Weight Loss Roulette

Eating late at night is a NO NO! First, your liver's natural rhythm requires it be free to clean itself at night. It can't do that if it's processing your food. Second, a study at Northwestern University finds that our body's natural cycles of sleep and wakefulness, the circadian rhythms, also influence metabolism - our metabolism gets slower at night. If you eat late at night, even if you are making healthy food choices, it is harder for your body to burn it off, more likely that it will be stored as fat and toxins, and more likely to disturb digestion. So quit the late night snacking! If you are eating right at your meals, you shouldn't be hungry anyways!

Fear of the scary, holistic unknown

"Holistic Health and Alternative Medicine are dangerous and irresponsible!"

One of our Prana Holistic Practitioners has recently started writing for See Magazine, an Edmonoton-based free newspaper (click here for Roberta's latest article on "Lymphatics"). Her first article was a simple introduction to her philosophy on health - click here to read her introductory article. This article, seemingly non-inflammatory as it is, provoked an angry letter. 


Although I won't share the exact contents of the letter, the gist was this: holistic health is dangerous. It has no value. There are no double-blind studies proving its efficacy. It cannot claim to save lives, like conventional medicine. Any effects seen by holistic health or alternative health are purely placebo.


It is wonderful to start a conversation about this, so let's do that.


First, I would like to address the argument that all resulting improvements from Holistic health modalities are the result of the placebo effect. The argument that there are "no double-blind, placebo-controlled studies being done" in this area, is simply untrue. Yes, studies are limited, but this is primarily due to lack of funding and corporate interest. Drug companies and large corporations often fund studies; the motivation to fund in an area of low profitability is correspondingly low. 


I will 100% concede that the placebo effect accounts for much of the results observed in any healing practice. But 30% of all conventional treatments is proven to be placebo as well. Drugs like Sertraline (including Zoloft), a popular anti-depressant, is criticized for being almost exclusively placebo effect, meaning the drug does no more to help depression than a sugar pill would. This effect is not limited just to conventional medicine; surgery also appears to be affected by the placebo effect. A study on arthroscopic knee surgery divided individuals into a group who underwent knee surgery and a group, who unbeknownst to them, had a "sham" surgery (were put under, had incisions and were then promptly sewn up without treatment). Both groups reported no pain one year after the surgery, regardless of whether it was real or fake. 

The author of the letter to SEE dismisses acupuncture because one study showed similar effects - a "sham" acupuncture session resulted, for this one specific problem, to be just as effective as "real" acupuncture. Shall we dismiss surgery as a whole as well because it is seemingly wholly placebic (just made that word up!) in its affect for this one surgery?

Conventional medicine lays on a foundation of placebo to the SAME degree alternative medicine does.

I also think it is remarkable that this individual, and so many like him, unquestioningly reference the Placebo Effect as fact, yet refuse to acknowledge energy healing. The very nature of the Placebo Effect is that thought (non-matter) effects things (matter/your body). It is proof that Quantum Physics, not old, matter-based Newtonian Physics, are where answers to better health lie. And it is an acknowledgment that energy (thought) can affect physiology.

There are many reasons why I think this is a wonderful debate to bring out into the open. Unfortunately, this particular effort to debate this topic, like so many I have seen in this field, seems profoundly based in fear of the unknown and ignorance. 

Something to chew on!

Yours in good health,

 

Kristi Shmyr
Prana Holistic
10138 121st Edmonton
www.pranaholistic.ca

Are you Hungry?

Here's an interesting idea - I was reading a great blog...ironically, this blog was ABOUT blogging [http://www.fridaytrafficreport.com], and came across an interesting post on what makes us, collectively, more likely to "rise to the occasion" and churn out our best work. The thought being this - as a culture in North America, we are soft. We are prosperous, comfortable and, well, really really really lucky. This breeds complacency. The really amazing, inspirational stories happen during massive depressions and wars and famines. Let's be honest - regardless of how bad we think the economy is and how tragic the losses in Iraq are, we, as a culture, are still remarkably comfortable. Change only happens when pain is applied (only the truly motivated change purely towards pleasure).

So how do we create a hunger, as Jack Humphrey calls it, to achieve great things in light of all this "comfort"? Well, here's my two cents on the matter (that's what blogs are for, yes?)

• Get very clear on what you DON'T want. Yes, I realize this goes against everything we are told by Law of Attraction teachers - never focus on what you don't want. I agree, but the point is not to focus on the negative, but to be clear on it. From that, you can get clear on what you DO want, in all its technicolored glory!

• Like it or not, we have a "default future" - a future that simply "happens" when we are on auto-pilot. It's imperative that you get clear on what consequences there will be if you continue to float down the "apathy path". Get clear on what those consequences are, and you will have motivation to move into action.

• Focus not on what would make you "comfortable" or "secure". These are apathetic, soft, lazy words. As Dr. Joe Vitale from the movie The Secret says, "Dare something worthy". Imagine you are in the future and a group of people are discussing what person, dead or alive, they would most like to have dinner with. Someone says your name and everyone is in agreement - it would be amazing to pick your brain and figure out how you ... (and it's your job to fill in the blank with whatever grand, life-changing, no-limits, amazing feat you accomplished in your lifetime). This will get you out of your head, away from the SMART, "achievable" goals and into the gracious world of big, juicy dreams. What would you do if you could not fail? These are the kind of dreams that will keep you hungry!

However you live your life, chose to LIVE IT! Make choices! Be grateful for what you have, but never complacent. And always hunger for your really big dreams. No one has ever been inspired by someone who is careful, comfortable and secure. The only way to affect true change in the world is to live your life to the fullest.

If you need help busting through the fog of a comfortable life and into your bright and colorful destiny, you might want to check out this FREE audio on how to create your year - listen online here -Goal Ninja Audio Online

Now go forth and live vibrantly!

Kristi Shmyr

Prana Holistic

10138 121st Edmonton

780.454.5299

kristi@pranaholisti.ca