Natural Communities Magazine A magazine devoted to the local natural wellness culture.

Zasha Lynne Burton, a Reiki Teacher/Practitioner, Life and Therapeutic Coach ®, and Addictions Counselor draws upon her experience as a counselor and her education in adult learning and leadership development to assist others in achieving greater health, wellbeing, and success in their personal and professional life.

As a Life and Therapeutic Coach ® Zasha integrates her knowledge of language, thought and behavior (Humanistic Neuro Linguistic Psychology) with principles of present moment awareness (Health Realization), and Hypnotherapy (Naturally occurring trance states) to identify and eliminate limiting language and thought patterns resulting in unwanted feelings and behavior impacting emotional, mental, and physical health.

Zasha is available to conduct workshops/seminars on how language and thought impact systems, including family systems, organizational systems, and
the human energy system.

Please visit www.m2mhealingalternatives.com for detailed information.

318 Bush Street, Suite #3
Red Wing, Minnesota 55066
651-380-0043

It’s really not as obnoxious as you think. Other names given to this plant are “Bear Plant”; “Clot Beer”; “Beggars Buttons”.

Have you ever really looked deeply into the burdock plant? Its leaves are simply magnificent You can almost wrap an infant within their delicate hold. Growing up, I remember burdock patches every where and childhood memories of my Mother chopping them down. Little did we know how very medicinal those mighty plants are.

Most people think that Burdock is a perennial, but actually this plant is only a biannual. It lives 2 years and it’s gone. Their prolific seed production is what keeps their population up. The first year, you will see this beautiful little plant in its entire splendor with only the leaves and reaching a height of about two feet. The second year, when it pushes its gallantry around, it may grow up to 6 to 7 feet tall and bursting at season’s end with many seed heads. We are blessed to have this valuable plant in our region. The south can’t grow it, and it doesn’t like sandy soil either.

In herbal medicine, we call Burdock a tonic herb, one we can use as food on a daily basis if you would like. All parts of the plant are medicinal and the roots are used for food along with the stalks. Burdock is one of those plants that can be harvested throughout its growing season. Keep in mind, though, that specific parts of the plant are harvested at specific times. For instance, you would harvest the roots of the first year plant in the spring or fall. You can only harvest the roots of a second year plant in the spring of its second year. The leaves are harvested throughout the summer when they are vibrant and full of life. I use either first or second year plants when harvesting leaves. Of course, when the second year plants have reached their maturity, you can harvest their precious jewels, “the burrs” or seeds. I harvest them late summer when they blossom like a flower, their tops having exploded into a pretty purple. They are at their prime at this stage and hold many medicinal values.

Burdock is so versatile to our bodies. Let’s start from the bottom and make our way up. The roots we classify into “alternative” medicine. This meaning blood purifiers. They help clean the liver and restore health, and help the liver in cleansing our blood. You can use these roots in many ways. Dig them like carrots and freeze them to add to your winter soups or stews. You can tincture them or make a wonderful cup of burdock root tea. You will see a film of oil in your tea cup which would indicate its volatile oil content which aids in promoting bile secretion and absorption of fats and oils in the body. They help when there are hot, dry conditions in our systems, like dry scaly skin conditions, and dry unhealthy scalp and hair.

After digging up the root, you would not want to discard the rest of the plant. The young leaves can be used in salads. The leaves are also used for shrinking of the tendons. When juiced, with honey added, they will help urination and bladder pain, burns, canker sores, ringworm, and inflammatory tumors. I add leaves to my arthritis salve to help with pain and inflammation in the joints.

Harvesting the seeds is fun. You don’t have to worry about dropping any! Real easy to carry, don’t even need a pail. These guys are so beneficial also; the remedy I like is using them for memory. It makes sense they stick to anything, so why not help the memory to stick to things. They are also used to help dispel urinary stones, aid in rheumatism, relieve irritation and increase renal activity to reduce renal obstruction and help with adult acne to name a few.

I could keep going on with many more medicinal uses of this plant. In general, I love it for its liver and blood-cleansing properties. I also use this plant to relieve eczema, psoriasis, and other sore itchy rashes, and even poison ivy.

So if you see a patch of Burdock over there that you want to get rid of, share it instead. It’s really there for your benefit. Let’s not be so hasty next time when we want to chop it down. Maybe we can use it for creating better health.

