Gosh, its been a while since I've posted. I've been a bit preoccupied these last few months. More on that later.
I'm going to go back about six months ago when I was browsing through the book store looking for a book to read. I stumbled upon a book titled The Germ Files by Jason Tetro. I read the back page and was immediately intrigued and so I bought it. My interest in health and wellness and and my Guardian Angel lead me to this book for a reason. The reason being was about two months after I finished reading the book I was diagnosed with a bad infection in my hip replacement. In February I had been sick with two things, stomach bug and sinus infection. When the doctor isolated the bacteria in my hip it was a normal one from our mouth and nose. It most likely snuck by my immune system when I was sick and made itself a happy home in my hip replacement. Nasty little bugger! It's pretty rare but it can happen, the hip replacement is free of my immune response so the little bugger was able to grow. I had the whole hip replacement removed and a temporary one placed for ten weeks. Of that ten weeks I was on IV antibiotics for six weeks. My first thought was my poor intestinal bugs are going to be brutally attacked. I ate as much whole food as possible in hopes that the good bugs could jump aboard a piece of broccoli and escape the antibiotics. I also was drinking a probiotic drink everyday and to my surprise my intestinal tract made it through the assault quite well. This book definitely helped me to understand my intestinal bacteria community living with in me and how bacteria effects our overall health. Here are other interesting things I learned from the book. First of all, our immune systems are truly an amazing system that is very underrated. What it can do is mind boggling. Unfortunately, it can go hay wire and do bad things to us also as it does in autoimmune diseases. We have billions of bacteria in us and on us. We have bacteria that are friends and foes, for good health we want more friends than foes. This book goes over all the bacteria, good and bad, in us and how to keep the good ones as the winners. If you are a germ freak then this book would be a good read for you so you can learn to live without worrying about germs, because we need them and they need us. It's a great read for everyone that is looking to be healthier. One last thing, there is new research that shows that the correct balance of the good bugs in our large intestine can lead to feeling happier. Apparently, they release the happy chemicals into our bodies. They are psycho-biotics and manufactures are trying now to grow them for distribution. Eat a banana a day and you will keep the good bugs of your large intestine happy and you might find yourself feeling a little happier also. Also, add fermented food to your diet as it is loaded with the good bacteria we need for good health.
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This is the last book I have recommended for every one to read to achieve optimal health. I read this book as part of my Health Coaching Training Certification. It is an easy read and I recommend everyone read it at some point in their life, the earlier the better. So , what is prime-time, the author refers to it being over 50. I'm thinking it should encompass your whole life span. The book is divided into clear chapters so you can choose what you want to improve in your life. I will share a few facts I learned that you might find interesting. Read the book for a lot more healthy living tips.
First, what goes in our mouth and into our body is probably the most important aspect to being healthy. How you eat in your younger years will determine if you are a healthy 80 year old or an unhealthy one, with bad joints, heart, lungs etc. Do you want to enjoy your older years or be miserable, so change needs to start young. Eat as much whole foods as possible. Add salmon to your diet weekly as it contains omega 3's in the form that our body gobbles up and loves. Most American diets are lacking omega 3's. Eat more blueberries and mangos. Eat less processed food with chemicals in it. Read labels for the ingredients, if there are words you can't pronounce then it probably isn't good for you. As we age our blood brain barrier is not as good at keeping out the chemicals, so start by not putting chemicals in your body. Your brain will be happy and you may be decreasing your chance of developing dementia or Alzheimers. After all, chemicals are stored in fat and our brains contain a lot of fat. Also, for good brain health limit your alcohol intake, as alcohol metabolizes fat and we don't want the fat in our brains damaged. Exercise everyday as it keeps our arteries healthy, a long with many other health benefits. Did you know that your arteries have a thin layer of cells that release all kinds chemicals that help your body function properly. If you don't exercise and keep the blood flowing through them, then that most important layer can become clogged and not function and ultimately lead to all kinds of problems. I found that fact the most interesting in the book. You don't have to be a work-out maniac, just some walking or biking, but try to do something everyday. Lastly, keep your stress to a minimum and do something like mediation to let it go. I can't end this post without mentioning another book I read titled: When Breath Becomes Air by Dr Paul Kalanithi. It's a beautifully written true story with a very sad outcome but I think it demonstrates how our bodies can break down and disease can set in if we don't balance our lives with proper food, exercise and stress relief. It's a worldwide bestseller and I highly recommend it. The Stanford Community is missing a very talented doctor and surgeon much to early. I can't wait for February to come as this is the time my Daphne odora will bloom. It is so nice to see the flowers in winter but the aroma that they emit is beautiful. It is so strong and when you walk by you will enjoy a beautiful scent. I have it by my front door so every time I leave and return I get to enjoy its sight and scent. When I was a child my mom had planted one near our door and I would pick the little bouquets and take them to my teachers. They would always ask what the plant was and when I asked my mom, she would answer with a little frown on her face. I'm sure she wasn't pleased that I was picking them. If you live in a mild climate plant one near your door and I guarantee you will love coming and going from your house in February. If it freezes some in the winter, plant it close to the wall as they are kind of finicky and don't like the cold weather. If you are near a Nursery in February stop in and see if they have one in bloom. I'm sure you will buy it, but only do if you live in a mild climate. Those two words at first sight and thought don't seem very powerful but by the end of my post you may start to contemplate them a little more. Creative Visualization, Use the Power of Your Mind to Create What You Want in Your Life was a required reading in college. I was open to the ideas and techniques but a little skeptical also. It wasn't until a few years out of college that I tried it. I was quite surprised that it did indeed work and made me feel better about myself.
