The Organized Mind by Aurelius Tjin

Welcome to the digital age.

While we take for granted much of the technology that surrounds us and the way it has changed the way we work and relax; it’s actually very important to recognize just how much it has impacted our lives.

Today we are constantly bombarded by information and stimulation and it's taking its toll on our brains. Meanwhile, the expectations placed on us by our work have only increased as a result of greater productivity tools and enhanced connectivity.

And it’s not just technology that has changed life for us either. The demands placed on us in other areas have also increased. The world is more populous, living costs have gone up and our roles in society have changed. More and more women are now working full time, which while a good thing, has created new challenges in trying to raise and care for our children. The roles of men have likewise become increasingly uncertain and competition for employment is fiercer than ever.

Don’t get me wrong – none of this is bad in itself! Having greater access to entertainment, being able to communicate with anyone in the world and enjoying greater equality than ever before are all good things. The state of the economy is a little less rosy. But all in all, times are good.

The problem? We’re having a hard time keeping up with all this change! And it’s leading to burnout. For a great number of us, the demands placed on us are simply too great for us to shoulder. The constant stimulation and constant bombardment of information is leading to burnout. And knowing how to get what we want from life is seemingly impossible.

Our brains evolved in entirely different environments and they simply aren’t designed to thrive under these conditions. The result is what we call ‘over- whelm’. That means too much information, too much pressure, too much to do and too little time. We end up stressed, exhausted and disorganized and it’s just not good for our health.

The Modern Dilemma

Perhaps this sounds familiar:

You wake up first thing in the morning with a jolt because your alarm has gone off. In a rush, you clean your teeth and get ready for work while watching the news on whichever device you prefer.

You pack your family off for school and work respectively and then you set off yourself. You’re late, because it took you 20 minutes to choose what you were going to wear and to find your keys. And because you lay there on the couch for 5 minutes doing nothing.

What follows is a tedious and frustrating 10-90 minutes of commuting – complete with angry fellow commuters, stuffy carriages and probably a fair amount of time spent playing Candy Crush. By the time you get into work, you’re already stressed, late and feeling a headache come on from peering at a small screen under artificial lighting.

You then have a strong coffee, leaving you feeling wired, and you open your inbox to 10,000 emails (okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration but you get the point!). You set yourself some things to achieve for the day – just so you can get back to feeling ‘on top’ of work, but then you spend the next 20 minutes on Facebook and YouTube watching cat videos. And staring at photos of your friends on sunny holidays wondering what went so wrong with your life…

Lunch comes and you feel like you’ve barely done anything. You head out for lunch and grab the cheapest thing you can find that’s sugary and have another strong coffee.

This doesn’t exactly fuel you with energy for the second half of the day, which is spent largely putting out fires. How can you be expected to progress in your career and to get the kind of lifestyle you want, when you’re spending the whole time treading water?

By the end of the day, you’ve spent most of your time responding to emails and trying not to get distracted. You end up leaving an hour late, which is followed by another hour of commuting.

You’re now home at 7pm. You should make a healthy meal for your family, maybe suggest a fun activity that you can all get up to?

But you’re completely stuck for inspiration, so instead you put on a pizza and a film and crash on the couch for the next hour.

The house is untidy and messy though, so you feel generally anxious and stressed instead of getting any relaxation.

There were things you were meant to do this evening too: calling your friend who you haven’t spoken to in ages for example was high on the list. So was paying that bill. Only you can’t face the idea of paying that bill be- cause you don’t want to rummage through the piles of documents on your desk. You’re not even sure you can find the bill anymore. Which would mean calling them on your lunch break to get them to send out another one.

You haven’t even looked at your bank account because you don’t want to know how bad it is. You’re supposed to be saving for a mortgage/your kids’ college fund, but you have that stag/hen party coming up that you can’t really afford but can’t really get out of either…

And you don’t want to call your friend because you’ve now only got an hour left before you start getting ready for bed. And how can you justify calling that friend when you haven’t paid the bill? So you avoid looking at the WhatsApp message because you don’t want them to see that you’ve seen it.

Let alone spending any time with your wife/husband?

Then you get an email from work reminding you how much you have to do tomorrow, which only stressed you out further. You browse Facebook a bit more and respond to some notifications from Candy Crush.

Then you hit the sack – later than planned – and having done barely any of the things you wanted to do. You still haven’t read that new book you bought and were excited about.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day?

Except you can’t get any sleep because you’re stressed and you just spent the last hours before bed looking at screens. And the coffee is still in your system…

And at the weekend you have about 20 things to do and that dinner party you’re supposed to be going to.

Conquering Information Overload – What You Will Learn

That last section wasn’t designed to make you feel even more stressed and anxious than perhaps you already are. Rather, it was intended to draw attention to some of the very real issues that we face on a daily basis.

Most of us simply have too much to do, we are too ‘wired’ and we are too bombarded with information, decisions and more. Approximately half of us are burned out because we’re trying to do too much and because we’re struggling just to keep afloat. The irony is that we actually end up achieving less the more we try and squeeze in and as such, we can never get ahead.

But there is an answer and there are ways around these problems. The secret is organization. It might sound like a small thing but staying organized is actually everything in today’s environment. By staying organized and keeping on top of all that information, those huge to-do lists and your calendar, you can take each challenge one step at a time.

You can automate some of the work that is taking up the most time and energy, you can delegate and you can find better ways to think about the problems and challenges that come up.

Once you learn to prioritize, organize and schedule, you’ll find life becomes MUCH more manageable and that you have far more time for yourself, your family and your goals. You get to actually enjoy life again, while at the same time standing more of a chance of achieving everything you want to achieve.

The digital age is partly the result of all the computers and tools that are now integral to the way we work. So the solution? Start thinking and work- ing more like a computer. That means being methodical, organized and logical.

You’ll learn all this and MUCH more in this book. Specifically, you will learn:

• How to reduce the number of decisions you have to make in a day

• How to prioritize the most important tasks

• How to schedule rest and recovery

• How to save time by delegating and automating your tasks

• How to keep your home more organized

• How to calm your mind to eliminate stress

• How to work more efficiently

• How to reduce notifications while still staying connected

• How to organize your thoughts

• How to create systems, to-do lists and filing methods to help you stay on top of your work

• And much more!

By the end, you’ll have organized your life such that you can once again feel ‘on top’ of everything and start making real progress.

The best bit? This is all stuff you can do right now. Instead of battling through the stress and hoping one day life will get better, you’re instead implementing simple changes right now that can make ALL the difference.

