Natural Health Care

After badly dislocating my left shoulder while playing basketball during my first year of university, I began experimenting with a variety of strength-training techniques for my shoulders. Over the course of several years, I tried numerous strength-training programs that called for dozens of exercises with free weights and machines.

During times of reflection, I regularly think about Stephen Covey's suggestion to find the right walls to climb before I spend my limited days climbing.

Spending time to identify the right walls to climb can sometimes require more energy than the actual process of climbing; it can bring about much frustration and second guessing. Still, my experience has been that working hard to carefully choose which walls we want to scale is worth the effort, and is an important part of striving to develop the ability to live with wisdom.

Varicose veins are enlarged and often swollen veins that can become visible under the skin of your legs. In order to understand what can be done to prevent the formation of varicose veins, you must first understand some basic anatomical and physiological facts about the veins in your body, which will allow for a good understanding of the root causes of varicose veins.

In the summer of 2004, a guest of our clinic asked me what he could do to maximize his height using natural methods. At that time, he was still in his early 20s and aspired to play professional baseball.

Carbohydrates are created in the leaves of plants, where they are created out of water, carbon dioxide, and the radiant energy of sunlight.

Although your body can obtain all of the energy that it needs from dietary protein and fat, the most efficient source of fuel for your cells are carbohydrates.

We can classify all of the carbohydrates that we know of into three general categories:

If you are following sound advice on how to get a good night's sleep, but are still having trouble sleeping soundly, you may want to try eating a bedtime snack that combines a concentrated dietary source of tryptophan with a healthy carbohydrate-rich food.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that your body cannot make; you must obtain it from the foods that you eat. Once tryptophan crosses your blood-brain barrier to gain access to your brain, it is used to make a hormone called serotonin.

The following excerpts on toothpastes and preventing tooth decay are from How To Save Your Teeth: Toxic-Free Preventive Dentistry, by David Kennedy, Doctor of Dental Surgery. Many thanks to Dr. Kennedy for giving us permission to share this valuable information with our guests.

As a child, I was fascinated with the world of ninjas. Naturally, I spent lots of time practicing various martial arts and tumbling maneuvers in and around our home. One night, I ended a particularly aggressive tumbling maneuver with a sweeping roundhouse kick that ended with my right foot accidentally shattering a glass of water.

You can get burned by a number of different sources, the most common of which are hot liquids, hot objects, chemicals, steam, electricity, the sun, and fire.

For diagnostic and treatment purposes, burns are generally categorized into the following three classifications:

First-degree burns

The single most painful condition that I have ever addressed as a health care provider is the acute pain associated with passing a sizeable kidney stone. More than a few women who I have treated over the years have said that passing a large kidney stone is much more painful than giving birth.

What's particularly scary about passing a kidney stone is that in most cases, there are no warning signs. One minute you are going about your normal business, and then all of a sudden, you begin to have waves of unimaginable pain on one side of your lower back.