The Tree of Life

As we leave the heat of summer behind us and are windswept into the midst of autumn with its rich reds and burnished golds, we must embrace the natural urge to go into hibernation, with shorter days and longer nights, we curl up by the fire, with a warm drink and the family around us.

But like the leaves that fall from their branches as the tree prepares its body for winter, we must also acknowledge that we too will begin to rust and rot, and like the tree our body must too begin to purify and purge itself of toxins and dying cells, moving them out of the body, away from the tissues, like the leaves fall away from the tree.

Our lymphatic system is our bodies cleansing system; the way in which our body sheds its dying leaves. This is a natural cycle of life- cells are born, they live and carry out their duty, then they decay and although some parts are recycled other parts are eliminated. The damaged or aged cells are no longer good conduits of the life energy, and if left they will stagnate and degenerative disease and cancer can take hold. The elimination system for the damaged cells (the lymphatic system) is essential for this process, so we must pay special attention to its efficiency and keep it in tip top condition.

This kind of damage also accelerates the aging process, directly causing wrinkles and age spots and placing a heavy load on the immune system. Cells become damaged by free radical attack. Enzyme activity is altered and the extracellular matrix around the cells becomes compromised. Water soluble fragments of this matrix get into the blood stream and alter the blood clotting cascade. When this happens we find that blood does not coagulate perfectly. This is one mechanism that can alter a “normal” blood pattern.

Using a high powered microscope to look at Dry Blood for patient education has a unique ability to observe the extent of free radical activity taking place in the body. This procedure is called the ‘Dry Blood Oxidative Stress Test’ and is very simply a drop of blood from the finger tip placed on a glass slide in a series of layers. Blood is an interesting indicator of health and where free radicals are concerned, their activity impacts blood morphology.

Reading the layers of Dry Blood is like reading an ink blot, and can reveal a lot about the overall state of someone’s health. Blood from a healthy person will be uniform in coagulation and tightly connected. In an individual with health problems and excess of free radical activity, the Dry Blood layer profile will be discontinuous, showing puddles of white polymerized protein, showing Oxidative Stress. The more sick the patient is from free radicals or oxidative stress, the more disconnected the dried layer of blood will be.

The image on the left is a healthy Dry Blood test. Notice how it is interconnecting with black connecting lines – that is the fibrin network made by fibrinogen, one of the proteins in the blood. These are visually comparable to a cobweb. The red areas in between are the red blood cells. Coloring in a healthy sample should appear evenly bright red. Loss of color is a representation of the level of acidosis in the body tissues.

The image to the right is from a person who has cancer. Notice how the blood fails to coagulate completely and has many white areas. These are the polymerized proteins puddles and they reflect oxidative stress. They present the degradation of the body’s extracellular matrix from the free radical activity. Since free radical activity has been implicated in nearly all disease processes, this test can be used as a quick reference to gauge the severity and extent of someone’s health problems. The test reveals the level of irritation/inflammation or a degenerative condition, especially how the lymphatic system functions.

The Dry Blood analysis tests how well the lymphatic system is working. It can analyse our internal mechanism for regeneration and renewal. Is your body equipped to deal with the change in seasons, or has its ability to regenerate and renew become stagnant, allowing your cells to rot on the boughs of your tree? Come and talk to us and find out how your internal purification is working so that you can fully embrace the change in season as the body prepares itself to rest, to hibernate, before the new shoots begin to emerge with abundant energy in the spring.