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Articles by Ysha Bu

Why avoid yoghurt postpartum, and why is it overrated?

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Why/when to avoid yoghurt postpartum, and why is yoghurt overrated for probiotic use?

Hello Cheryl !

It sounds like your lassi was yummy!   Yoghurt does have benefits after childbirth, after 2-3 weeks, in specific preparations.  And it has some not critical but – for some moms can be more of an issue risks, depending upon when and how it is used.

After childbirth our digestion is so fragile, and little things make a big difference for mama and baby sometimes for long time to come.  “42 Days for 42 Years” is a pretty stunning statement about it!  Yoghurt is creamy, cloudy, sweet and sour inherently – these things can help rebuild and knit tissues back together, sour can even help digestion.  It contains a little, or more probiotics, not a lot.  It is taken usually cold which complicates maternal digestion and absorption of the nutrients.  It is sour which has it’s place and risks.

Lassi is a dilute yoghurt, buttermilk or Kefir drink.  If not made with ice or fruit, and including some digestive spices (yes and with sweet or pinch salt), can act as a digestive with a non-meat or egg based meal, esp legumes, esp lunch time when our agni is highest.  Note that postpartum legumes have to be cooked to thin or light creamy broth also for a few weeks.

Yoghurt and soured dairy in general are advised to avoid for all of us after say 2pm, or certainly after sun goes down. Though the least problematic of this category, yoghurt is more phlegm producing than *properly used* milk. Agni (digestive fires or enzymes) are weaker at that time of day, and these foods even yoghurt easily clog channels in this way.  I believe it has something to do also with how much time it takes for the layers of yoghurt vs milk digestion, and that in the nighttime, more food means less of Ma Nature’s intended work on the body.

The all so popular yoghurt or any dairy with banana is also contraindicated for everyone.  This food combining tends to create some heavy incomplete products of digestion which clog the “shrotamsi” (channels) and risk buildup into carcinogenic influence, per Dr. Vasant Lad.

Postpartum conditions in first few days are such that although we need some very specific digestive spices which are also warming, and warm temp foods, other warming energetics with includes sour and even salt for 2-3 days or more, is generally contraindicated. Add to that the heavier nature of yoghurt, classical ayurved as I have learned it avoids yoghurt even in lassi for at least the first 10 days after birth.

That time period is when the body is still strongly bleeding or just lightening up, and at risk of increase after decrease is still high. IE, excess even to hemorrhage, and especially in our culture of doing too much after childbirth.  Sour, salt, laxative foods and herbs, doing too much, the wrong type of heating influences all can increase blood loss.

And most people eat pre-prepared yoghurt. If made with sweeteners, the culture value is pretty much stopped.  Yogurt past a day they say changes properties to more sour, less digestible, more phlegm producing. The probiotic value is minimal also compared to what is needed to re-culture the gut flora after antibiotics. Best use something more focused there – a liquid or rehydrated powder preferred.

Homemade Kefir seems to have better culture also, and should be treated like yoghurt when using.  Store bought kefir, IMO, and we know this about many yoghurts, must have some milk added to it after culturing, to even out the flavor and stabilize it form souring too fast.  But this creates another food combining issue.  Sweet milk and soured milk digest in different time zones and locations in the gut, and confuse the body, creating ama also (incomplete products of digestion) .

It is quite the story, isn’t it?  Controversies are I’m sure tweaked reading this post.

Add to all this, the sequence of dhatu (tissue) nutrition, so little understood in the west.   For instance, one’s self-assessments which really do not go beyond, for those who even make the connection, whether we have gas, bloating, constipation, loose stool, or heartburn from our food. Per Ayurveda from food to finest product of digestion, beyond rejuvenating the deepest tissues (reproductive), is at least 32 days most foods – who knows how to “feel” what our food 4 weeks ago did?  To say nothing of the extra time involved after childbirth, at least 42 days instead of “32”.  There are exceptions, including the fact that sweet taste is the first digested from upper stomach where generally it is absorbed. And milk properly used, is said to potentially convert to ojas in a few days.

