Home Health Handbook
We at La Casa want all our clients to continue a health program at home. To that end, we offer suggestions how to go about making your own, highly effective home programs for detoxification and anti-aging.
Detoxification Anti-Aging Face up to Face Beauty Cellulite Lymphatic CleansingDetoxification
Basti is the yogic tradition of natural cleansing of the lower intestines. It involves the controlled use of muscles to pull water up into the colon, and then, after churning the water around to dislodge old waste products, the water, and whatever it carries off with it, is expelled.
Since La Casa opened its doors, we have seen only one person who had learned internal cleansing through basti. Not surprisingly, like the yogis who preceded him, he had spent many years perfecting this technique. We have to admit, this method of colon cleansing will appeal to an extremely small number of people.
Fortunately, in the last few decades, there have been a number of natural health physicians interested in waste elimination. As a result, there are several methods of colon cleansing that are easier and as thorough as basti.
Colon cleansing can be approached from, so to speak, either the top end or the bottom end — the mouth or the rectum.
The simplest way of beginning colon cleansing is to add bulk to the diet. Fiber is present in all fresh, raw vegetables. Cooking softens the fiber and renders it ineffective. Dietary fiber in food is indigestible. But when present in the intestinal tract, it supports a multiplying population of intestinal bacteria, and this can be an aid in both digestion and elimination. The detoxifying powers of fiber were demonstrated in a study where rats were fed poison, and simultaneously put on a high fiber diet. These rats survived without harm, while other animals fed the same poison, but without the fiber, became ill and died.
Many alternative health practitioners have begun to recommend adding whole psyllium husks to the diet. Even traditional physicians generally recommend Metamucil, which is psyllium with added sugar. At La Casa, we are weary about creating too powerful of a detox in this way. There are several problems with psyllium. First, these husks can be irritating to the intestines. Additionally, psyllium acts like a magnet as it winds its way down the intestinal tract, pulling particles toward it. The problem here is that nutrient material as well as toxic material is pulled out. Finally, there is a delicate layer of mucus membranes and villi in the small intestine. These villi are important in the absorption of nutrients. The psyllium husks can scrape against these finger-like villi and damage them, thus interfering with the absorption of nutrients.
Bran is also frequently recommended as a way of increasing fiber in one’s diet. Bran is even more irritating to the intestines than psyllium. Bran is a part of the wheat grain; it is a partial food rather than a whole food and thus can create a nutritional imbalance. Further, bran acts as an irritant to the lining of the digestive tract. The intestine, in order to rid itself of this irritant, attempts to rush the process of moving waste material through. Decreased nutrient absorption results because of the rapid transit through the tract. Further, constant use of bran can cause a chronic condition of intestinal lining irritation.
Cleaning out the colon through the use of water injected directly into the colon most closely replicates the basti method. The water shooting through the alimentary canal acts as a gentle stimulus to dislodge old, encrusted fecal material. Methods include colonics, enemas and colemas.
La Casa’s colon therapists specialize in helping people to know how to take care of their bowels. Our therapy cleans the colon using a gentle water irrigation technique. Colon therapy offers many health benefits including detoxification, cleansing of the bloodstream and the stimulation of internal organs. We facilitate the detoxification through the use of abdominal massage, reflexology, pulsed magnetic energy, essential oils and far-infrared light. We encourage our guests to continue their colon cleansing at home.
Enemas are effective in reaching the low part of the colon, but have the disadvantage of not reaching the entire organ. Adding ingredients to the water in an enema can, however, greatly enhance its detoxifying power. Coffee enemas stimulate the liver; flaxseed tea enemas relieve the colon of inflammation; bentonite, or clay water, greatly increases the absorption of toxins from the colon walls.
The colema board was developed more than thirty years ago by V.E. Irons. It is a home unit that combines the ease of the enema with the thoroughness of the colonic. It most closely approximates basti in that it is gentle, following the body’s own natural rhythm for retention and expulsion of water. The water enters the intestinal tract, and it is the colon’s own spontaneous contractions that pushes water out. Thus, the colema works like an exercise program. The water trains the colon to begin to correct its atrophied condition. Because the muscles in the colon are stimulated, the colon sends messages to the rest of the body to release stored toxins and to bring them down through the normal eliminative channels. Pockets of putrefied material embedded within the colon walls can be dislodged through the colema. We encourage the use of the colema board because the advantage of being able to do it yourself at home makes it economical and convenient, as well as effective. We consider the colema to be an essential part of any health program.
