Your True Health Source?

What is your true health source?  Would it be organic natural foods, fresh fruits, and vegetables, vitamins or supplements, fitness, meditation or exercise, or a combination of many other ‘true health’ oriented factors?  True health also depends on many elements that we take for granted, one way or another; like for example, clean water and fresh, clean air. They’re not doing so well in Beijing because of the chemical smog.

Your immediate physical environment also plays a part in your true health; including, the source of your foods, the state of the soils where they were grown in. Where you live matters, even within your home or apt matters!

It’s all about atoms, molecules and compounds; the chemicals, metals, and elements, hazardous to our health, in and around our bodies, and surrounding living environments. We need to be wary of nearly all of the products we use in our daily lifestyles.  We need to become more aware of our consumption habits, and they’re side-effects! This is your only true source of good health.

This alert also extends to our foods, the stuff we ingest, and of course our personal living space, furnishings, and the materials that were used in their making; a case in point, like most synthetic carpeting, for example, it out-gasses noxious elements like benzene, toluene, styrene, and other equally toxic substances it was made from back into the air your family breathes every day, that’s if you have synthetic carpeting installed; and, this out-gassing goes on for years, depending on the age of the carpet. New car upholstery and most recently formed plastics also do the same thing; and within your work, car, office or home environment!

The subtle effects may be lightheadedness, headaches, running nose, eye irritation, small coughing, raspy throat, even sneezing; including, tiredness, muscle fatigue, and insomnia. These are just for starters! Not surprisingly, these are quite vague symptoms and can easily be explained away, as if you are coming down with a cold or a flu; when in fact, these chemical poisons can in the long term and with continued exposure, eventually suppress your immune system enough to where your body actually becomes a welcoming host for a wide range of ‘waiting in the wings’, predatory germs, and other opportunistic rapscallions.  J

Additionally, combining this with other equally poisonous chemicals within our environments makes it an even more significant burden on our health and well beings. We are literally and NOT figuratively, being poisoned at every turn! How can we protect ourselves and our family’s health from these poisons within our environment?

By being fully aware of your options when it comes to your true source for good health!

Optimized Health: More than Just taking Vitamins and Supplements

The reason for the title, "Optimized Health: More than Just taking Vitamins and Supplements," is plain and clear! It is an inescapable fact of our existence; and one that we can't avoid, that most of us think we're healthy, relatively speaking; when in fact, we are not! Factually and truthfully, we are very sick, and getting sicker by the day. Not to scare you, not to warn you, just to inform you of some facts. Hey, don't kill the messenger!

            What I am about to reveal may shock most of you into realizing that your health, good health, great health, is not a matter of genes, luck, money, or even the environment; but, of knowing your body, how it works, and what it actually needs to function at an optimum level in order for it to survive-ANYTHING!!!

           

            Well, “ANYTHING” is a pretty broad statement, some may even consider it to be an over statement. I on the other hand, based on my experience, firsthand experience, know differently. Some of us, a very few of us, have actually lived to be 130+years old! Hey, I know, I know; not all of us become billionaires either!  

            But stop for a second, and ask yourself this critical question: How long do you want to live for? Never mind anything else happening to the planet, or wars, or famines, etc. How long do you want and expect to live for?

            Your decision and your awareness of your longevity will have the greatest part to bear on your continued survival. Nothing else will matter, other than how optimized your health is! For nature has a way of keeping the fittest around. Uniqueness, as well as diversity, has its rewards-SURVIVAL!

            So how can you become uniquely healthy and healthily diversified at the same time? Simply enough, by following an optimized mindset of being healthy in mind, body and spirit! For thousands of years, food has been our best medicine, and our greatest minds sharing these natural, healthy truths have been our best friends and teachers.

            We need to learn from them, their approach, their philosophy, their unique and diversified view of Nature and Humanity. We need to apply this information to our lives, our loves and passions. We need to make health, optimized health a vital part of our lives. Don't follow fads and false facts. Follow those that radiate great health!

            According to industry standards, popping most processed pills, whether vitamins, supplements, or even pharmaceuticals, will only get 5% of the contents digested and assimilated. The rest, the 95%, will become undigested, excreted, and completely wasted! With it your money, as well as your health!

