Plants as Medicine

Staying In The Game

Liz James · June 2, 2017 ·

I got back from my boot camp workout this morning, and although I’m feeling a bit sore, it’s a good kind of pain….. the kind that lets you know you’ve accomplished something…. not the other kind… the one that is your warning signal of something gone awry. Like me, I’m sure you’ve experienced both kinds of pain, so you know what I’m talking about. Our bodies certainly do speak to us.

Being a ‘gym rat’ is a fairly new concept for me… a late in life one at that. I always felt like I got my workouts in simply by working on the farm and ‘doing life’. And up until the age of 48, I felt like that was enough. Midway thru that monumental year, I had a very significant run in with our bull, and ended up in the hospital. I’ll give you the cliff notes version …. I very nearly lost my left foot, and spent about 6 months in intensive recovery. The experience taught me a great deal, not the least of which is this….. Regardless of your health situation, it is important to keep moving. My injury involved broken and dislocated bones, severed tendons, and soft tissue & nerve damage. I now have hardware in my leg that is a permanent part of my recovery. And yet, I do not walk with a limp. I give credit where credit is due, and in this case, the EMT’s, a great surgeon, and our wonderful God all blessed me with great care and healing. But I had to do my part too. That part involved working hard to get past the initial discomfort of intensive physical therapy after having to be mostly sedentary for nearly 4 months. It also meant that my ‘new normal’ necessitates that I move certain joints regularly, or like the tin man, I simply won’t be able to move easily. This is where my new ‘gym rat’ moniker comes in…. (although my workout buddies and I typically meet in a parking lot!). What I’ve found is this:

If you don’t move it, you WILL lose it
if you don’t use it regularly, you’ll have to ‘work the rusty parts’ loose or they will get so rusty they won’t function at all (painful and annoying)
If you’ve significantly damaged some part of your body in your life, you will have to work extra to keep those parts in good working order
Unless your doctor tells you differently, you’ve got to push thru the pain to get thru to the other side of recovery.

Whether you’re like me, and have to occasionally push thru discomfort in order to make ‘it’ (whatever ‘it’ is for you) happen or you are a weekend warrior, I’d encourage you to give Cool Azul a try. Just as it sounds…. this blend provides cool relief. Young Living has given us 3 oil infused options in the Cool Azul Family to help us with our daily locomotion.

Cool Azul Pain Relief Cream : Oh. My. Goodness. Young Living rolled out the red carpet for our achy joints and muscles… and enlisted the help of wintergreen, chamomile, peppermint, sage, oregano, copaiba, tea tree, lavender, blue cypress, elemi, dorado azul, and more…..a little goes a VERY long way. It is the first oil infused FDA approved OTC product of its kind. You can watch a short video that explains how Cool Azul works: Cool Azul Pain Relief Cream Video
Cool Azul Sports Gel : This is the original gym bag version. Some like cream… some like gel. You pick.
Cool Azul Essential Oil Blend: Feeling the urge to make your own topical roller bottle blend but not sure where to start? No worry… just get this instead, add the carrier oil of your choice, and you’ll be good to go!

I don’t need to use my Cool Azul every day, but on the days that I do need it….. I’m thankful I’ve got it on hand. I use it to augment the benefits I reap from Agilease and Sulfurzyme(supplements I take daily).

A quick reminder: one of the active constituents of wintergreen oil is methyl salicylate. It has amazing pain relieving properties, but like another salicylate (Aspirin), it should not be used without a doctor’s approval if you are currently on prescription blood thinners. As with all oil products, be sure to avoid eyes and mucous membranes.

Make today a great one for yourself, and get to moving! Your body will thank you

If you’re ever interested in learning more about these or other products you’ve seen mentioned on my blog, feel free to message me! I’d love to have you join me in health.

