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Health Spotlight

What is detoxification?

09/03/10

Among the more popular but nonetheless controversial topics both within and without the field of natural healing is the concept of detoxification. Whereas advocates swear by detoxification as a kind of panacea in the treatment all disease, skeptics dismiss as fanciful nonsense. In part both are right, and both are wrong – and I shall explain why.  Detoxification itself is a precise scientific word that can be used in a number of contexts – cellular detoxification, hepatic detoxification etc. Although discrete biological factors are at play in each separate Read more... What is detoxification?  

Featured Herb

Hot Infusions

09/03/10

Infusions are the simplest method of preparing a plant extract, taking advantage of water’s solvent properties, and are especially useful for a plant that contains fragile constituents that would otherwise be destroyed or precipitated by other methods.  To make a hot infusion, hot water is poured over a certain amount of dried herb, covered, and allowed to steep for 5 – 10 minutes. There are a variety of standard formulas for hot infusions depending on the herbal tradition, expressed as a ratio of weight (of the herb) to volume (of water) (W/V).  

Read more... Hot Infusions  
 

Featured Food

What is food?

09/03/10

It may seem like a rather obvious question, but the nature of food is one of those perplexing issues that seems to drive so much debate and controversy. Over the last 100 years society has been led to believe that apart from supplying basic energy, food has very little bearing on physical and mental health.   During this time we have seen farm-fresh whole foods become gradually displaced with manufactured versions of the same, while at the same time, bearing witness to previously rare diseases such as heart disease and cancer become the first and second causes of death Read more... What is food?  

Featured Lifestyle

Seasonal Regimen

09/03/10

The influence of the solar cycle, or the time it takes for the earth to complete one orbit around the sun, can be divided into two equal periods, each of which begins and ends with the winter and summer solstice. Ayurveda recognizes these two periods, calling them dakshinayana (southern movement) and uttarayana (northern movement), each corresponding to the shift in the position of the earth relative to the sun. Read more... Seasonal Regimen  

 
 

Blog

Back to work!!

09/03/10

Hi everyone!  If you've been hanging out at my website over the summer you might have noticed there hasn't been much activity lately.  I also have a back-log of Q&As I will be getting to very soon - many thanks for your patience!  Instead of slogging away here, I have been away on a well-deserved extended holiday up in the Kootenays, doing mostly nothing - just hanging out at the beach, relaxed dinners with family and after-hours ping pong.  I did however do some teaching for Joy Morrell at the Shanti Yoga Studio in Nelson, and saw a few patients as well.  I had such a good time in Nelson that I'm coming back for more, and will be offering Read more... Back to work!!