Risk Factors Don’t Act Alone
Risk factors are behaviors or conditions linked to disease. They don’t act alone.
They create their synchronicity when they react with one another. Some diseases, such as cancer, rely on multiple risk factors (age, habits, family history, health conditions, and environment) to manifest as diseases. Then, again, these same diseases can develop without any known risk factors.
When disease strikes a body without risk factors, the risk factors are energetic instead of physical. Energetic risk factors include resentment, unprocessed hurt, hatred, grief.
AGE is a risk factor in many health issues. It’s a risk factor throughout your life. Heart diseases and strokes take decades to develop, and children’s diseases focus on the youngest as the most vulnerable. Emergency rooms and physicians’ waiting rooms are populated regularly with infants, children, and seniors.
DIABETES. When you become diabetic, you are suddenly at the front of the line for a whole selection of diseases: stroke, heart attack, cataracts, glaucoma, peripheral artery disease, diabetic foot disease, neuropathy.
DNA testing is commonplace for certain types of diseases. I look forward to the day when people get their DNA tested routinely before the disease becomes dangerous, not after you’ve found it and are receiving drugs and trying to learn what other medical procedures are in your future.
FAMILY HISTORY OF A PARTICULAR DISEASE. Just because a particular disease is in your family history doesn’t mean you’ll get that disease 100%. It’s important to know about the disease and it’s important to use the knowledge to fight it.
HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE is both a treatable disease and a silent killer. No one should have to deal with the complications of high blood pressure. The medication is not expensive. High blood pressure needs treatment because it becomes a silent killer when left untreated. Because there are few symptoms people resist the lifesaving medication.
HIGH CHOLESTEROL is truly a silent killer. Your body works much better when there are healthy numbers to work with. Taking your cholesterol medication can be an easy decision if you examine the statistics. People live longer with statins.
OBESITY is an epidemic in our country right now. How does this happen?
First, people don’t move enough to process the calories consumed. Secondly, people are now eating a lot of chemicals manufactured for human consumptions. These eating products are manufactured to eat but they are not food. Our foods are not able to properly digest these chemical-laden products.
SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE When I walk down the street on a sidewalk, I notice those around me walking. Some move rapidly, with purpose, easily. Others move slowly, with or without purpose, painfully.
I always want to ask them whether they liked moving when they were young. Some people are totally in their bodies and move easily through life. Others are not and don’t move easily. In the final analysis, I ask myself how can I convince a person who doesn’t like to move to walk or run or play a game of some kind. How can I help them see their bodies in the future? How can I help them see how much easier it is when they keep their bodies from rusting?
SMOKING is a set-up for an unhealthy end of life. When I see a person suffering from COPD trying to breathe, I always wonder whether or not they think smoking was the right thing to do. But, then, I’m sure when a person begins to smoke, COPD is never on anyone’s mind.
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Thurman Greco
Cancer and Your Spirituality
Spiritually, few diseases have an impact as strong as cancer. Grief eats away at your body. Carrying past wounds makes you fearful, angry. You attack yourself from the inside out. Finally, you are running on empty.
Cancer is a complex and life-threatening disease. It requires specially trained health care professionals. Your journey to wellness will be easier and more effective if your medical knows about any and all alternative remedies you use. Your recovery calls for conventional physicians and integrative medical techniques. In other words, use every tool you feel will work.
Include internists, physical therapists, nutritionists, bodyworkers, healers in your wellness team. Everyone is needed to care for you and give you a better path to success.
As with arthritis, there are many different forms of cancer. Your reflexology, Reiki, and chakra healing sessions, received 24 to 48 hours after chemotherapy help move the medication throughout your body more efficiently.
Regular sessions offer a deep sense of relaxation, homeostasis, pain relief, and reduce stress. If reflexology is not available, try other bodywork modalities. They can change your cancer experience. Safe, effective healing bodywork therapies offer nurturing in tandem with cancer treatment.
When you suffer from cancer, continue all your treatments, both allopathic and complementary. Your reflexologist will support your return to good health through all your treatments. Your sessions will be most effective when you combine reflexology with Reiki, chakra healing.
Do you practice Reiki? No? Now might be a good time to start. Self Reiki sessions can help with fear, nausea, and pain.
RISK FACTORS
The list is long: age, air pollution, diabetes, excess sun exposure, exposure to chemicals, family history, heavy alcohol consumption, obesity, polyps in colon, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, poor health.
Some professions believe cancers don’t need risk factors because many people get cancer who don’t have applicable risk factors or who are not exposed to them. This makes cancer a more spiritual set of diseases.
