The Amazing Power of Iodine

Long story short, most of us in the modern world have a serious lack of iodine in our bodies. We don't consume enough iodine-rich foods (sea weeds, seafood, etc). On top of this, pesticides, environmental chemicals, oral contraceptives, tobacco/alcohol, and a poor diet also lead to iodine deficiency. Studies are starting to show that many health problems are helped by iodine supplementation.

Estrogen dominance in women  is a major problem in the US due in part to iodine to iodine deficiency (as well as poor diet, pollutants, lack of exercise, etc). Signs of estrogen dominance include fibrocystic breast disease (sore, lumpy breasts), ovarian/uterine cysts, fibroids, PCOS, endometriosis, and PMS.

One of the contributing factors to estrogen dominance is lack of iodine. The Iodine Project  and other research/informational resources has shown that iodine supplementation can greatly help many of these females problems (and many other health problems as well: fibromyalgia, fatigue, ADD, diabetes).

I have seen firsthand huge improvements since starting iodine supplementation, so I highly recommend it trying it.

I purchased J.Crow's Lugol's solution on Amazon and started off taking 2 drops a day.

Each drop has roughly 6 grams of iodine. After a few weeks, I gradually increased my dosage to 50 mg per day. I saw a huge improvement within just the first few weeks.

Another option is a product called Iodoral, which are tablets rather than liquid format. Each tablet provides 12.5 mg, which is equal to about 2 drops of the Lugol's solution.

I have not taken Iodoral, but there seem to be good reviews for it. It is good for those who don't want to mess with a liquid or don't like the taste. I personally don't find the taste to be too offensive. I believe Iodoral is slightly more expensive than Lugol's, when you calculate how long a bottle will last.

Healing with Whole Foods

I recently purchased Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford by Paul Pitchford, which is a great book that uses eastern (and modern western) nutrition strategies for health. The general idea is that if you eat correctly, you shouldn't have health issues. In that sense the food IS the medicine. It is a mammoth of a book with many sections and at this point, I have only brushed the surface. I have made a few changes to my diet already though (mentioned below).

According to the book, for health and wellness, the main staples of our diet should be vegetables, complex grains (kamut, spelt, millet, quinoa, etc), legumes (beans, seeds), fruits, seaweeds, seed and grain sprouts, and occasionally protein sources such as fish/meat/dairy. The standard american diet is high in simple fast-digesting carbs (white flour, refined sugars) and heavy/high protein sources (dairy and meat), so the book's ideas are a sharp contrast to what most people eat.

My main problem is that I eat way too much sugar and snack too much on chips, crackers, etc. My goal lately has been to incorporate more of the slow-digesting complex grains and legumes into my diet in place of snack foods. Many of the grains mentioned in the book I have never bought or cooked before, so I decided to purchase millet, quinoa, spelt, kamut, adzuki beans, and split peas. I shopped around online, but ended up buying from Nuts Online. The prices weren't too bad, but I am going to continue to keep my eye our for better prices (if they exist). I imagine buying in bulk is my only option for purchasing high quality organic grains and legumes.

Anyway, I am happy to report that I have already been cooking with my new purchases and they have been delicious. On Friday night I made quinoa and spinach which tasted great! Last night I made millet (cooked with vegetarian bouillon instead of water) and adzuki beans (with garlic, cumin, chili powder, and cilantro) and both were fantastic. The beans were so good they are all gone and I am currently making more now as I type.

Changing your diet is probably one of the hardest things to do. In modern society, food is no longer just sustenance or required fuel, but tied in with our emotions. While I feel that the mind and body are not separate, I feel that there is a healthier way to eat, where choices are not driven by (often negative) emotions. The fact that when I come home, I don't feel fulfilled until I eat a large amount of sugar/chocolate, is not a good thing :). I think that we can retrain our minds and bodies though to have a correct sense of what we need. Food addictions and emotional food cravings trump our body's natural food desires, so we end up having a false sense of what we need to eat. Instead, we end up eating heavy and/or sugary foods because we no longer have the ability to sense what we SHOULD be eating.

Healing Disease with the Mind?

Apparently an acupuncturist and qi gong master by the name of Tom Tam has come up with his own healing system in Boston, drawing upon his knowledge of chinese medicine and psychology.

The patient uses an acupuncture doll that is marked with acupuncture points and meridians and using a magnetic hammer or laser, they hammer (or laser) the afflicted areas of their body, on the acupuncture doll. Classes are usually filled with many people and the practitioner will go person to person, asking their malady. The whole class will then hammer their doll in the affected region. 

"Tong Ren is a form of energy therapy for restoring health and vitality. Tong Ren is based on a belief that disease is related to interruptions, or blockages, in the body's natural flow of chi, neural bioelectricity, blood, or hormones. Tong Ren seeks to remove these blockages, restoring the body's natural ability to heal itself, even when illnesses are chronic, debilitating, or otherwise untreatable." http://www.tomtam.com/

I'm sure there are plenty of skeptics, but I view it healing with the mind. Never underestimate the power of the mind! There is still so much we don't know. I am always saddened to see doctors and researchers fail to associate human emotions with disease.

Tong Ren has already been in the news and it seems there have been people with terminal illnesses that have even gone into remission. I am also proud to say that Dana Farber researcher Dr. Amy Sullivan conducted a survey study of patients experiencing Tong Ren group sessions, revealing a high rate of change in their condition in response to Tong Ren. 

"Results: Response rate 89% (n = 265). Cancer (30.6%), endocrine/autoimmune (17.5%) and musculoskeletal disorders (17.2%) were the most commonly reported conditions. Among respondents who had attended more than one session (n = 216), 30% used superlatives (e.g., ``amazing'') to describe TR's impact, and one-third noted improved quality of life. No adverse effects were described. Anxiety, depression, cancer, and autoimmune disorders appeared to have the greatest treatment responses, with 63.8%, 61.0%, 60.3%, and 58.1% of participants with these conditions reporting substantial improvements." 

http://chp.sagepub.com/content/14/1/19.abstract 

Tong Ren in the news