October 2012 Report

HEALTH PURSUITS READING AND RESEARCH: MEND*
(Movement, Environment, Nutrition and Diet)

REPORT OF OCT. 1, 2012 MEETING

Next Meeting: November 5, 7 pm, Isabel Turner Library Recommended Reading:
Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox by Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue.  Anyone with
bone density concerns is urged to read this book and we have ordered copies
for the library system.

THANKS to the many friends/members who have helped me through this difficult
time for my husband, Christopher.  He is in hospital awaiting a transplant,
KGH, Kidd 9, Rm. 930.  Visitors tire him too much but a card would be
welcome.

GLUTEN AGAIN

If we didn’t already have an inkling that gluten causes major problems, Dr.
Oz had a program recently on the subject.  The young woman who was the
example had migraine headaches, bloating, cramps, irritable bowel, acne,
aches and pains, depression, you name it — and was on different medications
for every symptom which caused even more symptoms/side effects.  She had
been told by more than one, of course, that it was all in her head.

Today, she is gluten-free, symptom-free and medication-free.

Interestingly, the world expert suggested that none of the testing is
useful.  The best strategy is to just go gluten-free and see what symptoms
disappear over time.  It can take months to clear the gluten proteins so
patience is required.

He also suggested that simple, whole foods — vegetables, protein, fruits —
are better than processed foods.  Something that applies to us all.

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH CLINIC

A member has received great support, advice and encouragement from Dr. Riina
Bray at the Environmental Health Clinic and from Dr. Robert Kidd of Renfrew
in regards to a health situation developed after receiving 13 mercury
amalgam fillings at one go.  The member was in exceptional health and was a
national level athlete before the incident.  We congratulate him on his
success so far and wish him ever increasing health in the months to come.
He has used nutritional and dietary strategies to good effect and is hoping
to use more exercise as his condition improves.

ELECTROMAGNETIC SENSITIVITY

We once had a member who made microowave ovens chirp as she passed.  She
also seemingly caused an elevator to stop/malfunction.  She had a severe
magnesium deficiency.  Another member had such a sensitivity that she had to
turn off the power to her house one mid-winter.  Even her landline phone had
to be outside on the doorstep.  She had a number of nutritional deficiencies
and when they were corrected she became much less sensitive.

If you experience a shock when opening your car door or walking across a
rug, magnesium deficiency may be the reason

Anyone experiencing electromagnetic sensitivity should have their nutrient
levels checked very carefully using the best tests available.

Of course, with any sensitivity, avoidance is the first line of defence as
well.  Electrical equipment can vary gretaly in electromagnetic output so
you want the lowest you can manage.

A member has given me a copy of Dr. David Fancy’s article on the subject.
You can look him up on the Brock University Faculty, Dramatic Arts
Department.

LYME DISEASE

Two members of the group attended the recent excellent lecture on Lyme
disease by a retired MD from BC, Dr. Ernie Murakami, who has made it a
mission to inform people across the country on appropriate testing and
treatment protocols.  Copies of Helke Ferrie’s book, Ending Denial, were
donated to the library, if anyone does not have a copy and Green Door
Vitamins may still have copies for sale.  Elizabeth May of the Green Part is
introducing a private member’s bill on national protocols for diagnosis and
treatment of Lyme Disease, an initiative well worth supporting by contacting
your MP.

QI GONG WINTER WARMING SELF-MASSAGE
TO BOOST IMMUNE SYSTEM
Dr. Daniel Michel, MD, DO (Fr.)

Robert Black, DO, RMT, lead us through the Qi Gong sequence now that winter
is imminent.  If you wish a fifteen minute instruction session.  Call Robert
at 613-544-3331.

