My Favorite Self-Help Stuff

What happened to the health insurance reform? I thought the idea was to create a system that would provide low-cost affordable health insurance for individuals and families alike.

Yes, I thought the idea was to make it more affordable, but what was I thinking?

I guess I was way too optimistic… So far, not only does it look like it will take several years until some of those things will actually be in place (I mean, 2014!), but some of those plans could actually turn out to be even MORE expensive than previous incarnations.

Having grown up in Germany where basically everybody had health insurance, I’m still a bit in shock about the reality of not having it. And it’s almost unimaginable to anyone in Germany that anyone really could have no health insurance.

Even here in the U.S., it’s generally taken for granted that everyone has insurance “Talk to YOUR doctor” — what about those who don’t have a doctor to talk to, or can’t afford the steep charges for visiting a doctor’s office? It only adds insult to injury.

Ironically, it’s not at all uncommon — there are plenty of people without health insurance. I remember being shocked when I discovered that one of my alternative health care providers didn’t have health insurance.

And if you look at the cost of most insurance plans, it quickly becomes clear why that would be. Some of them make a mortgage payment look like small change in comparison.

Not only that, but there are still all sorts of co-payments and plenty of stuff that isn’t even covered.

When I came down with the swine flu last fall, I spent days trying to find a doctor who might fit my budget and who would prescribe one of those antiviral drugs before time ran out.

No luck. Short of going to the emergency room, which I didn’t think was the best plan, or risking a bill of hundreds of dollars by going to one of those 24hour medical offices who refused to give me a price quote, there was no way I could find anyone in time.

Just seeing my former regular doctor was more than $140, not counting medication, and since I hadn’t been there for a “while” they would insist on doing all sorts of blood work etc., and that would have added considerably to the bill.

But I had an AmeriPlan card, so I figured I’d be able to find a doctor for a reasonable charge. NOT.

After calling half a dozen doctors from their list — I discovered that some were no longer accepting that plan, and the others would have made me wait several weeks for the earliest appointment. What the heck?!

Finally, the window of opportunity to get the anti-virals passed, and fortunately, eventually, I got better all by myself, after taking hefty doses of assorted natural immune-strengthening supplements, and sleeping a whole lot. But it sure was scary.

Meanwhile, I’ve been counting on President Obama to come up with low cost health insurance plans for individuals and families, but, well, I guess it’s time for Plan B.

It’s time for this self help blog blogger to address my thoughts about my recent health scare:  The limits of self help!

What do I mean by that?

As you know if you’ve been following my writing, I’m a big fan of taking charge of my own health, emotional and physical.  I grew up with a father who was basically a holistic doctor — he was a “regular” physician, but also very much up on all sorts of natural healing approaches, from herbs to Kneipp water treatments and so on. So I grew up with a lot of herbs, and am still a strong believer, and when I get sick, that’s where I go first.

Meanwhile, I also studied and was certified in Quantum Touch energy work, and have practiced that on and off for a number of years, on myself and on others.

I also do distance healings occasionally and I’m still a bit incredulous about how well it works, even halfway around the globe.

But the main beneficiary of my QT practice has been me.  That’s why I started it.  At the time, I was in constant pain and was seeing a chiropractor at least twice a week. I also had horrible insomnia and was using everything in the book and then some, and STILL had trouble sleeping.

But once I started using some advanced QT techniques, my back and neck pain improved to the point that my chiropractic visits dropped to once a month.  My chiro still doesn’t quite believe I’m not “seeing someone else.”

And I can sleep!  In fact, that was the biggest miracle that happened.  There’s this special meditation that I’ve written about elsewhere on my self help blog that basically helps me go to sleep more effectively than almost anything else.

In fact, here’s what happened when I first learned it:

We were doing that meditation in the workshop, and insomniac super-fussy sleeper me fell asleep right there in the middle on the room, lying on the floor!  How embarrassing — and amazing.  I did the same meditation again that night, and once again I fell asleep before I was halfway done!  Woohoo!

So I do QT almost every day, and overall I’m very happy with the results.

But here’s the rub…

When I noticed a huge very deep boil/cyst on my thigh, I threw some herbs at it and visualized health, and did a lot of QT.  And yet it got bigger and bigger.  I finally decided maybe I better go to a doctor even though I currently have no health insurance.

Of course, the question was where to go. I realized I had no time (or money) to go from one doctor to the next as they tried to figure out who was the right person for THIS particular problem…  And who would be able to give me the right antibiotic.

