Tisane – Tea with Sweet Zing

I’m sitting here with a whopper of a cold that came on very quickly and with a vengeance! While colds seem innocuous, they can take their toll if we don’t take care.  So while I take time off to care for myself, I thought I would share some of the things I do to naturally bolster my immune system.

My cup runneth over!  It’s noon and I’ve already had 3 cups of tea.  Throat coat when I got up, peach tisane with a tiny bit of honey added and Gypsy Cold Care tea with a slice of ginger added.  Of the three types of tea, I love my peach tisane! The flavor is herbal infusion of fruit, grains, leaves and roots that create wonderfully fragrant and flavorful tea.

Tisanes have been documented as far back as ancient Egypt and China.  The word tisane comes from a Greek word that means pearl barley, but tisanes today rarely use barley, most are flowers, fruit, leaves and herbs.  I drink a peach tisane that is almost all fruit: peach, cherry, apple, hibiscus and rose hips. It’s very high in vitamin c and other antioxidants and is 100% caffeine free.

The benefits of tisane depend on the ingredients added, but they are largely antioxidant rich, which is perfect for helping get over my cold.  Tisanes are also very good for the skin.  Lots antioxidants are wonderful for the skin as well as cleansing.  The flavor of a tisane can be brightened with honey.  Honey blends the fruit flavors and also takes out any tartness of the hibiscus.  For those Kama Sutra fans, a cup of tisane will help sweeten the skin, as well as nourish it.  Just as garlic finds it way to the pores and breath, so does the sweetness from a cup of tisane.

Tisane is also great for the dieter who wants to curb a sweet tooth. In training for the GW Parkway classic in April, I want to loose a few pounds so I’m using it like a dessert treat when I feel like something sweet.

On this cold grey winter day enjoy a cup of pure heaven!

Tisanes may be bought locally at:

Old Town tea and Spice on 215 S. Union Street

Tea and Spice Exchange 320 King St

Teavana in Tysons Corner

If you would like to try something elegant, try the skin smart tea selection from Tea Forte.

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Designer Yoga Classes ~ Are they of Benefit?

Everywhere you look these days, the signs say “YOGA.”  The business of yoga has become crowded with studios on every street in every town.  To me, that’s not a bad thing, but it’s hard for prospective students to know what studio fits their need and intention.

Studio owners are beginning to look for niche markets to help bolster their numbers; such as prenatal yoga classes, mommy and me classes, yoga for runners and yoga for specific health conditions.  Even hospitals are offering yoga as stress reduction for cardiac patients.

Recently, I saw a Mindfulness Based Diabetes Management class, with a focus on “diabetes yoga.”  Ugh.  I felt suckered! Is there such a thing as “diabetes yoga?”  I have lived with type 1 diabetes for 42 years and yoga has always been a physical workout, but more importantly, a relaxing way for me to tune into my body and enjoy the moment without it being focused on diabetes.

This begs the question, “Does yoga change for someone with diabetes?”  The real answer is no.  Classical hatha yoga is about the body, mind and spirit and a yoga practice will struggle if the 3 elements are not flowing together unconsciously.  A great pose isn’t accomplished through sheer strength, it is accomplished by quieting the mind, using the breath to help focus and move the body into a pose.  Just using one of those elements will cause the body to fail to reach it’s full capacity, or edge.

Teaching hatha yoga, students learn the eight limbs of yoga: yamas (restraint), Niyamas (observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawl of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyani (meditation) and Samadhi (absorption).  The details to the eight limbs are these: yamas, or restraint is about social values of non-violence, truth, appropriate behavior and non-possessiveness. Niyamas, or observances, bring focus to personal ethics, contentment, self -study and surrendering to a higher power. Pratyahara is referring to turning your attention inward and allowing no distraction of the mind to pull your attention away from the effort to be in the pose.

Someone with diabetes, or any chronic condition like diabetes, should not require a condition-specific yoga class.   Instead, they should look for a class suited to their experience with yoga.  When I started back to a regular yoga practice, 8 years ago, I took a fundamentals class.  Even though I was a seasoned yogi, it had been a while and I knew that I needed to reacquaint myself with the principles of yoga.  While I found some of it boring, I also found that I had forgotten some of the principles of yoga and by slowing myself down and revisiting the basics, I found a much more rewarding experience.

