THE
CONCEPT OF BALANCE IN HEALING
By Lawrence Wilson, MD
© 2008, The Center For Development
An essential concept in
our approach to healing is balance.
Balance represents the idea of relationships. They may be between parts of the body, or between minerals,
foods or other aspects of the body or mind. Examples are contraction and relaxation of muscles, high and
low blood pressure or blood sugar, activity and rest, and many, many more
examples could be cited.
Balance
implies the existence of a set of complementary opposites that need to be
weighed or balanced with each other to form the most harmonious situation for
healing.
The
concept of restoring balance is different from the prevailing medical view of
ÒcuringÓ or eliminating disease entities such as infections. The curing model has a lot of value,
but so does the balancing concept, and the latter is missing most of the time
from the prevailing drug medicine methodology. As a result, many drug and surgery treatments, for example,
eliminate infections or tumors, but the same drug throws the body chemistry out
of balance. As a result, the
problem may come back later, or worse problems develop.
Balance
is so important in our programs that it should be explained to your patients so
they understand how these programs differ from so many dietary and supplement
programs offered by others. Here
are examples of balancing that are incorporated into the hair mineral analysis
programs we offer.
The
oxidation rate is associated with the rate of metabolism, and is largely due to
the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which affects the thyroid and
adrenals glands. Dr. George Watson
first wrote about the oxidation rate in 1972. We balance the oxidation rate mainly with diet, supplements
and lifestyle modification. Foods
and supplements that enhance the oxidation rate include protein foods,
especially animal proteins and vegetables. Most of the B-complex vitamins, thyroid and adrenal
glandulars, and vitamins C and E also enhance the rate. We reduce the rate using more fat and
heavier proteins in the diet and supplements such as thymus glandular, more
calcium and magnesium, copper, zinc, vitamins A and D, choline and inositol.
Each
mineral in the body affects all the others and there is a mineral ÔsystemÕ in
the body. Dr. William Albrecht
first explored this idea in the soil and in plant life early in the twentieth
century. Balancing the ratios and
levels of the minerals involves knowing how the system works and giving
appropriate amounts of certain minerals while avoiding supplementing with those
that would move the system away from balance.
Balancing
the minerals is tricky at times because giving a particular mineral may in fact
lead to a lowering of that mineral level.
This was one of Dr. Paul EckÕs great discoveries early in his research
on hair mineral analysis. He found
that giving calcium to someone with a low calcium would often result in a lower
hair level of calcium. He reasoned
it was because giving just calcium upset the balance with magnesium, which in
turn caused a lowering of the calcium.
He found he needed to give copper along with magnesium in order to raise
a low calcium level, rather than give just calcium.
Another
example is that giving zinc to raise the zinc level is also ineffective in most
cases. This may occur because
giving zinc lowers the sodium/potassium ratio, a critical ratio in the body. Since this is often undesirable, the
body does not accept the zinc and there is little effect on the zinc level in
the hair. In order to raise the
zinc level, one must increase the sodium/potassium ratio in many cases, and
this is done using vitamins B1, B3, B5, C, E, chromium, selenium and adrenal or
thyroid glandulars.
Another
very important area in which balance is most helpful is in the choice of
food. The science of macrobiotics
discusses what are called yin and yang foods and how these affect health. The yin principle is cool, fragmented,
expanded, receptive and feminine.
The yang principle is warmer, harder, more contracted, more active and
more masculine.
On
a hair mineral analysis, slow oxidizers are more yin, while fast oxidizers are
generally more yang. The slower
the oxidation rate, the more yin a person tends to be. Today, however, most everyone is very
yin. This is due to:
* Radiation Exposure. Ionizing radiation from fallout and
nuclear plants and other sources is very yin and affects everyone today.
á
Yin Toxic Metals and Chemicals. These are in the food supply, the air and the water and affect
everyone, no matter where one lives.
* Changes In The Food Supply. Hybrid crops, industrial agricultural
methods, superphosphate fertilizers, and food processing and refining have made
all of our food more yin. Refined
foods like white flour and white sugar are extremely yin.
* Modern Medicine. Most drugs are yin. This includes most antibiotics,
anti-depressants, anti-inflammatories and other classes of drugs.
* Recreational Drugs. Alcohol, marijuana and other recreational drugs
are very yin.
* Electromagnetic Pollution. Yin electromagnetic pollution is very
common, although it is much worse in large cities filled with cell phone
towers, and radio and TV signals moving through the air. Computers, television sets, and all
wireless devices in particular produce very yin electromagnetic fields. Most people today literally live in a
sea of extremely yin electromagnetic pollution.
Yin and Yang
Foods. Macrobiotics is a
science of eating based on the principles of yin and yang. The most yang foods are eggs, meats,
sea salt, poultry, fish and cooked root vegetables. Grains, cooked beans and cooked vegetables are more
neutral. Raw vegetables and
fruits, juices, sugars, alcohol and drugs are much more yin.
Cooking
food and adding sea salt increase the yang energy. (Table salt is refined and much more yin.) Cutting up, grinding or powdering food makes
it more yin. Protein powders, for
example, are much more yin than eating protein foods. This is so because they are ground up into powder. In addition, they are usually missing
yang components of the original food such as fats and minerals.
Flour
products, in general, are much more yin than whole unprocessed grains. Whole grain flours, however, are far
superior to refined flours as the refined flours lack vital yang minerals and
other nutrients.
