New Website Is UP!!!

Hello Readers,

I wanted to drop you a line and let you know that my new website is running full steam ahead. Check it out!!!

www.TranscendentLifestyle.com

And stay tuned, a new blog will be posted shortly.

Dr. John

Ten Things You're Not Supposed to Know about the Swine Flu Vaccine

Ten Things You're Not Supposed to Know about the Swine Flu Vaccine by Mike Adams the Health Ranger

She was deathly afraid of the flu.
So she asked her doc what she should do.
He jabbed her unseen
With a swine flu vaccine
Blurting, "Darling, I haven't a clue."
- by the Health Ranger

Let's not beat around the bush on this issue: The swine flu vaccines now being prepared for mass injection into infants, children, teens and adults have never been tested and won't be tested before the injections begin. In Europe, where flu vaccines are typically tested on hundreds (or thousands) of people before being unleashed on the masses, the European Medicines Agency is allowing companies to skip the testing process entirely.

And yet, amazingly, people are lining up to take the vaccine, absent any safety testing whatsoever. When the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. announced a swine flu vaccine trial beginning in early August, it was inundated with phone calls and emails from people desperate to play the role of human guinea pigs. The power of fear to herd sheeple into vaccine injections is simply amazing...

Back in Europe, of course, everybody gets to be a guinea pig since no testing will be done on the vaccine at all. Even worse, the European vaccines will be using adjuvants -- chemicals used to multiply the potency of the active ingredients in vaccines.

Notably, there is absolutely no safety data on the use of adjuvants in infants and expectant mothers -- the two groups being most aggressively targeted by the swine flu vaccine pushers. The leads us to the disturbing conclusion that the swine flu vaccine could be a modern medical disaster. It's untested and un-tried. Its ingredients are potentially quite dangerous, and the adjuvants being used in the European vaccines are suspected of causing neurological disorders.

Paralyzed by vaccines

I probably don't need to remind you that in 1976, a failed swine flu vaccine caused irreparable damage to the nervous systems of hundreds of people, paralyzing many. Medical doctors gave the problem a name, of course, to make it sound like they knew what they were talking about: Guillain-Barre syndrome. (Notably, they never called it "Toxic Vaccine Syndrome" because that would be too informative.)

But the fact remains that doctors never knew how the vaccines caused these severe problems, and if the same event played out today, all the doctors and vaccine pushers would undoubtedly deny any link between the vaccines and paralysis altogether. (That's what's happening today with the debate over vaccines and autism: Complete denial.)

In fact, there are a whole lot of things you'll never be told by health authorities about the upcoming swine flu vaccine. For your amusement, I've written down the ten most obvious ones and published them below.

Ten things you're not supposed to know about the swine flu vaccine

(At least, not by anyone in authority...)

#1 - The vaccine production was "rushed" and the vaccine has never been tested on humans. Do you like to play guinea pig for Big Pharma? If so, line up for your swine flu vaccine this fall...

#2 - Swine flu vaccines contain dangerous adjuvants that cause an inflammatory response in the body. This is why they are suspected of causing autism and other neurological disorders.

#3 - The swine flu vaccine could actually increase your risk of death from swine flu by altering (or suppressing) your immune system response. There is zero evidence that even seasonal flu shots offer any meaningful protection for people who take the jabs. Vaccines are the snake oil of modern medicine.

#4 - Doctors still don't know why the 1976 swine flu vaccines paralyzed so many people. And that means they really have no clue whether the upcoming vaccine might cause the same devastating side effects. (And they're not testing it, either...)

#5 - Even if the swine flu vaccine kills you, the drug companies aren't responsible. The U.S. government has granted drug companies complete immunity against vaccine product liability. Thanks to that blanket immunity, drug companies have no incentive to make safe vaccines, because they only get paid based on quantity, not safety (zero liability).

#6 - No swine flu vaccine works as well as vitamin D to protect you from influenza. That's an inconvenient scientific fact that the U.S. government, the FDA and Big Pharma hope the people never realize.

