La espectacular brecha entre el Método Reiki y la mentalidad occidental.

La espectacular brecha entre el Método Reiki y la mentalidad occidental.

 

Cuando Mikao Usui creó el Método Reiki no se inventó nada que no estuviera incorporado en su propia cultura y en su manera de ver la vida. Usui era un hombre afortunado porque nació y creció en una época, en una familia, una cultura y una sociedad (el Japón Imperial) con unas características particulares. Era un hombre comprometido con su tiempo y con la Buena Ayuda, que llevó a cabo de muchas maneras a lo largo de su vida. Y no sólo lo hizo a partir del Método Reiki, método al que dió forma apenas 4 años antes de su muerte, cuando ya era un hombre de 64 años.

Para poder explicarte lo que vengo a explicarte, necesito antes hacer una breve referencia al metamodelodescubierto por Bandler y Grinder (los creadores de la PNL) y que comprendieron observando y estudiando profundamente el trabajo de Fritz Perls y Virginia Satir en psicoterapia… y apoyándose también en la Gramática Transformacional de Noam Chomsky. Bandler y Grinder descubrieron que las personas cuando hablamos, mostramos la estructura superficial de nuestro paisaje interno… y que lo que expresamos al hablar  es nuestro mapa de la realidad. Pero el mapa no es el territorio: y este mapa está repleto dedistorsiones, generalizaciones y eliminaciones.

Evidentemente a nivel individual nuestro mapa nos puede ofrecer la posibilidad de no ver dificultades en donde sí las hay (recuerdas aquello de “como no sabía que era imposible, lo hizo”?)… pero también, y lamentablemente esto es mucho más frecuente, nos puede limitar, empobrecer, y restringir enormemente.

Para entender la brecha entre el Método Reiki y la mentalidad occidental, necesitamos tomar consciencia de este concepto del mapa de la realidad.

Internamente todos tenemos trazado un mapa de la realidad, con los colores de nuestras creencias, nuestros compromisos, nuestras fidelidades, nuestros esquemas culturales sociales, nuestros permisos… olas fronteras que estos ponen a nuestro desempeño en la Vida. Intentar salirnos de este mapa es algo que crea tensiones internas, y a veces externas, y normalente evitamos hacerlo. Y te voy a dar un ejemplo:

Cuando hablas de energía, de conexión espiritual, o de desarrollo interior con un occidental al que este tema le es ajeno, te mira con cara de no comprender lo que le dices. E incluso en algunos momentos, con algunas personas, puedes llegar a sentirte “rara” o a veces un poco “angustiada” o “incómoda”. Cuando esto ocurre has dado con un muro: el muro trazado por el mapa de la realidad de la otra persona.

Te pongo otro ejemplo más, mira: en mi casa mi mapa de la realidad era diferente al de los demás niños. En mi casa, como ya te he contado alguna otra vez, “eramos artistas”. Esto implica un modelo de la realidad diferente: era la década de los 70 y mi padre practicaba Yoga, Meditación Trascendental, hacía ayunos de varios días, leía sobre macrobiótica, arquetipos, psicoanálisis, poesíacomponía música, publicaba libros: su modelo de la realidad era más abierto que el de la mayoría de las personas, y causaba ciertos niveles de asombro y admiración porque a veces salía en los periódicos o daba conciertos en grandes teatros.

Imagina entonces: para la gente del barrio éramos raros que te mueres. De hecho oí muchas veces decir a algunas personas que mi padre era muy raro. Ya lo sabes: las personas llamamos “raro” a todo lo que no está en nuestro mapa de la realidad… y los “raros” normalmente no lo hacemos, porque la normalidad de los otros sí que está incluída en nuestro mapa de la realidad.

Dicho esto ahora sí vamos a hablar sobre el Método Reiki.

El Método Reiki es un método de gestión de la energía, y de crecimiento personal y espiritual muy completo. Tiene implícitos muchos conceptos que los occidentales luego hemos considerado novedosos como el incosciente (individual y/o colectivo), una perspectiva vibracional de la realidad, o sencillamente una mentalidad fenomenológica.

