Emma Lane – Integrative Health Education

Looking forward

Written by Emma Lane on January 12, 2018. Posted in Blog.

We have come to the end of another year, I feel that 2017 was a successful one for IHE as we reached more people with our unique information and courses. Which for me meant I achieved my goal and purpose of supporting individuals and society at large to move towards creating their optimal wellbeing. So I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to all those who have supported us by attending our courses and sharing their experiences of said courses with others and obviously the support and interaction that you have given us on Facebook and other social media outlets, as many of you know is not my personal favourite mechanism of communication, however it serves a purpose.

As you are aware I am taking a year out from teaching in 2018, I have ceased calling it a sabbatical as I will not be getting paid!! The aim is to finish writing the Parasites from Within book and the Destination Wellbeing book – that’s the plan!

I have agreed to speak at some industry conferences and have agreed to teach a couple of classes, so keep an eye on the website as those dates will be posted nearer to the time so if you miss my ugly mug too much, you will be able to find me occasionally making an appearance.

Courses from the other IHE presenters will be ongoing during 2018, so please continue to support them and continue the investment into your professional development.

Please keep an eye on the website and Facebook page for updates and information that will continue to support both ourselves and your professional development.

Again a big thank you from me and wishing everyone a fantastic new year and 2018

Emma

Toxic Metals and the threat they pose!

Written by Emma Lane on August 31, 2016. Posted in Blog, Destination Wellbeing. Leave a Comment

In Destination Wellbeing we learn how to assess and rebalance what I call the primary pillars of wellbeing, the individual areas affect the whole-being’s ability to be happy, healthy and whole on a daily basis. We look at a wide array of possible negative causative affecters from mitochondrial dysfunction, poor self worth to physical and emotional toxins and how these issues occur and more importantly how to effectively address them and create a wellbeing journey that is a conscious, self-directed evolving process of achieving the client’s full potential.

I wanted to give you a little insight into one of the aspects of physical toxins that we go over in the detox mapping section, and that is toxic metals.

There are advantages and disadvantages to living in the modern world. Emergency medicine is a good advantage and toxic metals in our environment is a definite disadvantage.

Toxic metals, such as lead, mercury, and plutonium have no known benefit for living organisms and can cause serious illnesses. Other heavy metals, such as iron, copper, manganese and zinc, are needed in small amounts but cause damage at excessive levels.

Heavy metals are purposely added to products, for example, aluminium in antiperspirant deodorants or mercury in vaccinations, dental filling and processed foods. These are present in small amounts but, over time, can accumulate to excessive amounts and contribute to physical and ‘mental’ symptoms.

Pollution of air, food and water, has increased the amount of certain metals that pose health risks for humans and animals.

Many doctors and scientists are recognising that several serious health problems are created by heavy metal toxicity.

Below is a list of heavy or toxic metals and their common sources. Take note and start to protect yourself from these harmful toxins by reducing your exposure to these sources.

Aluminium: Cookware, antiperspirants, antacids, aluminium cans, paints, kitchen utensils, dental composites

Arsenic: Wood preservatives, poisons, pigments, dyes, insecticide, wine, coal burning, seafood (shellfish), treated wood

Cadmium: Water from galvanized pipes, evaporated milk, shellfish, paints, cigarette smoke, air pollution

Chromium: Dyes, pigments, air pollution, dental crowns

Copper: Copper plumbing, copper cookware, beer, swimming pools, inorganic mineral supplements, dental crowns

Gold: Dental fillings, jewellery, injections for arthritis

Iron: Dyes, inks, paint, pigments, poor inorganic mineral supplements in food

Lead: Car exhaust paint, plumbing, canned food, hair dyes, newsprint, tap water

Manganese: Ceramics, antiseptics, dyes, medicines, steel products, air pollution, water

Mercury: Dental fillings, vaccinations, mercury vapour lamps, seafood, polluted water, skin lightening creams

Nickel: Cigarettes, dental crowns

Silver: Dental fillings, jewellery

Tin: Canned foods

Titanium: Preservatives in medications, pigments in paints, tap/well water, dental crowns and implants

What action can you take so toxic metals don’t affect your health?