For the very best results, I recommend taking a single day off from work and cancelling all your other commitments. You’re then going to use this one day to work through all your small tasks, to implement new systems, to tidy up and generally to give yourself that ‘refresh’ that you so desperately need.

This is how you accomplish THE ORGANIZED MIND. And once your mind is organized, everything else starts falling into place. You’ll be more disciplined, more productive, happier, more efficient and less stressed.

Source: The Organized Mind by Aurelius Tjin

Five Reasons Not to Blame Yourself for Weight

Diabetes Self-Management Magazine Nov & Dec 2017

You have probably heard that weight is a matter of “calories in versus calories out” (CICO). If you eat more calories than you burn through exercise, you gain weight, right?

Wrong. Weight is not just about calories in versus calories out, and blaming yourself for failing to lose weight is neither helpful nor based on facts. Research has revealed at least five little-known factors that may play a part in controlling your weight.

As you may have experienced, people with diabetes are usually told to lose weight. This advice can be frustrating and counterproductive. Yes, exercise and good eating will help your health and glucose control, but weight may keep bouncing back.

We need to know this because studies clearly show that for people with diabetes, self-blame leads to higher glucose levels and poorer self-management. Self-compassion, on the other hand, facilitates healing.

What are some of these factors influencing weight, and what, if anything, can we do about them?

1. Intestinal bacteria

The germs in our guts influence how our bodies process food. Scientific American reports that “Gut bacteria alter the way we store fat, how we balance levels of glucose in the blood, and how we respond to hormones that make us feel hungry or full. The wrong mix of microbes, it seems, can help set the stage for obesity and diabetes from the moment of birth.”

Thin people tend to have a greater variety of bacteria in their guts than overweight people do. Especially important seem to be Bacteroidetes, a phylum of bacteria that break down plant starches and fibers. If you have a large variety of Bacteroidetes, you can eat more fiber and break it down for energy and other functions.

Without these good bacteria, your body won’t like fiber and will crave refined carbs like sugar. Studies show that mice raised in a sterile environment with no bacteria preferred more sweets than normal mice. People who crave chocolate have different gut bacteria than people who can leave chocolate alone.

Along with appetite, bacteria regulate how much of the calories we eat are actually absorbed. (What does that do to the “calories in” part of the calories in versus calories out equation?) Bacteria also control our fat storage.

In one study, mice were raised in a sterile environment and then fed bacteria. The donors were four sets of twin human sisters, one thin and one overweight in each pair. “The mice ate the same diet in equal amounts,” Scientific American reported, “yet the animals that received bacteria from an obese twin grew heavier and had more body fat than mice with microbes from a thin twin.”

Changing our intestinal bacteria

We inherit our original gut bacteria from our mothers and caregivers. According to a study by the University of Missouri, people who grow up in the same household tend to have similar gut bacteria long after they move away from one another.

However, there are ways to change our germs. What you eat influences which bacteria will grow in your gut. According to science journalist Knvul Sheikh writing in Scientific American, “Choosing between a BLT sandwich or a yogurt parfait for lunch can increase the populations of some types of bacteria and diminish others.”

Eating more fiber often attracts a better mix of gut bacteria. Fiber foods are often called “prebiotics” and include vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes, garlic, onion, and fibrous fruits such as berries. You can also take fiber supplements. Remember to drink a lot of water to keep the fiber soft.

We can consume healthy bacteria directly with “probiotic” foods. These include yogurt, sauerkraut and kimchi, pickles, dark chocolate, tempeh, miso, natto, and sourdough bread, among others. You can take probiotic supplements as well.2. Metabolic rate

We usually think of “calories out” in terms of exercise. In reality, moving around accounts for only about one-third of our energy use. Between 60 and 75 percent of our energy output is called “basal metabolism.” It’s the energy we need, even at rest, to keep warm, pump blood, breathe, fight infections, grow new cells, think, and carry out a thousand other inner functions we never think about.

The basal metabolic rate, or BMR, varies widely between people. Several factors influencing BMR include height, weight, and muscle mass, which increase BMR, and aging and muscle thinning, which reduce it.

Hormones such as thyroid and growth hormone and catecholamines such as adrenalin raise BMR. The stress hormones cortisol and the metabolic hormone insulin lower BMR. Metabolic rate is largely controlled by our genes.

The slower your BMR, the less food you need to keep you going. This is why people with low thyroid levels gain weight so easily. How can you adjust your BMR?

Changing metabolic rate

It’s hard to raise metabolic rate, but you can easily lower it by cutting the calories you take in. The National Institute on Aging has found in several studies that restricting calories slows your BMR.

Reducing calories in automatically reduces calories out. Our bodies do this to survive in times when there is no food, a major reason why dieting usually fails to provide lasting weight loss.

Raising BMR takes more effort. Exercise helps. The fitness website Shaping Concepts says that hard, short strength training or vigorous cardio workouts increase levels of growth hormone and adrenaline, raising BMR.

Diet makes a difference. We can reduce insulin levels, causing increased BMR, by eating fewer carbohydrates, especially sugars and starches. Increasing protein intake helps develop muscles and prevent muscle loss, leading to higher BMR.

Get plenty of sleep to raise levels of growth hormone and reduce levels of cortisol.

Various substances raise metabolic rate. Studies show caffeine found in coffee or tea raises BMR for three hours after ingestion. Caffeine also stimulates fat cells to break down.

Nicotine, found in cigarettes, raises metabolic rate while decreasing appetite and interfering with food absorption. So, nicotine is a great weight-loss drug, if you ignore the side effects such as cancer, heart disease and death.

A healthier substance to raise BMR is ginseng. In one Korean study of mice, those who consumed ginseng burned much more fat than those who didn’t.

According to a study in the online journal PLOS One, capsaicin, found in hot peppers, increases metabolism and may prevent the slowdown that comes with diets. You can buy supplements if the peppers are too hot for you.

3. Insulin function

Insulin resistance makes it highly probable that you’ll store more fat than you need. Insulin resistance and high insulin levels are major causes of Type 2 diabetes as well as weight gain.

High levels of insulin, commonly seen with insulin resistance, increase the storage of fat. Insulin prevents fat cells from releasing fat for energy.

Several factors can cause insulin resistance. Most of them are genetic, but there are other causes. Inflammation anywhere in the body can lead to insulin resistance. Physical inactivity makes it harder for insulin to work. Stress releases hormones such as cortisol that raise insulin resistance.