As for my diabetes and yoga, I found that I lost weight more easily and needed less insulin and personally, I felt more content.  It didn’t take a class dedicated to diabetes, it just took the effort to find the right class.

 

 

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New Years Resolution

I think New Years resolutions are just hype, because after a couple of months most people forget about them and return to old habits. But a new year deserves recognition, right?

So how do we begin to carve out a long-term goal at the start of a new year?  By setting a monthly goal, where every month can change.  Most New years aspiration about self, so why not love thy self in the moment.  If you handle it that way, suddenly, a new year resolution doesn’t seem as daunting.

Since October, I made a promise to a friend that we would run the GW Parkway classic 10 miler in April.  For Christmas, I bought myself a treadmill and set up a workout room in my house, so prepping for my goal is done and I have no excuses for not being able to finish 10 with ease!

Since my treadmill arrived, I’ve used it every other day, trying the options and programs, so that I’m comfortable that I won’t fly into a wall.  My running over the last year has been pretty inconsistent and it’s been about 4 years since I made it a regular routine of 4-6 times a week and also where I had a goal in mind.  So January is about finding a routine that works for my busy work life and also taking my time to build my base running fitness.

As part of my goal, I want to loose 10 lbs, which actually isn’t hard when I start running, but I have to make sure I’m taking in the right calories to match my output.  Working as a massage therapist 5 days a week, teaching classes, consulting for diabetes projects and adding my fitness schedule, I need to make sure that I eat very well to maintain my energy.  The holidays always hammer my otherwise healthy diet, so I like to start off the year with a simple healthy, but restricted diet.

For the month of January I’m going to cut back my coffee consumption, alternating green tea and coffee.  My meal choices will be more fish and chicken, lots of veggies, both fresh and cooked and low carb, about 60-80 grams per day. Despite cutting back on the coffee, I usually find my energy increases and I feel less agitated. Low carb also helps me digest food better. For me, it will be cutting down some foods I grab when stressed and adding foods that are leaner, or less concentrated. The theory of detoxing your body is a myth; unless you consume a lot of junk food, then eating a fresh, well balanced diet will feel like a detox for a couple of weeks.

For me, my diabetic body depends on constant attention and nurturing my healthy habits to maximize whatever is left of my immune system. With that said, my new year is starting off with reasonable goals for the next month.  Nothing overwhelming and nothing new, I’ve just added a little more focus for loving myself. Happy New Year!!

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The Proper Use of a Neti Pot

Many people suffer with sinus problems.  Symptoms include headaches, facial pain and chronic clogged nasal passages.  In response to the growing number of patients suffering chronic nasal issues ear, nose and throat docs are recommending sinus irrigation, or Neti pots.

A Neti pot looks like a small teapot that holds a warm saline solution and is poured into one nostril and the solutions flows through the sinus cavities and exits out the other nostril.  The saline solution helps to clear away crusting in the nasal passages and reduces the number of allergens sitting in the sinuses.

Yesterday, NPR alerted listeners to 2 deaths directly associated with Neti Pot use.  The culprit was not the Neti pot saline solution, but a brain eating amoeba found in tap water in Louisiana.  A similar issue developed this past summer when several children died after swimming in a pond.

If you plan on using a Neti pot remember that water should always be distilled or filtered and not directly out of the tap, regardless of where you live!

Here’s to clean air, clean water and the proper use of a Neti pot!

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Our Favorite Natural Cold Care Remedies

This fall Washingtonian’s Well+Being blog asked us for our favorite cold remedies.  We love sharing with expertise, but realize that editors need to focus the article.  I thought it might be to everyone’s advantage to share the full content that we shared with Washingtonian’s Well+Being:

Ann Bartlett, LMT

As a massage therapist, I have a routine for caring for a cold.  One thing I don’t do is get a massage! In the early part of having a cold a massage can exacerbate the symptoms, making you feel worse. Best is to get a massage toward the end of the cold. This also avoids spreading the cold to anyone else.

