Hydration and Wellness: For a Younger Looking and Feeling Body, Keep Your Body Hydrated

A human body replete with hydration and wellness is approximately 70% water. Bones are 30% water and blood 90%. Approximately 75 million Americans are chronically dehydrated and don’t know it.

Chronic dehydration is one of the principle sources of many of the health conditions many Americans experience today. Dehydration shows up as many different symptoms beyond thirst and dry, sagging skin. And reversing these to achieve hydration and wellness are not just easy but enjoyable.

Aside from these, general symptoms of dehydration include:

• headache

• weakness

• dizziness

• fatigue

• loss of balance

• lethargy.

Stay consistently dehydrated and symptoms can scale up more seriously. These more serious warning signs include:

• dry mouth, skin or eyes

• little or no urine output

• sluggishness

• high blood pressure

• rapid heartbeat

• fever

• loss of skin elasticity.

These symptoms demonstrate the very opposite of your goal of hydration and wellness.

Dehydration Is the Opposite of Hydration and Wellness and It Shows Up Most In Older Adults.

We also find the following symptoms in out-of-balance seniors, people who are generally even more dehydrated than the average person:

wrinkling, body mass and size shrinking, increasing weakness, degrading posture, falling and breaking bones, high blood pressure causing strokes, constipation, incontinence, quick temper and irritability, complaining and grumbling, mood swings, sadness and depression.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Hydration and Wellness Require Skin and Body Tissue Are Given Ample Water.

“We may not get enough water into our cells, where it’s crucial for metabolism and countless other functions,” says Dana Cohen, MD, author of Quench: Beat Fatigue, Drop Weight and Heal Your Body Through the New Science of Optimum Hydration.

Hydration and wellness means you have to keep the brain lubricated. The brain is the control tower for your whole body and your health. And it requires the greatest amount of water to function. This is because water facilitates the electrical functions that essentially command the entire body.

Achieve optimal hydration and wellness by drinking water. You can get water from eating but drinking water should be your first priority. Most of the water we supply to the body comes from what we drink. The rest comes from food and leftover cellular metabolism. We lose 80% of our fluids in urination and 20% through perspiration through the skin or respiratory system.

Move water through the body with exercise for better hydration and wellness. Water runs through our veins, arteries, glands and organs in order to feed, pump, and transport fluid. Even gentle workouts or walking help disperse water through the body. When you move your connective tissue through exercise, it helps pump water through the body. It establishes a good level of hydration and wellness.

Water also regulates body temperature by distributing heat and cooling the body through perspiration. It stabilizes body temperature by helping regulate blood flow. When the body is dehydrated, blood flow reduces leading to an increase in body temperature. When the body is properly hydrated, blood flow increases helping cool the body. Beautiful balanced hydration and wellness result.

Dehydration adversely affects blood pressure. Water makes up about 73% of the human heart. So staying hydrated is a key factor in regulating blood pressure and feeling well.

Dehydration also raises sodium in blood which can lead to high blood pressure.

“Drinking water can help normalize your blood pressure but doesn't necessarily lower your blood pressure unless you are dehydrated. Because your blood is made up of 90% water, the overall volume will decrease when you are dehydrated. When this happens, the body will respond by narrowing blood vessels, causing blood pressure to rise.” —Yvette Stines, MEd, MS at Very Well Health

Hydration and Wellness Result When You Take Good Care of the Kidneys. 

Kidney, the organ of the Water element in traditional Chinese medicine, suffers when the body’s dehydrated. Lack of water can affect your kidney function and increase the risk of kidney stones.

Constipation is another side-effect of dehydration. Regular bowel movements are very good signs of hydration and wellness.

Dehydration also leads to muscle damage and weakness along with brittle bones. Both of these can lead to falls and bone breaks.

The 5 Stages of Life According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Give Us Important Clues to Hydration and Wellness.

In the fifth and last of the five phases of life, after 60 years of age, is when many people become seriously dehydrated causing stiffening and loss of skin tone. TCM’s Five-Element Theory astutely assigns Water the element of this life phase.

Especially in this phase of life, dynamic yang energy is at its lowest point. Most people in this phase stop exercising, being active, drinking water, and eating very well. They begin demonstrating the opposite of hydration and wellness.

As one result, they experience a notable loss of collagen.

Collagen absolutely needs water to do its job of holding the structure of skin.

“… collagen is very dependent on associated water for its mechanical properties. In skin, where type I collagen is dominant, there is a longstanding concern that the skin and therefore collagen may partially dry out and result in structural degradation.” —Richard G. Haverkamp et al in the article, Collagen dehydration in the  International Journal of Biological Macromolecules

For these and other reasons, continued good hydration is critical.

But many older adults don’t feel thirsty even as their bodies require more hydration than ever.

Many older adults experience a decrease in receptor sensitivity (osmo- and barareceptors) responsible for detecting the fluid within and around cells.

Even though their bodies require more water, they don’t feel thirsty. Older adults need to drink several glasses of water a day whether they feel thirsty or not.

Amp Up Hydration and Wellness by Drinking Gel Water.

Gel water charged by electrolytes fuels the cells of the body.

Groundbreaking research from Harvard and Cornell Universities has found that the water in both human and plant cells is not H2O but H3O2. 

This is a gel-like structured water charged by electrolytes acting as fuel “for every action of every cell,” notes Gerald Pollack, PhD,(1) head of the University of Washington’s Pollack Water Lab.

Colloquially called “gel water,” gel water is produced when fruit, vegetables, cacti, chia seeds, and collagen are introduced in small amounts to drinking water.

The Pollack Water Lab’s findings about water, hydration and wellness indicate that the food we consume is almost as important as the water we drink.

Certain studies show drinking water alone is not enough to be well hydrated. Some subjects in these studies proved this when they couldn’t achieve hydration even though they were over-drinking water.

Dr. Pollack believes gel water primes our cells for optimal function. He says it’s actually more hydrating than water not improved with produce.

The vitality and absorbability of gel water is much greater than normal drinking water. The Pollack Water Lab describes it as water that’s not quite liquid, vapor, or ice and identified by an extra hydrogen and extra oxygen atom.

Increasing gel water in the body “is one of the best things you can do for your body. I’ve seen amazing results in hundreds of patients,” says Dana Cohen, MD, author of Quench: Beat Fatigue, Drop Weight and Heal Your Body Through the New Science of Optimum Hydration.

By drinking gel water, Cohen says:

“Weight loss becomes easier than we ever thought possible. We also think better, move better, sleep better, age better…” 

European research shows that consuming plants rich in gel water is up to twice as hydrating as regular drinking water.  Gel water passes more readily into our cells. It’s denser and less likely to leak out of damaged or aging cells.

Here Are Tips for Consuming Gel Water to Optimally Improve Hydration and Wellness.

• Just keep drinking plain water but add a slice of citrus, piece of fruit or leaf of lettuce, for example.

• Another way is to sip water while you consume:

• potassium-rich foods like bananas and broccoli or

• magnesium-rich foods like avocado and dark chocolate.

• You can also add a pinch of Himalayan salt to your water to add electrolytes. This transforms regular water into gel water.

• Eat six servings of gel-water-rich foods daily. In other words, eat six servings of fresh produce whose water has not been cooked out. 

• For every dehydrating grain-based food you eat, add an extra portion of fresh gel-water-rich produce to compensate.

• Always avoid processed foods because they siphon off fluid during digestion.

• Eat plant-based healthy fats.

“Water enters cells through an oil-guarded membrane,” author Cohen says. “Good fats, especially omega 3s, keep membranes supple, increasing absorption.”

• Add a teaspoon of crushed chia seeds to  your smoothies. When the blender crushes the seeds more gel is created.

• Cook with bone broth. It’s full of collagen and gel water.

• Cook with coconut oil or ghee both of which are full of gel water and electrolytes.

• Using an infrared sauna creates gel water inside the body. The light waves in the red wave spectrum range reach the water molecules in your body. They then split into positive and negative charges and shift their molecular structure into gel water.

• The sun does exactly the same as the infrared sauna method above. Modest exposure to the sun is nature’s way of purifying, charging  and optimizing water right inside your body.

• In theory, the subtle electrical charge of the planet could help split the water molecules around and within us for optimized hydration. Learn more about how to harness earth’s beneficial electrical charge in our blog, Embrace Earth's Energetic Vitality and Feel Renewed. Ground Yourself.

Hyaluronic Acid Supports Hydration and Wellness.

Hyaluronic acid retains water in the body very well.

Be sure you eat hyaluronic acid-rich or -promoting foods especially if you’re older.

Our bodies produce hyaluronic acid naturally. It’s a chief component of all connective tissues. It forms a gelatinous protective matrix that surrounds our cells.

A quarter-teaspoon of hyaluronic acid holds about one and a half gallons of water. Scientists have found hyaluronic acid all throughout the body, especially in eyes, joints and skin.

Hyaluronic acid helps joints work like a well-oiled machine. It keeps bones from grinding against each other which could cause pain and injury.

It helps with wound healing, reduction of scars, elasticity of skin and smoothing of lines.

Bone broth is touted to be the best source of hyaluronic acid.

There are very few actual vegan sources of hyaluronic acid. Most plant-based foods support your body to produce its own hyaluronic acid.

Actual vegan sources of hyaluronic acid are derived from bacteria and yeasts through a process of fermentation. This process  creates cells of a small molecular weight ideal for absorption and skin health.

The green algae chlorella is another vegan source with many other health benefits including being the only known plant source of vitamin B12.

These vegan foods help boost your body’s own production of hyaluronic acid:

• soy (tofu)

• beans

• dark leafy greens (kale)

• sweet potatoes

• citrus fruits

• berries

• tomatoes

• almonds

• dark chocolate

• red wine

…

Endnotes for this article:

1. Jerry Pollack (Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington) is recognized worldwide as scientist, speaker and author. His passion lies in plumbing the depths of natural truths. The Pollack Lab is best known for its work with wate. It also conducts research on energy, health, and fundamental physics

Pollack discovered and published the first research on gel water in 2009. He received the first Emoto Peace Prize and is a recipient of the University of Washington's highest honor, the Annual Faculty Lecturer Award. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of the research journal WATER and Director of the Institute for Venture Science. Dr. Pollack's (award-winning) books include: The Fourth Phase of Water (2013), and Cells, Gels, and the Engines of Life (2001).

…

Sources:

“You've Been Doing It Wrong: Why You're Still Dehydrated.” Goop, 17 Jan. 2019, goop.com/wellness/health/structured-water-youve-been-doing-it-wrong-why-youre-still-dehydrated/.

Alnuweiri, Tamim. “What Is Gel Water?” Well+Good, Well+Good, 1 July 2017, www.wellandgood.com/good-advice/what-is-gel-structured-water/.

Staff, Editorial. “Simple 'Gel-Water Diet' Is the Weight-Loss Solution That Improves Sleep and Fights Brain Fog.” Woman's World, Woman's World, 2 Aug. 2019, www.womansworld.com/posts/h3o2-gel-water-diet-168246.

“Consequences of Dehydration.” European Hydration Institute, www.europeanhydrationinstitute.org/consequences_of_dehydration/.

Popkin, Barry M, et al. “Water, Hydration, and Health.” Nutrition Reviews, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Aug. 2010, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908954/.

Stines, Yvelette. “Yvelette Stines, Med, MS.” Verywell Health, Verywell Health, www.verywellhealth.com/yvelette-stines-5077313. 15 August 2023.

Haverkamp, Richard G et al. “Collagen dehydration.” International journal of biological macromolecules vol. 216 (2022): 140-147. doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.06.180

Fallacara, Arianna et al. “Hyaluronic Acid in the Third Millennium.” Polymers vol. 10,7 701. 25 Jun. 2018, doi:10.3390/polym10070701

If You Want to Look and Feel Younger Longer, Keep Your Lymph Movin

Many beauty professionals understand the enormous importance of lymph fluid movement for anti-age skin care. But most consumers don’t. Unless you learn about it on your own, you won’t hear about it from most cosmetics manufacturers. Generally, most cosmetics manufacturers don’t make skincare products formulated specifically to help move lymph. But PHYTO5 does.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural bxeauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique holistic beauty tips and offers.

What exactly is lymph?

Essentially, lymph is a colorless fluid that carries waste out of the tissues by way of the bloodstream, specifically venous or blue blood circulation.

An average human  body contains about two quarts of lymph fluid or one-third the amount of blood of that body.

While blood relies on the sturdy and powerful heart pump for steady and constant flow, lymph has no such pump. Breathing, body movements and gravity are responsible for lymph movement.

Lymph starts out as interstitial fluid(1) carrying waste material the cells have discarded. Lymph vessels collect waste matter from the cells and tissues and then slowly moved the waste to lymph nodes. There are roughly 400 to 600 lymph nodes connected to lymph vessels.

Lymph vessels are similar to blood vessels with thin walls. They transport more than waste matter through lymph fluid. They also carry soluble molecules and immune cells to the lymph nodes.

The 1-2-3 of Waste Removal by the Lymph

1. The waste matter in the interstitial fluid is sucked into lymph ducts.

2. There white blood cells in lymph fluid bathe then drain the processed and liquified waste through the complex network of lymph nodes forming the lymphatic system. (The lymphatic system consists of organs, ducts, and nodes.)

3. Lymph then carries waste out of the body by way of the bloodstream where it’s mixed with blue blood before re-entering the heart and into venous circulation.

Unlike blood, lymph flows in only one direction and leaves nothing behind. Lymph’s movement also helps balance the constant volume of blood.

The lymphatic system is critical to the body's immune system.

Lymph helps defend the body against disease by producing and distributing lymphocytes (lymph cells). These lymphocytes protect us against antigens like viruses and bacteria. This is why lymph and lymphocytes are vital components of immunity.

Whenever lymph flow gets blocked the immune system weakens and the aging process accelerates.

Conversely, the intensity of the natural aging process itself affects lymph’s good function and flow.

If you want to look and feel younger longer it’s vital to counteract lymph's sluggishness as you age. You want to do everything you can to keep lymph moving in your body.

Function and capacity of the lymphatic system gets sluggish with age for three reasons:

1. The muscles that help circulate lymph lose mass and become weaker (called decreased lymphatic contractile pressure). 

2. We tend to experience a decrease in lung capacity with age. Breathing causes the diaphragm to act as a billow that promotes lymph movement or drainage. It is one of the principal ways our body moves lymph.

3. The body is challenged to deal with higher oxidative stress and less antioxidant activity. This creates a more acid inner terrain which leads to lymph congestion. (Journal of Lymphoedema, 2017, Vol. 2, No. 2)

Lymphedema and Lymphoma

Lymphedema occurs when fluid is retained in a localized part of the body and the tissue swells.

A compromised lymphatic system is the most frequent cause of lymphedema. Parasitic infections or complications from cancer treatment also cause lymphedema swelling.

Lymphedema is incurable and progressive. We can only potentially reduce the symptoms of swelling, discomfort or pain. Lymphatic massage and wearing compression clothing can help.

Lymphoma is a disease in which lymphocytes become malignant and grow too fast or live too long. The malignant lymphocytes then accumulate in the lymph nodes or other areas of the lymphatic system forming tumors.

It’s important to be aware of and proactive with your body’s flow of lymph.

There are many ways to keep your lymphatic system functioning properly:

Exercise with weights regularly to maintain muscle strength and lean body mass. Muscle contraction forces tiny one-way valves of the lymphatic system to open and close, pushing the fluid through the system.

Walk or rebound consistently. Each step or jump you take is a weight-bearing repetition. When you lightly pound the ground, floor, or pavement through walking, it creates desirable pump-like gravitational pulls on the lymphatic system.

Practice yoga or stretching to help direct lymph through the deep channels of the chest. Practice yoga or stretching promotes lymph flow throughout the body.

Practice deep breathing. The act of breathing creates a lymphatic pump in itself. It helps direct lymph through the chest. Deeper breathing is the most important facilitator of lymphatic function. Shallow breathing leads to lymphatic congestion. For help with a proper breathing exercise, read our blog, Six Breaths a Minute to Slow Aging and Its Causes here.

Get manual lymphatic massages from a licensed lymphatic massage therapist.

You can also receive a facial and full body lymph drainage treatment performed by a PHYTO5 trained professional with the Biorhythmic Drainer. PHYTO5's award-winning Biorhythmic Drainer mechanically, rhythmically, and precisely reproduces the gentle movement of a manual massage. It focuses on moving stagnant energy and fluids.

Drainage is a medical term and does not remove any fluid. It indicates movement or circulation. When there is an insufficiency or an excess of fluid, a drainage can help balance fluid and energy flow.

The well-known Japanese cosmetics company, Shiseido,(2) found in 2015 that impaired dermal lymphatic vessels are an integral cause of sagging skin(1) rather than collagen loss.

Stay hydrated to help prevent stagnant lymph flow. Lymph gets thicker and more sludgy when you’re dehydrated but flows well when hydrated.

Avoid processed foods and bad fats. These can cause inflammation which leads to lymphatic congestion.

Eat lots of fresh fruits and vegetables especially green. Chlorophyll in green produce not only purifies the blood, it purifies lymph.

Avoid chemically driven skin and body care products, cleaning products and pesticides. All these hinder the body’s natural detoxification processes.

Learn how to resiliently respond to stress. The waste products of stress-fighting hormones are acidic. Acidity leads to lymph congestion.

Stop wearing tight fitting clothing including tight underwear and underwire bras. All these restrict the flow of lymph.

Stay away from unhealthy habits like smoking.

Know where your lymph nodes are. If you know where they are it can help you support lymph flow in those areas. They’re typically found concentrated in the face, neck, groin, and armpits. Check these areas periodically if they feel uncomfortable. A sore lymph node will be sensitive to the touch. (See adjacent diagram for a snapshot of the body’s lymphatic system.)

#####

Endnotes for this article:

(1) Interstitial fluid is the fluid that carries cells throughout the body.

(2) In 2015, the well-known Japanese cosmetics company, Shiseido, found impaired dermal lymphatic vessels to be an integral cause of sagging skin. Before 2016, sagging skin was mainly attributed to collagen loss. Their press release states:

“Shiseido Co., Ltd., through joint research with Professor Nobuyuki Takakura of the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, has revealed for the first time that impaired function of dermal lymphatic vessels lead to accumulation of subcutaneous fat, which ultimately causes ‘sagging’ of the skin.”

Sources:

Zolla, Valerio, et al. “Aging-Related Anatomical and Biochemical Changes in Lymphatic Collectors Impair Lymph Transport, Fluid Homeostasis, and Pathogen Clearance.” Aging Cell, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, Aug. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4531072/.

Dr. Baumann, Leslie. “The Connection Between Lymph and How You Look.” Miami Herald, July 21, 2014. www.miamiherald.com/living/health-fitness/skin-deep/article1976385.html.

Walking: First Step to Keeping Your Heart Healthy and Hold Aging at Bay.

Heart disease tends to show symptoms as people grow older. It impacts how youthful, strong and mobile people feel. And if ignored it can seriously affect your quality of life.

---

Cardiovascular Disease: The Big Umbrella

“Cardiovascular disease is the term for all types of diseases that affect the heart or blood vessels, including coronary heart disease (clogged arteries), which can cause heart attacks, stroke, heart failure, and peripheral artery disease.”—National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute at National Institutes of Health

Heart disease is a type of cardiovascular disease.

“‘Heart disease’ is a catch-all phrase for a variety of conditions that affect the heart’s structure and function. Keep in mind: All heart diseases are cardiovascular diseases, but not all cardiovascular diseases are heart disease.

The most common type of heart disease is coronary heart disease. In fact, when people talk about ‘heart disease’ they often mean coronary heart disease.” —National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute at National Institutes of Health

Various high risk factors for heart disease build up over time and compromise cardiovascular health. They include:

• high blood pressure

• high cholesterol

• smoking

• diabetes

• overweight and obesity

• poor nutrition

• physical inactivity

• excessive alcohol use

• vascular stiffness and inflammation, and

• mental stress.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Coronary heart disease is a type of heart disease.