As you must know, occasionally breaking the dietary “rules” or advice is not nearly the issue as is often doing so.  I hope this discussion helps?  And encourage you to just lean into any changes.  It takes time to make changes and we have to honor gentleness there too, of course.  Sometimes the scales are hard to read, which is priority.  This is one of the reasons to have someone who knows how to make the postpartum “rules” delicious and satisfying, helps so much!

Great to be still in touch, I honor our connection and all the amazing work you do.

Ysha

Warm Smoothies

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Nourish postpartum mothers for lactation, strength and rejuvenation with warm smoothies.  Sound wierd?  They are delicious, or can be.  Here is a Mother’s Nourishing Oat Drink.  I would love to hear recipe play.

Maya Tiwari’s cookbook, A Life of Balance has some good recipes to work with, and can use some modifications for the postpartum window.   Coming out of a long home spring cleanse (PK style), my agni is iffy and my craving is for rejuvenating influences – I’m a good candidate (using less oil/ghee) for testing postpartum recipes.  How about you or loved ones?  Children love these too.

Both barley and oats are reported by some sources helpful for lactation.   Barley being astringent and more cleansing, it will be more for Kapha moms or after first few weeks, or if there is a cold and she still needs this soothing, nourishing effect.  I’m playing with oats today.

In Ayurved we know the gunas (qualities, out of 20 in nature) here are important influencers on lactation (notes below).

This one is quite good, was easy with pressure cooker and blender, and can use some refinements still.

Nourishing and Strengthening Oat Drink
serves 4

Quick and Easy!

2 cups pure water in medium pressure cooker
1/4 cup steel cut oats
2 cup water on oats, in stainless inset bowel for pressure cooker
3 T iron rich sweetener – dates, succanat or jaggery syrup not raisins
1/2 tsp anise or fennel seed
2 – 3 slices fresh ginger
2 T light sesame oil
1/4 tsp mineral salt
1/2 tsp Bala

or use 1 tsp-1Tbs extra ghee per serving for early postpartum mothers

Instructions

  1. Put oats, sweetener, herbs, fat and salt with 2 cups of pure water in stainless bowel, on a stainless trivet or a few ball jar screw on lids, in the pressure cooker.  This setup will prevent the oat water from sliming the pressure cooker valve.
  2. Put at least 2 cups of pure water in the bottom of the pressure cooker – should come up or just over the trivet in a medium or smaller pressure cooker.   You will need more water in a larger pot.
  3. bring the pressure up and cook for several minutes.  This/instructions vary a little from brand to brand and by my experience, is not critical as long as it is cooked enough.  Turn it off and let set until pressure is down – this continues to cook safely without your attention.
  4. Add your warm (not boiling hot) oat mix and the cooking water in the pot to the blender.
  5. Process well and serve warm, and the same day.  Wonderful snack or early morning food for mama; she gets  extra ghee in hers.

Notes – the oats, anise or fennel and qualities (among the 20 gunas) of this preparation all support good lactation:  warm, oily, moist, sweet, very easy to digest includes some digestive and appetite enhancing spices usually.  Extra thin, creamy texture and all this is grounding, integrating, building to plasma/lymph tissue (rasa dhatu), from which breast milk is made.

If you like to play with recipes, here are some suggestions in keeping with postnatal needs –

  1. whatever source oats you have available – no pressure cooker needed for quick cookers.  Whole/steel cut gives best flavor
  2. presoak the steel cut oats or other grain
  3. instead of sesame oil, use ghee (min 1 tsp /cup, maybe 1 Tbs for most new mamas)
  4. 1/2 Cinnamon stick in with the oats – powder for quick oats
  5. dry ginger (and sesame oil) for kaphas
  6. more water for stove top cooking
  7. 2-4 Tbs soaked cashews after 10 days
  8. or 2 T soaked hulled mung after first few days, for added and balanced protein, with extra 1/2 cup water
  9. leave out herbs if desired.  notes:
    • the Bala is for strengthening nerves, grounding, special Vata rasayan
    • or Shatavari after 8-9 days for galactague and female systems rejuv; estrogenic
    • or Ashwagandha after 8-9 days for grounding, mamsa dhatu, vata, and doing too much
    • or Vidari Kanda or Wild Yam for progesterone supports
  10. Varieties of rice instead of oats – (be sure to soak and pressure or long cook) – favor a few whole cloves, maybe few cardamom seeds.