Cleaning the colon:
1) Eat flaxseed cereal: grind up 2 tablespoonfuls of flaxseed. Add to goat yogurt with sunflower seeds and amazake.
2) Eat prunes stewed in hot water
3) Do an enema, colema or colonic. Remember each has a specific effect. Choose the one that best suits your needs at that time.
4) Drink an aloe smoothie: blend one inch portion of fresh aloe leaf (with green skin on) with juice of a whole lemon, honey to taste (you’ll need lots to combat the bitter taste of the aloe skin, but the skin is the part of the leaf that has the purgative effect).
5) Herbal laxatives may be taken. La Casa sells an excellent product that was formulated by a disciple of Bernard Jensen. Whole leaf aloe capsules are also a good choice.
Remember that colon cleansing is a process that occurs only over time. It’s taken you a lifetime of bad eating habits to clog up your colon and it often takes many years of good colon cleansing habits to unclog your colon. Be patient with your body.
Anti-Aging
Rebounding
Rebounding is unique as an aerobic exercise because it stimulates, strengthens and cleanses every cell in the body. This is because it uses vertical motion rather than the horizontal motion that is used in all other forms of exercise.
Simply explained, when you bounce up and down, your entire body goes through repetitive vertical acceleration and deceleration, working against gravity. At the bottom of every bounce, your entire body stops for a split second. At this moment, the force of gravity shoves down on every cell in your body. This is the deceleration working with gravity. Then your body shoots back upward, again stopping for just a split instant. This is your moment in space. The movement upward has exerted pressure on your body from the opposite direction of the downward movement. This is the acceleration working against gravity. Because of the repetitive pushing and pulling on all your cells, the tissues and fibers and muscles in your body all grow stronger. This includes your heart fibers and the muscle layers within the arterial walls, even if you don’t dramatically get your heart rate up.
To read more about rebounding, click here (link to blog post).
The slant board
Our bodies have evolved in a way that they normally work, not too badly, with the law of gravity. For instance if we look at the construction of the intestinal tract, we see that through most of the journey, food follows a downward slope. When the food reaches the beginning of the colon, it is now mostly liquid, and thus responds easily to peristaltic movement. In the ascending colon, the appendix lies below, and this organ, usually thought of as useless, actually serves to act as an irritant to force the food material uphill. By the time the material reaches the descending colon, gravity is able to exert its force to pull the waste downward.
To find an occasional reprieve from gravity, the logical question is: since gravity is the force that keeps pulling everything down, why not change the direction of our bodies so that what was going down in us now goes up, and what was going up now goes down? In other words, since we can’t change gravity, we have to change ourselves. We can turn ourselves upside down. In this way, we are using the force of gravity for healing.
Yoga discovered the importance of upside-down eons ago. They invented the shoulder stand and the head stand. The slant board is, you might say, the short-cut version of these yoga postures.
When you are standing up, the pull of gravity, and thus the pull on the flow of blood and all other fluids in your body is five or six feet. When you lie on the slant board, with your head lower than your feet, the pull of blood to the upper part of your body is about 18 inches. It’s not a lot, but plenty enough to accomplish a considerable task.
Brain anemia may not be a medically recognized disease entity, but anyone suffering from chronic fatigue has it. If either muscle tone or circulation is not good enough, then the blood can’t travel uphill to the brain sufficiently to feed the brain. Without sufficient blood to the brain, virtually all of our functions will be weakened. The cerebellum, the back part of your brain, is where every physical organ is regenerated. You cannot breathe, you cannot hear, see or taste, you cannot think properly, nor move any part of your body without your back brain getting enough blood flow. This is, as well, the first part of the brain to be adversely affected by gravity.
