Vol. 26 No.6
july 2011
fragile, precious & in need of healing Although it may sometimes seem quite big, earth is really very small – a tiny blue and green oasis of life in a cold universe. ~ David Suzuki
Cancer Support Association of WA Patron – His Excellency Dr. Ken Michael AC, Governor of Western Australia
editorial Join the CSA online community Find us on Facebook: Cancer Support Association – Cottesloe Forums and live chat now on the CSA website: www.cancersupportwa.org.au
wellness news
fragile, precious and in need of healing
is the monthly online magazine of the Cancer Support Association of Western Australia Inc. Wellness News e-magazine is published online twelve time a year and distributed free to members of the Cancer Support Association. An annual print edition of Wellness News is produced at the end of each year and posted to all CSA members. Wellness News magazine is dedicated entirely to publishing informative, inspiring and helpful articles related to wellness and healing. The magazine is for people with cancer or serious health issues; for people who are well and want to maintain their good health naturally; and for complementary, alternative and integrative health professionals.
editorial & production... Editor & Designer Mandy BeckerKnox editor.wellness@yahoo.com.au www.wowlandco.com
online at...
www.cancersupportwa.org.au Wellness News magazine is published by the Cancer Support Association of WA Inc (CSA). The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CSA and should be not be construed as medical advice. CSA encourages readers to be discerning with information presented and make treatment, dietary and lifestyle choices in consultation with a team of health-care professionals. © Copyright of all articles and images remains with individual contributors.
There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed. Mohandas K. Gandhi Dear members and friends,
Fragile, precious and in need of healing....if you have cancer this is how you may be feeling about yourself right now and rightly so. If you are serious about healing from cancer, particularly if it is advanced, you need to put yourself and your personal wellbeing before everything – including your spouse, your children, your career, your mortgage and whatever else you normally place your attention upon. While this may sound selfish it is a temporary shift in focus to allow you the space and energy for healing. It doesn’t mean abandoning your children or foreclosing on your mortgage. It means sensibly and calmly making choices towards long-term wellness and healing. It means making practical arrangements which allow you the time and space required for healing (ie childcare, leave of absence). It means letting other people into your intimate sphere to manage tasks on your behalf (colleagues, family members, friends). It means creating a calm environment and avoiding external (and internal!) sources of stress. Once you are well again you will have the option of expanding your focus and again engaging fully with the world. In fact an important part of getting well from cancer is to have a clear purpose in life (beyond recovering from cancer!), to contribute something meaningful to the world, to make your life count for something. The world needs you. The world needs all of us to support it’s journey back to wellness. It is widely regarded that the earth has been so badly damaged through human’s mismanagement of natural resources that it is damaged beyond repair. Anyone who has survived a terminal diagnosis of cancer knows that with a strong will and huge effort, healing is always possible. While you healing focus may be deeply internal, let’s all make it a goal of our lifetime to do what we can to help bring about healing of the earth. This edition of Wellness News is dedicated to just that. F Peace, Mandy
contents CSA Weekly Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 CSA member receives Order of Australia medal What’s on at CSA this month. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Talk: What it Takes to Get Well from Cancer By Dr. Ian Gawler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 In the news: Build a bigger brain in 8 weeks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Article: Designed to Heal by Dr Ben Kim Article: The Power of Rest by Chrystie Fieldler. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 14 Article: Rediscovering the Sacred balance by David Suzuki. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 18 Article: Restoring our Earth to Sacred Health. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 20 Interview with Emmanuelle Schick Garci: What you’re not being told about cancer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Recipes: Slow Food for Winter Wellness . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 28
Thankyou Dr. Ian Gawler!
gratitude “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a
Dr Ian Gawler visited Perth last weekend for a series of workshops in Perth and Bunbury. Ian offered his time to come in to CSA to meet a small group of members and give a special talk on a subject which was of interest to them. Based on the feedback of those present, Ian spoke
little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so let us all be thankful.”
on “What It Takes to Get Well from Cancer”. For those members who did not attend we provide a
Buddha
transcript of the talk in this edition of Wellness News. The talk summarised the importance of “lifestyle medicine” and what you can do yourself to get well from cancer. On the Perth and Bunbury workshops, Ian spoke in much more depth on this topic. He has also written many books on this theme which are available for loan from the CSA library or for sale from the CSA Wellness Shop.
July 2011
WELLNESS NEWS
3
NEW CSA members can attend free! this program is updated monthly. Check website for any changes before attending MONDAY Meditation Made Easy..................................................................................10.00 – 11.30am Ongoing Lessons with Bavali Hill. FREE FOR MEMBERS (non-members $5) No bookings necessary. Massage with Sarah Leboff ($70/60 minutes).......................................... by appointment
TUESDAY Cancer Wellness Counselling with Mike Sowerby................................... by appointment Book with reception. $75 (CSA members), $100 (non-members) Wellness and Healing Open Support Group................................ 10.00 – 12.00noon with Dr. Angela Ebert Carer’s Wellness and Healing Support Group ........................ 10.00 – 12.00noon with Mike Sowerby (when required)
Meeting the Challenge! one day cancer wellness workshop
First Friday of every month between 9.30am-4.30pm at CSA, Cottesloe
Reiki Clinic......................................................................................................12.15pm – 1.30pm
WEDNESDAY Cancer Wellness Counselling with Mike Sowerby................................... by appointment Book with reception. $75 (CSA members), $100 (non-members) Reflexology ..................................................................10.00am – 2pm with Udo Kannapin (by appointment between 10-2) Laughter Yoga with Kimmie O’Meara ($3.00)....................................11.00am – 12.00pm Chinese Medical Healthcare Qigong ($10/$5 members)............ 1.00pm – 2.30pm with Alan Donelly
THURSDAY Cancer Wellness Counselling with Mike Sowerby................................... by appointment Book with reception. $75 (CSA members), $100 (non-members)
Life Changing Information for people with cancer:
Yoga for Healing..........................................................................................10.00am – 11.15am with Madeline Clare (members $5 / others $10)
• The Wellness approach to cancer • Nutrition for optimal health • Power of the Mind • Introduction to Meditation • Natural & Complementary Therapies
Meeting the Challenge 1 Day Seminar.................................................9.30am – 4.30pm 1ST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH
Grief and Loss Open Support Group.................................................... 1.00pm – 3.00pm with Mike Sowerby (last Thursday of each month)
FRIDAY “Arts for Healing” Art Therapy Group...............................................9.30am – 12.00pm with Glenys Gibbs (members $20 / others $25 includes art materials)
DAILY To book ph CSA 8384 3544 online: www.cancersupportwa.org.au
General Counselling with Dr. Angela Ebert ................................................... by appointment Phone direct on 0414 916 724 or 9450 6724 or email a.ebert@murdoch.edu.au
CSA member receives Order of Australia Medal CSA congratulates Angela Davis on her acheievement. Angela has kindly written CSA’s 2011 winter mail appeal letter and shares her story here... “Cancer does not have to be something we die from but can be something we learn to live with.”
It’s An Honour
- In this year’s Australia Day Awards I received the OAM (Order of Australia Medal) for voluntary work in the area of community services, it felt nice to be recognised. I also feel very honoured to have been asked by the Cancer Support Association to write this month’s newsletter. My journey with breast cancer started in August 2005. I had a very close friend who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999 and she was one of the first people I called. It was not only the visits and books that she brought around for me to read but, the invitation to join her at CSA in October 2005 that I am eternally grateful for. I have been a member of CSA since then, and still attend the Tuesday morning support group regularly. CSA felt so right for me. It was a place where I felt comfortable to talk about my experience and an incredible place to learn from others no matter what cancer they had. Everyone is so willing to share the good times and the not so good times. I found the sharing brought so much inspiration, wisdom and hope. The meditation sessions have been very helpful at various times especially when the going gets tough. Unfortunately after travelling the road for almost three years the cancer came back and I had a radical mastectomy followed by chemo in 2008. I was not too keen on this but with some counselling I managed to make an informed decision and what felt right for me at the time. I also thought I have learnt so much from attending CSA there is so much more that I can do for myself and to support my immune system at this time. I have always been interested in homeopathy and natural therapies and have used these during my illness which I feel have definitely played a part in surviving the various treatments. Support groups I believe empower you to be involved in your own healing journey and it is a known fact that attending a support group may double your survival. Everyone reacts differently to their diagnosis and level of anxiety that one can experience. There are many aspects to the cancer journey not just the physical but the mental, emotional and spiritual journey. The support group gives one an opportunity to explore every aspect in a safe non-judgemental and confidential environment. I have seen many people come and go and even if they can only attend for one visit the changes are noticeable and you often hear ‘I am so glad I came, it has helped me with my decision’ or ‘ I will definitely be back again’. Those that come to CSA do a multitude of protocols which is very helpful especially to newcomers. It is through the constant sharing that we can then make up our minds of what is right for us. The meditation in the support group is wonderful, the library and resources are good and constantly updated. The staff and facilitators are knowledgeable and very well qualified to handle any situation. Even though I have hit another bump in the road CSA continues to be a great support mechanism for me. I would highly recommend anyone going through the cancer journey or a carer to avail themselves of the many facilities CSA as to offer including reiki, mediation,yoga, reflexology and counselling. I have made some wonderful friendships over the years. We keep in touch by email and some of us go away for weekends or attend special retreats organised by the CSA. Cancer does not have to be something we die from but can be something we can learn to live with. Make the best of everyday, do the things that make us happy and bring a smile to our faces. I have witnessed this first hand and know it can be done as the group has long term survivors that still attend and inspire us all. Cancer has given me an opportunity to re-evaluate my life, stress I feel has been a major factor for me so third time lucky I intend to get it right this time around. I have so much love and support from my family and I have so much to live for that there is no option for me but survival!
