“Let food be your medicine” (Hippocrates) – Thyme

Thyme has a powerful ability to kill off bacteria and viruses and should be taken at first signs of a cold or illness. It is a rich source of several essential vitamins such as vitamins A, E, C, K, B-complex and folic acid and it is also one of the best sources of calcium, iron, manganese, selenium, and potassium. Thyme contains antiseptic, antiviral, antibacterial, carminative, diaphoretic, and expectorant properties which supports healing throughout the entire body.

Thyme is vital to help stimulate memory, prevent nightmares and melancholy, ease headache and muscle tension, soothe coughs, relieve fevers, and fight colds and infections. It also contains a compound called carvacrol which is an excellent natural tranquilizer and has a tonic effect on the entire nervous system. Thyme is a good source of pyridoxine which is known to play an important role in manufacturing GABA levels in the brain, aid in regulating sleep patterns, and benefit neurotransmitter function in the brain. GABA is also one of the best natural defenses against stress damage.

Thyme is a great purifying herb for the digestive tract and has been found to destroy certain intestinal hookworms and roundworms and aid in the digestion of rich or fatty foods. Thyme has some of the highest antioxidant levels among herbs. It is packed with bioflavonoids such as lutein, zeaxanthin, and naringenin which have all been shown to have powerful effects on eliminating free-radicals and other disease producing substances from the body.

Thyme oil has been used as a local antiseptic and antimicrobial since ancient times and is highly beneficial in supporting the immune system and for easing fatigue and weakness after illness. Thyme oil can also help to stop hair loss by improving blood flow to the scalp and feeding the roots of the hair. Consider using more fresh thyme in your food by adding it to soups, salads, guacamole, vegetables, potatoes, rice, etc… Fresh thyme also makes a powerful and very healing tea. Steep a handful of fresh sprigs in hot water for at least 10 minutes or it can be soaked overnight in a pitcher of water and sipped throughout the day. Add honey or lemon, if desired.

 

*Source: Anthony William

«Let your food be your medicine» (Hippocrates) – Cranberries

Cranberries are an excellent source of vitamin C, A, and beta carotene. They are packed with antioxidants and rate very high on the ORAC scale making it an ideal anti-aging and memory enhancing food. Cranberries have amazing anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties and are a vital food and supplement for anyone struggling with any chronic illness or disease. They are known to significantly boost the immune system and have a natural antibiotic effect in the body.

Cranberries contain one of nature’s most potent vasodilators which opens up congested bronchial tubes and pathways making it essential for healing any respiratory condition. Cranberries are very high in tannic acids which gives them there powerful ability to protect and heal urinary tract, bladder, and kidney infections. These tannic acids are made up of compounds called proanthocyanidins which essentially coats the infection forming bacteria, such as E.coli and H.Pylori, with a slick cover and prevents them from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract and digestive tract.

Since the bacteria are unable to attach themselves to anything they are flushed out of the system and unable to cause any infection or harm. This anti-adhesion ability also help to prevent stomach ulcers, gum disease, and cavities. This ability also helps to prevent cardiovascular disease by stopping cholesterol plaque formation in the heart and blood vessels and by lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol and increasing HDL (good) cholesterol levels in the blood.

Cranberry juice has also been shown to increase the desirable “friendly” bacteria in the digestive tract which benefits digestive disorders such as IBS, colitis, gastritis, indigestion, gas, bloating, and constipation. Cranberry juice has also been known to help treat diaper rash by reducing pH levels in the diaper and thereby reducing irritation. Native Americans commonly ate their cranberries simmered in honey or maple syrup or sun-dried and mixed with nuts to last them through the winter months.

Fresh cranberries can be added to salads, smoothies, fresh juices, and fruit and nut salads or cooked down into the classic cranberry sauce. Sun-dried cranberries are an excellent addition to trail mixes, hot or cold breakfast cereals, grain & vegetables dishes, and wholesome baked goods. Sun-dried cranberries can also be made into a medicinal tea by soaking in water overnight. Pure cranberry juice can be taken straight or mixed with spring water, coconut water, or apple or grape juice to receive its healing benefits. Cranberry extracts can also be found in capsule and tincture form online and in your local health food store for year-round use.

 

*Source: Anthony William

 

GMO Yes Or No, Dr. Oz’s Moment Of Truth

Dr. Oz is no stranger to public controversy concerning his comments on GMO food, pesticides and the biotech industry. It appears that he is now the center of his biggest challenge yet. Having been adored by the mainstream since his show began in 2009, Dr. Oz is now facing his biggest attack to date. Days after running the now viral episode essentially denouncing Monsanto’s flagship product Glyphosate, a group of ten doctors are now publicly demanding Dr. Oz resign from a senior staff position he holds at Columbia University. However it has since been discovered that of these doctors, one has been convicted of medical fraud and over half have connections to The American Council on Science and Health, a discredited industry front group for the pesticide and herbicide industry.

Dr. Oz’s Moment Of Truth

Shortly after the call for Dr. Oz to step down from Columbia University, Dr. Oz released this statement on his Facebook page:

“I bring the public information that will help them on their path to be their best selves. We provide multiple points of view, including mine which is offered without conflict of interest. That doesn’t sit well with certain agendas which distort the facts. For example, I do not claim that GMO foods are dangerous, but believe that they should be labeled like they are in most countries around the world. I will address this on the show next week.”

To be fair, Dr. Oz usually plays it safe on the GMO issue by riding the fence, yet recently he has appeared to surrender to the evidence. He wrapped up his latest “Glyphosate” episode with a final thought commentary stating:

“This is a big debate everyone. Folks who make these products say ‘we need more data before you can make that statement (glyphosate is a possible carcinogen).’ I think it’s the opposite. Not enough research doesn’t mean its safe; it means we actually don’t know! And it’s upon us; it’s our obligation to figure it out before we start releasing it and exposing kids and others.”

Back in 2012, Dr. Oz tackled the topic of GMO’s on his show and concluded the episode with this final thought:

“Let me give you my bottom line if I can. You vote with your pocketbook three times a day. You can choose to buy foods with GMO’s or without them. And so, instead of waiting for data to derive your decision, you are going to have to decide the safest foods for your family on your own. Labels do exist on some products, choose them for now and as the debate follow along I think its worth keep your head in the game because it is going to be a quick-moving field.”

Since 2012, the public has followed Dr. Oz’s advice by voting with their pocketbooks causing Monsanto’s stock price to continually plummet. There is now a clear demand for non-GMO food in stores that exceed the demand for organic products. Adding to the momentum, the public witnessed the largest single worldwide protest against a company and their products in the 2014 March Against Monsanto. Finally, the public no longer has to wait for “data to derive your decision” thanks to the World Health Organization classifying glyphosate at a 2A carcinogen in the same category as HIV and HPV. Doctors, food manufacturers and individuals all hear the starting gun in the race away from biotech and are now inundating independent lab facilities to test their products, their patients, and themselves for traces of the possible carcinogen.

It appears Doctor Oz now faces the largest “moment of truth” of his career as a doctor and a public figure. The wiggle room is gone, having been replaced by a collective worldwide voice, relentless daily pocketbook voting, and data to further drive the final nail into the sealed GMO coffin. Commanding the increasingly educated audience Doctor Oz has patiently built, coupled with now megaviral attention, he stands on the precipice of greatness. A rare opportunity to be the voice of a generation that has been waiting for a mainstream public figure with integrity to say what we all already know.

No Double Standard for Oz

In closing, here is a short list of public figures that have far exceeded Dr. Oz in making, what his attackers call “disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine” in their public statements and actions. To date, none have been called out on their statements and actions by the mainstream press.

Bill Maher: “Obama said in 2007 we would label genetically modified foods which, by the way, Europe has this, China!….China which puts lead in baby food, or some S#@t like this. But we can’t have that in America; even though nine out of ten Americans would like foods to at least be labeled so at least we know they’re frankenfoods.”

Seema Mather of Medical Watch news: “Mercury based preservatives in vaccines may be associated with improved behavior and mental performance.”

Ann Coulter, shortly after the Fukushima multiple reactor meltdowns, the largest in nuclear disaster in history:
“There’s a growing body of evidence that radiation in excess of what the governments says are the minimum amounts you should be exposed to, are actually good for you and reduce cases of cancer.”

Madeleine Albright in a 60 minutes interview regarding the death toll of U.S. sanctions on  Iraq:
60 Minutes Interviewer: We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean that’s more than died in Hiroshima. Is the price worth it?
Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it.