According to the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), abdominal fat may cause insulin resistance, even though it’s also a symptom of it. Fat cells may release inflammatory chemicals that raise insulin resistance. Fat in the liver may directly interfere with insulin function there.

Other causes cited by the NIDDK include certain medications, older age, sleep problems, especially sleep apnea, and cigarette smoking. Mark Marino, MD, wrote in Diabetes Self-Management that medications including steroids, two classes of blood pressure drugs, antipsychotic medications, and the B vitamin niacin can worsen insulin resistance.

Highly processed foods such as white bread, pasta, white rice, and soda digest very quickly and spike blood sugar levels. These spikes cause high insulin levels, leading to insulin resistance.

Reducing insulin resistance

Exercise reduces insulin resistance. A more active lifestyle — for example, walking more, driving less, not sitting in one place too long — improves insulin function.

Poor sleep, even for just one night, has been shown in some studies to cause insulin resistance. Make getting more sleep a priority, and get checked for sleep apnea if you think that might be a problem for you.

The diabetes medications thiazolidinediones (TZDs, which include Actos and Avandia) are called insulin sensitizers, meaning they reduce insulin resistance. Metformin combats insulin resistance in the liver.

Foods that may reduce insulin resistance include avocados, nuts, lemon, garlic, many vegetables, whole grains, cocoa, and green tea.

Supplements include turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, berberine, chromium, vitamin D, lipoic acid, and resveratrol (found in red wine and grapes).

4. Environmental chemicals

These have a huge influence on weight because they can stimulate fat cell growth, change digestion, create insulin resistance, and increase appetite. These chemicals include persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which are found in agricultural chemicals, air pollution, and plastics (phthalates).

A 2006 study in Diabetes Care found that obesity did not increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes in obese people with very low levels of POPs in their bodies. An editorial comment on this study in The Lancet stated, “This finding would imply that virtually all the risk of diabetes conferred by obesity is attributable to persistent organic pollutants, and that obesity is only a vehicle for such chemicals.”

One point indicating that pollution causes weight gain is that animals — whether on farms, in zoos, pets, in laboratories, or in the wild — have been getting fatter over the past 30 years or so. Their exercise and eating patterns have presumably not changed, so chemicals may well be the cause.

The research group Diabetes and the Environment has created pages on all these chemicals and more, including estrogen-like compounds, antibiotics and fungicides. It’s quite eye-opening and frightening. You can see it at diabetesandenvironment.org.

Dealing with toxic pollution

How can you protect yourself from chemical pollution? We were exposed to these chemicals even before we were born, and we are exposed anew each day. It makes sense to eat organic food whenever you can afford it. Another way is to limit your exposure to plastics, for example, by avoiding drinks in plastic bottles.

5. Stress

Physical and emotional stress cause insulin resistance, stimulate fat growth, raise blood sugar and blood pressure levels, and interfere with sleep. Stress evolved as our bodies’ “fight or flight” response to a threat. Now we have stress responses to financial worries, family conflicts, job problems, and concerns about our safety, popularity, and many other things. Our bodies aren’t used to such constant stress.

Stress is a response to threats beyond your power to control, so the less power you have, the more stress you will have. Poorer Americans tend to be heavier, largely because of relative poverty, which brings more stress, less sleep, and less availability of healthy food. Stress stimulates people to eat comfort foods — sugary, salty or fatty things that make us feel better for a few minutes and leave us worse off and heavier than we were before.

Dealing with stress

We can cope with stress through breathing practices, meditation, hugs, prayer, spending time in nature, relaxation tapes, gentle exercise, having a pet or a beloved hobby, or giving service to others. Trauma specialist Maggie Phillips, PhD, has found that vigorous exercise after a stressful event keeps stress from building up in the body.

Reducing stress is also possible. Getting help with problems and changing stressful situations are good starts.

Setting more realistic expectations is another skill, which brings us back to self-compassion. Be merciful to yourself, and be realistic about weight. Much of it is out of your control, and it’s quite possible to be healthy at a weight your doctor might consider too heavy.

None of this means you shouldn’t exercise more or try to eat better. Those things will help you enjoy life and feel better. It just means the effects of these behaviors on your weight are uncertain. Don’t let people shame you with calories in versus calories out. Show them this article.

Want to learn more about weight management? Read “Tried and True Weight-Loss Techniques” and “Strategies for Weight Management.”

Source: Diabetes Self-Management Magazine Nov & Dec 2017
Source: Diabetes Self-Management Magazine Nov & Dec 2017

Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food

Mindful Eating

Nowhere are the elements of the human condition we call unawareness, addiction, and delusion more poignantly and tragically manifested nowadays than in widespread disregulations and disorders in our relationships to food and to eating. These pathologies of  imbalance  are  driven  by  many  complex  factors  in  society  itself.  Sadly,  they  have resulted in  cultural norms  that support particular brands of  delusion, obsession, and endless preoccupation with how much the body weighs. It manifests as a gnawing and pervasive, if  sometimes submerged and disguised or overcompensated-for, discomfort and dissatisfaction with how one’s body looks and how it feels inwardly. This pervasive dissatisfaction nests itself within ordinary concerns about one’s appearance, but is compounded by desires to fit into an idealized model of how one should look and the impression  one’s   appearance  should  make   on   others  that  shape  and  trump  the authenticity of one’s own interior experience. This dissatisfaction in the mind lends itself to  pathologies  associated with  body  image,  distortions  in  how  one  perceives  oneself inwardly and outwardly, and with deep issues of self-worth. Catalyzed in large measure by ubiquitous  media  exposure,  it  is  prevalent  even  in  children  and  adolescents, and  is pervasive across the life span and right into old age. The sadness of it all is immense and needs to be met with boundless compassion and self-compassion, as well as effective strategies for restoring balance and sanity in our world and in our individual lives.

It is well known now that these pathologies of imbalance are manifesting as never before in a number of epidemics in both children and adults, in both males and females. One  might  say  that  the  entire  society  suffers  from  disordered eating  in  one  way  or another, just  as, from  the  perspective of  the  meditative  traditions, we  suffer from  a pervasive attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. As is made clear in this book, the one is intimately related to the other.