Say What? The Role The FDA & FTC Play

Liz James · April 17, 2017 ·

You may have seen by now that I have a passion for sharing and educating. I can’t help it… and at times I am unapologetic about my passion. I love sustainable wellness and sustainable living… the methods, the practice, the fact that it is available to everyone who is willing to work for it. I don’t think I would be this way if I hadn’t spent 25+ years in the trenches of the pharmaceutical industry, and seen the carnage that results from loosely prescribing ‘bandaid medication’ instead of getting to the root of what is actually malfunctioning and working to correct what has gone awry holistically. Don’t get me wrong (I feel like a broken record player saying this), there is a time and a place for medications, but why is the consumption of 80% of ALL medications worldwide occurring in the United States by Americans? We’ve been suckered into thinking that a little pill will solve everything.

I post occasionally about Young Living products because it is a company I believe in as a sustainable wellness tool……. they provide me, my family, and my farm-ily with what we need to support our various body systems (in addition to eating properly, exercising daily, nurturing our faith and deep friendships & maintaining emotional life-work-stress balance) so that we can function optimally, despite the abuse our bodies have taken over the years. YL is one of the most ethically sound companies I have ever come across…..far more so than any drug company I’ve found in my pharmacy career, or any traditional mega-corporate food company where profit is king.

As I dive deeper into supplements and all things Young Living on occasional posts, you might think I am speaking a little vaguely on some topics. In fact, you might wonder why I say something like “please Google Frankincense or one of its constituents, alpha-pinene using https://scholar.google.com/ for more specific information”. It’s not because I don’t know. Frankly, it’s the opposite…. it’s because I DO know but cannot legally relay ALL of the information to you.

There are two organizations that will prevent me from providing you with concise and precise information for the following reasons:

The FDA: You can read about the scope of the FDA here . Per FDA guidelines, “we” cannot make definitive health claims on products that are deemed supplements and that haven’t gone thru the vetting process that is dictated by the FDA (this is both good and bad)….despite the fact that there are literally thousands upon thousands of studies on essential oils and their role and place in healthcare. I invite you to begin your personal research on both pubmed.gov and on Google Scholar . Both of these resources are a wealth of information, so bookmark this page. You may want to come back to both links later after we’ve talked more.

A couple of years ago, the FDA & FTC really cracked down on supplement and nutritional companies, and so it became a bit more tricky to share valuable information. Please take some time to read this article from Health Impact News for details.

The FTC: You can read about the FTC here . The long and the short of it is this: While I work independently, I am representing products that I use from Young Living. Having done the research, from a pharmacists perspective, I believe you would not find a more superior health/wellness product line anywhere. However, I cannot make claims to diagnose, treat, or attempt to cure…. I can only lead you as much as possible down the information path so that you can reach your own educated conclusions.

So, sometimes, my words may seem a little vague or “fluffy”. You likely want hard cold facts. I understand that, and I want to help you navigate “what to do when, where, why, and how” with ease so that you too can have optimal wellness. Young Living has created a document called ” Sharing Young Living the Right Way” and in order to remain compliant and in the good graces of the FDA and FTC, I do my best to abide by that document. Please feel free to refer to that link when needed in our discussions. That way, we will speak the same language and you will better understand the path I am trying to guide you down.

Education is important, and so is learning to navigate information. Learning to be the CEO of your own health is a skill that requires honing and development, and too many people assume it’s somebody else’s job to do it for them. That’s a risky proposition if you ask me….. the business of letting someone else (who may have more interest in your ill health than they do in keeping you well) be the manager of you. Everyone has choices. Do not be afraid to take the plunge and do a little research yourself….. and if you have questions along the way….. GREAT! That’s what I’m here for. I’m happy to be your bloodhound, tour guide, and navigator here to help!

Know Your Source

Liz James · March 19, 2017 ·

Earlier this week I made a comment in a gardening post, and I wanted to expand on that a little more. The comment made was in regards to the purity of our gardening bounty and how important it is to know both your source and how your food (ie: the plants or animals) is cared for from seed (or birth) to the farm table.

As you might have guessed by now, I am an advocate of following this principle in all aspects of life.

