December 2006 Newsletter

New Year's Greetings!

An Inspirational Quote.

"Our attitude toward our body, along with how we feel and exercise it, must match up with spirit. We came from love, so we must extend that love and appreciation to our body at all times."

Touch For Health, An integrated healthcare system.
By Nina Lynn

When the body's energy systems are allowed to flow freely and uninterrupted, health becomes our natural state of being. Touch For Health (TFH) is a system of postural and energetic balancing techniques that encourages wellness on the body's global level. To achieve this, TFH integrates the physical, energetic, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of health by combining the Traditional Chinese Medicine model of Chi (energy) flowing through the meridians, with Western kinesiology and touch reflexes.

The Western component of the TFH model includes using muscle testing and touch modalities, including neuro-lymphatic, neuro-vascular, spinal reflex and acupuncture points. This integrated East-West approach links certain muscles with specific organ systems, and these connections also interrelate with particular energy meridians, and parts of the lymphatic and vascular systems. By balancing a specific muscle, balance is restored to all of the other systems related to it, and thus to the whole body.

In 1970, a chiropractor named Dr. John Thie (pronounced 'Tee'), developed Touch For Health. He envisioned it being a method for laypeople to use to take responsibility for their own health. Part of the philosophy behind TFH includes:

• Increasing peoples' awareness of all the aspects of their soul
• Facilitating the flow of energy and communication from the cell level to the spirit
• Reintegrating and harmonizing the multiple aspects of our life experiences
• Helping people to fulfil their purposes so they can fully enjoy life.

Today, TFH practitioners guide people through muscle balancing techniques that include:

• Creative dialogue process and goal setting
• Identifying a related emotion based on the Chinese 5- element model
• Metaphor balancing
• Emotional stress release
• Color balancing
• Sound balancing
• Food testing and balancing

What I like about the TFH method is the ability to balance a person's energy around a specific goal. This brings their unconscious into line with their conscious desires, and helps the person achieve their goal because they become totally aligned with, and supported by universal energy. This holistic clearing and balancing involves the use of the symbolic Chinese 5-Element Metaphors, as well as the Metaphors of organ function, muscle action and the 14- primary energy meridians.

Metaphors are a tool used for imagery when exploring the meaning of our experiences, feelings, imbalances and goals. For example, if we find an imbalance in the quadriceps muscle, we look at the metaphors related to the quadriceps themselves, as well as metaphors for the small intestines and Fire Element, which both relate to the quadriceps. One simple sign that a person may have an imbalance in their quadriceps is if these muscles are too tight - or are dominant and over-compensate for relative weaknesses in other muscles.

The fire Element is associated with all of life's passions, particularly enthusiasm and vitality. A metaphorical question might be, "do you have enough fire in the belly?" This could mean: "Are you having trouble digesting or absorbing things in your life that are meant to be nourishing, either literally or figuratively, or both?" Recall that the small intestines are the organ in the body involved with the absorption of nutrients, and separation of waste material. So in reality, this metaphor could be relate to our physical being (digestion), and / or the emotional, intellectual or spiritual parts of ourselves.

Other questions that might be asked when a quadriceps imbalance is found are "how much fire or passion for life do you have?" Or, "What do you need to step up to, or are you taking steps that are too large?" Your quadriceps are powerful muscles used to lift your knee when you physically take a step forwards, yet the notion of taking a step can apply to all levels of our being.

Identifying with a particular metaphor can bring meaningful self-awareness and insights into repressed emotions around a particular event or goal. Such self-awareness and insight enhances energy flow and balance, and can move your closer to achieving your goal. Emotions also have a major physical component. For example, chronic pain is can be caused by an emotion being held, or stored in bodily tissues. If we can find a safe space to express and release our emotions, we often find great physical relief from pain.

Matthew Thie, the son of founder Dr. John Thie, began working with his father in 1996 to balance the body's life- force energy. Matthew subsequently developed the concept of using metaphors based on the model of the Chinese 5-Elements. The elements are Earth, Wood, Fire, Metal and Water. Each element corresponds to a specific emotion, as well as a season, climate, color, odour, taste, sound, and specific bodily organs and muscles.

For example, the Earth element relates to the emotions of sympathy/empathy, the season of late summer, the climate of dampness/humidity, the color yellow, a fragrant odour, a sweet taste, and the sound of singing. Also associated with the Earth element are the liver and gallbladder, and the following muscles: the pectoralis major sternal (in the chest area), the rhomboids (between shoulder blades), and anterior deltoid (front of shoulder) and the popliteus (behind the knee).

