis is a certified nutritional consultant and the owner of Anew Health Center, located in Sunnyvale, CA. For more information, visit www.anewhealthcenter.com.

Just when you were thinking the holidays are over, now I can go back to my healthy eating habits, Valentine’s Day is here. The day of love, friendship, warmth and closeness, everything is red like our pounding heart.

Millions of heart-shaped chocolate candies are busting off of the many shelves of every store — calling you, buy and eat me! Big Hearts full of calories, sugar, or even worse, synthetic sugars and fat.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Valentine’s Day, but I don’t like the extra baggage on my derriere (fancy French word for the buttocks), and I think most women agree with me about this one. Some of my girlfriends are already saying, I am going to give out my chocolate candies at work, my boyfriend will not know. Some others are coming out with clever ideas like Honey, this year don’t buy chocolate candies, I developed a chocolate allergy.

Well I have some solutions, culinary or not, for all of those that want to avoid either the calorie booster items or having to burn them off (the calories). As a substitution for regular chocolate candies make chocolate sugar free (use stevia) low fat heart shaped cookies and wrap them up with nice red paper, or go to a health food store and get something similar to that but with much less sugar and calories. They have lots of selections.

Another idea is find a nice spa in the wine country and get a massage for you and your honey; it is relaxing and intimate. Before or after the massage you both can take a nice swim inside a heated swimming pool; moderate swimming for an hour burns approximately 477 calories.

One of the nicest things to do during Valentine’s is to go to a black tie ballroom dance; you can dance your calories off that evening. If you are not up to ballroom, go to a free style-dancing club; both categories of dance when done fast can burn between 306-374 calories per hour. Take the weekend off and go skiing somewhere; one-hour skiing (cross-country) burns 700 calories, or hiking around 409 calories.

And do you and your family enjoy ice skating? An hour burns about 477 calories. Basically, in order to avoid adding pounds you need to monitor your calorie intake versus those you burn; more physical motion helps to burn more calories.

Take the stairs instead of the elevator, park further away and walk, take daily brisk walks. If you don’t feel motivated to get out of the house and need a little extra motivation, adopt a dog from the humane society youll do something you can be proud of by saving the life of an animal and he/she will be your friend and companion for the rest of his/her life.

Pets help people get outdoors more and cheer us up and reduce feelings of solitude. Dogs need to be walked to keep healthy and fit and you will benefit as well. A moderate to brisk walk for 20 minutes twice a day is around 1 to 2 miles per day for you and your pet.

There are many things that can be done to keep yourself and your loves ones healthy and fit, and that it is the best Valentine’s gift there is.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Flavia Kreis, CNC

For more information or to schedule a visit call 408-745-7595 or send us an email.

by Flavia Kreis
Link to the original article

It is no secret that America is out of shape physically and mentally. Most of us have busy lives, which is OK, but sometimes with that comes negligence about personal and family health.

So how can we start this New Year in a healthy way? Here are some tips:

Eat less

Let’s say that last year you ate all your meals out. This year, have just one meal out per day. Or maybe last year you ate French fries almost every day. This year, have them only once a week.

You don’t have to give up everything at once, but certainly you can be in charge and reduce the amount and frequency of unhealthy foods and drinks.

Exercise more

Start by degrees. Most people give up exercising because at the beginning they work too hard. The body gets too sore and exhausted, and pain and exhaustion do not motivate people to persevere; this unfortunate loop is statistically proven.

To help you do it right, find a trainer who understands the importance of stretching before and after exercising, and encourages you but doesn’t make you immobile for days after exercising. As always, check with your doctor before starting or changing any exercise program.

Keep it up

Nobody said it’s easy to keep your body healthy — or if they did they’re in denial. Do you take your car for an oil change or tune-up? Do you fix up your house and garden? Well the body is the same, and needs healthy food and exercise in order to function optimally.

The biggest difference is that we wear the body, so we feel bad when something doesn’t work right (also, we can’t just change the parts!). Therefore, make exercise part of your daily routine.

Reduce stress

Stress is the No. 1 cause of all sorts of discomforts that can be physical, mental or both. But what exactly is stress? One of the definitions given by the Thorndike-Barnhart dictionary describes stress as tension, pressure, or strain, which affects the mind and body.

But where does this pressure comes from? Once a person can identify or spot where this pressure originates from, opposition and conflicts can be resolved. The trick is getting the correct cause of the stress, because if a wrong one is taken stress will not resolve.

Here’s an example: At work, “Joe” is stressed and overworked. He leaves the office at 8 p.m. every day, picks up fast food on the way home, and does not sleep well. Joe talks to his boss about the project. The boss is out of his mind, the project deadline is very close, and the company will lose money if the product is not ready. Joe is one of few people working on it.

In this example, following the incorrect source of stress would lead to more stress: Joe gets mad at his boss, blows his top, argues with the other employees and ultimately becomes afraid to lose his job.

The correct source of stress, and solution, is where Joe arranges things — by proposing to his boss, say — to move some other employees that are not very busy at the moment onto this project, relieving his workload. Joe gets to go home earlier, makes his own food and sleeps soundly. The project is done before deadline. Joe has a happy New Year.

I hope you do too!

by Flavia Kreis

Link to original article

Autumn is here and so comes the sneezing, coughing and aching. As we all know, during the fall and winter our body’s immune system starts to suffer from various forms of flu and cold viruses.

Did you ever ask yourself why this is happening to you every year? And why do you have to feel so miserable?

First, I’ll give a quick description of how the immune system works. Most people have heard of white blood cells, and that these attack invaders in the body. White cells are actually a combination of three main types of cells, called B-cells, T-cells and macrophages. Each has a different function, and collectively they make our immune system a well-armed defense against invaders.

When B-cells come into contact with an antigen (an antigen is some form of toxin, bacteria, or foreign blood cell in the body), the B-cells grow larger and divide into more cells which secrete specific antibodies that latch onto the invader. These antibodies cannot destroy the invader, but they make its life more difficult by preventing it from entering body cells. Because a virus requires body cells to reproduce, this seriously hampers its ability to propagate itself.

Next we have T-cells. These come in three kinds: T-helpers, T-suppressors, and NK (natural killers). The NK cells can produce toxins which will destroy an invader. T-helpers help the B-cells fight more invaders, while T-suppressors stop everything once the invader is destroyed. So T-cells in essence fight by helping B-cells, by actively trying to destroy the invader, and by stopping things once the battle is won.

And at the end, the macrophage cells swallow up and digest what is left of the invader, which is waste material.

What prevents the immune system from working effectively? Digestive problems caused by bad food choices. The categories of these are: sugars, bad fats, caffeine and alcohol.

The next question is, when do we have these foods the most? Holidays! That means the holiday season, which starts around Halloween and ends the beginning of the New Year.

Throughout this period, most people on and off have more desserts, candies, fattening foods, caffeine and alcohol. This means the immune system will be busy fighting internal toxins created by us rather than fighting a real invader like a virus or a bacterium. On top of this internal turmoil, we might have some emotional stress created by meeting with family, holiday preparation, travel, and so on. And stress also weakens the immune system.

How do we escape such a fate? We must organize ourselves by taking an appropriate supplementation — examples include digestive enzymes, probiotics, vitamin C, and echinacea — by reducing our exposure to bad food, and by minimizing stress in the healthiest ways possible.

As an additional suggestion, avoid mental or verbal conflict with friends and family members. Instead, start a conversation that all people can relate to. Go out and do something together as a group, something everyone likes to do, such as walk the dog, take the kids to a park, or play a board game. Be positive and merry! After all, what are the holidays about if not for love, sharing and tolerance?