When we purchase a home, we like to think of it as a safe haven from all the possible dangers of the outside world.  But there may be hazardous conditions affecting your family’s health right inside your own home. 

1.  Your Water: After moving into a new home, a patient experienced a re-occurrence of symptoms due to IBS/Crohns, that was in remission.  After some investigation I decided to test her water.  My hunch was right.  The filter on her refrigerator was not removing harmful chemicals that irritated her condition.  

The water coming into your house is contaminated with toxic heavy metals and chemicals.  Without proper filtration, it can be the most prevalent source poisoning your family.

2.  Household Cleaners:  We all want to keep our home clean and germ free, especially if we have little ones running around.  But how safe are the products we use to get the job done?  Breathing the toxic fumes from chemical cleaners and air fresheners creates a quick entry into the bloodstream.  I can’t tell you how many times children’s skin rashes can be traced back to these exposures. One of the most common poisons I find in testing is heavy chemicals, including bleach, detergents and household cleaners.  Proper precautions must be made to limit exposure to you and your family.

3. Pesticides:  No one likes nasty little bugs running around the house.  So the easiest thing to do is spray. We must remember that these are poisons that can cause health problems for us as well.  I don’t believe that anyone would inject these directly into their toddler but, they will crawl on the floor and put their hands in their mouth.  

4.  Home furnishings:  Such as carpets, curtains, wall decorations, and some furniture, may be treated with chemicals and are potentially dangerous. It is important to note that a few days after installation, new carpets emit volatile organic compounds, which are chemicals associated with carpet manufacturing that can be harmful to humans and the environment. Gas and wood stoves and kerosene heaters may also release dangerous chemicals.

5.  Building materials: Such as particle board, insulation, asbestos, and treated wood (used for decks and outdoor furniture), can also pose health threats. Some play sets and toys, as well as outdoor swing sets and play grounds, may also be treated with toxic chemicals, made from toxic plastics, or include hazardous materials. The more time that children spend playing in such an environment, the higher their exposure to toxic chemicals, and the greater a risk to their health.

We find a number of health effects can result from toxic chemical exposure, including allergic reactions, asthma, migraines, dizziness, nausea, digestive issues, eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation, various forms of cancer, and even death. The health effects resulting from exposure depends upon many factors, including how toxic the chemical is and the degree of exposure. 

The good news is that you and your family can be tested for these toxicities and can get them out safely and naturally with the help of a qualified practitioner. 

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The spring allergy season is in full swing, and if you haven’t already, it’s time to deal with the onslaught of airborne allergens of many types. Many people are affected by these microscopic allergens, from mild to severe in their reactions. In some folks, these allergies lead to sinus or upper respiratory infections. Minimizing the effects of these allergens on your health will help minimize your chances of secondary infections. Here are some things you can do to minimize your exposure to these allergens:

1. Keep your car’s ventilation system on re-circulate. This will prevent some of the pollen from entering the vehicle. Some cars have a pollen filter. Make sure you change it before and after each pollen season.

2. Change your in-home furnace filters to the HEPA type. Also clean and/or change them often during the pollen season.

3. Purchase a HEPA filtration unit. Let it run continuously during the pollen season.

While the steps mentioned above can really help, it’s difficult to remove yourself from all allergen sources. This is where targeted whole-food nutritional supplements and herbal formulas can help reduce your body’s response to the allergens.

For the really tough cases, the Center for Holistic Health also offers the Advanced Allergy Clearing Technique. Call 404-929-0604 by 5/30/2013 and mention this blog post to receive 50% off a Comprehensive Allergy Assessment. Bless you!

What tip has worked for you in alleviating your allergy suffering? Feel free to leave it in the comments section below. 

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It’s no secret that our children’s health is suffering.  Autism, ADHD, allergies and diabetes are a few among many challenges that today’s parent must contend with.  Defaulting to the proverbial, “It’s genetic”, is not an acceptable answer for parents who are seeking solutions.

Solutions?  “That sounds great but I’ve tried everything and don’t want my child to suffer.”  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard some version of that statement while staring into a parent’s desperate eyes.

Frustrated with medicating their children, many parents have taken it upon it upon themselves to introduce better nutrition as a solution.  Gluten free, dairy free, sugar free… “WHAT’S LEFT?!!!”  “And it’s helped, but it hasn’t really solved the problem.”

