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Send This To Your Friends Who Doubt The Benefits Of Grounding

Today I want to share with you my most recent publication.   Just published in Trends In General Medicine on July 28, 2024, this is a fabulous overview on why grounding might be one of the healthiest lifelong habits you can get into. If you have any friends who are doubtful about the long term benefit of grounding, forward this article to them.  You can print it out here or just read it below!  Enjoy!

xoxo,Laura Koniver MD

 

PS — if someone forwarded this newsletter post to you and you’d like to have an uplifting, positive, empowering holistic health article to read each week, you can sign up for my newsletter right here.  I’d love to help you enjoy healing!

 

Grounding: An Anti-Aging Breakthrough?Laura Koniver, MD

 

Citation: Laura Koniver. Grounding: An Anti-Aging Breakthrough?. Trends Gen Med. 2024; 2(3): 1-7.

Review Article ISSN: 2996-3893

ABSTRACT

Directly touching the earth outside connects our conductive human body to the natural electrical output of the earth, a holistic healing practice known as grounding. This direct contact immediately grounds the entire human body from head to toe, as all of the living cells and tissues and fluids of the body are highly conductive and become grounded to the earth nearly instantaneously. Although in medicine we are very familiar with monitoring the electrical activity of the body to diagnose disease (such as using an electrocardiogram to evaluate heart function or an electroencephalogram to evaluate brain function) much less is known about supporting the conductive health of the body in a preventive, proactive way. Over the past several decades, numerous studies have started to reveal the incredible health benefits from spending time in grounded contact with the earth, and these studies suggest that not only are there immediate health benefits to grounding, but that these benefits accrue over time. That begs the question, if one practices grounding routinely over an entire lifetime, could this healing modality potentially be anti-aging, boosting the resiliency of all the different organ systems it supports and ultimately, extending longevity? This review article examines what we know so far from medical studies on grounding and suggests possible pathways that grounding to the earth may in fact offer long term benefits to the body, including protecting muscle mass, bone density, sleep quality, cognitive function and skin health, which together just might protect against age related health changes, decreasing the development of frailty, and increasing health span.

Introduction

Could touching the earth outside actually be anti-aging? Recent research is revealing just how powerfully healing it is to be conductively connected to the earth, a holistic healing practice known as grounding. Grounding is a relatively new term placed on a very old healing practice of using the earth’s natural electrical fields to support the body’s function and resiliency. The premise of grounding is that direct conductive contact with the earth’s crust allows for electrons to flow freely between the body and the ground, but regardless of the mechanism of action, several decades of research now points to how the human body goes into a healing state when it makes direct contact with the earth outside. The fact that the human body is an electrically conductive unit is not new, we’ve been using the premise of the electrical activity of the body to help monitor the body’s function as well as diagnose and manage disease in medicine for many years. From using an electrocardiogram (ECG) to monitor the heart’s electrical activity to an electroencephalogram (EEG) to monitor the brain’s electrical activity to an electromyography (EMG) to monitor the muscle’s electrical activity it’s clear that the function of body’s organ systems relies on direct current (DC) energy to operate. Electrical impulses are used throughout the entire body in many different organ systems, in fact nothing would work without this conductivity, from the blink of an eyelid to the inhale and exhalation of the lungs to the peristalsis of the digestive tract and more it all functions utilizing the same DC energy that our planet emits. 

So far in medicine it seems we are comfortable using the electrical properties of the body to monitor functionality and diagnose disease using an EEG to diagnose a seizure disorder, or an ECG to diagnose a cardiac arrhythmia, or an EMG to help diagnose neuromuscular disease even using defibrillator paddles to help restart a healthy heart pattern so using a conductive pathway to boost wellness and protect healthy function of these organ systems proactively makes sense. 

Because the entire human body relies on it’s ability to conduct DC energy, what might intentional conductive support via the DC energy output of the earth do for our body’s ability to sustain optimal function over a lifetime? About three decades of medical research into grounding now suggest it may do quite a lot, and in fact this just might add up to prolonging the body’s health span. Here are five different pathways that the current research on grounding suggest it may very well be anti-aging.

Potential Anti-Aging Pathways

 

 

Grounding decreases inflammation throughout the body

Inflammation is associated with many of the chronic diseases of aging, implicated with the development of cancer, heart disease, dementia, arthritis and more [1,2]. Now termed “inflammaging,” researchers postulate that aging is actually an accumulation of inflammation driven changes that cause fibrosis and decreased organ function over time [3,4]. Decreasing the amount of inflammation in the body decreases cancer risk, heart disease risk, dementia risk, lowers pain, protects joints and slows the aging process down [5-7].

Grounding has been show in multiple medical studies to decrease whole body inflammation [8]. One grounding study found an almost 60% drop in C-reactive protein, a blood marker of whole body inflammation [9]. Even more impressively, grounding has been specifically found to lower inflammatory cytokines, which actually protects the regenerative capacity of the body. Inflammatory cytokines are thought to be a key component in the damage that inflammation plays [10,11] and particularly damaging to proper immune system function in the elderly [12]. In a double blinded study, researchers found that cytokines such as such as IP-10, MIP-1α, and sP-Selectin significantly decreased in grounded subjects, as compared to non-grounded controls. The average drop induced by grounding a patient was a 10 – 20% drop in cytokine concentration [13].

Inflammation is an insidious condition that often goes undetected until there is frank disease. Finding a natural solution to keeping inflammation lowered throughout a lifetime, one that is accessible to everyone living on the planet and can be done before frank disease alerts us to high inflammation levels, is a potential game changer in the medical field and for humanity as a whole.

 

 

Grounding Protects the Musculoskeletal System

Age related loss of muscle mass and muscle function (known as sarcopenia) is a one of the biggest factors resulting in the development of frailty in the elderly, as decreased muscle mass correlates to a decline in strength, coordination and balance, all of which increase fall risk and threaten independent living in the elderly [14]. Muscle atrophy begins around 40 years old and by 80 years old, the average loss of muscle integrity due to muscle fiber atrophy is 50%. Exercise alone is not enough to protect against these age related changes, even top athletes still exhibit a decline of about 50% in respect to their peak performance by 80 years of age, so other anti-aging modalities beyond sustaining exercise into old age needs to be discovered [15]. Protecting muscle mass and muscle function as the body ages is an important approach to anti-aging [16-21] as muscles are responsible in part for making stem cells in adults, and protecting muscle mass helps to protect the body’s capacity for stem cell regeneration [22,23].

Luckily grounding may prove to be one of the ways the human body might naturally retain muscle integrity and importantly, is a passive, easy way to protect musculoskeletal health for those with limited mobility and limited exercise capacity, as often happens in the frail elderly. Grounding immediately reduces muscle tension within milliseconds of the body becoming electrically connected to the earth, one study that used an EMG to measure muscle tension reveal it took less than a single second to measurably decrease muscle tension once test subjects became grounded [24]. In another double-blinded placebo-controlled study comparing grounded participants who fatigued their muscles to muscular exhaustion vs. ungrounded participants who did the same, grounded test subjects recovered faster after the muscle challenge, reported lower pain levels, and even had significantly lower blood cortisol levels (which suggests that the grounded participants were less stressed by the exercise challenge), had significantly lower creatinine kinase levels, reflecting less muscle damage, and lower white blood cell counts than ungrounded subjects [25]. In another study where participants completed an exhaustive 200 deep knee bends, followed by 4 hours of grounding (or sham grounding) afterwards, researchers found that the grounded subjects creatine kinase levels did not increase while, ungrounded subjects had significantly increased creatine kinase levels [26] suggesting grounding even after muscular exhaustion may prevent muscle damage entirely. Another study followed participants who were grounded (vs. sham grounded) during a strenuous yoga challenge that included 10 challenging poses repeated 5 times for an entire hour. The grounded participants had improved blood flow and decreased blood viscosity immediately following the challenge, while ungrounded participants did not [27]. This was followed by another double blinded study that utilized a downhill treadmill challenge to induce muscle soreness after complete muscular exhaustion. Participants then slept grounded or sham grounded afterwards. The grounded participants showed an improved recovery time with respect to creatine kinase… by day 10 the value of creatinine kinase of the grounded subjects was half that of the ungrounded subjects [28].

All in all, the fact that grounding has a near-instantaneous ability to reduce muscle tension, that during muscular challenges grounded subjects have less muscle damage (as indicated by reduced creatine kinase levels,) lowered cortisol levels, a quicker recovery and less soreness afterwards, suggests that grounding might be deeply protective of muscles and allow the human body to have boosted musculoskeletal health as it ages. 

In addition, grounding may not just protect our muscles but may actually benefit our entire musculoskeletal system as well, including the bones and joints. Osteopenia (age related bone density loss) is a hallmark of aging, and represents one of the biggest risks to independence in an aging population [30]. As bones become less dense, fracture risk increases along with the prevalence of bone pain and bone related injury, both which drastically limit an elderly person’s ability to complete routine activities of daily living. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated in 2022 that the world wide prevalence of osteoporosis is 20% and osteopenia is 40%, making thinning bones an issue for more than 1 out of every 3 people in the world [31]. In one double blinded study on grounding, just a single overnight session of grounding (8 hours sleeping grounding) reduced renal excretion of calcium and phosphorus and significantly lower serum concentrations of both when compared to participants who slept sham grounded (ungrounded). This suggests less leaching of these important minerals from bone, indicating these minerals remain stored in the skeleton while the body is grounded and reducing the primary indicators of osteopenia and osteoporosis after just one night of grounding [32]. Longer term studies are needed to verify or clarify these findings and the effect that routine grounding practices might have on bone health over time.

Grounding’s ability to reduce whole body inflammation also includes joint inflammation as well, providing immediate pain relief which over time may translate into decreased joint wear and tear. Anecdotal studies find that grounding reduces joint pain and increases mobility in patients with knee pain on ambulating [33]. A double blinded study following participants who slept grounded for a month found that 74% of grounded subjects reported decreased back and joint pain, while none of the sham grounded subjects reported any decrease in pain [34].

Again, more studies are definitely called for in evaluating the body’s long term musculoskeletal health with routine grounding practices, but preliminary data suggests that grounding is protective of multiple different aspects of the musculoskeletal system, with the findings showing grounding to be most robustly protective of muscle integrity so far.

 

 

Grounding Improves Sleep Quality

Sleep is one of the most important ways to protect brain function as we age, since sleep quality is directly correlated with cognition and memory [35]. Aging is associated with changes in both sleep structure and sleep quality, and systemic reviews of studies on sleep and aging find that these alterations in sleep quality are associated with both mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimers disease in older adults [36]. Researchers even found that poor sleep quality is associated with not just normal aging but an accelerated rate of aging and these researchers suggest that improving sleep quality may decrease the speed of biological aging [37]. This makes sense because sleep has been found to protect stem cell regeneration, one of the key factors in the long term resiliency of the body [38, 39]. Poor sleep quality is associated with DNA damage in stem cells, a hallmark of aging and major contributor to age-related tissue decline [40-43].

These findings are supported by a large meta-analysis of the past 50 years of medical literature on sleep and aging found that protecting sleep quality in midlife promotes improved cognitive function and protects against age-related cognitive decline later in life [44]. Grounding may help with this, as researchers found that test subjects who slept grounded had dramatic improvements to their sleep patterns, along with a complete normalization of cortisol, suggesting deep recovery from stress during sleep. The grounded test subjects also reported less subjective stress and less pain [45]. This protective effect from grounding may be important at any age and any cognitive status, not just for prevention of age related change but also to help improve sleep quality once cognitive change has already been initiated. A recent study on grounding in patients with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer disease found that grounding significantly improved PSQI scores compared to the sham-grounding group [46]. Finding that grounding improves sleep quality in both healthy test subjects with straight forward insomnia as well as test subjects who already have brain changes and cognitive decline associated with neuroinflammation in Alzheimers Disease strongly suggests that grounding the brain arguably the body’s most sensitive electrical system might be crucial not only in prevention of age related changes but also as a useful treatment option once those changes have begun.