CHAKRAS
The location of your cancer tells you which chakras are affected. With cancer, the chakras need to be balanced.
Prostate and rectal cancer involve your root chakra. Cancers of your cervix, ovaries, uterus, colon, unbalance your sacral chakra. Cancers of your stomach, liver, intestinal tract, pancreas, unbalance your solar plexus chakra. Your heart chakra becomes unbalanced by breast and lung cancers. Lung cancer unbalances your throat chakra as well. Finally, brain tumors affect your crown chakra.
REFLEXOLOGY SYSTEMS TO WORK
brain reflexes, endocrine system, digestive system, immune system, respiratory system, the lymphatics, circulatory system, nervous system, liver, solar plexus
ESSENTIAL OILS
Canadian red cedar, clove, dill, Douglas fir, galbanum, grapefruit, hyssop, Idaho balsam fir, lavender, ledum, maleleuca, myrrh, myrtle, nutmeg, patchouli, rose, sage, sandalwood, tarragon, thyme, tsuga, valerian, ylang ylang
VITAMINS AND MINERALS
Consult with your nutritionist, your physicians, and your entire support team to choose vitamin and mineral supplements for your situation. Nutritional support will help decrease any side effects you experience. Some professionals believe you will recover faster, have fewer complications if you take nutritional supplements.
If you have questions about which supplements are best for you, I refer you to Village Apothecary, 79 Tinker Street, here in Woodstock, New York, 12498. I get all my supplements at Village Apothecary. I trust Neil Smoller’s advice.
THINGS TO DO
Normalize your cholesterol levels. Exercise. Use smart food choices, portion control to balance your weight. Staying active helps relieve fatigue, reduce anxiety, lift pain, boost energy, preserve muscle strength, protect bones. Avoid overexposure to sun. Skip the alcohol. The list, it seems, is endless.
If you read this section of the book, maybe you’re taking stock of your life. Now is a good time to search your inner self and seek those lost parts you’ve ignored for a long time. Move them onto your front row of attention. Nourish those feelings and thoughts. Put them in the spotlight. Your goal is to feel safe so you can heal.
IMPORTANT FOODS IN YOUR DIET
There’s a correlation between fat, meat, and cancer. Fruits, vegetables, fiber are necessary for you if you are trying to prevent or treat cancer. Nutrition is important.
Some well known cancer-fighting foods include green tea, garlic, soy, turmeric, and ginger. No one food can cure cancer. But a good diet can help your quality of life while you fuel your body. At mealtime, fill your plate with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
DEFENSE STRATEGIES
Living well offers protection against many cancers. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables as part of a healthy diet. Exercise regularly. Avoid tobacco and alcohol to prevent many cancers. Get a bit of sunlight every day. There is, however, no magic bullet.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
Have I left my community behind? Is deep stress undermining my immune system? Can I be honest about my feelings?
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In a Perfect World…
We would all be disease free
Our brains would stay sharp
We would all experience good energy levels
Physical fitness would be very common
Everyone would feel young.
But, we don’t live in a perfect world. The question is this: How can we be disease-free physically fit, have sharp brains, experience less stress, feel young?
One way is to honor our immune system. It is our immune system which keeps us healthy, disease free, physically fit, mentally sharp.
People visit reflexologists regularly as they strive to prevent as much disease as possible. And, they are correct to do this. As reflexologists, we work to facilitate homeostasis – bring balance.
Focusing on the immune system is important, not only for the diseases we think about: colds, flu, etc., but for many other diseases we consider to be lifestyle or aging diseases:
MS
thyroid disease
colitis
rheumatoid arthritis
diabetes.
When the immune system is out of balance, it can become overactive. An overactive immune system participates in the aging process as it encourages autoimmune diseases.
As a Reflexology for the Spirit practitioner, you are important to the health maintenance of your client partners. Your client partners will be healthier when their immune systems function at peak levels. An immune system functions at its peak when it successfully fights off viruses, bacteria, parasites.
Encourage your clients to contribute to a healthy immune system. As a reflexologist, you offer sessions and you also work to ground your client partners so they can do everything they need to do to keep themselves healthy:
breathe properly and therapeutically
eat a diet which is healthy for the individual
sleep sufficiently
exercise
smell the flowers
This is really what Marge d’Urso meant when she emphasized that reflexologists work with the whole client partner as we offer homeostasis.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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photograph by Jennette Nearhood
Reflexology for the Spirit and Diabetes
If you’ve been following these blog posts, you may have noticed that diabetes is on the list of risk factors for heart disease. Many people suffring with diabetes develop other diseases:
Heart disease,
Kidney failure,
Strokes,
Blindness.