Sin embargo en occidente la mayoría de las personas no asocian al Método Reiki en absoluto con un método: hablan de imposición de manos, para hacerlo encajar con su propio mapa de influencia judeocristiana de la realidad. Las personas dicen que una vez iniciada vas a canalizar “Reiki” por las manos (cosa incorrecta porque “Reiki” es el nombre de un método), y se oye con frecuencia asociar el Método Reiki con ángeles, guías, magia, tarot, adivinación… y cierto grado de superioridad espiritual de los iniciados.

También oyes a veces decir a la gente que otro “tiene Reiki” (porque ha hecho un curso) o que “ha terminado todo Reiki”… como si fuera realmente posible. Todo esto es exactamente lo que hacemos con nuestra carrera universitaria o profesional: pensamos que nos otorga una categoría superior en algún sentido. Lo cual muestra nuestra profunda carencia de significado, y nuestro enorme desorden.

Los orientales en cambio, y específicamente los japoneses… (y específicamente los japoneses del Japón de Usui) tenían una visión, un mapa de la realidad, muy diferente. Aún hoy, quedan rastros de esta miradaen esta cultura nada individualista, profundamente conectada (incluso los no iniciados) y  fuertemente respetuosa y consciente de los demás, de los vínculos familiares,  y de sus tradiciones.

Un japonés normalmente se sentirá dulcemente conmovido por  nuestra tendencia al individualismo y a la omnipotencia: ellos son hondamente colectivistas y esto los hace muy considerados, en general, con su prójimo.

Desde este mapa de la realidad, que incluye todo y a todos en la medida de lo posible, es mucho más fácil comprender por qué el Método Reiki fue creado por un japonés, y no por un madrileño, por ejemplo. Sus prioridades son diferentes, y esto no es malo ni es bueno: sólo es lo que es. Ahora: si miramos los resultados, como yo lo veo en mi consulta día a día, quizás ellos se equivocan algo menos que nosotros.

El otro día Virginia Canal, que tuvo la oportunidad de viajar a Japón antes de conocernos nosotras ni conocer el Método Reiki, me decía que allí no hay psicólogos. ¿te lo puedes imaginar?  Supongo que será posible estudiar psicología en Japón, no lo sé. Pero no parece que tenga mucha salida. ¿No es sorprendente? Está claro que algo hacen mejor que nosotros… porque la gente se encuentra mayormente bien. Con sus idas y venidas, supongo… pero bien.

Cuando el Método Reiki se puso de moda lo primero que se le retiró fue el nombre de “método”. Se lesimplificó, esoterizó, y trivializó para que los occidentales no se asustaran y pagaran con alegría los cursos. Un método es algo largo de aprender, requiere trabajo, humildad y paciencia. Y los occidentales queremos una sanación rápida y sin muchos compromisos. Y sobre todo que no duela.

Esto me recuerda a aquella viñeta sobre la iluminación que publicamos varias veces en la web deFacebook… ¿la recuerdas? Es esta mira:

parches

 

Bien, bromas aparte:  luego de muchos años de experiencia, para mi queda claro que intentar comprender el Método Reiki desde una mentalidad acelerada, esquemática y desconectada del aspecto espiritual de la realidad es una fantasía con la cometa. Necesitamos empezar por  ser capaces de ver el mapa de la realidad de Usui, su creador.

Para reducir esta brecha y poder sacar el máximo provecho del Método Reiki, necesitas ampliar tu modelo de la realidad:  reparar las distorsiones, reducir la generalizaciones y trazar los caminos que han sido eliminados.

Esto solamente se logra a través de comprensiones que retiren el velo sobre la parte de la realidad que no ves siguiendo tu propio mapa actual.

Y esto requiere una guía comprometida, un maestro que haya hecho este trabajo previamente, y un profundo compromiso personal con tu crecimiento y con tu sanación interior.

Y entonces a partir de este proceso, podrás acercarte al Método Reiki y recibir sus grandes beneficios en su totalidad.

Antes, sólo recibirás un juego llamado Reiki, que te permitirá presumir de algo que no comprendes, con actitud infantil, y con un mapa distorsionado y con borrones, que no te conducirá verdaderamente hacia ningún tesoro.