#7 - Even if the swine flu vaccine actually works, mathematically speaking if everyone else around you gets the vaccine, you don't need one! (Because it can't spread through the population you hang with.) So even if you believe in the vaccine, all you need to do is encourage your friends to go get vaccinated...

#8 - Drug companies are making billions of dollars from the production of swine flu vaccines. That money comes out of your pocket -- even if you don't get the jab -- because it's all paid by the taxpayers.

#9 - When people start dying in larger numbers from the swine flu, rest assured that many of them will be the very people who got the swine flu vaccine. Doctors will explain this away with their typical Big Pharma logic: "The number saved is far greater than the number lost." Of course, the number "saved" is entirely fictional... imaginary... and exists only in their own warped heads.

#10 - The swine flu vaccine centers that will crop up all over the world in the coming months aren't completely useless: They will provide an easy way to identify large groups of really stupid people. (Too bad there isn't some sort of blue dye that we could tag 'em with for future reference...)

The lottery, they say, is a tax on people who can't do math. Similarly, flu vaccines are a tax on people who don't understand health.Buzz

Calorie Restriction = Fountain of Youth

A hot topic right now in the news, and one that is always on the minds of adults at some level, is aging. How can we prevent aging and retain our youth? There are plenty of gimmicks out there, one is Resveratrol, another is Mona Vi, and of course there are hundreds of options in the form of lotions, potions, and surgeries to spend your life savings on that claim to make you look younger. But do things such as facelifts make you look younger or just vain and fake?

Current research has "discovered" a way to stay young without spending a penny. I say "discovered" with quotations because scientists haven't discovered this method, they re-discovered it. Or better yet, the knowledge was present and being practiced by certain communities of people all along, we just didn't know the mechanism of this method. What is this method of staying young? It is Calorie Restriction (CR).

What is Calorie Restriction? According to the journal Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, Calorie Restriction is "the reduction of macronutrient intake while maintaining sufficient micronutrient intake." In layman's terms: eating less overall carbohydrates, proteins, and fats while still getting all of the vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and amino acids that you need. Broken down to even simpler terms: EAT LESS CALORIES while getting MORE NUTRIENTS from your food.

How do you do this? Simple, eat less grains and dairy, eat more fruits and vegetables. Not rocket science, right? That is why I said the scientists didn't discover this, it is age old wisdom that we all have inside us. You know the inner dialogue. You go to McDonald's, order two double cheeseburgers for $2, and right before you swallow them whole, you tell yourself, "I shouldn't eat this." Exactly, you shouldn't, it is poisonous, calorie dense food with zero nutritional value. Your subconscious knows you shouldn't eat it, and reminded you right before your first bite. But you, you are a sucker for marketing and would rather spend hard earned money on garbage than health.

The health effects of practicing Calorie Restriction are many. Research has shown that Calorie Restriction provides our body with potent antitumor activity (Kritchevsky, 2002). It also causes loss of weight/reduced fat, decreased metabolic rate and body temperature, decreased free radical damage, and decreased insulin resistance. Calorie Restriction also increases our antioxidant defenses, increases bodily repair, and increases protein turnover rates (Masoro, 2007). Yet more research has shown that Calorie Restriction prevents Alzheimer's (Alom et al., 1995), osteoporosis, muscle wasting, and weakened immune and organ function (Matsumoto et al., 2000; Morley, 2001) .

So, how do you start? It's simple, just make the decision to eat less grains and dairy while eating more fruits and vegetables and you're on your way. All of these health effects can be yours. And you don't have to do it alone. There are people all over the world who have made the lifestyle switch. To link up with them in an online community and learn more, check out the following resources:

Calorierestriction.org

San Fransisco Chronicle

BBC News

Remember, in these times of economic and "healthcare" uncertainty, the only one who can guarantee your health is you. You must be your own advocate. CREATE YOUR LIFE. Make the right CHOICES at every crossroads. Choose NATURE OVER MANMADE. Until next time, LIVE WELL.