 

 

Grounding May Boost Cognitive Function

Beyond protecting sleep quality, grounding may support health brain function by boosting the brain’s cognitive function directly, improving memory and mental clarity. There are multiple mechanisms at play in how grounding might boost cognitive function beyond simply decreasing inflammation as addressed above. Neuroinflammation is a cause of age related brain changes, resulting in neuroinflammatory diseases of aging that affect cognition such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, Huntingtons’ Disease and more [47- 49]. Therefore, medications that decrease neuroinflammation have promising applications in preventing and treating these neuroinflammatory disease [50,51]. But what if there was a simple, totally natural, medication free way to reduce inflammation, protect brain function, and possibly decrease age related changes? That would transform everything, and grounding may do just that. New research has found that inflammation lowers dopamine levels in the brain, which may be responsible for the decrease in mood, loss of motivation, and anhedonia that result from neuroinflammation [52,53]. Grounding has been specifically shown to decrease the exact inflammatory cytokines that have a direct impact on our brain dopamine levels. In one important study, researchers found that cytokines such as such as IP-10, MIP-1Î ±, and sP-Selectin all significantly decreased by 10 – 20% in grounded subjects, compared to non-grounded controls [54]. By decreasing inflammatory cytokines, it’s reasonable to suggest that grounding gives a natural dopamine boost to the brain. This is backed up by studies on grounding and mood. One study found that participants who were grounded had measurable improvements in mood that were significantly higher than the sham-grounded participants [55]. Grounding may have an even more immediate positive impact on our brain beyond decreasing inflammation and boosting dopamine, by directly modulating brain waves nearly instantaneously upon contact with the earth. Grounding has been shown to immediately shift brain wave patterns (as documented on EEG) with boosted alpha brain wave patterns on grounded test subject occurring within just milliseconds of test subjects becoming grounded to the earth [56-58].

In addition to immediately relaxing the brain [59], boosting creativity [60], even potentially reducing depression [61] by increasing alpha brain waves, grounding may also help our brains process memories and make meaningful connections in our short term memory. Using EEG readings and Schumann Resonance frequencies, researchers found a direct coherence between the human brain and the earth’s electrical output. They found that electrical activity from the earth synchronizes with our cerebral cortex, showing a real-time coupling between the earth’s Schumann resonance and our brain’s cerebral activity [62]. They also found that the highest cohesion between the earth’s electrical activity and the electrical activity of the human brain is in the parahippocampal gyrus [63], an area of the brain that is responsible for making accurate and meaningful interpretations of our surroundings and with decision making [64-66]. In fact, atrophy in this area of the brain is a highly sensitive early indicator of Alzheimers disease [67,68] marking the start of an individual losing meaningful context, a hallmark of this disease. 

If you’ve ever been stuck mulling over a problem and then went outside and spent time in nature, it’s likely that you’ve already personally experienced what these studies suggest, that the electrical output of the earth helps boost clarity, helps with problem solving, and even boosts a meaningful interpretation of our life events through this electrical coherence of our brain and our planet.

 

 

Grounding Promotes Skin Health

When considering aging, many people focus on skin appearance as a direct reflection of age. Although skin is the most visible of the organs to display age related changes, I put this last on the list of ways grounding may be anti-aging, since inflammation, age related changes of the brain, muscle atrophy and bone atrophy are all undoubtedly more important to address first. 

Yet, however superficial it seems, addressing the aging of the skin is still important as skin elasticity, skin perfusion, and the skin’s lipid bilayer (crucial in maintaining skin integrity) all decline with age as inflammation accrues in the skin [69-73]. These age related changes have implications on decreased rates of wound repair and increased rates of skin related cancers, not just on cosmetic appearance. Topical skin products boost huge anti-aging claims but yield very limited evidence of efficacy [74]. Yet the simple practice of grounding has the ability to positively impact all of these parameters of skin health from the inside out, boosting circulation to the skin, improving skin integrity, and as we will see, accelerating skin repair [75].

Multiple studies show clear evidence of dramatically boosted circulation throughout the body during grounding. In fact, grounding through the soles of the feet boosted blood circulation all the way up in facial skin tissues nearly instantaneously, suggesting the positive effects of increased circulation are available even in distant sites of the body that are far away from the grounding point of contact [76-80]. One of the mechanisms of action that helps to boost blood perfusion throughout the body, including the skin, appears to come from an electrically decreased tendency for red blood cells to clump together, which improves blood velocity. Grounding for only 2 hours significantly decreased the zeta potential on red blood cells and helped them flow through the circulatory system more smoothly. On average, the zeta potential of the red blood cells were boosted by 270%, which then increased blood velocity by an average of 260% [81,82].

Boosted blood flow and circulation should mean that skin has more oxygen and nutrients flowing to it, which would translate into improved skin integrity and a boosted capacity to heal, which is exactly what researchers have found. Multiple test subject have shown dramatically improved wound healing with grounding [83], and this has been backed up by a recent study where researchers applied exogenous DC electrical current to the skin. Applying a DC current to the skin not only improved the rate of wound healing, but it specifically improved the closure of keratinocytes and the rate of keratinocyte repair so dramatically that wounds healed three times faster with the DC electrical support [84].

In addition, the sleep benefits described earlier in this article means that collagen repair is enhanced, suggesting that beauty sleep is real. High quality, restorative sleep protects collagen integrity, which is no small thing as collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body, found throughout all tissues and particularly crucial to skin structure. Researchers found that poor sleep actually causes an increase in collagen misalignment and a decrease in collagen integrity as a whole [85]. This disordered collagen makes skin weaker, less elastic, and may contribute to accelerated visible skin aging. Conversely, by connecting to the earth’s DC energy through grounding we improve sleep, which may provide anti-aging benefits by boosting collagen integrity, in addition to boosting circulation to the skin and improving the rate of skin repair.

 

 

Conclusion

Taken all together, it’s hard to deny the potential anti-aging benefits of grounding [86]. From decreasing whole body inflammation, protecting muscle mass and bone density, improving sleep quality and brain function, and even boosted skin health, few things can address so many different aspects inherent to the aging process as grounding to the earth can [87].

Why is this important to even talk about? Just a few hundred years ago human beings were much more likely to spend at least some time daily grounded to the earth, by touching the earth with their hands, working directly on the earth, walking barefoot on the earth, or wearing conductive clothing made from natural fibers or semi-conductive natural materials. But now we have non-conductive, synthetic rubber soled shoes and synthetic fibers pervasive in our clothing, cars that travel up off the earth on rubber tires, insulated flooring in our homes, schools and offices, asphalt coating our roadways, and virtually no contact directly with the earth unless it is intentionally initiated.

Most people spend day after day after day, year after year after year, without ever actually grounding to the earth at all. Stress, higher cortisol, joint pain, dementia, cancer, age related changes these are all a fall out from life long inflammation accruing while we live disconnected from the earth. So it’s important to be absolutely certain we intentionally seek out grounding to the earth, regularly.

Now that we are starting to understand that the human body is an exquisitely designed electrical machine that functions best when it is connected to our beautifully electrical planet, it’s time to turn towards maintaining the conductive health of our body and prolonging the health span of it through the natural practice of grounding. Therefore it’s also important that there be continued research into this exciting field of conductive medicine, and I hope that future studies can continue to examine not only the long term benefits of grounding but also tease out the ideal length of time that is needed to invoke each desired benefit as well as the different applications of grounding in both the prevention and treatment of disease.

 

 

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68. Echávarri C, Aalten P, Uylings HBM, et al. Atrophy in the parahippocampal gyrus as an early biomarker of Alzheimer’s disease. Brain Struct Funct. 2011; 215: 265-271.

69. Fore J. A review of skin and the effects of aging on skin structure and function. Ostomy Wound Manage. 2006; 52: 24-35.

70. Lee YI, Choi S, Roh WS, et al. Cellular Senescence and Inflammaging in the Skin Microenvironment. Int J Mol Sci. 2021; 22: 3849.

71. Quan T. Molecular insights of human skin epidermal and dermal aging. J Dermatol Sci. 2023; 112: 48-53.

72. Rorteau J, Chevalier FP, Fromy B, et al. Vieillissement et intégrité de la peau – De la biologie cutanée aux stratégies anti-âge Functional integrity of aging skin from cutaneous biology to anti-aging strategies. Med Sci Paris. 2020; 36: 1155-1162.

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74. Zargaran D, Zoller F, Zargaran A, et al. Facial skin ageing Key concepts and overview of processes. Int J Cosmet Sci. 2022; 44: 414-420.

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82. Chevalier G, Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, et al. Earthing grounding the human body reduces blood viscosity-a major factor in cardiovascular disease. J Altern Complement Med. 2013; 19: 102-110.

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The post Send This To Your Friends Who Doubt The Benefits Of Grounding appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Grounding Lowers High Blood Pressure By A Significant Amount

 

 

I’ve dedicated a significant portion of my professional career to sharing the latest medical research with you on grounding, and today I want to highlight a study I have not yet blogged about.  Today’s the day to share this good news. I’m excited about this research, because high blood pressure is affects almost half of the adults in the United States (47%) which is roughly 116 million people in the United States alone.

If you get my weekly newsletter (and if you don’t, you can sign up for it here!) then you already know that grounding is extremely heart healthy — more on that below.  But today I can add another way that grounding supports our cardiovascular system, and that is by lowering high blood pressure, naturally.

Published in Alternative Therapies In Health And Medicine, patients were asked to ground roughly 10 hours daily — easily attained by including time spent sleeping grounded at night.  The participants blood pressure was monitored at baseline and monthly in a clinical setting, as well as routinely submitting at home blood pressure measurements three times a week for the entire 12 week period.

The results were a statisically significant reduction in blood pressure for all participants, with an average decrease in systolic pressure of 14%.  Patients had a responses ranging from an 8% reduction in blood pressure up to a 23% reduction in blood pressure — just by adding grounding into their health care routines!

Your cardiovascular system is entirely electrically based — that classic heartbeat you may be familiar with is a beautiful DC energy output from your heart, which in turn drives the circulation through your body.

 

 

Because the earth has an electrical heartbeat of its own that outputs the same measurable DC energy that your heart runs on, this relationship has been extensively studied for the effects of grounding.

What have previous medical studies revealed about the heart health benefits of grounding?  Let’s run through them !

 

4 Ways Grounding Supports Your Cardiovascular Health:

 

 

1.  Improved Circulation

 

The first study I want to tell you about was a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study of 40 patients. Half of them were grounded for one hour (the other half were sham-grounded for one hour) and the blood flow through their facial skin capillaries was imaged in real time.  All the grounded patients had significantly increased capillary blood flow, and all the  ungrounded patients had no change in blood flow.

In another double-blinded, placebo-controlled study, researchers studied 28 participants who performed strenuous yoga exercises for an hour straight, and half were grounded and half were sham grounded. They cycled through a series of 10 strenuous yoga exercises over and over again for an hour straight, while their blood viscosity was measured.   Researchers found the viscosity (the thickness) of the blood was decreased, so the blood actually ran more smoothly through their muscles.  Blood flow was enhanced both systolically and diastolically, which means when the heart was squeezing, the blood flow was enhanced and also when it was at rest between beats, the blood flow was still enhanced.

 

2.  Boosted Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

 

Possibly even more importantly, grounding has a direct effect on your actual heart itself by supporting vagal tone, which affects the function of many of your organ systems, including your heart.  Supporting vagal tone supports heart rate variability (HRV) which is a positive indicator of heart health. HRV measures the variability between your heart beats and an increased HRV is a fantastic indicator that your heart is healthy and is functioning well, that it’s receptive, responsive, tuned into your autonomic nervous system, tangibly taking in information about the environment and the stressors that you’re under and responding directly to them.

When the HRV decreases (as it does during times of stress, after trauma, after a heart attack, after a heart transplant, in premature infants, in PTSD patients and much more) the heart reverts to a robotic beat with less responsiveness. It’s no longer in a flexible state where it can change and respond and adapt to your body’s needs.  And as I’ve blogged about in the past, the strength of your heart relies on its flexibility.  Read that article here:

Free Healing Article: Heart Health From Every Angle… Mind, Body & Soul

A low HRV means your heart is in robotic survival mode and this is an indication of an increased mortality rate and heart failure risk, so physicians look at the HRV (particularly after a heart attack, heart transplant and premature birth) because it predicts the risk of death. They also look at the HRV to predict a positive outcome as well, for example, there is a better prognosis in cancer patients with an increased HRV. So a higher HRV enhances long term survivability, enhances recovery from major diseases, predicts a longer lifespan and decreases stress and wear and tear on the heart.

Research has found that grounding directly boosts your HRV.

In the yoga grounding study mentioned above, participants who were grounded for 40 minutes during strenuous yoga exercises universally had their HRV increased, but the moment they stopped grounding, their HRV went back to baseline. This was statistically significant with every single patient, so when they were grounded, their HRV was enhanced, and when they were ungrounded, it wasn’t.

Researchers followed that study with an even more recent study on the HRV in some of the most vulnerable human beings of all — premature infants in NICU incubators. And here too, grounding for just 40 minutes boosted markers of survival by boosting HRV for these neonatal infants.

 

 

 

3.  Decreased Clotting

 

The last pieces of the puzzle to talk about is the blood itself.  It’s amazing to see how one system can be impacted by grounding, not just in one way but in multiple ways… the heart works better, the blood vessels deliver blood more easily, the viscosity of the blood goes down so it flows more freely, and now studies tell us that the red blood cells themselves are less likely to clot, and here’s why:

The zeta potential represents the electrical potential on the outer membrane of your red blood cells. The more negative the zeta potential is, the more likely your blood cells are to flow smoothly. When the zeta potential increases, your blood cells are more likely to clot, clump together and aggregate, increasing the risk for stroke, heart attack and other clotting diseases.

So researchers measured the zeta potential of 10 patients, before and after grounding them for two hours. Ungrounded, the zeta potential of red blood cells increased, making it much more likely to clump and move slowly but after two hours of grounding the zeta potential decreased, allowing the red blood cells to flow freely and decrease the risk of clotting. That’s really the goal of aspirin therapy, which more than one-third of all adults (and four out of five patients with heart disease) routinely take to reduce the risk of clots.

Grounding does that naturally… and it does it for free… and without the gastrointestinal irritation! Grounding naturally allows blood to flow more smoothly, for red blood cells to stick together less and not to clot as much, for HRV to be enhanced, and for the flow through your entire vasculature system to be open and free.

 

 

 

4.  Lowered Blood Pressure

 

And as mentioned at the beginning of this article, we can also add a fourth way that grounding supports your cardiovascular system, and that is by significantly decreasing blood pressure.   The patients in that study slept grounded, and although many of the positive effects of grounding happen within minutes (for example the study on HRV in infants in the NICU found these positive results after only 40 minutes of grounding) if you want to be sure to be grounded as long as the participants in the blood pressure study, you’ll want to consider sleeping grounded.

Here are the grounding tools I recommend, because they are non-toxic for you and eco-friendly for the earth.  Hand crafted from natural and organic materials, I have personally developed these based on my 20+ years of focusing specifically on grounding for better health, and offer them in my Grounding Boutique right here.

I also am the only practitioner that offers you an EMF filtering protective PureGround ground cord, which is important if you experience electrosensitivity — this is an important step to eliminate any chance of dirty electricity on the ground line and ensures your grounding experience is pure DC earth energy, nothing else.  Find that protective ground cord right here:

 

 

Share this article with anyone in your life that you care about that has high blood pressure or any other cardiac risk factors!  In addition to following their cardiologist’s guidance, grounding is a natural way to provide holistic support that is complimentary to conventional medical treatments.

Today, enjoy going outside and touching the earth to support not only your heart health but the blood flow throughout your entire body, your blood pressure and so much more.

xoxox,Laura Koniver MD

 

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Using The Earth Outside To Clear Your Head And Help You Think

 

 

Do you like spending time in nature?

Do you feel like you think more clearly after you have spent a little time outside?

It’s not just a coincidence, your brain is actually being put into a healing state and helping you think more clearly, and we have several great medical studies to explain why.

We already know that grounding to the earth outside immediately impacts our brains.  This fantastic medical study, published in 2018, documents the brain wave shifts that happen near instantaneously, within milliseconds, recorded via an EEG (electroencephalogram) when the human body is grounded.  Alpha wave patterns increase, meaning our brain goes into a healing, receptive state — similar to the healing state the human brain goes into during prolonged meditation — alert, calm, centered.

 

 

But beyond putting the brain into a healing state, might the earth actually be transmitting electromagnetic information to us through it’s natural, healing DC energy output?  How are these natural frequencies impacting our brain? Does the earth transmit information to us through the electrical output of the Schumann Frequency and the Carnegie Curve?  (If you want to know more about the earth’s natural electrical activity, hop over to this article right here and I’ll go into a bit more detail for you: Why Grounding Works, No Matter Where You Live In The World)  

Might the earth’s output be transmitting helpful information to us? Scientists think maybe so. And I think you might too by the time you are finished reading this article.  Because even though we can not see or hear this Schumann Resonance, our brain not only registers it but our cerebral cortex is actually cohesive to it.  In fact, our brain’s resonance with the Schumann Resonance just may explain why you can think better when you spend time outside.  

We know the Schumann Resonance is part of the electromagnetic navigational system that the earth pings out to help animals seasonally migrate. Many animals, including fish, reptiles, insects and mammals cover incredible distances by land, sea and air, sometimes even returning with pinpoint precision back to a specific spot at a specific time.  Is it possible the earth’s electromagnetic output informs their brains of meaningful context and spatial awareness to know when, where and how to make that journey?  Yes, says a fabulous overview of research published in Conservation Physiology in 2016. There is even some evidence to suggest even plants are affected and informed by the earth’s electromagnetic output (published in Plants in 2022.)

So it’s not the hugest surprise that it’s been suggested that the Schumann Resonance acts as a globally available synchronization system to our own brains (published in Medical Hypotheses in 2003.)  And even more recently, further research in this field has given us even additional exciting evidence that the earth is informing our brain, even though we can’t hear it.  In 2015, researchers used electrical brain imaging (EEG machines) and mapped the Schumann Resonance frequencies to see if there was any interaction between our human brains and the earth’s energy output. Published in the Journal of Signal and Information Processing, these scientists found that electrical activity from the earth makes a measurable synchronization in our cerebral cortex that allows for real-time coupling between the Schumann resonance and cerebral activity. 

 

 

The researchers found that this activity is the exact amount of time, length of time, amplitude of signaling, and frequency of time that would be required for a “ping” from the planet to our human brains to occur. The frequency of this brain ping is once every 30 seconds, which is the brain’s short term memory decay time, indicating that the earth provides perfectly timed “micro-guidance” in a subtle, yet measurable and consistent way that informs our brain, but not long enough or strong enough to disrupt cognitive thought and disturb us as we go through our daily life.

The duration of coherence was long enough to give rise to the possibility that the earth itself may send electrical signaling, or electrical information our brain, just long enough to allow an intuitive insight, or a flash of understanding to occur, but not long enough to disrupt our stream of consciousness. In other words, it’s possible that the earth boosts our ability to receive orienting information without disrupting cognition.  

Even more exciting, the highest cohesion between the earth’s Schumann Resonance and our human brains is in the parahippocampal gyrus of the brain’s cerebral cortex — this in an area of the brain that provides spatial awareness, navigation, and meaning.

Research into the parahippocampal gyrus of the brain utilizing fMRI (published in Frontiers In Neuroscience in 2015) has found that brain damage to that area of the cortex results in patients being able to generically identify images and items that are viewed, but not be able to meaningfully interpret these images. Victims of stroke or other damage to the parahippocampal areas of the brain have a feeling of being lost, disconnected, or un-anchored from the deeper meaning of visual cues and lose purposeful and relevant life navigational tools.

In fact, this area of the brain is also a highly sensitive early indicator of Alzheimers disease (research published in Brain Structure and Function in 2011) showing signs of atrophy prior to other areas of the brain showing changes. For example, if you have damage or atrophy in your parahippocampal gyrus, you may know that a female person is standing in front of you, but not recognize that this person is actually your own daughter.  Or you may see that there is a car parked in front of you, but not recognize that it is actually your own car.  The parahypocamppal gyrus is responsible for accurate and meaningful interpretation of our surroundings, our environment, and for support in making life decisions contextually appropriate way (as research published in Biomedical Research International in 2016 found.)

This gives a very real explanation for why time spent in nature, on the earth, grounded, helps to give rise to a feeling of centeredness, helps to give a deeper perspective on our personal life’s journey, and may even help open our subconscious up to reframing and refocusing our life’s meaning through these environmental “pings” from our planet.  

 

 

Has this panned out in any research studies to actually show cognitive benefit?  Yep.  Thank you so much to my colleague Cynthia Seitz, MD an amazing holistic pediatrician who first sent this medical study my way.   Just published in the Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology on July 1, 2024, researchers followed three groups of adolescents for 12 weeks to determine if walking barefoot outside for 40 minutes in the morning, four times a week, had any impact on their cognition.

One group of participants walked barefoot outside, one group walked over the same area at the same time and for the same duration but wore sneakers, and another group spent that same time each week in “self study” instead of walking outside.  Researchers used an electroencephalogram (EEG) to record brain wave patterns on all participants before the intervention began and immediately following the 12 weeks.  While hooked up to the EEG, the participants were asked a series of questions and performed tasks to examine spatial perception, memory, cognitive speed, concentration, and levels of brain stress.

The results were super interesting.

Only the barefoot ground showed significantly decreased Beta waves (associated with anxiety-dominant attention and when in this state most people feel on alert) and significantly boosted Alpha waves (associated with relaxed, creative thinking and when in this state most people feel calm and at ease.)  The barefoot group also had a significant increase in cognitive speed and concentration and a significant decrease in brain stress.

The sneaker group, that did the same walking activity but wore sneakers the entire time, had no change in brainwaves except a decrease in sensorimotor rhythm brain waves.  They also had no siginficant change in any of the mental performance tasks.

The control group that did schoolwork had a decrease in sensorimotor rhythm brain waves and an increase in Theta waves (associated with learning, anxiety and behavioral activation and inhibition.)  In addition, the brains stress score of the control group went significantly up, and interestingly, the concentration score went significantly down.

The researchers state:

“These results indicate that barefoot walking can effectively activate cognitive ability, especially in regions associated with information processing and complex reasoning…. Furthermore, the reduction in mental fatigue and brain stress observed in the barefoot group suggests that this form of exercise may be particularly useful for individuals who experience high levels of stress or mental fatigue.”

Is it just me or do these results suggest that it actually might be more beneficial to get outside and walk barefoot than even to study or prep for a work event?  Seems like studying made the control ground more stressed and actually less able to concentrate, while the barefoot walking group had less stress and was able to concentrate better and think more quickly.  Remember that next time your high school or college student is stressing about an exam or paper.  It might be the best advice of all to have them take a break and get outside on that earth instead.  And remember that yourself the next time you are stressing about a work related issue or a personal life decision that feels overwhelming.  Stop analyzing it and get outside.  Your brain just might start working with more clarity with all the stress cleared out.

None of this is probably much of a surprise, because if you think about it I’m sure you’ve already experienced what these studies are revealing.  Have you ever spent time in nature when you are mulling over a big life decision, or feeling distraught, overwhelmed or confused, and then you suddenly have a deeper insight, a gut feeling, a pull, or an intuition that provides greater clarity?   I think of grounding as hitting a reset button, a chance for a pause that brings clarity into focus.  By connecting with the earth, we can shift the brain from high strung beta waves to calming alpha wave patterns, and improve mood (as I talk about here) all naturally. 

Want to hear me talk more about this concept? I have a 5 minute YouTube video for you here that you can watch (& share with all of your friends who enjoy the great outdoors!) as well as a shorter 2 minute TikTok about it here.

 

 

Grounding is an instantly accessible healing tool that can provide immediate support during times of stress, no matter where you are or what you are doing. Whether it’s just a few deep breaths as you sit on a patch of grass, taking a walk through a local park, or standing outside at night looking up at the stars… grounding supports your mood, enhances brain function and boosts clarity.

And the effects of grounding the human body start instantly, so there is no time too short for getting grounded — if it can only be 30 seconds, so be it.  If it can be 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, all the better.  If you have one rock outside you can touch, one blade of grass you can touch, one leaf on a tree outside, or one square inch of sidewalk you can stand on, you can be instantly grounded.  Even in an urban location, or in the winter, or when you travel… you can and should get grounded outside to help keep your brain functioning at its best.

For more tips on grounding in a city or urban area, watch my video here.For more tips on grounding in the cold, hop over to my blog post here.For more tips on grounding without being barefoot, hop over to my blog post here.

Forward this article to any of your loved ones that would find this research on the earth’s coherence to our brain (and the cognitive boost that brings) and if someone forwarded this article to you and would like more holistic healing tips to come directly into your inbox, sign up for my newsletter right here:

xoxoxo,Laura Koniver MD

 

 

The post Using The Earth Outside To Clear Your Head And Help You Think appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Keep It Moving: 12 Ways To Improve Your Lymph Flow Today

 

 

Our lymphatic system is a key component of our immune system, and it includes our lymph nodes, lymphatic vessels and ducts, lymphatic fluid, and immune cells that help us fight infection.  It also allows us to maintain evenly balanced fluids and is crucial in the absorption of fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E and K, which are essential for long term health.

Without proper circulation of our lymphatic fluid, we can develop swelling known as lymphedema.  Most noticeable in the arms, legs, fingers and toes, this swelling can be highly uncomfortable, causing a feeling of heaviness, tightness… even restricting the range of motion of our limbs!  

Moreover, with decreased lymphatic flow we may have a higher risk of infection or experience recurring infections as our immune system is blocked from freely circulating to areas where it’s most needed.  Over time, our skin may even become thickened and fibrotic, and fat cells may proliferate in areas where lymphatic circulation is reduced.  

 

image curtsey of Edema Stock photos by Vecteezy">Vecteesy.

If that sounds like no fun, you are correct, it isn’t.

And although we have more than twice the volume of lymphatic fluid than we have of blood (roughly 12 liters of lymphatic fluid and only 5 liters of blood in a 150 lb human body) there is no organ to pump the lymph fluid and keep it moving.  

If blood has our heartbeat to help circulate it, how do we circulate our lymph fluid?  Read through this list below and pick one or two ways to help give your lymphatic system a boost of movement today… and every day: 

12 Ways To Boost Lymphatic Circulation

 

 

1.  Jump on a trampoline

 

Jumping on a trampoline is an easy way to get our lymphatic system moving.  Head outside to jump on the trampoline alone (or better yet with your kids or grandkids!) or for an easy indoor version, bounce for 15 – 20 minutes a day on an indoor mini-trampoline.  This is fabulous year round way to boost not only lymphatic flow, but move your cerebrospinal fluid and encourage the circulation of your blood too, while at the same time improving muscle tone, burning calories and the many other health benefits that exercise brings. 

I remember interviewing astronaut Edgar Mitchell for my role in the health documentary Heal For Free when he was well into his 80s — he was incredibly agile as well as mentally sharp and focused.  When I asked him what his secret to good health was, he showed me his indoor mini trampoline and said he starts every single day with 15 minutes of bouncing.  I immediately went home and bought one for myself!  There are different styles, including indoor mini trampolines that have a bar you can hold onto while you bounce.

(FYI: Any exercise that involves bouncing or jumping will help boost lymph circulation, so horseback riding counts if you happen to have access to riding a horse!  Enjoy walking, trotting and cantering on your horse and your lymphatic flow will improve with each step your horse takes.)

2.  Use a vibration plate. 

 

For the same reason that jumping on a trampoline or riding a horse will boost lymph flow, any bouncing or shaking movement will be helpful, and if you have limited mobility, limited time, or simply don’t like the idea of jumping on a trampoline (or a horse!) then a vibration plate is the way to go.  

My dear friend Stacey got me hooked on this one from LifePro, she surprised me by gifting me with it one day after she experienced amazing positive effects from using a vibration plate herself.  Just 15 minutes a day several times a week will not only boost lymphatic circulation but can also help move your cerebrospinal fluid (more on that in #5 below!) burn calories, tone muscles and more.

 

 

3.  Massage. 

 

You can actually receive a special form of massage that specifically moves lymph fluid by a certified therapeutic lymphatic massage therapist.  Lymphatic massage can also be performed at home, not just in a trained practitioners office.  A very light touch is all that is needed to move lymphatic fluid and preform manual lymphatic drainage. 

You can look up lots of specific techniques online, which simply involve a light stroking of the skin in the direction of lymphatic drainage.  Here is a good video to get you started on lymphatic self massage for the upper body, and here is a good one for the lower body. You can preform self lymphatic massage on the neck, abdomen, chest, shoulder, arms, legs, hands, feet and more.

 

 

4. Dry Brushing. 

 

Similar to the light strokes you can make to encourage lymph movement through lymphatic massage, dry brushing the skin is another way to boost lymphatic flow — with the added benefit of exfoliating the skin!  Using gentle, long sweeping strokes, sweep a natural bristled brush or a soft loofah mit up each limb towards the torso prior to stepping into a warm shower or bath.  

As an aside, dry brushing is also a fabulous way to prep your body for grounding, so if you sleep grounded at night be sure to exfoliate and moisturize your skin before slipping into bed. Here is the hemp mit that I offer in my shop (along with my favorite trace mineral lotion for the ultimate grounding experience!) but any natural bristled brush will work.

 

 

5. Deep breathing. 

 

Deep belly breaths, known as diaphragmatic breathing, is another simple technique to get lymph fluid moving.  That’s because there are two large lymphatic ducts in your chest (the right lymphatic duct and the thoracic duct) which is where lymphatic fluid drains into your bloodstream. 

Placing a hand on your lower abdomen, slowly inhale through your nose all the way down past your chest into your abdomen, feeling your hand rise.  Exhale fully through your mouth.  Repeat for at least three deep breaths, and consider starting and ending every day this way, as deep breathing comes with a host of additional benefits from the boost to your vagal tone, including decreasing stress, boosting oxygenation, supporting heart health, improving digestion and more.

Did you know taking deep breaths also boosts your cerebrospinal fluid flow?  It’s true and I write more about this for you here, along with a video I case you want me to walk you through it:

A Super Easy Way To Support Your Brain Health That You Can Do Right Now

 

6.  Elevate your legs. 

 

If you experience swelling of the feet or ankles, common after long car rides or plane trips, your legs might benefit from a lymphatic boost.  Simply elevate your feet above the level of your heart to allow lymphatic fluid to drain — it could be as simple as laying down with several pillows under your legs so that they are higher than your chest. 

Another way to to elevate your legs is to rest your legs up against a wall while you lay on the floor and relax, as shown above — this is also a great time for those belly breaths we just talked about!  Aim for 10 minutes of leg elevation.  Similarly, inversions (like those found in some yoga postures) help to move lymphatic fluid out of your lower extremities, reducing swelling.   Practice daily.

7.  Hydrate. 

 

Dehydration concentrates lymphatic fluid and makes it move less freely.  Just like being well hydrated keeps our blood volume healthy and encourages healthy blood flow, the same is true for our lymphatic flow.  In fact, because our body has more than twice the volume of lymph fluid as it does blood, drinking water to keep our lymphatic system flowing is actually even more crucial to our lymph flow as it is to our blood circulation!

Making sure to drink plenty of fresh filtered water (this is the water filter I use in my own home) is one of the easiest and most immediate things you can do to maintain healthy lymphatic flow.  Avoid drinking water from plastic bottles… more on this in an upcoming blog post but microplastic has been found in all major organ systems and one of the top culprits is drinking bottled water (another one is eating from plastic containers that have been microwaved… more on this soon!)

Avoiding bottled water and avoiding unfiltered tap water are why filtering my drinking water is not only one of the most eco friendly things I do each day, but honestly one of the things I believe protects my health the most.  After a few weeks of drinking this filtered water, if you taste unfiltered water again it will shock you how much it tastes (and smells!) like a public swimming pool full of chlorine, chemicals and contaminants.  If you wouldn’t drink public pool water you definitely should consider not drinking water straight from the tap either, here’s how.

 

 

8. Compressive clothing. 

 

Gradient compression clothing can be worn to boost the return of lymphatic fluid in our limbs and decrease swelling, and there are compressive socks, stockings, leggings, gloves and sleeves available to support your health. 

A study published in 2017 in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice found that even mildly compressive socks significantly and effectively decrease the swelling of the foot and ankle of diabetic patients.

Here are the knee high compression stockings I carry in my shop, and they are super unique because they are also conductive, which means you can ground right through them!

That way you can be getting the circulatory and lymphatic support of a compression stocking while resting your legs on an indoor grounding tool and/or standing directly on the earth outside (or using in conjunction with grounding shoe stickers like these if you like to keep your shoes on outside!)

 

 

9.  Compressive devices. 

 

Medical grade devices that boost lymphatic flow are available not only in a hospital setting (commonly used to prevent blood clots for non-ambulating patients like those recovering from surgery) but also in outpatient clinics as well devices geared towards at home use.  Called intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) — compression boots and sleeves are easy to use even in a home setting and truly do make a measurable difference in limb swelling. 

Simply sitting for 20 minutes a garment that inflates (similar to a large blood pressure cuff) on and off, forcing blood and lymphatic fluids up the limbs will do the trick, and feels phenomenal, like a deeply therapeutic massage.  I find it incredibly relaxing and restorative.  If you are someone who likes physical touch, an at home IPC device might be a very welcome addition to your daily health routines. 

Medical studies back this up, such as one study published in 2018 in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, Venous and Lymphatic Disorders that found that at home IPC significantly reduced swelling of the legs when compared to controls —  I go over this study and also share a video where I am trying these compression boots for you myself (and loving it!) right here:

Trying It Out For You: Compression Therapy

10. Tape Your Skin. 

 

Have you ever seen an athlete wearing tape on their skin during a sporting event?  Using kinesiology tape (sometimes called KT tape) is a therapy that started in physical therapy offices but is now commonly used amoung athletes to support muscle and joint health. 

KT tape has been shown to work in a similar way to IPC, and can be worn for long periods of time, is inexpensive, and discrete. No more sitting imobilized for long periods of time anchored to a machine, KT tape allows you to get up and go, wearing the support without anyone even knowing you are.

This study — just published on Sept 9, 2019 in Clinical Rehabilitation, looked at using KT tape in breast cancer patients who had lymph nodes removed, and researchers found that KT tape was superior to IPC therapy in that it decreased swelling while at the same time enhancing range of motion in a way that IPC was not able to do.

It’s inexpensive too, so is a great place to start when trying out different healing modalities to support lymph movement.  You can easily find KT tape in wellness stores and online, as well as endless tutorials and simple instructions to apply it to almost any body part.

 

 

11.  Stop wearing underwire bras. 

 

Breasts have a large concentration of lymphatic tissue, such as a network of lymph nodes around the breast, throughout the axilla and along the chest wall, so the severe compression from a wire pressed firmly around the rib cage and breast tissue can compromise lymph flow.  Compressive clothing on our limbs can be helpful, but wired bras are altogether too compressive and can stop lymph flow altogether.  Ditch the underwire and select wire-free bras, or go braless entirely.

 

12.  Swim. 

 

The gentle pressure from being in a body of water acts as a gentle, all natural, full body compression garment, and the movement of water along your body simulates a gentle lymphatic massage.  One of the most gentle forms of exercise, spending time moving in water is a fabulous way to encourage lymphatic flow and is a particularly good option for anyone with mobility issues or joint pain.

As a bonus, almost every way you can possibly swim is grounded, giving you two therapy modalities in one!  Pools, even indoor pools, are generally grounded through their water filtration unit (which is required to be grounded by law) and of course all natural bodies of water you might swim in like lakes, rivers and oceans are likewise grounded.

 

 

We hear a lot about boosting circulation and blood flow and how important good circulation is for our health, but relatively little about how to support healthy lymphatic flow. 

Given the large volume of lymph fluid, the immense network of lymphatic vessels found throughout our body, as well as how necessary lymph flow is to maintaining healthy fluid balance, how crucial lymph is in absorbing fat soluble vitamins, and how critical our lymphatic system is for optimal immune function, and I hope you will feel inspired to pick a new way to support your health from the list above and work it into your daily routines. 

Xoxoxo,Laura Koniver MD

The post Keep It Moving: 12 Ways To Improve Your Lymph Flow Today appeared first on Intuition Physician.

9 Ways To Protect Longevity And Boost Your Stem Cell Regeneration

 

 

As I talked about in my last video on aging, aging can be simplified down to a balance between inflammation that accrues over a lifetime vs. your body’s stem cell regeneration.

So we can approach longevity by both sides, decreasing inflammation in the body and protecting (even boosting) stem cell function so we can renew and refresh our organ systems for longer.

Graphic shared from: Li, X., Li, C., Zhang, W. et al. Inflammation and aging: signaling pathways and intervention therapies. Sig Transduct Target Ther 8, 239 (2023)

The above graphic comes from this fabulous meta-analysis on what we know about longevity so far and all the validated, research based ways to protect and even boost your health-span.

Don’t want to read that article right this minute?  Or ever?

I’ll talk you through all the data from that meta-analysis plus other medical research in today’s video.  In it, I go over 9 evidence based ways to help protect your body’s longevity and stem cell regeneration, all based off of the current medical literature.  Plus I provide a list of many of the studies below, in case you want to read them for yourself!

 

 

 

I’ve even put all of the supplements I mention in the video above into one simple Anti-Aging & Stem Cell Boosting protocol… you can find this in my online dispensary right here:

 

Overview:

 

For more journal articles that present an overview on longevity, beyond the meta-analysis mentioned above, you might like:

Franceschi, C. et al. Inflammaging and anti-inflammaging: a systemic perspective on aging and longevity emerged from studies in humans. Mech. Ageing Dev. 128, 92–105 (2007).Miki C, Kusunoki M, Inoue Y, Uchida K, Mohri Y, Buckels JA, McMaster P. Remodeling of the immunoinflammatory network system in elderly cancer patients: implications of inflamm-aging and tumor-specific hyperinflammation. Surg Today. 2008;38(10):873-8. doi: 10.1007/s00595-008-3766-y. Epub 2008 Sep 27. PMID: 18820860.De Martinis M, Franceschi C, Monti D, Ginaldi L. Inflamm-ageing and lifelong antigenic load as major determinants of ageing rate and longevity. FEBS Lett. 2005 Apr 11;579(10):2035-9. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2005.02.055. PMID: 15811314.Li X, Li C, Zhang W, Wang Y, Qian P, Huang H. Inflammation and aging: signaling pathways and intervention therapies. Signal Transduct Target Ther. 2023 Jun 8;8(1):239. doi: 10.1038/s41392-023-01502-8. PMID: 37291105; PMCID: PMC10248351.Giunta, S., Wei, Y., Xu, K. & Xia, S. Cold-inflammaging: When a state of homeostatic-imbalance associated with aging precedes the low-grade pro-inflammatory-state (inflammaging): meaning, evolution, inflammaging phenotypes. Clin. Exp. Pharmacol. Physiol. 49, 925–934 (2022).  (2X – 4X increase in cytokine levels during aging)Clegg, A., Young, J., Iliffe, S., Rikkert, M. O. & Rockwood, K. Frailty in elderly people. Lancet 381, 752–762 (2013).

 

1. What to eat:

 

Antioxidants, polyphenols and healthy fats (polyunsaturated fats found in fish, nuts, seeds, tofu, flax seeds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, etc…)  Basically fruits, veggies, fish, seeds & nuts:

Katz, D. L. & Meller, S. Can we say what diet is best for health? Annu. Rev. Public Health 35, 83–103 (2014).Halliwell B. Role of free radicals in the neurodegenerative diseases: therapeutic implications for antioxidant treatment. Drugs Aging. 2001;18(9):685-716. doi: 10.2165/00002512-200118090-00004. PMID: 11599635.Sharma, R., Diwan, B., Sharma, A. & Witkowski, J. M. Emerging cellular senescence-centric understanding of immunological aging and its potential modulation through dietary bioactive components. Biogerontology 23, 699–729 (2022).Del Bo, C. et al. A polyphenol-rich dietary pattern improves intestinal permeability, evaluated as serum zonulin levels, in older subjects: The MaPLE randomised controlled trial. Clin. Nutr. 40, 3006–3018 (2021).Ames BN, Shigenaga MK, Hagen TM. Oxidants, antioxidants, and the degenerative diseases of aging. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993 Sep 1;90(17):7915-22. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.17.7915. PMID: 8367443; PMCID: PMC47258.

 

2. What not to eat:

 

Decrease sugar & gluten intake. Sugar inhibits stem cell production and gluten is a neuro-irritant that increases neuroinflammation:

Tysoe O. Ketosis improves muscle stem cell resilience. Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2022 Aug;18(8):458. doi: 10.1038/s41574-022-00713-3. PMID: 35715508.Cramer C, Freisinger E, Jones RK, Slakey DP, Dupin CL, Newsome ER, Alt EU, Izadpanah R. Persistent high glucose concentrations alter the regenerative potential of mesenchymal stem cells. Stem Cells Dev. 2010 Dec;19(12):1875-84. doi: 10.1089/scd.2010.0009. Epub 2010 Sep 11. PMID: 20380516.Kovács, Z.; Brunner, B.; Ari, C. Beneficial Effects of Exogenous Ketogenic Supplements on Aging Processes and Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2197.3. Fasting:

 

Intermittent fasting is relatively easy — hop over to this blog post I wrote for you to walk you through it!

Want To Give Fasting A Try? That’s Awesome & Here’s How

 

And here are some additional medical studies you might like:

Benjamin DI, Both P, Benjamin JS, Nutter CW, Tan JH, Kang J, Machado LA, Klein JDD, de Morree A, Kim S, Liu L, Dulay H, Feraboli L, Louie SM, Nomura DK, Rando TA. Fasting induces a highly resilient deep quiescent state in muscle stem cells via ketone body signaling. Cell Metab. 2022 Jun 7;34(6):902-918.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2022.04.012. Epub 2022 May 17. PMID: 35584694; PMCID: PMC9177797.Belsky, D. W., Huffman, K. M., Pieper, C. F., Shalev, I. & Kraus, W. E. Change in the rate of biological aging in response to caloric restriction: CALERIE biobank analysis. J. Gerontol. A 73, 4–10 (2018).Longo, V. D. & Mattson, M. P. Fasting: molecular mechanisms and clinical applications. Cell Metab. 19, 181–192 (2014).  Brandhorst, S. et al. A periodic diet that mimics fasting promotes multi-system regeneration, enhanced cognitive performance, and healthspan. Cell Metab. 22, 86–99 (2015).Barzilai, N., Huffman, D. M., Muzumdar, R. H. & Bartke, A. The critical role of metabolic pathways in aging. 61, 1315–1322 (2012).Fontana, L. Neuroendocrine factors in the regulation of inflammation: excessive adiposity and calorie restriction. Exp. Gerontol. 44, 41–45 (2009).

 

 

4. Supplements:

 

An easy way to protect your longevity, just by taking some key supplements. Evidence based supplement recommendations include a multivitamin, Omega 3 fatty acids, Vitamins D, C & E, Resveratrol, NAD, probiotics and zinc.  And again, here is that protocol that includes every single one of these supplements all in one place:

 

 

And here are some studies you might find helpful:

Uciechowski, P. et al. TH1 and TH2 cell polarization increases with aging and is modulated by zinc supplementation. Exp. Gerontol. 43, 493–498 (2008).Martens, C. R. et al. Chronic nicotinamide riboside supplementation is well-tolerated and elevates NAD+ in healthy middle-aged and older adults. Nat. Commun. 9, 1286 (2018).  Claesson, M. J. et al. Composition, variability, and temporal stability of the intestinal microbiota of the elderly. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 4586–4591 (2011).  Eckburg, P. B. et al. Diversity of the human intestinal microbial flora. Science 308, 1635–1638 (2005).Jeong, J. J. et al. Orally administrated Lactobacillus pentosus var. plantarum C29 ameliorates age-dependent colitis by inhibiting the nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathway via the regulation of lipopolysaccharide production by gut microbiota. PLoS ONE 10, e0116533 (2015).   Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. et al. Omega-3 supplementation lowers inflammation in healthy middle-aged and older adults: a randomized controlled trial. Brain Behav. Immun. 26, 988–995 (2012).   De la Fuente, M. et al. Vitamin C and vitamin C plus E improve the immune function in the elderly. Exp. Gerontol. 142, 111118 (2020).  Wong, C. P., Magnusson, K. R., Sharpton, T. J. & Ho, E. Effects of zinc status on age-related T cell dysfunction and chronic inflammation. Biometals 34, 291–301 (2021).Zhang W, Li J, Duan Y, Li Y, Sun Y, Sun H, Yu X, Gao X, Zhang C, Zhang H, Shi Y, He X. Metabolic Regulation: A Potential Strategy for Rescuing Stem Cell Senescence. Stem Cell Rev Rep. 2022 Jun;18(5):1728-1742. doi: 10.1007/s12015-022-10348-6. Epub 2022 Mar 8. PMID: 35258787. (NAD)Basaga HS. Biochemical aspects of free radicals. Biochem Cell Biol. 1990 Jul-Aug;68(7-8):989-98. doi: 10.1139/o90-146. PMID: 2223017.

 

 

5. Grounding:

 

The best overview on why grounding is so powerfully anti-aging is this blog post (with a video you can watch) that I recorded for you last month… it’s a great overview of all of the medical studies on grounding and longevity so far:

The Immense Anti-Aging Benefits Of Simply Touching The Earth

 

 

 

6. Exercise:

 

Exercise boosts your muscle mass and protects your bones, both of which produces stem cells.  Studies on this you might enjoy:

Li, Y. et al. Impact of healthy lifestyle factors on life expectancies in the US population. Circulation 138, 345–355 (2018).Usas A, Huard J. Muscle-derived stem cells for tissue engineering and regenerative therapy. Biomaterials. 2007 Dec;28(36):5401-6. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2007.09.008. PMID: 17915311; PMCID: PMC2095130.Duggal, N. A., Pollock, R. D., Lazarus, N. R., Harridge, S. & Lord, J. M. Major features of immunesenescence, including reduced thymic output, are ameliorated by high levels of physical activity in adulthood. Aging Cell 17, e12750 (2018).Pollock, R. D. et al. Properties of the vastus lateralis muscle in relation to age and physiological function in master cyclists aged 55–79 years. Aging Cell 17, e12735 (2018).Chakravarty, E. F., Hubert, H. B., Lingala, V. B. & Fries, J. F. Reduced disability and mortality among aging runners: a 21-year longitudinal study. Arch. Intern. Med. 168, 1638–1646 (2008).Moore, S. C. et al. Leisure time physical activity of moderate to vigorous intensity and mortality: a large pooled cohort analysis. PLoS Med. 9, e1001335 (2012).Zhang, X. et al. Exercise counters the age-related accumulation of senescent cells. Exerc. Sport Sci. Rev. 50, 213–221 (2022).Werner, C. et al. Physical exercise prevents cellular senescence in circulating leukocytes and in the vessel wall. Circulation 120, 2438–2447 (2009).Tompkins, B. A. et al. Allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells ameliorate aging frailty: a Phase II randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci. 72, 1513–1522 (2017).

 

 

7. Sleep:

 

Just  2 hrs makes a difference… 2 hours less sleep shown to decrease stem cell activity, 2 hours more increases it:

Micheu MM, Rosca AM, Deleanu OC. Stem/progenitor cells and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome – new insights for clinical applications. World J Stem Cells. 2016 Oct 26;8(10):332-341. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v8.i10.332. PMID: 27822340; PMCID: PMC5080640.McAlpine CS, Kiss MG, Zuraikat FM, Cheek D, Schiroli G, Amatullah H, Huynh P, Bhatti MZ, Wong LP, Yates AG, Poller WC, Mindur JE, Chan CT, Janssen H, Downey J, Singh S, Sadreyev RI, Nahrendorf M, Jeffrey KL, Scadden DT, Naxerova K, St-Onge MP, Swirski FK. Sleep exerts lasting effects on hematopoietic stem cell function and diversity. J Exp Med. 2022 Nov 7;219(11):e20220081. doi: 10.1084/jem.20220081. Epub 2022 Sep 21. PMID: 36129517; PMCID: PMC9499822.German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ). “A good night’s sleep keeps your stem cells young.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 February 2015. .

 

 

8. Cortisol:

 

Lowering your stress level lowers your cortisol, which in turn boosts stem cell function:

O’Hara, R. et al. Serotonin transporter polymorphism, memory and hippocampal volume in the elderly: association and interaction with cortisol. Mol. Psychiatry 12, 544–555 (2007).Casaletto, K. B. et al. Perceived stress is associated with accelerated monocyte/macrophage aging trajectories in clinically normal adults. Am. J. Geriatr. Psychiatry 26, 952–963 (2018).Walter, D., Lier, A., Geiselhart, A. et al. Exit from dormancy provokes DNA-damage-induced attrition in haematopoietic stem cells. Nature 520, 549–552 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14131

 

9. EMFs:

 

Decrease EMF exposures, as EMFs are linked to neuroinflammation and other health issues.  For more guidance on how to navigate reducing EMF exposures (in a reasonable, real world way that doesn’t overwhelm you) hop into my next Electrosensitivity Relief Class here:

 

 

Meanwhile, some studies the might interest you:

Ownby, R. L. Neuroinflammation and cognitive aging. Curr. Psychiatry Rep. 12, 39–45 (2010).Kıvrak EG, Yurt KK, Kaplan AA, Alkan I, Altun G. Effects of electromagnetic fields exposure on the antioxidant defense system. J Microsc Ultrastruct. 2017 Oct-Dec;5(4):167-176. doi: 10.1016/j.jmau.2017.07.003. Epub 2017 Aug 2. PMID: 30023251; PMCID: PMC6025786.Lu YS, Huang BT, Huang YX. Reactive oxygen species formation and apoptosis in human peripheral blood mononuclear cell induced by 900 MHz mobile phone radiation. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2012;2012:740280. doi: 10.1155/2012/740280. Epub 2012 Jun 14. PMID: 22778799; PMCID: PMC3384892.Leszczynski D, Joenväärä S, Reivinen J, Kuokka R. Non-thermal activation of the hsp27/p38MAPK stress pathway by mobile phone radiation in human endothelial cells: molecular mechanism for cancer- and blood-brain barrier-related effects. Differentiation. 2002 May;70(2-3):120-9. doi: 10.1046/j.1432-0436.2002.700207.x. PMID: 12076339.Kim JH, Lee JK, Kim HG, Kim KB, Kim HR. Possible Effects of Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Field Exposure on Central Nerve System. Biomol Ther (Seoul). 2019 May 1;27(3):265-275. doi: 10.4062/biomolther.2018.152. PMID: 30481957; PMCID: PMC6513191.

 

To a long healthy life full of resiliency!xoxox, Laura Koniver MD

 

The post 9 Ways To Protect Longevity And Boost Your Stem Cell Regeneration appeared first on Intuition Physician.

My Artistic Interpretation Of The “Pale Blue Dot” We Are Spinning On Together

 

 

As a physician, our entire body is literally like a miracle to me… and the fact that all of it, almost every bit of it, comes from cosmic dust and stars — it’s so damn magical.  We are wearing solid, tangible bodies — I love the term earth suits — and we run a life spark through that body that brings the elements of stardust to life.

Researchers estimate that we are approximately 97% stardust, formed over 13 billion years ago.  Scientists used infrared spectrography to survey almost 200,000 stars and found that 97% of the same elements that make up human life make up the entire Milky Way galaxy.  

So now I have taken to calling our incredibly human bodies star suits instead of earth suits.

“We are now able to map the abundance of all of the major elements found in the human body across hundreds of thousands of stars in our Milky Way,” said Jennifer Johnson, chair of the SDSS-III APOGEE survey and a professor at The Ohio State University, in a public statement on the research.  

Now think of us all wearing our star suits and living together on one precious little planet, spinning through the cosmos together.  You are having a conscious experience full of meaning and feeling and using it to interact with other star dust humans on a rock in space.

 

photo by NASA

 

Do you see the very tiny little dot in the middle of the sunbeam?  That’s the earth, spinning in a sunbeam.  That is what we are on right now.

This famous photograph of the earth was first taken by NASA on Valentine’s Day: Feb 14, 1990.  It tells a beautiful love story of how we are all connected, all together on this teeny tiny planet in space.

It reminds us to pan out, see the bigger picture, remember that the stressors of our one situation, our one spot on the planet, our one lifetime is part of a way bigger picture where we are spinning through space all together on the same beautiful but delicate planet.

In Carl Sagan’s book “The Pale Blue Dot” [Random House, 1994] he wrote:

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam….”

“…It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

With newer digital technology the pale blue dot picture was revisited and is now most commonly seen this way… and as with the first photograph, we are on that tiny little dot in the middle of the closest sunbeam:

 

photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

Which version of the image do you like better?

I love both photographs and the quote so very much that I wanted to paint it — in a way that blended my favorite elements of both photographs together as well as make the earth more clearly visible — so that we could see all the continents, the waters, the nighttime of half the world and the daytime half, all connected on one planet spinning through the mystery of space.

Here is how I painted it:

 

1.  Using blue, indigo and violet paints, I made a textured, dimensional background:

 

 

2.  Then I added white in a swirl, to get the energy of the sun moving through space:

 

 

3.  Then I blended it out a bit:

 

 

4.  Then I added the ray of light from the sun, as well as my interpretation of space, with millions of stars and galaxies twinkling endlessly into oblivion, to remind you that you are wearing a star suit right now:

 

 

5.  I then sketched in the planet spinning on it’s side in the sunbeam, so that half of the planet will be in daylight and half in the nighttime darkness:

 

 

6.  Then I painted that in and added cloud swirls for the atmosphere and rays of the sunbeam surrounding our planet completely:

 

 

7.  Then I signed the corner and put three coats of archival varnish on it!

 

 

Here is the final result:

 

 

If you need a reminder to pan out, see the bigger picture, stress less, enjoy more, stay in the present moment, and remember the larger community of humanity all in the same place and same time in the same majestic universe…. this artwork is your reminder.

The original painting is on a 16″ x 20″ deep gallery wrapped canvas (I painted the sides so it would not require a frame) and I used beautiful iridescent paint for the rays of sunshine that envelop our planet. Those rays glisten on the canvas — you can see the blue and purple iridescent nature of the paint in pictures where I have angled the canvas a bit:

 

 

 

I then made prints of this artwork, both without the quote as well as with the first part of Carl Sagan’s quote on it, in two different styles:

 

 

 

I couldn’t decide which I liked more so I decided to offer both versions of the quote.  Which one is your favorite?  For more information on the original painting and the prints, hop over here.

To being centered in the present moment while you spin through space with me…xoxo, Laura Koniver MD

The post My Artistic Interpretation Of The “Pale Blue Dot” We Are Spinning On Together appeared first on Intuition Physician.

This All Natural Sweetener Has Been Found To Increase Heart Attack Risk

 

 

Today I want to share a medical study that was just published in the European Heart Journal last month (June 2024) that suggests even natural sweeteners may not be that great for us.

 

All Natural Sugar: Xylitol

 

In this study, researchers found that increased concentrations of the all natural sweetener xylitol in the blood was significantly associated with increase incidents of major cardiovascular events, including heart attack and stroke.  In fact, they found that xylitol affected platelet response and increased clot formation after a single drink of a xylitol sweetened beverage.

It didn’t take much to significantly raise blood concentrations of xylitol — just 30 minutes after consuming a xylitol drink (with xylitol concentrations comparable to the amount of xylitol typically found in xylitol sweetened products like ice cream and candy) researchers found that xylitol concentrations in the blood raised to levels 1,000 times higher and took several hours to clear.

 

 

This is important to share as xylitol is added to so many products — and because it is a naturally occurring sugar it can be added even to products that are organic and all natural, so everything from ice cream and maple syrup to lip balm and even children’s toothpaste has xylitol in it.

If you have friends and family who try to select all natural products, you may want to forward this blog post to them, just so they have all the information they may need when selecting products.  For example, most all natural baby and toddler toothpastes that say “safe and all natural” right on the label is 40% (or more!) xylitol.

And if you have cardiovascular disease or cardiac risk factors, you may want to avoid xylitol until more research is done on the impacts of these types of natural sweeteners.   For more support on ways you can protect your heart health that are positive and uplifting, you may find this article I wrote for you here extremely helpful:

5 Important Ways To Boost Your Heart’s Health 

 

All Natural Sugars: Fructose and Sucrose

 

This, after this medical study published on January 2, 2013 in JAMA that revealed disturbing brain changes after consuming fructose and sucrose.  When study participants drank glucose, the brain blood flow increased in the centers of the brain that signal feeling full, satiated, satisfied and rewarded. Basically, the body was able to signal when in felt satisfied and gave the feedback naturally to stop consuming.

But… when study participants drank fructose, there was actually no effect to these areas of the brain, which tricks your brain into thinking that you haven’t even consumed anything.  No feeling full. No feeling quenched.  Meaning… no satisfaction and no urge to stop consuming.  Considering fructose is added the vast majority of the sugary drinks we drink on the market (sodas and fruit juices and sports drinks alike) it is yet another reason to put down those beverages if you are trying to lose weight, as it decreases your ability to feel full and stop eating.

Fructose has also been shown in previous studies to promote insulin resistance, insulin intolerance, and abnormal fatty deposits in the liver!  Yuck!  Sucrose is a 50/50 blend of glucose and fructose… so take care to avoid sucrose as well as any high-fructose corn syrups in an ingredient list.

For healthier ways to work with your brain, not against it, when trying to lose weight, hop over here to read this article I wrote for you a few weeks ago:

Working With Your Brain, Not Against It, For Easier Weight Loss

 

 

Artificial Sweeteners

 

And don’t switch to artificial sweeteners!  As I blogged about 7 years ago for you, artificial sweeteners increasing your risk for Type 2 Diabetes, causing an abnormal response to sugar, including significantly elevated blood glucose levels and decreased insulin response after just two weeks of introducing artificial sweeteners to the diet.  This was a double blinded, placebo based study that was very well designed with clear results.

More medical studies revealing the affect of artificial sweeteners on the human body include increased stroke, heart disease, headache and other neurological effects, and all cause mortality.  You can read these for yourself, below.  On a positive note, artificial sweeteners have not conclusively been linked to cancer risk, which may be a relief, although more studies are needed.

Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiotaArtificially Sweetened Beverages and Stroke, Coronary Heart Disease, and All-Cause Mortality in the Women’s Health InitiativeThe Impact of Artificial Sweeteners on Human Health and Cancer Association: A Comprehensive Clinical ReviewArtificial sweeteners as a sugar substitute: Are they really safe?Popular sweetner sucralose as a migraine triggerIntake of artificially sweetened soft drinks and risk of preterm deliveryAspartame and Its Metabolites Cause Oxidative Stress and Mitochondrial and Lipid Alterations 

 

 

Help Reducing Sugar Cravings

 

Consuming less sweetened foods and beverages is hard, especially if you are used to eating sugary foods, as sugar is highly addictive.  It’s usually not as simple as just choosing other foods to eat, because those sugar cravings can be extremely powerful.  Resisting baked goods and sugar snacks and drinks is easier when you address sugar cravings in the first place.  And there is one key supplement that is a game changer in helping to reduce sugar cravings: L-glutamine.

Not only does l-glutamine help decrease sugar cravings, carb cravings, and even alcohol cravings, it also helps repair the gut lining too… win-win!  If you are wanting to decrease your sugar consumption and switch from simple carbs like wheat and sugar over to more nutrient dense foods like healthy fats and proteins, taking an L-glutamine supplement can make all the difference

I’ve included L-glutamine in my Blood Sugar Support Protocol — simply take it throughout the day for ongoing support to decrease sugar cravings, and for immediate support, open capsule and sprinkle L-glutamine directly under the tongue to decrease urgent cravings when they strike.

Blood Sugar Support Protocol

 

 

For more motivation to decrease our collective sugar addition, you might be interested to know that sugar consumption actually ages affects your skin health and ages you!  Read more about that (and what you can do to reverse it) here:

The Sugar You Eat Ages Your Face: How To Reverse The “Sugar Sag” In Your Skin

 

 

Here is a challenge for you — try drinking only water today.

Drink water every time you are thirsty, every time you are hungry, and throughout the day even when you are not hungry or thirsty.

For more tips on staying hydrated and fun, positive ways to use water to heal your body from head to toe, hop over to this blog post for instant motivation!!!

Dehydration Sneaks Up On You, Do You Have Any Of These Symptoms Right Now?

Step away from the sweetened beverages — even naturally sweetened drinks! — and step towards the water.

 

To your resilient, natural health!xoxox, Laura Koniver MD

 

The post This All Natural Sweetener Has Been Found To Increase Heart Attack Risk appeared first on Intuition Physician.

How To Avoid A Tick Bite And What To Do The Minute You Get One

 

 

Well we are well into summer, which hopefully means all of us are spending more time outside than ever!  Unfortunately, ticks carrying the Lyme disease bacteria (Borrelia Burgdorferi) have been found in all 50 states, so don’t be fooled into thinking it’s only something that folks in the northeast have to be concerned with.  But as much as I detest ticks, I really don’t want you to limit or stop your healing practice of connecting to Mother Earth outside daily because of a fear of ticks.

To me, this healing practice of grounding is as crucial as eating or hydrating or breathing or wearing a seatbelt to stay healthy for an entire lifetime. The earth has food, air, water, and conductive support all waiting to restore you back to full health. To read more about how the earth supports the conductive health of your body, you definitely want to read my book The Earth Prescription.

