Your Best Medicine

As an herbalist student of Rosemary Gladstar, I have great respect for her healing ways. This quote could not be nearer or dearer to my heart. Truly, the way we live our lives, every day, IS the best medicine we can give ourselves.

We have a powerful choice, every day, in the food we feed our body, mind, and soul with. 

Whole foods feed our bodies; feed our cells for vibrant health and healing.

Whole, positive thoughts (our own and those we invite into our lives) feed our minds for happy living.

Whole, deep spirited energy feed our souls for compassionate living and loving from our hearts.

I hope 2016 is your best medicine year yet! 

I am creating learn at home eCourses to better support you with my health & healing work. Learn from home and invite your best medicine into 2016 and your life!

E-Courses To Walk Your Health Path

Join me and bring powerful medicine into your life. We both will be glad you did!  

Healthy people make the best communities to live in.  Join my quest to support your health and healing and make our communities vibrate and glow with amazing health!

My Healthy New Years Gift to the next 5 people who enroll in:  Food As Your Healing Tool: using foods for your healing advantage & decrease disease causing inflammation.  

25% discount off the $60 tuition: $45 for the first five "get healthy in 2016" students!

Class release dates on January 6th & 13th, 2016

Stocking Up the Natural Medicine Cabinet

Making Herbal Medicine 101 Class, June 30th, '14

Learning natural healing, the time honored methods of supporting the body's innate ability to heal itself, is a sure fire method of invoking true healing in your body.

Think of this: every time you cut yourself the cut heals.  That is how your whole body will function, will heal, if you give it what it needs and remove those things that "get in the way" of healing.

Your immune system is your system that works to repair and heal your body.  It works synergistically, in symphony, with every system in your body.  That is the beauty of the whole: holistic healing.

Healing comes from inside you.

A "healer" is a guide who steers you back to your own path, your space of healing. A healer knows the natural ways to invoke the immune system's ability to repair and heal mind, body, and spirit. 

You are your own best healer. 

What to do to create health and healing:

1. *Remove the lifestyle habits that created the “ill” health symptoms.
2. Learn what whole foods are and eat a whole food diet, your cellular health will thank you!  If we have not had this whole food conversation…it is time to say, “Hey Paula, what the heck, tell me the cellular health secrets!”  Move in the direction of more food from plants, balancing out with a comfortable amount of animal based food to keep your body healthy. Listen to your body's needs, not someone else's food rules.
3. Add in herbs and/or other whole food supplements to re-fortify your cellular health, get your nutritional savings account over flowing with life enhancing nutrition!
4. Move your body:  sedentary living kills, movement heals.
5. Fresh air and sunshine…"love" two birds with one action, get outside AND move! (This sounds better than the kill two birds line...)
6. Sleep.
7. Stress: get rid of it or change your attitude about that which you can’t get rid of. (Might I suggest yoga and meditation?)  Which leads me to…
8. Healthy attitude toward yourself, all others on this planet and life in general.  Practice a kindness attitude towards all, starting with you.  Self-care, and its ripple effects for your health and how you perceive and interact with the world, cannot be  emphasized enough.
9. Ask me for my “lifestyle” suggestions handout.  It contains more thoughts on healthy lifestyle choices for you to contemplate and add to your own bag of healthy living and healing tricks!

*Remove the lifestyle habits that created the “ill” health symptoms, some examples:

• Can't sleep?  Remove caffeine and stress for starters.  This may mean finding new ways of perceiving stress and learning to let go of stress.  (see yoga and meditation suggestion above!)
• Breathing problems?  Smoker? Quitting is one obvious solution in your healing quest.
• Allergies? 100% whole foods, raw honey from local bees, remove allergens from your life and living space...
• Constipation?  Stress clamps down the colon; see can't sleep above.  Refined foods clog up the body, your colon... see whole foods above.
• Headaches?  Stress, refined foods, sugar, artificial sweeteners, prescription medications, birth control pills, chemical household cleaners, chemical body care products.... all, and many more synthetics, can contribute to your body imbalance that triggers headaches.

Here's a peek inside my herbal healing cabinets:  the formulas I have used over the years (and trust) and the dried herbs I keep on hand to make my own healing blends.

The Healing Medicine cabinet in my downstairs bathroom.

Dried herbs and raw, local honey...ready to make tinctures and infusions (medicinal strength teas).

The upstairs bathroom healing cabinet.

Peeking down into my herbal first aid kit.

Teaching the art of using herbs, as part of a whole health lifestyle, is a passion for me!  

