Category Archives: Preconditions for healing

A Simple, Inexpensive Trick to Cure a Cold

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Each year Americans catch more than one billion colds, making the cold virus the most common infectious disease in the United States.

It accounts for more school absences and missed work than any other illness, and it’s the number one reason people visit their physicians — even though most physicians have little to offer in the form of treatment.

It’s a widespread misconception that colds are caused by bacteria. Colds are actually triggered by a virus, which means if your physician prescribes you an antibiotic, it will be absolutely useless.

More on this shortly, but before I delve into simple prevention and treatment strategies it’s important you know how colds are contracted in the first place.

How Do You Catch a Cold?

The most common way cold viruses are spread is not from being around coughing or sneezing, or walking barefoot in the rain, but rather from hand-to-hand contact. For instance, someone with a cold blows their nose then shakes your hand or touches surfaces that you also touch.

Cold viruses can live on pens, computer keyboards, coffee mugs and other objects for hours, so it’s easy to come into contact with such viruses during daily life.

However, the key to remember is that just being exposed to a cold virus does not have to mean that you’ll catch a cold. If your immune system is operating at its peak, it should actually be quite easy for you to fend off the virus without ever getting sick.

If your immune system is impaired, on the other hand, it’s akin to having an open-door policy for viruses; they’ll easily take hold in your body. So the simple and short answer is, you catch a cold due to impairment in your immune system. There are many ways this can result, but the more common contributing factors are:

  1. Eating too much sugar and too many grains
  2. Not getting enough rest
  3. Using insufficient strategies to address emotional stressors in your life
  4. Vitamin D deficiency, as discussed below
  5. Any combination of the above

Vitamin D Deficiency: Another Reason You May “Catch” a Cold

It’s estimated that the average U.S. adult typically has two to four colds each year, while children may have up to 12! One reason for the widespread prevalence may be that vitamin D deficiency is incredibly common in the United States, especially during the winter months when cold (and flu) viruses are at their peak.

Research has confirmed that “catching” colds and flu may actually be a symptom of an underlying vitamin D deficiency. Less than optimal vitamin D levels will significantly impair your immune response and make you far more susceptible to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections.

In the largest and most nationally representative study of its kind to date, involving about 19,000 Americans, people with the lowest vitamin D levels reported having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu – and the risk was even greater for those with chronic respiratory disorders like asthma.

At least five additional studies also show an inverse association between lower respiratory tract infections and vitamin D levels, and you can read about them in detail here. But the research is very clear, the higher your vitamin D level, the lower your risk of contracting colds, flu, and other respiratory tract infections.

It’s not surprising, then, that the average American gets so many colds each year, as current guidelines for optimal intake and normal vitamin D levels are far too low — and since most people do not get adequate sun exposure on a daily basis (which is what produces vitamin D in your skin) many are deficient. I strongly believe you could avoid colds and influenza entirely by maintaining your vitamin D level in the optimal range.

How Long Do Colds Last … and How Can You Make Your Cold Go Away Faster?

Most uncomplicated colds last between eight and nine days, but about 25 percent last two weeks, and 5-10 percent last three weeks. Even the most stubborn colds will typically resolve in a few weeks’ time; this is actually one of the ways you can distinguish a cold from allergies.

A cold will last, at most, a few weeks, but allergy symptoms can last all season.

How quickly you bounce back is typically defined by you and your collective lifestyle habits — and this does not mean popping over-the-counter cough and cold remedies or fever reducers. In fact, as long as your temperature remains below 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius) there is no need to lower it.

Cold viruses do not reproduce at higher body temperatures, so a slight fever should help you get rid of the virus quicker and help you to feel better much sooner.

You should avoid taking over-the-counter pain-relief medications as well, as a study showed that people who take aspirin and Tylenol (acetaminophen) suppress their body’s ability to produce antibodies to destroy the cold virus. Aspirin has even been linked to lung complications including pulmonary edema, an abnormal build up of fluid in your lungs, when taken in excess.

You should only use these medications when absolutely necessary, such as if you have a temperature greater than 105 degrees F (40.5 degrees C), severe muscle aches or weakness.

Hydrogen Peroxide: A Simple Trick to Beat a Cold

I don’t advise over-the-counter medications, but one simple treatment you can try that is surprisingly effective against upper respiratory infections is hydrogen peroxide.

Many patients at my Natural Health Center have had remarkable results in curing colds and flu within 12 to 14 hours when administering a few drops of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into each ear. You will hear some bubbling, which is completely normal, and possibly feel a slight stinging sensation.

Wait until the bubbling and stinging subside (usually 5 to 10 minutes), then drain onto a tissue and repeat with the other ear. A bottle of hydrogen peroxide in 3 percent solution is available at any drug store for a couple of dollars or less. It is simply amazing how many people respond to this simple, inexpensive treatment.

So What Else Can You do to Recover From a Cold, Quicker … and Prevent One in the First Place?

As I said above, the number one way to conquer a cold (or flu) is vitamin D. Vitamin D is an amazingly effective antimicrobial agent, producing 200 to 300 different antimicrobial peptides in your body that kill bacteria, viruses and fungi. So optimizing your levels will not only help send a cold virus packing … it will help ward off cold viruses in the first place.

The best source for vitamin D is direct sun exposure. But for many of us, this just isn’t practical during the winter. The next best option to sunlight is the use of a safe indoor tanning device. If neither natural nor artificial sunlight is an option, then using oral vitamin D3 supplements is your best bet.

Based on the latest research, many experts now agree you need about 35 IU’s of vitamin D per pound of body weight. This recommendation also includes children, the elderly and pregnant women.

However, keep in mind that vitamin D requirements are highly individual, as your vitamin D status is dependent on numerous factors, such as the color of your skin, your location, and how much sunshine you’re exposed to on a regular basis. So, although these recommendations may put you closer to the ballpark of what most people likely need, it is simply impossible to make a blanket recommendation that will cover everyone’s needs.

The only way to determine your optimal dose is to get your blood tested. Ideally, you’ll want to maintain a vitamin D level of 50-65 ng/ml year-round.

For an in-depth explanation of everything you need to know before you get tested, please read my latest updates in Test Values and Treatment for Vitamin D Deficiency.

Dietary Strategies to Kick a Cold

If you feel yourself coming down with a cold or flu, this is NOT the time to be eating ANY sugar, artificial sweeteners or processed foods. Sugar is particularly damaging to your immune system — which needs to be ramped up, not suppressed, in order to combat an emerging infection.

So if you are fighting a cold, you’ll want to avoid all sugar like the plague, and this includes sugar in the form of fruit juice and even grains (which break down as sugar in your body).

Ideally, you must address nutrition, sleep, exercise and stress issues the moment you first feel yourself getting a bug. This is when immune-enhancing strategies will be most effective.

So when you’re coming down with a cold, it’s time to address ALL of the contributing factors immediately, which includes tweaking your diet in favor of foods that will strengthen your immune response. Good choices include:

  • Raw, grass-fed organic milk, and/or high-quality whey protein
  • Fermented foods such as raw kefir, kimchee, miso, pickles, sauerkraut, etc, which are rich in probiotics, or good bacteria. Scientific research shows that 80 percent of your immune system resides inside your digestive tract, so eating probiotic-rich foods, or taking a high-quality probiotic, will help support your immune system health.
  • Raw, organic eggs from free-ranging, preferably local, chickens
  • Grass-fed beef
  • Coconuts and coconut oil
  • Animal-based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil
  • Locally grown fruits and vegetables, appropriate for your nutritional type
  • Mushrooms, especially Reishi, Shiitake, and Maitake, which contain beta glucans (which have immune-enhancing properties)
  • Garlic, a potent antimicrobial that kills bacteria, viruses and fungi. Ideally this should be in fresh form, eaten raw and crushed with a spoon just before eating.
  • Herbs and spices with high ORAC scores: Turmeric, oregano, cinnamon, cloves (for more on ORAC, visit www.oracvalues.com)
  • Make sure you are drinking plenty of fresh, pure water. Water is essential for the optimal function of every system in your body and will help with nose stuffiness and loosening secretions. You should drink enough water so that your urine is a light, pale yellow.

And what about the old wives’ tale of chicken soup for your cold?

Chicken soup can help reduce your symptoms. Chicken contains a natural amino acid called cysteine, which can thin the mucus in your lungs and make it less sticky so you can expel it more easily.

Processed, canned soups won’t work as well as the homemade version, however.

For best results, make up a fresh batch yourself (or ask a friend or family member to do so) and make the soup hot and spicy with plenty of pepper. The spices will trigger a sudden release of watery fluids in your mouth, throat, and lungs, which will help thin down the respiratory mucus so it’s easier to cough up and expel.

Three Cold-Busting Lifestyle Strategies

Vitamin D, check! Hydrogen peroxide, check! Healthy diet, check! We’ve covered several of the primary “weapons” you should have in your cold-fighting arsenal, but there are others, too.

  1. High-Quality Sleep, and Plenty of It Pay attention to how you are sleeping. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, or enough restorative sleep, you’ll be at increased risk for a hostile viral takeover. Your immune system is also the most effective when you’re not sleep-deprived, so the more rested you are the quicker you’ll recover. You can find 33 secrets for a good night’s sleep here.
  2. Regular Exercise Regular exercise is a crucial strategy for increasing your resistance to illness. There is evidence that regular, moderate exercise can reduce your risk for respiratory illness by boosting your immune system. In fact, one study found that people who exercised regularly (five or more days a week) cut their risk of having a cold by close to 50 percent. And, in the event they did catch a cold, their symptoms were much less severe than among those who did not exercise.Exercise likely cuts your risk of colds so significantly because it triggers a rise in immune system cells that can attack any potential invaders. Each time you exercise you can benefit from this boost to your immune system.Ideally, establish a regular fitness program, such as Peak Fitness, now, to help you ward off colds and other illness.However, if you’re already feeling sick don’t overdo it. Over-exercising can actually place more stress on your body, which can suppress your immune system — and you don’t want that either. You might just go for a walk if you are coming down with a cold, or simply tone down your regular workout.Any rise in body temperature will be an unwelcome climate for a viral invader, though, so some exercise is likely to be beneficial.
  3. Address Your Emotional Stress Emotional stressors can also predispose you to an infection while making cold symptoms worse. Finding ways to manage daily stress as well as your reactions to circumstances beyond your control will contribute to a strong and resilient immune system.My favorite tool for this is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), a system that helps balance your body’s subtle energies and repair emotional “short-circuits.” EFT may even help you overcome cold symptoms.

Supplements That Send Pathogens Packin’

Supplements can be beneficial for colds, but they should be used only as an adjunct to the lifestyle measures already discussed.

Some of the more helpful options for cold (and flu) — above and beyond vitamin D — are:

  • Vitamin C: A very potent antioxidant; use a natural form such as acerola, which contains associated micronutrients. You can take several grams every hour till you are better unless you start developing loose stools
  • Oregano Oil: The higher the carvacrol concentration, the more effective it is. Carvacrol is the most active antimicrobial agent in oregano oil.
  • Propolis: A bee resin and one of the most broad-spectrum antimicrobial compounds in the world; propolis is also the richest source of caffeic acid and apigenin, two very important compounds that aid in immune response and even fight cancer.
  • A tea made from a combination of elderflower, yarrow, boneset, linden, peppermint and ginger; drink it hot and often for combating a cold or flu. It causes you to sweat, which is helpful for eradicating a virus from your system.
  • Olive leaf extract: Ancient Egyptians and Mediterranean cultures used it for a variety of health-promoting uses and it is widely known as a natural, non-toxic immune system builder.

Remember This Tip: Wash Your Hands Sensibly

Washing your hands frequently is one of the easiest ways to wipe out germs and viruses and reduce your chances of becoming sickened by them. Thorough hand-washing truly is an important step, as you are at far greater risk of passing on an infection by shaking someone’s hand than even by sharing a kiss.

One report even found that regular hand washing may be more effective than drugs in preventing the spread of respiratory viruses such as influenza.

When you wash up, plain soap and water will do. Do not make the mistake of using antibacterial cleansers, as their widespread use is leading to strains of resistant bacteria, or “superbugs,” which cause the ingredients to lose effectiveness for the times when they really are needed, such as for surgeons prior to surgery.

Further, the active ingredient in most antibacterial products is triclosan, an antibacterial agent that kills bacteria and inhibits bacterial growth. But not only does triclosan kill bacteria, it also has been shown to kill human cells.

Antibacterial soaps are also no more effective than regular soaps. One study found people who used antibacterial soaps and cleansersdeveloped a cough, runny nose, sore throat, fever, vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms just as often as people who used products that did not contain antibacterial ingredients. So please avoid making the mistake of using antibacterial liquids and soaps.

Too Much Hand-Washing Can Backfire …

There is another important caveat to remember, and that is your skin is actually your primary defense against bacteria — not the soap.

So resist the urge to become obsessive about washing your hands. If you wash them too frequently you can actually extract many of the protective oils in your skin, which can cause your skin to crack and bleed.

It is rare for a germ on your skin to cause a problem — it is typically only an issue when you transfer that to your nose, mouth or an open wound like cracked skin. So obsessive-compulsive washing can actually increase your risk of getting sick by providing an entryway for potentially dangerous pathogens.

So mild to moderate washing is wise, but excessive washing, especially with harsh soaps, will actually be highly counterproductive.