Angela Davis OAM July 2011
WELLNESS NEWS
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what’s on at CSA this month be part of the csa community by joining the groups and wellness activities at our premises in Cottesloe
Meeting the Challenge 1 Day Cancer Wellness Seminar Life Changing Information for people with cancer and their carers. Led by Cathy Brown, this seminar provides wellness information, wellness strategies, new resources (such as nutrition, treatment options, meditation) and sharing with others on a healing journey. There is also a focus on accessing cancer information online. Held monthly at CSA on the first Friday of every month from 9.30am-4.30pm. Free for new CSA members, bookings are required.
cancer support groups
yoga for healing with Madeline Clare Yoga for Healing classes bring the joy of yoga to people with cancer and those who may need a nurturing space to practice. CSA yoga teacher, Madeline Clare, takes inspiration from both Iyengar and Vinyasa approaches to yoga with an emphasis on relaxation, breath awareness, gentle movement and meditation. A balanced yoga practice has the capacity to heal, shift energy blockages and bring the body into physical, emotional, mental and spiritual alignment.
with Angela Ebert & Mike Sowerby
qi gong
Support groups enable people to discover new ways of coping; share the experience with others going through something similar; exchange information and resources; develop a holistic approach to healing; be inspired by others on the journey to regaining wellness.
with Alan Donelly
CSA offers an open cancer support group for people with cancer and their carers. This weekly group is facilitated by Angela Ebert and Mike Sowerby. We also offer a Carers’ Support Group and a monthly Grief and Loss Support Group.
with Udo Kannapin Reflexology is the application of pressure, stretching and movement to the feet and hands to trigger corresponding parts of the body. It complements standard medical care by relaxing the body and reducing stress.
Cancer Support Association
Qigong is a traditional Chinese mind-body practice that uses meditation, breathing control, and movement to balance the flow of energy (qi) through the body to help healing to occur. CSA offers qigong to complement cancer therapies and help with the symptoms of cancer. In this setting, qigong is not used as a treatment for cancer per se, but as a method of easing cancer symptoms such as fatigue.
reiki clinic
every Tuesday
reflexology
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“If you travel alone, you can probably go faster. But the journey will never be as rewarding, and you probably won’t be able to go as far.” ~ John Maxwell
www.cancersupportwa.org.au
CSA offers a weekly reiki clinic staffed by qualified volunteers. Gold coin donation. Reiki is a Japanese energy-based therapy that promotes healing and overall wellness. A trained reiki practitioner uses his or her hands to transmit energy to the recipient. Reiki has been proven to help with pain management, relaxation, and side effects of cancer treatment.
with Bavali Hill Meditation is a safe and simple way to balance a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states. The use of Meditation for healing is not new. Meditative techniques are the product of diverse cultures and peoples around the world. The value of Meditation to alleviate suffering and promote healing has been known and practiced for thousands of years. In these weekly lessons at CSA, Bavali guides participants through various healing meditation techniques and gives notes and handouts to support home practice.
CSA’s Meeting the Challenge Seminar in Bunbury!
WHAT’S ON AT CSA
meditation made easy
counselling Individual, Family & Group Ongoing counselling sessions with a caring, compassionate professional could help you deal more effectively with the many issues, fears and emotions which arise on the cancer journey; gain clarity to make treatment decisions; give you the insight to grow from your experiences; and the peace of mind and heart needed to heal. Sessions can be booked with our qualified psychologist, and are also available online for those unable to make it in to our Cottesloe premises.
laughter yoga with Kimmie O’Meara Laughter Yoga is a revolutionary idea developed by Dr. Madan Kataria, a Physician from Mumbai, India. It is a complete wellbeing workout combining Unconditional Laughter with Yogic Breathing (Pranayama). Anyone can Laugh for No Reason, without relying on humour, jokes or comedy. Laughter is simulated as a body exercise in a group; with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it soon turns into real and contagious laughter. The concept of Laughter Yoga is based on a scientific fact that the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter. One gets the same physiological and psychological benefits of laughter regardless of the source.
one day cancer wellness workshop in BUNBURY
Thursday 21st July 9.30-4.30pm Life Changing Information for people with cancer: • The Wellness approach to cancer • Nutrition for optimal health • Power of the Mind • Introduction to Meditation • Natural & Complementary Therapies To book ph CSA 8384 3544 online: www.cancersupportwa.org.au
July 2011
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what it takes to get well from
cancer
Transcript of a talk for CSA members at CSA this month by Dr. Ian Gawler
I’ve seen lots of people gent well from cancer but have seen
very few who get through by just hoping for the best. Most people who beat the odds are the people who really work at it. There are two main things to do when you have cancer: 1 Get the right information 2 Put it into practice
When you were diagnosed with cancer you were most likely give the option of using western conventional medicine. Within conventional medicine there are two treatment options depending on the type of cancer you have and how progressed the cancer is:
Curative – these treatment leave you free of symptoms so
you can get back to normal lifespan. If this treatment option is available to you and it gives you the best chance of survival then this should be your primary focus. You can also look at complementary/ alternative therapies to support you body, immune system and healing potential.
Palliative – when there is no medical cure on offer. 40% of
people diagnosed with cancer are in this category where there is no medical cure on offer from mainstream medicine. If this all that is available for you can simply accept it or you can be optimistic and look for non-medical alternatives. If your choice is to accept that you are going to die from cancer then the focus is on quality of life. Ask yourself what sort of life can I have here, what sort of death can I choose? How can I get the most of time left.? If your second choice is optimism and to look for alternatives then there are further options for you to explore.
Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM) Within alternative medicine there are the proven alternatives which have been studied and have the same outcomes as western medicine, ie Ayurveda, TCM. And there are the unproven alternatives which have anecdotal evidence to support their effectiveness. Complementary medicine is comprised of those therapies which support conventional medicine.
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Cancer Support Association
www.cancersupportwa.org.au
There is no magic bullet in any CAM. There is not one particular thing that could be used by everyone to get better from cancer. Sometimes people will find something that really works for them and has a strong benefit. This is not clear-cut and may not work for everyone. The reliable magic bullet is actually inside you. If there isn’t a medical cure, and you’re not ready to die from cancer and you want to turn it around then look within for the resources to activate your healing potential.
Lifestyle Medicine Lifestyle Medicine is about what you can do yourself. It takes into account your state of mind, diet, spiritual life. All these things improve cancer outcomes. Don’t be misled to think they are not potent. For example, exercise has been proven to be twice as effective in reducing advanced breast cancer than chemotherapy. There is better scientific evidence for lifestyle medicine than there is for CAM. With CAM things are done to you or for you by a practitioner. This is an external source of health. Lifestyle Medicine is about using your own resources. If you are going to get well against the odds, the most reliable way to do this is to activate the potential for healing which is a constant star within everybody.
Potential for Healing If you are in palliative care it is not logical to make conventional
medicine your primary focus. Instead the primary focus is on the body’s potential for healing. This potential is ordinary in the sense that everyone has it, but extraordinary that in this technological age so few people draw on their inner resources for wellness and healing. In Lifestyle Medicine we create the ideal internal environment for healing. In this approach you feel good. Healing flows to every aspect of life: environment, optimal health, food, state of mind, spiritual life. Taking this approach to recovering from cancer is an invitation to take your life seriously. Most people start off with a fear
based state of mind. Fear causes you not to think clearly. It is not a good idea to make big decisions in this state of mind as your mind is focused in the wrong direction. Long term survivors may start in this frame of mind but change to become excited about their lives. The stronger the will to live the more likely you are to actually survive. A lot of people confuse a strong will to live with the will not to die. If you want to do something significant you have to take your life very seriously. If you’re not clear on it, cancer is lifestyle based illness. A third of all cancer is related to diet. Other factors are a lack of exercise and lack of sunlight.
Cancer is a lifestyle disease For some reason cancer is not recognised by doctors as a lifestyle disease. Doctors will counsel patients about other lifestyle based illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease and provide advice on lifestyle factors which contributed to the disease and lifestyle changes to make to prevent it. Cancer is just as much a lifestyle disease but doctors do not mention or counsel patients about lifestyle. There is huge error of omission. Anyone with cancer should adjust their lifestyle immediately. This should be the first thing you do. Then you are not relying on someone else fixing this for you. This is not an optional extra, you need to really immerse yourself in your own healing. If you have a curative medical option for your cancer you will have less side effects from treatments and recover more quickly than someone with the palliative option. Your role and input can make a huge difference to the outcome. Cancer diagnosis can be a gift and is an opportunity to really appreciate life. If you don’t have a curative treatment available to you and you are aiming to get well anyway then you need to know it’s not going to be easy to use your own efforts to do this. When you really apply yourself you can achieve remarkable outcomes with regards to long-term quality of life. The first issue you will face is your own mind. Do you believe it is possible and how much are you prepared to put into it? Everything you do has to go through the mental filter: is this going to help me to get well. If the answer is no then you need the strength to say no to it. This is the level of commitment required. This ideal may seem unobtainable but it at least gives you direction. You need to be comfortable with your own capacity, and if you have a family you may have to make compromises. I didn’t compromise and this contributed to my recovery. I didn’t have kids, I sold everything and went broke in the process!
Ian Gawler Lifestyle Medicine is about what you can do yourself. It takes into account your state of mind, diet, spiritual life. All these things improve cancer outcomes. Don’t be misled to think they are not potent. For example, exercise has been proven to be twice as effective in reducing advanced breast cancer than chemotherapy.
Positive thinking There is a big difference between positive thinking and wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is when you hope for the best but don’t do anything about it. Positive thinking is when you hope for the best and actually do something about it. There are four steps to training the mind to be positive: 1. What is your goal?
Be clear about what you want to do and how you want to get there. A simple way is to use the mind to consciously decide what you eat, what you do with your spiritual life, every choice you make towards healing. When it comes to using your mind first work out want you want and use your will to attain it. 2. How are you going to attain it?
Be clear about your options. If there is no medical cure and you decide to get better through your healing potential then things like chemotherapy, surgery etc should not be the primary focus. Chemotherapy is usually only palliative. Chemotherapy only cures 3-5% of cancers beyond five years. Exercise such as walking for half an hour everyday is one of the best things you can do. There are two criteria for exercise: you should always feel better you’ve finished; and
continued on next page... July 2011
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...from previous page
develop greater awareness of the body to establish a dietary pattern that suits you best.
during exercise you should be able to keep up a conversation. Over exertion is not good when healing is your priority.
Juices are also very useful and should be introduced into your diet. Guidelines for juicing are in You Can Conquer Cancer
3. Resources.
In cancer recovery, food is of primary importance. Juices support healing with extra nutrients. Supplements can be taken, but intake should be modest. It is better to rely on a whole foods diet and juices.
