The food being served to our children in  cafeterias throughout our nation is beyond sub-par. Soggy tater tots. Mystery meat. Fast-food pizza and refined sugar.

This is the reality of our children’s school lunches and it is time for some serious change. How to change this? Pack their lunches! Brown bag it. Remember, like we use to do when we were all kids. I know we are all So busy these days but these are the kids of our future!

There’s an amazing movement going on called Slow Food USA. Eric and I are members and huge supporters of this organization which is working to directly impact national and local food policies. From the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act to the Farm Bill, they will be building alliances, bringing in key industry experts and heading to Washington to work for  change. To find out more check out www.slowfoodusa.org

If you had been living in ancient Babylon and became seriously ill your physician, who doubled as priest, would have asked you to breathe into a sheep’s nose. He would have then slaughtered the sheep, taken a “reading” of the liver, and predicted the outcome of your illness. These civilized ancients believed that a “breathed on” sheep’s liver would not only register the nature of the disease but the prospects for recovery as well. Believed to be the seat of all vital functions, the liver was the obvious choice of the gods for revealing their intentions.

~ William D. Snively, The Sea Within

It is quite apparent that the ancients respected the liver and believed it to be not only the soul’s center but the most important organ in the body. In Traditional Chinese Medicine the Hun, or soul, is found to reside in the liver. In more contemporary times the liver was and continues to be unaccountably neglected by the medical profession. Physicians often analyze patient’s blood work paying minimal attention to the liver, only taking into account its enzymatic activity. In fact, in most cases, the liver is only examined from the perspective of whether their patients will be able to tolerate the newest drug out on the market. This is extremely unfortunate and detrimental to the health of the patient as the liver, in actually, is the matter chemist of the body.

The liver is the body’s largest internal organ. It weighs approximately three pounds and has found special protection under the strong muscular diaphragm and the bony support of the lower ribs. It is a tremendously resilient organ, able to rebuild its missing cells and regenerate the damaged ones. It will function with only one fifth or less of its whole, and in some cancer cases with as much as 90 percent of the liver removed, the organ will grow to its original size, just months later. It can be considered potentially immortal (hence its association with the soul in ages past) however, constant abuse in the form of malnutrition, harmful drugs both prescription and recreational, chemical toxins coming from perfumes and lotions that we wear, household cleaning agents, chemicals used in dry-cleaning of clothing just to name a few will eventually cause cellular dysfunction in the liver that leads to impaired function and subsequently to the myriad of dis-eases and conditions that are then treated with….you guessed it, more drugs and chemicals that put further burden on the very organ that in many cases was the origination of the problem to begin with.

At the basic level the liver is responsible for filtering and detoxifying the blood, ensuring that blood reentering circulation is free from potential disease causing bacteria, pathogens and food contaminants. Beyond filtering and detoxifying the blood, the liver contributes to the reformation or building of new cells, tissues and organs as well as the breakdown of cellular structure. The liver is known to perform over 300 different functions…simultaneously! Here we bear witness to the absolute genius of the human body. Some of these functions include the following:

• Detoxifies chemicals from the environment
• Converts ammonia to urea
• Converts carbohydrates and proteins to fat
• Breaks down proteins
• Eliminates bilirubin (a substance secreted in the bile)
• Filters and detoxifies blood
• Forms ketones (waste products of partially metabolized fat) and phospholipids (fat molecules) from fatty acids
• Forms lipoproteins
• Metabolizes hormones such as Estrogen
• Produces bile salts, which carry cholesterol out of the body, and delivers it to the gallbladder for storage until needed when the stomach signals that fat is on its way and needs to be emulsified at which point the gallbladder sends bile to the small intestines for that purpose.
• Produces lymphatic fluid (lymph nourishes and cleanses tissue cells)
• Stores glycogen and converts it to glucose for fuel
• Stores vitamins A, D, B12 , and the mineral iron
• Synthesizes cholesterol and enzymes
• Synthesizes blood-clotting factors

What can go wrong? As your liver becomes stressed, symptoms of liver toxicity begin to occur. When the liver is not working efficiently, it “Gets backed Up” so to speak.

