Monday, December 13, 2010

Internship Experience: Reflections from Julia Strickler, ND

Our current intern, Julia Strickler ND, will be leaving in December. She reveals a little about her experience here with us.


I seized the opportunity to intern at the Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center for three months after graduation. I was eager for warmth, sunshine, and clinical experience as a new doctor from Seattle. I looked forward to seeing the power of naturopathic medicine working in a retreat setting after extensive work in out-patient clinical settings. I was also looking forward to working in a place that combined a spiritual retreat experience with healing via detoxification.

In October, I arrived on the Big Island not really sure what to expect, but excited for whatever may lay ahead. I visited Hawaii once twenty years ago and have limited memories about the experience. People told me that this part of the island was fairly rural, it could rain a lot, and that I needed to adapt to local living and pace of life as soon as possible. All of this has proven to be true! Before arriving, I understood the basic layout of the internship. I would divide my time between two locations. Initially I would shadow Dr. Baylac and learn how the retreat center functioned. Then I would develop more independence and we would alternate visiting with patients and have more separate responsibilities.

My first day was a whirlwind. After a brief tour of where the office is located, I went with Dr. Baylac to where the center was operating at full force – 2 patients doing Gerson Therapy, 4 patients doing various detox or addiction programs. It was exciting and offered the challenge and opportunity that I was looking for after graduation. After being shown how things operate here – from visiting with patients to folding laundry to online marketing – I began to gradually take on more responsibilities, offering my own skills as a doctor and healer. Dr. Baylac worked with my strengths and helped to develop a flexible schedule that worked for both of us. While here, I have had the opportunity to work with nature cure and nutrient therapy, enemas and meditation, exercise therapy and hydrotherapy, incorporating regular swims in the ocean with sea turtles, and much much more!

Everyday I wake up in disbelief at the abundance of natural beauty and deep healing power of nature that flourishes in Hawaii. As a doctor, it is a gift to work with patients who are committed to their healing process. Each of the patients that came to Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center demonstrated the inherent healing power and wisdom of the body. When a person is given the right physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual tools and the time to heal, amazing results are achieved! I am leaving Hawaii with a deeper awareness of how to support people through intensive times of healing, a greater knowledge of raw foods, an enhanced sensitivity to nature….and a great tan!

(Above I am preparing to teach a patient how to do a coffee enema. This is how to truly experience Kona coffee!!)

Dr. Julia Strickler graduated from Bastyr University. After completing her internship at Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center, she will return to Austin, Texas to practice naturopathic medicine, focusing on developing healthy lifestyle habits and choices for people with chronic disease. You can contact her at julia.strickler@gmail.com or read about her time in Hawaii at JuliaInHawaii.blogspot.com

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Kilauea Iki trail, walking through the crater.


One of our favorite trips is the Kilauea Iki trail in the Kilauea National Park. It is a 4 mile loop and an amazing hike. The trail begins by going down into the crater through the rainforest, followed by a flat portion in the crater surrounded with surreal lava and misty clouds coming out of it. The hike ends by hiking out through the rain forest enchanted with bird songs and the silent murmur of wilderness ends the hike.


Most recently we had a fun excursion with 3 of our guests. The juicing program does not stop during our excursion!


Emile and F. drinking a carrot apple juice after the walk (Center). Dr. Baylac (Left).


photo credit: Emile G

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Depression, Anxiety, Panic Attack and the Smothering of the Life Force

The natural life force expresses itself in the body and the mind through pleasure, happiness and wellbeing. Physical, intellectual and sexual pleasure, a feeling of serenity, joy, spontaneity, trust and connection with the environment are all characteristics of a successful inheritance from nature adapted to life. However, this gift may be spoiled. More and more individuals encounter difficulties in sustaining enough interest or passion for life, lose motivation and seek help. More and more people get diagnosed with depression and even more are undiagnosed and untreated. Anxiety is the most common underlying cause of many physical illnesses. Most people who suffer from drug addiction, eating disorder or obsessive compulsive are also anxious and depressed. A lot of people who suffer from a terminal illness also suffer from depression and anxiety. Psychiatrists diagnose more and more people with depression and anxiety and prescribe more and more drugs and less and less psychotherapy. But drugs do not work. If we like to prevent young people suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction and crime we must give a good look at how our society creates anxious people and how it treats it.

Anxiety and depression go hand in hand. Depression manifests mostly on the mental emotional plane with negative ideation, sleep and eating disturbance while anxiety is one step further and manifests also on the physical plane with physiological disturbances. Most of the symptoms of anxiety are the physiological manifestation of fear: Palpitation, sweating profusely, low fever, tremor, dizziness, difficulty breathing.