PART ONE : ASCENDING LOOP (ENERGY PART)
1.  Friction using side of hand under clavicles, emphasizing stroke to
outside.
2. Friction on sides of body about nipple level using flat of hand,
emphasizing down stroke.
3. Friction from under 11th rib upward to xyphoid notch with edge of
hand, emphasizing toward centre to activate lymph gland system.
4. Friction up and down sternum emphasizing upstroke to activate
thymus.
5. Friction from mid-chest knob of the clavicle upward on neck to angle
of jaw, fingers on jaw and thumb moving up from clavicle to stimulate
thyroid and lymph ganglia.  Allows energy to move from head to chest and
back.
6. Friction just above Adam’s apple across neck using edge of hand.
7. Friction using edge of hand across below lower lip and above upper
lip to stimulate two meridians running from pelvic floor to lips, one in
front and one behind.  Keep tip of tongue on palate to bridge meridians.
Enhances return of energy.
8. Friction spiraling up sides of nose to mid forehead with side of
index finger to clear sinuses and nasal cavities.
PART TWO:  DESCENDING LOOP (MECHANICAL PART)
1. Friction on both clavicles.
2. Friction on both sides.
3. Friction Lower ribs.
4. Friction Down from lower ribs to pubic arch on ‘six pack’ for heat
to penetrate lymph in the belly, hormonal and immune system.
5. Friction inguinal creases, an acupuncture area for circulation
between trunk and legs.
PART THREE:   ENERGETIC LOOP
1. Put pressure on sternum between hand and sternum so they work as
one.
2. Continue and breathe to feel relation between hand and sternum and
vice versa.  Inhale and sternum takes energy.  Exhale and sternum returns
energy.
3. Pressure on sternum to increase suppleness.  Big in-breath and then
let it rebound.
4. With a slow breath vibrate sternum.
5. With a slow breath vibrate sternum saying, “Ooo,” on
out-breath.(Sound of spleen.)
6. Back to reasserting relation of sternum and hand.

AN ACCOUNT OF COLONICS FOR DETOXIFICATION by GRACIE HAMILTON

In this group we have four tools to heal: diet, movement or exercise,
nutrition (supplements and the smell test kit.) and the cleaning of one’s
environment. For me there has always been a fifth healing tool and that tool
is detoxification. The main detoxification tool that I use is the enema and
my use of the enema has nothing to do with constipation. The word enema I am
sure could be one of the top ten most embarrassing words in the English
language, and as I began this talk there were moments of accute
embarrassment at the thought of what I was writing. And if talking about it
makes us this embarrassed, the idea of having an enema might be worse.
Nervousness does not even beginning to describe the feelings I felt as I
first walked up the steps for my first appointment with the Colon Therapist
but I got over it and here I am ten years later talking and hopefully soon
laughing about enemas. I am hoping we might get past some of our nervousness
and I hope you guys feel free to ask questions and make comments. That will
certainly help me and my embarrassment. And even better if some of you might
find this very effective tool a little more easy to try should you wish to.
And for those who just don’t want to go there, I willl  throw in some other
detox method suggestions at the end.
Why the enema? I find it to be the single most effective tool for decreasing
pain and an equal to anyother tool for decreasing anxiety. It also helps
with allergic reactions. How do we become toxic? Two ways. We become toxic
when our immune systems are weakened and  so is our ability to rid our
bodies of poisons. And secondly, when we are exposed to environmental
toxins.
Our bodies naturally detoxify themselves through the skin in sweat, through
our exhaling breath, through our urine and our bowel movements. When our
bodies are working properly the poisons we take in are within the ability of
our detoxing organs to clear out. We stay in balance. Those of us who become
sick with too high a toxic load do so either by being poisoned by their
environment or by a weakened immune system that cannot detoxify itself. Like
probably many of us, I believe I am both those things.
I see evidence of a weak  immune system in my history:
As a girl, I spent many summers with bad outbreaks of poison ivy that
carried on until I was about thirty. I had an strange illness at six that
involved swollen joints. I have had emotional and mental health problems
since my mid twenties. I have had a chronic immune illness since age 35. I
get sickest in the late summer suggesting sickness in relation to allergies.