 

Espero que sirva.

Por tu Pleno Bienestar…

Que tengas un feliz presente.

 

*Fuente: Pilar Rodriguez-Castillo by Sendero Reiki

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

hh-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

Toxinas & Enfermedad. Cómo Empezar Una Depuración Corporal.

toxinas

Dedicado gratamente a mis lectores y pacientes.

Desde hace un tiempo, en consulta, llego a la misma conclusión con mis pacientes una y otra vez: Intoxicación. Si, señoras y señores, le presento aqui a la «reina de las enfermedades». Si piensan que estoy exagerando, no, no lo estoy, les sorprendería el grado de toxicidad al que  sometemos a nuestro cuerpo a diario y gracias a ella y a la fata de «limpieza» , termina siendo la principal causa de la mayoría de las enfermedades, y ya deja de ser casualidad, que cuando los pacientes cambian sus hábitos nutricionales (alimentación y nutrición no son lo mismo) no hay quien no revierta su cuadro o como mínimo no mejore notablemente.

Fibromialgia, problemas de sobrepeso, artritis, reuma, artrosis, problema en los meñiscos, ligamentos, contracturas crónicas, migranias, alergias, diabetes, infertilidad, estreñimiento, cancer, colon irritable, psoriasis, sirrosis, problemas de los riñones, pancreas, vesicula, bazo, hígado, pesadez estomacal, gastritis, pirosis, ulcera … la lista sigue y sigue. No soy la única profesional que observa estos resultados, por el contrario, cada vez son más (incluso  dentro del mundo de la medicina alópata más recalcitrante) ya se está tratando.  Como esto está empezando a hacer un poco de ruido, vamos a ver de qué se trata, trataré de exponer aqui, de manera práctica y sintética, lo que todos podemos hacer por mejorar nuestra salud.

Para desintoxicar nuestro organismo …

Aqui van algunos simples nuevos hábitos saludables, para que los puedan incorporar a la vida diaria:

  • No intoxicar:  eliminar todos los alimentos que producen toxinas, son acidificantes, y por tanto intoxican nuestro organismo. Se que puede sonar obvio, pero todas las salsas preparadas (industriales) golosinas, snacks, alimentos con conservantes, colorantes y saborizantes sintéticos también entran en esta categoría.
  • Limpiar: utilizando todo lo que está en la naturaleza que pudiera realizar una actividad “ barredora” que limpian nuestros órganos emuntorios
  • Incorporar aquellos alimento que nuestro organismo reconoce como su alimentación fisiológica (teniendo en cuenta los principios del Dr Otto Heinrich Warburg), después de haber pasado por una readaptación a esta nueva alimentación del organismo con una dieta de transición evitando así una crisis de desintoxicación.

Productos tóxicos

Y esta es la lista de los productos  tóxicos que entrego a cada persona que me pregunta qué comer a partir de ahora.

*Esta es una lista genérica, y por ello no comprende cada enfermedad o sintomatólogia en particular, sin embargo, esto último, los pacientes lo obtienen siempre en consulta.

  • ALIMENTOS QUE ACIDIFICAN: Todos los refinados, aceites que no sean de primera prensada en frío y ecológicos, vinagres (en su mayoría, sobre todo los industriales) sal refinada, azúcar blanca refinada, (la moreno tampoco, es teñida) productos enlatados ni con conservantes (E’s) Carne (toda la proteína animal) Leche y sus derivados (leche, queso yogourt) Todas las grasas trans (embutidos) Ni las margarinas vegetales, son peores que la mantequilla.
  • ALIMENTOS QUE NOS ENFERMAN: El glúten (seitán, trigo) , la soja, cereales industriales. Los alimentos con pesticidas.

Hábitos tóxicos

Lo que no deberíamos de hacer por tener consecuencias tóxicas:

  • Envolver con papel aluminio
  • Meter en la nevera botellas de plástico, el plástico no puede estar ni frío ni caliente sino contamina el alimento con los bisfenoles, tóxicos para nosotros. Hay botellas sin BPA ni bifenoles
  • No usar el microondas.

