Anti-inflammatory Teas Now at Healing Arts Wellness Center
Everyone enjoys a good cup of tea or at least I do! The comfort and the taste is something I look forward to daily. I have enjoyed herbal teas for years and was just enjoying it for the comfort and taste when last year I started using herbal teas medicinally. When I say medicinally I mean I started to actually think about the tea I was drinking for the health benefits of the herbs. When I did this I saw my energy which was already good, skyrocket! My digestion improved and the slight swelling I would get time to time disappeared. I was definitely less inflamed overall. I learned so much and using this knowledge I was so excited to open up the Tea Bar at the Healing Arts Wellness Center three weeks ago!
The tea menu I created lists all the herbs that we use but I wanted to write this blog post about the anti-inflammatory teas we have and can blend together for you. Yes, that’s right. We use muscle testing to test what 3 herbs you need in your tea and make the personalized blend right there for you. Since I muscle test supplements for people all day long it was easy for me to think about muscle testing tea too. The creativity came in when I didn’t just want to give a person one type of tea but create a medicinal synergistic affect with a few teas together and create their own tea blend. We have 25 different teas to choose from. Imagine how many combinations of blends we can create with that! You can get one cup of tea or we can make a container for you that is 12 servings.
One reason why anti-inflammatory teas are so important to have at the tea bar is because I think the foundational problem of why dis-ease starts in the body is due to too much inflammation. My goal with every nutrition program is to help the patient reduce inflammation so the body can heal itself. Inflammation is a reaction the body has when trying to put itself into balance or what doctors like to say, homeostasis, against any pathogen or toxin. These toxins can be food, physical injury, heavy metals, emotional stress or heavy chemicals. These toxins create free radicals which cause cellular damage. With enough injured cells inflammation starts to build up. Acute Inflammation is mostly handled by the expansion and activation of blood vessels. Inflammation is commonly associated with the formation of new blood and lymphatic vessels from the pre-existing vessels that got damaged. Interestingly, while the activation of the blood vasculature has been reported to increase inflammation, lymphatic vessels generally appear to exert beneficial effects, by improving the clearance of excess fluid, thus reducing swelling and levels of pro-inflammatory cells as well as a number of immune cells. So keeping the lymphatic system healthy to keep inflammation down is key for a healthy body.
When acute inflammation occurs the chances of it turning into chronic inflammation is dependent on the lymphatic system and that’s why the Healing Arts Wellness Center offers lymphatic drainage therapy. Lymphatic drainage therapy is done by a massage therapist with a machine called Lympstar that uses electrons to attract the sluggish lymph and help it move through the body. All lymph fluid travels to the collar bones where it gets dumped back. Into the blood and lymphatic therapy can help with that movement.
We have been experimenting for months and came up with some great blends when muscle testing for helping with inflammation. Here is the list of teas we have that reduce inflammation and have other healing properties as well.
Cinnamon Blood sugar, anti inflammatory, lower cholesterol (for more on cinnamon, click here)
Echinacea Immune booster, respiratory health, digestion, anti-inflammatory, brain health, skin, anti-aging
Ginger Digestion, anti-inflammatory, lower cholesterol, brain health, immunity booster, weight loss, women’s health, pain relief, heart support
Green Tea Heart support, anti-aging, weight loss support, immune support, brain health, anti-inflammatory, blood sugar
Holy Basil Digestion, blood sugar, anti-inflammatory, lower cholesterol, brain health, immunity booster, weight loss support, skin support, respiratory support, eye support, detox
Lemongrass Pain relief, sleep support, brain health, anti-inflammatory
Nettle Blood sugar, anti-inflammatory, pain relief
Peppermint Digestion, respiratory, anti-inflammatory, brain health, pain relief, sleep support,
women’s health, weight loss, skin support, immune support, relaxation, brain health
Sarsaparilla Anti-inflammatory, immunity booster, skin support, liver support
Turmeric Pain relief, eye support, immunity booster, brain health, lower cholesterol, anti-inflammatory (for more on turmeric, click here)
We also have blends for digestion, energy, women’s health, brain health, high blood pressure and more. So if you haven’t tried a personalized tea blend yet you must at your next visit!
