Dolphin MPS

Reading is Thinking

Liz James · September 7, 2020 ·

A little of this and a little of that from my recent readings (if you are looking for a good book to wrap up your summer with!) 📚
📚Voices of Qi (pronounced chi): I’ve been studying alternative healing modalities for several years now ( Dolphin Mps , nutrition, herbals, exercise, and faith centered yoga). If your health is strictly hinged upon Big Pharma, please…. let’s chat. Big Pharma alone is like having a circle of frenemies instead of friends.
📚The Paris Architect: A beautiful historical fiction about a rather narcissistic French architect who, during WWII, finds himself by using his gifts to help Jews escape the Nazi’s.
EXCELLENT READ!!
📚The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: Another historical fiction work…. it weaves the story of the blue-skinned people of Kentucky (a genetic trait…. methemoglobinemia that turns skin bluish tinged), and Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project of the 1930’s. It is tender and heartbreaking all at the same time. I knew nothing about either one of these pieces of history, so I learned quite a bit (and used the book a a springboard for learning even more about both topics!). The blue people of Kentucky were often ostracized by whites and blacks alike, so the emotional toll of “being different” was enormous.
📚America’s Christian Heritage: Pure history in this one! The Supreme Court has ruled four times that America is a Christian nation ( none of which have been ever overturned). Our money, our court system, and our founding education systems all included theological studies as part of the core curriculum ( including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, etc)…..
…… it has been said, that if an entity wants to change the course of a country, it first begins in the education system. In recent generations, they have taken out prayer and Bible in the schools…. Proverbs 22:6 “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it ” works both ways.
Christian faith has been purged from schools and our nation is currently paying the price. Every Christian faith based home should have a copy of this book, and every American should have a copy of the Constitution in their possession. Our forefathers established our country to have freedom to choose their religion…. but even the Constitution (which we all live under) has Christian faith based roots😉🇺🇸🙏💖.
What have you been reading recently?
xoxo~ liz
#readersareleaders
#justsaynotoTV
#knowinghistorykeepsusfromrepeatingit
#brainmatter
#theworldinbooks
#ThanksYL

Winter Rest – part 2

Liz James · January 13, 2020 ·

(Apologies for taking so long to get part II of my adrenal reset post out…. I’ve been taking my own advice and have been in Hawaii on a much needed business / vacation / relaxation time! 😉) #ThanksYL

I wrapped up talking about living a fear based lifestyle and how hard that is on the kidneys and adrenals. Fear can creep in to our life in insidious ways….. ways that we typically don’t even recognize as a fear. What may that look like in any of our lives?…. and how can we learn to eliminate it?

🔥Trauma: In my own educational and healing journey, I’ve learned a great deal about the damaging effects of trauma based emotions. #yowza! It’s a fascinating topic and frankly, if more people actually understood it, it would change the trajectory of both their life and their health. Trauma goes beyond the brain teaches our body (at a cellular level) that it must constantly be on guard and vigilant. This keeps us in a constant state of low grade “fight or flight” which I promise will not end well if not addressed. We MUST learn to slowly unwind, release your fear, find balance, and begin to heal.
👉 (If you’d like detailed help, please book a private session)

🔥Expectations: Do you feel like the earth may cease to spin on its axis if you don’t meet your own personal expectations or other’s expectations of you?
I exaggerated that slightly 😉, but truly…. a lot of stress comes from believing that everyone depends on you. It’s lovely to feel needed…. but often, these are personal beliefs we heap onto our own shoulders, and not reality. At least for these winter months….. give it a trial run and step back a little from your own expectations and see if the world doesn’t keep on spinning😘. #sayingthisinlovefriends

🔥With expectations comes Responsibility…. Lord have mercy, who doesn’t have this?…. fianancial burdens, high stress work environments (don’t get me started on that! Pharmacists were #3 in the suicide category for many years😳), family stressors…. the “sandwich generation” who takes care of both their kids AND their parents are particularly vulnerable.
Honestly, there’s not always a great way to get out from under true responsibilities, but hopefully the tips below 👇will help decrease the stress / fear load on your adrenals.