Madhavi Rathod’s mother taught me the Raab recipe in our cookbook, which is prepared differently, also quick and easy.   You can use rice and other flours in that way also, for even more yum and gluten free options.  For some, especially vegetarians, wheat is particularly satisfying and grounding.  Semolina (organic, please due to all the things they do to the plants these days) may bother some with gluten sensitivity, but the outer husk of wheat which has been removed for semolina, is the culprit as allergen for many of us.

Please share if you get a recipe which sings, ok?  Although I must admit, this body is quite pleased with the results of what I drank 1/2 hour ago.

Enjoy!
Ysha

Baby’s genetic memory

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Baby’s genetic memory – Do your clients understand the impact of their choices?  Sometimes they can use a nudge to enhance as we have to call it, “compliance” with our health recommendations.  This one may be a sleeper, yet deeper than most realize!  New studies confirm what Ayurved has known for thousands of years.

Ayurvedic medicine reports that our ancestor’s illnesses, viral and otherwise influence our genetics, and show up with iridilogical analysis (iris diagnosis).  For instance, even if Baby has not been exposed to a certain chemical this life, and Grandma has, Baby shows genetic influence of this toxin’s damage.   Recent studies add important weight to this discussion –

“We find that a single exposure to a common-use fungicide (vinclozolin) three generations removed alters the physiology, behavior, metabolic activity, and transcriptome in discrete brain nuclei in descendant males, causing them to respond differently to chronic restraint stress.(http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/15/1118514109.abstract)”

Find an interview video with the head researcher, Dr. David Crews and more understanding how the impact manifests epigenetically, i.e. on  genetic expression: http://www.naturalnews.com/035965_epigenetics_inheritance_synthetic_chemicals.html#ixzz1voBpzwHt ”

Then find our discussion of how and which essential oils can help clear both the receptor sites for DNA expression, and miswritten code, in our class, Essential Oils Basics.

We have profound tools from Ayurvedic medicine for preparing the body even to genetic level with Ayurvedic Panchakarma cleansing, and special preparations targeting the nuclear level of the cells such as tikta ghee.  Those who are not yet pregnant and seek to be are in best position to reverse unwanted changes.  Those who are, or with newborns and older, have much to gain also – each according to their specific “season” of life changes, body type and imbalances, and season in the more commonly understood term.

We have much support we can give our clients, and they so often need it, more than ever.  Even those who seem well, eat organic, all these things are less than enough in our polluted times and with the blessings and challenges of our forefathers and mothers.   Native American elders’  warning takes on depth, not just cultural, to make choices for positive influence on the next 7 generations.  And we have the burden of correction for the many who have not made wise decisions.  I hope you will take to heart and into your toolkit resources and service which deeply helps.

Peace –

Soy formula, birth defects, GMO, and Ayurvedic analysis

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Birth Defects are showing in studies now from Roundup ready soy crops.  That is a lot of the soy in circulation, including formula, but it begins before the many babies being fed non-organic and GMO soy.  Mamas are ingesting lots of soy in good faith about it’s benefits.  Make sure your clients who are attached to their soy understand 3 or three things as they make their choices if you can.

  1. Research is strong now showing long term genetic effects on sterility third generation – we haven’t as humans given this a chance yet, but scary animal research.   Already known in humans to reduce testosterone levels and M/F libido, not just from ingestion or absorption of the pesticide, roundup, it is also from the soy itself.   But lots of Roundup is being used on Monsanto’s directly influenced growing soy market – from seed to farming.
  2. Ayurvedic medicine explains the properties of soy are cold, drying, heavy, difficult to digest.  IE, increasing to the metabolic imbalances already most naturally experienced already after childbirth – VATA dosha.  If using soy, a) use partially digested via fermentation (this is the ancient use of it, anything else was for animal fodder, or came up just a few centuries ago at most) – which is heavy energetically and emotionally postpartum even if easy to digest, or b) use freshly made (tofu, soy milk) and cook LONG and with generous digestive spices – ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove etc.  And use organic GMO free!
  3. The story with soy formula influences is appalling – babies are coming up with many times normal adult levels of estrogen in their bodies just the beginning.  Risk of fibroids 25% higher in adult women fed soy formula.  Often high aluminum, risks to thyroid and more.  GMO author Jeffrey Miller and Dr. Joseph Mercola are just a few blowing the whistle. Discussed in the core class, Ayurvedic Maternal Newborn Care and Cooking in the chapter on Baby’s Best Nourishment.