Avoid the Antibiotics!

More than 300 different viruses can cause colds, so each time you have a cold it is caused by a distinct virus (i.e. adenovirus, rhinovirus, parainfluenza virus, coronavirus). A virus is much smaller than a bacteria; it is a tiny cluster of genetic material surrounded by a protein wrapper.

There are currently NO drugs available that can kill these viruses. Antibiotics, including penicillin, do not have any effect on viruses, but unfortunately have been vastly over-prescribed for this very (useless) purpose. That, coupled with the excessive use of antibiotics in agriculture, has contributed to a steep rise in antibiotic-resistant diseases.

Antibiotic-resistant infections now claim more lives each year than the “modern plague” of AIDS, and cost the American health care system some $20 billion a year!

Further, according to one meta-analysis, the health risk from over-use of antibiotics is also a very personal one, as opposed to simply raising the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in the general population over time.

Whenever you use an antibiotic, you’re increasing your susceptibility to developing infections with resistance to that antibiotic — and you can become the carrier of this resistant bug, and spread it to others.

So please, if you have a simple cold remember that an antibiotic will do far more harm than good.

When Should You Call Your Physician?

Sinus, ear and lung infections (bronchitis and pneumonia) are examples of bacterial infections that do respond to antibiotics. If you develop any of the following symptoms, these are signs you may be suffering from a bacterial infection rather than a cold virus, and you should call your physician’s office:

  • Fever over 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 degrees Celsius)
  • Ear pain
  • Pain around your eyes, especially with a green nasal discharge
  • Shortness of breath or a persistent uncontrollable cough
  • Persistently coughing up green and yellow sputum

Generally speaking, however, if you have a cold medical care is not necessary. Rest and attention to the lifestyle factors noted above will help you to recover quickly and, if you stick to them, will significantly reduce your chances of catching another one anytime soon.

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Fibroids – What We Can Do About Healing Them

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By Andreas Moritz 

Hi, this is a question with regard to fibroids, what causes fibroids and what we can do about them.

Fibroids basically are deposits or accumulation of dead proteins and I wholeheartedly recommend that we avoid eating cadaver foods that, if they are not properly digested, can lead to accumulation of proteins in various parts of the body.

What happens if you eat a cadaver like a chicken, fish or meat, what happens is that we cannot digest the entire piece of meat, chicken or fish, only a fraction of it and the reason for that is because the amount of hydrochloric acid in our stomach is not concentrated enough to digest the entire piece.

So if you eat a steak, you may digest only 15 to 20 % of that piece of meat, and the rest of it will remain undigested and the heating of the meat, whatever method you use, will denature the proteins, that means rip apart the molecular structure that bonds the amino acids to form those proteins together, and it destroys the three dimensional structure of proteins.

So here you have a huge number of dismembered protein chains that are bits and pieces of protein fragments that somehow make their way into the bloodstream, they are absorbed, and there is some research to show that normally only amino acids can be absorbed, but these denatured proteins they also get absorbed, and that is a major problem for the body, because you cannot really utilize them.

One way to deal with them is to assimilate or accumulate these protein fragments in what is known as the basal membranes of the blood reservoir. And the basal membrane has the capacity to accumulate up to eight times its normal thickness and gather or collect these proteins there, and this stiffens the blood vessels, it makes it dead almost, and it becomes like fibroids tissue.

If that happens in the uterus, for example, you can develop fibroid tissue there, if it happens in the spleen you can develop fibroid tissue, if it happens in the liver then the liver is gathering fibroid tissue. So it doesn’t matter where it is, it could be in the breast, it could be even in the brain.

So wherever these protein fragments make their way through into the system, that when you start collecting dead proteins in the blood vessel wall, and then eventually in other parts as well. Once there is a saturation point reached in the blood vessels, it will also accumulate in the fluid that surrounds the cells and then it can spread almost like wildfire.

So, I suggest avoiding those kinds of foods that can trigger that, and also there is another effect that happens with these kinds of foods, the undigested proteins that are 90 % or 80 % of the meat, chicken, fish that have not been digested will be broken down into waste matter. It’s called putrefaction and the toxins that these bacteria produce will be absorbed by the lymphatic system particularly the part of the lymph system in the belly button area called Cisterna chyli and that will eventually create a blockage, congestion, in that part of the lymph system and that Cisterna chyli vessel has like little roots that go down into the uterus, ovaries, the legs ,and they are responsible for taking up any metabolic waste products and dead cell material that is part of the natural turnover of cells.

You have to understand that the body is turning over thirty billion cells per day and that’s a huge amount of dead proteins that has to be removed on a day-to-day basis. If your lymph vessel is getting congested in the belly button area, in the Cisterna chyli vessel – you will find an illustration in my book “Timeless Secrets Of Health And Rejuvenation” – once that congestion has been there for a considerable amount of time, we are talking about weeks or months or years, then the ability of the uterus, for example, to get rid of the turned over cells will not be there any more and these dead cell materials will accumulate, and so your body will start developing extra tissues in order to accommodate these waste products.

So when these things have occurred, I definitely recommend to change your diet, lifestyle, eating habits, so that your digestive functions are improving.

Liver flushes will of course help to reduce the lymph congestion simply by allowing your body to digest food more effectively and you make less waste products which could once again cause lymph congestion. So by taking care of these basic things, your problems – fibroids – should diminish over time.

The body uses proteolytic enzymes to do that. Once the congestion has subsided then, the body can, once again, digest these dead protein structures fibroids and remove them naturally. If you want to support the body in doing that, sometimes it helps to take a proteolytic enzyme like Seaprose, which is known to be one of the most effective proteolytic enzymes to deal with fibroids and other problems.

But I am always on the caution, I am always in favor of allowing the body to do the job itself, rather than we doing the job for it, because there is a very fine delicate balance called homeostasis and you don’t want to introduce something into the body too long or too much, because then the body will produce less of the same substance, or in this case enzyme, proteolytic enzyme. It’s always best to stimulate the body’s own enzymes rather than just replacing them with supplementation.

So hope this gives you some ideas about fibroid tissues and what you can do about them.

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Healing Ear Infections – The Root Cause May Be The Gastrointestinal Tract

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By Andreas Moritz 

Hi, this is a question from someone who is suffering from acute ear infection and is wondering whether she should take antibiotics as a last resort.

Basically ear infections have underlying causes that are not directly related to the ears, but to bacteria that evolve and grow in the ears, and in the auditory ducts, but are basically emerging from sections or parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

Most people think that ears are independent from the gastrointestinal tract but this is not the case. In fact there is a duct that’s called the Eustachian tube and that is the duct that runs from the throat all the way up into the ears and that duct, also known as the auditory duct, is connected to the throat centre and the throat is connected to the gastrointestinal tract as we know, are the mouth, the nose, the ears, they are all basically interconnected.

Now when there is lot of trouble in the gastrointestinal tract in terms of undigested food that is being fermented or putrefied, then there is a large amount of bacterial activity and these bacteria which are part of the fermenting team to dispose of undigested foods, these bacteria produce toxins and these toxins are highly irritating, and many of them move up into the chest area and from there to the mouth, into the ear ducts, and then into the ears, and they continue the irritating effect that is also experienced in the lower parts of the body.

So when food is not digested, which is the main culprit here, then it’s better to address the underlying causes while perhaps also addressing the symptoms, because ear infections can be extremely painful.

I would suggest not to take recourse to antibiotics however, because antibiotics can cause more problems than they can rectify, because once an antibiotic has been consumed, the bacteria in the gut which regulate the digestive process and help to absorb nutrients from the foods we eat can be highly disturbed for up to a year after taking one course of antibiotics. So there is a disadvantage taking recourse to such methods as killing germs. It’s better to set the preconditions, clean out the intestines.

I would suggest to have a colonic irrigation, colon hydrotherapy or colema, to clean out the intestine so that there is an outlet for accumulated waste matter that is backing up into the upper part of the body so that the ears and ear ducts can empty, can release whatever has been accumulated there which harbors obviously fermenting or putrefying bacteria.

So bacteria don’t infect healthy tissue. They only infect tissue that has been congested, where toxins have accumulated, where waste matter, metabolic waste and other cellular debris is accumulated, and that’s where the bacteria will accumulate as well, and that’s where they take action.

So we cannot blame the bacteria for causing such infections, but we need to look at what causes the bacteria to assemble there, and to do their so-called dirty job, cleaning up the mess that somehow we have created in our body.

I suggest to make sure in the future to deal with the digestive process, avoiding foods that can cause a lot of fermentation and lead to the proliferation of what is known as the candida bacteria, and these candida bacteria are responsible for fermenting food that we have not been able to digest properly, and in order to stop candida bacteria ending up going into the ears and causing ear infections. It’s important to deal with it at the root cause, not just on the symptomatic level.

However sometimes it is extremely debilitating to have the pain and the congestion in the ears, given the high pressure and the exposure of nerve endings and the sensitive parts of the inner ear that can easily get inflamed and cause a lot of pain. So in that case, I would suggest to take hydrogen peroxide, the solution that you will find in most pharmacies, 3 or 4 percent, which you put in a tiny little bottle and you spray that into the ear a couple of times and you may want to put the head sideways so that the hydrogen peroxide is sitting there for a while taking its action and it will kill bacteria there and this is obviously just to relieve the symptoms, not to cure the problem.

The cure lies in dealing with the underlying issues, i.e. poor digestion, poor diet, poor lifestyle and eating habits that are responsible for that, and perhaps also poor bile secretion because of intra-hepatic gallstones blocking the bile ducts, not allowing you to have enough bile available for the digestive process. Bile keeps the bacteria population in balance and makes sure that food is properly digested and absorbed, and therefore it cannot become a fertile ground for bacterial proliferation and subsequent infection, so it’s good to always use natural ways rather than unnatural ways that just blindly kill germs… doesn’t matter whether they are the good kind or the bad kind.

In my opinion, there are no bad bacteria, there are bacteria for different reasons for different purposes. Some are for constructive purposes like generating… creating vitamins like B12 and then there are others that have to act on food to break it down and to also dispose of waste matter. So all bacteria are actually good bacteria and we should not just indiscriminately kill them off and cause more harm in the body, because once you have taken antibiotics it is very likely that the same issue is coming back, and it is usually worse each time you have used antibiotics, and eventually antibiotics… the bacteria that are involved in these infections… they become resistant to these drugs and there comes a point where antibiotics are no longer going to work, and that causes far, far more serious issues than the initial pain that you may experience with an infection of the ear.

It’s also important to make sure you get enough sun exposure. Vitamin D deficiency is a major reason for infections, infectious disease, because the immune system depends on vitamin D, vitamin D controls the immune system and thousands of genes responsible for natural defenses in the body. So make sure that you expose your skin to the sun on a regular basis. If the sun is too weak to generate vitamin D in the body, then I would suggest to use a vitamin D lamp or UV lamp, you can find them on the internet and use these till the time the sun is not available or capable of producing vitamin D at that time.

So I would suggest you take these measures as a matter of precaution, prevention, so that you don’t have to deal with the painful consequences as such.

Thank you.

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Spike in US Autism Rates linked to High-Fructose Corn Syrup Consumption

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By: Jonathan Benson
Source: NaturalNews.com

A new study published in the journal Clinical Epigenetics reveals that both the Standard American Diet (SAD) and various toxic environmental factors play a definitive and synergistic role in the development of autism. According to the study, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), mercury in vaccines, and agricultural pesticides are among the many cofactors that contribute to the onset of autism spectrum disorders, all of which deserve more attention from health authorities than they are currently getting.

Renee Dufault from the Food Ingredient and Health Research Institute (FIHRI) and her colleagues examined how various foods and environmental factors affect the neurodevelopment of children, and particularly how these factors inhibit the body’s ability to eliminate disease-causing toxins and heavy metals from the system. Known as “macroepigenetics,” this comprehensive approach to disease research offers unique insight into how the human body responds to multiple inputs from diet, environment, and genetics.

What the team discovered is that HFCS, for instance, which is a highly-processed chemical sweetener used in many processed foods and beverages, depletes the body of the natural mineral zinc. And zinc, of course, is responsible for cleansing the body of heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, and cadmium, as well as aluminum and other toxins that are known to disrupt proper brain development.

“To better address the explosion of autism, it’s critical we consider how unhealthy diets interfere with the body’s ability to eliminate toxic chemicals, and ultimately our risk for developing long-term health problems like autism,” said Dr. David Wallinga, co-author of the study and physician at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy(IATP).

You can view the complete study at the following link:
http://www.clinicalepigeneticsjournal.com

HFCS laden with brain-destroying chemicals, mercury

Back in 2009, it was revealed that HFCS is actually a source of heavy metal poisoning as well. The heavy processing required to produce HFCS involves the use of caustic soda chemicals and mercury, two brain-destroying chemicals that end up in the final product fed to millions of American children.

Ketchup, sodas, juice drinks, breads, crackers, cookies, and many other processed food items are loaded with HFCS, and these items are a staple in many children’s diets, including in the meals fed to them at school. So it is no wonder that children’s bodies are being overwhelmed by mercury and other autism-related toxins, which is only worsened by the onslaught of neurologically damaging vaccines, some of which still contain mercury, most of them received throughout their early childhood developmental years.