Prevention of further exposure to heavy metals
Support and Removal, that is, removal of toxic metals already in the body

Prevention involves avoiding further exposure to the sources listed above as much as possible. Suggestions for doing this include:

Avoid processed foods – especially those containing high fructose corn syrup – as much as possible since they can legally add small amounts of mercury as a preservative
Use deodorants with natural ingredients, not aluminium or SLS
Avoid regular use of canned foods to prevent intake of lead, aluminium, tin and other metals
Avoid medical drugs as much as possible since they may contain heavy metals; this is especially critical for vaccinations that often contain mercury in the form of thimerosal
Use a mercury free dentist for your dental fillings
Filter your drinking water with a dual carbon filter and bathing water with a whole house filter
Avoid over the counter medications such as antacids that contain toxic metals
Use natural skin care products that do not contain heavy metals

You get the idea. Just look at the list of common sources and eliminate them as much as possible. It’s a transition; you don’t have to change everything overnight. Be sure to tell your family and friends about the dangers of heavy metals so that can avoid them too.

Support and Removal, recommendations include:

Lose weight if you’re overweight since heavy metals store in fat
Regular bowel movements. Your bowels should move easily 1-3 times per day to remove toxic metals and for many other health reasons. Keep them moving with sufficient water, fibre, exercise/movement, use aids if needed.
Eat foods that support your liver detox pathways – cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, brussel sprouts and kale
Include foods with good sources of glutathione, an important substance involved in liver detox, foods such as asparagus, watermelon, brussel sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli
Sweating on a regular basis to clean wastes through pores in the skin. Do this via exercise, sunbathing, infra red saunas, hot baths etc.
Skin brushing –to improve circulation and lymphatic flow
Chi machines –to improve circulation and lymphatic flow
Eat to your personal biochemical requirements – choose organic natural food sources that is line with your ancestral individual needs.
Utilise natural supplements to assist your body in removing heavy metals such as metal free and Zeolite these can be found with many other options on www.holisticsonline.com.

I hope this served as an interesting and useful insight into what can be a frequent challenger to your destination of wellbeing.

Rinse your mouth

Written by Emma Lane on March 7, 2016. Posted in Today's Top Tip. Leave a Comment

First thing in the morning, rinse your mouth out with water and spit it out to cleanse the mouth of built up bacteria. Do this before eating or drinking.

Daily water intake

Written by Emma Lane on July 24, 2015. Posted in Today's Top Tip, Wellbeing. Leave a Comment

To find out the correct amount of water to drink daily, take your weight in kg’s and multiple by 0.033.

Hormone imbalance and digestion dysfunction

Written by Emma Lane on April 2, 2015. Posted in Blog, Gastrointestinal health. Leave a Comment

Poor absorption of certain vitamins and minerals will result in hormone imbalance, so the function or dysfunction of the digestive system has a direct impact on pre-menstrual symptoms for example.

So how does digestion work?

When you eat, food starts to be digested in the mouth by the mechanical action of chewing and a release of enzymes in the saliva. The food then travels through your oesophagus. In the stomach, acids and enzymes break down the food into smaller particles. After leaving your stomach, these particles enter the small intestine. This long tube slowly contracts and expands to push the food along through it, while absorbing nutrients that your body uses for energy, growth, and repair. By the time the food reaches the end of the small intestine, almost all of its nutrients have been absorbed. At this point, what’s left of the food is mostly water and indigestible waste.

This material then enters the large intestine. Its main job is to remove water from the waste products as they pass through and then recycle this water back to your body. After traveling through this area, the waste is held at the end of the colon in the rectum. It will then leave your body through the anus as stool when you have a bowel movement

Key disrupting factors

There are many disrupting factors that affect the digestive process. These include Poor cephalic response, low hydrochloric acid, stress, liver congestion and dysbiosis

1. The cephalic response
The cephalic phase of digestion is when you stimulate a natural response to increase gastric secretions even before food enters the stomach, therefore supporting the breakdown of food in your digestive tract once the food is in there.

The cephalic response is stimulated when you see, smell, think about, or taste food. Therefore if you are not present with your food and mindful of eating you are not getting the optimal response and this results in poor breakdown, absorption and therefore poor digestion.