Although Ayurveda didn’t predict many of these things, the qualities of soy are contraindicated for early postpartum mothers and for babies already, or anyone with delicate system.  It could be enough, or maybe you need to cite corroborating discussion for your client such as these links or this great article by Sally Fallon, The Ploy of Soy.  She wrote it in the 1980’s!

Peace is beyond understanding, thank God!  And more essential to our practice than ever.

Ysha Oakes, LMT, CPAD, D.Ayur.

Dean and Founding Faculty

 

 

Learn Safe Postpartum Herbals with Ayurved

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Why is the ayurvedic compound, triphala and other laxatives contraindicated in early postpartum?  Mothers already have a strong downward energetic created from a vaginal birth and the natural body cleansing of the womb with bleeding after birth.  This downward flow we know in Ayurveda as apana vayu, which governs elimination, menstruation, birth, ejaculation, postpartum lochia, and urination.  Enhancing apana vayu increases the risk of excess blood loss, even hemmorage.  (So does doing too much).   What can we do for the all too common constipation at this time?  Bran, ground flax and other moisture sucking items will compound the problem in other ways.

Mothers need fiber, yes, but in very slippery, soft and gentle not rough or distinctively laxative forms.  Stewed iron rich dried fruits are a great start, and contrary to common iron pills, do the reverse of constipating.   Spice them with cinnamon, clove, ginger and simlar digestives, and serve freshly cooked, at warm temperature for the best effects.  Also add extra fats in the diet – there is a special postpartum oleation therapy which begins with panchakola ghee if possible, as soon as baby is delivered, and continues really for first 3 months.

We will explore more about the basic first 6 weeks herbal foods and their preparation in the Postnatal Herbal foods hands on class.  If you want to expand your studies, use this link to explore our A-Z listings .

 

Cow’s milk – the bad rap and the good rap

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The story is a big one, we will have to discuss it in layers.  I’ll start here, as this was news to me.   Have you heard of HTST and UHT pasteurization types and their effects?   Today, is a share from one of my brave news watchdog sources, “The Health Ranger”.  Before you sign up with him, be forewarned, he is not afraid to be opinionated and emotional, and we may need to do some sorting sometimes.  He does provide links to follow up his claims, and some are better than others.

“Outside of raw milk, the best choice for consumers is low temperature pasteurized milk that is heated to a temperature of 145 degrees for 30 minutes. This pasteurization process kills any potentially harmful bacteria while leaving the majority of the micro life in the milk untouched. Unfortunately, this low temperature pasteurization is uncommon. If you are unable to find low temperature pasteurized milk the next best choice is hormone and antibiotic free HTST milk. This option is thankfully becoming more available, particularity in health food stores, due to public demand for healthier options. If you see organic milk with the letters UHT on it, or an expiration date months in the future, you’re much better off not purchasing it.  Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035860_organic_milk_pasteurization_UHT.html#ixzz1us45g5tl”

So from Ayurvedic point of view, UHT non organic milk is the most amagenic, creating many incomplete products of digestion and devoid of prana.  His 145 degrees for 30 minutes is different from Dr. Ramakant Mishra’s, which is to bring it to a boil – let it climb the pot 3 times – to break up protein molecules into smaller pieces.  Whereas just under boiling he says makes them stick together and be more phlegm producing, harder to digest.  I find I handle pasteurized milk better with this boiling 3X method.