At home, I bundle up with socks, layers of clothes and settle in for reading and napping.  In addition, I make a large batch of matzo ball soup (you can use noodles instead) and I add a healthy dose of fresh cut ginger and let the ginger steep in the broth for several hours in a slow cooker. The anti inflammatory in ginger, called gingerols and shaogals, help reduce the pain of a sore throat and also help to kill rhinoviruses. I also will make gypsy cold care tea and add a slice of ginger to it.

 Njemile Jones, L.Ac

I have the good fortune to be a licensed practitioner of Chinese Medicine.   I spend my day sharing rich ancient healing traditions with many people our community.  I frequently see newly pregnant women who are cautiously reluctant to take over the counter cold remedies.  Fortunately Chinese Medicine offers many safe, easy to use, tasty remedies that are helpful for anyone to try, even kids.  If you’re in the early stages of a cold and have a scratchy, itchy throat, chills but not much fever, and a bit of neck stiffness, I often recommend Cinnamon Twig Tea or Gui Zhi Tang.  It has gently warming herbs like cinnamon and fresh ginger, along with licorice root, red dates, and a little bit of white peony root.  It’s warming nature helps you break a mild sweat to release the cold hovering just beneath the skin.  However, if you have a raw, sore throat, with a fever and headache, I always suggest a tea with cooling herbs like peppermint, or a congee — a type of soup — with green onion, black mushroom, jobs tears, mung beans and bamboo shoots to cool the body, and help break the fever.   Finally, there’s nothing like a 45 minute treatment that includes cupping of your shoulders and upper back, along with a few acupuncture needles gently placed on your forearms and lower legs, to help kick that cold out of your body quickly and efficiently.  Wishing you good health and abundant wellness this fall and winter season.

 Regan Franklin, yoga instructor

The Breath Shield

Got Yoga?  Take a deep breath!   Breath is the vehicle to our survival and during cold season, fighting the virus.  So are you alive and sick or are you riding the highway of life?  Breath, when used in the proper manner is a whole lot more than the automatic function that we all know it to be.  Breathing into the chest as opposed to the belly results in a more shallow breath, thereby depriving your body of the refreshments that it needs to keep on partying.  Basically, the shallow breathing results in less oxygen transfer to the blood and in turn less nutrients are delivered to the tissues that need them thereby, amongst other disorders, making your body’s immune system work less efficiently.

Oh and a bit of chamomile tea always soothes and revs up the nadis (energy channels) to give you an herbal jumpstart, energetically and physically (and sometimes mentally).  Enjoy life’s ride and breathe with unity, serenity and awareness.

From Dr. Chris Johnson, ND

The fastest way to end a “cold” or flu is with an individualized single homeopathic remedy. With the correct remedy, the illness should be gone or almost gone within 24 hours. However, this takes knowledge of the different pictures of the remedies, as their use is very specific and individualized. There are books to teach people the basics of using homeopathy for minor, acute conditions such as colds – these are often available at health food stores.

Other than that, the easiest approach is to use elderberry syrup. Elderberry has very strong direct anti-viral properties and also mobilizes virus-fighting elements of the immune system. In clinical trials, it has been shown to reduce duration of flu and flu-like illness by an average of 4 days while also greatly reducing intensity of symptoms. Similar effects can be expected with “colds” (which are usually viral). Best effects are achieved when taken within 48 hours, and preferably 24 hours, of onset of symptoms. Look for products called Sambucol or Sambucus and follow directions listed on the product.

Christopher Johnson, ND is a naturopathic doctor specializing in the use of homeopathy and nutrition to address a broad range of conditions in both the adult and pediatric populations. He is owner of Thrive Naturopathic, a holistic health practice located in Alexandria, Virginia. He speaks and teaches widely on homeopathy and holistic health care. Visit his website at: www.ThriveNaturopathic.com

From Dr. Joe Henderson, DC

I have to share the irony of writing a short blog on natural cold remedies while suffering from a head cold, but maybe that’s perfect timing.  As a chiropractor, I don’t promise that getting adjusted will cure cancer, fix digestion, or wipe out the common cold, or reverse the aging process (all things I’ve heard other chiropractors say).  What I will say is that optimal functioning of the immune system depends on a host of variables: nutrition, exercise, effective stress release (as a society, we absorb more and more stress into our bodies now than in past generations and often don’t make the time to de-stress ourselves.  Proper function of the spine, the joints of the extremities, and healthy tone of the muscular system also plays a role, a direct neurological role.  Studies have mapped a direct neurological connection between joint capsules, intervertebral discs, and muscle spindles (kind of like a control center in a muscle) to the thymus gland, a major player in the immune system.

