HOMEOPATHY AND FEVER
by Lauren Feder, M.D.

When I was growing up, my mother took the advice of the doctor and always gave us medicine at the first sign of a fever. Nowadays, more and more physicians are advocating a different approach which recognizes the body's own natural healing capabilities. A fever, which can accompany many infections and conditions, is a valuable part of the body's defense mechanism and does not always need to be suppressed. Be familiar with your doctor's guidelines, and don't forget about the good old fashioned sponge bath! When I treat a fever, I try to find the remedy that matches the person's symptoms. Homeopathic remedies make the patient more comfortable and at the same time support the healing process and stimulate immune response. Although there are many homeopathics that treat fevers, I have included a few of the more commonly used remedies. more...

For the past 25 years, Dr. Incao's practice consists of using various methods to help his patients stimulate their own immune system to recover from illness. These methods include homeopathic and herbal remedies, hydrotherapy, massage, eurythmy (movement), art, music and speech. These methods used together form what is called Anthroposophic medicine. Dr. Incao is amongst the very few physicians in the United
States, who speaks out on the reasons behind the decline of our children's health.

"In all modern industrialized nations children no longer die from acute inflammations but instead they suffer from a variety of chronic conditions affecting their immune system (allergies, asthma, diabetes), neurological system (autism, learning and developmental disabilities), and behavioral and emotional stability (depression, suicide, violence and drug use). There are a number of possible specific causes just now being debated across the country, such as vaccine reactions as a cause of diabetes, autism and asthma; excessive antibiotic use as a cause of allergies and asthma; excessive TV and computer use as a cause of behavioral dysfunction in young children; and exposure to fluoride in water and to mercury and aluminum in vaccines as possible causes of neurological dysfunction. more...

WHY IT IS TIME TO BROADEN OUR HORIZONS:

SOURCE - Information from Developmental Delay Registry. Tel. 301-652-2263.

A GREAT RESOURCE FOR FLOWER ESSENCES
By Patricia Kaminski

The Flower Essence Society is an international membership organization of health practitioners, researchers, students, and others interested in deepening knowledge of flower essence therapy. Founded in 1979 by Richard Katz, it was incorporated as part of the non-profit organization Earth-Spirit in 1982. Since 1980 the Society has been directed by Patricia Kaminski.

There are four major purposes of the Society:

1. to promote plant research and empirical clinical research on the therapeutic effects of flower essences;
   
2. to conduct training and certification programs for active flower essence practitioners, as well as public classes and seminars throughout the world;
   
3. to disseminate publications about flower essence therapy to practitioners and to the general public throughout the world; and
   
4. to provide a communication and referral network for those who are teaching, researching, or practicing in the field of flower essence therapy.
   

The Society is renown world-wide for its pioneering efforts to develop flower essence research, including an extensive collection of case studies and practitioner reports, seed grants for controlled scientific studies, and field studies of flower essence plants. The Society also offers professional training and certification programs at various locations in the United States and abroad.

Contact information:
Flower Essence Society
P.O. Box 459
Nevada City, CA 95959 USA

530-265-9163
800-736-9222 (US & Canada)
fax: 530-265-0584
email: mail@flowersociety.org
web:www.flowersociety.org

Your heart is racing. Your feet are pacing. Your mind is overwhelmed by what it is facing. Stress. You plow through it and your shoulders tense, or you decide to wait for a calm moment and end up missing an opportunity by sitting on the fence. Long term this daily grind can negatively impact more than just the mind, producing the wear and tear on our bodies that leads to the statistic “as many as 75 to 90% of all visits to primary care physicians result from stress related disorders.”(1) In one study published by the British Journal of Psychology, people who were unable to manage their stress had a 40% higher death rate than non-stressed individuals. (2) Many people think, when it comes to stress, there's nothing that one can do, but that is when Elixir can be a solution for you!

It used to be that “stress” was defined by the number of times a person needed to change focus in a given time period, and 10 times per hour was considered enough to create a high stress environment. Now, we have cell phones, pagers, fax machines, T.V.'s with split screens; it is common to be multitasking and changing focus within a single second! As a result, modern researchers have had to redefine stress as the cascade of physiology within our bodies that responds to how we perceive circumstances, as opposed to the circumstances themselves. “…the body's stress response encompasses more than 1400 known physical and chemical reactions and over thirty different hormones and neurotransmitters.” (3) It is common knowledge that our perceptions can be adversely affected by the stress response - “I was so angry I couldn't see straight!” This causes a vicious downward spiral of inaccurate perceptions and negative, imbalanced responses to them. How can one turn that energy around into a peak performance rebound? It is possible! Chinese Herbs and other tools can help. Here's how. more...

The rate of chronic illness in children has tripled since 1960, possibly due in part to the overuse of childhood vaccinations. The surprising news is that the standard childhood illnesses these vaccines suppress may actually benefit the immune system.

