Cliff's Weekly Papers Archives

Cliff's papers 1D: emotional stress release; 2D: The liver

Hi,
Dr. Stoll has suggested I post each week 2 of my holistic health papers. This week (posted
below): Paper 1D, Holistic health; emotional stress release; Paper 2D, The liver.

Cliff

Health Musings (Paper 1D, Holistic health; emotional stress release;
neurovascular reflexes)
by Clifford S. Garner, Ph.D.

This is the first paper of a series on health and wellness, with a focus on alternative and holistic
healing. We begin with some definitions.
The root meaning of the word "health" is wholeness, and of the word "holistic," that which
pertains to the view that the integrated whole has a reality independent of and greater than the sum
of its parts. Apparently "holistic healing," "holistic medicine," etc., were terms first used by the
South African philosopher Jan Christian Smuts in his 1926 book, "Holism and Evolution," which he
intended as an antidote to the then, and still, prevailing analytic reductionism of contemporary science
and western allopathic medicine (the orthodox conventional medical system of sickness care in the
USA).
Health is not just the absence of pain or other symptoms, nor is it just the presence of a fully
"normal" set of biostatistical laboratory test results such as blood pressure, pulse rate, hemoglobin
level, etc. Rather it is a state of wellbeing, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and spiritually,
with a sense of fulfilling one's mission in life. There is little holistic healing in the USA, inasmuch as
most healing ignores the emotional, spiritual and karmic aspects of wellness. To some people
"holistic healing" means using nutritional supplements in place of, or in addition to, medical drugs,
to others "holistic healing" might mean using the services of a chiropractor, acupuncturist,
homeopathic or naturopathic doctor, etc., instead of, or in addition to, a medical doctor. In this latter
sense apparently over one-third of the USA public currently is involved with "holistic health." In this
latter connection, most people are paying out of their own pocket for this “holistic” care.
The best distinction between the allopathic and holistic models of healing that I have encountered
is that given by Marilyn Ferguson in 1978. Her comparisons are partly summarized below.
The allopathic model treats symptoms, the holistic model seeks patterns and causes; the former
is specialized and treats parts of the person, the latter involves the whole person; pain and disease
are regarded as negative vs. pain and "dis-ease” are considered as helpful signals of internal
disharmony; disease is seen as a "bad" condition vs. as a process; the body is seen as a machine in
good or bad repair vs. as a dynamic system of body-mind-spirit and of energy fields within fields (such
as family, workplace, environment, culture, lifestyle, etc.); primary intervention is with surgery,
drugs, radiation (the "cut-poison-burn" approach) vs. minimal intervention with technologies
complemented by non-invasive use of such things as diet, nutritional supplements, exercise, colors,
sounds, aromas, crystals, magnets, energy and aura balancing, psychological or clairsentient
counseling, dream analysis, etc.; primary reliance on quantitative information (lab tests, instruments,
charts, etc.) vs. qualitative information, including the client's statements and attitudes, the helper's
intuition, etc; the therapist is an authority on whom the patient is dependent vs. the client accepts self
responsibility and is autonomous, with the facilitator a therapeutic partner or catalyst; "prevention"
is seen as an annual mammogram or other examinations vs. wholeness in relationships, work and
play, goals, integration of and experience of a unity of body-mind-spirit, together with good nutrition,
etc.
In 1996 the United States National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD, adopted new indexing
terms for the fields of complementary and alternative medicine. Before 1996 they defined alternative
medicine as "non-orthodox therapeutic systems which usually have no satisfactory explanation for
their effectiveness." It now reads "an unrelated group of non-orthodox therapeutic practices, often
with explanatory systems that do not follow conventional biomedical explanations." The National
Institutes of Health Division of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 1996 defined
complementary and alternative medicine as "defined through a social process as those practices that
do not form part of the dominant system for managing health and disease." These changes seem to
imply somewhat greater acceptance of alternatives to the allopathic medical paradigm by the medical
profession and the public (but don’t be too hopeful here).
From here on, and in future articles, we will offer "practical" techniques, effective non-harmful
substitutes for medical drugs, discussions of systems of healing, etc.
One such technique is a simple powerful emotional stress release (ESR) procedure from Touch
for Health which I use on myself and teach to my clients. Lightly place the pads of the forefinger
and middle finger of each hand on the "bumps" directly above the eyes and halfway up the forehead
(the "bumps” are called the “frontal eminences,” FEs). This is best done sitting or lying down to
facilitate relaxation. Vividly imagine, with as much recalled sensory input as possible, the "stressful
event" you wish to defuse, past, present, or future (the latter, e.g., might be an upcoming job
interview, taking a school exam, etc.) as you softly hold the FEs. Continue focusing on the "stressful
event" until your mind has difficulty in staying focused, or until you feel in your fingerpads pulsations
that come into synchronization. Check now on how you feel about that "stressful event." Repeat
later in the day or on a daily basis to continue the defusion, if needed.
You can deepen and accelerate the defusion after the first day's use by slowly and smoothly
rotating your eyes (not your head) in a large circle clockwise, then counterclockwise (either first),
with eyes open, then repeating with eyes closed, while you softly hold the FEs and imagine the
"stressful event." After the second day's use of ESR you can deepen still further the defusion (say,
for a very traumatic stress) by holding the ringfingerpad to the thumbpad on both hands as you hold
the FEs and do the eye rotations with recall of the "stressful event." Of course, it is OK to do just
the simple ESR of holding the FEs with recall, or just the "second stage" process of adding the eye
rotations, without going on to the "third stage" ESR if you wish.
Under the FEs are nerve ganglia which when softly held (not pressed, not rubbed) result in a
greater supply of blood to the frontal and limbic part of the brain where emotions are processed,
thereby facilitating the emotional defusion. There are many such "neurovascular" points on the body
which give enhanced blood flow into various organs, glands, muscles, etc., and we shall cover some
of these in the future. This ESR technique may, or may not, solve the situation for which you
experience stress, but its use enables you to handle the stress more calmly and effectively, and will
tend to give you more energy and improve your body's resistance to illness.
May you defuse your stressful emotions! May Cosmic Blessings shower upon you!

