Health

Fragrance x Effectiveness

Liz James · February 2, 2017 ·

You may have researched oil companies thoroughly and then came to the obvious conclusion that YL’s company, ethics, products, and people are unmatched in the industry….. OR, you may have accidentally stumbled across Young Living and joined the wellness journey just because you like things that smell good!

Regardless, I’d like to focus for a minute on the absolute science behind these biblical era products you’ve brought into your home. You see, as a medical professional with a strong science background….Well……that is what brought me to Young Living. Frankly, I didn’t even care what the products smelled like as long as they worked!

At its very core, YL’s focus is one of purity and consistent effectiveness. No other essential oil company on the planet is as committed (or able!) as Young Living to ensure that their product (our product) retains its therapeutic effectiveness when that little bottle of magic is sealed. What does that mean?

Think of an essential oil like a chocolate chip cookie (I know, weird analogy… work with me here!). The essential oil that comes from a plant is comprised of natural chemical structures called constituents (think ingredients). Every constituent (ingredient) plays a vital role in making that oil “work its magic” in our bodies. If key constituents are compromised in the process, it will probably smell the same, but it sure won’t work! (Just like a chocolate chip cookie…. if you leave out a key ingredient like flour, sugar, butter etc, it might smell similar, but it sure won’t taste the same!).

Constituents are very delicate and can be easily altered and destroyed in the oil distillation process, and for maximum therapeutic value, each and every batch of oils must be tested multiple times during the distillation to ensure they are protected. This is done by gas chromatography (see the video below for a little more info on that process). No other company has their own farms and dedicated partner farms who must contractually abide by the same testing procedures to protect these valuable molecules.

In addition to protecting the constituents within the oils, Young Living has several other “non-negotiables” that we can be guaranteed by using YL products. The oils are guaranteed to be free of:

Contaminants (plasticizers, pesticides, trace solvents etc)
Biocides (chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides etc that are frequently used in agriculture)
Solvents (benzene… a known carcinogen, cyclohexane) & Phthalates (plasticizing agents commonly used to liquify more resinous oils)
Adulteration (adding substances in order to dilute an oil). This is a very common issue with other oil brands. If you find a normally ‘expensive’ oil for an inexpensive price….. don’t walk…. RUN…. from that product! Adulteration has taken place.
Exposure to excessive heat and pressure during the distillation process. (While higher pressures and temperatures do make the distillation faster, it nearly always ensures destruction of key constituents)

I did not choose to use Young Living products without some serious thought and research. And I’ll be honest, it took several years to find them. Looking back, before finding Young Living, I used oils from companies with no true trail, and no commitment to supplying me with superior effective product. My ignorance ‘before YL’ shames me… especially as a pharmacist.

If you’d like to learn more about Young Living, please contact me.

If you already use YL products, know that you have made a brilliant decision in your choice to become part of the Young Living family. Whether you intentionally did it or not, you hit the wellness jackpot. Well done my friend! Well done!

Ningxia Red

Liz James · February 1, 2017 ·

Goji berry nutrition drinks aren’t all created equally: NingXia Red® and our other healthy drinks with wolfberry juice are created using Young Living’s proprietary Seed to Seal® process,

Ensuring high quality beverages that deliver goji berries’ health benefits. To do so, we work directly with Chinese vendors to grow wolfberries—another name for goji berries—on land that is rigorously tested for pesticides, heavy metals, and other potential contaminants. In this video, learn about the process that ensures our antioxidant drinks harness all the goji berries nutrition goodness we can!

Learn more about this beverage by selecting “Ningxia Red” under Categories.

The Plan

Liz James · January 31, 2017 ·

Health Preparedness

Liz James · January 18, 2017 ·

Hey there,

Let’s talk for a minute. You have been reading (and hopefully learning) on this site for about a month now.

We (my husband and I) are “preppers” in the truest sense. By definition, “to prep” means “to make ready”. As a responsible adult, shouldn’t we be doing this in ALL aspects of our lives. If you spend life flying by the seat of your pants, chances are you will be caught with your pants down more than you’d care to admit, right?

So we prepare for life… We have insurance. We have careers. We plan and save for our future and retirement. We plan for our vacations, and we plan what we’re going to get at the grocery store. We create goals in life. WE just happen to plan in the event that those safety nets (the government) that we assume are in place fail us.