I also have a history of exposure to toxins:
I worked ten years as a nurse, six in a hospital. As a nurse I was exposed
to mercury, antibiotics, medications, radiation, infections, needle pricks,
and high-end cleaners. After nursing I spent four years of art school  being
exposed to paint fumes, mineral spirits, printmaking chemicals and fumes
from various other art media. I spent 22 adult years living in a 160
year-old house that had a permanently wet basement. I became aware of
toxicity illness the first time during art school when I became very ill and
felt it was from the oil paints. Five years later I was again toxicity sick
after loosing 50 pounds. At the time I felt the toxins that were normally
stored in my fat were now mobilized and making me sick.
I mentioned a late summer sickness peak. My summer sickness shows the
vicious circle of external toxins and weakened immune system. The allergens
(or external toxins) so rampant in the late summer create an allergic
reaction in me. And the allergic reaction within my body creates a weakened
immune system and then I am too weak to fight off the allergins.
In my late thirties, it was suggested to me to try colonic enemas. By that
time I had hives covering most of my body. I had food intolerances with
terrible diarhhea and joint pain. So I decided to try enemas. I went to a
colon therapist.
The Colon Therapist Colonic Enema Experience:
The client lies on her side. The therapist inserts a metal plug in the
client’s behind that acts as a two way passage. It allows water to come in
and waste to go out and it plugs up the bum to prevent leaking. I am pretty
sensitive about my behind and yet this did not hurt at all. This therapist
allowed the water to run in using gravity, there was no pump so no
possiblity of force. During a colonic, the therapist stops and starts the
process based on the client’s comfort. I could say stop when ever I wanted
to and she would. I was told,  turn to one side, turn to the other side,
stay on your back. My therapist massaged my abdomen to gauge how my
evacuation was going and to dislodge material that may be stuck. She washed
through me between 10 and 20 gallons of water but I am sure I never had more
than a cup or two in me at one time. I think what she did was run water in,
clamp, wait a few moments and run it out. It is a tidy operation. The waste
leaves the room via the tubing, no fuss, no bother. The enema takes about
forty-five or fifty minutes and then the tubing and plug is removed and the
client spends time on a toilet getting any remaining water and waste out. I
did feel nausia at this time. That process cost me fifty-five dollars about
eight years ago. I looked it up this afternoon and I found a place in the
downtown that charges $100 for 30 minutes of enema. I do wonder if there is
someone else out there more reasonably priced.
A friend once said to me that she stayed away from healing tools that
involved regularly paying a practioner. Being financially challenged at the
time, I thought that was sound advice and went to work finding a home system
for my enemas. I was a retired nurse after all. This wasn’t rocket science.
The information on the internet is bountiful and my generous colon therapist
loaned me her book,  Tissue Cleansing through Bowel Management, by Bernard
Jenson. At eighteen Mr. Jenson became ill and was supposed to die. Instead
he died a very old and, up until the end, a healthy man. His book is
considered a classic.
How to do a Home Colonic Enema:
The equipment: Online there are many sites that sell colonic enema equipment
but mostly what is needed is a colema board (colema is a fancy word for
colonic enema), tubing, a tubing tip and a pail. I am  passing around
pictures so you can see what I am talking about. You will also need a
shelf.. you can see the woman in the picture stacked what looks like two
waste paper cans on top of each other to make a shelf. I had one installed.
You also need a stool to support the head end of the board, a bit of olive
oil for lubricant, a bottle of peroxide and a couple of old towels. The
colema equipment might cost $350 dollars but that will pay for itself in
time compared to the therapist’s fees. Later in this talk I will tell you
the less expensive but more labour intensive way to set up. That is what I
did. My colon therapist told me it is better to have clusters of colonics so
that the bowel has good long stretches of doing its own jobs. Have three or
four in a week and leave it then for six weeks.
The Process:
Put your stool in front of your toilet. Set your colema board  between the
stool and the toilet. Fill your pail with warm water and add about a quarter
cup of peroxide. Attach the tubing to the pail and run water through it,
siphoning if need be. Attach the tubing tip. The tubing tip is just an
extension of the tubing with a side hole in it so it doesn’t clog. It is
separate also because it is the part of the tubing that gets really dirty.
Strip from the waist down.  Apply oil to your behind and to the tubing tip.
Lie down with your bum over hole and your knees up (see the pictures), use
one towel as a pillow an the other to cover yourself. Insert the tubing, you
know where, about two or three inches. You need to hold the tubing in place
so a rubber glove  might be nice. The fancy boards have a notch so you don’t
have to hold the tubing. With your other hand masage your belly to get
everything moving. Stop and start water using the clamp or a clothes pin as
comfort dictates. I find 5 gallons takes about 25 minutes. Know it might be
uncomfortable but that it will feel great when it is done. When you are done
wash everything with soap an water. When you are done that, give it all a
spray with peroxide. I run diluted dettol through the tubing using a small
funnel and soak the tubing tip in it as well.
How to get the tubing into your bum: I am covering all the bases here to
take all the mystery out. Before you are doing the real deal, have a
practice run lying on your bed with a enema tip and a bit of oil. Practice
will take the distress down 75%. Feel with your fingers where your target is
and feel with your fingers where the tip of the tubing is. Also try the
hand-between-the-legs approach and compare it to the hand-under-the-bum
approach. Both are right.
Let’s  compare the colon therapist vs. the home set up.
The colon therapist, what I didn’t like:
The expense, no shower( just a washcloth and a sink), and a trip home with
possble threats of bowel upset. Public transit. I found it really
uncomfortable having another person doing this for me. I felt at the time
that even though it would be very difficult to give myself a five gallon
enema, it had to be easier than having another person doing it for me. But
that was me. And she kept telling me she saw yeast and telling me to stop
eating flour and fruit. That drove me crazy. It could have been helpful
information, but I didn’t like it.
The colon therapist what I did like:
She looked after everything. She was nice and she did the belly rubbing for
me. With her I had a way bigger detox. After her I was completely empty. I
can do home colonics regularly and then go for a professional one and it
will eliminate all kinds of old material! And then my pain will be less.
Home colonics, what I don’t like:
The biggest negative with the home colonic is getting the setup. There is
either a big financial outlet or a big work outlay. The first colonic you do
at home is a bit scary. In the beginning the enemas are more crampy. As you
go on they get easier. So with the home setup you have to face the beginning
troubles alone. After three or four tries then it becomes routine and other
than the odd water flood things are okay. I have a habit of not paying
attention and overfilling the water recepticle.
Home colonics, what I like:
I am at home. I am home. I am home. A shower afterwards. And if the mood
strikes me, afterwards, pajamas and a movie. Once you have the setup, zero
expense. I give myself a 5 gallon colonic not a ten or twenty gallon colonic
so , no  upset bowels. I can do it once or twice a week because it take only
takes time, no appointments or money. Honestly, I can say I almost enjoy my
home enemas, I think because I feel so good afterwards I am conditioned now
to like them.
Something to consider when comparing the Home Colonic to the Professional
Colonic. I think it was in my best interest to start my home colonic career
having had a few professional colonics because I had been really thoroughly
been cleaned out before I set about tackling my own enemas.
Instructions for making a homemade colonic setup:
Build the board: The details are in the news letter but it involves
urethaning a plywood board and attaching half a pail to it to act as a
backsplash.  After writing this I plan on revamping my board to have a
permanent backsplash using bathroom caulking. I am excited.
[The Board with Backsplash: Cut plywood 4’X 2.5′. Sand both sides. Buy a
small pail with a lip. The pail diameter should be about 12 inches. Cut a