2. Low hydrochloric acid secreted by parietal cells in the stomach wall
Hydrochloric acid (HCL) is secreted by parietal cells in the stomach wall and its actions include:

Denatures proteins and enhances nutrient absorption
Activates pepsin from pepsinogen
Supports barrier defence against ingested microbes
Most B complex vitamins require normal levels of stomach acid for absorption.
Fe, cu, mg, zn, ca require an acidic environment for absorption.
Stimulates secretion of bile and pancreatic juices

Consequences of low stomach acid

Low stomach acid cannot properly break down proteins into amino acids. Lack of amino acids in the bloodstream means less available neurotransmitters which can mean mood disorders like depression. Additionally, protein maldigestion leads to hair loss and brittle nails.

Low stomach acid fosters imbalanced gut flora. Pathogenic and food borne bacteria, usually killed by the inappropriate stomach pH level, can make their way into the intestines. Further, lack of acidity in the stomach makes it more hospitable to bad bacteria colonistation.

Low stomach acid leads to nutrient malabsorption. Specifically, when proteins aren’t fully broken down, B12 absorption is disrupted. Folate and nonheme iron absorption are also affected by low stomach acid.

Low stomach acid also leads to heartburn, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or reflux.

Low stomach acid often means constipation, bloating, gas and belching. With inadequate acid, food sits in the stomach and putrefies instead of being properly digested.

Low stomach acid may cause a leaky gut (increased intestinal permeability) and therefore create food allergies/sensitivities. Improperly digested foods can create little “holes” between the cells of the intestinal lining. These undigested food particles can also create the opportunity for pathogenic bacteria to contribute to creating increased intestinal permeability. Then, undigested proteins and other food particles leak into the bloodstream and the body reacts by creating antibodies to these foreign particles in the blood.

Simple solutions to support HCL production include:

1. Sea salt for low stomach acid – add unrefined sea salt, such as Celtic sea salt with meals and to water and drink 15 minutes before you eat. This provides chloride, the building block of stomach acid (sodium chloride and hydrochloric acid).

2. Raw apple cider vinegar for low stomach acid – Low stomach acid causes a cascade of digestive issues like bloating, hair loss and constipation. There are a few theories regarding just why apple cider vinegar improves digestion and low stomach acid. First, the vinegar is acidic and will slightly lower the pH in the stomach. Frequent doses of raw apple cider vinegar is reported to help with candida overgrowth and candida problems can contribute to low stomach acid production.

3. Drink 1/2-1 tsp. raw apple cider vinegar in 1/2 cup warm water. Take this concoction before each meal and, if needed, after meals.

4. Swedish bitters for low stomach acid – Swedish bitters are an important tool in treating low stomach acid but is only part of the solution in healing low stomach acid naturally. To use put 1 tsp of Granary Herbs Swedish Bitters Liquid (purchase here) in water and drink 15 minutes before your two heaviest meals of the day

Other points to note:

Drinking large amounts of water during meals waters down stomach acid and therefore inhibits digestion.

Drinking a cup of warm, homemade bone broth can help to stimulate digestive juices and is also supportive to the health of the gut overall.

3. Stress
Perhaps the most important change is not to eat while stressed, as the body does not produce gastric juices when under stress. That means sitting down in a calm quiet environment for your meals, chewing well until each mouthful is almost liquid and eating mindfully.
You can see from the diagram below that having chronic low level of stress will have a radical effect on your health especially if you are rushed and stressed when eating.

4. Liver congestion
The liver is a natural multitasker: it plays a large role in metabolism, helps build proteins, breaks down hormones, clears toxins from the bloodstream, and much more.

Suboptimal detoxification signs

Recurrent headaches
Muscle aching and weakness
Chronic fatigue and lethargy
Recurrent infections
Dark circles under the eyes
Anaemia
Infertility
Depression, anxiety &/or mood swings
Poor short term memory and concentration
Adverse reactions / sensitivity to environmental chemicals, odours &/or nutritional supplements

Support your liver

Eat good-quality food. Avoid overeating and refined or heavily processed food.
Get plenty of fresh green leafy veg and keep a varied diet of fresh foods that is appropriate for your biochemistry.
Maintain regular bowel movements this helps keep the bowels and liver clear of toxic load.
Stay well hydrated.
Minimise exposure to chemicals of all sorts, from food additives and cosmetics to caustic cleaning agents. Remember that the liver needs to break down every chemical entering the body either for use or excretion.
Use recreational drugs and alcohol sparingly, or better yet, quit!
Utilise Swedish bitters or a liver support supplement.
Take time to breathe deeply, relax, meditate or pray. Stress can aggravate liver congestion.

