Usain Bolt had a grade one hamstring tear less than one month prior to his competing in the August Olympic competition in Rio! It seems miraculous, right? Yet, with the healing abilities of homeopathy, acupuncture and herbs Usain achieved Olympic gold status three times! Usain Bolt has been using homeopathy, acupuncture and herbs for his health since he was 16 years old. He was born with scoliosis, making him more prone to injuries as a runner. A German homeopath kept putting him back on track after every injury.

How can homeopathics help the body to repair itself so quickly in trauma? An exact homeopathic remedy match is the key factor in a speedy recovery.

Homeopathic remedies not only match each person’s expression of symptoms, like pain, inflammation, swelling, bone breakage, tissue tears or trauma, but also the intensity and the pace of the symptoms themselves. You may describe it as a ripping pain, a dull ache, a pulling sensation, or a shooting zing, for example. You might say that the pain comes and goes or has a pounding effect, better with heat or cold, movement or still. Each person gives a very detailed individualized description of their symptoms. We listen. We match.

How specifically did Usain experience his hamstring tear? His homeopath listened closely as he spoke with his body gestures, sensations, pace, intensity and energetic tone as he described his pain to determine the perfect homeopathic match. Homeopathy matches to the unique person rather than the disease, taking in not only what is said but how it is said or what is left out. Homeopathy does not use a disease label like ‘Hamstring Tear Remedy’. While Usain might have been prescribed Arnica Montana for his hamstring tear, you might have been prescribed Hamamelis or Bellis Perrenis for a similar hamstring tear depending on your description of symptoms. Homeopathic prescriptions are not label driven.

Your strength of constitution and resilience is also a strong factor in the speed of your healing trajectory. Usain’s body is vibrant, moving and active. That is one good reason he healed so quickly. He utilizes and conserves energy efficiently. By his running every day he is discharging toxins and waste products that build up with use. He sweats out heat and toxins. He breathes out carbon dioxide. He absorbs lactic acid to dispose of it through the blood stream’s exchange. He eats healthy green vegetables and organic meats to help enhance repair. He sleeps deeply. He gets sunshine and free flowing air. He does not have to detoxify the chemical tradeoffs of prescription drugs in his liver. So for Usain with his long term choice for natural health solutions he is reaping the golden rewards with three gold medals.

We may not be in the same top physical shape as Usain Bolt, but homeopathic remedies can still help us to repair much faster in trauma. In acute trauma it is recommended to get help with a personalized natural solution with the assistance of a trained homeopath or naturopath like myself.

Below is a DIY self-help short list for trauma:

Food

• Animal protein and organ meats (grass fed beef, turkey, chicken and eggs)
• Organic Real Bone Broth
• Chlorophyll
• Pre and probiotics (and other fermented foods)
• Buckwheat
• Citrus & peels
• Carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, squash
• Flax seeds, walnuts, almonds and healthy oils
• Blueberries, strawberries, tart cherries
• Fiber
• Bitter Tasting Foods

*Avoid alcohol, caffeine, salty and sweet

Herbs

• Comfrey (Knitbone)
• Korean Ginseng
• Withania (Ashwaganda)
• Gotu Kola
• Horsechestnut
• St Johnswort
• Echinachea

Homeopathics

• Arnica Montana
• Calendula
• Gelsemium
• Hypericum
• Ruta

For a customized natural health plan for a return to health from trauma or surgery, call or email me for an appointment or a complimentary 10 minute Q & A consult.

Email@DrAvivaBoxer.com or 530-238-5649.

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We admire them, don’t we, those Olympic athletes? Whenever the Olympics come around we see more people jogging outside and flocking to the gym. We all want what they have- that vibrant glow in the cheeks, chiseled muscles and sparkling whites in twinkling eyes. We want their stamina, resilience, vitality and drive to be our own very best selves. The older athletes will tell you its all about consistency, recovery and mind set. We wonder how they get it and try to emulate them with maybe a new exercise schedule. But it is not only exercise that makes a great athlete. It is their will and belief in self and success too. Where the physical meets the mental and emotional is a perfect place for holistic health options. I have witnessed the transformations.

I have shared natural health and life stories with Kerri Walsh Jennings, a 38 year old Mother of three, and 3 times gold medalist in Beach Volleyball at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Kerri shared with me that she had a rigorous schedule of consuming whole food supplements from Standard Process and herbal supplements from Mediherb. She admitted that it gave her healthy pregnancies and babies as well as sustainable energy to amplify her skill to gold medal mastery in beach volleyball. She added that her daily commitment to whole food supplements rather than pharmaceutical grade extracted vitamins gave her the edge. She felt that when you give your body the organic whole food it needs there is no need for doping to make the grade.