Animals instinctively feed their brains the blood that is needed by how they sleep. Most animals are in a prone position during sleep, and its head falls lower than the rest of its body. In fact, if you hold an animal up by his front feet for long enough (for a dog, it’s four hours; for a rabbit, it’s three quarters of an hour), the animal will die because its heart and arteries cannot pump enough blood into its brain to keep it alive.
One of the conditions that we find the most responsive to the slant board is prolapsus of the internal organs. Any of us who have been on a traditional western diet, with refined foods, for any extended period of time, will have a prolapsed bowel. The transverse colon, which crosses over the abdomen, will dip in the middle, thus forcing the waste products in the colon to actually have to go upward, against gravity. This almost always proves too difficult, and a prolapsed colon then becomes a clogged colon. Bladder and prostate difficulties generally arise because the organs have fought against gravity for too many years, and the bladder is no longer in its proper place. Uterine fibroid tumors can be caused by the organs above bearing down, causing pressure on the uterus. The uterus, then, becomes malpositioned, thus rendering the uterus less capable of throwing off toxic material.
Lying on the slant board repositions all of the internal organs. Gravity pulls the organs upwards, thus creating space between the organs so that the oxygen can reach the organs more easily.
Simply lying on the slant board with your arms stretched out above your head is wonderful. You may have noticed that between 3 and 5 p.m., it gets harder to keep your energy level up. This is because at this time, the sun and moon change their configuration in relation to each other. The fluids in our bodies make a concomitant change in response. It’s best to find time to do the slant board around this time and you will find that you have renewed vigor for the rest of the day. In fact, 15-20 minutes on the slant board renews your body the same as an hour of sleep.
You can augment the effect of the board by doing simple exercises.
Slant board exercises:
Exercise 1) To bring more blood into the abdomen, pull the stomach in and up, toward the shoulders.
Exercise 2) You can also pat the stomach, stretching your upper torso from side to side. This both increases circulation and breaks down pockets in the intestinal tract.
Exercise 3) Flex the knees, bringing them as close to your chest as you can get. This is a brain exercise.
Exercise 4) Bicycle on the board. This is good for the abdominal organs.
Exercise 5) Lift the legs and rotate them in large circles. This brings circulation into the pelvic area and stretches the muscles around the prostate. It also releases pressure on the bladder.
Exercise 6) Lift legs straight up to as close to a 90° angle to your body as you can get, then lower them slowly. This builds abdominal strength.
Face up to Face Beauty
There’s a sentiment that if you’re a woman beyond the age of 40, you must choose your body or your face, curves or lines. If your face looks good, it’s because you’re a little plump and the fat cells have smoothed out your facial lines; on the other hand, if you’re thin, your body looks great but your face tends to be more lined.
With a little work on your part, however, (and without that dreaded surgeon’s help) you can be thin without excess facial lines. You just need to make sure that your face is as well exercised, and as well nourished and cleansed as the rest of your body.
Face exercises are particularly important as we age. We tend to not think of the face as needing to be exercised, concentrating more on the muscles in our bodies. But, after all, the face is, like the body, a conglomerate of muscles. A well-toned muscle elsewhere in the body has elasticity and smoothness. It is the same with facial muscles.
As we grow older, one form of line we develop in our faces is called character lines. These lines and sags reflect something about how we characteristically feel and manage our emotions. These lines can actually be a picture of our personalities. Character lines form because we tend to manage our feelings in repetitive ways, and, in doing so, we position our faces in repetitive ways that reflect our feelings.
Exercising the Face
You may have noticed that people who do yoga have especially youthful faces. This is because yoga has specific exercises that stretch and contract all the muscles in the face, thus counteracting the fixed muscle positions that we are characteristically inclined to assume. As well, yoga facial exercises bring oxygen to muscles, thus aerating the cell tissue in the muscles and oral cavities.
For rejuvenation of cheeks and eyes:
With fingers spread apart, join fingertips in front of face and close both nostrils with thumbs. Leave eyes open and inhale through your mouth while your lips are puckered. Hold breath with eyes closed. Drop chin into sternal notch (the cavity at the base of the neck) and puff cheeks out with breath. Hold as long as possible. Return head back to normal and open eyes. Exhale slowly through nose.