REFERENCES

Minor, R., J. Chang, R. de Cabo. Hungry for Life: How the arcuate nucleus and neuropeptide Y may play a critical role in mediating the benefits of calorie restriction. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology. 2009 Feb. 5; 299 (1): 79-88.

Kritchevsky D. Caloric restriction and experimental carcinogenesis. Hybrid Hybridomics. 2002; 21: 147-151.

Masoro, E. The role of hormesis in life extension by dietary restriction. Interdisciplinary Topics In Gerontology. 2007; 35: 1-17.

Alom, J., R. Galard, R. Catalan, J. Castellanos, S. Schwartz, E. Tolosa. Cerebrospinal fluid neuropeptide Y in Alzheimer's disease. Neuroscience Letters. 1995; 198: 1549-1551.

Matsumoto, A., B. Marck, D. Gruenewald, T. Wolden-Hanson, M. Naai. Aging and the neuroendocrine regulation of reproduction and body weight. Experimental Gerontology. 2000; 35: 1251-1265.

Morley, J. Anorexia, sarcopenia, and aging. Nutrition. 2001; 17: 660-663.

Ammunition For The Masses

In speaking with one of my readers today, the statement was made, “Yesterday’s blog was excellent, but how does the average layperson go about beginning self-change, self-education, and self-becoming?” This is a very relevant question; after all, you cannot change a nation if you do not first change yourself.

The first question you must ask yourself is “what am I changing for?” Since you are reading this blog, and read yesterday’s post, you know that the change I called for was reform of the educational and healthcare systems. How are you, one reader, going to change the healthcare and educational systems of the United States of America? Simple, one choice at a time; and with each new choice you make, a colleague, friend, or family member notices and thinks, ‘it’s working for them, why can’t it work for me?’. It is in this grassroots, role modeling fashion that you, dear reader, are going to change the nation, and the world.

In order to make large scale changes in health and education on a national level, we must make large scale changes in our health and education as individuals. Now don’t worry, large scale change does not have to occur all at once. As my friend and mentor Dr. James Chestnut teaches, “Change should not be an upstream struggle, change should be like floating downstream on your back on an air mattress soaking up the sun.” In other words, if we try and change all at once, we will not succeed because wholesale change is stressful and stress is not conducive to success or health. Therefore, we must go about change in a gentle way. We do this by adding positive things without taking away negative things. Eventually, you realize how great it feels to perform the positive actions and they just become habit. The negatives gently, and sometimes unknowingly, fall to the wayside.

There are 3 key daily functions that we must target for change in order to accomplish our goal. The 3 areas we must make changes in are the way that we eat, move, and think (Chestnut, 2003). The following are simple changes for each category that you can institute today to begin changing the world:

EAT

The first addition you can make to your daily eating habits is DRINK MORE WATER. Shoot for at least 64 ounces of water per day. That is 8 normal size glasses.

A very close second is what Dr. Chestnut calls FRESH FIBER FIRST. This novel idea suggests that we begin each meal with some form of raw fruit and/or raw vegetable. Raw fruits and raw vegetables contain loads of cancer fighting phytonutrients and antioxidants that are lost when cooked. Your best choices are the cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, rutabaga, etc. An added bonus is that raw fruits and veggies are loaded with fiber which helps clean out your intestines and decrease your appetite. So start each meal with an apple, salad, or your favorite raw green food.

SHOP ON A FULL STOMACH. When you go to the grocery store with an empty stomach, you know that you make poorer choices than if you were full from a recent meal. So eat before you shop. And when deciding if you should purchase your favorite junk food, make the decision based on how you’ll feel after you eat it, not while you are eating it.

AVOID PROCESSED AND REFINED FOODS. The closer you buy a food to the form in which it is found in nature, the better it is for you. If it comes in a box or is microwaveable, it is probably not good for you.

READ FOOD LABELS. If you cannot pronounce it, don’t eat it. If grocery stores have an “Organic” and “Healthy Food” section what is the rest of the store called, the Death and Disease section? In short, yes. Avoid foods with artificial flavors and sweeteners, colors/dyes, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, preservatives, additives, and propylene glycol (which is literally anti-freeze).

