by Tammera Karr, PhD, BCHN, CDSP, CNW, CGP
This question popped into my head this morning as I was thinking about a dear friend enjoying a spring National Monuments RV trip.
Each morning she makes her green smoothy, does her yoga, embraces the day’s adventure of vistas and views with her soulmate, and rests comfortably in her fifth wheel at the end of the day’s travel. The freedom to stop and rest, sleep in and go for leisurely hikes, taking in the smells of the earth and air. ( all shown to change immune function)
Sounds pretty wonderful to many of us. We may not appreciate the time and dedication this remarkable health practitioner has spent crafting, nourishing, sacrificing, and supporting her lifestyle of health. It didn’t happen overnight; part of her vision may never have included a fifth wheel. Throughout the years I have known her, she has been kind, generous, pragmatic, honest, and open to opportunities. For my friend, health is something you live, more than all the supplements, diet restrictions, or diagnostic tests. These items are ingredients, seasonings if you will, but the daily choice of Lifestyle makes health.
Another remarkable woman in my life is a cancer thriver; she is a dynamo of energy, intellect, and dedication. Each day she rises at 4 am to call her father in Europe. Then begins her workday with students and faculty in differing time zones. This lady is not a cook; “not in my contract,” she says. Yet health is a daily passion and joy. The joy she receives from doing what she loves is an important element of her cancer-free lifestyle. Her relationship with her soulmate, who is the chef, feeds her in many ways. There is a balance; one steps in to fill a role while the other steps into a different one, both movements in harmony. Through joy and sorrow, lifestyle has been an active choice – daily activities, time allotment, rest from work, trauma, worry, and media. These aspects of health we can think of in cooking terms as – proofing, cooling, and serving.
According to research published in 2022, Lifestyle makes up over 80% of an individual’s health. Lifestyle is a banquet of dishes that nourish, excite, comfort, and sustain us. I know clients who feel battered, abandoned, and alone. To some, they view this as the result of how others have treated them, not the choices they have made. Then there are those who seem to rise above and still find joy. This is a choice, not an easy one, but one that changes brain chemistry, digestion, immune function, inflammation markers, and countless genetic receptor site regulation responses.
So once again, I reflect; on the wonderful life and health my husband and I have; the daily supplements are expensive – choice; the quality food is expensive and time-consuming – choice; the location we live in is remote and challenging – choice, time spent writing, painting, building, restoring and developing gives a sense of purpose, accomplishment, and pride – choice.
Health isn’t about early detection, medical appointments, worry, fear, or apathy. Health is about engaging, making choices, and inviting joy as a choice each day.
What have you stopped doing that you enjoy?
Why?
What in your life energizes and or refreshes you?
Freehand watercolors were done by Tammera while enjoying time away from her phone, computer, and research. These breaks and the use of a brush clears the mind and improve eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills in addition to being creative. There is no pressure to be perfect or professional, just let the water carry the color and see what happens. She has not painted for over 20 years and is gradually inviting it back into her life just for the fun of it.
To read more about how food, sustainability and mindfulness build Health
by Tammera J. Karr
The history of essential oils is intertwined with the history of herbal medicine; in most ancient cultures, people believed plants to be magical, and for thousands of years herbs were used as much for ritual as they were for medicine and food. In the modern world, science is exploring the medicinal value of many herbs, and plant extracts in efforts to locate new therapies for antibiotic-resistant conditions. There is a growing pharmacopeia of anti-inflammatory herbs additionally.
The Atlantic magazine highlighted the antimicrobial qualities of plant extracts and essential oils. The article notes that “various oils have also been shown to effectively treat a wide range of common health issues such as nausea and migraines, and a rapidly growing body of research is finding that they are powerful enough to kill human cancer cells of the breast, colon, mouth, skin, and more.”
I reflected and realized I had shared information on this topic during a superbug outbreak in 2015.
Just a little recap of an article from the Alliance for Natural Health – On April 14, 2015 – A New Tool for Antibiotic-Resistant Killer Bacteria: Essential Oils; What should you stock to protect yourself?
