Garner Healthy Living

Salt: Healthy Or Unhealthy?

2010-04-10T06:12:00.006-07:00

Here is another important article that needed to be brought out of the archives.

Salt is one of those things which is very interesting. It is vital for the human body to function. It is also considered to be a major health problem for many people. Why is that?

Perhaps we can shed a little light on this subject. When we speak of salt we generally are thinking about sodium, or more specifically, sodium chloride. There are however many salts made up of many minerals.

Table salt is generally made up of nearly all sodium chloride. High salt intake is considered unhealthy. It causes an imbalance in the blood vessels of the body, as well as in the blood it's self.

Many processed and packaged foods are very high in sodium, and so people are cautioned against using them too liberally.

While I was studying water I discovered that the high sodium diet is not a problem if one drinks enough water. This fascinated me, and also helped me to understand how very important it can be to drink lots of water every day. Given the proper resources the body is very good at balancing body systems.

I have further learned that it is very important to also get other mineral salts into the body to help in all the functions of the body. I now suggest that people use sea salt regularly to get all necessary minerals and trace minerals.

It is actually better to get your minerals and trace minerals from eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. But since so many of us don't get good organic produce, I do recommend some supplementation with sea salt.

The next thing that you need to know is not to buy sea salt from a grocery store, and even be leery of sea salts sold in health food stores. Most of them are actually just like normal table salt without hardly any trace minerals at all. Look for an actual listing of trace minerals on the label. Even though it may say that it is made from evaporated sea salt it is usually processed to the point of being just like table salt.

I suggest the use of products made by Trace Minerals Research. Seawater has a similar mineral content to the human blood stream, including all the trace minerals. Trace Minerals Research makes sea salt from the inland sea called The Great Salt Lake, in Utah. Their products contain all the trace minerals found in the sea. They are very healthful for the human body. You can't buy them directly from the company unless you are a wholesale buyer. But they can be bought through "Mineral Oasis".

Salt can cause health problems if too much is used without adequate water intake, but it is important to make sure that you are getting all the trace minerals that are available through eating good food, or at least using a good supplement.

Again, be sure that if you supplement with minerals of any kind, make sure that you are drinking plenty of water so that the body can use what it needs and flush out what it does not need.

Plenty of water means drinking at least one cup of water for every ten pounds of body weight each day.

Remember that health is all about balance in the body. Given the right resources from good food, along with rest and exercise and plenty of water, the body will keep the proper balance to keep you healthy.

Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breathe deeply and have a gratitude attitude.

Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.

Coach G.

GMO Food: A Good Idea That Turned Out Bad.

2010-04-07T13:29:00.004-07:00

I wrote this article about 2 years ago. I thought it was time to bring it out of the archives. The situation has only gotten worse. Genes from crops modified to create their own pesticides, have now been found growing (creating pesticide) in the intestines of some people. Scary stuff!

GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism. The idea was to create plants that could be grown in more places and have higher yields to help feed the world. A noble goal.

The hope was that plants could be made to withstand cold and heat better, keep insects from destroying them, be made more nutritious, and bear more fruit.

Some of these things have been accomplished. The problem?

There are side-effects. Some of them very undesirable.

You see the problem is that science actually hasn't progressed as far as many people are led to believe. We don't actually have the ability to splice a specific gene into a plant or animal DNA sequence. That is the way the biotechnology companies like to express it, but that isn't actually how it happens.

What they actually do is they grow bacteria in the lab that has certain characteristics that they like. Then they introduce that bacteria into cells of the plant or animal they want to change. The problem with the method used is that instead on only one single gene being introduced, it ends up changing many of the genes. Actual test show that about 5% of the genes get altered in some way.

You may think, "Well 5% isn't very much." But in the world of genetics 5% is huge. Remember that we have billions of genes. 5% of that is a lot. What we are talking about here is DNA damage that is done to introduce new attributes to GMO products. We actually have no way of knowing what genes were changed in what ways when the process was done.

There are actual case studies that have been identified where people came down with serious and deadly symptoms after using genetically modified substances.

Why aren't more people up in arms about this?

Well, you see, this is actually all about corporate greed and power. The goal of bio-tech companies is to create products that will entirely take over the food production of the world. Why? Because engineered products are patentable. If you can patent it then you can charge exorbitant prices for it.

You can have complete control. Imagine controlling the food supply of the world. Wow! Now that would be power!

Isn't it funny (in a very sad way) that the bio-tech companies use the excuse that they want to make it easier to feed the poor people of the world.

The truth is that genetically modified foods do not actually raise crop yields much if any. Also many animals will not eat genetically modified foods if given the choice between that or conventionally grown feed. To bad humans haven't developed that sensitivity.

The other problem that no one wants to talk about is with the environment. Pollen from GMO crops can be blown by the wind for many miles into non-modified crops and introduce the corrupted DNA into those crops. This has already happened in some areas. And to make that even more frightening, courts have ruled that the new crop that comes from that cross-pollenization is bound by the patent of the GMO. In other words, a farmer who has a field near a GMO field will eventually have to pay fees to the bio-tech companies because his crop has become a GMO crop.

The bio-tech companies use all kinds of fraudulent science practices to try to show that their products are safe.

I recently read one of their studies where they were testing for safety to bee populations in and around GMO crops. It was fascinating to see the excuses they used when a significant drop in bee population occurred in connection with the GMO product. They say stuff like, "That was just during the first 4 weeks of the test, then it leveled off." They consistently dismiss any bad news for them in any test by blaming it on some other cause, even when they can't actually explain how the other thing happened.

The thing to remember is that anytime man tries to micro-manage just about anything, he fails miserably. It is easy to see that our understanding of the human body and how it works, and indeed our understanding of just about any science is so limited that we can never foresee all the results of what our meddling with things is going to be. Any time we try to micro-manage we cause imbalances.

Nature has a wonderful balance that works for us very well if we just go with it and enjoy the benefits. GMO products and drugs are causing a dangerous imbalance that just seems to get worse and worse.

We need to stop trying to play God, and instead thank God for all his wonderful creations, and use them the way he intended for us to use them. That is what is best for mankind.

The only reason the poor of the world are underfed is greed of governments. There is plenty of good conventionally grown food in the world, governments just keep it from getting distributed well. In fact good food can be grown just about anywhere people live if they just get a little know how and freedom to do so. GMO foods will not help with that, they can only make it harder and more dangerous.

The bottom line is GMO foods have been messed up, and their balance compromised. It may take decades before we will know the full extent of how out of balance they have made us, but we already know that since they have been introduced the human race is becoming sicker and sicker. Some of that disease has already been directly connected to genetically modified substances.

Avoid GMO foods. Eat organic whenever possible. Part of the organic definition is that it must be GMO free. Beware that in the US most soy and corn are already GMO products. Avoid foods that are made from them if you can.

Remember that health in the human body is all about balancing systems. Balance is best obtained by using the good foods that nature has provided for us.

Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breathe deeply and have a gratitude attitude.

Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.

Coach G.

Restless Leg Syndrome

2010-04-03T21:42:00.008-07:00

Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) seems to be affecting more and more people. So let's do a little digging to see what it is about.

Nobody really seems to know what Restless Leg Syndrome really is, or what it's causes may be.

It is generally an uncomfortable feeling (tingly, bumpy, or creepy feeling) while resting that goes away or subsides if you move your legs around.

Some studies connect RLS with estrogen overload. It is also connected with anti-histamine drugs. Low iron [Click for info on anemia.] is also associated with RLS, as well as kidney problems. Some even think there is a genetic component. [Click HERE for more about genetics.] Others say that it is a nerve disorder or some kind.

So, if I thought that I had RLS I would work on normalizing the body in relation to those things listed above.

First would be to get the hormones in balance. This can NOT be done with hormone therapy. We don't know enough to balance hormones. However the body knows how to balance our hormones if we give it the right resources and the opportunity to do so.

The major keys to balancing hormones are :

Eliminate all corn, soy, canola, or cotton seed oils from the diet.
Eliminate all omega-3 or fish oil supplements.
Eliminate all added sugars from food, along with all artificial sweeteners, colors, or flavors.
Take 3 to 4 tablespoons of virgin coconut oil a day.
Exercise daily for 30 to 60 minutes.
Drink a cup of water a day for every 10 pounds of body weight.
Make sure you are getting your salt with trace minerals. [Click HERE to learn more.]

The next thing would be to eat plenty of green leafy vegetables to help balance out iron processing systems of the body. These will also help to clean and strengthen the kidneys.

Of course, as many toxins as possible need to be eliminated from your lifestyle, so that the kidneys and liver are not over burdened.

Whole grains in the diet (meaning you buy whole grains, not a package that claims whole grains were used in the manufacturing process), particularly wheat, will help to balance many body systems, as well as help to heal leaky gut that is a major contributor to histamine problems.

Note that some people with RLS already have problems with wheat gluten, so they will need to use wheat grass for a while until the body is healed enough to handle the whole wheat.

An important lifestyle change to make for balancing nerve health is to eliminate all GMO foods. More and more we area being exposed to genetically modified foods, and they are causing havoc with our bodies, especially, it seems, our nervous systems.

In particular GMO foods have been connected to some of the tingly, creepy feelings similar to those experienced by many people with RLS. [Click HERE to learn more about GMO foods.]

If I had RLS, I would do all of the above listed things together, to give my body the best chance at re-balancing and normalizing.

Doing what it takes to regain your health is a personal journey. Ultimately we are each responsible for our own health. My goal is to help you all I can with what I am learning. If you have any questions or comments I would be happy to hear from you.

Omega-3 : Friend or Foe?

2010-03-31T13:37:00.012-07:00

Omega-3s : What Are They?

It seems like everybody these days is telling you that you need to get omega-3 fats in your diet.
What are they? And is it true?

Now, I must confess that I have always been a little reluctant about recommending omega-3 supplements. It just didn't make sense to me that this stuff that is found only in very small quantities in the diets of people living long healthy lives, should be so important for us to make sure we get plenty of.

It has also bothered me that people are being encouraged to consume large amounts for omega-3 fats, because they are polyunsaturated oils, and therefore detrimental to the human body in large quantities.

So, I decided to do more research to find out just how much of these fats we really need, and what are they good for.

Well, omega-3 fats are fatty acids that have in common a final carbon–carbon double bond in the n−3 position; that is, the third bond from the methyl end of the fatty acid.

The omega-3 fatty acids talked about for nutrition are ALA, EPA, and DHA.

ALA is the important one, because the body can use it to create the other two, if it needs them. They are basically involved in inflammatory response mechanisms in the body.

It turns out that these fats are NOT essential. The body can make them if it needs them from other sources. It also turns out that these fats are not needed very much, or in very large amounts. Also we can get plenty of them from eating normal food. Green leafy veggies are a great source.

So what about the research that is encouraging people eat lots of these?

Well, it stems from research done on Inuits in Alaska. It was discovered that these Eskimos, who ate large amounts of fat, were safer from heart disease than many other people.

The researches, knowing that saturated fats were bad for your heart, decided that it had to be the omega-3 fats that were helping them. They didn't know that the research that shows that saturated fats are bad for you was just as bad, or worse, than their own research.

Further studies have been done on omega-3 fats, and the results have been very confusing. Some show improvement, some show decline. It is now almost unanimous that large amounts of omega-3 fats should not be given to cardiac patients. But most doctors will still tell heart patients that they should take some omega-3 fats.

So, I decided that I would look a little deeper.

It turns out that the studies that I could find that say that omega-3 fats are good for the body, in any way, are studies that did not use omega-3 fats exclusively. For instance they would combine a diet with omega-3 fats with vitamin and mineral supplements, and then give any or all credit of positive outcomes to the omega fats. Yet the studies were not designed to actually measure the goodness or badness of omega-3 fats.

Any study I could find that actually used omega-3 fats in a way that could detect the effects of their use, was either a negative outcome or a confusing outcome.

Next, I went to a biochemist that I trust to get his take on omega-3 fats. He insisted that nobody should take extra supplements of omega-3 fats. He went on to say that studies show omega-3 fats are particularly detrimental to mitochondria in the body. Here is a link to his research.

Mitochondria are the things that allow cells to be energized. It turns out that omega-3 fats are particularly detrimental to the lungs and the eyes.

Anyone with lung or eye problems should be extra careful to make sure that there are no omega-3s or any other polyunsaturated oils in there diets.

In fact I would recommend that everyone cut out any omega-3 supplements from their lifestyle. As far as I can see, they can only cause harm.

Fish oils are an important first thing to eliminate. Fish oils are usually already rancid before you take them, and if they are not, they go rancid as soon as they get into the body. They are so easily oxidized, that is just the way they are.

People encouraging the use of fish oils have been led down the wrong path by researchers who either didn't take the bother to think through their research projects, or were paid to achieve a particular outcome.

I recommend stopping all fish oil supplements of any kind.

This does not mean however that you need to cut out green leafy veggies from your diet. This is because in the green leafy form these fats are balanced out with many other nutrients that help the body to be balanced. Plus eating green leafy stuff makes sure that your body does have small amounts of these substances when it does need them for certain special purposes.

Remember that health in the human body, is all about balance. And the best way to find that balance is to eat a variety of fresh whole foods nature can use to keep the balance that only nature's God understands fully.

Cancer And Sugar : A New Paradigm

2010-03-25T11:57:00.004-07:00

Here is a new paradigm on cancer and sugar.

As many of you may know, cancer gobbles up sugar. The cancer uses the sugar to create more energy to do more replicating.

One of the problems that this knowledge has caused is that many cancer patients try to cut down on sugar to help rid themselves of cancer. The thing is that sugar is necessary of every cell of the body to make energy with, so they can carry out the functions they have. If you starve the body of sugar to fight cancer cells, you also starve all the other cells of the body.

However our recent study of sugars, and particularly fructose, has given us a little more ammunition to fight with. It turns out that cancer cells develop an ability to directly uptake fructose. Most normal cells in the body do not have this ability.

So, instead of cutting out sugar, in all it's forms, to help fight cancer, it may be well to cut out all fructose for a while. By going on a glucose-as-the-only-form-of-sugar-in-your-diet diet you can cause the cancer cells some problem while still feeding the good cells.

It can be difficult to go on this kind of a diet because most fruits and vegetables contain fructose.
Also most packaged foods at the store contain sucrose (which is half fructose) or fructose in some form. Even honey is about 40% fructose. Also keep in mind that the artificial sweeteners are even worse for the body.

You can eat swiss chard, celery, mustard greens, oatmeal, whole wheat, rice, nuts, raw milk, and eggs.

Just to be clear, it is always advisable to avoid processed and artificial sugars as much as possible. If you must ad sweetener, I prefer raw (not heated, not filtered) honey. Of course if you are eliminating fructose for a few weeks or months to help your body heal, you would need to skip the honey and use something like stevia.

Stevia is a good sweetner with out any known negative consequences. All though some studies have identified problems with extracts of stevia, there is no known problems with the stevia leaf that is normally used for sweetener. Of course you shouldn't over due any one substance.

Phytates : Good or Bad?

2010-03-18T19:08:00.004-07:00

The other day I mentioned phytates (or phytic acid) in a positive light and it may have confused some of you. There are many people who will tell you that phytates are bad for you and should be avoided. Lets look at that argument.

Phytates have an interesting property that allows them to bond to iron, zinc, and calcium. So if you eat them with those minerals, your body won't be able to absorb as much of those minerals as it might other wise.

Phytates also have a high phosphate content, but it is also bound up and unavailable for digestion for the most part.

So looking at those facts, one could say that phytates are a negative and should be avoided. But lets take another look.

Phytates, by binding up minerals, may actually be preventing the formation of free radicals, that do so much damage in the body, by keeping minerals at a safe level.

More and more researchers are recognizing problems caused by an overload of iron in the body. Phytates will act as antioxidants, and just a small amount of phytates can drastically cut down the amount of iron in the body.

Phytates have also been shown to help prevent cancer and even to activate the natural killer cells that attack and destroy cancer.

Phytates also are accompanied by plenty of fiber, so that helps with healthy digestive and elimination systems. As well as helping to regulate the use of glucose from starches.

Phtates are broken down by certain enzymes and food processing. For instance yeast fermentation in making bread dough breaks down phytates. Also sprouting grains, and seeds breaks down the phytates. Even soaking beans and cooking them can help to break down phytates.

The best sources of phytates are grains, nuts, and legumes.

So, as it turns out, the best thing to do is look for balance in your lifestyle. Don't go looking for tons of phytates, and don't worry about trying to avoid them. Eat a good balanced diet of whole foods and you will get what you need.

The human body is an amazing machine that has the ability to use what it needs and dump what it doesn't need. So the key is really in giving the body the resources that it needs to do what it needs to do.

HERE is a quick outline of the basics.

And HERE is a little more info about those basics.

HERE is a list of the rules along with a list of the things to eliminate from your lifestyle.

HERE is an article to help you understand balance.

Have a great day!
Coach G.

Fructose Discoveries

2010-03-17T13:54:00.006-07:00

I know that many people are familiar with fructose. We generally think of it as the natural sugar found in fruit. Well, recently some fascinating things have been discovered about fructose that I want to share with you.

Excess fructose has been found to cause an increase in uric acid. This in turn leads to high blood pressure, bad triglycerides, fatty liver, insulin resistance, kidney disease, and obesity.

Researchers have found in their testing that glucose does not cause these problems by it's self. But if it is combined with fructose, it actually causes the body to have a higher up take of fructose than it would normally have. Thus if glucose and fructose are taken together, the problem is worse than if fructose is taken alone.

Sucrose (table sugar) is half fructose and half glucose.

However, researches also discovered that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is even worse than the sucrose.

When your body goes through this process of being overloaded with fructose, which consequently overloads you with uric acid, your body then starts to crave the fructose, and a negative spiral ensues.

Interestingly the researchers also discovered that this uric acid problem is also caused by a common item consumed by many people. Beer. Evidently this is why people get beer belly.

So, if you have these kinds of problems what can you do?

The researchers tell us that the first thing to do is stop supplementing with fructose. Of course soft drinks are probably the biggest offender. Then eliminate any food that lists HFCS on the label.

Once you have eliminated fructose from your diet for 2 or 3 weeks, then you can go back to normal fructose intake. Normal means as part of a healthy diet, not what your normal consumption was before.

You see,researchers found that fructose that is eaten as part of a whole food, doesn't seem to cause these problems. The vitamins, minerals, enzymes, phyto-nutrients, and anti-oxidants found in whole foods keeps the fructose from causing the high uric acid problem.

The other thing to know is that if you do have a high uric acid problem in your body, there are several things that the researchers pointed out will help to normalize the situation, thus helping to heal the body.

Exercise helps to balance out uric acid. Vitamin C seems to cancel out the uric acid effects. Foods naturally high in phytates (phytic acid) help to balance out uric acid levels. These include nuts, whole grains, and many legumes. Processing these foods can drastically lower the phytate levels.

For instance leavened bread has a much lower phytate level than unleavened bread. Even sprouts have a much lower level of phytates than the raw whole grain.

Of course sprouts have other benefits. Again it comes down to balance in all things. Eat sprouts sometimes for all of their goodness, but other times just boil up some whole grains for a good dose of phytates. Cooking (at normal temperatures) doesn't destroy phytates.

Well, I hope you found this interesting and informative. Let me know.

Have a great day!
Coach G.

Researchers report can be found HERE if you want to read the whole thing.

Agave Nectar : Uh Oh!

2010-03-02T11:19:00.005-07:00

I have been asked from time to time what my thoughts are about agave nectar. I have usually responded that it is probably all right, and seems to be a natural product. I have used it and like it ok, but I prefer raw honey for a sweetener.

The problem is that I never really looked into agave nectar. I should have known better than to trust labels on products in health food stores. That is a notoriously bad place to get nutritional advice. I just had never really been that interested in agave to really research it.

Well, it turns out that I should have thought about it a little more.

A comprehensive article about it (found HERE) states that, 'Agave nectar is advertised as a “diabetic friendly,” raw, and “100% natural sweetener.” Yet it is none of these.'

Agave nectar should actually be called agave syrup. It is a manufactured, highly processed sweetener that has much in common with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup).

While it is true that the natives of Mexico made sweetener from the agave plant as well as using the plant for medicinal uses, the product that we find in our stores called 'agave nectar' is not the same thing.

What the natives did was to use the sap of the plant, by boiling it down for a couple of hours.

The agave nectar found in our stores is processed from the starches from the agave root bulb. It is broken down with enzymes and chemicals, and ends up having a higher concentration of fructose than high fructose corn syrup.

When made correctly it is clear, or very light colored. When it is heated for too long it gets burned and turns a darker brown. This is deceiving in another way, because many of us have been taught that sweeteners with a darker richer color are more nutritious.

The truth is that the basic principles don't change. Basically, the more something is processed and removed from it's natural state, the worse it is for our health. The real problem with high fructose corn syrup and with agave nectar is that they are concentrated extracts that overpower and cause imbalance in the systems of the body while supplying little or no nutrition. For more info on balance CLICK HERE.

I still recommend using raw honey as a sweetener for those times that you need a little added sweetener, but remember that most raw natural foods have their own sweetness that can be enjoyed. Also, not everything should taste sweet.

So, to sum it all up, while agave nectar may look promising on the shelf, that may be the best place to leave it.

Have a great and healthy day!

Coach G.

Telomeres : The Answer To Aging?

2010-02-25T18:27:00.003-07:00

You may have seen recent articles, and or videos about telomeres.

Here is a video of Sierra Sciences CEO Bill Andrews, PhD, making a presentation about telomeres at the 2009 Longevity Summit.

He explains that telomeres are the very end of the DNA string in the chromosomes. DNA is a hundred million bases long. Telomeres are about 15,000 bases long when we are first conceived. As cells divide the telomeres get shorter. When we are born we have about 10,000 bases in our telomeres. When telomeres are around 5,000 bases we die of old age. (This is the theory.)

He starts off by saying that we can't do anything to stop telomeres from getting shorter as our cells divide. So there is a maximum limit of about 125 years to human life.

He also tells us that bad lifestyle choices, such as smoking, will make telomeres get shorter even faster. So this of course encourages us to live healthy lifestyles. So far so good.

However he assures us that there is no lifestyle changes that can keep telomeres long and healthy.

As he proceeds we find out that the telomeres in some cells do not get shorter. At first he says just reproductive cells have this property. But as the presentation goes on we find out that other cells also have this ability to live longer.

His job is to find drugs that will help cells keep long telomeres. He invisions finding drugs that will allow us to live much longer.

We next find out that no one really knows yet if keeping telomeres long will keep us from aging. Indeed there seems to be much more involved in aging than telomeres. In fact only humans, dogs, cats, and horses seem to have this telomere problem. No other animals age in this way.

Interestingly, cancer cells have this ability to keep long telomeres. If we take a drug to cause cells to be like cancer cells, is that a good thing?

It turns out that Bill Andrew's presentation is simply a plea for money to do more research, to make drugs to patent and sell.

A little more research on our part, and we find out that telomeres also stay healthy if we eat balanced amino acids from whole foods. This is a direct disagreement with Bill Andrew's statements. Even though, in his presentation he does make mention of groups of people who are known to live longer and have longer telomeres than those who don't live as long.

If you study these groups of people who live to be over 100 years old and still have very healthy active lifestyles, you find out that they don't take drugs, or even supplements, for the most part.

They do however eat lots of fresh veggies, fruits, and whole grains. They also get regular exercise (often strenuous), and have good social lives.

These kinds of presentations are good examples of how important it is to listen to what is being said, as well as what is not being said.

He said that eating well and exercising won't help, but all his years of research hasn't been about anything but drugs. He hasn't researched nutrition, or lifestyle.

This is a common mistake made by many many people. They assume that because people who eat processed foods and take drugs can't achieve optimum health, then it must be impossible to achieve optimum health unless we come up with some super drug that will solve all our problems.

He also encourages everyone to spend hundreds of dollars to have there telomere lengths analyzed. The only purpose I can see in that, since they don't really yet know what the real truth about telomeres and aging is, is to get you anxious to buy his drug that he will be making in the future, so you will put up money now to move the research along.

Unfortunately most of the articles out there, that talk about telomeres, are presentations designed to sell some supplement or drug like substance, or to give you false hopes to look forward to the miracle pill, that they will soon be making, to give you long life.

But a little common sense and level-headedness, along with an understanding of nature and natural foods made by our creator, helps us to know that by eating wholesome foods with complete proteins we are already way ahead of the game.

Specifically recommended foods that help with this include eggs, raw milk, and whole wheat.

So if you choose a healthy lifestyle and keep your telomeres long, can you live forever? Probably not. Remember that there is much more to aging than just telomeres.

But choosing a healthy lifestyle will help you to enjoy life much longer with fewer health concerns along the way.

Enjoy your day!
Coach G.

The Diet Solution Program Review

2010-02-17T12:40:00.005-07:00

People have been asking me about a book or a program they can follow that will incorporate many of the healthy lifestyle elements that I teach here on this blog. Well, believe it or not, I finally found one that is pretty darn good. It is sold primarily as a weight loss program, but includes the sound principles needed to live a healthy lifestyle.

So, here is a review of The Diet Solution Program: The Program that Promises Fat Loss along with an incredible amount of Health and Vitality.

The Diet Solution Program promises a complete and comprehensive weight loss program that will not only help you lose body fat, but guarantees you increased energy, health and vitality all at the same time.

With so many weight loss programs out on the market and on the internet today, what makes this program any different than all the rest?

Before we get to the program, let's take a look at the expert behind this program. Isabel De Los Rios is a nutrition and exercise specialist with 10 years of experience helping clients reach their ideal weight and tackle conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and high cholesterol. Isabel has a very extensive educational background in nutrition and exercise physiology. Her personal experience with her own weight struggles and her mother’s severe diabetes led her search for the BEST nutrition information available today. The Diet Solution Program is a result of her 15 year study and research.

Unlike other so-called “health experts”, who are just following main stream nutrition programs, Isabel provides her readers with the truth: the facts most people have never taken the time to research, read and decipher.

Plus, Isabel has been a nutrition and exercise specialist for the past 10 years and has personally worked with hundreds of clients in her own private facility, overseeing successful weight loss programs. This hands on experience with real people solidified the facts and principles she had learned in books, journals and from other health professionals. The proof was really in the results of real people.

In fact, Isabel's articles are pretty radical, when it comes to her nutrition principles, which is why her approach works when main-stream nutrition fails. So if you are looking for the same old nutrition theories taught in every other book and program on the market today, this is not the program for you. Amazingly she agrees almost 100 percent with me.

Now one of the biggest questions about the program is simply, "What is The Diet Solution Program?" Well according to Isabel, it is the most comprehensive and detailed nutrition manual available on the market today. Not only does it teach you exactly what principles you need to follow to finally reach your ideal weight, it gives you the meal plans, shopping lists and recipes to do so. It does not push some extreme, unreasonable way to lose weight. It actually teaches you how you can make this healthy way of eating into a lifestyle. And if you have ever attempted to lose weight in the past, you know that the only way to maintain it is to make it a way of life. The best part about Isabel’s program is that this new way of life is not some torturous eating regimen. She really shows you that you can eat delicious food, combined the right way, to lose weight and maintain it.