-Bonnie Kreckow, Community Herbalist, Utica, MN

Disclaimer: Herbs mentioned are for information purposes only. Herb ratios and dosage has not been given. Educate yourself on any herbal treatment before taking it. Know if that is the proper herb for your condition. Some health conditions are not appropriate for self-diagnosis or self-treatment. Consult a qualified herbal healthcare practitioner.

For Your Pet

Goal #1 - Preventing disease.

This goal seems simple enough, let’s prevent disease so that your pet never becomes ill. I would actually prefer to see healthy pets rather than ill ones. It’s obviously not practical or possible for a pet to never become ill, but we can do a lot to minimize illness. While vaccines may be appropriate at times, a holistic approach appreciates the fact that most of the diseases we see in practice are chronic degenerative diseases. Conventional medicine really does a poor job of preventing and treating these disorders, as it is better suited to treating acute problems like infectious disease.

A holistic approach utilizes several steps in order to prevent disease. First, feeding a natural diet, free of harmful chemicals and byproducts, minimizes cell damage. Minimizing vaccines and the unnecessary use of medications and toxins is also important. Finally, a well-prescribed supplement regimen can reduce inflammation and oxidation in your pet’s body, decreasing the chances of your pet developing chronic diseases.

Goal #2 - Say NO to Drugs.

One of the most important aspects of a holistic health care plan for your pets is saying NO to drugs whenever possible and finding alternatives to traditional medications. Drugs certainly have their place in the treatment of many diseases, and we shouldn’t totally abandon their use. In my opinion, they work best for acute problems (such as serious infections and the occasional flare-ups of chronic problems like allergies and arthritis.) More chronic problems (and often minor acute problems) respond best to alternative therapies like herbs, homeopathics, magnetic therapy, chiropractic, and acupuncture. Chronic use of conventional drugs is often more expensive than alternative treatments, and side effects are much more commonly encountered when using conventional medications than when alternative therapies are used. Additionally, many pets treated with chronic drug therapy develop side effects from these drugs, or even another disease from the drug therapy! This means that even more drugs are used to treat these secondary disorders, leading to further increases in side effects or second or third diseases.

Finding natural, alternative therapies is a safer, healthier approach for treating the pet with chronic problems. When drugs need to be used in treating diseases in pets, especially chronic diseases, the LOWEST dose of the drug that provides relief should be used for the SHORTEST amount of time. This approach minimizes side effects, and also gives the pet the “correct” amount of drug it needs at that time. Feel free to email me for my handout about natural therapies that can be used in place of conventional medications.

Goal #3 - Heal the pet rather than treat disease.

In veterinary school, which focuses only on conventional medicine, doctors learn to properly diagnose and treat signs and symptoms, and hopefully diseases. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this approach (even holistic doctors need to diagnose the correct problem before they can treat it), if our ONLY concern is treating the disease, then we are failing our patients.

The holistic approach focuses on the PATIENT and not the DISEASE. This is a radically different view of medicine. Healing the patient means, as much as is practical, restoring it to a normal, healthy condition. A normal, healthy patient is, for the most part, disease free. Notice I have not talked about curing disease. We can restore health even in pets which harbor a fatal disease such as cancer. They can be “healthy” as long as possible, fighting off the cancer, keeping it in remission, and “living with their disease.”

Talking about cancer as an example, Dr. Kevin Hahn, one of the contributors to my latest book, The Natural Vet’s Guide to Preventing and Treating Cancer in Dogs, admonishes us not to forget that “there is a pet attached to that tumor.” Rightly so, his focus (and that of doctors who take a holistic view of health and disease) is on treating “pets with cancer” rather than “treating cancer.” This different approach is the essence of developing a holistic approach to caring for yourself as well as your pets.

Goal #4 - Offering hope for the hopeless.

Offering “Hope for the Hopeless” is actually my favorite of our 5 goals. Many cases of illness are considered hopeless by conventional standards. Maybe there are no therapies for the specific problem (an example is liver cancer), or maybe the pet has not responded to the appropriate therapies. Before you give up, before you euthanize your pet, consider alternative therapies. I have seen way too many pets that were deemed “untreatable” that responded well to a holistic approach.