In both cases, ideation is driven by self-destructiveness with a focus either on past traumatic events over which one had no control or future catastrophic thinking.

These symptoms culminate in a panic or anxiety attack to the point where the person fears losing her mind and/or her body; she fears dying. If untreated, this can have serious chronic consequences on physical or mental health.

What smothers the life force?

The life force and the mind

How come a human being who was given the gift of life can come to such suffering? What are the processes that contribute to this progressive smothering of the life force and what has led an individual to be encased in an armor of fear?

Inner conflict

Something happened that was out of the person control and the person cannot accept it. For instance, a mother had her children taken away through a custody case, or someone is on probation and continuing illegal activities. Anger and fear build up. Energy is needed to control these emotions so that they do not surface and this inner conflict damages the life force.

Compromising

The damage is progressive, and one is not aware of it: One is compromising their ideal to live in a convenient situation and their spirit dies. For instance a woman sacrifices her life for the convenience of financial support.

Isolation, lack of support and nurturing slowly undermine the life force and one loses the will to live.

Negativity, poor self-esteem, self-judgment, fear of living

The life force is synonymous to a strong spontaneous vector turned outwardly with trust and love. Education and upbringing teach children how to tame and sometime how to repress this life force. Unhappy parents teach their children how to die inside in order to survive in a sad world.

Fear is the anticipation of a negative event in the future and the inability to live the present moment.

The problem is with the mind and the solution is with the mind.

This is why cognitive therapy works so well for depression.

Amending the mind

First of all, all adolescents on the verge of joining adulthood are confronted with this issue of deciding if they want to live or die. To engage life we need to consciously want to be here and contribute something to our world or planet. After one makes the decision to live, one sees the necessity to build a positive belief system that sustains life. The depressed person needs help to examine her/his entire system of thoughts and see if this system is adapted to sustaining life. If not it needs to be replaced by a positive one.

For instance, one may think that the world is false, corrupted and violent and rather than be negative and depressed about it chooses to create a supportive environment and a life of service and dedication to good.

Ignoring the mind

Because the problem is with the mind another solution is also out of the mind and meditation is another avenue to treat depression and anxiety. When this deep connection with oneself is attained the small disturbances are less likely to be overwhelming and to overtake reality.

The life force and brain chemistry

There is no doubt that the life force anchors in the brain. The brain needs oxygen and nutrients to function properly. If we eat a diet deficient in amino acids, vitamins and minerals we will not synthesize the feel good neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin or endorphins. If we live a sedentary lifestyle, our blood is not oxygenated properly and the driving force to make energy. If we eat hydrogenated fats and not enough polyunsaturated fats, our cell membrane lacks essential fatty acids that give it its flexibility and oxygen cannot penetrate the cell. So the problem is really in the lifestyle that this society is offering. This society is fabricating depressed and anxious people by feeding them dead food and breaks their spirit by offering materialistic goals. We now have a population of unmotivated unhappy people who have no desire to participate in this world to whom we are feeding drugs that do not work. What works are lifestyle changes, better nutrition, and an active lifestyle with regular physical exercise. We could save many lives if everyone had access to information about alternatives to drugs.

Drugs do not work

Prozac, Celexa, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Zoloft, Effexor, Trazodone,. Pharmaceutical companies continue producing new generations of antidepressant that hide the failure of the preceding one. Just a new name but the same product! Most people who seek help from me for depression and anxiety are taking antidepressants, anti-anxiety and sleeping aids and still are not feeling good, still have suicidal thoughts and need assistance. The drugs may have helped initially for a month or two because drugs increase the levels of feel good neurotransmitters. They initially boost the energy, and restore the pleasure of being alive, but eventually the body gets habituated to the artificially increased levels of serotonin or dopamine and their effects become null.

Drugs cannot be a permanent answer because the existential cause of depression must be addressed and the starving brain must be properly nourished. Because of either a poor nutrition or a sedentary, stressful and mentally and physically toxic lifestyle people may become deficient in feel good neurotransmitters and supplementation with amino acid precursors vitamins and minerals is essential to get started. Tests may be ran to adapt the protocol to each specific case. Ultimately a lifestyle change and sometime long-term psychotherapy are needed. Raw food nutrition is a great approach because it matches the life force and supplies a massive amount of undamaged nutrients. Exercise is a natural way to increase endorphins and has shown to be as efficacious as antidepressants to cure depression.