Knowing your source……whether that be your:

Information source (Ah! News…. are you a mainstream news follower, or do you seek deeper truth than that which is spoonfed?)
The people in your life who either affirm you (hopefully) or emotionally cripple you (toxic relationships)
Food (we literally ARE what we eat)
Makeup and personal care products (bad news! Have you looked at your ingredient label?.. and are you making choices based on that ingredient label?)
Household chemicals/cleaning products ( I can’t even find current stats on this, but in previous years, household chemicals have been accounted for over 10% of toxic exposures reported to US Poison Control centers… and that’s just Emergency Room visits… we aren’t even counting the health cost of personal toxin load buildup over time)

All of these have great impact on YOU… emotionally, physically, mentally, and on your long term health and wellness plan….. what you allow yourself to be exposed to…. is it sustainable to good emotional and physical health?

Can you expose yourself regularly to toxic relationships (any relationship qualifies here) without health detriment?

Can you use toxic chemicals daily… both on your person (soaps, shampoo, makeup, skin care etc) AND in your home and expect to remain healthy as your body loads slowly with these chemicals?
Can you continue to eat prepackaged food with unpronounceable chemicals as part of the ingredient list and expect your body and immune system not to rebel?

The answer is NO to all of these. 100% NO. (hundreds of studies will back this)

And yet….. And yet….. And yet… we tell ourselves little white lies, because the truth would mean that we acknowledge the need for change.

“That illness will happen to our neighbor, but not us.”
“That person who tries to tear me down daily doesn’t affect my self esteem, self worth, or even my physical or emotional health.”
“I’ve eaten this way for years, and it hasn’t bothered me yet, so I’m sure I’m not affected the way other people might be.”
“If I don’t read the label, I won’t have to KNOW…. and if I don’t KNOW, then it won’t be bad.”
“A little exposure to those chemicals every day isn’t bad, right? I mean, I don’t work in a chemical factory or anything.”

Daily exposure to toxins of any kind IS having long term effects on all of us…. Why do I personally know 3 people under the age of 40 who are currently battling colon cancer? Why are nearly 1 in 5 Americans on mental health drugs compared to 30 years ago (when it was 1 in 184)?

Having an insider’s view of the prescription end of our healthcare system for over 25years has made me extraordinarily aware of this, as has my interest in the health ramifications (both physical and emotional) of toxic relationships versus healthy ones. It is this insider’s view that really began convicting me of making personal SUSTAINABLE changes in MY life and in my family’s life many years ago. Don’t forget, there was a time when I was a statistic just like you yourself might be now…. I’ve written about it on my blog in an earlier couple of posts.

It was the pharmacist in me that followed an initial curiosity with my own personal research before committing to the oil and supplement company you’ve seen me reference. In my humble opinion, buying from companies that cannot give a step by step accounting of the ‘life’ of each and every bottle oil from seed to bottling…… well, that would be equivalent to buying a prescription drug from someone off of the internet (THAT is illegal… but you get my drift)……. You never know what you’ll get. The other thing I like about Young Living is that they have a batch/distilling # on each bottle, so that not only does the company commit to purity, it qualifies that by giving each bottle a number that can be tracked BACKWARDS. This is not a common practice in the essential oil industry.

I leave you now with these thoughts:

You cannot unlearn something that you now know
Now that you know….are you going to do something about removing toxins in your life and the life of your family?
Lauren Crews Dow, another YL oil aficionado commented on her public FB page:

“There are, as of yet, no standards for therapeutic-grade essential oils set by any government agency in North America. Hence, labeling fraud is rampant. Therefore, to be sure you are getting TRUE therapeutic-grade essential oils, you need to know your grower, your distiller, your packager, and your distributor because anywhere along this chain of delivery, oils can be compromised.

There is nothing dishonest about producing food or perfume grade oils. The problem comes when such oils are bottled, labeled, and presented as if they were therapeutic when they are NOT!

A common practice in the Essential Oil community, is to take a decent grade of Essential Oil, dilute it by 90%-95% with an odorless, colorless solvent (usually an inexpensive petrochemical) so that what was a pound of good oil then becomes 10 or 20 pounds of diluted oil to be sold as if it were the original substance, thus multiplying the profit. Understand, that such diluted oils often carry labels stating they are “Genuine” or “100% Pure”, which is allowed by the U.S. FDA. However, when you see a bottle of Frankincense for $10-$20 for a full ounce, you can be sure it has been diluted because you can’t gather the resins from the Arabian and Somalian deserts, transport them to France or England to be distilled, and then import them to North America (or any other country) for that price and maintain quality and purity.