One  manifestation of  our disordered relationship to food and eating is  the obesity epidemic of the past twenty-plus years in the United States. This phenomenon is driven by a host of  complex factors and compounded by increasingly sedentary lifestyles in adults and children, coupled with a ubiquitous availability of processed foods and by a farming and food industry that is the admiration of the world in some ways, and which runs amok in others.2 The extent of the epidemic in obesity can be gauged from graphic displays of  the rates  per state in  the United States, starting around 1986.3  It  is  now spreading to other countries, particularly in Europe. This epidemic has been driven in part by the phenomenon of supersizing, as so graphically illustrated in the movie Supersize Me, in the ever-expanding notion of a reasonable portion size (and even plate size) for one person, by increasing inactivity, and by the endless availability of high-calorie, low- nutrient foods. Many medical schools are developing research and clinical programs to better understand and deal with this growing phenomenon in both adults and children, and some are even reaching out in imaginative collaborations with forward-looking elements of the food and restaurant industries.4 Clinical programs for children abound.5

Read more > Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food

About the Thyroid and Thyroid Disease

Thyroid Disease

The normal thyroid is a small gland weighing about an ounce that sits behind the Adam’s apple in the lower part of the neck, in front of the windpipe.

It derives its name from the Greek word thyreoeides, meaning “shield-shaped.” In fact, it looks like a bowtie or butterfly, with the two “wings,” or lobes, of the gland connected in the middle by the isthmus.

The thyroid, like other glands, is a discrete soft body made up of a large number of vessels that produce, store, and release - or secrete - some substance. Some glands secrete their products outside the body, some inside. Those that secrete hormones and metabolic substances on the inside of the body are known as endocrine glands. The endocrine glands include the thyroid, the parathyroids, the adrenal gland, the pancreas, the pituitary gland, the pineal gland, the gonads (ovaries and testes), and the thymus.

Doctors who specialize in treating patients with endocrine problems - disorders of the endocrine glands - are called endocrinologists.

Hormones are internal secretions carried in the blood to various organs. The thyroid’s main purpose is to produce, store, and release two key hormones: triiodothyronine, also called T3; and thyroxine, or T4. The numbers 3 and 4 refer to the number of iodine molecules attached to each hormone.

Thyroid cells are the primary cells in the body capable of absorbing iodine, an essential nutrient. The thyroid takes in iodine, obtained through food, iodized salt, or supplements, and combines that iodine with the amino acid tyrosine, converting them to T3 and T4.

A healthy thyroid produces about 20 percent T3 and 80 percent T4. T3 is the biologically active hormone that is used by the cells; it is several times stronger than T4. As needed, the body converts the inactive T4 to active T3 by removing one iodine molecule. This conversion process is called monodeiodination. This conversion can take place in certain organs other than the thyroid, including the hypothalamus, a part of your brain.

T3 and T4 both exist in two forms: unbound and bound. Unbound, or free, T3 or T4 are biologically active; bound T3 and T4 are attached to the thyroid-binding globulin (TBG) protein. When measured in the blood, the free, or unbound, T3 and T4 levels tend to be most representative of the actual hormone available for use by the body.

The role of your thyroid hormones is to control your metabolism - the process by which oxygen and calories are converted to energy for use by your cells and organs. There’s not a single cell in your body that doesn’t depend on thyroid hormone for regulation and for energy in some form. And the thyroid hormones have a number of functions as they travel through the bloodstream.

* They enable cells to convert oxygen and calories into energy

* Help the body process carbohydrates

* Aid in the proper functioning of muscles

* Enable proper sexual development and functioning

* Help the heart pump properly and effectively

* Help the body to breathe normally

* Help the intestinal system digest and eliminate food

* Strengthen hair, nails, and skin Help the brain to function properly Help with normal bone growth

* Now that you have some idea of what the thyroid is and its location and function, let’s go into more detail about how it fits into the overall functioning of the body.

The Thyroid Gland: Setting the Pace

When your thyroid works normally, it produces and secretes the amount of T3 and T4 necessary to keep various body functions moving at their proper pace. However, the thyroid does not do this alone. It works as part of a bigger system, one that includes the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus.

Here’s how the system works. The hypothalamus constantly monitors the pace of many of the body’s functions. It also monitors and reacts to a number of other factors, including environmental factors such as heat, cold, and stress. If the hypothalamus senses that certain adjustments are needed to react to any of these factors, then it produces thyrotropin-releasing hormone, known as TRH.

TRH is sent from the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland is stimulated to produce a substance called thyrotropin, but better known as thyroid-stimulating hormone, or TSH for short. The pituitary gland also monitors the body and can release TSH based on the thyroid hormone levels circulating in your blood.

TSH is sent to the thyroid gland, where it causes the thyroid to produce, store, and release more T3 and T4 thyroid hormones.



The released thyroid hormones move into the bloodstream, carried by a plasma protein known as thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG).

Now in the bloodstream, the thyroid hormone travels throughout the body, carrying orders to the various organs. Upon arriving at a particular tissue in the body, thyroid hormones interact with receptors located inside the nucleus of the cells. Interaction of the hormone and the receptor will trigger a certain function, giving directions to that tissue regarding the rate at which it should operate.


Read more > About the Thyroid and Thyroid Disease

Seasonal Allergies Survival Guide

Seasonal Allergies

If you have allergies, you know how negatively they can impact your quality of life. If you have seasonal allergies, they can make life a misery and slow you down from getting on with your

regular activities, seemingly powerless to combat nature. But what are seasonal allergies? And what can you do to get relief from your symptoms?

The Allergy Solution

What Are Seasonal Allergies?

Seasonal allergies develop when the body’s immune system becomes sensitive to and then overreacts to something in the environment. These triggers will not typically cause any problem in most people, but sets off a violent reaction in a person with the allergy. Around 36 million Americans have seasonal allergies.

Seasonal allergies relate to triggers that appear at various times during the year, such as hay fever in the spring. You can have seasonal allergies all year round, but there are certain times of year when certain triggers arrive.

If you cough and sneeze a lot at certain times of year, and/or your nose and eyes itch and are runny, it may not be a cold or the flu causing your misery, but rather seasonal allergies.