On Monday, June 30th I taught a fun class at my home:  Making Herbal Medicines 101.

Interested in learning, give me a yell!  This Fall will be a great time for another Herbal Medicine Class!

Blessings and HUGS, Paula

SOUL Food

About a year ago, I found this book:

I grabbed it up for a couple of reasons. One, I like to read and learn from others and their whole food perspective. Two, I knew it would come in handy with clients.

I have recommended it several times over the past year.  Recently, I was again recommending it and I decided to check out the authors. Who are these people that wrote this book?  I can't believe it took me this long to be curious!

So I find that Edward Bauman is the founder and director of a holistic nutrition college, a whole food oasis, in California!

I love his acronym for remembering healthy eating habits that balance human health: SOUL.  What a perfect way to remember how to feed and heal mind, body, and soul.  I have been teaching this same concept for 20+ years, without using the SOUL acronym, and am glad to now have this fun way to remind people.

• S:  Seasonal
• O:  Organic
• U:  Un-processed (Un-refined, Un-packaged... my words!)
• L:  Local

By Dr. Ed Bauman

The Eating for Health model (Double click on above picture to enlarge image) provides a palette from which we can select the most health supportive foods. Eating from the inside out will provide a building diet for times when we need to build up our nutrient reserves. Eating from the outside in will set the scene for cleansing the body of impurities and toxins. The goal of the Eating for Health model is to provide a diverse selection of whole foods to sustain health and promote recovery from illness and injury.

Tell me your story in the comments:  

What are your favorite foods to heal your mind, body, and S.O.U.L?

Gluten Free Apple Pie

Whole Grain Gluten Free Pie Crust

• 1/3 cup butter* from pasture raised cows
• 1 cup whole grain, gluten-free flour**
• 1/4 tsp. unrefined sea salt
• 1 - 2 tbsp. cold water (I use my local milk)

When making a whole grain pie crust, I have found it much easier to make it in a food processor.  The pie dough melds together really well and rolls out nicely.  I have tried many methods: fork, fork and knife, pie pastry hand blender, etc.  The best whole grain pie crust, for me, is made in a food processor.

I put in the flour, sprinkle the salt in, add butter in cold slices, and put the lid on. Turn the food processor on and drizzle the water or milk in through the top. When the dough balls up and is rolling about inside the canister, shut off the processor.

To roll the dough I sprinkle a bit of oat flour onto my pastry cloth and use the cotton sleeve on my rolling-pin. I bought my cloth pi making set at Evan's & White's Hardware store, Potsdam.

Roll out the pie dough and put it into the pie plate.  I make a second recipe for the top crust.  I have found it works best, for me, to make one crust at a time in the food processor.  If I am going to make a lattice top, like the pie above, I just make a little extra dough and make one batch only. (Approximately 1 1/3 cup flour plus maybe and extra tbsp., 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 2 tbsp. cold milk.)

Apple Filling

• 4 very large, organic Braeburn apples, or whatever your favorite flavor of organic apple.  I prefer Pink Lady apples... but they are expensive so I save them for eating and buy a cheaper apple for pies.
• Slice into thin pieces, leave the nutritious peels intact on the apples
• 1/2 cup unrefined sucanat sugar
• 1 to 3 tsp. pure Ceylon cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. vanilla
• oat flour, say 1/4 cup, to thicken the apple juice so the pie is not runny.

Mix apples with rest of ingredients.  Fill pie crust and top with 2nd crust or lattice top. Pop into the oven and bake for approximately 50 to 60 minutes at 350 F.  Apples should be gently bubbling inside the pie, not running liquid all over the oven.

*I have been using Kerry Gold Butter from Ireland.  I am not thrilled about using something transported from so far away. Local food is better!

I wish we had a farm cooperative in Northern NY that produced butter from pasture raised cows.  However, I received a "tip" from Jessica Prosper of Prosper's Farmstead Creamery!  I just ordered (from Nature's Storehouse Wholeshare) 5 lbs of pasture raised butter from a farm cooperative in New York State:  Kriemhild's Dairy.  They are not in Northern NY State, but hey, they are not in Ireland either!  Thanks for the tip Jessica!

**I use mostly gluten free oat flour in pie crusts.  This one also had millet, quinoa, teff, and amaranth flours.  Then I added in a 1/4 cup of dark buckwheat flour.