“Coronary heart disease is often referred to simply as ‘heart disease’ although it’s not the only type of heart disease. Another term for it is coronary artery disease.

Coronary heart disease occurs when plaque (a combination of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood) builds up in your arteries. You may have heard this called clogged arteries or atherosclerosis.

The plaque reduces the amount of oxygen-rich blood getting to your heart, which can cause chest pain (also called angina). Plaque can also lead to blood clots, which block blood flow and are the most common cause of a heart attack.” —National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute at National Institutes of Health

Cardiovascular disease can provoke heart attack, stroke and accelerated aging.

Impeded blood flow results in swelling of legs, feet, ankles or belly. It can even end in stroke since it deprives proper oxygen supply for the heart and the rest of the body. Plaque can also dislodge from an artery and cause a block resulting in heart attack.

Poor blood circulation causes chest pain (angina) and impaired cellular function. People experiencing angina report shortness of breath, fatigue and weakness. 

Cardiovascular disease also directly accelerates the aging process. With poor blood circulation your body isn’t getting all the nutrients it needs as efficiently as possible. Nourishment of the body contributes to vitality. Balanced blood circulation is also associated with radiant younger looking skin. 

The stress of experiencing the symptoms of cardiovascular disease also accelerates aging. This is because the body has to work overtime to compensate for all the imbalances it’s being confronted with.

Similar to our other muscles, you can strengthen the heart and even reverse some of its aging symptoms.

Delay, lower, or possibly avoid or reverse your risk of heart disease with these exercise strategies.

Regular Cardio Exercise

"Research continues to show that exercise is the best way to slow your heart's aging process," says Dr. Aaron Baggish, Director of the Cardiovascular Performance Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Cardiovascular doctors often urge increasing exercise and physical activity to improve overall heart health. This is because physical exercise forces the heart to pump more blood throughout the body and to the muscles and lungs. 

Over time, increased exercise relaxes blood vessels causing more efficient heart function. Relaxing the blood vessels helps improve blood flow, in turn, keeping blood pressure low.

Walking flat out improves cardiac risk factors. 

You can pursue cardio workouts from beginner to advanced levels at your gym, or on the treadmill or bicycle. But a really simple way to get your cardio in is to walk briskly and consistently right in your neighborhood.

Fitness experts advise aiming to walk briskly for about 150 minutes per week all told. Many sources urge walking 5,000 to 7,000 total steps a week.

If you’re just beginning to endurance walk after years of a sedentary lifestyle, take it easy and build up to it.

Walk to the end of your driveway or to your street corner if it’s all you can do today. Tomorrow you’ll be able to walk further. Every day you walk above and beyond your customary steps of the day will build on the previous day’s accomplishment.

Remember and live by the old adage: “By the yard it’s hard. By the inch it’s a cinch.” In a month you’ll be amazed at how far you can walk without getting winded.

“When comparing the results of the most recent National Runners’ Health Study with the National Walkers’ Health Study, researchers found that the energy used for moderate-intensity walking and vigorous-intensity running resulted in similar reductions in risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and heart disease over the study’s six year period.” — Elaine Murtagh et al in Walking: the First Steps in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention

A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people who consistently walked several thousand steps a week improved many health factors:

• blood pressure

• slower resting heart rate

• reduced body fat and body weight

• lower cholesterol and

• increased physical endurance.

The study also showed improved depression scores now that the participants were creating better quality of life.

Walking is a perfect fitness prescription for inactive people.

You don’t have to access walking like you do a fitness center or coach. People of all ages and social groups who are able to walk can make walking a practice. You don’t need money to walk and it poses little risk of injury. 

“In a report that included findings from multiple well done studies, researchers found that walking reduced the risk of cardiovascular events by 31% and cut the risk of dying by 32%. These benefits were equally robust in men and women. Protection was evident even at distances of just five and a half miles per week and at a pace as casual as about two miles per hour. The people who walked longer distances, walked at a faster pace or both enjoyed the greatest protection.” — Walking: Your Steps to Health. Exciting benefits of walking for heart health, including lower risk of heart attack and stroke, Harvard Men’s Health Watch

If You Notice Breathlessness

When you do moderate intensity exercise like brisk walking, it’s normal to breathe a little harder. But if you’re breathless and can’t speak while walking, you should see a doctor.

This could be a sign of a potentially serious heart condition. Coronary heart disease (the cause of heart attacks), heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms like atrial fibrillation(1) can all cause breathlessness. 

Most heart disease is treatable, but it’s vital to have it diagnosed before it’s too late. 

If you can endurance-walk without getting winded, this can, at least in part, indicate you have a good level of cardiovascular vitality.

Walk briskly as consistently as possible to improve blood pressure. Lower cholesterol levels and reduce weight and obesity with a walking practice. Walking also helps with mental stress which is another risk factor for heart disease.

#####

Endnotes:

(1) Atrial fibrillation is an abnormal heart rhythm caused by rapid and irregular beating of the atrial chambers of the heart. Atrial chambers are two upper chambers of the heart that receive blood from the circulatory system.

Sources for this article:

Harvard Health Publishing. “Get Moving to Slow Cardiovascular Aging.” Harvard Health, www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/get-moving-to-slow-cardiovascular-aging.

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/heart-health-and-aging

Steinhilber, Brianna. “Why Walking Is the Most Underrated Form of Exercise.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 4 May 2018, www.nbcnews.com/better/health/why-walking-most-underrated-form-exercise-ncna797271.

Hanson, Sarah, and Andy Jones. “Is There Evidence That Walking Groups Have Health Benefits? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” British Journal of Sports Medicine, BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine, 1 June 2015, bjsm.bmj.com/content/49/11/710.

Murtagh, Elaine M, et al. “Walking: the First Steps in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention.” Current Opinion in Cardiology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Sept. 2010, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098122/.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/FactSheetKnowDiffDesign2020V4a.pdf

Embrace Earth's Energetic Vitality and Feel Renewed. Ground Yourself

The surface of the earth radiates an enormous amount of electrons with a beneficial negative electrical charge. Whenever you place your body in direct contact with earth’s surface, negatively charged electrical volts begin circulating between the earth and the top of your head.

Stand outside on a sunny day wearing just about any type of shoe and your body will benefit only minimally from this charge. Most shoes today have soles made of synthetic materials. Unless your shoes’ soles are pure leather, they’ll prevent you from receiving all of the beneficial charge you could be getting.

But stand barefoot on the earth and now your whole body is in full and beneficial electrical energy exchange with earth’s surface. 

The longer you stay in unobstructed contact with the earth the better. But you can benefit from earth’s negative electrons after just 30 minutes of bare earth contact. This includes putting your body in contact with grass, stones, sand or trees. Stand in one place, walk, or lay down.

The body is electrically charged just like the earth. By grounding ourselves to earth (also called earthing), we allow this full natural energy exchange with the earth.

Harmful electrical fields are constantly bombarding our bodies and most of it happens right inside our homes causing chronic illness in some. Daily or frequent earthing brings balance to the insulting charges we receive in the course of the day.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Our modern lifestyle isn’t serving us all that well.

Many centuries ago, people walked either barefoot or in footwear made of animal skins. They also slept directly on the ground on animal skins or furs. People then were in near constant contact with the earth's surface electrons.

Today we wear shoes with thick soles often made of rubber. Most of us live in houses made of very unnatural materials. We walk on asphalt surfaces. The thought of going barefoot or surrounding ourselves with the natural world seems unreasonable. We’ve nearly completely cut ourselves off from the wonderfully charged flow of balancing electrons earth continually offers us.

Here’s how the energy exchange works.

Both your skin and the earth’s surface form a continuous charged surface with the same electrical potential. The flow of charge is pushed up and away from your head creating a protective shielding effect. You are literally standing under an umbrella of earth’s natural electrical field. 

To understand how earthing works consider the household electrical outlet. The outlet contains a ground wire—the third prong/semi-circular hole under the other two prongs.

In the event of a short circuit, the third prong ground wire provides a path for the electrical current to be absorbed into the ground. Without this grounding, you might touch your refrigerator and your body will complete the ground path. This could cause you an electric shock or even electrocution.

Grounding the body works the same way as grounding an electrical appliance. Without consistent grounding our bodies short-circuit. This short-circuiting contributes to physical, emotional, and mental imbalances.

We can achieve a re-balancing of our electrical system with regular connection to the earth. Biophysicist James Oschman explains it this way in Energy Medicine—The Scientific Basis:

“The moment your foot touches the Earth, or you connect to the Earth through a wire, your physiology changes. An immediate normalization begins. And an anti-inflammatory switch is turned on. People stay inflamed because they never connect with the Earth, the source of free electrons which can neutralize the free radicals in the body that cause disease and cellular destruction. Earthing is the easiest and most profound lifestyle change anyone can make.”

Could the sharp increase in chronic diseases, sleep disorders, immune and inflammatory diseases be related to our disconnection with earth’s surface and the natural world? 

It seems so. Gaétan Chevalier et al. say this in their scientific paper, Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth's Surface Electrons:”

“Environmental medicine generally addresses environmental factors with a negative impact on human health. However, emerging scientific research has revealed a surprisingly positive and overlooked environmental factor on health: direct physical contact with the vast supply of electrons on the surface of the Earth. Modern lifestyle separates humans from such contact. The research suggests that this disconnect may be a major contributor to physiological dysfunction and unwellness.”

Get the health benefits of grounding.

Earthing our bodies isn’t only achieved by walking barefoot on the earth. You can wear specially designed earthing shoes, socks and wristbands, and sleep on earthing bedsheets. 

Grounding offers many physiological and mental benefits. They can help mitigate sickness and symptoms of aging:

• a clearer mind and thinking process

• more balanced emotions

• more calm nervous system, less anxiety and improved response to stress

• elevated energy

• better managed pain and reduced inflammation

• improved sleep quality and patterns

• better regulated circadian rhythm

• boosted immunity

• lessened inflammation

• more balanced metabolism

• improved circulation

• neutralized free radicals

• reduced oxidative stress

Scientists found in one experiment(1) that grounding during a single night of sleep reduces the primary indicators of osteoporosis.

The same scientists discovered in another study that earthing helps regulate thyroid function. This is a significant finding since thyroid hormones affect almost every physiological process in the body.

In still a third study they found that earthing accelerates the immune response in humans.

Grounding yourself makes you more present to life.

When we’re grounded we’ll feel centered, solid, strong and balanced. We’ll feel truly and firmly rooted in our bodies.

If you feel like a leaf blowing in the wind, shaky, spacey, at loose ends, less present or fragile, get in touch with the ground.

Earthing's an important way to make you feel more rooted to the home that sustains you, the Earth. It’s virtually the simplest, most natural healing device known to humankind.

Grounding is not a panacea. But do consider it a part of a holistic approach to ever-improving health, healing and age mitigation.

Let the surface of the earth help clear and balance your energy every day. Then notice how much more balanced and alive you feel on all levels and in all ways.

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”

— Kahlil Gibran

#####

Endnotes and Sources:

(1) Discussed in: Rosch, Paul J. Bioelectromagnetic and Subtle Energy Medicine. CRC Press, 2015.

Oschman, James L. Energy Medicine: the Scientific Basis. Elsevier, 2016.

Chevalier, Gaétan et al. “Earthing: health implications of reconnecting the human body to the Earth's surface electrons.” Journal of environmental and public health vol. 2012 (2012): 291541. doi:10.1155/2012/291541

Ober, C. et al. Earthing: The Most Important Health  Discovery Ever. Basic Health Publications, Second Edition. 2014

Sokal, Karol, and Pawel Sokal. “Earthing the human body influences physiologic processes.” Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) vol. 17,4 (2011): 301-8. doi:10.1089/acm.2010.0687

Lean Body Mass Is More Important Than Ever As You Age. Learn How to Create and Keep It.

Experts who study aging people notice they tend to experience decline in one or more of the following areas: 

1. food and water intake

2. lean body mass

3. physical activity and the ability to perform even normal activities of daily life.

---

Are these declines the result of the aging process or is a more sedentary life in older age the culprit? Doesn’t it seem that each of these three declines contribute to each other?

Medical professionals often label these declines caused by “old age.” But are they looking at their patients’ whole picture? Conventional medicine doesn’t usually do so. You have to find a good holistic healthcare practitioner for that.

In our previous article we discussed how a regal long tall posture is vital for living a good life all our lives long. In this article, let’s look at the topic of Lean Body Mass–how to get it and why we would want to.

“Studies in elderly people who have been active all their life such as the Lapps* in Finland and Sweden show no decline in functions until the date they sell their reindeer and sit down, whereafter they quickly decline to the level of other people of the same age.” —Mikael Fogelholm in Physical Activity: A Part of Healthy Eating? Report from a Nordic Seminar

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

When the Loss of Lean Tissue Begins

The human body is made up of fat, lean tissue (muscles and organs), bones, and water. After age 30 our bodies slowly begin the process of atrophy–the loss of lean strong tissue. This is when our muscles, liver, kidneys, and other organs may lose some of their cells. We lose lean tissue and take on body fat.

As a case in point, seniors tend to have one-third more fat than when they were young.

If we do nothing to counteract the onset or continuation of atrophy, we head down the road of steady fat accumulation and increasing weakness. We become more and more debilitated over time.

Men generally tend to gain weight until about age 55. At about that point, they begin to lose weight. This weight loss is caused by a drop in the male sex hormone testosterone.

Women generally tend to gain weight until age 65 and then begin to lose weight. A great deal of this excess weight localizes in the girth around the internal organs and, unfortunately, this weight is mostly fat. 

With older people, hormonal and lifestyle changes are often the cause of weight gain or loss.

Weight loss later in life, especially in non-active seniors, occurs partly because fat replaces lean muscle tissue and fat weighs less than muscle.

Without a healthy proportion of muscle in the legs combined with a tendency to stiffer joints, many older people experience compromised mobility. They’re challenged to navigate their bodies with ease. Their balance is compromised making the possibility of falls more likely.

Our lifestyle choices affect how rapidly aging progresses. These same choices can even positively affect atrophy in very advanced age. 

Physical training in older people proves very positive for increasing lean body mass. It increases work capacity in older people including the very elderly. Weight resistance training is key for improving work capacity for an independent lifestyle.

“A training intervention study in 85 year old women, including endurance training, showed that a 10 month training program was able to rejuvenate their work capacity by 10 years.” —Mikael Fogelholm in Physical Activity: A Part of Healthy Eating? Report from a Nordic Seminar

Weight resistance exercise helps reduce fat and weakness, but we should do it wisely to prevent injury. It’s not about how much weight you can lift. It’s about repetitions (even of light weights) and consistency in your practice.

You want to gradually build up to a well rounded workout program that targets all your muscle groups. Take periodic days of rest between several consecutive workouts. Combine your weight resistance training with good nutrition and other exercises like walking and/or yoga.

Diet combined with exercise is also important for developing lean muscle body mass.

We mentioned at the outset of this article that a decline of food and water intake is the hallmark of an aging sedentary person.

A vigorous exercise program signals the body to consume nutrition. And it encourages increased water intake which is vital for all body functions. Eating and drinking water are no longer a problem for the active nutrition conscious senior.

Eating much less animal fat combined with more physical exercise can help you get lean and spry.

Fats from vegetables, nuts and seeds are usually a better alternative and are extremely beneficial for health.

If you curb the offenders in your diet while adding a consistent weight resistance and flexibility program, you’ll start noticing results very quickly. Learn what those dietary offenders are for you. Observe your food sensitivities and don’t stress your body by eating them anyway.

In older age, any kind of stress just packs on more fat. 

Learn, too, what good nutrition actually is. It’s not necessarily what the magazine covers say. 

Find your sweet spot of consistently practiced diet plus exercise and you’ll lose that extra fat and weight incrementally over time. You won’t need TV-advertised cool sculpting or liposuction from a plastic surgeon.

You’ll accomplish weight loss and a leaner firmer body organically.

Lean body mass is a key determinant of survival during bedridden serious illness.

Without enough lean body mass you’ll have less strength, function and mobility. When you lose fat and gain muscle firmness and tone, you’ll have a strong body able to easily meet the physical challenges of daily life.

Should you find yourself bedridden for a period of time you want to be sure you’re not going into it in a deficit position. Near complete lack of movement aggressively and rapidly atrophies muscles.

Critically ill people typically lose 1% of muscle protein for each day of illness. That makes it vitally important to build up a healthy store of lean body tissue. Lean body mass is a key determinant of survival during bedridden serious illness.

“A smaller lean body mass may mean that many older people lack the physical reserve to withstand a prolonged period of critical illness, where more than 1% of body protein may be lost each day even when adequate energy and protein are being provided.” —Nancy Bernhardt et al in "Nutrition for the Middle Aged and Elderly”

Lean tissue loss is pretty inevitable during prolonged bed rest if you become ill. You can only counteract it with a robust countermeasure like exercise.

Studies find that muscle loss is more accelerated in older adults during periods of bed rest.

“… data from the only study to examine older adults suggests that the loss of lean tissue in healthy older adults during bed rest far exceeds the losses experienced by their younger counterparts.” —Kirk English et al in “Protecting muscle mass and function in older adults during bed rest.”

Even just one week of complete bedrest is damaging:

“Prolonged immobility is harmful with rapid reductions in muscle mass, bone mineral density and impairment in other body systems evident within the first week of bed rest which is further exacerbated in individuals with critical illness.” —Selina Parry et al in “The impact of extended bed rest on the musculoskeletal system in the critical care environment.”

Lean body mass is also important for:

• respiratory muscle strength

• improved circulation of blood to the organs which keeps them healthy and able to rid the body of toxins

• the ability to fight diabetes because muscles store glycogen for readily available energy source when needed

• improved bone strength and density; although exercise targets muscles it also strengthens the bones because bones, like muscle, react to the demands we place on them.

Calorie Burning and Lean Muscle Mass

An interesting fact about calorie burning is that muscles burn two to three times as many calories as the same amount of fat. So the more muscle you have the more calories you’ll burn and the less calories will be available to be converted into fat.

If you consume less calories than you need to burn on a daily basis, your body will actually convert your fat cells into energy and burn them instead.

When you build lean muscle mass you naturally decrease your body fat percentage. And once your muscle mass begins to increase as your body fat decreases, you’ll notice you have the greatest prize of all–more energy.

For great health and a high quality of life lean body mass is key. 

Lean body mass gives you the ability to undertake daily activities with confidence as you mitigate and slow the aging process. A strong lean body raises your self-esteem and helps you live better.

Your body shape and weight may change naturally as you age. But many people prove every day that you can alter that process with simple yet powerful lifestyle choices.

#####

Endnotes/Sources:

Tallis, Raymond, et al. Brocklehurst's Textbook of Geriatric Medicine. Churchill Livingstone, 2003.

Bernhardt, Nancy E., and Artur M. Kasko. Nutrition for the Middle Aged and Elderly. Nova Science, 2008

Fogelholm, Mikael. Physical Activity: A Part of Healthy Eating?: Report from a Nordic Seminar, Lahti, Finland, February 2000. Nordic Council of Ministers, 2001.

TodayShow. “Can Exercise Detox Your Body? It's Not about the Sweat.” TODAY.com, 17 Dec. 2012, www.today.com/health/can-exercise-detox-your-body-its-not-about-sweat-1C7634616.

English, Kirk L, and Douglas Paddon-Jones. “Protecting muscle mass and function in older adults during bed rest.” Current opinion in clinical nutrition and metabolic care vol. 13,1 (2010): 34-9. doi:10.1097/MCO.0b013e328333aa66

Photo courtesy of Nina Hill at pexels

How to Correct Posture Problems: Master the Art of a Regal Healthy Posture for Ageless Beauty and Timeless Vitality

Most people accept that sickness and physical deterioration are unavoidable parts of life. But we don’t recognize or maybe we even refuse to look at a basic health fact: Our thoughts, attitudes, emotions and beliefs create health or sickness, enduring youth or old age. And all of these reflect in our posture, regal or not and vice versa.