The best analogy I can make of the body is to compare it to a computer.  The brain is the hard drive, and the rest of the body is both the monitor and the keyboard.  Right now (interestingly, right after the warranty was up) the letters a, b and n aren’t working on the keyboard of my laptop.  It makes it virtually impossible for me to do a simple thing like answer emails without copying and pasting those letters from some other document.  Your body and your immune system function the same way.  If “optimal” doesn’t go in, “optimal” doesn’t come out.

I wasn’t able to get myself adjusted when I felt this head cold coming on, but I can honestly say I’ve gotten rid of all cold symptoms at other times in the past by making sure I got my spine (especially the thoracic or mid-section) opened up the day I felt it coming on.

We welcome any comments on additional natural remedies!

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Do Massage Therapists Have Rights?

As a massage therapist, it is our responsibility to protect the emotional well being of our clients when they are in the sanctuary of our treatment room.  We are taught to create a peaceful place that calm feelings and offer a safe haven.  People’s vulnerabilities often surface in a massage room and the last thing any professional wants to do is put either themselves, or their client at risk.  Nothing could have taught me the importance of these boundaries, then 2 weekends that I spent working with incest survivors during a weekend retreat 20 years ago.

My job, at the retreat, was to watch for signs of physical pain and to work with participants after their intensive session.  The scars for these women were physical and emotional.  One woman said to me, “Please don’t touch my feet.  My parents used to shackle my feet to the floor, spread eagle and naked.” I could see the physical scars across her ankles to confirm her story, and  I could not have been more conscious of my own actions during her treatment.

In those days, I was so eager to explore the body-mind connection and workshops offered the best psycho-social understanding. While challenging, these events yielded some of the best training in learning boundaries for myself and more importantly for my clients.

However as a massage therapist, the landscape has changed in the last few years. Over the past 7 years, I’ve encountered two clients who have disregarded my boundaries and my emotional well being. Both had one commonality: they had a dual relationship with me, meaning friend and also massage therapist. As the most recent situation closes, I decided that I needed to understand “how I got here.”

I did not embrace the predator notion at all, but after hearing the consensus of 3 psychology professionals, it is hard for me ignore the fact that they mostly likely had intentions and manipulated the conversation to get what they wanted, putting my professional boundaries in an awkward position.  It didn’t help when a friend and colleague urged me to read this article.  In my case, the two were not like Sandusky, or even close to that kind of manipulation, but they were people who sparked an interest and closeness with me and I was not quick enough to see the game and nip it in the bud.

As a result of these experiences, I met with a local vice cop, who regulates massage.  I asked if as massage therapists have rights.  The answer was a mind blow!  I have a ton of rights and options that I never knew, nor received training in school. Do you know your rights for where your business is located?

This information needs to be a basic part of massage school curriculum and therein lays my outlet for turning this ugly experience into something positive. Stay tuned for more to come on the subject!

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A Massage Therapist’s Self Care

I just came home from my ritual monthly spa day!  For me, spa days are a necessity for the long hours that I spend working.  Without self-care routines, my body starts to talk to me saying “sore shoulders, cranky neck, tired eyes, tired low back.”  All of these are symptoms of stress.

As a society, Americans have learned to reduce the pain of stress through both positive and negative routines.  Some good routines are regular exercise, eating well, meditation, massage, tai chi, qi gong, reiki and all forms of energy healing. The negatives routines are the ones that suppress or mask pain.  Alcohol is one method many people chose to reduce stress and it’s easy to see why.  It’s highly social and accepted, it dulls most pain, and it heightens the senses.  But after the euphoria of alcohol dies away, the stress can come back and feel more acute and alcohol elicits depression as well.