For the neck and double chin:
Lift your chin with head tilted back. Press surface of your tongue against the roof of mouth. Hold for 1 minute. Bring head back to level position. Then lift chin again; this time, turn head to one side and look over shoulder. Slightly open mouth and jut out bottom teeth and jaw. Hold for 1 minute. Return head to original position. Do same procedure on other side. Repeat whole series 5 times.
For a radiant complexion:
Sit in comfortable cross-legged position. Raise both arms up 60°. Bend wrists back so palms are flat and parallel to ceiling. Do a deep breathing exercise for 1 minute. Inhale completely, hold breath and pump navel 16 times. Repeat 2 more times still holding arms up.
There is a yoga series of four exercises called “Young and Beautiful in 12 minutes.” Rather than working on muscles, these exercises work on the glands, thought to be in yogic philosophy the guardians of your health. According to yogic principle the glandular centers (also called chakras) vibrate at a certain frequency. Aging (and disease) occurs when this spinning action slows down or becomes unbalanced. The quickest way to regain youth (and health) is to get these glands to vibrate at their normal rate. Because these exercises also recharge and rebalance the electrical circuits in the body, the angles must be precise. If the angles are off, rather than stimulating the various glands, the exercises will stimulate muscles.
Exercise 1) for balancing the lower and upper parts of body
Lie on back with arms at side and heels together. Keeping legs straight and heels touching, raise legs to 45° angle. Make sure neck is not tense. Hold for 3 minutes with long, deep breathing through the nose.
Exercise 2) stimulates the body to produce energy
Squat on balls of feet with heels touching (frog pose); Bring arms straight down between the legs with fingertips on floor. Let head hang down and relax in this position. Hold for 3 minutes with deep breaths through nose.
Exercise 3) distributes energy to upper body; works on sex organs
From frog pose, slowly and rhythmically raise the hips, keeping neck relaxed and head hanging down without any tension or resistance. You have come into the “up position” of the frog pose, keeping fingertips on floor and legs as straight as possible. Maintain position for 3 minutes with long, deep breaths.
Exercise 4) works on all glands simultaneously for whole body balancing; thymus, thyroid, parathyroid, pituitary and pineal glands are stimulated
From up-frog position, slowly lower yourself down to sit on heels with head still bent forward and neck relaxed and knees together. Slowly raise head up; let it slowly fall backwards while simultaneously raising the arms, extended straight out with palms facing down to shoulder level, parallel to floor. Eyes are closed and focused on third eye point (½ inch above eyebrows and ½ inch inside head) with total concentration. Let head hang back. Hold for 3 minutes with long deep breathing.
It’s recommended that you lie on your back for 10 minutes after completion of the exercises to let the energy circulate throughout the rest of your body.
Cleansing the face
In order to have a youthful face, we need to make sure that our face skin is cleansed. The best morning cleanser for your face is the same procedure you use for your body: dry skin brushing. You can buy a cosmetic brush that is smaller and softer than your body brush. Just as with your body brushing, you will be removing dead skin and collected chemical debris from your face, thus allowing your pores to open to receive nutrients.
As well, there are many cleansers that you can use from your kitchen. You can add essential oils to any of these formulas which will make them more powerful as well as giving a scent. Additional basic ingredients that can be added to any formula include eggs, avocados and honey. The eggs and avocado should be added just before use, as they spoil. Eggs are rich in protein and make good skin and hair conditioners. The yolk has a lot of lecithin, and the whites are naturally astringent, meaning that it will help shrink or tighten pores. Avocados are rich in natural oils, protein, vitamins A and B. You can mash the avocado into your hair as well as your face as a deep conditioner. Use the pits to make a scrub. Dry the pit, then finely grind in coffee grinder. Honey has a high potassium content, which makes it impossible for bacteria to survive. It increases the shelf life of your formulas. Add it to your bath water and your skin will feel like silk.
To cleanse the face:
Rub grated carrots over the face, or for a longer procedure, use grated carrots, egg and honey as a face mask. This will hydrate the skin as well as clear away dead cells. Carrots are chock full of vitamin A, called the beauty vitamin because it is essential for clear skin and shiny hair.