Correcting bad posture to healthy posture supports your very possible quality longevity.

People like Dan Buettner, National Geographic Fellow and New York Times bestselling author have proven that healthy longevity is possible.

Buettner’s coined the phrase Blue Zone to describe any area of the world where people live far longer than average. The phrase Blue Zone first appeared in Buettner’s November 2005 National Geographic magazine cover story, The Secrets of a Long Life.

If we don’t live in a Blue Zone we can still mimic many of the practices of the Blue Zone people. We can create lifestyle strategies for ourselves that we practice not just from time to time but everyday.

This is how we can ensure a wonderful quality of life, often running circles around people decades younger.

The first strategy excerpted here from our e-book, the Art of Ageless Beauty, focuses on our physical structure. It involves the skeletal system, musculature, and connective tissues that form a healthy posture.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Adapt the long tall corrective or healthy posture.

A long tall standing posture makes us not only look but feel beautiful and confident and grounded in our bodies.

You want to aim for a neutral, upright spine that’s not flexed either too far forward or backward.

In a body with an excellent healthy posture, the organs all have enough space to function.

Compression caused by poor posture causes organs to function in less space. When compressed, your organs don’t function quite as well. You need to get about the business of correcting bad posture for your health.

Poor posture can cause many conditions:

• back, neck, shoulder pain; even headaches and jaw pain

• poor blood circulation

• impaired lung function

• poor digestion

• constricted nerves

• misaligned or curved spine

• stress incontinence (when you leak a little urine if you laugh or cough).

You might think only a weakening body creates physical posture. But you can degrade a previously healthy posture by thought alone.

The body follows thought and emotion. Our blog, The Body Only Understands Emotion discusses this key concept in depth.

Dwell on the inevitability of sickness and death, family worries and drama, or fear of not being able to survive and your posture will probably slump. Feel hopeless, dread, anxiety, depression, or sadness and it will reflect in your physiology and your previously healthy posture.

Thought and the emotions that come from thought affect physical health and structure. They can shift our stance of a previously healthy posture to a new focus of how to correct posture problems.

Seniors tend to feel fear the older they get. This prevailing emotion works against a healthy posture.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, people past the age of 60 enter the Water element phase of life. The principle emotion of Water is fear.

As many people grow older, their end of life rather than their contributions to it takes center stage in their minds. They become out-of-balance in the Water element and with the emotion of fear.

We must always strive for emotional balance for the best most healthy posture and ensuing health possible.

By embracing one or both of the Water element’s archetypes we can remarkably lessen how fearful we feel. We’ll begin leaning into life once again instead of leaning away from it with a backwards posture.

This backwards leaning posture demonstrates a fear of walking into what’s ahead.

The positive archetypes of the Water element are:

• the Sage/Philosopher and the Curious Child.

Both Sage and Curious Child move with a slower rhythm. They take their time. They have patience. Hurry doesn’t enter their consciousness. Calm is evident in their manner of speaking and speech, gait, breathing, healthy posture and natural response to life.

• Learn more about these archetypes in our blog, The Water Type Personality According to Traditional Chinese Medicine: Understanding Your Archetype for Harmony and Balance.

Incredibly fearful or maybe just plain exhausted with life, some people trudge the rest of their lives with a physical and mental posture of holding back. Rather than living actively, joyfully and by their design in the way of the balanced Water archetypes, they give up and give in.

People who live in joy and appreciation are open, expansive and their healthy postures are tall and upright.

Those who live in fear, downtrodden and full of worry pull physically inward. They become closed. So much fear affects the body badly.

The body responds to fear on a hormonal level, has difficulty accepting nutrients, becomes weaker and starts shutting down on many levels. And it’s all also reflected in the bent or hunched over posture.

Such people, most often seniors, are in serious need of corrective posture techniques (described below).

Just about the best posture corrector for seniors is the emotional support called happiness.

So we see that our emotional state is just as important as our physical health. Our emotions and physical function work in a symbiotic cipher of energy. One feeds the other and back again.

One way to uplift and help balance emotion is to create a robust practice of appreciation and high minded thinking. This daily practice can help lead to happiness.

• PHYTO5’s quantum energetic 5-element lines of skincare do more than balance skin conditions. They also balance your emotional state because of the quantum energy they radiate. All products in the line support your emotional balance with this energy very much concentrated in the Phyt’Ether serums.

  • Feel more kind and confident with Wood quantum energetic skincare.

  • If you’re feeling joyless or maybe over-the-top joyful, bring it in to balance with the Fire line.

  • Trying to take care of everyone but yourself and now you’re in overwhelm? The Earth line will help you get off dead center.

  • For people engulfed in worry and regret, sample products from the Metal line.

  • Bring fear and agitation to balance with Water element skincare.

When we feel negative emotions our shoulders slump. But when we feel happy our physiology naturally perks up. It straightens because we feel more energetic and alive.

In our blog, A Theory of Happiness: We Probably Can’t Be Totally Healthy and Well Without It, we said:

We can learn what makes us happy and how to get there more of the time… Happiness is what reinforces our innate sense of our true self. It is when life brings to our experience people, things, places, and conditions that resonate with us on a deeper level—the level where we feel peace, inner joy, and happiness. Happiness is also felt when the mind is at rest and free of worrying thoughts.

There are some physical factors that negatively affect healthy posture but there’s a posture corrector for seniors that involves diet.

Two major factors contribute to poor posture in older age: osteoporosis and osteomalacia.

Osteoporosis is the loss of bone mass. Osteomalacia is the softening of the bones.

Over time, bones tend to lose some of their minerals and become less dense (a condition called osteopenia in the early stages and osteoporosis in the later stages).

Older adults often lose height because of osteoporosis when bones become weak and fracture.

Older adults also can lose lean muscle mass while gaining fat. We call this condition sarcopenia. It too causes weakness, frailty and loss of height.

You can help prevent height and stature loss by consuming a consistently healthy diet and staying physically active. Both diet and physical activity help prevent bone loss.

Diet directly impacts bone health. If you don’t get enough nutrients important to bone you increase your risk for bone loss and osteoporosis.

Bone formation requires an adequate and constant supply of nutrients: calcium, protein, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin D, potassium, and fluoride.

There are also a number of vitamins and minerals needed for bone formation: manganese, copper, boron, iron, zinc, vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin C, and the B vitamins.

Women more than men develop hunchback or age-related postural hyperkyphosis. Hyperkyphosis impairs mobility and increases the risk of falls and fractures associated with older age.

Experts haven’t established all the exact causes of hyperkyphosis but they do believe it generally develops from one of two conditions:

• muscle weakness and degenerative disc disease (causing vertebral fractures and worsening hyperkyphosis), or

• vertebral fractures that occur first in the spine and then precipitate development of a hunched over back.

The best posture corrector for seniors is to proactively prevent bone loss and the need for corrective posture techniques.

Don’t want to wait to take action until you start suffering bone loss and poor posture. Even if you’re well below senior age, healthy diet and sensible exercise will keep you feeling strong with a tall healthy posture all the way into your future.

But as soon as you notice your posture’s degrading, no matter what age that is, aggressively work to mitigate, even reverse it.

• Eat lots of dark leafy greens to enrich bone density and improve your health. Be sure you get enough vitamins and minerals in your food.

It’s best to get your nutrients from food. Make supplementation a secondary option if you can’t get all the nutrition you need from food.

• Like diet, simple exercise like walking will also not only strengthen your musculature but nourish your skeletal system as well. It can help return you to a regal healthy posture.

• Include a weight resistance exercise program and a regimen of stretching exercises (or yoga).

If correcting bad posture is important to you, you absolutely need a set of strong abdominal muscles. It’s your abdominals that hold your body up tall and strong and not your bones.

Abdominal strengthening is the best posture corrector for seniors.

Make a good set of core-strengthening exercises the foundation of your exercise program. What you're really after is developing the abdominals underneath the surface abdominals. These are called the transverse abdominis.

Often, just getting in to the gym consistently improves your self-image so much your posture naturally straightens and rises.

A great benefit of weight resistance is that it’s also very grounding. It will make you feel like you’re fully in your body. You’ll feel more substantial, agile and stable. With a renewed regal healthy posture you’ll rarely fall, if ever, and nearly eliminate your risk of bone fracture from falling.

• Give your spine specific flexibility exercises while you also develop flexibility over your entire body. The more flexible the spine is and stronger your core, the more regal and healthy posture. Many gyms offer equipment to help improve spinal flexibility and strength.

Create an all around healthy posture improvement program. Blend a sensible yoga or stretching practice with weight resistance workouts, nutrition, appreciation, balanced emotion and high minded thinking.

Here’s an ultra simple yet powerful technique to achieve not just a healthy posture but a corrective posture.

• Direct your awareness to your center chest.

• Imagine a string pulling straight upward from your heart area.

• Let the upward pulling string lift your chest and encourage your taller straighter posture.

• Practice this healthy posture often.

…

Sources:

Katzman, Wendy B, et al. “Age-Related Hyperkyphosis: Its Causes, Consequences, and Management.” The Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy, U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2010, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2907357/

Zamon, Rebecca. “Want To Improve Your Posture? Walk Around Barefoot.” HuffPost Canada, HuffPost Canada, 23 Nov. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/11/23/barefoot-walking-benefits_n_8629098.html

Palacios, Cristina. “The Role of Nutrients in Bone Health, from A to Z.” Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2006, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17092827.

https://www.bluezones.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Nat_Geo_LongevityF.pdf

Quartz in Skincare: Revitalize Skin with Crystal Quartz Infused Cosmetic Clays

Quartz is a mineral and fossilized resin. It’s one of earth’s strongest materials. What makes quartz in skincare valuable in skincare is its silica content. Silica is one of the largest components of collagen, the main structural protein in skin and other connective tissues and important factor in skin soft, supple and moisturized skin.

Quartz in skincare helps remove dead skin cells.

The most common form of quartz is silicon dioxide or crystalline silica.

Silicon is very important for skin health which is why it’s more and more formulated into cosmetic clays.

All six ever-moist cosmetic clays created by PHYTO5 contain quartz which is specifically prepared for cosmetic use. The clay masks gently remove dead skin cells and perform these specific functions:

• Wood element green Clay Mask encourages vital energy flow and helps balance oily skin.

• Fire element red Clay Mask soothes sensitive, irritated red blotchy skin and balances blood circulation.

• Earth element yellow Clay Mask helps detoxify skin with acne, blemishes and enlarged pores. It encourages flow of lymph which bathes tissues of toxins carrying them out through the bloodstream.

• Metal element white Clay Mask mineralizes, oxygenates and decongests puffy dull skin with fine lines. It helps balance micro-circulation.

• Water element black Clay Mask deeply hydrates skin and encourages elasticity, tone and water balance in the skin.

• Ageless soothing pink Clay Mask improves circulation, helps regenerate skin and by strengthening collagen fibers and skin’s elasticity.

Quartz in skincare is best in certain cosmetic applications.

This very hard mineral proves stable in all types of cosmetic formulations including those that are water-based. But because quartz can be difficult to maintain in suspension PHYTO5 primarily uses quartz crystal powder in its thicker cosmetic clay formulations.

Cosmetic ingredient formulators have to precisely prepare quartz to make it suitable for face exfoliation. They grind quartz down to extremely tiny particles with a gently rounded shape. No radiation or chemical process is involved.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Quartz in skincare offers skin many glowing benefits.

Completely natural and pure quartz provides many benefits for skin including exceptional exfoliation.

When finely pulverized quartz is added to cosmetic clays it naturally and precisely exfoliates skin.

Synthetic polyethylene micro-beads are most commonly used in exfoliating skincare. But PHYTO5 finds finely pulverized natural quartz crystal powder superior in helping to remove layers of dead skin cells.

It buffs old skin cells to reveal new softer more illuminated skin.

Quartz in skincare also encourages better micro-circulation—the circulation of blood in the tiniest blood vessels. In this process it helps renew the stratum corneum or outermost layer of the epidermis. This action leaves skin refreshed, rejuvenated, healthy looking and beautifully flushed.

Quartz indirectly helps improve skin strength and elasticity. It helps your body synthesize collagen and activate detoxifying enzymes.

Expertly prepared quartz in skincare encourages skin regeneration by smoothing the epidermis. It does this without affecting skin’s hydrolipidic film.(1)

Of all minerals, quartz might be the most energizing. It’s well known for its calming, comforting and protective properties.

Quartz in skincare can support your vital energy flow. Known to generate light, it can bring light to your skin on a subtle level.

Benefit from quartz in skincare with PHYTO5 quantum energetic ever-moist Clay Masks.

They’re easy to apply and enjoyable to use:

• You can do it with your hands but using an application brush is best.

• After completely covering face and neck, leave the ever-moist mask on for 10 to 15 minutes.

• Next, wet your hands lightly and with your fingertips gently massage the mask in small circular motions over face and neck. This further promotes the exfoliation effect.

• Finally, rinse well with warm water to remove the clay.

Along with helping create a peel effect the quartz and other other clay and essential oil hero ingredients in the clays help oxygenate skin. This gives skin a healthy glow.

The regenerating and age-mitigating effects offered by quartz in skincare goes back many thousands of years.

The ancient Egyptians believed quartz could slow the aging process so they often applied a powdered form to the skin.

Egyptian and Roman women made rose quartz face masks to clear facial congestion and, of course, look younger.

…

1. The hydrolipidic film is a a protective film which helps skin retain moisture and the prevent harm from environmental aggressions.

Sources:

Yukami. “Quartz Mineral: Facts, Properties, and Commercial Uses.” PT Yudian Kawan Mineral, 13 June 2023, www.yukami.co.id/what-is-quartz-mineral/.

Araújo, Lidiane Advincula de et al. “Use of silicon for skin and hair care: an approach of chemical forms available and efficacy.” Anais brasileiros de dermatologia vol. 91,3 (2016): 331-5. doi:10.1590/abd1806-4841.20163986

Juniper Oil Benefits for Skin

Juniper berry essential oil (Juniperus communis) is excellent for skin health and promoting radiance in more mature skin. Juniper oil benefits for skin include improved circulation, cleansed skin and blood and inflammation reduction.

Juniper berry essential oil works to keep moisture balanced in skin. For all these reasons juniper berry essential oil is a hero ingredient in many of PHYTO5’s Winter quantum energetic skincare products.

Crisp, fresh and woody notes give hints of juniper oil benefits for skin

Juniper is an evergreen shrub or small tree native to most states in North America. Their cones and foliage are usually quite aromatic.

Juniper boasts a rich history dating back to ancient civilizations. The Greeks, Romans, and Native Americans have revered both the berry and the tree for their curative properties.

Resembling blueberries, juniper berries take two or three years to ripen. Only blue ripe berries can be picked to make the essential oil through steam distillation. Juniper berry smells distinctive, crisp, fresh, woody and herbaceous with a hint of sweetness.

If juniper smells a bit like a cocktail to you, it’s because juniper berries are used in gin.

Swedish bitters, known for their health benefits, often include juniper berry in their concoctions. So does the famous Jaegermeister bitters alcohol beverage. The Swedish bitter beer Drikke (or Gotlandscdricka) also combines both juniper boughs and berries with malt, hops, yeast, water and sugar to make the brew.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

The sweetest most lovely oil comes from the berries of the tree. Essential oil producers harvest a less potent juniper oil from the needles and twigs. 

You can forage for juniper berries quite easily in the U. S. Find the berries within two feet of the branch tips. 

There’s a time-honored way to pick the berries: Place a sheet underneath the shrub, grasp a berry-laden branch and gently shake. The blue ripe berries will fall off easily. Don’t take green berries because they'll rot before they have a chance to dry.

Wild foraged juniper berries have long been used in food, beverages, and medicine. Norwegians home brew juniper berry tea, for example.

In medical applications, juniper berry helps treat respiratory and urinary tracts. The berry works to fight cold, congestion, cough, arthritis, and gout.

Juniper Oil Benefits for Skin: Purifying and Cleansing

Juniper essential oil is very purifying. Juniper berry essential oil works to eliminate dirt, germs and dead skin cells from the surface of the skin. This purifying action yields a natural glow and a clearer complexion.

• PHYTO5’s formulates Water element black Clay Mask with juniper berry essential oil for its purifying action.

Juniper aggressively works to balance excess oil production.

With antiseptic qualities associated with purity, juniper oil is particularly beneficial for acne and blemishes.

In addition to its antiseptic action, Juniper oil benefits for skin include counteracting toxic acne by detoxifying blood.

And even though fighting acne requires a great deal of strength, juniper oil is still gentle on the skin. 

Juniper Oil Benefits for Skin: Toning

Juniper oil’s natural astringent properties aids in minimizing pores and toning skin. It effectively minimizes the appearance of pores.

• Juniper berry essential oil is a hero ingredient in PHYTO5’s Metal skin Toner.

Juniper Oil Benefits for Skin: Soothing

Anti-inflammatory juniper oil calms red, irritated sensitive skin.

The oil is very effective for inflamed skin like dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis and long unhealed wounds.

• Juniper berry essential oil in PHYTO5 Hand Cream works to heal dry hands suffering from eczema. 

It’s obvious to enjoy juniper oil benefits for skin topically in skin care. But you can also enjoy its benefits =in your diffuser at home. Juniper oil can help promote a sense of inner tranquility. Psychologically, juniper berry essential oil strengthens and uplifts the spirit.

Juniper supports the nervous system and the emotion of the Water element according to traditional Chinese medicine. That emotion is fear and left unbalanced may lead to stressful reactions and more negative emotions.

• All of PHYTO5’s five element lines (Water is one of the five) are quantum energetic. This means all the products in those lines are capable of helping balance emotion.

Juniper Oil Benefits for Skin: Antioxidant Age Mitigating Powerhouse

The blue-black juniper berry indicates it’s high in highly potent anthocyanin antioxidants which fight age-causing free radicals in the body.

Juniper oil benefits for skin encompass the powerful defense against free radicals that wreak havoc on the skin. Free radicals cause premature aging but juniper works to neutralize this oxidative stress. Any time you can effectively accomplish this action, you’ll notice your skin looks more youthful and rejuvenated.

These same antioxidants in juniper oil help protect skin from environmental insults too.

Juniper Oil Benefits for Skin: Balancing Skin Conditions Caused by Hormone Imbalance

Juniper berry essential oil effectively treats skin conditions caused by stress reaction and hormone imbalance.

Stress initiates the production of more cortisol in the body. When the body produces too much cortisol, sebaceous glands begin producing more oil in skin. Excess oil contributes to acne and can worsen acne that already exists.

Prolonged and chronic stress and increased cortisol production causes inflammation in skin. It can contribute to or worsen conditions like eczema, psoriasis and rosacea.

Skin’s natural protective barrier function suffers when cortisol levels raise. This causes irritated dry skin unable to maintain its own moisture balance. This is a key reason why juniper berry essential oil is a key ingredient in many Water element line products.

Juniper oil benefits for skin include balancing excess oil, reducing inflammation, and strengthening skin’s natural barrier function.

Juniper Oil Benefits for Skin: Circulation Promoting

Juniper promotes elasticity of blood vessels, thus improved blood circulation.

Juniper Oil Benefits for Skin: Balancing Moisture Retention

Juniper berry essential oil works to balance dehydrated scalp and dandruff. It can help strengthen and hydrate hair and create conditions that support hair growth. 

• Enjoy the benefits of juniper berry essential oil in Water element Yogi Body Gel and Selextreme alpine exfoliating salts.

• Another product from the Water line, Day Cream, also utilizes the power of juniper to help balance water retention in skin.

• This essential oil is a unique ingredient in PHYTO5’s Water element Shampoo that works to restore hydration, volume and luster to hair.

Juniper Oil Benefits for Skin… and Body

Juniper berry essential oil offers still more health benefits.