The oat flour will make a smooth crust.  Add in the millet, quinoa, amaranth, and teff and the crust gets textured... grainy.  If you are not used to this in whole grains, I am just warning you!  The buckwheat flour has a very strong flavor.  Very yummy, but again, if you are not used to this flavor it is a big leap from refined, white flour pie crust pastries.  I find them flavorful, a true taste sensation as compared to white flour crusts that to me taste like baked wall paper paste. Enjoy the yummy, new flavors on your taste buds.

The pie is very yummy and full of whole-cell regenerating, healthy, whole foods. No refined flours and sugars depleting the health of the body cells in my home!   I encourage you to read and learn about feeding your body cells with whole food to prevent and heal lifestyle related diseases.  It is nature's plan!  

Arthritis: Cooling the Inflammation Naturally

Support to move into a whole food eating & healing lifestyle.

Dietary Changes:  

1. Ok, here I go.... whole foods.  

If you replace everything you put in your mouth that is not 100% whole food with real food, whole food, your body will heal.  It is really that simple.

I could give much more information but making changes, one simple thing at a time, is easiest for most people.  Changing the diet from processed, packaged, food "products" to 100% whole food is a huge change for most people.  Seriously think about what you eat for each meal and snacks, if you snack: How many food items are manufactured in a factory?  How many were created by nature and nature alone (no human meddling)?

2. While switching to whole foods, remove wheat and gluten from the diet.  

By removing all these packaged foods from your life, you will be removing many laboratory made ingredients that are derived from wheat.  Many food additives are made from wheat and therefore contain gluten.  You will not read "wheat" on the label but the ingredients with weird, chemical sounding names, more than likely are wheat derived and contain gluten.  Eat un-packaged food!  

I know many people have complete relief of symptoms by getting gluten out of their diets.  This is not as hard as people "groan and moan" it is going to be.  People need to educate themselves around gluten and with this new found knowledge, avoiding gluten is not so difficult.  Where it gets difficult is we have become a culture dependent on food products and eating away from home (which most food in restaurants is cheap, crap food; use the cheapest ingredients to make the most profit possible).  Food products and food prepared out of home is often times full of wheat derivatives.   For help:  Gluten-Free Cooking & Living Class

3. Another key step in whole food, gluten-free eating is to avoid gluten-free products.  

Most are full of filler crap ingredients that are debilitating to health.  You will be, in essence, trading one debilitating food for another.  Read labels on all foods, gluten-free included, for 100% whole food ingredients. All gluten free foods need to be 100% whole food: no white rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, etc. These are refined ingredients and hard on your body's health.

OK, so why remove gluten?  Because it is very inflammatory in most people's bodies.  Modern day wheat is extremely high in gluten compared to heritage wheat of days gone by, the wheat that existed before human manipulation.  The high concentrations of gluten in modern wheat disturb metabolism and cellular health, some people notice it more than others.  How gluten affects each person is different.  What is known is that gluten is a huge culprit in arthritis and many people are relieved of arthritis symptoms simply by getting rid of gluten.  Eat completely gluten-free for 2 weeks, see how you feel.  If any doubts about it helping or not, try this:  after 2 weeks of gluten-free eating, eat plenty of wheat at every meal for a whole day.  Pile on the whole wheat bread, pasta, crackers, and cereal.  Now pay attention to how your body feels!

Bread was traditionally made from sprouted whole grains and then fermented for 3 full days with sour dough cultures. The amount of gluten left after sprouting and culturing was very minimal. Today's bread is mass produced in a matter of a couple of hours. There was good reasons for traditional food preparation.

Gluten is naturally found in wheat, rye, barley, and oats*.  Any variety of wheat will contain gluten:  spelt, kamut, einkorn... anything that says heritage wheat variety.  Yes, they have less gluten but at this point, with an auto immune disease, any amount of gluten will just exacerbate the internal inflammation.

Think lung disease:  how many daily cigarettes would you recommend to someone with lung disease?

Think liver disease:  how many shots of liquor would you recommend to someone trying to heal liver disease?

Think diabetes:  how much sugar would you recommend to someone trying to heal the beta cells in their pancreas and ultimately heal their type II diabetes?

Would you tell these people to do the 80/20 plan with their cigarette, alcohol, or sugar consumption? 

Eliminating the "culprits," (the cause or causes of the health symptoms) and introducing nourishing healers (food, lifestyle, herbs, etc.) is what will heal your beautiful body, right down to each and every beautiful cell!

*Avoid oats unless certified gluten-free and organic. Oats do not naturally contain gluten.  If whole oats, oat flakes, Irish oats, or oat flour are CERTIFIED gluten-free, then they are fine.  Gluten-free certification is essential with oats.  Otherwise, you are consuming oats that have been contaminated with gluten in the grain harvesting and handling process.  Oats are processed on the same equipment that wheat is processed on. This industry practice contaminates oats with gluten from the wheat.