circle the size of the open end of the pail at one end of the board. To mark
where you will cut, set the board up as you will when you use it and make
sure the hole will be over the toilet bowl. You will be cutting about half
the pail away. What will be remaining is two thirds of the rim about one
third of the pail bottom. Then set it over the hole, lining up the rim with
the edge of the cut hole. Mark both the pail rim and the wood edge of the
hole with a marker in four places so you can drill corresponding holes. You
will be passing screws through the holes to join the pail to the wooden
board. I leave the screws without nuts so i can easily take the board apart
to clean. I use packing tape and line the seam to prevent leaking. Now, set
aside the screws and and half pail. Put three coats of urethane on the board
so it is really washable.]
The water jug and tubing:
I installed a strong shelf that could hold five gallons of water. The shelf
needs to be close to the toilet and to the water source. My shower head is
on a long hose, so that is what I use to fill. The water jug is just a five
gallon pail and the tubing is $2 a foot at Shoppers Home Health Care. The
tips you may have to either buy on line or cut the end off an enema bag. The
Shoppers  guy said you may be able to buy a tip at the pharmacy. Using a
regular pail with no spigot, you will need to weight the tubing to keep it
from floating up. I use little metal do-dad with an elastic.
Important things to remember when doing enemas:
We deplete minerals and natural probitotics when we have enemas. We must
always remember to take our mineral supplements and our probitotics. And
once I decided enemas were for me, I had a water filter put on my water
system. Not the big reverse osmosis kind, just a carbon filter from Home
Depot.
I was a well established colon-cleanser by the time I rolled in the doors of
the Health Pursuits Group. There I made my first contact with other people
who gave themselves enemas. Finding others helped with the embarrassment and
the doubt and it was fun too. Not all the people I met at the Health
Pursuits used enemas, but a few did and those that did had a code word for
the process. They called it a Hot Date with Juan Valdez. Juan Valdez was the
man from the coffee comercials. The code word had a coffee connection
because these women put coffee in their enemas instead of water. The other
difference from my process was that these women gave themselves retention
enemas. A retention enema is putting 1-2 cups of water into your lower bowel
and holding it for ten or so minutes, then sitting on the toilet. One last
note, the best way to buy an enema bag in Kingston is to buy a Sitz-bath
because each Sitz-bath has an enema bag included.  And just about every
drugstore sells Sitz-baths.
How to give yourself a retention enema:
Heat until comfortably warm two cups of preferably filtered water and pour
into enema bag. Don’t forget to run the water through the tubing. Hang the
bag on the towel rack. You might need a coat hanger to do this. Lubricate
your behind and the tubing. Lie down on the floor or some say in the tub on
an old towel with an old towel over you. Insert the tubing you-know-where.
Run the water in. Start and stop the water as you need to. Take the tubing
out and hold the cheeks of your bum shut with your hand. I found that really
helps. Lie there relaxing and breathing until you can’t wait any longer or
until ten minutes are up. Jump up and on the toilet and do your business.
Repeat. Expect rumbling guts and gas. Wash out the tubing with soap and
water and then run peroxide through it. Hang your bag with clamp open to air
dry. Have a shower and feel good after.
I ran this talk by a health Pursuits friend a few days ago and she told me
when she was a teenager she would come home from school some days and find
her mother’s enema bag hanging on the back of the bathroom door and it upset
her. She didn’t want to know what days her Mom had her enema. I leave my
water jug on the bathroom shelf at all times except for when my sister
visits. After all these years it isn’t that embarrassing. It was more
embarrassing in the beginning before I knew I felt better from my enemas.
How do I feel better? Enemas help me with body pain, emotional pain and
stability, the black rings under my eyes, my hives. Just about all my body
problems improve after an enema. I use these problems as a prompt to get me
to have an enema. I would like to go back to a life where I did them
regularly. This writing  has me inspired to do that.