Dr. Nancy Snyderman “Look this is one time, forget the conspiracy, listen to our government agencies, these guys are telling the truth. You know, there’s no conspiracy here folks, just get your damn vaccine!”
*Note: Shortly after this interview Dr. Synderman broke the government mandated quarantine she was placed under during the 2014 Ebola outbreak to purchase a bowl of soup from a local restaurant.

The World’s Most Credible Medical Journal Outlines Bad News For Monsanto

Given the restrictions and the level of control placed upon the disclosure of information when it comes to “credible” medical studies, it seems surprising that glyphosate, the most commonly used herbicide on the planet, has been officially deemed a dangerous health hazard to human beings by the mainstream health community.

“Glyphosate currently has the highest global production volume of all herbicides. The largest use worldwide is in agriculture. The agricultural use of glyphosate has increased sharply since the development of crops that have been genetically modified to make them resistant to glyphosate. Glyphosate is also used in forestry, urban, and home applications. Glyphosate has been detected in the air during spraying, in water, and in food. The general population is exposed primarily through residence near sprayed areas, home use, and diet. and the level that has been observed is generally low.”  (source)

A recently published study in what is considered to be one of the most (if not the most) credible medical journals of today, The Lancet Oncology, determined that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s RoundUp pesticide, is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The study was published earlier this month, and was conducted by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. It analyzed data from studies that have been conducted on the chemical for the past couple of decades. (source)

“There is convincing evidence that glyphosate also can cause cancer in laboratory animals. On the basis of tumours in mice, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) originally classified glyphosate as possibly carcinogenic to humans. A US EPA report and several more recent positive results conclude that there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals. Glyphosate also caused DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells, although it gave negative results in tests using bacteria. One study in community residents reported increases in blood markers of chromosomal damage (micronuclei) after glyphosate formulations were sprayed nearby.” (source)

It’s the beginning of 2015, and after decades of research and warnings from hundreds of scientists all around the globe, why has it taken so long to officially acknowledge (in North America) that glyphosate is harmful? Billions of pounds of this stuff is sprayed every single year, and as mentioned above, it is commonly detected in air samples, water samples, in our food, and even in our urine. So again, why the delay?

Many professionals today have expressed their concern regarding the delay and manipulation of medical research. Despite the fact that these types of facts have been published for a number of years, Monsanto still maintains that they are safe, and a major health organization like the WHO, you would think, would have acknowledged the dangers associated with these herbicides many years ago.

As Dr. Marcia Angell (physician, author, former editor in chief of the NEJM) puts it, “It’s just not possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgement of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.” Others point to the “revolving door” between Monsanto, the EPA, and the FDA, and the fact that corporations (like Monsanto) have their hand in dictating governmental policy. Regardless, the information is out there and it’s quite clear that glyphosate is harmful. (source)

What’s worse, the genetically modified crops have become even more resistant to their killers, resulting in increased use of herbicides each year and even providing Monsanto the justification it needs to produce newer and more deadly chemical mixes to combat the problem.

Monsanto’s Response

Monsanto is not at all happy about the study and they are requesting a retraction. In a press release, Chief Technology Officer Dr. Robb Fraley said that Monsanto is “outraged” and that “this conclusion is inconsistent with the decades of ongoing safety reviews by the leading regulatory authorities around the world that have concluded that all labeled uses of glyphosate are safe for human health.” (source)

More Research

The list of studies outlining the dangers associated with this herbicide is enormous, and explains exactly why multiple countries around the globe forbid its use. For example, Sri Lanka decided to completely ban glyphosate from their country out of concern that the chemical may be linked to a fatal kidney disease that could kill agricultural workers.

A new study that was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health suggests that Roundup, or glyphosate, becomes highly toxic to the kidney once mixed with “hard” water or metals like cadmium and arsenic. These metals often exist naturally in the soil or are added via the fertilizer.(source)(source)

“An investigation carried out by medical specialists and scientists has revealed that kidney disease was mainly caused by glyphosate. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered the immediate removal of glyphosate from the local market soon after he was told of the contents of the report.” (source)

You can read more about that here.

Here is a report by multiple researchers, scientists, and professors regarding glyphosate and birth defects. Here is the conclusion they came to:

“Our examination of the evidence leads us to the conclusion that the current approval of glyphosate and Roundup is deeply flawed and unreliable. In this report, we examine the industry studies and regulatory documents that led to the approval of glyphosate. We show that industry and regulators knew as long ago as the 1980′s and 1990′s that glyphosate causes malformation, but that information was not made public. We demonstrate how EU regulators reasoned their way from clear evidence of glyphosate’s teratogenicity in industry’s own studies to a conclusion that minimized these findings in the EU Commission’s final review report.”

It’s also important to note that much research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, as well as other important independent research, has linked (using the Bradford Hill Criteria, fairly strong in my opinion) glyphosate to autism, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and more. (source)(source) (Please do your research, there are many sources for this claim, I’ve provided a few here and within the articles that are linked within this article)

A report coming out of Argentina explains how deaths from cancerous tumors have as much as doubled in areas where genetically modified (GM) crops are grown and agro-chemicals are used. You can read more about that and access the report here.

“There is evidence of high levels of genetic damage in people of Marcos Juarez, which may result from unintentional exposure to pesticides. ” – Fernando Manas, PhD National University of Rio Cuarto (source)

A study was published in November 2012 in the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology, titled Long Term Toxicity of Roundup Herbicide and a Roundup-Tolerant genetically modified maize, by Gilles-Eric Seralini and his team of researchers at France’s Caen University. It was a very significant study that made a lot of noise worldwide, the first of its kind under controlled conditions that examined the possible effects of a GMO maize diet treated with Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide. After going through such a rigorous review process and remaining published for a long time, the study was retracted. Hundreds of scientists around the world condemned the retraction, and the study was then republished, updated, and all criticisms were answered.

The chronic toxicity study examined the health impacts on rats of eating  commercialized genetically modified (GM) maize, alongside Monsanto’s NK603 glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup.

The study found severe liver and kidney damage, as well as hormonal disturbances, in rats fed with GM maize in conjunction with low levels of Roundup – levels that were below those permitted in most drinking water across Europe. Results also indicated high rates of large tumors and mortality in most treatment groups.

You can read more about this story, and access the studies here.  And as you can see from the quote taken from the WHO/The Lancet, multiple studies in animal models have shown these dangers, as well as multiple studies using human cells. There is obviously cause for concern here.

To access and read about more studies linking agricultural pesticides (and more) to autism, click here.

Children today are sicker than they were a generation ago. From childhood cancers to autism, birth defects and asthma, a wide range of childhood diseases and disorders are on the rise. Our assessment of the latest science leaves little room for doubt; pesticides are one key driver of this sobering trend.” October 2012 report by Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) (source)(source)

There is a lot of information to support these claims, so hopefully this gets you off to a good start if you are interested in doing more research.

Sources:

http://www.nature.com/news/widely-used-herbicide-linked-to-cancer-1.17181

*All other sources are linked within the article.

5 Of The Most Underrated Medicinal Plants

There are thousands, if not millions, of plants which boast amazing medicinal uses for almost any ailment that you can think of. Before reaching out for that prescription drug or cream, do your body a favour and look into some of these amazing natural alternatives first! The best part about healing in this natural way is that many plants and herbs can be grown yourself, or can be purchased in a higher potency essential oil form. There is also a much lower risk for potential side effects, provided you are not allergic to the plant in question. Here are the top 5 most underrated medicinal plants!

 1. Ginger

Ginger is an amazing spice to cook with. Not only does it taste great (especially when paired with garlic), it has a whole bunch of amazing medicinal benefits. Ginger is very commonly known for its ability to quell nausea, but it also has antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-parasitic properties, and is anti-inflammatory as well! These are just a few of the many amazing uses for ginger.

The anti-inflammatory effects make ginger an incredible supplement for joint pain, menstrual pain, migraines, and more. Ginger is also great for people who suffer from indigestion; it contains protein-digesting enzymes and assists with stimulating your stomach to empty its contents.

 2. Peppermint

Peppermint has many benefits to the respiratory system, for coughs, colds asthma, allergies, and tuberculosis. Rubbing peppermint oil on the chest can assist with these things. Peppermint oil has also been known to work wonders on digestive health, especially those with IBS. Peppermint tea can ease abdominal pain associated with digestion and offers gas relief.

Peppermint leaves, tea, and oil are all very easy to find. It is also very easy to grow your own peppermint in your garden! An added bonus to this is that it smells lovely and helps to keep unwanted pests away.