Besides affecting zinc levels, HFCS in particular has also been shown to deplete the body of calcium and other important vitamins and minerals as well. Without these and other critical nutrients, the body is unable to effectively protect itself against the myriad of toxic exposures it faces every single day, which include pesticide residues found on conventional produce, for instance, or flame retardant chemicals found in bedding and clothing.

“Rather than being independent sources of risk, factors like nutrition and exposure to toxic chemicals are cumulative and synergistic in their potential to disrupt normal development,” added Dr. Richard Deth, another co-author of the study and Professor of Pharmacology at Northwestern University near Chicago. “These epigenetic effects can also be transmitted across generations. As autism rates continue to climb it is imperative to incorporate this new epigenetic perspective into prevention, diagnosis and treatment strategies.”

Recent research has also pinpointed the artificial sweetener aspartame and other methanol-producing foods and environmental factors as causes of autism. And the ever-increasing childhood vaccination schedule is also directly linked to a significant uptick in autism rates over the years, even when vaccines that do not contain mercury are used.

Parents will want to proactively protect the health of their children by helping them to avoid HFCS and all products that contain it, and teaching them to eat and enjoy organic, pesticide-free produce and other whole foods. Feeding children “superfoods” rich in vitamins and minerals, and supplementing their diets with brain-boosting nutrient foods like omega-3 fatty acids, spirulina, and probiotics will also go a long way in protecting these young ones from the continuous onslaught of dietary and environmental toxins that are constantly at war with their brains.

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This Common Sleeping Mistake Can Double Your Risk of a Heart Attack

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

In my experience, you can have the best diet in the world, have the best exercise program and be free from emotional stress, but if you aren’t sleeping well, for whatever reason, it is virtually impossible to be healthy.

But how much sleep do you need for optimal health?

In this interview, Dr. Rubin Naiman – a clinical psychologist, author, teacher, and the leader in integrative medicine approaches to sleep and dreams—sheds light on this question.

Dr. Naiman earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Alliant University in San Diego.

During the 1990′s, he served as the sleep and dream specialist at Canyon Ranch Health Resort in Tucson for 10 years, where he created the first formal sleep laboratory outside of a hospital setting.

Dr. Andrew Weil was also on the staff at that time. Later, he served as director of sleep programs for Miraval Resort. In previous interview, we discussed what sleep actually is, the spiritual dimensions of sleep, the primary causes of insomnia, and why sleeping pills are not the answer. Here, Dr. Naiman delves into several of the most frequently asked questions about sleep, starting with:

How Much Sleep Do You Need?

Over the years, I’ve come to a conclusion that there is no perfect answer to this question because like everything else, the answer depends on a large number of highly individual factors. The general consensus seems to be that most people need somewhere between six and eight hours of sleep each night.

There’s compelling research indicating that sleeping less than six hours may increase your insulin resistance and risk of diabetes. And recent studies show that less than five hours of sleep at night can double your risk of being diagnosed with angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke. Interestingly enough, the same appears to be true when you sleep more than nine hours per night.

The question of the ideal amount of sleep is a topic Dr. Naiman has addressed on numerous occasions throughout his career as a sleep expert, and he agrees; people want a number, but this ‘number’ must be as individual as the person asking for it.

“I think asking ‘how many of hours of sleep should I get?’ is like asking, ‘Doctor, how many calories should I eat?’” he says. ”Of course the answer to that depends on who that person is. It’s so individual. It also depends on the quality of those calories. Again, a lot of people are knocking themselves out night after night after night with sleeping pills. They may be getting seven to eight hours, but is it sleep? It looks like sleep. It might feel like sleep, but you know what, it’s not really sleep. That’s part of the question too—the quality of it.”

Insufficient Sleep Puts Your Health at Risk

Dr. Naiman is familiar with the studies showing increased health risks when you sleep more or less than a certain amount, but is still cautious about taking these findings as the final word on the matter.

“There is really interesting data,” he says. “I think the data is very strong showing that if you don’t sleep enough, you’re in trouble.”

However, it’s important to differentiate between occasional lack of sleep, and a chronic pattern. Everyone loses sleep here and there, and your body is typically resilient enough to allow for that. However, when poor sleep becomes a constant, there’s no question your health may be at risk.

“The American Cancer Society did a study of a million American adults, and short sleepers showed a dramatic increase in risk of cancers across the board,” Dr. Naiman says. ”So we know that there is a mountain of data showing if you don’t sleep enough, you’re going to get yourself sick…

The other end of it, I think, is a little more suspicious. When you say people are sleeping too much, questions arise like ‘why?’ It may be that in some of those studies they don’t have frank illnesses. These are people who don’t qualify clinically as having diabetes or heart disease. But they may have metabolic syndrome; they may have very early stage of underlying chronic inflammatory process.”

Potential Causes for Sleeping “Too Much”

One of the first indications that you may be getting sick is that your body tries to rest, as sleeping helps strengthen your immune system. So chronically sleeping longer than the average eight or nine hours could be an early indication that you have an underlying illness your body is trying to recover from.

However, the need for more sleep could also be an individual requirement, or even a sign of your body being in tune with a more natural rhythm…

“The data suggests that if you go back 100 years, people were sleeping an average of nine hours a night,” Dr. Naiman says. “People also had a very different relationship with sleep at that time. Sleep patterns were very different. It was routine that people woke up in the middle of the night for about an hour or two. It was called night watch. Everybody did it. People also slept during the day.

Think of the Yin and Yang; the white wave representing in this case waking; the dark Yin wave representing night and sleep. There is a dark Yin sphere within the white wave. This is a place of rest in the middle of waking consciousness and natural rhythms. In the middle of the dark Yin wave, there is a place of Yang, a white sphere suggesting that there is a place where awareness, a kind of waking, awareness in the middle of the night.

When we lose sight of that, we overreact to two things. We tend to overreact to being sleepy during the day, and we tend to overreact to being awake at night. And overreactions cause anxiety.”

To Nap or Not to Nap…

According to Dr. Naiman, we’re actually biologically programmed to nap during the daytime, typically in the middle of the afternoon. Some European countries still adhere to the daily siesta and close shop for a couple of hours in the middle of the day when the heat is also at its most pressing. Most employers in Western countries, however, do not accommodate daily snoozing, so when the natural tendency to get drowsy sets in, you may try to alleviate it with coffee, or simply fight the urge to take a nap.

The problem is, you’re now training your body to resist the urge to sleep, which can then lead to being unable to easily fall asleep at night.

“Also, in the middle of the night, when we falsely assume that any kind of awareness is pathological inside, people get up and go, “Oh crap, its insomnia.” I’ve asked hundreds and hundreds of people over the years… “What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you wake up in the middle of the night?” The most common answer I’ve gotten over the years is, “Oh, sh*t.” People wake up and they curse their wakefulness.”

However, as Dr. Naiman explains, occasional waking in the middle of the night, perhaps as many as five times, is actually completely normal. You may pull up the covers or fluff your pillow, then go back to sleep.

“[But] when we learn this automatic judgmental reaction to wakefulness; as soon as there is a spark of it and we judge it, we spin out,” he says.

Another common reaction is to look at the clock.

“Patients have actually said to me, “Gosh, I wake up, I get exactly 2:20 every morning.” …It’s the first thing people—they want to anchor in waking consciousness. They want a sense of control over this ephemeral night consciousness. This addiction to numbers is the problem.

There are nuances with sleep just as there are with waking. There are so many different ways of being awake, different kinds of experiences. Light sleep is fine. Being half awake and half asleep is fine. In fact, I really believe that in any moment in time during the day and at night, it’s a mixed percentage. Right now, you and I are talking; we’re probably 98 percent awake. I’m just making up a number. There is a restful part of us. We might say we’re 2 percent asleep. Closer to bed time it might be 50/50.

What we call being sleepy is being ‘part of awake, part asleep.’ In the middle of the night when we get up to use the bathroom, we might be 95 percent asleep still and 5 percent awake just to find our way there. We need to allow a mix of these different forms of consciousness.”

Guidelines on Optimal Amount of Sleep

Dr. Naiman’s recommendation is to simply sleep “enough hours so that your energy is sustained through the day without artificial stimulation, with the exception of a daytime nap.” I agree with this functional description rather than trying to come up with a specific numeric range. I would add to that guideline, however, the suggestion to watch out for physical or biological symptoms.

For example, when I push myself and don’t get high quality sleep or enough sleep, I’m predisposed to postprandial hypoglycemia. In other words, I have low insulin resistance so when I sleep poorly, it doesn’t take much sugar or carbs for it to be easily metabolized and drop my blood sugar—which also makes me really sleepy.

When I get enough sleep, I’m far less susceptible to it.

Dr. Naiman also discusses this, stating that there’s solid data showing the connection between insulin resistance and sleep. When participants slept three or four hours less than normal for just a couple of days in a row, they saw a dramatic spike in insulin resistance.

Can You Catch Up on Lost Sleep?

This is another area fraught with confusion. Can you make up for lost sleep by sleeping longer on certain days? According to Dr. Naiman:

“First of all, you can’t really bag sleep any more than you can bag oxygen. We just need to replenish it. If you’re well slept, you’ll be more resilient… If you’ve under slept and you throw in jetlag on top of that, it gets a lot worse.

In terms of making up for sleep, it is a very common pattern in our world that people short sleep during the week and then sleep in [on the weekend]. It’s considered delicious. For me, it’s kind of funny. It’s like starving yourself during the week and then pigging out on the weekend. It’s not the best way to eat, as we know.

You can make up for some lost sleep on the weekend but here is the price: it throws off your circadian rhythm.

Again, the infrastructure of our sleep is this rhythmic drum beat of day and night, of light and darkness, of sun and melatonin and so on. What most people do on the weekend is actually go to bed later and sleep in much later. You really confuse the poor brain. It’s almost like shifting it to another season. It’s almost like a little bit of stationary jetlag. You’re yanking your circadian rhythm around. It’s not something that’s recommended.”

Which brings up the issue of shift work. How does working nights, or worse, alternating between night- and day-shifts affect your health and well-being?

How Shift Work Affects Your Health

The data is quite clear on this point: Engaging in shift work dramatically increases mortality. According to Dr. Naiman, shift work can decrease your lifespan by about seven years on average! Gastrointestinal disorders are also more common among shift workers.

“The yanking back and forth of the circadian rhythm confuses the body about when to eat, when to digest. Those are some of the early signs,” Dr. Naiman warns. ”We see dramatic increases in depression among shift workers and then we see a slew of other diseases that are associated with compromised immunity. So if you can, avoid it all.

There are things you can do if you need to do shift work. One is stay on the same shift for a stretch of time. It’s much harder to yank back and forth. You can create a prosthetic environment. You’re basically turning day and night upside down.”

According to Dr. Naiman, preliminary data shows that if you increase your melatonin levels during your night shift—effectively turning it into an artificial day—you can minimize some of the detrimental effects of working during the night. You can find melatonin supplements, either in pill or spray form, in virtually every health food store.

“So you make your night into day and your day into night. When you’re driving home from work, you put on a pair of sunglasses. You don’t want that light telling you it’s time to get up. You cover your windows with aluminum foil and you create an artificial night. You disconnect the phone. You do anything and everything to recreate night so that you can sleep. You use melatonin again at that time. You try not to shift back and forth.”

Sleep Timing—Does it Matter?

A common natural health understanding is that every hour of sleep before midnight is equal to two hours after midnight. But is that true? According to Dr. Naiman, this notion is likely more metaphoric than factual.

“[R]oughly the first third to first half of sleep is when we get most of our true deep sleep,” he says. “… We spend most of the first part of the night truly sleeping, most of the latter part of the night dreaming… In Chinese medicine, they say the best time to get to sleep is roughly 9:00 or 9:30 pm… roughly a couple of hours after sunset, when there have been enough melatonin raised in our brains that will naturally put us out… [But] I’ve never seen really hard scientific data. I’ve seen a lot of anecdotal experience. And there is data that suggests that there is a window of heightened opportunity for falling asleep, which can vary depending on your personal circadian rhythm.”

The most important aspect of sleep timing appears to be the consistency of going to bed at the same time every night.

More Information

Dr. Naiman covers a lot of ground in this interview, so to learn more, please listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript. He also has a great website, www.DrNaiman.com, where you can read more about all things sleep related. You can also find information about his lectures, which is a wonderful way to learn more about the mystery of sleep, and the most effective solutions.

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The Hidden Cause of Unexplained Weight Gain may be Poor Liver Function

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By: Derrell Jones
Source: NaturalNews.com

The issue of weight is a prevalent source of discontent especially in western cultures. It seems that we havewoken upand realized that weight control is about much more than keeping up appearances. Obesity rates have skyrocketed along with the associated adverse health conditions. Each year more and more people choose to eat right and exercise but still struggle with weight issues and chronic degenerative conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, heart disease, etc. A seldom-discussed yet extremely important aspect of weight loss is liver function. Traditional diets see-saw between high fat, nutritionally void foods and weight loss gimmicks and products that actually causes people to gain weight in the long run. In the middle of all this is a liver that grows, quite literally, fattier and more sluggish by the day.

The liver has two distinct and highly important functions. First, it is the body’s chief blood detoxifier. Secondly, the liver is the body’s primary fat metabolizer. Once the liver becomes sluggish and fatty it performs neither job well and we begin to pack on the pounds in earnest and have great difficulty losing the weight once it is on.