Unfortunately, the one size fits all mentality to handling childhood challenges is not an adequate solution for most cases.  It’s easy enough for any parent to peruse the internet and find out which foods are good for the brain and which ones might be possible allergens.  But every child is different and there isn’t just one cause for any particular symptom.

When parents inquire about their child’s issue, the conversation is almost always the same; a description of symptoms followed by the question.  “Do you think it’s a food allergy?”  My answer, in turn, usually goes something like this.  “The only way to know for sure is to actually test and see.”  Oh sure, I see trends relating particular symptoms and underlying causes whether in relation to diet, toxicity or immune challenges.  Children with allergies almost always test for compromised liver function.  Eczema usually goes hand in hand with immune challenges and we almost always find some kind of toxicity involved with brain related issues.

“But I’ve done everything right from birth.  I feed my child healthy organic food and use all natural products like soaps and shampoos. It can’t be that.”

We live in a toxic world.  Everyone, including your child is exposed to any number of toxicities on a daily basis.  Chlorine in the water, petroleum solvents in soaps and shampoos, pesticides in our foods, heavy cleaning chemicals, food dyes and preservatives, and the list goes on.  It’s an unfortunate fact of life.  Not only that, but children are exposed to the toxicities of their mother’s body, prenatally.

With so many factors that can potentially compromise your child’s ability to thrive, raising a healthy and happy child can seem like a daunting task.   However, the formula is simple.  Find and remove any toxicities or food sensitivities; Make sure the body has the exact nutrients it needs to be healthy.  Easier said than done, I know.  However, positive changes can be taken one step at a time.  Your child’s body will appreciate each step you take and respond in the like.  I would also encourage you, as parents, to seek the help of a practitioner who can find out with absolute certainty if your child has any specific toxicities and/or food sensitivities that must be handled.

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Ask and you shall receive!

Thanks to Castine for her efforts in preparing this delicious “party pepper” dish for our recent Coming Clean event and sharing the recipe. Try preparing these flavorful punch-packers for your next gathering, or simply make them and create a party around the occasion!

Read on for the recipe…

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Spring has sprung! It’s a planting time for starting anew. Whatever your dirty little health secrets of winter, you’re invited to now “Come Clean” and learn the truth about how to grow from a space of coping to THRIVING!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Center for Holistic Health, 320 Winn Way, Suite 101, Decatur, GA 30030

RSVP: admin@centerforholistichealth.com or 404-929-0604

Cost: Free. Just bring a friend! 

Like a garden, our life’s harvest may fail unless we plant, cover and sow our seeds in dedicated way.  Join Wendy Watkins, author of The Joy Factor Recipe Book and the Center for Holistic Health’s wellness experts Dr. Gene Clerkin and Jenya Hampton to learn the truth of those simple, effective ways for raking in the bountiful yield of vibrancy and optimal health you deserve.

No need to feel guilty. During this tasty two hours of self-discovery you will gain essential insights and positive, powerful practices for mixing things up and successfully maintaining the vision for the life you plot while cultivating habits for effective health management.

The most common mistakes made in navigating life are to look externally or rely on drugs to solve problems and health challenges. Uproot these habits and learn what to do instead.

Are you moving through life in ‘default’ mode or making conscious choices?

Over the course of the afternoon you will sample healthy, nourishing bites and discover:

• How to recognize and respond to your mind/body/spirit signals to create a plan for experiencing life fulfillment, vibrancy and health at any age.
• How to establish the right nutrition specific to your body’s needs for successful weight loss.
• How to use the power of choice to work with, instead of against, your body’s motivations to function well and thrive.

If you’re ready to take responsibility for your own health and happiness and learn how to purposefully create the joy you want, this event is for you.

• What is your intention in life?
• Do you know what you want to experience in life?
• Are you clear on what you want to contribute to the world?
• Do you want to fully be able to participate in your life and the lives of others?
• Do you want to defy “old age” gracefully and vibrantly?
• Are you taking the healthy measures to equip your body for the journey?

Your morale and joy factor will be primed for “Thrive” by the end of these two insightful hours. Won’t you “Come Clean”? Turn the soil, and see just what your life can produce when you’re equipped with a life plan and the tools to build it healthily to fulfillment.

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“Oh, my sinuses are driving me crazy!” we often hear in our office. But many of our clients are surprised to find out that their sinuses aren’t the problem. The good news is that they don’t actually have allergies at all.