Alimentos alcalinos

Tienen que ser la base de nuestra alimentación:

  • Todas las frutas y verduras.
  • Semillas (chía lino,sésamo)
  • Frutos secos almendras, avellanas, nueces (no más de un puñado con el puño cerrado y un solo fruto, no mezclarlos. Dejarlos la noche anterior a su consumición en agua para que se activen ya que aumenten sus nutrientes.
  • Germinados
  • Algas

 En el próximo post, les deajaré algunos tips de cómo y qué se puede hacer para desintoxicar nuestro cuerpo.

Un Batido Para Cada Día del Mes…

Detox

Llega la primavera, el verano o incluso por qué no, en pleno invierno … las propiedades y beneficios que nos aportan las frutas y verduras frescas por la mañana sobre todo, constituye uno de los primeros hábitos saludables en nuestra «educación alimenticia».  Es que después de estar 8 horas sin comer, por la mañana, lo que estamos haciendo es rompiendo un ayuno, de ahí proviene la palabra desayunar, o sea «salir del ayuno». Por eso, es importante, contrario a lo que se suele creer, no atiborrarnos de comida, ni ingerir alimentos pesados, irritantes o ácidos para el cuerpo cuando nos levantamos, como por ejemplo el café, té negro, leche, queso, huevos, carne, etc. Estos son alimentos ácidos, irritantes y pesados para un organismo en ayunas, además, suelen  bajarnos los índices de vitaminas que tenemos y desmineralizarnos, contrario a la creencia popular, que indica que es la comida más importante del día, siendo la comida principal el almuerzo.

De todas maneras, los batidos siempre son bienvenidos para el cuerpo, son frescos, ligeros y de rápida absorción, energizántes oxigenantes y revitalizantes y como plus, llenos de vitaminas y minerales.

Aqui les dejo una lista con 31 recetas, un batido para cada día del mes. Ahora a practicarlas! Que las disfruten!

*Nota: Muchos están hechos con coco, pero puede sustituirse el coco por cualquier leche vegetal (orgánica) o agua, y añadir (opcional) coco rayado o leche de coco envasada (que aunque no es lo mismo pero igual sirve…)

Ahora vosotros a practicarlas. Habéis visto que de posibilidades eh? ¡Que las disfrutéis!

  • Batido verde con espinacas

Batir el agua de 1 coco fresco, su pulpa, un puñado de espinacas y el zumo de 1 limón

  • Batido verde de mango y mesquite

Batir la pulpa y agua de 1 coco fresco, un trozo de mango, una cucharadita de mesquite y espinacas

  • Batido de frambuesas y menta

Batir el agua de 1 coco, la pulpa, 300 g de frambuesas y hojas de menta. También se puede hacer con fresas o mezclando ambas frutas

  • Batido de fresas y rosa mosqueta

Batir el agua de 1 coco y su pulpa , 300 g de fresas, 1 cucharada de Rosa Mosqueta, vainilla

  •  Batido verde de fresa con semillas de cáñamo

Batir el agua y pulpa de coco, puñadito de fresas, puñadito de espinacas y una cucharada semillas de cáñamo.

  •  Batido verde de mango con semillas

Batir hojas de apio, un mango maduro, una cucharadita de canela, 1 cucharada de chía, otra de lino, un poquito de maca, 3 hojitas secas de estevia, el agua de 1 coco.

  •  Batido de piña colada

Batimos el agua de coco, su pulpa, 350 gr de piña, un dado de jengibre y estevia

  • Batido de melocotón con mesquite

La pulpa de 1 coco, el agua del coco, 3 melocotones, 1 cucharada de mesquite y un poquito de azúcar de coco

  •  Batido de naranja y piña

Batir el zumo de 4 naranjas, media piña, agua de un coco.

  •  Granizado de piña con cilantro

Batir agua coco, media piña, un puñado de cilantro y hielo.

  •  Batido de plátano con arándanos

Agua y pulpa de coco joven, arándanos, plátano, dátiles y jengibre, a la batidora y listo.