Raw
Ôgreen drinksÕ and especially fruit juices are also quite yin food items. They are fragmented foods. Juices also lack the more yang
component of fiber.
Illness
may be classified as more yin or mainly yang. Many times the same symptom can have either a yin or a yang
cause. In hair analysis
interpretation, the same symptom may be due to fast or to slow oxidation.
For
example, osteoporosis may occur in a fast oxidizer due to a copper
deficiency. However, it may also
occur in a slow oxidizer. In this
case, one cause is biologically inactive or unavailable calcium. This may, in turn, be due to adrenal
exhaustion or other causes. A
proper corrective program depends on assessing the cause.
Since
most bodies are yin, most illness has a yin basis. The symptom may appear yang, such as a tumor that is hard or
contracted. However, the
underlying cause is usually a yin imbalance. A yin therapy such as surgery or radiation may eliminate a
hard tumor. The long-term effects,
however, are less curative and often harmful.
Healing
methods may be considered either more yin or more yang. Healing methods that are more yang tend
to heat, tonify and contract the tissues.
They include saunas, hyperthermia or fever therapy, sweating, exposure
to the sun and the use of heat lamps.
Fasting, heating herbs such as ginger and burdock, coffee enemas and hot
baths are also more yang therapies.
Others that are relatively yang include chiropractic manipulation,
biofeedback, some acupuncture and acupressure. Others include some types of meditation, some psychotherapy,
certain kinds of body work and some color therapy.
Yin
healing methods tend to cool the body and flush toxins. They include most homeopathy,
visualization, imagery and the use of many electrical machines. Others are most pharmaceuticals,
radiation therapy and most surgery.
Megadose vitamin therapy and many synthetic or isolated nutrients are
also quite yin, especially synthesized vitamins in high doses.
Yang
healing brings balance to almost everyone today. Here is a summary of the basic nutritional approach.
The
Yang Diet. This is a diet of
mainly cooked, high-quality and natural meats such as lamb, beef, chicken and
turkey. Smaller fish such as wild
salmon and sardines are also quite acceptable, although they are more yin than
meats. Lightly cooked eggs and
cooked grains such as blue corn are also excellent foods on this diet. Organic blue corn chips are, in fact, a
superb grain food. White and
yellow corn chips, as well as potato chips, are nowhere near as yang or as
healthful, as they are made with much more yin flours.
Wheat
and spelt are more yin and less desirable today due to the use of more yin
hybrid crops. These foods are also
quite pro-inflammatory due to their high L-glutamine content. Other whole grains, however, are
excellent foods that are relatively yang.
The
diet also includes plenty of cooked vegetables, especially root vegetables such
as onion, carrot, turnip and parsnip.
Others include rutabaga, daikon radish, garlic, celery root, ginger and
burdock root. Red beets are
slightly toxic. However, golden
beets are excellent. For most
people, kelp is quite essential for its iodine content. Sea salt is also essential for its
trace element content. Even those
with high blood pressure can often use sea salt in moderation.
Some
goat dairy foods supply needed minerals and other nutrients, and are not
excessively yin. CowÕs milk
products, on the other hand, are much more yin today. This is due to the use of hybridized cows. This applies as well, though less so,
to organic cowÕs milk products.
Less
Recommended Foods. Foods to avoid are
sugars in all forms, including juices of most fruits. We also recommend severely limiting most fruit and most uncooked
food. Fruit today is almost all
hybridized and much more yin than in the past. Even organic fruit is often heavily sprayed with
superphosphate fertilizers that are very yin.
Salads,
while quite healthful, supply a lot fewer minerals than cooked vegetables. Cooking both concentrates the food and
renders the fiber more digestible.
Its minerals are not damaged by cooking. In fact, they are rendered more absorbable when the fiber is
broken down by cooking
Raw
foods, especially raw meats, eggs and dairy products, often harbor harmful
bacteria and parasite eggs that may be difficult to wash off. Recall that most food today is grown in
nations other than the United States.
We
are aware that some health authorities advocate eating more raw foods. This may be helpful for a time. In time, on this diet, however,
deficiencies and imbalances often arise.
Yang
Supplements. Supplements that are
most yang include animal extracts such as glandular products, ox bile and
pancreatin. Vitamins derived from
animal sources are also more yang such as vitamins A and D from fish liver
oil. Minerals are quite yang, as
they are natural products that are quite contracted.
Most
vitamins tend to be much more yin.
For example, we usually recommend lower doses of both natural source and
synthesized B-complex and vitamin C, as these are quite yin. Also, we rarely recommend MSM, the
synthesized product for the joints, as it is also quite yin.
Yang
herbs include
ginger, burdock, dandelion, milk thistle, skullcap and nettles. Others that are slightly more yin but
still excellent include peau dÕarco and Russian and Spanish black radish, among
others.
Other
Excellent Yang Therapies. We also highly recommend
sauna therapy, preferably with an infrared electric light sauna, as it is the
most yang. Red color therapy is
also quite yang and very excellent.
We also suggest spending half an hour a day in the sun. Another vital yang therapy is rest and
sleep, providing one does not sleep all day, and gets up and moves around every
few hours. Most people do not
get nearly enough rest and sleep.
Yin
And Yang Attitudes. OneÕs thoughts and
attitudes can also be yin or yang.
Victim thinking is quite yin and disempowering. Attitudes that
emphasize personal responsibility are more yang and much more empowering.
For
more details about the fascinating subject of yin and yang concepts of healing,
click here.
Original
copyright by Analytical Research Labs, Newsletter, January 2005
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