“Wait a minute, when I go outside my nose starts running and my eyes get blood-shot… how can you say I don’t have allergies?”

A majority of the “allergy” cases we see are actually due to an overloaded liver. That’s right. When the liver gets backed up, its effect shows up in the sinuses.  And in today’s highly toxic environment this is more often the case than not.  Preservatives, petroleum-based skin and hair products, pesticides, chemical cleaners, chlorinated water and air pollution–just to name a few–are all culprits.

Not to worry. This doesn’t have to be a lifelong condition. We are easily able to determine if your liver is overstressed or if you actually have an allergy… and we can help you with either.

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Similarly, if an individual were to get sick or experience physical symptoms they may choose an immediate or short term solution to alleviate their discomfort.  Taking a medication to suppress a symptom is one example of this strategy and could effectively help someone cope with the symptoms of their illness. 

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While there is nothing inherently wrong with the strategy of coping, it could be dangerous to believe it is one that will serve their long term interests.

Simply put, the inability to pay one’s rent or the presence of ongoing physical symptoms is a sign of deeper problems.  If those deeper problems are not addressed; one could expect to experience more of the same in the future. Why?  The underlying environment which created the undesirable situation in the first place, has not changed.

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In our society it is an unfortunate fact that a majority of people use the exclusive strategy of coping when it comes to their health.  A perusal of our country’s health statistics would easily confirm what I have seen over the last eighteen years of practice.  Symptoms suppressed without investigation of underlying cause is a certain recipe for continued loss of health.   Conversely, seeking out the underlying causes, whether they are related to nutrition, toxicity or stress, can turn coping into thriving. 

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In the medical model our main concern is to remove symptoms and restore the body to its previous state. From a wellness or healing perspective we may actually want to gain some insight from our symptoms so that we can learn, grow and evolve. I often tell clients that within every symptom there is a gift.

Jill Bolte Taylor is a medical brain researcher who had the experience of a stroke which she later describes as a gift. She did a TED Talk called A Stroke of Insight that tells the story of her experience. During Taylor’s stroke she lost use of the left side of her brain and consequently experienced an increase in the qualities of the right brain. Continue reading to watch the video. 

As she explains during her seminar the left or more linear part of the brain is used for separating and categorizing our world. The right brain sees the beauty and connection of everything in the world.

During this episode she experiences a level of peace and connection that she never knew was possible. Some of what she shares reminds me of my experiences at Transformational Gate seminars receiving multiple Network Spinal Analysis and Somato-Respiratory Integration sessions.

Taylor make the point that we don’t have to have a stroke to consciously choose how we want to use our brains, choose our experience and effect those and the world around us. So check out the link below and let us help you get a little more connected at the Center for Holistic Health.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

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Sometimes when I meet people having this experience I’ll ask, eagerly, “Would you like to find the underlying cause?”

Now you’d think that the response would be a resounding YES.

Yeah, well. You’d think.

Nope. Often the response is a shrug of the shoulder. A polite tock to the head. Indifferent eyes. Absolute stillness. And all within striking distance of the answer, right before them, just waiting to help. Sometimes my head will swim with astonishment. Until I begin to recall at least some of the reasons why.

Illness as a matter of luck.  Illness as genes. Illness as something that time will take care of. Illness as something I may have to change (and I’m so tired now…). Illness as a belief in these things. Maybe a shrug, in so many syllables, is what their doctor, limited within his own expertise, gave them, when there was no other answer. Except for those great medications.

Look, I love modern medicine. We all should. God bless ‘em for what they do best: Corrective surgery. Research. Survivorship & Emergency Medicine. Even those great medications again.

For creating a pill is, if you think about it, every step of the way, is an act of astounding brilliance. But camouflaging symptoms with it?….maybe not so much. Covering up symptoms is an act of emergency medicine, and no one should live in a state of emergency. Tamping down symptoms is fine if that’s all you have, but I’m here to tell you emphatically it’s not all you have. Not anymore. Some us out here in Help-You-Land are, if I say so myself, pretty darn good at nailing the whole health problem to the source — and quickly. Symptoms don’t have much of a chance around here. Causes either.

And then, one day, one day soon, like all those who once defended themselves against change (or luck or genes), you can look back on your old self from the height of the spanking new improvement shaking your head at why in the hell you ever waited.

Or believed otherwise.

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