Winter Rest is important….. vital really… to health. That said, the following tips can and should be used year round to maintain optimal health:
🌸 Sleep! If your body is calling for it….. do it! During the winter, make an effort to get an extra hour of sleep each night. (If sleep evades you, again…. feel free to private message me for some non drug tips and tricks). Our body does its greatest healing during deep sleep.
🌸Unplug. Next to sleep, I think this is perhaps the most important and simplest way to rest. If you were born before 1990 (just typing this makes me feel kinda old😂), you’ll remember that there WAS life without cell phones and internet and we actually survived quite well. In fact…. we were a far healthier bunch of people than we are now as we are literally triggered each time our device dings or vibrates!
🌸 Stay in and don’t allow yourself to get caught up in the rat race. Read a book, nap, or allow yourself time outside in nature to get grounded and recharged. Grounding is vital to our balance and well being.
🌸Say No. For some of us, this is a word that is underused to our own detriment. Once I learned to do this…. saying no gracefully, I realized how freeing it was. Life is too short to say yes to everything everyone asks of you. It is a learned skill….. but one you’ll find of great value! #metoo
🌸Take a spa day or at least a “spa hour”…. even if it’s at home. Epsom salt baths with some calming therapeutic grade oils (like they do at the fancy places!) can be easily done at home at a fraction of the price. It will go a long way towards resetting your adrenals and cortisol levels. This isn’t selfish time… it’s called self care. You can’t care for others well if you yourself are not well😘.
🌸Yoga, gentle stretching, and acupuncture or acupressure are all excellent aids for adrenal resets.
🌸Foods that help with adrenal resets: walnuts, cashews, clove, ginger, fish, shellfish, eggs (organic free range is best!), cranberries, blueberries, apples, spinach, cauliflower, cabbage, and asparagus
🌸Adaptogenic herbs (plants that support the body’s ability to accomodate varying physical and emotional stresses):
🌿Ashwagandha- this is an incredible herb for a variety of reasons, but for the topic at hand… it is very helpful in supporting healthy cortisol levels. Do a little Google search to learn more about this oddly named herb. My two favorite supplements that contain Ashwagandha are called Endogize (typically for women) and Powergize (typically for men).
🌿Siberian Ginseng
🌿Rhodiola
🌿Curcumin
Not herbal, but Vitamin D3☀️ (levels can drop significantly in the winter… get bloodwork to confirm. If you do not have insurance or a doctor, I can help you get inexpensive labwork done).
Omega 3 Fish oil🐟 … but be warned…. much of what is available for sale is actually rancid and will only make the situation worse…. so best advice I would give you is to really know your supplement company well.😉
I hope this helps. I believe strongly that God gives us our experiences in life, good and bad, so that we can learn from them in order that we may use our life as a testimony and a map to help others. #payitforward
Looking back, I can see several points in my life where, by pushing myself beyond what the body is able to handle on a chronic stress daily basis , I could have very easily ended up a hot mess healthwise. I hear this phrase all the time…. “I’m not sure what happened. I was fine, and then all of a sudden I had all these health problems”. See, here’s the deal. The body is masterful at “running from the lion “…. but we can’t run forever. And when “the lion” finally catches you….it doesn’t just take a nibble.
Hugs and love, Liz
(I’m gonna go have a day on the beach now and continue my reset!☀️)
#ThanksYL
#knowbetterdobetter

Equipped and Called

Liz James · June 18, 2018 ·

Have you ever felt like you were at a crossroads in your life? I’m not talking about a midlife crisis, but rather something bigger and more profound.

About 3 years ago, we took a pretty long road trip to pick up a bull in a remote (VERY REMOTE) area in West Texas. I mean…… drive to the very edge of civilization and then head 3 hours further…..the kind of remote that requires a physical map instead of cell phone/ GPS service. Without a map or good navigational tools, you’re sunk kind of remote. As you might guess, we confidently drove down the road….. in the wrong direction because we thought we knew where we were going. It cost us about 3 extra hours that day. We were reminded the value of an old school map and a dose of intuition!

This kind of parallels the last 15+ years of my life. I have been a pharmacist since 1991. I graduated, and like most health professionals…. upon graduation…… was pretty sure I had a really good grasp of the profession. I’m not saying I was God’s gift to pharmacy (hardly!), but I certainly thought I knew enough to make a difference in people’s lives. I toodled along in pharmacy doing the absolute best job I could do (because that’s my nature….. never tackle anything halfway).

When I was in my 30’s I thought we were living the dream. Charlie and I both had good jobs, had bought our farm, and had begun building our home (by hand, ourselves…. because that’s how we do things…. with all our heart and soul). We worked super hard…. 40-60 hrs a week at our respective jobs and then swung hammers and wielded paint brushes on nights and weekends for about 3 years before completing our home. It was somewhere during that time that I broke my wrist, was subsequently diagnosed with osteopenia , and both Charlie and I were diagnosed with high cholesterol. In hindsight, that broken wrist was probably the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I won’t go into great detail (you can read more about that journey here and the second half here), but it was a big fat hairy road sign to stop and assess what I thought I knew.

