Sugar has become a popular food to blame all manner of health problems on. It is said to be more addictive than drugs, a poison, a cause of obesity and cancer along with a host of maladies.

On closer examination, the truth about sugar is more nuanced. A diet of all refined sugars especially in the form of candy and sodas will displace other foods making one malnourished. Many of the foods that contain refined sugars also have harmful ingredients for health. Pastries include poor quality and excessive amounts of omega 6 fats in the form of rancid oils and bromated or bleached flour which hurts your thyroid function. A healthy thyroid function is crucial for overall health.  There is evidence that an under active thyroid leads to many diseases including cancers and heart disease.

On the other hand, natural sugars from fruits and moderate amounts of natural unrefined sugar sources such as maple syrup or honey have tremendous benefits for health.

Here are some of the key benefits from eating regular and moderate amounts of natural sugars.

1. Sugar can reduce stress and inflammation in the body.
2. Eating moderate amounts of cooked, dried or fresh fruits and drinking small amounts of fruit juices can help moderate blood sugar and calm the adrenal glands.  Adding a bit of salt to your fruit juice will help raise blood sugar to normal levels, lower damaging stress hormones, and stimulate the conversion of T4 (inactive thyroid) to T3 (active thyroid hormone)
3. Sugar can increase your metabolic rate by supplying easy to digest calories.
4. Sugar increases calories which keeps the metabolism higher for people who have a low appetite.
5. Sugar boosts energy levels for active people by supplying a quick and easy to digest form of energy.
6. Sugar enhances sleep. Insomnia is caused by the body producing excessive amounts of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Sugar replaces lost energy and calms down the production of these hormones.

​Keeping the metabolism highly functioning is a warm process. Energetically, sugars produce quick energy, but in excess can cool the body or slow the metabolism.

For this reason, I recommend that people living in temperate climates focus on moderate sugar fruits growing in this climate including cooked and some fresh fruits like apples, pears, berries and seasonally available fruits such as melons. Dried fruit for people living in temperate areas include raisins, apricots, apples, pears and others that are naturally processed without sulfites. Healthy natural sweeteners include rice syrup, barley malt, maple syrup, organic molasses, and raw honey. 

I’ve studied multiple aspects of health and healing in order to aid and guide me in my natural health teaching and counseling for more than 40 years. What I’ve discovered is that my learning is more like a tapestry than a library of knowledge. Each discovery is layered on top of each other to form an intricate and interconnected brocade of my understanding of health.

In the last few years, I discovered the link between all diseases - stress.  When we think about stress, what often comes to mind is emotional or mental stress. Although this is a common stressor for people, there are many other stressors that create cumulative harmful effects over time that lead to various diseases.

In my Diagnosis+Nutrition™ Health Coach Training Program, my 21st Century Health Program Audio Series, and my 10 Class Certificate Video and PowerPoint Course, I address the different types of stress that eventually lead to health problems. The major stressors that affect humans are from diet, lifestyle practices, environment and the mind and emotions.

A few years ago, a friend and mentor turned me on to the pioneering work of Ida Rolf, Thomas Hanna, Moshe Feldenkrais and other 20th century bodywork pioneers. The knowledge that I gleaned from their writings confirmed what I intuitively knew.  The body reacts to the various kinds of stress with very specific muscle tensions. Over time, these muscle tensions create habits that distort the posture and cause malfunctions of the organs.

These postural distortions lead to all major and minor diseases including arthritis, heart disease, chronic fatigue, thyroid imbalances, anxiety and depression, cancers and other serious disorders.

The body reacts to long term stress in very particular ways.  The first reaction is by tightening the back muscles, straightening the legs, and accenting the curve in the lower back. This indicates that physical and/or mental effort is being made. When the body is tired from too much effort, the muscles in the front of the body pull forward, collapsing the head neck and pulling the shoulders forward.

Both of these body habits over time start to cut off the circulation to the organs and systems in the body.
As I started to be aware of these postures, I noticed these postural distortions exist in every person who comes to see me for health consultations because of their poor health or serious diseases.

One example of this imbalance was in a woman in her 50’s who was diagnosed with kidney disease.
 