To clear up blemishes:
Wash face with carrot juice.
To cleanse dry skin and reduce eye puffiness:
Rub a slice of raw, peeled potato over the skin. Then rinse. Raw potato patties placed over the eyes will also reduce eye puffiness. The vitamin C is the important ingredient here.
To cleanse oily skin:
Put ½ head of lettuce in pot of water and bring to boil. Lower heat; simmer one hour. Strain off solids. Add 1/4 tsp tincture of benzoin as a natural preservative. Wash face with solution twice a day.
Moisturizing and nourishing the face
Most of the time we think about moisturizing our faces, but we don’t think about actually nourishing our faces. The problem with moisturizers and lotions — even the natural ones — is that they generally lie on the surface of the skin. But lines and wrinkles come from deeper than surface skin; if you’re going to ease their harshness, you need to help the body to produce its own moisture internally.
If your face is unduly lined, it is caused, in part, by dry skin. Moist skin is smooth; and moist skin comes from internal moisture, not from slathering on oily creams. When your skin is healthy, it produces its own moisture continuously. In addition, dry skin, on the face and elsewhere (elbows, wrists and knees particularly) is indicative of a deeper health issue. If we’re dry on the outside, it is likely that we’re dry on the inside. In fact, according to Dale Alexander, dry skin and arthritis are just two sides of the same coin. They are both symptoms of the same underlying problem, which is lack of lubrication. Too, if your skin is dry, your blood cells are drying out, losing the lubrication that allows them to circulate freely. They clump together, causing sludge blood. Your arteries lose their elasticity, becoming hard and brittle, setting you up for a stroke or aneurysm. The list of health conditions goes on and on.
The oil that best lubricates the skin is cod liver oil. None of the other oils — the nut oils, even the health-enhancing flaxseed oil — work specifically on the skin the way cod liver oil does. All other oils are land oils; the fact that cod liver oil is a marine oil gives it special properties. Cod liver oil contains large amounts of vitamin A, which protects the skin, and essential fatty acids, which have a fantastic ability to heal the skin.
The best way to take cod liver oil is with milk. The milk is an oil-bearing liquid with emulsified oils that mix with the cod liver oil.
Moisturizing your skin with cod liver oil:
For best results, take your cod liver oil before bed or an hour before breakfast. In a small glass jar, mix one tbspn of cod liver oil with two ounces of goat’s milk. (If the jar is large, you will lose too much of the oil on the sides of the jar. If goat’s milk is not available, substitute whole, not skim, organic cow’s milk.) To sweeten and eliminate the cod liver taste, you can add 1 tbspn fruit concentrate (black cherry concentrate is nice). Shake jar and drink. Take every day until skin is no longer dry; then take every other day for 6 months; then taper off to once a week. (Individuals suffering from heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes will not assimilate the oil quickly, and should take it only twice a week.)
Bee pollen makes an excellent base for a moisturizer. Bee pollen, you may remember, is chock full of anti-aging properties. It has RNA and DNA nucleic acids, all of the amino acids and is a complete food that provides all the nutrients necessary for the sustenance of human life. Nothing nourishes the skin like a bee pollen mask. If you make these products a part of your regular skin care, you will see dead skin melt away. The only products needed for these formulas that you will not have in your kitchen are glycerin, beeswax, aloe vera, witch hazel and stearic acid; all are totally natural. Glycerin can be made from either plants or animals. All drugstores carry the animal form and health food stores can order the vegetable glycerin. Beeswax can be found at most farmers’ markets and at some health food stores. If you can’t find it at these places, just buy some natural candles, which are made from beeswax. Aloe vera gel is found at any health food store, or better yet, you can grow your own plant indoors. The gel is the center part after you have removed the green surface. Witch hazel is a plant whose leaves and bark can be made into a skin freshener and astringent. It’s been a staple of medicine chests for 300 years and is available at any drugstore. It’s good for tired eyes as well as the face. Stearic acid is a natural butter acid obtained from fats and oils. Craft stores carry it because it’s used in making candles.