The Most Powerful Anti-oxidant to Keep You Young.
Oxidation is where oxygen will easily snatch electrons from molecules. The molecules that give up their electrons to oxygen are called free radicals. Everything exposed to oxygen oxidizes. To give you a good example of this process, just think about a hunk of iron left out in the back yard. Over a period of a few weeks, that iron will have a thin coating of rust on its surface. How did that happen? Essentially the electrons in the molecules of iron freely gave themselves up to the oxygen around them.
We breathe oxygen. And over time we oxidize - or you could say we rust. Though we don't necessarily turn brown with actual rust, we do get age spots, gray hair, wrinkles, aches and pains and are subject to various disease processes. This is evidence of oxidation - part of the aging process.
Electrons like to be in pairs. If something comes along (like oxygen) and strips an electron off this molecule, that molecule now has a free, unpaired electron. Now this makes for a very unhappy little electron because it is missing its partner. It now behaves very radical-hence the name free radical. When this happens in the body, that free radical will look to find an electron anywhere it can. Unfortunately when it snatches an electron from a cell it damages it in the process creating another free radical. This process is repeated continuously until the free radical meets up with a molecule that has an extra electron that it can donate to the equation to stop the reaction. In the body this donor electron might come from something like Vitamin C that has the extra electrons. This is why Vitamin C is called and "anti-oxidant". It is a substance that helps there be less oxidation or less rust in the body. For more on Anti-oxidant Foods.
The most powerful free radical fighter you have is your lymphatic system. The body's lymphatic system holds 80% of your body's anti-oxidant capacity. The liver is filled with lymph and the liver produces enzymes which are very powerful free radical fighters. Your lymphatic system is your body's second circulatory system. Wherever your blood stream goes, the lymphatic system is right next to it. In fact, the lymphatic stream parallels the blood stream. In between the blood stream and the lymphatic stream are all the cells of your body. The blood stream brings oxygen and nutrients to your cells and the lymphatic stream carries out the waste and the garbage.
Lymphatic Drainage Therapy at the Healing Arts Wellness Center
The lymphatic stream moves in one direction. From the ends of your toes, and the ends of your fingertips, and the tiptop of your head, the lymphatics move along slowly going towards the thoracic duct. This is the pump for the lymphatic stream and it sits inside your body just in front of the spine and runs from about the level of your collarbone down to your diaphragm.
As you know, the heart pumps and circulates the blood the thoracic duct also pumps, but not by itself. The way it pumps is through breathing, particularly deep breathing. The entire lymphatic system moves by the movement of this pump and by your own physical movement - like exercise. Along the lymphatic stream are tiny nodes called lymph nodes. These are like tiny purification plants that help clean up the lymph as it passes through.
One of the most important goals for optimum health is to move the lymphatic system. The objective is to release the garbage stored in the cells, kick it into the lymphatic stream and get the stream moving. Sometimes, often due to lack of exercise, poor diets and toxic burdens, the lymphatics don't move very well, the cells clog up with garbage, and disease happens. This can take many shapes and forms from localized areas of disturbance to systemic health problems and even obesity and the inability to lose weight. So that’s why exercise is important but I also do recommend monthly lymphatic drainage therapy to make sure your lymph is moving optimally. It could be more than once a month too depending on what toxins you are working on to move out of the body. John does an amazing job at the office and he is able to tell how backed up your lymph system is or not and if more treatments are needed. One way you can tell if your lymph is backed up is if you wake up with puffy eyes or face. I know I do when I feel sick or haven’t had a good night sleep. Also, if you have swollen ankles at the end of the day it is because your lymphatic system is too toxic and needs helps. To keep your body healthy and slow down the aging process keep your lymphatic system free of toxins.