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Be Here Now Yoga ................ 11 Be the Medicine....................13

Bill Flanigan Distance Healer ....... 34 CardFly ...........................18 Center for Advanced Health ....... 43 Through Dentistry Center for Herbal Studies ............9

Dr. Andy Rosenfarb................ 37 Dr. Clare Larkin .................... 9

Full Circle Energy Therapies........ 20 Health Yeah with Michelle .......... 27

Hibernate Bedding ................. 2 Holistic Dental Center ............. 44

Hunterdon Integrative Physicians ... 35 Hypnosis Counseling Center ....... 11 KnowWEwell ..................... 19

Mad Lavender Farm ............... 36

Natural Awakenings Singles ... 32, 34 New Jersey Natural Medicine ........17 Numinous Mama .................. 14

Ojaya ............................ 25 Ondov Relationship Coaching ...... 40 Personally Yours Lingerie .......... 35 Qi Gong for Healing ............... 14 Quantum Wellness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

RegeneSpine ...................... 3 Samsara Chiropractic ............. 29 SRC Diet & Wellness ...............13

Sunrise Nutrition Center ........... 20

The Hair For Life Center.............15

The Hemp Oil Store.................15 Whole Foods ......................12 * New / Returning Advertisers

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news briefs

The Toxic Connection to Chronic Illness

An accurate diagnosis for those who suffer from a miscellany of symptoms can prove elusive to Western medicine’s mechanistic approach. Sharon Reese Chud, AFMC, and founder of SRC Diet and Wellness, shares “Mainstream medicine doesn’t recognize the effect toxicity may have on the body. Symptoms such as brain fog, confusion, anxiety, joint pain, numbness, tremors, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia pain, and weight loss resistance may all be caused by a toxin overload. That’s where functional medicine comes in.”

Chud is a certified functional medicine practitioner, certified detox and toxicity specialist, and nutrition counselor. She uses inexpensive functional medicine testing to help identify toxins that inhibit natural healing. Once areas of toxicity are identified, she uses a 6-step detoxification program to help restore health.

Clients are seen remotely on Zoom. In additional to reasonable fees, Chud offers a free 20-minute consultation to discuss symptoms, and testing and treatment options. Location: Yardley, PA. For more information, call/text 215-680-2354, email schud1234@ gmail.com and visit heal.me/sharonreesechud. SRCDietAndWellness.com. See ad, page 13.

The Power of Touch for Healing

At a time when the world is in chaos and we’ve been devoid of human touch and connection for years, now is the time to reconnect with yourself and harness the stress-reducing biochemistry of the human body through the healing power of touch. In Your Arms Holistic is a practice that embodies alternative modalities, including platonic touch/cuddling therapy, to facilitate overall wellness, mind, body and spirit.

Shares owner Karen Schweiger, “Human beings thrive on contact—physically and mentally—and it is no secret that an embrace with another person can make us feel good. Experts now claim that a touch can do more than comfort – touch can heal! Platonic consensual touch provides tangible health benefits, and on a deeper level, nourishes our soul and helps us get in touch with our best self.”

Platonic touch/cuddling has proven its worth in the medical and psychological community for many years and now anyone can experience that feeling of comfort in a safe, non-judgmental, non-discriminatory environment that offers therapeutic platonic touch services. Contact Karen to discuss a therapeutic session. Clients of all genders, ethnicities, backgrounds, ages (18+), body types, abilities, etc., are welcome. Location: 1111 Route 22 East, Lebanon Boro. For more information, call 908-768-1800 or email inyourarms@zoho.com or visit CuddleInYourArms.com and Cuddlist.com/Karen.

Herbalist Training Program Begins in September

Good herbalists treat people, not diseases. David Winston’s Center for Herbal Studies Herbalist Training program strives to teach the skills necessary so that each student can accomplish that goal. The instruction focuses on differential diagnosis skills, materia medica and therapeutics which are essential to individualize treatment and help patients to not only resolve symptoms, but create constitutional change needed for physical, emotional and spiritual wellness. The center is now interviewing students for the program, which begins September 20.

The program will be taught almost entirely online, however, several on-site live classes are planned on Saturdays in Washington, NJ, as well as live herb walks at different locations in the tri-state area. For students who are not local and cannot participate at the time, all these events will be recorded and available on the student portal. For information, please visit the Herbalist Training tab at HerbalStudies.net. See ad, page 9.

Eat Grains to Reduce Inflammation and Liver Disease Risk

Although most Americans eat only one-third of the recommended amount, nutrient-rich, whole grains already have been shown to play a key role in safeguarding against obesity and metabolic syndrome. Two new studies establish their positive effect on cardiovascular and liver health, as well. Researchers from Columbia University that followed 4,125 older adults for 25 years found that lower inflammation and fewer cardiovascular incidents were correlated with higher amounts of fiber in the diet— particularly from wheat, barley, oats and other grains—rather than from fruits and vegetables. And a Chinese study in The Journal of Nutrition Researchers tested the blood of 1,880 people, half of which had nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, to look for markers of whole grain consumption. The subjects that ate more whole grains had a significantly reduced risk of developing the liver disease.

Polina Tankilevitch/Pexels.com

Consider Herbs from Traditional Asian Medicine for Diabetes

Diabetes is rampant in the world today, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, but it was also a health condition many centuries ago among Tibetan, Mongolian, Miao, Dai, Uygur and Yi people in East Asia. To identify which diabetes medicines were effective in those indigenous medical systems, Chinese researchers examined medical databases and ethnic medical books. They found evidence of 112 such medications—105 plant-based, six coming from Anna Pou/Pexels.com animals and one with fungal origins. The most commonly used were Astragalus membranaceus, now available in many contemporary immune-system formulations; Pueraria lobata, known as arrowroot or kudzu, and considered an invasive plant in North America; and Coptis chinensis, Chinese goldthread, whose main compound, berberine, is used in the West to treat bacterial and viral infections. “Ethnic medicine has abundant resources in diabetes treatment and has excellent development prospects, which is worthy of further exploration and modern research,” conclude the authors.

“The love of truth lies at the root of much humor.” - Robertson Davies (author)

Don’t Assume Selfies Show True Facial Features

The more than 100 million cell phone selfies taken every day have produced an unanticipated outcome: a documented uptick in plastic surgery. Younger women in particular are increasingly showing cosmetic surgeons their selfies to demonstrate why they want to change the size or shape of their nose, but these concerns may be based on a distorted perception because selfies distort facial features, say researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern. In their study involving 30 subjects, they took one photo 12 inches from the face with the arm bent and another at 18 inches with the arm straight. When comparing the 12-inch selfies against a third photo taken five feet away, the researchers found that, on average, the nose appeared over 6 percent longer and the chin seemed 12 percent shorter. This created a distortion total of over 17 percent in the nose-to-chin ratio. Selfies also made the base of the nose appear wider relative to the width of the face. “If young people are using selfies as their only guide, they may be coming to plastic surgeons to fix problems that don’t exist except in the world of social media,” says study leader Bardia Amirlak, M.D.