What are some causes of a fatty liver

A high fat diet (primarily animal fat) will most likely cause the liver to malfunction over time. Animal fats tend to contain toxic materials that were trapped by the animals body. When we ingest these fats the toxins are released in the liver where they have the ability to cause damage, inducing poor liver function.

Another cause of fatty liveris artificial sweetener use. Artificial sweeteners have been touted by industry as a zero calorie marvel that will help consumers reduce calories and lose weight. What is not revealed is that artificial sweeteners generally lead to long term weight gain. How, do you ask? Artificial sweeteners completely bypass the normal digestive stages and are immediately taken into the liver. The liver basically shuts down all other metabolic processes, including metabolizing fat, to contend with the sweetener. The fats in the liver are either released – without being fully metabolized – into the blood stream to be stored as unprocessed material or theyattachthemselves to the liver. Either way,this is bad news for your weight and health.

An additional prevalent culprit behind fatty liveris excessive alcohol use. Before the alcohol causes cirrhosis it makes the liver fatty, which is the beginning of the road to dysfunctional health and weight gain.

Finally, prescription and over-the-counter medications have adverse effects on the liver. Notice that almost all of the pharmaceutical commercials mention the liver and liver function. It is because they know how detrimental their medications areto the liver and the healthdysfunctions, like weight gain, cirrhosis and liver failure that will occur when using their products. Continue taking your prescriptions but seek a holistic health professional who can assist with eliminating the underlying cause(s) of your condition which would eliminate the need for the medication.

How to avoid or reverse a fatty liver

Here are a few helpful tips that can get you started or keep you on the road to healthy liver function.

• Avoid artificial sweetener use
• Restrict or eliminate alcohol consumption
• Nourish the liver with fresh citrus juices, milk thistle, and licorice. A mixture of cayenne and lemon juice or cayenne and vegetable juice is a great liver nutritive
• Detoxify the colon to keep the digestive system flowing which increases metabolism and aids the liver in its proper functioning

It is clear that poor liver function will most likely lead to a malfunctioning and fatty liver, in turnmaking weight gain probable and weight loss unlikely. If you are working diligently at exercising and eating right but still struggle to lose weight have your liver function checked to shed light on this little-known aspect of weight management.

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Melatonin May Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease – Sleep Your Way to Brain Health

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By: JB Bardot
Source: NaturalNews.com

Ongoing research is being performed to investigate the cause of Alzheimer’s disease. A form of dementia, Alzheimer’s robs its victims slowly of their cognitive powers, intelligence, memories and eventually, their lives. Scientists don’t know for sure how Alzheimer’s develops; however, emerging evidence points to genetics, lifestyle factors and environmental toxins. Early onset Alzheimer’s disease is often thought to be influenced by genetics, giving the individual little control over causative factors. However, in the case of the more common form of Alzheimer’s disease, it may be possible for individuals to have some control over its prevention.

The formation of amyloid plaques in the brain is a feature of Alzheimer’s disease. The plaques consist of a peptide, or string of amino acids, whose normal activity protects against oxidative stress, which contributes to the presence of cell-damaging free radicals. Additionally, they regulate cholesterol transport and have an anti-microbial action on the inflammatory agents in the plaques. Research suggests that a soluble form of amyloid beta, the main component of the plaques, may be a causative agent for Alzheimer’s disease.

Prevention

Several forms of treatment are indicated as possible interventions against the development of plaques, including strengthening the individual’s immune system to trigger antibodies to prevent or clear plaques from the brain. An important discovery was made indicating that the sleep hormone melatonin inhibits the formation of plaques and may be effective in the prevention of Alzheimer’s; however, melatonin, cannot reverse the formation of existing plaques, so is not useful in the treatment of the disease. Experiments in mice suggest that when adequate amounts of melatonin are available earlier in life, it may act to prevent Alzheimer’s from developing.

Melatonin is a naturally produced hormone, which regulates sleep and the circadian rhythm of amyloid beta. People need enough melatonin to produce proper sleep, and excessive wakefulness reduces the amount of the hormone, leading the way to possible plaque development. Animal experiments also indicate the ability of melatonin to correct slight elevations in cholesterol, another risk factor for plaque development.

Excessive periods of sleep deprivation for any reason can affect the circadian rhythm of amyloid beta by reducing the amount of melatonin produced in the brain, hypothetically causing the buildup of amyloid beta plaque formation. Recent findings have shown that chronic loss of sleep is connected to early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Producing melatonin

It is possible to supply melatonin through supplementation; however, it is also possible to create additional quantities of melatonin without drugs or supplements. The pineal gland produces melatonin, whose quantities are stimulated by the presence of darkness and inhibited in the light. Sleeping in a very dark room with no ambient light can stimulate melatonin production. Creating the conditions of twilight for several hours before going to bed will also set the stage for melatonin production and assist in falling asleep. Keep lights dim and remove all sources of light from the bedroom.

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Fruit and Veggie Based Diets Reduce Stroke Risk

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By: Michelle Bosmier
Source: NaturalNews.com

Eating lots of fruits and vegetables helps lower the risk of developing a stroke, a new study shows. The new report comes from a team of scientists at the the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and was published in the “Stroke” journal of the American Heart Association.

Fruits and vegetables help elevate antioxidant levels

Statistically speaking, stroke ranks second among the world leading causes of death, right after heart diseases. The experiments were based on data which shows that diets rich in antioxidant foods reduce the risk factors associated with stroke, by inhibiting the process which causes oxidative stress and inflammation. Oxidative stress is a condition that develops when the human body is unable to counterbalance free radicals or mitigate their damaging effects. It is known to be one of the main causes for various health problems, including diseases of the cardiovascular system.

Fruits and vegetables have a high content of powerful bioactive substances with antioxidant characteristics. Flavonoids, vitamins E and C, as well as carotenoids have free radical scavenging abilities, and will help the body fight elevated levels of oxidants. Moreover, they can also prevent the onset of oxidative stress and related problems.

The research was aimed at investigating the relation between Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) and the development of stroke, in both subjects with a history of cardiovascular disease and healthy patients. Total Antioxidant Capacity measures the total free radical reducing abilities of all antioxidant capable substances in the diet. It takes into account not only the levels of antioxidants themselves, but also the effects of the synergistic reactions between them.

The study was conducted on 31035 Swedish women that had no previous cardiovascular issues, and 5680 women who had such complications. The test group was aged 49 to 83 and was based on the Swedish Mammography Cohort, established between 1987 and 1990. The women’s dietary habits were evaluated according to a food frequency questionnaire, which asked the participants to answer how often they consumed certain types of food. Based on TAC levels, the participants were split into 9 groups – 4 groups with a history of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and 5 groups with no previous heart related issues.

More antioxidants equal lower stroke risk

“Findings suggest that dietary TAC is inversely associated with total stroke among CVD-free women and hemorrhagic stroke among women with CVD history,” the scientists explained. Data showed that in the healthy groups, the risk of stroke was 17% higher for the subjects with low antioxidant levels.

The major contributors to antioxidant levels were fruits and vegetables (50%), whole grains (18%) and tea (16%). For the groups with a history of heart problems, participants with high antioxidant levels had a 46% to 57% lower risk of stroke, when compared to the participants with low antioxidant levels.

The results show that in all cases, the women with low antioxidant levels are more likely to suffer stroke. Including healthier, natural foods in the daily diet, such as fruits, vegetables, teas or whole grains will help prevent the buildup of risk factors leading to stroke. “Eating antioxidant-rich foods may reduce your risk of stroke by inhibiting oxidative stress and inflammation. This means people should eat more fruits and vegetables that contribute to total antioxidant capacity,” concluded the science team.

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80-Year Olds With 40-Year Old Muscle Mass – What’s Going On?

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Increasing physical frailty as you age is commonly accepted as “a fact of life.”

Until recently, most studies showed that after the age of 40, people typically lose eight percent or more of their muscle mass with each passing decade.

But newer research suggests that this is not a foregone conclusion.

One recent study of 40 competitive runners, cyclists, and swimmers, ranging in age from 40 to 81, found no evidence of deterioration — the athletes in their 70s and 80s had almost as much thigh muscle mass as the athletes in their 40s.

Quoted in the New York Times, Dr. Vonda Wright, who oversaw the study, said: “We think these are very encouraging results… 

They suggest strongly that people don’t have to lose muscle mass and function as they grow older.

The changes that we’ve assumed were due to aging and therefore were unstoppable seem actually to be caused by inactivity.

And that can be changed.”

Other recent studies have had similar results. For example, in an animal study from last year, elderly sedentary rats put on a running program developed new satellite cells after 13 weeks. These cells are specialized stem cells known to repair and build muscle tissue.

Lifelong Activity is Best, but it’s Never Too Late to Start

Over the past several years, researchers have discovered that it is indeed possible to restore the ability of old human muscle to repair and rebuild itself. However, the need to keep aging muscles in shape has also been demonstrated, as long periods of atrophy are more challenging to overcome. These findings fall into the category of common sense, along the lines of “use it or lose it.” And as you age, physical exercise becomes an ever more important aspect of optimal health and longevity.

The good news is that it’s really never too late to start an exercise program, even if you’ve been inactive for a long time. Just keep in mind that older muscles do not respond as well to sudden bouts of exercise, so to take precautions and start off slow, to avoid injury.

Making Exercise Safe and Effective as You Age

Safety is always an important aspect of exercise, but becomes crucial if you’re older and just embarking on a regimented exercise program. Unfortunately, many elderly forgo exercise altogether because of a fear of injury or pain, when, in fact, proper exercise will ultimately reduce your risk of injury as well as help to improve pain.

If you’re elderly, it’s advisable to get a workout buddy — a personal trainer or someone who is experienced — to help guide you through your routine. Start off slowly and gradually increase intensity as you grow stronger, avoiding activities that aggravate or cause pain. Just keep in mind that while you need to use caution, you do need to exercise at a level that is challenging to your body.

Otherwise the true benefits will be forfeited.

Ideally your fitness program should be comprehensive, providing the necessary balance-training activities for stability while also improving your strength, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities with high-intensity “Peak” exercises.

During ‘peak exercises,’ you raise your heart rate up to your anaerobic threshold for 20 to 30 seconds, followed by a 90-second recovery period. You repeat this cycle for a total of eight repetitions. Peak exercises are particularly beneficial for aging bodies as this type of interval training triggers the natural production of human growth hormone (HGH), also known as “the fitness hormone.” HGH plays an integral role in maintaining youthfulness and strength. (For an in-depth explanation of my peak fitness regimen, please review this past article.)

While anaerobic Peak exercises may seem too advanced for the elderly, don’t let the intensity dissuade you! Rest assured you can perform Peak exercises at ANY age. The only difference is that the older you are the lower your maximum heart rate will be.

My Latest Findings on Optimal Exercise

I’ve been recommending doing Peak 8 exercises three times a week, but after doing that myself for about a year, I gradually felt that it was too much for me. I cut down to once a week, which seemed to work out well.  But after discussing it with Phil Campbell, he made a compelling argument to increase it back to three times a week. Getting growth hormone produced three times instead of just once a week can have profound health benefits, so I bumped it backed up.

I decided to make additional changes after I interviewed Dr. Doug McGuff, who is a strong proponent of Super Slow weight training. That interview will be published on January 6th, so for more information about Super Slow weight training, please open up that newsletter. Dr. McGuff believes that you only need 12 minutes of Super Slow type strength training once a week.

I really enjoyed my interview with him as he helped me appreciate a nagging truth that I hadn’t quite captured yet, and that is the crucial nature of recovery integrated into listening to your body.

The Importance of Recovery

I have known the importance of “Listen to Your Body,” and always advocate this when it comes to selecting foods. But this also applies to exercise and recovery. The epiphany I had with Dr. McGuff is that I wasn’t applying the ‘listen to your body’ principle with respect to my exercise program.  When I grilled him on the parameters of how to know if you are recovered from your exercise, he said:

 ”You would have a restless energy and feel like you have to engage in some type of physical activity. You will spontaneously just want to work out.”

Well that had not happened to me for some time, and I believe I was pushing myself too hard and had not allowed myself enough recovery time. This is probably not a problem for most people who exercise, as they are more than likely not pushing themselves hard enough, but when you go to extremes like in Peak Fitness, this is a serious risk you need to pay careful attention to.

So right now I’m in a massive experimentation phase, and I’m having fun playing around with my exercise program. I will likely be exercising the same length of time, just breaking it up differently, and listening to my body. I suspect that will be more ideal for me and I intend to report on my results so you can learn from it.

The lesson here is that life is an exciting journey, and you’re never “too old.”  As you age, you do need to adjust however, and discover through trial and error what works best for you. Learn to listen to your body so it can guide you onto a path that will provide you with the most efficient and effective benefits.

For the Elderly, Exercise Can Quite Literally Save Your Life

As you get older your muscle and bone mass decrease and the senses that guide your balance — vision, touch, proprioception — may all start to deteriorate, and this can make you unsteady on your feet. Needless to say, bone fractures and brain injuries resulting from falls can be life threatening. Exercise is a key to maintaining your balance as you get older, and should really be viewed as a necessity — like eating and sleeping — as it can quite literally save your life.

By taking the time to do balance, strength and other exercises on a regular basis you can keep your sense of balance strong, and even restore what’s already been lost.

