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Home - Heartland Healing
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Stressbusters 101 - |
Try these fast acting techniques to stop stress
By Michael Braunstein
Most of America is overweight and stress is cited as a cause of keeping on the pounds no matter how we diet. Stress is also implicated in a host of other maladies. From cancer to canker sores, heart disease to hypertension and immune dysfunction, stress plays a role. |
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News You Can't Lose - |
Thought-provoking tidbits from recent headlines
By Michael Braunstein
Some interesting news items have floated through our inbox over the past few weeks. If you missed any or some of them, allow us to recap. |
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Crystal Clear - |
The powers of crystals are many and varied
By Michael Braunstein
The unbelievable Naomi Campbell called them “dirty little stones” but they were among the most sought-after crystals in the universe: diamonds. The irony is that diamonds may bring a high price but are of little interest to those who seek crystals for healing, energy work or metaphysics. The family of crystals is much larger than those relegated to jewelry. And their uses and applications are as wide as the variety of stones. |
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Don't Trip on Acid - |
Health hangs in the balance, between acid and alkaline
By Michael Braunstein
We live in a world of gray lines blurred by the shifting sands of perception. Little seems cut and dried, black or white — or as Ken Kesey put it “ … either on the bus or off the bus.”
But viewing the world through the test tube lens of a chemist, there is a clear division that enforces an either/or paradigm. With the pH scale developed in 1909, scientists defined whether a substance was considered acid or alkaline. Using the pH scale, which runs from zero to 14, anything with a pH value below the neutral point of 7 is considered acid and anything above that value is considered alkaline or base. |
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Shades of Gray - |
Perception is not the best doorway to learning
By Michael Braunstein
One of the many things we forget during our time here in Classroom Earth is that things are not what they seem to be. Our limited senses categorize and define based only from the perspective of experience. There is so much more to the Universe and we tend to ignore it if our meager senses cannot perceive it. |
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Who's Your Farmer? - |
Farmer Appreciation Day is Saturday, July 31
By Michael Braunstein
In Robert Heinlein’s classic, Stranger in a Strange Land, protagonist Valentine Michael Smith sees eating as the most intimate act imaginable. Born and raised on Mars, Smith learned the cultural mores of the desert planet. Eating is so powerful and important an act that it is done only in the presence of very close family members. Ironically, most humans pay more attention to what comes out of the body than what goes in. And that’s bass-ackwards, as they say.
You could name your doctor in a heartbeat. You know the name and office address of the dentist you see, perhaps once a year. Your hairstylist or barber, the person who does your nails or did your tattoo or pierced your whatever — they aren’t faceless names or nameless faces. Yet concerning an act as intimate as what you put in your body, you have no clue who produces your food.
You probably haven’t a clue as to who killed the cows in your burger, or who harvested the corn that went into the soda you’re drinking or the nachos you’re eating. You probably don’t even know what state or country the ingredients came from. |
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Size Does Matter - |
Nanotechnology is already inside you
by Michael Braunstein
It’s not about cancer. “Cancer” just happens to be the hot-button, fear word that easily targets the masses. Thus, much of the research about what is good or bad for humans is quantified by carcinogenic qualities. It follows, then, that the focus on a list of chemicals studied in a 2009 research project is on cancer-causing agents and is attached to a press release from the American Cancer Society.
On that list are some very common but very overlooked chemicals that have links to cancer. Formaldehyde, a known carcinogen — found in such varied household items as toothpaste, wooden furniture, nail polish and fabric protectors — is on the list. What do Quikcrete Concrete Bonding Adhesive and Gerber Baby Wash with Lavender have in common? They both contain the same chemical that is used to embalm corpses and is recognized as a carcinogen. (See the National Institute of Health database at http://bit.ly/90yRL4). Other carcinogens on the list most of us are choosing to ignore include styrene (your coffee cup), diesel exhaust (your child’s school bus) and lead. (Did you know lead is even in artificial turf?) The full report on these 20 carcinogens can be viewed at the WHO webpage http://bit.ly/bjTGQY. |
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Holistic iPhone Apps - |
Don’t ignore traditional medicine, metaphysics or holistic living when visiting the App Store
by Michael Braunstein
With the iPhone leading all others in the smart-phone derby and Apple’s App Store the current and never-threatened champion repository for independently developed mobile apps, it’s time to take a look at what is out there in the category of holistic living and healthcare.