Making the grade with our body as well as our emotional/mental will is useful not only for a world class athlete, but I have also used the same holistic options for the Will to kick drug/alcohol abuse or the stamina and focus needed to pass a medical, law or entrance exam, or win a competition like chess or the National Geographic Bee, which seem more about mental fortitude than physical strength. In all of these situations the physical must meet and support the mental/emotional and vice versa.The Will must be in top form. Holistic options, by their very nature, link your body and mind by synching the two and producing exceptional performance at very high levels.

Below is a short list of must have health supplements I use with high achieving athletes, competitors, and those facing impossible looking challenges. We use diet, herbs and homeopathy to get that mental, physical and emotional edge for Olympic gold.

Must Have Foods:

1. Beets: Contains betaine. Metabolite to convert amino acids like homocystine. Supports blood fat to sugar. Helps the gall bladder to produce bile helps breakdown and eliminate toxins from the body. Superior in liver support, the commander-in-chief of the body’s energy and hormone regulation. The result is breaking down the usable from the non-usable and nourishing both in the body and the thoughts of the mind. Indecision and doubt drop away.

2. Buckwheat: High in Vitamin C and Rutin which reduces inflammation. Vitamin C is a requirement for adrenal, fight-or-flight stress. Balances blood sugar. Satisfies hunger. Rich in magnesium, which is a co-factor to 300 enzymes. Reduce high blood pressure and prevents heart failure and stroke. Gluten Free too. The result is the ability to take on and process more stress and use what energetic stores you have so very efficiently. Resilience is increased.

3. Alfalfa: Father of all foods. High source of chlorophyll for circulation and immune function. Enzymes for assimilation and digestion. Supports blood sugar. Helps the Pituitary Gland with hormones. Purifies blood. Detoxes urinary tract. Race Horses love it too! The result is that all the cofactors, enzymes and necessary minerals are available for uptake, so that speed of action is increased.

Must Have Herbs:

1. Schizandra: For fatigue and physical stress. Improves physical exercise, mental performance and concentration. Evens out blood sugar. Mild antidepressant. Helps in drug detox. Nerve Tonic. Releases bonding hormones so it cements ones dreams to success. Tonic. Protective.

2. Ginseng: For fatigue and physical stress. Improves physical and mental performance as well as concentration. Slows aging. Regulates sugar metabolism. Focuses attention. Gives a quick return to health from post viral infections.

3. Bacopa: Improves memory, especially medium to long term. Improves concentration and mental performance. Gives laser like focus. Reduces anxiety. Supports sleep. Strong nerve tonic.

Must Have Adaptogens:

1. Herbavital: Contains reserveratrol for anti-aging. Improves poor memory and cognition. Supports laser focus. Strengthens heart and circulatory systems. Invigorates immune system and reduces inflammation. Increases stamina, adrenal strength and balances blood sugar. Promotes general health, DNA integrity, and provides antifungal properties. Especially provides vitality for 40+ years and up.

2. Vitanox: Powerful antioxidant. Supports integrity of tissues, blood vessels. Protects against environmental toxins and viral gut replication. Strengthens the cardiovascular system. Life lengthening supplement.

3. Ashwaganda: Adrenal and energy support to prevent fatigue. Improves physical performance. Those who are wound up and run down, ‘wired and tired’, and those with adrenal and nervous exhaustion. Great herb for type A individuals who keep going until they drop. Also excellent for the elderly. Good for anemia, inflammation. Improves sleep and pain from osteoarthritis.

Must Have Homeopathics

1. Arsenicum: For the perfectionistic type. To be forever strong, forever young and have improved resistance. Quiets fears of death, being alone, looking on the dark side of things, or restlessness. For a person obsessed with order or a need for reassurance or has anxiety that something is expected of him/her. Also useful for extreme weakness from slight exertion. It quiets restlessness.

2. Arnica Montana: For the person who is obstinate and has headstrong resistance to other people’s opinion. It is believed that he/she has an important task to perform. For people who push themselves too hard and work themselves to death in the school of hard knocks. For people who have old gnawing ailments from injuries, either physical or mental, including remorse and shock. For sore, bruised sensations or trauma.

3. Ruta: Doubts about his/her success. His/her actions are contradictory to intensions. There is dissatisfaction with self and others. Imagined he/she is always being deceived. There is weakness after sitting or walking.

For a more personalized customized holistic answer to merging your peak performing body with your razor sharp Will to succeed feel free to contact me at email@DrAvivaBoxer.com.