What resources do you have already and what do you need to acquire? External resources are the people who can help you, and internal resources are what you can do for yourself. This is a time to be honest about your resources and ability. Diligence makes a huge difference. Modest changes make a modest impact, diligent effort yields huge results. People who make no effort at all will most likely get worse. You will need to study and make a big effort. You won’t recover if you make no effort. Yes, it requires discipline, but you do these things because you are looking after yourself. Discipline in these circumstances is a personal kindness. It is getting clear on what you want and then doing whatever it takes. You need to have the mind-set to enjoy the path. Enjoyment is a choice and you can decide your state of mind. Most people think state of mind is based on external things. The 3 principles of positive thinking are make your choices; do whatever it takes; and enjoy whatever you are doing. 4. Value.
What value do you give to this? Is this a casual thing or is it a matter of life and death? Some people with cancer may want to die and that is okay. You can decide to either complete your life well, or to get well and find joy. This is matter of sorting out priorities.
Diet When it comes to food, there are three choices. You can decide you can’t be bothered to change and just continue with your diet as it is. Or you could follow the cancer wellness diet or the healing diet both of which are covered in my book You Can Conquer Cancer. When it comes to food, set healthy boundaries, eliminate things which are problematic and focus on the things which are good for you. There are a lot of factors to consider when adjusting your diet. You need to consider your metabolism, your illness, any sensitivities. Trust your own body in this regard and be sensible. When it comes to making good choices it is the mind/body connection which is important. Develop connection between mind and body through meditation. This will help you to
Emotions Finding joy in life is important! Develop and focus on the emotions which are life-affirming and good for healing: hope, love, joy, compassion and laughter. Negative emotions such as anger, resentment, jealousy and greed are actually bad for your health. When the time is right, forgiveness can be very a potent healing force. Gratitude is also hugely important. Be grateful every morning, every day. Think of things you are grateful for regularly. Concentrating on these things shifts deeply held negative emotions which have a detrimental effect on the cellular level. When you are grateful your whole body sings and is more conducive to healing. Every night when you go to bed think of the three things you are grateful for. This simple exercise can help reduce depression. Remember that exercise also is an antidote to depression. Generosity is also important. People with cancer worry about the future and want to hold onto everything. Practicing generosity is freeing. Give acknowledgement to other people’s generosity by acknowledging their cancer and showing appreciation. What you give is what you receive. This is a fundamental spiritual law.
Meditation Meditation is powerful. Read my books Meditation an In-Depth Guide and the new book The Mind that Changes Everything for information about meditation and techniques I think are effective for cancer.
Spiritual Spirituality and religion are not separate. We tend now to separate these out. Go back to whatever tradition you grew up with. Connect with whatever is most important to you. Spirituality on a deep level is about the spiritual values which makes sense to you. Prayer has been shown to be a powerful healing force, even when it is other people praying for you. F
About Ian Gawler
10
Ian Gawler is one of Australia’s best known, long-term cancer survivors and advocates of a healthy lifestyle. Ian began one of the world’s first lifestyle- based cancer self-help groups in 1981. He has authored 5 bestselling books and edited another 7. Known for his clarity and good humour, Ian has a gift for translating ancient wisdom into a modern, scientific context. Having appeared widely in the media, Ian has played a major role in pioneering and popularising meditation and other Mind-Body techniques in the Western world. Cancer Support Association
www.cancersupportwa.org.au
in the news...
Build a bigger brain
Meditation can improve the structure and performance of our brains in a matter of weeks. Scientists have known for a few years that people who meditate have different brain structures from the rest of us. What hasn’t been proven is that it’s actually the meditation that affects our grey matter. Now a landmark study has not only shown that there’s a direct connection, but that meditation can change our brains for the better in just eight weeks – even if we’ve never done it before. In a study published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging earlier this year, US researchers measured the brains of 16 people who had never meditated before, and then did so again after the group had completed an eight-week meditation program. During that time, the group spent an average of 27 minutes a day practising mindfulness meditation, a particular style of meditation which focuses on non-judgmental awareness of sensations, feelings and states of mind. After the program, tests done on the group found there was increased grey-matter density in the hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with learning and memory, and in other brain structures associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection. There was also a reduction in size of the amygdala, the part of the brain which controls anxiety and stress. In other words, the silent practice of meditation changes the structure of our brains, boosting the areas that help us focus, remember things and be self-aware, while reducing the areas that can make us feel anxious and stressed. US-based meditation master Thom Knoles, who is visiting Australia this month, says this research proves what long-term meditators have known for thousands of years. “Practising meditation helps us see things clearly, have a stronger sense of self and puts the stresses in our lives into proper perspective,” he says. “Research indicates the effects of meditation are not just that the brain is growing more grey matter, but that the brain is learning how to repair itself organically. It would not be out of the question to assume that the brain is actually regenerating brain cells.”
Many styles, one aim While the US study proved the beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation, earlier research has shown that meditation in general improves people’s grey matter. For instance, a UCLA study, published in 2009, used high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to show that long-term meditators who used various meditation techniques all had larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbitofrontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus – regions known for regulating emotions – than those who did not meditate. Knoles, who teaches Vedic meditation, which uses mantras to focus the mind, agrees that all types of meditation are beneficial for our brains. “Closing one’s eyes and settling into the simplest form of awareness is a powerful practice, irrespective of the name given to the meditation experience,” he says.
Brain-building meditation... Try this five-minute mindfulness meditation practice. Sit on the floor or on a chair. Make sure your back is straight and arms relaxed. Alternatively, lie on the floor. Bring your attention to your breath for one minute. Feel your belly rise and fall. Widen your attention to include all your bodily sensations and any thoughts or feelings. Try to be a neutral observer of your thoughts. If you find yourself swept up in a train of thought, return to focusing on your breath.
Greater brain power Meditation quietens the mind and generates feelings of relaxation. The brain then sends signals of blissfulness to the entire body, which then reorganises itself into a restful and stress-free state. Knoles says each one of us has the same brain capacity. The question is: what are we training our brain to do? “Instead of having brain matter generated through states of stress, meditation provides the brain with blissful experiences that increase the capability in every area,” he says. “What we see is people become more creative, increasing their learning ability and intelligence, and taking on a larger life perspective. Meditation is not just a psychological or moodenhancing tool but a way to grow and access more brain power.” F
By Eloise King. From: Perth Now 6th July 2011. July 2011
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Designed
to Heal By Dr. Ben Kim
“Your problems
When looking to overcome a specific health challenge, for most of us, the tendency is to look for a remedy - some pill, cream, or perhaps a liquid that we can drink - that will fix our problem right up.
cannot be fixed with
The reality is that in most circumstances, your body knows best how to heal itself. It’s not a stretch to state that your body is designed to do one thing, and that’s to preserve its health.
the same behaviours
This is why, when you cut yourself, your body immediately triggers a cascade of events that aim to reduce blood loss by coagulating your blood at the injured site. And without taking a break, your body then works to re-establish the layers of skin that have been injured.
that were in place when you created them” Albert Einstein
Make no mistake about it: your body is constantly replenishing its cells. Every thirty days, you have brand new skin. You produce a new stomach lining every five days. It takes about ninety days for your body to turnover all of the molecules that make up your bones. And every second, several million red blood cells are removed and replaced from your circulatory system. Ultimately, the vast majority of molecules that make up your body today did not exist about a year ago, which is to say that your body is constantly at work, repairing and replenishing itself. If you are currently experiencing a health challenge, you may be wondering how all of the above can be true. If your body is constantly creating new tissues, then why haven’t dysfunctional tissues been replaced with functional ones? The answer is likely that you have not identified the root causes of your health challenges. Without identifying and addressing the root causes of your health challenges, your body’s self-healing mechanisms are likely being outdone by the damage being caused by your daily choices. Think of it in this way: If you replace the bricks of a house, but do so without any changes in equipment,
A weekly group held every Tuesday at CSA 10am – 12noon. Anyone who’s life has been affected by cancer or other life threatening illnesses is welcome to attend. A Carer’s Support Group is held at the same time when required. 12
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building methods, and architectural plan, you’ll end up re-building the same house. In this same vein, if you want to build healthier tissues, you must provide your body with different building blocks than the ones that you used to create your health challenge. These building blocks include your food choices, lifestyle choices like how much rest, exercise, fresh air, and sunlight you get, and even the thoughts and emotions you regularly experience as a result of how you choose to spend your time and the people that you choose to spend your time with. Even as you’re reading these words, your body is doing its best to heal damaged areas. Your body works non-stop to repair, maintain, and replenish your tissues. Just as your healing mechanisms go to work right away to heal a cut on your skin, they’re always on alert and ready to do their best to protect against internal challenges like joint damage, blood vessels that are becoming clogged, and even rapidly dividing cancer cells. One reason why your self-healing mechanisms have a greater chance of successfully healing a cut than they do of fully healing other health challenges like arthritis, atherosclerosis, and various malignancies is that with health challenges that are generated internally, it’s impossible to see the effects of your choices in real time. Let me explain. It’s obvious that sharp objects can cut through your skin. So you know to avoid contact with such objects i.e. you remove the cause of your health challenge and give your self-healing mechanisms a solid opportunity to successfully restore your health. If you have chronic joint pain, clogged blood vessels, or intermittent headaches, you can’t see in real time how acrylamides in potato chips, casein in pasteurized and homogenized dairy, and massive quantities of free radicals in cheap vegetable oils directly injure and/or aggravate your cells internally. Ditto for the effects of large quantities of sugar, aspartame, heterocyclic amines, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and the many other disease-causing compounds found in the standard first world nation diet. Equally difficult to see in real time is how being mired in miserable relationships can elevate stress-related compounds throughout your body, accelerating wear and aging of all of your organs. When you don’t see how everyday occurrences like consumption of cheddar-flavored Pringles and feeling anxiety or hatred in your heart affect your cells, how can you possibly be motivated to limit your exposure to these and other disease-causing elements? Will you wait until your health deteriorates to a point where one small mouthful of cheesecake causes your hip joint ache for a week? For the record, I’ve known many clients who live this reality. Will you suffer a massive heart attack that nobody, even your doctor, sees coming? Self health care requires that you understand how your body works, and make choices based on this knowledge. My experience has been that most people aren’t sufficiently motivated to consistently make healthy choices until their discomfort is severe enough. And even at this point, there are some who prefer to continue with their harmful vices while numbing their discomfort with drugs or even surgical excision. My feeling is that it takes two ingredients to consistently make healthy choices that support your self healing mechanisms. The first is an understanding of your body’s self healing design. The second is a strong enough reason for wanting to be healthy for as long as possible. When you have both, it becomes almost natural to make daily choices that fully support your innate healing capacity.