That broken wrist reopened a different avenue of education for me…. only this time, it was not subsidized by the pharmaceutical industry and there was some skin in the game…. my own. When you are a pharmacist, you’re in the business of knowing side effects of meds. The good news is…. you know the potential side effects. The bad news is…. you know the potential side effects. I wasn’t willing to go down that road given the med options they were dangling in front of me. My gut said no way, and once my research started it changed my life forever. It all began with raw milk. From there, my research extended into finding access to truly healthy and healing foods. Each time I thought I knew enough, I found that more pieces to health puzzles were MIA…. not just my puzzle, but everyone else’s too.

About the same time, I went to work at a pharmacy that specialized in rare diseases, oncology, auto-immune disorders, and infertility (which frequently has an auto-immune component). Sadly, this pharmacy represented the outcome of people living in toxin filled environments. Silly me. I still thought I was helping people. I guess I was. Kindness matters, especially when you are dealing with life altering body dysfunctions….. but kindness and pharmaceuticals don’t dissolve the problems these patients face every day.

Another personal puzzle piece fell into place after I was diagnosed with something called interstitial cystitis and discovered (after 9 years of no REM sleep and frequent trips to the bathroom), that it could be managed well with a fresh and healthy, but limited, diet. Expensive medication and daily catheterization are the common treatments. Ummm, no thank you. I would later learn that IC is part of the autoimmune disorder family. Not surprisingly, approximately 1 in 5 adults in the USA are card carrying autoimmune disorder patients. I had been given my card.

Eight years ago, my dad was diagnosed with dementia. It made no sense to me and we had no family history of dementia. I backtracked the onset to a statin drug (commonly prescribed for high cholesterol). In the finest of the fine print of this class of drugs you will find information alluding to possible memory loss with these drugs. Dig deeply and you’ll find it. I thank God for leading me to raw milk to lower my cholesterol instead of that which stole my dad’s memory. I don’t blame the pharmaceutical industry for burying the whole ‘memory loss’ side effect in the fine print. I mean, would you want to take a drug that could potentially rob you of your memory as a side effect? Ummmm, no thank you.

By now, I’ve truly begun second guessing pharmaceuticals. I began educating myself on everything I could get my hands on that gave honest and documented proof that maybe what I knew wasn’t EVERYTHING…… that perhaps there were some gaps in my education and knowledge base. I dug deep deep deep into gut health and discovered the link to most autoimmune disorders. I studied sleep patterns, herbs, thyroid and hormones. I picked up yoga and began healing my posture and my stress level. That led to my recent certification (7 years later) as a Christian yoga instructor.

I had a life changing accident 3 years ago this week, and (eventually… after a 3 month recovery) walked out of it when I should have been an amputee. Last week I walked a 37 minute 5K with many close friends. Thank God. Despite the severity of my injury, I have no pain day to day and am not on any medication. I’ve got oils, supplements and a little thing called Dolphin MPS that rocked my recovery world so much so that I decided to begin taking classes so that I could help others as I was helped…. another tool in my toolbox that wasn’t related to pharmacy.

The last 18 years, by serendipity or Divine design (I believe the latter), I have been gathering tools to help people (myself included) heal physically and emotionally. What had started out as a mission to care for myself and my family gradually extended to include friends and strangers who have become dear friends. The more truth in healing I gleaned, the more uncomfortable I became in my white lab coat. Back in the day, we took an oath to do no harm (that oath has been changed and no longer includes that phrase).

Once you know something, you can’t unknow it.

I have grown uncomfortable in my pharmacist skin (and coat)….. able to speak only truths that are approved talking points regulated by the pharmaceutical industry.

Once I found that there are better, safer, more life sustainable ways to heal, it became harder and harder to deny people access to these opportunities in wellness……. because they exist for the taking.

Every day, people make unconscious choices that affect their health….. making poor food choices, drinking chemically treated water, watching too much media and not exercising enough…. taking meds without researching them thoroughly first. They think a pill will solve their ills. I’m here to tell you that medications are simply adding to the already hefty toxin load within all of us. The heavier the load, the sicker the individual.

I’ve had several people in the last many months call me a healer. I don’t claim that moniker. I feel more like a shepherd, leading those who are thirsty to a safe place to drink, eat, and rest. It gives me great peace, and it makes my heart sing a song it’s never sung before.

I have straddled both worlds now for many years, and being true to myself is becoming increasingly difficult despite the six figure income that comes with the white coat. I fill prescriptions for people I have grown to love in the community, knowing that they can be helped in other ways that actually heal. I respect my duty as a pharmacist and do not step outside that boundary……but I feel God’s hand firmly on my back telling me to Go. Do. Become. Shepherd those I send your way.