In essence, ALL of us are preppers to one degree or another whether admitted or not…… AND YET….. When we discuss this, the reactions are all over the board:

You might think us nuts.
You might think…. “No worries, I’ll just come live with you should “the poop hit the oscillator”. (Ummmm, no you won’t…. unless you have a skill,trade, or asset that we believe can be utilized, or you have been previously invited).
You might be the…“Hey! I’m with you in spirit, but I don’t have the knowhow or environment to do what you do. NOT. Everyone can learn and prepping can occur anywhere!
Or, you might be walking right along side us and prepping in your way that is relevant to your way of living. If that’s you……hopefully you’ve now embraced the notion that you need to be preparing on a level that is unique to you and your family’s personal health concerns. (If so, message me or email me… it’s time to get serious about the planning.)

Health preparedness is different. It is not as simple as just storing product.

While product is nice to have on hand when you need it, the ability to apply knowledge that you’ve accumulated thru personal experience and thru experience of others could be a gamechanger. Proficiency in anything requires practice. It is my personal goal that every single person who joins in this journey with me will have access to as much education as they desire (in the form of private Facebook groups, books, education here (thru my blog and private emails), and also direction to science backed resources)….. so that they (you?) can become proficient in their unique health and wellness plan BEFORE a crisis situation dictates that it must be implemented. However, when a crisis happens (and it WILL happen someday), what if you don’t have access to your internet, phone, or your “go to person” when a “how to” question arises? Then you must rely on what you have stored in your brain & what you have in your Bug Out Bag to implement your plan.

Today’s the day… make a commitment to do this. Let’s pack your bag with the essentials that will be pertinent to YOUR health, (along with the 400+ page essential oil manual you’ll get for free from me) AND begin training your brain to think a bit differently. Let’s get some practice under your belt! Who knows…. by implementing what you learn now, you will likely become healthier for it, and THAT itself could actually save your life… even if the SHTF doesn’t happen anytime soon.

Let’s do this!

The (Health) Road Less Traveled…My Story – part 2

Liz James · January 16, 2017 ·

Well hello there!

I had no intention of leaving you hanging precariously on my life’s edge, but the last few days have gotten away from me. Farm life is full of unknowns, and at times you must drop everything and take care of the business at hand.

So where was I? Last I left you, you were dealing with a 30’s something gal with endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, osteopenia, and hypercholesterolemia. That makes it sound like I had one foot in the grave! Not so…. other than “that”, I was pretty healthy and pretty active. I had given up Diet Cokes and coffee as my New Year’s resolution in 1995 simply because my stomach couldn’t take them anymore. (It’s the only resolution I’ve ever kept!). That was probably the best unintentional health step I’ve ever taken.

The combined diagnosis of osteopenia and hypercholesterolemia was a rude awakening tho! I realized that something had to give in my life….but it wasn’t going to be my cheese (I am a confirmed cheese-aholic). I started researching natural ways to decrease cholesterol and interestingly enough, I came across an elderly person, an article, and a book all about the same time. All three recommended raw milk. Say what? You can learn more about raw milk here and here and also by reading The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid, ND. After doing some very thorough research, we drank the Kool-Aid milk and never looked back. Because I’m science-minded, I decided that we would be guinea pigs ourselves.. since we both had cholesterol issues (high LDL and low HDL and average Triglycerides) pre- raw milk. A year after drinking it religiously we both went back and were rechecked. No other methods of lowering cholesterol were used during that time. And by golly…. the proof was in the Quest Medical Diagnostics report. It was like our cholesterol had turned upside down. The LDL was now low, and the HDL was remarkably high and the triglycerides had lowered too. Hmmmm. I might just make it to old age after all. I was unable to get a bone density test at that time because our insurance wouldn’t pay for it again. (stay tuned… we will revisit that in a big way later).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my bladder situation had improved a bit, but only with close diet control. In addition to my stomach, it appeared that I had a very finicky bladder too… my doctor had told me that certain foods would cause bladder spasms, but that everyone that has IC has a different set of food triggers, and I would have to figure out which triggers were mine. Oh boy…. here’s what I found out immediately: citrus… all kinds (except for low acid oranges). onions (but not garlic). Tomatoes (but not yellow ones). Peanut butter (but not organic peanut butter). Pineapple (but not if I eat it in the country it’s grown in!). Cantaloupe (but not Honeydew). Peppers of any kind….and many more. Yes, the list was strange. And frequently, I would avoid everything I thought I should, and I would STILL have problems day and night. It was very frustrating and I went for nearly 10 years with no REM sleep… at least not deep enough to ever dream. Heavy sigh.