The whole earthy crunchy tactic is stabilizing for many, but may not be appealing to all! I have many routines that I pick and chose. I love pedicures, facials, body scrubs and whatever is close by will often be sufficient when looking to destress. Locally, I run to Sugarhouseday Spa, I highly recommend the loving hands of Audrey Anne, but be aware, she is very different from the type of massage that I give!

I love a great Ayurvedic treatment called Abhyanga.  An Abhyanga treatment is a two-part treatment, first part is dry and the second part is herbal oil.  The dry rub is prepared according to your skin and body type, the sesame oil also has herbs added. Using a silk glove the therapist will rub the dry mixture on the skin helping stimulate the lymphatic system and it also increases the circulation helping the skin to detox. Then the therapist wipes off the dry rub and begins to soothe muscles into deep relaxation.

I tried this treatment when I visited Kripalu.  I left the massage, headed down to the sauna and let what was left of the oil and dry rub sink deeply into my body.  It was a great recovery from 3 days of intense snowshoeing in Vermont! Rest and recovery come in many different forms and varying treatment of stress is a wonderful self-exploration!

Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences!

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The History and Science Behind Infant Massage

Our infant massage classes start Monday November 7th  and run for 5 weeks.  the next session will start in January! Please email the site for further information. Body in Balance Center has been teaching infant massage for more than 5 years and we fully participate in only offering InfantMassage USA certified teachers!

The History Behind Infant Massage

Our sense of touch is the first sense that we develop in utero, it starts at seven weeks and skin is the first organ to be completed. A piece of skin the size of a quarter contains 3 million cells, 100 to 340 sweat glands, 50 nerve endings, three feet of blood vessels and the number of sensory fibers, from the skin entering the spinal cord by posterior root, is well over half a million.

Swaddling babies against the skin dates back to hunter-gather, some 10,000 years ago. Mothers would sling babies on their backs and keep them close to their skin while they gathered food.  Ancient civilization believed that one way to promote health and prevent disease was by rubbing, stroking and kneading the body.  It was not a luxury item, it was necessary to sustain wellbeing for everyone.

Christianity placed more importance on the spiritual self and to deny the cravings of the physical self and that philosophy held fast until the renaissance in the 1500s.  The renaissance brought back an interest in the body and health of the physical structure, when physicians began to integrate massage into their practices.  So touch, and its importance, is old and well practiced, even if it is unfamiliar to you.

At the turn of the century in this country, parents were encouraged to “master his schedules”.  The theory was  that parents should leave the room when the baby would cry and feed the baby by the clock.  Rushing to a baby when it cried spoiled the child.   Allowing the mother and baby to find a mutual routine was out.

What benefits does massage have for everyone:

-  Relaxation

-  Relief

-  Interaction

-  Stimulation

Stimulation:

Skin sensitivity is the earliest developed function.  Studies of mammals who are lovingly stroked grow up as touchable, friendly and fearless.  They are fatter fluffier, more bright eyed and have easy, happy dispositions. In addition, gentle handling actually improves stability of the nervous system and resistance to disease.

So what does infant massage do for humans?

It speeds myelination of the brain/nervous system.  The myelin sheath is a fatty covering around each nerve like insulation around an electrical wire.  It protects the nervous system and speeds transmission of impulses from the brain to the body.  Myelination is not complete at birth, stimulation speeds this process.

In premmies, mssage has been shown to stimulate the respiratory, circulatory, and gastrointestinal system and it enhances neurological development.  For babies who are in distress it gives them a calming effect and sense of relaxation.  It offers gassy bellies and constipated babies stimulus for better elimination.

Stress is the way intelligence grows!  Stress hormones stimulate the production of neuronal pathways.  When we release ACTH, which is a stress hormone, the body and brain go into “alert” and massive numbers of new connecting links are established for learning and memory.  Before birth the baby’s body is flooded with ACTH in preparation for the stress of birth and the necessity of massive learning afterward.

Tactile contact, eye contact and heartbeat sounds are three important signals the baby receives from its mother after birth, which says to the baby’s brain “It’s okay, now you can stop producing ACTH.  It’s time to open up and experience.”  This is a perfectly timed and developed sequence in nature.