“It takes two ingredients to consistently make healthy choices that support your self healing mechanisms. The first is an understanding of your body’s self healing design. The second is a strong enough reason for wanting to be healthy for as long as possible. When you have both, it becomes almost natural to make daily choices that fully support your innate healing capacity.” Dr. Ben Kim
I suppose that the take home message is that you can always be hopeful in knowing that if you make healthy choices, your body’s self healing mechanisms will get their best possible chance to restore your health. So when faced with a specific health challenge, please remember that your body isn’t likely to overcome the problem at hand with the same choices that you made during its development. Put another way, to paraphrase Einstein, “your problems cannot be fixed with the same behaviors that were in place when you created them.” F
From Dr. Ben Kim’s blog 5th July 2011: drbenkim.com July 2011
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The Power of Rest: The Upside of Downtime By Chrystle Fiedler
Time to hit the personal pause button? Why we can’t afford not to relax - and how yoga can help.
What if we valued intentional quiet time, sacred space, and silence? How would that change our lives? Despite our best intentions to live balanced lives, the modern world demands that we are almost always connected and productive, and this can drain us emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
“We live in a culture that perpetuates the belief that when we have a lot going on and a lot of excitement, we’re really alive,” says Anne LeClaire, author of Listening Below the Noise: A Meditation on the Practice of Silence. “In truth, we are really alive when we can be at peace within our own skin.” It may seem counterintuitive to take time out when your to-do list is a mile long, but the fact is that doing nothing can make you feel healthier, more energetic, and more alive. It can also help you enjoy life more. And yes, in case you’re wondering, you’ll be more productive as well. When we rest, it’s like letting the earth lie fallow rather than constantly planting and harvesting. “There’s a reason why we have sabbaticals, and it’s exactly that—to fill up again, to restore,” says LeClaire, who leads the program Listening Below the Noise: A Retreat on Silence at Kripalu. “Batteries need to be recharged. The best way is to rest.”
What Rest Is and Isn’t “Rest is not what most people think it is,” says Rubin Naiman, PhD, a sleep specialist and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrated Medicine. “People confuse rest with recreation, doing things like hiking, watching movies, gardening,
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sleep... And if tonight my soul may find her peace in sleep, and sink in good oblivion, and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created. D.H. Lawrence reading, or even inebriation—getting high, stoned, tipsy, or drunk. Any of these activities can only be termed restful because they are breaks from work.” Instead, rest can be defined as a kind of waking sleep, experienced while you are alert and aware. “Rest is the essential bridge to sleep,” says Dr. Naiman, creator of the audio book The Yoga of Sleep (Sounds True) and coauthor with Andrew Weil, MD, of Healthy Sleep. “We can never ‘go to’ sleep, just as you can’t ‘go to’ rest—it’s already there.” We achieve rest and sleep the same way, by making space for it and allowing it to happen. You can see this very clearly in the animal world: one minute a dog is sleeping, the next minute she’s barking. Animals don’t venture as far from the world of rest and sleep as humans do. “If you watch animals, [you’ll see] they spend a lot of time not sleeping but resting,” says Abby Seixas, author of Finding the Deep River Within: A Woman’s Guide to Recovering Balance and Meaning in Everyday Life. “The animal part of us needs this too. Every living organism needs rest. When we don’t take the time to rest, eventually it takes a toll on the body.”
The Benefits of Rest Rest melts stress away, and research proves it. Herbert Benson, MD, of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the creator of the Relaxation Response, a method to invoke a state of deep rest. He has conducted numerous studies on the benefits of rest, and his research shows that practicing the Relaxation Response can actually lead to genomic activity changes. Put simply, the Relaxation Response affects each of the body’s 40,000 genes, producing antioxidation and anti-inflammatory changes that reduce stress in the body. Practices like the Relaxation Response, yoga, and meditation also lower heart rates, blood pressure, and oxygen consumption, and alleviate hypertension, arthritis, insomnia, depression, infertility, cancer, and anxiety. The spiritual benefits of resting are also profound. “When you slow down and get quiet, you can actually begin to hear your own wisdom, your inner knowledge,” says LeClaire. Rest and its sibling, relaxation, allow us to reconnect with the world in and around us, inviting ease in our lives and a felt-sense of belonging. Relationships can also become more harmonious and satisfying. “How we are with ourselves affects how we are in our relationships,” says Seixas. “If you are in stress mode, just doing, doing, doing and checking things off the list, you
are not going to be good with your significant other, your kids, your family and friends. You tend to have a shorter fuse. You don’t see the big picture.” When you slow down, you gain a sense of perspective on what really matters. If you are a writer or an artist, rest sharpens your creative abilities. When we are living hectic, frantic lives, there isn’t room for creativity. “Everything on the planet needs space, whether it’s an atom molecule, art, or music. It’s actually the space between that creates the music,” says LeClaire. “It’s also the space in our lives that helps us make sense of our lives.”
Easy Ways to Rest Simple things can help us rest, says LeClaire. “We can do things like turn off the car radio. Go for a walk without ear buds in our ears. Turn off a TV in our home. Designate a half hour, an hour, or even half a day for silence.” Even a walk in nature, without an intention or goal such as burning calories, can work. Try also taking a few conscious breaths, during which you focus on the inhale and exhale or the space between breaths. You can also mindfully drink a cup of tea, read something inspirational, write in your journal, take a hot bath, or get a massage. Taking a nap is a powerful way to rest and recharge. “When you take a nap, you’re not just doing something for yourself, you’re making a statement to the world that there is something that is at least equally important and productive as working, and that is doing nothing,” says Dr. Naiman. “Napping also can lead to better sleep patterns.” It’s helpful to set a specific time for rest. “You need to put boundaries around it so you can claim that time,” says Seixas. “This is especially important for women, because we tend to give that time away more easily [to] others.”
Learning to Rest Surprisingly, most of us need to learn how to rest. Practices such as yoga nidra, restorative yoga, and voluntary silence are powerful ways to go within and achieve restful states of being, particularly when you commit to practicing them regularly. Yoga nidra (also known as yogic sleep), a systematic, progressive guided meditation practice that is becoming more and more popular, is an extremely effective way to stop and rest. Practicing yoga nidra for just 10 minutes is equivalent to
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...from previous page three to four hours of sleep. While most forms of meditation focus on building concentration, yoga nidra is actually a journey through the koshas, or five layers of being—the physical body, the energy body, the mental/emotional body, the wisdom body, and the bliss body. “It’s wonderful to do as a daily practice because it brings you out of ‘fight or flight,’ the sympathetic nervous-system mode, into the parasympathetic nervous-system mode, where your body does its own healing,” says Jennifer Reis, a Kripalu Yoga teacher specializing in yoga nidra.
The more we integrate periods of rest and silence into our daily lives, the bigger the payoff will be. “There isn’t a perfect ratio,” says Reis. “Much depends on our individual lives. During more tranquil periods, perhaps we don’t need to rest as much, but during periods of crisis, more rest and silence is called for. After a while it should be like brushing your teeth.” Whenever you do it, know that you are practicing preventive medicine.
Restorative yoga also facilitates refreshing rest. “Restorative yoga is the quintessential stress-reducing, nourishing yoga practice,” says Sudha Carolyn Lundeen, who teaches restorative yoga and leads women’s self-care retreats at Kripalu. “In restorative yoga, we use more props than in other forms of yoga, including blocks, cushions, and blankets. This is in order to support the body being held in various yoga poses for longer periods of time, with greater ease and comfort.” Like yoga nidra, restorative yoga stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and invokes the Relaxation Response, lowering heart rate and blood pressure, relaxing muscles, and creating softer, more rhythmic breathing. Learning the benefits of silence and bringing them into everyday life is also an effective way to deeply rest the body, mind, and spirit. “In my Silence Class, we take a clear look at our lives to see where we have or have not allowed space for silence, and then explore why we absolutely need silence,” says LeClaire, who for the past 17 years has remained in silence for the first and third Monday of every month. “Next, we experience silence through the workshops, various types of meditative walks, and periods of eating in silence, and explore ways that we can introduce silence and see the value of it. We [also] explore the many possibilities of bringing space for silence into our lives.”
Practice, Practice, Practice Keep in mind that when you descend into restful practices, you may at first find it uncomfortable. “It’s like when you’re flying in a jetliner at 30,000 feet—as soon as you start to land, it almost always gets a little bumpy,” says Dr. Naiman. “It’s very similar with the mind and the spirit—you experience emotional turbulence.” Many people flee that turbulence by quickly getting busy again. “We’re running from our thoughts and our feelings, [we’re afraid] that if we stop we’ll discover that we’re not enough,” says Reis. But when we rest, a whole new world comes into view. “We learn that we’re more than enough,” says Reis. “We find our authentic self.” The more we integrate periods of rest and silence into our daily lives, the bigger the payoff will be. “There isn’t a perfect ratio,” says Reis. “Much depends on our individual lives. During more tranquil periods, perhaps we don’t need to rest as much, but during periods of crisis, more rest and silence is called for. After a while it should be like brushing your teeth.” Whenever you do it, know that you are practicing preventive medicine. Says LeClaire, “The important thing is to make it intentional, to make it a sacred time. F
Chrystle Fiedler is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Natural Remedies and writes about alternative health for many national magazines.
Weekly Art Therapy at CSA Arts for Healing is a gently empowering form of self-expression which actively and creatively engages you in exploring and developing your unique inner resources to make personal meaning of your life experiences, symbolically and spontaneously.
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Cancer Support
9.30am-12noon Fridays at CSA with Glenys Gibbs. $20 members/$25 others. bookings/more info ph CSA 9384 3544 AssociationFor www.cancersupportwa.org.au
The Gawler Foundation 12 Week Cancer Self-Help Program at CSA
Cancer , healing & wellbeing The Gawler Foundation 12 Week Cancer Self-Help Programme – Cancer, Healing and Wellbeing will be facilitated by Cathy Brown who is a CSA staff member and endorsed leader of the programme.
