As we know, Chinese Medicine has been around for thousands of years. In today's world, we talk about quantum physics, consciousness-based medicine and energy healing systems, knowing that ancient Eastern philosophies and medicine, such as the Chinese Acupuncture System and Ayurveda in Hindu tradition were far ahead in the game.

Dr. Janet Galipo is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and my mentor in Energy Healing Modalities, such as BodyTalk, San Baio and BodyIntuitive. I took many courses with her, learned a lot from her wisdom, and now she's our guest in our blog to share some of her amazing knowledge with us.

To get the whole scoop, you can watch the video, but here are some highlights of our talk:

Dr. Janet, ancient Chinese doctors observed the human body in living situations, meaning people were ill, but they were alive as they were being observed for the Chinese Medicine system was being structured. Chinese doctors did not observe corpses and dead people. Can you comment on this? 

Chinese medicine is very old. Some people quote it as being 3000 years old, 5,000 years old, even 10,000 years old. And one of the things about Chinese Medicine that I always like to point out is that yes, when people were studying the human body back then, the Chinese doctors were scholars. They had a background in Chinese philosophy, poetry, and in the higher arts usually before they became Chinese Medicine doctors.

And the Chinese doctors didn't really cut into the human body. Part of that was based on Daoist philosophy, and Buddhist philosophy, that the body was something sacred and that they didn't cut it up or do autopsies. They needed to spend their time really observing what worked. And with all of that, they were able to conceive and create the Chinese Acupuncture System, which is 12 meridians with over 400 points. And that system holds its value, and its truth and efficacy today.

Most of the beauty in Chinese Medicine, to me, comes from the fact that it's natural, it's very connected to Nature. Can you tell us what you think about our natural abilities of self-healing, and how important it is to be connected to Nature for healing to happen, and to be healthy and preserve health?

If we look at the Chinese System, we're always looking at Yin and Yang, the balance of the two opposing forces in the body. And one way we could look at that is the balance of the warming, heating energies, with the cooling, liquid, hydration energies of the body. That's one way of viewing human body. But the Chinese also viewed the body in terms of the Five Elements in Nature.

If we go outside, we see the Sun (Fire Element). We see the Water Element. We see the trees, which represent the Wood Element, which our oxygen supply. We see the Metal Element, which is the Air Element in Chinese Medicine, but also the minerals that hold the soil together. We see our beautiful Earth Element, the earth that we stand on. The idea here is that we have all these elements within us. And when something is out of balance in the body, that's when we begin to experience symptoms.

I think one of the beauties of natural healing is that they're working with the innate ability of the human body to balance all those elements in order to restore healing. And we know that the body has an amazing, innate ability to heal.

We see this all the time. I always like to use the example of somebody who goes to the hospital and needs to have surgery. They can have the best surgeon in the world, but unless there is “somebody” there, somebody inside the human body that's really managing all the different healing mechanisms, immune system cells, leukocytes, all the innate and adaptive immune system of the body, like the inner conductor to facilitate the healing process, then even if the person has had the best surgeon in the world, that person is not going to heal. So we know that the human body has this amazing innate healing capacity. And many times, if we just leave the body alone without interfering, the body is very much able to heal itself.

So is it okay to say that ultimately, who does the healing? Your human cells, your natural ability of self-healing?

Exactly. So we always say that when healing happens, it's an inside job, no matter how great the therapist is. We can have amazing therapists, there are so many beautiful healers in the world who heal in different ways - sometimes through surgeries, sometimes through other interventions, sometimes through hands-on healing, manual therapy, energy-based therapy, all these beautiful healing systems. But unless the Inner Qi, the inner energy, the inner conductor of the person is alive and well, then it doesn't matter how great the healer is, the person will not heal. So healing always comes from the inside. We are capable of healing ourselves.

Since we're talking about nature and our innate abilities of self-healing, can you tell us your perspective about chemicals, cosmetics, and the consumption of artificial and industrial products in general?

It has been difficult for us to adjust in this generation to the fact that there are a lot of new chemicals. In order to get consumer goods to people, to deliver food to a large population, to deliver products, appliances, and all of the things that we depend on as part of modern living, we've created a lot of new chemicals in order to preserve and manufacture things and to expedite the process of the delivery of medicines, foods and other consumer goods to people.