 3. Chamomile

Chamomile has long been admired for its ability to relieve stress and make you feel relaxed, but did you know that it has a wide array of other benefits as well? According to a government organization in Germany known as Commission E, chamomile has been approved for reducing swelling on the skin and fighting bacteria! It is a powerful anti-inflammatory and also has anti-bacterial, anti-allergenic, anti-spasmodic, and sedative properties. It has been used to treat various skin disorders such as: psoriasis, eczema, chickenpox, diaper rash, and many others.

4. Thyme

Thyme is not only great for cooking, providing a wonderful flavor and aroma to your savory dishes, but it contains many beneficial flavonoids for your health! Some of these flavonoids include: apigen, naringen, and leteolin, along with thymonin, which as been shown to protect and increase the percentage of healthy fats found in cell membranes.

Thyme also contains many nutrients including vitamin C, vitamin A, iron, manganese, copper and dietary fiber.

Thyme oil also has a wide variety of topical uses including relief from problems of gout, bites, sores, arthritis, menstrual pain, nausea, fatigue, athletes foot and even hangovers! It is also a great oil for aromatherapy and can be used to strengthen memory and concentration, and calm the mind and nerves.

4. Lavender

I personally LOVE lavender! It has the most lovely, calming smell and it is my go-to oil for my bubble baths. Lavender oil has been used aroma-therapeutically to treat such conditions as: insomnia, depression, stress, and restlessness.

Lavender oil has been known to fight antifungal-resistant skin and nail infections. It can also be used to: relieve muscle and joint pain, treat skin disorders like acne, psoriasis, and eczema, soothe insect bites, kill lice and nits, boost hair growth, improve digestion, alleviate various respiratory disorders, and more.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23657930

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12662951

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11121917

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=77

http://www.herbwisdom.com/herb-chamomile.html

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/09/01/medicinal-plants.aspx

¿Qué son los Programas? Un reciente estudio demuestra que los Programas son la Herencia Genética del «ADN Basura».

La herencia genética del ADN determina también las conductas repetidas, los patrones del inconsciente que heredamos de nuestros ancestros. Pero en este caso la información se localiza en el ADN basura, lo que nos permite cambiar las pautas de esa herencia de forma consciente. Este eterno dilema entre Darwin y Freud, acaba de ser despejado a favor de Jung, o lo que es lo mismo, ambos tenían razón.

La clave está en la herencia genética de patrones de conducta, emociones y programas heredados de nuestros ancestros, que se transmite através del ADN denominado (basura), es decir que no pertenece a la parte estática de nuestro ADN, sino a la parte dinámica, los denominados intrones y exones, que son capaces de compilar y materializar las proteínas que sintetizan nuestros receptores AMPA.

Este estudio reciente que acaba de ser presentado por Michael Meaney y Moshe Szyf y publicado en Mayo de 2013, al que ha dado amplia difusión la revista científica Discovermagazine , acaba de dar sin apenas ruido ni aplausos un giro importante al estudio de la epigenética, en la medida en que se establecen las vinculaciones entre los ancestros y nuestras conductas psicológicas, que todos tendemos a repetir.

La clave está en la forma en la que nuestros patrones de datos se generan en el RNA, en los transcriptores dinámicos de las secuencias cromosómicas del ADN.

Si la clave está en el ARN, esta parte es dinámica, y por tanto a diferencia de otros patrones físicos que heredamos como el color de los ojos o el color del pelo o la apariencia física, las tendencias de conducta que también heredamos de nuestros ancestros podrían modificarse cuando somos conscientes de que son programas.

La cuestión es clave porque distingue entre la herencia genética clásica (La herencia biofísica) y la herencia genética tendencial o conductual, de ahí que aquellas tendencias o conductas heredadas inducen a pensar que repetiremos “por defecto” los patrones de conducta de nuestros ancestros, lo que se produce a nivel del inconsciente.

Dejamos aquí el artículo original (en Inglés) en el que Michael Meaney y Moshe Szyf explican de forma sencilla y detallada cómo se operan estos mecanismos de transmisión genética hereditarios.

Destacamos la importancia de este estudio desde el punto de vista de la denominada Epigenética, pues indirectamente sienta las bases de lo que hoy denominamos la Biodescodificación. 

De alguna forma la interacción entre los procesos genéticos que heredamos en el inconsciente y los estímulos dirigidos de nuestro consciente nos permiten cambiar esas pautas de conducta que a diferencia del color de los ojos o del cabello, no podríamos cambiar. Las emociones forman parte de todo ese proceso, ya que los receptores encargados de procesar la síntesis de las proteínas que pasan al ARN son los mismos que tienen la función de activar el aprendizaje, la atención, la creatividad y las emociones.

Esta equivalencia hace que se abra todo un campo de investigación en el campo de la epigenética. De alguna forma, Meaney y Szyf abren la puerta para comprender científicamente los mecanismos de la herencia genética de los programas y nuestra capacidad de poderlos cambiar.

Por poner un símil, podríamos cambiar los programas de nuestro ordenador, porque formarían parte de una herencia genética dinámica (ARN) frente al hardware (ADN) que es estático. Dicho de otra forma, no podemos cambiar el color de nuestros ojos ni nuestra altura o el color de nuestra piel, pero si podríamos cambiar nuestras conductas repetitivas inconscientes que nos llevan a repetir comportamientos y experiencias de nuestros antepasados.

Fuente: Biodescodificación y Técnicas de Música Resonante.

Grandma’s Experiences Leave a Mark on Your Genes.

Your ancestors’ lousy childhoods or excellent adventures might change your personality, bequeathing anxiety or resilience by altering the epigenetic expressions of genes in the brain.

[This article originally appeared in print as «Trait vs. Fate»]

Darwin and Freud walk into a bar. Two alcoholic mice — a mother and her son — sit on two bar stools, lapping gin from two thimbles.

The mother mouse looks up and says, “Hey, geniuses, tell me how my son got into this sorry state.”

“Bad inheritance,” says Darwin.

“Bad mothering,” says Freud.

For over a hundred years, those two views — nature or nurture, biology or psychology — offered opposing explanations for how behaviors develop and persist, not only within a single individual but across generations.

And then, in 1992, two young scientists following in Freud’s and Darwin’s footsteps actually did walk into a bar. And by the time they walked out, a few beers later, they had begun to forge a revolutionary new synthesis of how life experiences could directly affect your genes — and not only your own life experiences, but those of your mother’s, grandmother’s and beyond.

The bar was in Madrid, where the Cajal Institute, Spain’s oldest academic center for the study of neurobiology, was holding an international meeting. Moshe Szyf, a molecular biologist and geneticist at McGill University in Montreal, had never studied psychology or neurology, but he had been talked into attending by a colleague who thought his work might have some application. Likewise, Michael Meaney, a McGill neurobiologist, had been talked into attending by the same colleague, who thought Meaney’s research into animal models of maternal neglect might benefit from Szyf’s perspective.

Michael Meaney, neurobiologist.

Owen Egan/McGill University

“I can still visualize the place — it was a corner bar that specialized in pizza,” Meaney says. “Moshe, being kosher, was interested in kosher calories. Beer is kosher. Moshe can drink beer anywhere. And I’m Irish. So it was perfect.”

The two engaged in animated conversation about a hot new line of research in genetics. Since the 1970s, researchers had known that the tightly wound spools of DNA inside each cell’s nucleus require something extra to tell them exactly which genes to transcribe, whether for a heart cell, a liver cell or a brain cell.

One such extra element is the methyl group, a common structural component of organic molecules. The methyl group works like a placeholder in a cookbook, attaching to the DNA within each cell to select only those recipes — er, genes — necessary for that particular cell’s proteins. Because methyl groups are attached to the genes, residing beside but separate from the double-helix DNA code, the field was dubbed epigenetics, from the prefix epi (Greek for over, outer, above).

Originally these epigenetic changes were believed to occur only during fetal development. But pioneering studies showed that molecular bric-a-brac could be added to DNA in adulthood, setting off a cascade of cellular changes resulting in cancer. Sometimes methyl groups attached to DNA thanks to changes in diet; other times, exposure to certain chemicals appeared to be the cause. Szyf showed that correcting epigenetic changes with drugs could cure certain cancers in animals.

Geneticists were especially surprised to find that epigenetic change could be passed down from parent to child, one generation after the next. A study from Randy Jirtle of Duke University showed that when female mice are fed a diet rich in methyl groups, the fur pigment of subsequent offspring is permanently altered. Without any change to DNA at all, methyl groups could be added or subtracted, and the changes were inherited much like a mutation in a gene.