To learn about the other elements and their associated organs, muscles and emotions, go to the radio show free files page of our website to find the free PDF named: Touch for Health, Energy Meridians, and Metaphors. While you're there, click on the 'Past Shows' button near the top of the page, and then scroll down to broadcast number 64. This is the December 15 Total Fitness radio show interview with Matthew Thie, in which he discusses these concepts in more detail. You can listen to it for free anytime.

The Touch For Health energy balancing system is based on the premise that YOU are your primary health-care provider. It encourages you to be aware of, and participate in your own experience of health. Here at Total Fitness, we use TFH and empower our clients to realize that they too can achieve improved health and well-being and, of course total fitness.

A Silent Epidemic.
By James Williams

There is a silent epidemic in our world today. It affects more than a billion people our planet, and is gradually destroying their health. Few doctors are trained to look for it, and even fewer test their patients for it. It is not a disease (yet), and can affect you regardless of gender, race or age. This condition is caused adrenal fatigue.

The glands that become fatigued are your adrenals. You have two, and they sit atop of your kidneys (see figure 1. below), producing a multitude of hormones, or messages, which are sent throughout your body.

"According to existing scientific research, these hormones (messages) are distributed in your blood stream and tell various parts of your body to perform certain activities. Your adrenal glands' primary role is to control your energy levels to keep you alive during stressful events. Remember that no event itself is stressful - only the way we perceive it mentally and emotionally makes it stressful. To help you survive through your stress, the adrenal hormones shunt your body chemistry into emergency mode, which is only meant to happen for a short period of time.

The hormones cortisol and adrenaline (epinephrine) are produced by our adrenals, and their effects are meant to help us be alert in situations when we need to fight or flee to survive. They give us a sense of heightened perception, immediate energy, and incredible strength and endurance. Endocrinologists jokingly add a third word starting with the letter 'F' that is far too rude for us to print in this newsletter, yet also represents an occasion when the hormonal part of the fight or flight response is activated!

When we were prehistoric men and women, the main stresses were from predators. Man / woman was not at the top of the food chain everywhere, and so there were occasional times humans needed to escape from being eaten by larger or more powerful mammals. This is an example of a survival stress, and the sudden burst of energy triggered by the rush of adrenal hormones would have allowed us to run away or climb a tree to escape the threat. Such chases were short, infrequent and so the stress was not ongoing.

Physiology studies have shown that for every minute we experience stress, it takes 60 minutes to remove the flood of adrenal stress hormones from our bloodstream. In the 21st century, our stresses are predominantly psychological, and occur at a greater frequency than they ever did for our prehistoric ancestors.

Five minutes spent in an argument, a deep depression, or allowing anxious, racing thoughts to pervade our mind can take five hours to recover from, because that is how long it takes to clear the excess adrenal stress hormones and transport them into the liver for detoxification, which will only happen when the liver is healthy. Even though that five- minute spell of stress happened once, it primes the body to react to stress faster within the next five hours and puts us more on-edge in anticipation of being ready to deal with future stresses.

What Is Adrenal Fatigue?
Nowadays many people live hectic and draining lifestyles. They try to cram too much into their day, perceive their world through a kaleidoscope of fearful emotions and thoughts, and / or fail to take care of their most basic needs such as eating healthy food, drinking water, and getting enough relaxation and sleep. These are the stresses of the 21st century, and they are sucking the life out of the adrenal glands of more than a billion people on our planet.

The end result is that a person with adrenal fatigue is less able to deal with challenging events (stress) in their life; they are also more likely to create thoughts about the event that lead to feelings of anxiety, depression or other fearful emotions. There is nothing good or bad about fearful emotions, they are just a signal from within us that we need to do something different to move through and beyond a fear. If we consistently fail to listen to our emotions, we continually get faced with the same circumstances again and again until we learn to deal with them successfully. So it makes sense to deal with our fears first or second time around, rather than experience the stress repeatedly.

When we fail to listen to, and deal with our fears, we continually activate the production of adrenal stress hormones, and gradually drain our adrenals and brain chemistry. This damages other organs systems that rely on the production of adrenal hormones, and leads to a deterioration in health, depression, and anxiety. Adrenal fatigue occurs when the adrenal glands are so drained that they are unable to produce hormones at the right quantity, frequency, and timing necessary to keep them communicating effectively with, and supporting other organs and bodily systems. Each person has different susceptibility to adrenal fatigue, and unconsciously believing in the concept of genetic inheritance, and experiencing trauma at a young age can predispose a person to low stress tolerance, and adrenal fatigue in adult life.

The Causes of Adrenal Fatigue
What leads to adrenal fatigue? What are the stress-inducing behaviours that may cause it? There are certain lifestyle habits that either help or hinder. From the list below, note which lifestyle habits you partake in or experience.