Simply put, it is getting in touch with our subconscious mind. Some people might think this is nonsense but we all have a subconscious mind. It actually wakes up when you are sleeping, more on that later. Here's my common sense approach about it. We are all born with a clean slate so to speak and our subconscious is what I call programmed from our experiences. Those experiences happen in your conscious world in the form of experiences and words said to us. They can be negative and positive. You may not even realize that your subconscious actually controls a lot of your behavior, beliefs and decisions, one of which, and the most important, is how you see yourself. How we see ourselves, to me, is the most important part of our subconscious. If it is filled with more negative programs, then life may seem more difficult and those bad programs may keep you from flying in life. Like a computer you can reprogram any negative subconscious feelings. It can be a life long task but it is doable and not very hard. This book will help you, I can guarantee it, it helped me and still does today. As Marian Diamond, who was a professor of Anatomy at Berkeley, would say "Don't let your brain learn bitterness". Wow, makes you stop and think about it, doesn't it? My first thought was, how can a clean slate subconscious not learn bitterness if it is programmed with some bad stuff, physical or emotional. The good news is you can change it and it may be a life long task. There is a great PBS show about Marian Diamond and her research, truly an amazing and smart women. Oneironautics, do you know what it means? I had never seen the word in my life until one day while browsing in a small book store. I came across a book titled, A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming, Mastering the Art of Oneironautics. It peaked my interest so I bought it and read it. It literally means, dream navigator. This book will teach you to wake up in your dreams. You can navigate anything you desire that you can't do in real life, such as flying like a bird. You can also learn a lot about your self, because this is when you subconscious is actually awake and active. For those that say they don't dream, I hate to bust your dream bubble but you do and you can teach yourself to remember those dreams and wake up in them. It's actually quite fun, I woke in a dream around Halloween in a haunted house, once I realized I was awake in the dream I no longer was afraid of the dream, it was actually fun. Lucid dreaming allows us to explore our inner selves consciously by merging our subconscious with our conscious minds. This will give you a lot of information about your self. Take notes of your dreams and look for symbols or patterns and see what they may represent or how they make you feel. One of my reoccurring dreams is about not be prepared or not having the work done for a college class, these dreams, I've learned, are coming from some negative programming as a child, you will see that in my book. A friend recently told me she had a chatty brain. Not many people have a chatty brain so if you do, embrace it and learn to enjoy it and learn from it. It's your subconscious mind that is chatty and you are already a head of the game of getting in touch with who you are. I think I've chatted enough, so read these two books and learn to get in touch with your subconscious mind. Living consciously with your subconscious will allow you to live life to the fullest. If you've got bad programming then start reprogramming now, it's never too late. I suppose I should tell you how I do it. I do it at night right before I go to sleep since this is the time right before the subconscious wakes up. One thing I do is to tell it not to clench my teeth, something I do when I feel stressed. If I tell my subconscious not to clench, I will have a clench free night. Try it, it works, repeat it about 20 times to yourself before you drift into dream land. Once you realize it works, you can now program anything you want into your subconscious. Program away as you are your own personal programmer and you will feel happier and life will be better. Also, learn to be lucid dreamer. It's quite fun. I highly recommend that everyone read the book, Your Bodies Many Cries for Water. It explains how our body systems and cells use water. If we are in a dehydrated state our bodies are prone to illness and disease. After reading this book and implementing the writers, a doctor, suggestions I noticed a huge improvement in my health. The key to getting the most from the water you drink is adding sea salt to your diet. I add the sea salt to my glasses of water. Here is what I first noticed, my irritable bowel basically vanished. My hair became softer. My asthma got better, I have not had to use steroids for it since I started the sea salt. As the years went by I never stopped adding sea salt to my water and I watched as my HDL's on my blood work progressively went up. I started in the 40's and my most recent test had it at 93. That is an amazing level, anything above 60 actually protects you from heart disease. I also feel like I'm aging gracefully.
Here is my common sense approach. We have billions of cells that make us a human and each cell is about 85% water. That's a lot of cells and every one needs water and water replacement to operate efficiently. So, that requires a lot of water for all those cells. If you are short on water, the most important cells will take the water first. Can you now see how not enough water can lead to aging and disease. The sea salt is the gate keeper for each cell, it allows the water in and out of the cell, so if you are short on salt the water doesn't get into the cells. If you are hot and working out and you notice that your fingers are swelling, then you are short on water. Your body turns on the mechanism to save water (retain water) because it needs it for the important cells, like you brain. If you read the book you will understand this process better. Sadly salt has a bad rap in this country. I find it interesting that when you go to the hospital and they hook up an IV to hydrate you, it contains a salt solution. Is there something the doctors are not sharing with us? Another thought is, if you believe that we evolved out of the ocean then it would make sense that a few pinches of sea salt might be good for us. Sea salt is not processed and stripped of the micro nutrients like our iodized table salt. You do need a little of it for iodine, as sea salt doesn't have iodine (that's hard to imagine) but it is so. I don't cook with salt so I add a little iodized salt to my plate of food to add a little flavor. If you believe that God created us, which you should know by now that I do, then he put us on this planet with that huge ocean so that humans would have enough water and salt to sustain life for a very long time. I think it is a win win for both thoughts on creation. One last thing, when I had my hip revision the doctor said he torqued the stem of the replacement and it wasn't loose at all, pretty surprising since it has been in me for 32 years. I credit it to the sea salt and water that I have been doing now for 15 years or so. The salt crystals are actually what makes the bone hard, so it makes sense then that the stem is fully grown into my bone and the salt crystals are keeping it from loosening. So start drinking water and add a few pinches of sea salt and feel your body feeling healthy and strong. Read the book also. |
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May 2021
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