Our food supply is DEFICIENT in healthy Omega-3 fatty acids (fish oil) and probiotics (good bacteria). Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for a healthy brain and joints. They are also anti-inflammatory and great for your skin. Probiotics are healthy bacteria that are supposed to live in our gut but don’t because of all the toxins in our food supply and the multiple courses of antibiotics taken each year by the average American. Probiotics are important because they produce B vitamins and Vitamin K for us. They also fight off bad bacteria thereby keeping us healthy. The best company I have found to purchase these products from is Innate Choice (www.innatechoice.com).

The best way to eat is to focus on meals consisting of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grass fed meats. Buy organic when you can. Avoid grains and dairy because they are pro-inflammatory and lead to autoimmune diseases, GI disorders, and a plethora of other negative health problems.

MOVE

EXERCISE EVERYDAY. It does not have to be crazy, you don’t have to be a bodybuilder or a marathoner, just get moving. Start today by stepping outside and taking a deep belly breath. Tomorrow go outside, take a deep belly breath, and walk to the end of your driveway. In this way, add distance and difficulty (i.e. stairs, ankle weights, run, etc) as you feel ready. Research shows that just 30 minutes of walking a day (equal to burning 200 calories) 5 times a week prevents 30% (949,619) of deaths due to coronary heart disease and stroke, 50% of colon cancer (24,000 deaths), and reduces Alzheimer’s risk by 50%, just to name a few benefits.

HAVE A PARTNER. Exercising with a partner increases your chances of success because you can encourage each other and hold each other accountable. Eventually you can compete with each other, loser buys the broccoli smoothies.

MAKE IT FUN. If you have children and they hate “exercise,” how do you get them to exercise without them knowing its “exercise”? Make it fun, wrestle them, throw the ball with them, ride bikes with them, have push up, sit up and standing squat contests with them. Be creative, there are endless possibilities here.

CREATE EXERCISE. By this I mean incorporate more movement into your daily routine. Instead of taking the elevator, take the stairs. Don’t park in the parking space closest to the building, park in the one furthest away and walk extra. If you need to run errands or go to a friend’s house that lives close by, walk, run, or bike over instead of drive.

GET YOUR SPINE CHECKED. In order for your body to express full health, you must have 100% communication between your brain and the rest of your body. The brain communicates with the rest of your body by sending messages down the spinal cord and out the nerves to every cell, muscle, and organ. Every cell, muscle, and organ then communicates back to the brain in the reverse direction. If your spinal column is not properly aligned, this communication is dysfunctional and you are not expressing 100% health. We cannot reach our full human potential if we are not 100% healthy, so make sure you are getting your spine checked regularly.

THINK

READ 1 HOUR PER DAY. Brian Tracy, a high school dropout, self-made millionaire, and self-help guru says that the average American reads one book per year. ONE! How does that look for an educated country if we are finished with school (where we learned very little) by age 18-23 and our continuing education is one book per year. And what if that book is TV Guide? You see where I’m going with this. If we are to reform our health and our educational systems, we need to be educated and make educated decisions. Reading one hour a day equates to 365 hours a year. That is 15.2 days a year you would spend reading. I think you could learn a lot in just one hour a day. That one hour a day equates to about 50 books per year. Do you want to get ahead in your profession, or be an expert in your area of interest? Simply set aside one hour a day and you’re on the road to expertise. If you don’t know where to start, I recommend Think And Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, or Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude, by Napoleon Hill.

AUDIOBOOKS. Instead of listening to the same 5 songs on the radio each day during your commute, purchase or download some audiobooks that cover an topic you are interested in. You’ll be amazed at how much time you spend in the car and how much you can learn by listening to audiobooks while you drive.

COMMUNITY. Surround yourself with positive, like-minded individuals. This way you can all support each other and encourage each other. Form a mastermind group and meet weekly or bi-weekly to bounce ideas off of each other. Have each member read a different book or look into a different topic for each meeting and share the best of what they found with the others. This will stimulate massive creativity and brainstorming sessions. Everyone will walk away enriched, and who knows, maybe a business, invention, or non-for-profit company will be born.