One of the best side effects of the whole program is the increased health and vitality that every participant experiences. Decreases in blood sugar levels, lowered cholesterol, increased energy, elimination of digestive discomfort and cleared skin conditions are just some of the few benefits other people have already experienced.

Now realize that some effort from you will be required, but Isabel has really done all the hard work for you. Included in her program is:

Step by step action steps telling you exactly how to put the principles in place
Detailed daily meal plans that make everyday eating easy
Shopping Lists to make food shopping a snap
Delicious Recipes to make everyday meals tasty

The manual is comprehensive. Jam packed with incredible and valuable information. But you don’t need to wait to get through the whole thing before you can start. You can use Isabel’s Quick Start Guide to start the program ASAP. Some people have even just used the quick start guide and lost 10-15lbs in a little as 6 weeks.

The Diet Solution Program is not just another weight loss scheme or extreme diet. It is truly the only way to lose weight and enjoy a lifetime of health. The Diet Solution Program is perfect for people who have struggled with their weight their whole life and are sick and tired of programs that just don’t work long term. The DSP is also perfect for people who want to take control of their health and reverse health conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease.

If you're in the slightest bit curious, I recommend you look closely at Isabel's program. I was very impressed with all of The Diet Solution Program meal plans, the bonuses, the guarantee, and Isabel's expertise. And it isn't a lot of money. Plus it is so much better than diet pills! And remember...

Isabel De Los Rios’s The Diet Solution Program is backed by a 90 day money back guarantee. And this is a real guarantee... if you are not completely satisfied, you will receive your money back, no "ifs," "ands," or "buts." So you really have nothing to lose.

Click here to check it all out.

Vitamin E : How To Get The Benefits

2010-02-11T18:21:00.007-07:00

Did you know that over 50 years ago it was shown that vitamin E could help prevent heart disease?

It also can help with fertility in both men and women. It helps to mitigate the downsides of estrogen. That means that it can also help to prevent cancer, as well as keep cholesterol levels normal.

It has been found that Vitamin E is also good for the treatment of blood clots, phlebitis, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes.

Vitamin E will even increase the availability of oxygen to the embryo in pregnant women.

It helps to decrease inflammation. It helps to heal leaky capillaries.

Excess clotting is known to be caused by too much estrogen, and also by a vitamin E deficiency.

Evidence indicates that Vitamin E prevents and cures fibrotic diseases, and it's a natural COX inhibitor.

In case you were wondering, fibrotic diseases include :
Cirrhosis (liver)
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (lungs)
CITA (Cronic Inflamation of Tunica Albugenia) *old peyronie's disorder
Endomyocardial fibrosis (heart)
Mediastinal fibrosis (soft tissue of the mediastinum)
Myelofibrosis (bone marrow)
Retroperitoneal fibrosis (soft tissue of the retroperitoneum)
Progressive massive fibrosis (lungs); a complication of coal workers' pneumoconiosis
Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (skin)
Crohn's Disease (intestine)
Keloid (skin)
Old myocardial infarction (heart)
Scleroderma/systemic sclerosis (skin, lungs)

Vitamin E even helps to get rid of excess intracellular calcium. Remember talking about that the other day? (See HERE if you don't.)

So, if that's all true, why don't doctors push for people to use Vitamin E anymore? They used to.

Well, one reason is that it was cutting into drug profits.

So, we began to hear stories about the bad things that could happen if you supplement with Vitamin E.

They said it could cause congenital heart defects, and hemorrhagic stroke.

Fairly quickly doctors started to ignore vitamin E, and now and then there would be an article published about the "toxicity" of vitamin E.

Wow! That doesn't sound good! So what is really true?

Well, if you do a little more research you find out that indeed there are negative health consequences for using vitamin E supplements that are made synthetically. In fact it turns out that studies that have been done on vitamin E within the last couple of decades, mostly use synthetic vitamin E. It isn't even the same chemical composition as natural vitamin E. Unfortunately, most vitamin E supplements are made that way.

The key to getting the health benefits of vitamin E is not to take vitamin E supplements. Simply eat good wholesome natural foods that are naturally high in vitamin E.

When you eat whole foods, you not only get the vitamin E in the correct form, you also get all the co-factors that make it do it's job best in your body.

When I looked up to see what foods were naturally high in vitamin E, I wasn't particularly surprised to see that it included most of the foods that I generally encourage people to eat.

Here is the list of foods high in vitamin E:
Asparagus
Avocado
Eggs
Raw milk
Nuts
Seeds
Spinach
Whole grains (particularly wheat)

Vitamin E, when consumed in these forms, even helps to mitigate the damage caused by eating polyunsaturated oils.

Of course, I still suggest that you stop all consumption of corn, soy, cotton seed, and canola oils. Then the vitamin E you ingest won't have to be used to fight that junk, it can go toward making your body healthy.

If you would like to learn more about vitamin E, I suggest reading THIS.

To review the problems with polyunsaturated oils, go HERE.

To review the basics of health, go HERE.

For the overview of my health rules, go HERE.

Bone Health : Naturally

2010-02-09T11:57:00.006-07:00

We have previously talked a little about osteoporosis, but I recently received a request for more information on bones and bone spurs. I do have more information about that.

You can read my previous article about osteoporosis HERE.

Let's talk a little about what causes "old bones" and/or bone spurs (calcium deposits).

The causes of these calcium deposits are actually two fold; too much calcium, and not enough calcium. In the first case the body has more calcium than it can handle, and it doesn't have the resources it needs to get rid of it, so it stores it. In the second case the body recognizes a shortage and so it grabs on to any calcium it can find to store it in case of emergency calcium need.

Now that would make you think that you have to very carefully balance your calcium intake. But let's get a little deeper.

Every cell of your body actually uses calcium. The cell can take calcium in when it needs it, and when it is finished with it, it pumps it back out. This is sometimes called a "calcium pump". The calcium pump is actually a special protein, also know as an enzyme.

As the body "ages" (gets out of balance) these pumps can stop working, or at least lose some of their capacity to pump. So calcium will start to build up in the tissue. This can cause all kinds of stiffness and pain.

The body prefers to store calcium in the bones. That would be a good thing. But when it doesn't have the resources it needs to build bone, or it can't get the calcium out of the cells where it doesn't belong, it can't build the bone. And it will take what calcium is left in the bones to balance critical processes that need calcium.

If the body is healthy and has all the resources it needs, it will put calcium into the bones until they are very strong and healthy and will then dump any extra calcium out of the body.

So, the question is, if you are having one of these problems, how do you get the body to correct this and start pulling the excess calcium out of the soft tissue and putting it into the bones?

Remember that everything in the body requires balance. Balance comes from whole foods. Also remember that the body cannot move anything around and through the body without water. And, of course, to move the water and other stuff around, you have to have movement of the muscles and skeleton. Exercise is imperative. In fact the joints that are the stiffest probably need the exercise the most.

Now let's go back and think about those calcium pumps for a minute. If your pumps are not working as well as the should be, then you probably aren't getting the enzymes you need.

Remember that enzymes are special proteins. Proteins are made from amino acids. We must take in amino acids (in a balanced way) to allow our bodies to make the proteins (and enzymes) that it needs.

If you are having this type of problem, I highly suggest that you try to get good proteins with each meal every day. Eggs are probably the best source of these balanced amino acids. Eat plenty of eggs. You could even have some with each meal if you wanted to. Some people will warn you against eating too many eggs, but they have simply read the wrong reports. That is very old outdated information that somehow keeps getting passed around.

Of course, moderation in all things is also prudent. You can run into problems if you eat more than 20 eggs a day. Your food intake needs to also include lots of green leafy vegetables. These will help very much in getting the good resources (minerals, enzymes, etc.) that you need to balance all of the body processes.

Other excellent sources of protein are raw milk, grass fed lean beef, and whole wheat. Please note the adjectives in that last senctence. Milk that isn't raw, isn't good. Beef that isn't grass fed, is generally full of lots of junk that isn't good for the human body. Processed wheat products (even if labeled "whole wheat") are not good for the human body. When I say whole wheat, I mean you bought wheat in grain form, and then ground and/or soaked it yourself.

Here is an interesting tidbit. Drinking apple cider vinegar can change the pH of the body because it helps to pump out the extra calcium out of it's hiding places. So if you feel that you are having a problem with calcium getting stored in the wrong places, a drink of warm water with a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar may help. When I do that, I add a spoon of raw honey to the drink as well. This makes it more palatable as well as adding more good enzymes.

If you are in need, you can safely have a drink like that three or four times a day.

Of course you want the whole body balanced, so eat plenty of all good wholesome foods. In fact if you are exercising and drinking plenty of liquids, you can eat as much as you can of all good wholesome foods (be sure and get a variety) and you won't gain any weight (unless you need to gain weight).

So that's about it for today. Let me know if there are further questions.

Have a great day, with a healthy lifestyle!

Coach G.

Yeast Infections Can Be Solved

2010-01-29T21:37:00.002-07:00

Many women have major problems with yeast infections. They can be very annoying and uncomfortable as well as very hard to get rid of.

Let me share some of what my research has revealed about how to eliminate this problem once and for all.

A yeast overgrowth is generally a result of imbalance in the intestinal flora in your gut. Antibiotics and or processed foods cause the good bacteria to die and the bad bacteria to thrive. (Over the counter pain killers will do this too.) With bad digestion, much of your bodies chemistry gets all out of whack. So of course you need to ultimately fix the digestive problem to solve the root of the problem. Garlic is a good antibacterial that won't hurt the good guys in the gut. Also kefir or yougurt (without any artificial junk, if you can find it) help to put the good guys back in.

You should avoid all processed sugars, or artificial sugars. Avoid dairy that is pasteurized and/or homogenized. But raw dairy will help. Also avoid all vegetable oils (particularly corn, soy, and canola). Eat plenty of green leafy vegetables (spinach is one of the best), and whole wheat, to rebuild intestinal balance. Also be sure that you are consuming plenty of mineralized water daily.

Check out my article I wrote a while back about "Leaky Gut Syndrome". Click HERE.

The article on water will help you to understand mineralized water. Click HERE.

And here is the article all about balancing the body. Click HERE.

If you want something more direct, here are two methods that seem to work to relieve symptoms fairly quickly:

1. Inserting one Boric acid powder capsule into your vagina morning and evening for three to seven days for an acute infection, and 14 to 30 days for a chronic infection. I have not seen Boric acid capsules widely available in health stores or pharmacies but women can make their own by buying a bottle of Boric acid powder and gelatin capsules (a capsule-making machine makes the process go faster).

Studies show the effectiveness of Boric acid is very high especially in women with chronic resistant yeast infections -- one study with 100 women showed a 98 percent success rate with this condition. If you find that the Boric acid irritates your external genitalia you can protect the tissue with vitamin E oil (preferred).

2. Insert a garlic clove into your vagina in the morning and an acidophilus capsule in the evening for three to seven days.

But, even if one of these two methods works for you, you need to take care of the underlying cause for long term relief.

Lectin : Friend or Foe?

2010-01-27T15:11:00.007-07:00

The anti-grain zealots have come up with a new bad guy to attack and blame on grain consumption. They even claim that this is a factor in many diseases. However, if you read their article carefully, you will see that all of this is guessing in the dark, and taking things out of context.

Note that they admit that wheat is a very complex plant, capable of 23,000 unique proteins. And yet, they have decided to isolate one of them and see what kind of damage it could do all by itself.

They have singled out lectin as the bad guy.

Note also that every detrimental effect on the human body that they claim is caused by lectin, has only been observed in people who eat processed grains, not whole grains.

But they still insist that whole grains are worse than processed grains, because they contain more lectin.

It is kind of like saying that eating a whole apple would be much worse than just eating the seeds of the apple, because you will get more arsenic. While it is true, it has nothing to do with the health effects of eating an apple. (No, I don't suggest eating only the seeds of an apple. Nor does anyone else that I know of.)

Look up lectin in wikipedia and you will find that it has many important biological functions.

Here is why they say lectin is the bad guy:

May be pro-inflammatory.
May directly bind to and activate white blood cells.
May pass through the blood brain barrier pulling bound substances with it.
Capable of inducing either cell cycle arrest or programmed cell death.
May cause cells to divide or inhibit cell division.
May cause platelet activation and aggregation.
May bind to the surface of villi in the gastrointestinal tract (causing growth).
May decrease levels of heat shock proteins in gut epithelial cells.
May enter cells in the same way that viruses can.

Well, lets take another look at that list. But instead of assuming the worst, let's think about balance in the human body. We all know that balance in the body is the key to health. We must have balancing influences for all functions.

Inflammation is an important bodily function.
White blood cell activation and transport are very important to our immune function.
It is important to get many substances across the blood brain barrier.
Cell cycle arrest and cell death are particularly important in fighting any cancer.
Cell division is also very important, and yet stopping the division is just as important.
Platelet activation and aggregation is what keeps us from bleeding to death.
Villi are very important to digestion, it is imperative to keep their functions optimal.
I would hate to get an over abundance of heat shock proteins in my gut.
It actually competes with viruses for access to cells, helping to keeping us healthy.

So you see that, again, it all comes down to balance. Trying to micromanage the nutrients put into the human body is never a good idea. It can only cause imbalance.

We see time and time again that those who eat whole grains (particularly wheat), which cause balance in the human body, are always healthier than those who eat processed grains.

You may also note that those who eliminate grains from their diets, generally continue to have worsening health problems. In their mind this requires more and more supplements of one kind or another, but if they would just get back to eating whole foods, and particularly grains, most of their health problems would fade away.

Any time you take any one constituent of a whole food and isolate it, it is a detrimental thing. But eating the whole food, with all it's parts intact, you get balance and benefit.

Using the same logic, why don't these anti-grain fanatics also blacklist :

Mustard, you can create toxic gas from parts of it.
Peaches, their pits contain poison.
Car brakes, they don't allow the car to go anywhere.
Chiropractors, they can put your body out of alignment.
Dentists, they drill holes in your teeth.
MDs, they are always seen around sick and dying people.
Water, it can suffocate you.
etc.
etc.
etc.

Such nonsense!

If you haven't already, please read my recent post on whole grains (click here).

And of course you should also read about the number one must make resolution (click here).

Oxalates : A Good Example

2010-01-12T16:36:00.006-07:00

I've been reading recently about people who are going on low-oxalate diets. So I decided to do a little research to see what it was all about.

Oxalates are formed from oxalic acid which is found in many natural foods. Oxalic acid binds to metals and forms crystals which don't dissolve easily. An estimated 80% of kidney stones are formed from calcium oxalate.

This knowledge led to the idea that perhaps eliminating oxalic acid from the diet could help avoid kidney problems, as well as other pains associated with these types of crystalline build ups.

The problem is that if you eliminate all the foods that contain oxalic acid you will have a very hard time finding enough good healthy foods to eat.

This is a good example of the problems caused by trying to micromanage the systems of the body.

You see, if you eliminate oxalic acid to avoid some negative aspect associated with it, you also eliminate its positive aspects. Not to mention all the wonderful nutrients missed out on by not eating those healthy foods.

Why do so many foods that are very healthy for you contain oxalic acid? Remember that oxalic acid combines with metals in forms that won't dissolve easily. In other words it grabs onto metals and holds onto them. If your body has the necessary resources, these metals can be flushed out of your system, thus getting rid of one of the major causes of free-radical damage in the human body.

In other words, oxalic acid helps to cleanse the body from the heavy metals that can cause so many problems.

So instead of trying to eliminate oxalic acids, make sure that you are getting plenty of them by eating plenty of green leafy veggies and whole grains. Then make sure that your body has all the resources necessary to flush out all the heavy metals and other bad stuff. That means plenty of water with trace minerals, and adequate exercise and rest.

You see, the oxalate damage that is seen in the body is caused by things being out of balance. Not enough trace minerals, too much junk food, too much soda pop, processed and artificial sugars, drugs, etc.

Oxalic acid is not the bad guy, it is the good guy. Allow it to do its thing in optimum ways. Eat optimally. Live an optimum lifestyle.

Second Must-Make New Year Resolution

2010-01-08T11:30:00.005-07:00

The second must-make New Year's resolution you need is "Whole grains will be my 'staff of life', especially wheat."

14 All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth;
15 And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger.
16 All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground—
17 Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.

(Doctrine and Covenants | Section 89:14 - 17)

Whole grains are the staff of life. They cause life and balance.

Remember that health is all about balance. Whole grains, particularly wheat, cause balance in the human body.

Wheat is a widely used, and yet little understood, secret of health. Wheat was created for the health of man. When used in its whole form, it balances pH, it balances hormones, it balances, proteins, it balances fats, it balances cholesterol, it balances minerals, it balances digestion.

Those who think they are allergic to wheat, generally are not. They are out of balance. They lose their balance by eating processed wheat products that do not contain the goodness of the whole grain.

Even gluten-intolerant folks can generally eat whole grain wheat, especially when it is combined with whole raw milk. For those who cannot eat any gluten at all in any form, they need to start with consuming wheat grass. The wheat grass contains no gluten and will, over time, restore health to the point where whole grains will be able to be consumed.

Make this new year resolution and by the end of this year, you will likely be healthier than you even imagined you could be.

Whole grains along with regular exercise, adequate water intake, other whole foods, and adequate rest and relaxation will create a better you.

For more detail, read my other articles. Just put a search term into the search box in the upper left corner of this page. If you don't see the answer to your question, please leave a comment here asking your question.

The One New Year Resolution You Must Make

2010-01-01T09:18:00.004-07:00

If you want to gain health, lose weight, build muscle, and/or improve stamina, then there is one new year's resolution you absolutely must make.

Write it down and say it out loud. "I will exercise for 30 to 60 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days a week."
Repeat this phrase to yourself often until it becomes a part of you.

Exercise really is the key to gaining maximum health. Exercise makes everything else work. Without exercise, nothing works.

The basics: exercise makes you breath more deeply, exercise gets you to drink more water, exercise makes you want to eat better food, exercise tones and strengthens muscles, exercise helps your body eliminate toxins, exercise helps blood to circulate more effectively and efficiently, exercise improves metabolism allowing you attain the correct body weight, exercise helps the immune system fight off disease.

Now that you know you are going to exercise every day, put it into a plan. Decide what you will do each day, and at what time. Be sure to vary the exercises from day to day, so that you work all the different muscle groups in full range of motion. If you do the same thing everyday, it can wear the body down. But doing different things helps to build the body up.

For instance, if you are into running, go short and fast one day, then long and slow the next. Integrate yoga into your routine one day and aerobic dance the next. There are many other things to choose from as well. Bicycling, swimming, dancing, ball playing, ultimate Frisbee, skiing, hiking, climbing, body weight exercises, etc.

One very important thing to remember is to take a rest day each week. The Lord gave us the Sabbath for a very good reason. It allows the necessary rest for the body (and spirit) to recover and grow stronger.

Happy New Year with your new life of exercise and health!

Green Tea : My Take

2009-12-17T16:19:00.004-07:00

These days you see green tea being pushed almost everywhere as a health food, or healthy ingredient. This is another case of pushing too hard to find benefits, and ignoring the negative.

Let's talk about some of the problems. All kinds of studies are being done to extol the virtues of green tea. But they all seem to be aimed at the benefits that come from antioxidants. In my opinion there are many safer ways to get wonderful antioxidants.

Yes, green tea has a supply of antioxidants. But it isn't that great of a source. In fact if you actually look at the studies that are making wonderful health claims about green tea, you see that the benefits are very small. For instance claiming that a 2% improvement by those who drink green tea is "significant". Most studies of just about anything can flex 2% or more just due to errors and idiosyncrasies of the studies. It is bizarre to claim 2% as a great victory for green tea drinkers.

OK, so what are the negatives of green tea consumption.

The first and most obvious is caffeine. See my recent discussion about caffeine (here) if you don't understand that danger.

Another of my major concerns, since I care for an Alzheimer's patient, is that green tea contains fluoride. While trace levels of fluoride are beneficial to health, we get so much of it in the modern diet that it is causing many problems. One of the main problems with too much fluoride in the body is that it facilitates heavy metals being stored in soft tissues. (Like aluminum in the brain.) No wonder we are seeing so many more cases of Alzheimer's disease.

Green tea also interferes with the assimilation of iron. Anemia is a major problem in our society already.

Green tea also should be avoided by ladies who are pregnant or planning to become so. It causes birth defects.

Green tea also has estrogen effects. Messing with hormones is not a safe thing to do.

If you want to get all the claimed benefits of green tea, but don't want the downsides, consider eating more turmeric along with fresh fruit and veggies.

In my opinion, everyone should avoid green tea. Yes, that would apply to you. :-)

Marathon Report and Tips

2009-12-15T11:02:00.006-07:00

I had a great time this last weekend running with my brothers in a marathon. Four of us went to South Carolina and ran the Kiawah Island Marathon.

Kiawah is a beautiful little resort island just off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It is a resort with golf courses nestled amongst some beautiful wooded areas. It is a pretty flat course that basically circles the island twice.

The four of us had been training for this marathon for quite awhile, so we were mostly well prepared and had a good time of it.

Remember, never try to run a marathon without training for it. I did that once. The pain lasted for months. With proper training, the pain and discomforted is very minimal. My brothers and I all seem to be doing very well just a couple of days after this one.

The main goal for us in this marathon was to get my brother qualified for the Boston Marathon. He is 56 years old, and so needed to do it in less than 3 hours and 46 minutes. He followed his training regimen faithfully and worked hard most of this year. His training got him to the point to where he could accomplish this herculean task physically. Then it was my job to help him stay on pace through the 26.2 mile course.

The start of the race was very crowded and very slow. Our first mile took more than 9 minutes, and we needed to average more like 8 and a half minutes for each mile. So we picked it up and endeavored to stay close to 8:24 for each mile. We did very good right up until about the 25th mile. At this point I could tell that he was having some trouble, but we had managed to get a minute or two of cushion, by keeping to this slightly increased pace, so I allowed him to ease up just a bit for that mile. We did that one in about 8:45. I didn't want to lose our last minute of cushion, just in case he cramped up and had to walk in, so for the last 1.2 miles I increased our pace back to what it had been. He pushed himself to stay with me, in spite of the fatigue and stiffness he was experiencing, and we cruised on through to the end.

We thought we had finished with a minute or two to spare, but when we looked at his official time posted on the bulletin board, we were shocked to see they had clocked him at 3:44:50. Only 10 seconds ahead of his 3:45 goal.

But he was gratified that next to his name on the list was an asterisk, signifying that he had indeed qualified to run in the Boston Marathon.

He was so elated about his finish that he went around telling everyone that he was a "Boston Qualifier". It was great! He worked hard and accomplished his goal.

Remember that that is what it takes to get to where you want to be. Set a goal, and work hard to achieve it. Don't give up, just because there is some pain or discomfort involved. Some people may consider you crazy for even setting the goal and starting to move toward it, but if you want it, and pursue it with your heart and might, you can achieve it.

You will most likely have to do things that other people are not willing to do. But that is what makes you a winner!

There will inevitably be setbacks and seemingly overwhelming roadblocks along the way, but stay the course. My brother had several problems that arose during his training. But, he would call me, and we would talk and discover ways around his roadblocks and challenges. He continued to work hard and believe that it is was possible, and so he accomplished his goal.

I also feel the need to mention that he had the support and prayers of his brothers. That can make more of a difference than you might ever imagine. We prayed for him before the race, as well as during. In those final miles when he was feeling the stress of the accumulating miles, there were multiple prayers offered up in his behalf. And, of course, after it was over, there were prayers of gratitude.

The spiritual side of things is also very physical. I will probably blog about that more later.

It is always a good idea to get a coach or a mentor to help you to move forward toward your goals and aspirations. Someone that you can talk to and confide in. Ideally someone who knows how to get to where you want to be. Someone who has been there.

Anyone can look up an address and give you directions on how to get there. But those who have actually been there and live there can tell you about potholes to avoid and land marks to watch for along the way. They can make the journey much simpler. Even telling you about things that may have changed since the latest maps were made.

Look for people who are doing and living the way that you want to live and do.

I hope that those of you who are looking for better health and fitness will consider me as one of your major coaches and mentors. Feel free to contact me and ask questions. I am here to help.

I am a marathoner, a health researcher, and a fourth stage cancer survivor. I have searched out the answers to most of your health questions. I live a healthy life style, independent of medications, or other potions and pills. I would love the chance to help you to do the same.

The Benefits of Caffeine : Beware

2009-12-08T11:18:00.005-07:00

There is information being circulated about the benefits of caffeine.

Beware! There is a lot of money behind this push, so it is wide spread. Even some medical doctors have bought into the idea. However it is based on very questionable studies. These studies don't concentrate on caffeine, they are just used as excuses to say that caffeine is good for you.

It's kind of like all the studies on alcohol. There is so much money behind it, and so many people wanting to have excuses for using and abusing alcohol. They come up with all kinds of supposed health benefits of alcohol. But in the process they totally ignore the simple fact that alcohol kills brain cells every time it is taken internally in any amount. They also ignore the problem of addiction.

Caffeine has all the same problems, but in slightly different ways. It stops the brain from functioning normally. It makes the body think that there is an emergency, so that it kicks up the production of adrenaline. It is also very addictive. It disrupts sleep, even when taken much earlier in the day. You might still sleep through the night, but you don't get the deep restful and restorative sleep that the body needs to really heal and recuperate.

Caffeine causes headaches, and it can relieve headaches. This is because it causes constriction of the blood vessels in the brain. Some headaches are caused by this and some are relieved, depending on the cause of the headache. Remember, that alleviating pain is not always a good thing. Some one stomping on your toe will make you forget about your sore finger for a while, but it doesn't solve the problem. It creates more problems. This is the long term problem of most all drugs.

Looking at the studies, we see that pretty much all the supposed health benefits of caffeine are actually from the polyphenols in the coffee beans, not actually a product of the caffeine.

Caffeine also raises blood pressure. This is not something that most people need. And if you do need to raise your blood pressure there are much more healthy ways to do it. Low blood pressure is often a symptom of dehydration. This means your body needs more salt water. I highly recommend that everyone gets lots of mineralized water everyday, all day. Exercise is also an excellent way to stabilize blood pressure. Yoga has been show to be excellent for both lowering high blood pressure and raising low blood pressure.

Caffeine is a drug, and it is addictive. The supposed health benefits are highly exaggerated. Beware!

Joseph Smith and Herbal Medicine by John Heinerman

2009-12-07T15:08:00.005-07:00

I have been asked to give my opinion of a book.

Joseph Smith and Herbal Medicine
by John Heinerman

I have read this book and found it to be interesting. Following are some of my thoughts about it.

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints it was interesting to see the authors beliefs about statements made by and about Joseph Smith regarding herbs.

My first reaction was that this man (the author) tends to fall into the same trap that many LDS people fall into when they are excited about a particular subject. They try to compare what they are so excited about, with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. They then make the leap of saying that since there are many similarities (in their view) then this thing they have discovered must be true, like the gospel is true.

Mr. Heinerman makes this analogy, and concludes that therefore, herbalism (as taught by Samuel Thomson) must be the only true form of medicine. This is just plain silly. Thomson was not and is not a prophet of God.

He then goes on to use quotes from third parties and definitions from dictionaries to prove that the prophet, Joseph Smith, felt the same way that he does about it.

There are of course other definitions of herbs that would not be so much to the author's liking. So, of course, he didn't mention them.