Common Allergy Symptoms to Look Out For

There are a number of allergy symptoms to look out for, not all of them typical:

* Congestion
* Post-nasal drip
* Excess mucus production
* Sneezing
* Runny nose
* Itchy, watery eyes
* Scratchy throat
* Tickle/irritation in the ears
* Decreased concentration and focus
* Decreased decision-making abilities
* Exhaustion and sleep disorders
* Mood swings
* Irritability
* Low blood pressure
* Asthma
* Hives
* Eczema
* Middle ear infections
* Swollen glands in the neck

Read more > Seasonal Allergies

Honey As An Ethnoremedy

Honey in Traditional and Modern Medicine

The use of honey as a medicine is referred to in the most ancient written records, it being prescribed by the physicians of many ancient races of people for a wide variety of ailments (Ransome 1937). It has continued to be used in folk medicine ever since. There are abundant references to honey as medicine in ancient scrolls, tablets, and books. It was prescribed for a variety of illnesses. Excavated medical tablets from Mesopotamia indicate that honey was a common ingredient in many prescriptions (Hajar 2002).
In ancient Egyptian medicine, honey was the most frequent ingredient in all the drug recipes for both internal and external use listed in the Ebers and Edwin Smith Papyri. According to the Ebers papyrus (1550 BC), it is included in 147 prescriptions in external applications. Also, according to the Smith papyrus (1700 BC), it was used in wound healing: “Thou shouldst bind [the wound] with fresh meat the first day [and] treat afterwards with grease, honey [and] lint every day until he recovers.” Honey was used for treatment of stomach pain and urinary retention and as ointment for dry skin. It was used as ointment for wounds and burns, skin irritation, and eye diseases. The Ebers Papyrus contains a description on how to make ointment from honey and how to apply it, with a note: “Notice that this is a very good therapy.” The author of the Smith Papyrus directed that honey be applied topically, with few if any other possibly active ingredients, to wounds.
In old Egypt, honey was the only active ingredient in an ointment described in the Ebers Papyrus for application to the surgical wound of circumcision. Ebers also specifies that an ointment for the ear be made of one-third honey and two-thirds oil. The concentration of honey in seven oral remedies in the Chester Beatty VI Papyrus ranges from 10% to 50%, whereas its proportion in other remedies ranges from 20% to 84%. Honey could very well have provided some kind of protection from the kinds of bacteria most likely to infect wounds, at least enough protection to permit wounds to begin healing on their own.
The ancient Egyptians were not the only people who used honey as medicine. The Chinese, Indians, ancient Greeks, Romans, and Arabs used honey in combination with other herbs and on its own to treat wounds and various other diseases.
In old Greece, the honeybee, a sacred symbol of Artemis, was an important design on Ephesian coins for almost six centuries. Aristotle (384–322 BC) described for the first time the production of honey. Aristotle believed that eating honey prolonged life. Hippocrates (460–377 BC) speaks about the healing virtues of honey: “cleans sores and ulcers, softens hard ulcers of the lips, heals cabuncles and running sores.” Hippocrates is quoted as saying, “I eat honey and use it in the treatment of many diseases because honey offers good food and good health.” Dioscorides (AD 40–90), a Greek physician who traveled as a surgeon with the armies of the Roman emperor Nero, compiled De Materia Medica around AD 77, which was the foremost classic source of modern botanical terminology and the leading pharmacologic text until the 15th century. In addition to excellent descriptions of nearly 600 plants and 1000 simple drugs, Dioscorides described the medicinal and dietetic value of animal derivatives such as milk and honey. Dioscorides stated that honey could be used as a treatment for stomach disease, for a wound that has pus, for hemorrhoids, and to stop coughing. “Honey opens the blood vessels and attracts moisture. If cooked and
applied to fresh wounds, it seals them. It is good for deep dirty wounds. Honey mixed with salt could be dropped inside a painful ear. It will reduce the pain and swelling of the ear. It will kill lice if infested children skin is painted with it. It may also improve vision. Gargle with honey to reduce tonsil swelling. For coughing, drink warm honey and mix with rose oil.” Galen recommended warming up the honey or cooking it, then using it to treat hemorrhoids and deep wounds.
In ancient Rome, honey was mentioned many times by the writers Vergil, Varro, and Plinius. Especially Virgil’s Georgics is a classic where he describes in detail how honey is made. During the time of Julius Caesar, honey was used as a substitute for gold to pay taxes. In the first century AD, Apicus, a wealthy Roman gourmet, wrote a series of books in which more than half the recipes included honey (Bogdanov 2009). A Roman Catholic saint (St. Ambrose) stated, “The fruit of the bees is desired of all and is equally sweet to kings and beggars and is not only pleasing but profitable and healthful, it sweetens their mouths, cures their wounds, and conveys remedies to inward ulcers.” The Roman, Pliny the Elder, said that mixing fish oil with honey was an excellent treatment for ulcers.
In medieval high cultures of the Arabs, the Byzantines, and medieval Europe, honey was important too, and in these cultures, most sweet meals contained honey.
The Compendium of Medicine by Gilbertus Anglicus is one of the largest sources of pharmaceutical and medical information from medieval Europe. Translated in the early 15th century from Latin to Middle English, the text consists of medicinal recipes with guides to diagnosis, medicinal preparation, and prognosis. The text names more than 400 ingredients. Treatments are presented roughly from “head to tail,” so to speak, beginning with headache and ending with hemorrhoids. Honey was a frequent ingredient to many of the remedies and it was combined with other medicinal herbs commonly used at that time. Excerpts appear below:
Headache … let him use oxymel … made of honey and vinegar; two parts of vinegar and the third part of honey, mixed together and simmered. Pimples … anoint it with clean honey, or with the powder of burnt beans and honey, or with the powder of purslane and honey mixed together. Pennyroyal … taken with honey, cleanse the lungs and clear the chest of all gross and thick humors. (Fay Marie Getz 1991)
Germans used honey and cod liver oil for ulcerations, burns, fistulas, and boils in addition to a honey salve, which was mixed with egg yolk and flour for boils and sores (Newman 1983).
AlBasri (Ali Bin Hamzah AlBasri), a 10th century Arab philosopher, mentioned uncooked honey for swollen intestine, whereas cooked honey was good for inducing vomiting when a poisonous drug was ingested. For that purpose, he recommended mixing one pound of sesame oil with one-third pound of cooked honey. Al Razi (Rhazes, AD 864–932), a renowned Muslim physician famous for writing a treatise distinguishing measles from smallpox, claimed that honey ointment made of flour and honey vinegar was good for skin disease and sports nerve injuries and recommended the use of honey water for bladder wounds. His book, Al Hawi (Encyclopedia of Medicine), a comprehensive medical textbook of medicine, which was translated from Arabic to Latin in the 13th century and became a standard textbook of medicine up to the 1700s stated: “Honey is the best treatment for the gums. To keep the teeth healthy mix honey with vinegar and use as mouth wash daily. If you rub the teeth with such a preparation it will whiten the teeth. Honey does not spoil and could also be used to preserve cadavers.” Likewise, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), another famous Muslim physician whose great medical treatise, the Canon, was the standard textbook on medicine in the Arab world and Europe until the 17th century, wrote: “Honey is good for prolonging life, preserve activity in old age. If you want to keep your youth, take honey. If you are above the age of 45, eat honey regularly, especially mixed with chestnut powder. Honey and flour could be used as dressing for wounds. For lung disease, early stage of tuberculosis, use a combination of honey and shredded rose petals. Honey can be used for insomnia on occasions.”
The Hindu Scripture, Veda, which was composed about 1500 BC and written down about 600 BC, speak of “this herb, born of honey, dripping honey, sweet honey, honied, is the remedy for injuries. Lotus honey is used for eye diseases. It is used as topical eye ointment in measles to prevent corneal scarring” (Imperato and Traore 1969), “moreover it crushes insects.” In the section on Hymn to All Magic and Medicinal Plants, honey is used as a universal remedy: “The plants … which removes disease, are full of blossoms, and rich in honey … do I call to exempt him from injury” (Bogdanov 2009).
In ancient China, honey has been mentioned in the book of songs Shi Jing, written in the 6th century BC. According to Chinese medicine, honey acts according to the principles of the Earth element, acting mainly on the stomach and on the spleen. It has Yang character, acting on the Triple Heater Meridian (Shaoyang) (Bogdanov 2009).
In Central and South America, honey from stingless bees was used for ages, long before Columbus. Honey of the native stingless bees was used and regarded as a gift of the gods; it was also a sign of fertility and was given as an offering to the gods (Bogdanov 2009).
Africa has also a long tradition of a bee use for honey, both in the high cultures of Mediterranean Africa and in the more primitive cultures in regions to the south. Honey is used to treat infected leg ulcers in Ghana (Ankra-Badu 1992) and earaches in Nigeria (Obi et al. 1994). Other uses include treatment of gastric ulcers and constipation (Molan 1999).