Finally I did go see a doctor.  Fortunately, I picked my friendly plastic surgeon, who had been removing a whole bunch of moles from me a few years back, and who also had proven to know exactly which antibiotics worked when I had “boil” problems in the past.

He immediately got out the anesthetic and the scalpel and cut the thing open.

And none to soon…

He told me that if i hadn’t come in when I did, I would have landed in the hospital with a septic leg — within a day or two.

That was a scary thought!  I had been really sick already, with a fever, and intense fatigue. And at first I felt even worse after the surgery.

But talk about serendipity. I’m so glad I followed my gut feeling to go find a doc NOW and that I picked just the right one who got me in that very afternoon and immediately took action.  I went on antibiotics (still am) and the leg is now just about healed.  In the meantime, I was REALLY sick for a week and I’m still quite tired even a couple of weeks later.

So what’s the lesson?  Use ALL of it.  Alternative and traditional medicine. They are not an either/or proposition, but an and/and!  Like it was with my dad. He gave us wick’s vaporub and herb tea, but he also gave us antibiotics when we needed them.

There’s a time and place for all of it, and it often works in tandem… So yes, self-help is good, but sometimes we need to let others help us too.

What do you think?  Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Hello again. Here’s now the sequel from the previous post: How to treat swine flu?

No big secret: Just like the regular kind.

My self help blog style advice… (remember that I’m not a medical doctor (my doctorate is a Ph.D.), just an alternative health stuff nut.

Then again, in Germany, where I grew up, my father was definitely practicing integrative medicine. So I grew up with herbs etc and Kneipp treatments and all kinds of cool stuff, the specialness of which I only learned to fully appreciate many years later.

So I’m a walking repository of info on alternative treatments of various kinds… and I’m happy to experiment too. Just remember, you might want to check with your doctor before taking any of my advice, which is right below:

First of all, be careful with over the counter meds. Make sure you don’t overdose on taking multiple kinds with overlapping ingredients.

I once found myself fearing for my life when I had inadvertently ingested twice the recommended max dose of some ingredient that caused me to get an extremely rapid heart beat.

It was in the sinus stuff AND in the cough syrup, and i had missed the bit in the cough syrup. Now I read ingredients very carefully, and prefer single symptom remedies with single ingredients (or no more than a couple) and make sure I know what each of them does and that they don’t interact before I combine them.

For the sniffles, I am still a great fan of the “classic” Sudafed that I now have to get from behind the counter. It works like a charm (even at half the recommended dose, so one pack lasts a LONG time) and helps me sleep because it keeps my nose unclogged (usually, and much better than anything else).

Cough: Robitussin DM (I use the sugarfree kind). Learned that in Berkeley from a nurse practitioner in the Student Health Center.

Sore throat: gargling with salt water. Among other things.

Lozenges are great too. My favorite — Olbas Pastilles

And with other meds — be sure to read the ingredients of lozenges and stuff as well — you don’t want to overdose.

And then, the other stuff… Here’s my list of things I did and took that helped me feel and get better:

Your mileage may vary, but heres a sampling:

My power chicken soup. I take organic chicken stock, heat it, mix in some shiritaki noodles, and lots of chopped garlic, ginger, and green onions, plus some cayenne pepper, and some other spices to taste.

Have a bowl of that several times a day. Other than that, drink herbal teas for their soothing as well as medicinal qualities, and take loads of supplements.

Among my favorites: Quick Defense by Gaia Herbs. In fact, that stuff has accelerated the progress of various colds and flus ever since I first discovered it. I now keep it handy just in case because it’s important to take it right away.

Also NAC (N-Acetyl Cystine) and Olive Leaf are great immune system strengthening supplements.

And of course the usual multi and C and so on.

A regular dose of Airborne.

Vick’s Vaporub and essential oils for respiration.

Lots of soup, chicken and otherwise.

And LOTS of sleep.

What helps you? Any secret recipes? Comments?

H1N1 swine flu! What a buzz word, and what a drag! I got it about a week and a half after having just gotten a flu shot to prevent the “regular” flu.

And it’s no fun! It started very suddenly and within a matter of a couple of hours moved from a scratchy cold and chills to a full blown very sore throat.

Then my nose started dripping like mad and I stocked up on the mentholated Kleenex (Puffs, actually) which also have lotion on them.

Good thing I did because I went through FOUR packs in a few days, two of them in ONE day, when it was worst.

And then there was the cough. Ouch! Unusually painful cough. And a total loss of appetite, headaches, fever, etc.

I threw everything at it that I had, and now I’m not sure if it’s because of that or because it simply runs its course more quickly than the regular flu, but the worst was over much sooner than “normal” though I’m still coughing, and not feeling up to speed.