I very much enjoyed the history contained in the book (I've always been fascinated with history). However, I noted that most of the points the author is trying to make are made by people who were not leaders of the church, and more importantly were not prophets. The actual quotes of prophets are few and far between, and commentary before and after the quotes assumes things that are not contained in the quotes.

I personally do like the use of herbs in certain contexts, and usually think of herbalism as much preferable to most modern drugs. However, herbs are very much like drugs, and must be used with great caution and knowledge and skill.

In my opionion, a much better understanding of the mentions of herbs found in the scriptures, and particularly "The Word of Wisdom", is to use vegetables as food, and let good food be your medicine. Many herbalists would agree that that is true.

In my studies I have also found that many herbalists of the day have followed a mistaken path, much like the mistaken path that the medical profession has fallen into. They process and extract substances from herbs to make medicines.

I would encourage those who are interested in learning to use herbs as medicines, to study adaptogens. Adaptogens are herbs that help to balance the systems of the body. This is very important, because all health in the human body is all about balance.

Let me give you an example to help you to understand what I'm talking about.

Golden seal is an herb that will cause a rise in white blood cell count. It is not an adaptogen.
Echinacea is an herb that will cause a rise in white blood cell count if your body needs it, but can cause a decrease in white blood cell count if your body needs that. It is an adaptogen.

So, you can see that the great thing about adaptogens is that they are safe, and not just stimulants, or depressants.

It is estimated that only about 1 in 300 herbs is an adaptogen. But there are plenty of them to help to balance every system of the body.

OK, back to the book.

I also thought it a little funny that the author only considered mormons to be "peculiar" on account of their medical thinking. That is very strange to me. And I would also have to ask him, if the gospel is to fill the whole earth, doesn't there have to come a time when we are not thought of as "peculiar"?

The list of herbs at the end of the book can be useful, but again, they must be used very carefully and cautiously. Most of the herbs he lists are not adaptogens, and require great care and skill.

Another little note about using herbs. Even the balance of adaptogens is destroyed if they are processed to much or in wrong ways. Many professional herbalists don't even seem to realize that using alcohol to make tinctures destroys their adaptogenic properties.

In my opinion, whole foods are still the best way to go.

I do love the use of many herbs, like : cinnamon, turmeric, oregano, garlic and cayenne.
I also encourage the use of whole herbs known as vegetables. Eat them fresh and raw, or lightly steamed.

I do agree with the author that most people today rely much too heavily on modern medicine, and not enough on common sense, and belief in what God has told us through his prophets.

However, when the Lord gave "The Word of Wisdom" to the prophet, he was not talking to botanists, or herbalist on their level of understanding. He was talking to people who knew and understood basic agriculture and farming. It was to be understood from that perspective of knowing the basics of feeding and caring for a family through day to day living. Growing crops, and taking care of livestock was what most of the saints knew. "The Word of Wisdom" is about living a healthy lifestyle, not about how to doctor the sick.

Well, there you have my take on the book. Interesting history, but off the mark with it's evangelical herbalism.

Beware Of Caloric Based Health Advice

2009-12-05T10:28:00.005-07:00

I saw a health specialist in the news this week warn people to not eat too much natural granola or nuts, because they contained too many calories. This is exactly the kind of health advice that is making this country obese.

Calories have almost nothing to do with your health, or your weight. It is much more important to concentrate on what kinds of nutrients and toxins are in your diet. Maximize nutrients and eliminate toxins.

Any advice that you get that is based on caloric intake is fatally flawed. Calories have importance only on the level of energy. If you don't get enough calories, you won't have enough energy.

Calories are totally disconnected from what your weight may be. If you eat fewer calories than what your body wants, it simply slows down your metabolism to conserve. In fact it will work harder to store fat from what ever food it does get, because it thinks it needs to store whatever it can to survive the famine.

If you eat more calories than your body needs, it can do a couple of things, depending on what kind of food (nutrients and toxins) you are taking in. If your body has the resources it needs, it will simply dump any excess (and toxins) that it doesn't feel the need for. If it doesn't have the resources it needs, it will store the excess (and toxins) in fat, to await a time when it may have the resources it needs to clean it all out.

Unfortunately most medical people, as well as most nutritionists, have bought into the silly formula ; "Calories In - Calories Out = Weight Loss or Gain"

While this formula may look good to a mathematician, it has no basis in reality. Why, because we have no way to actually measure the calories in and out. Even though most adults have bought into this formula, grade school kids have no problem seeing it's major flaw. They usually call it "poop".

That's right! All people have bowel movements. It is the way the body eliminates much of what it doesn't need or want. There are other paths of elimination as well. Breathing, sweating, heat loss, spitting, and other excretions from eyes, ears, nose, and skin.

If you could somehow accurately measure all of these and incorporate them into your formula, then you could perhaps begin to get some kind of real picture of the bodies energy processes. But since no one knows how to do that, and still keep you alive, please throw that formula away and never use it again. It has nothing to do with reality.

Your health (including your weight) is all about quality, not quantity. Eat lots of fresh whole foods, with a emphasis on whole grains, and get plenty of water, exercise, and rest. Then your body can take in what it needs and will have the resources to dump what it doesn't need.

So.... Rule of thumb : If any health advice you receive is based on calories, discard it, it is faulty.

Even being under weight is best solved with quality food and a healthy lifestyle.

What Are You Afraid Of? Doctors Or The News?

2009-12-04T09:56:00.006-07:00

Today's medical system seems to be all about fear mongering.

The stories in the news are telling us how fearful we need to be of medical problems.

Today CNN carries a story about how unreliable flu tests are. The point of the story is to scare you into thinking that you may have the H1N1 flu even though you test negatively for it. Even though, in reality, almost no one who gets sick has the swine flu, we are supposed to all assume that we all have the swine flu.

MSNBC runs a story about how more and more women are opting to have their babies at home instead of in hospitals. They then proceed to talk about all the things that can go wrong in a home birth. Again trying to scare people into going to hospitals.

But for those of us who understand the basics of human health, and the realities of the business of medicine as practiced in hospitals today, these stories are just sad commentaries on how badly our medical system is functioning.

The first story actually shows how a mother is fearful due to all the hype, so when her daughter gets a fever, she runs her down to the emergency room. There, they do a quick test and tell her that she doesn't have the flu and she will be fine if she takes a couple of drugs.

So instead of the mother making sure the child is getting plenty of water and antioxidants to help her immune system function well, the child is given drugs to cover up symptoms. So, the next day, the symptoms reappear and the fever is even higher. This time up to 104 degrees.

Now a person who understands the immune system knows that this is the body trying to fight off some kind of infection. But people who get their news from the big business controlled media see this as an emergency that can only be handled by big business. So, the mother again rushes the child to the emergency room. This time they decide to give the child antibiotics.

What the medical community and this mother are too blinded to see, is that antibiotics are another attack on an already challenged immune system. So instead of doing anything to boost the immune system, they have only succeeded in throwing more challenges at the immune system in the form of drugs and antibiotics.

They could have encouraged more fresh fruit and veggies, plenty of water with minerals, fresh air and sunshine, and a little exercise. All of these would help the immune system to do it's job. But none of that was even mentioned.

This is a major flaw in the current medical paradigm. There is a basic disconnect with reality. Everything is supposed to be taken care of with pills and injections, when in reality these things can only cause more imbalance in the body, eventually leading to further problems. They are trying to micro-manage a system that they don't understand. That, in my opinion is idiocy.

The second story is also all about trying to scare you into getting extra medical attention.

Pregnancy is a natural process. It is not a disease. Yet when a woman is pregnant she is told how horrible the experience could be and how she needs to have lots of medical attention or she and her baby could die.

Is it true? Yes, there are various things that can go wrong with a pregnancy and birth, but if you study the reality of births at home and births at hospitals, you find that the home birth is actually much safer.

Why is a home birth safer? Because it is viewed as a wonderful natural experience. Why is a hospital birth more dangerous? Because it is viewed as a disease that needs to be treated.

In today's medical system it is almost impossible to have a normal natural birth in a hospital. Because they interfere all along the process with little things that they think will help.

But in reality, most of their helps are hindrances. They are trying to micro-manage a normal process that has it's own time schedule, to make it match a text book scheduled "ideal".

The fears are so ingrained into the system, that any deviation from "the norm" must be dealt with. Usually with some drug. The drug interferes with the natural process and throws it out of whack. The consequences of this is that the process is now pushed into an artificial mode. The body is now no longer doing what it would have done normally, so there is more need of further interventions. In most cases, these days, this eventually leads to surgery. The baby has been put into so much stress by all the unnatural intrusions on the body, that it needs to be taken out of the mother's womb forcibly through extreme measures.

These scenarios of course reinforce the whole idea that giving birth is a very dangerous process that requires constant medical attention. Look at all the problems that are "discovered" when women are "properly monitored".

Now, let me be clear. I do not recommend that women give birth at home completely alone. There are real challenges that can arise in a birthing process. But a good midwife can handle most of these and help to allow the process to continue naturally. This leads to a much healthier outcome for both the mother and the child.

It seems that everywhere you look these days you see some representative of the medical establishment trying to scare people into getting unnecessary interventions, that in the long run are detrimental to human health.

In my opinion the medical establishment has gone so far astray that they now promote disease more than health. They want everyone to be scared to death of every little cough or sniffle. They want everyone to believe that the only way to be healthy is to have your body micro-managed by a medical professional. In the process, they have become more and more disconnected from the knowledge of the normal and natural processes that take place in the human body.

Remember that drugs are a source of imbalance. If doctors still believed in the old adage "First Do No Harm", they would only think of drugs as a very last resort. They would rarely use any.
Did you know that today, drugs are responsible for more deaths than any one disease?

Most all illness can be handled very well with whole foods and wholesome practices. But don't expect miraculous results over night. Long term health is all about healthy lifestyle.

Next time you see a story in the news that makes you think you might need to go see a doctor to see if you are normal, take a deep breath and sit back and think. You didn't think you needed to see the doctor before you read the story. So, it is probably just the story that is sick.

Healthy Holiday Cooking

2009-12-03T08:56:00.004-07:00

It's holiday time with lots of treats to eat. Can you stay healthy through the holidays?

Sure! It's easy.

Just take a little time to think about what you are cooking and eating. Eat lots of fresh fruit and veggies, and make a few simple changes in you're recipes.

When a recipe calls for flour, just make your own with fresh ground whole wheat. It's a little heavier than junk flour, but it really pays off in improved health.

When a recipe calls for sugar, substitute honey or fresh fruit. You only need 2/3 the amount of honey as you would sugar, and you reduce the amount of liquid by 1/4 cup for every cup of honey you use. You can also reduce the baking temperature by 25 degrees, because the honey browns easier than the sugar.

If a recipe calls for margarine, use raw butter instead.

Replace all corn oil or soy oil with coconut oil.

Instead of using chocolate bars packed with sugar, use real raw cacao. Sweeten with fruit or honey.

Replace corn syrup with honey also.

For a wonderful healthy treat, try my no-cook brownies.

2 cups of whole wheat freshly ground into flour
1 cup of raw cacao powder
1 cup of virgin coconut oil
1 cup of raw honey
Add some cinnamon and cayenne powders if you like.

Mix it all together and put it in the fridge for a while.
My wife and I like to form it into little balls and then put it in the fridge.
What a great snack! Very yummy! AND very healthy!

Have a great holiday season!
Merry Christmas!

Toquerville Trails Turkey Trot Results for 2009

2009-12-01T07:38:00.006-07:00

5th Annual Toquerville Trails Turkey Trot Results 11/26/2009

*For an easier to read PDF file of the results go HERE.

Bryce Thomas set a new course record for the short course. He covered the very rough terrain in only 16:13. By the way he is only 7 years old. Keep on eye on that one.

3 Miles Race

Sex Group Name Time Division Gender Overall Bib #

M 30-34 Thomas Dansie 23:19.00 1/2 1/18 1/34 80

M 0-14 Micah Scholes 26:04.00 1/5 2/18 2/34 74

F 30-34 Tricia Proctor 26:44.00 1/4 1/16 3/34 91

M 40-44 Rich Scholes 26:45.00 1/1 3/18 4/34 72

F 30-34 Sheri Scott 27:10.00 2/4 2/16 5/34 90

M 15-18 Brandon LeFevre 27:12.00 1/2 4/18 6/34 62

M 50-54 Layne Garner 27:22.00 1/2 5/18 7/34 61

M 45-49 Roger Barrett 27:43.00 1/2 6/18 8/34 101

M 15-18 Ben Thayer 27:45.00 2/2 7/18 9/34 67

F 35-39 Tana Hall 27:46.00 1/2 3/16 10/34 95

F 15-18 Emily Scholes 27:51.00 1/2 4/16 11/34 73

M 50-54 Gary Adams 28:08.00 2/2 8/18 12/34 106

F 40-44 Rachel Scholes 28:23.00 1/1 5/16 13/34 71

F 30-34 Elizabeth Dansie 28:56.00 3/4 6/16 14/34 81

M 55-59 Craig Knight 30:11.00 1/1 9/18 15/34 107

M 0-14 Taylor Hobbs 30:16.00 2/5 10/18 16/34 105

F 45-49 Carol Manwaring 30:24.00 1/2 7/16 17/34 108

F 0-14 Rachel Stone 30:29.00 1/2 8/16 18/34 86

M 0-14 Damien English 30:33.00 3/5 11/18 19/34 92

M 25-29 Jim Clark 31:44.00 1/2 12/18 20/34 109

M 30-34 Shay Jolley 32:23.00 2/2 13/18 21/34 98

F 19-24 Rachelle Ballard 33:04.00 1/3 9/16 22/34 65

F 35-39 Robbie Ellison 33:21.00 2/2 10/16 23/34 104

F 30-34 Christine Jolley 35:37.00 4/4 11/16 24/34 99

F 19-24 Abby Ashcroft 35:48.00 2/3 12/16 25/34 66

M 45-49 Jeffrey Manwaring 36:12.00 2/2 14/18 26/34 110

F 15-18 Jessica Stone 37:08.00 2/2 13/16 27/34 85

M 0-14 Noah Scholes 37:14.00 4/5 15/18 28/34 76

M 0-14 Conner Shaw 37:14.00 5/5 16/18 29/34 79

F 45-49 Suzanne Gergetz 37:38.00 2/2 14/16 30/34 83

M 25-29 Ben McMurray 37:59.00 2/2 17/18 31/34 96

F 19-24 Ashley McMurray 37:59.00 3/3 15/16 32/34 97

F 0-14 Hannah Scholes 38:41.00 2/2 16/16 33/34 75

M 35-39 Mark Fisher 45:10.00 1/1 18/18 34/34 68

1.7 Miles Race

Sex Group Name Time Division Gender Overall Bib #

M 0-14 Bryce Thomas 16:13.00 1/6 1/8 1/16 87

M 0-14 Shawn LeFevre 17:46.00 2/6 2/8 2/16 63

F 25-29 Charlotte Amy 18:31.00 1/3 1/8 3/16 102

M 25-29 Trujillo Amy 18:31.00 1/1 3/8 4/16 103

M 0-14 Britton Thomas 20:36.00 3/6 4/8 5/16 88

F 0-14 Brooke Thomas 20:51.00 1/2 2/8 6/16 89

F 25-29 Emily Ballard 22:23.00 2/3 3/8 7/16 64

M 0-14 Porter Dansie 27:08.00 4/6 5/8 8/16 82

F 40-44 Rebekah Shaw 27:08.00 1/1 4/8 9/16 77

M 0-14 Raegan Shaw 27:08.00 5/6 6/8 10/16 78

F 19-24 Shayna Gorton 27:45.00 1/1 5/8 11/16 100

M 45-49 Mark English 28:56.00 1/1 7/8 12/16 93

M 0-14 Devin English 28:56.00 6/6 8/8 13/16 94

F 0-14 Emme Claire A. 45:10.00 2/2 6/8 14/16 70

F 30-34 Leana Fisher 45:10.00 1/1 7/8 15/16 69

F 25-29 Mary Stone 55:00.00 3/3 8/8 16/16 84

Thanks to all who came and helped! Sorry it took so long to post the results.

The longer and rougher course record still stands at 21:35, clocked last year by Ryan Garner.

Cleansing Crisis : Understanding Why

2009-11-20T08:13:00.007-07:00

Have heard of a "Cleansing Crisis"? They are very common, and yet most people don't seem to understand them.

Have you ever made a lifestyle change of some kind, that you thought would bring improvement into your life, but right away you came down with a sore throat, or sniffles, or a rash, or a coughing fit, or diarrhea, or some such reaction?

These types of reactions can often be what is called a "Cleansing Crisis". It is important to realize that these reactions are normal, and a part of the cleansing process.

When you make a lifestyle change for the better, it gives your body the chance that it has been waiting for to cleanse some of the gunk out.

This is particularly noticeable for people who have excess fat to lose.

You see, when the body is overburdened with toxins and doesn't have the resources it needs to deal with them, it will lock those toxins away inside of fat cells, and store them for later processing. When a lifestyle change allows the body the resources it needs to clean the system, then it unlocks those fat cells and starts to move those toxins out. Thus, the toxins are reintroduced into the blood stream to be eliminated. While they are in the blood stream, they can cause symptoms and reactions as though you are sick. But in reality, it is part of the process of getting well.

The funny thing is that these people might not have had any of these symptoms when the toxins first entered the body, because the body didn't have the resources to deal with it, so it just stored them away and there was no healing reaction at that time.

The sad part is that because people don't understand the healing process, they think that sniffles, coughs, rashes, etc. are signs that they are sick, instead of recognizing them as signs that the body is flushing out bad stuff. So, people eat junk food and there is no immediate visual reaction (because the body doesn't have the resources to deal with it), so they think it is fine. Then sometime later they eat a bunch of fresh veggies and drink a bunch of fresh water, and the body begins to use these badly needed resources to flush the junk out of the system. Unfortunately this leads many people to assume that the good food made them sick.

It is such a sad cycle that so many people in today's world are caught up in. They assume that they are allergic to veggies, or wheat, or fruit, or whatever caused the cleansing action. When in reality their bodies are loving these good resources, and the chance to dump some junk.

So, lets talk about how to deal with the reactions.

Remember that these reactions are the bodies attempts to cleanse the system. So help it to do so. Drink lots of good clean (mineralized) water to help flush out the bad stuff. Eat even more fresh foods that are high in antioxidant and antibacterial resources. Get plenty of sunshine and rest to allow the body to work things out. A little exercise will help as well.

To minimize these types of reactions, ease into lifestyle changes gradually. For instance coconut oil is one of the things that helps the body to melt away excess fat. So if you decide to start taking coconut oil, even though your goal is to take 3 or 4 tablespoons a day, start off with just one tablespoon a day, or even just half. Then gradually increase it over a week or two until you reach your goal. This way your body can change more gradually and not have an over reaction so that you tend to think you may be allergic to coconuts, simply because you got a rash.

Bye the way, allergies to coconut oil are so rare that even those diagnosed with an allergy may not have one. The incidents of coconut allergies are lower than the incidents of wrong diagnosis. This particular allergy may not exist at all.

Over 30 percent of the population think that they are allergic to wheat. Actual testing only confirms about 3 percent. The rest just think they are, because their bodies are not used to good food, and they have digestive problems. The digestive problems are also caused by bad diet.

So why do people get sniffles in the winter? Try this idea. As the weather cools off, the body doesn't require as much water to keep itself cool and hydrated. So now it has more water to do more cleansing with. Make sense?

Have a great day of healing!

Let's Talk Food : What I Eat

2009-11-19T10:04:00.010-07:00

Many of you have been asking what I eat, so I guess I should answer.

When I rise in the morning I drink a couple of cups of water (with minerals included of course).

I then like to eat an apple and a slice of my homemade bread before I go running. The bread is made from freshly ground wheat and sprouts. I usually put honey and cinnamon in it, along with coconut oil and "Real Salt". Most of the sprouts are wheat sprouts, but I include a variety of other grain and bean sprouts as well.

After running, I make breakfast. Usually either oatmeal or wheat cereal. Most often it is the wheat. Grind two-thirds of a cup of wheat and cook it in 4 cups of water (with minerals). Feeds three. I like to serve it with some honey, cinnamon, and coconut oil.

Some mornings I'll make eggs for breakfast instead.

Lunch is usually a slice or two of my bread with raw butter and honey on it. I also like to make a drink for lunch with raw eggs, raw milk, home-grown kefir, a little honey and cinnamon, and some nutmeg and/or mint (fresh from the yard).

I will also often snack between meals. Usually another slice of my bread, and maybe a cup of raw milk. Sometimes some fruit or veggies.

I love to mix peanut butter and honey to put on my bread as well.

Of course, I am also drinking lots of mineralized water all through the day.

For dinner I always try to get some kind of veggies. Usually a large salad with lots of spinach. I love avocados in my salads as well. The salad will often include carrots and tomatoes. Instead of salad dressing, I like to use a little spray sea salt with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I will often eat a plate full of salad. Sometimes it will be stir-fried veggies instead.

Then I like to get a high quality starchy food. Usually potatoes or rice and beans. Potatoes must always include the peels. I use lots of spices on my potatoes or rice. My favorites are cayenne, turmeric, oregano, garlic, onion, ginger, and of course, "Redmond Real Salt".

I like to mix a little coconut oil in with my potatoes or rice as well.

I generally also have a large glass of raw milk with my dinner as well.

Now, of course, this can all vary quite a bit, but these are my basics most days.

Any more questions?

Oil Pulling And/Or Swishing

2009-11-13T07:47:00.005-07:00

Some of you may have heard of "Oil Pulling". If you haven't, well, now you have. When I first heard of it, it sounded like fantasy. But being the researcher that I am, I decided it was only fair to check it out before discarding the idea completely.

When you start to research oil pulling on the internet, you discover all kinds of claims of miraculous cures and miracles. You will also find explanations of why it can't really work.

It turns out that both are true.

How can that be? Well... some people have great healing experiences after oil pulling, but the reason given for the healing on most web sites that talk about oil pulling are wrong.

You see, oil pulling doesn't actually pull anything. So, the name is all wrong. That's why I prefer to call it "Swishing".

The prevailing theory is that the oil pulls toxins out of the body. But it doesn't. In a minute I'll tell you how it does work.

Perhaps, before continuing, I should explain what it is.

Oil pulling, or swishing, is the act of swishing oil around in the mouth each morning for about 20 minutes.

Now, a lot of you are thinking, "20 minutes!!!!????"

Yes, 20 minutes. If you can't do it for 20 minutes at first, it is fine to swish for a shorter period of time, until you get used to it. However, if you check your email, or straighten up the house, or whatever, the time goes by very quickly.

Just be sure to keep the oil swishing around in your mouth all the time. Push it around and through all your teeth as well as around your tongue.

Now the important part is what kind of oil to use. Use Virgin Coconut Oil. Many other sites on the internet will tell you to use other kinds of oil. But after much research, I have confirmed that Virgin Coconut Oil is the very best oil for swishing.

After the 20 minutes is up, you spit out the oil. I suggest spitting it into the dirt outside. It can cause build up and clogging in your pipes if you spit it into the sink or toilet. If you have to spit into a sink or toilet, I would go with the sink. This is because hot water will melt the coconut oil and send it on to the sewer system, but it is harder to run a lot of hot water down the toilet.

Now back to why swishing with coconut oil works so many healing miracles.

Swishing has been credited with helping to heal just about any problem you can think of, anywhere in the body. How can that be?

It has to do with creating a healthy environment where the miraculous human body can do it's healing thing. Remember that environment is everything. Create a healing environment within the body, and healing can and will take place.

Coconut oil, when mixed with saliva, has antiviral and antibacterial properties. When swished in the mouth for sufficient time, it will eliminate much of the bacteria that thrive there.

If you study Weston A. Price and his research, you find that infections in the mouth migrate to other areas of the body and cause all kinds of problems. So if you could eliminate the negative infections that thrive in the mouth, that would be a great relief to the rest of the body, as it tries to build and heal.

So what swishing with coconut oil actually does, is to greatly reduce the strain on the immune system. So, if along with swishing you are also living a lifestyle that boosts the immune system, it can really help the body attain a healthier level of existence.

The first thing that people usually notice when they start to swish with coconut oil, is the hygiene of the mouth is greatly improved. The teeth often become whiter, and the tongue is pinker. The gum health also improves. A week to a few weeks later, they will often start to notice other improvements in other areas of the body.

Swishing is an activity that I highly recommend. Even if you only improve the health of your gums, it will be helping with more things than you might imagine.

Give it a try, and let me know how your experience goes.

Whole Foods : Why?

2009-11-10T14:23:00.003-07:00

I am always recommending that people eat whole foods for optimum health. Let's take a look at WHY.

Natural foods are full of all kinds of nutrients to build and to heal the human body. Mankind has discovered many delicious foods to eat. We have also decided that some parts of some plants are much better than other parts.

When I talk about whole foods, I'm not talking about eating the pit of an avocado, or your peach pits either. I'm talking about using the wholesome goodness of the plants that we have discovered can be eaten easily by most people without causing any problem.

I'm not saying to eat the stalks of the wheat plants that we get our grain from, but eat the whole grain to get all of it's goodness.

The biggest problem that I see with our food supply today is that much of the goodness that exists in our food is being processed out of the food before it ever gets to our mouths.

The Creator made food that makes our bodies grow and thrive. When we process out the sweet part, or the soft part, or the sticky part, (depending on what our desire at the time may be) we are destroying the balancing abilities of food. Natures foods have the ability to balance all the functions of the human body. All of our health problems today are caused by (and worsened by) imbalance.

For instance, one of the most prevalent ingredients in food today is wheat. Now that would be great if it was always using all parts of the grain. Wheat is one of the very best foods that humans can eat. The problem is that nearly every product that you find in a normal grocery store that contains wheat, only contains a small part of the wheat.

Our modern day processing destroys about 100 nutrients that existed in the whole wheat grains.
Then the manufacturers add back in about 8 nutrients. This allows them to call it "enriched".

These wheat products are toxic to the human body. Not because the wheat was bad to start with, but because the resources in the wheat that allow the body to digest and ingest this food have been removed. So, instead of being building blocks for the body, it is a sludge that the body has to try and eliminate from the system.

When the body doesn't get the resources that it needs to digest and use our food, it tries to pull those resources from other places. If it can't find the resources to do so, it just puts the sludge aside, with the hope that it will get the resources it needs later to deal with it.

This is why the body stores fat.

If it can pull the needed resources from another part of the body, it often will. Thus causing other weaknesses in the body.

When people recognize that there is a problem with their bodies, they then usually try to do something to solve the problem. However, because most people do not recognize that not eating whole foods caused the problem, they don' eat well to solve the problem.

Instead they hope to give the body resources in a pill or powdered form, so that it can do the things that it needs to do to take care of the problem.

Sometimes, this works... temporarily. But because it does not solve the original problem, it can not be a long term fix.

Pills and powders are by their very nature imbalanced. That is why they ultimately can only make matters worse.

If you look around you will see many people who are taking all kinds of pills and potions, but they continue to run into all kinds of health problems and challenges. So then they look for the next great supplement that will take care of their latest concern.

However, these concerns can never be fully satisfied until the return to eating whole foods.