  •  Batido energético

Batir la carne y agua del coco, 3 plátanos, 1 cucharada de cacao, 3 dátiles y 1 cucharadita de maca

  • Batido verde de fresas con hojas de remolacha

Batir el agua y la pulpa del coco fresco, 300 g de fresas y una taza de hojas de remolacha

  • Batido de fresa y manzana

Agua de un coco añadimos 4 fresones, media manzana y 1 cucharada de jugo de lima , batimos todo y espolvoreamos con canela

  • Batido de piña y menta

Batir el agua de coco, 300 g de piña y menta

  • Batido verde de piña

Un coco fresco entero con su agua y su pulpa, media piña, media cucharada pequeña de espirulina y chlorella en polvo, un chorrito pequeño de sirope de agave, batir muy bien y tomar fresquito.

  • Batido verde de pera y plátano

Agua y pulpa de coco, 2 plátanos, 4 datiles, hoja verde, 1 pera y maca

  • Batido verde de mago y albahaca

Batir agua de coco, 1 mango, un poco de zumo de limón o lima y hojas de albahaca.

  • Batido cremoso de aguacate y cardamomo

Un coco fresco, el agua y la pulpa, un aguacate, tres rajas de piña, una cucharada de azúcar de coco y una semilla de cardamomo

  • Batido Coco Especiado

Batir agua de coco, pulpa de coco, azúcar de coco, cardamomo, canela, anís y jengibre.

  • Batido de plátano sabor capuchino

Batir 1 coco fresco (agua y pulpa), 2 plátanos, 1 cucharada de malta, otra de cacao y coco rallado

  • SuperBatido verde de mango

Batir agua de coco , 2 mangos, col kale , chia molida , mezquite y proteína de cáñamo

  • Batido de moras y hierbabuena

Un buen puñado de moras, la pulpa de medio coco y su aguita. Lo batimos bien y lo aromatizamos con unas hojas de hierbabuena fresca.

  • Licuado verde

Licuar 1 pepino, hojas verdes varias, 3 ramas de apio, 1 limón, 1 manzana, jengibre y añadir el agua de un coco fresco

  • Agua de coco detox

Agua de coco, zumo medio limon y jengibre.

  • Té de coco

Un te verde fresquito, batimos la pulpa y el agua de coco y mezclamos bien. Si quereis que sea más dulce añadir un poco de sirope de agave

  • Leche de coco

Batir el coco con agua de coco, luego filtrar con una bolsa de hacer leche vegetal. La pulpa se puede utilizar como mascarilla , o mezclar en una ensalada

  • Leche de coco al cacao

Batir el agua con la pulpa y añadir un poco de sirope de agave o dátiles, cacao y canela.

  • Leche de coco y almendras

Batir agua de coco, pulpa de coco, puñadito almendras, vainilla y azúcar de coco

  • Leche de coco y curcuma.

Hacer leche de coco y añadir especias como la cúrcuma. También se puede utilizar el clavo, cardamomo, canela, jengibre, vainillas… Y endulzar con estevia, azúcar de coco o dátiles

  • Capuchino de coco

Batir un coco fresco (agua y pulpa) una cucharada de achicoria una cda de azucar de coco,una cucharadita de cacao y canela

 

 

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

danger

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.

9 Reasons To Eat Cucumber Every Day

Health-Benefits-of-Cucumber

Cucumber. Even its name sounds cool, crisp, and refreshing! Not only are cucumbers delicious and nutritious, they are loaded with essential vitamins and minerals, such as: vitamin K and C, some B vitamins, copper, potassium, and manganese, all of which can help revitalize your health! This squash is definitely something you want to incorporate into your diet as much as possible. You won’t regret it.

9 (Of Many) Amazing Benefits Of Cucumbers

 1. Brain Protection

Cucumbers contain an anti-inflammatory flavonal called fistein that has been shown to play a crucial role in promoting brain health. It is known to improve memory and even protect your nerve cells from declining due to aging, and fisetin has also been found to prevent learning and memory impairments in mice with alzheimer’s disease. (1)

 2. Amazing Antioxidant Properties

Cucumbers are loaded with antioxidants, including vitamin C and beta-carotene. They also contain antioxidant flavonoids like quercetin, apigenin, luteolin, and kaempferol. (2) Quercetin is an antioxidant that has been shown to prevent histamine release, making it a natural antihistamine. Kaempferol can help fight cancer and lower your risk of heart disease.