Consistent with the principles of integrated medicine, the programme applies a self-help approach designed to improve both quantity and quality of life for people with cancer. This enables participants to make informed, effective choices and better manage their own healing journeys. Each 2.5 hour session is interactive, supported by handouts and focuses on a specific theme from Ian Gawler’s book’ You Can Conquer Cancer’. There is plenty of time to practice techniques as well as opportunity for discussion and questions. The programme will be held at the Cancer Support Association building in Cottesloe. There are limited places on the program so be sure to book your place early.
On the programme you will learn to: • Activate your potential for healing • Relax effortlessly and meditate deeply • Develop and sustain a positive state of mind • Understand the role of nutrition and healthy diet for healing • Develop strategies to manage pain and fear • Find meaning and purpose in life Weekly Topics include: Week 1: Introduction and Meditation 1 Week 2: Meditation 2 Week 3: Mind Training 1 Week 4: Food 1 Week 5: Food 2 Week 6: Pain Management Week 7: Healing Week 8: Causes and solutions for cancer Week 9: Mind Training 2 Week 10: Living and Dying Week 11: Healthy Emotions Week 12: Health and Wellbeing
Starts: Wednesday, 3rd August 10am to 12.30pm weekly Venue: Cancer Support Association, 80 Railway Street, Cottesloe Register and pay online: www.cancersupportwa.org.au or phone CSA 9384 3544. $350 per person. July 2011
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rediscovering the sacred balance By David Suzuki
fragile, precious and in need of healing... Humanity is an infant species, newly evolved from life’s
we belong. If we are to balance and direct our remarkable technological muscle power, we need to regain some ancient virtues: the humility to acknowledge how much we have yet to learn, the respect that will allow us to protect and restore nature, and the love that can lift our eyes to distant horizons, far beyond the next election, paycheque or stock dividend. Above all we need to reclaim our faith in ourselves as creatures of the Earth, living in harmony with all other forms of life.
We’ve come through the first decade of the 21st century, and it seemed appropriate to revisit a chapter marking the new millennium in my book, The Sacred Balance (Greystone Books/DSF, 1997). The following is from the final chapter.
What a sign of maturity it would be for our species to acknowledge the profound limitations inherent in human knowledge and the destructive consequences of our crude but powerful technologies. It would mark the beginning of wisdom to pay attention to ecosystems delineated by nature – mountain ranges, watersheds, valley bottoms, river and lake systems, wetlands – rather than regions determined by politics or economics. The ebb and flow of organisms – fish, birds, mammals, forests – across the Earth’s expanses reflect builtin territorial rhythms that are worthy of respect. The elements that have sparked life onto this planet and continue to fuel it – air, water, soil, energy, biodiversity – are sacrosanct and should be treated as such. There is no ignominy in admitting ignorance or in confessing our inability to manage wild things, to control the forces of nature or even to grasp the cosmic
web. And what a magnificent species we are; we can look out and feel spiritually uplifted by the beauty of a forested valley or an ice-coated Arctic mountain, we are overwhelmed with awe at the sight of the star-filled heavens, and we are filled with reverence when we enter a sacred place. In the beauty, mystery and wonder that our brain perceives and expresses, we add a special gift to the planet.
Humanity is an infant species, newly evolved from life’s web. And what a magnificent species we are; we can look out and feel spiritually uplifted by the beauty of a forested valley or an ice-coated Arctic mountain, we are overwhelmed with awe at the sight of the star-filled heavens, and we are filled with reverence when we enter a sacred place. In the beauty, mystery and wonder that our brain perceives and expresses, we add a special gift to the planet. But our brash exuberance over our incredible inventiveness and productivity in this century has made us forget where
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forces that shape our lives. Recognizing and accepting these limitations with humility is the birth of wisdom and the beginning of hope that we will finally rediscover our place in the natural order. When we acknowledge our dependence on the same biophysical factors that support all other life-forms, believing that we have the responsibility for “managing” all of it becomes a terrible burden. But if we look at the world through the lenses of all of life together, we may recognize the origins of our destructive path and realize that we are not the “managers”; there is wisdom enough for self-management in the web of living creatures that has survived for more than 3.6 billion years. Instead of trying and failing to manage the life-support systems of the planet, we – each one of us – can manage the effect we have on those systems. Knowing how to act is the first big problem. Many people who are eager to work towards personal and public change feel increasingly baffled by the often contradictory messages from experts, as well as the mantras repeated over and over by the media. We no longer trust our innate common sense or the wisdom of our elders. At this critical juncture in our history on Earth, we are asking the wrong questions. Instead of “How do we reduce the deficit?” or “How do we carve out a niche in the global economy?” we should be asking “What is an economy for?” and “How much is enough?” What are the things in life that provide joy and happiness, peace of mind and satisfaction? Does the plethora of goods that our high-production economy delivers so effectively provide the route to happiness and satisfaction, or do the relationships between human and nonhuman beings still form the core of the important things in life? Is the uniformity of food and other products that we now encounter everywhere on the globe an adequate substitute for the different and unexpected? We seem to have forgotten the real things that matter and must establish the real bottom line of non-negotiable needs in order to regain a balance with our surroundings.
Dr. David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and chair of the David Suzuki Foundation. He is Companion to the Order of Canada and a recipient of UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for science, the United Nations Environment Program medal, the 2009 Right Livelihood Award, and Global 500. Dr. Suzuki is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and holds 24 honorary degrees from universities around the world. He is familiar to television audiences as host of the long-running CBC television program The Nature of Things, and to radio audiences as the original host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, as well as the acclaimed series It’s a Matter of Survival and From Naked Ape to Superspecies. His written work includes more than 47 books. Dr. Suzuki lives with his wife, Dr. Tara Cullis, and family in Vancouver, B.C.
“Our personal consumer choices have ecological, social, and spiritual consequences. It is time to re-examine some of our deeply held notions that underlie our lifestyles.”
a few facts about recycling & the things we use • Recycling 1 plastic bottle not only saves anywhere from 100 to 1000 years in the landfill but also saves the environment from the emissions in producing new bottles as well as the oil used to produce that bottle. • For every 1 ton of plastic that is recycled we save the equivalent of 2 people’s energy use for 1 year, the amount of water used by 1 person in 2 month’s time and almost 1000 litres of oil. • West Australians use on average 302 litres of water person per day which is ten times the minimum daily requirement. • Recycling just a million mobile phones reduces greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 33 cars off the road for a year. • When we do not recycle at least our glass or aluminum we cost the earth in power usage, water and oil usage and landfill continued on next page... usage; glass takes up to 4000 years to decompose in a landfill yet can be recycled indefinitely. July 2011
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Restoring Our Earth
to Vibrant Health By Don Weaver
You may have already consciously embraced your part in healing and restoring the Earth
“Our life on Earth is a
to a much higher state of health and vibrance but, if not, please consider this your invitation!
fellowship of being,
This has been my main focus for 30 years while replenishing soils, planting gardens and orchards and teaching about the health of the Biosphere.
and there can be
While many socio-ecological problems have worsened over these 30 years, it appears that an ever higher percentage of our 6.6 billion population is waking up to the need to transform our ways of living, to truly go “green,” to make peace with the Earth and ourselves, to end the “war on Terra.” This Terra, the beautiful living Earth of which we are an essential part, needs each of us to become conscious contributors to personal/planetary healing. You are needed and invited and welcomed!
neither prosperity nor survival for those whose practices
Here are some views from my perspective as a health-oriented ecologist and organic grower.
continually violate the
Ecological Action
laws of interdependent life.” Henry Geiger
We need to swiftly, consciously and wisely become the generous species on Earth. We’ve taken so much from the soils, plants, trees and animals; we have a huge debt that must be paid to restore our own vibrant health and that of the whole interdependent chain of life. Fortunately, we can do this by remineralizing the world’s soils with natural mixtures of rock dust, returning the increased amount of organic matter back to the soil. This will build its fertility and depth while enabling abundant production to meet our needs for pure natural foods, fiber, timber/ bamboo, biomass energy (alcohol, bio-diesel, wood, hemp, etc.), as well as beautiful landscapes, parks, and wildlands. (Related note: On 2/08/08, Reuters gave the news of General Motors’ plan that half of their new cars will be fueled by ethanol by 2012; current cars can be converted to run on a bio-fuel, electricity, or both.) By our choosing healthy vegetarian/vegan/raw-food lifestyles, hundreds of millions of acres now used for animal-based agriculture and drug crops can be converted to organic-mineralized orchards, farms and new forestland. Also, fast-growing tree plantations on remineralized soils can simultaneously build soil fertility and convert CO2 to leaf and wood for alcohol fuel and wood energy. Leaves and residues can be returned to the soil. This can replace the practice of burning carbon stored in the ground as oil, coal, and natural gas, which is wrecking our interglacial climate.
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This conversion can eliminate what currently comprises 20% of total CO2 emissions from animal “husbandry,” enabling us to quickly plant the many billions of trees needed to bring CO2 down from about 385 ppm to a stable interglacial level of about 280 ppm. Remineralizing much of the current forestland will greatly reduce the widespread disease, insect and fire epidemics, enabling forests to again grow healthy and strong. This will pull in billions of tons of CO2 through renewed nourishment and vibrance from soil microbes up to treetops. It will reverse soil acidification, allow the soil life-system to hold much more moisture for yearround availability and ameliorate the increasing “tinderbox” conditions in many malnourished forests. Stabilizing CO2 levels and the planetary climate is the sensible approach if we want to save what is left of our forests and nurture the growth of new ones over much of the Earth. Whether you lean toward the widely accepted “global warming” theory and related evidence, or the “new glacial period” thesis and evidence as put forth by John Hamaker and others, including myself, I think we can all agree on the wisdom of remineralizing and regreening the Earth to reverse the current slide into “climate chaos.” For example, in our recent winter of 2007–2008, there were record cold and crop-destroying snowstorms all the way into southern China, Greece, the Middle East, Florida as well as north to Alaska, Canada and Greenland, with the highest level of Northern Hemisphere snow cover in at least 52 years.