Whole foods can re-balance all the systems of the body. They have all the resources the body needs.

Man-made pills and potions can never do the same, simply because we still lack the knowledge to know what all of those resources are. Let alone what mixtures and and in what quantities are needed for balancing the body.

Science continues to discover more and more substances found in whole foods that do amazing things for the human body. But we really have no idea how to micro-manage such a complex system as the human body.

The best way to get a well balanced mixture of all that is good for the body, is too eat a variety of whole foods.

To allow the body all the resources necessary to live a long healthy life, eat whole foods, get fresh air and sunshine, exercise regularly, sleep regularly, and forgive and give thanks.

What Is Really Scary About The Swine Flu

2009-11-07T09:43:00.003-07:00

We are now starting to see what the swine flu scare is all about. Control of the people for political reasons.
It is now hitting the news that there are over 150,000 people in the Ukraine that are infected with flu like symptoms.

Note the details:
Flu-like symptoms
Over 100 dead - number confirmed to have swine-flu? One!
Government response:
Shut down schools and quarantine whole cities.
Don't allow any public gatherings.

There are elections just around the corner there, and this move eliminates rallies and protests, and the government is even talking about the possibilities of calling off the election completely!

Please understand this. There is no swine-flu pandemic if you look at facts. There is only hype. It is all about governments getting more control, and medicine making more money.

Don't be scared by this non-pandemic!
Live a healthy lifestyle and don't worry about your health. Worry about your freedom! That is the scary part!

Soda : Does It Kill?

2009-11-05T17:05:00.007-07:00

Soda pop has become so widely used and accepted that there are many people today who drink nothing else all day long. For those of you who don't know, that is a very bad thing.

I was recently asked, "What are the problems with soda?" There are so many things wrong with soda, I was a little unsure of where to start. But let's cover the major points.

Sugar: There is so much sugar in soda pop, that just one soda, can exceed the USDA recommended daily consumption of sugar. Soda pop is a sugar overload that shuts down the immune system and puts your bodies insulin levels all out of whack. Can you say "diabetes"?

Some people will say, "Well I drink diet soda, so I don't have that problem." Sorry, that doesn't work. In fact some studies have shown that people who drink diet soda are even more obese than those who drink regular soda. You see the artificial sweeteners are usually even worse than the original. I suggest everyone eliminate all artificial sweeteners from their diet. They are very dangerous.

Aside from the insulin issue, processed sugar shuts down the immune system. It actually latches onto the receptors that are designed for Vitamin C. Therefore messing up the processes which would lead to healing and rebuilding a healthy body.

Besides the sugar, soda pop has carbonation. One of the side effects of this is a lowering of the blood calcium levels in your body. That is why studies continue to show that soda drinkers have thinner, weaker bones, than non-soda drinkers. Soda drinkers are much more likely to suffer from broken bones, as well as erosion of the teeth.

This messing up of the mineral balances in the body affects many other body parts and systems as well.

Another major problem caused by the drinking of soda pop is that of dehydration. Does that surprise you? It is true.

You see, the water in soda pop is already so saturated with junk, that the body just tries to flush it out of the body as quickly and efficiently as it can. Combine that with the fact that people who drink soda regularly don't like to (and usually don't) drink clean water. Water doesn't "taste good" to people who drink soda pop.

I was recently very saddened to hear of a woman who had a still born child. The autopsy showed that the child died of dehydration. The woman never drinks water. She only drinks soda.

Most sodas also contain high levels of caffeine. This causes many people many problems, but one of the main ones being over stimulation that leads to not sleeping well. A good nights rest is one of the most important keys to healing and building a strong body.

I strongly encourage you to eliminate soda pop from your diet. Get used to drinking lots of good clean water. This one simple thing can be a huge step forward toward helping your body to be healthy and strong.

Does soda pop kill? It can definitely be a contributing factor. Look at how many people have been pushed toward and into diabetes because of the over consumption of sugar and the compromising of the immune system. Most people also recognize that it is much easier to get sick after taking in large doses of sugar.

Let's look at some numbers.
Chance of dying from the flu : 12 per 100,000
Chance of dying from swine flu : about 1 per 100,000
Chance of dying in childbirth : about 13 per 100,000
Chance of dying in a car ride : about 15 per 100,000
Chance of dying from diabetes : about 23 per 100,000

It looks like our national focus my have the wrong priorities.

I strongly suggest that you get yourself and your family off of soda drinks.

Remember health is all about lifestyle choices.

Here is a great link about how important our food choices can be. Click Here.

And to help make your meals as healthy as possible check this out. HERE.

Flu Deaths : More information

2009-11-03T14:58:00.003-07:00

I don't like to blog repeatedly about the same things, but with so much about swine flu in the news, and so many people concerned about it, I thought it important to keep you up to date.

We now have more information on the deaths that have been blamed on swine flu. It appears that the opinion I gave you was right on the money. People are not dieing from the swine flu, but with the swine flu.

The swine flu is milder than influenza, and much less deadly.

Strengthen your immune system by :
Avoid vaccines (they weaken the immune system)
Avoid processed sugar (weakens the immune system)
Eat fresh raw whole foods (strengthens the immune system)
Drink plenty of clean water (allows the body to function optimally)
Get a good nights rest each night (strengthens immune system and allows healing)
Think positive thoughts (builds immunity)

For the latest on swine flu deaths click HERE.

The swine flu is basically a non-issue for those with the sense to live a healthy lifestyle.
In fact it is basically a non-issue for anyone. Compare the number of swine-flu deaths reported in the last year, with the 36,000 deaths that we are told happen every year from influenza.

Of course, that 36,000 number is made up as well. There is no data to back it up.

If you have any questions about any of this, be sure to ask. Would love to hear from you.

I Never Do This... But Today I Did

2009-10-28T16:57:00.004-07:00

I never send on emails that people say to send to everyone you know. I have a rule about it. But today I broke my own rule.

There is so much misinformation being spread around about the swine flu, I am just getting sick of it. And now with the President declaring a national emergency, it is really getting ridiculous.

So..., when Dr. Mercola sent out his latest newletter with his information on swine flu, I thought I would try to get everyone I could to read it.

Here is the link:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/10/27/Obama-Declares-Swine-Flu-Emergency.aspx

Please read and digest the whole thing. It has lots of good information. I have studied this issue from many sides, and I think Dr. Mercola gets this one 100% correct.

My opinion:
There is no pandemic of swine flu.
It is even most likely that all those people who supposedly died from the swine flu didn't.
The nature of the flu is that no one dies from it, they may die with it, but they die from something else. So it is very dishonest to say that they died from the swine flu.

On the other hand, if you got a swine flu shot and then suddenly die for no apparent reason within the next week, there is reason to believe that you died from the toxins in the vaccine.

If you really follow the research on this, you will see that the flu shot is more dangerous than the flu.

Live a clean and healthy lifestyle and you will do fine. No need to worry about what the fear mongers are pushing next.

The Dis-connect! Wake Up!

2009-10-24T22:19:00.005-07:00

Today's society is so disconnected from reality, it is kind of funny, but really sad.

Let me explain :

The other day I got to attend a town meeting, where we had the opportunity to meet the candidates that are running for election in our town in the up-coming November election. After the candidates all took turns telling us about themselves, we had the opportunity to ask questions.

There was a microphone made available that could be passed around so that everyone could hear all the questions. OK, here comes the disconnect.

Each time the microphone was passed to a new person there was an offer made of hand sanitizer or wipes to go along with the microphone. This of course was because of the fear that has been spread by the media and the government, not to mention the medical profession, about swine flu this year.

Then, as the meeting was coming to a close, it was announced that refreshments were available in the back of the room. When I looked over to where the refreshments were set up, I see punch and cookies.

No, it isn't fruit juice. It is the cheapest junkiest artificial punch you can get. We are talking sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Are the cookies individually wrapped, or healthy in anyway? No! There are bulk packages of some of the sugariest (not to mention the artificial colors and flavors) cookies available in a supermarket.

So here they are, pretending to be concerned about passing around germs and disease, while at the same time serving up refreshments guaranteed to lower and debilitate the immune system of anyone who partakes.

Where is the common sense?

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. This disconnect about what we eat, and how it will affect our bodies, seems to be almost universal these days. Everyone wants a pill that will make them healthy and long lived, while they continue to put all kinds of junk into their bodies.

If you want to be healthy, then you need to live a healthy lifestyle. It really is that simple! Learn the rules of health, and start living by them.

Click Here To Review THE RULES.

Women's Health : Is There A Better Way?

2009-10-21T16:17:00.002-07:00

CNN recently published an article titled, "Women's Health Problems Doctors Still Miss". It was an attempt to address some of the special health challenges that women face. It listed 7 diseases that women deal with and gave some info about them. It then talks about the drugs that can be used to manage symptoms.

I would like to review the same 7 diseases from a different point of view. Not a lot of detail, just my general thoughts on each one.

1. Polycystic ovary syndrome

This is a hormonal disorder. They say there is no cure. They don't understand that the body can cure just about anything given the right resources. When they say no cure, they mean no drug will help you. That should be obvious by now.

This hormonal imbalance is also related to blood sugar problems. So wouldn't it make sense to stop eating processed sugars and refined foods, and eat more whole foods that can help to control insulin levels and balance hormones?

Virgin coconut oil can help many people to balance out their hormone systems. The experts suggest 3 to 4 talbespoons a day with other food. Work up to that amount gradually.

Natural fibers found in whole foods are some of the best things to help control blood sugar and insulin levels.

2. Fibromyalgia

Nobody really knows what this one is. There's no test for it. It is a collection of symptoms involving wide spread pain. It isn't really a specific disease.

Therefore, it would seem to me that the best thing to do would be to balance all the systems of the body by eating whole foods that can naturally bring about balance in the human body.

One thing that does seem to help it is exercise. Exercise is crucial for any body to be healthy. If you haven't been exercising, ease into it gradually. Over doing it will not help. But people who gradually build up to exercising at least 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes each day, generally have the best results.

Remember, it is whole body health that you are after, so try to follow all the rules of living a healthy lifestyle.

3. Chronic fatigue syndrome

This is another one that we don't really know what causes it. Again it seems to be related to hormonal imbalances, viral infections, and stress.

A whole body approach is again necessary to balance hormones, strengthen the immune system, and allow the body to have the resources it needs to deal with stressful situations.

I might add that forgiveness of self and others can be a very important factor in this type of recovery.

Again exercise and getting all nutrients from whole foods becomes important.

4. Lupus

This is an autoimmune disease. These types of diseases are quite often seen in connection with drug use, particularly injections, and also seem to be connected with leaky gut syndrome.

Again, there seems to be an imbalance of hormones, as well as a compromised immune system.

Processed foods will contribute to both the leaky gut, and hormone imbalances. Polyunsaturated oils (think corn, cotton, canola, and soy) should be eliminated from the diet, with coconut oil being used instead.

Eating whole grains and lots of green leafy veggies will help to reestablish the intestinal health as well as rebuilding the immune system.

5. Multiple sclerosis

This is another one involving a compromised immune system. Avoid as many toxins as you can, and strive to rebuild a healthy system with whole foods. Again gentle exercise seems to help.

6. Rheumatoid arthritis

Another immune system malfunction. Rebuild it, by flushing out toxins and avoiding future toxins. Again look to whole foods, and exercise.

7. Irritable bowel syndrome

This one is all about your digestive system. Eat fresh whole foods with plenty of good fiber. Drink plenty of water (along with trace minerals, of course) and exercise regularly.

Swine Flu : What You Need To Know

2009-10-21T09:57:00.003-07:00

There is more hype in the Media today about how bad the spread of 'Swine Flu' is. What you need to know is that it is riddled with lies.

The truth is that back in July the CDC told states to stop testing for swine flu. If you have any flu like symptoms you are counted as having 'Swine Flu'. But the states that actually test (some still do) are finding that 80 to 90 percent of those tested for flu, don't have 'Swine Flu', or even influenza. 8 to 10 percent have influenza, and 1 or 2 percent have 'Swine Flu'.

The thing is, that because of the media hype and scare tactics of the government agencies, more people are running to the doctor for coughs and sniffles. These are all being counted as having 'Swine Flu'.

Another thing that you need to know is that in most cases 'Swine Flu' is less dangerous than influenza. Even the cases that they claim died from 'Swine Flu' are not shown to have specifically died from 'Swine Flu', but had multiple other disease conditions. 'Swine Flu' was just one of the conditions they had. In most cases it was bacterial infection, not even viral.

See the CBS report HERE.

The other thing that you need to know is that the vaccine is proving to be much more dangerous than the flu. The vaccine is being rushed to market without safety regulations in place.

This is a repeat of the 'Swine Flu' debacle that occurred in the 70's. More people died from the vaccine than from the disease. And that doesn't even count all those that became disabled in one form or another from the vaccine.

As far as any thinking person can tell, all the hype about 'Swine Flu' is solely to get people to take vaccines, so that the companies making them can profit. Of course it also gets more people to rush to clinics and hospitals for any cough or sniffle.

Here is an update on the 'Swine Flu' that everyone should read :

Dr. Mercola's update alert.

Keep you and your family healthy by choosing the lifestyle that gives you a strong immune system. (Vaccines weaken your immune system.)

Eat fresh whole foods.
Exercise.
Get good sleep.
Avoid processed sugars of all kinds.
Get fresh air and sunshine daily.
Avoid polyunsaturated fats and oils.

Vaccines : The Truth Leaks Out

2009-10-20T10:30:00.004-07:00

Many of you have seen much hype in the major media about swine flu, and vaccines. Now, there is a study that is being leaked before it even gets published.

Now, remember that this is unpublished as yet, and therefore not yet peer reviewed. But health workers all over have heard of it and are starting to react to it.

Someone finally did research comparing individuals who got the flu vaccine last year with those who did not. Can you guess what they found?

People who got the flu shot were twice as likely to get the swine flu as those who did not get the vaccine.

Yes, you read that correctly. You are safer from swine flu if you don't get the vaccine.

Why would that be?

Well, the vaccination is toxic. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't boost your immune system, it taxes your immune system.

Before you decide to get a vaccination, find a research study that shows that those who get vaccinated with the vaccine you are thinking of getting, are healthier than those who did not get the vaccine.

I have a standing challenge for anyone to show me a single study, done with more than 1000 individuals, that shows that people vaccinated are healthier than those who do not get the vaccine.

So far no one has been able to show me one. I even exchanged emails with a director of the CDC about this subject. He told me that the military had the best studies, but the only study he pointed me to was a comparison of one vaccine against another vaccine. There was no comparison with non-vaccinated individuals. When I pointed this out to him, he pointed out that he was too busy to find a particular study for me and that everyone knows that vaccines work.

The more I study vaccines, the more I realize that they do not work to move people toward health. They are simply toxins, and don't we have enough of those in our environment already?

Vaccinations are a multi-billion dollar profit maker for the companies that make them. But that is the only benefit they have. I can find no health benefit to anyone from any vaccine.

If you want a strong immune system, here are my recommendations.

Never get any vaccine.
Exercise at least 5 days a week.
Sleep 6 to 8 hours each night. (It is preferable to get to sleep by 10pm each night.)
Drink plenty of water with sea minerals therein.
Eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.
Eat plenty of whole grains.
Eat healthy fats. (Avocados, coconut oil, nuts, raw milk and eggs)
Use power spices (turmeric, garlic, ginger, oregano, cayenne, cinnamon, etc.)
Eliminate all "refined" foods from your diet.

HERE is a good resource for learning more about eating for health. Go HERE.

Osteoarthritis And Rheumatoid Arthritis

2009-10-08T12:55:00.002-07:00

Osteoarthritis And Rheumatoid Arthritis are different diseases. Osteoarthritis is the gradual breakdown of cartilage in a joint. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease.

However, because they both involve the breakdown of the connective tissues, they can both be treated with success in much the same way.

One of the problems is water. Interestingly the problem can be exacerbated by too little water, or too much water. However, I'll make this easier for you. Too little water is dehydration. Too much water (like water on the knee) is actually another sign of dehydration. This is why joint pain is nearly always helped by increasing water intake.

Of course to optimize your water intake, you need good sea minerals to go with the water. The body can't use water without minerals very well. I put a little "Redmond Real Salt" in every glass of water I drink. Aim for drinking your weight (in pounds) divided by 10, cups of water each day. That may seem like a lot, but trust me.

Another important thing for healthy cartilage is good balanced proteins. The best way to get these is to eat whole foods. Sprouted wheat, raw milk and eggs are some of your best sources. Make these foods part of your daily routine.

There are many people who advise various supplements for joint health, but the research on these is very inconclusive as to whether or not they work. You are much better off just saving the money you would spend on supplements to buy good wholesome (organic if possible) foods.

Eat plenty of fresh vegetables, particularly the leafy greens, like spinach. This is good nutrition to build healthy bones and cartilage. Also getting lots of antioxidants is very beneficial (think fruit, berries, whole grains, and veggies). Antioxidants help to clean the system, and can help to minimize pain. (Pain pills only end up causing more problems further down the road.)

Another cause of cartilage problems can be hormonal imbalances. The best way to balance your hormones is by making sure that your body is getting good fats, and avoiding bad fats. Start by the total elimination of all corn, soy, canola, or cotton seed oils. The best overall hormone balancing fat is probably coconut oil. I suggest 3 to 4 Tablespoons a day. Use a tablespoon full of coconut oil with each meal.

Avoid all hydrogenated fats and transfats (fried foods), and eat good fats like avocados, nuts, raw milk and eggs.

Exercise is another very important treatment for any kind of arthritis. Lack of motion only makes the problem worse. Of course, you need to be careful and not over do. Motion keeps the joints alive. Swimming and cycling are very good because they are not to jarring on the joints.

Now, we do want to be careful to not injure anything with the exercise, but at the same time we do want to cause some stress to the body. You see, one of the little secrets to building healthy bones and cartilage is that your body needs weight bearing jolts. The kind of thing that happens when you run or jump. These weight bearing jolts send impulses through the body that tell the body to build stronger bones and cartilage.

Shhhhhhh. It's a secret, don't tell.

So, how do you get these little jolts, but not cause damage? Bouncing on a trampoline is good, but you can simply hang on to something for support while standing, and raise up onto your toes, and then drop down to your heels. Let your heels strike the ground with a little bump. Don't lock your knees while doing this. In fact it is generally best to not lock your knees in any exercise. Do this for a minute or two any time you find yourself standing around during the day.

One other thing that I should mention about exercising for joint health, is that you want to actually work the tendons and ligaments, not just the muscles. Some people will tell you that you can't exercise tendons or ligaments to strengthen them, but they would be wrong. Here is the secret to exercising tendons and ligaments: Very slow deliberate motion.

For instance, if you want to build strength in the knees you can do squats or lunges. But you are only working the muscles if you go down and up in 10 seconds or less. To strengthen the tendons and ligaments, take a full minute to go down, and another minute to come back up.

You see, the muscles can hold any given position for up to about 10 seconds. After the muscle is fatigued, it requires tendon and ligament strength to continue. So if you are doing a full squat in a couple of minutes, then the muscle is fatigued all along the way and the tendons and ligaments get worked out.

With any exercise, be sure to try to get full range of motion.

Another very basic cause of joint problems is stressing the body through bad habits of structural posture and positioning. I highly recommend getting a book on the correct bio-mechanics of everyday living. Doing away with the under lying causes of pain is always a good idea.

HERE is a good program called "Perfect Posture Program". It is a course that you can download along with videos to show you how it is all done. This can be a critical first step in correcting joint pains and problems.

If you prefer a physical book you can look through and make your own program, I like a book called "Walk Yourself Well" by Sherry Brourman.

Osteoarthritis is very very common in our society today, but it doesn't have to remain that way. Switch to a healthy lifestyle, and let your body heal itself. It is actually very good at it.

Fat Related Deaths?

2009-10-07T14:20:00.004-07:00

You may have seen a story about fats, saying that thousands of lives could have been saved if people had eaten the right fats. Now, while I believe that this could be true in one sense, it is not true in the way it is being portrayed in the news.

This is another example of bad research. Don't worry, no one died because they didn't get enough Omega-3 fats. Yet the researchers say that Omega-3 deficiency causes more deaths each year than breast cancer.

http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Omega-3-deficiency-causes-96-000-US-deaths-per-year-say-researchers

This was simply a mathematical model applied to assumptions about health and death related to the amount of Omega-3 fats in the diet. It is one of those "decide what you believe, then show the results as if that belief were true" studies.

I'm sure it was interesting for the math majors involved, but it had no root in reality.

The sad part is that now supplement pushers are trying to use this information to sell more Omega-3 supplements, making you assume that in order to save your life you need to get more Omega-3s in your diet.

The truth is that we do need good fats in our diets. Eating wholesome foods containing good fats, can indeed improve health and even save some lives.

However, concentrating Omega-3s in a supplement and ingesting them can actually be dangerous. It is an overload of Omega-3s that the body was never intended to handle.

Many people today have become fat phobic. That is very sad. The more fat-free junk that gets consumed, the more obese the nation becomes. Fat is a very important part of a healthy diet. Fat is required by the body in order to metabolize and eliminate excess bad fat in the body.

The key is to eliminate bad fats, but increase good fats. OK, here is the list.

Bad Fats: Hydrogenated fats of any kind. Fat from meat, (it actually used to be good, but these days it is too filled with chemicals). Corn oils, soy oils, cotton seed oils, and canola oils are negative polyunsaturated oils that should be totally avoided.

Good Fats: Virgin Coconut oil, avocadoes, nuts, raw milk, butter and eggs are good fats that can make a wonderful difference in your health.

Bottom Line: If you are getting fat in your diet by eating whole foods, it is generally good for you. If you are using an extracted and processed vegetable oil, or foods that were made with them, it is generally bad for you.

Beware bad research. It has led many people astray. Read "Understanding Science" to make yourself more aware, and avoid being led astray.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

2009-10-05T10:33:00.004-07:00

This is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. So you will see all kinds of pink ribbons all over the place.

So how aware are we? What do we really know?

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women, second only to lung cancer.

The American Cancer Society lists these things as ways to lower your risk of breast cancer:

Eat a healthy diet to help control weight, since being overweight or obese may raise breast cancer risk.
Get regular physical activity. The American Cancer Society recommends 30 minutes a day, 5 or more days a week. Forty-five to 60 minutes a day is even better for reducing breast cancer risk.
Limit the amount of alcohol you drink to no more than 1 drink per day. Alcohol is clearly linked to an increased risk of developing breast cancer.

At the same time, they are suggesting that more women should take drugs to keep from getting breast cancer. Tamoxifen and Herceptin, that the ACS is so proud of helping to fund the research to develop, have now been found to have side effects that include uterine cancer.

The American Cancer Society has awarded approximately $388.4 million to breast cancer research since 1971. But they still haven't been able to figure out that living a healthy lifestyle is the answer they are looking for.

Yes, as listed above, they do suggest eating well and exercising regularly. But you will only find that on their web site if you search for it. And only after reading about the drugs they suggest.

There are no suggestions of what foods to avoid, or what to eat. There is a recent news story that they have released a cookbook on what to eat while going through cancer therapy, but it is not to be found on their website. At least not easily.

They also make a big push for lots of mammograms. Studies of mammograms show them to be not only ineffective, but to carry there own dangers. But the ACS web site tells us that most doctors "feel" that it is best for women to get mammograms.

Here is a much better method of detection that is far safer and can detect problems earlier:
Thermography

They also talk a lot about drugs to overcome genetic anomalies that may lead to breast cancer. But as mentioned elsewhere on this site, genetics really is a very weak link and can be completely overcome by proper lifestyle.

Birth control pills up your chances of getting breast cancer, as well as other forms of estrogen hormone supplementation.

Breast feeding will lessen your chances of getting breast cancer, as will making sure that you get adequate levels of Vitamin D. (Get sunshine daily if possible.)

Using coconut oil instead of corn, soy, or canola will go a long way in helping your body to balance all of its hormone levels and stay cancer free.

Get your 9 servings of veggies and fruits daily. Reference here.

If you already have had breast cancer problems, and need to deal with the effects of chemo, here is a resource to help you recover. Click HERE.

Organic? Is It Better?

2009-10-01T09:57:00.003-07:00

I used to laugh when people would talk about organic food. I thought, "Isn't all food organic!"

Well, it turns out that there are multiple definitions of organic. The one used most commonly today, in relation to the foods we eat, is that there were no pesticides or other chemical treatments used in the growing and/or harvesting of the food.

Organic food labels let you know that the food has less of a chance of being full of man-made chemicals that could possibly cause harm to the human body.

Does this mean that it is good to eat any food that says "organic" somewhere on the label. Not necessarily. If something is basically not good for you, but it was grown "organically" and then labeled "organic" in the store, it does not make that something good for you.

In other words, even if something was grown organically, it can still be bad for you if that was it's nature originally, or if the goodness is processed out of it after it was grown.

There are many things on store shelves that are labeled "organic", but are still not good for consumption by the human body. Never buy something just because it says it is organic.

However, when if comes to fresh produce, it can be very worth while to buy 'organically' grown food. The advantage of not getting all those pesticides and other chemicals in your food can be a great boon to the well being of your body.

If you are fighting a disease, or debilitating condition of some kind, eating fresh organically grown foods can go a long way toward helping your body to heal and recover health.

Of course the very best way to get fresh food is to grow it and harvest it yourself. Backyard gardening is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself and/or your family.

Here is a great resource to help you grow your own. Just the fee bonuses that come with this make it worth while. Learn more HERE.

Chew On This

2009-09-29T19:10:00.002-07:00

If you think you are eating well on a regular basis, and yet you still have nagging health problems, perhaps you're not getting the nutrition you need from the food you are eating.

You have done your research, so you know the nutrition is in the food. You just don't seem to be getting the benefit into your body. What could the problem be?

The answer, of course, would be that your digestion may be having some problems. If the food you eat doesn't get digested, then your body can't use the nutrition from it.

Today let's talk about where good digestion starts. Good digestion starts when you put food into your mouth.

Raise your hand if you have ever heard your mom say something like, "Chew your food before you swallow."

Why did she say that? Because her mom said it? What is the big deal about chewing your food?

Well... oh yes, you can put your hand down now. Let's talk about mastication.

Chewing actually starts the whole digestion process, and it is a very important part of it. If you don't chew your food well, you may not be getting a lot of the nutrition out of your food that you could be getting if you took the time to chew better.

Chewing breaks the food up into smaller pieces, giving it more surface area to be worked on by the other digestive fluids. Not to mention that it makes swallowing easier and safer.

It also causes enzymes to start flowing. They flow into the mouth and start some of the digestion right then and there. Chewing also causes the digestive juices to start flowing in the stomach, in preparation for what is coming down the pipe.

One of the fascinating things that I have learned about chewing is that it can even help, after you have already swallowed. So, if you have an upset stomach after eating a large meal, or a difficult to digest meal, you can pretend to chew and it will help to settle the tummy. It is actually better and safer than taking antacids.

Chewing even helps to prepare the muscles in the lower abdomen to release and allow everything to flow throught the intestines and the bowel.

Bottom line : Take time to chew. You will be healthier for it. Because your body will get more of the available nutrition from your food, and your food will be less gunking (is that a word?) to your digestive system.

Rule of thumb : Chew until the food is now longer identifiable by feel. Then swallow.