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This past weekend I was the holistic birth Doula for my daughter’s birthing of her daughter, Aria Rue. As with most births, it was miraculous and wondrous. She had her baby naturally in a hospital setting. No drugs, no medical intervention. They thought she was crazy not to take the drugs. She was all the buzz on the 3rd floor of labor & delivery for the next 2 days.

At home, on Sunday, in the wee morning hours, my daughter had been bouncing on the exercise ball, getting low back massages, and warm showers as her contractions became closer and closer together and stronger and stronger. Her husband has been helping her to visualize peaceful places and soothing thoughts, eye-to-eye, cheek-to-cheek, creating a parasympathetic, hypnotic rhythm and state. She drank fluid. She ate small snacks and rested in between contractions. She timed her contractions on the app on her cell phone. She called me. I gave her one of many homeopathic birth remedies specific to her, to calm her and help her to have an easy birth. I let nature take its course and directed her to move and let gravity help her to move the baby down and out. Contractions are her friend. They help squeeze the pituitary, the Mother gland of the body, in the brain, to download more oxytocin hormone to open up her body and help her baby to move into the world. Movement, gravity and keeping relaxed are the key. When the contractions became more prolonged and 3 minutes apart we decided to depart for the hospital that was 30 minutes away. We wanted to make sure that the baby was not in distress with contractions so close together.

Medical institutions make it near impossible to maintain the same calm parasympathetic state as home. With monitors, beeping lights and cords, measuring everything from temperature to dilation every ½ hour it is like watching a pot boil and every bubble gets measured.

When she walked onto the maternity ward to be admitted, the nurses were sure she would be sent home with contractions of false labor, as many first time mothers are. But when my daughter arrived she was 4cm dilated and 100% effaced with contractions happening every 3 minutes documented on her phone’s pregnancy contraction app. They could not believe that she was not complaining of pain and doubled over in distress. A nurse Zola, who had worked in labor and delivery for over 24 years was impressed with my daughters calm. She started the intake plugging data into the hospital computer. During the intake, when my daughter tried to share her written birth plan, Zola condescendingly looked my daughter in the eye, and stuffed her birth plan into a file without a glance and typed away on a computer, asking her all the questions that had been answered on her birth plan. My daughter said, “ We plan to have my baby girl naturally and without medical intervention. “ The heavy silence of the unsaid filled the room, but I could hear the message loud and clear, “Honey, all you new age Westside Moms read the books and look on ‘You Tube’ wanting to have that perfect natural birth. But you will be the first to beg for pain relief once those contractions start coming fast and furious. Birth Plans are nice on paper, but not worth the paper they are typed on in real life. You are young. You don’t have the guts, stamina or courage. You’ll learn. You’ll see. Labor is intense.”

Even then an IV was inserted into my daughter’s arm, “just in case” she needed drug intervention. Little by little, the calming opening parasympathetic state she came in with started to degrade. They reluctantly inserted the IV into her arm versus her hand because my daughter wanted to hold her newborn without pain or interference. They complied with an eye roll. I gave my daughter a homeopathic remedy that opens up the orifices and readies a woman for birth. I then inserted the acupuncture needles into my daughter that support opening and a painless labor. I had to wait until the nurse went out of the room to get the consent forms that relieve the hospital of liability for our holistic interventional choices.

I wonder why pregnancy and now fertility is considered a ‘burden’ for women instead of a wonder, blessing or miracle? So often attention is paid to fear, anxiety, pain or discomfort which can cause a woman to interpret pregnancy and labor in a distressful, medical emergency pessimistic or negative way. Getting fat or impeding a woman from drinking, traveling or doing what one wants is given center stage. Protecting the unborn has become nuisance and impediment to many pregnant women. This is not only true during pregnancy but labor as well.

The ideal seems to be zero tolerance for a mother-to-be’s discomfort, transitory symptoms of body changes and accommodations for her growing baby inside her. The ideal is to be able to carry on with life as if there are no tradeoffs, compensations and compromises made to house another human being inside one’s body. Stress and anxiety follow suit when the ideal of a pregnant body being the same as non-pregnant body. High levels of stress-induced catecholamines prevent the pregnant woman from entering into an instinctual mental state often called ‘the zone’. This ‘zone’ can occur from conception to post birth if a woman can alter the often negative perception of  pregnancy and birth. The contrast of societal ideals and the reality of pregnancy accommodations crash together and create a domino effect of symptoms and medical interventions when fear and anxiety and unrealistic ideals drive the pregnancy. The sympathetic fight, flight or flee become the options for a pregnant woman that is fight or flight and stress based.