Bee pollen moisturizing mask:
Mix 1 tsp of ground bee pollen, 1 tbspn of honey (if you can find a honey with propolis, you’ll increase the vitamin B) and 1 egg yolk. This is the essential mask. You can also add mashed avocado for extra nutritional boost. Smear on face and leave on half-hour.
Bee pollen scrub:
Add cornmeal to the mask, and rub on skin.
Bee pollen astringent:
Mix together 1 tsp of ground bee pollen, ½ cup of fresh lemon juice, white of 1 egg and ¼ cup of water. Use daily to cleanse your face.
Bee pollen cold cream:
Stir in ½ tbspn bee pollen with 1 tbspn of water. Mix ¼ cup glycerin, ¼ cup grated beeswax and ½ cup almond oil. Heat on stove until wax in melted. Put oil mix in blender; slowly add pollen and water mix. Blend on high for one minute. Let cool.
Bee pollen moisturizing cream:
Mix together 1 tbspn ground bee pollen, 2 tbspn apricot kernel oil, ¼ cup almond oil and ¼ cup stearic acid. Heat oil mix in water bath (put mix in stainless steel pot and place in larger pot filled with water) until mix is clear liquid. Then mix ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp aloe vera gel and 1 cup water. Heat water mix in water bath. Add 1/3 water mix to oil mix and stir until foamy. Pour foamy mix into blender. Add rest of water mix in slow, steady stream on high blend until fluffy white. Put mix in glass container and let cool.
Smoothing out lines and wrinkles
There are several natural products that have an anti-wrinkle effect. One of the best is Stevia. Stevia has been used traditionally in skin care for centuries. The Indians used it before Columbus. Liquid Stevia is dark, and you’ll actually look like a painted Indian. As you let it dry on your skin, you will actually feel your facial skin tightening. It is easily washed off with water. You can usually see the effects of Stevia on facial lines and wrinkles after just a few treatments. It also works exceptionally well on acne, seborrhea, dermatitis, eczema and just plain old blemishes. If it is used on cuts or wounds, it will speed up the healing and will prevent scarring.
Stevia anti-wrinkle procedure:
Put just a few drops of liquid Stevia each day on your face, right on top the wrinkles and lines. You can also add the white powdered Stevia to your favorite moisturizer and wear through the day.
You can also give yourself a “fruit peel” as an anti-wrinkle treatment. Papaya has a natural enzyme called papain which works well for this purpose. Pineapple has bromelein, also an enzyme.
Anti-wrinkle fruit peel:
Mash 2 tbspn of outer rind of green papaya or pineapple with 1 tsp aloe vera gel. Leave on only 5 minutes as mix is drying.
Finally, pine needles make an excellent facial toner and their advantage is that they’re available year-round in any climate. Perhaps when we use a brew made from pine needles, we absorb some of the steady, sturdy properties of the trees. This formula is slightly astringent and will improve circulation. It’s gentle enough to use below the eyes. The subtle scent gives a nice feeling of calm.
Pine needle toner:
Put 1 cup pine needles in pot and cover with water. Bring to boil. Then allow water to cool; strain off pine needles. Add ¼ cup witch hazel and stir.
Cellulite
Cellulite is always a difficult problem, but there are ways you can improve or minimize its appearance. In addition to daily exercise and a good diet, performing the dry brush technique can make a huge difference in the severity of your cellulite. At La Casa, we encourage everyone to do a daily regimen of dry skin brushing…
Lymphatic Cleansing
The lymph system, specifically, cleans the body of debris. Lymph fluid surrounds every cell in your body. The human body contains three times more lymph fluid than it does blood. The pressure that is exerted on the lymphatic system in rebounding activates the valves in the lymph channels to their maximum capacity, increasing lymph flow by as much as 30 times normal. In fact, the entire lymph system can be cleansed in the span of a single, short session on the trampoline. Clogged lymph nodes are cleared; tonsils and adenoids are cleansed, as are the larger organs of the appendix and spleen.
For an intensive lymphatic cleansing, we recommend a three-day citrus juice purge…