While not every pet can be cured, many can heal enough to live a good quality life and coexist with their diseases. One of my favorite cases is Lexie, who was 2 years old at the time I saw her. She was correctly diagnosed with polyarthritis and treated by her conventional veterinarians, one of whom was a specialist in internal medicine. Unfortunately, the treatment made Lexie sick, and she also developed diabetes due to her therapies. Her doctors told the owners that no more could be done for her and that she should be euthanized. Fortunately, Lexie responded to a number of holistic therapies. She is doing great at this time. While she still has her polyarthritis, she has been in remission for several years and is taking minute amounts of medications that do not make her ill.

Pets like Lexie are a prime reason why I remain committed to a holistic, integrative approach to pet care. It’s particularly rewarding to help pets that conventional medicine cannot help. These cases are not considered “hopeless” when viewed from a holistic perspective.

Goal #5 - Saving money on pet care.

I’m often asked if a holistic pet care program costs more than a traditional pet care program. In general, the answer is “no.” It’s usually less expensive to prevent problems rather than treat them. Additionally, using natural therapies usually, but not always, costs less than conventional drug therapy.

There are several reasons for this. Supplements are usually less expensive than drugs, especially if generic medications are not available. Chronic drug therapy usually requires frequent laboratory monitoring of the pet to ensure side effects have not developed; this is usually not necessary with natural therapies. Drugs can cause secondary diseases, which require even more drugs to treat these diseases; this doesn’t happen when using natural therapies. For those times when a natural approach costs more, keep in mind that your pet will usually be healthier and live longer with this approach. It’s impossible to put a price on that!

And finally, I always encourage pet owners to use pet health insurance, which can cut the cost of any preventive or therapeutic program. If you want to save money on pet care, usually combining pet insurance with a natural health care program is the way to go.

Shawn Messonnier, DVM, is the author of The Allergy Solution for Dogs, and the award-winning The Natural Health Bible for Dogs & Cats. www.petcarenaturally.com

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The widely used diabetes drug Avandia has been linked to a greater risk of heart attack and possibly death. The U.S. government has issued a safety alert, and the FDA urged diabetics taking the pill to talk to their doctors, although they have not required a stronger warning label for the drug.

An analysis pooling the results of several dozen studies, encompassing some 28,000 patients, showed that Avandia causes a 43 percent higher risk of heart attack. GlaxoSmithKline, the drug’s manufacturer, downplayed the risks, saying that the analysis is not definitive scientific proof.

However, several experts have said that Avandia is another example of the FDA failing to detect a safety problem early enough.

Avandia helps sensitize the body to insulin; when it first came on the market, it was considered a breakthrough medication for blood-sugar control. More than 6 million people have taken the drug in the eight years it has been available.

New England Journal of Medicine May 21, 2007 (Free Full-Text Study)
San Francisco Chronicle May 21, 2007
Yahoo News May 21, 2007

Dr. Mercola’s Comment:

If you’ve been feeling slightly better lately about the FDA’s more recent decisions regarding drug safety, don’t let your guard down for a second. It looks like Avandia could be another Vioxx in the making. The heart problems caused by Avandia (as well as its possible connection to liver failure) are dangers that consumer groups have been warning about for years, to no avail.

Now, it is bad enough that people are choosing drugs as solutions for their health challenges, but it borders on reprehensible irresponsibility when they do it for a disease that is virtually 100 percent curable with SIMPLE lifestyle changes.

Yes, you read correctly.

Eliminating type 2 diabetes, the type that affects over 95 percent of diabetics, is not rocket science. By using exercise as a drug, eating right for your nutritional type and eliminating sugars and processed foods it is the rare person who cannot annihilate diabetes.

So I find it particularly appalling when physicians foolishly advise people to take these absolutely unnecessary drugs. They are abrogating their responsibility as teachers, coaches and mentors to their patients.

Of course, even with the Vioxx debacle (bungled badly by a greedy Merck) still fresh in the minds of many folks, GlaxoSmithKline is disputing the results … although the results of a similar review by the company itself uncovered a 30 percent climb in the incidence of heart attack, according to a report submitted to the FDA last year.

The FDA didn’t act on this information, of course, until issuing the very recent “safety alert” — just another example proving that the agency always looks out for its real constituents, the multi-national drugmaker cartel, at the expense of your health.

Bottom line?

