Some Health Choices

I was reading a piece recently about "the care and feeding of intestinal bacteria."  Oh, fun!  But, for me, it's been an important issue since I needed to load up on antibiotics to (I hope) get rid of the Lyme disease I acquired a couple of years ago.  Which left me with an inflamed gut.  No ... not fun!

So the topic has been forefront for me and I've adopted three foods in particular to re-establish what is called "a healthy microbiota."  My suggestion is that these would be good for anyone to incorporate into their regular diet.  These are three naturally fermented foods with live bacterial cultures, all to be found in the refrigerated section of a place like Whole Foods or a health food store.  (I don't go to regular supermarkets anymore, preferring our local food coop, so I'm no longer familiar with what they sell.)

1.  Raw sauerkraut.  Not the canned version.  And not to be cooked.  I like it layered (cold) on top of a toasted cheese sandwich.  Or mixed with some mayo and slathered on top of fish like a nouveau tartar sauce.  Or added to a beet salad.

2.  Miso or fermented soybean paste.  Also not to be cooked.  Good in flavoring soups--to be added just before eating.

3.  Yogurt.  Only the kind with live lactobacillus acidophilus, please.  Cow, goat, sheep milk--all are fine.

As well as helping to normalize the gut, I like to engage in the regular practice of skeletal, muscular, and energetic manipulations.  These include:

1.  Acupuncture.  Part of traditional Chinese medicine to help stimulate the body's energy/chi and various meridian points.  Particularly helpful for rebalancing the body plus lessening any pain.

2.  Reflexology.  Here, a practitioner stimulates--by applying pressure to--the bottom of the feet, using them as a map to other parts of the body.  I find it both a good diagnostic and healing tool.  (For instance, say that the part of your foot that reflects the adrenals is painful when pressure is applied.  You then know to strengthen the adrenals with appropriate foods and supplements ... and have the practitioner work on that area until the application of pressure is no longer so painful.)

3.  Trigger Point Massage.  By finding a particular muscular knot or trigger point, you can get relief to the referred pain radiating from it.  I found this technique enormously helpful when I had frozen shoulders.

4.  Rolfing.  A massage therapy begun by Ida Rolf involving forceful manipulation to reposition tissues.  It can set the entire body humming again.  The artist Georgia O'Keeffe who knew Ida Rolf had regular sessions and lived to be 98 years old.  Pretty good recommendation!

Finally, I don't own a microwave or have any smart meters attached to my house.  As for my cell phone, I only use it for emergencies.  I simply feel there's a lot of invasive stuff out there so I try to live as simply, as naturally, as healthily as possible.