Apply This Quote To Your Lifestyle

2009-09-22T22:20:00.003-07:00

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." - Lao Tzu

It is surprising, but many people don't seem to understand this simple truth.

If you want to have a strong and healthy body, you can't keep putting junk into it. No matter how good it may taste, or how hard it may be to change the habit. Even if everyone else is doing it too.

If you want to have an athletic body, then stop treating your body like a couch potato.

If you don't want to ever get cancer, then stop feeding your body carcinogens.

If you don't want to get diabetes, then stop eating all the processed sugar and processed grains.

If you don't want high blood pressure, stop living a dehydrated lifestyle.

If you want a real life, stop eating fake food.

Choose to live today, in a manner that will allow you to enjoy life all the rest of your days.

HERE are the basics to understand and follow to garner a health lifestyle.

Balance Is Everything

2009-09-19T20:16:00.003-07:00

As one studies health and fitness, it becomes very evident that all things must be in balance. You can have too much or too little of any nutrient.

You can have too many free radicals, but you can also have too few. You can have too little iron, but you can also have too much. You can even have too little or too much arsenic.

So then the big question becomes, how do you find that balance?

Many would have you believe that taking drugs can help you reach that balance. It can not.

All man made drugs are anti-balance by their very nature. When you take something from nature that has been shown to be beneficial for health, and then you dissect it and decide that a certain part of it is the active part that you want to use, you have just destroyed the balance that existed in nature. By concentrating a particular part of a plant (which you have to do, if you are going to be able to patent the drug), you are creating something that will stimulate the body in an unnatural and imbalanced way. That is why all drugs have side effects.

It would be so much nicer to just create a list of the beneficial plants that we have discovered to help us be healthy. But you can't patent a natural plant, so you can't make an insane mark up of the price.

So if drugs aren't the answer, what about supplements?

Unfortunately most supplements are not much different than drugs. Yes, they will often have a lot fewer dangerous side effects than drugs, but sometimes not. You still have the same problem of taking a large dose of a particular thing. If supplements were really to work, you would have to constantly monitor your levels of the nutrient you are supplementing to see when you have enough, but not too much.

The problem with that is that we can't even agree on what the correct level of most nutrients is, not to mention the problem of constant testing to see when your levels are up or down. The other thing is that all the nutrients work together, synergisticly, to keep us functioning correctly. We don't even know what all the nutrients to the human body are, let alone how they all work together. We have some basic ideas, but it is nowhere near the point of being able to micromanage the nutrients in the body.

Another interesting observation is that the symptoms of having too much of something, are quite often pretty much identical to having too little of the same thing. So we don't really even know for sure.

Even blood tests can fool us, because somethings that we have too much of can be very low in the blood, because the body is storing it away elsewhere so that it doesn't have to deal with the overload. Other times, things that we are deficient in can show good levels in the blood while the body tries to rush them around to share in all the places they are needed. For example, when we are deficient, the body can be pulling certain nutrients from the bones to use in other body processes. So a blood test might show that those nutrients are plentiful in the blood.

The beautiful thing is that we don't have to try to micromanage everything. If we eat the things that the creator has made for us, they have a special ability, that we haven't even begun to understand yet, to balance all the systems of the body.

If you think you need a particular nutrient, (and again we really don't know if you do) just make sure that you are eating a variety of good nutritious food made by God. Of course, make sure that it is not processed by man to the point of destroying a lot of its balance. Fresh and raw are usually the best. Try to get something from all the major food groups each day.

The major food groups are : Whole unprocessed grains, vegetables, fruit, legumes and nuts, and carefully chosen animal products (think raw milk and eggs).

The other major keys to making everything balance are water, exercise and sleep. Without those three, the other nutrients can't even be used by the body.

Again, water is of paramount importance. Without adequate water the body cannot move nutrients around the body. Without water it cannot flush out the toxins and waste and keep the body clean. Also remember that your water needs to be mineralized. Use real mineral water fresh from the earth if possible, or put a dash of real sea salt (complete with all the trace-minerals) in the water you drink. If you are drinking sufficient quantities of water (one tenth of your body weight in pounds, cups of water a day) your body will be able to use what it needs and flush out what it doesn't need.

Balance is a natural thing for the body to do. We just have to give it the resources it needs, and not burden it to much with the toxins or overeating.

Ryan's book on "The Dependables" is a great way to gain a lot of understanding along these lines. Get it HERE.

Chia Seeds

2009-09-17T21:26:00.002-07:00

I was asked to comment on chia seeds.

Chia seeds are from an annual herb called Salvia Hispanica. It is a member of the mint family. The name chia comes from an Aztec word, chian, meaning oily.

They are high in oil content, (about 30%) and the predominant oil is polyunsaturated. Since most Americans have way too much polyunsaturated oils in there diet, I would suggest limiting your intake of chia seeds.

Chia is promoted as an excellent source of nutrition, that will help to curb pain, and will help to extend endurance. It is also high in fiber and protein. It contains vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. So do most cereal grains, which is what chia seeds are usually compared to.

In spite of the claims made by people trying to sell health promoting products made with chia seeds, it isn't really any more remarkable than other cereal grains. However, it is much more expensive. They call it a superfood, and sell it (even in bulk) for about four and a half dollars a pound.

I can get wheat for seven or eight dollars for 25 pounds. Since I know that wheat contains pretty much all the nutrition I can need, why would I want to spend nine or ten times as much for something that isn't really that much different. Besides, nobody needs the extra polyunsaturated oils.

Even the Aztecs, who are supposed to have revered this as a superfood, listed chia behind several other important grains. The descendants of the ancient Aztecs still grow and harvest chia seeds, but only on a minor scale. It evidently wasn't all that important of a crop to them.

Chia seed sprouts are fine to use like alfalfa sprouts in a salad if you like. Just don't over do them, because they are very high in polyunsaturated oils.

Chickens fed chia had higher deposits of polyunsaturated oils in their legs and breasts. They also laid fewer eggs and lighter eggs.

Contrary to popular myth, polyunsaturated oils are not healthy for your heart or your body. In fact it has now been discovered that polyunsaturated oils contribute to the formation of cancer.

Stress Managment

2009-09-17T08:36:00.004-07:00

Stress is one of the things that can cause all kinds of trouble for you. It builds on itself and can spiral downwardly into a real mess.

For health and well being we generally want to eliminate as much stress as possible.

However, it should be noted that there are some good things about stress as well. Stressing the body can stimulate it and cause growth. This is an important type of stress to put on the body.

The biggest problem with stress, is when it becomes chronic or constant. Constant stress that never lets up, doesn't allow the body to rebuild and strengthen. This could be from a dental problem that we are ignoring, or are unaware of. It could be long term unbalanced use of muscles or skeletal systems. It can also be constant worry about things in our lives.

Stress can cause the body to not function correctly. If you are having a health issue that doesn't seem to get better no matter what you do, then you probably need to analyze your stress levels.

Amazingly, getting into a healthy lifestyle can help with all forms of stress. Once you are giving the body the good resources it needs to repair and rejuvenate, many stresses will be relieved.

For some chronic stresses you may need to see a specialist. For instance if you have chronic tooth sensitivity or pain, you probably need to see a dentist.

Another important thing to do, is to learn how to deal with stress. Stress will always be a part of life. But if you learn to pray, meditate, ponder, and relax, you can relieve many stresses.

Take a little time each day to just relax and count your blessings. Ponder on the good things that have happened to you. Look forward with a positive attitude to things that may happen in your future. Don't fear the future, but look for good things to happen. Expect good things and they will usually come.

Imagination is a very powerful force. Use your imagination to imagine a positive future for your self. Dwell on those positive images often, and before you know it, you may very well receive that positive future.

If you would would like some help in dealing with stress in your life, take a look at THIS PROGRAM. It might be what you need.

Genetic Determinism Is Dead (or at least is should be)

2009-09-15T20:36:00.003-07:00

Genetic Determinism has failed completely and totally to stay afloat in the science of the day.

The Human Genome Project was going to be the crowning achievement for all those who believed in Genetic Determinism. But the project has proven to be the sledge hammer that has destroyed it completely.

You see, the project caused more and more people to join in the research of discovering how genes work and what they do. As a result we have learned a lot!

Genetic Determinism said that a gene determines what proteins are formed, which determines what happens in the body. (I know that is very simplistic, but I'm trying to keep this understandable.) It was supposed to be kind of a one-way-street. The gene directs the body what to do.

Well, thanks to all the new research, we now know that it just isn't so. The communication channels in the body between DNA, RNA, proteins, etc, are more like the phone lines criss-crossing our country. Communication goes all over the place and in both directions at the same time. In fact, we now know that genes do not initiate communication. They are simply waiting for someone to contact them, so that they can share what they have to offer. I guess they got cell phones with no way to dial out.

The proteins make contact with the genes when they need something from them. Only certain proteins can make contact with certain genes. The proteins are formed by the needs of the body, determined by the environment.

The whole process can be just the opposite of the way Genetic Determinism pictured it to be. The environment can cause proteins to reconfigure RNA and DNA. The body can adapt very quickly to changes in it's environment.

However, there is an innate intelligence in every organism, from bacteria to human, which will always bring the organism back to equilibrium as soon as it can get the resources to do so.

In other words, Evolution of Species is also doomed. There are no changes which gradually little by little get passed along until something has evolved into something else.

I'm trying to keep this simple, but for those interested HERE is a link to a more in depth analysis by a biologist.

Also, be sure to read my book about "Understanding Science". It will help you to make sense of all the different "scientific" stuff thats gets thrown around these days.

So... what does all this mean to you and your life?

As your body comes in contact with toxins and pollutants it tries to adapt quickly to help you survive. If you have long term exposures to toxins, it gets harder and harder for your body to deal with it. This will eventually lead to chronic pain and or disease.

The good news is that your body still has the innate intelligence to heal itself, if it is given a break from all the stress, and also given the good resources (think whole, raw, natural foods) that it needs to repair and rebuild.

Perhaps the most difficult part of that, is to stop the stress. Let's talk more about stress tomorrow.

Sprouting Grains : How To

2009-09-14T21:30:00.003-07:00

Sprouting grains is a fantastic and simple way to get superb nutrition in your diet.

When you know how to sprout grains you can live off of a years supply of wheat. As long as you also have water, of course.

Sprouting your grains is kind of like getting your fruits and vegetables from your grains. Sprouted grains have even more nutrients than the un-sprouted grains. For instance whole wheat kernels have lots of nutrients, but they lack Vitamin C. If you sprout them, they suddenly have Vitamin C. Also sprouts are easier to eat, and to digest, than the whole grains.

Here are the simple steps to sprouting grain.

Soak the grain in water over night. (8 to 12 hours at room temperature).

Then rinse and drain the water off of them approximately every 6 to 8 hours. (Keep them moist, but not sitting in water, at room temperature.)

I do this in a glass jar with netting over the opening, held in place by a rubber band. I invert the jar at an angle and let it set in a small bowl. The jar (on it's side) is longer than the bowl is wide, so that keeps the jar tipped so that all the water can drain out of it. The netting, of course, keeps the grains in the jar, but allows the water to drain.

You can eat the sprouts at any time throughout this process. Taste them at different times and see how you like them. Some like them best just right after the initial soaking. I usually like mine about a day later. You can continue this process as long as you like, but eventually you will have grass.

When the sprouts reach the point that you like them best, move them to the refrigerator. This doesn't stop the sprouting process completely, but it does slow it down drastically.

One more note about sprouting. You can also sprout beans.

My mother taught us that if you sprout the beans before making chili, it takes the gas out of them. Now that's useful information!

Thanks Mom!

Toquerville Trails Turkey Trot 2009

2009-09-12T15:44:00.004-07:00

Announcing the 5th Annual Toquerville Trails Turkey Trot.

This Thanksgiving morning, on November 26th, 2009, anyone in the vicinity of Southern Utah is invited to come to Toquerville. We have a 'Turkey Trot' that is just so much fun, you might not believe it.

This is not a wimpy road race. It is a trail run, on rocky and sandy southern Utah desert trails.
It has been called 'the hardest 3 mile run ever'.

Even so, it continues to grow in popularity. I decided to put the entry form into pdf form and make it available on the internet. You can get it HERE.

You can also get it from Classic Sports, located in Hurricane Utah, at 1141 W. State Street.

You need to register by November 13th to be guaranteed a T-shirt. You can also register the morning of the race, from 8:45 to 9:15AM. The race starts at 10:00AM.

There are two races. A short one (1.7 miles) and a long one (3.0 miles). They run at the same time.

Come and have a great Thanksgiving Day morning. We will help you work up an appetite for later in the day.

Health Basic Missed By Many Nutritionists

2009-09-11T09:57:00.003-07:00

There is a basic fundamental of health that is missed by many nutritionists.

I understand why they make the mistake, but it is most unfortunate.

It is natural to start from where you are, and it's a good idea to do so. Where else would you start from? But when you are looking at what is optimal nutrition, you need to start from an optimal position. The optimal position to start from in regards to human nutrition, is whole grains fresh from the fields.

You see, because grains in our modern world have mostly been processed and destroyed before being put into our food products, they have been made very unhealthy for us. That is why many nutritionists will tell people to avoid grains in their diet. Unfortunately that is a very big mistake.

Whole grains, that have not be processed to death, should be the base of your food supply. Grains do wonderful things for the body that have often been overlooked. They contain lots of fiber, which we now know is key to good health. They contain the essential amino acids for building healthy bodies. Grains contain the best kinds of carbohydrates for fueling the body. They contain many vitamins and minerals.

Whole grains are digested slowly, thereby giving you long term energy. This slower digestion also has several other advantages that have only more recently began to be understood. Besides being good for helping to keep blood sugar levels balanced, it helps to balance the pH of the body.
Wheat in particular is very balancing for the body. It even contains a combination of proteins, carbs, and fats, that help to balance and maintain healthy intestinal flora. Thereby helping your digestion to be more efficient, and allowing you to get more of the nutrients from the foods you eat.

One of the more recent discoveries that you may find interesting is that whole grains contain just as many antioxidants as most fruits and vegetables. These antioxidants had not be recognized previously because of the method used to measure antioxidants in food. It turns out that the whole grains kind of act like time-release capsules for antioxidants. As the grains digest, they gradually release the antioxidants into your system. Thus you have a sustained antioxidant effect over a longer period of time. That is definitely good for your body.

Grains are the ideal base for a healthy diet. They also store very well, so that you can stock a supply for years without worrying about them going bad.

I strongly suggest that you base your diet on whole grains. Buy whole grains. They are very inexpensive and are easily used at home for healthy meals. They are delicious, and even more nutritious when they are sprouted. Sprouting grains is very easy! Or you can just soak whole grains overnight for a delicious breakfast cereal in the morning.

I perhaps should mention one other mistake that many people make in regard to grains. There is a saying, that has been repeated many times, to the effect that farmers feed their livestock grains to fatten them up. This simply is not true. Grains are used to promote health and vigor. Yes, grains give animals what they need to grow and mature and produce. But if a farmer really wants to fatten animals just before going to market, he feeds them polyunsaturated fats.

Grains are natures time-release capsules to give health promoting nutrition to the body. They are fairly low in fat. But our ancestors ate them with raw milk and eggs, thereby enhancing the effects with good and healthy fats.

So just remember that when a nutritionist speaks negatively about grains, they are only speaking of processed, denatured grain by-products. Whole grains are some of the best nutrition you can get.

8 Rules of Healthy Living (With Elimination List)

2009-09-08T10:34:00.009-07:00

I recently updated and improved this, so I wanted to share it again. You can get a nicer copy for printing (PDF) from HERE.

I just know you all want to print it out and live by it! :-)

8 Rules of Healthy Living
(With Elimination List)

1. Eat more fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains and nuts. (Aim for 90% of your diet, with 80% raw) Try to make wheat your foundation. Dark leafy greens are particularly important.
2. Work up to exercising at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
3. Stop as many toxins as you can from entering your body. (See elimination list below)
4. Forgive.
5. Give thanks.
6. Give service to others with a cheerful smile.

7. Drink plenty of good clean water. (Your weight in pounds divided by 10 is the minimum number of cups of water you should get each day.) Be sure to get minerals, including trace-minerals with water.
8. Try to get to sleep 2 to 3 hours before midnight each night.

They say variety is the spice of life. Variety is also the foundation of good health.
If you eat a variety of whole natural foods you will get all the nutrients you need.
If you do a variety of exercises you can get all the muscles and joints of your body active and strong in all the different directions of motion.
If you eliminate all variety of toxins your body can rebuild cleanly.
If you forgive for all variety of offenses, you can let go of all sorts of pain.
If you show gratitude in all things, and serve others in many ways, you can always be happy.
However, you should hardly ever vary from your daily minimum consumption of water(body weight in pounds/10 cups each day) or from getting a good nights rest.
These are simple rules, that if truly followed will bring great blessings into your life.

Coach G. (For more details see http://garnerhealth.blogspot.com ) Email : CoachG@ghl.zzn.com

Elimination List: (Eliminate as many of these from your lifestyle as possible. No particular order.) Suggested alternatives are in italics.

1. White Flour (Dead food, like glue to the system, drains the body of nutrients) Grind your own.
2. Processed Sugar (Destroys immune function, and the body's ability to rebuild) Use Raw Honey.
3. Table Salt (even if the label says "Sea Salt") Redmond's RealSalt is good to use.
4. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS is toxic to the human body in any amount)
5. Hydrogenated Oils (any hydrogenated oil, even partially hydrogenated oils)(Toxic in any amount)
6. Artificial colors, flavors and sugars (especially Aspartame and Splenda)(Toxic in any amount)
7. MSG (MonoSodiumGlutamate)
8. Anti-inflammatory drugs (over the counter pain medicines) Use eggs, wheat, Vitamin C, coconut oil, and water to control inflammation.
9. Drugs of all kinds. (This includes most supplements.) Instead use whole tonic herbs, or Vitamin C.
10. Soy products (toxic, deters protein digestion, depresses thyroid[growth], slows mineral absorption)
11. Microwaving Food (microwaved food is molecularly changed, and contributes to cancer)
12. Meats loaded with Hormones and Antibiotics (Most meat that you didn't grow or hunt yourself)
13. Pasturized & Homogenized Milk (Store bought milk) Raw milk is very good for your health.
14. Alcohol and Tobacco (of course)(toxins)
15. Most Processed Vegetable Oils, including Canola (toxins) Use Olive Oil or Coconut Oil instead.
16. GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms)(Nearly all corn or soy is GMO these days)

"Sunning" Your Eyes

2009-09-05T16:04:00.003-07:00

As a follow up to my post the other day on the Sun, I decided to explain a bit more about "Sunning" your eyes.

One of the problems with many vision troubles is that the eyes become extra sensitive to light. Wearing dark glasses to accommodate for this, results in even more light sensitivity.

One of the best things that you can do daily, to help to heal and improve your vision, is to "Sun" your eyes. This will help the eyes to become accustomed to light, and believe it or not, can actually lead to the correction of some vision problems.

Sunning your eyes is done by going outside without glasses on. I suggest doing this in the morning, shortly after the Sun comes up. Find a relaxed position with your body facing directly toward the Sun. With your eyes closed, tilt your head so that IF your eyes were open, you could look straight ahead, and see the sun directly in front of you. Keeping your eye lids closed, slowly rotate your head back and forth from side to side. Try to achieve full range of motion, but without stress. Try to keep your head, face and eyes relaxed.

Try to do this for 5 minutes. Depending on how sensitive your eyes are, you may not be able to do it for that long initially. Just work up to it gradually. If you do a slow head turn that takes about 3 seconds to go from one side to the other, then count 100 of those turns. That will be about 5 minutes.

You will most likely 'see' red, orange, and yellow. The goal is to do this long enough to actually 'see' white'. When you see white, your eyes are relaxed and adjusted to the light. Of course, it isn't a pure white, it's an off white, because you are 'looking' through your eye lids.

This is just one exercise that can help to improve eye-sight. There are others that, when combined with this one, can help unhealthy eyes return to health and good vision.

There are also more advanced versions of 'Sunning'.

Other important eye skills are 'blinking', 'pumping', 'pin point focus', 'palming', 'blurring', and 'swinging'.

Go HERE to learn more.

Or you could try to find the original book by Dr. Bates.

Basic Rules For Health And Wellness

2009-09-04T11:17:00.005-07:00

The basic rules for health and wellness are actually quite simple.

There is no need for a big book with a step by step program and recipes. You just need some common sense and to be able to recognize the true weight behind the different ideas and studies you will see reported in the media.

One reason that it has been easier for me than it is for some others is because I accept the premise that there is a God that created this earth specifically for the use and benefit of mankind. I could go into all the reasons why I accept that, but suffice it to say that the evidence is overwhelming for that conclusion. No matter how many people may try to persuade you otherwise, the evidence in science, philosophy, mathematics, religion, history, or spiritualism is much more dependable and logical for the existence of a creator than against it.

The simple fact is that the earth was made for mankind, and mankind was made for the earth. Once you understand that, it is so simple to see that the natural foods placed for us here on the earth are the best ways for us to remain healthy. That is not to say that anything found naturally on the earth is necessarily beneficial to all mankind. But we are to use our intelligence to learn and to grow and to have both negative and positive experiences.

The foods that mankind has learned are good to eat are always more life- and health-giving if we eat them in their whole, natural state. Modern mankind has made the sad mistake of deciding to cook and/or otherwise process most -if not all- of what we eat. In so doing, we have destroyed much of the health-sustaining properties of our food. On top of that, the foods that we do tend to eat without cooking, we have contaminated with pesticides and other man-made chemicals that are also detrimental to health.

One of the interesting things that you see as you review study after study after study is that the more we try to break food down into its separate elements to find out which parts we can use to cause health, the more we discover that the raw, natural food as a whole is much better at balancing the systems of the body and avoiding an over-stimulus in any one area.

Looking at study after study, it can become mind-blowing just how ignorant we are of the natural goodness that is built into the grains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables that the earth provides for us.

Another amazing thing that you see is that every time raw, natural, pesticide-free food is used as the major or sole source of food for people, they become much healthier and stronger than when they ate man-made, processed foods.

The basic rules for health and wellness all come down to doing what is right for mankind.

1. Eat a variety of good, wholesome foods (raw whenever possible).

2. Drink good clean water.

3. Exercise regularly (ideally six days a week).

4. Rest regularly. One day a week lay off the hard physical labors, and get a good nights sleep every night.

5. Breathe (deeply) plenty of good, clean air. The best way to breathe deeply is to make sure that you blow out as much air as possible when you exhale.

6. Get good doses of sunshine regularly.

7. Think positive, happy thoughts as often as possible. That often comes from helping your fellowman.

8. Give thanks sincerely and regularly.

That's it! Those are the basics that have been proven time and time again in test after test as well as in common sense. Of course we could fill in much more detail as to what things are better for given times and situations, but the basics are still simple. If we all just followed the basics there would be much less disease and sorrow in this world.

Follow the basics and have a great life!

Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breathe deeply and have a gratitude attitude.

Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.

Coach G.

The Sun : The True Story

2009-09-03T21:50:00.007-07:00

The Sun is the source of our heat and energy.

It also has many other health benefits.

Sleeping is better regulated when you get regular sun exposure.

Vision improves with exposure to sunshine.

Your body's best source of Vitamin D is from sunshine.

So why do so many people hide from the sun? Well, we've been told, by people who are supposed to know, that the sun is dangerous.

We hide behind hats, glasses, sunscreens, long-sleeve shirts, etc.

On a major news source the other day, they interviewed a mother who was a skin cancer survivor. She also happened to be a dermatologist. It was so sad to see how phobic this lady has become of the Sun. She uses all kinds of sunscreen and sunblock sprays and lotions, both on herself and her children. Then even after that, they must wear hats and long sleeves.

She testified as to how dangerous the Sun is. She knows, because she treats people regularly who have skin problems caused by the Sun. How does she know they were caused by the Sun? Well, we know that the Sun is radiation, and that some forms of radiation on the skin cause free-radicals. Free-radicals cause destruction. The Sun is always around, doing it's thing. So it must be the cause. Simple logic.

But if the Sun causes skin cancer, then why are there so many people who spend lots of time in the Sun, but don't get cancer? We are supposed to believe that they have 'lucky genes'.

If you have followed my writing for very long, you know that genetics is one of the very weakest links for health problems. For more on genetics, go HERE.

If bright sunlight is bad for your eyes, then why do people "Sun" their eyes to improve their vision?

The truth is that the Sun is very good for your health. Sun exposure helps you to sleep better at night. Sun exposure helps the eyes to be healthier. Sun exposure causes the body to make the very best kind of vitamin D, which is proving to be an important nutrient to avoid many diseases.

What are we missing? As always, the key to healthy living is a healthy lifestyle.

As with anything else, Sunshine can be dangerous if overdone or done badly. For instance staring directly into the midday Sun with your eyes opened can burn your eyes. But if you "Sun" your eyes regularly with your eyes closed most of the time, it can be a great boon to your vision.

If you spend lots of time in the sun, but your diet and skin care practices aren't adjusted for it, then you can get bad sun burns, which can contribute to the eventual development of cancer. But if you eat well (including lots of healthy fats), and use coconut oil on your skin regularly, you can spend much of each day in the Sun and not have any problems.

Coconut oil, used both internally and externally, helps the body to use the goodness of the Sun without negative side effects. Note that coconut oil should be applied on the skin about 20 minutes before going out into direct sunlight, so that it has a chance to soak into the skin. You don't want fresh oil sitting on top of the skin with a hot summer Sun beating down on it. I'm sure you have heard of boiling in oil. But once the skin has absorbed most of the oil, it is protected, and the oil in the skin actually helps the sun to create vitamin D in the body.

Lack of sunshine is just as dangerous as too much.

So many people with depression would be helped immensely just by getting more sunshine.

The sun helps to boost the immune system to fight off colds or infections.

Wearing dark glasses all the time, desensitizes your eyes to light. Thus leading to poorer vision.

Constantly wearing sunscreens or sunblocks keeps you from forming that very important vitamin D. It also keeps you from forming as many free-radicals, which actually are an important part of the immune system. Not to mention the damage that can be done to your body by many of the chemicals that are used in those sprays and lotions. The chemicals are actually much more likely to contribute to cancer than the Sun.

Even if you are "Sun-phobic", try to get at least 10 minutes of Sun each day on bare skin.

The Sun is not a curse, but a blessing! Use it wisely.

Anemia And Iron

2009-09-01T21:31:00.004-07:00

When you hear of someone being anemic, or having anemia, you probably think they need more iron.

That is what we have all been led to believe. That is what the doctors have learned, and passed on to us.

But anemia means to be low on blood, generally a reduction of red blood cells. This can be caused by three things. Excessive bleeding, excessive death of red blood cells, or a decrease in the bodies ability to make red blood cells.

Note that any of those three conditions can exist at the same time that you can have an over abundance of iron in the body.

In fact it turns out that most of us, even those who are anemic, have an abundance of iron in our systems. It is simply a matter of getting the systems in balance so that they will use the available iron, along with other resources, to keep our red blood cells functioning the way they should.

Balanced systems will also help to rid us of the excess iron that so many of us get from today's environment. Excess iron can be very dangerous to your bodies health.