Drug-resistant tuberculosis—and antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” in general. These infect at least two million Americans each year and kill 23,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to Karl Rotthier, the chief executive of a Dutch-based pharmaceutical firm, antibiotics are making their way into rivers and waterways due to lax safety measures. Some of the drugs are flushed directly down the toilet, while others pass through the patients first—and it all ends up in the water supply. Too many drugs come from manufacturing waste.
There is a growing body of research supporting the natural antibiotic properties nutrients and herbs, here are just a few:
Silver, the world’s oldest known antibiotic. (still used in hospitals as silvadeane cream for burns and wound healing)
Vitamin D
Vitamin C may be effective in fighting antibiotic-resistant infections.
An article released February 13, 2020, from Orthomolecular Research on the use of vitamin C, Goes on to say – “Viral pneumonia is a dangerous condition with a poor clinical prognosis. For most viral infections, there is a lack of effective targeted antiviral drugs, and symptomatic supportive treatment is still the current main treatment. Vitamin C, has antioxidant properties. When sepsis happens, the cytokine surge caused by sepsis is activated, and neutrophils in the lungs accumulate in the lungs, destroying alveolar capillaries. Early clinical studies have shown that vitamin C can effectively prevent this process. In addition, vitamin C can help to eliminate alveolar fluid by preventing the activation and accumulation of neutrophils, and reducing alveolar epithelial water channel damage. At the same time, vitamin C can prevent the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps, which is a biological event of vascular injury caused by neutrophil activation. Most deaths from viruses are caused by pneumonia. Vitamin C has been known, for over 80 years, to benefit pneumonia patients greatly. In 1936 Gander and Niederberger found that vitamin C lowered fever and reduced pain in pneumonia patients”.
The sited study can be seen at: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n17.shtml
While these studies are not conclusive on the total value of nutrients during challenging health events, they do provide hope for many. The foundation of our health is directly tied into the foods we eat every day, and it is easy for many to add more of the traditional herbs, spices, and foods into their diet during the expected seasonal health challenges.
To Real Foods for Health.
Sources:
1.University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. (2015, September 16). Immune system may be pathway between nature and good health. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 19, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150916162120.htm
2.The antibacterial activity of oregano essential oil (Origanum heracleoticum L.) against clinical strains of Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. 2012:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23484421
3.Coriander essential oil and linalool – interactions with antibiotics against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.2019 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30471142
4.Antibacterial activity of traditional spices against lower respiratory tract pathogens: combinatorial effects of Trachyspermum ammi essential oil with conventional antibiotics. 2018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30187508
5.Inhibitory effect of Allium sativum and Zingiber officinale extracts on clinically important drug resistant pathogenic bacteria. 2012 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22540232
6. University of Melbourne. (2020, March 17). COVID-19: The immune system can fight back. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 27, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317103815.htm
7. University of Virginia Health System. (2020, March 19). Understanding how COVID-19 affects children vital to slowing pandemic, doctors say. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 27, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200319125201.htm
8. Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. (2020, March 23). ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers may increase the risk of severe COVID-19, paper suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 27, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200323101354.htm
9. University of Maryland School of Medicine. (2020, March 23). Anxious about COVID-19? Stress can have lasting impacts on sperm and future offspring: Study identifies biological mechanism by which stress alters sperm and impacts brain development in next generation. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 27, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200323132410.htm
10. Stanford University. (2020, March 26). How to identify factors affecting COVID-19 transmission. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 27, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200326160759.htm
11. Stanford University. (2020, March 26). How to identify factors affecting COVID-19 transmission. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 27, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200326160759.htm
12. Semantic Scholar Free access to COCID-19 Research https://www.semanticscholar.org/feed/create?name=COVID-19&paperIds=4adf89030bb59f9cd97a55af21b419aad9045287%2C272c530d8b3a2daae3af01fa4a59b350f3a5398b%2Ca42902bc3f4d92b72f46775420be6569d19e3f73
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by Tammera J. Karr
Often we catch the flu because our immune systems have been worn down by poor eating habits, stress, long hours and overindulging. This may be one of the reasons, so many 
folks come down with the flu following the holiday season.