Moshe Szyf, molecular biologist and geneticist.

McGill University

Now, at the bar in Madrid, Szyf and Meaney considered a hypothesis as improbable as it was profound: If diet and chemicals can cause epigenetic changes, could certain experiences — child neglect, drug abuse or other severe stresses — also set off epigenetic changes to the DNA inside the neurons of a person’s brain? That question turned out to be the basis of a new field, behavioral epigenetics, now so vibrant it has spawned dozens of studies and suggested profound new treatments to heal the brain.

According to the new insights of behavioral epigenetics, traumatic experiences in our past, or in our recent ancestors’ past, leave molecular scars adhering to our DNA. Jews whose great-grandparents were chased from their Russian shtetls; Chinese whose grandparents lived through the ravages of the Cultural Revolution; young immigrants from Africa whose parents survived massacres; adults of every ethnicity who grew up with alcoholic or abusive parents — all carry with them more than just memories.

Like silt deposited on the cogs of a finely tuned machine after the seawater of a tsunami recedes, our experiences, and those of our forebears, are never gone, even if they have been forgotten. They become a part of us, a molecular residue holding fast to our genetic scaffolding. The DNA remains the same, but psychological and behavioral tendencies are inherited. You might have inherited not just your grandmother’s knobby knees, but also her predisposition toward depression caused by the neglect she suffered as a newborn.

Or not. If your grandmother was adopted by nurturing parents, you might be enjoying the boost she received thanks to their love and support. The mechanisms of behavioral epigenetics underlie not only deficits and weaknesses but strengths and resiliencies, too. And for those unlucky enough to descend from miserable or withholding grandparents, emerging drug treatments could reset not just mood, but the epigenetic changes themselves. Like grandmother’s vintage dress, you could wear it or have it altered. The genome has long been known as the blueprint of life, but the epigenome is life’s Etch A Sketch: Shake it hard enough, and you can wipe clean the family curse.

Voodoo Genetics 

Twenty years after helping to set off a revolution, Meaney sits behind a wide walnut table that serves as his desk. A January storm has deposited half a foot of snow outside the picture windows lining his fourth-floor corner office at the Douglas Institute, a mental health affiliate of McGill. He has the rugged good looks and tousled salt-and-pepper hair of someone found on a ski slope — precisely where he plans to go this weekend. On the floor lays an arrangement of helium balloons in various stages of deflation. “Happy 60th!” one announces.

“I’ve always been interested in what makes people different from each other,” he says. “The way we act, the way we behave — some people are optimistic, some are pessimistic. What produces that variation? Evolution selects the variance that is most successful, but what produces the grist for the mill?”

Meaney pursued the question of individual differences by studying how the rearing habits of mother rats caused lifelong changes in their offspring. Research dating back to the 1950s had shown that rats handled by humans for as little as five to 15 minutes per day during their first three weeks of life grew up to be calmer and less reactive to stressful environments compared with their non-handled littermates. Seeking to tease out the mechanism behind such an enduring effect, Meaney and others established that the benefit was not actually conveyed by the human handling. Rather, the handling simply provoked the rats’ mothers to lick and groom their pups more, and to engage more often in a behavior called arched-back nursing, in which the mother gives the pups extra room to suckle against her underside.

“It’s all about the tactile stimulation,” Meaney says.

In a landmark 1997 paper in Science, he showed that natural variations in the amount of licking and grooming received during infancy had a direct effect on how stress hormones, including corticosterone, were expressed in adulthood. The more licking as babies, the lower the stress hormones as grown-ups. It was almost as if the mother rats were licking away at a genetic dimmer switch. What the paper didn’t explain was how such a thing could be possible.

«What we had done up to that point in time was to identify maternal care and its influence on specific genes,” Meaney says. “But epigenetics wasn’t a topic I knew very much about.”

And then he met Szyf.

Postnatal Inheritance 

“I was going to be a dentist,” Szyf says with a laugh. Slight, pale and balding, he sits in a small office at the back of his bustling laboratory — a room so Spartan, it contains just a single picture, a photograph of two embryos in a womb.

Needing to write a thesis in the late 1970s for his doctorate in dentistry at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Szyf approached a young biochemistry professor named Aharon Razin, who had recently made a splash by publishing his first few studies in some of the world’s top scientific journals. The studies were the first to show that the action of genes could be modulated by structures called methyl groups, a subject about which Szyf knew precisely nothing. But he needed a thesis adviser, and Razin was there. Szyf found himself swept up to the forefront of the hot new field of epigenetics and never looked back.

Until researchers like Razin came along, the basic story line on how genes get transcribed in a cell was neat and simple. DNA is the master code, residing inside the nucleus of every cell; RNA transcribes the code to build whatever proteins the cell needs. Then some of Razin’s colleagues showed that methyl groups could attach to cytosine, one of the chemical bases in DNA and RNA.

It was Razin, working with fellow biochemist Howard Cedar, who showed these attachments weren’t just brief, meaningless affairs. The methyl groups could become married permanently to the DNA, getting replicated right along with it through a hundred generations. As in any good marriage, moreover, the attachment of the methyl groups significantly altered the behavior of whichever gene they wed, inhibiting its transcription, much like a jealous spouse. It did so, Razin and Cedar showed, by tightening the thread of DNA as it wrapped around a molecular spool, called a histone, inside the nucleus. The tighter it is wrapped, the harder to produce proteins from the gene.

Consider what that means: Without a mutation to the DNA code itself, the attached methyl groups cause long-term, heritable change in gene function. Other molecules, called acetyl groups, were found to play the opposite role, unwinding DNA around the histone spool, and so making it easier for RNA to transcribe a given gene.

By the time Szyf arrived at McGill in the late 1980s, he had become an expert in the mechanics of epigenetic change. But until meeting Meaney, he had never heard anyone suggest that such changes could occur in the brain, simply due to maternal care.

“It sounded like voodoo at first,” Szyf admits. “For a molecular biologist, anything that didn’t have a clear molecular pathway was not serious science. But the longer we talked, the more I realized that maternal care just might be capable of causing changes in DNA methylation, as crazy as that sounded. So Michael and I decided we’d have to do the experiment to find out.”

Actually, they ended up doing a series of elaborate experiments. With the assistance of postdoctoral researchers, they began by selecting mother rats who were either highly attentive or highly inattentive. Once a pup had grown up into adulthood, the team examined its hippocampus, a brain region essential for regulating the stress response. In the pups of inattentive mothers, they found that genes regulating the production of glucocorticoid receptors, which regulate sensitivity to stress hormones, were highly methylated; in the pups of conscientious moms, the genes for the glucocorticoid receptors were rarely methylated.

Methylation just gums up the works. So the less the better when it comes to transcribing the affected gene. In this case, methylation associated with miserable mothering prevented the normal number of glucocorticoid receptors from being transcribed in the baby’s hippocampus. And so for want of sufficient glucocorticoid receptors, the rats grew up to be nervous wrecks.

To demonstrate that the effects were purely due to the mother’s behavior and not her genes, Meaney and colleagues performed a second experiment. They took rat pups born to inattentive mothers and gave them to attentive ones, and vice versa. As they predicted, the rats born to attentive mothers but raised by inattentive ones grew up to have low levels of glucocorticoid receptors in their hippocampus and behaved skittishly. Likewise, those born to bad mothers but raised by good ones grew up to be calm and brave and had high levels of glucocorticoid receptors.

Before publishing their findings, Meaney and Szyf conducted a third crucial experiment, hoping to overwhelm the inevitable skeptics who would rise up to question their results. After all, it could be argued, what if the epigenetic changes observed in the rats’ brains were not directly causing the behavioral changes in the adults, but were merely co-occurring? Freud certainly knew the enduring power of bad mothers to screw up people’s lives. Maybe the emotional effects were unrelated to the epigenetic change.

To test that possibility, Meaney and Szyf took yet another litter of rats raised by rotten mothers. This time, after the usual damage had been done, they infused their brains with trichostatin A, a drug that can remove methyl groups. These animals showed none of the behavioral deficits usually seen in such offspring, and their brains showed none of the epigenetic changes.

“It was crazy to think that injecting it straight into the brain would work,” says Szyf. “But it did. It was like rebooting a computer.

Despite such seemingly overwhelming evidence, when the pair wrote it all up in a paper, one of the reviewers at a top science journal refused to believe it, stating he had never before seen evidence that a mother’s behavior could cause epigenetic change.