Mysteriously, for every pound of Frankincense distilled in the world, more than a dozen pounds are eventually sold (pretty scary). Pure, unadulterated Frankincense, should cost around $140 per ounce. In Biblical times, a pound of Frankincense oil was more precious than a pound of gold. In fact, in ancient times, it was called “liquid gold”. Today, a pound of gold is worth around $4,800 (referenced in 2010), while on the retail market a pound of pure Frankincense is worth about $2,400.

If you have smelled TRUE Frankincense, then you will know the difference immediately when given a sample of the diluted versions that are very common on the market.

Other signs on labels are when only the common name “Frankincense” is used, and the Latin name, “Boswellia carteri” is missing, that is another clear warning that it is not genuine and certainly not therapeutic.

(Info from The Chemistry of Essential Oils by David Stewart Ph.D., D.N.M.)

Moral of this, you GET what you pay for in essential oils. Period. I know essential oils are “popular” now, but be an informed consumer! Don’t be fooled!”

If you’d like some help getting started detoxing your life, I’d love to help you find your True North. Starting with kicking chemicals out of your home one by one (baby step style) is a great place to start! (Have you heard of The Thieves Product Line?)

In Health and Sustainable Preparedness,
Liz

Woof(er) Pups

Liz James · March 15, 2017 ·

I think gardeners must suffer a worse case of spring fever than the average Joe, and North Texas weather only plays with our emotions making the situation even worse. We have beautiful days followed by cold snaps frequently with little or no warning. It’s a dance of self control and roulette with the Farmer’s Almanac officiating.

We have no kids of our own, so the farm and garden are managed by us alone. If you live on a farm, you know that the chore list is never ending. Gardening season kicks that list up a notch or two. This season we are trying something new. Have you heard of WOOFing?Technically, the acronym is WWOOF, and stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms. It is an international organization that connects people who want to learn about organic farming with organic farms who needs extra set(s) of hands…. people like us! You can actually plan a learning/working vacation by being a willing WOOFer. We live in a deep and friendship filled community. While many of our friends have their own farms, we also have friends who live in town in subdivisions where gardening is hampered by privacy fences, small yards, poor soil, and a low bee population. We have one friend in particular who homeschools their children, and was looking for a way to incorporate gardening and self sufficiency skills (a dying art in my opinion!) into the curriculum. WOOFing in the truest sense means that the student generally lives on the farm for a period of time while working… so food and lodging in exchange for work. We are modifying that format a bit in this case, and I’ve got two young WOOF pups who will be learning the finer points of organic gardening alongside me this season and will be taking harvest bounty home in exchange for their work. It’s definitely a win/win situation for all parties involved. My two young friends have proven themselves to be hard workers…. harder even than many adults I know. I am really looking forward to passing what I know and have learned thus far on to the next generation, and am loving the relationship I’m building with my WOOF Pups. Respect and love for what we grow to nourish our bodies (whether that be animal or plant) is something I hope to pass on to others. The “cleanest” food we can eat is that which we have the most control over from start to finish (much like the company I represent), and it’s the most very basic first sustainable step in living a life focused on complete wellness.

Gardening, you see, fills so many needs: Spiritually, it gives you time to pray and connect with nature. Physically, it provides you with exercise, sunshine, and direct contact with dirt (a very very good thing!). Emotionally, it has been scientifically proven to be a balm for the soul…..originally thought to be simply calming, but now there is evidence that exposure to microbes in the soil actually BOOST serotonin levels in the brain providing a sense of peace. And finally, Nourishment…..if grown organically, you will have regular access to some of the healthiest food you can get your paws on.

We’ve got our onions, lettuce and kale planted… that’s all I’m brave enough to plant for now. But in just a week or two we will begin planting the rest of our seeds. In the meantime….. lots of preparation is still in order for this busy busy time. Stay tuned for updates!