 

 

Meanwhile, instead of staying indoors, let’s dive into all of the things you can do proactively each time you go outside to prevent lyme disease.  Quite simply, preventing a tick bite in the first place is the single most important thing you can do to avoid Lyme disease.  So read this list of ways to prevent a bite from every happening in the first place, plus so extra tips on what to do if you do get that bite.

This is an area where you can really empower yourself to be completely aware and diligent so that you never ever need to fear being outside or let fear of ticks keep you from enjoying Mother Nature.

 

11 Ways To Prevent & Treat A Tick Bite:

 

 

 

 

1. Mow:

 

The easiest thing you can do is to keep your yard and outdoor living space trimmed, mowed low (don’t let grass grow long, ticks love long grass) and remove piles of leaves and other debris — this will automatically reduce your chances of having ticks in your yard.

 

 

2.  Get Chickens:

 

Add a few free roaming chickens to your yard space and you will have a tick monitoring and disposal system that is practically self running!  Woot!  Chickens eat ticks and constantly scavenge for ticks and other pests that are harmful to humans… and you get to enjoy some delicious organic free range eggs to boost!

 

 

3. Add a fence:

 

Likewise, it’s important to ensure pets don’t bring ticks into your yard and home (which are one of the most common ways that humans get tick bites!) The best thing to do is ensure pets that live in the home with you do not roam in wooded areas.  Installing a fence or keeping pets confined only to yard areas that are mowed short is one of the single most important things you can do to decrease human exposure to Lyme.

 

 

4. Groom pets:

 

Daily brushing and inspecting the pet for ticks after time spent outside (before bringing your pets in to the home!) will help prevent ticks from catching a ride into your living space.  Keeping pets out of bedrooms and off of furniture during tick season (late spring, all summer & early fall) will decrease the chance that you or your family members will get a tick bite after a tick has dropped off a pet.  Talk to your veterinarian for more strategies on keeping ticks off of your family pet.

5. Use Cedar Oil as a natural tick deterrent:

 

Topically it’s so easy to holistically and naturally repel ticks… no toxic chemical required.  Simply spray exposed skin with cedar oil… cedar oil is safe, all natural and no nasty DEET or other toxic chemicals that cause neuronal cell death. Repels ticks as well as flying insects. Spray directly on skin, pets, around doorways and porches and windows — safe to use directly on the skin.

This is my favorite tick deterrent spray and I love it so much and use it so often my daughter calls this cedar oil spray “the smell of my childhood.”  I love that!  And I have it waiting for you right here.  It’s not just for ticks — if you are pestered by moisquitos, horseflies, any biting insect, give this all natural solution a try and it will change your life.

 

6. Tick check:

 

Even with doing the first 5 tips, you still need to physically double check your body for ticks every time you are outside.  Throughout the day and prior to bathing, double check your body, groin, armpits, scalp, hair and clothing for ticks.

Going directly into a shower after spending time outside is the best way to make sure ticks don’t drop off into your home or stay attached to you long enough to transmit Lyme.  If you can detect a tick before it anchors on, you’ve just prevented transmission entirely. It’s worth it. I recommend you strip off clothing and place directly into the wash after working outside, then hop in a shower to wash up.

 

7.  Tuck in, pony up:

 

Wear long sleeves and pants whenever possible to help keep ticks from reaching your skin… tucking in your shirt at the waist and if possible tucking pants legs into your socks.

Put long hair into a ponytail, bun, or even better: tucking it all up under a hat is a very easy way to cut your risk of tick bites dramatically because ticks love to grab onto long hair when walking through long grasses and wooded areas.

 

8. Use A Dryer:

 

Simply running your clothes, bedding, towels, garden gloves, hiking boots, etc… through your dryer will kill any ticks you don’t see. All it takes is one hour tumbling on high heat (or 90 min on low heat) and even fabrics or shoes that you can’t wash or get wet can still have all the ticks removed and killed just by a spin through your dryer.

And if you are on a vacation, especially vacations with hiking or lots of time spent outdoors or to wooded areas, try to stay in hotels or cabins with access to dryers… simply strip down and run your clothing and shoes through the dryer every time you return from exploring outside and you slash your risk of Lyme disease greatly.

Let your clothes take a tumble while you do a tick check and grab a shower and you have gone a long way to preventing Lyme disease entirely!

 

But what if you are bitten by a tick?

 

If prevention fails and you do have a tick bite from an infected tick, getting treated for Lyme disease immediately is the best thing you can do to prevent long term sequelae from becoming an issue.  Just follow these 3 steps to decrease your chance of contracting Lyme:

9. Remove the tick:

 

Simply gently and firmly remove the tick by the head with tweezers — as close to the skin as possible (not squeezing the body of the tick, which may help enable the bacteria to squirt into your bloodstream!) and most importantly: save the tick! Read on for what to do with it once you remove it.

 

10.  Then test the tick, so you know if it carried Lyme or not:

 

This can give you instant peace of mind! It is infinitely easier to get a tick tested than wait and see if you become infected with Lyme.

First of all, human Lyme tests can be inaccurate and delay prompt treatment. Second, the myriad of symptoms for Lyme disease is a great mimicker for hundreds of other illnesses and there is no one reliable way to diagnose Lyme through symptoms. And lastly, Lyme treatments become much less effective as time goes on.  So submitting a tick for testing (just place it in a plastic ziplock bag with a moist paper towel) and giving it to your local physician or sending it off to be tested yourself by Ticknology is the best way to know if you need Lyme prevention treatment or not.  

This is a service that allows you to send a tick directly to a lab and have results emailed back to you within three days — awesome for getting quick answers without any delay for treatment and doesn’t even need to involve a visit to your family doctor.  Although you may prefer to go directly to your family physician, who can give you an antibiotic to have on hand to take immediately if the results do come back positive for Lyme, having direct access to tick testing services puts you in control of your own healthcare, which I am all for.

It’s important to note that less than half of folks who contract Lyme disease actually have the classic bulls eye rash reaction at the bite site. Of course if you see a bullseye rash, report this immediately to your physician. But other symptoms of Lyme are more insidious and actually more common… symptoms like: fever, joint pain or swelling, muscle pain and weakness, irritability, headache, mood changes, increased susceptibility to other infections (as your immune system compromises over time) and most common: fatigue.

So testing a tick and getting immediate antibiotic treatment for Lyme is the best thing you can do to prevent chasing vague symptoms like fatigue and headache for years to come.

***Save this blog post (and forward it to friend who love the outdoors!) so that if you do get a bite, you have this checklist at the ready and know exactly what to do and where to send the tick.***

 

11. Boost Your Immune System:

 

What can you do while you wait for tick test results?  Starting some immune boosting supplements is always a good idea after a tick bite while you are waiting for tick test results.  My favorites are Vit D, Vit C, Probiotics, and an immune boosting supplement called Quick Defense… all included in my Tick Treatment Protocol, right here.  

Go ahead and boost your immunity with supplements right after any suspected exposure and you will have given yourself a head start in treating Lyme before it’s even had time to express symptoms.  You may want to have these items on hand to take the minute you discover a tick bite:

Tick Treatment Protocol

 

 

 

Other biting insects

 

What about annoying mosquitos and other insects that irritate us — and bite us — all summer long?  When I head outside I use a two pronged approach:

 

1. Apply All Natural Cedar Oil To Skin:

 

As recommended above, not only is cedar oil a great tick deterrent but it’s fabulous for all flying and biting insects!  Safe to spray directly on skin, pets, around doorways and porches and windows, and anywhere inside or outside of your home that bugs tend to congregate.  Child and pet friendly. I advise my patients to use cedar oil on all exposed skin surfaces whenever going outdoors to get grounded.

Here is the one I use.

 

2.  Burn Sage Or Incense Outside:

 

I like to light a few incense sticks or a sage stick and keep it burning on my outdoor patio area while I eat dinner outside to deter flying insects from buzzing around my food and spoiling the meal!  Or, as I suggest in this incredibly old blog post I wrote back in 2011 for you — throw a smudge stick of dried sage into your summer bonfire to help keep the mosquitoes away all night!

 

 

Treating A Bite:

 

What to do if you are bitten by a mosquito or ant or any other bug, and to treat other scrapes and scratches you might get this summer?  You might already know I love honey to ease seasonal allergy symptoms… if you haven’t read my article on that, you can read my blog post on defeating spring allergies holistically right here.

But in addition to treating spring allergies, I love honey for wound healing as well!  Summer is filled with little cuts and scrapes and bites. So it’s the perfect time to recognize the power of honey. Findings published in 2012 in the International Wound Journal show that when raw honey was used on all types of wounds, it:

promoted healingminimized necrosisminimized the amount of skin that sloughed off the woundreduced wound sizedecreased affected area around wound

Not only did it help speed wound healing, but it made a measurable improvement in over 84% of wounds!!!! We are talking:

post operative woundsgeneral skin woundsinfectionsburnsulcerspressure sores and more!

Honey has well-known antimicrobial benefits, doesn’t spoil, is easy to have on hand and is portable (no refrigeration required!) so it really makes perfect sense to use as a secondary wound dressing in children older than 12 months old. To use honey for wound healing:

First be sure to flush out any wound with lots of water… for a long period of time… 2 minutes ideally.Then, depending on wound type you may consider a topical antihistamine, anti-inflammatory, or antibacterial dressing, and then honey.For minor wounds, use this approach of deep cleansing and then raw honey as a dressing, but be sure to have any deeper or larger wounds evaluated by a physician.

Because honey is so safe and so effective for so many different types of wounds… and because it speeds healing and decreases the amount of skin that is affected by the wound, I feel that honey ultimately will be shown to reduce the appearance of scarring as well.

So for post operative wounds or acne infections or stretch marks or injuries that you want to minimize scarring in… bring on the raw honey!  Sweet news, indeed!

 

 

Now that you are armed with a ton of very effective holistic tips on avoiding tick bites and decreasing your chance of developing Lyme disease (plus exactly what to do if you do get a bite!)… it’s time to wish you a very  happy summer full of grounding!!!

Keep going outside and enjoy the beautiful display that Mother Earth brings us each summer without fear!

xoxo,Laura Koniver MD

 

The post How To Avoid A Tick Bite And What To Do The Minute You Get One appeared first on Intuition Physician.

The Immense Anti-Aging Benefits Of Simply Touching The Earth

 

 

I recently attended a cutting edge medical conference on geriatric medicine and aging, full of updates on the latest medical research on what contributes to aging and what reduces our decline in function as we age.

And again and again, every single factor that contributes to aging that was discussed at the meeting  had me sitting back in my chair thinking… “grounding would help with that.”

One presenter talked about how the main component of aging is increased inflammatory cytokines and yep… we have studies that show grounding significantly reduces the levels of inflammatory cytokine levels in the body.

Another talked about how our bones and muscles produce stem cells that allow our body to replace old cells with fresh new cells, and that once our stem cell regeneration capacity is used up, we no longer replace damaged cells and as a result, organ function declines.  And I thought yep… we have studies that show grounding is protective of our muscles and protective of our bones too.

Some presenters talked about how metabolism slows with age, some about how sleep quality is reduced, some talked about how circulation gets damaged, some focused on cognitive decline — and on and on.  And every time, I thought: grounding boosts metabolism, grounding deepens sleep, grounding improves circulation, grounding lifts mood and enhances mental clarity… and on and on.

Finally I just decided this was a video I needed to make — this topic is just too important not to address — and so I did!

So here you go…  the many ways in which grounding just might be the best, all natural, holistic anti-aging strategy you could ever have.

I highly suggest you watch it and forward this email to every single person you know and love who is wearing a human body that you would like to see stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

 

Grounding:  An Anti-Aging Breakthrough?

 

 

 

 

For links to the medical studies that I talk about in the video, here you go:

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #1: Grounding Lowers Inflammatory Cytokines

 

In this important study, published January 2019 in Frontiers in Physiology, researchers found that cytokines such as such as IP-10, MIP-1α, and sP-Selectin, all decreased in grounded subjects, compared to non-grounded controls. The average drop induced by grounding a patient was a 10 – 20% drop in cytokine concentration.