“Of course he hadn’t,” Szyf says. “We wouldn’t have bothered to report the study if it had already been proved.”

In the end, their landmark paper, “Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior,” was published in June 2004 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Meaney and Szyf had proved something incredible. Call it postnatal inheritance: With no changes to their genetic code, the baby rats nonetheless gained genetic attachments due solely to their upbringing — epigenetic additions of methyl groups sticking like umbrellas out the elevator doors of their histones, gumming up the works and altering the function of the brain.

The Beat Goes On

Together, Meaney and Szyf have gone on to publish some two-dozen papers, finding evidence along the way of epigenetic changes to many other genes active in the brain. Perhaps most significantly, in a study led by Frances Champagne — then a graduate student in Meaney’s lab, now an associate professor with her own lab at Columbia University in New York — they found that inattentive mothering in rodents causes methylation of the genes for estrogen receptors in the brain. When those babies grow up, the resulting decrease of estrogen receptors makes them less attentive to their babies. And so the beat goes on.

As animal experiments continue apace, Szyf and Meaney have entered into the next great step in the study of behavioral epigenetics: human studies. In a 2008 paper, they compared the brains of people who had committed suicide with the brains of people who had died suddenly of factors other than suicide. They found excess methylation of genes in the suicide brains’ hippocampus, a region critical to memory acquisition and stress response. If the suicide victims had been abused as children, they found, their brains were more methylated.

Why can’t your friend “just get over” her upbringing by an angry, distant mother? Why can’t she “just snap out of it”? The reason may well be due to methyl groups that were added in childhood to genes in her brain, thereby handcuffing her mood to feelings of fear and despair.

Of course, it is generally not possible to sample the brains of living people. But examining blood samples in humans is routine, and Szyf has gone searching there for markers of epigenetic methylation. Sure enough, in 2011 he reported on a genome-wide analysis of blood samples taken from 40 men who participated in a British study of people born in England in 1958.

All the men had been at a socioeconomic extreme, either very rich or very poor, at some point in their lives ranging from early childhood to mid-adulthood. In all, Szyf analyzed the methylation state of about 20,000 genes. Of these, 6,176 genes varied significantly based on poverty or wealth. Most striking, however, was the finding that genes were more than twice as likely to show methylation changes based on family income during early childhood versus economic status as adults.

Timing, in other words, matters. Your parents winning the lottery or going bankrupt when you’re 2 years old will likely affect the epigenome of your brain, and your resulting emotional tendencies, far more strongly than whatever fortune finds you in middle age.

Last year, Szyf and researchers from Yale University published another study of human blood samples, comparing 14 children raised in Russian orphanages with 14 other Russian children raised by their biological parents. They found far more methylation in the orphans’ genes, including many that play an important role in neural communication and brain development and function.

“Our study shows that the early stress of separation from a biological parent impacts long-term programming of genome function; this might explain why adopted children may be particularly vulnerable to harsh parenting in terms of their physical and mental health,” said Szyf’s co-author, psychologist Elena Grigorenko of the Child Study Center at Yale. “Parenting adopted children might require much more nurturing care to reverse these changes in genome regulation.”

A case study in the epigenetic effects of upbringing in humans can be seen in the life of Szyf’s and Meaney’s onetime collaborator, Frances Champagne. “My mom studied prolactin, a hormone involved in maternal behavior. She was a driving force in encouraging me to go into science,” she recalls. Now a leading figure in the study of maternal influence, Champagne just had her first child, a daughter. And epigenetic research has taught her something not found in the What to Expect books or even her mother’s former lab.

“The thing I’ve gained from the work I do is that stress is a big suppressor of maternal behavior,” she says. “We see it in the animal studies, and it’s true in humans. So the best thing you can do is not to worry all the time about whether you’re doing the right thing. Keeping the stress level down is the most important thing. And tactile interaction — that’s certainly what the good mother rats are doing with their babies. That sensory input, the touching, is so important for the developing brain.”

The Mark Of Cain 

The message that a mother’s love can make all the difference in a child’s life is nothing new. But the ability of epigenetic change to persist across generations remains the subject of debate. Is methylation transmitted directly through the fertilized egg, or is each infant born pure, a methylated virgin, with the attachments of methyl groups slathered on solely by parents after birth?

Neuroscientist Eric Nestler of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York has been seeking an answer for years. In one study, he exposed male mice to 10 days of bullying by larger, more aggressive mice. At the end of the experiment, the bullied mice were socially withdrawn.

To test whether such effects could be transmitted to the next generation, Nestler took another group of bullied mice and bred them with females, but kept them from ever meeting their offspring.

Despite having no contact with their depressed fathers, the offspring grew up to be hypersensitive to stress. “It was not a subtle effect; the offspring were dramatically more susceptible to developing signs of depression,” he says.

In further testing, Nestler took sperm from defeated males and impregnated females through in vitro fertilization. The offspring did not show most of the behavioral abnormalities, suggesting that epigenetic transmission may not be at the root. Instead, Nestler proposes, “the female might know she had sex with a loser. She knows it’s a tainted male she had sex with, so she cares for her pups differently,” accounting for the results.

Despite his findings, no consensus has yet emerged. The latest evidence, published in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Science, suggests that epigenetic changes in mice are usually erased, but not always. The erasure is imperfect, and sometimes the affected genes may make it through to the next generation, setting the stage for transmission of the altered traits in descendants as well.

What’s Next?

The studies keep piling on. One line of research traces memory loss in old age to epigenetic alterations in brain neurons. Another connects post-traumatic stress disorder to methylation of the gene coding for neurotrophic factor, a protein that regulates the growth of neurons in the brain.

If it is true that epigenetic changes to genes active in certain regions of the brain underlie our emotional and intellectual intelligence — our tendency to be calm or fearful, our ability to learn or to forget — then the question arises: Why can’t we just take a drug to rinse away the unwanted methyl groups like a bar of epigenetic Irish Spring?

The hunt is on. Giant pharmaceutical and smaller biotech firms are searching for epigenetic compounds to boost learning and memory. It has been lost on no one that epigenetic medications might succeed in treating depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder where today’s psychiatric drugs have failed.

But it is going to be a leap. How could we be sure that epigenetic drugs would scrub clean only the dangerous marks, leaving beneficial — perhaps essential — methyl groups intact? And what if we could create a pill potent enough to wipe clean the epigenetic slate of all that history wrote? If such a pill could free the genes within your brain of the epigenetic detritus left by all the wars, the rapes, the abandonments and cheated childhoods of your ancestors, would you take it?

*Source: Discover Magazine

Descubre El Origen de una Sanación Milenaria: El Arte del Masaje. – Parte II.

Parte II.

    El conocido GALENO, jefe médico de gladiadores en PERGAMO (131 – 201 de nuestra era) distinguía nueve tipos de masaje. Describió la metódica del roce, la fricción y el amasamiento de los músculos. Los romanos concedieron una especial importancia a la fricción de todo el cuerpo y los médicos aconsejaron esta manipulación del masaje en la vida cotidiana.

    Según evidencias de GALENO, CELSIO (30 A.C. hasta 45 de nuestra era) recopiló una enciclopedia muy voluminosa (más de 20 tomos) «Artes» en lengua latina. En los 8 tomos (VI – XIII) relacionados con la medicina, se le concedió un lugar especial a la higiene (procedimientos por agua, al baño), a la dietética (alimentación), a la terapia, a la cirugía, al masaje, a los ejercicios físicos, etc. CELSIO fue una persona de amplia formación en su época, para la creación de la enciclopedia reunió a un gran número de traductores y copistas, quienes realizaron un enorme trabajo sobre filosofía, medicina, retórica, derecho, tema militar griego, de autores alejandrinos, indios, chinos y otros.

    Los siglos X y XI fueron el renacer de la medicina árabe. Los representantes de esta medicina oriental RAZES AR-RAZI (850-929 d.C.) y ABU ALI IBN-SINA (980-1037 d.C) elaboraron métodos originales de curación de los enfermos sobre la base de los trabajos de HIPÓCRATES, GALENO y otros antecesores. Las obras de AVICENA «Canon de la ciencia médica» y «Libro de la sanación» obtuvieron una gran popularidad en Oriente y en EUROPA. En los trabajos de AVICENA se describieron de forma muy detallada las manipulaciones del masaje, la gimnasia y la dieta. Puede una idea del masaje oriental dar los dibujos realizado y las explicaciones de AVICENA en sus obras. Las ideas de los médicos árabes tuvieron su expansión en los países vecinos: PERSIA, TURQUÍA, BUJARA, ARMENIA, GEORGIA, donde el masaje se realizaba en los baños públicos.

