Should a health practitioner also look at the health of your brain when diagnosing you?
Structurally the human brain resembles your digestive system, and just like your brain comprises of nerves, blood and bone; the enteric nervous system is your brain in the gut. The gut is smarter than you know. And like the larger brain in the head, this system sends and receives impulses, records experience and responds to emotions. The enteric nervous system is located in the sheaths of tissue lining in the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. Its nerve cells are bathed and influenced by the same neurotransmitters that influence the brain.
The gut plays a vital role in your happiness and misery (95% of serotonin is made in the gut) and just like you can get inflammation in the body, you can get inflammation in the brain. So as a part of my diagnosis, considering the brain is vital, your emotions, anxieties, imbalances – these too stems from foods abused and those you are currently using to strengthen the gut-brain connection. An illness is not only the result of one isolated factor, but a pool of factors: genetics, strength of the Microbiome, environmental factors, stress levels, sleep deprivation, adrenal fatigue, toxins and a nutritionally deficient diet.
Quick tip: Eat live foods (all plant-based foods like: whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds) for starters, because their energy gives us the much-needed living energy. Cooking `adds energy, to these foods; adding fermentation pre-digests them.
One of the strengths of the Macrobiotic system is that we get trained to analyze the strength of your organs, rooted in the Oriental method of diagnosis. Our training lends us to a 4-year practice in facial organ diagnosis and touch-meridian diagnosis. Can you believe that the health of all your organs, are displayed on your face, sometimes I find myself stuck at an airport and talking to myself when looking at people saying ‘Ooops kidneys off,’ or ‘Clogged digestive.’ It’s just a part of my mental map.
At a glimpse I look for abnormalities, like changes in the texture of skin, colour, eruptions and rashes facially on the areas where the organ appears. For e.g., the large and small intestine appear on your lips: the shape, colour, swollen-ness are all indicators of what’s going in in these organs; coupled with feeling the meridian lines for these organs. This helps me arrive at foods to use to treat any imbalances. This is actually one of the biggest strengths of the Macrobiotic approach, to help reverse an ailment or put you in remission.
Coming to the brain: yes, we do look at the health of your brain. Stemming and linked to also gut health. Since Macrobiotics looks at you holistically applying the study of your organs and meridian lines, a practitioner can then take a firm direction for to assist you with the ailment. In this case, let’s say someone has anxiety, it could very well be stemming out of a weak gut, that has the neurotransmitters firing at sub-optimal levels and causing anxiety (low serotonin).
Does your approach to diet and foods address the health of your organs?