5. Dysbiosis
Dysbiosis is an imbalance in the colonies of the bowel flora and the effects that the by-products have on human physiology. Published research has listed dysbiosis as the cause of arthritis, autoimmune illness, B12 deficiency, chronic fatigue, cystic acne, the early stages of colon and breast cancer, eczema, food allergy/sensitivity, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis, and steatorrhea.

Causes of intestinal dysbiosis

Stress
Poor diet/nutritional status
Antibiotic/other drug therapy
Decreased immune status
Decreased gut motility
Maldigestion
Intestinal infection
Diabetes
Gastrointestinal tract surgery

Common symptoms of Dysbiosis

Disturbed bowel movements – either diarrhoea or constipation, or a combination of both.
Excessive wind
Abdominal distension/ bloating
Fatigue
Hormonal imbalances.
Foggy thinking.
Anxiety, depression or mood swings.
Chronic vaginitis (vaginal irritation)
Dysbiosis can affect almost every aspect of health.

To learn more about the healthy digestion process and what can go wrong, why not read some of our other blogs?

To understand the far reaching effects of digestion check out Emma Lane’s comprehensive course Holistic Approaches to a Fully Functional Gut. The next course will run on 11-12th April in Middlesex. Book now. Emma will also running this course in Fort Lauderdale on April 18th/19th and in Carlsbad on August 1st/2nd.

Resonance and tuning forks

Written by Emma Lane on March 6, 2015. Posted in Blog, Energy Is Everything. Leave a Comment

Appropriate music or sounds can help to restore the natural vibrations of a living being and therefore its health, as long as these vibrations resonate with the natural vibration of that being. Tuning forks create this healing opportunity.

Everything in the world functions at an optimal frequency and when a person is operating at optimal health, his or her “tones” are attuned with each other and aligned with the external world.

Any stress-related condition – an emotion, negative belief or event, or pathogen – can be labelled as an “invading-sound” or frequency that can disrupt the body’s natural frequencies or vibrations.

If the body or those parts of the body (including the energetic structures) are unable to attune to the “out-of-tune” frequency or to its personal frequency, the invading frequency “takes over” and eventually causes disease.

The beneficial use of tuning forks is based on sound waves as they pass through the body. They elicit responses within the body systems. These systems in turn react to sound waves and vibrations and are restored to a healthier and more harmonic place.

When you tap the tuning forks, you awaken the life energy of your cells and start them puffing, creating a centered, happy feeling inside. There are many wellbeing benefits of tuning forks; here are eight reasons to incorporate these tools into your holistic practices:

Provides instantaneous, deep state of relaxation
Improves mental clarity and brain functioning
Increases your level of physical energy and mental concentration
Relieves stress by drawing your body into a centered space
Develops and refines your sonic abilities
Enhances massage, acupressure, dream work and meditation
Brings your nervous system into balance
Integrates left and right brain thought patterns

Sound is frequently conjoined with chakra work to produce beneficial results.
There are two theories about sound and the chakra system:

Chakra Work:

Each musical note holds a vibration and creates unique results. There are many theories that fix certain tones to specific chakras. These vary from culture to culture with the belief that you can attune the chakras and balance the system.

Tones can both heal and harm. Off-tones – tones that don’t match the frequency of your body, a particular chakra, or physical organ – create dissonance/disease.

Beneficial tones blend with your core harmonic and keep you strong and help to enable healing.

Healing the chakras is designed to help each person recognise the naturally occurring rhythms of vibration within themselves to allow them to heal.

Learn how to effectively use tuning forks to balance the chakra system on part one of Emma Lane’s energy healing course. Find out more on the Integrative Health Education website. Or call +44 (0) 1924 242 851 to book.

The energy trinity – light, sound and vibration

Written by Emma Lane on March 4, 2015. Posted in Blog, Energy Is Everything. Leave a Comment

Energy exists in three forms – light, sound and vibration. All life, including each cell of our bodies, has a vibrational frequency – it is the essence of all of life’s activities. From the tiniest grain of sand to the largest of stars, all matter has a unique frequency and vibration.