“Healing the damage of industrial civilisation is the task of our
Along with the understanding that we’ve about reached “Peak Oil,” we need to realize our soildevouring civilization has already passed “Peak Soil.” Earth is in urgent need of replenishment. Can the human mind and heart awaken and shift from egocentric to ecocentric, from the shortsighted habits of Earth-exploitative materialism to Earth-regenerative compassion, simple eco-living and co-creation of natural abundance and health for all?
generation.” Leonardo DiCaprio
I have appreciated the inspiration for this awakening provided by many wise philosophers from Thoreau and Emerson to J. Krishnamurti and Eckhart Tolle, and am glad to see Oprah Winfrey’s new initiative. She has invited Tolle to appear on her TV show and is joining with him to teach an online class series based on his latest book, A New Earth. Over 750,000 have signed up at her website so far. As well, Oprah’s new show, “The Big Give,” is sowing the seeds of greater generosity in the human heart.
Health-and-Ecology Education Are Key The signs are hopeful that in time, Oprah and all of us can realize that “A New Earth” is possible through our heartfelt understanding, vision and actions. The alternative–a dying Earth–is simply unacceptable. A working knowledge of the basics of health and ecology is the key to discernment when it comes to the teachings of our current educational system on these subjects, as well as in detaching from brainwashing about Earth-detrimental products and “lifestyles” touted by most media and the 36-billion-dollar advertising industry in the U.S. Ongoing self-education throughout life seems the wise course. John Robbins’ excellent new book, Healthy at 100, contains information on the wisdom of other cultures, including some of the healthiest and longest-lived. As John writes: Depending on what we choose to affirm and cultivate within ourselves and our children, we can collectively turn this planet into a hell or a heaven. Whether we like it or not, and whether we accept it or not, our choices make an enormous difference. How we treat ourselves and each other always matters. This is why I believe that the world’s healthiest and most long-lived peoples offer us a vision of hope for our time. In Okinawa, Abkhasia, Vilcabamba and Hunza, there is a deep sense of human connection and social integrity. People continually help one another and believe in one another. There are always ways for people to make amends for mistakes and be forgiven, so people are almost never discarded or rejected. Wealth is shared rather than hoarded. As one Abkhasian proverb puts it, ‘I am whole because you are whole.’ John next quotes Dr. Allen Banik, author of Hunza Land: In Hunza, I seemed to be in another world, a world of friendliness and good nature. Covetousness, envy and jealousy were nonexistent; no police force was needed to keep order; unlocked doors were not a temptation. People of these cultures eat a mostly raw and mostly plant-food organic diet, as well as lead an outdoors active life close to the land for the young and long-time young alike. John describes the
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...from previous page
Valuable Environmental Websites
Hunza model of soil replenishment in depth, here quoting J.I. Rodale’s The Healthy Hunzas: The magnificent health of the Hunzans is due to…the way in which their food is raised…I am sure that the powdered rock dust which flows onto the Hunzan land is a significant factor in the outstanding results obtained by the Hunzans.
Remineralize the Earth: www.remineralize.org Soil and Health Library: www.soilandhealth.org General Eco-Agriculture: www.acresusa.com Trees for Life: www.treesforlife. org Fruit Tree Planting Foundation: www.ftpf.org Men of the Trees Australia: www.menofthetrees.com.au School gardens/ecology center: www.oaec.org Organic seeds: www.vegparadise.com/heirloom.html Living Nutrition/Vibrance: www.livingnutrition.com Natural Hygiene/raw food: www.rawfoodexplained.com Whole Systems Education: www.wholenessbook.com More “inconvenient” climate info: www.iceagenow.com John Robbins’ Healthy at 100: www.healthyat100.org
Since people of all of the cultures studied in Healthy at 100 have eaten whole, mineralized, organic food throughout their lives, they’ve been virtually untouched by cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, etc. In contrast, there are “12 million new cases of malignancy worldwide in 2007,” with almost 8 million dying from their cancer and/or their medical “treatments” (HealthDay.com, 12/17/07), while the incidence of obesity in the U.S. alone has increased from 13 to 32 percent since the 1960s (Acres USA, Sept. 2007). Both junk food addiction and hidden hunger for nutrients lacking in soils and foods are primary causes of obesity, along with sedentary lifestyles, of course. We have less energy to exercise, to garden, or even to think rationally when we are malnourished, so look out for this “vicious cycle.” Let us also avoid seeking to fill our needs for emotional and spiritual nourishment with food. Consider how love for self and others can be the inspirational foundation to bring about a full restoration of human and planetary health.
Organiculture Can Restore “Earth Health” Fruition, a farm on Maui, is another model of the health-oriented agriculture of the future, thriving on 11 acres of previously neglected pastureland. Owners Stephan Reeve and his mother Dorli have co-created an Edenic garden and orchard a la the Hunzans with generous soil remineralization, mulching and composting. Fruition produces a growing abundance of mineralized avocados, mangos, papayas, lychees, jakfruit, sapotes, tangelos, rambutans and many others, probably exceeding the variety grown in Hunza. Continued generous remineralization and compost return should soon allow Fruition to match the quality of the Hunzan “Shangri-La.” Why don’t we all strive for such high standards of soil fertility, food quality, health and active longevity? While I’m fortunate to have some mineralized fruits and veggies year-round from my gardens, my two weeks working at Fruition this past January was extra-nourishing and rejuvenating to body and spirit. Along with eating a variety of fresh, ripe, mineralized produce, renewing great friendships and swimming often, my rock dusting of a new grove of rollinia trees was a highlight, as I love to help young trees grow to healthful fruition. Not only are rollinia trees very beautiful and fast-growing, the rollinia fruit has joined my favorite five fruits of the world, along with sapote, durian, atemoya, apricot…and perhaps tied with nectarines, cherries, peaches, persimmons, pineapple… The marvelous fact is that when we grow foods in remineralized and organic matter-enriched soils (animal manures and slaughterhouse by-products are not needed, thankfully), the development of the flavor and of all the health-promoting compounds can, if you are truly hungry, make each food a favorite at the time of eating! The more we intelligently give to Nature, the more Nature gives back, often a hundredfold or more! The fact that crime, war and ecological destruction are virtually unknown in cultures such as Hunza that Robbins writes of in Healthy at 100, tells us that these are extremely unnatural practices; their existence in our own culture is telling us we must heal ourselves at every level of being, in every inter-relationship and “from soil to psyche.” Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of spending 5 billion dollars or more per week on warfare, we would use it to fund all the crucially needed Earth Regeneration projects? Is anything
CSA Library News... Did you know that Cancer Support Association has some talented members, some of whom have been inspired to write about cancer? Here are some of our favourites...
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Cancer Support Association
ROSS TAYLOR: Living Simply With Cancer KAREN LEIBOVITCH: Two Years to Normai: A Journey with Cancer DR KAYE MURRAY: The Power of Peace www.cancersupportwa.org.au
more important? A new and vibrant Earth calls us forward. Now is the time to exercise our “response-abilities” and to express our love and thanks for the gift of life! I’ll conclude with a partial list of positive steps we can each consider taking, if right for us; then a few websites promoting soil remineralization, eco-agriculture, tree and orchard planting, healthful living and deeper understanding of our eco-climatic crisis and opportunity. It is my hope that you will joyfully discover your own vital role in restoring vibrance to your health and that of your larger body, the living Earth!
Positive Steps to Consider 1. Start a garden/orchard/farm/Earth Regeneration Center to provide food, beauty, and inspiration to yourself and others. Buy seeds and trees from independent and organic growers whenever possible as there is a major corporate push to take over, hybridize, chemicalize, and genetically modify agriculture and the food supply. Save seeds and propagate plants yourself, as well. Start a plant and tree nursery. 2. Remineralize the soil, make compost, feed the microbes and earthworms to restore the foundation of health and life. 3. Buy only organically grown foods and other natural products; try eating mostly or only plant foods and mostly or only fresh/raw/ripe foods; share the good news about soil mineralization and organic growing practices with farmers and as many people as you can. 4. Simplify every aspect of life to promote health for people and planet; work together with those supporting global health; withdraw your support from those people and companies whose practices are harmful to the ecosystem and encourage them to go constructively green. 5. Become knowledgeable about your own region as well as about the world in general so you may better influence local and global politics and consciousness through writing, speaking and leading new positive initiatives. Community gardens/orchards, tree nurseries and tree planting projects are needed almost everywhere, as are more Community Supported Agriculture enterprises, natural food potlucks and healthy living education centers and events.
“Breathing in, I am a mountain, imperturbable, still, alive and rigorous. Breathing out, I feel solid. The waves of emotion can never carry me away.” Thich Nhat Hanh
6. Explore co-housing and cooperative community and eco-village options for you and loved ones, and/or retrofit your current residence for increased solar power, food growing and green living. Study Permaculture principles to see how they apply to your living and growing environment. 7. Help schools start organic, mineralized gardens and orchards – the “Edible Schoolyards” founded by Alice Waters in Berkeley, California are an example to build upon. Share Nature’s beauty and miracles with children to prevent further spread of “Nature Deficit Disorder.” 8. Add to this list according to your nature and inner inspiration, and try out the advice to “be the most positive person you know.” F
Don Weaver is co-author with John Hamaker of The Survival of Civilization, author of To Love And Regenerate The Earth, and a regular contributor to Living Nutrition/Vibrance magazine. Both books are free to download in the Agriculture section of the Soil and Health Library: www.soilandhealth.org. He welcomes feedback on his writings and ideas for cooperative projects to nourish personal-and-planetary health (email: earthdon@yahoo.com). July 2011
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what you’re not
BEING TOLD
about cancer An Interview with Emmanuelle Schick Garci by Nicola Ferrero
Emmanuelle, can you please introduce yourself for our readers? may put your readers or myself to sleep if I talk about myself. If anyone is really interested, my biography is available on The Idiot Cycle web site: www.theidiotcycle. com
I “The Idiot Cycle” is a recent documnetary which examines the causes of cancer and why the causes are sometimes overlooked. Directed by Emmanuelle Schick Garcia, the film looks closely at some of the world’s major chemical corporations, such as Dow Chemical, Bayer, BASF and Monsanto, and suggests that these companies, which in some cases market cancer treatments, should be held accountable for cancer-causing pollution and chemicals. The film provides a unique perspective on what it is that we don’t see and what it is that we need to see in terms of cancer.” The film is currently showing in Europe, but was denied errors-and- omissions insurance due to “subject matter,” causing the film to be blocked from any widespread showing in the US and Canada. It is unlikely we will see it in Australia but this interview with the film’s director will be of interest to people worldwide concerned about the prevalence of cancer.