 3. Reduce Inflammation

Cucumbers can literally help “cool” the inflammatory response system in your body. Some studies conducted on animals found that cucumber extract helps to reduce unwanted inflammation partially by inhibiting activity or pro-inflammatory enzymes. (3)

 4. Cancer Risk Reduction

Cucumbers contain polyphenols called lignans, which can help lower your risk of various cancers such as breast, uterine, ovarian, and prostate. (4) They also contain phytonutrients called cucurbitacins (great name) which also have anti-cancer properties! (5)

 5. Digestive Assistant

Cucumbers are loaded with fiber and water, two of the most essential elements that are needed for optimal digestive health. Cucumbers may help to raise the stomach pH, which can assist with symptoms of acid reflux. Also, the skin on cucumbers contains insoluble fiber, which can add bulk to your stool, assisting food to move through your digestive tract quickly and thereby promoting healthy elimination.

 6. Freshen Your Breath

If your breath is a little on the stinky side, you can freshen it up by placing a slice of cucumber on the roof of your mouth. This will help help rid your mouth of odor-causing bacteria. According to Ayurveda, eating cucumbers can also help to release any excess heat in your stomach, which is believed to be a primary cause of bad breath.

 7. Stress Management

Cucumbers contain an assortment of B vitamins including vitamin B1, B5, and B7. B vitamins are known to help ease anxiety and reduce the damaging effects of stress.

 8. Healthy Weight Management

Cucumbers are extremely low in calories, but extremely high in nutrients, so they make a filling and healthy snack. When cucumbers are digesting they dissolve into a gel-like texture which helps to slow down digestion, helping you feel full for longer. This is why fiber rich foods are great for weight management.

 9. Heart Health

Because cucumbers contain potassium, they can assist with lowering blood pressure. Potassium is an electrolyte, and its functions assist with interacting with sodium to help control nerve impulse transmission, muscle contraction, and heart function.

If these are not enough reasons to start eating more cucumbers, then I guess you must really not like them! Be sure to get organic when possible. You can enjoy slices of cucumber in your water, juice it with other veggies, add it to your salad, and just eat it straight up! Its great in the summer, but can definitely be enjoyed all year round. Enjoy!

Sources:

(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24341874

(2) http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=42&utm_source=feedly&utm_reader=feedly_reader&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_feed

(3) http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=42&utm_source=feedly&utm_reader=feedly_reader&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_feed

(4) http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=42&utm_source=feedly&utm_reader=feedly_reader&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_feed

(5) http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=42&utm_source=feedly&utm_reader=feedly_reader&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_feed

5 Of The Most Underrated Medicinal Plants

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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».

como-se-explica-la-luz-al-final-del-tunel-2

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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

La conciencia basada en el corazón: El uso del corazón como un órgano de percepción.

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En la sociedad de hoy en día, especialmente en el mundo occidental, si se le preguntara a alguien para que apunte al lugar en su cuerpo donde se encuentra su conciencia y sus decisiones se toman, que lo más probable es punto a su cabeza.

Nuestros antepasados ​​indígenas, sin embargo, responderían a la misma pregunta, señalando a sus corazones. Ellos entendieron la capacidad del corazón para percibir de manera inteligente y descifrar el mundo que les rodea, y reconocieron las limitaciones y naturaleza reduccionista de vivir de una manera en la que uno se basa principalmente en la mente.

Ellos fueron más allá de los pensamientos en la cabeza, con el corazón como un órgano de percepción de conectar con los campos de energía de otros organismos – no sólo a otros seres humanos, pero la tierra, así – con el fin de sumergirse completamente en los significados más profundos que incorpora su pensamientos.

Participar en este tipo de percepción basada en el corazón y la comunicación con el mundo tiende a hacer lo que antes parecía importante como relativamente sin sentido, y lo que parecía sin sentido como algo significativo. Cuando una persona inhala el significado de otro organismo utilizando su campo del corazón, un sutil cambio se produce en el interior, ya sea sutil o mayor, que siempre les cambia. Los antiguos griegos se referían a este tipo de comunicación silenciosa, invisible basada en el corazón como aesthesis, que significa «respirar».