Source: "Honey in Traditional and Modern Medicine (Traditional Herbal Medicines for Modern Times)" 1st Edition by Laïd Boukraâ (Editor)

25 Days: A Proven Program to Rewire Your Brain

25 Days: A Proven Program to Rewire Your Brain

Why twenty-five days? you ask. Let’s just say I’m partial to numbers that finally
work in my favor.
If you’ve ever heard of the notion that death always comes in threes, I can
personally vouch for that. In my case, death came three times for me in the same
night. But instead of losing my life, the experience changed it, affecting the way I
would view health and fitness from that day forward.
It was October 4, 2004, midway through my twenty-one-year career in fitness
and nutrition, when, while I was seated at the computer, my heart—
simply—
stopped—
beating.
Thirty seconds later, I recovered on my own, only to have my heart fail again
minutes later. I had no pulse. I wasn’t breathing. I was officially dead for the second
time for about six minutes before being revived by a paramedic, who plunged a big
needle full of epinephrine into my heart and defibrillated me three times.
My heart was beating, but I had been without oxygen to my brain to the point
where my lungs had already shut down. I had a pulse but no lung activity, so they
hooked me up to a ventilator and rushed me to the hospital. That’s where my heart
quit on me a third and final time. It took a minimum of ten defibrillations to bring
me back to life before I fell into a coma for three days. But that night, I made the
history books in a way I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
I died three times in three hours and became the world’s only known medical
case to survive three consecutive sudden cardiac arrests (SCA) without any kind of
implanted defibrillator.
When I woke up, I began to pull out all of my intravenous tubes because I didn’t
understand where I was—all I knew was that I wanted to get out of there. They
sedated me and removed me from life support, but I had no short-term memory. I
didn’t know who my parents were, or my girlfriend. You could tell me something,
and ninety seconds later, I wouldn’t know what you were talking about. But it
wasn’t amnesia. It was simply the inability to retain anything. In fact, to this day, I
have a blank space in my brain and can’t recall anything from October 4 until
Thanksgiving—two months of my life are still missing from my memory.
After enduring a week’s worth of tests and having a cardio defibrillator device
implanted in my chest, I was sent home with no real answers. The medical
community was surprised that I had survived and shocked that it had found
nothing wrong with my heart or any evidence of damage. The only two things
doctors were certain about was that a “random” electrical malfunction—most likely
stress—had caused my SCAs and that my being in shape and living a healthy
lifestyle were behind the fact that I was still alive.
Even though I left the hospital with what seemed to be a normal working brain,
I knew something wasn’t quite right. Due to the lack of oxygen flow to my brain
during my SCAs, I couldn’t stay focused and even found myself suffering from
clinical depression. It wouldn’t be until much later, after being diagnosed by Jeff
Ricks, MD, one of the world’s foremost experts on mass trauma management, that
I would discover I had battled what is known medically as mild brain trauma. But
at that moment, I just knew that the way my brain was working was not working
for me.
Up until my incident, I had been working as a personal trainer for ten years and
had been working extensively with NFL and NBA athletes in their off-seasons.
During that time, I trained both myself and my clients using very strict routines:
carefully planned workouts designed to prevent plateaus by gradually changing the
intensity, specificity, and volume over the course of twelve to twenty weeks. The
diets I relied on were even more complicated, involving three separate twelve- to
twenty-week phases.
I was a measurer, a calorie counter, and focused on every single nutrient level in
every single food. I even wore a watch and set alarms to remind myself to eat at
exact times, just to try to capitalize on my body’s hormonal functions around
whatever stimulus I was getting by eating a particular food. If all that sounds
confusing, trust me, it was. In fact, it was nauseating.
But after my SCAs, I was suddenly someone who had to monitor his stress, so it
was unhealthy for me to follow complex and frustrating programs anymore. I was
also still someone who couldn’t remember what he had just done minutes before.
Sometimes my watch would go off, and I wouldn’t know what meal I was on.
Sometimes I wouldn’t even know what day it was. It was unbearable and undoable,
which was why I decided to stop everything I was trying to do and simplify it. I had
to work around my brain to keep my body from falling apart.
Instead of trying to focus on exercise and diet programs lasting twelve to twenty
weeks, I started focusing on one meal at a time. One snack at a time. One workout
at a time. And for each time I ate healthy or finished a workout, I gave myself a
grade of 100 percent. At the end of the day, I would sit down and go over
everything I had done—even if I didn’t remember doing half of what was on my
list. If I managed to do everything and I scored 100 percent on every meal, snack,
and workout, I considered myself successful.
And the next day, I would do it again. And the day after that.
At the end of the week, I added up my total score to see how successful I had
been for five days straight. After five consecutive blocks of five days, I added up my
score again, just to have a sense of the past month. Eventually, as my short-term
memory slowly returned and my depression lifted, within months, I was a changed
man—both physically and mentally. I was imminently aware that something felt
better about the program compared with methods I had used in the past.
Beyond getting back into incredible shape, the first thing I noticed was how
calm I became. I was no longer as worried about how my meals were balanced, and
I stopped weighing and measuring everything. Instead, I took an eyeball approach
with all my servings. I knew I was still eating healthy, but I took a very general
preventive health approach to my diet, instead of the very strict, hard-line approach
I had been used to following.
I also noticed that I was no longer that person who was hard to go out to eat
with, so my friends no longer had to kill themselves trying to find restaurants that
could accommodate my crazy dietary habits. Suddenly I could eat anywhere. I
accepted that every meal wouldn’t be perfect but so long as I ate certain foods,
everything would be all right.
I returned to work as a top trainer three months after my incident and started
using 25Days with clients immediately. But to be honest, I didn’t start them on it
because of the amazing results I had seen in myself; I did it because it was the only
way I could keep track of their programs! I had them carry journals and grade
themselves at every meal, snack, and day I wasn’t training them, so I always knew
exactly what to do and where they had slipped along the way.
It made my training job easier and made their outcomes more enjoyable for
them by streamlining my approach to diet and exercise into a twenty-five-day block
of time. By having them focus on what really mattered to get results, and asking
them to grade themselves each day, it left my clients feeling equally relaxed and as if
they were kicking life in the ass each and every day. And then an interesting thing
happened.
Before my SCAs, I had always had a great success rate with all my clients in
getting them to get onto the difficult-to-manage nutrition programs I was
suggesting. But even though I had a really high success rate, it wasn’t maintainable
practically in a real-world situation. Suddenly my clients weren’t just hitting their
fitness and weight loss goals faster and more often, they were making positive
changes within other facets of their lives—and feeling like a success every step of the
way.
So . . . Is Your Life Worth Twenty-five Days?
For me, 25Days didn’t start as a choice—it began as something I needed to do to
overcome an obstacle.
I can’t eliminate my obstacle. I see it every day when I step out of the shower
and notice the scar on my chest. I’m reminded whenever I look down at Lucky, my
heart therapy service dog who works with me twenty-four hours a day. I’m aware of
it each time I offer him my palm to lick to make sure I’m doing okay—and any
time he gets me out of harm’s way if he senses my cortisol levels going through the
roof unexpectedly.
No, I can’t eliminate my obstacle, but I have no fear of it anymore. I’ve become
stronger than my obstacle—and so can you. So tell me, what’s your obstacle?
I know you have one, or you wouldn’t be reading this. We all have some kind of
barrier to becoming the best version of ourselves. And for many, that obstacle is
usually doubt or fear of failure. Either way, it makes them feel that they can never
be successful.
So I challenge you with this: Is your life worth twenty-five days?
Is the effort of putting in just twenty-five days too much to risk to eliminate
that obstacle for the rest of your life?
If, after twenty-five days, you begin to uncover a way to be consistently healthy
so you can live a life of full potential, then isn’t it worth it to try doing away with
that obstacle? I want you to have the best life possible, and the way to do that is
through the same commonsense, straightforward, no-nonsense approach that saved
me and has been successful with all of my clients. That’s what the 25Days program
is really all about. That said, take a deep breath. Now blow it out. If you’ve failed
every other time in your life or you’ve never tried for fear of failing, I want you to
relax. This will be the time you succeed. This is the way to be able to stay healthy
for the rest of your life. This is the way to rewire your brain to make it effortless to
make the choices necessary to live the life you deserve.
This is so much easier than you think it is. Just give me twenty-five days to show
you.