In a study published last year, eight weeks of balance training reduced slips and improved the likelihood of recovery from slips among the elderly. Separate research, which noted that “altered balance is the greatest collaborator towards falls in the elderly,” found balance training is effective in improving functional and static balance, mobility and falling frequency in elderly women with osteoporosis.

The ability to balance on one leg is also an important predictor of injury-causing falls, so if you know that you’d be shaky if you tried to stand on one foot, you’re at an increased risk of being hurt in a fall and should start appropriate exercises immediately.

Yes, You Can Exercise at ANY Age

Earlier this fall I posted a couple of videos showing my mother’s exercise routine. She didn’t start working out until she was 74 and now, at the age of 77, she has gained significant improvements in strength, range of motion, balance, bone density and mental clarity.


Exercise Strengthens More than Muscle

Your muscles aren’t the only benefactors of a comprehensive exercise program. While many are misled into thinking toxic drugs are the answer to combat decreasing bone density, the truth is that weight-bearing exercise is one of the most effective remedies against osteoporosis—another common problem related to aging.

Without question, osteoporosis drugs are likely to cause more long-term harm than benefit. Studies have actually linked bisphosphonate bone-strengthening drugs like Fosamax, Actonel, Boniva and Reclast to an increased risk of femur fractures. One of the latest and largest studies to date discovered that women who’ve been on bisphosphonates for more than five years have a nearly three times higher risk of these dangerous fractures…

Your bones are actually very porous and soft, and as you get older, your bones can easily become less dense and hence, more brittle—especially if you are inactive.

Resistance training can combat this effect because as you put more tension on your muscles it puts more pressure on your bones, which then respond by continuously creating fresh, new bone. In addition, muscle is heavier than fat, so as you build more muscle, and make the muscle that you already have stronger, you also put more constant pressure on your bones which automatically helps maintain bone strength.

The Many Health Benefits of Exercise

There’s an overwhelming amount of evidence confirming that exercise is a key player in disease reduction, optimal mental, emotional and physical health, and longevity. After reviewing 40 papers published between 2006 and 2010, researchers found thatexercise reduces the risk of about two dozen health conditions, ranging from cancer and heart disease to type 2 diabetes, stroke, dementia and depression. Exercise also slows down the rate of aging itself, providing perhaps the closest example of a real life fountain of youth as we will ever find.

Ideally, you will have made exercise a regular part of your life long before you reach your “golden” years … but if you haven’t, there’s no better time to start than the present.  Research has shown that regular exercise, even initiated late in life, offers profound health benefits. For instance:

  • Even a small amount of exercise may protect the elderly from long-term memory loss and even help reverse some of the effects of aging.
  • Moderate exercise among those aged 55-75 may cut the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which increases heart disease and diabetes risk.
  • Among those who started exercising at age 50 and continued for 10 years, the rate of premature death declined dramatically, similar to giving up smoking and mirroring the level as seen among people who had been working out their entire lives.

Remember, It’s NEVER Too Late to Improve Your Health

It should be obvious by now that optimal health is dependent on an active lifestyle; eating fresh, whole foods, avoiding as many processed foods as possible, and addressing the stress in your life. Ignoring any of these basic tenets of health will eventually lead to a decline in health and any number of diseases.

Physical exercise is particularly important to maintain a high quality of life, as limited mobility can take a great toll… So start moving, and don’t stop no matter what your age!

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Are Antibiotics Contributing to Obesity, Diabetes and Stroke?

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By: Dr. Mercola
Source: Mercola.com

Extending the Cure, a non-profit research group, has published a series of maps looking at the major drivers of bacterial resistance to antibiotics.

They reveal a troubling growth in the use of certain antibiotics — along with an even more surprising result.

According to data analyzed by journalist Maryn McKenna for Wired, the states with the highest levels of antibiotic overuse are one in the same as those that have the worst health status in the United States, including the highest rates of obesity, asthma, heart disease, heart attack, diabetes and stroke.

The map graphics are very revealing, and — even though this is purely speculation — it’s hard to ignore the fact that the same areas of the United States that are lit up like Christmas trees are those that have both, the highest rates of antibiotic usage, and chronic diseases.

Is Antibiotic Use Associated With Obesity, Diabetes and Other Diseases?

Antibiotics are among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States.

In West Virginia, the state with the highest antibiotic use from 1999-2007, there were 1,214 prescriptions written for every 1,000 people, according to Extending the Cure.

Antibiotics can save your life if they’re necessary, such as if you develop a serious bacterial infection, but it’s important to understand that you don’t need antibiotics for every ear, nose, or throat infection you come down with. Remember that antibiotics are useless against the viral infections that cause the common cold and the flu, and when used for this purpose, will only harm your health.

How?

By wiping out the good bacteria in your gut.

Antibiotics, by design, disrupt the balance of good and bad bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract, often killing off both beneficial and harmful microorganisms without distinction. We now know, however, that your health is intricately tied to, and in many ways dependent upon, a healthy balance of bacteria in your gut.

When this balance is disrupted, it paves the way for a number of chronic diseases, including many of those highlighted on the maps in areas with high rates of antibiotic use, such as:

  • Heart disease
  • Diabetes
  • Obesity

Good bacteria (probiotics) are, in fact, so crucial to your health that researchers have compared them to “a newly recognized organ,” and have even suggested we consider ourselves a type of “meta-organism” — in acknowledgment of the fact that we cannot be whole and healthy without the participation of a vast array of friendly bacterial species and strains.

If you want to dig into the research for yourself, check out the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), whose goal is to characterize microbial communities found at multiple human body sites and to look for correlations between changes in the microbiome and human health. There you can find 15 demonstration projects looking into the role of microflora and conditions like psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, obesity, acne and more.

You can also visit Green Med Info, which has assembled an amazing list of more than 200 studies, which together explore more than 180 diseases that may find relief with probiotics.

When taken in this context, it’s easy to understand how antibiotics overuse could predispose you to a number health problems by disrupting your body’s vital bacterial balance.

Can Antibiotics Make You Fat?

Here’s an interesting factoid you may not be aware of: about 70 percent of all the antibiotics produced are used in agriculture — not necessarily to fight disease, but rather to promote weight gain.

Farmers commonly give healthy livestock continuous low-doses of antibiotics because it makes them gain more weight, faster — a phenomenon that likely occurs, as the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs stated, because the antibiotics “change the composition of the gut flora to favor growth.”

If it happens in livestock, there’s reason to believe it happens in humans as well, and research by Dr. Martin Blaser, a professor of microbiology at New York University Langone Medical Center, suggests that antibiotics may permanently alter your gut bacteria and interfere with important hunger hormones secreted by your stomach, leading to increased appetite and body mass index (BMI).

Separate research by Dr. Blaser also found that mice fed antibiotics (in dosages similar to those given to children for throat or ear infections) had significant increases in body fat despite their diets remaining unchanged. Multiple studies have actually shown that obese people have different intestinal bacteria than slim people, and that altering the microbial balance in your gut can influence your weight.

Here are six such studies:

  • When rats were given lactic acid bacteria while in utero through adulthood, they put on significantly less weight than other rats eating the same high-calorie diet. They also had lower levels of minor inflammation, which has been associated with obesity.
  • Babies with high numbers of Bifidobacteria and low numbers of Staphylococcus aureus – the latter of which may cause low-grade inflammation in your body, contributing to obesity — appeared to be protected from excess weight gain. This may be one reason why breast-fed babies have a lower risk of obesity, as Bifidobacteria are  known to flourish in the guts of breast-fed babies.
  • Two studies found that obese individuals had about 20 percent more of a family of bacteria known as Firmicutes, and almost 90 percent less of a bacteria called Bacteroidetes than lean people. Firmicutes help your body to extract calories from complex sugars and store those calories as fat. When these microbes were transplanted into normal-weight mice, those mice started to gain twice as much fat.
  • Obese people were able to reduce their abdominal fat by nearly 5 percent, and their subcutaneous fat by over 3 percent, just be drinking a probiotic-rich fermented milk beverage for 12 weeks.
  • Probiotics (good bacteria) have been found to benefit metabolic syndrome, which often goes hand-in-hand with obesity.
  • Probiotics may also be beneficial in helping women lose weight after childbirth when taken from the first trimester through breastfeeding.

Conventional Antibiotics May be Growing Useless

If the potential to upset your body’s natural balance of gut bacteria, paving the way for obesity, diabetes, heart disease and more, doesn’t put the notion of taking antibiotics in a different light, consider this: whenever you use an antibiotic, you’re increasing your susceptibility to developing infections with bacteria that are now resistant to that antibiotic – and as a result, you can become a carrier of this resistant bug, and can spread it to others.

The rise of antibiotic-resistant disease is actually one of the “world’s most pressing public health threats,” as even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledges. There are already numerous bacteria resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics, and this is a direct result of the vast overuse of antibiotics in both the medical system and, even more so, conventional livestock farming.

This includes:

In the war of antibiotics versus bacteria, the bacteria are clearly winning -. As much as I stress that antibiotic use needs to be minimized, this is one class of drugs that I would not want to fall off the radar.

When used properly, in the correct contexts and with responsibility, antibiotics can and do save lives that are threatened by bacterial infections. But they will only remain effective if urgent changes are made to curb the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and disease … and this will only happen with a serious reduction in their use now.

Tips for Practical Antibiotics Use

Remember first and foremost that antibiotics are only effective against bacterial infections — not viral infections. Antibiotics do,however, sometimes help relieve perceived/subjective symptoms caused by some viruses, because they address ‘secondary bacterial infections,’ i.e the overgrowth of the always-naturally-present haemophilus influenzae, once the virus compromises and/or overwhelms normal immunosurveillance.

But normally please remember that if you or your child have a viral infection such as a cold, the flu, most sore throats, acute bronchitis and many sinus and ear infections, antibiotics are failing to address the root cause.

They will not help you to feel better faster; they will not cure the infection; and they will not make you less contagious to others. What they may do in this case, however, is increase your chances of having that antibiotic not work as effectively in the event you do need it for a bacterial infection. Not to mention, the CDC notes that, in children, antibiotics are the most common cause of emergency department visits for adverse drug events, so they carry inherent risks as well.

In the event of a viral infection, you can read my full strategies for prevention and treatment of viral infections like colds here.

Keep in mind, also, that the foods you eat are a major source of exposure to antibiotics, so to protect your gut bacteria you should buy primarily antibiotic-free, organically raised meat and produce. Conventionally farmed food is often grown in fertilizer derived from factory-farmed animal waste and human sewage, which may be a source of contamination with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

How to Restore Your Gut Bacteria if You’ve Taken Antibiotics

Because your gut bacteria are vulnerable to your lifestyle choices, including your diet and exposure to pollution, chlorinated water and agricultural chemicals, I recommend that everyone consider the optimization of their gut bacteria as an ongoing process.

Also, if you’ve recently taken antibiotics, it is particularly important to restore bacterial balance as quickly as possible. In this case, a high-quality probiotic supplement can help you restore healthy gut bacteria quickly. Ideally take this in addition to eating non-pasteurized, traditionally fermented foods such as:

  • Fermented vegetables, we will be providing you with loads of information on this in the coming months with very specific details on how you can make your own
  • Lassi (an Indian yoghurt drink, traditionally enjoyed before dinner)
  • Fermented organic grass-fed raw milk, such as kefir
  • Various pickled fermentations of cabbage, turnips, eggplant, cucumbers, onions, squash and carrots
  • Natto (fermented soy)

At the same time, it is vital to eliminate sugar, including fructose, from your diet, as it will sabotage any beneficial effects of the fermented foods by feeding the pathogenic yeast, fungi and bacteria that are in your gut.

A high-quality probiotic supplement, along with eating traditionally fermented foods and avoiding sugar, is a good plan for optimizing your gut bacteria at any point and should also work well following a course of treatment with antibiotics.

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Drinking Water – The Greatest Therapy of All

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By Andreas Moritz

Dehydration

Dehydration is perhaps the most common, yet largely unrecognized problem prevalent in modern societies today. Alcohol, coffee, tea and soft drinks have become the primary choice for satisfying thirst, especially among the younger generations. The principal effect of these beverages, however, is to remove water – the most important and precious resource in the body – from the blood, cells and organs. Drinking enough fresh water is an essential prerequisite for avoiding disease and slowing the aging process. Anyone who is healthy and wants to stay that way needs to drink about 6-8 eight-ounce glasses of fresh water each day. This will ensure that the 60-100 trillion cells in the body receive their daily-needed ration of water in order to maintain efficient digestion, metabolism and waste removal. Children may need to drink 4-6 glasses of water per day, depending on how physically active they are.

Simple guidelines for keeping your body sufficiently hydrated

Start the day by drinking one glass of warm water to end the ‘drought’ of the night and remove accumulated wastes from the excretory organs. As previously mentioned, this can be followed by a glass of warm water with lemon and honey.

About half an hour before each meal, drink one glass of water. Doing this will keep your blood thin and thereby enable it to take up nutrients and distribute them to the cells. The water also helps increase the secretion of digestive juices and prevents bile from becoming too viscous. Drinking a lot of water or other beverages with your meal, however, dilutes the digestive juices. This should be avoided because it undermines the digestive process.