DISCLAIMER:
Information and procedures described in this and future “Health Musings” are reported solely for
educational purposes. The author is not directly or indirectly dispensing medical advice. Although
the author believes this information and these procedures to be valuable, persons using them do so
entirely at their own risk.

Cliff Garner, Ph.D., is a holistic health facilitator and professional kinesiology practitioner. He may
be reached by telephone or fax at (505) 525-1089 or by e-mail at .

Health Musings (Paper 2D, The liver)

by Clifford S. Garner, Ph. D.



In the preceding paper (1D) we presented a simple emotional stress release procedure involving
use of a "neurovascular" (NV) technique. In this paper we show you two more sets of NV points
to hold, plus an example of a "neurolymphatic" (NL) technique from Touch for Health, to
improve blood flow and lymph flow in the liver. Let us first consider the liver and what it does.

The liver is the main detoxifying organ of the physical body. In the light (or is it darkness?) of the
substantial amounts of toxic substances in the food we eat, the city water we drink, the air we
breathe, the outgassing of formaldehyde and other toxins by many building materials, new
carpeting, furniture, clothing, etc., the liver in most people needs a lot of help. Aside from
detoxifying these external toxins, the liver also detoxifies excess hormones such as testosterone,
estrogen, progesterone, etc., partly digested proteins, ammonia from the breakdown of protein,
and other toxins produced internally. In some cases the chemicals produced in the liver’s
detoxification of certain substances are themselves toxins; e.g., chemicals made in detoxifying
alcohol consumed in large amounts and over a long time period can destroy the liver. The liver
has over 500 other known functions, of which we mention only a few.

