Make Health Your Priority

[Guest guest]

Make Health Your Priority! JoAnn Guest Jul 20,

2005 18:03 PDT

 

You Deserve It!

by Wayne Pickering, N.D., Sc.M.

 

Most of us would agree that there are miracles in

nature, but how many

of us have a sense of wonder for the amazing creature

that we are? When

we hold a thing in high regard, we give it deferential

treatment. If

you

owned 100% of the stock in a blue-chip corporation,

would it make sense

to sell your stock cheap? Yet, with little regard for

the laws of

nature

(i.e., cause and effect), we too often do not take

responsibility for

our own health, and in this act of omission, we throw

it away.

 

To cite just a few of the miracles in nature: did you

know that ocean

waves come in sets, precisely 18 to the minute,

exactly 300 feet apart;

or that all beans grow from left to right. If you

unravel them and

attempt to force them to grow from right to left, they

will die within

72 hours; this is the nature of beans. Did you know

that birds flying

in

formation are able to fly at greater velocity with

less effort when

they

do that? You are aware that all life knows

instinctively how it is to

sustain and propagate itself. There is every reason to

be in awe of the

many miracles in nature that surround us. There is

also ample evidence

to convince us that the human creature is no less

marvelous. Consider

just the body. Look at your hands. Nothing that man

has created excels

the human hand in dexterity. Did you know that our

fingernails grow at

exactly the same rate that the earth's plates move?

Some kind of rhythm

connection? Have you considered that there are over 5

billion people on

this planet and no two fingerprints are alike? Each

one is unique.

Doesn't that mean you're special?

 

We have a brain that would require a land mass the

size of the state of

Texas to recreate in its full function. Dr. Wayne

Dyer. ) To duplicate

just the memory portion would require a computer in

excess of the size

of the Empire State Building.

 

An impressive miracle, in my mind, is the simple

requirement for this

body's maintenance. No machine can approach its

flawless design. When

we

eat, we put food into one orifice (usually the mouth)

and all 260 bones

are lubricated. Over 50 different chemicals are

replenished. To

maintain

your automobile you need axle grease for your axle;

oil; transmission

fluid; windshield wiper fluid; water for the radiator;

gas; and

anti-freeze where the temperatures drop, but the body,

at one stop,

gets

it all - the digestive juices, the blood, the lymph,

the sperm or the

egg, the tear drop.

 

If all 600 of our muscles pulled together in one

direction, we could

lift as much as 25 tons. Actually, in times of

perceived need, men and

women have, without stopping to think about whether

they could or not,

lifted weights far beyond what usually is considered

possible.

 

Every day our blood travels 168 million miles. That's

6,720 times

around

the earth's globe. We have enough carbon for 9,000

lead pencils and

sufficient calcium to completely whitewash a chicken

coop. Every five

days, our whole intestinal lining is renewed. Every

eleven days, our

respiratory lining is replenished. Every fifteen days,

all our white

corpuscles are replaced; it takes 120 days for the red

corpuscles.

Every

six months, we have a new bloodstream. Every eleven

months, we have a

new cell structure, and we get a new set of bones

every two years. An

entirely new body is recreated every seven years.

Without considering

any aspect other than our physical bodies, we are

splendid creatures.

 

Common sense tells us there's no wiser investment than

the one you make

in yourself. Yet, it's been estimated that only 2

percent of all people

think logically; about 8 percent think when they begin

to suffer; and

90% would rather die than think. You may be in that 2

percent since you

are still reading this article.

 

Dr. Lester Breslow, Dean of The School of Public

Health at the

University of California says you can add as many as

14 years to your

life by switching from a bad life-style to a good one.

That sounds like

a good trade-off, but don't put it off too long.

Yesterday is gone; a

canceled check. Tomorrow is a promissory note as good

as gold if you

make wise use of today - your legal tender.

 

Studies tell us that old age doesn't cause illness.

Not everybody who

gets old, gets sick. By design we're healthy. How do

we lose it?

Haven't

we all seen people who sacrificed their health

pursuing wealth and

overindulging in it's " accompanying pleasures, " who

then turned around

and spent their wealth in an attempt to regain their

health? Often it's

too late. Have you noticed how even the word 'healthy'

is formed

naturally by your mouth when you say it? Now say,

'sickly.' You have to

hsss; it's unnatural.

 

The scientific community tells us that disease stems

from crud in the

blood. How did it get there? I say we get it from

being drunk with

junk.

We don't catch disease; we earn it. A U.S. Surgeon

General's report as

far back as 1979 warned that the Standard American

Diet (SAD) is

dangerous and was related to the deaths of one and a

half million

Americans that year (that's over 62%). A ground swell

of people have

changed their life-styles and eating habits since

then. However, the

masses are still under the hypnotic influence of

advertising and the

easy accessibility and increasing variety of processed

foods promoted

by

the great American food industry.

 

Recently, the FDA decided that makers of bread and

grains should add

folic acid to all " enriched " products. One small

attempt to put back in

a little of the nutriment that has been removed from

our food. Maybe we

haven't consciously figured it out yet, but the

vicious cycle is

somewhat familiar to all of us. We take Rolaids for

stomach problems,

Listerine because the smell of it is coming out of our

mouths, Right

Guard because it gives our bodies its odor, EX-Lax to

get it out of us,

and Preparation H to medicate ourselves from the

unnatural strain of

it.