Really God?

Yes. Really.

And so I prayed. “Lord, if it is your will, send me those who need me.” I began praying this daily about 5 months ago. God has a sense of humor. I’m sure of it. About a month ago, I had to alter my prayer a tiny bit. ” Lord, if it is your will, can I have a little breather so I can adequately help those you sent so far? ” God is so very good.

I would have never in a million years guessed that I would step away from pharmacy more than halfway thru my career. Pharmacy has taught me so much. Perhaps most importantly, it has given me the gift of scientific discernment: the ability to understand fact from fiction or skewed data.

When I was a young pup out of pharmacy school, I thought my life was set on auto pilot. I couldn’t have been more wrong. God took me down a completely different path, guiding me and giving me tools along the way: pharmacy, nutrition, exercise, yoga, health coaching, scientific based knowledge of essential oils, supplements, and herbs, Dolphin MPS, and most importantly the empathy acquired from personal experiences.

God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called.

Here’s to the journey! I can’t wait to see what the second half of my life holds.

Hugs and love, Liz

PS: I am not completely stepping away from the pharmacy just yet. You will still see me in a white coat one or two days a week.

Prodigal Squirrel

Liz James · November 28, 2017 ·

was out of town for 5 days last week working to further my education and edging closer to Dolphin MPS certification. It was a whirlwind trip and I got home late in the afternoon on the 21st.

My hubby has been a trooper this last year….. working full time, and managing the farm when I am out of town either educating others or getting educated myself. We are a great team, he and I, and we both see the benefits of what we are working towards.

As I drove up the driveway, I automatically began scanning my the pastures and doing a mental farm-ily checklist. I stopped and checked water troughs. The last one I checked caught me right in the heart. Despite the fact that there was a piece of wood floating in the trough (for little critters who might fall in and need a lifeboat), there were two dead squirrels. Drowned.

Of course, my first thought and breath prayer was that neither body belonged to Henri. It was not in an area that I could imagine she or her babies would be, but still….. it’s also not that far from the house. Charlie went out and disposed of the squirrels and cleaned the trough. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it… simply because I wasn’t sure who exactly had drowned. Let’s face it, squirrels all look pretty much alike. As much close contact as we have with Henri, I still can’t tell her apart from other squirrels except by her personality and approximate size.

We have incredible relationships with all of our animals out here, and although we grieve when one passes away, we are healthy about it. Life goes on, and so must we. What is nearly harder than death is when an animal comes up missing. It’s been a rare occurrence, but it has happened. Then you have a kind of limbo grief it’s hard to let go of… not knowing whether to grieve and move on or keep on hoping. Charlie hadn’t seen Henri the entire time I was gone so she had been missing already for about a week. As the days wore on, I started giving up on hope. I left nuts out and they didn’t get eaten. She really seemed to be gone, so my hope was that she had just gone into the wild and not drowned. That thought was a little sad too… but better than the alternative reason for her absence.

Today was a great day! Henri returned…. acting as tho she had never been missing. She looked thru the window and asked for nuts. Her favorite nuts come from our local pecan orchard, Foster Crossing Pecans.

Dolphin MPS…Another Tool For The Toolbox

Liz James · February 19, 2017 ·

Every craftsman (or woman) has tools. The longer the trade has been plied, the more diverse the tools.

As I work towards filling my ‘toolbox’ with health and wellness minded tools, sometimes I find something that just shouts out to me. There are some things EVERYONE should know about and partake in……if they want to manage their health in a sustainable way. Taking medication daily for pain is NOT a sustainable solution to a potentially long term problem. As a pharmacist, I witness the after effects of chronic pain medication use. If opioids (codeine, hydrocodone, fentanyl etc) are used long term, pain tolerance decreases, addiction/chemical dependance inevitably occurs, constipation becomes a separate and treatable disease entity, and liver and brain changes (damage) are likely.

If something ‘milder’ is chosen as the daily treatment of choice…. like an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) or Tylenol (acetaminophen), the list is shorter, but not necessarily better. Both have the ability to cause long term problems with the kidneys or liver depending on your drug of choice. NSAIDS like Motrin (Ibuprofen), Aleve, Celebrex, Meloxicam etc are now being tied to the induction of Gluten Sensitivity , not to mention the eventual GI upset and erosion that will occur after longterm use…. again, causing a separate dysfunction that will also need to be treated by an additional med. It is a cycle that is inevitable if pain is managed long term this way.