People have long found juniper berry to have purifying and healing properties. They used the berries to fight the spread of plagues and contagious diseases. During a smallpox epidemic, hospitals in France burned juniper wood to stop its spread.

Juniper berry also helps cleanse the liver and improve its health and function. Especially if you have or are at risk for fatty liver, juniper berry may benefit.

Essential oil of juniper berry works to detoxify not just skin but the colon, kidneys, and lungs.

Juniper oil benefits for skin and body also include:

• enlivens dull skin

• tones skin naturally by unblocking pores and balancing oily and blackhead- and acne-prone skin

• provides relief for psoriasis and eczema when applied in diluted form

• smooths stretch marks and scar tissue

• helps reduce orange peel appearance just under skin (lipolytic properties)

• soothes skin eruptions when used in a cool compress; an anti-irritant

• regulates oiliness of the hair 

• helps treat dandruff when used in a hair rinse

• lessens varicose veins

• acts as antibacterial and antiseptic; a disinfectant for ureter and bladder infections but not for acute kidney infections

• can serve as a diuretic

• improves cartilage elasticity

• offers sore muscle relief and joint support

• soothes rheumatic and arthritic pain

• helps ease cramps from menstruation and assists in regulating the menstrual cycle

• treats yeast infection and vaginitis

• alleviates symptoms of cystitis by adding a few drops of juniper berry oil in a warm shallow bath

• relieves chronic gas trouble

• lessens kidney stone discomfort when placing a compress with juniper berry oil on the lower back

• stimulates sluggish body functions

• supports digestive function; helps balance metabolism

• improves elimination

• helps heal ulcers

• purifies and detoxifies the blood

• alleviates varicose veins

• reduces unwanted water retention

• helps shrink varicose veins and hemorrhoids

• an actual tonic, helps tone muscles and tissues

• promotes nerve regeneration after injury

• enhances the filtration action of kidneys

• combats free radicals

• speeds healing

• normalizes acid-base reactions in the body

• provides relief as expectorant for bronchitis, colds and coughs when its fragrance is gently inhaled

• helps recovery from influenza

• offers respiratory support

• purifies the air, repelling insects

• eases mental exhaustion and nervous tension acting as a sedative

• acts as a grounding agent for anxiety

• helps sharpen memory when used in aromatherapy

• dispels negative emotions of guilt, loneliness and insecurity

• helps release suppressed anger and negativity when used in aromatherapy or during meditation

• helps relieve irritability and an out-of-balance stress response; mentally stimulating

Juniper oil benefits for skin indicate it’s non-toxic and is generally non-sensitizing.

Some people do have a reaction to the essential oil, so be cautious when using. Make sure you do a skin patch test first. Apply a diluted drop on your arm and see if any reaction occurs.

Concerning precautions or contraindications, Dr. Joseph Mercola says this about juniper berry essential oil:

“Because it can stimulate the uterine muscle, juniper berry oil should not be used during pregnancy. I do not recommend this essential oil to nursing moms and very young children as well… Those who suffer from any type of kidney or liver disease should refrain from using juniper berry oil.”

From its antioxidant-rich nature to its soothing effects, the myriad juniper oil benefits for skin make it a must-have in your skincare arsenal. Whether you're looking to combat signs of aging, banish blemishes, or simply pamper your skin, juniper oil can deliver excellent results. Embrace the power of juniper oil and unlock the secret to radiant, healthy skin.

…

Sources:

Curtis, Susan, et al. Essential Oils: All-Natural Remedies and Recipes for Your Mind, Body, and Home. DK Publishing, 2016.

Rector-Page, Linda G. Linda Page's Healthy Healing: A Guide to Self-healing for Everyone. California: Traditional Wisdom, 2000. Print.

Calisto Media, Inc. Essential Oils for Beginners: The Guide to Get Started with Essential Oils and Aromatherapy. Berkeley: Althea, 2013. Print.

Lis-Balchin, Maria. Aromatherapy Science: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals. London: Pharmaceutical, 2006. Print.

Wilson, Roberta. Aromatherapy: Essential Oils for Vibrant Health and Beauty. Avery, 2002.

Fischer-Rizzi, Susanne. Complete Aromatherapy Handbook: Essential Oils for Radiant Health. United States, Sterling Publishing Company, 1990.

Ananieva, Lyudmila. Essential Oils for Your Health and Beauty: Part 2. Italy, Tektime, 2017.

Worwood, Valerie Ann. The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy, Revised and Expanded: Over 800 Natural, Nontoxic, and Fragrant Recipes to Create Health, Beauty, and Safe Home and Work Environments. United States, New World Library, 2016.

Essential Oils Natural Remedies: A Complete Guide to Nature’s Gifts. N.p., Norwalk Publishing LA, 2019.

Rubin, Jordan, et al. Essential Oils: Ancient Medicine for a Modern World. United States, Destiny Image, Incorporated, 2017.

Essential Oils Reference Guide for Healthy Skin: How to Use Essential Oils to Cure Acne, Remove Scars, Achieve Smooth Skin. N.p., Erika Robinson.

Combs, Dawn. “Juniper Berries: How to Find, Harvest, and Use Them.” DIY Natural, 26 Oct. 2017, diynatural [dot] com [forward slash] juniper-berries

Damask Rose Benefits: Exceptionally Skin and Health Enhancing

Damask rose is very skin enhancing and rejuvenating. In the world of essential oils, damask rose benefits skin so much it’s revered the queen of all essential oils. Damask rose oil is unrivaled in both fragrance and healing properties. PHYTO5 takes advantage of these damask rose benefits and formulates it as floral water or essential oil in many skincare products:

• Ageless soothing pink Clay mask

• Firming Eye Serum

• Perfection Cream for hyperpigmentation

• Five Secrets facial Cream

• Skin Toner

Ancient Egyptians knew about damask rose benefits for beauty.

Deriving its name from Damascus, Syria, this rose didn’t originate there. Many believe the damask rose originated in Asia, but the damask rose goes back all the way to ancient Egypt.

The ancients found damask rose benefits remarkable for health but the flower was somewhat scarce. So the damask rose became highly prized in ancient times and still is today.

Archeologists have discovered the damask rose in Egyptian tombs. Historians believe damask rose entered Egyptian culture during the reign of Ramses the Great (1279-1213 BCE).

As time went on, people discovered even more damask rose benefits.

A photo of rosa damascene by atulvi at Unsplash

They used the rose water as a cure for all ills, an aphrodisiac and complexion treatment. People who could produce damask rose water and oil never lacked for business.

The damask rose requires good irrigation. So the Near East eventually became the perfect cultivating ground for the rose. They invented equipment to manufacture damask rose water. Then they branched out into producing the oil, called otto in the essential oil industry.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Damask rose benefits encompass natural inherent beauty and health.

Almost everyone finds the fragrance of rose exquisite. The fragrance of the variety damask rose (Rosa damascena), and in particular its essential oil, is even more sublime.

Symbol of spirituality and mysticism, romance and allure, damask rose benefits are near countless. The rose oil or water works to balance the nervous system, ease emotional shock and grief, and open the heart.

Associated with the Venusian(1) concepts of beauty—especially no makeup beauty—damask rose benefits skin by conditioning it to create a beautiful foundational skin canvas.

A photo of rosa damascene by firexion7 at Unsplash

Prepared as floral water, damask rose benefits skin by toning and hydrating it. It acts as a natural antiseptic. This excellent skin tonic rejuvenates tired skin, helps balance skin conditions and works to heal wounds.

Damask rose benefits cell and tissue regeneration so important for dry and mature skin.

As an essential oil, damask rose is a versatile therapeutic oil.

Skincare formulators use it for its sweet floral and slightly spicy fragrance alongside its impressive skin health benefits.

Damask rose benefits dry skin, broken capillaries and mature and sensitive skin. It’s also an excellent antibacterial and antiviral. One study shows damask rose effective against 15 different strains of bacteria.

Traditional Chinese medicine uses rose to cool and clear moist heat and inflammation. Chinese medicine finds that damask rose benefits the body’s yin energy and combats anxiety and depression.

Damask rose benefits include:

• rejuvenation of skin

• skin damage prevention

• reduction of the appearance of fine lines

• lessening of the appearance of broken capillaries on the skin

• softening of the appearance stretch marks

• sun-damaged skin repair

• soothing of dry, itchy skin

• clearing of acne

• bacteria fighting

• easing of poor circulation

• reduction of high blood pressure

• boosting liver and gall bladder functions

• alleviation of symptoms of asthma and hay fever

• regulation of digestive problems and stomach upsets

• nausea relief

• constipation relief

• decongestion and strengthening of the liver and gall bladder

• cooling hot inflammation and swelling

• heightening feelings of vitality

• lessening of grief

• creating a sense of well-being

• bringing calm into stress-related situations

• toning of the uterus and easing of painful menses

• minimizing of the effects of premenstrual syndrome.

With a strong presence of the phytochemical and antioxidant lycopene, damask rose benefits skin and body by helping prevent many diseases and conditions free radicals cause.

According to the scientific study, “Pharmacological Effects of Rosa Damascena”(2), damask rose has:

“an anti-HIV, antibacterial, antioxidant, antitussive, hypnotic, anti-diabetic, and relaxant effect…”

You can even get damask rose benefits for beauty by consuming damask rose petals.

All rose petals are edible as long as they’re organic. Damask rose benefits include anti-age action because of its high amount of antioxidants. Damask rose promotes more youthful skin and body.

If you use rose petals in food preparation, remove the bitter white base.

Float rose petals in beverages, desserts and salads. Flavor jams and vinegars with rose petals.

Use dried rose petals and buds in herbal teas. It makes the tea more fragrant and provides a calming and mildly diuretic action.

Damask rose benefits are greater than any other rose variety.

Damask rose produces the highest quality essential oil and floral water.

Petals of rosa damascena by hasanalmasi at Unsplash

It takes about 60,000 roses or 200 pounds of petals to make one ounce of rose otto.

There are two types of essential oil derived from the damask rose: otto and absolute.

They offer slightly different in potency damask rose benefits because of two different methods used to produce them.

• Absolute is solvent-extracted and is thick and very concentrated. Though thicker than otto, the absolute is still viscous. It is amber colored and somewhat less costly.

• Rose otto is the essential oil derived from the petals and no other part of the flower. It’s produced by the more costly method of steam distillation. It’s clear or pale yellow. The otto is rich and intense and a better quality of oil than absolute. Though it’s more expensive than absolute, less otto can be used than absolute to achieve the desired effect.

The most damask rose crops are grown in the Valley of the Roses, Bulgaria.(3) In the world of essential oils, Bulgarian damask rose produces the finest quality attar (fragrance).

“Ounce for ounce, the ‘liquid gold of Bulgaria’ is nearly as expensive as gold.” —Audra Avizienis in Essential Oils: Essential Oil and Aromatherapy Recipes for Wellness, Beauty, and a Healthy Home

When and How Damask Rose Is Harvested Determines the Quality of the Damask Oil.

The damask rose grows as a deciduous shrub about six feet tall and wide. The rose grows on long bowing stems with stout curved prickles and stiff bristles.

The stems bear heads of loosely cupped light to moderate rose pink petals. The shrub sprouts pinnate of five-petaled leaves.

The essential oil content of damask rose depends on how mature the bloom is.

The rose offers a higher more valuable health promoting terpene content when the petal whorl (pattern of spirals) is harvested just as the petals begin to open.

(Terpenes are vibrantly fragrant molecules that occur naturally in plant life. They’re chemicals that  provide pigment, scent and flavor.)

When harvesting begins in the Valley of the Roses, more than 50,000 harvesters painstakingly collect the roses by hand. They harvest the roses during a short window of time when the rose’s essential oil is at its highest volume. This optimum time period is the cooler hours of the morning before sunrise.

This time of harvest also helps ensure the greatest damask oil benefits to skin and health.

Bulgarian rose pickers harvest the rose just like they’ve done for centuries—by hand, one rose at a time. It’s labor intensive but they pick the flowers by hand so they don’t lose the potential oil of the flower.

The damask rose petals are very delicate so they steam distill the flower the same day they harvest. Waiting too long to distill will not only cause loss of the prized essential oil, it will reduce the myriad and potency of damask rose benefits when formulated in products.

All the steps of the harvesting method ensure a maximum quality essential oil yield.

Damask rose benefits come from the seeds too.

The seeds of the damask rose also yield a nourishing oil.

Rose seed oil is excellent for treating broken capillaries, sun damage, redness, scars, stretch marks, acne, acne rosacea, enlarged pores, loss of elasticity, fine lines and overall aging of the skin.

It’s a rich source of essential fatty acid omegas 3 and 6. Rose seed oil helps regenerate cell membranes and tissues and is a good source of natural vitamin A.

Damask rose benefits emotional well-being.

The ability to embrace the myriad of damask rose benefits  is as individual as ourselves.

When we come into contact with rose, our olfactory system and the brain connect and communicate. Based on past memories and feelings, we identify an attitude the rose expresse to us in the moment.

Damask rose benefits importantly include its ability to uplift our state of consciousness. We immediately notice it stimulates a well-being response within us. Our response may be love, tenderness, wistfulness, serenity, or joy. And our bodies may spontaneously respond to and align with its healing energy as we absorb all the damask rose benefits, energies and frequencies.

We make the myriad of damask rose benefits for health, beauty and skin simply by partaking of a few drops of oil or water. We align to its healing properties, become enlivened, often even healed by it.

…

Endnotes and Sources:

1. Aphrodite, later known as Venus was the goddess of love, beauty, sex, fertility, and prosperity. Yet, it is her representation of beauty that she is most well known for. Painters and sculptors have personified her, embodied her and epitomized her. “Physical Beauty, Venus - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Google, artsandculture.google.com/usergallery/ggKCrztJLXu0KQ.

2. Boskabady, Mohammad Hossein et al. “Pharmacological effects of rosa damascena.” Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences Vol. 14,4 (2011): 295-307.

3. The damask rose originated in Damascus, Syria, Persia, Alexandria and sixteenth century Europe. Damask rose is currently also cultivated in Europe, Iran, Turkey, Russia and India.

Sources:

Harkness, Peter. The Rose: An Illustrated History. Buffalo, NY: Firefly, 2003. Print.

Avizienis, Audra. Essential Oils: Essential Oil and Aromatherapy Recipes for Wellness, Beauty, and a Healthy Home. United States, Printers Row, 2019.

Das, Kuntal. Essential Oils and Their Applications. India, New India Publishing Agency, 2013.

Houghton, Marlene. Essential Oils & Aromatherapy: Your Personal Guide. United States, Wellfleet Press, 2018.

Kynes, Sandra. Llewellyn's Complete Book of Essential Oils: How to Blend, Diffuse, Create Remedies, and Use in Everyday Life. United States, Llewellyn Worldwide, Limited, 2019.

Mojay, Gabriel. Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit: Restoring Emotional and Mental Balance with Essential Oils. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts, 1999. Print.

Curtis, Susan, et al. Essential Oils: All-natural Remedies and Recipes for Your Mind, Body and Home. United States, DK Publishing, 2016.

Neals Yard Remedies. Essential Oils. 1st ed. N.p.: DK, 2016. Print.

Godfrey, Heather Dawn. Healing with Essential Oils: The Antiviral, Restorative, and Life-Enhancing Properties of 58 Plants. United States, Inner Traditions/Bear, 2022.

Gailing, Stephanie. The Complete Guide to Astrological Self-Care. United States, Wellfleet Press, 2021.

Curtis, Susan, et al. Natural Beauty: Natural Makeup, Soothing Therapies, Homemade Preparations. United Kingdom, DK Publishing, 2015.

Verbena Essential Oil and Flower Water: Most Excellent in Skin Cleansing and Anti-Age Formulations

The verbena flowering plant has an incredibly rich history of healing and well-being properties. Verbena has historically been used in folk medicine to treat everything from headache to heart failure. It helps firm and tone skin and is an excellent anti-age agent. PHYTO5 makes organic verbena essential oil a unique ingredient in many products of PHYTO5’s Earth element and Ageless lines of skincare.

Origins of verbena’s distinctly lemony fragrance

Lemon verbena (Lippia citriodora) starts with a refreshing, pronounced lemon-like scent that gradually transforms into a sweet, fruit aroma. It smells so lemony it would remind you of lemon sherbet.

Verbena gets its fragrance from the terpenes(1) geraniol, neral and limonene.

• Geraniol is an anti-age free radical fighter, an anti-inflammatory and an acne fighting antibacterial. It’s also quite mentally relaxing.

• Limonene is also antioxidant and anti-inflammatory with the added benefit of reparative action.

• Neral aids in acne prevention. It helps purify, soothe and tone skin.

Researchers believe the terpene content of the plant helps calm people suffering from anxiety.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Verbena essential oil and the flower’s extract offer very many health benefits.

“Behind the sunny, uplifting scent of lemon verbena lies some serious healing properties. It has a toning and strengthening effect on the nervous, digestive, respiratory, and immune items. Its antiseptic action aids healing, while anti-inflammatory properties restore tired postworkout muscles.” —Susan Curtis et al in Essential Oils: All-Natural Remedies and Recipes for Your Mind, Body, and Home

For the skin

• helps soften and tone the skin

• reduces skin puffiness and inflammation

• tightens the skin because of astringent properties

• cleansing to the skin; very beneficial for acne prone skin

• slows aging of skin because of antioxidant richness

• helps heal eczema and other skin disorders because of antiseptic properties

• speeds wound and sore healing

PHYTO5 products containing verbena essential oil and/or flower water are anti-age products in the Ageless line: Cleansing Foam, Perfection Cream, soothing pink Clay Mask, and Nourishing Cream.

Earth element Day and Night Creams provide toxic skin with verbena’s healing and cleansing properties.

For the body

• supports immunity

• soothes irregular digestion

• promotes good liver function

• helps relieve fever by encouraging perspiration

• fights colds and flu

• loosens congestion in sinuses and lungs

• eases irritating coughs

• tones muscles and relieves buildup of lactic acid

• lowers abnormally high breathing and heart rates

• encourages repair of weak connective tissue

• speeds healing of joint-related injuries

• lessens pain of arthritis

• increases mobility

• relieves upset stomach and nausea

• alleviates menstrual cramps

For the mind and psyche

• alleviates lethargy and apathy

• stimulates creativity and concentration

• improves study retention 

• grounds the receiver to the present moment

• eases feelings of panic and calms nerves

• offers pleasant aphrodisiacal properties

• bolsters the spirit when dealing with stressful situations

• assists with insomnia

Verbena’s centuries long history demonstrates how powerful a healing cleansing agent the flower is.

Very interchangeably called vervain, verbena goes by many other names.(2). The name verbena comes from the Celtic term ferfaen. Fer means to drive away and faen means stone. The Celts gave the flower this name because they found the flower effective for treating kidney stones.

Vervain was historically also named Tears of Isis. As legend has it, wherever Isis’ tears fell as she grieved over the murder of Osiris, vervain grew.

Historical lore recounts places verbena growing at the foot of the cross where Jesus was crucified. Many believe verbena flowers were pressed into Jesus’ wounds to stop the bleeding. This is why verbena is also called Herb of the Cross.

Hippocrates himself applied verbena flower to wounds and prescribed it for fevers and nervous disorders. 

The ancient Egyptians and Chinese believed vervain to have hidden powers.

The magi, the mystic sages of Persia, used verbena as an herb to help them see the future and the unseen.

Cleansing detoxifying verbena has long been used in purification rituals. King Solomon cleansed the temple with verbena and the Romans placed it on altars to honor Venus and Diana.

The Druids’ highly revered verbena. They utilized it in divination practices, consecrations, and ritual cleansing of sacred spaces. 

Priests and heralds carried verbena with them everywhere. Heros and poets wore head wreaths and garlands made of the flower.

Roman soldiers carried verbena with them into battle for good luck and protection. They sprinkled their homes and temples with verbena petals to keep out evil. They buried verbena in their gardens to bring them prosperity.

