Holistic Herpes Newsletter Volume Three, Edition 2

Discounts and Price Increases

On July 16th I will be restructuring and increasing my prices. It will be my first price increase in four years. Between now and the 16th I will offering the following discounts on my current prices for those of you who receive my newsletter to celebrate the 10th anniversary of my online herpes practice:

60 minutes consultations which are normally 90 dollars will be 60 dollars

any of you who have not read my book before can receive an e-book for $4.95 instead of the usual $21.95

If you dont have my self-hypnosis cds and would like to you can get them for $25.00 instead of the usual $60.00

you can receive four months of my herpes immune strengthening formula and antiviral gel for $400 instead of the usual $580

and lastly if you are interested in getting my antiviral gel after the 16th the minimum quantity will be four months instead of two months and the price will also be increasing, if you order two months of gel before the 16th the price will be $80 instead of the usual $100, you can also order four months of gel for $150, instead of the usual $180

After the 16th of July prices for my remedies will be:

30 min follow up phone consultation $59 (currently $50)
60 min consultation $99 (currently $90)
self hypnosis cds $69 (currently $60)
bundle of book and self hypnosis tracks $89 (currently $75)
four months of antiviral gel- which will be the minimum order $260 (currently $180)
six months of antiviral gel $320
four months of immune formula and gel $599 (currently $580)
six months of immune formula and gel $699 (currently $680)

Top Ten reasons to use the antiviral gel daily 

helps prevent outbreaks and shedding

helps treat and prevent vulvodynia

protects against all eight herpes viruses, HPV and HIV

no one needs to know you are using it

is especially effective for making oral sex safer

is a masturbation aide

helps prevent you spreading herpes to other parts of the body from masturbation or inadvertent touching

helps prevent spreading of herpes to other parts of the body during oral sex

the only one made by a master herbalist, made by hand from whole seaweeds

helps prevent chicken pox and shingles

human herpes viruses 1, 2 , 3, 4, 6 and 8 have all been linked to various forms of cancer. Keeping your herpes viruses in check may help in cancer prevention down the road, and we don’t know what other diseases may be triggered or worsened by untreated herpes viruses

I got herpes in 1995

In ‘91 I remember being in an STD clinic with a friend, just becoming sexually active, reading a pamphlet about herpes and being horrified at the idea of blisters on genitals. Then I remember someone telling me that both my bosses had herpes when I was 23.  More horrified reaction. Then, I was 24 I got herpes. My boyfriend at the time passed it onto me. When I met him he told me he had it though not at first, and not before we had sex. He told me a little about what it is, what happens for him when an outbreak occurs, how he manages it and that I shouldn’t be at risk as long as we don’t have sex during an outbreak.  Then he got an outbreak and told me we would not be able to be sexually active for a while. I did a little research and I understood that when he has an outbreak he is contagious.  But I didn’t do much more research than that.  So after a few days he said the outbreak was “healed” we became sexually active again.  However, the outbreak was not healed. I learned later that to him “healed” meant that it didn’t hurt anymore.  The scab wasn’t totally gone.  I didn’t know. The skin where the blister was wasn’t back to normal. I was young, didn’t ask, didn’t know, didn’t think. A week or so later I had a horrific fever, my whole body ached for days. Then, I developed a blister on my labia.  I was devastated. I hated him.  I dove into research about what is happening to me.  I thought my sex life was over.  The shame was unbearable.  I blamed my boyfriend.  I thought, “If he had just known that we shouldn’t have had sex while healing is happening! Why didn’t he know this! I know it now after just having it one month! Why didn’t he tel me we must wait 2 weeks after the blister is gone and the skin is back to normal! This is why I got herpes! It is because of his ignorance!!” This was my thinking, I blamed him for a long while thinking he was the worst person on Earth I became a victim. My beliefs about why and how I got herpes were planted in the details I give above.

This is as far as I got with herpes for a long time.  What I mean is, I feel that herpes has a lot to teach me/us, but for a long time I didn’t listen and remained in the obsessive details of how I contracted it.  Later I started to ask, “why did I get herpes, what does herpes have to teach me, teach us?”. I firmly believe that if it wasn’t herpes that arrived to teach me, it would have been something else. Over the years my relationship with herpes has come to a much more peaceful place.   I definitely see herpes as a teacher.  And over the years I have gone in and out of understanding and forgetting what it has to teach me. I can be a victim or I can be present and learn.