Wash Away Stress With The Power Of Nature

IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY, you’re in for a big surprise.  Why? Because your time out in nature isn’t just a nice antidote to the digital world, it has real wellbeing benefits.

Yep, spending time in green spaces is a scientifically proven wellness concept that comes with an official name: ‘forest bathing’. The Japanese coined the phrase shinrin-yoku way back in 1982 (roughly translated as ‘taking in the forest atmosphere’ or ‘forest bathing’) and have turned it into a form of therapy that’s now thought to lower blood pressure, improve mood and focus and reduce stress. In fact, shinrinyoku is so popular it’s now part of Japan’s national health policy, with millions being spent on research and more than 55 official forest trails being created, with plans for many more. And it’s not only the Japanese who are heading for leafy areas. In Malaysia, the concept is known as mandi embun or ‘bathing in the forest dew’ and it’s catching on in South Korea, Taiwan, Finland, and (not surprisingly) Australia.

Nature’s medicine

Research shows that immersing yourself in natural, green spaces can improve creativity, mood, memory and focus – and that’s just for starters. Hypnotherapist Edrina Rush says it’s because we’re wired to be engrossed in nature and appreciate natural surroundings - especially when there’s an abundance of greenery. “Green is the colour we see the most in nature and it also signifies balance,  calm and harmony,” she explains.

There’s evidence that your pituitary gland is stimulated, your muscles are more relaxed and your blood histamine levels increase when you’re exposed to the colour green. Rush adds that going outdoors can also help to manage levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter that regulates our mood, behaviour and appetite.

“Too much serotonin and we can become irritable and tense, but too little serotonin and we can become depressed. Breathing fresh air [with more oxygen in it] can help regulate our serotonin [which is affected by oxygen], promoting wellbeing.”

Happily, the feel-good factor triggered by forest bathing can also have a positive one effect on loved ones. “They’re most likely to reap the rewards of our positive psychological gain from spending time in forests,” says psychologist Dr Saima Latif.

The numerous wellbeing benefits of nature mean therapists are beginning to take their clients outdoors. Psychologist Maz Miller from Walk Different (walkdifferent.com.au) is one therapist tapping the benefits of Australia’s beautiful natural scenery for her walk-and-talk sessions in Sydney’s south, and she says it offers a unique opportunity to help patients unwind. “Practising mindfulness with ocean sounds is very different to trying to imitate that in an office with some music,” she explains. “People open  up much more [in nature], they feel more comfortable when they’re looking around.”