Talking specifically about the United States, I believe that about 2,000 new chemicals are produced and approved every year, and some of these chemicals must go through a vetting process. Other people say it's not long enough, and we don't really understand the long-term effects of a lot of these chemicals that are occurring outside of the human body. Now we have a lot of different environmental illnesses, and one of the theories behind this that is becoming more or less accepted amongst certain medical circles is that some of these chemical contaminants are entering our bodies through our air, if there's polluted air, or through the water, if the water supplies are contaminated. And through other products, for example, our cleaning products.

So we love to think that we're going to be clean in our homes, and sometimes use a lot of heavy chemicals, but in many cases these products are deadly poisons. They have so many different chemical agents in them. And then people use them not understanding, thinking, “oh, they're coming in a pretty bottle, we're buying them at the supermarket, and it's to keep everything very clean in our house”. And they may be using them with bare hands, and chemicals are penetrating into their bodies through the skin, which is porous, as part of our bodies’ respiratory system actually.

Then we have the cosmetics industry, and as women we're very sensitive about this, especially as we get a little bit older and want to enhance our appearance, we want to use a few cosmetics, but we don't understand that sometimes they have lead, and all kinds of heavy metals in them as well. There are different chemicals being created in laboratories and put into these products. They have beautiful packaging, and good company names, and we like to think, “oh, they're safe”, but we're not sure.

They have found is that the average person has about 200 common toxic chemicals in them, and these are coming from air, water, using plastic products, preservatives in food, and from things that our skin is in contact with, including personal care products, makeup, cleaning products, et cetera. All these chemicals are here, and they really weren't here a generation ago, or two generations ago, so we don't really know what the effects are on the human body. We're not sure. We like to think our body can handle them, and it is true that the human body is a kind of miracle in its adaptive powers. And it's always trying to adapt to the circumstances that it finds itself in, including these new chemicals coming into the body.

But we may exceed our capacity to adapt, and one of the medical terms for that in Environmental Medicine is something called “body burden”. We say the person has a high body burden, meaning they're just being exposed to too many chemicals coming in from all sides.

I always recommend for people to try to take a natural approach to healing. Trying to drink clean water, trying to breathe clean air. With water supply we recommend water filters for people to make sure they’re filtering out some of the major toxins. Also, if people want to use cleaning supplies, makeup, personal care items, we’re always suggesting that you try to go organic whenever possible. The organic industry is expanding every day. And they're really perfecting as organic products. It's beautiful to see. We have so many great organic product options, so that's my recommendation.

I think about lifestyle tips, for example, using vinegar and baking soda instead of chemicals for your kitchen or your bathroom, or even homemade body butter with raw shea butter, would you recommend that?

All of those homemade products. This is what our grandmothers, our great-great-grandmothers used to do, and it worked very, very well back then. Whenever we can use those natural alternatives, especially homemade alternatives, it's great!

Speaking of lifestyle tips, can you teach us about the importance of ingesting vegetables and the temperature of food in Chinese Medicine, the internal temperature of the body, and why teas, soups and broths are so important?

We know that fresh food is very important and there are a lot of different theories about food and diets now, a lot of different dietary approaches. We know that you have eat right for our blood type; there's the Keto Diet, the Paleo Diet, Vegan, and many, many different dietary approaches. I don't recommend one particular diet for everyone, because everybody's a little bit different, and people digest food differently and have a different approach to food. People were raised with different fruits, for example, Brazil, one of my favorite countries to visit. I always say that Brazilians are able to digest raw food very well because one thing I've noticed, spending so much time in Brazil, especially in Rio, is that there's a fresh fruit stand on every corner.

So in the morning here, people are clustered at Starbucks, right? That's kind of our coffee culture. But in Brazil, people there are at the beautiful fruit stands, and usually they have one to 200 different kinds of fruits, fresh fruits, and vegetables that they're juicing in any kind of combination. I love going down there in the morning and just seeing everybody with their fresh fruit juice, you know, and they, you know, they have maracujá (passionfruit), and abacaxi (pineapple), and kale is mixed in there with mint, and all the different wonderful fruits and vegetables. I think it's a beautiful way to start the day.

So I always recommend that people eat at least one fresh fruit or vegetable every day, and hopefully one fresh fruit AND vegetable every day. We don't have time to go into all the amazing nutrients that are in these fresh fruits and vegetables, even in the skin, but they do incredible things for the human body. We need to have fresh food, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables in order to metabolize our nutrients, and in order to have a proper nutrient balance in our bodies.

