Category — Blog

Cutting through the Natural Health Marketing Jungle

A few years ago the big thing in the natural health marketplace was Noni juice. It claimed to help just about every ailment under the sun, and there were a multitude of glowing testimonials. There was Ester-C and Blue Green Algae.

Now it’s soy shakes, goji berries, and krill oil - and a dozen more. But we forget that these products go in and out of style just like other types of products, and the overinflated claims and testimonials make us believe that each new panacea is the one to stock up on and tell all our friends about.

Well, there’s something wrong with this picture. It’s not that all those products have no value. Some have a lot of value as tools that work for specific purposes. But in any case, it’s not hard to see beyond the marketing hype, that many of these products aren’t exactly what they seem.

Let’s look at a few particular issues to start cutting through the hype:

1. Specialness - is the product really as special as it sounds?

Most of the heavily marketed natural health supplements are essentially “knockoffs” of other products and are not truly unique. Many contain very ordinary ingredients that could be bought separately for a fraction of the cost. But with slick packaging and marketing, they become “new and improved” as if they deserve the special attention and price tag.

Many contain “proprietary ingredients” that make them sound special when they may not be. A critical thinker would want to question the manufacturer to find out what’s so special.

2. Specialness - Hidden presuppositions in the marketing claims.

If the product is really one of a kind, and no other goji juice contains THIS many antioxidants, that may be true, but do we really WANT that many antioxidants? We don’t really know that. Chances are that we don’t really, or that the difference in the amount of antioxidants is not significant. Many people don’t know that too much antioxidant activity can be quite harmful. But the “more is better” assumption is built into the marketing claim.

3. Testimonials - a dime a dozen.

Testimonials can be quite impressive. People seem to “cure” their arthritis with this Flexanol product. Or it’s MSM. No doubt those people did get those results - probably most aren’t lying. But what do testimonials really mean, in terms of how likely this particular product is to help YOU?

Well, it’s a bit more complex than just finding the thing that helped your neighbor’s arthritis or diabetes or high blood pressure or fatigue, and assuming that the product they swear by is going to help you.

The first thing to understand about symptoms is that you may have a similar symptom as your neighbor, but what caused yours is probably different, and so the treatment you need is going to be different. But the natural health market has to paint a picture with a very broad brush, so there’s no room for individualizing. That’s why the results are really very hit-or-miss, and those glowing testimonials don’t mean very much in the end.

4. Marketing to symptoms.

The natural health market targets symptoms. Colon cleansing products are “good for” detoxification. Certain phytonutrients are “good for” brain power. Certain herbal formulas are “good for” flu symptoms. “This product for that symptom.” What’s wrong with this picture?

Well, a dozen cases of flu symptoms might each have different causes. A dozen cases of migraine might each have different causes. If your headache is caused by not drinking enough water, the one-size-fits-all product that claims to reduce migraines is probably not going to work for you.

But if you match the product with the symptom, you get this simplistic view of natural health self-help, which has a very low success rate overall, if you look past the overinflated claims and testimonials to see what actual percentage of people are getting the results.

5. Results based on removal of symptoms.

Now we have to look at what “success” really means. If my cough goes away because I took a “natural” cough suppressant, but a few months later I have bronchitis, was that really a success? It looks like we had a great success with the cough, right?

Now the cough suppressant product claims success. But, the two conditions may very well be linked. Even though the suppression of the cough may have *caused* the bronchitis, still the cough product is claiming success, when really it’s a failure.

Many products will remove symptoms, just like allopathic drugs can remove symptoms. But if they drive the problem deeper so that later on down the road we develop a more serious condition, what does that say about the wisdom of removing the symptom in that way?

Everywhere in the natural health field you’ll see this emphasis on removing symptoms as if that’s what we’re aiming for, and if we do that, then we’re successful. This is a huge error in the understanding of the meaning of symptoms.

The symptom is just the messenger, not the disease. Sure, sometimes you do need to manage the symptoms in order to make yourself more comfortable, but there are ways to do that safely without suppression which drives the disturbance deeper.