Following a meal, the blood uses up a considerable amount of water to distribute nutrients to the cells and can, therefore, become water deficient quite quickly. Drinking another glass of water approximately 2 ½ hours after each meal restores the blood’s water requirements.

These simple guidelines can help prevent the most serious major diseases that are prevalent in modern societies today. Drinking sufficient amounts of water at the right times can and should be part of every other therapy used in the treatment of disease.

A note of caution: Any attempt to restore the proper state of hydration of the body should be made gradually. otherwise this may cause serious harm. A dehydrated person, that is, someone who has not taken the minimum required amount of water for several weeks, months or years, and/or has depleted the cells of excessive amounts of water by consuming caffeine or sugar-containing foods or beverages for a considerable length of time, is susceptible to becoming ill. During dehydration, the body’s cells are no longer able to function efficiently. To protect themselves against further loss of water, they make their membranes less penetrable to water diffusion by pulling in extra amounts of fats, including cholesterol. This survival mechanism, however, also prevents metabolic waste from leaving the cells, causing them to suffocate in their own waste. Some of the cells, in order to survive in this toxic environment, may eventually need to undergo genetic mutation and become cancerous.

During the state of dehydration, the kidneys hold on to water and so does the rest of the body. At this point many people start craving and overeating salt or salty foods because the body needs more salt to hold on to the little water it has left. This, however, causes the kidneys to contract and filter even less water than before. Urine becomes more and more concentrated and scarce. In this condition of extreme dehydration, it would be unwise to suddenly start drinking even the recommended 6-8 glasses per day of water. Since the cells have created a barrier in order to save water, they are in no position to absorb a quantity of water to which they have become unaccustomed, all at once. The water would simply stagnate outside the cells and lead to water retention and weight gain. Given these circumstances, the kidneys are not able to filter much of it, and urine will remain scarce. Any sudden intake of large amounts of water can indeed cause severe lymph congestion, swelling, and in some cases, even death. The effect would be water intoxication, a potentially fatal disturbance in brain function that results when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by a very rapid intake of water. The transition from a state of severe dehydration to improved hydration should be very gradual and is best monitored by a health practitioner who knows the basics of water metabolism.

Guidelines for Gradual Rehydration

Add only about one glass of water per day to the amount of water you usually drink and check whether urination increases. If it does, drink another 1-2 glasses per day. If not, reduce the additional amount to a third or half glass of water per day. It is of principal importance that your kidneys begin to filter more water when you drink more water. You don’t want to create a ‘dam’ in your kidneys, which could end up flooding even your lungs. In time, the kidneys will recognize that water is no longer a scarcity in the body and will make the necessary adjustments to increase urination. At the same time, the body will naturally decrease its salt production and salt retention. When this occurs, the urge to eat a lot of salt or salty foods will also lessen. This response is caused by the water’s own natural diuretic effects.

If you are on diuretic drugs, it is important for you to know that water is a much more efficient diuretic than any drug can possibly be, and it has no harmful side effects. Diuretic drugs should be decreased gradually and under the supervision of a health practitioner.

Once the kidneys have no more difficulties with eliminating urine, you can increase your water intake to the natural minimum daily requirement of 6-8 glasses per day. This will drastically reduce the health risks imposed by an illness. To undo years of dehydration and to be completely hydrated again, however, may take up to a year, and sometimes even longer.

A note of caution: When the body is dehydrated, it tries to retain its salt in order to hold on to water. Once urination increases following improved hydration, these salts are gradually passed out with the urine. If the hydration attempts are implemented too quickly, those areas with the most salt retention may develop lymph edema. Any emerging puffiness of or around the eyes or swelling of the ankles indicates that the hydration process should be done more gradually. As the swellings decrease, you may resume drinking normal quantities of water. With increased water intake, your body will also be able to remove any excessive salt. However, you do not want to become salt-deficient. You should, therefore, be certain to include some unrefined salt as an important part of your diet. If don’t use your muscles enough and they start to cramp, particularly during the night, your body is most likely not getting enough salt (or it is getting the wrong type of salt, which is commercially produced table salt).

Both water and salt are absolutely essential for keeping the water metabolism balanced and for generating enough hydroelectric energy to maintain cellular activities. Drinking water is the most important therapy of all therapies because absolutely nothing in the body does not depend on it. Drinking water and cutting out any energy-depleting (overstimulating) influences should be the very first treatment in the case of an illness, before attempting to do anything else. In most cases, the problem will disappear naturally when the body is properly hydrated and allowed to rest.

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This is an excerpt from the book SIMPLE STEPS TO TOTAL HEALTH by Andreas Moritz & John Hornecker

The Preconditions Necessary For Healing An Illness

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By Andreas Moritz

Your body’s healing power is always present within you – the conscious being – who uses the physical body as an instrument to express his/her individuality and purpose. True healing, which has nothing to do with suppressing symptoms of disease, cannot be enforced by even the best of treatments unless the preconditions for healing are already in place. The following are some of the most important clues about how this healing power can become activated in you:

Before you can heal an illness, you have to accept it.

Acceptance of your illness is not a sign of resignation or passiveness that would just result in depression and fear. Acceptance of your illness rather shows that you are willing to take responsibility for yourself and your situation. This will help you infuse your body with feelings of compassion, love, tenderness and energy. Accepting what is will allow your own healing energies to stream into your body and provide it with the calm, relaxed state it requires to return to a balanced condition (equilibrium). For as long as you feel you are a victim of some misfortune, food, medicine, or even karma (effect of past actions), you are far from being healed. Rejecting an illness only energizes your resistance to it, which is stressful for the body and mind and puts all the cells of your body into a mode of self-defense. Stress undermines immune functions and prevents the healing response. By accepting your illness, you are no longer subjected to fear and insecurity but in control of yourself. This will also help you to understand the true reasons behind your illness.

Instead of seeing an illness as a negative event that you need to fight against, you will need to perceive it as an opportunity to become stronger in areas that have been weak and underdeveloped.

“Detours” can lead you into important areas that you would otherwise miss out on. Rejecting or fighting disease also repels the opportunities that disease always brings along. Since disease has no power or agenda except to heal your body and mind, it is wise to work with the illness, not against it. Physical healing involves repair of damaged cells and growth of new ones. At the same time, while undergoing the process of healing, you have the opportunity to grow stronger, become more relaxed, peaceful, and content. Growing spiritually and emotionally as a result of an illness greatly minimizes the necessity for further detours, such as repeated or new physical disorders.

Since your illness is only your body’s attempt to redirect your life in a more supportive and fulfilling direction, there is no reason to fear it or to be upset about it.

Your body is doing the very best it can to make it easier for you and help you return to a state of balance. Therefore, you may greatly benefit from not judging yourself or your body for going through such a healing crisis. You are certainly not a victim of some kind. Your body is totally on your side, never against you. Make your body your friend and stop treating it as an enemy.

Don’t be fooled by the medical concept that there are autoimmune diseases which supposedly make the body attack itself! By design, the body is not suicidal unless you are (consciously or unconsciously). Instead, the body is merely attacking toxins that have settled in the joints, blood vessels, lymph ducts, or cells. The resulting inflammation merely is a survival response and should not be mistaken for a disease, even if it involves pain, infection or proliferation of cancer cells. Remain positive and peaceful about your own healing ability, and trust that the body is always engaged in trying to make you well again. Your illness can be your personal guide for a new purpose or orientation in life. A wise man once said. “Illness is God’s way of getting your attention!” Once you pay attention to your illness and accept it as a blessing in disguise rather than a nuisance or threat, it will reveal its inherent blessing to you and surely help you live your life in a gentler, more nurturing way.

Avoid making physical wellness your goal in life; instead, let it be your process each moment.

Seeing health as being a goal you have to fight for implies the idea that there is something fundamentally wrong with you. For example, if you suffer from pain, don’t perceive this as a sign of sickness, but rather as a healthy response by your body to deal with an imbalanced situation. Sickness is but a process of healing that the body is going through. Trying to escape the present and reach a better future merely drains your energies, which makes it difficult for the body to heal itself. Being well is a matter of being in the present moment, and not a fictional, futuristic dream. The current moment is the only sure thing you can possibly own in life, and it is perfectly suited for you, even if it doesn’t feel that way. If you resist or reject something such as an illness, you will be stuck with it until it is able to remove the fear that lurks behind your resistance.

Accepting the illness, on the other hand, makes it useful for you, regardless of its appearance. Attending to your goal of becoming well sometime in the future is unrealistic because it takes you outside the present reality into one that hasn’t happened yet.

Life is not about attaining a perfect physical body, but being able to live perfectly well with its imperfections. This is true health.

Energy follows thought. Living for a goal, such as trying to get rid of a disease, robs the body of your attention, and therefore, also of the energy necessary to heal and sustain itself. By living from moment to moment, your full attention is present in the body. This is all the cells of your body need to know and feel in order to do or resume the job assigned to them. Cells that are “fed” with loving, caring attention believe that you are present and alive. By contrast, cells that are being attacked for “making you suffer,” either through harsh words, anger, and threats or drugs, surgery, and radiation, are paralyzed in their healing capacity because they believe you dislike or hate them and want them to die. Cells are living, conscious beings just like you are. By attending to the present moment of being ill without any judgments, but with loving acceptance, you automatically program your cells to carry out a healing response.

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This is an excerpt from my book TIMELESS SECRETS OF HEALTH & REJUVENATION

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Are Antibiotics Really Necessary?

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By Andreas Moritz

Antibiotics have dominated the field of health for nearly 60 years. Known as a “magic bullet” treatment or “miracle drug,” antibiotics, meaning “against life,” can speedily destroy hordes of disease-causing bacteria. They are the most popular choice of the medical profession for stopping infections and relieving pain. At least one of every six prescriptions written each year is for an antibiotic drug. Antibiotics are so popular with doctors and patients because they provide relief very quickly.

Having grown up in a generation in which antibiotics are frequently prescribed for a stubborn case of cystitis, a sore throat or an itchy skin rash, we may readily accept that the “magic bullet” prescribed by the doctor is the best option to deal with such bacterial infections.

Although every medical student knows that viral infections (including colds and the flu) do not respond to antibiotics, millions of people who are afflicted with these ills still receive antibiotic prescriptions from their doctors. In 1983, more than 32 million Americans visited a doctor for treatment of the common cold and 95 percent of them went home with a prescription drug. More than half of them were unnecessarily given a prescription for an antibiotic.

Now, 25 years later, this trend has nearly doubled. Patients are rarely informed that even a single dose of a broad-spectrum antibiotic drug can severely damage the natural flora of the intestinal tract and the blood-forming red bone marrow for as many as four to five years. In the majority of cases, patients do not read the list of side effects written on the drug labels or direction sheets. They simply trust that their doctor knows what is best for them.

It is very disconcerting that many doctors don’t even know that penicillin, for example, won’t cure a cold or flu. Because of their very design, antibiotics impair the immune system and hence may sow the seeds for problems more serious than a cold in the future. Besides, a cold is not an illness, but rather the body’s first and best emergency response to rid itself of toxins. The virus only serves as a trigger for this cleansing response to occur. If you do “catch” a cold, consider it a blessing rather than a curse, and allow the body to heal itself.

Since most people prefer a quick-fix “cure” to a time-consuming one, antibiotics have become one of the most preferred forms of treatment today. However, it may take a minimum of 24 hours before infection-causing bacteria can be identified.

So the doctor, being pressed for time, tends to use a broad spectrum drug that can wipe out every microorganism it meets, including those that help protect us against disease. This may be justified in the rare event of a life-threatening infection, but certainly not for the vast majority of relatively mild infections. To make matters worse, in a large number of cases, specific antibiotics are administered to patients with symptoms of infection even before the lab sample has been analyzed. The chances that they will receive the wrong drug or take a drug for no reason at all are at least 50 percent.

If a man suffering from sinusitis leaves the doctor’s office empty-handed and “merely” receives advice on how to deal with his illness in a more natural way, he may think that his doctor hasn’t done his job or is irresponsible. The physician too, facing a viral infection, often prefers the comparatively “safe” option of an antibiotic to being blamed for not doing enough for the patient, particularly when the patient is a child. Otherwise, the doctor might even risk a lawsuit against him. Even though the probability that a child really requires antibiotics is as low as 1 in 100,000 cases, nearly 95 percent of all children taken to the doctor are given such drugs. In most of these cases, antibiotics are being misused “to please” overly worried mothers.

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This is an excerpt from my book TIMELESS SECRETS OF HEALTH & REJUVENATION

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Obesity Is a State of Mind

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By Andreas Moritz

What would you say if I told you that obesity is a state of mind? Let me put it this way. Obesity has as much to do with storing fat as it has to do with your perceptions of yourself and the world around you. This is a vital link – perhaps the most vital link – that conventional medicine missed. Lots of people live toxic lifestyles, not only individuals who are obese, it’s just that different bodies adjust and react to toxicity in different ways. Individuals who are obese tend to store physical as well as emotional toxins in their fat cells.

What you think, how you perceive yourself and others, and the basic assumptions and premises by which you live have a profound effect on your weight. I have elaborated on the subject and discussed destructive thought patterns, carrying the baggage of emotional traumas, the stress response, and one’s negative beliefs about being overweight.