Now, I’ll not go on record as someone advocating the acquisition and unbridled use of a radiating device designed to be laid against the side of the head; but let’s face it, the iPhone is an amazing and nearly ubiquitous tool. Some of the apps are phenomenally handy. Just the iPhone 4’s native app for editing HD video on your phone is enough to make Nam June Paik or Marshall McLuhan roll over in their respective graves and the Vasulkas to turn in their Sony Portapak. |
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Foraging Walk Justin Time - |
Foraging Walk Justin Time Meditation class returns, as does foraging walk
by Michael Braunstein
Meditation
It seems nearly everyone has complaints. Complaints about body stuff and health, (we're always affirming our infirmities.) Complaints about weather, economy, jobs, co-workers, associates, relatives, politicians and letters to the editor - all distract us from our wellbeing. |
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What's Your Beef? - |
How much do you know about the meat you eat?
by Michael Braunstein
Americans love their meat. They love to skewer it, pound it, roast it, rub it, grill it, marinate it, bread it and bake it. Most of all, they love to eat it. And the epitome of our carnivorous character is beef. Nothing shouts, “America!” quite like a hamburger or a steak. Meat is a cornerstone of the Standard American Diet (SAD). |
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Nature Breaks a Sweat - |
Infected by humanity, Earth runs a fever
by Michael Braunstein
Sitting up in bed in the early morning hours last Monday, I watched in disbelief as the green, yellow, orange and purple graphic slid across the screen of my iPhone’s weather app. It represented what was going on outside. A parade of thunderstorms pounded our state, moving west to east. The line was nearly 200 miles wide, north to south, and the entire storm system was connected from Fargo to San Antonio. The scale of the radar return was immense — a rainstorm event border to border. |
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Be The Tipping Point - |
Could global warming tipping point go other way?
by Michael Braunstein
Ironically, Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller, The Tipping Point, features the image of a single, unlit match on the cover, its red, sulfurous tip intact. On the back cover, the match head is shown in extreme close-up, sulfur combusting. The cover concept is meant to convey that a tipping point is that fragile, critical instant where there is no going back. Conditions build until rapid change occurs.
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Be The Tipping Point - |
Could global warming tipping point go other way?
by Michael Braunstein
Ironically, Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller, The Tipping Point, features the image of a single, unlit match on the cover, its red, sulfurous tip intact. On the back cover, the match head is shown in extreme close-up, sulfur combusting. The cover concept is meant to convey that a tipping point is that fragile, critical instant where there is no going back. Conditions build until rapid change occurs.
Gladwell’s book limits the idea to the complex series of events leading to social, economic or fashion changes that seem to erupt almost spontaneously. He observes that circumstances lead to a critical moment when a social trend becomes widespread, passing the “tipping point.” He makes no mention of ecology or global warming. That’s why the burning match on his cover is ironic.
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The Sunscreen Scam - |
Fear sells sunscreen and that may be hazardous to your health
by Michael Braunstein
All life on this planet emanates from the sun. The very energy that produces physical life, sustains it and protects it is solar in origin. How ironic is it that health authorities now hold sunlight in contempt and treat it as dangerous? Summertime means sun and in recent years media and advertising have turned the sun into Public Enemy #1.
Exposure to sunlight is viewed as a health risk and overexposure is implicated as a major cause of skin cancer. The fact is, without sunlight and exposure to sunlight, we would die.
No one doubts the logic that baking your body in direct sunlight and singeing your skin might not be wise. But the benefits of moderate sunlight exposure appear to outweigh the risks if for one simple reason: Sunlight triggers the production of the all-important vitamin D3. |
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Worldwide Pandemic of Dumb - |
Are we as gullible as it seems?
by Michael Braunstein
So, how was that swine flu pandemic for you? Even as various governments around the world demand investigations of the World Health Organization’s “rush to judgment” in calling it a pandemic in July 2009, and WHO’s alleged collusion with vaccine makers, health agencies still insist that a new wave of swine flu could hit any minute.