Raw milk can be brought to just under 117 degrees, which would burn our finger (scorching hot!) I believe that is the temp at which the natural enzymes in milk get destroyed according to raw milk folks.  According to Ayurvedic wisdom the more important issue is what is going on with our own inner enzymes.  We are designed with many, 42 major categories of enzymes for not just functions in the alimentary canal, but each tissue and other body functions have their own type, categories identified centuries ago by ayurvedic physicians.  It is not about ingesting a plant’s enzymes, but about having healthy “agni” to be able to digest it on our own.  This is a very different discussion, and much more sustainable than the eating of raw foods.  That said, there are other factors in how the food is prepared, or processed which do influence digestion and absorption of nutrients, such as above!

Best,

Ysha

Radiation – urgent issues, help from Ayurveda

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Although  I believe the blackout on severity of Fukushima reactor #4’s vulnerability can truly be covering up the 2012 catastrophe that changes life as we know it on this planet, I DO NOT like to be a scare monger.  Especially with fragile populations.  So I speak to those who care for them, please see this significant data link.  Regardless of this news update, we should be talking dynamically together, how to protect mama and baby from radiation.  We do not have to be alarmist to be very timely.  They are among the most vulnerable populations to any kind of pollution and we are surrounded even w/o a 10-85X potency Chernobyl.  I will be addressing what can mamas do short of migrating to ?? which most won’t can’t and shouldn’t, in terms of daily care, in my cooking and consulting classes in June.  The June classes and Tuesday night series on herbals do have a prerequisite class running now and are being recorded.

Dr. Vasant Lad recommends postpartum mamas eat 2 tsp daily of tikta ghee.  These bitter herbs are not appropriate taken alone  – might even reduce milk supply that way in early postpartum, but prepared in ghee are not only padded, but work more effectively.  Best taken in 1/2 cup hot water or tea.  Tikta ghee addresses the nuclear level/dna and helps cleanse and reset the ether element among other things.

Dr. RamaKant Mishra speaks of the similarity between radiation and lightning strikes, distorting at the level of the ether element, which is nuclear energy and cell nucleus and DNA level.

There are of course other modifications to the abundant advice running around to protect mood, colic and other issues from being side effects, included in my 6 page article, Radiation Exposures – Protecting Mothers and Newborns with Ayurveda.

Please see this  urgent letter to two key UN reps signed by a long list of Japanese dignitaries and organizations with the news updates which cite important references, requesting urgent immediate organizing assistance for masterminding and global resources to deal with this issue.  I will post any update on how to easily participate in this campaign along with an article I have written for adapting radiation supports for mothers and new borns tomorrow.  With the news blackout on the topic, I am quite convinced we have to go viral best we can on it, and that this will happen God willing, via many channels.
Wishing  you the Peace Beyond Understanding, Strong community coherence, and health,
Ysha

The Middle Wife – best birth story

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by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher 

I’ve been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they’re welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater.

She holds up a snapshot of an infant. ‘This is Luke, my baby brother, and I’m going to tell you about his birthday.’

‘First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom’s stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord.’

She’s standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I’m trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.

‘Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts going, ‘Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!’ Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. ‘She walked around the house for, like an hour, ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ (Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.)

‘My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn’t have a sign on the car like the Domino’s man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this.’ (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.)

‘And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!’ (This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water flowing away. It was too much!)

‘Then the middle wife starts saying ‘push, push,’ and ‘breathe, breathe.  They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom’s play-center, so there must be a lot of toys inside there. When he got out, the middle wife spanked him for crawling up in there in the first place.’

Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat.

I’m sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it’s Show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another ‘Middle Wife’ comes along.

Frankincense – quality issues and perinatal uses

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For perinatal clients and others, we use this solar oil especially for it’s spiritually protective, mood stabilizing and aura clearing effects especially when there is negativity or dark or alcohol energies a mother has to deal with, i.e. for reducing tamasic influences.  That’s what I usually use it for with clients.

Some doulas find mamas sometimes love to inhale a drop or two through a handkerchief while in labor to potentate their process. I am rarely doing birth doula work, and next time I’m called will include this option along with a few favorite others.  For mamas with traumas, abuse, and as above in their life history unresolved, it may really hold her hand to slip through the layers of awareness into mind-body coordination in the present.