The polymath and herbal healer Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) prescribed a decoction(3) of vervain and vermouth for toxic blood infections and toothache.

In the Middle Ages, the people used vervain as a treatment for acne. They found it so effective they began to use vervain to treat other skin problems.

The 17th century herbalist Nicholas Culpeper found many medicinal purposes for verbena.  He prescribed to cleanse toxic skin cleanser and to lessen dandruff by mixing with vinegar. Culpeper used verbena to treat many serious conditions: jaundice, gout, cough, bleeding gums, shortness of breath, fever, kidney stones, congestive heart failure and even the plague.

The Aztecs used mashed verbena roots as a diuretic.

In 18th century Spain, the Jesuits prescribed vervain as remedy for headache, jaundice, and other ailments.

During the Revolutionary War, military physicians used vervain for pain relief and to induce vomiting.

Many Native American tribes found all sorts of medical treatment and curative uses for verbena. They used verbena for fever, gastrointestinal problems, stagnant circulation, headaches, insomnia and hepatitis.

Many modern day people of Mexico use verbena tea to treat bad colds and flu.

“Contemporary herbalists recommend vervain as a tranquilizer, expectorant, menstruation promoter, and treatment for headache, fever, depression, seizures, wounds, dental cavities, and gum disease.” –Michael Castleman in The New Healing Herbs: The Essential Guide to More than 125 of Nature’s Most Potent Herbal Remedies.

…

Endnotes:

• Terpenes are vibrantly fragrant molecules that occur naturally in plant life, especially in conifers, bearing pigment, scent and flavor.

• Other names for verbena include Dragon’s Claw, Tears of Isis, Herba Veneris (herb of Venus), Persephonion, Demetria, Pigeon Grass, Simpler's Joy, Altar Plant, Herbe Sacrée, Holy Plant, Herb of the Cross and Herb of Grace.

• A decoction is the liquor resulting from concentrating the essence of a substance by heating or boiling, especially a medicinal preparation made from a plant.

…

Sources:

Curtis, Susan, Pat Thomas, and Fran Johnson. Essential Oils: All-Natural Remedies and Recipes for Your Mind, Body, and Home. New York, New York: DK, 2016. Print.

Castleman, Michael. The New Healing Herbs: The Essential Guide to More than 125 of Nature's Most Potent Herbal Remedies. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2009. Print.

Bonyani, Atousa et al. “Anxiolytic effects of Lippia citriodora in a mouce model of anxiety.” Research in pharmaceutical sciences vol. 13,3 (2018): 205-212. doi:10.4103/1735-5362.228941

Fall Equinox 2024: Get the Most Out of This Auspicious Event

As the sun passes South across the equator we will experience equal amounts of light and dark on the Fall Equinox 2024. This auspicious solar event is balance point in the year just as the Vernal Equinox was. Energies draw inward. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) calls this yin energy. Harvest time ends and plants wither and die but it's beautiful. We can tap into these energies and live better.

The Spring Equinox expressed dynamic yang energy outwardly with plants sprouting and greening in the sunlight. But with the Fall Equinox we see and feel energies begin to draw inward. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) call this yin energy. Harvest time ends and plants wither and die.

Full moons often happen around the Equinoxes. They bring energy that’s palpable and pivotal. For the ancient Chinese, the Autumnal Equinox full moon represented the beginning of the dark yin or female half of the year.

Our internal and external energy is noticeably winding down this time of year, moving out of the total yang of Summer and late Summer but not yet descending into the total yin of Winter. As such we call this season ‘yang within yin’ to reflect that last burst of yang energy before the complete yin immersion in Winter. Most people love this final burst as it reveals itself through the leaves changing color to the most beautiful bright reds and yellows. —Mindi Counts in Everyday Chinese Medicine

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Fall Equinox 2024 is September 22.

The Fall Equinox occurs during TCM’s energetic Fall and the Metal element on September 21, 22 or 23 each year. This year 2024, the Autumnal Equinox falls on the 22nd.

Depending on how close to the equator you live determines whether you’ll see a bit more or a bit less than 12 hours of daylight.

Once Fall Equinox 2024 arrives, daylight hours will start dwindling. And they’ll continue to dwindle up until the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and beginning of Winter. 

Fall Equinox 2024 will completely oppose the Spring Equinox of 2024.

Both Spring and Fall Equinoxes feature a feast of seasonal produce. During both occasions plants are responding to the shift in balance of light and dark. That shift reaches its pinnacle during the both Equinoxes.

The Vernal Equinox which occurs around Easter, Passover and Nowruz(1) presents:

… the first bitter greens of Spring, a newly-born lamb (perhaps), fresh eggs (plucked from the nest of amorous birds who mated on Valentine’s Day) and often items made from the fresh butter and cream available as the cows, goats and sheep produce milk for their young. — Waverly Fitzgerald in Celebrating Autumn Equinox

The full moon that occurs closest to the Equinox often coincides with the harvest.

Contrary to the fresh green sprouts of Spring earlier this year, Fall Equinox 2024 will yield, as always, its abundance of produce on the edge of dying. Says Fitzgerald:

ripe pumpkins and squashes, elegant jams and jellies, bread made from the freshly reaped and ground grain, wine and beer made from the harvested grapes and hops, and poultry (either game birds shot out of the air or culled from the domestic flock).

The energy of Fall Equinox 2024 you can conveniently tap into to shift your lifestyle.

For most people the Fall Equinox marks the official start of Autumn. And Autumn is an important time of year to cleanse the body.

Lung and large intestine, the organs of TCM’s Metal element, require cleansing at this time.

You need to keep them strong and healthy as we march into eventual Winter. And you can do this by first cleansing the body, then enriching your diet with the more heat producing foods of Fall. These actions will help carry you through Winter.

Notice the changes in light and movement in the heavens on the Fall Equinox 2024.

All of nature responds to these changes that happen on and around Fall Equinox 2024.

And plants aren’t the only living beings responding to changes in light on that day.

You’ll respond to them too whether you’re consciously aware of it or not. The Fall Equinox signals to both human body and mind that now is the time to slow down, gather your energies and go within.

The Fall Equinox of any year will occur when the sun moves into Libra—the sign of balance. And the sun moves into Libra on September 22 explaining the precise date and time of Fall Equinox 2024.

Learn from the balance of light and dark this Fall Equinox 2024.

Equinoxes always strike a perfect balance of light and dark and you can take important cues from this solar event.

Fall Equinox 2024 is the most perfect day to stop and contemplate how much balance you have in your life.

• Do you have balance in body, mind and spirit?

• Where are you out of balance in your life?

• What can you do to regain balance? 

Several months ago, nature turned on the ignition key for the year in the Vernal Equinox. And it ushered in a great revving up of life, growth and activity. You too got more physically active and dynamic.

But now Fall Equinox 2024 begins to pull those active energies in to rest. And you right along with it.

Days shorten and darkness increases. And just like the energy of the Metal element prevailing at this same time, you can shift from outward dynamism to more resting time, even the start of incubation.

Earth is giving up her copious bounty in her last breath and display. And she’s showing that you need to make shortening days, and the need for rest and contemplation the focal point of your life.

While you’ll recognize and celebrate Earth’s spectacular abundance, Fall Equinox 2024 will remind you Earth’s beginning to go into incubation and so should you.

Mirror this phenomenon in your spiritual and lifestyle practices. Resolve to dive deeper into your spiritual essence and foster an intimate connection with it.

These spiritual practices will make your Fall Equinox 2024 meaningful.

Known in various philosophies and traditions by many names—Mabon, Feast of Avalon, Cornucopia, Harvest Home, Festival of the Vine—the Fall Equinox has a mystique all its own.

Tap into this mystique help and get the most out of your Fall Equinox 2024 and the time immediately before and after.

Here are some ideas for celebrating your Fall Equinox 2024:

• Gather with friends around a bonfire in the spirit of your yin energy Fall Equinox 2024 as Summer’s yang outward energies come to a close.

• Find an outdoor place of special beauty and atmosphere. Meditate there or make affirmations to attract your desires into your life.

• Make an altar in your home that pays homage to Earth’s bounty.

• Bake bread from scratch and make rustic sandwiches using grilled harvest type vegetables.

• Make a hearty Fall Equinox 2024 stew appreciating the bountiful produce of the Earth. Serve it to family or friends with rustic decorations all around.

• Decorate your living space with apple garlands, wreaths, candles, homemade centerpieces and sheaves of grain. Light your candles at night and be mindful of the balance of energy.

• Create a bowl of nuts and seeds and share with the birds and animals who are already so tuned in to this auspicious Equinox.

• Give thanks on Fall Equinox 2024. Focus on gratitude for the natural life-giving world all around us.

…

Endnotes:

(1) Nowruz is the first day of the Iranian new year, occurring on the Vernal Equinox (usually March 20 or 21).

(2) Fitzgerald, Waverly. Celebrating Autumn Equinox: Customs and Crafts, Recipes and Rituals for Harvest, Sukkot, Mid-Autumn Moon, Michaelmas, Eleusinian Mysteries and Other Autumn Holidays. United States, Genesta Press, 2019.

…

Sources:

Shipway, Jilly. Yoga Through the Year: A Seasonal Approach to Your Practice. United States, Llewellyn Worldwide, Limited, 2019.

Forest, Danu. The Magic of the Autumn Equinox: Seasonal Celebrations to Honour Nature's Ever-turning Wheel. United Kingdom, Watkins Media Limited, 2015.

Counts, Mindi K.. Everyday Chinese Medicine: Healing Remedies for Immunity, Vitality, and Optimal Health. United States, Shambhala, 2020.

Lane, Mary. Divine Nourishment: A Woman's Sacred Journey with Food. United States, Dog Ear Publishing, 2010.

L'Esperance, Carrie. The Seasonal Detox Diet: Remedies from the Ancient Cookfire. United States, Inner Traditions/Bear, 2002.

Fitzgerald, Waverly. Celebrating Autumn Equinox: Customs and Crafts, Recipes and Rituals for Harvest, Sukkot, Mid-Autumn Moon, Michaelmas, Eleusinian Mysteries and Other Autumn Holidays. United States, Genesta Press, 2019.

Photo courtesy of Karolina Grabowska at pexels

How the P'o Spirit of Lung Helps Us Live Life More Fully

Both traditional Chinese medicine and Taoism believe humans have two souls. They believe every living person has both a yin and yang aspect to the soul. Each soul aspect has a name and the Metal element’s spirit or consciousness aspect is called P’o. In this article, we discuss the Metal P’o spirit of Lung and how it can guide you to live a fuller life.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) long ago observed five aspects of our spirit/consciousness:

1. Shen (Heart/energetic Summer/Fire element)

2. Zhi (Kidney/energetic Winter/Water element)

3. Yi (Spleen/energetic Earth between seasons periods)

4. Hun (Liver/energetic Spring/Wood element) and

5. Po (Lungs/energetic Fall/Metal element).

Our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual expression are all integrated facets of human life ordained by these five aspects of spirit.

These five aspects of soul align with the yin organ of each of the five elements’ pair of organs.

For example, the spiritual ethereal yang soul that leaves the body after death is called Hun. This soul is the spirit of the Wood element's organ–Liver. The Chinese gave the name Cloud Spirit to the ethereal Hun and formless consciousness.

But the P’o spirit of Lung is a yin soul. It has actual substance and remains with the body after death.

And the Chinese gave the name White Spirit to the corporeal soul and tangible consciousness‚ P’o.

The word P’o literally means soul.

We write the word P’o with an apostrophe between the p and the o to signal pronunciation. Make a breathy puff of air just after the p and before the long ō.

“The Spiritual resource is P’o, translated as the animal-soul, which enters our being with the first breath from heaven.”— Gary Dolowich, MD in Archetypal Acupuncture: Healing with the Five Elements

P’o is the ruler of the body.

The Chinese use the term P’o li to describe one who’s in charge of his being. This person is ‘with it,’ excited, and maybe even extra-animated. P’o li describes a confident person who’s deeply and fully involved in an activity.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

The P’o Spirit of Lung Is Closely Linked to the Breath.

Traditional Chinese medicine considers breath the pulsation of the P’o spirit of Lung. It finds breath of vital importance to not only a healthy body but a healthy P’o.

Good breathing roots P’o into the body. In fact, good breathing animates and grounds us making us better able to live in the now.

Good breathing, in part, comes from strong Lungs. Strong lungs actually assist us to register physical sensations from what we feel, see or hear. When the P’o spirit and Lung are strong and in balance, we feel bodily sensations.

Weak Lung and P’o spirit causes shallow breathing that makes us much less aware of bodily sensations. In effect, we end up feeling distanced or cut off from others because we cannot feel.

Lung is very much associated with our innate survival response. Similarly, P’o guides our instinctive reactions. For example, when we instinctively reach out our hand in order to catch a falling thing, this is P’o spirit in action.

If our Lung capacity and therefore our P’o spirit of Lung are weak, we are out-of-balance in Metal. This causes disorder in our very necessary instinctual drives. We may lose our instinct for self-preservation and begin to feel vulnerable and useless.

Weak P’o leads us to obsess and grieve over a future that has not even arrived. And we will probably lose our ability to bounce back from stress.

Grief is the emotion of Metal. The P’o spirit of Lung gives us the ability to accept the inevitable losses we experience in life as we grieve them. It also gives us strength to let go of what no longer serves us.

P’o inspires us to breathe deeply and fully and live life to the fullest. An aware connection to our P’o spirit of Lung supports us to participate fully in life.

The P’o Spirit of Lung Helps Us with Spiritual Balance.

The P’o spirit of Lung helps us strike balance between our spiritual life and material desires. Whether conscious of it or not, most Metal Types somewhat naturally find spiritual balance.

The person who completely shuns the material world to become a full-time spiritual seeker demonstrates P’o imbalance. She needs to fill the gap she feels inside. Therefore she wanders from guru to guru and seminar to seminar looking to fill a sense of emptiness. And she is never able to find the deep inner spiritual connection she seeks.

“Metal is very much associated with clear awareness and P’o is intricately involved in the understanding of the impermanence of the form/physical but is death within life and relates to the calmest of all aspects of being.”—David Nassim in The Nature of Classical Chinese Medicine

P’o encourages all of us to be dependable, conscientious, respectful and virtuous. These often come easier to the Metal Type. Their connection to P’o supports them to be happy and enjoy a good life as they age.

We Can Support P’o Spirit of Lung with Physical and Mental Exercise.

Exercise helps us maintain a balanced Metal energy and Lung chi balance.

If you are a Metal Type, you will want to exercise outdoors to help you contact the heavenly chi through the breath. Metal Types often crave being outdoors for this very reason whether they realize it or not.

Exercise for Lung chi balance doesn’t have to be strenuous. Brisk walking outside is quite adequate. Many Metal Types often feel mentally and physically stale so going outside for a walk is an antidote.

Charles A. Moss, MD,(1) offers the following breathing technique to strengthen Lung spirit of P’o:

“… inhale thinking of the Chinese word P’o, which represents the positive qualities of Metal, and exhale [thinking] one of the following words:

inspiration, acceptance, value, respect, appreciation, endurance, resilience or letting go.

The qualities embodied by these words are key aspects of the healthy Metal Adaptation Type. Repetition of the concepts can reinforce their strength within Metal Types. If other thoughts intrude as [you] do this exercise, simply observe them and bring [your] attention back to the breath and the word repetition. Alternate these words while exhaling and inhale P’o each time.”

…

Endnotes:

(1) Author of Power of the Five Elements: The Chinese Medicine Path to Healthy Aging and Stress Resistance. United States, North Atlantic Books, 2011.

Sources:

Hicks, Angela, et al. Five Element Constitutional Acupuncture. United Kingdom, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2010.

Moss, Charles A. Power of the Five Elements: The Chinese Medicine Path to Healthy Aging and Stress Resistance. United States, North Atlantic Books, 2011.

Nassim, David. The Nature of Classical Chinese Medicine (Book 1 of 2). N.p., HI Publishing, 2013.

Clogstoun-Willmott, Jonathan. Western Astrology and Chinese Medicine. United States, Inner Traditions/Bear, 1985.

Dolowich, Gary. Archetypal Acupuncture: Healing with the Five Elements. United States, North Atlantic Books, 2011.

Jarmey, Chris. The Foundations of Shiatsu. United Kingdom, Lotus Pub., 2007.

How Can I Let Go of the Past, You Ask?

If you keep asking yourself the question, How can I let go of the past? you’re not present to life. Getting yourself grounded in physical, mental, emotional and spiritual balance is when you’re more able to let go of the past. It’s because you’re living rooted in the now.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) teaches you how to live fully in the now by connecting with your soul. You let your soul—the spirit of TCM’s Metal element called P’o guide you into this serene state of being.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

The word P’o literally means soul.

We write the word P’o with an apostrophe between the P and the o to signal pronunciation. Make a breathy puff of air just after the P and before the long ō.

Every time you ask yourself, How can I let go of the past?understand P’o is ruler of your body. When you live in synchrony with this P’o ruler of your body, you have dominion over your life and emotions.

You’re in charge and not plagued revisiting energy wasting memories of the past.

The Chinese use the term P’o li to describe people in charge of their beings— deeply, fully and presently involved in an activity. They’re rooted, ‘with it,’ excited, maybe even extra-animated. Active with life, the thought of the question, How can I let go of the past? usually doesn’t even enter their minds.

Understand the mechanics of P’o so when you ask, How can I let go of the past? you have your immediate answer.

Both TCM and Taoism believe humans have two souls or aspects of souls.

They believe every living person has both a yin and yang aspect to the soul. And each soul aspect has a name.

As complement to yin P’o, we have yang Hun. Hun is the spiritual ethereal yang soul that leaves the body after death.

This soul aspect is the spirit of the Wood element's organ of Liver. The Chinese gave the name Cloud Spirit to ethereal Hun and formless consciousness.

TCM tells us actual substance composes P’o and it remains with the body after death. The ancient Chinese appropriately gave the name White Spirit to the corporeal soul and tangible consciousness‚ P’o.

Like breath, yin is inward drawing, quiet, softly flowing, and gentle.

“The Spiritual resource is P’o, translated as the animal-soul, which enters our being with the first breath from heaven.”— Gary Dolowich, MD in Archetypal Acupuncture: Healing with the Five Elements

How can I let go of the past, you ask? Start with the breath.

The P’o spirit of Lung is closely linked to the breath. Both P’o and Lung work in harmony to keep us grounded here now through the breath. Once you get grounded in the here now, you’re better able to let go of the past. You are free.

P’o encourages us to draw breath in and inward—deeply, fully and consciously.

TCM considers breath the pulsation of the P’o spirit of Lung. And breath is vitally important to not just healthy body but healthy P’o.

Good breathing roots your soul P’o into the body. Present breathing animates and grounds you in the here and now.

When you develop strong Lungs you create good breathing.

When P’o spirit and Lung are strong and in balance, you’re able to feel bodily sensations. P’o and Lung help you register physical sensations from what you feel, see and hear.

Weak Lung and P’o causes shallow breathing. You’re much less aware of bodily sensations. You feel distanced or cut off from others because you can’t feel.

Lung is very much associated with our innate survival response. P’o guides our instinctive reactions.

For example, when you instinctively reach out your hand in order to catch a falling leaf, your instinctive reaction is your P’o spirit in action.

If your Lung capacity and consequent P’o spirit of Lung are weak, you’re out-of-balance in Metal. You’ll experience disorder in your instinctual drive. With a diminishing instinct for self-preservation you start to feel vulnerable and useless.

The converse of How can I let go of the past? is How can I be less fearful of the future? Weak P’o leads many to obsess and grieve over a future that hasn’t even arrived. It also reduces the ability to bounce back from stress.

Grief is the emotion of TCM’s Metal element. The P’o spirit of Lung gives us the ability to accept the inevitable losses we experience in life as we grieve them. It also gives us strength to let go of what no longer serves us.