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #2:  Grounding Protects Muscles

 

In 2010 this study, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, was a double-blinded placebo-controlled study found that when participants were grounded doing an exertion challenge, the grounded subject recovered faster, had lower pain levels, and had significantly lower blood cortisol levels (which means the grounded patients were less stressed from the exercise challenge), and significantly lower creatine kinase levels (in other words, less muscle damage.)In this 2015 study, published in the Journal of Sports Medicine , researchers had participants complete 200 deep knee bends then followed this exercise challenge with 4 hours grounding or 4 hours of sham grounding.  They found that the grounded subjects creatine kinase did not increase while the ungrounded subjects had significantly increased creatine kinase — this suggested that grounding may have prevented muscle injury entirely.In this 2015 study, published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine, subjects were either grounded or sham grounded during a yoga challenge of 10 rigorous poses repeated 5 times for an entire hour.  Grounding subjects had significantly improved blood flow, with decreased blood viscosity, compared to non-grounded subjectsIn this 2019 study, published in Frontiers in Physiology, test subjects completed a downhill treadmill challenge to induce long term soreness and complete muscular exhaustion, then half of them slept grounded and the other half were sham grounded. Researchers found that grounding  improved recovery significantly — by day 10 the level of creatine kinase in grounded subjects was half that of the ungrounded subjects.

 

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #3:  Grounding Lowers Whole Body Inflammation

 

C-reactive protein levels (a blood marker of whole body inflammation) Grounding studies like this one, published in 2015 in the Journal of Inflammation Research found an almost 60% drop in CRP after 4 days of grounding compared to non-grounded test subjects.  Anecdotally I have seen a 30% decrease in CRP after 10 weeks of just 15 min of daily grounding. I didn’t fit this into the video, but one side benefit of less inflammation is less pain = less polypharmacy.  Adverse drug interactions are 4th leading cause of death in USA — every 5 min someone dies from drug interactions.  If a patient is on 5 meds or more, there is a 58% chance of an adverse drug reaction — if they are on 7 or more medications, the chance of an adverse drug reaction is 82%. You can read more about that (and watch a video of me talking you through what to do to prevent this) in a free article I wrote for you here: The Fourth Leading Cause of Death: Your Medicine Cabinet

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #4: Grounding May Protect Bone Density

 

In this 2011 study, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, researchers had test subjects sleep overnight (7 hours) grounding vs. sham grounded subjects, and they found reduced renal excretion of calcium and phosphates, as well as lowered serum concentrations of both, which suggests less leaching of these minerals from bone.  This indicates that these minerals remain stored in the skeletal “bone bank.”  This suggests that the primary indicators of osteopenia and osteoporosis went down after just a single night of grounding!  Longer terms studies are definitely needed and I can’t wait to share those results with you.

 

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #5: Grounding Reduces Cortisol

 

In this study, published in 2004 in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, subjects who slept grounded at night had a complete normalization of their cortisol patterns, suggesting deep recovery from stress.   They also had such a dramatic improvement in their sleep that they reported significantly improved sleep and they subjectively felt less stressed and experienced less pain verse ungrounded subjects.

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #6: Grounding Improves Mental Clarity

 

I would be so excited to see long term studies of grounding and how that impacts dementia risk, as neruoinflammation is the primary cause of brain aging, and as we talked about already, grounding decreases inflammation throughout the entire body.  And besides this, we already know that grounding (touching) the earth outside immediately impacts our brains.  

This fantastic medical study, published in 2018, documents the brain wave shifts that happen near instantaneously –within milliseconds — recorded via an EEG (electroencephalogram) when the human body is grounded.Our cerebrospinal fluid, a highly conductive fluid that saturates and protects our brains, is easily grounded and may also contribute to grounding’s instantaneous effect on brain function.  I published an article on this in 2023 in the American Journal of Neurology Research which you can read here. This study, published in 2015 in Psychology Reports, found a statistically significant boost to mood in participants who were grounded for 40 minutes, compared to controls who were sham grounded.  The non-grounded participants had no significant improvement in mood.Why?  Here are my thoughts on it, which I published in 2023 in the Journal of Neurology and Neuroscience.  It’s been suggested that the Schumann Resonance acts as a globally available synchronization system to our brains (in articles like this one, published in 2003 in Medical Hypotheses.)So in 2015, researchers used EEGs and Schuman Resonance frequencies to see if there was any interaction between our human brains and the earth’s energy output.  Published in the Journal Of Signal and Information Processing, these scientists found that electrical activity from the earth makes a measurable synchronization in our cerebral cortex that allows for real-time coupling between the Schumann resonance and cerebral activity. The researchers postulate this activity is the exact amount of time, length of time, amplitude of signaling, and frequency of time required for a “ping” from the planet to our human brains to occur.Even more exciting, the highest cohesion between the earth’s Schumnn Resonance and our human brains is in the parahippocampal gyrus of the brain’s cerebral cortex — this in an area of the brain that provides spatial awareness and navigation.  Research into the parahippocampal gyrus of the brain utilizing fMRI has found that brain damage to that area of the cortex results in patients not being able to meaningfully interpret images. This area of the brain is also a highly sensitive early indicator of Alzheimers disease, showing signs of atrophy prior to other areas of the brain showing changes. For example, if you have damage or atrophy in your parahippocampal gyrus, you may recognize that a person is standing in front of you, but not know that it is actually your own child.  Or you may recognize that there is a car parked in front of you, but not know it is actually your car. The parahypocamppal gyrus is responsible for accurate and meaningful interpretation of our surroundings, our environment, and for support in making life decisions in a contextually appropriate way. This gives a very real explanation for why time spent in nature, on the earth, grounded, helps to give rise to a feeling of centeredness and may even help give us clarity through these environmental “pings” from our planet.  I would love to see more research on cognitive function and grounding, as well as long term studies evaluating grounding’s impact on dementia and congnitive decline!

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #7:  Grounding Boosts Skin Health

 

I made a previous video with my 7 favorite holistic longevity tips, where I mention grounding as one of them (you can watch that here) so let me give you more information on how grounding is anti-aging to the skin!

This study, published August 2015 in Health, was a double blinded placebo study that showed clear evidence of dramatically boosted circulation throughout the body after only one hour of grounding.Published 2014 in the Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications, researchers showed that grounding through the soles of the feet boosted blood circulation all the way up in facial skin tissues, suggesting the positive effects of increased circulation are available even in distant sites of the body that are far away from the grounding point of contact.This very important medical study, published in 2013 in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, shows that grounding for only 2 hours significantly reduced clotting risk, by decreasing the zeta potential on red blood cells and making them flow through the circulatory system or the body more smoothly. The zeta potential of the red blood cells were boosted, on average, by 270%. This in turn increased the average blood velocity of the patients by 260%. Boosted blood flow and circulation means skin is repairing more quickly — seen in decreased ulcers and boosted wound repair but cosmetically in more hydrated, youthful skin.A 2023 study, published in Lab On A Chip, found that DC (earth) energy accelerated healing and improved collagen integrity resulting in wounds healing three times faster, and in compromised diabetic skin the repair was same rate as normal, non-diabetic skinAnd this one, published in 2015 in the Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications which shows in a double blinded placebo based study that grounding significantly improved blood flow to the skin of the face.And if you want to see images of grounding improving wound healing, you can look through this study published in 2015 in the Journal of Inflammatory Research.In addition, the sleep benefits we talked about in #5 above also means that collagen repair is enhanced in a second way thanks to grounding. Recent studies have found a direct correlation between sleep and collagen integrity, suggesting that beauty sleep is real.  In this one (published Jan 202o in Nature Cell Biology) researchers found that poor sleep actually caused a decrease in the structural integrity of collagen with an increase in collagen misalignment. So over a lifetime, decreased sleep quality may literally be visible in your skin as your collagen becomes more misaligned, weaker, less elastic, and contributes to accelerated aging.Conversely, improving sleep over a lifetime helps boost skin healing and even boosts anti-aging benefits by improving collagen integrity and skin repair while you sleep.  If you’d like to hear me talk more about why sleep actually does improve your skin’s appearance, and a bunch of things you can do to improve your sleep quality (including grounding!) you can hop over here to listen to my podcast on Beauty Sleep.

 

 

All together, it would be very hard to beat the head-to-toe health boost grounding can give you!  Protecting your body from head to toe, decreasing those inflammatory cytokines while protecting the muscles and bones that allow continued stem cell regeneration — if today’s video was not enough to make you want to go outside and spend 15 minutes grounding to the earth, nothing will!

And for those who prefer to ground indoors and/or for those that want to ground for longer periods of time — like in the medical studies above where test subjects slept grounded all night long — here are the only grounding tools I endorse.

 

 

Lately I’ve seen at least 5 different grounding companies use my name, image and content to make it appear that I medically endorse their grounding tools.

Uh… no.  I would never endorse cheaply made, mass produced grounding tools that use synthetic plastics that will sit in a landfill for 500+ years.  These companies do not care about the earth and they certainly don’t care about your health, as they are pretending a medical doctor (me) is promoting their unethically made products just to make a buck.

The only grounding tools in the world that I am aware of that are ethically hand crafted by artisans who are paid a fair wage, that are hand sewn using eco-friendly materials like natural, unbleached cotton, organic hemp, and raw silk, are the ones made right here in my Grounding Boutique.

 

 

Enjoy connecting with the earth and feeling the health benefits for a lifetime!!!xoxoxo,Laura Koniver MD

 

The post The Immense Anti-Aging Benefits Of Simply Touching The Earth appeared first on Intuition Physician.

My Latest Painting… How I Painted It & Why I Bothered

 

 

Have you ever curled up in the fetal position and just wanted to no longer exist?  Just dissolve into the floor and no longer be?  Of course you have, you are a human being and you’ve been traumatized as we all are in different and horrible ways.  I’ve spent so many early mornings, so many late nights curled up like this on my shower floor, vomiting down the drain from anxiety and pain and unable to stand.

This painting is my attempt to comfort you in those moments.  Trauma and pain have a very intense way of releasing energy from the body, from the mind, from the soul.  Trying to hold on to what you are losing is why your body curls up in the fetal position, and the pain is severe.

But you have no choice (that’s part of what makes trauma, well, trauma — the utter lack of control over it and the moral and ethical unfairness of it all) and so there the energy goes.

 

 

Only energy is never gone, never deleted, never erased, only transformed.  It’s actually alchemy that you are going through, and your energy is transforming you into a new being entirely.  Your energy is regrouping — and it’s regrouping from the pure, positive light of who you truly are, not from the negative darkness you are huddled up in.

As we heal from trauma it’s the process of leaving the old you, the one that can’t move in darkness on the floor, and embracing the new, capable, whole, totally different you.  Pure alchemy.  The unavoidable part is that you absolutely have to allow the process.

(For more help alchemising trauma into growth, you can join my Trauma Recovery & Resiliency Online Class here.)

I call this painting Alchemy and here is how I painted it!

 

 

1.  I had a rough idea of what I wanted to paint — the transformation of trauma and the reminder that no energy is every lost or gone or erased — so I sketched a few ideas on canvas and then outlined it with a permanent marker once I liked it:

 

 

2.  I painted in the figure on the floor first, naked and raw — just like the pain of trauma itself — and I also wanted to symbolize the feeling of dissolving or wanting to just melt into the floor and never stand up again… so I dragged colors from the person down, literally scraped them down, into the floor and off the canvas edge:

 

 

 

3.  Then I started on the top, the energy coalescing into a new, authentic, strong self… I used bold lines to suggest the energy moving and flowing and pouring into the new you:

 

 

4.  I didn’t love the ball of energy I was trying to represent and I wasn’t sure how to fix it, so I upgraded it by adding gold leaf… the shine of light that transmutes your pain into growth, literally glowing and reflecting into every part of the new you that is forming:

 

 

(I also added gold around the edges of the painting so that it doesn’t need to be framed (unless you want to) and it would arrive ready to hang:)

 

 

5.  The end result of this painting is a truly glowing canvas, full of positive forward movement while not ignoring the pain and suffering it took to release that energy… both balanced, both necessary, both important.  Both witnessed:

 

 

6.  I signed it then sealed it with several layers of archival varnish.  I will not be making prints of this image so it is a one-of-a-kind original painting and will never be repeated:

 

 

I can see this in a mediation spot, a prayer area, an altar, a comforting corner of your home, above your bed as you sleep and heal, or even in a therapists office or other health care setting for those that help people heal from trauma.  I’d love to send it to you.

Click here for more details:Alchemy

 

 

The watermark does not appear on the actual canvas, but I have so much of my artwork, educational videos, recordings of my live keynote presentations, even my products (like my ground cords) literally stollen by so many other companies that I have to watermark new content as I create it!

xoxoxo,Laura Koniver MD

 

The post My Latest Painting… How I Painted It & Why I Bothered appeared first on Intuition Physician.