To treat depression and anxiety naturally and permanently www.rawdetox.org

www.mindyourbody.info

Interns Wanted at Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center

INTERNS NEEDED FOR HAWAII INPATIENT FACILITY

TREATING ADDICTION, CANCER AND CHRONIC DISEASE

WITH NUTRITION AND LIFESTYLE CHANGES


Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center, an in-patient facility, provides 3 month long internships for naturopathic doctors who want to learn more about detoxification and lifestyle changes with raw food nutrition, juices, exercise and mind-body medicine in the treatment of chronic disease. Candidates must believe in a Nature Cure approach and must be familiar with at least one of the following modalities: IV therapy, raw food nutrition, exercise therapy and possibly practice some mind body procedures such as meditation, yoga, EFT, stress management, breath work or other psychotherapy or bodywork techniques. Interns may apply for an extension or a permanent remunerated employment.

Interns will have free room and board and work 40 hours per week. The work will consist in preparing for patients treatment plan and stay:

Review of medical records, questionnaire, lab work and assessment

Make sure supplies and staff are ready for patient arrival.

Daily medical supervision.

Supervise patient program.

Follow up phone consultations.

Research medical conditions and write articles.

Some office and administrative work. Answer phone calls enquiries, filing, place food and supplement orders and prepare staff and patient schedule.

Food shopping at farmers markets, once or twice a week.

In exchange interns will be given supervision and guidance in their work. They will start patient's visits with a senior doctor until they feel comfortable doing the visits on their own and will meet as often as necessary with the doctor to assess patients progress and review treatment plan.

Please check our websites at www.rawdetox.org or www.gersonhawaii.us or www.mindyourbody.info

Then, send your letter of intent with a resume to office@mindyourbody.info

Guidelines for starting internships are as follow: January, April, july and October, but some flexibility is possible.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Passion, Not Addiction: How to break addictive habits

The facets of addiction
Addiction, from the standpoint of the patient is the awareness that one is engaged in an unhealthy compulsive behavior. From the standpoint of the practitioner, addiction is a complex behavior that needs to be approached with multiple therapies: nutritional medicine, cognitive and behavioral therapy, spiritual counseling, psychodynamic therapies, support groups and education.

Addiction as a compulsive, out of control behavior
The person under the spell of addiction feels compelled to repeat a particular behavior and feels powerless to stop it. This is a state of bondage to a compulsive habit as a ritualistic response is to a certain internal emotional state, such as stress, boredom, pain, loneliness and /or external clues such as locations or situations.

Addiction as an unhealthy habit
Drinking, smoking tobacco or marijuana, binging, purging, overeating, swallowing pharmaceutical drugs, sniffing cocaine, gambling, pornographic sex, are all behaviors that have serious health consequences from possible death from overdose to long term consequences on health. Long-term consequences depend on the specific substance abused and each specific habit. Behaviors involving substance abused such as tobacco addiction may lead to respiratory problems such as emphysema and lung cancer, methamphetamine abuse may lead to mental disorders or illness such as sleep disturbance and paranoia or schizophrenia. Purging may lead to Barrett Esophagus or tooth decay. Substance abuse involving needles lead to HIV and Hepatitis C.

Addiction as awareness
Addiction cannot exist without awareness. Someone may be getting drunk every night at the pub and think that he is having fun, not being addicted. Someone may be thinking that purging after overeating is a good solution to her weight problem, not being addicted. Someone only thinks about himself or herself as an addict when they fail to avoid or stop their behavior. This awareness is the most important decisive factor in recovery. Patients who are not coming on their own choice but because a family member sends them, will have less chance of recovery than the patients who come because they realize that they need help to quit. The moment someone identifies as an addict and wants to undergo treatment, this awareness creates a distance between the addictive personality and the healthy one and the therapist may use the emergence of the healthy self to work with.
Breaking the old habit
As therapists is our task to strengthen the non-addicted self in anyway possible to break the addictive behavior. Establishing a schedule with regular meals taken together and other activities during the day such as group support, daily medical check ups, work out sessions, meditation, counseling, walks, journaling, juices, all of these activities address the “sober” self. These activities create a demand to be present and break down old habits. Bringing people to the present with meditation helps them to break free from old habits.

Biochemical rebalancing
Addictive behaviors interfere with brain chemistry by increasing dopamine levels in the pleasure center of the brain. Some substances can increase the release of dopamine to more than 600 times the normal production! On the other hand, a biochemical imbalance may be the cause of drug dependency. Deficiencies may be identified with laboratory testing or from a behavioral assessment. I found that patients benefit from taking few amino acid precursors of neurotransmitters.
Most often, other pathological mental states crop up in connection with addictive behaviors. A full psychological assessment should be performed and mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder or ADD should be treated, as they could be the cause or the result of the addictive behavior.