VOLUNTEER. Volunteer in your community. Get outside your comfort zone and go meet people. Recruit people to your cause. Volunteer with a genuine attitude of service and love and all new doors will be opened for you.

Dr. Chestnut teaches SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES. Look at the people at the top of your profession or area of interest. Read their biographies, Google them. What made them who they are today? How did they get to the top? I guarantee they’ve left clues as to how they’ve achieved prominence. Incorporate those things into your life. Start your day with positive affirmations such as “Everything my mind can conceive, and believe, it can achieve!” Say it out loud and with emotion, your subconscious mind will manifest your affirmations if you really believe them. Also, set goals and put them on paper! Make them challenging but realistic and set a definite deadline.

GET SPIRITUAL. Whatever that means to you. Whether it’s spend more time in nature, meditation, prayer, reading your Bible, going to church, or just laying on your back looking at the stars. A recent TIME magazine cover story was titled “How Faith Can Heal”. One article stated that regular church attendance provided an average of 2 to 3 years of additional life for churchgoers versus non-churchgoers (TIME, 2009). Founder of the Harvard Mind/Body Institute, Herbert Benson, MD, said “Religious commitment is consistently associated with better health. The greater a person’s commitment, the fewer his or her psychological symptoms, the better his or her general health, the lower the blood pressure, and the longer the survival.” (Benson, 1996).

WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK. Literally, hum, sing, and/or whistle your work day away. It is hard to be negative when you are humming along to a tune you enjoy.

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So there you have it. I hope these suggestions help you on your quest of self-becoming. Remember, ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY!!! You don’t have to wake up tomorrow and eat, move, and think to perfection. Start small, implement the steps that naturally make sense to you, and add as you see fit. You will see and feel changes almost immediately. This will lead to excitation and happiness. Feel free to let your joy be known. Please email me with any questions and share this with all of your friends and family. If we can change ourselves and get our friends and family on board, we will soon not only be CREATING OUR LIVES, but also CREATING OUR NATION.


REFERENCES

Kluger, Jeffrey. “The Biology of Belief.” TIME. February 23, 2009; pp. 62-72.

Benson, Hebert. Timeless Healing: the Power and Biology of Belief. New York:
Fireside, 1996.

Chestnut, James. The 14 Foundational Premises for the Scientific and Philosophical
Validation of the Chiropractic Wellness Paradigm. Victoria, B.C.: The Wellness Practice-
Global Self-Help Corp., 2003.

Chestnut, James. The Innate Diet and Natural Hygiene. Victoria, B.C.: The Wellness
Practice-Global Self-Help Corp., 2003.

Chestnut, James. Innate Physical Fitness and Spinal Hygiene. Victoria, B.C.: The
Wellness Practice-Global Self-Help Corp., 2003.

Chestnut, James. The Innate State of Mind and Emotional Hygiene. Victoria, B.C.: The Wellness
Practice-Global Self-Help Corp., 2003.

Tracy, Brian. 21 Secrets to Self-Made Millionaires. Audiobook

A Call To Arms

The great 19th century American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of it's members...Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." This quote portrays his strong conviction that the opinions of the majority of American society lead away from Self-Trust and into conformity.

Call me crazy, but Emerson wrote and believed those words in the 1830s and it doesn't look like anything has changed in 2009. We are a conformist, materialistic society that allows our "leaders" and television to dictate our lives to us. Where does this conformity begin? In our schools.

Look at this quote from Emerson, "Education is of value only insofar as it draws out one's own intellectual force. If education merely trains students for a career, it will lead them to despair."