La conexión de corazón-cerebro

Aunque muchos de nosotros nos han enseñado que el corazón responde a las órdenes del cerebro, enviado en forma de nervioshredes, la verdad es que el corazón realmente envíamás órdenes al cerebro a través de las señales neuronales que el cerebro hace al corazón. Debido a esto, el corazón se refiere a veces como el «cerebro del corazón» y nuestra mente se conoce como el «cerebro craneal.» Las señales nerviosas enviadas al cerebro, del cráneo al corazón impactan significativamente la función del cerebro y afectan los procesos emocionales y cognitivos tales como la atención, la percepción, la memoria y la resolución de problemas.

Los diferentes patrones de actividad cardiaca tienen diferentes efectos sobre el cerebro. Por ejemplo. los patrones erráticos, inestables de la actividad del corazón experimentaron cuando el estrés y / o sentimientos negativos están presentes enviar correspondientes señales neuronales desde el corazón hasta el cerebro craneal que inhiben las facultades cognitivas. Como resultado, la capacidad de razonar y pensar con claridad se ve afectada, lo cual puede ser la razón por la cual muchos actúan impulsivamente y tomar malas decisiones en situaciones de estrés. Por otra parte, los patrones estables, ordenadas de la actividad del corazón durante situaciones agradables y en presencia de sentimientos positivos resultan en señales neuronales correspondientes enviados desde el corazón hasta el cerebro que mejoran las funciones cognitivas y fomentar la estabilidad mental. Así, haciendo un esfuerzo para manifestar una vida que evoca sentimientos positivos pueden aumentar en gran medida la capacidad cognitiva y la estabilidad emocional.

La conexión de cerebro y corazón en respuesta a estímulos

Un estudio encontró que el corazón recibe y reacciona a los estímulos antes de que ocurra, la formulación de una respuesta a la entrada entrante antes que el cerebro incluso tiene la oportunidad de procesarlo. Los investigadores se refieren a este fenómeno como una «premonición cuerpo.» Esto fomenta aún más la idea de que la implementación del corazón como órgano de percepción puede ser mucho más sabio que el aislamiento del cerebro como el centro principal de la percepción y la conciencia.

Los Campos Corazón y Energía

El corazón, que ostenta el título como el órgano con el campo electromagnético más potente en el cuerpo, puede sentir el corazón de otra persona hasta diez metros de distancia. Dado que el cerebro es muy sensible a las reacciones del corazón, que es capaz de recoger este tipo de electromagnética «detección corazón» y esencialmente alterar las ondas cerebrales de otro individuo, así como a sí mismos, y / o en realidad sincronizar sus ondas cerebrales con de la otra persona. La mayoría de nosotros hemos conocido a una personaDCSFcuya presencia, sin razón aparente, causó una sensación de incomodidad – si era la tristeza, la ira, la ansiedad, o cualquier otra sensación incómoda – que justifica la decisión de no forjar una conexión más profunda con ellos. Así como no podemos saber por qué nos sentimos de esta manera a su alrededor, como decían las palabras correctas y se presentaron de una manera «socialmente aceptable», a menudo no pueden recoger en el hecho de que esto está ocurriendo a causa de la otra persona energía y que es, en realidad, no personal en absoluto. De esta manera, el electromagnetismo de la formas de corazón en gran medida nuestras relaciones, guiándonos por lo que parece ser una gravitación casi sin esfuerzo para conectar con los campos del corazón de algunas personas que se convierten en amigos y / o compañeros sentimentales, y dirigiéndonos lejos de la gente cuyas energías del corazón chocan con los nuestros.

Este tipo de detección de energía también se produce con lugares, objetos, y así sucesivamente. Por ejemplo, cuando vas a un restaurante y la anfitriona le dice que usted puede sentarse donde usted lo desea, es muy probable que no elige cualquier tabla dada.Usted es mucho más probable que observar la habitación, revisando varias opciones de asientos, aunque su consideración de cada uno es fugaz. Luego de elegir una mesa, a menudo de numerosos otros iguales, pero ¿por qué? Claro, hay factores como el ruido y con ganas de sentarse junto a una ventana – pero no siempre. Creo que cada uno de nosotros puede admitir al menos una vez en la vida la elección para sentarse en algún lugar porque nos sentimos atraídos a ella, o para no sentarse en algún lugar, porque por alguna razón no se «siente» tan bueno como en otro lugar en la habitación. Rara vez nos detenemos a preguntarnos por qué nos intuitivamente tomar decisiones como esta.