• Consistently staying up late at night (past 10.30PM), and getting up early
• Performing high intensity cardiovascular exercise
• Persistent feelings of anger, depression or anxiety
• Eating foods your body is sensitive to and cannot tolerate
• Persistent injuries that cause inflammation, or exposure to toxins
• Skipping meals and blood sugar imbalances
• Insufficient rest and relaxation.

Each of these, when taken to excess, or in combination with one or more of the others may lead to adrenal fatigue and impaired health.

Signs of Adrenal Fatigue.
When a person's adrenals get fatigued they can no longer make or secrete all of the hormones necessary for health, in either the right quantity or frequency. It is as if the adrenals can no longer send their little messages, to other parts of the body when asked to do so. Communication in the body is two way and relies on feedback systems. When this goes awry, the end result is a breakdown in health. A deterioration in adrenal health is often gradual, although consecutive, short periods of high stress may fatigue the glands rapidly. When the adrenals become tired, a person may experience any of these signs:

• HAVING to have a cup of strong tea or coffee in the morning to feel awake
• Waking up and never feeling rested
• Wanting to stay in bed past the time the alarm clock goes off
• Having inflammation in your body for more than 10 days
• Low blood pressure
• Fatigue, either physical, and / or emotional, and / or mental
• Body fat levels don't lower in response to physical exercise
• Feeling consistently run down and low in energy
• Inability to reduce body fat, and / or a spare tire of fat around the navel
• Intestinal bloating
• Foggy thinking
• Thin and / or dry skin
• Brown spots on your face
• Persistent colds, infections or inability to recover from illness

Just from the list above, you can tell that the health of our adrenals affects our sleep, energy levels, digestion, mood, our looks, and immune response. One of the key points to take away from this article is that ALL of your hormones, including your adrenal hormones, are made from the same basic substance: cholesterol. Therefore if a person has raised cholesterol levels it is a sign that their body, emotions or intellect are subject to excessive stress. Up to 20% of cholesterol comes from dietary intake, and most excess cholesterol is manufactured in times of psychological stress and dehydration. Remember that cholesterol is necessary and healthful because it is involved in cellular repair and reducing inflammation; it is oxidized cholesterol that is unhealthy.

What can you do to heal adrenal fatigue and the associated multitude of health challenges? Read part two of this article in the January 2007 newsletter to find out!

Total Fitness Radio: Upcoming Guests

All shows have been edited and are commercial-free, so you can get right down to the excellent information you need to achieve Total Fitness.

Have you been listening to our great guests on Total Fitness radio show? All you have to do is tune in to www.modavox.com/VoiceAmericaHealth LIVE every Friday at 10 a.m. EST/7 a.m. PST OR you can listen to the archives for FREE 24/7 at http://totalfitness.net/radio_show_past_shows. htm.

To call in with a question or comment, dial toll-free, 1-866-472-5792.
Here’s our calendar for July and August:

Jan 5 : Catherine and James , "the key steps to take to be totally fit in 2007."
Jan 12: Michael Neill, Master NLP coach, shares how to have the body you want by revealing NLP tips to get your thoughts, emotions and body in tune for health.
Jan 19: Craig Pepin-Donat talks about the quick- fix fitness myth and reveals all about gyms and exercise equipment."
Jan 26 : Sue Maes, tells us how to harness the power of your emotions when you want to achieve any goal in 2007.

Remember, you can have these experts answer your fitness, nutrition and healing questions answered for FREE by calling toll-free, 1-866-472-5792 during the LIVE broadcast of Total Fitness radio show every Friday from 7-8 a.m. PST/10-11 a.m. EST.

If you want to have your fitness, nutrition and healing questions answered for FREE, call during the broadcast at toll-free, 1-866- 472-5792.

You can listen to the archives of our previous shows for FREE, 24/7, by clicking on the following link:
www.totalfitness.net/radio_show_past_shows.htm

Total Fitness Classes in Atlanta

Yoga Classes: Every Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 4465 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA. $15 per class or $65 per calendar month.

New Yoga Class: Every Wednesday, 3:15 p.m., Atlanta Speech School, 3160 Northside Parkway. $15 per class.

Qi Gong Class: Every Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. 1951 Northside Drive, Atlanta, GA. $15 per class.

Booking appointments with Total Fitness

To schedule an appointment to find out about a personalized fitness, nutrition or healing program that will help you get results, please contact us:

In Atlanta

Catherine Carrigan catherine@totalfitness.net

James Williams james@totalfitness.net

In California

Nina Lynn nina@totalfitness.net

You can also visit us on the web at www.totalfitness.net