Of the 18 years of having it, I have gone for over a year with no outbreaks, as well as struggling with having outbreaks every 3-4 months or so.  I would sort out my diet for a while, be outbreak free then forget and struggle again.  I would say that wherever I was at, outbreak or not, I always had shame around it.  I developed an eating disorder as I struggled with accepting myself.  Herpes was just part of it.  I was a professional dancer and my body was constantly working and fatigued.  But again, I would move in and out of wellness. If I had an outbreak it was time to clean up my diet. But I always had a hard time moving through the shame, void, loss.  When I got an outbreak I was pushed toward learning.  “Why is this so hard?”, I would say in my victimhood.   Then about 10 years ago I met a new friend.  At one point it came up that she has herpes.  I asked her what she does to control it.  She said, “Well for one thing I talk about when I need to and take the shame out of it… herpes herpes herpes herpes”.  She was really free around it.  I could see that she honoured her body.   She wasn’t competitive. She ate well, she took time.  She wasn’t reduced to having herpes. She sat there so rooted and grounded without shame repeating the word over and over again, I admired her deeply for just getting on with it.   She had an emotional intelligence around herpes that I had not seen before.  I chose to take on this way of thinking.  Herpes herpes herpes herpes. Whatever!

Then shortly after, someone recommended Christopher Scipio’s book Making Peace With Herpes.  Just the title gave me some relief.   I read it and yes the herbal remedies helped and the diet changes helped, but learning a kinder more loving relationship with myself and what herpes has to teach me was really was a strong healing force.  Herpes has taught me that my body really thrives when it has the resources to do whatever it needs.   This means little to no caffeine or other stimulants. Eating well and eating enough.  As an aside, my husband and I were recently gifted a cruise to Alaska.  This wouldn’t be my first choice of a vacation.  But we gratefully accepted.  One thing I learned was that my body works better when it has enough food.  Cruises are known for having as much food as you want to eat.  I woke up and ate a huge breakfast.  Far before I was hungry again I ate lunch, and then well before I was hungry I ate dinner. I had a calm mind and felt nourished.  This feeling lasted far beyond the vacation and I knew it had to do with the eating properly for 10 days straight.  I still have this habit of eating good sized meals and eating well before I am hungry.   Yes I know that America and perhaps Canada has a habit of overeating but this is not what I am talking about.  In my endeavour to pay attention to what herpes has to teach me I learned about what nourishment means.  For me, never being in place where my body must struggle is what gave me enormous insight on what nourishment actually means.  I learned that when the body is properly nourished it has the ability move through challenges by learning and listening.  Recently my father died rather unexpectedly.  I had been taking care of myself by eating well and enough for a few months before his death.  I know that being nourished on a physical level helped me to heal, open, and grieve.  During the process of being in the hospital, my dad’s passing and the aftermath of family dynamics, I did not get one single outbreak.  I feel that being properly nourished allows the mind and heart to open without so much resistance.

One thing that I feel I have the courage to take on now, is to be outbreak free.  Whenever I would have an outbreak, I would always be taken down to my knees.  “I see, I understand what has been happening in the past few months to cause this outbreak” I would say.   But then still another would happen maybe a year later or maybe 6 months or less.  Then recently I kept getting either an outbreak or raging symptoms every ovulation.  I had a consultation with Christopher, cleared up what was happening with my diet.  But, he also said one other thing that has stayed with me. “We’ve got to get you free of fear, you shouldn’t fear anything”, he said.   This was huge.

At this point I am working to remain outbreak free.  It is not the sole focus of my life, but being outbreak free has so far been a pleasant by-product of cultivating emotional, spiritual and physical health.

When I read the personal experiences of others who share in Christopher’s newsletter I am always interested to see what others do to maintain wellness.  I’d thought I’d share what I am doing to maintain health. Here it goes:  I eat a mostly paleo diet.  I eat very little grains and almost no bread.  I do drink milk. I do drink soy milk. I drink goat’s milk. All organic on those. I don’t cleanse.  I don’t eat late at night. I don’t really eat sweets. I drink nettle, oat straw and lemon balm infusion regularly (not tea you can look it up), I practice Medical Qigong regularly, and yoga.  Emotionally, I see thoughts that are focused around, “my dreams won’t happen, it’s never going to work”, weaken my body literally.  When I drift into this negative place I have a bunch of things I do to shift back into presence.  Being present, feeling and sensing my body gives me energy and is healing. Spiritually, I am working on and experiencing trust.  When I don’t trust that there is a benevolent force that exists around me/us I literally feel the stress that kicks in. I stay away from cynicism. I stay away from skepticism, although I am discerning and can spot a quack a light year away. I do see a clinical counsellor every now and then.  I feel that a good counsellor is invaluable.  But there are a lot of bad ones! Be discerning! I get acupuncture once a week. I have a few allies that are herbalists, acupuncturists, naturopaths, energy workers etc.  I go to one of them when I need support.  I have learned that there is much conflicting information out there. Many health practitioners disagree with each other, have conflicting information, for instance, some say soy is bad some say soy is good. Make your own decision.  Trust your body.