The risk factors for diabetes are:
Obesity,
Lack of physical exercise,
High blood pressure,
High triglycerides,
Low HDL Cholesterol,
Family history of diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes usually comes on very suddenly and strikes people 30 years and under. It’s an autoimmune disorder. It can be triggered by a viral infection (mumps) or by chemical toxins such as those found in meats. A primary risk factor for Type I Diabetes is a family history of Type I Diabetes. Type I Diabetes occurs when the pancreases produces little or no insulin. Type I diabetics self-inject insulin and test their blood sugar levels several times daily.
WITH PROPER MONITORING, DIABETICS FEEL WELL AND ARE ABLE TO REDUCE DAMAGE TO KIDNEYS, EYES, NERVES, BLOOD VESSELS.
Diabetes is a spiritual disease affecting, at first, the endocrine and digestive systems. It’s definitely on the rise. Diabetes creates long term complications including heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, high blood pressure, amputations, and dental disease.
Type II Diabetes develops at a somewhat later age. The majority of people with Diabetes suffer from Type II.
The best luck with this disease lies in:
careful meal planning,
regular exercise,
weight loss,
close monitoring with your healthcare team.
People at risk of developing Type II Diabetes include those who are obese, have high blood pressure, have high cholesterol, do not exercise, and who are over 45 years old.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS NUMBER IS COMING DOWN BECAUSE OF THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN DEVELOPING TYPE II DIABETES.
It’s important for people suffering from either Type I or Type II Diabetes to quit smoking, become interested in cholesterol and blood pressure control, exercise regularly, and see their healthcare team members regularly. Ideally, the healthcare team consists of a primary healthcare provider (physician, nurse practitioner ),
opthalmologist, reflexologist, periodontist, dietitian, and exercise trainer. As the disease progresses, a cardiologist and nephrologist need to be added to the list.
Diabetics definitely benefit from routine Reflexology for the Spirit sessions. They: reduce stress,
encourage more efficient kidney function,
help lower cholesterol and blood pressure levels,
assist the blood circulation to the feet.
It is more helpful for the client who is in the early stages of the disease so complications can be prevented as long as possible.
If you are going to offer Reflexology for the Spirit to people suffering from diabetes, you need to learn about the medical emergencies that diabetics have to deal with. Also, please advise your Diabetic client partners to test their levels after every session.
ALWAYS NOTE THE CONDITION OF FEET AND TOES. Look for thick toenails, patchy areas of gangrene. Is the sense of touch and pain perception altered by feeling loss?
Your client-partner may not know about ulcers, sores, cracks on the feet. Discuss your observations with him/her.
When you work the feet of Diabetic patients, work all body systems to include the endocrine, cardiovascular, urinary, digestive, immune, sense organs, liver and solar plexus.
ESSENTIAL OILS: cinnamon, clove, coriander, dill, fennel, lemongrass.
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Thurman Greco
Reflexology for the Spirit and the Big Five
SEVERAL DISEASES STALK US ALL. Although it’s difficult to know exactly what causes them, markers exist letting us know where they fit in the overall scheme of things. Some things are certain.
Reflexology for the Spirit plays a significant part in promoting overall wellness, disease prevention, and disease management. These diseases can be prevented and/or managed with some healthy lifestyle habits. Emphasizing disease prevention and health promotion with Reflexology for the Spirit is important.
Focusing on prevention can decrease disabilities, increase the quality of life for your client partners, and reduce their health care costs.
Changing health damaging habits such as smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and poor diet can have a dramatic effect on your client partners. These changes can have a ripple effect in their communities. When you encourage your clients partners to practice disease prevention, you offer them an opportunity for a healthier future.
THESE DISEASES CHALLENGE US IN DIFFERENT WAYS BASED ON OUR AGE. Being knowledgeable of these challenges and how they present themselves to us offers valuable tools to prevent the diseases themselves. The five biggest threats to our health are:
Heart Disease,
Cancer,
Stroke,
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease,
Diabetes.
Interestingly enough, the risk factors and markers for these diseases are similar (with only a few exceptions).
THE RISK FACTORS COMMON FOR ALL FIVE DISEASES ARE ELEVATED CHOLESTEROL, POOR DIET, HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, TOBACCO USE, SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE, EXCESS WEIGHT OR UNDERWEIGHT, AND DIABETES.
In the next six posts, I will explore each of these diseases and, finally, offer a summary.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
