Harmony Health and Longevity

So I was thinking about why I like sweet tasting foods no matter how much I know how bad they are for my body.  The answer came to me during my morning meditation.

All you have to do is go back about 150 years or so.  When food was grown locally and spoiled quickly our bodies developed a way to tell if a food was ripe or spoiled.  The flavor sweet meant that the food was safe and good to feed your family.  This was a very effective survival mechanism and served us well for as long as you beleive we have been on this planet.

UNTIL, food processing and manufacturing came into place.  These “food” manufacturers are not in the least bit interested in the nutritional quality of their concoctions.  Thier concerns include a long shelve life and sellability.  One of things these businesses found is that humans love the flavor sweet, but natural sweet things had terribly short shelf life.  To solve this problem they recruited the chemical industry to create sweet tasting chemicals to add to their inert or lifeless products.

Now, we are all faced with a new challenge to the survival of ourselves and our family and our taste buds are no longer an effective method to judge our food.  We must take a more evolved approach to eating.  Overide the genetic signal that sweet means good food, and use other senses and education to figure out if what you are about to put in your mouth is in fact food.  Artificial sweeteners send the signal to your brain that you just ate something nutrition, but soon the hollow status shows up in lack of nutrients to the cells of the body and the hunger center is re-stimulated.  This  creates a vicious circle as your health declines while you repeated consume toxic, good tasting chemicals in place of fresh wholesome foods.

Have a great holiday!

DrD 

The following is written by Dr. Mercola

Every year, more than 2 million Americans suffer from serious adverse drug reactions. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these reactions cause about 100,000 deaths per year, making prescription drugs the fourth-leading cause of death in the country.

Compare this to the death toll from illegal drugs — which is about 10,000 per year — and you begin to see the magnitude of the problem.

However, if you dig a little deeper you find that these reported reactions only skim the surface of what’s really going on. You see, drug side effects are not always recognized as such. Doctors often attribute them to other causes, people downplay them or do not report them altogether. And when you add in other medical errors, unnecessary procedures, and surgery-related mishaps, well the modern health care system actually becomes the LEADING cause of death in the United States. Consider, for instance, that:

• The recorded error rate of ICU’s is like the post office losing more than 16,000 pieces of mail every hour of every day, or banks deducting 32,000 checks from the wrong bank account every hour, 24/7.

• The recorded medical errors and deaths equate to six jumbo jets falling out of the sky each day, 365 days a year.

• Since 2001, a recorded 490,000 people have died from properly prescribed drugs in the United States, while 2,996 people died on U.S. soil from terrorism, all in the 9/11 attacks; prescription drugs are therefore 16,400 percent more dangerous than terrorism. If deaths from over-the-counter drugs are also included, then drug consumption leaps to being 32,000 percent more dangerous than terrorism. And conventional medicine viewed as a whole is 104,700 percent deadlier than terrorism

Your Body is Not a Petri Dish

How can it be that clinically tested, FDA-approved drugs that are supposed to “cure” diseases are ending up hurting, and in some cases killing, so many people?

Because even under the BEST circumstances, such as a drug going through unbiased, stringent, long-term testing, when it is released into an uncontrolled environment (your body), anything can happen.

You may be taking another drug that interacts badly with it. Or perhaps a food you eat causes an unforeseen reaction. There are countless possibilities, and only a tiny fraction has been “tested for” in a lab.

And that is under the best circumstances. Often, studies are biased, results are skewed, and drugs are put on a fast-track to be approved before anyone really knows whether they’re safe. In a sense, it is all a gamble, and there are no 100-percent safe drugs.

This is why just about every time you open a newspaper or skim the news online, there is a new headline about another drug disaster: an unforeseen side effect that has harmed innocent people.

It’s YOUR Body

The take-home message from all of this is to remember that, ultimately, it’s your body, and your decision what to put in it. If your doctor suggests you take a drug, do some research before you take it, because once you do, it could be too late.

Make sure you are aware of the potential side effects of the drug, read the package insert, and remember that even if it lists a side effect as rare, it can still happen to you.

Many, many drugs are vastly over-prescribed and unnecessary. So make sure that you make drugs a last option, not a first choice. For example, all of the following conditions can be treated or prevented with LIFESTYLE CHANGES, yet if you go to a typical doctor, you will likely be prescribed a potentially dangerous drug instead:

• Diabetes 
• Heart disease 
• High blood pressure 
• High cholesterol
• Insomnia    

I realize that it takes a massive shift in thinking to realize that your body can heal itself, and that often drugs only hinder the process. But I believe that you, and society as a whole, are ready for it.

But here’s the thing: don’t wait until you’re sick or slowing down to make healthy changes. Do them NOW. Become an active participant in your health, and leave the horrific drug side effects behind for good.

In a simple word you would just as soon have DDT in your food as Splenda, because sucralose is a chlorocarbon. The chlorocarbons have long been famous for causing organ, genetic, and reproductive damage. It should be no surprise, therefore, that the testing of sucralose, even at less than the level demanded by FDA rules, reveals that it has been shown to cause up to 40% shrinkage of the thymus: A gland that is the very foundation of our immune system. It also causes swelling of the liver and kidneys, and CALCIFICATION of the kidney.