    El desarrollo del masaje en los países de Asia Menor y Central determinó su dirección en su técnica y metódica, que se diferenciaba de la metódica de la Antigua Grecia, Roma, Egipto y recibió el nombre de «masaje oriental».

    Los viajeros por Oriente, con asombro describían el placer que proporcionaba el baño oriental conjuntamente con el masaje.

    T. REVEILLON describe en 1868 las manipulaciones (masaje) empleados en los baños turcos: «… el «fellah» se coloca en la mano un guante de piel de camello y nos fricciona al principio los brazos, después las piernas y por último el torso, después saca agua caliente de la piscina y ducha nuestro cuerpo. Cuando nos hemos secado un poco, de nuevo fricciona el cuerpo con las manos desnudas, después nos ducha nuevamente. A continuación, el «fellah» comienza a golpearnos y restregarnos con largos manojos de estopa, mojados en espuma de jabón …Después de esto nos envuelve en una sábana y nos coloca en el lecho donde somos masajeados por dos niños pequeños. Después nos dan de beber café con limón y miel».

    Encontramos la descripción del masaje en el libro «Gazzette des hopitaux (1839). Así, en la isla de TUGA (OCEANÍA), el masaje se realiza de la siguiente manera: «…Cuando, alguien se siente cansado de la marcha o de cualquier otra tensión, se tiende y sus mujeres le realizan, durante un rato, diferentes manipulaciones que se conocen con el nombre de toogi-toogi, mili o fota. La primera de estas palabras significa un ligero golpeteo del cuerpo con los puños, la segunda la fricción con la palma, la tercera es presionar y estrujar la epidermis con los dedos (amasamiento). Para la eliminación del cansancio actuaban sólo sobre los brazos y las piernas. Para los dolores de cabeza amasaban la frente y el cuero cabelludo. También el cansado se tendía en la hierba y se obligaba a tres o cuatro niños pequeños a pisar su espalda».

    En su diario, el viajero ruso N.N. MIKLUJO-MAKLAI describe de esta manera el masaje de los indígenas en NUEVA GUINEA: » Una chica joven vino hacia mi y cogiendo con las dos manos mi cabeza, comenzó a apretarla de forma periódica con todas sus fuerzas. Deja mi cabeza a su total disposición. Pasó de las presiones a la fricción de la piel de la cabeza con dos dedos, después la masajista presionó el lugar amasado, tanto como pudo. Cuando su mano esta cansada, comenzó a hacer esto con la mano izquierda, y aprecié que la fuerza de los dedos de la mano izquierda no era menor que la de los dedos de la mano derecha. La sensación fue placentera: con esto comencé a dejar de sentir el dolor e incluso no pensé en el aceite de coco y ocre con que estaban embadurnadas sus manos».

    Según la descripción de los viajeros, el masaje en calidad de remedio curativo, se adoptó por los indígenas de diferentes tribus de AFRICA DEL SUR. Este masaje en una serie de casos recordaba a una terrible tortura, pero según el convencimiento de los que recibieron el masaje les proporcionó un alivio.

 En la AMÉRICA precolombina, los médicos aztecas («koleuala») emplearon ampliamente el masaje (en forma de fricciones) con medios vegetales analgésicos.

    El escritor ruso, A.S. PUSHKIN, con motivo de su viaje a ARZRUM en 1829 describió el masaje oriental que él experimentó en los baños de TBILISI : «Hassan… comenzó colocándome sobre un suelo de piedra caliente, después de lo cual comenzó a doblarme los miembros, a estirarme las articulaciones, a golpearme fuerte con el puño; yo no sentía ni el más pequeño dolor, sino un alivio asombroso.

    Los bañistas asiáticos llegan algunas veces a caer en el éxtasis, sentándole sobre los hombros, resbalan con las piernas sobre las caderas y bailan la prisiadka (baile ruso)…Después de eso me frotó mucho rato con una manopla de lana, y salpicándome fuerte con agua, comenzó a lavarme con un lienzo mojado en espuma de jabón. La sensación es indescriptible: el jabón caliente te envuelve como si fuese aire. La manopla de lana y el lienzo con espuma deben ser utilizados en el baño ruso: los expertos van a estar agradecidos con esta nueva introducción. Tras la espuma HASSAN me abandonó en el baño y así terminó la ceremonia».

 Para los antiguos eslavos, siendo, según la historia, un pueblo fuerte y sano, que vivió en condiciones de un clima muy severo, el masaje y el baño se empleaba con el objetivo de templar el organismo.

    Por el nivel de la higiene y la sanidad, el antiguo estado ruso en los siglos X – XIV, estaba más adelantado que muchos países de la Europa Occidental.

    Una parte inseparable de la vida cotidiana de la ex- Unión Soviética, era el baño ruso de vapor, que desde antiguo se consideraba un excelente método médico. El baño era el sitio más limpio en la hacienda. Por eso en relación con su destino directo se empleaba como lugar donde se paría, se practicaban los primeros cuidados a los recién nacidos, se corregían las luxaciones, se realizaban las sangrías, se aplicaba el masaje, se curaban los resfriados y enfermedades de las articulaciones, se untaban los medicamentos, cocidos de hierbas, aceites, etc.

    En la literatura antigua rusa del siglo XII, se tienen evidencias acerca de mujeres médicos, abuelas curanderas, que practicaban el masaje con habilidad.

    Durante toda la Edad Media, tanto el masaje como los ejercicios físicos, prácticamente dejaron de usarse en Europa por el puritanismo mal entendido de aquella época. Sólo con la aparición en los siglos XIV – XV de los trabajos sobre anatomía de MONDI de SIUCHI, BERTUCHINO y PIETRO EGILAT, apareció cierto interés en la gimnasia terapéutica y el masaje. DE CHOUL, consejero del Rey Enrique II, escribió un libro sobre los baños y ejercicios corporales de los antiguos griegos y romanos. Por su parte A. Rage, fundador de la cirugía, en el siglo XVI, describió el masaje y su acción sobre el organismo humano. En este mismo siglo el conocido MERCULIUS, recopiló toda la literatura de aquel tiempo sobre el masaje y la gimnasia y escribió la conocida obra «Arte de la Gimnasia», en la que describió tres tipos de fricción, suave, fuerte y media.

    Por fin en el siglo XVIII, el masaje de nuevo despertó el interés de los médicos de Europa, entre los cuales se encontraba el inglés Fuller, autor del libro «Gimnasia médica». Poco después el francés Tissot creó «Gimnasia médica o ejercicios para corrección de los órganos humanos según las leyes de la fisiología, la higiene y la terapéutica», en la que de forma muy detallada exponía el uso del masaje.

    El famoso Paracelso en su libro «Liber de vita longa, expone los beneficios del masaje en el cuerpo humano.

    Se podrían seguir citando cientos de ejemplos de obras médicas donde se prescribía el uso del masaje pero sólo citaremos algunos más que son más significativos como por ejemplo el libro chino Cong – Fou (3000 antes de nuestra era), traído por unos misioneros en 1776 y que sirvió a P. Ling como base para la creación de la escuela sueca de gimnasia y masaje, aunque nunca mencionó ni una sola palabra acerca del libro y de sus autores. Los trabajos de Ling, sufrieron duras críticas por su falta de formación médica.

    Fue a partir de mediados del siglo XIX que los médicos intentaron dar unas bases científicas a los procesos que tenían lugar en el organismo como consecuencia del masaje.

    Aparecieron por todo el mundo cientos de libros acerca de la importancia del masaje para unas u otras dolencias y sobre los éxitos de su empleo. En el siglo XX, hace su aparición el llamado masaje clásico, cuya creación y fundamentos en bases fisiológicas hay que atribuir al Cirujano ruso ZABLUDOVSKI y a la doctora holandesa J. MEZGER.

    En la actualidad las tendencias predominantes en casi todo el mundo, son las conocidas como «terapias orientales» (el masaje tailandés- en sus diferentes modalidades-, el ayurvédico, indú, tuina, shiatsu, hawaiano, entre otros); sin embargo dentro de las modalidades occidentales más extendidas, encontramos el masaje sueco, que integra vigorosas maniobras, trabajando además en intensidad los troncos nerviosos. El masaje alemán es muy concreto y racionalizado en su campo de aplicación y recursos, siendo asimismo vigoroso y energético. El masaje francés, muy moderado y gradual en sus aplicaciones. También en los EE.UU. ha tomado un gran incremento tanto la línea de masaje sueco y alemán junto con otras modalidades autóctonas, asi como en España se ha visto un incremento por la tendencia del Quiromasaje y el Shiatsu. Sin embargo cada vez más se ve un gran crecimiento por la búsqueda de una tendencia de vida y salud de enfoque holístico y natural, lo que nos lleva a un «boom»  prácticamente mundial de las terapias orientales, conocidas también como medicina alternativa y hoy reconocida como medicina integrativa.