Teniendo en cuenta la capacidad del corazón para recoger las energías de las personas, lugares y cosas, y de manera intuitiva descifrar lo que se siente «bien» y lo que por alguna razón no se «siente bien», junto con la sensibilidad del cerebro para detectar incluso los cambios más sutiles en campo de energía del corazón y su capacidad para luego modificar sus propios mecanismos de respuesta y cambiar nuestras ondas cerebrales, los patrones de pensamiento, etc., parece bastante inapropiado para prestar atención al consejo de pesimistas eternas que aconsejan en contra de seguir el corazón. Te dicen que le llevará en problemas, pero que muy manera de vivir, de la colocación de la conciencia exclusivamente en la mente y designándolo como el único órgano de la percepción inteligente en nuestros cuerpos, es quizás por qué esas personas son tan pesimistas en el primer lugar . Para poner los pensamientos sobre los sentimientos al tomar decisiones grandes en la vida, las decisiones especialmente grandes, puede ser peligroso – no de la manera sociedad define peligro, pero por la forma en que el espíritu define el peligro, como confinar cualquier parte de su verdadera esencia interior, que está en muchos aspectos, un despertar de la muerte. Discutiblemente igualmente peligroso sin embargo, y sin duda igualmente importante, es no poner los sentimientos más pensamientos completamente al tomar decisiones bien. Sí, sobre todo las grandes decisiones. El truco para la solución de este problema realmente no es mucho de un truco, sino que es más de un antiguo camino, en el olvido de la vida en el que usted mantiene algo de un equilibrio energético entre el corazón y el cerebro – y todas las partes de uno mismo para que materia.

Aprender a sintonizar con los cambios sutiles en la energía y distinguir sus orígenes, y aprender la diferencia entre «yo» y el «no yo» con el fin de ser capaz de decir si la negatividad que estás sintiendo es su propio o de otra persona, ayuda a prevenir la energías negativas abrumadoras inevitables que ocurren a menudo cuando usted es susceptible a recoger la energía del otro y tomar en como propio. Haciendo un esfuerzo mental para silenciar los pensamientos y escuchar sus sentimientos, y darse cuenta de cómo los sentimientos alteran cuando las personas o las cosas que te rodea se alteran, permite a la conciencia del cráneo y de la conciencia del corazón para trabajar productivamente juntos sin que uno domina al otro.

Usando el corazón, el cerebro puede distinguir lo que realmente quiere de lo que estaba condicionado a querer, pero ha arraigado no profunda pasión por el. De todos modos, el corazón puede sintonizar en el cerebro y sentir sus pensamientos, combinando así los dos órganos de percepción. Jugando con lo diferentes pensamientos hará sentir, sin luego adjuntar más pensamientos a esos sentimientos o historias para ellos, y en lugar de limitarse a dejar que ellos se sientan allí mientras conscientemente reconoce que están ahí, también es crucial para encontrar un equilibrio en el trabajo con los dos órganos de percepción. Al escuchar cómo el corazón se siente sin añadir pensamientos mentales y las historias de esos sentimientos, a continuación, puede optar por colocar sus pensamientos hacia lo que se siente más bien a usted al tomar decisiones.

«El estrés constante crea un ambiente energético, afectando a la ciudad y el país, la difusión de nación en nación, causando desarmonía, enfermedades, tormentas y guerras. La inteligencia del corazón puede ayudar a disipar estas energías negativas, dando a la gente un nuevo comienzo en el aprendizaje de cómo llevarse bien. Como suficientes personas a aprender acerca de la aptitud emocional, causará un cambio global en la nueva conciencia de que muchos están hablando, y luego la calidad de vida tiene la oportunidad de convertirse en mejor para el todo. «- Doc Childre
*Fuente: