We did our TV show-Perspectives on Healing about  Blame this week, which brought the subject to my mind more. One of our guests spoke about his relationship with his dad, and how the constant betrayal and abandonment he experienced caused him to feel like he wasn't worth anything. Everything bad that's happened in his life and everything good that didn't happen is his dad's fault.

If its someone else's fault that anything happens to you, then it isn't in your hands to change it.You lose your power of controlling your own body and life.

I have another client who continues to eat foods that are bad for her. She keeps thinking that whatever is happening in her life is an excuse for eating those foods. Then she comes to me and says that her body hurts, she's congested, and cranky because she has to work. She doesn't make the connection between those foods and how she feels.

Blaming someone else or even blaming yourself for your problems, will cause you to crave things that aren't good for you, and then feel unable to control the craving - because its something that came from outside of yourself.

If we continue the cycle of blame, when an illness develops, we blame our bodies for not cooperating with us. We blame our doctors for not finding the solutions. We blame the medicine for not working. We blame our lives for not giving us what we want. Blaming leads us again, to not being able to find the solution that works.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't say that someone caused a problem doing something unconscious, or sort out whoever did something wrong to us. So that makes it a tricky slope, there's a fine line where blame is okay, because we need to see what's going on. There is the point at which blame stops us from being able to move forward because we're stuck in saying that person did something to me.

One of my patients is so angry at her family for not sympathizing with her when she was ill, that she may be keeping herself from getting better now that she finally has treatment for her illness. She's proving to them just how ill she is, and that has become more important than healing her body so she can go on with her life.

I had a conversation with a friend the other day. He was talking about his love for his girlfriend and how he feels vulnerable because he loves her so much, and she isn't sure she reciprocates. He's willing to keep his heart out there in spite of his fear.

It reminded me of a movie I saw a few years ago, Black Orchid with Nicholas Cage. I didn't really like the movie much but there was one scene where he was talking to his brother, also played by Nicholas, about a girl he had been in love with in high school. Nicholas 1 said to Nicholas 2, that he had just been decimated by the girl, and how had he been able to tolerate that? Nicholas 2 said back, "it wasn't about her, it was about my love for her." That sentence changed my whole perspective on love. I had spent my life waiting for someone to love me and to feel that love coming from someone, but it was really mine to feel and give.

We often tell people that when they're angry, it isn't about that other person. Its usually about some anger they are holding inside from a long time ago, and its just triggered by an interaction now. Well love is the same way. We have it inside of us all the time, just waiting to come up. When we fall in love, it is our love to give, and our love to feel, regardless of whether it's reciprocated by the object of our affection.

How do you help yourself if you're exposed to environmental toxins a lot? Well....everyone is exposed, its a matter of what you're exposed to.

Pay attention to the air-flow in your home. If you live in a new home, there might be all sorts of chemicals off-gassing to your body – things such as paint, carpet, treated woods, formaldehyde in plywood, new furniture and who knows what else can make your body suffer. You may not notice the symptoms right away. They can be as subtle as feeling cranky, or more tired, which you could assume is just because you moved and your life is in boxes. If you have an older home, you might be exposed to various molds. If you live in the city, you might be getting auto exhaust fumes. If you live in the country, near a vineyard – there are all sorts of lovely chemicals being sprayed on the plants, and flying into your home. Either having a good ventilation system or an air filter will help you take better care of your lungs.

Antioxidants are compounds that keep the body from breaking chemicals down into free radicals – unstable molecules that cause aging and disease. Andrew Weil published a list of the 10 “super” antioxidants in terms of their ability to help prevent illness. These are: CoQ10, alpha lipoic acid, pycnogenol, selenium, beta carotene, zinc, vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin A, and green tea. These have recently been shown to protect the lungs from damage due to air pollution.

The vitamin A, selenium, zinc, beta-carotene and sometimes E and C are readily available in a good multivitamin. The alpha lipoic acid is very good for the liver – it helps with the detoxification process in addition to strengthening the immune system. You should be careful with green tea because it is often grown in areas that use DDT as insecticide, try to find organic tea if you want to drink it.

Medicinal mushrooms have been shown to enhance immune cell function as well. These include reishi, shitake, maitake and many others. In my own experience, I’m finding that high doses of vitamin C are very helpful.

Eating sugar, dairy, wheat, or gluten can make your symptoms worse if you are allergic to them. They will lower your immune system’s ability to do its job. Actually any food you are sensitive to will cause your symptoms to get worse, since it will increase inflammation in your body.  If you don’t know whether you are allergic to them or not, do an experiment for two to three weeks, cut them out and see if you feel better. Your body will let you know.



The oil spill in the gulf cannot help but impact all of us. While we are physically removed from seeing what’s happening here in California, it will affect everyone in the whole world. Thinking about it has made me want to revisit the effect of the environment on our bodies. When we are exposed to chemicals or infections or anything that’s foreign to our systems, the correct reaction of the immune system is to protect us. Sometimes our immune system is like an overprotective parent, reacting to something that we don’t want it to react to.

An overloaded immune system stops working normally and sends incorrect messages to the rest of the body. Allergies, autoimmune diseases, chronic infections, cancer, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, early or late menopause, and environmental sensitivity are just a few of the signs of a stressed immune system.

We used to say that the people who were environmentally sensitive were the “canaries” of our society in that they were the ones who felt the effects of our toxic environment first. Increasing numbers of people suffer from some form of environmental sensitivity all the time because the level of toxicity has kept increasing. It was recently driven home to me when I moved into a new apartment and started waking up sneezing at 3 in the morning. No way was it due to plants, since there weren’t any nearby.  I had to assume it was the chemicals in the apartment that made me react.

Obviously we can’t get away from chemicals entirely no matter how hard we try. So what does one do to help the body cope with all the toxicity? Stay tuned for the next installment on this theme.



In our modern age, its hard to know who to trust. Even the medical treatments that have been supposedly researched and are backed by hard data, are supported by drug companies. We're never really sure whether what we are being told to do is going to cause more side effects, or whether we will do well with that medication, or how we will feel.

It's your doctor's job to do the research on a particular medication but that doesn't always happen and it doesn't mean that you will do well with that medicine. 

The best solution is to listen to your own body. Your body has an inner knowing and wisdom that is always talking. When you're not sure whether you should take a medication or supplement, the best voice is inside of you. 

If you don't know what it means to listen to your body, think about the first time you met a person that you were really attracted to, everything inside of you said YES! Not that a supplement would make you feel the same way, but...it might be easier to know if you look for the yes.