In 2009 Charlie and I went on a business trip (for him.. pleasure for me) to northern Thailand. It was an amazing trip……even including the political uprising occurring while we were there which prevented us from leaving the country. Over the 3 weeks we were in Chiang Mai, we ate nothing but fresh clean food, and guess what…by the end of our stay, I had very few bladder problems. It was amazing. We talked it over, and came to the conclusion that eating fresh and organic food might have played a part in this dramatic improvement. So upon our arrival home, I did the “great kitchen overhaul” and threw out everything that wasn’t fresh or that would qualify as being a processed food item. My eyes had been opened even further to food as a true healing agent. Interestingly, I had been an “above average” eater in terms of eating healthy before, so even the seemingly insignificant semi-poor eating habits were wreaking havoc on my bladder. The food changes I implemented really helped, but I was still getting up 3-4 times a night on a good night.

I had been dabbling in supplements and herbals for several years by now. We had discovered that exposure to chemicals of all kinds (including certain medications both prescription and OTC) had the tendency to set my bladder on fire, whereas I could usually achieve the result I needed (whether that be cleaning or needing to rectify a fairly common health issue) with a cleaner product. We discovered that we are actually pretty dang good organic gardeners….and that we really could grow what was healthy AND safe for us to eat. We also bit the bullet and got our own dairy cows (whom we LOVE). There is much more to this story, but for the FDA’s sake, let me just say that I was introduced to a product that I ended up making into a face serum (for my 40 something year old farmgirl face) along with another product designed to “support recovery time and acute inflammation associated with exercise and overall joint health”….. both of which were NOT for my bladder. Serendipity is a wonderful thing when it happens….And that’s what happened. I “serendipi-fied” my bladder, and woe and behold…. I slept thru the night, not just once, but fairly regularly from that point forward (late night farm noise notwithstanding). I understand now how and why each product worked as it did adding support to my bladder, but at the time, I was shocked at the beauty of sleeping without needing to constantly pee. Now, let me be clear. I am not cured, but my IC is nearly 100% managed when I abide by a good diet, hydration, my face (wrinkle) serum, and a joint supplement. Interesting, huh?

Fast forward again to 2015. I had a run in with our bull. Literally. He charged me, and pretty much knocked my left foot off of my leg. By the grace of God, I did not bleed to death right then and there in the pasture. AND, by the grace of God, an excellent EMT team, and a great surgeon, I was able to keep my foot despite the destruction that had occurred….. tendons severed and complete external dislocation of the tibia, and fracture of the fibula among other things. Wait. Back up. Did you notice anything peculiar about the last sentence? That girl who was osteopenic 15 years prior who should have now been osteoporotic…. was charged by a bull who knocked a bone literally out of her leg, that didn’t break? The surgeon’s comments were these: “Your leg should have shattered upon impact given your history. I think it’s time for another bone density scan.”. And yes, the scan revealed that I now (as a 48 year old) had the bones of a healthy 18 year old woman. Shut up. Yes, really.

So what was my secret? Again, serendipity stepped in. The raw milk I’ve been drinking for 15 years for my cholesterol and the magnesium I’ve been taking for the last few years have done their job well….. better than I had imagined they would. People, proper food heals. Elimination of chemicals in your life heals. Listening to your body and correcting problems before they are out of control are life sustaining actions that heal. Exercise heals. It’s that simple. (and yes, I do walk without a limp, have participated in multiple 5K’s, and work out weekly with a P31 bootcamp sisterhood… and my EMT friends who saw me that day think THAT’S miraculous)

I want to shout from the rooftops! Being healthy is really not that hard. I see people every day at the pharmacy who come in looking older than me, or struggling just to make it thru the day. Who are on disability….. ENORMOUS numbers of people in our country on disability. That limits their income, and limits their life and their life’s dreams. Don’t tell me it’s too hard to be healthy. Watching them, I’d say it’s much harder to be “permanently sick” than to constantly strive towards good health.

This is my heart song…. to help others find their way back towards health.

Want to join me in this journey? Come on in,….. and Welcome!