E.g., the liver can synthesize as much as 4 ounces of glucose each day and will do so if a person
fasts or has diabetes mellitus (which more than 10 million Americans have). A correctly
functioning liver will buffer or regulate swings in blood sugar levels by as much as 65%.

The liver also makes about one quart of bile daily and secretes this into the duodenum for food
digestion or stores it in the gallbladder. Without bile salts only about 50% of fat eaten is absorbed
for proper metabolism versus 97% absorption with normal bile secretion (those who have had
their gallbladder removed process fats poorly for this reason).

The liver can store a quart of extra blood when there is excess blood volume and supply it to the
body when required, such as when a person exercises heavily or has a substantial blood loss. The
liver also stores vitamins A, B12, D, E, and K for long times, and ferritin, a liver protein, stores
iron by bonding to it and releasing it for the production of red blood cells.

Kupffer cells of the liver are macrophages that filter out about 99% of harmful bacteria in blood
coming from the intestines before they can otherwise enter the general circulation. The Kupffer
cells also destroy worn-out red blood cells.

A healthy liver converts beta-carotene (currently hyped in so many articles and advertisements on
health) into usable vitamin A. If you have wondered why your skin turns yellow sometimes after
days of high-dosage beta-carotene it may be because your liver is doing a poor job of this
conversion.

These are only a few reasons why you need that reddish-brown 3-pound organ located in the
upper right portion of the abdominal cavity and extending 3-4 inches left of the body midline.
Actually you can do fairly well with only one-sixth of your liver functioning. If 50% of your liver
were surgically removed (or taken by those aliens in their space ships), the liver would normally
grow back to full size in something like 3 months. What all this means is that it is often hard to
find out if the liver is malfunctioning until the damage is well underway.

Liver dysfunction has many causes besides the toxic foods we eat and the use of drugs, most of
which tax the liver. Prolonged constipation is one major cause. Diets high in protein (such as
meat, gluten, isolated soy protein, etc.) overwork the liver, as do fried foods, excess animal fats,
hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable fats (margarine, etc.), roasted nuts, tannic acid
in tea, artificial sweeteners, refined sugars, alcohol, tobacco and deficiencies of B vitamins.

Louise Hay ascribes liver problems to anger, primitive emotions, chronic complaining, justifying
fault-finding to deceive yourself. She suggests continued use of affirmations such as “Love and
peace and joy are what I know. I choose to live through the open space in my heart. I look for
love and find it everywhere.” The Chinese Law of the Five Elements (much used in acupuncture)
has the liver as the yin aspect (and the gallbladder as the yang aspect) of the Wood Element, for
which the key emotion is anger.

Liver malfunction, or poor energy flow in the liver or its associated meridian, may be suggested
by certain kinesiology tests, such as of the pectoralis major (sternal division) and rhomboid
muscles, or by Contact Reflex Analysis (CRA) through the liver reflex (too space-consuming for
us to present here). If, when you have someone press hard (2-3 pounds for a few seconds) with
their thumb on your back, just right of your spine and left of the right shoulder blade about
halfway down the shoulder blade, a whitened area remains for more than a fraction of a second on
release of the thumb, there is venous congestion and possible liver malfunction (some of you will
be able do this test on yourself, looking in a mirror).

If there is muscle pain when you inflate a blood pressure cuff to 180 mm. around either calf, there
is often liver congestion. Either of these 2 tests may be useful to monitor liver decongestion if you
are on some liver enhancement program.

