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Summer Heart Wellness

The longest day of the year is the summer solstice and the beginning of summer. It heralds a time of giving energy, taking action and making outward movement - all moving within heat and dryness. The summer is the season of growth, maturation, abundance, fullness. It is the high point of growing, exercise, being out in nature, recreation, and taking in sunlight. Movement reaches its peak. Movement that is essential for all manifestation, growth, and maturation. The peaking of nourishing growth during this season correlates with increased motion in energy.

Summer - Fire Energy

Fire is the energy that characterizes the summer and is the energy that governs the heart and small intestine. Other dynamics in the body are related to this fire energy and they function to protect the heart and to regulate the blood flow, heat, and nourishment throughout the body and the maintenance of proper temperature and warmth.

Dynamically the heart is seen as having the ability to rule, to understand and see clearly, and to serve compassionately. The small intestine functions to receive, digest, and assimilate nourishment. It sorts out and extracts the nourishment from what we ingest. It separates what works in our bodies from what does not work.

Fire energy gives light and warmth and its function in the body is to maintain heat and give warmth to others. It generates vitality, enthusiasm, and energy. The direction associated with the fire element is south, the color red, the taste is bitter which is traditionally thought to strengthen digestion, and the emotions are joy, sadness, and laughter. The heart's dominant time of the day is 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.. The sense organ associated with the heart is the tongue and fire gives its energy to the function of speech. The dominant energy of summer is creativity, intuition, and action that carries out new ideas, new ventures, and change.

Summer Organ Associations

In the summer the heart is one of the most active organs and as the regulator of the blood circulation it is the organ to give attention to now. The heart is a muscular four chambered pump which moves the blood as it carries oxygen and other nutrients to the rest of the body. It is regulated by an intrinsic electrical system which keeps the beat steady causing a contraction of the heart muscle through an electrical discharge. The heart is very sensitive to feedback mechanisms associated with our brain and muscle oxygen needs which are relayed to the heart through the nervous system. The rate and rhythm of the heart are also determined by our breathing and our mental and emotional states.

The tongue, the sense organ associated with the heart, is thought to give a clue to the state of the energy dynamic of fire in the body. The tongue should be moist and pink. If it is red it is thought that there could be an excess of energy that would lead to an inability to slow down and relax. If the tongue is pale it may indicate a weakness associated with anemia. Anemia is a reduction of circulating red blood cells which lessens the capacity to carry oxygen and nutrients to all of the cells of the body. Anemia is associated with symptoms of lethargy, slowness in activity and thought, and coldness, especially in the hands and feet.

The facial complexion color and body color, especially the fingertips and fingernails are an indicator of heart and circulatory functions. Swelling in the ankles and shinbone areas may indicate sluggish circulation, excess salt intake, fluid overload or dehydration.

Summer Energy Relationships

Too much fire can lead to heat and inflammation and too little fire can lead to loss of power to act. Fire energy is thought to give sexual energy and life and creative potential. The liver and gall bladder give energy to the heart and small intestine which in turn energize the spleen and stomach. If the liver and gall bladder are weak they can not give enough energy to the heart and small intestine. If the heart and small intestine are weak they may draw too much energy from the liver and gall bladder and this will lead to weakening the liver and gall bladder. If the heart and small intestine are congested or have too much energy this may cause the liver and gall bladder to become congested.

Summer Diet

In the summer our diet should keep us cool and light. A diet of raw fruits and vegetables will contribute to our feeling lighter, and keep our energy stronger. Fruits are the most wet and cooling foods followed by vegetables. In the summer eat lots of fresh fruits and juices, multicolored salads and vegetables, some seeds, nuts and grains and fewer dairy products and meats. Fruits are good to have in the morning, early afternoon, and nighttime. Vegetables can be eaten in the latter part of the day.

Summer is not the time to overburden the liver because if an organ is unbalanced or over-stressed in its season the difficulty may be expressed in the following season. Avoid too many fried foods, processed and chemical foods, and drugs, especially alcohol, or too much caffeine as these may overtax an already stressed liver.

Good breakfast foods include: fruit, fruit juice, green tea, yogurt, nuts, raisins, dry cereal, or cooked oats, wheat or multi-grain cereal, sunflowers, whole grain bread, nut butters.

Bitter foods nourish the summer fire element. If the fire element is too strong or weak there may be an aversion or attraction to fire foods. Bitter fire foods include: some green leafy vegetables like endive, dandelion, escarole and watercress, most lettuce, tea.

Those who are full of energy, have red complexions, are very busy, love to talk and socialize and find it hard to slow down and relax, may have too much fire energy and would benefit from a cooling diet with lots of fruits and vegetables and juices and water. Cucumbers and citrus fruits are especially good.

For those who are weak in fire a more warming and cooked food diet with whole grains may be helpful. Buckwheat and millet are good heaters and spices like cayenne, ginger or curry are good.