The problem with natural health marketing, and even many natural health practitioners, is that they don’t really know the difference between the symptom and the disease. They are working on the level of symptoms just like the allopath is, trying to kill the symptom for the short-term gain of making the patient feel better. That’s what most people are looking for.

Well, that’s what people can get, if they’re willing to risk making themselves sicker in the longer run. They may be young and robust, and maybe they won’t notice the damaging effects of some of these natural health protocols. But I think that many people would want to know that there is another side to this health marketing hype, and that they may be spending a lot of money on products that aren’t really helping.

This is not to overstate the potential for harm, either. But the key is that the appropriate treatment for a particular conditon depends on the underlying cause of that condition and working on the causative level. If you’re simply looking at the superficial level of symptoms, you may be palliating at best, and suppressing at worst.

Generally people don’t really know what they are doing except that they’re taking something “natural” to help a particular symptom or problem. They have no idea of the complex physiological functions that are being altered, and the possible imbalances that are being caused, even by taking a simple nutrient like calcium.

Generally these things are safe in relatively small doses, but we need to take a sobering look at the megadoses and “more is better” approach that’s often thought is required to get the best results. The heroic “no pain, no gain” approach works well for ripping off a band-aid from your finger. But otherwise, we really want to know whether the gain is real and isn’t causing new problems that we didn’t bargain for.

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So what’s the best way to make your way through the jungle of health products?

First, find out what is really unique about the product you’re interested in. Consider that what it does might be done just as well by many other more ordinary products. Most of the network marketed products (what used to be called multi-level marketing) fall in this category. Most are not-so-unique products that don’t do much more than their simple counterparts in your local heath food store.

If there is a dizzying array of similar products, and you’re not sure which you need, find out if they’re all really essentially different. For example, there are dozens of different products based on beneficial phytochemicals in berries. Are they each so different from one another? The claims point to specific differences - one comes from a unique source, one is more pure than the rest, etc. The distinctions are dizzying, and probably not as important as it sounds.

Look at what your need is fundamentally. Maybe you’re constipated, and you need to address that. But do you need a stimulating herbal formula - or maybe you just need to drink more water. If you’re a chilly type with certain deficiencies, the stimulating herbs may actually have a weakening effect for you. So you’d want to investigate what is the best way for YOU to approach this constipation problem, and not just match your symptom to the product.

For private consulting to help people sort out their real needs, with a rational approach to cutting through the natural health marketing jungle, see Personalized Consulting by email

I wrote this originally to someone asking about fibromyalgia, but it really applies to all types of chronic illness, so I thought it might be generally useful.

The key is that treatment for chronic problems has to be individualized for each person, and is usually multidimensional, so there’s not just one thing that’s going to wipe it out. Everywhere are testimonials that someone “cured” fibromyalgia or arthritis or heart disease with this or that supplement or alternative treatment, so it’s assumed that this or that technique or substance is THE answer for that problem.

But no one knows whether it will work for the next person, because no one’s looking at what the true causes are in each case. In other words, ten people with fibromyalgia symptoms may all need different treatments.

Sometimes one simple intervention like getting off diet soda or cutting out wheat or improving sleep habits makes a big difference, if the problem is minor and isn’t deeply rooted. But usually it takes more than that.

The very first thing I’d ask is what was going on in the person’s life when the symptom first appeared. And I’d find out whether they’re taking any drugs that could have side effects like the symptoms they’re having. Very important to rule that out. All too often, doctors don’t take that into account, and slap on a new diagnosis when new symptoms come up.

Fibromyalgia, for example, is just a fancy way of describing the symptoms of muscle pain and fatigue. It’s not a true diagnosis, but an allopathic label, so it doesn’t disclose the cause of the problem, and only tells you what you already know (you have pain and fatigue).