For any type of real physical, mental or spiritual healing to take place, you must make an important decision, perhaps one of the most important you will ever make. Depending on which way you look at it, it could also be one of the easiest or one of the most difficult decisions you will ever make. It is a decision to become emotionally whole, or simply, a decision to heal yourself.

It is a demonstrated fact that techniques of physical, mental, and spiritual healing cause physiological changes in the brain and other organs. That is because our thoughts, beliefs and emotions are stored not only in our cerebral cortex but also in our cells and tissues via complex neural pathways powered by chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.

Though natural healing techniques impact on this cellular memory, remember that this journey starts in mind – with a decision you have made to heal yourself, to clearly see the mind-body connection at work and to rely on your innate wisdom to cure yourself.

If you would prefer to start with baby steps, begin by creating the time and space to access your healing force. Simply spend some quiet time by yourself every day, perhaps in the park or even sit up in bed when you wake up every morning and before you sleep every night and ‘empty’ your mind.

Repeat this for a few days and you will already begin to feel the difference! Detoxifying you mind in this way will instantly relieve stress. This will, in turn, start the positive loop you need to take the power of internal healing even further.

Different things work for different people. So find your own stress-busters, such as a walk around the block after your evening meal, playing with your pet, watching the sunset or even sitting with your feet up and doing absolutely nothing.

Once you begin to experience the benefits of these simple practices, you will embrace an attitude of relaxation rather than the stress-filled life so many people are almost addicted to. You might then want to explore other systems that re-balance and unite the mind and body such as progressive relaxation, deep breathing, meditation, and yoga.

Remember, being overweight is indeed a state of mind.

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This is an excerpt from my book FEEL GREAT, LOSE WEIGHT

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You may share or republish this article provided you clearly mention the name of Andreas Moritz and paste a hyper link back to the web page

Free Radicals Cannot Be Considered A Cause Of Illness And Aging

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By Andreas Moritz 

Imagine if we actually focused on removing the root causes of cancer. We would find that cancer is actually not a threatening disease at all, and certainly not the killer disease we have been made to believe it is.

You may wonder about those bad oxygen free radicals that everyone talks about. Is it not true that they are behind most cancers and other diseases? If it is true, how can we defend ourselves against them, other than by removing them with such antioxidants as vitamin C?

Oxygen free radicals are highly reactive oxygen molecules. They are involved in causing rust in iron and in turning fats rancid. They are also found in arteries that have become occluded with plaque. Many researchers believe that they are involved in the formation of cancer cells. However, like bacteria, these molecules have been given an unjustifiably bad reputation. Free radicals have existed since the beginning of life on Earth. Why would they now lead to cancer in one out of every two people when just 100 years ago only 1 in 8,000 people suffered the same fate? Did they just become a lot more ‘vicious’ in the past 100 years, ever so eager to oxidize us to death? The answer is a resounding ‘No’.

They only oxidize and destroy what is already weak and potentially damaging to the body. They never attack healthy, vital cell tissue, but they naturally turn up where there is something to be destroyed that has become useless and is an impending threat to the body’s physiological balance. Weak or worn out cells and accumulated metabolic waste material, which the body’s lymphatic system normally removes without a problem, become a hazard when they are trapped in the tissues and the free radicals are not doing their job. Increasing free radical activity and spreading infectious germs are therefore the next best alternatives to the body’s own cleansing and eliminative efforts, especially when the body’s immune system is already compromised. Thus, neither free radicals nor germs can rightfully be considered a cause of illness and aging.

Since illness is actually a healing mechanism and aging is a form of advanced congestion in the body, free radicals must, in fact, be considered the beneficial effects of illness and aging.

The more often infections are ‘prevented’ or suppressed through medical interventions, the less efficient the liver and kidneys, as well as the immune, lymphatic, and digestive systems become in keeping the body’s cell tissues free of harmful, noxious deposits.

Yet, not only infections and free radicals act as cleansers or scavengers of obstructive waste and damaged, weak cells, but pain also serves as a healing aid. Pain is merely a signal that the body is actively involved in a healing response that includes repairing damaged tissues and cleansing itself. By suppressing pain with medication, you short-circuit the body’s internal communication and healing mechanisms and practically force it to hold on to, and eventually suffocate in, its own waste. Cancer is a natural consequence of dealing with such a distressing, unnatural situation.

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This is an excerpt from my book CANCER IS NOT A DISEASE! – IT’S A SURVIVAL MECHANISM

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You Are Your Own Healer

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By Andreas Moritz 

During the early 1990s, researchers once again reviewed all the major heart disease studies in order to determine what the greatest risk factors were for the biggest killer disease in the Western hemisphere. Much to their surprise they found that the greatest risk factors for heart disease weren’t obesity, cigarette smoking, cholesterol or high blood pressure, etc. but the happiness rating and job satisfaction. In other words, if you don’t like your job and if you are not getting along with your spouse, you are living dangerously. Being in a disharmonious relationship not only affects the emotional heart but also the physical heart. Having heart disease means that the whole body is sick. You cannot have a poorly performing heart and expect it to pump enough oxygen and nutrients to the cells of the body – a prerequisite for even the most basic physiological processes such as digestion and metabolism.

Brain and heart researcher Dr. Glen Rein has shed some light on why the happiness of the heart is so essential to our health. He discovered that it is a matter of the heart as to whether you get ill or not. Using Fast Fournier Transformation (FFT), he converted a conventional EKG of the heart into a frequency diagram, like the ones normally made only to map brain wave frequencies. It is well-known that the heart generates its own electricity and, as he points out, is much more powerful electrically than the brain. But what Dr. Rein went on to discover was simply amazing.

Negative emotions such as unhappiness, frustration, anger, hatred, and the like generate chaotic, weak and high frequency heart wave graphs. Positive emotions, on the other heart, such as lovingness, appreciation and gratitude produce very orderly, low-frequency, but very powerful waves on the graph. Dr. Rein showed that only when the heart shows coherent wave patterns, as in feelings of love and connectedness, could its energy be transmitted properly throughout the body. This may explain why lovers seem so healthy and energized.

Like a dynamo, the heart is capable of feeding healthful energy into the body. Chronically negative people, those who are angry, depressed, guilt-ridden, anxious or hateful, prevent their own healing by disordering and blocking their heart waves. This greatly reduces the heart’s energy production and distribution; sickness follows eventually. As the heart is the seat of the soul, we are in charge of whatever happens in the body. Truly happy people (not those who pretend to be happy) are those that have love in their hearts, and they are the healthiest people. They are their own healers. They trust that they are capable of healing from any illness.

This statement, illustrated by the work of David Hawkins is beautiful. Hawkins conducted a 29-year long study that showed that the health of the human body improves or deteriorates depending on a person’s mental state. He created a scale from 1-1,000 which measured human consciousness in response to emotional frequency. He found that any state that caused a person to vibrate at a frequency below 200 (or 20,000 cycles per second) weakens the body. On the other hand, a frequency condition from 200 to 1000 makes the body stronger. Hawkins discovered that the experience of shame had the lowest frequency effect on the body. This means, basically, if you have thoughts of shame, you become very weak, and thereby susceptible to illness. Guilt turned out to be the next most weakening emotion, followed by apathy, grief, fear and anxiety, craving, anger and hate.

Higher on the scale was trust, vibrating at a frequency of 250 (or 25,000 cycles per second). Trust turned out to have a strengthening effect on the body. If you trust in yourself, you naturally trust that all is well with you and with the world, even if it doesn’t seem that way.

Then going up the scale are willingness, optimism, acceptance and forgiveness, reason and understanding. Love, reverence, joy and serenity had particularly high frequencies. They were surpassed only by peace and bliss. Unity consciousness – the experience of you and the world as Spirit – is the highest calibration at a scale of 1000. This is the frequency of absolute power.

By bringing the higher frequencies of love, joy or faith into the lower frequencies of what we call problems or fragmentation, enables these difficulties to reveal their true purpose to us. Hence, they become opportunities for change and healing. To heal means to become whole, which means, this is the end of fragmentation.

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This is an excerpt from my book LIFTING THE VEIL OF DUALITY

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Respect the Human Body Clock

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By Andreas Moritz

Each biological timer dictates a specific rhythm or cyclic behavior to a group of cells, an organ or an endocrine gland. The various individual timers or body clocks are intrinsically linked to a common master clock. The master clock coordinates the individual clocks with one another and makes certain that every activity in the body is carried out according to its master plan. This master plan consists of nothing but the body’s constant effort to maintain perfect equilibrium or balance.

The body’s master clock is controlled by nature’s most influential cycle, known as the circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm prompts us to become active in the morning and to wind down in the evening. The sun is the main giver of life on the planet. Both organic and inorganic life forms require sunlight or sun energy for their existence, and so do all human beings. The movements of the Earth on its axis and around the sun create the precise cycles of day and night, as well as the seasonal changes. These rhythmic, repetitive patterns of the forces in nature, in turn, program our DNA to conduct all physical activities with perfect precision and ideal, accurate timing.

All external events occurring in the natural world are linked with similar events inside the body. A sunrise in nature, for example, triggers a ‘sunrise’ in your body. It wakes you up and gets you going. The morning light enters your eyes as soon as you open them. First, the light is broken down into its full color spectrum (seven colors) by the lenses of your eyes. Immediately, the individual light rays travel to the body’s master gland, the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus, which controls the body’s biological clock, then dispatches light-encoded messages to the pineal gland, which is often referred to as the ‘third eye’. These messages contain specific instructions for the pineal gland to secrete hormones.

One of the pineal gland’s most powerful hormones is the neurotransmitter melatonin. The secretion of melatonin follows a regular 24-hour rhythm. Melatonin production reaches peak levels between 1 and 3 a.m. and drops to its lowest levels at midday. The pineal gland secretes this hormone directly into the bloodstream, which makes it instantly available to all the cells in the body and tells them ‘what time it is’ in nature, meaning, what position the Earth is in related to the sun. It also tells a specific gene in the DNA of every single cell when it is time for it to die and be replaced by a new cell. Without the timely secretion of melatonin, the timelines of normal cell-division become extended and cancer cells develop, according to the latest cancer research (Nurses’ Study 2006).

The brain synthesizes another important neurotransmitter, serotonin, which relates to our state of well-being. It has a powerful influence on day and night rhythms, sexual behavior, memory, appetite, impulsiveness, fear and even suicidal tendencies. Unlike melatonin, serotonin increases with the light of day – with peak secretions at midday – and also through physical exercise and the intake of sugar. It is very interesting to note that over 95 percent of this extremely important neurotransmitter is actually made in your gut, not in your brain. This gut/brain connection shows how crucial eating good food and healthy digestive functions are for the overall wellbeing of both the mind and the body, and vice versa.

The increasing and decreasing levels of melatonin and serotonin indicate to the cells whether it is dark or light outside and whether they should be more active or slow down their activities. This intricate mechanism ensures that all physical functions are synchronized with the rhythmic changes that occur in the natural environment. This is known as ‘entrainment’. The health of each cell in the body depends, therefore, on the degree to which we allow the body to be in synchrony and harmony with the cycles of day and night.

Any deviation from the circadian rhythm causes abnormal secretions of the hormones melatonin and serotonin. This hormonal imbalance, in turn, leads to erratic biological rhythms, which can subsequently disrupt the harmonious functioning of the entire organism, including the digestion of food, cell metabolism and overall hormonal balance. Suddenly, we may feel ‘out of sync’ or shaky and become susceptible to developing an illness, which could include a simple head cold, headache, depression or even a cancerous tumor. The pineal gland controls reproduction, sleep and motor activity, blood pressure, the immune system; the pituitary and thyroid glands, cellular growth, body temperature, and many other vital functions. All of these depend on the regular melatonin cycle which, yet again, is controlled by our body’s ability to be in synchrony with nature’s rhythms. The amount of melatonin made available to the body in response to the darkness of the night depends on the concentration of serotonin secreted in response to the amount of natural light we are exposed to during the day. As daylight diminishes, serotonin is automatically broken down into melatonin.

If your body makes a good amount of serotonin from natural light, it will also produce sufficient amounts of melatonin during the nighttime, provided your eyes are closed. (When exposed to light, the pineal gland does not secrete melatonin in sufficient amounts.) The pineal gland starts secreting melatonin between 9.30 and 10.30 p.m. (depending on your age). Unless you use stimulants such as caffeine or food at that time, melatonin naturally induces sleepiness or drowsiness.

Melatonin may even slow the effects of aging, according to an animal study conducted by Spanish scientists associated with the Spanish Aging Research Network (RNIE). With sufficiently high levels of melatonin in the blood, the body is able to regenerate and rejuvenate itself. This sustains good health, vitality and longevity.

[Note: Melatonin in pill form is a popular sleep aid, but it interferes with the body's own melatonin production, which dosage and timing is perfectly synchronized with the circadian rhythm.]

The cycles of melatonin and serotonin totally depend on each other and are precisely controlled by our changing environment. By disregarding these rhythmic changes in nature and living against these unspoken laws, the body and mind surely move out of sync with one another. This is a leading cause of physical and mental illness.

One of the greatest secrets of good health lies in the discovery of our intimate relationship with the universe. Any sense of separateness between nature and us can only exist in the mind, not in the body. The body has formed an essential link with the external world. All its efforts are directed toward staying synchronized with our immediate and distant environment, including the moon.

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Listen To Your Body – And It Will Keep You Healthy!