Although the fight or flight response is similar in men and women physically, there are behavioral differences in pregnancy and labor. Fight or flight is the primary response to stress, behaviorally in males. They want to fight to protect self, family, village or country against dangerous attackers, or flee from danger if the odds are too great.

But females have a different behavioral response to stress that is characterized by ‘tend and befriend’. It refers to protecting their young from harm and reaching out or getting help by affiliating with others to reduce the risks to themselves and their offspring. Women want and need supportive people around them during pregnancy and labor. In fact, the absence of this kind of support is one of the most frequently mentioned reasons for later dissatisfaction with pregnancy and childbirth. A woman’s protectiveness toward her child is evident when she is told that her baby is in danger. She will agree to whatever treatment is suggested, even if it does not fit with her prior preferences for her birth. On the other hand, if she does not trust her caregiver, she may try to protect her child by resisting suggested treatments, even if life saving. It is important to suggest and enhance a woman’s feelings of security and trust and reduce the likelihood of emotional stress. It is imperative in pregnancy, but especially at labor and delivery to surround the birthing mother with people she trusts that will tend and befriend her by giving her positive, hopeful, encouraging and problem solving suggestions and support. This must come from loved ones as well as medical personnel. When the jaded nurses surrounded my daughter in pregnancy, I watched the easy progression of birth she came into the hospital with begin to slow, and the fear and anxiety began to rise. Her blood pressure rose, her pupils dilated and rate of breath increased. These are signs of a sympathetic response of fight or flight.

Many other mammals, especially matriarchal societies of animals, like elephants and dolphins use the ‘tend and befriend’ method of keeping new lives safe and protected. How often do we women do it for others? How has this skill been translated into modern times? Do we tend and befriend our girlfriends? Do we tend and befriend that female side of ourselves as we enter a new phase and close the previous one? Tending and befriending is a time when, as a supporter, you put your own needs last and those of the mother-to-be, the birther, and her newborn first. You listen. You watch her responses and protect her environment for her. You help her to solve problems, stay calm and open, never victimized and in danger. It is easier for you to see for her in the highly focused moment. At the moment of birth we all become midwifes, bearing the gifts of help, healing, acceptance, merging with her and her baby’s pace, intensity, and give her permission to do it her way. It is an act of love for both Mother and baby. It is an act of certainty that our species has reproduced and will continue in the name of love. What a way to enter the world! It is an energetic bouquet of love and focus. As an unexpected surprise for the tending and befriending midwives that are present, the joy flows right over those who are present. We all feel the power of the overflow of the oxytocin bond that happens physically, emotionally and spiritually between Mother, Father and Baby. It is the glory and power of tending and befriending. Everyone wins!

We all would be wise to use tending and befriending on an everyday basis with ourselves and those we love who are going through a life transition, crisis, adversity or disease, just like birth. We can help our precious ones by midwifing their obstruction and stagnation by letting it pass, birthing it, using the tend and befriend method.

TEND AND BEFRIEND METHOD

• Talk softly
• Listen
• Repeat back what you thought you heard. She must feel understood
• Slow down to her pace, intensity & breathing rate
• Encourage positively
• Accept her way
• Share appreciation and gratitude
• Protect the space and surrounding environment for her
• Advocate on her behalf making her feel safety & trust
• Be kind and generous
• Help her to open up and receive your welcoming gift of love

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Missing your cup of coffee or glass of wine because you are pregnant? You don’t want to hurt your baby, but you also want a way to relax, feel part of the socializing world and have some delight in your daily routine? I am often asked by my patients who I have helped to finally conceive naturally after months and years of IUI and IVF how to continue their health success and at the same time keep their entertaining lifestyle, while still protecting their baby. Here are some natural suggestions to drink and thrive so both you and your baby are growing and happy both emotionally and physically.

First pay attention to the container you are pouring your drink into that may make all the difference in the world. A typical coffee cup or a boring tumbler glass may just not cut it. Fool your senses by putting your drink in another container. Add a twist, an olive, a celery stick. Sometimes it is all about the container you put it in that does the trick. For instance you might try a frosty beer or root beer mug, a thin tall champagne flute, a chunky glass bucket or an elegant wine glass. You might even put your drink into an empty wine bottle with a cork. The feeling of uncorking and pouring will be satisfying. Make it special and creative. Pick a drink that has a color that attracts you. There are drinks on the list below that are ruby red like a cabernet, fluorescent green like the Incredible Hulk, or bright yellow like a sunflower. And we all know smells are triggers to pregnant women too. So review the list below and see what strikes your fancy. Your spouse may be as intrigued as you are in these new exotic drinks.