In alignment with the Metal element and to help bring balance to grief and worry emotions, PHYTO5 offers you the quantum energetic Metal line of skincare. It works to balance skin, the energy of circulation as it balances these emotions.

As you use the Metal line for skin, you’ll also experience an emotion balancing effect and know that all is well. The products in the line brimming with the fragrance of healing and balancing terpenes will help restore you to center. You’ll be more able to let go of the past.

P’o inspires us to breathe deeply and fully and live life to the fullest.

An aware connection to our P’o spirit of Lung support you to participate stop asking the nagging question, How can I let go of the past? and start living rooted in the here and now.

The constant question, How can I let go of the past? means you may not be allowing your P’o Spirit of Lung to bring you to spiritual balance.

The P’o spirit of Lung can help you strike balance between your spiritual life and material desires. Let the breath of Lung and the still small voice of your P’o soul guide you into balanced spirituality.

Spiritual balance means you have balance in all aspects of your life: emotional, mental and physical as well as spiritual.

Most Metal Types—people primarily dominated by Metal’s aspects—relatively naturally achieve spiritual balance.

But anyone who completely shuns the material world to become a full-time spiritual seeker often develops P’o imbalance.

Such people need to fill a gap they feel within. They wander from guru to guru and seminar to seminar looking to fill that sense of emptiness. They often are never able to find the deep inner spiritual connection they seek.

“Metal is very much associated with clear awareness and P’o is intricately involved in the understanding of the impermanence of the form/physical but is death within life and relates to the calmest of all aspects of being.”—David Nassim in The Nature of Classical Chinese Medicine

Support P’o spirit of Lung with physical and mental exercise. These will also help you let go of the past.

Exercise helps us maintain a balanced Metal energy and Lung chi balance.

If you’re a Metal Type or if today’s date falls between August 7 and October 20 inclusive (TCM’s energetic Fall and Metal season):

Exercise outdoors to help you contact the heavenly chi through the breath.

Metal Types often crave being outdoors for this very reason whether they realize it or not.

Exercise for Lung chi balance doesn’t have to be strenuous.

Walk briskly outdoors. That’s adequate. Many Metal Types find stepping outside an antidote to the frequent mental and physical staleness they feel.

Charles A. Moss, MD,(1) offers the following breathing technique to strengthen Lung spirit of P’o:

“… inhale thinking of the Chinese word P’o, which represents the positive qualities of Metal, and exhale [thinking] one of the following words:

inspiration, acceptance, value, respect, appreciation, endurance, resilience or letting go.

The qualities embodied by these words are key aspects of the healthy Metal Adaptation Type. Repetition of the concepts can reinforce their strength within Metal Types. If other thoughts intrude as [you] do this exercise, simply observe them and bring [your] attention back to the breath and the word repetition. Alternate these words while exhaling and inhale P’o each time.”

P’o encourages all of us to be dependable, conscientious, respectful, virtuous and spiritual balanced. These often come easier to the Metal Type.

Whether you’re a Metal Type or not, you can tap into the energetic gifts of the element.

These energetic gifts will assist your P’o to guide you into a more present moment happy and good life. The perennial question, How can I let go of the past? will become a distant memory.

…

Endnotes:

(1) Author of Power of the Five Elements: The Chinese Medicine Path to Healthy Aging and Stress Resistance. United States, North Atlantic Books, 2011.

Sources:

Hicks, Angela, et al. Five Element Constitutional Acupuncture. United Kingdom, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2010.

Moss, Charles A. Power of the Five Elements: The Chinese Medicine Path to Healthy Aging and Stress Resistance. United States, North Atlantic Books, 2011.

Nassim, David. The Nature of Classical Chinese Medicine (Book 1 of 2). N.p., HI Publishing, 2013.

Clogstoun-Willmott, Jonathan. Western Astrology and Chinese Medicine. United States, Inner Traditions/Bear, 1985.

Dolowich, Gary. Archetypal Acupuncture: Healing with the Five Elements. United States, North Atlantic Books, 2011.

Jarmey, Chris. The Foundations of Shiatsu. United Kingdom, Lotus Pub., 2007.

Energetic Fall and the Metal Element: Balance Point Between Activity and Rest

Summer and its Fire element(1) offer us the peak of yang energy for the year. Yang energy is about activity, sunlight, celebration, and social connections, for example. When Winter and Water come, we’ll descend deeply into yin energies. But as the year winds down, the natural cycle of the seasons must provide us with balance. Fall and Metal offer that balance between activity and rest. And so beginning August 7 energetic Fall and its Metal element introduce us to yin. Darkness, evening, the moon, meditation, quiet are all examples of yin energies.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Lung is the yin organ of Metal according to traditional Chinese medicine. The yang organ of Metal is Large Intestine. And both of Metal’s organs share Metal’s fundamental tendency towards purity, precision, quality, perfectionism, and spirituality.

Energetic Fall opens a window of opportunity to take in new experience. It tells us it’s time to let go of the old. We begin to sense that a whole different time of year is afoot.

The weather is changing and a whole parade of holidays is on its way. All the activity of the holidays will seem contrary to the yin Winter time of year. We’re going to need balance in our lives more than ever. We also feel the imperative to keep our bodies strong and immune to Fall and Winter viruses.

The Metal Element Encourages Us to Create Structure In Our Lives.

We can achieve that much needed balance by creating structure in our lives. The characteristics of Metal are hard, strong and precise. Though Metal is rigid it can also be melted or remolded. This means we can be flexible with creating structure in our lives. But we have to work with Metal’s energy to do that.

The element of structure that Metal is will support us to restructure our lives. When we create a sensible structure we’ll enjoy more quality of life in the seasons ahead. We can encourage healthy order in our lives when we focus on new habits. Soften boundaries, develop the structure of an easy routine, and create inspiring spiritual rituals.

It’s very important to let go of certain attachments, beliefs, and habits that don’t serve us. We have to look at those honestly and then let them go. Metal and the falling leaves of autumn teach us this. The trees release their leaves to actively but gently fall back to Earth to rest.

Contrary to energetic Summer, rest is key at this time of year. In our article, yang energy and activity of Summer we wrote:

“In Summer, the Fire energy is very yang and all about action, movement and change. We’ll want to align physical activity with a similar kind of energy and action. Activity and exercise are especially important at this time. It keeps the pores open and chi flowing smoothly throughout the body.”

So much activity is perfect for Summer when there is little space for rest. This is why Metal and energetic Fall are so valuable at this time of year. It’s time to get the hang of resting once again.

We Should Find Balance Between Activity and Rest.

In energetic Fall, we transition from yang to yin and from activity to rest. Finding balance between activity and rest during energetic Fall builds us a foundation for life.

Make lifestyle adjustments during energetic Fall that speak to Metal’s energies. You’ll encourage this balance by doing so.

Change your skincare regimen. In fact, change your skincare regimen from season to season. PHYTO5 offers skincare for each of the five seasons of traditional Chinese medicine. This is good for the skin.

Also change your diet and the way you prepare your food. We offer all kinds of tips to do that here in our blogs.

We know that physical activity is very beneficial for proper circulation and health. It supports our ability to resist disease. But rest itself helps restore the body too.

Rest not only relieves physical and mental fatigue, it restores our physical strength. Both activity and rest are important, but it’s actually the balance between the two that’s key.

In fact, this balance creates a normal healthy active life at any time of year. But the energies of the Metal season absolutely support us to strike that balance. Without that balance we fall prone to the prevalent sicknesses of Fall and Winter.

Take Important Cues from Nature.

We’ve lived through the cycle of the seasons and we’ve adapted to each as it came. We’ve experienced the bounty of the Earth especially during Summer. We enjoyed its huge array of nourishing produce over the last many months. Without the natural cycles of activity and rest, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy such bounty.

Metal is the time to pause and appreciate this balance in perpetual motion. And as part of nature ourselves, we’re smart if we’ll take our cues from nature.

Metal offers a time to slow down and appreciate the sweetness of life. It invites us to cultivate our inner spirit in earnest.

Essential oils extracted from flora are perfect examples of nature’s bounty and the cycle of seasons. Consider PHYTO5’s Metal element Phyt’Ether serum. Our chemists blend a precise set of premium essential oils to improve slightly more mature skin.

Use it on skin and scalp to mineralize and support circulation. Inhale its fragrance to help balance emotions of grief, sadness, worry. All natural high grade essential oils are found in all PHYTO5 serums and skincare products.

These Exercises Help Strike a Balance Between Activity and Rest.

Exercise is still important during energetic Fall.  It just won’t be the kind of all-out go-for-it exercise we suggested for Summer.

Exercise can support you as you process grief, build your immune system, develop clarity of mind. It helps release stagnation and stuck energy in the body too.

Adjust your exercise practice to line up with the energies of the season. The best exercises for energetic Fall include upper body training rather than lower body training.

Fall best exercises might be any of the following:

• swimming

• walking

• walking meditation

• rock climbing

• Tai Chi

• Qi Gong (especially exercises for clearing the Lung since Lung is the yin organ of Metal)

• meridian stretches

• Pilates

• Pranayama (yogic breathing exercises)

• Yoga

Practice yoga. It’s an ideal form of exercise for energetic Fall especially resting, standing or prone postures. This is because you must be very precise when holding a yoga pose. It forces you to let go of rigidity, both physical and mental.

Flowing movement yoga incorporates breathing practices that benefit Lung. Chest opening yoga poses very much support the energy of Metal.

Yoga is the essence of balance between activity and rest. In yoga, you will alternate between the activity of the pose and rest in the breath. You will follow each pose with a counterpose important for balance.

Some people thrive with yin yoga. It’s a slow-paced style of yoga that incorporates principles of traditional Chinese medicine (as does PHYTO5 skincare). In yin yoga, you hold postures longer than in other styles of yoga. But any yoga practice will help you achieve balance, flexibility, self-confidence, and roundedness in the body.

There’s No Better Time than Fall to Breathe Deeply and Properly.

Blend your yoga practice with outdoor gentle activity to stimulate Lung and strengthen your immune system.

The Lungs distribute oxygen to every cell of the body. We remove CO2 from the blood when we exhale.

When we inhale we call on the respiratory system to absorb and expand. When we exhale we allow that system to let go and clear out.

Both of these actions are essential to the energy of Metal. And one balances the other.

Since Lung is one of Metal’s organs, breathing is #1 during energetic Fall. Expand yourself into a regular breathing practice, called pranayama in yoga.

Breathe to where the chest rises, falls and spreads a proud openness across the collarbones.

1. ACTIVITY: Full chest breathing stimulates the sympathetic nervous system to supply the body with energy for activity.

2. REST: Deep, slow abdominal breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system to relax both body and mind.

Both breathing methods above will help create the balance between activity and rest during energetic Fall.

Be sure to read our article, Six Breaths a Minute to Slow Aging and Its Causes. Here you will learn a simple breathing practice anyone can do that offers excellent health benefits.

Give the Body All It Needs to Create Balance Between Activity and Rest.

Care for your body as an intimate friend especially during energetic Fall. Tune in to it so you can detect the slightest change. Listen to what your body is telling you.

If you’re serious about tapping into the energy of Metal, go one step further. Treat your body like a temple. Metal types are quite spiritual and they understand the body as essential vehicle of their spirit. Act as if you’re a Metal type.

Make it your goal to create balance between activity and rest during energetic Fall— August 7 to October 20. The lifestyle tips in this article will definitely help.

…

Endnotes:

(1) According to traditional Chinese medicine.

…

Sources:

Duncan, Alaine D., and Kain, Kathy L.. The Tao of Trauma: A Practitioner's Guide for Integrating Five Element Theory and Trauma Treatment. United States, North Atlantic Books, 2019.

The Fine Pure Salt Crystals of the Bex Salt Mines Are Switzerland’s White Gold

Switzerland is famous for its Alps, beauty, exacting purity and manufacturing standards and wealth. These factors play a big role in Switzerland’s lesser known salt Bex (pronounced bay) salt mines. The Bex salt mines have actually played a major role in the development of Switzerland. They provide valuable premium salt for chemical and pharmaceutical companies all over the world. And Bex salt (Le Sel des Alpes) hugely contributes to Switzerland’s own wellness tourism industry. Swiss-based PHYTO5 chooses Bex salt the main wellness ingredient for its five element Selextreme exfoliation products. PHYTO5 takes Le Sel des Alpes and perfectly saturates it with high grade essential oils. This process creates five exquisite exfoliation products, each with a specific mission:

• Wood Selextreme for vital energy support and skin lightening.

• Fire Selextreme for calming and soothing sensitive, irritated skin.

• Earth Selextreme for detoxification and encouraging circulation of lymph.

• Metal Selextreme for mineralization and blood circulation support.

• Water Selextreme for improved hydration and balance of water retention.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

“The history of Swiss Saltworks goes back over 450 years. Salt embodies typical Swiss characteristics such as innovation, tradition, reliability and quality.”—houseofswitzerland.org

Salts from the mines of Bex are considered Switzerland’s impeccable white gold.

How Did the Alpine Salt Form?

When the planet was born many billions of years ago, salty oceans covered the planet. Between 200 to 60 million years ago, the present Rhône Valley was a shallow sea. As continents began to form, the sea withdrew from the land. Salt layers up to 330 feet thick formed in northwestern Switzerland, the Jura and Central Plateau.(1)

In the area that is now Switzerland, rock which eventually formed the Alps trapped the salt within. There the salt remained pure and protected from all pollution for at least 200 million years. The salt deposits of Bex come from the sea where the Rhone Valley exists today.

The Tiny Town of Bex Is Now Famous Because of Its Salt.

In the Alpine valley of La Gryonne, a train runs through. It connects the tiny village of Bex to the slightly larger Aigle, five and half miles south.

The entire region would be historically unremarkable without the discovery of Switzerland’s only working salt mine.

“A steep road, but practicable for chars-à-banc,(2) leads through most beautiful scenery to the entrance of the mines. The salt is obtained either from the brine-springs, six or seven of which, of various degrees of strength, burst forth in different parts of the interior of the mountain, or from the rock salt…” —John Murray in the 1838 book, A Handbook for Travelers in Switzerland and the Alps of Savoy and Piedmont

The Swiss had to rely on expensive imports of salt all through the Middle Ages. They bought salt mainly from Franche-Comté, a cultural and historic region of eastern France.

This Is the Legendary Story of the Discovery of Bex Salt In Switzerland

But then came the discovery of their own salt supply.

The legendary discovery happened in the fifteenth century when the shepherd Jean du Bouillet pastured his goats one day. He took his goats to Panex and also to the Fondement just North of Bex. Du Bouillet noticed his goats preferred water from these two springs at these sites.

He tasted the water and found it salty. The farmer filled a cauldron full of this water, boiled it and let it evaporate. Du Bouillet noticed a pinch of salt at the bottom of the pot after evaporation. And so the discovery of salt at Bex was nearly complete. Nearly.

In the mid-sixteenth century, the original merchant family Zobel from Augsburg purchased the land. They mined salt only from the brine-springs(2) in Bex.

Aware of health benefits of the brine, the region opened wellness brine baths. These baths attracted people from all over the world.

But around the year 1823 the brine-springs began to fail. The German-Swiss geologist Jean de Charpentier got involved. He suggested driving shafts and galleries into the mountain to search for rock salt. By doing so they discovered a very large and rich vein of salt within the mountain.

For centuries ownership of these salt mines meant wealth and power. Today, ‘les Mines de Sel de Bex’ belong to the canton(4) of Vaud.(5)

How Is Le Sel des Alpes Extracted?

A 30+ mile labyrinth of passages and tunnels yields 30,000 tons of salt per year. 

Mine operators at Bex extract rock salt by means of evaporation or leaching. They use the latest technology and green energy to preserve the environment’s delicate balance.

They drill holes 160 to 1300 feet deep and pump in crystal clear Swiss mountain water. Next, they pump the salt solution (brine) created back to the surface to heat it. As the water evaporates, a pure fine salt crystallizes.

The mountain also holds a number of reservoirs of briney water. Miners harvest salt from these reservoirs, too, through a process called graduation.

The salt mines of Bex give us many beautiful minerals. These minerals include very clear crystals of selenite(6), muriacite(7), and anhydrite.(8)

42 valid minerals have been detected in the salt residues of the Bex salt mines.

Le Sel des Alpes is very elevating to well-being. It naturally offers perfect amounts of iodine and fluorine to the human body.

Bex Salt Mines Offers Unique Tours.

The Bex salt mine Le Bouillet(9) offers a museum and a two hour long tour. An audiovisual display shows visitors the evolution of salt mining techniques from 1684 to today.

A long underground narrow-gauge train takes visitors into the low-lit subterranean world for firsthand observation. The train also transports visitors to the inner mountain restaurant located 1300 feet below the surface. 

Le Bouillet contains a gallery driven horizontally into the bowels of the mountain. The gallery travels a distance of 6636 feet, seven and a half feet high and five feet wide. 

Tours offer subterranean on-foot treks into the mines and tunnels that still exist to this day.

Over the centuries, the Salt Mines of Bex have been visited by many illustrious guests.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau visited in 1754 and Alexandre Dumas visited the mines in September of 1832. Dumas wrote an epic and now famous report on his experience. Napoleon’s second wife, the Empress Marie-Louise, also toured the mines. Le Grand Reservoir was named after her.

#####

Endnotes:

1. The Swiss Plateau or Central Plateau is one of the three major landscapes in Switzerland, lying between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss Alps. 

2. Chars à banc: horse drawn carriage or early motor vehicle

3. Brine meaning salty water

4. Canton: A state of the Swiss Confederation; a subdivision of a country established for political or administrative purposes. 

5. Vaud is a mountainous district in western Switzerland bordered by Lake Geneva to the south and France to the west. Lausanne, the capital, is known for its medieval cathedral and Olympic Museum in Ouchy port. 

6. Selenite: Also known as moonstone, selenite is a form of gypsum occurring as transparent crystals, sometimes in thin plates.

7. Muriacite: Also known as halite, muriacite is a term applied to the crystalline varieties of anhydrous sulphate of lime; sodium chloride as a mineral, typically occurring as colorless cubic crystals; rock salt.

8. Anhydrite is a white mineral consisting of anhydrous calcium sulfate. It typically occurs in evaporite deposits.

9. Named for the shepherd who discovered the salt; story above.

#####

Sources:

Murray, John. A Handbook for Travelers in Switzerland and the Alps of Savoy and Piedmont, Including the Protestant Valleys of the Waldenses. Germany, John Murray & Son, 1838.

Teller, Matthew. The Rough Guide to Switzerland. United Kingdom, Rough Guides Limited.

Tourismus, Schweiz. “Mines de Sel de Bex.” Switzerland Tourism, www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/experiences/salt-mines/. Accessed 6 Aug. 2023. 

“Notre Histoire.” Notre Histoire | Schweizer Salinen, www.salz.ch/fr/notre-histoire.

“Salt – the Raw Material from the Swiss Alps.” House of Switzerland, 22 Apr. 2020, houseofswitzerland.org/swissstories/history/salt-raw-material-swiss-alps.

Bergamot Essential Oil: Powerful Skin Purifier, Conditioner and Balancer

Bergamot essential oil (Citrus bergamia) is an oil widely used in cosmetics not just because of its cooling and refreshing nature but because of the wide array of skin and health enhancing benefits it offers. On the physical level, bergamot makes skin resistant to microorganisms that can compromise skin’s purity. This is one reason why PHYTO5 has formulated bergamot essential oil into Earth element Yogi Body Gel. On the mental/emotional level, bergamot is nervous tension relaxing. For this reason, bergamot essential oil can be enjoyed in PHYTO5’s organic certified Yin Massage Oil.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

---

Bergamot is a type of orange although its exterior color is not orange at all. The fruit looks more like a lemon or lime than an orange. It is three to four inches in diameter and has a uniquely distinct scent and flavor—a combination of lemon and bitter orange. According to Alan Davidson's The Oxford Companion to Food (2nd ed.), unlike its other orange cousins, bergamot is too bitter to be eaten raw.