According to the US Surgeon General’s report, regular physical activity:

• Improves your chances of living longer and living healthier
• Protects against heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol
• Helps protects against certain cancers, including colon and breast cancer
• Helps prevent or control type 2 diabetes  
• Helps prevent arthritis and may help relieve pain and stiffness in people with this condition
• Helps prevent the insidious loss of bone known as osteoporosis
• Reduces the risk of falling among older adults
• Relieves symptoms of depression and anxiety and improves mood

Exercise is about making your body’s well being a priority in your life.  The hardest part is finding the time right?  Well, time is a funny thing, there is always enough of it for the truely important stuff.  So if you find yourself saying “I just didn’t have time to do that.”  Please be honest with your self and restate this as “That just wasn’t important enough for me to spend the time doing it.”  This can be difficult at first, but being honest with yourself will take you several steps towards a happier healthier life.

Commit to 30 minutes each day to stretching and strengtheing your body.  This time a A+ priority, and nothing can replace it.  In a few short weeks you will begin to reep the rewards of a vibrant body and the the joyous life that comes with it.

Happy Easter everyone

Quit eating refined carbs or artificial sweeteners!!!

First what is Diabetes, Type 1 or 2? It is simply your blood sugar levels are too high.

Type 1 is when you have it from birth implying your body never correctly regulated your blood sugar levels.

Type 2 is when you develop high blood sugar levels implying you once had control over your blood sugar levels but no longer do.

So what controls your blood sugar levels?

Like many things in your body, there is a hormonal balancing act going on.  The pancreas secretes insulin to lower the blood sugar, and the liver and adrenals secrete other hormones to increase the blood sugar.  This balance is easily maintained with a healthy diet and exercise.

What are refined carbs?

Refined carbohydrates include anything that ends in “ose.” Sucrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose, dextrose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup and sugar all count as sugar. An easy way to remember this is anything that rhymes with “gross.”

This does not include sugar naturally found in fruits and other such sources. If nature put it there, it is usually fine. And again, how it affects you will depend more on you individually than the type of fruit itself. Remember, we are talking about refined and processed chemicals that used to be whole plants. 

Refined carbohydrates also come in the form of grains and flours. Most pasta, bread, flour, and other grain-based products are refined, almost to the point of sugar, and to the point where the refined carbohydrates respond in the body the same way sugar does.

The average American eats over 300 pounds of sugars each year. Most of this comes from all the sugar that is added to the processed foods most people eat.  Have you tried to find foods without high fructose corn syrup lately?  A recent report stated that 95% of the daily calories of the typical American is from highly refined processed foods, is it any wonder so many Americans are getting type 2 diabetes at younger and younger ages?

So cut back then stop eating these refined carbs.

If you find this extremely difficult, you are most likely suffering from a chronic Candidia infection I will cover this in depth in another post.

Some things that might help:

A new study shows that 60 percent of patients with type 2 diabetes have vitamin D deficiency. A lack of vitamin D can affect bone health, as well as having other adverse effects.

The study’s authors recommended widespread screening for vitamin D deficiency among diabetics, or routine vitamin D supplementation.

So what is the best form of Vitamin D? The sun.

The sun actually is necessary for your body to make Vitamin D. Which means direct sunlight on your skin (no toxic sunblock or clothes, no glass between you and the sun, etc.) You also want sunlight in your eyes that did not have to go through contacts, glasses or sunglasses. This also helps stimulate health and healing in the body.

Magnesium is a very good way to reduce your risk of diabetes. In fact, one of the diagnostic criteria for diabetes is a low level of magnesium.  Magnesium is essential for over 300 functions in your body, including the production and use of insulin. A Harvard study that followed 127,000 people for 18 years found that those who consumed the most magnesium were the least likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. And a number of studies suggest that seven out of 10 people do not get enough of this mineral.

The best source of magnesium is food - including leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and avocados. If you don’t eat a lot of these foods, it would be wise to supplement your diet with a multi-mineral that is absorb-able and can be used by your body.

Magnesium vs. Magnesium Oxide Magnesium, a mineral that the majority of Americans are deficient in. Magnesium is necessary for over 300 biochemical reactions in the body and is critical for the prevention of heart disease and diabetes. So what is the best form of Magnesium?

Magnesium and Magnesium oxide do not have the same effect. Magnesium oxide is a more economical form of magnesium that is widely used by supplement manufacturers. In his health report, Nutritional Supplements That Don’t Work, Bill Sardi writes: “Only 4% of magnesium oxide is absorbed. So a person taking 400 milligrams of magnesium oxide would effectively absorb only 16 milligrams.”

There is nothing unsafe about magnesium oxide - it is just difficult to get the recommended 400 mg per day of magnesium with it. (Some experts suggest the optimal intake is closer to 800 mg.) There are other forms of magnesium (citrate and glycinate) that are somewhat more absorbable. But the only way to tell how much magnesium you are really getting is to find out how much “elemental magnesium” is in the product. If it is not listed on the label, write or call the manufacturer and ask.

In addition to taking a magnesium supplement, consider filling up on the many excellent food sources of magnesium, including green vegetables, salmon, nuts, seeds, and beans.

Zinc is also another mineral that can greatly help people with Diabetes .

Cinamin is another herb that is very helpful. There have been many recent studies about this wonderful herbs ability to help your body regulate blood sugar levels.

Exercise is critical to keep blood sugar levels low

The reason is simple. Your muscles use your blood sugar for energy. So if you exercise your muscles will use some of the blood sugar and thereby lower your blood sugar levels. The hardest part about exercise is finding the time.  This is handled by scheduling at least four 1 hour sessions per week with yourself, write these appointments in your planner and put a big red Star by them because they are probably the most important appointments you have all week.  This is about investing into yourself each session ads to your both teh quality and quantity of your life.

Stay well, see you soon.

DrD