On the path to own my health, I encountered some protocols that have been life-changing and are worth sharing.
Having been brought up by a mother who shopped organic when it was not common, I was confused by the high levels of metals, pesticides and mercury in my system. But to soften the pain of an old Lyme disease attack I had this summer that targeted inflammation in my body, I immediately did a fast-mimicking cleanse. ProLon (read “The Science on Intermittent Fasting” in this issue) was my five-day savior—it endeavors to reduce carbs and proteins—and I felt cleaner.
The doctor put me on minocycline and some other things, but it became a full-time job keeping track of my medicines—and I didn’t feel any better than I had in the spring before I started treatments. So before Labor Day, I stopped the antibiotic, which killed some of the Lyme but scared the rest back into hiding.
I ordered Dr. Linda Lancaster’s book, Harmonic Healing—written with my cousin, Purist’s wellness editor, Amely Greeven—and that turned the tide. “There is no cure [for Lyme],” Lancaster writes. “Only pickles are cured! But change the environment and the condition will no longer exist.” Once I read that, and the fact that “researchers have traced the cause of a baffling brain disorder to a surprising source: a type of bacteria in the gut,” I realized I needed to pursue a naturopathic direction and embrace the sacred power of foods and positive energies more consistently.
I enlisted an energy healer who helped two friends eradicate cancer, as I wanted to start from scratch and eliminate not just the Lyme “die-off” but the negative energy I had accumulated over a lifetime. Once I felt lighter after a first session of painful chiropractic pressure-point releasing, I felt open to embrace some natural remedies. Assaults on the energy are more complicated in this day, as we have “electrosmog” from technology, so consciously finding a release from that is important, too. (See Amely Greeven’s article “Electro Life,” about an electromagnetic radiation detox, on our website.)
I turned to a Blue Zone regimen—nutrition inspired by the world’s five Blue Zones which have the highest concentration of centenarians. Among the foods included on this regimen were lots of legumes, ancient grains (yes, pasta), healthy fats from nuts and olives, some low-mercury fish, free-range poultry and other fowl, and fresh organic vegetables.
I visited an organic farm (fewer than 1 percent of this country’s farms are certified organic) to learn about vegetables and the toxins they absorb. First stop—Nutrition for Longevity in New Jersey, the first of seven regenerative farms that will be rolled out in the U.S. I learned if 3 percent of farms were organic, it would begin to shift the global warming crisis, because the regenerative farming concept regenerates carbon into the soil as plants feed off carbon. If 30 percent of farming used mulching, it would also start to reverse climate change, because mulching builds up soil organic matter, which is what sequesters carbon. Simply, the more we can do to support organic farming, the better the effects on our climate will be.
While I am still on this path to feeling good, none of these collective treatments I embarked on—clean, organic eating, acupuncture, ashtanga yoga, energy clearing, intermittent fasting, PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic frequency—see my story on the hidden benefits of Emsculpt in this issue)—are considered fringe anymore. People who don’t embrace naturopathic remedies are the ones who sit on the fringe now.
Embrace the Purist in you.