I suggest that you read these questions and answers from a biologist and physiologist about the dangers of too much iron in your system (a very common condition in today's world).

Remember that balance in the human body is achieved through healthy lifestyle choices. Whole, natural, unprocessed foods help the body to balance. Of particular importance is whole grain wheat, lots of water, and moderate exercise.

I also suggest virgin coconut oil be used to replace all vegetable oils in your diet. This will help to correct hormonal imbalances that contribute to anemia, as well as many other diseases.

If you don't know where to get coconut oil, click HERE.

Swine Flu : How Dangerous Is It?

2009-08-31T22:19:00.004-07:00

How dangerous is the swine flu?

Well, it must be pretty dangerous because people are dying from it, right?

Are they? Perhaps we should state it more accurately. People are dying 'with' swine flu.

That is very different.

If we look into the actual cases of swine flu, we find that it is much like a regular flu, only usually less severe. There are many more people who die with flu than die with swine flu.

So why all the media hype and attention about swine flu? Follow the money.

Most people have figured out that the flu is something that is not a really big deal if we just do a few things to boost the immune system. But the swine flu is an unknown to most people, and can therefore be sold as a disaster waiting to happen that must be stopped with a vaccine.

Unfortunately most news today comes from so called 'press releases' by companies trying to sell something.

But hopefully we are learning from history, so that we don't have to keep repeating it. The 'Swine Flu Debacle' of the 70s should have taught us something. Companies trying to sell vaccines hyped up the swine flu back then, and ended up causing much more death and destruction with their vaccine than the flu caused.

Now you would think that we would have learned from that experience, but it appears that we did not. The same thing is happening again. Under the guise of an emergency, safety testing is being put on the back burner. Vaccines are being rushed to market, and the companies creating them are being given immunity against you suing them when the vaccines make you sick.

That is the only real immunity to come out of this deal.

The World Health Organization is even telling doctors to skip testing for swine flu, and just assume it, if symptoms are similar. No wonder the numbers of reported cases have sky rocketed lately. But mind you, they are still far less common than the usually more virulent regular flu.

The best defense against the flu, or any other disease, is to have a healthy immune system. And the best way to have a healthy immune system is to live a healthy life style.

Drink lots of good clean water. Get a variety of minerals and trace minerals. Eat lots of veggies and fruit (raw when over possible). Eat whole grains that you grind and prepare yourself. Eat good fats like raw butter, raw milk, avocados, nuts, and coconut oil. Exercise regularly, working hard enough to make you breath heavy. Get a daily dose of sunshine when possible. Avoid as many toxins as possible (that includes vaccines and drugs, as well as most processed foods).

People always seem to be amazed at the marvelous turn around in health that can occur just from deciding to eat good whole foods in the form that the creator created them in.

Getting back to the title of this post...

In my opinion, the most dangerous thing about the swine flu, is that you might decide to get the vaccine.

Last time this (the hype about swine flu) occurred, back in the 70s, many people who got the shot developed a real nasty side effect that attacks the nerves, called Guillain-Barre syndrome. After watching a friend deal with this disease, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. She has slowly recovered much of the control of her body, but still cannot walk very far without an aid.

Don't believe me? Don't take my word for it. Here it is from a biochemist.

HCG Diet : What Does It Do?

2009-08-29T22:07:00.003-07:00

The hCG diet is being talked about a lot these days, so I thought I would review it.

First off, hCG stands for “Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin”, a substance found only in pregnant women.

After hearing people tell other people that they should try this new diet, I read the book by the guy who created the diet.

He uses injections of hCG and combines this treatment with a very very strict and restricted diet, about 500 calories a day.

He claims that the hCG causes weight loss of only the bad fat, and keeps the good fat.

It was interesting that while reading through this book he acts like this always works and never fails, but at the same time he keeps making remarks about all the little infractions in the diet regimen that can reverse the results, from losing weight to gaining weight.

When a patient doesn't lose weight, he interviews them to see what diet infraction they committed. And if they deny making any diet mistakes, he assumes they are lying, so he can still claim that his protocol always works.

This diet is not for the faint of heart. It involves daily injections and weigh-ins. It ties you to a doctor and a scale. To keep the weight off after the injections have been completed (23 to 40 daily injections depending on how much weight you need to lose) you must continually travel with a scale and weigh and measure your meals.

This diet will teach you how to obsess over your weight like never before.

The doctor's (Dr Simeons) explanations for how and why this diet works is very suspect. He makes a lot of assumptions about a great number of things. He ties all these assumptions together to create this protocol.

After noticing that his assumptions about digestion, evolution, fats, proteins, carbs, etc, were for the most part wrong according to all that I have studied. I must logically assume that his assumptions about hCG are probably also problematic.

He talks about how pregnant ladies don't get fat, and don't have many other health problems. I know at least several mothers who would disagree with him.

Having said all of that, I must admit that there are a number of people on the internet who claim that it worked for them. I suspect that it is the strictness of the diet that made the changes observed by these people. A change of lifestyle is nearly always the key to improving the well being of your body.

But hey, they say it works. So if you are a glutton for punishment here is where to read all about it.

HERE is where to get the guide to give you all the tips and tricks to having a successful experience with it.

And here is the cookbook for it.

Whole Grain Foods : Corn ???

2009-08-27T18:53:00.002-07:00

Americans have a strange view of corn.

Most of the rest of the world calls it 'maize'.

The interesting part is that most Americans would consider corn to be a vegetable. But the word 'corn' actually has the same meaning as the word 'grain'.

If you hear someone in England talk about 'corn', they are most likely talking about wheat. If you hear it in Scotland, they are most likely talking about oats.

Most uses of the term 'corn' in the bible are actually referring to grains in general.

So, why do we think of it as a vegetable, if it is actually a grain?

Well, as researchers look at the history of corn, or maize, it seems that it used to be much more grain like. It grew small kernels in hard husks. Over time it has gradually been crossed with other plants and selectively changed to be what we have today. Large ears with many soft kernels grouped together for easy eating. So, we boil it, or steam it, and think of it as a vegetable.

Maize used to be grown in many different varieties. It was a food staple for some cultures, but not nearly to the extent that some would have you believe. It is not a complete food, and cannot sustain healthy human bodies. No indigenous peoples lived off of it. They used it as a big part of their diets, but ran into health problems when they tried to live off of it.

Today's modern version of corn is still not a complete food. It is high in sugar, and high in polyunsaturated oils. And it can still cause a vitamin B deficiency.

Another major problem with corn these days, is that the tradition of trying to engineer it into being something different has continued. So now we have genetically modified (GM) corn. GM corn can cause many health problems. And the sad part is that more and more of our corn crops are becoming GM.

Many of the natural corn crops are being converted into GM corn, through wind caused cross-pollination. Due to these factors, I don't recommend that people eat a lot of corn.

If you grow your own corn and know for certain that the seeds are not GM, then enjoy your crop. Just be sure to eat a variety of other grains and vegetables, etc., to get a balanced diet.

On the other hand, processed and/or extracted corn oil should be avoided like the plague. It is know to cause all kinds of health problems in both man and beast.

So, yes, corn on the cob can be called a whole grain. But it is not a balanced and complete food.

Interesting Facts About Earth

2009-08-25T18:45:00.003-07:00

Here are some interesting facts about earth that might surprise you. Hopefully they can also help you to have better health.

Earth was made for mankind.

The earth carries an electrical charge that imparts positive life-giving vibrations to things that are grown in it, as well as to spring waters that come out of it.

People who grow gardens and work in them, have greater health than those who do not. There are actually organisms in the soil that help the human body to thrive. We don't get these when we eat too much processed and/or sterilized foods.

Another reason that working in the earth is healthy for you, is that when you make contact with the earth it electrically grounds your body, and cancels out many of the negative free radicals that can cause you problems. It is a better anti-oxidant than any pill you can take.

A contributing cause to so many of our health problems is that we are shielded from the healthy vibrations of the earth. We wear rubber soled shoes that insulate us from the earth. We hardly ever go barefoot anymore.

Go ahead and walk around barefoot in the grass, or in the sand. Wade in a stream or river. Put your hands down into the soil to work your garden. You are getting healthier by the minute. No wonder those activities make us feel so good!

There are companies that will sell you products you can sleep on or under that will ground your body while you sleep. But if you just get outdoors most days and make skin-to-earth contact, you may be surprised at the boost you will get.

The other consideration is that all of our modern electronic gadgets seem to operate at frequencies that are negative to the health of the human body.

I highly recommend getting something like a Q-Link to help shield your body from the negative effects of using your computer, riding in a car, sleeping next to an electrical alarm clock, or using a cell phone. As well as all the other electrical gadgets we use these days.

Get yours HERE.

Essential Fatty Acids : Essential To What?!

2009-08-24T21:18:00.004-07:00

The other day, we talked about protein and the essential amino acids. If you remember, or if you don't, they are essential because the body needs them but can't make them.

Today let's talk about essential fatty acids, or 'essential fats'.

If you follow any media of any kind, you have probably heard that there are essential fatty acids that you need to be sure and get plenty of in order to be healthy. We are told that we need polyunsaturated oils. Omega-6 and Omega-3 oils are talked about right and left. Vegetable oils and fish oils are supposed to be wonderful for maximizing your health. Let's analyze these assumptions.

Essential fatty acids are said to be linoleic and linolenic acids. Interestingly enough our bodies can synthesize these unsaturated acids, so they do not meet the definition of 'essential'.

Essential fatty acids (EFA) are, according to the textbooks, linoleic acid and linolenic acid, and they are supposed to have the status of "vitamins," which must be taken in the diet to make life possible. However, we are able to synthesize our own unsaturated fats when we don't eat the "EFA," so they are not "essential." The term thus appears to be a misnomer. [M. E. Hanke, "Biochemistry," Encycl. Brit. Book of the Year, 1948.]

Secondly these fatty acids, are not health promoting. They are health destroying. Study after study for over fifty years have shown that these oils shut down the immune system, and contribute to cancer. In fact, it appears that a body that doesn't have unsaturated oils in it's diet can not get cancer.

These oils are simply toxins to the body. Here is what the biologist Ray Peat had to say about them.

The suppression of an enzyme system is characteristic of toxins. The "EFA" powerfully, almost absolutely, inhibit the enzyme systems--desaturases and elongases--which make our native unsaturated fatty acids.

After weaning, these native fats gradually disappear from the tissues and are replaced by the EFA and their derivatives. The age-related decline in our ability to use oxygen and to produce energy corresponds closely to the substitution of linoleic acid for the endogenous fats, in cardiolipin, which regulates the crucial respiratory enzyme, cytochrome oxidase.

Although the fish oils are less effective inhibitors of the enzymes, they are generally similar to the seed oils in their ability to promote cancer, age-pigment formation, free radical damage, etc.

One of the problems with these oils is that they are made by nature to disrupt digestion. Digestion is the key to getting any and all nutrients from food into the body.

Unsaturated fats are what they use to suppress the immune systems of people who have organ transplants.

These fats also suppress thyroid function. That is why the farmers use them to help make fat pigs. Isn't it interesting that as we have been told more and more how much we need the "essential fatty acids" our population has become more and more obese.

Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer and many other diseases continue to climb. It appears that unsaturated fats play an important role in all these diseases. These diseases can't hardly occur unless there are unsaturated fats in the diet.

To learn more read this article by Ray Peat.

My recommendations are to eliminate all polyunsaturated fats from your diet immediately. This includes corn oil, soy oil, canola oil, cotton seed oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, nearly all vegetable oils. Also eliminate fish oils, they are highly oxidated by body temperatures.

The good fats to consume are raw butter and milk, coconut oil, olive oil, and avocados.

No need to worry about the small amounts of natural oils that you will consume eating legumes and vegetables. These are natural, and the body handles them well when they are consumed along with the whole foods that they come from. However I do advise that you eliminate all corn and soy products from your diet.

You will continue to hear in the news, and also from many doctors, the importance of consuming polyunsaturated fats to be healthy. Please do your own research, and recognize that even though these people mean well, they have been led astray by bad research and big money.

Get back to health and vitality by choosing whole natural foods.

FUNctional Exercises

2009-08-20T22:37:00.002-07:00

Exercise is important to a healthy lifestyle. But many people don't like the hassle of getting a gym membership, scheduling a time to go, trying to figure out what exercises to do, etc.

But don't worry, that is not necessary.

Exercising can be done anywhere. It can include all types of sports and many types of work or service projects. I have two rules about exercises. They should be fun and they should be functional.

I think most of you know what fun is, so let's talk about functional. Functional exercises are those that help to build natural abilities to move and have fun and be productive in everyday life.

Let me give you an example. I worked as a foreman in the construction industry for years. It was very interesting to watch young men who would hire on has laborers. Some of them were guys who had just graduated from high school. The interesting ones to watch were the big buff looking young guys, who you could tell worked out in a gym, doing plenty of weight lifting. It was not uncommon for them to grab the handles of a wheelbarrow full of mud and start across the job site, but then half way across they would spill the mud all over the ground. Then some scrawny looking guy would help him clean up the mess and take over the wheelbarrow to get it to it's destination.

Why could the scrawny guy get it to it's destination when the 'strong man' could not? Functional exercise is the answer. You see the guy who had been working out in the gym all the time, had the muscle to lift weights. But the scrawny guy who had always helped out on his father's farm, had trained his muscles to do functional work, for long periods of time. With the wheelbarrow it wasn't just the task of lifting the heavy load, it was to lift, and push, and balance, and adjust to uneven terrain, as you go.

So instead of just working out in a gym, climb a hill, dig a ditch, pick fruit, pull weeds, paint a fence, till the ground. Be conscious of what parts of your body you are exercising and try to make sure that you get your whole body to move and push and pull in all different directions and in full range of motion.

For instance if you are digging a ditch, periodically change the shovel in your hands to work both sides of your body. With anything you do try to make sure that you work the left and right sides of your body at least somewhat equally.

Enjoy your gym work outs too, if that is what your into, but make sure you have days each week where you are doing actual functional things.

If there is nothing functional to do at your house, I bet you have a neighbor that wouldn't mind you doing something for them. That is when exercise gets really fun. Serving your fellow man gives you great feelings of accomplishment that go way beyond just a normal workout. Those feelings of helping your fellow man can actually go along way toward helping your body to be healthy in other important ways, way beyond the building and toning of muscle.

That's why I say, "Be functional and have fun!"

Protein : Is There A Better Whey?

2009-08-18T11:24:00.002-07:00

Everyone has heard of protein. It is one of the major building blocks of life. But what is it?

Proteins come in all shapes and sizes. In fact they change in shape as they perform their various functions. They have a multitude of functions in the human body. They are building blocks for muscle, and the structure of every cell in your body. They are also enzymes and signalers and messengers. They are an active part of every function of every cell. They make your immune system work. Proteins even determine which parts of your genetic code get read.

Proteins can be very complex chains linking up hundreds of amino acids to make a single protein. They are made up of 20 different amino acids. 8 of those amino acids are considered essential (9 for children). That is because if you eat foods that contain those eight, your body can manufacture the rest. So foods that contain at least all 8 of the essential amino acids are called complete proteins.

Interestingly enough, even though they are such a huge part of what goes on in the body, we don't have to eat huge quantities of them to get all we need. According to nutritionists, even the biggest muscle building weight lifters only need to get about 1 gram (1.2g maximum) of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. For 160 lb person that comes out to about 73 grams per day. The RDA for adult males is 63 grams. Surveys done by the government indicate that on average, Americans eat nearly double the amount of protein that they need. To get this info from a nutritionist go HERE.

Many athletes use special protein powders or whey powder to get lots of protein to build and maintain muscle. Studies however, show that taking extra protein does not result in extra muscle or strength. In fact eating too much protein can be taxing on the kidneys.

One of the reasons whey caught on as a supplement was because farmers could get pigs very large and healthy with it fairly quickly. So body builders started using it. It is now in the realm of 'body builder facts' that lots of whey will help you to bulk up. Never mind all the people who have taken it for years and still can't bulk up. Studies do not show that whey helps to build extra muscle, though it does seem to make pigs eat more food. Only good balanced nutrition, and exercise can build muscle.

Whey powders, as well as many other protein powders, are not good balanced nutrition. Whey is a highly processed artificial food. Now many of you will balk at that statement because I used the word artificial. Whey is usually made from natural ingredients, so many people call it a natural food. However in my world, anything that is processed from a natural food, with certain things added or other things taken away, has become artificial. Whey does occur in nature, but it isn't powdered.

Now, granted, if you have just been eating junk food, and then you start taking whey powders, you will likely see a health improvement. It is much better than most junk food. It is the elimination of junk food that causes the benefit.

But whey is not the perfect protein portrayed in so many advertisements. For one thing it is usually high in tryptophan. Tryptophan, while being a necessary amino acid for the human body, is toxic to the human body in large amounts and has even been shown to be carcinogenic. Read HERE to learn more about that.

Remember that the key to health is in balance. Not 'laboratory balanced', according to some formula made by man, but balanced by God. Whole foods used with prudence and wisdom can easily give you all the proteins, as well as all the other nutrition, that your body needs.

Another great thing about proteins is that they are found in practically every whole food. Grains, fruit, veggies, animal products, nuts, and legumes, all contain protein.

Some great 'complete protein' foods everyone agrees on are eggs and milk. However I will now go astray from the main stream, by telling you that grains (particularly wheat) are also complete protein foods, if the whole grains are used.

Why do others not call them complete? Because they have been taught that you need a certain prescribed amount of each of the essential amino acids to be called complete. Wheat contains all the essential amino acids, as do some other grains. They just aren't all in the quantities that some people would like to see. So, what I'm saying is, if you make whole grains the foundation of your diet you will get all the protein you need.

Nature (God) balances things much better than mankind knows how to.

Oh, yes, potatoes also contain all the essential amino acids. The point is, if you eat a variety of good wholesome foods you will probably get all the protein you need.

PS. What weight lifters need, more than extra protein, is extra calories. (Preferably from good foods.)

Acai Berry Information

2009-08-17T16:24:00.004-07:00

You see claims about the wonders of acai berries all over the place these days. Is there any truth to all the claims? Are there acai side effects? Should you try acai? Is there good acai berry research? What are the benefits of acai?

There is so much information being thrown around about Acai, lets talk about what is true.

There has been some good research projects done on acai. Here is a link to some of the abstracts.

Yes, acai berries do contain anti-oxidants. They are also high in fiber. They also have other poly-phenols.

Unfortunately, they also have the common side effect of being over-hyped. Many acai products also have other negative side effects because they are formulated with other less desirable things (like fructose, preservatives, and so called 'essential' oils).

Acai pulp (not juice) has been shown to be very effect against some free radicals, but not so effective against others. In reality acai is just another berry that gets a lot of attention because of press releases, and because it isn't grown in the USA. Exotic things always sell better.

Acai isn't any more effective than a lot of other fresh fruits and berries.

My question is, why pay exorbitant prices for exotic berries when I can get as good, or better, results by eating locally grown grapes and apples (or other readily available fruits, berries, and vegetables)?

Of course some of you will say, "But what about all the weight loss products (with many testimonials) that are being made with acai berries?"

Read the fine print on those articles and ads. You will find that it has the common disclaimer of nearly all diet supplements sold, "Can result in weight loss when combined with exercise and a healthy diet."

That is the key to all weight loss gimmicks. The only people who actually have success with the products are those who change to healthy diets and active lifestyles.

Products like acai are beneficial in that they can be tools to motivate people to make basic lifestyle changes that can help people to have better health. This is their major advantage. The disadvantage to this is that many people do not recognize that it was the lifestyle change that caused the improvement, not just the single product.

My suggestion would be to skip the expensive and unnecessary supplements, like acai, and eat healthy raw foods, exercise, and drink lots of good water.

Celiac Disease : Do You Have It? Or Is It LGS?

2009-08-17T12:25:00.006-07:00

Celiac disease is being blamed for many health problems these days, but chances are you don't have it.

There are groups of people that are claiming if you are low on energy, or have a bowel problem, or are obese, or don't sleep well, then you must have Celiac disease. The real truth is that you probably don't.

Celiac disease is only actually found in less than one percent (1%) of people. Even if you have a close relative that has been diagnosed (by a real doctor with blood tests and intestinal biopsy), your chance of also having the disease is still only 4 or 5 percent.

So why do so many people think they may have Celiac disease?

Well, there are many people who have a much simpler problem. The problem is ... (drum roll) ... bad diet.

The 'standard American diet' (SAD) causes lots of problems for lots of people. Processed and refined foods cause an imbalance in the body that causes the intestinal walls to deteriorate and get very thin. This leads to the inability to digest many foods. This is commonly called 'leaky gut syndrome' (LGS).

LGS in this sense has very similar symptoms to celiac disease which also destroys the body's ability to digest food. However, unlike celiac disease, leaky gut syndrome can be healed.

So, how do you fix a leaky gut?

Well, stop doing the things that make it leak. Some of the major causes are antibiotics, vegetable oils, NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, like asprin, ibuprofen, and naproxen), bacterial overgrowth (usually caused by too much sugar, and/or other highly processed foods), and other toxins from taking various drugs.

And, of course, you also need to do things that will help the intestinal lining to heal. That includes things like drinking kefir, eating lots of green leafy veggies, eating good fats (raw butter, raw milk, avocados, coconut oil), drinking lots of good water with all the trace minerals in it, and chewing your food very well before swallowing.

If you have a lot of intestinal damage, it could take 6 weeks or more of very close monitoring of your lifestyle to heal it. Even some suspected cases of celiac disease can heal from this type of a lifestyle. But it could take a year or two to heal if it was really far progressed.

To learn more, go HERE.

Milk : Does It Do A Body Good?

2009-08-15T21:12:00.005-07:00

Milk (cows milk) is one of those things that I mention frequently as being good for you.
However, I nearly always preface the word milk with the word raw.

I was recently asked, "Is it better to give children pasteurized, homogenized milk, or no milk at all?"

I firmly believe that if you cannot get raw, un-homogenized milk, then you are better off not having any milk at all.

Let me explain. Milk truly is one of natures most wonderful foods. You could actually live on a milk only diet for years. In fact there is one Doctor who actually uses milk as his main method to treat his patients, no matter what ails them. He puts them on a milk diet until they are better. Sometimes it takes days, sometimes weeks, sometimes years.

You will see different studies suggesting different things about milk, but here is the rule of thumb for you. If you use raw milk it will lead to health and healing, if you use pasteurized, homogenized milk it will lead to disease.

Many of the studies don't even state what kind of milk was used.

When you pasteurize milk, it becomes a non-food. All the goodness that it had, has now become bound up and not usable. The calcium, the protein, etc. Also pasteurization kills most of the good bacteria in the milk which would have been so good for your digestive system.

And, contrary to what you may have heard, nearly all food poisoning that involves milk is caused by pasteurized milk. The good bacteria in raw milk keeps the bad bacteria in check. Pasteurization kills nearly all the good bacteria, but doesn't kill all the bad bacteria. Therefore there is nothing to keep the bad bacteria in check, and they grow profusely.

When milk is homogenized, it becomes even more dangerous to the human body. Homogenized milk has the fat globules broken down so small that they can pass through into the blood stream. Each little fat globule is coated in a resin that is very bad for your heart health. If there are any nicks or scratches in the vessels(caused by free-radicals), that resin attacks it and opens the wounds even more. This causes the body to create cholesterol to patch up the wounds. These patches, if they become extensive enough, can clog the artery.

Beware of the 'Organic' milks out there these days. They are still pasteurized.

That is why I say that pasteurized, homogenized milk should be avoided completely, and raw milk should be consumed when ever possible.

Remember, the fat in raw milk leads to healing in the body.

So, get some raw milk, and drink up!

To find where to get raw milk, go HERE.

Crutches Can Be Useful... But Beware

2009-08-14T06:24:00.001-07:00

Crutches come in many shapes and sizes. They are things designed to help us along when our natural abilities don't quite work the way we would like them to. They come with names like : eye glasses, knee braces, supports, wraps, slings, etc.

They are wonderful inventions that can help us to heal from stress and/or injury. But sometimes we forget that that is what they are. Some times we decide that we will use the crutch for ever more, because it is so wonderful.

Have you ever sprained an ankle so bad that the doctor gave you crutches to use until the ankle could heal and strengthen? If so, how long did you use the crutches? Did you just decide to use them for the rest of your life so you wouldn't have to worry about the ankle any more?

Probably not. You slowly start to use the ankle again, to build it back up to it's former strength. As time goes by, you use the crutches less and less until you don't need them at all.

What would happen if you decided to just use the crutches all the time and never try to use the ankle ever again? Well, ankle and the leg connected to it would eventually atrophy, and you could actually completely lose the ability to use it.

We need to remember that this holds true for all types of crutches. So we need to be careful about becoming too attached and dependent upon our crutches.

I actually knew a man who decided that it would be really neat to use a motorized chair to get around in all the time. He was a little overweight and didn't particularly enjoy walking around. He was doing well enough financially that he could afford to buy a four wheeled, motorized scooter chair, and he did. He thought it was so very cool to ride around on it everywhere he went. Well, as you can probably guess, it wasn't really all that long before his weight nearly doubled and he was unable to get around without the motorized chair. He then began to develop other health problems as well.

The strange thing was that it never really dawned on him that the fun little scooter was the cause of much of his problems. He continued to praise it, for allowing him to get around.

It is important that we recognize our crutches as crutches, and that we need to work on re-strengthening what ever may be weak that caused us to use the crutch in the first place.

For instance, if you are using a knee brace, you should have times where you put the brace aside and do exercises that will help to strengthen and rehabilitate the knee and leg. Of course this needs to be done with patience and wisdom. And, of course, you need to make sure that the body is getting good nutrition, from good whole foods, so that it can heal and rebuild.

Eye glasses are also another type of crutch. If you decide to, and you find the right information, you can exercise your eyes back to health. There are eye doctors out there who correctly use glasses as crutches. They teach you how to exercise your eyes and bring them back to health. They can periodically give you weaker and weaker glasses to wear until your eyes are back to full strength.

The human body is a marvelous machine, endowed by it's creator with the ability to heal and strengthen. Given the right nutrients, and care, and exercise (and avoiding toxins that would interfere with growth) the body can heal itself of almost ailments.

So take a look at your life, and see what 'crutches' you may be using. Figure out what types of things you will need to do to rebuild enough to not need the crutches. It can bring much joy and freedom to your life.

Get knee exercises HERE.

Get eye exercises HERE.

Health Tip: Don't Panic!

2009-08-11T17:52:00.005-07:00

Many parents, especially new mothers, are prone to panic when a child gets sick. There is a lot of bad advice out there that helps to cause that panic.

That is why I was pleased to see this tip listed in the Readers Digest.

“ The University of Michigan Health System rates any fever from 100°F to 104°F as beneficial. Fevers ranging from 105°F to 107°F also are considered beneficial, but should be monitored due to higher risks of bacterial infections. Any fever greater than 107°F should be treated by a medical professional ”

In other words, there is no need to panic at a temperature of 104°F. Even 105°F is OK. Just be more watchful and careful as the temperature rises above that.

Too many people panic at temperatures of 100°F to 104°F. These are not dangerous temperatures. This is just the body going through it’s natural function of fighting off infections. When you are sick, fever is usually a good sign. It proves that your immune system is working.

