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Home - Heartland Healing
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Option Master’s Memorable Words - |
Dr. Tom Osborne talks yoga, meditation and what works
by Michael Braunstein
Organizers of the inaugural Omaha Health Expo: Mind, Body and Spirit Fair estimated that more than 10,000 visitors came to the Omaha Civic Auditorium April 26-27 to see booths, speakers, seminars and displays. More than 250 exhibitors filled both levels of the Mancuso Convention Center and the Exhibition Hall. There were more than 50 free workshops and seminars.
Omaha Health Expo Director Bob Mancuso, Jr. announced before Saturday’s keynote speakers that the Expo was the largest event held at the Civic in more than five years. The event also included a morning Corporate Walk Challenge and a Bike Ride Challenge.
The range of exhibitors ran the gamut from esoteric and mystical to the mundane and materialistic. Psychic healers, pure food and water advocates, Eastern therapies like acupuncture and ayurveda shared exposition space with pharmacies that offered bio-identical hormone therapies and hospital groups providing information on how to improve health by getting a better night’s sleep. Exhibitors came from as far away as Florida and the West Coast. Veteran show vendors who are familiar with the national circuit of shows like these said it was the best example of a holistic health event they had seen aside from either coast.
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Going Green? Start with Your Lawn - |
As Elvis once wrote, ‘Clean up your own backyard’
by Michael Braunstein
With crises in food prices worldwide, skyrocketing fuel costs, vanishing species and climatic concerns rampant, turning attention to lawn care seems trivial. But you know what? Maybe that’s exactly where to start. With most Americans oblivious or in denial about diminishing global resources, perhaps changing notions of a perfectly green, weed-free, well-cropped yard is just the thing to do.
You have a healthy, useful and attractive lawn without the poisons, petrochemicals and chemical-based fertilizers, making your yard safer for children and pets.
“It is completely possible to get a good-looking lawn without all the chemicals,” said Paul Gilligan of Natural Turfcare, Gilligan’s eight-year-old lawn care company. He helps gardeners get with the green through organic methods. |
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A Busy Weekend for Options - |
Peace, health and wellness programs offered
by Michael Braunstein
The thousands who came through Elmwood Park last Saturday for the best Earth Day celebration in memory will find it hard to believe there is even more going on in the city this weekend. Elmwood was jammed with more exhibitors, visitors, animals, musicians and performers than ever, while fabulous food vendors, live music and a beer garden kept revelers smiling until sundown. Earth Day Omaha has become the semi-official “kick-off” to summer in the city. The increased urgency of environmental awareness has led to one of the most important events of the year as demonstrated by the huge attendance.
More events are coming this weekend, including the annual Peace and Justice Expo; a celebration of World Tai Chi and Qigong Day at Joslyn Art Museum; and the inaugural two-day Omaha Health Expo: Mind, Body, Spirit Fair at the Civic Auditorium. |
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Earth Day 24/7/365 - |
Elmwood Park festival serves as reminder
by Michael Braunstein
In Omaha, ground zero for Earth Day is Elmwood Park. The 2008 version promises to be the most notable yet, perhaps for the urgency the very cause presents. There are more exhibitors than in previous years and the event features more musical acts, more activities and longer hours. There’s even a beer garden.
Earth Day Grows Up
The environmental movement’s legendary beginning is commonly thought to be the 1970s, though common sense would tell us that societies and cultures understood and promoted harmony with the Earth from the earliest times. Official nationwide and global celebrations called “Earth Day” began in the Northern Hemisphere spring of 1970. In Omaha this year it’s April 19.
The event will again be mounted in the friendly confines of Elmwood Park near the University of Nebraska at Omaha campus. It is organized by the non-profit Earth Day Coalition. |
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Allergy Drug Alternatives - |
Springtime shouldn’t cause suicide
by Michael Braunstein
It’s baaaack. Spring is here and pollen is in the air. First come the trees and flowers and soon enough, the ragweed and grasses. To millions of Americans that means sneezes and sniffles, watery eyes and itchy skin. To drug companies it means billions of dollars in revenues from over the counter drugs or those prescribed by doctors. All drugs have side effects and it’s fair to ask if the side effects are worth it, especially when there are safer alternatives.
Spring allergies can be terribly annoying. For some they can truly interfere with the quality of life and might get so bad that one might jokingly say, “I could kill myself.” But one could hardly take that as a serious threat — until now.