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Cancer Support Association
When did you decide to make a documentary about cancer? And why? When I was 24 my mother lost both her breasts to cancer. I had started to make a documentary about a year in the life of cancer. I ended making Cancer, a Dogme 95-inspired short film. Throughout my mother’s illness, the question of what caused the cancer kept coming back. We don’t have a history of family cancer, she never smoked, she ate well, she was an athlete. The “genetic” explanation seemed vague and insufficient. I started reading medical journals (my sister is a doctor) and that’s when I began the research and writing for The Idiot Cycle. I worked on the film for three years before going into production. Over the past five years, friends of mine, who were between the ages 20-30, began to be diagnosed with cancer. Half of my friends have lost a parent to cancer or have a parent fighting cancer, these people are not old. Most were diagnosed with cancer before turning 50. We are the first generation that will not live as long as our parents. We’re getting more cancers at younger ages. When my parents were growing up, they could not think of one friend under 30 who had cancer. I wanted to know why. It’s often seen as a ‘taboo’ issue, isn’t it? Cancer is a very personal and emotional subject. If you have questions that people don’t have answers for, especially the cancer establishment, it becomes touchy. People also downplay the conflicts of interests, which should be taken seriously. They are affecting the science that’s being done, and the science that is being ignored. The prevention of cancer is certainly taboo, and I’m not sure why. The cancer establishment has defined prevention as “early detection” or “eating five fruits and vegetables a day” or “not smoking”. Yes, these are important and should be done, but that is completely insufficient. It’s not even half of the picture. Look at anything in your home. What doesn’t contain carcinogens? What didn’t emit carcinogens when being produced? Look at benzene alone. Car exhaust, cosmetics, construction materials, pesticides … we’re being bombarded with toxic chemicals everyday and the cancer establishment thinks eating five fruits and vegetables is enough! What if those five vegetables were contaminated with chlorinated pesticides? Then how is that preventing cancer? Not many people want to challenge this because it means changing fundamental things in our economy.
www.cancersupportwa.org.au
There is a lot of information being left out by the cancer establishment, which has close ties to the chemical industry, information that is vital to people’s health. It’s not illegal, but it is downright irresponsible. Whether that oversight is caused by conflicts of interest or disinterest, I don’t know. We can prevent cancers: by riding bikes, by eating organic, by consuming less, by using safer non-toxic alternatives. But most importantly companies should test chemicals, GMOs and drugs for long term health effects before they are licensed. It would be irrational, irresponsible and criminal for governments not to require this. Another interesting question is: why scientists always talk about the ‘cure’ for cancer, but no one really talks about the causes? It’s easier to get funding to do research for a cure. A “cure” keeps people hoping. It keeps people from thinking about things like causes, which is more complicated. If people focus on the causes and less on the cure, then research funding for cures dries up. But billions of dollars and decades later, we’re still putting all our efforts into the cure for cancer and avoiding major contributors - carcinogens. It’s a lot more glorious for the scientist who finds a cure than for the scientist who finds a cause. Look at what happens to scientists who find products to be carcinogenic. They’ve been fired, reputations have been destroyed, they’ve been threatened. I can understand the scientist that goes the “cure” route. We, at Slow Food, are particularly concerned about the food we eat every day. What did you discover about that in your documentary? I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t know what genetically modified foods were before starting this film. I grew up in Canada (15 years), then lived in the USA for 8 years. The only thing I remember was the FlavorFlav tomato fiasco when I was at UCLA. But even then, no articles really explained what they were, they just referred to the incidence as a few “bad tomatoes”. I thought it was a bacterium on the tomatoes. No one talked about genetically modified foods. Since making this film, I discovered I don’t want to eat GM foods and now I only buy organic, local (whenever possible) food.
It is now predicted that 40 percent of the U.S. population will be diagnosed with some type of cancer in their lifetime. Current evidence shows that thirty percent of all cancer can be prevented by improving diet and physical activity and reducing alcohol and tobacco intake.
I also discovered that the Canadian government has been the worst government in the world on the GM food topic. They are the only government in the world to push the United Nations to lift the ban on the Monsanto Terminator Seed (a seed that is sterile and can’t be saved or used for the following planting seasons). We tried to get interviews with Health Canada and the Ministry of Agriculture in Canada for months, but they declined. The big debate in Canada was about labeling GM foods or not. How ridiculous. We are debating labeling before we’ve even done any testing or debating about what these new foods will do to the health of people! We completely skipped over the most vital and important issue - health testing. I listened to the Canadian parliamentary debates about labeling of GM foods or, as the Canadian government refers to them “novel foods”. It was so littered with half-truths my eyes nearly popped out of my head. We elected some of these clowns? I felt like a few members of parliament did five minutes of research on the internet ten minutes before the debates. That’s what their arguments reflected. We tried to get statements and interviews with those members of parliament as well. They never responded. We tried to get interviews with CropLife (a pesticide advocacy group), Greg Conko of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (he wrote a book about the greatness of GM foods), none of them wanted to speak with us. I live in Europe now, and I hope Europeans continue to preserve their food culture. It’s refreshing to see people engaged and curious and interested in topics like food, cancer and chemicals. Everyone loves to eat, so everyone should be concerned. GM foods are under the spotlight: produced by the largest chemical companies, that are
continued on next page... July 2011
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...from previous page also the largest pharmaceutical companies and the largest pesticide producers in the world. It seems they have a big interest in not letting people know what they are ‘really’ eating... Yes, it’s not in the companies’ best financial interest. It’s funny, but outside of London, at a former Monsanto pesticide making facility, the workers pushed to get GM foods banned from the cafeteria. Greenpeace and Monsanto do have things in common! But really, it’s the governments’ responsibility to require companies to do long term health testing before they license chemicals, GMOs or drugs.
What I think would put everyone’s soul at ease is if the board members and CEOs of Dupont, Dow, Monsanto, BASF, Bayer, Astrazeneca, Syngenta, Novartis, etc. ate nothing but genetically modified crops for 3 years, so we can do some testing and a study on them. And I don’t mean one symbolic meal of GMOs. Only a three-year study will let us know what the long term effects will be. If these G.M. foods cause cancer, I’d like to know before I’m eating them.
EFSA (European Food and Safety Authority), for example, doesn’t even require health studies to be submitted for each new GM food presented. The Canadian government actually develops GM crops, and sometimes with biotech companies. The Canadian agriculture department is not only responsible for regulating these “novel foods”, but they’re also developing them. There is a real conflict of interest. The government’s job is to regulate, enforce laws and protect its citizens, not to engage in business ventures—that’s not their job. We haven’t got any long-term study on GMOs and their effects on soil, underground waters and on the bodies of the animals that usually eat them (humans included). What do you think about that? When I heard the CEO of Monsanto say GM foods were the “most extensively studied arena” in “the food arena”, I thought to myself, where are these extensive studies? Please do share. Seeing the dismal level of “testing” being done by the Canadian and American governments these days, it can’t be very difficult to make such a statement. But what are these studies he’s referring to? It’s such a vague statement. On their “technology agreements” Monsanto makes it illegal for farmers to share or give any of their seeds to third parties, including third parties for “research” purposes. The CRIIGEN had to appeal to the European courts to force Monsanto to make a Monsanto study public. The study was done on a small sample of rats for only three months. Monsanto appealed to block the publishing of this study. After hearing the scientist who reviewed the study, I can understand why Monsanto wanted to keep that study to itself. Also, the CEO of Monsanto, as well as members of the Canadian parliament continually refer to a group of studies that were done by the European Union that shows GM foods to be safe. Again, please do share, and what exactly are they referring to, because they never say exactly. They may be referring to EU’s former Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin’s 15-year study from 1985-2000. If that’s the case, many studies were done by biotech companies themselves and not independently reviewed, and 4 studies focused on “food safety”. They were not long-term health studies. But maybe Monsanto’s CEO can clear things up and explain in more detail. In the trailer of your movie there’s a very disturbing question: “Are we being used as guinea pigs’? What have you found about that? We are being used as guinea pigs. Not in a forced way, just in an ignorant way. The Nuremberg Protocols outline that experimenting on people without their permission is illegal. Maybe most governments have forgotten about the Nuremberg Protocols. I certainly don’t remember ever being asked if I wanted to eat GM foods. I ate them unknowingly in Canada and the States, that’s for sure, but I wasn’t asked if that was okay. And it’s not okay. What I think would put everyone’s soul at ease is if the board members and CEOs of Dupont, Dow, Monsanto, BASF, Bayer, Astrazeneca, Syngenta, Novartis, etc. ate nothing but genetically modified crops for 3 years, so we can do some testing and a study on them. And I don’t mean one symbolic meal of GMOs. Only a three-year study will let us know what the long term effects will be. If these G.M. foods cause cancer, I’d like to know before I’m eating them.
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Cancer Support Association
www.cancersupportwa.org.au
Are you happy about your documentary? Have you had any problems in gathering information, shooting and make it come alive? I mean, have you found hostility? It’s very tricky making a documentary about the chemical industry, they have very close ties to governments, because they have played and still play a big role in the defense industry. When we were filming in Sarnia, Canada, home to 40% of Canada’s petrol-chemical facilities, for example, various company security vans came to take our information while we were filming the factories at night. That’s fine, I know they’re being cautious. However, the chemical industry is a little contradictory, since they lobbied against legislation that would require tighter safety measures around chemical facilities to protect from terrorist attacks. I\’m also having a hard time understanding how they can justify “protecting” their facilities and the community while they dump carcinogens on their community, transport dangerous chemicals, have regular explosions and leaks and cause slow illnesses like cancer. Once again, the industry says one thing and does another. It’s completely irrational. We had to do the film independently because every one was scared. If a TV station had been involved from the beginning, they may not have allowed us to make the film that we thought was important. Newspapers and TV are sometimes forced to make decisions to protect their advertising income. Look at the New Yorker magazine. I’m subscribed, it’s a magazine I like, but since I’ve been reading the magazine, they have never done a investigative piece on toxic chemicals or GMOs. Coincidence? Well inside the magazine there’s a two-page ad from Dow Chemical, a one page back ad from Monsanto, a side ad from BASF. When there are no articles, people don’t think the problem exists. If the film is able to accomplish one thing, I hope governments decide to require companies to submit health studies before licensing chemicals, GMOs and drugs. Anything else is unacceptable. We need to put our health first. F
The film is being was initially released in Canada and is currently being screened in France. Go to the website for more information about the film: www.theidiotcycle.com
In Australia, Monsanto has started to add to its ‘feed the world’ myth by claiming that GM crops are more ‘nutritious’ than natural foods. A handful of GM chemical companies are working with government scientists on a type of white bread they say will cure bowel cancer. The reality however is that this magically modified white bread is no better for you than any number of safe, healthy, affordable foods already available in local grocery stores. Yet the Australian government continues to spend millions of dollars on the research hoping to create a market for something that is not needed.