The essential oil of bergamot is a greenish to yellow clear thin and viscous liquid. It has a sparkling citrusy sweet green and fruity-floral odor. It’s cold expressed from the pericarp or peel of the fruit of the dwarf variety of the Seville orange tree.

Bergamot blossoms during the Winter and grows naturally in northern Italy in the Lombardy region but it’s commercially grown in the southern Italian region of Calabria. There are many small cultivators of bergamot throughout the world but more than 90% of the world’s production occurs in Calabria. Argentina and Ivory Coast production are a distant second and third to Italy.

Among all the citrus peel oils, bergamot essential oil is the most valuable.

Bergamot is almost exclusively grown for the production of essential oil and not for juice consumption although the fruit is an ingredient in traditional Mediterranean cooking.

Bergamot essential oil serves as flavoring for sweets, tobacco, Curaçao liqueur, teas (Earl Grey), baked goods, desserts, chewing gum and soft drinks.

More than 200 chemical constituents have been identified to make up bergamot oil including very many terpenes.(1)

For example, the terpene linalool in bergamot offers analgesic action while promoting relaxation and stress relief. This is in addition to linalool’s calming fresh, floral fragrance.

Bergamot essential oil is an excellent skin conditioner and soothing agent. It fosters healing and regeneration of skin and is all around beneficial to skin.

It is best suited for oily and acne prone skin because it makes skin resistant to microorganisms killing facial bacteria before skin has a chance to create blackheads and pimples. It also controls excess oil production. Conversely, bergamot will stimulate or balance sebaceous gland production if skin is too dry.

Because of its antiseptic and antibacterial properties, bergamot is utilized in the pharmacopoeia of a number of countries. The pharmaceutical industry also uses bergamot essential oil in sanitary preparations.

Bergamot essential oil has been successfully used to treat conditions like nicotine addiction, acne, ringworms, depression, out-of-balance stress response, urinary tract infection, fever, headaches, muscle aches, anxiety, insomnia, constipation, scars, body odor, cracked heels, wounds, coughs and colds (antiviral properties).

Bergamot essential oil is known to help fight skin conditions of acne, eczema,(2) cold sores, herpes, shingles, psoriasis, dark spots, dull and dry complexion, dandruff, seborrhea, and excessive perspiration.

The properties of bergamot are many:

• analgesic

• antidepressant (also helps relieve anxiety and unbalanced stress response)

• antiseptic (mouth rinses that contain bergamot essential oil are especially beneficial to combat bad breath and infection)

• slightly astringent

• antispasmodic

• cicatrisant (reduces or prevents appearance of scars)

• digestive

• deodorant

• expectorant

• febrifuge (fever inducing)

• vermifuge (worm killing)

• vulnerably (wound healing)

• sedative

Bergamot essential oil should not be used by pregnant or breastfeeding mothers, children or persons with sensitive skin or sensitivity to ultraviolet light. Since bergamot makes skin more sensitive to ultraviolet light (phototoxic), bergamot accelerates tanning of the skin as do all citrus oils.

Bergamot as Spiritual and Emotional Healing Agent

A study with animals showed bergamot essential oil to affect hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity by reducing the corticosterone(3) response to stress. Bergamot essential oil was found to create a balancing effect on the activity of the hypothalamus gland.

The hypothalamus gland is the center of our more intense emotions such as terror and rage. This gland works in synchrony with the pineal and pituitary glands to help regulate and balance hormonal cycles including natural sleep and wake cycles. It is believed that bergamot’s ability to balance natural sleep cycles may make the essential oil helpful for relieving symptoms of jet lag.

Bergamot Essential Oil and Lymph(4)

Bergamot essential oil helps reduce swelling in tissue by stimulating improved flow of lymph. It is very decongesting.

Earth element skincare by PHYTO5 has a primary function to support flow of lymph in the action of detoxification. This creates skin that is purer, normalized and more radiant.

“Metaphysically, the lymphatic system and immune system are related to a strong sense of self-worth and a feeling of ‘I can do it.’ When you doubt your ability to take care of yourself and lack confidence, your immune function can be affected. Energetically, your psychic defenses to protect against foreign invaders are lowered. Bergamot oil may be helpful for building morale and self-esteem and can help you to rebuild strength and regain self-confidence.” —K. G. Stiles in The Essential Oils Complete Reference Guide: Over 250 Recipes for Natural Wholesome Aromatherapy

Two Precautions When Using Bergamot Essential Oil

Never consume bergamot or any essential oil without it being properly diffused by a carrier oil.(5) Good carrier oils include fractionated coconut oil, apricot kernel or sweet almond oil. You must also know how to use bergamot essential oil in the right proportion to the carrier oil and this really should be left in the domain of a cosmetics chemist. This is because essential oils are highly concentrated. Bergamot essential oil is not only highly concentrated, it’s highly photosensitive.

Most essential oils that can be ingested—and bergamot essential oil is one of them—must be infused with a carrier oil and then only in very small and appropriate amounts. Any essential oil applied or consumed without delivery by means of a carrier oil may cause a healing crisis or at best, very uncomfortable symptoms. Essential oils are very potent and not all of them can be taken internally.

High grade and natural essential oils perfectly and precisely mixed in PHYTO5 skin and body care is a safe way to enjoy many of the benefits of a whole array of essential oils. The amount of bergamot essential oil in Earth element Yogi Body Gel and in Yin Massage Oil is determined by PHYTO5 expert chemists who know the proportions and manner of formulation to safely and healthily achieved the desire effect.

Because of adverse reactions called berloque dermatitis experienced by a number of people since the 1950s, much bergamot essential oil used today in the cosmetics industry is synthetically produced. Berloque dermatitis is a phototoxic reaction on the skin created by exposure to long-wave ultraviolet (UVA) radiation on bergapten, the only photoactive component of bergamot oil. This combination of exposure induces an intensification of both hyperpigmentation and melanin production in the skin.

Bergamot essential oil can easily be found on big box store shelves for aromatherapeutic purposes. But you may want to research if the bergamot essential oil you’re using is naturally grown and produced with integrity.

#####

Endnotes:

1. We have published two extensive articles on the topic of terpenes:

• The Terpene: Most Fundamental Flavor, Fragrance and Healing Component of Essential Oils

• Scent, Flavor and Healing Are Found In All Plants Because of Terpenes

1. for treating dry and not moist eczema

2. Corticosterone is a hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex in response to stress.

3. Lymph is a colorless fluid containing white blood cells, which bathes the tissues and drains through the lymphatic system into the bloodstream.

4. A carrier oil is used to dilute essential oils and absolutes before they are applied to the skin in skincare applications, massage and aromatherapy. They carry the essential oil onto the skin. Diluting essential oils is a critical safety practice when using essential oils because of the very high potency of quality essential oils. Essential oils used alone are volatile because they begin to dissipate as soon as they are applied. The carrier oil slows the rate of dispersion which varies based on how light or heavy the carrier oil is. Carrier oils often do not contain a concentrated aroma and they do not evaporate like essential oil. Excellent high integrity skincare products will use carrier oils that are completely natural and free from adulteration.

#####

Sources:

Kinai, Dr. Miriam, Bergamot Essential Oil. N.p., Booktango, 2013.

Zulpa, Amy. Essential Oils - The Ultimate Resource: A Beginner's Guide to the Use of Essential Oils. N.p., Jela Properties LLC, 2014.

deGroot, AntonC., and Schmidt, Erich. Essential Oils: Contact Allergy and Chemical Composition. United Kingdom, CRC Press, 2021.

Keller, Erich. Aromatherapy Handbook for Beauty, Hair, and Skin Care. United States, Inner Traditions/Bear, 1999.

Stiles, KG. The Essential Oils Complete Reference Guide: Over 250 Recipes for Natural Wholesome Aromatherapy. United States, Page Street Publishing, 2017.

Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. United Kingdom, Oxford University Press, 2014.

Perna, Simone et al. “Efficacy of bergamot: From anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative mechanisms to clinical applications as preventive agent for cardiovascular morbidity, skin diseases, and mood alterations.” Food science & nutrition vol. 7,2 369-384. 25 Jan. 2019, doi:10.1002/fsn3.903

How the Yi Spirit of the Spleen Contributes to Our Clarity of Mind and Well-Being

According to the Five-Element Theory of traditional Chinese medicine, our organs each have a spirit:
Wood element  •  Organ: Liver  •  Spirit: Hun
Fire element  •  Organ: Heart  •  Spirit: Shen.
Earth element • Organ: Spleen • Spirit: Yi
Metal element  •  Organ: Lung  •  Spirit: P’o
Water element  •  Organ: Kidney  •  Spirit: Zhi.

Understanding the spirit energies of each element helps us to better know how to live in harmony with the season we are in and even transform our health. We can learn to become well adapted to our “Type.”(1) In this article, we discuss Yi, the spirit of the Earth element’s organ, the Spleen.(2)

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Defining Yi
Yi is roughly translated as thought and intention.

In Chinese ethical philosophy Yi is more fully defined as faithful performance of one's indigenous duties to society. Intent or intention is the drive we feel within ourselves that compels us to be of service to others, to be empathetic, and to be part of a community offering support to those in need. In its deepest sense, Yi is service to others given in the unique ways that each of us individually can offer. By serving others, Yi gifts us with the byproduct of that service: contentment and satisfaction.

Yi is also defined as righteousness and justice, morality and meaning. And in traditional Chinese medicine Yi is considered to be the intellect.

The direction of the Earth element in traditional Chinese medicine is center. Likewise, Yi is found in our core, our center—the stabilizing and grounding influence we derive from past first memories of feelings, smells and touch—whether they are the warm loving experience of being on our mother’s breast or the cold fearful feelings of being in the sterile hospital room at birth.

Yi also represents nourishment from and connection to the Original Universal Mother, giver of the breath of sustenance, support and security that we first experienced as newborn babies.

One aspect of Yi and the Earth element is introspection—a balanced but not excessive turning inward to learn about the self and one’s place in the world. When we have grounded Yi within us we become better able to follow our own hearts and be true to ourselves.

Spleen Supports Nourishment On the Physical and Mental Levels
Spleen is the origin of chi and blood and it is responsible for nourishment and nurturing.

In our former article, The Earth Element and the Spleen: How a Balanced Spleen Is Vital to Digestion, Nourishment, Mental Function and Vitality, we said:

“The Spleen is responsible for the intake, processing, sorting and distribution of nutrients from food. Nutrients are then transported upwards by the Spleen to the Lungs where both Heart and Lungs take over generating chi and infusing the body’s blood with these nutrients.

The Spleen both transforms food into nutrients and then transports these nutrients through the pushing/ascending action of the spleen chi.”

The Spleen is controller of transforming and transporting nutrients(3) but this doesn’t only apply to nutrients from food. It applies to intellectual nourishment as well. From a mental-emotional perspective, the Spleen is involved in issues of nourishment not just on the physical level but on the psychic level, too.

Yi and the Mental Processes
In traditional Chinese medicine, it is said that the Yi spirit of Spleen provides housing for the intellect which is responsible for applied thinking, memorizing, focus, concentration, mental application, study and the generating of ideas.

The nature of Yi means that the Spleen, together with Heart, is responsible for our ability to think and study with clarity. Cramming for exams, for example, or spending an inordinate amount of time each day writing or thinking can weaken Spleen.

“One of the major problems when the Spleen is imbalanced is the tendency for the person to become preoccupied, or at worst obsessed. Si or knotting of the qi (chi) occurs and diminishes a person’s ability to think one thought and then move on to another. This inability to think clearly can diminish a person’s creativity, spontaneity and happiness.” —Angela Hicks in Five Element Constitutional Acupuncture

From the perspective of emotions, the Spleen is adversely affected by pensiveness, worry, rumination and in severe cases, obsessive thinking.

The French writer-poet Voltaire perhaps unknowingly described a pathology of the Yi when he said:

“Madness is to think of too many things too fast or of one thing exclusively.”

Strong Yi allows us to dream our thoughts and ideas clearly so that they will coagulate and manifest in our world.

When the Spleen is weak we become unable to accomplish our goals causing us to feel unfulfilled. We feel unable to get things done leaving projects started but not finished.

This is why we define the positive, in-balance emotion of the Earth element on our website as ‘creative self-expression.’ All of the products in each of our five element quantum energetic lines of skincare are formulated to help balance emotion with the highest degree of concentration of that energy found in the Phyt’Ether serums. The negative, out-of-balance emotion of Earth is feeling overwhelmed, excessive rumination, causing a state of scatteredness.

Well known British classical acupuncturist, J. R. Worsley,(4) called this called the inability to think clearly and decisively an inability to reap a harvest, harvest being completely symbolic of the Earth element and its functions.

Strong Yi helps us follow through with our intention. We have the ability to focus the mind on something we desire. Harvard Medical School professor of medicine Ted J. Kaptchuk(5) has described the aspect of this intention embodied by Yi as the “consciousness of potentials.”

Yi enables chi to move. We must often first form a mental image of chi moving for it to move. And that initial image is assisted by Yi.

We also need Yi for self-motivation. If Spleen is weak, so are Yi and chi and also our ability to concentrate on work, execute a project to its completion or even be present to a conversation we are having with a friend.

Weak Yi diminishes our ability to remain steadfast to our purpose in life.

A deficiency in Spleen makes a person who is not psychologically centered and grounded lose self-confidence. When we feel unable to accomplish a life goal or pursue what we’d really love to do, it can often lead to depression, anxiety and despair. We feel a sense of unease, unhappiness, and loss of direction. Agitation, insecurity or lethargy of the spirit can make it difficult for us to stick to our chosen paths.

…

Endnotes:

1. A person exemplifying the ideal or defining characteristics of one or more of the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine; the Type is not always in balance or adapted to his or her Type in which we call it out-of-balance or maladapted. To learn more about each element Type, click through below:

1. Wood

2. Fire

3. Earth

4. Metal

5. Water

1. Click through to read our former article on the Spleen and the Earth element: The Earth Element and the Spleen: How a Balanced Spleen Is Vital to Digestion, Nourishment, Mental Function and Vitality

2. “The Spleen functions to control the digestive system and as such is as ordinary or common as a cook who is on duty 24 hours a day. Its work is basic. It does not have the glamor of the Liver which is a general, or the Lung which is a chancellor. We can compare this job to that of a mother who is always available to care for and support her family. A mother’s job is an important one, often unacknowledged until she is ill or away.” —Angela Hicks in Five Element Constitutional Acupuncture

3. J. R. Worsley (14 September 1923 – 2 June 2003) was a British acupuncturist who is credited with European five element acupuncture which is termed 'classical acupuncture.’

4. Ted J. Kaptchuk is professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.  He is also a professor of Global Health and Social Medicine.

…

Sources:

Maciocia, Giovanni. The Psyche in Chinese Medicine: Treatment of Emotional and Mental Disharmonies with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs. United Kingdom, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2009.

Moss, Charles A.. Power of the Five Elements: The Chinese Medicine Path to Healthy Aging and Stress Resistance. United States, North Atlantic Books, 2011.

Hicks, Angela, et al. Five Element Constitutional Acupuncture. United Kingdom, Elsevier Health Sciences, 2010.

Acupuncture in Practice: Case History Insights from the West. United Kingdom, Churchill Livingstone, 1997.

The Thymus Gland–Producer of Anti-Age Hormones and Powerhouse of Immunity

Our bodies’ hormones are made by the tiny(1) but mighty glands of the endocrine system. Though the amounts of hormones our glands secrete into the bloodstream or the fluid surrounding our cells are minute, these hormones are incredibly powerful and determine how long and well we live. All glands and hormones work in concert and exquisite balance with each other but some glands become weak as we get older. One such gland is the very important immune system regulating thymus gland positioned near the Heart, the yin organ of the Fire element.

Hormones regulate our digestion and the transformation of nutrients into blood, bone, and tissues. They regulate our heartbeat, liver and kidney function, fertility, sexual behavior and even our personality. And they are very well known for mobilizing our bodies’ defenses against human or germ attack.

“Much like a lock and key, many hormones act by binding to receptors that are produced within cells. When a hormone binds to a receptor, the receptor carries out the hormone's instructions, either by altering the cell's existing proteins or turning on genes that will build a new protein. The hormone-receptor complex switches on or switches off specific biological processes in cells, tissues, and organs.” —Environmental Protection Agency, Overview of the Endocrine System

Though hormones circulate throughout the body, they will only affect their target organs and according to how much the body needs, provided the body is relatively in balance. The more hormone in the blood the more active the target organ becomes.

In traditional Chinese medicine hormonal balance is closely associated with yin and yang energy balance. 

We wrote in our former article, Balance: Traditional Chinese Medicine’s Simple Must-Have Key for Total Well-Being, Enduring Health and Longevity: 

“Yin and yang chi, the fundamental feminine and masculine energies, respectively, help establish the balance and harmonious flow of vital energy which is crucial to maintaining balance throughout the body.”

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Both hormones and yin and yang energies depend on one another to function properly. Too much or too little yin or yang energy in the body and imbalances occur which, in turn, affect the hormones.

Hormonal imbalance doesn’t happen overnight but as we age. It takes time for the symptoms of hormonal imbalance to become apparent.

Hormonal imbalance does, however, occur faster in some people than in others. And if the feedback our glands are receiving from the body is faulty or the glands fail to produce enough of the hormone required, we develop physical and even mental conditions.

Courtesy of Environmental Protection Agency; “Overview of the Endocrine System,” EPA, www.epa.gov/endocrine-disruption/overview-endocrine-system.

The word hormone is derived from the Greek hormao meaning “I arouse to activity.” Hormones are messengers of physiological information inciting the body to activity in one way or another. The biochemical information carried by hormones creates an energetic impetus which directly affects the way we feel not just physically and mentally but even spiritually if we are attuned to sensing it.

This is because the esoteric/spiritual energy chakra points and the physical endocrine glands pretty much line up with each other in their positions in the body. By virtue of these alignments, chakras and glands communicate with each other in important ways.

The ancients, especially in Egypt, were very much aware of how the energy systems in the body were connected to glandular function. They found these energy systems or chakras to be sensitive contact points where the spiritual world touched the physical world. They even had a holistic understanding of the significance of glandular function and its central role in reproduction and also in consciousness itself.

The thymus gland is located in the upper chest, behind the sternum and between the lungs. The thymus being a physical counterpart to the Heart chakra, the ancient Egyptians found the Heart to be a critical activator of consciousness.

This lines up with how traditional Chinese medicine of antiquity and today view the Heart as shen, the higher universal consciousness in every person which regulates emotions and many mental functions.

“Yoga looks at chakras as the body's energy points.(3) And they are located almost exactly where the hormone-secreting glands that connect our mind, emotions and body are situated,” writes Shikha Sharma of Hindustan Times in What You Must Know about Your Body and Its Chakras

For example, the fourth chakra seal located in the region of the Heart is associated with unconditional love and the thymus gland. When this seal is activated or when Heart is healthy and in balance, a flow of love is expressed and felt. And as a result, the thymus gland releases its hormone thymosin. This hormone has been directly related to the aging process by University of Texas medical researchers.

Thymosin is a hormone that helps keep the body young and healthy. Many call this hormone the anti-aging hormone.

But thymosin levels in the blood have been found to decrease dramatically with age. This is probably because the thymus atrophies over time with the process beginning when we’re quite young.

The thymus is most active when an infant is in utero. It is large in early childhood and at around age eight or ten it begins to decrease in size until at about age 20, it is only five to ten percent of its original size. By age 50, just a small portion of the thymus remains with fatty tissue replacing it somewhere around age 75.

The thymus gland provides us with a built-in immunity. It helps to activate the body’s defenses against infection.

Dr. Glen Rein of HeartMath Institute(2) has been able to prove that an irregular heartbeat caused by emotional upset produces erratic thymus function which in turn suppresses the immune system. Dr. Rein also found it possible to train people to control their heartbeat through biofeedback and raise their level of immune function.