A few simple aids to cleansing the liver (besides more effective "liver flushes"–see below) include
eating dark green vegetables, black radish, beets (juicing one half large beet and drinking this daily
is very helpful), and daily drinking upon arising the juice of one-half lemon in a glass of warm
water, and drinking lots of water (aside from soups and beverages), and physically exercising.
Some good herbs for this purpose include milk thistle, yarrow, blessed thistle and dandelion root.
Especially valuable for the liver (and used intravenously can even successfully treat hepatitis B
and hepatitis C, and detoxify the otherwise deadly “destroying angel” mushroom (Amanita verna))
is alpha lipoic acid (also known as thioctic acid). Burt Berkson, MD, has written an excellent
book, “The Alpha Lipoic Acid Breakthrough,” Prima Publishing, Rocklin,California, 1998, which
details the use of alpha lipoic acid, and also discusses briefly liver function. An excellent
supplement for liver regeneration, including for cirrhosis of the liver, is SAMe (s-adenosyl-
methionine, an amino acid derivative found naturally in our body), available in health food stores;
typically, about 800 to 1,600 mg daily, divided throughout the day, is needed for this purpose.
(SAMe is also very good for helping in cases of osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, depression,
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, lowering high levels of homocysteine, etc.,–incidentally, some medical
drugs lower levels of SAMe in our cells and tissues, especially bad are tricyclic antidepressants.)
Standard Process Labs makes three liver supplements that are very helpful in various liver
problems: Livaplex (a natural antibiotic that digests infectious bacteria in the liver and helps the
liver heal–maybe 6 a day), Cholacol II (an astringent clay that absorbs various toxins including
chemicals, metals, mucus, and pus–maybe 3 a day), and For-Til B12 (a blood builder the liver
uses to make and strengthen its bile–maybe 3 a day)–these may be available from CRA
practitioners (Regis Guest, DN, or myself in the Las Cruces area). Thorne Research puts out two
very good liver supplements: S.A.T. (extracts of milk thistle seed, artichoke, and turmeric–maybe
3 a day) and Lipotrepein (beet leaf, dandelion root, greater celandine, black radish, choline citrate,
L-methionine, B6 as pyridoxal-5-phosphate, B12, magnesium aspartate, potassium iodide, and the
bioflavonoid uncaria gambir–maybe 3 a day). Excellent liver and gallbladder flushes may be
obtained by the use of Dr. Richard Schulze’s herbal products, such as his Liver/Gall Bladder &
Anti-Parasite Tonic Formula (milk thistle seed, dandelion root and leaf, Oregon grape root,
gentian root, wormwood leaf and flower, black walnut hulls, ginger rhizome, garlic bulb and
sweet fennel seed) and his Detoxification Herb Tea (roasted dandelion root, burdock root, Pau d’
Arco inner bark, cinnamon bark, cardamon seed, licorice root, fennel seed, juniper berries, ginger
root, clove buds, black peppercorns, uva ursi leaves, horsetail herb, orange peel and parsley root).
These are available through the American Botanical Pharmacy, 1-800-437-2362. Another good
liver flush involves apple juice, olive oil, lemon, Super Phos 30, and (to lessen nausea, Coke)-- the
procedure is given in the newsletter, “After Everything FAILS...Health Report,” Vol. #10,
available for $2 from After Everything FAILS Health Report, POB 1106, Dayton, VA 222821;
the Super Phos 30 can be obtained from Twenty First Century Products, 1-940-325–9284.

California flower essences (see our paper 11D on Flower Essences and Aromatherapy) are
valuable for defusing anger and related emotions, especially Black-Eyed Susan, Fuchsia,
Impatiens, Poison Oak, Scarlet Monkeyflower, Snapdragon, and Willow. These are perhaps best
chosen through kinesiology, use of a pendulum or intuitively.

But let's get to our simple Touch for Health neurolymphatic ( NL) technique to help the liver. Rub
firmly on the right side of the breast a band from under the nipple to the breastbone for about a
minute daily (technically between the 5th and 6th ribs). There is a corresponding area to rub on
the back (if you can reach it) on the right side of the spine between the 5th and 6th ribs, but this
may be less effective than the front area to rub. Like all neurolymphatic reflexes, rubbing improves
lymph flow into the organ and lymph drainage which is one of the body's means of getting rid of
toxins.
If you want to add to this liver help you can also hold (not rub or press) for a minute or so daily
either or both of 2 sets of neurovascular points on the head. One set is at the hairline of the
forehead (or, if you are like me, where the hairline used to be) directly above the outer corners of
the eyes. The other set is a single point on the midline of the head, close to the crown of the head
in most people (a point called the “baby's soft spot" or the "anterior fontanelle"). This point is
easily found by placing the major wrist crease or heel of one hand on your eyebrows, wrapping
the middle finger around the midline of the skull and locating where that finger ends on the head.
This NV method improves blood flow in the liver.