All the news is about the Coronavirus – as we have learned from Dr. Jane M. Orient, this virus makes regular runs through the population. The effects on health vary because of the individual immune system response. So, the healthier your immune system the better chances you have of dodging any flu viruses that you may encounter. Over time, silver has been used for numerous medical conditions, mostly empirically before the realization that microbes were the agents of infection.
Silver
At the turn of the century, there were over 90 medications that contained silver; it is still used in third world countries due to its affordability and effectiveness. Burn patients, whether from radiation therapy or accident, are treated with Silvadene cream due to its ability to reduce inflammation, pain, and scar tissue and prevent infection.
Because silver weakens the wall of the bacteria, it also allows conventional antibiotics to enter more easily. Research on mice at Boston University showed that with silver added, lower doses of antibiotic drugs were needed to kill bacteria. Silver was also able to reverse the antibiotic resistance of E. coli bacteria, making them once more susceptible to tetracycline. The mice were left unharmed by the silver.
This is huge, if only because it may force medical authorities to recognize silver as a therapeutic agent. It could also be the answer to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant diseases that are becoming endemic
Vitamin C
Vitamin C has a long and well-documented history of improving immune function. Not everyone can tolerate high dose vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid; however, taken in natural food form, the associated GI disturbances are often a non-issue. Citrus is one of the best-known sources. Of all citrus fruits, lemons and limes have the highest citric acid content, about 1.4 grams per ounce, or about 8 percent of their dry weight. Lemons and limes also contain ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, and malic acid.
Pomegranate
Pomegranate juice contains higher levels of antioxidants than most other fruit juices. It also has three times more antioxidants than red wine and green tea. The antioxidants in pomegranate juice can help remove free radicals, protect cells from damage, and reduce inflammation. The juice of a single pomegranate has more than 40 percent of your daily requirement of vitamin C.
Herbs
Viruses do not become resistant to herbs like they do to commonly prescribed medications, many of which are intended for bacterial infections. Herbs strengthen the immune sy
stem without killing the beneficial flora that resides in the digestive system. Remember that 85 percent of your immune system is in your digestive tract. Overuse of antibiotics can lead to side effects and drug-resistant microbes.
Horehound has been used to make lozenge candies that are believed to help heal sore throats, improve your appetite, and relieve intestinal gas. Horehound contains a variety of nutrients that are needed for the immune system to work they include; Examples include B-complex vitamins, iron, potassium, and vitamins A, C, and E. Other conditions that horehound may help include sinus inflammation, hay fever symptoms, and abdominal swelling. Horehound is also known to increase immune system activity.
Garlic and Onions
Studies have shown that onion extracts, like those of garlic, decrease blood sugar and lipid levels, prevent clots, lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation (onions are one of the only foods that contain prostaglandin E1), improve asthma and allergies and retard viruses by strengthening the immune system. Vitamin C, fiber, biotin, folate, chromium, vitamin K, and thiamine are found in members of the onion family.
These are just a few of the hundreds of effective holistic ingredients that support our health during times of virus outbreaks.
To a flu-free late winter and spring.
by Tammera J. Karr, PhD
Our story begins with three men, heads together on a street corner, one wealthy and dripping with power, the next puffed chest, ingratiating smile and impotent and the last an obvious thug, muscle for hire. Down the walk enters a woman who looks at the world through rose-colored glasses, all is right, nary a problem. The thug steps away from his companions and escorts her away. She laughs and smiles as he tells her he will keep her safe and he knows best; All the while looking back over his shoulder to the other men, who nod in agreement. The thug takes her home and hands her a drink; she accepts is and drinks it without a word of concern. She is found dead the next day; it is deemed natural causes — a tragedy.
While this could be from a western novel, it more closely resembles a gritty Clint Eastwood seen; our actors are the Pharmaceutical manufactures (wealth), The Politics of the land (the impotent), the state service programs (the Thug) and Rosy Vision (our rights). The Poison for many comes not in a glass but a syringe filled with vaccines.
Real life: There is tremendous controversy over childhood vaccinations, once again legislation is about to be forced on parents in Oregon and Washington that strips vaccination exemption. Exclusion laws already exist in Oregon if an outbreak occurs, so why do we need a draconian law, that can lead to a loss of revenue for schools? It is estimated that 31,000 children in Oregon have exemptions if they are removed from the school systems; it could equal a loss of $412,920,000.00 annually. All of this has resurfaced from a similar bill in 2015 due to a measles outbreak predominately in Washington state.