All grains should be organic to avoid pesticides and agricultural chemicals that will, most likely, exacerbate your symptoms. Glyphosate (broad spectrum herbicide brought to you by Monsanto) is hard on the gut lining's health, disrupts gut microbial populations, and creates inflammation in the body. 

4. Get rid of sugar:  

A whole food diet will take care of that problem immediately. Perhaps some educational handouts around the ill effects of sugar would help out here?  Email me and ask for my sugar handouts: pyoumell@gmail.com

5. Dairy:

Often people have much relief from arthritis symptoms when they completely avoid dairy. Some people do well to re-introduce dairy after weeks of eliminating it IF the dairy is raw and from grass fed animals. This means no pasteurization or homogenization. Others do well to re-introduce only raw, grass fed goat milk and goat milk products (cheese, yogurt).

6. Alkalize the body:  

The human body likes to function in a slightly alkaline state.  When the body struggles to balance from acidic eating and lifestyle habits our health suffers: mineral loss causing tooth decay and bone de-mineralization and deterioration of body organs, body cells.

Below is a chart on acid and alkaline foods.  Eating in a balanced way, to keep the body alkaline, helps to heal, including arthritis. Example:  Eat veggies with meat to balance the acid-alkaline effects.  This is only a quick explanation of acid-alkaline balancing.  I encourage you to explore and learn more.

A youtube video with a good, basic explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk1ru_CJt2k (Forgive the couple of misspelled words, the content is what counts here.)

7. Movement Magic:  

Movement is essential.  Move it or lose it.  Try something called dynamic movement which helps to heal the adhesions that settle in from moving body parts in one direction only. Can I recommend Yoga?

Lisa Huck: I cannot recommend this woman enough:  her exercises will restore youthful movement in just minutes a day by lubricating (listen to her awesome words in the video).  I stumbled upon her (thanks to Dr. Mercola) and her dynamic movements have ended my sciatica and low back issues (which were not low back issues at all, but movement issues!).  She is the Goddess of Movement, my Goddess of movement!

http://thrivefnlblog.com/2012/04/16/dynamic-core-routine/

8. Herbal Healing:  

Herbs are fabulous whole foods for healing the body.  I would add these in AFTER you have had gluten out of your diet for at least 2 weeks.  This way, you can see the effects getting gluten out has on getting healing into your body!  You do want to know what is having the healing effects!

My favorite herb:  Stinging nettles, I love this green healer.  Her work is truly magic in the human body. Nettles adds nutrients to every body cell.  This is what you want for your body!

 Nettles:  planted right next to my porch so I always know I have a supply!

9. More herbs to add for nourishing the body cells, easing symptoms of inflammation, and healing:

ginger, turmeric, cinnamon*, cayenne, and Devil's claw. (*Please use real Ceylon cinnamon, not the grocery store variety of cinnamon.)

Turmeric Ginger Anti-inflammatory syrup recipe

Turmeric butter, anti-inflammatory butter recipe

10. Burdock root and dandelion root:  

Nourishing the liver and adding essential fatty acids to the diet heals the body.  Both of these roots can be eaten in soups, stir fries, stews, and grated (raw) into a slaw salad or grated to put on top of a green salad.  Making an infusion and drinking 3 to 4 cups  daily is healing as well. An infusion is a medicinal strength herbal tea.  Need help on how to brew an infusion?

11. Nature's Path:  

Find that place outside and get fresh air and sunshine (even on cloudy days) every day. Visualize a potted plant, shoved in the bottom of a closet, no fresh air or sunshine.  What do you think will be the outcome for that plant?  Put this common sense in action in your life.  All living beings need fresh air and sunshine, period, bottom line!  Embrace it, love it, find time every single day.  I promise, you will not regret it.

Putting your body in direct contact with the Earth is called Grounding. Think bare feet walking on a sunny day, cloudy day, even a rainy day. Try removing as much clothes as possible and lie right down on the ground getting as much Earth contact as possible.

Below zero and snow you say? There are Grounding mats you can buy. I will not profess any knowledge or experience around these things as I have never used them. I have clients who swear by them for relief of body aches and pains. 

12. Acupuncture:  

I would be horribly remiss if I did not tell you about the healing powers of acupuncture to reduce inflammation and move healing energy in the body.  I recommend Shelby Connelly, Licensed Acupuncturist in Colton, NY:  http://fiveelementsliving.com/

Not in the Northern NY State area?  Find an acupuncturist from Tai Sophia, Maryland University of Integrative Health.