            Eating healthy, living healthy, thinking healthy thoughts, and being around healthy people, and actively engaging in fresh, healthy ideas, are the healthiest ways I know to optimize your health. Instantly and dramatically!

            Being the best at anything, like being the healthiest, takes dedication and devotion. Good health, great health, optimized health, is a philosophy, a way of life and living. It does not come by chance or circumstance. Opening your mind, body and spirit to healthy habits creates opportunities to optimally live a better and longer Life.

Eat Additive Free Foods to Be Truly Healthy

For anyone to be truly healthy, and as the expression goes, the ‘picture of health,’ one must KNOW exactly what they are eating. You are what you eat. And, the inverse may also be true for some, you eat what you are! Let's be honest with each other; we all have cravings, urges, impulses, desires, needs and wants; this is the nature of Homo Sapiens. And, for most of us, when it comes to food and cravings, well, we sometimes can get out-of-control, if you know what l mean. :)

Foods can soothe, they can heal, even show or share love; they can also inspire and enlighten, with regard to taste or smell; and most importantly, they are the most intimate and direct source of comfort and pleasure on this planet! Is it any wonder then, that we all have a very unique and personal relationship with the foods that we love to eat?

Most of us were raised on sugary enriched foods, adulterated by our food industry, lab designed for our sensitive tastes; including, to create within us various taste addictions, by way of, from the 'cradle to the grave' marketing; diabolically directed to every one of it's unsuspecting and totally naive consumers…us! You see, once you are hooked on sugar, and this sugar comes in many forms, disguises, and names; mainly, from almost every packaged product that one can purchase at their local supermarket; you, remain hooked for life, like a drug-dependent junky, itching for their next fix.

Additionally, in the U.S. alone, there are over 10,000 registered additives that the food industry can legally process into our foods. Most of these additives have not been properly researched and scientifically assessed as to their non-toxic effects. But, many scientific researchers and numerous scientific studies have already proven that these 12 could be the most dangerous, and even deadly! They have been called the “Dirty Dozen.”

According to the most recent research by EWG, here are their "Dirty Dozen" food additives: Each of these additives has a link you can go to for more info and details as to its potential side-effects and dangers. You owe it to yourself and your family to take a look!

1. Nitrites and nitrates
2.Potassium bromate
3.Propyl paraben
4.Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)
5.Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT)
6.Propyl gallate
7.Theobromine
8. Secret flavor ingredients
9.Artificial colors
10.Diacetyl
11.Phosphate-based food additives (Watch List)
12.Aluminum-based additives (Watch List)

http://www.ewg.org/research/ewg-s-dirty-dozen-guide-food-additives

“Some of these food additives are probable human carcinogens (nitrites), others are known endocrine disruptors (Propyl paraben), some are linked to a severe respiratory condition (diacetyl), and others are just plain ambiguous in origin (artificial colors and flavoring ingredients). EWG (Environmental Working Group) has links to a full breakdown on each of these dubious food additives at their Dirty Dozen page, and for on-the-go reference, the organization's Food Scores app or web database offers guidance in avoiding these in your diet.

Pesticide residues on our ‘fruits and vegetables’ can also play havoc with our body; especially, neurologically. Here are the worst offenders:

                           http://www.juicingwithg.com/the-dirty-dozen-plus-clean-fifteen-infographic

If food is to be our best medicine and keep us healthy for a very long time, we must do our best to know precisely what it is that we are eating. We must either be ‘informed and educated consumers’; or, it’s opposite, ‘stupidly sick consumers,’ loaded up with medications, and just waiting to die! OUR CHOICE, DEPENDING ON WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE FOODS WE ARE EATING!

We can no longer allow ourselves to be manipulated by uncaring corporate interests that have profit instead of our health as their main mission. We need to rely more on our own health initiatives and independent research; and, the best way I know how to live a life full of vigor and vitality is to eat additive-free foods to be and to stay, truly healthy!

The Power of the Human Spirit For Your Health

Examining the true power of the human spirit gives me a unique and honest insight into our health & spirituality. So, I need to be open and forthright in this personal and spiritual journey.

Let’s get something spiritually straight right from the start; I am an Atheist, not an Agnostic; I am faithless and hopeless (according to some), and to others’, a thoroughly and totally, God-less disbeliever! Now, having said all that, I am also a great believer in Humanity, Nature, Evolution, the ever-expanding Universe, the Quantum Universe; Multiple and Parallel Universes; the Holographic Universe; and most importantly, the Power of the Human Spirit!