Diet and the Small Intestines

A properly functioning small intestine is essential for receiving nourishment form food. A poorly functioning small intestines leads to poor blood formation. A good food combination to help cleanse, tone and increase the assimilation of the small intestine is equal parts of brown rice, lentils, and sunflower seeds. Cook and eat 1-2 cups a day for two weeks to improve body heat.

The Heart and Health

Heart disease is a condition of Western civilization in industrialized nations. It is the leading cause of death in the United States and kills nearly one million Americans a year.

Men are usually most associated with heart disease, but women have statistically surpassed them. Heart disease now kills more women than men. Every year a half a million women die of heart disease. The death toll from heart attacks for women is about 1,000 a day or 370,000 a year. In comparision, breast cancer kills about 40,000 women a year - older American women die from heart disease eight times more often than from breast cancer.

A healthy heart is dependent upon many different factors. Any problem with the heart can be addressed at many levels simultaneously and the further you go in identifying all of the areas that may be a stress the more extensive and pervasive the healing can be. Without treating all of the problem areas and without getting to the root cause or the heart of the problem true healing does not occur. If the root cause is left untreated then a new problem may arise , the old problem may reoccur or persist, and treatment will be more difficult, expensive, long lasting, complicated, invasive and produce greater negative side effects.

Coronary artery blockages lead to reduced blood flow to the heart and to chest pain and heart attacks. When the lining of a coronary artery is damaged blockages will form around the damaged area. High blood cholesterol levels, excessive dietary cholesterol and saturated fat (independent of blood cholesterol levels), high blood pressure, nicotine all cause damage to the lining of coronary arteries. The body tries to repair this damage by forming coverings over it. This covering is made of cholesterol, collagen and other materials. When these damages to the lining are chronic and repetitive these coverings will pile up one on top of the other and lead to a blockage.

Cholesterol plays an important role in heart health or heart disease. Not only does it provide the building blocks for the blockages but it also can actually injure the lining of the arteries. A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that half of all adult Americans have cholesterol levels high enough to require treatment.

Exercise and the Heart

In one long term study it was found that those who exercised moderately had one-third fewer deaths from all causes including heart disease than those who were sedentary. Moderate exercise was defined as at least 30 minutes a day of light or moderate intensity activities such as walking, gardening, or home repairs. Mortality rates of those with high levels of exercise were not significantly different from those with moderate levels of exercise.

Moderate exercise seems to be enough to make you healthy - only 30 minutes of walking or similar activities once a day or an hour of walking three times a week. According to the research those who walk 30 minutes a day live longer without having to do more vigorous exercise. The primary reduction of heart disease is in moving from extremely low levels of fitness to the next higher level of exercise. Moderate exercise is enough to provide almost all of the health and longevity benefits without most of the risks of more intense exercise. In Dean Ornish's program for reversing heart disease walking was chosen as the preferred from of exercise since walking provides most of the health benefits along with the lowest risk of injury or sudden cardiac death. If you choose to exercise more, do it because you enjoy exercising.

Emotional Stress and Heart Disease

Atherosclerotic coronary arteries tend to be hyper-responsive to stress. The lining of normal coronary arteries produces a substance called endothelium-derived relaxation factor (EDRF) that dilates the coronary arteries allowing more blood to flow to the heart. When the lining of the coronary arteries is damaged by atherosclerosis much less EDRF is produced so the arteries tend to constrict and reduce coronary blood flow. The more blocked with plaque an artery is the less EDRF is produced so the more likely the artery will go into spasm at the site of the coronary artery blockage. Smoking also decreases the production of EDRF .

In a series of studies with cynomolgus monkeys, who are very similar to people in how they develop coronary artery blockages and who have a complex social structure, it was found that the dominant, highly aggressive and competitive monkeys in a chronically stressed, socially disrupted unstable group had developed coronary artery blockages over twice as severe as the dominant monkeys in the unstressed group. These dominant, stressed monkeys also had twice as much blockages as the monkeys in the subordinate groups who did not fight to achieve or maintain social status. These differences in coronary artery blockages occurred even though all groups were fed a high fat, high cholesterol typical American diet and the blood pressure and cholesterol levels were comparable in all groups.

In these studies with the monkeys it was also found that subordinate female monkeys developed almost as much coronary atherosclerosis as the dominant male monkeys. Almost half of the subordinate female monkeys developed menstrual abnormalities and most had low estrogen levels from the chronic stress.

Monkeys who engaged in friendly, positive behaviors such as grooming or passive body contact had lower heart rates than dominant male monkeys who spent significantly more time alone. Female monkeys who were isolated in individual cages had twice the atherosclerosis as those who were allowed to live together with other monkeys. It appears that social isolation is a major cause of emotional stress and in turn heart disease.