• Some of the Common Symptoms of a Poorly Functioning Liver
• Digestive Problems ( Such as frequent burping; bloating; intestinal gas; stomach pain; yeast)
• Food Allergies or sensitivities
• Chemical Sensitivities
• Rashes or various skin problems Eye problems – such as blurred vision; eye pain; decreasing vision; eye flutters or twitches, etc
• Difficulty sleeping – especially between 1:00 A.M. and 3:00 A.M.
• Irritability; depression, frequent anger
• Menstrual Problems (Such as too much or too little blood flow; clotting cramps)
• Testicular Problems

Bile Sludge – from bad fats For many people including children, the biliary tubing is choked with gallstones due to eating the typical American Diet, full of fried foods and hydrogenated oils. These toxic oils cause stagnation and back up the liver. Chief offenders are margarine, salad dressings and even some baked foods especially if they come from a package. When you eat most crackers, it doesn’t seem like you are eating a fried food but in fact the oil in the cracker has been heated to such a high temperature that the oils initiate destructive free radical cascades which stress and prematurely age the liver

Normal bile is the consistency of light oil. When the liver is subjected to these kinds of bad fats and hydrogenated oils, the bile becomes thick like honey and forms sludge. This can form clay-like balls and stones which lodge in the liver, along the biliary tract and in the intestines.

Because the clogging of the biliary tubing, many people develop poor digestion, chronic allergies, or allergic reactions such as sinus problems or hives. Often an x-ray scan of the gallbladder will show nothing. Sludges of old, sticky bile and gallstones are not in the gallbladder but lodged in the liver or the biliary tubing. Many stones may be too small or not calcified enough, making visibility on x-rays nearly impossible to detect. Ultrasound sometimes detects uncalcified gallstones but not always.

Gallstones – There are over a half a dozen varieties of gallstones, most of which contain cholesterol crystals. These stones can be black, red, white, tan or green in color with the most common being pea-green. As stones grow and become more numerous they clog the tubing creating a back pressure on the liver causing the liver to make less bile. Imagine if you had marbles in your garden hose. Much less water would flow from the hose, which in turn would decrease the ability of the hose to squirt out the marbles.

Bile – A Natural Cholesterol Reducer and Parasite Killer – With gallstones, much less cholesterol leaves the body because the bile flow in the small intestines is needed to precipitate excess cholesterol from the blood. As a consequence of this reduced bile flow, cholesterol levels usually rise even when a person is eating a good and healthy diet. Bile is the key factor that naturally kills pathogens such as parasites, which commonly enter the digestive tract via food. Consider this, first the parasites must get past the stomach which they are able to do if the stomach acid is too low. The bile should be a backup system to destroy parasites but if the bile is too weak then these microbes wreak havoc by making the digestive process inefficient, paving the way for more infection and inflammation.

Since gallstones are porous, they can pickup bacteria, cysts, viruses, and parasites that are passing through the liver. In this way, infection can form, continuously burdening the body and the body’s defense systems. Consequently, the body’s immune system must fight ceaselessly to keep these harmful organisms in check. Yet the body cannot get rid of these organisms without first purging these bile formations.