Sobering news in the media recently. The Food and Drug Administration reports that the popular allergy and asthma drug Singulair, produced and sold by the beleaguered drug dealer Merck, is under investigation for possible links to suicide amongst users.
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When Business as Usual Fails ... - |
It’s time for Plan B
by Michael Braunstein
Lester Brown doesn’t mince words when describing the future of our children’s world.
“If we do not act quickly to reverse the Earth’s environmental deterioration, eradicate poverty, and stabilize population, their world will decline economically and disintegrate politically,” Brown writes.
Brown is president and founder of the Earth Policy Institute, a non-profit based in Washington, D.C. Considered one of the world’s most astute and accurate environmental analysts, he has written more than 40 books, including his most recent, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization.
Only a couple of years ago, scientists were talking about global warming and environmental collapse as something we should seriously think about; we should get to work on the problem. The sense of urgency was based on projections that could be some very serious environmental changes by the end of the 21st century, 90 or so years hence. Well, according to Brown and all the evidence he so thoroughly presents in his book (more than 100 pages of the 400-page book are references and footnotes) we don’t have that 90-year window. In fact, it’s likely we may get our fingers cramped in the sash as it slams shut soon. |
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Miracle Grow - |
Omaha urban garden project exceeds expectations
by Michael Braunstein
When Stephanie Ahlschwede inaugurated a project to establish neighborhood gardens in the Omaha community in 2005, she had high hopes. Ahlschwede is more properly known as Rev. Ahlschwede, though she seems to be equally at ease digging in a garden as she might be digging through Scripture to prepare a sermon at Dietz United Methodist Church, where she is pastor.
Ahlschwede joined Project Coordinator Jessica Mews for an interview with Heartland Healing. The project is BIG Garden and is administered by United Methodist Ministries. Ahlschwede, in addition to her role as pastor at Dietz, is Executive Director of UMM, Missouri River District. That includes portions of 12 eastern Nebraska counties, from Blair to Falls City, the Missouri River to Fremont with more than 70 United Methodist congregations. |
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Drugs on Tap - |
Prescription drugs are coming out of our faucets
by Michael Braunstein
Nearly three years ago Heartland Healing covered the issue of drugs in America’s tap water. The topic is in the news again after an Associated Press investigative report found that 41 million Americans are exposed to prescription drugs just by drinking tap water.
That drugs are in our nation’s streams and lakes is not news. It’s not even news that they are in our tap water. The AP report, though, emphasizes how widespread the problem is. It shouldn’t surprise us. A Kaiser Foundation survey found that 91 percent of Americans surveyed say they take prescription drugs. Many take more than one every day. And we’re a nation that believes in drugs for almost any use. We feed all kinds of drugs to livestock and chickens, and those excesses were some of the first to show up.
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Pill-Popping Pressure - |
American epidemic of hypertension could use alternatives
by Michael Braunstein
It’s not surprising that Americans are stressed out. We’re bombarded with stressful situations almost minute-by-minute. That feeling of pressure seems to come from the outside but it can result in feeling pressure on the inside. It’s estimated that more than 50 million Americans suffer from hypertension or high blood pressure.
After iatrogenic diseases, heart disease is the leading cause of mortality in the United States. Like high cholesterol, high blood pressure is a condition doctors say contributes to heart disease and stroke. Americans are seduced by direct advertising to take pills to reverse the conditions so it’s not surprising that after antidepressants, blood pressure medication and cholesterol-lowering drugs are the best sellers.
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Part of the Process - |
Food is the final frontier of our freedom
by Michael Braunstein
I cooked a delicious breakfast the other day that might make some readers recoil in horror. The centerpiece: potatoes fried in lard. That’s right, lard, the rendered fat of a pig and virtually unheard of as an ingredient in these fearful days of avoiding fats. We’ve been indoctrinated to believe that something like lard, a saturated animal fat, is loathsome and deadly.
Maybe, maybe not. More on that later. The real issue is: How did food change from something that historically has been meant to nourish and sustain us to something that science is finding every day to be bad for us? |
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No-Brainers in the News - |
Amazingly, we sometimes ignore the obvious
by Michael Braunstein
Self-described Health Ranger Mike Adams of Newstarget.com calls us “sheeple.” It’s his take on how we blindly ignore common sense, sell our fealty to corporate “science” and allow ourselves to be duped into believing things are safe or even good for us when so much tells us they aren’t.
