The term “detox” has been gaining traction in health circles, but cleansing practices have existed for millennia, ranging from Egyptian hydrotherapy to Medieval Lenten practices and Native American fasting, smudging and sweat lodges. The truth is that we need cleansing now more than ever—to rid our bodies of chemical overload and our minds of negative thinking.

The Environmental Defense Fund has counted more than 100 chemicals produced in the U.S. that are present in everyday products and hazardous to humans and the environment. “Our body is a natural detoxifier, ridding itself of toxins through pooping, peeing, sweating and shedding skin. But in our current toxic overload situation, it’s not always an efficient process,” observes Deanna Minich, Ph.D., an author and functional nutritionist in Washington state.

Some experts believe many commercial detoxification programs are unsafe, extreme and ineffective. “Psychologically, a short-term cleanse can act as a stepping stone if you’re eating fast food and donuts every day,” says Dr. Michael Greger, a Washington, D.C., physician specializing in clinical nutrition and author of How Not to Die. “What matters more is long-term—what you’re eating a decade from now. No quick fix is going to do it, it’s a lifestyle change.”

Read more.

Labor and delivery is a natural process that can be enjoyed. “It ’s not something to be afraid of,” says Mel Campbell, author of The Yoga of Pregnancy. “It’s a wonderful and beautiful experience. We need to remember that the body is designed for giving birth.”

Natural childbirth uses few or no artificial medical interventions such as drugs, continuous fetal monitoring, forceps delivery or episiotomies (cuts to enlarge the vaginal opening). According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 32.7 percent of deliveries were by Cesarean section in 2013—most performed in situations where a vaginal birth would have posed a relatively low risk to the health of mother and child. Entirely natural childbirth is now rare here compared with other countries, but that wasn’t always the case.

In 1900, 95 percent of all U.S. births took place in the home; when more moved to hospitals here in the early 20th century, midwives still typically handled the delivery in other countries, sometimes without a doctor present. In America, obstetrics became a profession and a doctor-attended birth in a hospital was promoted as a safer alternative.

Read more.

In The Autism Revolution, Pediatric Neurologist and Neuroscientist Martha Herbert approaches autism as a whole-body condition that can improve, rather than be a static, lifelong genetic brain disorder.

“It’s the way the brain is shifted into acting when faced with a combination of stressors—some, but not all of which are genetic—at a vulnerable point in development,” says Herbert. Non-genetic challenges can come from the immune system, nutrition, the environment and stress. “Addressing them can make a profound difference in the condition; maybe even turning it around.”

Read more.

As a seemingly endless supply of cannabidiol (CBD) products have flooded the U.S. market in recent years, experts in the industry are looking beyond CBD to the many other beneficial components of the cannabis plant. More than 480 chemical entities (including over 100 cannabinoids and over 100 terpenes) occur naturally in this complex plant, and when they interact with various receptors within our body, a wide gamut of psychoactive and medicinal effects are elicited.

“Of the 489 chemicals in cannabis, delta-9-THC is the only one listed as a federally controlled substance,” says Jennifer Boozer, owner of CannaBama (CannaBama.com), in Mobile, Alabama. “Everyone knows it as the one that gets you in trouble—the one that gets you high.”

While many consumers are familiar with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant’s primary psychoactive component, most are not aware that there are several forms of THC in cannabis.

Read more.

There is an abundance of decisions to be made during the nine months of pregnancy, and determining the best birth setting for a mother necessitates sound planning, especially in Alabama. “Childbirth is a life-altering event, and a woman wanting a natural experience must be informed,” says Gulf Coast Birth Partners facilitator Colleen Tullis.

Kristi Lanford, a Mobile marriage counselor, became interested in natural birth because she believes that God designed women’s bodies to birth, and states, “I wanted to be a partner with that and an active participant in my birth.” Lanford has had one hospital birth and three out-of-hospital births.

In most places, a woman can have a non-medicated birth experience attended by a qualified care provider in a hospital, birthing center or the comfort of her own home. A home birth experience is suitable for a healthy woman with a low-risk pregnancy. In this setting, the mom-to-be is able to wear her own clothing and eat as she pleases. Because monitoring of mom and baby is done intermittently, she is also free to move around. Typically, a certified professional midwife (CPM) attends a home birth, but Alabama is one of eight states that actively prosecutes midwives.

Read more.

The stress and isolation caused by the pandemic continues to weigh heavily on the health of elderly citizens. For loved ones worried about aging family members, Dr. J. Douglas Brown, DC, DACNB offers some helpful tips to manage these socially-distanced times. At the Mind Performance Center, LLC in Foley, Brown provides non-drug rehabilitation for a wide range of brain disorders. He is one of only a few functional neurologists in the U.S. offering deep transcranial magnetic stimulation in conjunction with brain pathway activation therapy and the science-based nutritional program of Alzheimer’s researcher Dale Bredesen.

Read more.