But in many hospital settings this action does not have the ability to happen.  Modern medicine has created a great service, it saves many lives and provides a physically healthy start, but the maternal bond gets turned down or off when babies have extended stays in hospitals.  Our basic bonding is sometimes lost in the beginning.

What does Infant massage do for parent/ baby connection:

Bonding is a unique relationship between two people that is specific and endures through time”.  Researchers sited cuddling, kissing and prolonged gazing as indicators of the developing bond.  Bonding is a process not an event.  It is a matter of reciprocal interaction and each partner has a role in facilitating healthy bonding, be it partners in life or parents to their children.  It is a dance that builds trust and intimacy.

Babies bond through eye contact and touch bringing them physically closer to you.  Through skin to skin contact, nursing touching babies help release hormones in the mother which  help stimulates postpartum healing, helps builds the mother’s milk supply and allows the mother to relax and respond appropriately to her baby.   A baby’s touch releases the mother’s cuddle hormone, known as Oxytocin, which allows her to bond non verbally with her baby.

But what about Dad?  Does he have the bonding quality like mom? Indeed!  A father’s touch is equally important, but different from a mother’s bonding experience, and a father’s touch is a vital part of babies introduction to the world!

Touch relaxation involves teaching parents how their baby can relax and release tension.  In utero, each infant has a complete and individual repertoire of body movements that synchronize with speech or sound.  When a baby is born those sounds are given emotional overlays through interaction with a caregiver.  It is a conditional response, which is learned through the repetition of consistent messaging communicated to the baby with the parents’ voice, eye contact and touch.  Once a baby is born, touch will be a primary sense for establishing what kind of person they will become.

Physically what you will see from massage:

-       Calm parent and calm baby

-       Better sleep

-       Increases speed of myelination

-       Helps bridge parent/child relationship

-       Quiet alert state longer

-       Improves weight gain

-       Feeling love and attachment

-       Develops emotional security

-       Parent and caregivers become better advocate for baby

-       As you understand your baby’s physical needs you will become a better advocate for them at the Pediatricians.

-       Role of Dad improving communication and understanding of baby

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Regan’s Thoughts on Yoga

Regan Franklin is starting to teach two classes at BIBC For more info, please check the calendar!

So, who does yoga serve? At the right time, yoga serves anyone.  It is important to go into your practice with an intention.  What that intention may be is irrelevant to the rest of the world, however, your journey towards it will make all of the difference in the world.  If you are totally new to yoga, this may sound like a bunch of hullabaloo but I promise that one day it will make sense if you are committed to cultivating a yoga practice.  I like to think of it as “the one thing” that Jack Palance refers to throughout the movie City Slickers.  If you are not a movie buff, don’t attach too much to this explanation and when you come to my class, I will explain in greater detail if you ask me to do so.  In one respect, on a more personally grounded level, yoga is about feeling great and using that feeling to propel you through your day, week, month, year, etc. with the knowledge that you have the power to influence your health – mental and physical.  Just like an education, yoga is what you make of it.  There is no wrong in yoga – just different.  Allow yourself to listen to your body and what it is telling you.  In doing so, your intentions will just arrive at your mat and help guide you on your yogic excursion.

There is something for everyone when it comes to following a yoga practice.  KISS – “keep it simple stupid.”  This was the mantra that I followed when I was in sales.  Strangely enough, it applies in yoga too.  Take it slowly, know your intent when coming to the mat, and focus on what’s inside of you – it is as simple as that .  Whether it be strength, flexibility, peace of mind, toning, memory enhancement, time for self-care, learning to be present or breathe correctly, or a myriad of endless intentions, make it your own and make it count.  Learn the postures correctly and be mindful of each pose and how your body is reacting to it.  Slow down, take your time and be compassionate with yourself.  It is in this way that yoga will serve you.  I look forward to guiding you in YOUR practice and helping you to make it personal on the mat and when you bring it to the rest of the world.

The bemoo yoga Plan of Action (POA):  Work it, feel it, taste it, live it.  Unity.  Awareness. Serenity.  And always remember that the best way to achieve unity, awareness and serenity is to be present, after all, life is a gift.

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