When I showed up at Health Pursuits the enema was just about my only tool.
Here were a small collection of women who gave themselves enemas and yet
never mentioned them in meetings. Why not I thought. I am an old nurse and I
guess I thought I could take on the job of talking about it! When I told
Diane I would do this talk,  I said we can call it: Enemas, the Health
Pursuits Groups’ Best Kept Secret.
The Coffee Enema: Take 2 Tablespoons of organic ground coffee and add two
cups of filtered water. Bring to a boil for five minutes. Pour the coffee in
a container with two cups of cold water. This is to cool it down. Now it is
four cups. Pour two cups into the enema bag and follow the instructions for
the retention enema. Take the second two cups and repeat!
Let’s compare the Colonic Enema to the Retention Enema.
The Retention Enema what I like:
It is fast. The actual enema time is about half or less than that of the
colonic. One can use coffee and have a double acting detoxification. The set
up is smaller and the clean up is much smaller. The storage of equipment is
much smaller. This is good if you have teenagers. One builds bowel muscles
when they hold it during the retention.
The Retention Enema, what I don’t like:
I don’t like holding it and I have trouble holding it. It has not occured to
me until now that I could start with a one cup enema and build my way up to
two cups. When giving myself the second half of the retention enema I have
had all the liquid disappear and this disturbs me. I don’t know what
happens. And I have had accidents trying to get to the toilet. It is because
of accidents that some people lie and wait in the bathtub. Easy clean up.
There is no reason, if one has a colonic board that one couldn’t wait on the
board. Another brainstorm as I write!
The Colonic Enema, what I like: Not having to hold.
How Does the Enema Detoxify the Body?
When we have a bowel movement we expell toxins in our feces.  When we expell
old stool that has been packing the walls of our bowels our toxic load gets
lighter.When we get the lining of the large intestine wall clear and
exposing it to water we have a letting go of toxins. The toxins pass from
the wall of the bowel and into the water and are expelled. Our load lightens
again. The lining of the bowel that is used to storing toxins is now cleaned
out so the rest of the body sees the empty space and releases its toxins to
go to the bowel lining. And then we feel better.
Many things can lead to an unhealthy bowel. Age can make our bowel muscles
weaker. Weaker muscles create outpockets where old stool can gather. When we
have our first enemas many of us expell very old stool. Some of the pictures
I have seen on the internet and in Jensen’s books are shocking. The pictures
show big ropes of old stool. Once that is removed, so is a huge source of
poison. Thankfully I never saw what came out of me. One guy on the internet
said he found the marble he swallowed when he was five!
Coffee in enemas act on the liver causing it to dump toxins so we get a dual
detox with a coffee enema. Different detoxifying processes cause our bodies
to let go of different toxins. When I repeatedly give myself a colonic enema
I am consistently detoxing the same materials. I have always been leary of
coffee in an enema because I am sensitive to caffiene but in writing this
presentation I have learned that by adding the coffee at the most terminal
end of our digestive tract, it only backtracks as  far as the liver an then
the liver sends it back to the terminal end of the digestive tract and it
leaves the body. That is a simple explanation but it is the best I can do.
Recently my colon therapist told me that it is best to do coffee enemas in
clusters. Three in a week then wait several months. She said that the coffee
stresses the liver to get it to expell the toxins and with a chronic illness
like fibromyalgia the liver is already stressed.
Creative additions to the enema: At the end of a colonic enema, one can pull
out the colonic tube and have a small enema bag with special ingredients,
like coffee, ready to go. Just run the contents of the enema bag in and hold
for ten minutes. It is easy to hold once the bowel is empty. With a little
reseach one can find many different additions to the enema. Garlic comes to
mind. Garlic is a natural antibiotic and kills parasites.
Other effective forms of Detoxification I have tried:  Ionizing Foot Bath,
(I have bought my own), saunas, epson salts, parasite and yeast busting kits
from vitamin stores and massage.