Descubre El Origen de una Sanación Milenaria: El Arte del Masaje.

 

Parte I.

    El masaje como medio curativo  ya era conocido en la más remota antigüedad. El concepto de masaje procede, en opinión de algunos autores de la palabra latina «massa» – pegarse a los dedos, mientras en opinión de otros, procede del vocablo ruso «masso» – apretar con las manos aunque lo más probable es que en el origen de la misma definición se encuentre la palabra árabe «mass» ó «masch» que significa «apretar suavemente». Todos estos términos, cada uno a su manera, refleja en cierto grado la esencia del masaje.

    El masaje apareció junto con otros tipos de medicina popular en tiempos inmemoriales. Se tienen noticias sobre el empleo del masaje por pueblos que habitaban en las islas del Océano Pacífico y hay evidencias del significado sobrenatural que tenía el masaje para los pueblos primitivos.

    Ampliamente difundido entre la población de Indonesia, el masaje se empleó en forma de método general o local e incluía el amasamiento, la presión, la fricción y la caricia.

    La gente, no teniendo otros métodos de curación, recurría en las diferentes circunstancias de la vida al único recurso que le era accesible – a las manos. El masaje en su forma original,  surgió como recurso terapéutico en los albores del desarrollo de la humanidad. Según la tradición, la gente, intentando aliviar el dolor, realizaba fricciones y percusiones en el lugar del trauma.

    En la antigua India, en los tratados médicos, reunidos bajo el nombre de «Ayurveda» (conocimiento de la Vida), se describen detalladamente manipulaciones de masaje. Eran ampliamente conocidos los trabajos de SUSHRUTA. El fundador de la cirugía hindú. SUSHRUTA habla detalladamente del roce (fricción) y de la presión (amasamientos) como variedades del masaje, dando además indicaciones para el empleo de estas manipulaciones para distintas enfermedades. En las indicaciones especiales, dirigidas a los masajistas, se manifiestan las exigencias no sólo de saber realizar un masaje, sino de tratar de perfeccionarse, de prestar una gran atención a la higiene personal. Durante muchos milenios, los brahmanes de la antigua India emplearon el masaje, ejercicios corporales y gimnasia respiratoria para la curación de diferentes dolencias.

    C. Dally describe la aplicación del masaje por los hindúes. Así cuando Alexander de Macedonia entró en el año 327 antes de nuestra era, en La India, sus guerreros sufrieron las picaduras de las serpientes. Los hindúes, «brahmanes» (sacerdotes) curaban las picaduras con medios asombrosos, a través de diferentes técnicas de masajes.

    A los combatientes, antes de entrar en la batalla, les aplicaban un masaje de la siguiente manera: el soldado se sentaba en cuclillas en el suelo, recogiendo las piernas, otro soldado le friccionaba con arcilla y después le amasaba los músculos de los brazos, el pecho, la espalda, el abdomen, la cadera. Una o dos personas golpeaba los músculos de forma longitudinal a sus fibras. Después el guerrero se acostaba sobre el abdomen y otro se subía en su espalda y de forma lenta le amasaba la misma con los pies desnudos.

    Para las enfermedades, amasaban todo el cuerpo del enfermo de forma suave, comenzando por las extremidades superiores y descendiendo. A continuación realizaban movilizaciones activas y pasivas.

    Los chinos copiaron el masaje de los hindúes, incluyendo «el estiramiento de las articulaciones». Sobre el masaje de los chinos han tratado Hull, Pauthier, Davis, Haussmann y muchos otros europeos. Los chinos frotaban con las manos todo el cuerpo, presionaban ligeramente en distintos músculos y estiraban las articulaciones. El estiramiento se acompañaba con golpeteos. Lepage (1813) en sus investigaciones sobre la medicina china señaló que el masaje es una forma especial de manipulación, consistente en que las diferentes articulaciones del cuerpo se friccionan o amasan de forma lenta y suave con los puños apretados, además de estirar con bastante fuerza los diferentes miembros (articulaciones)

    En La India y China el masaje lo realizaban los clérigos o sacerdotes. En esos tiempos remotos ya existían escuelas en las que se enseñaba el masaje, la gimnasia y la terapia mecánica.

    Siempre se ha considerado que la medicina preventiva nació en la antigua China. Los chinos prestaron mucha atención a la prevención de las enfermedades. El aforismo «… el auténtico médico no es aquel que sana al enfermo, sino aquel que previene la enfermedad», pertenece a los chinos. Ampliamente hicieron propaganda de la higiene personal, de la hidroterapia, de la dietética, de la gimnasia y del masaje. En el siglo VI antes de nuestra era, Bian Tsiao en el libro «Nan Tszin»(«Sobre lo difícil») presta mucha atención al masaje curativo.

    En el siglo VI de nuestra era, por primera vez en el mundo, en China se creó un Instituto Médico Estatal, donde los estudiantes, que se especializaban en la curación de las diferentes enfermedades, estudiaban como asignatura obligatoria el masaje terapéutico. En la antigua China casi en todas las provincias tenían escuelas de gimnasia médica, donde se preparaban los médicos – «taosse» que practicaban el masaje y la gimnasia médica. Estas instituciones de gimnasia médica aparecían como centros de curación.

    En el siglo XVI de nuestra Era, se edita la enciclopedia «San – Tsai – Tu – Goshi»en 64 tomos. En esta enciclopedia, se sistematizaban las manipulaciones del masaje – fricción, amasamiento, percusión, vibración, movimientos pasivos, se exponían la técnica y la metódica del antiguo masaje chino.

    El masaje fue conocido también en el antiguo Egipto, Abisinia, Libia y otros países hasta 12 siglos antes de nuestra era. Esto se evidencia por la representación de diferentes manipulaciones de masaje en los papiros y relieves de alabastro, que adornaban las tumbas reales.

    En las cartas de Mukallim, profesor de medicina, cuenta como en un templo cerca de Nippura (Antigua Mesopotamia), se dan recomendaciones para el masaje y ungüento de aceites en los traumas y enfermedades.

    En 1841, en las excavaciones de un enterramiento de un jefe militar egipcio se encontró un papiro con la representación de manipulaciones de masaje – roce en los gemelos, fricciones en los pies, percusiones en los glúteos y espalda.

    Savary (1870) en sus cartas sobre Egipto describe de esta forma el empleo de los baños y el masaje «…el bañista atraviesa una serie de salas calientes, en la última, le lavan, le exprimen y amasan con un esmero inusual, le estiran los miembros y le obligan a hacer sonar las articulaciones».

    Desde Egipto, el masaje junto con la fricción con aceite y cremas, y el amplio empleo de los baños, pasó a la antigua Grecia, donde en combinación con la gimnasia constituye uno de las más importantes ramas de la práctica médica. Los más grandes médicos de la antigua Grecia consideraron al masaje como uno de los elementos imprescindibles de la cultura helénica. El primer propagandista del masaje para personas enfermas y sanas fue Herodikos (484 – 425 A.N.E.) quién, él mismo, diariamente recibía masajes y practicaba ejercicio físico.  Según las crónicas, gozaba de una salud perfecta.

    En los poemas de Homero se habla de cómo Circea, en el baño, masajeaba a Odisea con aceites y le untaba cremas; también relata como las mujeres frotaban el cuerpo de los guerreros antes de los combates.

    Durante el tiempo de Hipócrates, el masaje se empleaba con fines higiénicos y curativos (en caso de enfermedades de las articulaciones y luxaciones). Así, Hipócrates escribió: «…la articulación puede ser contracturada y relajada con el masaje. La fricción provoca la contractura o relajación de los tejidos, lleva al adelgazamiento o al engorde, la fricción seca y frecuente provoca contractura y la suave, delicada y comedida aumenta el grosor de los tejidos». Oribaz también hizo mucha propaganda a los tejidos, viviendo durante el periodo del emperador Julian. El masaje (o apoterapia) en la antigua Grecia, como norma, se aplicaba en los baños en combinación con ejercicios físicos de carácter activo o pasivo, así como con la unción con aceites y cremas. En los antiguos griegos los baños estaban consagrados a Hércules.

