What People Need is Validation
with Gloria Gilbère, N.D., PhD., D.A.Hom
| Students and practitioners of natural health know that there are increasingly more people in the world who haven’t felt good in years. For many, the decline in overall health is so gradual that it is hard to pinpoint a precise time or condition that precipitated their downhill spiral. Eventually many of us simply forget what it’s like to feel good.
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CCNH dual doctoral graduate Gloria Gilbère helps people remember, repair, and reconnect.
On her weekly Internet radio show Gilbère (pronounced Jill bear) invites listeners to e–mail her questions to healthdetective@gloriagilbere.com. Gilbère answers questions about why listeners are suddenly allergic to a certain area in their homes or workplaces, why they can’t tolerate foods they once loved, why sleeping in their beds suddenly causes insomnia instead of rejuvenation, or the supreme irony of why companion animals now bring distress rather than comfort.
Many who seek natural alternatives have been baffled and
bewildered by a sudden dramatic loss of health. A growing number of autoimmune disorders, from arthritis to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, can be addressed environmentally — within the body and in its surroundings.
Unfortunately, Gilbère knows what it is like to seek such basic answers and be treated badly. “We need to be validated. When someone is not well, they need to be in a safe setting that allows them to tell their story and investigate the history leading up to their condition, without judgment.” Gilbère teaches at conferences, natural health expos, medical venues, and within the general community. An author of five books, a newspaper columnist, and a health journalist with a voluminous Web site, she is a natural health consultant whose writings are now being translated into Spanish — in which she is fluent.
Endorsed with introductions or “forewords” written by
medical doctors and a variety of health professionals, including a chiropractor, Gilbère’s books are an informative blend of scientific statistics, research, and clinical experience with the “kitchen table wisdom” of a gourmet cook who eagerly shares her discoveries of healthy, tasty, and innovative alternatives to the all–too–sad standard American diet (S.A.D.).
Gilbère recently visited her alma mater to share her complex
story of personal healing as an inservice and to co–create a series of innovative presentations that bring her knowledge and enthusiasm for natural health to both experts and the general public. Holistic Times is honored to introduce Gilbère and her hardearned wisdom.
HT: By your own example, the working world can be fraught with conditions that chip away at our health and vitality. Let’s start by exploring the fact that one’s first–chosen line of work doesn’t always work out in the long run.
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GG: I began my career in dentistry, where it soon became clear that people voluntarily put substances into their mouth that were health–deleting — from chlorinated water to toxic cleaners and dental materials, and, of course, the unhealthy, unsafe foods we choose.
But my own exit from the dental profession was different. When I developed carpal tunnel syndrome I shifted my interest to ergonomics, realizing how many workplaces can become hazardous to the musculoskeletal system — as are rainy days, stairways, improper
office body mechanics, carrying heavy books, and wearing non–supportive shoes!
A sudden life–threatening injury led me to realize that we are often oblivious to the ways our daily habits can morph into calamities of their own. I fell face forward onto
concrete one day and had multiple fractures. After a week in intensive care with blood clots that became the condition known as pulmonary emboli, a systemic infection, and a multitude of medications, I was released with what started a nightmarish odyssey of invisible
disorders.
From this invasion that weakened my body’s defenses, I developed so many symptoms, reacting to most “routine” things in the environment, that after awhile even the members of my medical team became dismissive, uninterested in helping me, even acting as though they didn’t believe my level of distress by suggesting it was nothing an antidepressant medication couldn’t help!
HT: It’s understandable that you
would finally have to slip into seclusion to work through all
the confusing clues to address such pervasive problems.
You became allergic to all fragrances, reactive to just
about every type of food and all the materials of modern
life — from synthetic cloth to household cleaners and
personal care products.
GG: This was a hellish existence,
as you can imagine. The lowest levels of toxicity, something
that I tolerated one day, would be intolerable the next
day. When the body suddenly loses its ability to neutralize
chemicals and the liver is so overburdened it can no longer
protect us, allergic reactions occur — in my case, it was
anaphylaxis (swelling of the throat).
It took months for me to discover that the onset can be
triggered from a single major exposure, as in pesticide
poisoning; from long–term exposure to low levels of
synthetic chemicals, as in food preservatives and additives;
from sick buildings, mold, off–gassing from computers,
copiers, cleaning products, carpets, and building supplies;
as a side effect of prescription drugs (especially medications
for pain and inflammation) that are used with serious
illness or trauma, as in my case.
HT: As you’ve said, when this
happens our “toxic cup runneth over.” When the body can no longer neutralize
toxins, that one last exposure is what does us in!
And this you discovered even amidst the repeated shock of
“testing within the normal limits” with various lab
procedures that just did not begin to read the true state of
your liver and other organs of detoxification.
GG: That’s right and unfortunately,
this happens all the time. As I became my own health detective,
I saw a real need for advocacy. If we are going to
address the removal of environmental toxins all around
us and refuse to voluntarily allow them to seep into our
internal environment — our airways, bloodstream, and
skin — it requires a vigilant commitment on many levels.
The illnesses I’ve worked through are gifts that allow
me to vividly demonstrate the meaning of health. Human
beings need to feel that their concerns are validated. When
a person with a “mysterious” ailment or complication does
not feel validated, they may become depressed and eventually
consider their condition hopeless.
I was the exception. I became angry at conventional attitudes
and was determined to turn the lemons I was handed
into lemonade — and then share it with all who had
“invisible illnesses” whose disorders were not validated.