Hundreds of thousands start the day with caffeine and

in spite of

profuse warnings, many are still dependent on

nicotine. Some people

can't relax without alcohol and/or tranquilizers,

sleep without

sleeping

pills, or begin a day without something that fizzes.

Those bubbling

alkalizers wash away yesterday's brown tastes just

long enough to make

room for today's. So, why do we " do " all this junk?

Right off, there

are

three obstacles that interfere with wiser choices:

 

Convenience. It 's quick, it 's easy. It's everywhere

and everybody's

doing it.

Temptation! It smells good, activates your memory and

your taste buds.

You gotta have it!

Something called WION (that's Widespread Ignorance On

Nutrition). I was

the chairman of the board of that group for years.

 

I was sick, fat, poor, and miserable for half of my

life. When I was

told that I'd die by thirty I got scared. I wasn't

ready. There are

things I wanted to do. I resolved to do them. At

forty, I got my first

trophy in a triathlon and I left poverty to begin to

share with others

what I'd learned.

 

If you're tired of the brown taste and are ready for a

new start in

life, you need to know the importance of the

following:

 

A - Attitude

Go for what you want in life. Don't sweat the small

stuff, and it's all

small stuff. When you can't fight and you can't flee,

then flow, says

Dr. Robert Eliot, author and director of the Institute

of Stress

Medicine in Denver. Become aware of the connection

between your own

values and interactions with others, and feeling good

about yourself.

Forgive yourself when you don't measure up and forgive

others when they

need it. The ability to find the humor in the human

situation is a

definite plus. Hearty laughter gives a sense of deep

relaxation, and

tends to soften your perspective on problems. It also

eases pain.

 

N - Nutrition

Your body was uniquely designed to employ a series of

four processes to

make use of the food you eat for its maintenance. Junk

foods will not

serve this purpose. Overeating is further abuse of the

body which

renders food indigestible and unusable to the body's

needs. Combining

foods improperly can create an overload of work for

the body also. The

latter three items are unnecessary stress we place on

the body which

deplete our energy.

 

E - Exercise

Action is fundamental to our well-being. Our bodies

were made for it.

Everybody knows about the feel-good endorphins

released by the brain

during physical exercise. There is more. The energy

producing part of

the cell, mitochondria, expands during exercise.

Because of this

expansion, you have more energy during exercise. I

recommend walking a

fifteen minute mile, which adds up to 4 miles in one

hour. Exercise

stimulates the immune system, increases muscular

strength and

flexibility, and expands cardiovascular reserves. It

also acts as an

emotional and psychological defuser.

 

W - Water

Drink clean water. Dr. Melvin Beltz, a medical

professor and

cardiovascular surgeon for many years, believes

distilled water is

best.

Fluids are essential, meaning eight glasses, including

fruit and

vegetable Juices and water.

 

S - Sunshine

Sunshine assists the body in detoxifying, revitalizes

it and " is a

nutritive 'substance' of great importance (to it), "

said the late

Herbert Shelton, a Natural Hygienist. Avoid it in the

hottest hours

(between 10:00 am and 2:00 p.m.), but don't

underestimate its benefits.

 

T - Trust

That's the opposite of worry. Trust your own intuitive

wisdom, says

research psychologist Lewis M. Andrews, who comes down

hard on

value-free psychiatry. If you are true to yourself

(your own heartfelt

values of honesty and tolerance), the two will

reinforce each other.

You

may call the Source of this wisdom a Higher Power. The

" T " could be a

reminder to be thankful for all the gifts of your

life.

 

A - Air

It is essential that we have fresh, clean air to

breathe. That we have

open windows whenever possible, especially at night.

We need to guard

against becoming shallow breathers, especially when

feeling stressed.

 

R - Rest

Rest is the defuser for each day. Without it, we would

all be insane.

Studies show that the dream stage of sleep, REM, helps

people

permanently remember skills they learned 3ust hours

earlier. When it is

interrupted, they had trouble remembering. I take an

hour nap every

day,

which has the rejuvenating factor of two extra hours

of sleep each

night. Various mental exercises, such as the

" relaxation response "

proposed by Dr. Herbert Benson, author of several

books on the subject,

offer similar ways to relax body and mind.

 

T - Temperance

Balance in everything is the key. Work. Play. Rest.

Exercise. Your

intuitive wisdom (again), if it's tuned, will help you

to avoid or

correct imbalances.

 

Since we are magnificent creatures, a lot might be

expected of us. Yet,

according to former Secretary of Health and Human

Services, Otis R.

Bowen, (USA Today, Oct. 15, 1993) almost half of the

country's hundreds

of thousands of death result from irresponsible or

self-destructive

behavior. AIDS is relatively new, he says, but added

that

cardiovascular

disease, lung cancer and alcoholism are all primarily

the result of

behavior.

 

Some people don't learn early enough that the best

thing in life isn't

a

thing. It's life. The 24 hours - 86,400 seconds that

we have every day.

We can play the game and we can win. Win! - that

stands for: What's

Important Now? What's important now is to understand

that our bodies

are

not garbage dumps. We are marvels of design with

purpose. Treat

yourself

right. You're special! You deserve to be healthy!

_________________

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html