Each of our internal organs has its characteristic and unique sound, just as the heart beats, the brain, liver, stomach, kidneys and other organs have their own respective voices which combine to form a beautiful symphony within our bodies.

Through vibration, our bodies continuously shed old cells and create new ones,
this is a normal life process and utilises the natural healing power within all of us. People with a healthy vibration can heal themselves even when confronted with injury or illness.

If a particular organ has a problem and it begins to emit a discordant tone the rest of the organs in the body will then generate a harmonious healing symphony in an attempt to resolve the problem by helping the compromised organ regain its proper frequency.

However once the body’s harmonious voice is weakened or broken its healing power is compromised, thus illness can manifest.

Negative thoughts are the primary cause of this breakdown, leading to discordant notes amongst the body’s organs.

The healing role of tuning forks

The human being is like a musical instrument through which emotional, mental and spiritual life is expressed. Everything is vibrating – from the orbits of the planets to the movements of electrons. The body can be viewed as a manifestation of vibrational states.

Because the more powerful vibrations of one object can change the less powerful vibrations of another, the appropriate tuning forks and application can bring balance to discordant vibration in the human being. By restoring the inherent vibrational pattern, tuning forks can have amazing health benefits.

Emma Lane introduces the use of tuning forks in Retune, Rebalance and Regenerate – The Art of Energy Healing. During the first workshop, vibrational healing techniques and skills will be taught; these will include effective use of tuning forks. Want to know more? Follow this link for information about this course.

All of life is made of information and vibration

Written by Emma Lane on March 3, 2015. Posted in Blog, Energy Is Everything. Leave a Comment

The terms energy medicine, energetic healing, bio field healing, bio energetic healing, chakra healing, aura healing, energy work, meridian-based healing, energy anatomy, vibrational medicine, subtle energy healing and dozens of other similar labels simply refer to practices relating to a certain vibrational or frequency-based level of energy.

Most of us have experienced the benefits of x-rays, MRI, electro-cardiograms and other testing devices. These practices all employ energy and make energetic changes in the body. Surgery can be seen as an energetic manoeuvre in that tearing tissue disturbs the body’s vibrational field. Adding a device like a pacemaker provides new information, aiding heart function and assuring that it vibrates correctly instead of skipping beats.

Prescription drugs work energetically altering vibration through chemical information that instructs cellular behaviour. Biological fields are not just bi-products of physiological processes; they are part of the mechanism by which the body communicates with itself.

A few decades ago these energy fields were considered non-existent by academic medicine. Research on this topic is now underway, in medical and academic research centres around the world. We are now documenting the presence of such fields and researchers are starting to understand how energy fields are generated and how they are altered by disease and disorder.

Electromagnetic medicine is beginning to revive but with far more sophisticated science to support it.

For example, research from scientists like Axon Burr, Bergsmann, Woolley Hart, Sullivan and Brewitt published over the last decade has shown that diseased states can be detected by measuring changes in the electrical conductance of tissue, making possible early diagnosis and treatments.

In 1985, Sullivan and colleagues reported that patients with lung cancer (confirmed by chest x-rays) had 30% lower electrical conductances at lung points. Other research summarized by Brewitt (1996, 1999) showed the cellular basis for these effects. Specifically, viral and bacterial infections, as well as cancer, affect the ionic and water content and pH of the extracellular fluids, and thereby affect the cell membrane potentials and tissue conductances.*

Energy fields can be detected a distance from the body and scientists are now able to explain how these fields are generated and why they become distorted when pathology is present. Why living systems are so sensitive to these fields and how fields can be used for healing is also now the subject of scientific investigation.

In just a few decades scientist have gone from the conviction that there is no such thing as energy fields in and around the human body, to an absolute certainty that they exist. To date, medical interest has focused on the magnetic fields around the body that are now referred to as biomagnetic fields.

Interest in biomagnetism has spread widely in the biomedical research community. At a fundamental level we still do not know exactly what electricity and magnetism really are.

The electron is a basic unit and has properties such as charge, mass and gravity. A deeper explanation as to how these properties arise is missing at this time.