Wow, somewhere along the way that quote got swept under the rug. Our schools today do exactly what Emerson warned against, they destroy any and all forms of creativity and creative energy. Creativity is destroyed by the structure of the education system. We sit at a desk and receive a brain dump from the teacher day in and day out for 18 years. We are given tests on this information that do not test our ability to understand and synthesize information, but whether or not we can memorize facts long enough to pick the right answer out on a page and then forget it all when the test is over. The only facts that stick are the ones we are forced to regurgitate repeatedly. Having to sit all day not only destroys our creative energy, it drains us of all energy. So instead of leaving school and going to exercise and be in community with others what do most students do? Go sit in front of a TV or computer somewhere.

At the end of their education, the students are robots who do what they're told to do and just spent $100,000 to learn how to do a job that they may or may not like doing. I remind you that the diploma does not even guarantee them a job! This should make you angry and sad.

Emerson saw this, he also saw the immense opportunities that were (AND STILL ARE) available to the average citizen of the United States. He saw these opportunities being squandered as the ambitions and values of every citizen were determined for them by the marketplace mentality that has come to dominate American culture. He saw then that, like today, American culture needs a change. Who can argue?

Where has our elitist, brain dead, "do as your told" culture gotten us? How about into the deepest national debt our country has ever seen? How about the most unhealthy, depressed and disease ridden state this nation has ever been in? Our poor health has been achieved by we as a people being lazy, brain dead, and willing to adopt the "pop a pill" mentality for any and all problems instead of being accountable for our own health and the way that we eat, move, and think.

According to the World Health Organization, the U. S. spends 16% of its Gross Domestic Product, or an average of $7,000 per person per year on sickness care. We have more doctors, more hospital beds, and more pills per capita than any country in the world. Where has that brought us? Try 34th out of 39 in the newest ranking of the healthiest westernized nations. Try 29th best country in infant mortality rates. Try an average of 9 prescription drugs per person and a national consumption of 25 million pills per HOUR! (Time, 2008)


It's time for a revolution, America. We as citizens need to take back our health freedoms and our brains from Big Government and Big Pharma. It has to be grassroots. They are not going to ever relinquish control on their own. How do we make this change? I bet our buddy Ralph has an idea:

"The power which is at once spring and regulator in all efforts of reform, is the conviction that there is an infinite worthiness in man which will appear at the call of worth."

In other words, Emerson thought that for social reform to be effective, it must absolutely be preceded by self-reform. He believed that self-reform was an ongoing process of self-becoming: "Every man believes that he has a greater possibility."

More evidence of his belief is seen in this quote, "A new degree of culture would instantly revolutionize the entire system of human pursuits." What is the key word in that quote? "Culture." In order to change the laws of this country, we must first change our minds as citizens, and this is done through "culture", or education. Not the education system, we know that has already failed us and needs reform. The education I speak of is self-education. It is every citizen taking it upon ourselves to educate ourselves and our neighbors about what it means to live a healthy lifestyle. We mustn't become complacent once we have the knowledge, or education. That knowledge is worthless unless we apply it. We must LIVE it. By living it we become healthier and happier and people begin to take notice. They take your example and adopt it in their own lives. The light comes on. Then we band together and start using our purchasing power to demand that our government protect our health instead of the interests of Big Pharma, the FDA, the USDA, and the dairy industry.

As Emerson said, "the State must follow, not lead the character and progress of the citizen."

If we, as a nation, want to climb out of this recession and the sorry state of health that played a huge role in causing it, we must return to the self-reliance and nonconformity that this nation was founded on. We must wake up and CREATE OUR LIVES on a daily basis instead of have them dictated to us by those who do not have our health or interests in mind. We live in a time where negativity and pessimism abound in the media and therefore in our thoughts. This constant negativity crushes creativity and the human will. It's time that we the people be fed up and take it upon ourselves to make a change.

"The power of the human will comes into being precisely through its encounter with limitations, and what is true for the individual will also be true for the nation. Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead to where there is no path and leave a trail."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson




References:

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York:
Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004.

Dykman, Jackson. "5 Truths about Health Care in America." Time. December 1, 2008: 42-48.

What is Wellness? Part 2

Well we're back for another episode. Last week we left off talking about how your state of Wellness is determined by the choices you make. Well we are going to continue that discussion this week. So, how about some meat and potatoes?