Nutritional therapy
Addictive behaviors cause nutritional deficiencies. For instance, alcoholism causes thiamine, niacin and zinc deficiency as well as blood sugar imbalance.
In addition to deficiencies created by the drug itself people who abuse drugs tend to have poor nutritional habits. It is important to create new healthy habits. It is useful that patients start eating healthy meals regularly. I found that live raw foods have been very useful in the recovery process, both for their detoxifying and nutritional value. Live foods are full of life force and I have been absolutely baffled by the quick and strong turn around in patient's energy after just a few day of being here.

Cognitive Behavioral interventions
Cognitive behavior interventions consist of helping patients to deal with triggers and stressors. Addiction is a quick fix to reestablish or increase a lost pleasurable internal state. As such, it always has something to do with pleasure. Role-playing between the addict and the non-addict, self-awareness exercises to identify behaviors associated and leading to the maladapted behavior, help the patient to step back and gain control over himself. We help patients to become aware of their inner program leading to addiction and help them to create innovative solution to deal with the issues that trigger the repetition of the addictive behavior

Spiritual counseling
There is a lot of energy trapped into maintaining addictive behavior: secrecy, guilt, generating money, maintaining special places... and once this energy is freed it can be turned around and used in a positive manner. Spiritual teachers that we feature in our library may inspire patients. Everyone watches “The Secret”, some may tune into Eckart Tolle, and others enjoy the work of Byron Katie. Becoming aware of one's self destructiveness and practicing self love and trust alone, with a partner or in a group setting is the corner stone of a long recovery journey which turns into a spiritual journey.

Physical exercise, and physical manifestations
Some other people may tune their energy more into the physical work and enjoy working out, walking or running daily. We had a patient who became passionate for physical exercise while at our center. He exercised for the first time in his life and wanted to continue at home. He transformed his basement, which used to be part of his addictive activities into a gym. Many who discovered the wonders of live raw foods want to continue on this plan and open a raw food restaurant.

Psychodynamic therapy
Often, the first addictive behavior started very young, or maybe the addict modeled a parent, or was brought up in a dysfunctional family. Being in our retreat is the beginning of a long-term self-discovery process that never ends, a quest for freedom, truth and happiness.

At Hawaii Naturopathic Retreat Center - for Fasting, Detoxification & Meditation we combine the best of detoxification methods with psychotherapy, meditation and spiritual ideas. In order to achieve maximal healing in minimal time. Read about our purpose and mission, and our philosophy and medical approach or visit our website rawdetox.org or mindyourbody.info

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Continued Success for Prostate Cancer - Our Colleague in Japan Shares his Story

He wrote to us recently and this is what he said:
"I am still doing well and my PSA is still normal. The advantage of Gerson Therapy is that it can be practiced while continuing usual work. I had been seeing patients as a physician twice a week at Atsugi Satoh Hospital when I started the treatment for prostate cancer. Currently, I work there 4 days a week. I still enjoy the feeling of soil in a 300m field growing organic vegetables. I still play flute several times a month."

Please take the time to read his story: http://homepage3.nifty.com/yushiro/

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Ending the Addiction to Smoking

Today I would like to pass along a testimonial from a patient who recently came to our center to quit smoking. She is an inspiration for all people with a lifetime of addiction. We worked with her daily as she went through our raw-detox program. Please enjoy her words:

I would like to share with you the wonderful experience I had at the Naturopathic Retreat Center. I came there to release my 44 year smoking addiction. I have tried all kinds of therapies to stop in the past from acupuncture, patches, and hypnosis. None of these worked for me. To my shear amazement I came off the cigarettes very easily at the center. I believe the supplementation and raw food detox was the key. I found Dr. Baylac and her staff to be very loving and knowledgeable. They helped me process the addiction and release it completely. They taught me a new way of living that was easy to take back into my every day life.

Love and Blessings,
D. S.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Prostate Cancer: A Gerson Success Story


  • 31,729 deaths in one year (1999) are due to prostate cancer. This translates to 3 deaths per hour in the US.
  • The 2nd leading cause of death in the US is prostate cancer.

When Jean P. came to me for the first time, three-and-a-half years ago, his behavior showed anxiety and fear. His hands were shaking, his pupils were dilated, and an underlying tremor was visible on his face. He was taking phenobarbital, an anti-seizure medication, and drinking a massive amount of black tea. The drug was prescribed by a neurologist from the Mayo clinic in 1979 for traumatic brain injuries and was to be taken for the rest of his life. He had now been taking it for over 25 years and visibly was suffering from severe side effects. In an effort to optimize his liver function, we decided to wean him off with the help of a neurologist.