What a gift frankincense gives us. Imagine the soul characteristics which develop growing in the Omani desert which is so hot scorching dry in day, so little water, alone; snakes like to live in and protect their frankincense tree actually. “He” has cultivated higher vibration stability in mind, body, and has to imbibe and integrate with spirit’s quiet witness, steady strength and patience to survive.

His manner as you receive him is steady, gently penetrating presence, a little persistent but self contained like the resin he creates. He is kind and warming but not hot or coarse, in addition to offering many specific medicinal effects – with pain, colds and flu symptoms, depression, phlegm, inflammation, circulation, tumors, cell rejuvenation, joint issues, and much more (among many of the essential oils with these qualities).

Sometimes if our inner feminine is really damaged, he may seem too masculine an influence to use alone, or at that time, but the protections it affords often help even fragile postpartum mamas and babies.  In ancient times, newborn princes were rubbed all over with Frankincense oil!  No wonder the Christ child was given Frankincense.  Was it an essential oil, or the resin as believed?  Good possibility it was an essential oil.

Frankincense, Myrrh and “Gold” (Balsam Fir) were found to have been distilled near Jerusalem.  This variety of Fir is amazing for mood, aches and pains in all the tissues and much more !

The varieties Frankincense Seratta and Frankincense Sacra have many well researched medicinal effects.  It is well researched for anti-cancer effects.  Yes, it is also documented anti-inflammatory, stimulating to the immune system. anti-cough, anti-arthritic, anti-rheumatic, helps with bursitis and other concerns.

Here is a brief on the anti-cancer results with a little girl I believe you will appreciate reading –

Independent Japanese researcher reports on 3 year old client (forgive my rough draft notes from his talk):

….little girl 3 years old stage 4 renal cell carcinoma. Missing 1 kidney, the cancer came back in January (9 months before hearing this talk). Given chemo drugs 3 months. Then started 4th chemo drug. The research doctor happened to be introduced to this client . The mom would do anything (dad not willing to pay for natural therapy). So he provided free, the frankincense et al from his pocket. Gave 2 weeks dose of the formula, fed ex-ed it to them overnight….. started low dose. (In Arabia Dr. Sohel always starts high dose.  In this country starts 50% 1 week then 75% of max dose etc).

4-5 weeks later after another cat scan, mom called. All metastecized tumor reduced in size including those in bone. After their calculation, all tumors size down about 25% total reduction in 5 weeks. //they promised full medical images and records in exchange.

Conversation with oncologist. (Dad really wanted him to see what it did, how it worked, and if any interactions with the chemo drug she was taken). This research doc emailed back based on results they have published. More than 300 diff chem compounds in Frank oil. 250 degree boiling temp. They took it to 300 and 350 degrees, finding many more. Too many compounds with so little knowledge about some. So an MD cannot understand the interaction of the eo with chemo drug. No way to figure it out.

The oncologist said he was not responsible to monitor the efficacy of the voodoo oil. He didn’t believe it and would never try it.  But the family is very happy!  They are still using the frankincense therapy on remaining tumors.  Before Frankincense, although doing chemo, this girl couldn’t sit up for 5 minutes because of bone tumor.  2 weeks into frankincense, could ride a small roller coaster and went horse back riding and swimming!

As of September, this case is still unfolding.  Researcher has all the blood work from this girl. Before frankincense therapy, had 6 items below or higher than normal, 3 weeks later, only 3 out of range.

This is just one of many many cases over the years in Dr. Young’s experience, and my own personal experience with two kinds of cancer for myself.  Ok, I am not in position to be treating disease, so cannot give you other personal case studies.  Over the years, from babies to elders I’ve heard direct reports of the value however, and can’t keep my mouth shut about sharing a few reports.

QUALITY ISSUES

Apparently there is controversy circulating about what is quality or adulterated or good medicine frankincense essential oil. It is easy to understand how “experts” in new companies or practitioners can use their novice level education to get in trouble, and use the net to circulate fallacy very quickly, hence this educational note/repost.  Many in the industry are not aware that Frankincense are difficult to measure with standard gas chromatography due to their high resinous flash points, requiring special equipment, and sometimes data is misinterpreted as a result.  The art of GC testing can be easily undertrained, as we have learned from a Denver Lab’s reports on multiple occasions.