In the past we could define an individual as that which lies within the skin, but it is a fact of physics that energy fields have no such boundaries. The biomagnetic field of the heart extends indefinitely into space even though its strength diminishes with distance.

If you are interesting in the science of energy healing, look out for the third blog in this series which looks at light, sound and vibration along with the healing role of tuning forks.

*References
Bergamann O, Woolley-Hart A 1973 Differences in electrical skin conductivity between acupuncture points and adjacent skin areas. American Journal of Acupuncture 1:27-32.
Brewitt B 1996 Quantitative analysis of electrical skin conductance in diagnosis: historical and current views of bioelectric medicine. Journal of Naturopathic Medicine 6(1): 66-75
Sullivan S G, Eggleston WW, Martinoff JT, Kroenig RJ 1985 Evoked electrical conductivity on the lung acupuncture points in healthy individuals and confirmed lung cancer patients. American Journal of Acupuncture 13(3) 261-266

The energy of everything

Written by Emma Lane on March 2, 2015. Posted in Blog, Energy Is Everything. Leave a Comment

Everything is made of energy – molecules, pathogens, prescription medications and even emotions.

Each and every cell pulses electrically and the body itself emits electromagnetic fields. In fact the human body is a complex energetic system composed of hundreds of energetic sub-systems.

Disease is caused by energetic imbalances; therefore health can be restored or established with the help of balancing ones energies.

We cannot see all the energies that keep the body healthy, however those we can see are called physical or measurable energies, those that we can’t yet perceive are called subtle energies.

Subtle doesn’t mean delicate, in fact science is beginning to suggest that the subtle, and as yet immeasurable energy within the body actually directs the measurable energy and contributes to forming our physical framework.

Everything in the world is made of energy, which can be defined most simply as information that vibrates. This energy, this chi of life, may express itself as patterns, sound, tissue and thought, but it is all energy.

Everything vibrates at its own unique speed. For example, a brain cell moves differently than a hair cell but like-minded organisms vibrate in similar ways, each individual unit differs slightly from its sibling group.

Vibration is produced in the form of amplitude and frequency. These oscillations generate more energy and carry information that can be stored or applied.

The information, as well as the vibrating oscillations, can also change depending on the nature of a particular interaction.

This is just a very brief introduction to the principles of energy within the body. Read the other blogs in this series to learn more about energy medicine, energetic healing and sound healing.

Drinking for detox

Written by Emma Lane on December 28, 2014. Posted in Gastrointestinal Health, Today's Top Tip. Leave a Comment

A simple tip that anybody can do is having a fresh hot lemon drink first thing in the morning before food will help give a little clear out and support the liver. Making sure that people are drinking the appropriate levels of water. An easy gauge is multiplying body weight in kg by 0.033 and that will give you the litres that you should drink per day.

How our food can help us detox

Written by Emma Lane on December 25, 2014. Posted in Gastrointestinal Health, Today's Top Tip. Leave a Comment

Encourage patients to eat appropriate levels of fresh fruits and vegetables, especially cruciferous vegetables, broccoli, kale, cauliflowers. Aim for variety in the colour of the fruits and vegetables.

Also look at foods which will help support the pathways such as good sources of glutathione – asparagus, watermelon, broccoli, papaya and avocadoes all help to produce glutathione. Include bitter foods within the diet like dandelion greens, bitter melon, mustard greens. Using things like Swedish bitters will help with digestion and also with liver function and add in things like turmeric, garlic, onions into cooking.

Why do we need to detox?

Written by Emma Lane on December 22, 2014. Posted in Gastrointestinal Health, Today's Top Tip. Leave a Comment

Often our current lifestyle choices can create quite a few problems in our body’s overall optimal function: we have raised stress levels, a diet that is high in sugar, poor quality fats, processed foods; therefore the diet is low in key nutrients. Add in a lack of exercise and such lifestyle abuses will affect the delicate balance of the body systems and can lead to congestion or sluggishness in the detoxification pathways.

We have widespread instances of hormonal problems, fatigue, muscular aches, headaches, etc. which will lead to imbalances. We misuse medications, antibiotics, hormonal medications such as the oral contraceptive pill, we have poor digestion, poor bowel movements so we have inadequate elimination of toxins through the digestive tract, reduced liver and kidney function and all these things will contribute to increased levels of toxicity.

Author: Emma Lane