Why try to explain miracles to Kids when you could just have them plant a garden? ~ Robert Brault

this Might Just Be Your Missing Puzzle Piece

Liz James · February 11, 2017 ·

Our bodies. We are a mega city of cells that never sleep and never vacation: 24/7/365. Our cells are shift workers, simultaneously creating and destroying depending on our body’s needs. That makes me tired…. just thinking about how hard our bodies work around the clock!

Just like any mega city employees, our cells need adequate and proper tools to do their jobs and keep things running smoothly. Without proper tools, production and destruction may become delayed or dysfunctional, and for a mega city, that can result in a real crisis.

Enter Young Living’s product Sulfurzyme. In my opinion, this is one of the most important powerhouse products that YL offers us. It is one of the supplements Charlie and I use daily to support our bones, ligaments, and joint health. We both have had some significant “wear and tear” on our farm weary bodies and this product helps us function at our best. (and no….neither one of us walks with even a limp). After doing a little research, I came to realize it supports a whole lot more than just our musculo-skeletal system, and now covet this product even more than I already did.

You see, the mineral sulfur is critically important to our body’s function. Unfortunately, roughly 75% of the US population is deficient. It hasn’t always been this way….current farming practices (ie: stressing soil by not rotating crops, soil overuse, artificial fertilizer use, herbicide use etc) that have evolved since the early 70’s have robbed our food supply of many minerals, and sulfur is no exception. Organic sulfur comes from the plants we eat, and also from the animal proteins we eat (unless vegan). In its most elemental form it is called MSM (methylsulfonylmethane).

MSM is utilized by our bodies to create 2 of the 20 essential amino acids we need in order that we may live and thrive: methionine and cysteine. Amino acids are necessary building blocks required to create protein. Aside from water, protein is the most plentiful substance within our bodies.

Adequate availability of both these amino acids and bioavailable sulfur are known to play a large role in:

Breaking down fat (especially in the liver and arteries)
DNA/RNA synthesis
Detoxifying harmful accumulations of lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic within our bodies
Supporting muscle strength and tone
Aids in the production of collagen and provides elasticity in the skin
Supporting hair, skin, and nail health
Facilitating cellular energy production
Facilitating carbohydrate metabolism, especially important for those with insulin production issues
Glutathione production: The principal function is waste disposal in our cells, but it’s also known to promote good eye health. Nearly every type of eye disease has the hallmark characteristic of low glutathione levels. (Coincidentally, our levels tend to drop naturally as we age)
Glucosamine production: the building block for ligaments, tendons, joint lubrication, digestive and respiratory membranes, heart valves, eyes, nails, skin and bone. It gives cartilage strength, structure, and resiliency.
Facilitating normal digestion and bowel movements/ helping to neutralize sour stomach.
Alleviating discomfort from bone & joint pain, muscle soreness

When MSM is combined with a diet rich in Vitamin C….. well, this is when some additional magic happens. There is a synergistic effect between the two, and our cells and body tissue becomes more flexible and more permeable, making the above list happen to a greater degree.

Sulfurzyme is a deceptively simple product, containing just MSM and dried Wolfberries. However, the wolfberries are a powerhouse in their own right (to be discussed another day) and in addition to vitamin C, also contain minerals and coenzymes that further support sulfur metabolism. Taking this combination is much more powerful than simply consuming MSM alone, and the effects of MSM appear to be magnified.

There is no way I can feasibly condense “how” and “why” MSM works as it does in this article. If you’d like to dig deeper on this subject, I’d encourage you to read The MSM Miracle by Earl Mindell, RPh/PhD. It is a small book that would be well worth your time!

** Side note: do not confuse Sulfur with Sulfa (as in the drug class). Nobody is allergic to Sulfur in its elemental form. In fact, if we were to be completely without sulfur, we simply would not exist. So, yes, even if you have a sulfa allergy, you can still take elemental sulfur. **

If you’d like to learn more about Sulfurzyme or Young Living’s other products, please contact me. You (and your body!) won’t be disappointed.

Enjoy your day!
Liz

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