Notably – Contrary to some essential oil marketing such as the DoTerra company’s, the variety Frankincense Frereana is only grown in Somalia.  Frankincense Frereana is heavily imported to Oman. Frereana is used there to chew and whiten teeth, and researchers find little key medicinal constituents.   Oman is the heart and fame of Frankincense exportation since Biblical times, and apparently the Omani have pulled the wool over Dr. David Hill’s eyes about the source and value of what they have sold DoTerra.  I had the opportunity to hear their now resigned researcher of some time speak in September.  He has quit working with them, because the F. Freanna oil they gave him did not give any of the amazing results previously found in the F. Serratta from Young Living, and he was never paid for his huge investment of time and energy.

I hope you can appreciate a dedication to quality sourcing of essential oils. It is difficult situation that they are not well regulated and people can say and believe in their  hearts all kinds of things which may or may not be substantiated.  Many managers never go to the farm, see how grown, distilled, known source (all of these things take years to really discern and produce best quality). Many companies combine oils of same name from multiple unknown source.

OIL SOURCES

I choose to work with Young Living oils, knowing the company founder is in science, client care and plant /essential oils experience, to the level of less than a handful in the world, about quality.  To order they give credit to whomever refers you. If you would like to purchase wholesale, the minimum annual purchase is $50 plus a one time wholesaler’s kit of your choice, starting at $40.  You are not required to sell actually, but can earn commissions.

Dr. Gary Young knows every stage of production from seed to seal from years of training with world experts, experience and testing.  Essential oils can be potent, amazing and very safe supports for mothers, newborns, and their families properly used, and most of the essential oils sold on the planet are adulterated or not grown on the planet, creating much more to talk about with quality issues.

CLASSES

Our Essential Oils (More than) Basics 2 hour class is now available for your anytime listening.

Happy Oiling!

Ysha Bhu

Support from Essential Oils for Childbirth

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How to choose?  There is more to it than this oil is good for that, and there is the opportunity to use your creative intelligence, and what oils you do have.

Preface

Using aromatherapy for birth is an age old process and regaining popularity.  Top quality essential oils, which are truly 100% grown on the planet all offer to some degree the general supports below to both two and four legged animals, even though different species have some special caveats.  Over 90% of “essential oils” sold on the planet are not grown here though, so let’s talk about that soon too.  I.e. they may be petrochemical entirely, or laced with synthetic molecules to bring the profile up to sniff test or even gas chromatography profile that may be hard to distinguish from natural.  So, damaging molecules come not just from the pesticides which any fat or oil concentrates while growing.

Here are some of the exciting virtues of organic low temperature and low pressure distilled essential oils –

  1. antibacterial; many are antiviral also
  2. enhancing oxygenation and life force or “prana”
  3. most cross the blood brain barrier with their effects by diffusion through inhalation, topical application or ingestion, and all quickly penetrate topically being very small molecules (compared to food oils which are much heavier)
  4. antioxidant, free radical reducing effects
  5. many are cortisol reducing (stress hormone)
  6. help maintaining proper acid/alkaline balance
  7. lifting toxins out of tissues for elimination
The body will actually use oils for some of these purposes if needed, rather than their more familiar signature effects, and sometimes people will say, essential oils don’t work for me much.  It is a sign either the quality of the oil is not up to snuff even if it was up to sniff, or that there are higher priorities in this body at that time.  If we tend to be constipated or use toxic chemicals for body and home care for instance, this may happen, along with a rash from those toxic chemicals being pushed out.

But I digress.  You can hear more about the really important Essential Oils Basics on a recorded 2 hour class.

Where to begin choosing birth oils

Some mothers like aromatherapy more than others for general labor support to relax or surrender into the process, and we let their nose know what to use.  Some prefer lavender, others more feminine florals like jasmine, rose, neroli or geranium.  Geranium has gifts for mother issues and all 4 are very skin friendly, neroli for anxiety, jasmine so feminizing and sattvic and also may help release the placenta, rose oh my and the price is an oh my too if it is the real stuff.