It seems to me, after reading and hearing the latest panoply of news reports and media manipulations, that the real pandemic we need to worry about is the worldwide spread of dumb. Are we so numb to sensory overload that information rolls off our consciousness like so much water over a duck’s back, or are we just so collectively stupid that we ignore the obvious? The following are symptoms that one may be part of the global pandemic of dumb. |
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Pressure Cooked - |
Hypertension need not sentence you to a life of drugs
by Michael Braunstein
High blood pressure is common in the United States. Conventional medicine estimates that about one-third of Americans have hypertension; technically defined as higher than 140 (systolic) over 90 (diastolic). The ideal is usually considered to be around 120/80 or lower.
Commonly cited risks associated with hypertension include heart disease, organ damage and stroke, along with many other health problems. When a Western doctor finds the numbers too high, the typical response is to place the patient on pharmaceutical drugs. These are of three basic types: diuretics to lower the amount of fluid in the body; hormone blockers to prevent the natural effect of angiotensin; or direct dilators to relax the blood vessels.
Conventional lore says once you are on one of these drugs, you’re likely to be on it for life. Discontinuing one of them can cause a dangerous spike. But pharmaceuticals are not the only ways to control high blood pressure. |
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See for Yourself - |
A natural way
to improve eyesight
by Michael Braunstein
Computer screens are getting smaller. My desktop iMac has a nice 15” screen. I can see things on that so easily. When I switched to the more convenient laptop, things got smaller. To fit the same amount of info into that smaller real estate, I suffered smaller fonts. Then, of course, there is the iPhone. I can read entire webpages on a 3.5-inch screen. But that makes the fonts tiny. I found myself squinting more and more and finally said, “I gotta find my reading glasses.”
I had purchased them some years back, but as I learned to use certain techniques with my eyes, I found I needed glasses less and less. Finally, they were only for the teensiest town names on roadmaps. But now, whether it’s the smaller screens or whatever, I am using them more and more. I find myself at a crossroads. Do I just succumb to the shards of ground glass poised in front of my eyeballs or do I revisit the Bates technique and see if I can re-improve my focus?
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Loving Local - |
Area farmers markets open this weekend
by Michael Braunstein
In this era of concern for environment and the economy, we often measure how we’re doing by estimating our carbon footprint. Officially, that’s a calculation of the green house gases generated by any individual, corporate or national activity. It’s a comment on our lifestyle choices.
To fight global warming, it would be cool if everyone chucked SUVs for the eco-friendly Prius. Clean and economical is good. However, there’s an even better way to lower our carbon footprint. Global research confirms food choices contribute the highest percentage to our carbon footprint; even more than transportation.
By shopping at the local food shed, we realize advantages that go beyond environment and reach into health, economy, spirituality and awareness. Farmers markets are the best way to choose local. So, here are some reasons to shop at a farmers market: |
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Expo-sed! - |
Omaha Health Expo turns three this weekend
by Michael Braunstein
About four years ago, Bob Mancuso, Jr. came up with an idea: Why not gather holistic practitioners in a single place and give the people of Omaha information about what they really want — alternatives to conventional medicine, ways to be healthy and stay healthy without drugs, surgery and all that Western medicine has come to represent? Certainly, Western medicine has its place and is practical to use about every 20 years, or when an acute situation arises, but there is so much to offer from the alternative side of healing.
So Mancuso, whose family has been presenting large-scale expositions in the Omaha and eastern Nebraska region for nearly 50 years, collected a group of advisers and practitioners from the alternative healing arts community and designed an exposition that represents the best that the healing arts have to offer. |
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Detour to the Dark Side - |
Confession of a drug taker
by Michael Braunstein
I do not claim wisdom. But I do claim wisdom teeth. One of them is not acting very friendly.
As any previous reader of Heartland Healing would note, the focus of this column has been the advocacy of natural healing, alternatives to conventional Western allopathic medicine. When a health issue arises, be it a spring allergy or a chronic health challenge, there are natural ways to address any of those. The belief goes like this: Traditional Chinese medicine, for example, demonstrates how the body’s own natural chi or life energy can be swayed to improve health. I know. I’ve seen it work on my body. Herbs and tinctures can be just as effective as drugs in nearly every case. And they tend to be a whole lot safer with fewer side effects. Eating real food and making sensible lifestyle choices also are a natural course for health and healing. |
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