The list below are favorite drinks of many of my pregnant patients:

Teas

• Thai iced tea
• Jasmine Tea with mint or lemon/lime
• Kava Kavaapsan Souchong Tea
• Kobuk Tea’s Samovar Blend Tea
• Tisano Chocolate Tea
• Pappy’s Sassafras Tea
• Rooibos Tea
• Green Kukicha Twig Tea (Fluorescent green color)
• Lapsang Souchong Tea (smoky)
• Lavendar Tea

Carbonated Beverages

• Sodastream: Ginger-Lime, pomegranate, tamarind, real root beer.
• Italian Sodas like blackberry or kiwi
• Seltzer with ginger syrup or juice
• (With a SodaStream):
• Apple juice and sparkling water
• Sour Cherry juice and sparkling water
• Ginger/lime syrup with sparkling water
• Club Soda with fresh lemon/lime juice add fresh basil or rosemary
• 100% cranberry juice with lime and soda water

Chocolate

• Mayan hot chocolate with cayenne, cinnamon.

Fruit drinks

• Basil Lemonade
• Rosemary Lemonade
• Blood Orange Fresco
• Rhubarb Spritzer
• Bitter Lemon with quinine

Vegetable Drinks

• Clamato with lots of lime, maggi sauce, tobacco and ice
• Bloody Mary Recipe without the alcohol

Water Infused

• Cucumber with basil infused simple syrup
• Agua de Tamarindo
• Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus)

Herbed Drinks

• Spiced ginger
• Goslings Ginger Ale
• Ginger beer
• Real Ginger boiled with pineapple juice.
• Reed’s Extra Ginger Brew
• Switchel (ginger & maple base)
• Birch Beer
• Honeyed Chrysanthemum Tea
• Kava Colada

Bitter Drinks

• Chai
• Kvass
• Flavored Kombucha
• Bovril
• Karela Juice (Bitter Gourd)

Milk Drinks

• Horchata
• Almond Milk with freshly grated nutmeg or cinnamon.
• Mango Lassi maybe add cardamom

Apple Cider Vinegar Drinks

• Bragg’s vinegar drinks
• Spice Apple Cider

If you are interested in attending a No Sick Pregnancy No Drugs Salon, please email me at email@DrAvivaBoxer.com. I will email the next date and topic. You can taste several of the drinks above and share some unique, creative and naturally healthy ways to enjoy fertility, pregnancy and birth.

Make sure you try a few drinks above and discover your own favorites. Let me know your experience, additions or change ups in the comment section below. It will make your long nine months seem shorter, lots more fun and creative.

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As he scampered down the hospital corridor with his shiny bald head shining under the fluorescent lights, it seemed to match the yellowing skin on his bum peeping through the loosely tied rear opening in his Cookie Monster hospital gown. Five-year-old Mickey was waving his silken blue-feathered Prayer Pocket in the air, “I got it! I got it!”

On Children’s Cancer Ward 5 West, Mickey rushed up, almost knocking down Theresa, his favorite nurse with ‘fairy princess red haired curls’. Nurse Theresa bent down eye-to-eye to all of Mickey’s 43 inches, and smiled, “What’ve you got, Spikey Mikey?”

Out of breath and in a whisper soft voice Mickey said, “Here open it up and see for yourself!” Nurse Theresa gently started to open Mickey’s silken Prayer Pocket and reached in to find a multi-folded piece of paper tucked into this 3 X 5” pouch. As Nurse Theresa slowly opened the paper to read it, Mikey blurted out, “See T, see? That’s my birth certificate that I saw in my baby book with Mommy. I want to take it to heaven when I go, so God can give me to the same family, and the same Mommy and Daddy next time around! God will just have to change the birthday, that’s all.”

Nurse Theresa’s eyes welled up with tears, and a tight lump filled her throat. She just couldn’t speak, so her smile had to do the work. Mikey continued, “T, will you ask your nurse friends on the second floor where the new babies stay, to please watch out for me, Mikey? I probably will look a little different. But tell them to look for this brown spot right here.” Mikey pointed to his right heel. “ Then they’ll know it’s me. Tell them to make sure I have my same Mommy and Daddy, ‘cause I want a second chance to love them. Will you do that T?  Will you?”

Nurse Theresa mustered as big a hug as she could give and just nodded yes, a great big sad yes.

If you want to know more about the Prayer Pocket go to DrAvivaBoxer.com, where they elevate and customize end-of-life choices with unique education, products and services that insure a Quality of Death and a Happy Death.

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