Understand that oral drugs for type 2 diabetes are completely unnecessary if you’re willing to make some simple lifestyle changes. If you are on them currently then you need to find a knowledgeable physician who can help you wean off of them.

They will help you eliminate sugars and processed foods from your daily diet, get plenty of exercise, and eat the foods your body burns best, according to its unique nutritional type. Once you achieve these lifestyle changes your diabetes will disappear and never return unless you slip back into old patterns.

Source: www.mercola.com

1025 Main St
La Crosse, WI 54601
cleanse@charter.net
 608-784-9806

Industry Coalition Demanding Organic Integrity Prevails

PIXLEY, CALIFORNIA: After a seven-year-long battle between organic farmers and consumers and the USDA, the first of a handful of industrial-scale dairies, producing what they claimed was organic milk, has been shut down by regulatory authorities. It was announced today by an organic industry watchdog group that a 10,000-cow feedlot dairy, near Fresno in central California, was found to be operating outside of the organic law and has had their certificate to produce organic milk suspended.

The Cornucopia Institute, a farm policy research group based in Wisconsin, which acts as an organic industry watchdog, announced that the Case Vander Eyk Jr. Dairy in Pixley, California, has been forced to suspend selling organic milk. In early 2005, Cornucopia filed the first of a series of formal legal complaints with the USDA against large factory-farm operators, including Vander Eyk, alleging that the mammoth “factory farms” were violating the spirit and letter of the organic law by confining their animals to pens and sheds rather than grazing them.

“This is a big victory for the farm families around the country who work so hard to create milk and dairy products that meet a high ethical standard,” said Mark Kastel, Cornucopia’s senior farm policy analyst. “Scofflaws, like the Vander Eyk dairy, place family farmers, who respect the organic law and the expectations of their customers, at a competitive disadvantage.”

According to governmental regulators the dairy lost its ability to ship organic milk last month after receiving a notice of suspension from its USDA-accredited certifier, Quality Assurance International (QAI), for serious questions surrounding the record-keeping such as assuring that cows are actually managed organically (without antibiotics and hormones), fed organically produced feed (without toxic pesticides and herbicides), and are allowed to graze rather than being confined in a feedlot.

“The foundation of the entire oversight system for organic production is the ability for a certifier to carefully audit a farm’s records to assure that all agronomic production, animal husbandry practices, and off-farm inputs meet legal organic requirements,” said Kastel. The Vander Eyk dairy is an aberration not only in size but because it is also a “split” operation milking both organic and conventional cattle in the same facility. “Although not specifically banned by law, most organic milk marketers prohibit split operations and require their farms to be 100% organic. “Split operations leave too much opportunity for error or potential fraud,” Kastel added.

QAI has been widely criticized in the organic industry for certifying Vander Eyk and a number of other large industrial-scale dairies in the desertlike conditions of the West, where cattle have little if any access to pasture. The Cornucopia Institute has also filed legal complaints against dairies owned by Dean Foods (Horizon Organics), which owns an 8000-head dairy in Idaho, and Aurora Organic Dairy, milking thousands of cows in Texas and Colorado, which produces private-label milk for grocery chains including Wild Oats, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and Wal-Mart. Until recently Dean Foods, the industry leader, was purchasing some of its organic milk from Vander Eyk.

“It’s excellent to see QAI fulfilling their responsibility under the organic law and protecting the interest of farmers and consumers,” said Lisa McCrory, a certification expert with 13 years of experience for Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont. “This is an example of the system working as it was designed—organic inspectors uncovering problems and protecting the public by shutting down farmers or processors if problems are discovered.”

Kastel agrees, but his enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that, “Regardless of any problems with the farm’s records, and being able to prove that they were responsibly practicing organic agriculture, factory-farms with thousands of animals, and lacking the ability to provide them with adequate and legitimate pasture, should never have been certified in the first place.”

“When I purchase organic milk I assume that part of the reason it is more expensive is I am supporting family farms that truly care for their animals, not giant factory-farms that might abuse their cows or employees,” said loyal organic consumer Susan Loesser who lives outside of New York City. In addition to concerns about animal welfare, Vander Eyk also paid out $360,000 in January 2005 as part of a court-supervised settlement with their mostly Hispanic employees who had accused the dairy of exploitive employment practices.