The liver utilizes two main methods by which it effectively deals with toxins. The liver contains “Kupffer cells” which are capable of removing dead cells, bacteria, and foreign substances from the blood. While these cells are responsible for filtering about 99 percent of the bacterial and other pathogenic materials from the blood, other cells in the liver, called hepatocytes, detoxify the body of drugs, heavy metals, chemicals, alcohol and hormones and make up the second method referred to as Phase I (oxidation-reduction) and Phase II (conjugation- elimination). Phase I involves the use of what is termed the cytochrome P-450 enzyme system. This enzyme system oxidizes and breaks down the endotoxins (toxins that are produced internally) and prepares them for Phase II. Phase II then takes up what Phase I has just finished dismantling and conjugates these toxins or makes them water soluble so that they can be excreted form the body. The down-side to Phase I is that in the process of breaking down these toxins, free radicals are generated and these free radicals are known as reactive oxygen species. Under normal circumstances when the liver is working well, these reactive oxygen species are taken up by Phase II and conjugated by different substances, substances that are derived from proper nutrition, and excreted out of the body. When proper nutrition is not provided for the liver to carry out this very important function, these reactive oxygen species get reabsorbed back into the blood stream where they will damage mitochondria, proteins, fats, cholesterol and nucleic acids (the building blocks that make up our DNA and RNA which in turn make up who we are). This damage on a cellular level is the beginning of pathological dysfunction and disease. The damage sustained by your liver and all organ systems of your body on a cellular level takes place because of vitamin and nutrient deficiencies and increased toxicity, not for any other reason.

• The key nutrients required in Phase I detoxification include:
  • Beta-carotene
  • Choline
  • Copper
  • Lecithin
  • Magnesium
  • Glutathione
  • Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids
  • Sulfur
  • Vitamins B3 (niacin), C complex and E complex
  • Zinc
• The key nutrients required in Phase II detoxification include:
  • Alpha lipoic acid
  • Folic acid
  • Magnesium
  • Manganese
  • Methionine
  • N-acetylcysteine (NAC)
  • Selenium
  • Taurine
  • Vitamins B2 (riboflavin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B12 (Methylcobalamin), and C complex
  • Zinc

If you were to finish reading this article and remember nothing but this one very important point, I will be very pleased. Here is that point one last time: In order for both phases of your liver to function properly as well as every other organ system and biochemical system in your body, one must receive and assimilate all of the vitamin complexes, nutrients and cofactors that these systems were designed to function on. They do not function on refined and processed foods; they do not function on sugar cereals and sugar drinks, and they certainly do not function on prescription drugs. They do not function on anything other than whole foods in their natural state and whole food concentrates. This is a fundamental and very important paradigm shift that must take place in every family and every individual if we are to take back control of our health and stop allowing the pharmaceutical industry to pathologize every condition that comes along, and to stop leading us to believe that when we are ailing from some chronic condition that drug medications are the answer to restoring function. Drugs do play a significant role in certain acute situations, there’s no doubt, but in order to restore true cellular function and health we must use what we were designed to live on, real whole food.

Using a liver detoxification program that utilizes organic whole food concentrates is an excellent way to help restore health. The reality of today is that we live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by chemicals and toxins that we are not even aware of. We must take as much care as possible to keep the liver and all organ systems working at an optimal level.

Liver dysfunction has been linked to diseases not commonly associated with digestion or detoxification. Given its incredible scope of activity in the body, the liver’s role in a multitude of disease processes should not be surprising. For example, in a recent study of twenty autistic children, 100 percent were found to have abnormal liver detoxification profiles. Sixteen of the children showed levels of toxic chemicals that exceeded the maximum adult tolerance. This study suggests that autism may be in part rooted in neurological damage caused by an inability of the liver to metabolize toxins and sensitivity of the child to these exposures. Also, there is compelling evidence that chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and multiple chemical sensitivity all have associations with compromised detoxification processes in the liver, as well as a poorly functioning gut.

In conclusion, I leave you to ponder a quote from a man, who was brilliant, far ahead of his time and continues to be an inspiration in my life and practice,

“One of the biggest tragedies of human civilization is the precedence of chemical therapy over nutrition. It’s a substitution of artificial therapy over natural, of poisons over food, in which we are feeding people poison in trying to correct the reactions of starvation.”

~Dr. Royal Lee
January 12, 1951

Terrifying questions aren’t they? But these are the questions that everyone is asking. The questions that haunt our collective psyche. The questions that keep us up at night, wondering if we’ve made the right life choices….or keep us medicated with rich foods, overpriced meds, and silly media that distracts us or provides a false sense of hope.