Right now, Mr./Mrs. Reader, what I want you to do is answer a question for me. What is health? Take a moment and think it over. In fact, write down your definition of health on a piece of paper for me...

Are you done? Good. I bet for most of you your answer went something like this, "Health is when I feel good. Health is when I am not sore and I'm not sick." Well, if you wrote that down on your piece of paper, you failed. But it's okay, because the majority of you probably put that, so you'll pass anyway due to the averaging out of all of your scores. If health is when you feel good then how do you explain Tim Russert's death last year of a sudden heart attack? Didn't he feel good until the moment he had it? Or how about the relative or friend we all know who died or was paralyzed by a stroke? Didn't they feel good until the moment of stroke?

So if health is not how you feel, what is it? You want the answer? Okay, I'll give it to you in 3 words, you ready? Here goes...Health is...

Homeostatic Cell Function

What?! I know, I know, brain cramps from the big scientific word. No worries, it's easy. Homeostasis means balance. So homeostatic cell function means that your cells are working correctly and everything is balanced; hydration, temperature, growth vs. waste, etc. So health, then, is when your cells are all functioning together in a state of balance, making up an entire body (your body) that is functioning in equilibrium. So health is balance, not too fat or too skinny, too hot or too cold, too active or too lazy, too happy or too sad, too stressed or too peaceful.

So if health is balance, what is sickness? Sickness is a loss of balance. This loss of balance has only 2 known causes: Toxicity and/or Deficiency. You are sick because you are toxic from something you ate, drank, breathed, or thought. Or, you are sick because you are deficient in a nutrient that is required for the expression of 100% health. For example: water, proper vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, essential fatty acids, probiotics, proper exercise, positive loving thoughts/relationships, or proper nervous system function. (Chestnut, 2003)

Notice the wording I used above, I said, "...required for the expression of 100% health." Expression implies that your genes play an important role in your health. This is true, they do. But they are not the be all, end all, like the medical world would have us believe. The most important determinant of your health is the environment, i.e., what you eat, how you exercise, what you think, your level of stress, etc. It is the environment that triggers your genes to express a given trait. We all have basically the same genes, it is the expression of our genes that make us different individually. Picture your genes as a light switch, this light switch is the gene for eye color. If the switch is in the "off" position, you will express one trait, say, blue eyes. If the switch is in the "on" position, you will express a different trait, brown eyes. It's the same gene, just a different expression. If all that mattered was that you had a light switch and there wasn't an "on/off" switch, then we'd be in trouble. Then women with the BRCA1 gene (breast cancer gene) would all be doomed to breast cancer. But wait, there are thousands of women with the BRCA1 gene that live their whole lives without ever developing breast cancer, how is this possible? It is possible because having the gene does not mean you will have the trait that the gene codes for (in this case, breast cancer). You must expose the gene to the right (actually, in this case, the wrong) environmental influences in order for it to express the trait. What might these environmental stressors be? Smoking, alcohol, pro-inflammatory diet, BPA and other toxic chemicals in our plastics, herbicides, pesticides, vaccines, subluxation, etc.
For more information on this exciting topic, known as Epigenetics, go here: http://www.ehponline.org/members/2006/114-3/focus.html

So great, if it's our environment that determines our fate, how are we any better off than when we thought our genes were our fate? That's easy. You can choose your environment, you can't choose your genes. By choosing your environment, you influence the traits that your genes express. You choose Wellness by choosing to eat organic fruits and vegetables, exercising daily, living a life of love and gratitude, and stimulating your nervous system by getting regular chiropractic adjustments. You choose sickness and disease when you decide to smoke, drink, eat processed foods, live a sedentary lifestyle, think bad thoughts, and not get regular nervous system checkups. Your Wellness is in your power of choice. Choose Well!

Thank you for reading and God bless your day!


Email any questions to thesolutioniswellness@gmail.com.

References

1. Chestnut, J.L. (2003). The 14 Foundational Premises for the Scientific and Philosophical Validation of the Chiropractic Wellness Paradigm. Victoria, B.C.: The Wellness Practice-Global Self-Help Corp.