The Cornucopia Institute says that the good news about organic dairy products is that the vast majority are produced with high integrity and meet the spirit and letter of the organic law. In 2006 they published a comprehensive report and scorecard (http://cornucopia.org/pasture/?page_id=106) that rated the 70 organic dairy brands, over 90% of which received an excellent score. “No matter where consumers are located in the country they have the option of buying healthy and wonderful organic dairy products from farmers and companies who share their values,” Kastel added.

“Small and medium-size family organic dairy farms around the country have lobbied hard, for a number of years, for the USDA to step in and shutdown the large industrial dairies that are exploiting the reputation for quality that we have earned with consumers,” said Arden Landis, who milks 100 cows in Kirkwood, PA. “The reason our customers have made this a growing industry is they trust in us and the integrity of the organic label. We don’t plan on letting them down!”

Photos of the Vander Eyk industrial dairy can be viewed at: http://cornucopia.org/pasture/?page_id=194

Photos of some of the country’s more typical, exemplary organic dairy farms can be seen at: http://cornucopia.org/pasture/?page_id=37

MORE: It should be noted that the legal complaint The Cornucopia Institute filed with the USDA in February, 2005 was dismissed, without any investigation, for political reasons (substantiated by FOIA documents that we are more than willing to share with the media). If they had pursued a judicious investigation this farm would have likely been shut down much earlier.

These allegations were widely known yet the USDA and QAI allowed this farm to continue to operate while Dean Foods/Horizon and Stremicks (Heritage-Foods), another organic dairy marketer located in Santa Ana, California, continued to purchase milk from this suspect operation.

The USDA continues to investigate other allegations of serious improprieties on dairies operated by Dean Foods and Aurora. Some of these open investigations, also filed by The Cornucopia Institute, are now nearly two years old.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Kastel said. “Organic consumers and ethical farmers that are forced to compete against these faux organic farms deserve better from our federal regulators. We hope that this enforcement action brought about by QAI is a harbinger of a more aggressive posture by the privately held certifier, the largest in the country.”

The Cornucopia Institute
Mark Kastel, 608-625-2042

306 S. Barstow St. Suite 209
Eau Claire, WI 54701
www.hypnosiscenterec.com
 715-552-5355

W8481 County Rd Z
Arkansaw, WI 54721
www.midvalleyvu.com/
 715-285-6455

During a recent annual shareholder meeting of Horizon Organic’s parent company, Dean Foods, shareholder Mark Kastel, a senior farm policy analyst at the Cornucopia Institute, questioned the practice of relying on “factory farms” to produce organic milk.

Dean Foods CEO Gregg Engles disclosed profits were dropping as a surplus of organic milk grows, an indication, according to Kastel, that Horizon was fueling “a monster” because of its factory-farming practices.

Despite claims that Horizon purchases milk from family farms with access to pasture, it also uses milk produced by larger company-owned farms with dubious pasture access.

The USDA is currently reviewing its own regulations governing the ability of factory farms to call the food substances they produce organic.

Organic Consumers Association May 18, 2007

Dr. Mercola’s Comment:

It looks like our recent newsletter article about the deception involving Horizon Organic — the company that has routinely ignored federal standards regarding the production of organic milk — hit home in a big way.

However, even in the unlikely event that Dean Foods changes its standards, remember that there’s no great “benefit” in drinking organic milk anyway. It’s all one giant delusional hoax. Please remember that nearly all organic milk is pasteurized, just like all the other conventional varieties of milk found at your neighborhood grocery store.

Pasteurization changes the physical structure of fragile proteins into substances that can be harmful for your body. While organic milk is clearly superior to conventional milk, the benefit is marginal at best; and when it comes to Horizon organic milk, as the article suggests, there may be no significant difference at all.

The real health benefit lies with drinking raw milk, a growing trend in America. Raw milk is an outstanding source of nutrients including beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus acidophilus, vitamins and enzymes, and it is, in my estimation, the finest source of calcium available.

So don’t waste your money on “organic” milk anymore.

This is a waste of your resources. Redirect your energy to find real raw milk sources. Ideally, you can find a local farmer who will be willing to sell this to you. If you find one you will want to encourage him to consider restricting grains from the cows’ feed to improve the quality of the milk.

If you are unable to find a local dairy farmer who will cooperate with you, try taking a look at the Real Milk Web site.

Source: www.mercola.com