May you have the courage to be outbreak free.

The Future of Herpes

This is the 10th anniversary of my online herpes treatment and support clinic. I already knew a fair bit about treating and managing herpes holistically from the 9 years I spent treating herpes before opening the clinic- including five years of having a herpes clinic at the leading natural medicine institution in Western Canada, but you have all taught me so much more. When I started my online clinic my main goal was to provide safe and effective natural medicines for herpes to give people an alternative to the ineffective and sometimes dangerous miracle treatments dubiously promoted on the internet. I recently spent three weeks emailing every single person who has contacted me for help in the past eight years and I am so thrilled to hear of how well the majority of you are doing with managing the physical symptoms of the disease. Many of you are outbreak free and have been for some time.

Sadly, what I can’t help but notice is the negative effect the so-called stigma around herpes still has on too many of you. There are too many of you who are avoiding dating and having sex for fear of rejection and ridicule. There are too many of you in a secret closet afraid to reach out to friends and family for support. There are too many of you who have had your self esteem and confidence shaken by having herpes. And you all have it better than most because most of you have read my book “Making Peace with Herpes”, so you have heard my strong message about rejecting the so-called herpes stigma and pushing back against it whenever it rears its ugly head. Many of you have had the opportunity to have phone consultations with me and have received an even stronger and more personal message of support, so can you imagine what it’s like for the millions of people out there with herpes, some newly diagnosed, some only teenagers, some living in very conservative communities?

Part of being an elder is taking the responsibility to try and make things better not worse for the next generations. We all are benefitting right now from the courage and sacrifices of our elders.

Everyday there’s a new crop of people finding out they have herpes.

Who amongst us cares about the newly diagnosed ? What can we do to make things better for them? What can we do to make things better for ourselves?

One simple thing we can do, is climb out of the shame closet. Things only got better in our society for women and Black people and physically challenged people and gays and lesbians and transgender people when they became more vocal and pushed back against bigotry and ignorance.

Stigmas don’t recede on their own and its way past time for more to be done to challenge the so-called stigma around herpes.

I personally pledge to do more and I’m personally asking you all to step forward and help me. I will be launching a holistic herpes awareness campaign in September and October of this year  which I’ll be writing more about in my next newsletter. Please come and join me, everyone can help, even if you only have a few hours to contribute.

The Campaign will feature people sharing their herpes stories in writing, voice, video or through art making and pushing back against the negativity.

The themes will be:
“No need to suffer in silence”
“No need to suffer at all”
“Sunlight is the best medicine”

Please write me directly asap if you’d like to volunteer to help in any way.

The disease is mostly in our minds
The remedies are-
The truth
Forgiveness
Self-love

Thank you for your support and attention and I look forward to my next ten years providing holistic treatment and support to those with herpes. We are a herpes nation (whether we like it or not)
🙂
regards
Christopher R. Scipio
Herbalist
Holistic Viral Specialist

My Herpes Story

I received Christopher’s Book in 2007. I read it cover to cover. I made some lifestyle changes. I took supplements and made minor changes to my diet. These changes helped but did not stop outbreaks from occurring. In 2013 I decided that I was determined to find balance and live a healthy lifestyle. I had an initial consultation with Christopher. Change is difficult. Even when I usually know the healthy choice to make, I had continued since 2007 making unhealthy choices. Talking to Christopher helped me solidify my decision to change. He motivated me and I made the lifestyle changes that he outlined in his book as well as I started taking a remedy tea and using a antiviral gel. I still stumble. I still feel low sometimes. I still feel stressed or anxious at times. But I wont quit. I cant quit changing because the more I embrace a healthy lifestyle the better I feel. I strive to see the silver linings and the positive aspects of change not the restrictions. Every good choice I make today will create a better tomorrow. Changing my diet was not too difficult as I already am gluten free and I like to also cut out GMO’s, so my friends all know I am limited in my diet and they respect that. Following Christopher’s diet I have lost weight and feel healthier. I gave up caffeine and I now never have a problem falling asleep. I gave up smoking cigarettes and drugs. But with everything I give up I gain something else that is actually helping me get to where I want to be in life. My favourite part about my new lifestyle is my practice of yoga. I attend 3-4 classes a week and also practice at home with an audio of Wai-Lana. Yoga is my time to relax. It helps with realigning my spine and building muscles. I have lost weight and toned up. The best part of yoga is the Savasana; the relaxation pose, I at times will become so relaxed I enter a trance. Yoga is such an amazing practice and journey and I am so thankful that it is part of my life. I have made the choice to take care of myself something I didn’t do before and Christopher has given me the resources and methods to achieve balance, peace and a healthy, happy life.