There’s no such thing as an entity called fibromyalgia (or arthritis or diabetes or ADD or heart disease, etc..) which is the same for everyone who has those symptoms, although of course most practitioners do try to treat it that way.

This means that every person who has those symptoms may have different underlying causes. So the approach they will take depends on whether they want to get to the root causes, or whether they just want to suppress or palliate the symptoms. It depends on the person’s inclinations and what he/she is prepared to do.

Just to give you an idea of possible causes of that and other chronic conditions -

• emotional blockages;
  latent inherited diseases that are triggered into action by physical or emotional trauma (including vaccinations);
  past shocks and traumas;
  severe nutritional imbalances;
  toxins such as aspartame and mercury;
  cellular dehydration;
  infectious agents like Epstein-barr virus or Lyme;
  deep fears and false beliefs.

Often with complex, chronic conditions it’s a combination of all of those, and susceptibility is key.

For example, we know that mercury dental fillings aren’t good for anyone, but one person might become very destabilized from them, because they have a lot of other things going on and that was just the last straw. Whereas someone else might be able to handle it without becoming destabilized, until they get a vaccine or have an emotional trauma.

Also there are many opportunistic microbes like mycoplasma, which are more the effect than the cause, but contribute to making the person feel sick. There are many pleomorphic microbes which are generated internally under stress.

The tendency is to focus on those, but that’s misguided, like killing the messenger. Or if you lost something in a dark alley but you’re looking for it under the street light just because it’s easier to see there. Reducing some of the microbial load can sometimes help the person feel better in the meantime, but doesn’t solve the problem.

The root cause of disease is not on the material level at all, so all treatments aimed at getting rid of things on the material level are working on effects, not causes.

The ideal is to work at the causative level, while helping the person to manage symptoms, but the aim is not simply to get rid of symptoms (effects). Even in alternative medicine, usually the focus is on symptoms, and if the symptom goes away, they consider it a success.

Well, from the patient’s point of view, of course it’s good that they feel better! But if the symptom has simply been suppressed, the problem will emerge again later and probably more seriously next time. And it’s not only drugs that suppress, but herbs and nutrients can be used suppressively too!

But let’s step back and look at some possible scenarios:

1. If the person is conventional medicine oriented, but willing to try a few other things on their own:

• Look at how your soul/spiritual life is being neglected, and what would nourish you on that level.
• Look into improving the diet, and eliminate common culprits like aspartame, MSG, gluten.
• Look at diet typologies to determine what type of diet suits your particular metabolism
• Improve the amount and quality of water and salt you’re using.
• Use some super-food type supplements - start with basic ones like cod liver oil, concentrated green foods and fruits, hemp seeds, minerals especially magnesium, B-vitamins and C, etc.
• Look at stress and emotional issues and consider learning EFT or Buteyko breathing or some form of meditation/relaxation technique.
• Look at lifestyle - exercise, sleep, relationships, etc.

2. If the person is willing to do various unconventional treatments, some of these may be useful in addition to the above basics:

• Homeopathic treatment for the acute problem
• TCM (traditional Chinese medicine)
• Use a Zapper to reduce the microbial load.
• Do oil pulling for a gentle liver cleanse, and some other detox methods depending on their particular constitution, no one-size-fits-all methods.
• Anything that regulates the autonomic nervous system like Buteyko, qigong, yoga, cranial osteopathy, etc.
• Body/mind techniques like Feldenkrais, Rosen work, etc.

The most comprehensive approach I know of is treatment with a practitioner of medical Heilkunst, www.homeopathy.com/clinic. Heilkunst is the complete system of medicine that includes homeopathy.

Putting together a strategy can of course be overwhelming for anyone, especially figuring out how to individualize it, where to start, prioritizing and coordinate everything. I can help people do that.

All natural healing methods are potentially useful - the trick is to know what you’re really targeting beyond the symptom, and which is the right tool for that, for this particular person at this particular time.

Sometimes my website’s spam filter is a little overzealous. If you posted a blog comment or question and didn’t receive a response, I may not have seen it, so please email me at Guide for Self-Healing. Thanks!