One of the things we're always looking at in energetic medicine is the vitality of the food. It's not just about reading labels, and going to the supermarket, looking in the frozen food bin, or the canned food bin, and saying, “Oh, there's 10% vitamin C in here”, because canned and frozen foods don't have the same vitality, the same quality that a fresh fruit and vegetable has. They’re not broken down the same way in the body. So we're always recommending, please try to eat fresh.

One of my heroes, Ann Fonfa, who runs a beautiful conference every year called “The Annie Appleseed Conference”, which is all about holistic cancer and cancer prevention always says: the one thing that you can do for yourself every day to prevent cancer is to eat one fresh fruit and one fresh vegetable a day. It can be cooked, it can be raw, it should be organic. And that goes a long way to creating a really healthy internal balance within the body, which helps to fight off cancer cells.

And you mentioned the temperature of food. We always talk about this in Chinese Medicine, and we look at the fact that if you take your temperature, it's around 98 degrees Fahrenheit. That means the internal temperature of the body is a little bit higher than that, it's about a hundred degrees Fahrenheit inside of our body. So that's warm. If we think about a hundred degrees Fahrenheit and you go outside in South Florida, that's super hot.

The point is that our body likes to be warm. It likes to be hot inside, and it does prefer warm foods. It's fine to have a raw vegetable every day, and juice is fine, but in part the Brazilians grew up with a raw food background, and so they actually have the enzymes produced by the pancreas that are necessary in order to digest raw fruits and vegetables. Many times, people who were not raised that way have a little bit of a challenge if they eat too much raw. So we can give them some stomach aches and some other symptoms.

So we know we have a 100 degrees inside. We know the body loves warm food. I always say the body loves warm, mushy food. In Chinese Medicine, if somebody is weak, or they're not digesting their food well, oftentimes we recommend rice congee. So that's one of the secrets of ancient China. So it's a kind of rice soup where the rice cooks for a long time. And you can put vegetables in there, you can put herbs, you could even put chicken and different things, and everything is very broken down. This means the soup is highly absorbable to the body. And it's warm, so when it gets down there the stomach says, “Ah, thank you!”

It's kind of a little “spa” for the body - an “internal spa”. Janet is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, and a BodyTalk Instructor, so we're just so privileged to have her here talking about these wonderful things! So how can people educate themselves more about a healthy natural lifestyle, and do you suggest courses like BodyTalk Access and San Baio to people who are not Energy Medicine Practitioners, but who wish to have a healthy lifestyle and provide a broader range of healthy options for their families?

Yes. We always believe that people should have some kind of “health empowerment” for themselves. It’s very important, specifically for mothers with children, if we look at children growing up, all the different stresses and things that can happen on a daily basis. I treat a lot of children, and even little kids are very stressed out these days. They go to school, and the teachers are trying to keep order, and there's a lot of homework, and there’s sports, and a full schedule. Children are trying to maintain their own personal life and their own interests while keeping up with school and all the different demands. So I think that it's very important for mothers to be able to address childhood stress, and it's very easy to do.

That's one of the reasons why we recommend the BodyTalk Access class. It’s is a six-hour course always recommended for mothers because when your child is sick, you shouldn't have to run in to see me all the time. Although of course I looked to see them, it should be something that the mothers are really empowered to do at home.

What we say about BodyTalk Access is that probably 60% of anything that could go wrong with a family on a daily basis could be covered by doing BodyTalk Access three times a week. We're talking about a 10-minute treatment, three times a week, that can be done on a child, on oneself, or on any family member. That would mean that any stress that the child or their family member was encountering during that time period, if they ate some that’s upsetting their stomach a little bit, if they felt like they were coming down with a cold or any kind of flu symptoms - all of these things can be addressed so easily in a 10-minute treatment.

So we really recommend at the very minimum that a family has the tool of self-balancing Energy Medicine, which will help to enhance the health of the whole family - and to reduce doctor visits.

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I'm so grateful for Dr. Janet Galipo taking the time to talk to us about these powerful subjects!

Take advantage of the amazing topics we've discussed, ask your questions, share what you think about the interview in the comments area, check out the links where you can find Dr. Janet Galipo, and we'll see you soon!

Love always,

Paola.

P.S. To get to know Dr. Janet Galipo better, go to:

janetgalipo.com

2behealthyinc.com