Many doctors around the world have even learned to help the body warm-up by keeping someone with a fever well covered. This usually helps the body to heal even faster.

Just remember that it is important to keep the body well hydrated with water during these healing times. The water helps to eliminate toxic wastes, as well as helping in the regulation of all of the bodies resources.

Remember that health comes from within. We need to give our bodies the resources that they need to take care of themselves.

Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breathe deeply, serve others, and have a gratitude attitude.

Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.

Coach G.

Is Macadamia Oil Good?

2009-08-09T07:21:00.003-07:00

As many of you have probably noticed, I've been talking a lot lately about eating good fats.

That's because it seems to be one of those things that is widely misunderstood.

Well, anyway, I was recently asked, "Is macadamia oil good?"

After doing a little research, my answer is a qualified yes. One of the positives of macadamia oil is that it is comprised mostly of monounsaturated fats, rather than polyunsaturated fats. Therefore it is more akin to olive oil than to corn or soy.

I would still consider olive oil to be superior to macadamia oil, because it contains a larger portion of palmitic acid, which is also found in butter and milk.

However I still consider raw butter and raw milk superior to olive oil as far as overall health is concerned. And if you are fighting a particular health concern coconut oil is probably the best at helping to re-balance an out of balance system.

Remember, fats are an important part of a healthy body. Fats make up much of the structure of every cell in your body. Give your body natural healthy fats to build with. Avocados, raw milk & eggs, raw cheese, raw butter, coconut oil, olive oil, and raw nuts are all great sources of healthy fat.

Anyone telling you to use polyunsaturated oils for health is operating off a report from the 1930's that it is now known was wrong.

So go ahead and use your macadamia oil, just use it sparingly, along with lots of other good fats.

One other note of interest : Not all nut oils are the same. For instance peanut oil is not a good oil to use, since it contains a lot of polyunsaturated oil.

Stop Micro-Managing!

2009-08-07T16:21:00.005-07:00

Micro-managing never works. Why?

Well, because in order to micro-manage, you must be micro-focused. And, of course, if you are micro-focused, you can not see the whole picture.

You could even be looking at the neighboring molecule thinking that it is the likely cause of a problem, that the molecule a little ways over is actually causing. But we suspect the first one because he is in the vicinity and has been accused before.

Another problem with micro-managing is that it leads to trying to treat symptoms, and most symptoms have nothing to do with what originally caused the problem.

For example :
I could have a wet floor, so I will get a towel and dry it off. A moment or two later, it is wet again, so I dry it off again. This could go on for hours, days, or weeks. Then one day I look out the window and realize that the whole yard is flooded, and it keeps seeping in, on to my floor.

I say, "Oh, that is the problem." So I go outside and build a drainage area to drain water away from my house. The drain works beautifully and water starts to drain away from my house, and fill the neighbors yard. But the next day, my floor is wet again. I look out the window and my yard is still flooded. I realize that water is coming into my yard just as fast as the drain is draining it.

I say, "Oh , that is the problem." I go up-stream a little and start to build a dike. When my dike is finished, I go home, content that my floor will now stray dry. The next thing I know, my floor is wet again. So, I go back outside and look around a little more. Then I see the problem. The dam up the road is leaking.

So, now I know what the REAL problem is, and I get a meeting together with all my neighbors to talk about moving the dam to a better location. One neighbors says we should plug up the dam, but there are several different opinions on how to plug it up and with what. One neighbors says that if we just think positively it will stop leaking. Another suggests that a committee should study the dam to see why it decided to stop doing it's job. Others want to look into why the dam was built there in the first place.

Finally we solve the problem, by making a really great wholesale purchase of dry towels.

Now, I know that that was kind of ridiculous, but we see this kind of thing happen all the time in the real world of health care.

You have a headache, so you take a pain pill.

The doctor tells you that your cholesterol levels are too high, so he gives you a prescription.

You are anemic, so you take an iron supplement.

You read in the newspaper that red wine will keep you heart healthy, so you take up drinking red wine.

You hear that eating fat makes you fat, so you stop eating fat.

These things are all very misleading 'solutions' that you have come to believe in, even though the trouble doesn't go away after months of doing them. In fact in many cases the problem seems to subside initially, but then comes back with a vengeance.

It is because these are all ways of trying to micro-manage your health.

So, what is the long term solution?

Stop micro-managing!

The creator of the world made wonderful foods that nourish and rejuvenate the body. Eaten in a whole and natural state they help all the body systems to work in a balanced and optimal way.

Believe it or not, you can get all the nutrients you need by eating whole natural foods. You not only get the nutrients that have been heavily studied, you get the ones we still don't even know about yet.

On the other hand, anytime someone takes apart whole foods, and separates out one particular substance from it, it will cause imbalance in the human body.

Stop micro-managing!

Drink plenty of good clean water. Eat whole grains, and nuts. Eat plenty of veggies and fruits. Use raw milk and eggs from healthy animals that also use natural whole foods. Cut out processed and fractionated foods and supplements. Eliminate all artificial and fake, and/or concentrated foods. Get regular exercise. Get to sleep at a good time each night.

A healthy lifestyle will cure most ills.

Go HERE. Read the book.

The Oiling of America

2009-08-06T18:44:00.002-07:00

Here is an article that everyone needs to read.

http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/oiling.html

It is very long, so many people won't want to read all the detail, but I highly recommend it. It will help you to understand a lot of things.

It will give you all the pertinent facts as to why I believe that we will be much better off if we eat lots of saturated fats and eliminate vegetable oils and fish oils.

For even more detail and in depth analysis, read Ray Peat's articles.

It turns out that the things we have been told are "essential fats", are actually contributing to estrogen overload, which in turn contributes to most of our debilitating diseases of the day.

There is nothing natural about concentrating oils out of vegetables and consuming large quantities of them. There is also nothing healthy about it.

Don't believe industry hype or media hype. Look for actual studies with real science.

The other sad news in this arena is that Medical doctors don't have the time or the training to look at actual studies. They fall into the trap of taking the word of the representatives of the drug companies, to teach them about health issues. What are the goals of the drug companies? Well, to sell more drugs, of course.

The more I study, the more I realize that eating whole natural foods is the best way to get all the nutrients and resources that the body needs to create a healthy, balanced body.

P.S. Raw Milk and Eggs are excellent sources of healthy fat. Back when our society used to eat and drink a lot of them, heart disease was practically unheard of (not to mention cancer).

Exercise & Knee Pain

2009-08-05T17:05:00.004-07:00

Everyone seems to agree that exercise is good for you, for the most part.
Some of the benefits to exercise include flexibility, muscle tone, confidence, weight control, immune enhancement, stronger heart and lungs, and stamina.

However, from time to time, I hear people claim that they don't exercise as much as they feel like they should, because they are afraid that it will make their joints go bad.

Osteoarthritis does affect a lot of people these days. But you might find a recent study published in the "Journal of Anatomy" to be interesting. They found, after looking at a number of studies that were done on exercise and joint problems, that there was no extra joint problems connected with regular vigorous exercise by people who have not had previous joint problems.

Exercise does not cause knee problems. It can be a contributing factor for those who are significantly over weight, or those who have already injured their joints.

You should also know that joint pain can be helped and joints rehabilitated through careful exercise and nutrition.

Learn more HERE.

Water : Alkaline, Acid, Kangen, Filtered, Distilled?

2009-08-04T12:48:00.006-07:00

Water is the elixir of life!

Nothing in the human body can happen without water.

We all know these kinds of basics about water, but then we hear all kinds of hype about special kinds of water. What really is the truth?

All over the UK and the USA people are advertising machines and potions to make alkaline water.
Why? Because alkaline water will cure whatever ails you (according to them).

All over Asia they are talking about acid water and how important it is.
Why? Because acid water will cure whatever ails you (according to them).

Can both of these things be true? It doesn't seem logical does it.

I'll skip to the bottom line here, so you can get on to other things, then I'll give more detail for those interested.

Bottom line : Water is good for you. Drinking sufficient quantities of it will help tremendously in taking care of many of the things that ail you. Try to get it non-polluted, but get it.

All claims of improved health made by both the 'acid water' people and the 'alkaline water' people, can be seen in anyone who drinks sufficient water. People using these products have increases in health levels because they drink MORE water, not because they drink better water.

Shall we look at a few particulars?

If you decide to drink alkaline water, you will probably be given something to make your water have a pH of 9 or 10. (By the way, you can do this your self with out the special machines by adding real sea salt.) When you drink this water, what happens?

Well, it first goes to the stomach where it encounters an acid environment with a pH of 2. Guess what..., all the water you just drank is now very acidic.

If you decide to drink acid water, when it hits the stomach, it is still very acidic.

So then what? Well the body has a wonderful way of delivering the right things to the right places in a balanced and healthy way, as long as it is given the resources to do so. The body carefully manages the pH of your body through a myriad of complex activities that require water and minerals. Thus we see the importance of getting good minerals.

Some parts of your body are supposed to be acidic (like the stomach with a pH of about 2), and some parts are supposed to be alkaline (like the small intestine with a pH of about 9). The body balances all these things out if we just give it good resources to work with.

One of the advantages of mineral water is that it helps to supply some of these minerals.

One of the advantages of distilled water, or of other filtered waters, is that it cuts down on the pollutants and toxins that the body has to try and deal with.

Acids help to dissolve things that need to be dissolved, as well as helping with some disinfection.

Kangen water has been making a name for it's self all around the world. What is it? It is filtered to get rid of toxins, and it is mineralized. But by far the biggest advantage is that it gets people to drink more water!

You see, it was proven in the prison camps during World War II that sufficient water, even though it wasn't the most hygienic, could help to cure many diseases.

The biggest problem today is that people generally don't drink enough water, and they drink all kinds of other junk instead.

I probably said enough, but let me share one example of how misleading the hype can be. There is a lot of bad research out there, this is an example of it.

There is a doctor who treats people with digestive and colon problems. He has started having his patients drink a quart of alkaline water one half hour before each meal. He is having fantastic success with most of his patients. He uses this information to help sell alkaline water machines.

It is great that he is helping these people get better, but he has never told any of them that they could get the same results by drinking any good clean water. The sad part is that he probably doesn't even know it himself. You see, he never thought to try it, so it isn't a part of his "research".

Look for these kinds of 'research' flaws in all the hype and advertising you see. It can save you lots of wasted money.

It's the same as in vaccine research, they never compare vaccinated people against un-vaccinated people in a controlled study for long term health effects. Go ahead... ask your doctor for a copy of a study that proves that vaccines work.

But that's another issue, we can talk about that later. (Wow, my mind sure can jump around!)

See my previous water discussion for more details.
http://garnerhealth.blogspot.com/2009/07/water-you-need-to-know-this.html

NUUN : Product Review

2009-08-03T12:30:00.005-07:00

I was asked to do a product review on NUUN for runners.

Please understand that I have not used this product and do not intend to use it. I also do not sell it.

This is just my perspective after looking through the companies web site.

What is NUUN?

Nuun (pronounced like noon) is an electrolyte replacement tablet product. The tablet is dissolved in water. The makers claim that it will replace all the minerals necessary for an endurance athlete, thereby assisting in hydration, as well as helping to fight fatigue and cramping. Many people claim that it helps them.

The first problem I see for runners is that the product has to be used in a bottle. Many runners do not like to carry bottles, particularly during a race. This would work well for bicycle riders who normally carry a water bottle. However most runners would prefer something they can just take out of a pocket and down quickly with a gulp or two of water from an aid station. This product can not be used that way.

The next thing I noticed is that their literature is a little misleading in that it claims that the reduction that users have noticed in cramping is due to the mineral content. While this is partially true, the bigger effect from this product in reducing cramps would probably be from the bicarbonate in it. Yes, bicarbonate involves minerals, but there is more to it than that.

I might also mention that bicarbonate can be irritating to the digestive tract.

While looking at the ingredient list, I next noticed that it contains sorbitol. Sorbitol can cause some problems for some people, so just be aware that that is part of the mix.

The other ingredient that I would have a problem with is polyethylene glycol. This product can also cause gastrointestinal problems for some people. It is used to help to break down minerals as well as so slow down some body processes. It can slow up the immune system functions as well. It is used as a laxative, and should not be used by pregnant individuals, or people with bowel troubles. It also should not be used without first talking to your doctor if you are on any prescription medications.

Of course, they are just using a very small amount of polyethylene glycol, and it is considered to be safe by the FDA in low doses.

Overall, I would not recommend the use of this product for most runners.

Of course I do recognize that it is important to replace electrolytes that the body uses up during endurance training and events. But it is my belief that there are better products than this one out there.

I would suggest something like eDISCS made by the Medion Corporation.
No, I don't sell those either.

Other questions? Please ask.

Why Cancer Survivor Doesn't Do Walk-A-Thons

2009-08-01T13:14:00.006-07:00

As a cancer survivor, I'm often approached about joining a run or a walk to help raise money for cancer research. I don't participate. But I do run marathons. Why?

Let me say that I have great love for the compassionate souls who choose to participate in, and promote these events. I just can't bring myself to do it.

You see, I have done a lot of study about cancer. And I cannot support the whole idea of researching to find more drugs, radiations, and surgeries to fix a problem which can be easily solved by teaching people to live a healthy lifestyle.

Here is what I believe, after all of my research about cancer.

There are simple steps that can be taken by people to avoid getting cancer, that are generally accepted to be very effective.

There are also very effective natural means to treat those already diagnosed with cancer, without having to resort to the awful destructiveness of drugs, radiation, and surgery.

Now, of course, this will depend on the circumstances of each individual case. In some cases, if the cancer has progressed to an advanced stage, or the body has become significantly compromised, drugs and chemotherapy can help to save a life. That's a good thing.

Cancer doctors and cancer institutes are doing the best they can to help people survive. I don't hold any of that against them. I just think that if they would put their resources to use in the direction of better education for the public at large, the epidemic of cancer in our society could be drastically curtailed.

Education about what causes cancer, and what cancer actually is, could easily drop cancer rates substantially. Eating fresh green veggies and avoiding artificial, chemical ingredients in our food would make a huge difference all by it's self. Stopping the use of microwave ovens is also an important step which could solve many problems.

Another big step in the right direction would be to help people understand estrogen overload. Estrogen overload is very closely related to the incidence of cancer. Eliminating excess polyunsaturated oils from our diets will make a huge improvement in that direction.

Read some of Ray Peats articles to understand fats and oils better.

I would support an organization that would use it's resources to shout out the message that we already know how to conquer cancer. We don't need more death and destruction caused by more drugs and radiation.

But every cancer event I've been invited to, is mostly about creating more drugs and radiation protocols to use after someone is already diagnosed with cancer.

Some will say that I am unfair, because I went through traditional cancer treatments and am alive to talk about it. But I survived because, I fought hard to survive. I used many herbs and vitamins and whole foods. I had the mental mind set that I would survive and beat the cancer. This is one of the strongest indicators as to who will survive a bout with cancer.

I also survived because of a loving family and much prayer. God has blessed me in so many ways, and He still blesses me. Every cancer patient needs a great support team.

I was one who needed drastic measures to combat my cancer. I was already fourth stage when it was discovered that I had cancer. Heavy duty chemotherapy helped to break up the cancer in my body so that my body could clear it out. Other drugs were used to help boost my immune system as well.

But chemotherapy and other drugs are very hard on the body. Good hydration, good nutrition, good attitude, body balancing foods, and even some exercise, are needed for the body to rebuild and become healthy after the chemotherapy has caused so much destruction.

Most cancer doctors and cancer institutes do not talk about this very important need. To feed the body the proper resources that it needs to actually heal and rebuild. They act like somehow they are going to cure you by causing all this destruction in your body. Some survive the onslaught, some don't.

The statistical ineffectiveness of the standard medical protocols is obvious to those who want to look. Drugs can not create balance in a human body, only more imbalance. If they work, then why are we asking for so much more money to try to find ones that really will work? Why are cancer rates still increasing? Why is it that 97% of people who survive these standard cancer treatments, are using natural and alternative treatments at the same time. Why are many who die after traditional cancer treatment, found to be cancer free when the autopsy is done? Can it be that the treatment killed them?

Yes, chemotherapy will kill cancer. We know that. But it doesn't only kill cancer. It is by nature destructive to the whole organism. Why not teach people how to build a strong body through healthy lifestyle?

Instead we leave people to try to find their own ways to overcome the destructive drug therapies. So cancer patients end up spending all kinds of money on all kinds of pills and potions, that are peddled by all kinds of people.

So, as you can see, I do believe that we need to have better treatments for those who have cancer, but I do not believe that drug research can get us to that point. The drugs are very helpful in drastic cases to help save human life. But unless we teach people the importance of recovering and rebuilding from the destructiveness of the drugs, we are not really helping them.

Give me an organization that will push for doctors and institutes to vigorously teach people to live healthy lifestyles, and I will march in that walk-a-thon.

Let me know what you think.

Water : You Need To Know This

2009-07-30T21:25:00.003-07:00

I often mention the importance of drinking plenty of good clean water. It is the fundamental element needed for good health.

But perhaps I don't always make clear some of the very important things that you should know about drinking water. Let's fix that right now!

Do NOT drink chlorinated water until the chlorine has been removed. Chlorine kills bacteria. That is why we put it in water. But if it is still in the water when you drink it, it will also kill the good bacteria in your gut that is important for proper digestion and nutrition.

Do NOT drink fluoridated water. Fluoride is a poison. One of it's nasty little side effects is that it allows soft tissue (for instance the brain) to absorb heavy metals. That is not good! It may well be one of the major causes for so many people getting Alzheimer's disease these days. Besides that, (here's the dirty little secret) it really isn't good for your teeth.

DO drink mineral water. Not the fancy store bought kind. That is not necessary. But if you live near a natural spring, that is generally a very good source of drinking water.

I recommend that you make your own mineral water. (I'll tell you how in a minute.)

You have probably already read that I suggest that people try to drink a cup of water for every 10 pounds of body weight daily. That means that if you weigh 160 pounds, you should drink 16 cups of water during a 24 hour period.

Why so much water? Because water makes everything in the body work. Most people walk around in a perpetual state of dehydration. When your body doesn't have enough water it can't rid itself of toxic wastes that build up in the body from our polluted environment and from our processed foods. Without water, nutrition cannot be moved through the body to get to the places where the body needs it, even if you do eat good food.

High blood pressure is actually a sign that the body is dehydrated.

In today's society, we need plenty of water to flush out toxins. Particularly if you want to lose excess weight, or cleanse the body of disease.

You will find many recommendations all around for systems to cleanse the body, or parts thereof. But by far the best way to cleanse is to make sure that you get plenty of mineral water.

Getting minerals with your water is important, because otherwise you could flush too many minerals out of your body and cause other problems. The minerals allow the cells of your body to use the water.

One example of the importance of minerals in your water: Drinking excess water without minerals can cause constipation due to the mineral deficiency. However drinking salt water will end constipation quite readily.

If you drink lots of water, but don't get the necessary minerals, your cells can't use the water.

I suggest you use Redmond Real Salt for your minerals. It is a product taken from ancient sea beds. It contains all necessary minerals and trace-minerals for human health.

Use clean water, (I just use reverse osmosis filtered water) and put in a pinch of Redmond Real Salt. Just do it to taste. Basically, an 8th of a teaspoon will treat 3 or 4 cups of water.

I do this with nearly all the water I drink.

Or you can use this Himalayan Salt that Dr. Mercola has arranged to bring to the U.S.
Click HERE to find out about it.

Back to Basics : It Really Is This Simple.

2009-07-29T08:49:00.003-07:00

People are always looking for that magic pill that is going to solve their problems.
Here is my last response to one of those questions like "Are there any good pills for...":

"Not that will do you any long term good, in my opinion.

But try this.
Cut out all sugar, caffeine, vegetables oils, and artificial sweeteners from your diet.
Eat whole grains and veggies as much as possible, along with fresh fruit.
Make sure that your are drinking lots of good clean water.
Start with a minimum of 12 cups of water daily. Put a pinch of real sea salt (with all the trace-minerals in it) in each cup of water.

And to help balance everything out and help heal the nerves, etc, take 3 or 4 tablespoons of coconut oil a day.

Also make sure you are getting regular exercise. At least 20 minutes at a time, at least 3 days a week.

Also, try to get to sleep 2 or 3 hours before midnight each night."

I think most people would be amazed at the improvement in health if they would just try these simple basic things.

LDN - Low Dose Naltrexone

2009-07-28T17:11:00.006-07:00

There has been a lot of hubbub these days about Low-Dose-Naltrexone.

Here are the basics about it.

Naltrexone is a drug that has been used for several years to treat drug and alcohol addiction. It has some serious side effects. But they have discovered that at very low doses, (about 1/100th of a normal dose) the side effects are minimized and it helps to boost the immune system functions.

The theory is that it causes the body to release more endorphins, thus increasing immune function.

Here are my thoughts on it.

Now they are trying to sell you pills with so little active content in them you will be paying for fillers. The fillers are generally not good for you, just contributing to clogging up your system.

But the pills will be inexpensive compared to most drugs. Well, of course you do still have the expense of paying the doctor big bucks to tell you you need it.

Why buy a pill to get what you can get for free by living a healthy lifestyle?

Do you know what naturally causes your body to release more endorphins, to raise your immune function?

Check out this list:

exercise
smiling
laughing
eating spicy foods
eating dark chocolate

There is not a lot of time or expense involved with those, and they will most likely do you much more good than a pill.

One word of caution : don't get your dark chocolate from a sugar laden candy bar. I suggest raw cacao powder.

Well, that's what I think. Feel free to share your feelings.

Cactus Oil : Just More Snake Oil?

2009-07-27T12:45:00.004-07:00

I've seen a few questions recently on cactus oil for health benefits.

Here is my take on it.

Cactus oil (made from prickly pear fruit, and/or seeds) is not a good idea.

Some people claim that it is good for heart health. The problem is that the only research done has much more information to take into account than blood lipid levels. The very same study that is cited to say that the blood lipid levels were better, also shows that it caused both the pancreas and the liver to enlarge. Neither one of those is good.

For those interested, here is a link to that study: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6R-4JG5FPR-5&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=9527a6634675484fc5b5a705b4e0d826

So, the cactus oil is like so many of the other vegetables oils. The companies that sell them tell you they are heart healthy, but in reality they can be very damaging to your long term health.

Personally I avoid nearly all extracted oils, including fish oils. I try to only use coconut oil, raw butter, or extra virgin olive oil. Those are the healthy ones.

Genetics : What Do We Know?

2009-07-25T09:36:00.005-07:00

Since the human genome has been mapped, perhaps you were wondering why we haven't eliminated all disease now. Since the map was supposedly completed in 2003, haven't we had enough time to make cures for all the diseases?

This is, of course, a little bit ridiculous to expect such results. But most people don't seem to realize how ridiculous it really is.

We have learned quite a bit about genes in the last decade, so let me fill you in on some of the most interesting things we have learned.

Genetic engineering isn't nearly as accurate and precise as many of us are led to believe. It is very complex, and a little chaotic. New genetic material can be injected or shot into a mass of older genetic materials, and it is hoped that some of the new genetic material will integrate with the old. Of course one of the problems with this is that we don't know precisely which of the old genes could be affected or changed by the new genetic material. That is one of the problems with genetically modified foods. Instead of just changing the one gene that they want to change, they generally end up changing anywhere from 5% to 15% of the genes. This, of course, causes all kinds of unexpected side effects.

So, instead of easily fixing genetic disorders (which is the dream), we are actually creating other genetic disorders.

Last year it was reported in the news that they have added another 11 genes to the list of cancer-causing genes.

It just goes to show you that we still don't really know much about genes. The human genome project has helped us learn many things about genes, but there are still so many that we don't know.

I'll let you in on one of the little secrets we have learned about genes: They don't actually do anything.

I'm sure you read the last sentence a couple of times, just to make sure you read it correctly. We have been told for so many years that the genes determine everything in the human body, that we just take it for granted that that's the way it is. Let me explain a little further.

Genes do indeed hold a type of blueprint material for what our bodies may become. However, it is nothing like a blueprint that a contractor would use to build a house. It doesn't contain a set plan that must be followed as we grow and develop. Instead, it contains a whole bucket full of possibilities.

Genes are, believe it or not, inactive. They don't actually do anything. They are more like books in a library. If they are left on the shelf, then nothing is gained from them. They have to be read and acted upon by some active part of our systems in order to make any difference. That is why you can have a gene for being short, but grow very tall.

The gene is entirely dependent upon it's environment. Proteins are the carriers of genetic messages. Only certain proteins can read certain genes. The proteins go to the genes to look for solutions for particular challenges that may come their way. The body only creates the proteins that the environment calls on it to create. If you have a gene for colon cancer, but your body never creates the protein that reads that genetic sequence, then you will not get colon cancer.

The body is very complex, and there are millions of possibilities contained in our DNA. There are literally billions of possible combinations. The more we learn about genetics, the more apparent it becomes that genetics are not the determining factor in what happens to our bodies in our lives. That is why we now use the terminology "genetically predisposed".

We now know that just because you have a gene for something, that doesn't mean that that particular thing will manifest itself. As we study this process we come to the realization that the environment determines which genes will be read and acted upon. You will never get cancer if you live a lifestyle that never calls on the cancer gene.

It is starting to be realized that many of the things that we thought were genetically determined are actually environmentally determined. We are starting to see that children have many of the same attributes and challenges that their parents had because they inherited their environment from their parents. We tend to live the same life styles that we grew up with. Our internal environments start off in the internal environments of our mothers wombs. We live where our parents lived. We tend to eat the way they ate. We tend to exercise in the same ways they did. It's even been shown that we tend to use the same eye movements that our parents used, which can effect our eye sight.

That is why as our world becomes more and more polluted, we see children getting more diseases earlier in life. Many children now have diseases that people used to only get in old age. The environment is everything when it comes to genetic causes of things.

So, yes, the genes do matter. But the good news is that by changing our behavior, our environment, we can control which genes get used. A clean environment with good wholesome food creates an entirely different set of proteins than a polluted environment. The proteins then interact with the genes and take messages to the cells of the body. The body acts according to those messages.

The more polluted our environment gets, the more negative proteins we build. A polluted environment can also actually change the DNA causing even more problems. Kind of like going through the library and throwing all the books in a big mud puddle. Then when you try to read them, you only get some of the information. Some of the information can be so distorted that you get an entirely different message than the author of the book intended.

Luckily the body has a pretty good librarian. If given the time and the right materials in a clean enough environment, the librarian can repair most of the damage previously done. However, if we keep it too messy for too long, sometimes even our marvelous librarian can't fix all of the mess.

So make sure you give your librarian the proper materials, and the proper environment as soon as possible.

Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breathe deeply and have a gratitude attitude.

Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.

Coach G.

Oil In The Scriptures

2009-07-24T09:26:00.006-07:00

I was asked the other day about why, if coconut oil is such a great health promoting substance, it isn't mentioned in the scriptures.

This is an interesting question. Particularly for LDS readers, who have been given a law of health to follow from living prophets of God.

If you look through the scriptures and look for references to fat you will note that in most cases, except when it is talking about the animal fats used in sacrifices, fat or fatness refers to plenty or abundance.

You might also note that it says not to eat animal fat. We now know that animal fats are where many of the toxins that an animal takes into it's body become concentrated. Even today, it is not a good idea to eat animal fats.