Water, Salt and Hydration
by Karen Robinson

We all know that water is essential to life and that we’re supposed to drink up. But our need for hydration has new meaning when we look beyond biochemical processes to the biophysical function of water. We usually think of hydration as a matter of drinking enough quantity of water, and assume that everyone absorbs this essential substance in the same way. But there’s a lot more to the story.

Dr. Batmanghelidj, author of “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water,” says that the root cause of most chronic health problems is chronic dehydration. Of course it’s not quite that simple, but it does makes sense that we should pay closer attention to what it really takes to get ourselves hydrated.

Hydration on the cellular level is a matter of transfering hydrogen into the cell, and hydrogen transfer is the function of the essential life energy called orgone. This is the special function of water, which is different from the solvent function by which it dissolves and flushes toxins out of the cell. Hydration itself regulates all functions of the body, and water is not just a mechanical carrier for regulatory substances.

Water that has a high orgone content could be called “living” water, such as artesian well water like Fiji water. Artesisan spring water is water that bubbles up, which means that it’s gone through a long compression process and is now “mature,” containing levity forces which are necessary for consciousness. It’s low in minerals as water should be, and high in orgone.

You could assay a living water biochemically and find it to be very similar to other forms of purified or spring water. But biophysically it’s very different. Biophysics is about true function, beyond the biochemical constituents or processes. The living water will enhance the function of cellular hydration because of its crystalline structure. Processed water such as tap water lacks this crystalline structure. This means that you could drink large quantities of tap water and still not be hydrated!

WHAT IS SOLÉ

Solé is a 26% concentration of salt in water. When natural crystal salt, such as Himalayan crystal salt is dissolved in water, the water will naturally come to that saturation point, and that’s the solé. Water and salt represent the basic polarity of the two primordial forces of the universe - the radial, nether or earth forces; and the spherical, upper or cosmic forces.

This is the polarity that generates life - it’s the constant pulsation of compression and expansion that animates the universe. Wilhelm Reich was the first scientist to demonstrate this pulsatory nature of the universe.

This is so significant, because we can’t get too far without the pulsation of the universe! It’s this salt-water polarity represented by the solé solution which carries information for all life functions - the nether vegetative functions as well as the upper consciousness functions, which “marry” to create life.

Solé represents superconsciousness in that the crystal salt is merged in oneness with the water - the two resonate as one and yet the salt retains its own identity (individual freedom) when the water evaporates. Then on the cellular level, the solé facilitates hydrogen transfer to the cell, which releases electrons and is the basis of all organic energy systems.

DEHYDRATION

In the face of dehydration, which the body perceives as a crisis, it manifests many symptoms that are really signs of dehydration, well before we become aware of needing water via thirst or dry mouth. In other words, the body is crying for water before we even have overt signals. If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.

Even in the midst of an abundance of water, it’s “water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” On a cellular level, the organism becomes armored against receiving the abundance, and can’t become hydrated. It’s a bit like we become shy in love if we’ve been rejected before, and we’re a little defensive and not so quick to open up again. The cellular stress then causes more dehydration in a vicious cycle, as the condition of dehydration itself uses up water.

This stressful situation is like a biological trauma which triggers disease, as the German physician Ryke Geerd Hamer discovered. So dehydration on the psychic level as well as on the somatic level - dryness of thought and rigid attitudes - can lead to disease, especially diseases which have to do with a poverty mentality and suppression of the generative power of the life force.

Chronic dehydration then weakens the generative power, and so it can be carried to offspring, who inherit this dryness in the form of the Psoric miasm. (The chronic miasms are the inherited predispositions to disease, which we’re all born with.) Dr. Hahnemann discovered that the essence of Psora is dryness and deficiency. We call this a kind of “glass half empty” or poverty mentality. And Dr. Reich taught that dryness resulted in a contraction, shrinking or damming up of the life force leading to disease, which he called “shrinking biopathy.”