Over the years, I have gotten hepatitis and tetanus shots before overseas travel. The difference here is, I am an adult, I am capable of determining if the risks outweighed the benefits. After our son made it through his first years of public school and it was time for booster shots, we as his parents evaluated the risks after many hours researching and praying we had a waiver signed for the school district. Keep in mind the number of vaccinations in the 1990s was considerably less than the number my grandson will be receiving this year.
The story will be very different in Oregon if House Bill 3063 and those that follow it – restrict/hinder parental choice over immunization. Not many people are willing to do a face off with a healthcare practitioner over cholesterol medication let alone a vaccine series for a child. Oregon’s bill would eliminate religious and personal or philosophical exemptions for all vaccines, a move intended to boost the state’s vaccination rate.
Lawmakers who support the bill say parents can still choose not to vaccinate — however; they will have to homeschool or find ways for children to go to school online. Isn’t this discrimination? What about low-income families who have a family history of autism or ADHD? If we make legal allowances for everyone else with a “special need” why are those not willing to vaccinate any different? Are they really a threat to public safety as stated by politicians? Whenever we cite science, we need to be sure of who paid for the science – and who is getting paid for citing it. How did we ever survive these normal and natural childhood illnesses before?
The cyclical outbreak of measles in the Pacific Northwest has prompted hundreds of additional residents to vaccinate this year over past years. I would like to point out it was a free choice, not a mandate.
School and state workers will and do believe they are working to protect children; Many families will choose vaccination because they believe in the system – which is their right. For others, they will make their choices based on beliefs, research, and medical history – which up until now has been their right. Ohh and just because you do not believe the science cited does not mean it is fake – it just means it is not following the politically correct party line.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen a bill that endorses vaccine instead of education,” said Rep. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, as he testified against the bill.”
Is this just a state issue? As I write this article, I have learned of a federal move to restrict medical freedom. “If states don’t tighten vaccine exemption laws, the federal government may step in, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said February 21, 2019”.
“Some states are engaging in such wide exemptions that they’re creating the opportunity for outbreaks on a scale that is going to have national implications,” the FDA head said in an interview with CNN.”
Lets put this in perspective; According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website:
In 2018, 372 cases of measles were reported in the U.S.. From Jan. 1 to Feb. 14, 2019, 127 cases of measles have been confirmed in 10 states.
Each year in the United States, about 1 million people have to seek care in a hospital due to pneumonia. The CDC says about 50,000 people die from the disease each year in the United States. Most of the people affected by pneumonia in the United States are adults.
I believe families should have the right to choose; I am not an anti-vaccinator anymore than I am a pro-vaccinator. My issue is about a local or federal government who takes money from pharmaceutical companies, mandating medical decisions. That is a conflict of interest and collusion.
To Freedom of Choice.
Sources
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/flu_pneumonia_mortality/flu_pneumonia.htm
http://www.oregoniansformedicalfreedom.com/tag/oregon-health-authority/
https://www.nvic.org/injury-compensation/origihanlaw.aspx
For almost two decades I have proudly been a Holistic Nutritionist. In the early days, it never occurred to me, that I would need a professional organization, let alone organization dedicated to educating and protecting, my right to practice, and yours to use Holistic Nutrition (food, herbs, and nutrients….) for health.
In the late summer of 2018, I shared with an attorney; I believed food and nutrition, and the sharing of information on these topics an inalienable right. A right that predates any government or licensing bodies.
To my dismay, the attorney said freedom of choice for food and health had no rights or allowances in the constitution and was not deemed an inalienable right of citizenship.
The attorney went on to say: While we have the right to the freedom of speech, and can write on the topic of food as medicine, it is not viewed as an inalienable right to educate or practice with clients these ancient healing traditions and modalities.
I still inwardly rebel at those words, it is inconceivable to me that the one single ingredient necessary for life is also the one we have to fight the hardest to educate on in America – FOOD.