After I had my ‘run in’ with our bull , I was acutely aware of my need to solve the pain puzzle quickly….. not just short term, but long term too. Our farm does not run by itself, and my husband and I are the sole caregivers of our ‘farmily’. My accident very nearly resulted in an amputation, and the likelihood that I would live with pain and a limp at best was high. For the record, I was on prescription pain medication for exactly 3 days before transitioning over to herbal and alternative pain management solutions. Today…. 20 months later, I walk with no limp and have only occasional pain that is managed herbally, with exercise…. and this interesting little magic tool: the Dolphin MPS . I learned about it quite by accident (or Divine Intervention!) at a convention I was attending 3 months after my accident. I was still on crutches at the time, and a Dolphin practitioner offered to do a quick treatment simply while we sat waiting for a seminar to start. Admittedly, I was a little dubious sitting there with my leg in a stranger’s lap as her little instruments chattered back and forth to each other. We sat there for about 15 minutes and while she worked, she gave a quick overview of how and why the Dolphin worked. Whoa!!! It worked on me, and THAT caught my attention. The Lord says we shouldn’t covet, but I was sinfully coveting both her tools and her knowledge. So, in October of 2015, I drove 6 hours and attended my first intensive class and bought my Dolphin units.

Many of you are probably asking what is this and how does it work? So I’m going to try to answer some of the most obvious questions here:

FAQ’s:

Is this a TENS unit? No. Although it is approved by the FDA in the category of electronic stimulation, it is resoundingly NOT the same thing as a TENS unit. A TENS unit provides short term relief of pain using high frequency (100-200 Hz), low intensity electric current. It is non specific in application location, and…. in essence…. simply masks the pain for a short period of time (ie: in a physical therapy setting, pre-treating with a TENS unit will allow you to complete the therapy with less pain). It is something that your body can build resistance to over time.

In comparison: the Dolphin provides LONG term relief of pain using low frequency (2.5Hz), mid intensity electric current. It is used on very specific locations…known acupuncture points… unless treating a scar. Treatment with the Dolphin usually provides relief much longer term… usually for several days, but frequently for much longer. (For example, after the course of healing, I now only do ‘tuneups’ on my ankle about once a month.) Additionally, endorphins are released during Dolphin treatment, accentuating the feeling of wellbeing. You can read more about Dolphin VS traditional TENS units here.

How does it work? Open your mind a minute to the concept of Eastern Medicine. Everything in our world has an electric current, and we are no exception (unless you’re dead!). Pain is the result of trapped energy in a certain area of your body. If you can release that trapped energy, the pain will subside or even completely go away. The Dolphin device (and manuals) help you identify which pathways (meridians) would be most beneficial in unblocking the energy. As soon as the ‘block’ is removed, pain nearly always either subsides, diminishes significantly, or completely disappears. For people with chronic conditions, this ‘resetting’ will likely need to occur as often as weekly or monthly.

Does it hurt? Although it is a teeny tiny bit of electricity, depending on the situation or acupuncture site, it may feel like a small prick all the way up to a bee sting. The reality is that the more intense the sting, the greater benefit you will feel when the treatment is over!

How do I find someone who will treat me? You can find a certified practitioner worldwide here: http://www.mpscourses.com/directory/ , but the good news in the United States is that this device is approved by the FDA for sale as an over the counter (OTC) item. Basic treatment can be done at home by you or a family member with a little training, but more intensive treatment (involving the back or neck) really requires at least one two day class. My advice is to find a practitioner, and try a round of treatment… if it works for you (and it probably will!) it would be worth your time and investment to learn a new wellness skillset! It is not an inexpensive wellness tool, but if you look at the long term ramifications of chronic pain med use, this tool could be PRICELESS for your life long health and wellness goals.

(PS: most insurances will pay for Dolphin treatment as an approved/billable PT/OT therapy AND some insurances will even pay for a home unit with a prescription from your doctor.)

I’ve found that the Dolphin works synergistically with my Young Living oils….. (ie: 1+1 = 3 or 4 or 5!), and don’t need ‘resets’ nearly as often as I likely would otherwise given my injury. I’ve given several friends and family members some major relief by using this combination as well & have spoken to many practitioners who have seen similar results, so I know my results are not an isolated incident.

If you’d like to learn more about oils or the Dolphin, please feel free to contact me!

This is not a paid endorsement of the Dolphin… I just know it works, and I believe in it enough that I’m now working on my own certification training…. it may take me a year or two, but I’m committed to this vision of health and wellness without chemicals.

The Dolphin: just another sustainable tool for my health and wellness toolbox!

Have a blessed and WELL day,
Liz