So there is plenty of research about the dangers of chronic dehydration, and much of what people are suffering from when they go to the doctor is dehydration. Yet the doctor gives drugs to suppress the symptoms, many of which are just the body’s “many cries for water.”

NOT ALL SALT IS CREATED EQUAL

The best quality salt is natural crystal salt, such as Himalayan crystal salt. We all need salt - it’s just the poor quality table salt that causes many imbalances and should be avoided. But crystal salt is well tolerated by most people, even those who think they need a “low-sodium” diet. (Try buying low sodium foods and adding your own crystal salt!)

Table salt is refined sodium chloride, biophysically “dead,” acid-forming and dehydrating, and toxic because of other additives.

Sea salt from the oceans may contain pollutants, and although it has a crystal structure to some degree, it’s not the superior crystalline structure that crystal salt has. The nutritive elements remain on the surface of the structure and aren’t integrated into the crystalline structure. And actually, what’s sold as sea salt and hyped as such a healthy alternative to table salt, is pure white, which means that it’s been refined, so it’s not much better than table salt.

Rock salt is the original form of salt that has not become “mature,” has not developed a crystalline structure, and so the minerals can’t be properly absorbed.

Crystal salt has been sufficiently compressed so that the minerals are ionic, and the crystalline structure has become matured, which allows the minerals to be absorbed.

WATER, NOT BEVERAGES

Beverages are drinks that contain 50 or higher TDS (total dissolved solids), even herbs teas which seem so innocuous but really aren’t hydrating. When TDS is high, hydrogen and electrons are bound up, and can’t be released to the cells. So for each beverage taken, even if the beverage is nutritious, an additional glass of water is needed in order to maintain hydration.

Water should contain high orgone energy as artesian water does, but it’s not always easy to find. Fiji water is good, but bottled waters aren’t ideal because of the plastic containers. Good options are filtered water, ideally non-fluoridated, and then re-energized by placing it on a small orgone generator. Or even just put a few quartz crystals into the container and let it sit.

A good system for energizing water is the Revitalizer.

Some people advocate exposing drinking water to sunlight - not a good idea. The best quality water comes directly from the ground, a very dark place!

HOW MUCH DO WE NEED?

Depending on the person’s level of activity and other individual factors including disease issues, each person needs roughly 1/2 ounce of water per pound of body weight, daily. Divide body weight in half, and that’s the number of ounces per day.

BEYOND THE GLASS OF WATER

The deeper issue of hydration takes us to the mental/emotional realm, where we need to look at how we become armored on deeper levels of our being and can’t take in the “juices” of life. We know when we read something that’s dry and lifeless, it’s not physically dry, of course, but the phenomenon of dryness is there. It’s lacking the kind of moist warmth that’s characteristic of love and life.

When people are “dry” in this way, they become resistant to and unable to take in the living water of life energy. And they become dehydrated on the cellular level, because what’s going on at the physical level is the reflection of what’s going on at the psychic level.

Sometimes they can’t get hydrated no matter how much living water they drink, and that’s because the psychic level needs to get hydrated in order for the cells to become receptive to the water they need. But also by continuing to drink living water and exposing the cells to the water they need, that helps open up the pathways for the resistance to free up and for the organism to accept the loving energy of water.

Getting hydrated often involves working through emotional issues in various ways - through Medicine (the Heilkunst system), which destroys the blockages that impede energy flow and lead to emotional armorming, and through Regimen, by processing the emotional content that was unconscious before, as it comes up, in a way that releases the false beliefs and fears that aren’t part of who we really are.

The process of remediation and soul/spiritual development is about becoming wet! We let go to dissolve ourselves in the living waters of life. And yet we keep our individuality, our consciousness intact. This pulsatory function of dissolving and emerging, dying and living - it’s the movement of life. Think about that next time you drink a glass of water!

Recommended Reading:
Water and Salt: The Essence of Life, by Dr. Barbara Hendel
Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, by Dr. Batmanghelidj