I’m not the person to say anything much about preventing it, but then again, preventing the swine flu is harder than you would like since it’s highly contagious before you even know you have it.

So you cannot know which one of all those people around you might give it to you. But its a moot point anyway.

Anyway, in my next post, I’ll share some of the things that have helped me feel (and get) better comparatively quickly.

Hope you don’t get it. It’s no fun!

For starters, stay away from people who cough.

Elisabeth

If you’ve been feeling tired lately, it may not just be stress. Though stress could be a contributing factor… It could be high blood pressure. Check out this guest post by Jon Benson, fitness author and expert on lowering your blood pressure without drugs. It’s been quite an eye opener:

Jon Benson’s Guest Post:

Have you ever started out to do one thing but ended up doing something different? Night and day different?

Remember how Post-It Notes were invented? Some guy was trying to come up with a “permanent” glue. Obviously he failed… and he considered it a failure… but 3M had another idea.

The guy was all of a sudden Joe Brilliant. Well, I’m feeling a bit like Joe today.

But this is much more interesting to you than Post-It Notes… It’s about s – e – x… sorta.

Not dirty, I’m talking about couple’s stuff here. My new book just came out today about it. But it didn’t start off that way at all.

In fact … get this… I was co-writing a book with medical researcher Frank Mangano on lowering blood pressure without meds… really.

So how did this big U-turn occur?

I read this article from a medical journal about how “lowering blood pressure would help sexual-performance-problems.”

Ding. The lightbulb went off in my head.

You see, lowering blood pressure is probably the most healthy thing you can do for yourself. But face it — it’s really, really BORING.

I mean, who really cares about their blood pressure unless their doctor says, “Look, lower your blood pressure or you’ll die in six months.” Then you care.

I ignored my own blood pressure for years until it hit stroke-level back in my 30s. Then I could no longer ignore it.

I found every natural alternative possible… which led me to Frank’s books… and they are the BEST.

So Frank comes to me and asks me to contribute to his very popular on-the-shelf book “The Blood Pressure Miracle” –

… and I said, “Hey, guess what I just read?” Since he’s the researcher, I said, “Go see if there’s any truth to this.” The results BLEW MY MIND.

Not only is there truth to it — that, yes… lowering blood pressure not only extends your life but also extends your sexlife as well — but WOW… it’s a major player in everything from male-ED to females feeling “out of the mood.”

It’s crazy, but it’s true. It makes sense once you read this:

http://www.lowpressuresex.com/go/selfhelp1 <--- Low Pressure Sex-System

Andi t gets even better...

So Frank digs up article after article on the subject of high blood pressure and LOW sexual-energy and performance... and we have a much more compelling reason to want to lower our blood pressure, now don't we?

But we wanted more.

I said, "Look Frank, I get a lot of emails about sex-after-30... people who want to feel more kick, more alive in that area of their lives... and above all, closer to their mates."

So... we decided to add another book on TOP of our book...

... a book on improving sexual-pleasure for couples only. "RevolutionarySex" is the name of it. My friend Alex Allman wrote it...and just like that we had two books instead of one.

But that's not all... ( told you... this story is interesting... ; )

THEN my friend Jeff Anderson comes out with his "homemade V" -- and guys, we know what "V" stands for.

Listen: V (little blue things) is really dangerous stuff. It really is. It RAISES blood pressure for one thing. For another it can cause addiction and memory loss.

But Jeff's version is all-natural, cheap (we're talking pennies instead of dollars per "pill" to make) and above all... SAFE.

So all of a sudden... THREE books (plus an audio)... so... It became a System, not a book. And the topic went from "lowering blood pressure" to ...

... How you can completely solve your sexual-performance-problems and increase your pleasure all by lowering blood pressure naturally without meds."

What a concept...and it WORKS.

http://www.lowpressuresex.com/go/selfhelp1 <--- Low Pressure Sex-System

Here are the advantages...

1. If you take blood pressure meds... and a lot of you do... your "kick in the stick" suffers. A lot. Some men suffer all the way, which lead them to taking the V stuff...

... and that stuff 'raises' blood pressure.

Bad, bad combo. Our System gets you off of that dangerous and expensive cycle of drugs and on to a natural, easy approach that also adds pleasure to your relationship.

2. Cheaper... by far... than meds.

3. Something you can read and do as a couple or as a single person.

4. You get healthy and you get your vigor back at the same time. Ladies too.

5. It's guaranteed-to-work... 60 days on us.

I'm very proud of this System. We put a lot of time, research and effort into it.