If you think your diet is free from genetically modified food, think again. In
Australia, foods containing refined oils or sugars from GM crops do not have to be labelled, as long as they don’t contain any of the crop’s DNA or protein. Exemptions are also in place for meat from animals fed with GM plants, flavourings that make up a tiny portion of a food, and for foods containing ‘’unintentional traces’’ of 1 per cent or less GM ingredients. With so many exemptions, it is almost impossible to avoid products that have involved GM organisms at some point in the production chain. And if the Blewett review is anything to go by, this greatly concerns many Australians. Submissions arguing for better disclosure of GM products - along with those concerned with additives and allergens - made up 5000 of the 6000 submissions received by the review, suggesting ‘’considerable unease in the community over GM foods’’. This is borne out by a Swinburne University survey published last year. One thousand people were asked to rate their comfort level with certain food technologies - zero being ‘’not at all comfortable’’ and 10 being ‘’very comfortable’’. The average for GM was 3.9. Concerns deepened last year when tests commissioned by Greenpeace found traces of genetically modified soy in the baby formula S-26 Soy. The worries persist despite regulators’ assurances that there is no evidence that such foods pose any threat to health, and despite the fact that GM ingredients have been used in Australian food production for a decade. The Blewett review recommended that the exemption for GM flavourings be removed, but baulked at ending the exemption for foods containing no detectable GM DNA or proteins - even as it noted that such rules were in place in Europe. Its stance was criticised by anti-GM campaigners like Gene Ethics, which said the decision was ‘’not fair to shoppers’’, and Greenpeace, which stated: ‘’quite frankly, Blewett blew it’’. F
From: www.theage.com.au, February 2011 July 2011
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Recipes: Slow Foods for winter wellness Winter is a time for food cooked slowly and gently. Food which nurtures your body with its intrisic warmth and nutrition...
Healing Barley Soup This recipe is from my wise grandmother, which includes other healing foods like garlic, onion, herbs and lemon along with the barley. She knew that this inexpensive traditional whole food has been used as a healing agent for centuries. Barley is a potent source of B vitamins, folic acid, selenium, and Vitamin E, has a low glycemic index, its fiber helps reduce cholesterol and it makes us feel pleasantly full without loading on the calories. The cooked barley has a pasta-like consistency that really satisfies, and this soothing soup always makes me feel better. Email your healing recipes and food news to the editor: editor.wellness@yahoo.com.au
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion (I use red, but white or yellow will do just fine), coarsely chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 3/4 cup pearl barley 6 cups good-quality vegetable stock 2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried (thyme is a good anti-microbial) 1 sprig fresh rosemary or 1/2 teaspoon dried 1 medium carrot, chopped 1 cup sweet potato, peeled, and diced 3 cups seasonal greens, chopped (I like kale, but turnip greens, Swiss chard, broccoli rabe, mustard greens, or spinach will work beautifully) Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste 2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice per serving Cayenne pepper, to taste (optional, but it’s very soothing for scratchy throats) Fresh herbs for garnish, optional Directions: Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed soup pot and add onion. Saute, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and cook, stirring often, for 1 or 2 minutes, until garlic is fragrant and golden but not browned. Add pearl barley, stirring to coat with oil, and cook for 2 minutes. Add stock, thyme, and rosemary. Increase heat to bring soup to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and cook 1 hour, until barley is barely tender. Add carrot and sweet potato, and continue cooking 20 to 30 minutes, until vegetables have softened. Add greens and cook until wilted and tender, about 5 to 10 more minutes. Use a potato masher to gently crush the potatoes. Add salt and pepper to your taste. Ladle soup into bowls, adding lemon juice and cayenne pepper (if desired) to each serving, and top with fresh herbs if you like.
From: www.care2.com. Recipe by Cait Johnson, author of Witch in the Kitchen (Inner Traditions, 2001).
About slow food... Are you looking for a simple way to slow down and enjoy the things that really matter? Begin by joining the international slow food movement! Slow food enthusiasts seek new ways to prepare food in the oven or on the grill–never in the microwave. They make food a priority and try to buy local, fresh organic ingredients whenever possible. During the summer, this means visiting farmers’ markets to deal with local growers, and it means selecting quality regional wines and learning which foods to pair them with.
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Slow the food you eat the enjoyment of food your priority. To enjoy slow food simply start at home with some local ingredients and an afternoon with nothing to do but cook an exquisite meal to enjoy with friends... Cancer Support Association
www.cancersupportwa.org.au
Being a vegetarian can cut your cancer risk in half Being a vegetarian protects you from cancer, claim scientists in a wide-ranging study which found cutting out meat can reduce the risk of some types of the disease by half.
Adzuki Bean & Vegetable Stew This is a simple recipe with one of the easiest to digest beans – adzuki beans. I love them. Ingredients: 1 onion, finely chopped 3 sticks of celery, sliced 1 zucchini, chopped 2 carrots, sliced 2 – 5 garlic cloves, minced 1- 2 inches of fresh ginger, chopped 1 1/2 cups adzuki beans 3 pieces of Wakame Seaweed, rinsed and broken into pieces 2 – 6 tbsp. Tamari Few drops of Stevia (optional) Directions: 1. Cook beans for 1 – 2 hours 1. Cook adzuki beans for 1–2 hours (time is dependent on how long you soak the beans for prior to cooking. It is recommended to soak the beans overnight and then rinse them thoroughly before cooking) 2. When beans are soft, add Wakame and cook for another few minutes. 3. Then add onions, celery, zucchini, carrots, ginger and garlic. 4. Simmer for 1/2 hour or till vegetables are tender. 5. Add Tamari to taste and a few drops of stevia. 6. Serve with a whole grain.
From: http://realfoodforlife.com. Recipe by Diana Herrington who turned a debilitating health crisis into a passion for helping others with healthy, sugar free, gluten free, eating and cooking. After testing and researching every possible healthy therapy on her delicate system she has developed simple powerful principles which she shares in her recent book Eating Green, Clean and Lean.
Researchers who studied tens of thousands of Britons over more than a decade found that vegetarians were 12 per cent less likely to contract cancer than their meat eating counterparts. With a third of the population developing cancer in their lifetime, changing diets could result in more than two million people avoiding the disease altogether, said the researchers. For some cancers like leukaemia, stomach and bladder cancers the difference was even more striking with up to 45 per cent fewer nonmeat eaters contracting the diseases than carnivores. Dr Naomi Allen, an epidemiologist at Oxford University and co-author of the study, said: “This is strong evidence that vegetarians have lower rates of cancer than meat eaters.” Although it is widely recommended people eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to reduce their risk of cancer and other diseases, there is very little evidence looking specifically at a vegetarian diet. The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, is one of the findings from the European Perspective Investment into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) which is following half a million people. More than 61,000 people aged between 20 and 89, roughly half of whom were vegetarian, were followed for more than 12 years in the British arm of the research which is supported by Cancer Research UK. During the time 3,350 people contracted 20 different cancers and the team compared the rates of meat eaters, fish eaters and vegetarians. All the results were adjusted to take into account smoking, obesity, alcohol intake and lifestyle. While common cancers such as prostate and breast cancer showed little difference, the overall cancer rates were different as were those for blood, stomach and bladder cancers. Fish eaters actually had the lowest rate of cancer – 18 per cent lower than meat eaters – but they were also the smallest sample. Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director of health information, said: “These interesting results add to the evidence that what we eat affects our chances of developing cancer. “We know that eating a lot of red and processed meat increases the risk of stomach cancer. But the links between diet and cancer risk are complex and more research is needed to see how big a part diet plays and which specific dietary factors are most important. “The relatively low number of vegetarians who developed cancer in this study supports Cancer Research UK’s advice that people should eat a healthy, balanced diet high in fibre, fruit and vegetables and low in saturated fat, salt and red and processed meat.” Su Taylor, of The Vegetarian Society, said: “That is why we need more research along these lines to find out exactly what is going on. We are not saying vegetarianism is the panacea for all ill health but it certainly helps protect against a number of diseases.” F
From: The Telegraph: www.telegraph.co.uk. By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent July 2011
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about Wellness News Wellness News is unique in that it is an extremely positive, uplifting, intelligent and beautiful publication focusing on wellness, healing and the environment. Wellness News is designed to offer hope and life-enhancing wellness strategies for people who may be seriously ill, and a broad spectrum of information for people interested in maintaining good health.
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Wellness News articles are commissioned or sourced from highly regarded international journals, publications and websites and are divided into seven key areas for complete cancer wellness and healing: mind-body healing; integrative therapies; nutrition and recipes; inspiring personal stories; lifestyle and environment; current news & information; inspirations. Topics covered are spirituality, healing modalities, complementary therapies, integrative medicine – balanced with inspirational stories, recipes and the latest nutrition and wellness trends, and also information on how the environment can impact on health and wellbeing. We place great value on personal cancer stories for their insight into how people manage in challenging circumstances. Also important to our balance of content is poetry and art for the healing potential of words and images. Visually, our magazine is harmonious and pleasing – designed to inspire the healing spirit. And because we care about the environment all print editions of Wellness News are printed with vegetable based ink on 100% recycled, oxygen-bleached paper.
In fond memory of those who have shared part of their journey with us... Clint Ranford Humphrey Plumstead Bruce Wroth Do not stand at my grave and we ep. I am not ther e. I do not sle ep. I30am Cancer a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. Support Association www.cancersupportwa.org.au I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain...
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www.cancersupportwa.org.au The Cancer Support Association of WA Inc is a registered charity and non-profit organisation, formed to help people affected by cancer. The Association relies on donations, bequests and member subscriptions to continue its services. July 2011
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