    Los médicos griegos (Asclepiades y sus alumnos) abrieron en la antigua Roma su escuela de masaje. Asclepiades (128 – 56 A.C.) practicaba el masaje seco y con aceites, fuerte y flojo, breve y prolongado; Celsio recomendaba la fricción para la eliminación de depósitos y transpiración en los tejidos. Precisamente los romanos introdujeron el masaje en el sistema de educación militar y física.

    En el periodo de la dominación romana el empleo de la hidroterapia y del masaje con un objetivo profiláctico o curativo, alcanzó unas dimensiones especialmente altas. En todas las ciudades, donde se habían asentado los romanos, se construyeron baños confortables, las conocidas «termas» (en griego «thermos – caliente). Esto puede dar una idea de la expanción de la curación por medio del agua, las termas de CARACALLA o DIOCLECIANO, donde podían realizarse, al mismo tiempo, el tratamiento a 3.500 personas. En las termas, los romanos para mantener la esbeltez, la elegancia y la belleza corporal, se bañaban en piscinas y bañeras aromatizadas, recibían masaje, se hacían la manicura, la pedicura, practicaban gimnasia. Se empleaba ampliamente la apoterapia en las termas (baños romanos) donde existían habitaciones (trenidarium) especialmente destinadas para el masaje. Allí, los esclavos amasaban y friccionaban el cuerpo de los bañistas. Preparándose para el masaje, los últimos practicaban ejercicios físicos. Después todo el cuerpo se friccionaba y se untaba con aceites. Luego, los auténticos masajistas amasaban todo el cuerpo y especialmente las articulaciones.

*Sigue leyendo…  Parte II.

Kyo dake Wa: Sólo por Hoy …

Los 5 principios diarios de Mikao Usui.

El Reiki, además de ser un excelente método natural de sanación de la trilogía mente-cuerpo-alma, es también un camino espiritual, conocido como Do en japonés y Tao en chino. En el Memorial a las Virtudes de Usui Sensei, se afirma que » el principal objetivo de este Rei Ho (método misterioso), no es sanar las enfermedades físicas. Su propósito último está en cultivar el corazón para mantener el cuerpo sano a través del poder misterioso del Universo, Rei No, que se nos otorga para disfrutar de los buenos actos de la vida». Es por ello que Mikao Usui legó a sus alumnos estos cinco principios y los estableció como norma de vida, estos principios constituyen verdaderos secretos acerca de la felicidad y son una medicina espiritual para todas las enfermedades.

Kyo dake Wa: Sólo por Hoy...

1. Ikaruna:   No te preocupes.

Si nos fijamos bien, el término preocuparse, está formado por dos palabras: pre y ocuparse. Como sabemos, pre significa anteceder o adelantarse a algo, a una cosa, a una situación;  y la palabra ocuparse se refiere al acto de concentración de estar en algo en ese momento, es decir, estar ocupados es estar aqui y ahora, es estar en el presente.

Este principio, nos propone vivir un día en paz y en armonía, nos proporciona claridad a la vez que calma nuestra ansiedad.Nos propone evitar estar todo el día preocupados, lo que  tiene solución no merece preocupación y lo que  no tiene solución, tampoco merece preocupación… en verdad, lo único que merece la pena es estar ocupados en nuestro presente, que constituye nuestra única realidad. El pasado es solo un sueño y el futuro depende de tu presente. Lo que somos ahora es el resultado de lo que fuimos antes. Lo que seremos en el futuro, será el resultado de lo que somos ahora. Por lo tanto, debemos tratar de mantener la mente en el presente, en el aquí y ahora, porque eso es lo verdaderamente real, nada más. Pondré un ejemplo bastante sencillo a efectos de que me entiendas mejor.Imagina que vas por la calle, absorto en pensamientos sobre el pasado o sobre el futuro y a tu paso aparece una gran bolsa llena de billetes de 500 euros. Es la solución a tus problemas pero pasarás de largo porque no la verás. Ni estas allí, ni estas aquí.

2. Shinpai shuna:  No te irrites.

La ira, enfado, agresividad y demás emociones negativas nos invaden  a diario Aquí es donde mayor conciencia debemos poner para aprender de este principio Reiki, tomarnos unos minutos para respirar, tranquilizarnos y buscar la mejor solución al problema planteado, sabiendo que la violencia sólo y únicamente traerá más violencia, debemos entender que nadie puede  hacernos nada si nosotros no se lo permitimos  y  si nos pasa  algo es para aprender de ello , si miras tu interior seguro que hay algo que no estas haciendo bien.

 Los enfados y la irritación suelen tener origen en nuestras ganas de tenertodo y a todos bajo control. Cuando algo escapa a nuestro control, nos enfadamos. Las ganas de tenerlo todo controlado, tienen su origen en el miedo. Como tenemos miedo, necesitamos controlarlo todo. Hay que aprender a relajarse y a confiar en nosotros mismos y en el universo, o en el Tao, Do, Dios, Vida, Destino o como lo quieras llamar.

3. Kansha Shite:  Honra a tus maestros y a tu prójimo.

En la tradición japonesa es costumbre honrar a los maestros, a los padres y a los antepasados, debido a esto es que mantenemos las fotos de los Maestros de Reiki, en las iniciaciones o ceremonias especiales de Reiki, como recordatorio de su guía moral y ética, además de sentirnos cercanos a su presencia.

Adaptando este precepto en tu vida  cotidiana aprenderemos a respetar  al maestro que hay en cada uno de nosotros y el que hay en los demás.

Detrás de  cada persona hay  algo que podemos  aprender o  algo nos hace ver que podemos o debemos cambiar en nosotros aunque esta persona nos haga sentir mal , si miras interiormente seguro que aprenderás  o veras que es  algo de ti que no te gusta , esa persona seguramente nos  estará mostrando nuestras  debilidades o esas partes de nosotros que no aceptamos.

Es muy fácil adoptar el rol de victima y no asumir uno sus propias responsabilidades en la vida.  A muchas personas les gusta ese rol, de víctima o victimario, el cual es en verdad muy cómodo, pero si en verdad queremos mejorar, debemos dar el próximo paso: comprender  y perdonar. Esa  es la única manera de avanzar en nuestro camino  o proceso de evolución.

4. Kyo wo hageme:  Trabaja  honradamente.

El trabajo personal de cada uno de nosotros es importante. Todos ocupamos un puesto crucial en la sociedad y el trabajo forma parte de la porción de energía que entregamos al mundo, para que funcione mejor. Debemos trabajar con alegría y tratar de hacerlo con el corazón, entregando lo mejor de nosotros mismos en ese trabajo para beneficio de todos. Pero este Principio va mucho más allá del trabajo laboral. Realmente aquí el Maestro Usui nos indica la necesidad de trabajarse intensamente por dentro, dedicar tiempo al estudio de las propias emociones y la mente, trabajarse a uno mismo intensamente para mejorar como persona y elevarse en las altas frecuencias de la Luz y el Amor, para así ser más feliz e irradiar esa felicidad en todas direcciones.

5. Ito ni shinsetsu-ni:  Muestra Gratitud por lo que te rodea.

La gratitud es un Don, sí, un don que todos tenemos en potencia, pero pocos desarrollan debido a la avaricia, la arrogancia, el ego, el miedo, etc.

Si con nuestros ojos viéramos todo lo que nos  rodea y, con nuestra  mente entendiéramos que  formamos parte de todo eso, se abrirían nuestros corazones en un derroche de gratitud, con el sentimiento de unidad.

Podríamos empezar agradeciendo el no estar solos, sabiendo que somos parte del todo y que el todo es parte de nosotros, que estamos todos conectados; podríamos regalar ese bienestar interno  que produce saber que somos iguales, ni menos ni mas que nadie, reduciendo egos y aires de superioridad.

Siendo mas  simples y mas  agradecidos, reconocer la belleza de el sol que nos  calienta, el agua nos calma sed, la  tierra que nos da alimento, sonriendo más, aumentando nuestra capacidad de asombro, cultivando la ingenuidad y pureza de un niño, caminando de manera más alegre y ligera por la vida, riendo más, dando más, estaríamos derrochando nuestra luz por todas partes, disminuiríamos las sombras  …

Agradecer  cada pequeña  cosa que te regala la vida, te hará sentirte más integrado con el todo. Sentirte más vivo y más despierto. Agradece más el estar  aquí y ahora.