If you want a life freee from high BP and sexual-performance-issues and better health, then go here:

http://www.lowpressuresex.com/go/selfhelp1 <--- Low Pressure Sex-System

P.S. There's even more to this story --

We created an "Advanced Health and Relationship-Saver Kit" that comes with the most awesome self-hypnosis audios to help you relieve stress, lower pressure, increased your "drive", and more.

You can get the starter Kit or the Advanced Kit here:

http://www.lowpressuresex.com/go/selfhelp1 <— Low Pressure Sex-System

Here’s to your health… and your increased pleasure and enjoyment.

Today, I want to tell you about Quantum Touch. I just remembered that I had neglected to update my contact information in my practitioner bio, and decided to get it fixed. And then I thought, hmmm, I’ve never written a post about this. So I better do it right now!

Especially considering the title of my blog: My FAVORITE self-help stuff! And Quantum Touch has literally transformed my life (well, Quantum Touch, along with EFT). So it’s high time that I write about it.

What is Quantum Touch?

It is an energy healing technique that you can use both on others and on yourself.  And this particular (very powerful) energy healing approach was developed by Richard Gordon (or maybe discovered…  you have to read his story).

How did I first find out about it?

I first discovered it a little over four years ago, in fall 2004, at an alternative health fair.  At the time, I was dealing with extreme stress and had a lot of physical symptoms that went along with it, including severe back and neck pain.  I went to my chiropractor two or three times a week, something I couldn’t really afford, and was STILL was in pain.

When I read about Quantum Touch in the event brochure, I was skeptical.  “You can heal with your hands” it said.  Yeah, right! I had to see what that was all about…

What happened next?

It was pretty boring to watch.  The expert held his hands lightly around the area that the “patient” had said was hurting, and did what looked like a bit of special breathing.  After a few minutes, the “patient” said her pain was gone.

It doesn’t always work as dramatically, I have found out since, but it almost always reduces the pain significantly.  As for me, once I discovered that I could work on myself and could learn how to work on others, I decided to give it a shot. I figured if I could just cut down on my chiropractor visits even by 50%, the workshop would be paid for within a month or two. As it happened, I did way better than that.

How well does it work?

After my first workshop, I was encouraged enough that I decided to explore further. Several of us got together and arranged for one of their advanced teachers to come to Richmond to teach a Super Charging workshop for us.

And that advanced workshop (Super-Charging) really made a huge difference. Until then, I was still a bit sceptical, but after that, I KNEW that it really worked.

So I worked on my own back, and on my persistent insomnia that had required major artillery including prescription drugs, aromatherapy, hypnotic sleep-inducing music, herbs, and a bunch of other tricks, all at once, and sometimes I still couldn’t sleep.  Now I used a little aromatherapy, a small dose of calming herbs if needed, and Quantum touch.  And slept better than I had in many years.

My chiropractor thought I had started seeing another chiro because I changed my schedule from twice a week to once every three to four weeks, feeling better in the meantime than I had before.

I love it.  I started working on friends, and then even on people I didn’t know, and eventually became certified as a Quantum Touch practitioner.

How does Quantum Touch work?

How does it work?  The basic idea is that when something is wrong with your body, its vibration has a very slow frequency.  However, when someone vibrates with a higher frequency and holds her hands around the part that hurts, the hurting part’s vibration will start to adjust to the higher frequency  and that in turn will allow it to heal itself.  That’s the theory behind it, or at least part of it.

Want to find out more about Quantum Touch? 

Just go to their website at www.QuantumTouch.com for lots more information.

You can also read about it:

Richard and his colleagues have written three books:

Quantum Touch

Super Charging

Core Transformation

The first one is the introduction and the basic Quantum Touch technique. The second one provides some powerful add-on techniques, and the third one will turn the entire process on its head. I can’t wait to read it. I took the Core Transformation workshop, which must have been the most relaxing thing I’ve ever done, but I had tons of questions afterwards, so I look forward to filling in a few gaps. (Update: I’m using it on people I work on now and it’s very powerful!)

Can you learn to do it too?

Yes. The coolest thing about Quantum Touch is that it’s really not that hard. You can literally start doing it after just reading the book, though a workshop is of course very helpful because you get to practice on others and can watch others do it too. In fact, that was one of the coolest things about the workshops: people all work on each other. So after I got home, I felt wonderfully realigned.

Then again, I didn’t really get the kinds of results I was after until I took the Super Charging workshop — that’s what really seemed to power things up.

Well, that was a long post. I hope you all have a very relaxing weekend, and if you have pain of any kind, do consider checking this out for yourself.