The shriveling of the thymus gland is scientifically believed primarily responsible for aging and the destruction of the body.

The thymus gland offers us protection against diverse pathogens, tumors, and antigens, while it is mediator of tissue damage. Though the thymus has the capacity to regenerate itself, it is often insufficient to reconstitute a fully intact thymic function. 

The great disturber of all endocrine function including the thymus gland is stress. Stress can be defined as a physical, chemical, emotional, or electromagnetic pressure which goes beyond the safe reserves of a person and his or her ability to respond resiliently to that pressure.

Stress of any kind and possibly in any amount may stimulate any endocrine gland to excessive or deficient production of that gland’s hormones. For this reason, over- or under-activity of glandular function is a fairly common condition. 

Dysfunction of the thymus gland leads to an increased risk of opportunistic infections, autoimmunity, tumor relapse and adverse clinical outcomes. It is proven associated with severity of atherosclerosis.

One of the functions of the thymus is to process and mature killer T-cells. In effect, these T-cells are the immune system’s warriors. 

The T in T-cell stands for thymus. A T-cell is a a white blood cell occurring most especially in the lymphatic system. Also known as lymphocytes, they actively participate in the immune response. They fight viruses and malignancies.

A T-cell began as a stem cell which then became a lymphocyte in the bone marrow. Through the action of the thymus hormone thymosin, the lymphocytes, having migrated to the thymus gland, now multiply and mature in the thymus to become cells capable of producing an immune response.

What can we do to shore up our thymus gland and immune response? 

Though you may be older and have deduced after reading this article that your thymus is virtually non-existent, you should know that no vital part of the body ever truly vanishes. An energetic imprint of your thymus gland remains where there may now be fatty tissue.

First, consider the power of your mind and intention to will the thymus into robust action. Also remember that, as mentioned above, the thymus has the ability to regenerate itself.

Second, consider that thyme is believed to stimulate the thymus gland. The terpene thymol in thyme essential oil is an anti-age antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial. It has proven effective in treating colds, flu, and respiratory viruses. It works as an anti-microbial for lungs.

Third, no matter your age or thymus gland condition, you can perform simple thymus tapping to activate the gland and boost your immune system. The vibration you create by tapping gently on your thymus for several seconds helps to stimulate the release of T-cells.

With your fingertips or the side of your fist, gently tap two to three inches up and down your sternum, between and above your breasts for 15 to 20 seconds. Breathe normally through the exercise.

…

Endnotes:

1. The largest of the glands, the pancreas, which is very involved in digestion, weighs on average less than three ounces and is about the size of your hand. The smallest gland is the pineal, about the size of a grapeseed. The combined weight of all the other glands in the human body is between four and seven ounces. In addition to pancreas and pineal glands, the other glands are thyroid, four parathyroids, twin adrenals, pituitary, thymus and paired ovaries of women or testes of men.

2. https://www.heartmath.org/

3. The first or root chakra is associated with the gonads (male testes and female ovaries).
   
   The second or sacral chakra is associated with the adrenals.
   
   The third or solar plexus chakra is associated with the  pancreas.
   
   The fourth heart chakra aligns with the thymus from which anti-aging hormones are released.
   
   The fifth throat chakra aligns with the thyroid and parathyroid.
   
   The sixth third eye chakra is associated with the pineal gland which unveils the knowingness of the subconscious mind.
   
   The seventh crown seal chakra associates to the pituitary and hypothalamus glands which work together to regulate the entire endocrine system and encourage enlightenment.

…

Sources:

Dispenza, Joe. Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind. United States, Health Communications, Incorporated, 2010.

Winter, Ruth. The Anti-Aging Hormones: That Can Help You Beat the Clock. United Kingdom, Crown, 2013.

“Ancient Egyptians: ‘Your Glands Are Your Chakras!’” YouTube, 21 Sept. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2No07yt-IA.

Hammoudi Halat, Dalal et al. “A Focused Insight into Thyme: Biological, Chemical, and Therapeutic Properties of an Indigenous Mediterranean Herb.” Nutrients vol. 14,10 2104. 18 May. 2022, doi:10.3390/nu14102104

Thapa, Puspa, and Donna L Farber. “The Role of the Thymus in the Immune Response.” Thoracic surgery clinics vol. 29,2 (2019): 123-131. doi:10.1016/j.thorsurg.2018.12.001

Shealy, M.D., Ph. D., C. “The Endocrine System - Edgar Cayce Health Care.” Edgar Cayce Health Care - Education And Information Relating To Edgar Cayce Health Readings, 16 Oct. 2017, cayce.com/health-information/edgar-cayce-the-endocrine-system/.

Dai, Xianliang et al. “The Pivotal Role of Thymus in Atherosclerosis Mediated by Immune and Inflammatory Response.” International journal of medical sciences vol. 15,13 1555-1563. 20 Oct. 2018, doi:10.7150/ijms.27238

“Overview of the Endocrine System,” EPA, www.epa.gov/endocrine-disruption/overview-endocrine-system. Accessed 26 June 2023.

Remedy, My. “Thymus Tapping.” My Remedy Natural Medicine, 7 June 2018, myremedy.co.nz/articles/thymus-tapping/#:~:text=Thumping%2C%20or%20tapping%2C%20your%20thymus,and%20boost%20your%20immune%20system.&text=Gently%20tapping%20on%20the%20thymus,release%20of%20white%20blood%20cells.

Sharma, Shikha.“What You Must Know about Your Body and Its Chakras.” Hindustan Times, 2 Aug. 2014, www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/what-you-must-know-about-your-body-and-its-chakras/story-a4XKHxkAHJZ5yVBoicJeeJ.html.

Biosaccharide Gum-1: Beneficial Polysaccharide In Anti-Aging Skinca

Polysaccharides(1) are increasingly formulated into skincare products that are geared toward wellness and healing. They are used in cosmetics for film-forming, texture-enhancing, soothing, humectant (water-binding) and anti-aging properties for skin. PHYTO5 incorporates a number of polysaccharides into the five element Yogi Body Gel products (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) because of such excellent skin conditioning properties and benefits.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural bxeauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique holistic beauty tips and offers.

A saccharide is a carbohydrate or sugar biomolecule consisting of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Carbohydrate chains come in different lengths and biologically important carbohydrates belong to three categories: monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides.

A polysaccharide is a kind of carbohydrate or sugar ingredient created from vegetable substrates. The principle polysaccharide or assembly of sugars in PHYTO5’s Yogi Body Gels is known as Biosaccharide Gum-1 (trade name: Fucocert or Fucogel). It is obtained from brown algae by a fermentation process involving sorbitol.

Because it’s a ferment, Biosaccharide Gum-1 works synergistically with other well known ferments like  hyaluronic acid, inulin (a prebiotic) and xanthan gum.(3) Xanthan gum is not only a gelling agent, it’s a fermented sugar with its own moisturizing properties. Xanthan gum is also an ingredient in all five element Yogi Body Gels by PHYTO5.

Biosaccharide Gum-1 can also work synergistically with other actives such as collagen, aloe vera gel, many botanical extracts, certain types of vitamin C esters, niacinamide (a form of vitamin B3 and cell repair antioxidant), and panthenol (provitamin B5).

Biosaccharide Gum-1 is used as a moisturizing active that creates a biofilm or breathable screen to protect skin against dehydration while stimulating cell renewal. Its potent anti-aging activity is often compared to the similar action of hyaluronic acid. In fact, the gum helps to stimulate the production of skin's own hyaluronic acid.

Biosaccharide Gum-1 owes its biological effectiveness to its affinity for fucose receptors—a type of carbohydrate receptor site on the skin—and also from its unique ability to modulate skin sensitivity response through the ASIC (acid-sensing ion channels) pathway of the nervous system.(4)

With an innovative molecular structure the polysaccharide improves adhesion and interaction with other molecules, essentially forming a barrier over the skin and shielding it from exterior stressors that lead to aging of the skin. It very effectively limits penetration of damaging ultraviolet light and pollutants into the skin.

Biosaccharide Gum-1 works to bind water to the epidermis, creating that moisture-binding film on the skin to yield a soft smooth feeling.

Biosaccharide Gum-1 is now well known for being a catalyst for skin’s well-being. For skincare, it’s a comfort and softness boosting ingredient.

The manufacturer of Biosaccharide Gum-1 labels it a S.M.A.R.T. sugar meaning it is:

• Soothing

• Moisturizing

• Anti-aging

• Restructuring

• with a soft-to-the-Touch effect on the skin.

Soothing
Biosaccharide Gum-1 provides an anti-inflammatory response for irritation and sensitive skin. The manufacturer tested for its soothing properties in vivo by first creating an irritation on the skin using lactic acid. With a 3% solution of Biosaccharide Gum-1 applied to human skin, the irritation was decreased by 47%. Biosaccharide Gum-1 in Fire element Yogi Body Gel, for example, helps skin repair after superficial damage from sun exposure, cooling skin by keeping the skin moist.

Moisturizing
A kind of biofilm is created on the skin encouraging greater moisturization ability. The end result moisturizing effect of Biosaccharide Gum-1 is said to be quite similar to that of hyaluronic acid. While hyaluronic acid offers a quicker moisturizing effect within approximately one hour, a stronger hydration effect is observed from Biosaccharide Gum-1 three hours after application. After eight hours both hyaluronic acid and Biosaccharide Gum-1 become equalized in their ability to moisturize skin.

Anti-Aging
Biosaccharide Gum-1 helps protect skin cells from premature breakdown by stimulating the production of certain proteins like sirtuin-1(2) and collagen making skin firmer, stronger and younger. Ex-vivo tests conducted by the manufacturer showed Biosaccharide Gum-1 to stimulate a skin protein called sirtuin-1. This protein is known to help skin cells live longer and function better. 

Resurfacing/Restructuring
The stimulation effect of sirtuin-1 mentioned just above offers quicker cell renewal, a function that continues to occur in skin but which slows down as we age. This cell renewal leads to restructuring of the skin assisting in the regeneration of skin’s barrier function. This action is very beneficial for fragile and sensitive skin.

soft-to-the-Touch
Biosaccharide Gum-1 creates a very obvious and pleasant soft touch feeling.

Though you won’t be able to distinguish it in the Yogi Body Gel products, Biosaccharide Gum-1 is lightly viscous with a colorless to light yellow liquid. It’s non-sticky with a gel consistency and absorbs quickly and easily into the skin.

All five element Yogi Body Gels contain the polysaccharides Biosaccharide Gum-1 and xanthan gum however Metal Yogi Body Gel, whose primary purpose is to provide mineralization to skin, contains several unique polysaccharides as follows:

Saccharomyces/copper, -/iron, -/magnesium, and -/zinc ferment (glucose polysaccharides)
Minerals are converted by a yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae into a bioavailable, low molecular weight glycopeptide.(4) The yeast Saccharomyces provides the base onto which the metal is attached. The yeast is then removed so that the mineral peptide can penetrate the skin as a skin conditioning agent.

The Cleveland Clinic notes that studies have shown that copper peptides, in particular, act as antioxidants and promote collagen and elastin production.

All four mineral ferments (copper, -/iron, -/magnesium, and -/zinc) are used to promote good skin condition providing anti-aging, moisturization, and anti-inflammatory effects.

The ferment itself, even before a mineral is introduced, is also healing, protective and a good antioxidant. It acts as a stabilizer for other compounds, particularly enzymes and minerals. Because of its stabilizing activity and ease of use, it is increasingly utilized in the formulation of skincare products.

“Live yeast-cell derivatives have been shown to stimulate wound healing, but ‘much of what is known about yeast’s effects for skin is theoretical, and concerns yeast’s tissue-repair and protective properties.’”

— truthinaging.com

For more on the importance of certain minerals for skin, please read our article, The Best Ways to Mineralize for Skin’s Radiance and More Youthful Appearance, here.

#####

Endnotes:

1. Energy is stored in plants in form of carbohydrates, including sucrose (i.e., saccharose, a disaccharide) and starch (a polysaccharide).

2. Sirtuin-1 (SIRT1) is member of seven protein families that function in the cellular response to inflammatory, metabolic, and oxidative stressors.

3. “Xanthan gum is a polysaccharide, a type of sugar that is made from a bacteria called Xanthomonas campestris, through a process of fermentation. Xanthomonas campestris infects a wide range of cruciferous plants, such as cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts, causing diseases such as black rot and bacterial wilt. product does not contain any viable bacteria, so there is no risk of xanthan gum causing infections.” —medicalnewstoday.com

4. Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) can detect a broad range of physiological pH changes during pathological and synaptic cellular activities.

5. A glycopeptide is an amino acid polymer (a substance that has a molecular structure consisting chiefly or entirely of a large number of similar units bonded together) consisting of one or more residues with sugar molecules covalently attached to some of the side chains.

Sources:

https://www.truthinaging.com/ingredients/biosaccharide-gum-1

Michalun, M. Varinia, and DiNardo, Joseph C.. Skin Care and Cosmetic Ingredients Dictionary. United States, Cengage Learning, 2014.

“Xanthan Gum: Uses, Health Information, and Substitutes.” Medical News Today,www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320272#_noHeaderPrefixedContent. Accessed 19 June 2023.

“Sirtuin 1.” Sirtuin 1 - an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics, www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/sirtuin-1. Accessed 19 June 2023.

Kweon, Hae-Jin, and Byung-Chang Suh. “Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs): therapeutic targets for neurological diseases and their regulation.” BMB reports vol. 46,6 (2013): 295-304. doi:10.5483/bmbrep.2013.46.6.121

Péterszegi, G et al. “Studies on skin aging. Preparation and properties of fucose-rich oligo- and polysaccharides. Effect on fibroblast proliferation and survival.” Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie vol. 57,5-6 (2003): 187-94. doi:10.1016/s0753-3322(03)00031-3

DiNardo, Joseph C., and Michalun, M. Varinia. Skin Care and Cosmetic Ingredients Dictionary. United States, Cengage Learning, 2014.

The Traditional Chinese Medicine View on Balancing Heart and Spirit with Mindful Speech Practices

According to traditional Chinese medicine,(1) the Heart, the yin organ of the Fire element, is considered the home of Shen—the higher universal consciousness which descends from ‘heaven' and resides within every person. The Shen regulates emotions, consciousness, and many mental functions.

Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural beauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique beauty tips and offers.

Heart and small intestine, Fire’s yin and yang organs, respectively, are connected to the Shen and to our chi (vital energy) and link the Spirit with the body’s physical processes.

We can assess Shen by observing the eyes because Shen is especially projected through them. We can see Shen in eyes that are lively and express love.

We can also assess Shen through the degree of vitality that resonates from the exterior tissues and a facial expression that is calm.

We bring vitality and balance to the Heart through the more obvious methods of cleansing and balancing Fire’s other organs (small intestine, circulatory system and autonomic nervous system), but there are less obvious very important Shen-clarifying practices we can perform that will benefit the Heart.

Heart and our speech are inextricably linked. In traditional Chinese medicine,(1) the Heart is said to flower into the tongue. An internal branch of the Heart channel connects with the tongue, therefore it is responsible for our ability to speak appropriately. This refers to emotion charged speech such as insults that stem from an angry Heart and to speech impediments such as the lisp.

Since speech issues forth from the Heart, we must pay better attention to it by listening to and observing the content and quality of our speech in order to either maintain or reestablish a healthy Heart and Shen.

Since speech is said to issue forth from the Heart, we must pay better attention to it by listening to and observing the content and quality of our speech in order to either maintain or reestablish a healthy Heart and Shen.

When Heart is out-of-balance, we can be sure the Shen is disturbed. This disturbance can potentially lead to insomnia, nightmares, and emotional disorder. We can’t concentrate, our memory is compromised, and we’re irritable and anxious. We are mentally hyperactive.

Excessive thought and worry racing through the mind creates an impoverishing energy to Heart. In severe cases, the yang aspects of the Heart—heat, vital energy and Spirit—flood upward into the head causing fever, headache, irritability, insomnia and mental disturbances. And with all this mental disturbance going on, we tend to lash out at others with our words.

The traditional belief(1) is that balanced Shen gives us the ability to transform, accept change, be malleable, and go with the flow. By doing so, we are at peace and so is our self-expression through speech.

Understanding that our words issue forth from the mind, we can see the condition of our Heart and Shen in the reflection of our spoken words resulting from our thoughts. Our words possess the power to be received as truth and alter life.

We can’t see our Shen but when it and Heart are balanced, we think clearly and rationally, we feel calm and peaceful, and we’re able to cultivate healthy relationships with other people. We speak from the Heart which is honest and true and loving. 

A scattered mind and spirit will produce scattered words and hurtful and/or self-disempowering language.

By heightening our awareness of the words that come out of our mouths, we actually can strengthen the Heart. The scattered mind and its Spirit can be collected and organized by way of mindful speech patterns.

Shen- and Heart-focusing practices include:

• prayer

• meditation

• devotional singing

• mantra recitation (in any language)

• chanting

• affirmations and decrees

• quiet contemplation on uplifting images

• out loud recitation/reading of poetry or sacred texts.

Any of these balancing practices should be done in a mindful and deliberate way. They will not only help calm and clear the mind and elevate our speech, they will help bring balance to all our other organ systems as well.

Well known for calming the Heart and Spirit before an energy healing or acupuncture treatment is the practice of first calming and centering the mind of the patient.

Acupuncture physicians will initiate a treatment on the area of the upper back at the Heart associated acupuncture point.

As ancient as the Inner Classic text, we read:

“All proper needling [and healing] first treats the Spirit.”

In energy medicine sessions, the healing practitioner will always first offer a prayer to heighten spiritual awareness and bring calm to the patient.

Once spirit becomes sufficiently concentrated in the Heart, the mind will stop racing and integrated thought (as opposed to superficial flighty thought) begins. The person receiving the healing becomes more fully present, participatory and receptive. 

By using basic speech awareness practices like the ones listed above along with some dietary discipline(1) we are better able to balance our mental wellness, our Shen and our Heart. We can improve the yin energy of Heart so that our Shen is held in the Heart by a protective barrier of yin essences.

#####

Endnotes:

1. Traditional Chinese medicine references in this article reveal practices and beliefs of antiquity in their historical context.

2. A simple diet with occasional light fasting is wonderful for creating deep, peaceful thinking. Avoiding food habits that scatter the mind or overheat the body will help prevent depletion of yin fluids. Meals with few ingredients, simple and less spicy foods, and refraining from eating in the evenings can encourage healthy sleep and a clear mind during the day.

The following foods are beneficial for Heart and Shen balance according to traditional Chinese medicine(1):

• Oyster shell: excellent for building the yin of the Heart; can be consumed in the form of oyster shell calcium as a nutritional supplement.

• Grains: whole wheat, brown rice, and oats; these grains gently but profoundly calm the mind

• Mushrooms: nearly every form of fungi offer cerebral effects; reishi mushroom is an immune tonic and directly nurtures Heart, soothes the Spirit and calms the mind.

• Silica rich foods: oat straw tea, barley gruel, oat groat tea, cucumber, celery, lettuce; excellent for improving calcium metabolism and strengthening nerve and heart tissue.

• Fruit: mulberries and lemons for calming the mind with mulberries being the stronger of the two. Schisandra berries calm the Spirit and are prescribed in Chinese herbology for insomnia and to add memory recall and concentration.

• Jujube seeds: very widely used remedy in traditional Chinese medicine for calming the Spirit; believed by traditional Chinese medicine to directly nourish the Heart.

• Dill and basil: for a calming effect.

• Chamomile or valerian:  helpful for the nervous person or insomniac until the diet is improved to the extend that herbs are unnecessary; rose hips with these herbs supplies vitamin C for soothing the nerves.

• Animal products like quality cow and goat milk and ghee (clarified butter): to nourish the spirit of the Heart in people who can tolerate these foods.

Sources:

Pitchford, Paul. Healing with Whole Foods. Poland, North Atlantic Books, 2003.