13. Yoga:  

Does amazing things for healing!  Find a yoga instructor knowledgeable in arthritis health and healing.  Here in the Northern part of NY State, St. Lawrence County... I recommend Rebecca Rivers, Ellie Beeler, and Sarah Harris.  Try the Yoga Loft & Trillium!

14. Reiki Energy Healing:

Find a Reiki practitioner to help bring calming relief to your body, mind, and spirit. I often recommend people take Reiki 1 training to learn to do Reiki healing on themselves.

Bottom Line:  

1.  Whole foods

2.  Gluten-free eating, maybe grain free

3. Sugar free eating & drinking

4.  Move your body

5.  Fresh air & sunshine

6.  Herbs

7.  Acupuncture and energy healing

8.  Yoga

9. Reiki

May this post inspire you to move forward in your life, to take self-responsibility for healing your own body. You know your body best and what it needs to heal.

Be well, relax, learn to heal your beautiful body through nature!  If I can help you with your healing plan, you know where to find me. Contact Paula

PS  Need some words of love & encouragement from happy clients & students?

Free Natural Health-Lifestyle Medicine Information to further encourage your Self Healing Skills:  

• Principles of Whole Food Eating  (Whole foods are the foundation for your healing plan.)
• Movement Magic
• Whole Health Lifestyle Choices
• Making Herbal Infusions
• Bone Health
• Making any recipe a Whole Food Recipe
• Microwave ILLS
• Gut Health
• Keeping blood sugar healthy
• Cook like a kitchen artist!
• Clean 15, Dirty Dozen list from Environmental Working Group
• Recipes

Medicinal Herbs ARE Food

Dandelion: the flower, leaves, & roots are all used for liver healing nourishment. The part used depends on the season and strength of medicine desired.

Burdock Root: a powerful liver nourishing & healing herb.

"One of the biggest tragedies of human civilization is the precedence of chemical therapy over whole food nutrition.  

It is substitution of artificial therapy over natural, of poison over food, in which we are feeding people poisons trying to correct the reactions of nutritional starvation." -Dr. Royal Lee

Herbs are Food

Herbs can be used in tea, tinctures, oils, poultices, and some eaten whole as food.  

A common message heard from main stream media and western medicine is Do NOT use herbs as they are potentially dangerous.  

As an Herbalist, I am here to remind you what we have known as humans interacting with the Nature: Herbs are plants with body cell nourishing capabilities.

When we know, or work with someone who knows, the nourishing and medicinal benefits of herbs we can use them to support our health and healing. Many factors are considered to help guide the decision as to which herb, or combination of herbs, would best support an individual’s health and healing.

Historically, people learned from each other which plants support which body organs and systems. We learned from our elders which plants supported the nourishing and healing of an individual’s needs.

Herbs are a plant: leaf, root, stems, bark, berries, seeds. Herbs are plants, similar to plants we eat as vegetables.

The individual herb has nutritional and healing properties with affinities for certain tissues. Some examples:

• Hawthorne berry for the heart

• Saw palmetto for the prostate

• Red Raspberry leaf for the uterus

• Rhubarb root for the colon

• Milk thistle for the liver

• Nettle as a general nutritive herb

• Dandelion and burdock root for liver cleansing

The list of herbs and their benefits is as long as the list of plants we share this Earth with.  

The above herbs are a few example of herbs and the tissue / organ they have affinities for healing. Healing happens because the herb adds whole food nutrition to your body cells.  Plants we eat as food serve the same physiological process of nourishing our body cells.

Recommendations for working with herbal plants:

1. Read up on the herb you want to take.  Learn about the herb and its healing affinities before you make the decision to take it.

2. Contact an herbalist for help in choosing the right herb, or blend of herbs, to add to your plan for health and healing. The herb or blend of herbs for one person may not be the best blend for another person with the seemingly same “symptoms presentation.” Healing is not a one size fits all experience.

3. Eat a whole food diet. Your body cells require whole food nutrition to function properly in each moment, replicate as normal & healthy cells, and keep your being whole for vital longevity.

4. Herbs are amazing nutrition for the body but they cannot make up for a refined, processed, junk food product diet.

Herbs are whole foods.  Use them wisely for whole body healing.

Stinging Nettle, below, are one of my favorite herbs. Nettles are a powerhouse of nutrition and healing energy for the whole body.