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By Andreas Moritz

Like a switched-on radio receiver, your body continuously receives a vast amount of data and information from the external world. The earth, stars, sun and all life forms constantly emit radiation, which your body registers and processes to ensure balanced functioning and a harmonious relationship with the environment. Everything radiates, including light, warmth, air, earth-electric fields, microwaves, magnetic fields, radioactivity, etc. In response to all these visible and invisible influences, your body produces concrete messages, which try to tell you what to do at any given moment. Sleep, hunger, thirst, and any other natural urges or occurrences in your body indicate that your “radio” is switched on and you are “in tune” with the natural world. All of us are constantly challenged to listen and act on the messages we receive.

When we are no longer in tune with the outer forces, such as the cycles of the sun and moon, we begin to feel out of balance, and perhaps fall ill. This means we need to take more self-responsibility, which requires commitment to self, self-appreciation and self-love. These are the very same qualities that an illness may possibly help reinforce in us (the main purpose behind the disease-process). Instead of just dealing with the symptoms of a disease, we may greatly benefit from locating its origin(s) because it can teach us much about ourselves.

It is much more convenient to blame a virus for the cold you catch than to acknowledge that irregular sleeping habits or eating a lot of junk food, and the reasons behind this behavior, may have something to do with it. In truth, everything negative has a positive opposite hidden within it. Given the circumstances that you have created for yourself, it actually is not a bad stroke of luck or a form of punishment that makes you fall ill. All forms of ill health serve as opportunities to learn more about yourself, your body, your past, and the way you choose to live your life right now. Illness can lead you to a heightened state of awareness if you start seeing it as a challenge to move forward in your life rather than it being just a nuisance.

The Body’s Many Messages

It requires an open mind and heart to be able to listen to and follow the rules that nature has laid out for the smooth and effortless functioning of the body. To insist that everything needs to be explained scientifically before it is valid and worthy of consideration is not only impractical, but also shows lack of self-confidence and poor sense of judgment. The messages that we can receive from nature are direct and need no intellectual interpretation. In fact, trying to figure out everything to know it intellectually can actually steer you away from the ability to listen to the inner wisdom bestowed to you by nature itself. The wisdom of how to live a healthy, happy life is intrinsic to the body, mind and spirit of every person.

To give an interesting example: you don’t really have to understand the exact mechanisms behind the hunger signal that the body is giving you when it needs food. All you need to do is to eat and experience how the hunger subsides. By habitually ignoring the natural urge to eat, your stomach, pancreas and small intestines may get “upset” and start adjusting to the new rule of living by keeping their production of digestive juices low, so as not to waste the body’s precious resources. So when you suddenly eat a substantial, normal meal, you are likely to suffer indigestion.
On the other hand, if your stomach tells you that you are not hungry, i.e., that you don’t require any food at the moment, but you still eat out of politeness or curiosity, the digestive system won’t be able to process the food properly. This is another cause of indigestion.

If you feel the natural urge to have a bowel movement, the body sends you in the direction of a bathroom. But by disregarding this signal because it comes at an inconvenient time, your body has no other choice but to hold on to the waste. Eventually, the urge to defecate subsides, and more and more water is withdrawn from the feces until it is too dry and hard to be eliminated. This condition is known as constipation. Or, destructive bacteria begin to break down some of the waste, leading to toxic gases and other noxious substances. This may cause blood poisoning and other disturbances in the digestive system.

When your body feels tired and sleepy you have the natural urge to lie down and sleep. However, a cup of coffee or a cigarette will provide you with enough adrenaline to keep you awake. If you ignore the body’s sleep signals as a matter of routine, the over-secretion of adrenaline and other stress hormones may end up making you hyperactive, and unable to relax or sleep properly.

Ignoring the natural messages of the body lies at the basis of most illnesses today. To add to the already existing confusion about health matters, books, radio, television and especially magazines bombard you with an overwhelming amount of advice and information on the latest slimming diets, routines and lifestyle programs that are supposed to be “so good for you.” For example, not so long ago we were told that potatoes and pasta were among the most fattening foods, then nutritionists considered them good for slimming, and the latest low carb craze dismisses them as junk food. Torn between various health doctrines, we look for perfect answers to our problems. At the end, when your body is exhausted while trying to adjust to one diet after another, you may begin to realize that your requirements are totally unique and undergo constant changes, often from one day to the next.

If you are a sensitive person you must have noticed that at certain days of the month or times of day you are able to digest a particular food item more easily than at other days or times. The same food can make you feel vital and energetic on one day and cause you an upset stomach, bloating or cramping on another day. You may find that the same pasta dish may leave your stomach quickly after one meal whereas two weeks later the same dish will sit there like a rock and make you feel congested and even add weight to your body. Apart from the daily and seasonal cycles of change, the answer to this mysterious behavior of the body lies in the continuous movement of the planets and their various positions.

Good Health Requires Natural Instinct

In 1984, Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia proved that the human body is composed of mostly energy and only very little matter. To be exact, for each particle of matter there are 974.600.000 units of energy (photons). In other words, only one billionth of your body consists of matter, the rest is vibrational energy. All matter that comprises your physical body, the chair you are sitting on and the planet you are living on behaves essentially in a quantum-mechanical way. Since all external influences, such as solar storms, climate changes and the moon’s passage through a particular zodiac represent different energy states, they can instantly trigger corresponding activities, responses and transformations within your body. As a result of receiving these outer stimulations, your body starts sending subtle signals or intuitive messages to tell you that its requirements for food, water, rest, exercise, warmth, coolness, etc., have changed. This, however, requires sensitivity and wakefulness on your part. Both these qualities are absent, if you suppress your body’s natural urges (hunger, thirst, defecation, urination, sleep, etc.), overload your digestive system with food and waste, or even make yourself dependent on other people’s advice, however useful it may appear to be.

Any good system of health care can be recognized by one attribute: It teaches you how to listen to your body and how to become self-dependent in knowing what is useful for you at every moment in time. In any case, let experience guide you and find out what works for you and what doesn’t. A theory alone does not make you healthy. As you begin to listen to your body’s subtle messages, you will find that its behavior, activities, natural urges, and symptoms of disease are far from being random or coincidental.

Health trouble begins when we doubt our body’s ability to make the right choices, and this is exactly what we have learned to do, almost right from the beginning of life. Many of our natural instincts were discouraged or subdued by man-made rules, beliefs, manipulation, and advertising. They dictate to us our lifestyle, eating habits and times of eating, sleeping, and elimination of wastes.

If we keep ignoring the body’s basic instincts, the mind begins to look for substitutes, which causes (legitimate) cravings or addictions to foods, beverages, stimulants, sex, etc. By giving a little extra attention to your body, it will soon tell you the difference between a balanced and an unbalanced message. If, for example, your stomach is still full and you want to eat something, you will find that it is not your stomach that wants more food. Through the message of food craving the body is trying to tell you that it is no longer able to digest and assimilate foods properly and is consequently suffering from malnutrition. This cellular famine leads to the cravings. If your stomach is empty and you feel hungry, ask your stomach what it really would like to eat. The body’s nutritional and emotional requirements shift from day to day in direct response to changes occurring in the near and far environment. A set dietary plan would, therefore, confuse the body’s specific needs, and distort the messages it is trying to convey to you.

The body’s natural instincts follow certain principle forces that are common to every part of physical creation. The unique representation of these forces in your body ultimately determines your natural inclinations and instincts. It is responsible for the specific characteristics of your body type. To restore your body’s natural instincts, which is essential for regaining lasting health and vitality, you may first need to discover your personal body type.

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To learn more about your specific body type and how the body responds to specific foods, the cycles of the moon and the sun, and many other influences, see Andreas Moritz’s book Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation.

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Difference Between Benign and Malign Brain Tumor

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                         Difference between benign and malign brain tumor 

Hi, this a question, a very interesting question, from a person who had a massive or a big tumor in her brain and she still has a little part of that tumor left after it was surgically removed and she has now read my book “CANCER IS NOT A DISEASE” and is wondering if it might grow bigger and if she has to go thorough more treatment, and she is also mentioning that her tumor was benign and her question that is whether the tumor reacts exactly like a malignant tumor and there is obviously a difference between the two, and if that would make any difference in the way to go about it and to treat it and to get rid of it.

The answer is not as simple as  it sounds. There is actually no real difference between malignant and benign tumors except in the way they are active. The benign tumor is slow growing, could be designated as a pre-cancerous tumor but it is not as active as a malignant tumor.

A malignant tumor has a faster growth rate, and it is also spreading into the immediate environment more aggressively than a benign tumor can. A benign tumor is more or less encapsulated and it is separating itself from the environment and it does not partake of the nutrients from other cells that then would otherwise also turn cancerous. In a malignant tumor, you have a lot of blood supply that the body is generating in order, by creating new blood vessels, in order to make that tumor deal with the toxins in the environment and the threat that it perceives, that prevent, that could potentially destroy, an organ structure.

So the malignant tumor is actually not malignant, it is a term we give to it thinking that it is bad, that it is against us, but the immune system purposefully is supporting tumor growth, an aggressive tumor growth, in order to deal with a highly toxic environment. The environment around a benign tumor is as toxin and detrimental and therefore there is no requirement for an aggressive malignant growth spurt that is so typical for a malignant tumor. So there is really no truth to the idea that there is a difference between the two types of tumor, it is just there the range and the degree of activity in both types of tumors is very different. It is well known that benign tumors can became so called malignant tumors and start invading the environment  sort of spreading from their defined, limited area. Benin tumor are more likely to become encapsulated and inactive whereas malignant tumors become overly active and again spread over the environment depends on what the state of the environment is

Once again, if there is a very toxic environment and the person continues to increase the toxicity, then the previously known or noticed benign tumor can become malignant, and vice versa, a malignant tumor can become encapsulated and inactive and basically benign, moving to the benign state, when the toxicity in the environment is less and less and  is ideally non existent.

So the pathways of tumor growth can go in both directions, either increase or decrease, and depends on what we do. The cancer itself does not have a mind on its own, it completely depends on our thoughts, feeling, emotions, what we eat, whether we have enough vitamin D in our body through regular exposure to the sun without sun screens and sun glasses, something that I mentioned in my book “HEAL YOURSELF WITH SUNLIGHT” but it can… there are many, many other reasons… exposure to toxins, carcinogens through the food there are lots of them in processed foods, in meat products, in certain waters, of course fluoride which also has carcinogenic effects which is added to the drinking water, additives in foods, there are carcinogenic, there are already in any baby that is born in the United States, hundreds and hundreds of recognized chemicals and toxins which are potentially carcinogenic that means cancer producing.

They are altering the genes to make these cells, the genetically modified cells capable of dealing with those toxins, so it is not that the cancer is then a negative reaction but it is a positive reaction to an existing environmental pollution that otherwise could destroy the person prematurely. So the cancer is slowing down the process of degradation and weakening of the physiology that eventually could lead to the demise of the person.

So in reality, cancer is not a disease, it is a strategic survival, protective, healing mechanism that sets in when the body does not have any other choice to deal with the overwhelming influx and the ingestion or exposure to toxins and the weakening of the immune system that results from a lack of vitamin D for example or again exposure to toxins and overeating, failing digestive track which leads to massive amounts of toxins generated by bacteria when they decompose the undigested food.

So, it is important to take all those aspects into consideration from the mind and emotions to the ingestion of food and the environment you live in… all those influence the behavior of the body and therefore how the body is reacting to these influence in order to survive including the generation of cancer as a survival mechanism, not as a disease.

I hope this can give you some ideas, the book “CANCER IS NOT A DISEASE” goes very much into the depth of what cancer is and how we need to deal with it in a positive manner, not in a negative manner, that includes fear, and we know that fear inhibits the healing ability of the body. Once we are afraid of the cancer, terrorized by it or terrified by it, then the body’s immune system shuts down, the digestive functions shut down, the cardiovascular functions start failing and the body goes into a spiraling effect of feeling threatened, going through a chronic ‘fight or flight’ response situation during which the body is incapable of healing itself and removing any accumulated toxins from the cell environment. So regardless of whether it is a benign or malignant tumor, we need to do the exact same thing in order to stop the escalation of toxicity.

I recommend liver flushes to deal with most toxins in the body and a changed diet and lifestyle to support the immune system so that the body can heal itself, which is not a great feat. It is actually quite simple, but we need to learn and know about the preconditions for healing to occur which I have clearly have set out in that book and also in  “TIMELESS SECRETS OF HEALTH AND REJUVENATION“

Thank you, and thank you for a great question because  it highlights some of the great differences and misconceptions actually, that are found in the medical model that is trying to make us belief that cancer has something to do that destroys our lives, whereas in fact it is the opposite, that cancer actually tries to save our life and to enhance it and to lead eventually to a resolution of an underlined condition that has been there for a long, long time and the cancer is the perfect way to deal with it.

Typically, if left alone and supported, if the body supports, the cancer growth is actually supported, then the body will actually heal itself, will heal up cancer usually through an infection, a very strong infection, where TB bacteria that are entering the tumor cells will decompose the tumors and then the person will disintegrate the tumor, sometimes within 24 to 36 hours.

Unfortunately, modern medicine does not allow the patient to get to the point where the infection can eradicate the tumor and a person can heal up quite easily. I hope you will find that encouraging because I do not have any reason to believe that is not something we need to fight but we need to support.

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