If you look in the scriptures for references to oil, you will find that in most cases it does not mention what type of oil. Olive oil is specified sometimes for making holy anointing oils.

The "Word of Wisdom" does not mention oils or fats specifically, and yet we know that they are an important nutrient for the body. Another interesting point is that even though the people that were given the "Word of Wisdom" were mostly farmers with chickens and cattle, there was no mention made of eggs or milk.

When the Lord said to eat the flesh of beasts sparingly, or only in times of winter or famine, he made no such restrictions on milk or eggs. It turns out that milk and eggs are both excellent sources of fat, and animals produce them in abundance. The Lord says that animals are for the benefit and use of man, but not so much for the flesh. Hmmm? I guess that leaves using them for labor and for milk and eggs.

Another important point to remember is that fat, or oil, is found in many foods. If you follow the "Word of Wisdom" you will find that you will be healthy and you will get good fats.

If grains are the staff of life, particularly wheat for man, then as you make wheat the pillar of your diet you will get many health benefits. One note of caution, it must be whole wheat. Along with the essential proteins and polyphenols, etc that you get from wheat, you will also get good fats. And as you eat fresh fruits and vegetables, you will also be eating good fats.

However, what the major medical and major media calls "essential fats" these days are in no way essential to health and may even be detrimental. The important thing to remember is that fats and oils that are extracted and concentrated are more like drugs, and can be beneficial or destructive, depending on the situation. Most polyunsaturated fats, in spite of what you have been told, are destructive in the human body.

So with all of that said, why do I push coconut oil? Most people in a diseased state today have too much polyunsaturated fats in their bodies. Coconut oil is one of the best ways to turn that around, and to do it in a fairly safe and balanced manner. Remember that I often say that balance is the key in all health. Coconut oil seems to have the ability to balance the fat systems of the body, and therefore leads to health.

If you are without any health problems, then you probably don't need to take any extra coconut oil. Following the "Word of Wisdom" rules on what to eat will serve you fine.

If, however, you are unhealthy, in most cases coconut oil will help your body to heal and return to health.

For those who prefer something a little more 'biblical', raw butter mixed with raw honey is a great combination to get good fats and cause healing in the body. The only reason I talk more about the coconut oil is that it is usually easier to get in today's world than raw butter and raw honey.

For those wondering about this "Word of Wisdom" reference, go HERE.

CoQ10 : Let's Not Get Crazy

2009-07-23T20:13:00.003-07:00

You may have seen some of the fantastic claims made by people trying to sell supplements containing CoQ10. But before you go and buy any of these supplements, thinking that this will solve all of your problems, lets talk a bit.

Most of the things that CoQ10 salesmen claim about there product are actually unproven. There are cute little anecdotal stories spread all around, but not much actual science to back them up.

Let's look at what the basic sales line is.

As your body ages you need more CoQ10. Is this true? Not necessarily.

Guess where CoQ10 comes from. It is found in grains, vegetables, nuts, animal products. In other words, it is all over the place in the foods you eat.

Of course the more that those foods are processed the less CoQ10 they retain. So should you supplement if you eat a lot of processed foods? In my opinion, no. Simply stop eating all those processed foods that are bad for you anyway. Eat good whole fresh foods and you will not only get all the CoQ10 you could ever need, but you will also get all the other goodness that goes along with it.

CoQ10 studies are very often not conclusive at all. Why? Because it is only one part of the picture of what goes into building a strong healthy body. Many other things are necessary to help CoQ10 to do it's thing.

I bet you didn't know that CoQ10 can intercept energy from your bodies energy production cycle and keep it from getting to the very important mitochondria. This is just one example of how trying to micro-manage your health through supplements can be nigh unto impossible.

There are many ways that a body can get out of balance. Some will involve CoQ10. But by far the best way to seek balance in the human body is to feed it the foods created by the creator for it. Natural foods have a way of creating a natural balance in the human body. No need to guess how much of what supplement your body might need.

Eat whole grains, whole fresh veggies, whole fresh fruit, nuts, fresh eggs, raw milk, raw butter, raw honey. If you ate some of each of those each day, you would probably be amazed at how healthy you would be in a couple of months.

Fat Discussion Leads To Comment

2009-07-21T10:07:00.007-07:00

A discussion about fats on Dr. Mercola's site got interesting, when you got down into people's comments. There is so much confusion and misinformation going around.

I decided to comment there to see if I could help some people out. Here is what I said:

It is important to realize that a healthy lifestyle is the key to living healthy.

That sounds like stating the obvious, but many people don't seem to get it.

A 16 week test (as sited in the article) is interesting, but hardly long enough to show any cause and effect relationship.

Most of today's diseases have been developed by negative lifestyle choices made over years.

The human body is an amazing machine and can compensate for bad choices for a long time before finally reaching a breaking point and manifesting a disease.

I like the works of people like Ray Peat. Even though it can be hard to understand because he goes into so much detail, that many of us are unfamiliar with, he does a good job of explaining what happens in the human body.

It is very important to understand that the basics are the important thing. So many people are looking for that magic supplement that will make them healthy, but at the same time they don't exercise, or drink plenty of good clean water with good minerals and trace-minerals, or eat fresh fruits and veggies, or whole grains and nuts.

Health in the body is all about balance. The problem with most supplements is that you don't know how much you need to be in balance. Any supplement you are taking could be putting you out of balance. The wonderful thing about natural whole foods is that they cause balance in the human body.

As far as fats go, taking omega-3s or omega-6s could put you out of balance.

If you are not having health issues, just continue to eat good whole foods, and avoid toxins, and you will probably be fine.

If you have health issues, I would go with coconut oil, as it seems to help balance out the fat systems of the body.

How To Legally Avoid Shots

2009-07-18T17:06:00.004-07:00

Several of you have told me that you are trying to avoid all the dangers that are becoming more and more apparent from immunizations.

I thought I should share with you this article about avoiding shots legally.

http://www.mercola.com/article/vaccines/legally_avoid_shots.aspx

Miraculous Coconut Oil : How To Use It.

2009-07-17T14:48:00.013-07:00

Many people have asked me how I use coconut oil. I use it for many different things, so I thought I should give you a report on what I do.

Coconut oil is great for your skin!
It is the best sunscreen I have ever used. That is saying a lot, since I spent many years working on construction jobs in the heat of the Arizona sun. Yes, I am fair skinned.

There is an important trick however in using coconut oil as a sunscreen. Don't put it on in the sun.

It is best to put coconut oil on about 20 minutes before going out in the sun so that it can absorb into the skin and protect it. If you put it on in the sun, it can contribute to cooking you instead of protecting you. You've heard of boiling in oil, right? But if the skin absorbs the oil first, then it does a marvelous job of keeping the skin healthy.

Are you getting this information too late, and you just came in with a sunburn? Coconut oil will help it to heal quickly. Be sure to use pure coconut oil instead of some cream or ointment claiming to contain coconut oil. Cold pressed virgin coconut oil is by far the best.

Coconut oil not only moisturizes. It also cleans and heals. Did you know that coconut oil is one of the very best conditioners for hair that money can buy. Put coconut oil in your hair before going to bed. Wrap it up and let it stay in all night. Rinse it out in the morning and you will be amazed at your healthy hair.

Coconut oil is antiviral, antibacterial, anti fungal and has even been called a "low fat fat".
When coconut oil is taken into the body, it is used like the best kinds of cholesterol, to heal cells.
It is not stored in the body like other fats, it is used for energy and healing.

Coconut oil also causes the break up of undesirable fats in the body, thus leading to weight loss for those who need to lose weight.

Much has been said these days about the importance of getting omega-3 fats. But this is only talked about because it has been identified as an imbalance. Balance is the important thing for health. If you take too many omega-3 fats you will also be out of balance and cause problems.
Coconut oil is a healthy fat that seems to help balance the body. I therefore consider it far superior to omega-3 fats.

Fish oils are quickly and easily oxidized and can cause many problems in the body and the brain. Use coconut oil instead.

See a great discussion on that from Ray Peat HERE. Omega-3 and Omega-6 oils can be bad.

Coconut oil is also the best oil to cook with. Most oils are very unstable and quickly become rancid when heat is applied. Cooked oils become trans fats. Corn oils are some of the worst oils to cook with. Coconut oil, on the other hand, is very stable and can withstand much higher heat before going bad. Any time I need to use oil in cooking, I choose coconut.

As a marathon runner, I have to deal with the problem of chaffing on long runs. You guessed it! I use coconut oil. It keeps the skin healthy and eliminates much of the friction. And it's much less expensive than those special products people buy for such things.

Coconut oil is also the very best oil to use for "oil pulling", or "oil swishing". You will read lots of interesting (almost mysterious sounding) things on the internet about 'oil pulling'. Much of it is wrong. But that's a subject for another day. Coconut oil works better than the others, and I'll explain that when I write more on that subject.

When you eat coconut oil, it improves digestion, as well as insulin control. It also boosts immune function. Coconut oil is good for the heart, in spite of much dis-information disseminated by the soy and corn industries. It actually helps to keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming clots. Regular users of coconut oil have less heart disease and even more normal blood pressure.

If I was overweight or having health problems, I would make sure that I got 3 or 4 tablespoons of coconut oil everyday.

I also "swish" with coconut oil everyday.

Coconut oil is one of the healthiest fats you can get. To me it seems much more important to consume coconut oil for health than it is to worry about omega-3 oils. Another day we will talk about the toxicity of omega-3 oils.

Here is a great book by the guru of coconut oil, Dr. Bruce Fife:

You can find coconut oil in most health food stores. But if you are having a chanllenge finding some virgin coconut oil here is a link you can follow:

Let's Get Your Gut In Shape.

2009-06-29T14:40:00.004-07:00

This comment was recently left on my blog, and I would like to share my response with everyone.

Here is the comment as it appeared:

Christi Says:

Hi Coach G. I am an old family friend! I love your website and check in on it often. These are many of the ideals I was raised with and I am glad to see so many out here using such good common sense! Anyway I was wondering if you have come across anything more holistic for itchy eyes due to seasonal allergies. I am sick of taking bendadril and then caffine to wake up! All I could find online was cucumber slices on my eyes and that worked great til I took them off! I hope everyone is well in your family!!

-Christi

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Here is my response:

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Christi,

It's nice to hear from you. I hope this finds you and your family doing well.

Sorry to hear about your allergy problem. Perhaps this information could help a little.

Itchy eyes caused by allergies is never fun. I developed an allergy after going through chemotherapy. It still bothers me a little sometimes, but it seems to be getting milder.

The most important thing to do is to take care of the underlying cause. Here are two ideas.

1. Many allergies will go away, or at least lessen if all processed sugar is eliminated from the diet. This is not an immediate solution, but in a few weeks the symptoms should subside.

2. The basic underlying cause of most allergies is 'leaky gut syndrome'.

Leaky gut is damage to the bowel lining, caused by antibiotics, toxins, bad diet choices, or infection. It can lead to increased permeability of the gut wall to toxins, microbes, undigested food, waste or larger than normal macromolecules. This increased permeability allows things through the wall of the intestine that usually would not get through. The body recognizes these things as foreign elements in the blood stream and so initiates an immune response to get rid of them. In many cases this is an allergic response.

In other words, leaky gut syndrome is caused by the Standard American Diet (SAD) of processed foods and the polluted environments we live in. It causes inflammation in the intestine.

So what are the steps to take to heal leaky gut?

Eliminate Toxins - Avoid the use of chemical products. Eliminate the use of : chlorinated water, drugs of any type (if it's OK with your doctor, of course), antibiotics, MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate), High Fructose Corn Syrup, white flour, white sugar, hydrogenated oils of any kind, all artificial sweeteners, and artificial coloring.

Also anything that has been pasteurized is dead food and is a drain on the body.

Leaky gut also causes problems with mineral absorption. I suggest that you supplement with a good macro-mineral and trace-mineral supplement for a while. Ideally you should get all the minerals and trace minerals you need through eating good fresh organically grown foods. But leaky gut makes it harder to get the minerals from your food. I like the mineral supplement made by Trace Minerals Research based out of Roy Utah. It is made from the great inland sea water and includes all the trace minerals. It is also in a form that the body can absorb very easily. Minerals are so imperative to good health. I actually like to get the "Gourmet Spray Salt Seasoning" made by Trace Minerals Research. I spray it on my food, and I actually use a spray or two in my water bottle each time I fill it up if I'm using the RO (Reverse Osmosis) water.

Fiber in your diet is important to get the gut functioning properly. It helps with nutrient absorption. It also keeps you regular. The best way to get fiber is by eating fresh fruits and veggies. Eat them raw as often as possible. Also eat whole grains and nuts.

Get good nutrition by eating plenty of leafy greens and whole grains as well as fresh fruit, and get good fat by eating nuts, particularly walnuts and pecans. In fact some people have been helped with allergies simply by getting oils in proper balance by eating walnuts or pecans regularly. Lots of antioxidant rich foods (the colorful ones) should also be eaten.

The intestines need plenty of water to keep them flowing and cleaned out. One very successful gut doctor has his patients drink a quart of good clean water one half hour before each meal. My basic rule of thumb for water is to take your weight in pounds, divide it by 10, and drink at least that many cups of water every day. That is a baseline. If you are trying to flush something out of your system or lose weight, increase that amount by up to a factor of 2. (In other words, double it.) Of course if you are working out in the hot Arizona sun, your water intake must increase to compensate for that as well.

If you can find yogurt that has the live bacteria in it, but no artificial sweeteners, that is a good way to repopulate the good bacteria in the gut to help with digestive health.

Avoid antibiotics, they kill both good and bad bacteria, and you really need the good ones.

If you really need to have an antibiotic, use garlic. It has good antibiotic properties against the bad bacteria, but generally won't harm the good bacteria.

As you live a healthy lifestyle and eat well your body can heal it's self and eventually allergies can subside and disappear.

In the mean time, blink a lot and get plenty of rest for those sore eyes.

As far as other holistic types of remedies, there are energy techniques for treating allergy problems. Some of these are EFT, APN, NET, and TBM.

There are some learning curves to learning how to use these, or you can find a practitioner to go to.

There are also some herbs that can be used for a temporary solution. Butterbur has been used as a successful antihistamine.

I've also been told that a herbal combination product of quercetin and stinging nettles works well to combat allergy symptoms.

Some use quercitin alone. Quercetin is found naturally in apples, onions, red grapes, citrus fruit, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, cherries, raspberries, and the fruit of prickly pear cactus.

I discovered that quercetin is also found in tomatoes with the interesting side note that organically grown tomatoes had 79% more quercetin than conventionally grown tomatoes.

Quercetin is also used in conjunction with natural buffered Vitamin C.

Apples are so high in so many good things. I'm beginning to believe that perhaps an apple a day will keep the doctor away.

Caution: the benadril and caffeine are not doing you any good. They are actually both introducing more stress into the system. They are both toxins as far as the body is concerned.

Good luck with this Christi. Keep me up dated from time to time on how you are doing. Also feel free to write with any other questions or concerns.

Remember that I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. This is just information I have learned over the years. My opinions are only mine, you must decide for yourself.

I would be happy to help you in finding any other information you would like to find on the subject, or any other subject for that matter.

Coach G.

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I hope you found that interesting and perhaps even helpful if you are in a similar situation.

Also remember that Jerusalem artichoke is great help build a healthy gut.

Remember that health comes from within. We need to give our bodies the resources that they need to take care of themselves. Treat them like your own children. Give them the things they need, but don't indulge them too much. Protect them from the bad stuff. Encourage them to work and be productive members of society. Make sure they get enough sleep, but don't let them be too lazy.

Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breathe deeply and have a gratitude attitude.

Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.

Coach G.

Mushrooms, Immune System, & Healthy Eating

2009-06-18T13:05:00.003-07:00

I've recently been reading about so called "Super-Foods". Amongst these super-foods, there is usually listed what are sometimes referred to as Medicinal mushrooms.

These are mushrooms which have been found to have abilities to help boost the immune system.
Maitake, Shiitake, Reishi, Coriolus, and Agaricus are often mentioned in these types of reports.

They have been show in studies to help in some cancer cases. They also help with the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

If you look into these studies, you will find the credit is usually given to "beta-glucans" that are contained in these mushrooms.

Look a little further and you will find that it isn't necessary to buy exotic mushrooms to get beta-glucans. Some of the best sources of beta-glucans are oats and barley. Smaller amounts are also found in rye and wheat.

Beta-glucans come from the bran of whole grains. You won't get them in most processed grain products. Luckily oatmeal still contains the whole grain and is a good source. Even better would be to use oat groats, because they are less processed.

Beta-glucans also seem to work better when they are soluble. So go a head and soak your oats in water and cook them if you desire. The goodness is there. Barley drinks made from whole barley grains would also be very healthy and help to boost the immune system.

What is my point?

The point is, you don't have to buy fancy supplements, from strange places, to get good nutrition and immune system support. Eating good wholesome foods that are readily available works very well to build a healthy body.

If you want to buy capsules made from these mushrooms, that is fine. I used them while dealing with my cancer. They can be helpful. But even more important, is to eat good wholesome, healthy foods, every meal of every day.

If you would like a great guide to eating healthy, and to learn how it can boost your immune system, as well as normalize your weight, GO HERE.

New Cancer Drugs : Beware

2009-06-13T15:31:00.005-07:00

New cancer drugs are always being developed and experimented with.
I get lots of questions along these lines, so I would like to give you an example that perhaps you can learn from.

A dear friendly was recently diagnosed with cancer and sent me this question.

"Thanks again for talking to me last night. You are awesome. I was wondering what you know about artemesia? A man in our ward gave me an article about it. I was just wondering if you had heard of it. Thanks for all of your help!"

Here is my response:

Artemesia is an herb, well actually a whole family of herbs, that you have probably heard of before. It is also called wormwood, mugwort, sagebrush, and tarragon (among others).

It is used in mystic circles, and can have some hallucinatory effects.

It is used in the tropics for malaria.

It is also used to clear clogged sinuses.

It also has anti-parasitic properties. (That is why it works for malaria.)

There is some concern with toxicity due to die-off. (If you have a lot of parasites, they die where they are and this can be a large load on the body to try and clean out all that gunk.

As far is cancer is concerned there are some researchers who have isolated a certain part of the herb (artemsia annua) called artemisinin. It has a strong chemical reaction with iron. The researchers then injected extra iron into cancer cells and introduced the artemisinin. The chemical reaction destroyed the cancer cells. (The chemical reaction creates lots of free radicals.)

This is interesting, but how does that actually work in the body? Your liver is where most of the iron in your body is stored.

It is true that cancer cells generally have higher iron content than normal cells, but not the only place iron is found in the body.

Also many people are found to be allergic to artemisinin. The allergic reaction is usually dangerous to the heart.

Also remember that even though many herbs don't have any drastic side effects to the body (many do), extracts from whole plants nearly always have side-effects. Extracts are no longer whole, and no longer able to cause balance. (This is the problem with all drugs.)

Long term health is always about balance. Balancing the systems of the body is accomplished best by giving them the things that the Lord said we should give them.

You could take the whole herb, but the amount of artemisinin varies greatly from plant to plant. Some have a lot, some have none. The results would be very unpredictable.

New cancer drugs are always full of promise, but always full of dangers as well.

To learn more about fighting cancer in a holistic way, try this guy. I like him a lot.

GO HERE

Click on his "Short Course" on the side menu. It is a great a little intro to understanding cancer and what to do about it.

Electromagnetic Spectrum : Is It Hurting You?

2009-06-10T16:38:00.005-07:00

The electromagnetic spectrum is all around us all the time. Basically all life is electromagnetic.

Electro-Magnetic Fields (EMFs) are a major source of concern these days. Nearly everything around us is run using electricity. In fact, if you look into it, you find that the human body is also an electrical machine. That is why strong electrical fields generated by machines around us can cause problems in the human body.

There are many studies that show deleterious effects to the human body from EMF emissions. Also there have been various solutions, both suggested and tried, to mitigate or eliminate the problems. Everything from living caveman style, to living in a protective bubble. Which of these are possible, but more importantly desirous?

I like living in a world with many electrical gadgets to embellish our lives. I see no desirability at all to the caveman lifestyle. So lets talk more about what we can do to protect ourselves while living in an electrified world.

Some of you may have noticed that in the news lately there has been talk about hybrid vehicles being bad for your health because of the EMF emissions they create. You may not, however, know that the current vehicle you are driving may be just as bad or worse. All types of vehicles on the road today emit strong EMFs, and there is measurable effect to the human body while riding in them.

One solution to machine caused electromagnetic spectrum disturbances, is that you can buy shields to plug into your house electrical system. These drastically cut the amount of excess EMFs in your home. Some people who have used these have seen dramatic improvements their health and well being. Some have not. Why?

Well of course there is variability of product quality. But some people are just much more sensitive to electrical pollution than others. However we are all susceptible to some degree, so I think that it is worth while to protect yourself.

As I was looking for what might be the best way to protect myself and my family, I looked at many options. There are devices that put out a cancelling wave to cancel out negative EMFs in the area. There are devices that absorb some of the EMFs from local electrical devices. But I decided that a better way would be to have a personal protection shield that could go with me where ever I go. That way I'm protected at home, at work, while shopping, while driving my car or riding in a bus, or whatever. So instead of spending thousands of dollars to protect my house, I protect myself for less than a hundred bucks.

The device that I found and use is called the Q-Link. It's fundamental technology can be understood by imagining a tuning fork that vibrates at a certain pitch. It is sold as a pendant that you wear around your neck. It is tuned to optimize the human energy system through resonance. It leads to a re-balancing and restoration of your body's bio-field according to your individual needs.

The Q-Link has proven its effectiveness in a wide range of experiments, including trials at UC Irvine, University of Vienna, and Imperial College London, all of which demonstrated significant effects on living systems.

Some the research highlights are:

* Doctors who tested the Q-Link found that it instantaneously amplified healthy energy states, and decreased energy drains caused by a wide variety of stressors.

* In brainwave studies (EEG), the Q-Link reduced the harmful effects of EMFs from computers, cell phones and other electrical devices.

* World-class athletes reported that the Q-Link improved their mental focus and endurance, giving them a significant competitive edge.

* In live blood studies, the Q-Link led to greater cellular integrity and more efficient blood oxygenation.

If you have concerns about how EMFs may be affecting your life, I highly recommend you get a Q-Link.

To learn more GO HERE.

Of course, the other things that you can do to minimize the side effects of using electrical devices is to live a healthy lifestyle, so that your body has the resources it needs to deal with whatever challenging circumstances it may encounter.

Remember that health comes from within. We need to give our bodies the resources that they need to take care of themselves.

Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breathe deeply, serve others, and have a gratitude attitude.

Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

2009-06-06T16:20:00.006-07:00

Carpal tunnel syndrome is an interesting disorder. Studying it has made me a little perturbed at the established medical experts.

The materials about carpal tunnel syndrome are full of contradictions. They say that repetitive use isn't a cause. In fact they say that there really is not a cause at all. They assume that if you develop carpal tunnel syndrome, it was simply in your genes. At the same time they note the increased incidents of carpal tunnel in relation to manufacturing jobs with repetitive motion. They also cite the connection between office jobs and carpal tunnel.

The real problem, you see, is that they don't have any successful cures for carpal tunnel. Therefore they insist there can be no cause. At they same time however, they do offer treatments. And what treatments do they offer?

Well, they will generally start with a splint to keep you from moving the wrist. Then they will give you drugs to hide the pain and tingling. Anti-inflammatories are usually proscribed. Then, after that doesn't work for a while, they will give you surgery and cut the offending nerve. Of course, this causes permanent numbness.

So, what is carpal tunnel syndrome?

It is when you have blockage, or compression, in the median nerve that goes through your wrist and into your hand. It is actually quite often caused by trauma to the area, in one form or another.

So, instead of drugs, what might help to rehabilitate stressed nerves?

Well, first off, remember that healing in the body is all about finding balance. The best body balancing effects come from whole natural foods in a raw (unprocessed) state. And integral to any body balancing is to have plenty of fluid (water) flowing within the system. If you are trying to heal the human body, you should be drinking water nearly every hour of the day.

Exercise is required to move stuff around the body. Whether you are trying to get rid of toxins, or supply nutrients to cells, you must have motion to accomplish it.

So, instead of immobilizing the wrist, put it in motion. Ideally, the motion should be in all directions and random.

One activity found to be very good nerve damage therapy for hands, is origami. The concentration and varied folding motions (make lots of different figures, don't repeat one over and over) help to rehabilitate the nerves.

GO HERE to get a great book on origami along with free origami paper!

For more information on carpal tunnel syndrome and more specific steps you can take to ease the pain in as little as 3 days, GO HERE.

Osteoporosis? Put Calcium Back In The Bone!

2009-06-04T16:28:00.005-07:00

The other day I was visiting with a lady who had been told by her doctor that she was developing osteoporosis. She had read about some of the dangers of drugs that are prescribed for osteoporosis, and so she did not want to take them.

You can get a free copy of a report on drugs prescribed for osteoporosis HERE.

She told me she had been taking calcium supplements for several years, but saw no improvement. She asked if osteoporosis was just an inevitable part of aging (she is in her 70s). She eats fairly well, with lots of fresh-from-the-garden produce.

I explained to her that her body can heal, and her bone can take in more calcium and become stronger.

She had already realized, and also read, that many calcium supplements are a waste of money. Most of them are not in a form that makes the calcium bio-available to the body.

After discussing her diet with her, I told her that she was getting plenty of calcium into her body. The best sources of bio-available calcium are actually from good wholesome foods.

The truth is that nearly all of us have plenty of calcium in our diets. The problem is that most of it is not recognized, by the body, as something that it can build strong bones with. So instead, the body deposits it in joints and fatty tissue, to get it out of the way.

Bone-spurs and arthritis are calcium build-ups from too much calcium. So why are the same people with arthritis and bone-spurs losing calcium from their bones?

Balance! The modern lifestyle and eating habits, put our bodies out of balance. The signals, that should be telling the body to put calcium into the bone, are all messed up.

Here are some quick keys:

Drink plenty of good clean water. It allows the body to move nutrients and wastes to where they need to go.
Get good balanced minerals (I suggest using "Redmond Real Salt").
Eat plenty of green leafy veggies.
Get good exercise that gives the body a bit of jarring.
Eat good fats for healthy nerves (important for proper signals in the body).

This wonderful lady was doing many things right, but she hadn't learned the seven-keys to building strong bones.

One very important thing, that she was missing, was exercise that builds bone. So I explained to her about how NASA has learned that astronauts lose bone mass when they are on long space voyages. The body needs weight bearing exercises to build strong bones.

It is the actual jarring of the body from running and jumping and the like that signals the body to build strong bones. I gave her some simple exercises that she could do that would start to build that ability in her body. I cautioned her to start slow and build gradually.

Now of course we could get into all the science about balanced minerals, and vitamins, and other nutrients, that also help the body to build bone strength. But if you understand the basics, you will be just fine, in most cases.

There is a wonderful little book that will teach you all seven-secrets to building strong bones. It was put together by a nurse who broke her hip twice. She discovered the seven-secrets, and now has strong healthy bones, even after the age of 80. She has avoided the hip replacement surgery that her doctor told her was inevitable.

To learn more GO HERE.