Welcome to the monthly Freedom From Illness
e-newsletter from Russell Louie and Margaret Auld-Louie at Optimum Choices. This
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Because of the amazing demand
for our "wholistic" consulting and
revolutionary products, we have to limit every inquiry
(e-mail and telephone) to 15 minutes in order to help all those
in need. After the first 15 minutes we charge our normal
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A recent lawsuit against Nestle Purina®
PetCare Company claims Beneful®
dog
food
is toxic to dogs. The lawsuit claims the ingredient propylene glycol and
possible aflatoxins (a mycotoxin) may be harming dogs. While we cannot
comment on the merits of this lawsuit, we can offer the best suggestion to
prevent such dangers to your pet — STOP feeding dry kibble dog food.
In our "wholistic" opinion, dry kibble dog food is the least nutritious form
of food to feed a carnivore. Furthermore, a majority of all pet food recalls
is with dry food. Canned food, freeze-dried food and raw food have a much
lower percentage of recalls.
To read more on our "wholistic" philosophy on pet food, go to the
following links:
The purpose of
this article is not to propose a holistic “cure” for anxiety and
depression or a substitute for Lorazepam. My purpose is to inform
you as to what worked for me in avoiding Lorazepam addiction and
educate you on wholistic options. Holistic knowledge is wholistic
power.
Lorazepam is a
benzodiazepine drug (trademarked as AtivanTM
and OrfidalTM)
used
to treat anxiety disorders, insomnia, seizures and to sedate
hospitalized and aggressive patients. Because of its high addiction
rate, it is only meant to be used for a short 2-4 week period. The
drug works by reducing anxiety, reducing agitation, relaxing muscles
thereby inducing sleep and interfering with new memory formation.
Documented side effects may include:
Blurred vision
Dizziness
Nausea
Persistent tremor or inability to sit still
Restlessness
Sedation
Unsteadiness
Weakness
Difficulty breathing or swallowing
Fever
Irregular heartbeat
Severe skin rash
Yellowing of the skin/eyes
So why is a
wholistic scientist taking Lorazepam? Because of a slip and fall in
2012, I sustained a concussion or closed-head injury. The medical
diagnosis is Mild Traumatic
Brain Injury (mTBI). My physical symptoms included
headaches, dizziness, nausea, light sensitivity, blurred vision and
poor motor skill coordination. My cognitive symptoms included, brain
fog, memory issues, difficulty focusing, lack of concentration,
slurred speech, easily distracted and slow speed of information
processing. My emotional symptoms included a high level of anxiety,
irritability and getting easily depressed, all resulting in
insomnia. By the spring of 2014, I thought I was at least 50%
recovered. Because of a family role change I needed to get more work
done, so I decided to skip my daily afternoon nap that I had been taking
for the last 1.5 years (as prescribed by my doctor) as part of my
mTBI recovery. As an Internet entrepreneur, I also went back to my old habit of getting only 5-7
hours of sleep to squeeze in more work hours in order to keep our
Internet business afloat. As a small business owner I had been
working 8-10 hour days, seven days per week, before the accident. The combination of the above
life style changes
produced a sleep deprivation cycle after 2 months that I could not
reverse due to the above mTBI symptoms. I was in a downward spiral
which all the holistic herbs, natural anxiety/depression remedies,
essential oils, and even the coping skills that I learned from
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) therapy could not reverse. I was headed
for major depression, entrepreneur burn-out and possibly a nervous
breakdown. So I asked
my doctors what I could do for insomnia to get back on track: they
prescribed Lorazepam. Even though we follow a “wholistic” life-style
for ourselves and our furry children, there are times when because
of acute conditions or debilitating symptoms, Western drugs are
necessary. We are not opposed to using Western medicine but we
always look for wholistic ways to return the body to balance and
reduce or eliminate any dependence on Western drugs. The following
is my personal journey in how I avoided Lorazepam addiction and
dealt with the accompanying withdrawal symptoms.
I had been
getting acupuncture for my mTBI and taking the Chinese herb,
Heavenly Emperor (Tian Wang Bu Xin Dan). Heavenly Emperor is used
for anxiety,
insomnia, emotional instability, irritability,
nervousness and palpitations. It accomplishes all this by nourishing
the blood, tonifying the heart, calming the spirit, nourishing yin
and strengthening the will. While it did facilitate sleep and my
afternoon naps, my acupuncturist prescribed the Bupleurum D Formula
Chinese herb for daytime use when I started Lorazepam. He uses this
herb for anxiety, insomnia and gall bladder support when one is
trying to overcome addiction to substances. After balancing my
energetic body with acupuncture and using Chinese herbal nutrition to counteract the Lorazepam side
effects, I focused on balancing my emotions next.
Our sense of
smell is part of our primordial instincts needed for survival.