For many years, she worked in a factory, standing for many long hours during the day. When I first met with her, I noticed that the muscles of her entire back were locked in muscle spasm which is another word for extreme muscle tension. The curve of her lower back was accented with the muscles being as hard as a rock, and her legs were hyper extended.

In addition, the neck and head were being pulled forward along with the shoulders.  These habits of posture arose from various stressors with her diet, thinking and lifestyle along with long term work practices over many years.

With an understanding of stress body mechanics, it is easy to see how the kidneys in this woman which are located in the lower middle back were being pulled in two directions like under a vice, cutting off the circulation to the kidneys.  These long term body habits resulted in causing poor kidney function.

Another example is a client that I saw who was in her late 60’s. She was experiencing extreme hip pain. When I touched her lower back, it felt hard and tight like cement.  The whole back was also hard. She was diagnosed by modern medicine with severe arthritis in the hip.

For many years of her life, indeed many decades, she would diet severely to lose weight when she gained weight and do excessive amounts of aerobic exercises. Her personality was always to push herself in every way. I believe the end results of these mental and physical stressful habits were to create strong spasms or muscle tension in the body. These tensions cut off the circulation to the hip, creating the severe arthritis.  Most cases of arthritis can be seen as resulting from a combination of muscle tension pulling on the joints and bones and poor nutrition.

These case histories reveal that in addition to getting rid of as many dietary, lifestyle and other stressors as possible, it is important to physically reverse these body tensions through a type of massage, the right type of exercises and postural awareness while sitting and standing.  I emphasize the correct type of massage and exercises because certain types of exercises create more muscle tension which worsens the person’s condition. Excessive weight training, aerobic exercises and hard stretching are common forms of practices that worsen body tension.

In my own practice, I teach how to correct these in classes, and private qigong somatic exercise and acupressure sessions. Specific types of correction exercises have been designed which include various somatic exercises and qigong sets.

Without correcting these body tensions, I don’t think that the body can really fully heal and recover health. 

​The Middle Palace
 
In my Acupressure sessions, I stimulate pressure points with finger pressure that are the same as those used in acupuncture.
 
All the acupuncture and acupressure points are numbered as well as having names in Chinese and Japanese or translated to English. Lung 1 is one of the most important points that I use for improving someone’s health. It is translated as central treasury, central residence and middle palace
 
Each pressure point has an Energetic Nature. The energetic nature of this point is that it is the entry point of the Lung meridian. The Lung meridian is related to one’s respiratory function. In Oriental medicine, it has a wider application of usage, not the least of which is that it is a main source of energy for the entire body through the energizing aspects of oxygen and the balance of carbon dioxide in the human body.
 
Lung 1 is, also, an Alarm/Front-mu point. Alarm points are diagnosis points. Pain on pressure in this point indicates an imbalance in the Lung meridian and overall Lung functioning. Symptoms such as shortness of breath, immune weakness and overall fatigue are often signs of lung imbalances and weakness.
 
In Oriental medicine and the Taoist healing exercises of chi gung, the lungs are responsible for gathering energy from the environment. What is gathered is considered oxygen and something subtler from the air that energizes the body and mind.
 
The Lung is said in Chinese and other oriental medicines to govern the breath and is minister and chancellor to the Heart, relaying the communications of the Heart.
 
In the ancient system of the Five Elements or Phases, the lungs are related to the element metal. Metal is formed by processing. Because of this, the lungs are seen to be involved in the daily processing that creates our condition of health. This is one of the reasons that breathing through particular breathing exercises in chi gung and yoga or just by general exercising improves overall health.
 
This pressure point, Lung 1, is said to gather the energy from the atmosphere making us feel connected to something greater than ourselves. This is said to bring clarity to the mind and vitality. If this point is weak or disturbed, it is said that we can get stuck in grief or in the past, have difficulty perceiving quality in our lives, and seeing a positive future and have a lack of vitality.
 
The point Lung 7, Narrow Defile, can be a good point in combination with Middle Palace to help release grief, so the Lung energy can descend and allow a fresh intake of inspiration and reconnection with heavenly energy from the atmosphere.
 
Lung 1 also strengthens digestion. It regulates and tonifies Lung energy and functioning, regulates all the organs in the chest, clears lung inflammation and congestion, and chest pain while enlivening the mind and spirit.