One of the best ways to ensure your children's health is to allow them to get sick. At first hearing, this concept may sound outrageous. Yet standard childhood illnesses, such as measles, mumps, and even whooping cough, may be of key benefit to a child's developing immune system and it may be inadvisable to suppress these illnesses with immunizations. Evidence is also accumulating that routine childhood vaccina-tions may directly contribute to the emergence of chronic problems such as eczema, ear infections, asthma, and bowel inflammations.
It's a challenging medical proposition, but ever since the 1920s, many European physicians and a small band of American doctors (myself inclu-ded, for the 23 years) have avoided using most vaccinations. based on a medical approach called Anthroposophic medicine. more...

"People are social creatures, just try to remember we need human contact and warmth more than anything," Colorado eighth-grader Kelly Ash,
reflecting on the Columbine tragedy

"Education is to light a fire, not to fill a bucket." Heraclitus

"A social issue is essentially an educational issue and this in turn is essentially a medical issue, but only if medicine is fertilized with spiritual knowledge." Rudolf Steiner

"Fever is the purifying flame which renews the body." Hippocrates

I once had a medical consultation with an 8 year-old Waldorf student who had been adopted by her American mother from a Rumanian orphanage. The mother recounted to me the intensely moving story of their first encounter. She entered a room full of children and her eyes rested on a tiny waif in a crib who looked to be about 8 months old, with no teeth and as yet unable to stand or talk. Their eyes met, the child laughed and in that moment the mother knew that "this was my child". Then to her shock she learned that the child was over two years old! "I just took her home and loved her" she told me, "and all her teeth started coming in and she began standing, walking and talking!" more...

RHYTHM - THE PULSE OF LIFE
by Tracey Harrington

When we live without being present and in our bodies, there is no place for soulful, human work to take place. Technology allows us to live outside the laws of nature and therefore out of touch with the rhythms and wisdom of our bodies. This is intensified by modern life and the continual bombardment to our senses. Electronic media and the mechanical "busi-ness" that permeates much of our lives hurls us out of ourselves and into a world of entertainment, early "educational" programs, and a network of electromagnetic currents, non-stop!

The diseases of our time seem to be over-stimulation, over-extension, and a general sense of over-whelm! It is this centrifugal force of our technological age that keeps us more deeply asleep to the subtle conditioning of unconscious consumerism. Now more than ever, something crucial is needed from us as parents. The effect this is having on our children is monumental! There is an epidemic increase in serious health conditions among children today including allergies, asthma, learning disabilities and emotional and sleep disturbances. more...

Many children, especially the youngest, have a difficult time verbally expressing what they are feeling. Art, movement, vocalization, and journaling are very freeing and much anger, sadness, fear and other feelings can be released from the body without too much explanation. Emotions need to be released at the time they are happening, for when emotions are stored in the body, various forms of tension develop that can carry over into adult life.

Another aspect to consider is child development and creativity. In the book Natural Childhood by John Thomson, he says, “From seven to puberty, feeling is the dominant capacity and education should unfold feeling through artistic activities. At puberty the child begins to look for intellectual challenges.” When a young child is made to focus more on intellectual development than expressing feelings and creativity freely, this can lead to a block in adult life, which may manifest in many ways, such as difficulty with creative self-expression or inability to handle feelings internally or in relating to others. more...

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Strangers in Our Homes:
and Our Children's Minds
Susan R. Johnson, M.D.
© Susan R. Johnson, M.D., 1999.
Duplication and redistribution of unbound paper copies permitted.

rots the senses in the head!
kills the imagination dead!
clogs and clutters up the mind!
makes a child so dull and blind.
can no longer understand a fantasy,
fairyland!
brain becomes as soft as cheese!
powers of thinking rust and freeze!
an excerpt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
by Roald Dahl, 1964

As a mother and a pediatrician who completed both a three-year residency in Pediatrics and a three-year subspecialty fellowship in Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics, I started to wonder: "What are we doing to our children's growth and learning potential by allowing them to watch television and videos as well as spend endless hours playing computer games?"

I practiced seven years as the Physician Consultant at the School Health Center in San Francisco, performing comprehensive assessments on children, ages 4-12, who were having learning and behavioral difficulties in school. I saw hundreds of children who were having difficulties paying attention, focusing on their work, and performing fine and gross motor tasks. Many of these children had a poor self-image and problems relating to adults and peers. As a pediatrician, I had always discouraged television viewing, because of the often violent nature of its content (especially cartoons) and because of all the commercials aimed at children. However, it wasn't until the birth of my own child, 6 years ago, that I came face to face with the real impact of television. It wasn't just the content, for I had carefully screened the programs my child watched. It was the change in my child's behavior (his mood, his motor movements, his play) before, during and after watching TV that truly frightened me. more...

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CHILDCARE IN A NEW LIGHT
Cynthia Kruis Aldinger

The Mission of LIFEWAYS NORTH AMERICA

" LifeWays North America is devoted to developing healthy childcare, parent-infant and parent-child programs, and training programs for caregivers and parent educators. These activities are inspired by the works of Rudolf Steiner and the experience of Waldorf education and are supported by contemporary early childhood research as well as common sense and wisdom of many generations of parents."