For those of you wedded to the allopathic medical system (and it does have its uses at times),
consider this. In 1992, the British Medical Journal published an editorial in which it was admitted
that 85% of medical treatments have no scientific basis or studies to support them, and that many
medical treatments used in England and America have never been scientifically assessed at all, and
that only 1% of the articles in medical journals are scientifically sound. In the USA the Congress's
Office of Technology Assessment concluded that over 75% of sickness care has never been
proven safe or effective in clinical trials. Various studies have shown that 30-50% of surgical
operations done in the USA annually are unnecessary. The bulk of laboratory medical tests
performed are unneeded diagnostic tests to protect the doctor and hospital from litigations; many
diagnostic tests expose the patient to risks, such as from X-rays, mammograms, infections, etc.
Each year 1.5 million Americans are hospitalized from harmful reactions to medically prescribed
drugs, and about 150,000 of them die annually from this. Medical malpractice is the third leading
cause of preventable deaths; medical injuries result in annual costs of over $60 billion. Fewer than
one-third of the physicians in the USA cited by medical oversight boards or the federal
government for criminal conviction, substandard care, misprescribing drugs, or involved in
alcohol or drug self-abuse are given any kind of disciplinary action that stops them even
temporarily from further harming their patients. In the USA there are annually 61,000 cases of
drug-induced Parkinson's Syndrome, 32,000 hip fractures caused by prescription drug-induced
falls, 163,000 cases of drug-induced memory loss or impaired thinking, at least 200,000 cases of
prescription drugs inducing dizziness or fainting, and the cost of such drugs rose fifteen times as
fast as the CPI-U inflation index in 1993, e.g.

The New England Journal of Medicine reported in its October 26, 1995 issue that a drug
(fialuridine) for treating hepatitis that looked great in animal tests resulted in one-third of the
human volunteers testing the drug dying from a "fatal new side effect.” So, as observed in other
occasions, drugs that work in rats and other animals may react very differently in humans.

The present USA medical sickness care system is atrociously expensive (USA medical costs are
the highest in the world), filled with greed and fraud (although there are some conscientious,
honest and capable MDs). There appears to be a self-serving alliance among the orthodox medical
system, the pharmaceutical industry, and the federal government, especially the FDA. In my
opinion, and that of many alternative health practitioners including some MDs, the record of
successfully treating most chronic, functional, degenerative diseases in the USA by medical
methods is truly wretched. The record is better in handling crisis emergency sickness, but much
of such illness would vanish if people ate healthier food and thought healthier thoughts.

In future issues we will tell you of natural alternatives to many medical and over-the-counter
drugs.

DISCLAIMER:
Information and procedures described in this and future “Health Musings” are reported solely
for educational purposes. The author is not directly or indirectly dispensing medical advice.
Although the author believes this information and these procedures to be valuable, persons using
them do so entirely at their own risk.

Cliff Garner, Ph.D., is a holistic health facilitator and professional kinesiology practitioner. He
may be reached by telephone or fax at (505) 525-1089, or by e-mail at .

Follow Ups:

• Ditto what Kyra said, Cliff...reminds me of those Cliff's notes from school ;-) nmi trish 12:23:35 5/14/00 (0)
• Re: Thanks, Cliff! Much appreciated and well presented! (nmi) Kyra 01:16:10 5/12/00 (0)

In Reply to: Cliff's holistic health papers #1D, #2D here posted by Cliff Garner on May 11, 2000 at 16:51:55:

nmi

In Reply to: Cliff's holistic health papers #1D, #2D here posted by Cliff Garner on May 11, 2000 at 16:51:55:

nmi