Jean P. is a yoga teacher and he was familiar with meditation and awareness techniques. He got excited about making use of these tools in order to be present and watchful in his own life. He replaced his vegetarian diet with a Gerson diet and eliminated all caffeine products. His PSA was 7.2 on December 2006. It went down to 4.0 in June of 2007. It stayed at 4.0 for the past three years: 2008, 2009, 2010. His story is truly a story of success using Gerson Therapy. I hope it brings you inspiration.

Today Jean P enjoys a new life and looks completely transformed. Below is Jean P’s personal account of the joys and pains of his healing journey- Dr. Baylac

In 2006, I went to see Dr. Latimer because I had frequent urination at night and difficulties urinating. My doctor did a digital rectal exam which ended up being suspicious, so he did a biopsy. The results showed prostate cancer with a Gleason score of 6. This is a very aggressive tumor for a 50 years old. He recommended prostectomy, radiation and castration. These are very aggressive therapies. I declined his treatments. This is when I was referred to Dr. Baylac for Gerson Therapy.

The conventional treatments had side effects that scared me. I enjoyed my sex life and I did not want to give it up. I did not want to take a chance and end up incontinent for the rest of my life. My PSA was 7.2 at that time. Although I was not eating processed foods, I was on an imbalanced natural diet. I decided to do the Gerson therapy to the exclusion of any other treatments. My physician recommended Dr Baylac who had a clinic on the same island. I did her 2 week Gerson Therapy program and followed up outpatient visits for 2 years. I continued to follow the Gerson program at home for 3 years!

Coming home I got rid of soy products, got a Norwalk juicer, and transformed my kitchen. I weaned from phenobarbital over a one year period.

For 2 years, I stayed kitchen bound and did the Gerson Therapy full program. My PSA slowly came down to 4.0 and has remained at this level for the last 3 years. Incontinence and difficult urination have disappeared, I feel calm and relaxed in my mind and body. I am full of energy. My sexual life is active without a need for Viagra type aids. I have a full head of brown hair. People ask me "Are you dying your hair now?" And I say "No!” I have all my hair and no grey. I think it is the effect of the therapy!

I continue juicing with lugol and potassium and triad. These are my only medications so far!! I still follow Gerson as the basis for my diet today, which is 95% organic!! The urologist Dr Latimer wrote in my file (12/28/06) after I was on the Gerson therapy for 12 months: "The ineffectiveness of his present therapy has risks of death, risks of impotence and incontinence". Today I enjoy dark hair growth, a steady gait, and no shaking. My PSA remains constant at 4.0.

I am starting a new life with my wife who supported me throughout this entire time. I juice my life with 100% organically grown fruits and vegetables and lead a healthy lifestyle. We are very happy and very healthy and basking in the clean air and healthy living.

I enjoy a professional and social life again thanks to Dr. Baylac! And I hope that a lot people will follow my path…

Jean P.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Another Story of Success!

Today I received a message from a patient who was here for two months and did incredible work while he was here. Here is his message...

Dr. Baylac,
Thank you for your detailed critique of the pizza, I am currently dehydrating a buckwheat/sesame/carrot pulp crust and will use your advice on using more veggies than cheese to ensure that there are more delicious flavors and nutrients on the pizza. I'm doing well and I am feeling wonderful and it's actually very pleasant to spend time with my parents now that I am clear-headed and not abusing drugs or alcohol. Thank you so much for all of the extra energy that you put into helping me on my path. You are such a wonderful person and I hope you have enjoyed your break and have done some paddling on your days off. Oh, yes and I just wrote a testimony.
Here it is:

Through the course of my stay at Dr. Baylac's naturopathic retreat center, I have gone through many challenges and changes. I now feel completely transformed and my whole outlook on living a healthy life has changed immensely. Before I arrived in Hawaii I had constant reoccurring thoughts of suicide and a multitude of bad habits that were predominately drug-related. I couldn't even conceive of the idea of breaking free of my self-destructive way of life. Dr. Baylac and her dedicated crew of health practicioners helped me to dissect my negative thought patterns and horrible habits that were throwing me deeper into depression. The lifestyle changes that they introduced to me are now a practical way of life that supplements my daily regimen of activities and state of being. I can now say, without a doubt, that I am on the right path and look at the world around me as an exciting adventure rather than one annoying problem after the next. I continue eating raw foods and am thrilled to say that I no longer have any cravings for drugs, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, salt or any other harmful foods that are toxic to the body that I used to consume on a daily basis. I recommend the Hawaii Naturopathic retreat center for anyone who thinks there is no hope left in their lives. There is always hope. You simply have to desire change and seek it through action. Blessings to your health.

-Gabriel G.