Take it slow

As far as wellbeing trends go, this one’s pretty easy to pull off - you simply visit a forest, park or bushland, and walk while taking in your surroundings. It’s important to note that this practice isn’t a fast-paced one – it’s all about moving mindfully, contemplating your surroundings and allowing the serene setting to ‘wash’ your soul and rejuvenate your mind and body.

“Forest bathing is one of my favourite self-love practices,” says Chloe Kerman, 36, former fashion editor-turned-shamanic healer (chloeisidora.com). “I encourage clients and friends to connect with nature by walking in silence and allowing all of their senses to pick up information.” Kerman likes to lie down at the base of a tree and meditate – a process she finds deeply relaxing. “I often leave a forest- bathing session feeling happier, relaxed, in tune and inspired with creative ideas and increased energy,” she says.

Wondering why large, leafy places evoke these feelings? One study published in the journal Public Health reveals that being in a forest setting benefits acute emotions, and is especially effective at soothing chronic stress.  As well as reducing feelings of anxiety, it helps lower the risk of stress-related diseases. “The forest environment lowers your blood pressure, reduces your levels  of stress hormones and increases levels of serum adiponectin, which helps to prevent obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” says Dr Latif. “The positive health effects of viewing natural landscapes on stress levels and on speed of recovery from stress or mental fatigue, faster physical recovery from illness and long-term improvement of health and wellbeing are reported in research.”

Into the woods

To dip into the forest bathing trend yourself, “Take longer walks in local parks and be present to the sounds and surroundings,” says Rush. “Go where it’s less busy and leave your phone at home.” She advises walking slowly, taking time to pause and tuning in to the sounds of birds and nature. “Touch leaves and walk barefoot to feel the sensations,” she suggests, adding that it’s a good opportunity to sit and take a few deep, conscious breaths, too.

If you’re ready to explore beyond your local park, look up your nearest national park ’s trails, or pick up a copy of Walks in Nature: Australia by Viola Design (Explore Australia, $29.95) for  112 tracks in and around the nation’s major cities (including foodie pit stop recommendations!). Make sure you’re wearing comfortable walking gear, including sturdy shoes or hiking boots,and take water and some snacks for the road if you’re planning on being in the bush for a while. Oh, and if you’re forest bathing alone, always make sure you tell someone where you’ll be and how long you expect the adventure to take.

Want some company on the trail?

There are several accredited forest bathing guides in Australia who can help you soak up all the wellbeing benefits from your  experience. Visit natureandforesttherapy. org to search for a guide in your area.

While getting outside is obviously ideal, you don’t have to physically visit a forest to enjoy its restorative powers. A recent study by the BBC and the University of California found that you can access some of the wellbeing benefits of this trend merely by watching nature documentaries. “Just viewing a forest scene has been documented to have a very positive effect on psychological healing and recovery from stress, especially for those from urbanised environments,” Dr Latif says.

Filling your home environment with natural light, plants and flowers can also increase your connection with nature, as interior designer Olivia Heath explains. “Research tells us that when we improve that sense of nature, directly or indirectly, it can create a more calming, restful, restorative and energising space,” she says. Try filling your home with easy care indoor greenery, such as maidenhair ferns, spider plants and rubber fig trees to bring the forest into your everyday world, and get back to nature more often.

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Essential Oils Or Nothing

As essential oils slip into the mainstream, we’re here to decode what they are, how they work and what to do with them
by COURTNEY REILLY-LARKE

A FEW  YEARS AGO, IF  YOU CASUALLY LISTED lavender  essential oil as your preferred sleep aid, you probably would have received skeptical  stares reserved for talk of crystals and chakras. But it’s 2017 and essen tial oils  are  becoming  more  popular  across  Canada. However,  the million-dollar question remains:  Do essential oils work?

“I’ve always been interested in essential oils and the traditional healing  power  of plants in  different cultures,” says Dr. Roohi Qureshi, a Toronto-based doctor and  founder  of the natural skincare brand  Leaves  of Trees.  “A lot of our pharmacological treatments today actually have their origins in different plants.” She cites the likes of aspirin (originally derived from willow bark) and digitalis (which comes from the foxglove plant), to name  a few. “It makes  sense  that essential oils would have healing properties,” says Dr. Qureshi.

Even the original 1886 recipe for Coca-Cola included essential oils like orange,  lemon,  nutmeg,  cinnamon, coriander and neroli. They’ve been steadily popping up in beauty and skincare products, too. They’re no longer strangers to the mainstream, but why the sudden  leap from  crunchy  health-food store aisle  to swanky  mall real estate?

One of the reasons why essential oils may soon be ubiquitous in your medicine  cabinet  and on your skin- care shelf is because  of our sparkly new sense of envi- ronmental awareness. “People are seeing the difference between chemicals – with their effects on the environ- ment and the body – and natural remedies,” says Isabelle Pacchioni,  co-founder of the French essential oil and natural product line  Puressentiel. “We’re at  a  point where we need to change our way of thinking.”

Little plants can have a big effect on your health, but how? Make no mistake, essential oils are entirely differ- ent from the vegetable oil in your pantry. This oil – the volatile oil that’s found within that offers extra benefits and strength – is but one component of the plant that has been extracted with steam distillation. The process goes like this: Freshly  picked plants are placed over boiling water so that the steam pulls the oils out. The rising steam is contained in a vessel and moved along a tube, where it’s quickly cooled so that it condenses back into water. The water and essential oil don’t mix, making it easy to retrieve the oil. This leaves us with a highly con- centrated oil to use for aromatherapy, the therapeutic use of plant-derived, aromatic essential oils to promote physical and mental wellness.

Next, the essential oil needs to get from the vial to the body, but it’s not as simple as drinking it (which, by the way, you should never do). Julie Clark, a certified aroma- therapist and founder of the Toronto skincare company Province  Apothecary,  says  that essential oils  can  be absorbed  into your body in a few different ways. The first way is inhalation, entering your system through your mucous membrane and affecting your nervous sys- tem from there. Most aromatherapists also recommend putting essential oils  in  your  bath because  they can enter your system that way (and it doesn’t sound like an entirely  unpleasant  experience).  They   can   also  be applied topically, penetrating the skin to enter the blood- stream, similar  to a birth control patch (Clark recom- mends putting them at the back of your hairline).

Once they’re in your body, the  oils do all the  work. “Essential oils  affect  your  parasympathetic nervous system [your unconscious nervous system], so you don’t have to do anything,” says Clark. “Once they get in your bloodstream, they will affect you, just like how drinking camomile tea has tangible effects.”

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