Elisabeth, also known as Dr. K

Some people suggested I start using “Dr. K”!  I’m not a medical doctor — my Ph.D. is in linguistics, but a doctorate is a doctorate.

What do you think?

P.S.: If you’re interested in trying out a distance healing, sign up for my “list” and then hit reply and send me a return email and I’ll get back to you.

Well, October, National Breast Cancer Month, is almost over, and I realize I should post at least ONE post on the topic…

I just went over to my Breast Cancer Survivor’s blog and posted something there, and I thought, hm, I think you all might like a comment too.

You see, I’m a huge fan of Lawrence LeShan’s, who wrote “Cancer as a Turning Point,” and I have to say that his book was MY turning point in life.

Did it make life easier?  Not always.  Actually a bit more complicated.  But I had more fun!  And was happier.

LeShan calls cancer “despair manifested on a cellular level.” His rationale is that if we are so miserable that we don’t feel there’s much to live for, our immune system will be happy to help us on your journey out of this world.  Now if we don’t want to take it that far, we better shape up.

His book is all about how to do that. And I made it my bible.  Together with an amazing set of cassette tapes by the late Roger Mellott: Stress Skills for Turbulent Times.

If you can round up a copy, get it.  It’s rapidly disappearing, but you may be able to still get a used copy on Amazon.com or Ebay.

Do try to get the real thing, i.e., “Stress Skills for Turbulent Times,” not the other one.  The first one is MUCH better and more fun to listen to, though if you can’t find it anymore, the alternative version, which I think is called “Stress Management for Professionals,” will also work.

Of course you can also get MY stress relief ebook   Just click on the pretty book cover on the top right.

And find things that make you happy.  Then do them!

Have a happy day!

Elisabeth

Want to know my favorite secret flu fighting weapon. The thing that has finally unclogged my sinuses, barely in time for my next round of flights tomorrow morning?

Several rounds of one of my favorite flu remedies: Tom Kha Gai (sp?), also known as Thai Coconut Chicken Soup. It’s chicken soup on steroids. Buy it by the bucket, and repeat. It works wonders!

If you don’t have a Thai restaurant nearby and don’t feel like recreating the recipe, use any kind of chicken soup and add some finely chopped ginger and garlic and if you can handle it, a bit of cayenne pepper or chile.

Another one: horseradish and/or wasabi. In a word: Sushi, heavy on the wasabi. That too helps. Have some miso soup with it. I think the warm liquids are really an important ingredient.

Of course, I hope you won’t need this advice. And now that I’m back in the Northern hemisphere, I guess this is not particularly seasonal. But it will be before you know it. And of course if you’re from down under, you can put it right to use

Well, I’ll be darned! Here I was a bit hesitant to even publish this article about my experience with something that seemed to have made my hair stop falling out, and now it has had more views at ezine articles than ALL of my other 9 articles combined! Wow!

And what was the big news? That I have started avoiding shampoos that contain sodium lauryl sulfate and my hair stopped falling out. A friend had the same experience — which is what got me started on the experiment. So now it’s strictly all-natural shampoos for me!

I think I’ll have to write some more pieces on hair!

If you want to know all the details, the article is right here.

But be sure to come back here when you’re done!

So now I’m trying to come up with more related topics… I think I’ll write about frugal hair-coloring tricks next, and about how to make the most of whatever hair you’ve got.

Note added in January: I’ve written two more ezine articles on hair and one of them has found even more readers! Go here to check it out.

Foreclosure? A scary concept, and very big trouble, bigger than most people even realize. Obviously, it’s something to be avoided at all costs.

With the mortgage crisis being all over the news, and self-help being my mantra, I thought that even though this is topic is a bit different from my usual upbeat prosperity focused themes, I would devote an entry to it because…

I just came across a fantastic resource for anyone who is sweating about their Option ARM mortgage (that’s an adjustable rate mortgage where one has the option to pay less than the interest, for those of you who are blissfully unfamiliar with that particular item). It may have seemed like a good deal (or a lifesaver) while home values were rising, especially in hopes of big future raises, but when those raises don’t come through and home values are dropping: big trouble!

Tamera Aragon has written an outstanding resource manual for anyone who needs help or even knows someone who could use some help: “Avoid Foreclosure with SMART STEPS.” I heard her and her business partner Michelle talk about it in a teleseminar and just checked out the book. It’s terrific! Both of them really know their stuff.

Not that they are lawyers — they are both real estate investors and both of them know much of that subject from previous personal experience. So they’ve been there, and their mission is to help other people avoid that painful experience.

So if you know anyone who could benefit from this information , check out their SMART STEPS.