Throw it all away, please. Chuck it out the window. We don’t need that stuff. We don’t need hope when we’ve got the truth. The truth isn’t out there…it’s in our gut, beneath the shallow wanderings of our carnivorous, clever, ever-shifting minds. Don’t believe me? See for yourself. Place wishful thinking aside. Place fearful thinking aside. Place all thinking aside….

What does your gut tell you?

That’s right! A revolution is underway. The way we live as Americans–as humans–is undergoing a dramatic, profound shift. The great news is that within this shift we will each find a new way of relating, a new expression of our deeper vocation, and a new sense of personal meaning within the mundane. This shift is an answer to our deepest collective longing, a buried calling that all of us secretly shares. It’s time to stop pretending otherwise.

The economy, the environment, the government–these are merely holographic outpicturings of desires we have long kept repressed and hidden. As we transform them, we will remember that who we really are will never be damaged by the smoke-and-mirrors mind-play of a world gone mad with denial.

Yes. It is, in fact, our denial that is dying. Good riddance. A house built upon the quicksand of denial will never sustain life, let alone the throbbing calling that brought you to this particular time and place. Take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy every sandwich.

The ancient origin of the word ‘yoga’ in Sanskrit means to yoke.  That is, to yoke or join together one’s personal consciousness with the universal consciousness.  It is union, or the integration of one’s physical, mental and spiritual energies for harmonious wellbeing.

Sometimes it is simply a way to reclaim my body and find length through my limbs and spine.  Stretching out after hours of hunching over a computer, or a desk is in a word – medicine.

If I’ve been totally in my mind in an analytical manner, it can be a way to shake off the inner dialogue.  The inner critic and the to-do-lists can be unrelenting.  The ‘could-a should-a would-a’ scenario is so pointless and draining, but yet we all fall into that pattern of incessant over thinking.  What’s worse is that we often don’t even know that we are doing it. A daily practice provides the means in which you can practice “Svadyaya” or self-study.  Self-study means being aware of the inner dialogue, the words we speak, the thoughts we have.

The concept of Ishvara Pranidhana is a recent revelation into the real deeper connection that I have to this sacred practice.  It is to surrender all the fruits of practice to whatever it is that one conceives to be a greater power beyond one’s self. It is acting as best we can, and then relinquishing all attachment to the outcome of our actions.  This letting go focuses us on the process of the practice rather than on the goals of practice.
Only by releasing our fears and hopes for the future can we really be in union with the present moment. Today, for most of us, life is fragmented… absent from the living moment. We find ourselves living a concept of life – not life itself.

Guru Singh summed this up so potently in a lecture the other day.
“We have developed this life that isn’t life; with its food that isn’t food; amongst beliefs that aren’t to be believed and we are now controlled by feelings that aren’t actual our true feelings . . . they are composite drawings of some hopes and anticipations reacting to other fears and doubts. Life has become the anticipation of memory . . .a far cry from an experience of your existence that is intended.”

So I practice to live the best life I can live.  To meet my destiny and to experience the wonder and the mystery of that thing that is greater than all of us, that is the essence and the commonality within all of us.  To experience this moment, as it is with all of it’s unlimited potential with all of it’s limited bounds.  To be in this body, and this mind without the need to change anything, but moment to moment making the choices that are in alignment with the true-self.  The heart.

Chiropractic is focused on restoring and maintaining proper spinal motion, alignment, and posture in order to restore and maintain healthy spinal tissues and healthy nerve flow between the body and brain. The ancient teachers of health and the chiropractors of today understood that healthy spinal bones and joints and free flowing spinal nerve transmission depend on normal spinal motion and alignment. A disruption and decrease in spinal motion and poor posture will result in architectural/ structural (bone, joint and tissue) degeneration, along with poor spinal nerve energy flow. The scientific term for this condition is known as a vertebral subluxation.