You can’t trust everything you read in the papers, but you should trust what your heart tells you about something after you read the news. |
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Courage in the Kitchen - |
KFAB’s ‘Queen of Cuisine’ Judy A la Carte demystifies good cooking
by Michael Braunstein
I can spot them 20 paces away. I see them every Saturday morning from May to October at my post as organizer of the Village Pointe Farmers Market. They are walking among the farmers’ tables heaped with fresh vegetables, fruits and berries or the tables of stockmen whose freezers are full of frozen, grass-fed beef; true, free-range chicken or grass-raised lamb. And they all have that “deer-in-the-headlights” look. |
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Dirty Little Secret - |
Clay from Mother Earth has healing properties
by Michael Braunstein
Like a creepy plot device from a science-fiction film, the idea of flesh-eating bacteria is blood curdling. Imagine being munched on by microbes, and that modern medicine can’t do much about it. In many subtropical countries of Africa and the Pacific Rim, the leading cause of limb amputations is a necrotizing ulcer called Buruli. It is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium ulcerans. Antibiotics and other medicine are virtually useless against, and when flesh rots down to the muscle, the skin must be cut away.
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NSAS Redux - |
Regional conference in Omaha sows success
by Michael Braunstein
From keynote to capnote address, the 2008 Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society annual conference (Feb. 1-2) nourished the minds and bodies of attendees. Held for the first time in the urban setting of Omaha at the Metropolitan Community College Fort Omaha campus, the two-day affair brought together three vital components. |
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Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food - |
Important conference comes to Omaha for the first time
by Michael Braunstein
It seems that everything is dovetailing. The health of the planet, the security and substance of our food supply, our personal health, our energy needs, stabilizing an economy in freefall — all are becoming interlinked. We are confirming the idea that nothing is separate from anything else. We are intimately connected with every thing or person on the planet and beyond. We are experiencing a holistic event. We are living MySpace in a tangible sense, where everybody is “linked in.” |
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Music Therapy - |
The Beat Goes Om
by Michael Braunstein
Western medicine is catching on. Music has struck a chord with conventional practitioners and found a place in hospitals, clinics and rehabilitation centers. Modern music therapists slinging guitars and pounding pianos are bringing the notion of notation as therapy to a healing-starved Western world — about 5,000 years after music was first described as an essential accompanist to health and healing. |
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The China Syndrome - |
The desire for cheap everything could be our undoing
by Michael Braunstein
First, let’s get this straight: China is not the devil. The Chinese are not our enemies and economical isolationism is not an example of whole-world oneness. That said, how much sense does it make to package and ship such huge amounts of goods, thousands of miles across land and sea, just to ensure low-cost, low-quality goods line the shelves at our Big Box stores? Or, for that matter, high-cost “organic” foods in our supermarkets?
During the recent holiday gift-giving season, consumers were up in arms over the danger of toxic lead in children’s toys, mostly imported from China. Although lead paint is just one of many concerns we should have about plastic toys, it became the target of outcry. |
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Forgiveness Brings Healing and Peace of Mind - |
For health in the future, let go of the past
by Michael Braunstein
Every few years, it seems new research backs one of history’s oldest methods of healing: forgiveness. It’s ironic, since forgiveness has been taught by all of mankind’s acknowledged master teachers.
In the only way the Western mind understands, forgiveness has now been shown by scientific research to do exactly what the sages of the ages had always said it would.
Leading researchers have published no fewer than 40 studies that demonstrate physical results of the healing power of forgiveness. They detail such benefits as lower blood pressure, better cardiac health, less depression, better overall mental and physical health.
Even better news, they have found that, like nutrition and exercise, forgiveness can be learned and provides benefit at any age.
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Wax Your Board - |
Help for internet surfers looking for healthy options
by Michael Braunstein
Presidential candidate Ron Paul may not make his way to the White House, but the 10-term United States Congressman from Texas is winning attention and grassroots campaign contributions. His support of personal freedom defined by the Constitution has rung a bell. His positions sometimes spark conversation if not controversy.
This retired medical doctor is in the lead when it comes to non-conventional health care options. Recognizing the desire of many Americans to make choices independently of the techno-pharmaceutical industrial complex that runs conventional medicine, Paul has long supported freedom of health care options. |
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Air Fresheners Don't - |
Keeping mystery chemicals out of the house is a good idea
In the dead of winter, we all become draft dodgers. We do the best we can to seal up windows and doors to keep the cold air out and the warm air in. Ordinarily, that’s a pretty good idea — if you are lucky enough to live in an older house or apartment. But it raises a question if the house you’re sealing up is of newer construction and materials. There is a reason fresh air is good for us.
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