One study with humans found that workers who face high psychological demands without having much control over day to day decisions had three times the risk of having high blood pressure. All of these chronically stressed workers had thickened or enlarged hearts.

Heart disease seems to be related to excess. Too much fat, cholesterol, stress, cigarettes. When we change our lifestyle and remove the excess the body can begin to heal itself very quickly.

Natural Knowing and the Heart

Natural knowing is thought to be related to the heart. Dr. Paul Pearsall is a recent proponent for the idea that the heart is not only the major energy center for the body but also has its own intelligence that is superior to the brain. Its cells are believed to hold memories that influence every cell in our bodies and also every cell in the bodies of those close to us and even those far away. He believes that it is possible to for any person to become more sensitive to the code of cellular memories stored within the heart and within other's hearts and even the cellular memories of our ancestors. Dr. Pearsall believes that the key to picking up the heart's coded signal is to know that the brain is not the sole center of intelligence and learning to access the intelligence of the heart.

The heart is the most powerful generator of electromagnetic energy in the body. Its millions of cells pulsate in unison in its central location in our body. It is thought that the heart is the organ that constantly pulsates info-energy memories from, between, and to all other organs and cells. Because of the heart's code and the cellular memories with which it deals, every cell in our body becomes a representation of it and holds some form of its memory.

By using a system called Cardiac Synchronized Energy Patterns it is possible to detect various types of energy associated with the heart. Through such measurements it has been found that it appears that a person's own heart's energy transmits energy to their brain, that one person's heart seems to exchange energy with another person's brain, and that there seems to be an exchange of energy between two peoples' hearts. Heart energies seem to resonate with like vibrational frequencies.

Non-local or telesomatic connections are also documented and heart cells seem to have the ability to jump the natural barriers of time and space. If several throbbing heart cells are place together in a dish without any physical contact between them and with no synapse connecting them they will fall into rhythmic unison unique to that cellular group yet distinct from the rhythm of each individual cell.

The heart may hold all of our encoded info-energy and may be able to affect and be affect by the hearts of others even outside of time and space barriers. The heart may define the essential character of our whole existence.

Life Inventory

Part of living a heart healthy life is to know your heart risk factors and keep them in the desirable range. If you don’t know any of these, contact your doctor or me to arrange for the appropriate tests. If your numbers are outside of the desirable range, contact your doctor to learn what medical steps may be appropriate. Contact me to learn what diet and other lifestyle steps can help.

• Total cholesterol
  • Optimal – between 180 and 220
  • Desirable - less than 200
  • Borderline high – 201- 239
  • High – more than 240
• LDL cholesterol
  • Optimal – under 100
  • Desirable – less than 130
  • Borderline high – 130-159
  • High – more than 160
• HDL cholesterol
  • Ultraprotective – more than 90
  • Very protective – more than 70
  • Protective – more than 50
  • Moderate risk – 36-49
  • High risk – less than 35
• Triglycerides
  • Optimal – under 100
  • Normal – less than 160
  • Borderline high – more than 160
  • High risk – more than 200
  • Dangerously high risk – 1,000
• Total cholesterol to HDL ratio
  • No higher than 4.2
• LDL to HDL ratio
  • No higher than 2.5
• Blood pressure
  • Longevity predictor – 100 / 60
  • Normal – less than 130/80
  • Borderline – 140/90
  • High – more than 150/95

• Wellness Advantage Programs: Integral: Mood and Energy Management Programs Enhanced: Nutritional Wellness Programs Basic: Condition Programs For Reconnection to Your Natural Rhythms: Seasonal Wellness Programs To Reveal Underlying Functional Imbalances: Functional Health Tests Looking for Supplement or Herbal Recommendations? Just want some herbs? Evenstar Herbs Catalog

  Homocysteine
  • Optimal – under 7 micro mol/L
  • Standard – up to 15 micro mol/L
• Iron
  • Optimal – under 100 mg/dl
  • Standard – up to 180 mg/dl
• C-reactive protein
  • Optimal – under 2 mg/L
  • Standard – up to 4.9 mg/dl
• Fibrogen
  • Optimal – under 300 mg/dl
  • Standard – up to 460 mg/dlÝ LP (a) –
  • Low risk – below 20 mg/dl
  • Moderate risk – 20-40 mg/dl
  • Extremely high risk – levels above 40 mg/dl
• CoQ10
  • Desirable range 0.80 - 1.50
• Vitamin E
  • Desirable range 15.0- 50.0
• RBC Magnesium
  • Deserible range of 40-70 ppm packed cells

E-mail or call me at 434-263-4996 or to set up your personalized Seasonal Wellness Program.

Back to Seasonal Programs Introduction

Winter Physical and Emotional Replenishment
  Spring Cleansing
    Summer Heart Wellness
    Fall Respiratory Wellness

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