Some may want the aroma of the evergreens to bring nature’s life force into the room (and many other benefits), or one of the more hormonal oils like vetiver, clary sage for jump start or try a touch of chamomile for a respite when labor slows.   Sandalwood may help on any chakra level issue, or be not quite feminine or warm enough – see how she feels.   She may be dry, choose a thicker oil, or ungrounded – vetiver, clary sage, sandalwood or jatamamsi/spikenard may call. Well formulated blends offer more bioconstituents which means a broader spectrum effect.  I carry a blend with clary sage, peppermint et al for stalled labor on the rare times I get to attend births – I don’t have a midwife’s physical constitution, so don’t do that much.

Non-toxic antimicrobial support in hospital or home setting has extra benefit of smells and feels good.  Again blends are great here – or use what Mama’s nose chooses.  I use Ayurvedic principles to help choose too.  For example, in hot season we choose a less heating blend, or even lavender can be helpful here with it’s mild antimicrobial action.  In winter, or with kapha mama or someone with a bug in the family, and to protect my client from my own microclimate, I’ll often use a well researched blend which has clove, lemon, cinnamon, eucalyptus radiate and rosemary.  I use less expensive oils for diffusion, and the super potent/expensive ones on key physical or emotional points on the body directly.

For special needs during labor and delivery, aromatherapy is not nearly appreciated enough.  Used correctly is a key caveat to this discussion – essential oils are ideal for helping ease some of the problems occurring during labor.  If you are not sure about quality, dilute significantly.  If you know the inside story, and are not just trusting a bottle which says “100% pure therapeutic” etc (which could be synthetic plus hype according to the loose regulations on aromatherapy) you may dilute 1:1 or 1:2 with a carrier/massage/vegetable oil or use “neet” (straight).

But see what Mama feels about that concentration on her abdomen or near her nose before just putting it on, and know which oil may create some dryness, or be really intense.  We have booklets with nice color coded charts to make it easy.  If she is sweating with an undiluted oil on her, it is likely to sting.  Dilute with oil not moisture or cream to prevent this.

Most commonly –

  1. Enhancing tissue oxygenation
  2. Help relieve tension and promote relaxation – topical on muscle or inhalation
  3. Relaxing oils can help relieve emotional fears and trauma
  4. Help ease pain and strain – wonderful during and after labor
  5. Aid in opening the breathing passages – be careful here, oils like Peppermint are too strong for Baby!  Many oils are respiratory specific – check your reference for their other qualities.  Ayurveda talks about the 20 qualities or gunas, and it is very common sense to apply this wisdom with things like, are they soothing, warming, denser and grounding or light, penetrating, cold or hot?
  6. Communicating & Bonding with Unborn/Newborn
  7. Refreshing oils like the citruses, evergreens eucalyptuses can enliven when dullness or some kind of congestion seems to slow or tire.
  8. Antimicrobial and pain relieving oils are being used internally as well as topically by D. Gary Young for surgery!  That’s for another discussion though.  Some oils are safe for internal use, others not wise, and how they are used is key.
  9. Spiritual and emotional protections – from both solar and lunar oils can be valuable in special cases too.

So I”m asked for my favorite 3 oils for birth.   Not an easy sort, unless mama and the oils collection is there together.

  • Lavender gets the most votes for calming.  It has some benefits for pain also, called the “swiss army knife of essential oils”.
  • A pain oil….if I’m choosing a single, I’ll choose an evergreen, fav is Balsam Fir, as it helps all the tissues – muscle, connective, bone, nerve, plus all the systems.  Evergreens are more solar, but labor is hard work and it may suit.
  • If mama is fearful or anxious, we will go into a couple emotional supportive oils and the Valor blend by Young Living is first on that list.  It has spruce, blue chamomile, rosewood and frankincense in it.  Vetiver has multiple virtues and is inexpensive.  There are many wonderful oils with hormonal and emotional benefits, that’s another class I’ve spent easily 2 hours on.
  • A hormonal oil, helpful if labor slows – clary sage if mama likes the aroma.

That’s …4… and I’m kind of biting my tongue, but a good start!

To be continued!