What do children need above all things?
According to Drs. T. Berry Brazelton and Stanley Greenspan in their book Irreducible Needs of Children, the number one need of children is for ongoing nurturing relationships. Yet, current news headlines about the possible damage to children in childcare affirm that many children's needs are simply not being met. Children are in childcare for extended periods of time each day, often in less than adequate programs. Thousands of children are in centers that shift them from one childcare teacher to another frequently creating a negative impact on bonding. more...

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  PREGNANCY & BIRTH

  Home Birth, A Very Safe Alternative!
By Anna Verwaal

What is the difference between going to have your baby at a labor- and delivery unit of a hospital versus having a birth center or homebirth?

The words we use to describe the experience actually speak for themselves.

In a hospital setting women are being delivered by a medical system that views birth as a medical problem, which needs to be treated. The healthy mother automatically becomes a patient and the obstetrician takes charge of the process.
At a birth center or at home, midwives who trust the process of labor and working on their own terms try not to guide births along a path determined by unnecessary medical interventions but wait patiently, nurture, support and allow a woman to give birth, the way her body was meant to, successfully keeping medical interventions to a minimum.

Women in America are told these day's that having your baby in a hospital is the safest way to give birth. Statistics show that this is profoundly untrue. more...

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  Surfing Through Labor
by Tracy Hartley from www.bestdoulas.com

Getting through labor is a lot like surfing. Even if you've never surfed the waves, you've seen surfers relaxing between waves, waiting and watching and totally aware of the next wave that's coming. As each wave approaches, they mentally and physically prepare to ride the wave. However, if they get distracted and are not paying attention to the next wave, the wave will crash over them, pushing them under the water, separating them from their surf board -- all they can do is try to survive that wave. When a woman in labor becomes distracted, the contraction can be like the wave, crashing over them and causing intense pain. This is the point at which women feel they can't handle the pain any longer, but it's just a temporary setback.

Contractions also come in waves and if you're unprepared for the waves, they'll overcome you. Once you've lost control of that wave, all you can do is get through it as best you can. But if you're prepared, you can be in control and ride the waves, one wave at a time. During labor you will know the next contraction is starting before the monitor can register the contraction (if you are being monitored) and, hopefully, you will be off the monitor more than you are on it. Your birth support team can help you ride the waves, but we need to know the contraction is coming as soon as you know it. Most women will find a way to signal the onset of a contraction to their team, but since you should be taking a welcoming breath at the beginning of each contraction anyway, that is the perfect signal. As the contractions become more painful, you will become more inner focused and tuned in to the contractions. You won't want to take the time or breath to verbally let your team know when your contraction is beginning. So at the beginning of each contraction, take a deep welcoming breath, to notify your team and oxygenate your baby. When the contraction ends, take a deep cleansing breath to signal its passing and to start your relaxation time. If you can stay relaxed and focused, your team can help you get through your labor with the least amount of pain and intervention.

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What is Birth Hypnosis (HypnoBirthing)?
By Tracy Hartley

What Is HypnoBirthing?
Why Does HypnoBirthing Help?
Myths about HypnoBirthing
Photo of a Laboring Client in Trance

What Is HypnoBirthing?
If you live in Los Angeles, you may be familiar with the phrase "willing suspension of disbelief." What this means is that you "agree" to believe something which you know is not true. Here's how it works.

Imagine that you go to the movies. You enter the theater, fully aware that you are about to witness something that someone wrote to entertain you. You know that the actors are repeating words that were written for them, about a situation created for your entertainment. As you sit in the theater, you are aware of the other people in the theater. You may be aware that you are eating your popcorn. You are fully aware that the movie is NOT reality.

But somewhere along the way, something changes. As you watch the movie, you find yourself absorbed in the movie so much that when Bambi's mother dies, you cry ... or when you are watching Jodie Foster being stalked through night goggles, your heart is pounding as if the killer were stalking you. more...


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CHILDBIRTH WITH MIDWIVES: AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME--AGAIN!
by Cordelia S. Hanna, B.A., C.C.E., C.B.A.

Most American women will have their babies delivered in the hospital by an obstetrician. But did you know that 80% of the world's babies are born with midwives? Those countries which use midwives in the majority of births have lower cesarean rates and lower infant mortality rates than the United States. The United States has a 22% cesarean rate and ranks 23rd in infant mortality--higher than many other industrialized nations. The World Health Organization states that there is no justification for having a cesarean rate higher than 15%.

Ask your grandmother about her experiences with childbirth. She was probably born at home or gave birth at home herself. Only since the 1940s have the majority of American women given birth in hospitals. During the "Back to Nature Movement" of the 1970s, there was a renaissance of interest in birthing at home. But childbirth at home is not an outmoded fad of the flower-children. In the 1990s, people are choosing midwives to help them at home, in freestanding birth centers and hospitals. In 1975, only 1% of births were attended by midwives. In 1994, midwives attended 5.5% of all live births, an increase from 4.8% in 1993. 62% of out-of-hospital births were at home and 29% were in Freestanding Birth Centers. more...

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