Phytochemicals

I first heard about Phytochemicals at a recent Qigong seminar I attended in Orlando with Jeff Primac of the Supreme Science Qigong Center. He was lecturing on Food Based Healing that he is a big proponent of and it had everyone's attention.

According to Wikipedia.com, they are chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants. They have been used as drugs for many years. Some examples include Hippocrates prescribing willow tree leaves to reduce fever, Salicin (Aspirin) from the white willow tree as an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever.

On phytochemicals.info, phytochemicals are non-nutritive plant chemicals that have disease preventive properties. There are more than a thousand known phytochemicals. While it is known that plants produce these chemicals to protect themselves, recent research suggests that they can protect humans against diseases. Some of the well known phytochemicals are lycopene (found in tomatoes), isoflavones (found in soy) and flavanoids (found in fruits). They are not essential nutrients and are not required for the body to function.

There are many phytochemicals and while each of them work differently, here are a few ways that they work in our bodies

• Antioxidant - protect our cells against oxidative damage and reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer. Some sources include onions, leeks, garlic, fruits, vegetables, tea and grapes.
• Hormonal Action - Isoflavones found in soy imitate human estrogens.
• Stimulation of Enzymes - Indoles found in cabbages stimulate enzymes that make the estrogen less effective and could reduce the risk for breast cancer. Protease inhibitors are another phytochemical found in soy, beans, citrus fruits and cherries.
  
• Interference with DNA replication - Saponins found in beans interfere with the replication of cell DNA which can help to prevent the multiplication of cancer cells. Capsaicin found in hot peppers protects DNA from carcinogens.
• Anti-bacterial effect - The phytochemical allicin found in garlic has anti-bacterial properties.
• Physical Action - Some phytochemicals bind physically to cell walls which helps to prevent the adhesion of pathogens to human cell walls. Some sources of anti-adhesion properties are cranberries.

For a list of phytochemicals, go to http://www.phytochemicals.info/phytochemicals.php

According to Jeff Primac of the Supreme Science Qigong Center, phytochemicals are the sparkplugs of the immune system! They are found mainly in the skin, stems and seeds of fruits and vegetables. However, many times we throw away the best part of the fruits and vegetables and eat the part that has no phytochemcials. Of course, it is important to note, that to eat the seeds, stems and skin of most fruits and vegetables, one would take many hours a day to chew and digest these things.

Jeff states on his website that you can heal and prevent almost all forms of disease with natural food found all around us. Inside our food there is great healing power, but it gets lost with cooking, juicing or refining. Fortunately Jeff has found a way using a very high powered blender to blend all these fruits and vegetables together in a good tasting smoothie!

At the seminar, we actually got to try the smoothie and I was pleasantly surprised. Jeff has went out of his way to try and develop recipes that taste good but get the most bang for the buck. And guess what? All it takes is a high powered blender, a bunch of fresh fruits/vegetables and a few minutes of your time each day. For more information, go to Jeff's website and learn all about it. I know I'm going to be doing the same thing!

The Reconnection by Dr. Eric Pearl

This has been a wonderful book that I've been reading. While I don't necessarily agree with all the premises that he makes in his book, he has a lot of wonderful insights that are not necessarily part of the general knowledge base in our society. Dr. Pearl went through a major transformation in his life which he details in the first half of the book and is interesting to read and understand. I'm sure there is a lot he didn't share and for my inquiring mind, I would have like to see more about how he actually developed that which he does. If you are interested in healing work of any kind or learning more about healing takes place, this is a good book to read. If nothing else, it will broaden your horizons and understanding about things which may seem foreign to you at this moment.

I feel like I need to make the point as well that this is just not about healing but the human evolution and growth in life. It is a spiritual path but note that I did not say a religious path. It is about becoming more aware of one's self and the role we play in the collective society of humankind.

Anyway, here's a few quotes from the book that I really liked.

1) Pg 109: When most people think about "healing," they focus on the notion of someone suffering from an ailment or injury who "gets better." But what does it mean to "get better?" Better than what? Better than they were at some moment in their past? Better than someone else is?

2) Pg 109: Healing as we often tend to think of it, may well be about the alleviation of symptoms, diseases, infirmities, and other noticeable hindrances to full functioning. Healing is also the restoration of the person to spiritual wholeness. In essence, healing is this: the release or removal of a block or interference that has kept us separate from the perfection of the universe. Yet healing is about our evolution, and also includes the evolutionary restructuring of our DNA and our reconnection to the universe on a new level.

3) Pg 132: Never is fear so insidious as when it cloaks itself in the guise of love. Fear is the only thing standing between you and anyone, you and anything.

4) Pg 133: We cannot come from love while we reinforce the concept of fear. As a culture we decorate our fears with rituals, and then we fool ourselves into thinking that these rituals are expressions of love. We diminish prayer when we use it for protection, for what are we using prayer and these other rituals to protect us from? Nothing more than the amorphous nature of our fears. We spend so much time protecting ourselves from something that doesn't exist, its no great wonder that we have so little time left over for what does.

5) Pg 209: If nothing seems to be happening during a session, it's either because you're trying too hard or the patient is.

6) Pg 209: People often ask if it's possible to use these energies for healing yourself. Of course it is. Self healing is very simple. Almost too simple. Just like distance healing, if you try to make it more complex, it will be less effective.

7) Pg 217: So don't interpret, don't analyzed. Just be. And know that you carry the gift of healing - in whatever form that may take.

8) Pg 219: People ask me if everyone has the ability to carry these frequencies and become a healer. My answer is, "Yes. Everyone can reach this level but eyes are blind. It is only a few who dare to open their eyes and often those who do are blinded by what they see."

For more information on Dr. Eric Pearl, www.TheReconnection.com