Primitive
humans
needed to react quickly to the scent of fire or a saber-toothed
cat (tiger). The amygdala gland is the gatekeeper through which all
sensory data to the brain are processed first before going to our
logical/analytical mind. The sensory data goes to the amygdala gland
where it is determined if this data needs to be sent to the adrenal
glands first, for fight or flight, or on to the brain for further
processing. It essentially processes knowledge about stimuli and
situations that are of special importance to our survival. The amygdala
gland is programmed to react without benefit of input from the
thinking part of the brain. So, when we experience a traumatic
situation, fear or any other unpleasant circumstances this is
recorded in the amygdala gland first and then sent to rest of the body
(for example, adrenal glands or thinking brain) to be processed.
Studies at New York Medical University proved this gland does not
respond to sight, sound or touch but does respond through the sense
of smell. Through our sense of smell we now have a way to release
stored emotional trauma in the amygdala gland and the rest of our
body.
I first
started using an essential oil
supplement called Sleep EssenceTM.
It
contains the calming essential oils of lavender, vetiver,
valerian, and Ruta graveolens, in addition to melatonin, a
well-known sleep-producing hormone. While this helped with my
insomnia, I also needed more emotional support during the day due to
the high level of anxiety from the mTBI. I next added the Stress
Away
and RutaValaTM
essential oil blends when I woke up in the middle of the night. This
helped to calm my thoughts and facilitate getting back to sleep.
Because of the stress of running a growing Internet business, I
still needed even more assistance during the day. So to help balance
my anxiety/depression during the day I added
the
essential oils of RutaValaTM,
Joy,
Hope and
ValorTM.
The RutaValaTM
seems to work immediately by passing a wave over my body and
sweeping all negative thoughts towards the ground. The Joy, Hope and
ValorTM
(instills courage) blends accomplish just what their names suggest.
I finally had natural remedies to help me cope with daily anxiety
and depression so I would not have to rely on ever increasing doses
of Lorazepam. When the benefits of Lorazepam started to wear off in
the early evenings, I applied the RutaValaTM,
Joy,
Hope and
ValorTM
essential oil blends to ward off the negative thoughts instead of
taking another Lorazepam pill. To further accelerate my mTBI recovery I
turned to flower essences next.
Flower
essences are a gentle, natural way to assist with healing emotional
imbalances. They are a form of vibrational medicine, created by
infusing water with the energy from flower blossoms. They help
restore balance and harmony,
thus promoting healing on all levels.
Flower essences were first developed by bacteriologist and homeopath
Dr. Edward Bach in the 1930's. The Bach flower essences are 38
different remedies that cover the spectrum of emotional issues.
Since they do not contain any physical substance from the flower,
unlike herbal medicines, they are completely safe to use, with no
side effects. I first started with White Chestnut, which is used
when “thoughts keep going around and around the world.” When this
seemed to help I asked Margaret to pick some more flower essences
that seemed appropriate for me. I used the following:
Elm—overwhelmed, too much to do and not enough time.
Gentian—feelings of despondency with setbacks and delays,
feeling tired, depressed with a loss of faith,
discouragement due to life’s inevitable setbacks and delays.
Mimulus—fear of known things, fear of being judged and
rejected.
Vervain—strong-willed people always have to be right and
need to convince others of their stand, defend their beliefs
and opinions. When this is out of balance they tend to be
hyper and predisposed to burn-out. Restraint is needed.
Walnut—for transitional periods in life, adjustment to
new situations, life changes, brings ease and confidence for
smooth transition with less stress, break the past links
that bind us to old ways, assists release from drug
dependency, remain true to convictions and be master of
one’s life, protection against outside influences.
White Chestnut—promotes tranquility. For those with a
racing mind, stuck in groove, repeating same obsessive
thoughts, plagued by unwanted thoughts, cannot focus or
concentrate, sleep patterns disturbed, unable to shut off
mind, waking early unable to go back to sleep, brings
stillness and peace of mind, good for children with learning
disabilities to aid concentration.
I made a
dropper bottle mixed with all the above (5-7 drops of each flower
essence in spring water). I squirted this flower essence mixture 3-5
times per day into my mouth. Because there is no real substance and
only energetic qualities of the flowers, there are no side effects
and one cannot overdose on them. The more frequent one takes them
the more energetic support one gets. Some of the symptoms of mTBI’s
are there are no filters and it is difficult to prioritize. A simple disappointment, like a
restaurant being out of what you wanted, can feel just as
catastrophic as your car not starting in the morning. This helped me
neutralize the ups and downs I experienced daily. The more balanced
my emotions were during the day, the less depressed I got by
evening.
One of the final TBI
(Traumatic Brain Injury)
therapy tool I used to avoid Lorazepam
addiction
was daily coping skills I learned from TBI workshops and
seminars.
One needs to literally rewire the brain to develop new habits for
dealing with daily stress. Part 2 of this article will discuss the nutritional support
I used to rebuild my brain cells and the horrible withdrawal symptoms I encountered when I
decided to get off Lorazepam before I became addicted after
6 months (this is much longer than medically recommended).
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