As individuals, we all have windmills we tilt at, that fire our blood and passion, some are essential others distractions, diverting our attention away from the real war. When it comes to Natural Health, Holistic Nursing, Functional and Holistic Nutrition, I can not stress enough, the importance of being united in keep draconian legislation and restrictions on nutrition education and practice from happening. We can be a kaleidoscope of unique modalities, helping clients, family members and ourselves, only if we come together as a cohesive, unified voice, demanding the freedom to practice.
I am very proud of the work being done by the National Association of Nutrition Professionals and the Council of Holistic Health Educators – – the voice of one is lost in the lightest breeze, the voice of many can call a ship home safely through a storm. We are facing a storm in many areas of America, where the freedom to educate and practice the modalities of nutrition and natural health are threatened by special internists, not public safety.
Together we can change the storm into a safe harbor.
Please read this thought-provoking and challenging editorial from NANP President Miriam Grumet Zacharias, I hope it ignites a fire and passion in you as it has me.
To Traditional Foods, Health, and Freedom to Choose
Tammera Karr, Ph.D., BSHN™
Founder of Holistic Nutrition for the Whole You
While we have been preoccupied with Christmas, New Year, Haunnaka and other holidays of the season, the government agencies have been busy wrapping up not so nice presents for Americans. As always this is the time of year no one is paying attention to what sneaky moves regulatory agencies are making.
I rely on the Alliance for Natural Health and The Coalition for Holistic Health Education to keep me abreast of pending legislation and policy affecting our right to choose the kind of healthcare we want.
The following information on important action alerts has been provided by the Alliance for Natural Health-US
Customized Resveratrol Also to Be Banned: At a November 20-21 meeting of the FDA’s Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee (PCAC), in which the committee would recommend whether several natural medicines could continue to be customized by compounding pharmacies along with natural medicines for patients.
The fate of several crucial medicines was decided, including resveratrol (from grapes, astralagus a herb, and pregnenolone a natural progesterone precursor. Resveratrol and astralagus were rejected by PCAC, but the committee voted, against the FDA’s recommendation, to include pregnenolone in the list of medicines that can be compounded. Of course, PCAC only makes recommendations, and when the FDA finalizes its list, it may well reject pregnenolone too, so we must remain vigilant.
The goal of this process – as has been clear from the start – is to hamstring and eventually drive out of business traditional compounding pharmacies by eliminating the types of medicines they can produce. The FDA wants traditional pharmacies to register as “outsourcing facilities,” since the agency has tight control over what they can produce and can prevent the production of anything deemed to compete with conventional drugs. Few traditional pharmacies have chosen to convert to this new kind of facility because they know it would end their independence.
Protect the Integrity of Organic Products
There is an influx of fake organic grain imported from overseas. The USDA seems to recognize this problem but is doing little about it. One Turkish organic certifier, ETKO, seems to be egregiously at fault. Canada and the European Union have singled out ETKO for its fraudulent certifications and “decertified” the firm —meaning that ETKO-certified organic products are no longer accepted as organic.
The USDA lists problems with ETKO as far back as 2009 but, instead of decertifying this company, actually reached a settlement agreement with them in 2016. The firm is now under audit by USDA. The status of the audit – the agency is still gathering data and will be done “soon.”
Not only do consumers unwittingly purchase products falsely labeled by the government as organic, but organic farmers in the US are also affected as they have to compete with fraudulent goods.
Protect Vaccine Choice
Vaccines are a hotly debated topic, with emotions running high on both sides. Reasonable people should be able to ask intelligent questions about the safety of vaccines. Parents should not be in danger of losing their children over exemptions or find they no longer have a doctor because of exercising their right of choice. There are many reasons besides religion for forgoing vaccinations, such as allergies and adverse reactions.
The truth is that the government’s vaccine schedule has not been rigorously tested for safety. We know that vaccines can cause severe illness. This is why it is so essential to protect Americans’ freedom of choice by fighting to preserve vaccine exemptions in states and reporting on the latest cutting-edge research.
Victories:
Defeated bills that either mandated certain vaccines or eliminated exemptions to vaccination in over two-dozen states, including: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IA, IL, IN, MA, MD, ME, MN, MO, NE, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, TX, VA, WA, WV
As we move into the new year, there will be battles we chose to fight, I hope protecting your health Freedom is one of them.