What is Wellness?

What is Wellness? What does it really mean?

According to dictionary.com, Wellness is a noun for:

1. the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, esp. as the result of deliberate effort.
2. an approach to healthcare that emphasizes preventing illness and prolonging life, as opposed to emphasizing treating diseases.

These 2 definitions are very good and match up well with the Chiropractic paradigm. Let's look at why this is true. Chiropractic is a science, philosophy, and art that looks at the individual as a vitalistic and holistic being.

Vitalism is the belief that the body is a self-healing organism. It implies that there is a power within the body, that cannot be measured chemically or physically, that controls all the functions of your body. This power is known in Chiropractic as Innate Intelligence (Innate for short), and around the world as God, Allah, or whichever faith your prescribe to. Proof of this power has been observed by all of us. We get a cut on our hand and over a week's time it heals. Did you concentrate on the cut for seven days straight and repeat over and over, "you will heal, you will heal, you will heal,"? No, you went about your daily business and your body healed itself without you consciously directing it. Another example is the fact that you do not consciously cause your heart to beat or your lungs to breathe. These two things happen every second, of every day, for your entire life. These functions are maintained by Innate, which uses the brain and its connection with every cell, tissue, and organ in your body via nerves. The nerves provide information to the brain to let it know what is going on at all times and the brain communicates back and tells that specific cell, tissue, or organ how to react. It is a continuous cycle which travels from the brain, down the spinal cord, out the nerves to the cell, tissue, organ in question, back up the nerves to the spinal cord, to the brain. To see a picture of the nervous system as described, click the following link: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/7173.html.

As a quick aside, whenever there is a metaphysical issue brought up (God, Innate, Healing Powers, Ghosts, etc) there are skeptics. And there always will be because these are things that cannot be physically or chemically measured by science, as stated above. But as one final example to leave you with, consider a cadaver compared to you. If I cut your hand and the cadaver's hand in the same spot, at the same time, what will happen? In one week we will compare you again. Your hand is healed, the cadaver's hand is still cut. What is the difference between the two of you? You both still have your brain, your nerves, your heart, lungs, stomach, pancreas, etc. You are both complete anatomically. The only difference is vitality. One of you still has a life force, whatever you choose to call it, and the other does not. One is a living, breathing, healing human being, the other is dead. Those facts are hard to argue.

Holism is the practice of looking at the individual as One. A person that comes into my office with a complaint of headaches, for example, is not viewed by me as just a head and neck. As a holistic minded doctor, I look at that person as a whole person. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. So not only do I look at the head and neck, I look at the whole body. Poor mechanics in the feet, knees, hips, pelvis, low back, etc. can cause headaches. So can a poor diet, poor posture, a negative attitude, etc. All of these things must be taken into account to get the best results for that person.

When practiced together, vitalism and holism lead to Wellness because they aim to get the person better by using the person's natural healing ability and the natural elements of our environment such as proper nutrition, proper exercise, and proper mind set (we will address these topics individually in future blogs).

We have just scratched the surface on how Chiropractic fulfills the second part of the definition of Wellness as given above. Let's now look at how it fulfills the first part, "the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort." In other words, Wellness is a choice. Wellness is every choice you make. You bring yourself closer to Wellness whenever you choose exercise over television, broccoli over brownie, and gratitude over negativity. Chiropractors help an individual achieve Wellness in this way by being their Wellness coach. We are here to provide you with the encouragement and information you need to make intelligent and healthy choices that lead you to the longest, happiest, healthiest quality of life you can have. Modern research (Ostan, R., et. al. 2008. Immunosenescence and immunogenetics of human longevity. Neuroimmunomodulation. 15 (4-6): 224-240.) and the Bible (Genesis 6:3) both state that man is made to live for 120 years. So let us CHOOSE health and life at each crossroads of our day.

Thank you for reading and we'll talk again soon! God bless your day.

email any questions to thesolutioniswellness@gmail.com