Many things in the environment are nipping away at
our health. The good news, in so many cases, is that
once we know what they are, together we’ll discover how
to eliminate them and repair the damage. It’s just a matter
of entering an agreement to collaborate deeply with the
client, valuing their unique experience of health as a way
for the practitioner to learn, and for the client to restore
health.
HT: Your first book, I Was Poisoned by My Body…I have a gut feeling you could be, too! investigates a messy
subject whose symptoms range from debilitating headaches,
skin disruptions, loss of hair, acute multiple allergies,
sensitivity to weather, and unrelenting soft and connective
tissue pain.
Your book says that compromised digestion and autointoxication can result
from a chronic overgrowth of unfriendly bacteria in the
intestines. Long–term use of synthetic antibiotics can
weaken the intestinal wall, until its membranes are as
porous as cheesecloth — poisoning us from within.
The name for this malady is instructive in itself. It’s
called…
GG: Leaky gut syndrome. When
the natural process of elimination becomes impaired, all other systems suffer. One that’s particularly invisible, so to speak, is the lymphatic system.
Four times larger than the blood system, lymphatic function provides the means for each individual cell to get rid of waste. Although lymph handles only cell wastes, when
the blood is also dumping waste toxins from the intestinal
tract into the lymph system via the liver, the lymph
becomes overworked and its filtering/neutralizing function
is decreased.
This buildup of toxic lymph fluid has been known to
contribute to the inflammation and pain in soft and
connective tissue disorders as in fibromyalgia and myofascial
pain syndromes.
Overwhelmed with toxins our organs can’t handle, we literally
begin to self–destruct.
HT: And thus begins what others
have called MCS — multiple chemical sensitivities?
GG: I prefer a different term that
I’ve adopted in my teachings, MARS. Multiple allergic
response syndrome addresses it all, not just chemicals. This
is not to imply that chemical allergens are not the smoking
gun of allergic reactions; only that in order to reverse their
effects the body’s detoxification pathways must be
cleansed and supported. Now the body is so confused that it
identifies just about all forms of exposures as enemies.
More and more people are developing severe allergies
because of living in a toxic world. These allergies are
known as chemically induced immune system disorders, and
a fast spreading phenomenon associated with chemical
hypersensitivity.
Research by the California Department of Health estimates
that up to 34 percent of Americans report symptoms
of chemical sensitivity. Of this number, up to 80 percent
also have chronic fatigue syndrome; 65 percent have
fibromyalgia, and more than 85 percent have digestive and
immune disorders.
HT: What’s the first step that
anyone can take in reclaiming our right to live in non–toxic surroundings?
GG: We as parents, grandparents,
and citizens have a responsibility to educate and bring
forth positive change for our generation and for those that
follow.
Many people are so “stuck” in the way things have always
been done that their logical ability to think seems to gradually just “rust away.” Nature’s plan is that all of us will eventually “wear–out,”
but we certainly don’t have to rust–out.
HT: We’ll end on a happier note,
involving how to bring more natural non–toxic materials
into our homes, schools, and offices.
On your Web site, one of your columns addresses the
health benefits of cultivating an indoor garden of ferns,
windowsill herb gardens, trees, and all that’s green. We
know for sure that the healing effects of plants are both
physical and psychological.
GG: Oh, yes. Plants supply so
many human needs — through their use as food, medicines, and energy. Plants
are the lungs of the earth. They produce the oxygen
that makes life possible, add precious moisture to
the atmosphere, and filter out toxins. Indoor plants
can perform these essential functions with the same efficiency
as a rainforest in our biosphere.
Plants work by cleaning the air and neutralizing pollution.
They can significantly reduce pollutants such as formaldehyde
in problem areas such as a bedroom or kitchen, in
schools, or wherever synthetic building materials are used
that out–gas a number of toxins. That said, we must be
cautious not to allow mold to form on the soil; if so, we’re
adding to the problem.
Just as important as adding oxygen and neutralizing
toxic materials within the environment is to learn and
implement materials such as furnishings, paints, and
finishes that are non–toxic.
For more information: www.gloriagilbere.com.
| Cruising with Gloria Gilbère
Some people call it educational travel. Others see it as a
healing vacation. During Gilbère’s second–annual educational adventure, Fall Foliage Cruise from New York to Nova Scotia, attendees spent eight days and seven nights on a restorative getaway to “rejuvenate from the inside out” amid nature’s explosion of fall colors.
So, even her cruise–class adventures themselves incorporate the 80/20 principle of having a fun and healthy life — by maintaining an impeccable non–toxic lifestyle and surroundings for at least 80 percent of the time!
Cruisin’ through life, by land or by sea, Gilbère’s information sharing, learning, and the serious business of healthy living leaves room for nature’s best medicine — relaxation, validation, and laughter. (In some of her programs, cruisin’ with Gilbère can earn CEU credit for participants such as nurses.)
This traveling teacher shows you how to regenerate while aging, with grace, energy, and a healthy glow from the inside–out; how to calm down chronic pain and even avoid it; how to address fibromyalgia, arthritis, heart diseases, and inflammatory disorders with natural approaches; how to create a non–toxic home and office. She also educates about which personal care products are safe and toxin–free and which foods to eat and which to avoid, liberally seasoned with new ideas for easy recipes with delicious foods that do not “inflame” inflammatory processes.
Participants will receive a memento of the cruise: an autographed copy of Gilbère’s Pain/Inflammation Matters. |
Mary Grace McCord