I am not Religious; but Spiritual, my life is not governed by ritual or dogma; and, I totally live in the NOW while Loving Life to-the-fullest! Additionally, I also believe that we as Spiritual Beings possess infinite wisdom and an infinite potential; not surprisingly, we are ALL capable of tapping into this personal Spiritual reservoir, if we are aware enough and determined enough to do so.

The resolution of both the Human & Spiritual Condition will only come about through COMPASSION towards ALL Life EVERYWHERE! We will have to learn how to become aware of this UNIVERSAL LAW, PROTECT AND PRESERVE ALL LIFE FORMS! And, this doesn't mean that we can’t live through them or on them either! Life survives on a biological level by feeding on lower forms of Life or living matter. At present, for most, this is an inescapable and necessary fact of REALITY!

Spiritually speaking, our foods and fuels are made up of and NOT limited to the following: love, compassion, respect, empathy, sympathy, consideration, dignity, humility, forgiveness, prayer, faith, belief, honor, kindness, agreement, tolerance, God, Source, Spiritualities, hope, help, and Goodness. This too is also a fact and a reality of our mutual Human and Spiritual co-existence!

These are some of the Spiritual currencies that we can easily use to change our lives forever! You see, without our Spirituality, we would all be dead-unaware of Life’s’ miraculous and bountiful existence! Life wouldn't matter, because we didn't matter! Making other people matter, matters to everyone, as we are all interconnected; making plants and different life forms matter, also matters to all; as we are as said, intimately connected to Life everywhere! Physical matter and all Energy forms also matter as it is what keeps us in the game, and surviving through these challenges and obstacles. 

Finally, Space matters, as we all require a safe space, a private place, that we can call our own special place. All matter living or not, matters to every other atom and subatomic particle within this, or any other Universe! EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IS CONNECTED IN SOME SMALL OR LARGE, MEANINGFUL OR SIGNIFICANT WAY! This is another profound example of the power of the Human Spirit, and our true, but mostly hidden from view, connectivity!

Spiritual speaking, our salvation, and togetherness will require a quantum leap in our awareness as well as our preparedness for what lies ahead, in the not so distant future. Our true health and well-being will NOT just be influenced by our food and environmental choices; but, by our personal Spiritual awareness and development, this will also play a major evolutionary influence as well, helping to maximize our physical well-being and our longevity. 

Your true health source will be your connection with your spirituality and your spiritual Source. This is the only way to realize and utilize the Power of the Human Spirit for your health!

Power to the Human Spirit!

Home Gardening For Natural Health Using Any Space or Place, Even an Apt.

Home gardening for natural health using any space or place, even an apt. can be easily achieved by almost anyone, if gardening for ‘natural health’ is what you are sincerely after. Factually speaking, the Single Biggest or Most Important Thing that anyone desiring 'abundant and radiant health' can do towards achieving 'optimum health and maximized longevity,' is to become a self-reliant, natural health, home Gardner. I kid you not!  

Now, don't laugh or make excuses for yourself about your time or limited resources, i.e., land or the lack of space to grow your crops; not to mention your planting/cultivating inexperience. This ideal can definitely be achieved by anyone living anywhere, and even for free!

The surprising health benefits of becoming a home gardener are many and long-lasting. Incredibly enough, even living in an apt, with no backyard or dedicated garden space, one can still grow organic, nutrient-rich and vitamin/mineral dense herbs, sprouts, and even plants; albeit, in a limited space. This is easily accomplished by way of compact sprouting trays, small growing beds/trays of nutrient-rich soil, in space-saving containers, grown in areas like window ledges, patios, balconies, even within spare closets, using UV lamps, etc. Direct sunlight is preferable, but if you live in a basement with no windows, if that’s even permissible today, growing your own natural foods using UV lamps is entirely possible, practical, and undoubtedly fun to do!

Additionally, one can also find and use, exchange-with or rent, local backyards or land space from local homeowners or landlords that are open to the idea of growing/sharing these rich, natural home-grown, and pesticide-free healthy foods. The exchange can be as easy as growing foods for them and or their families; they may even be willing to pay for the seeds and start-up costs. Depending on the size of the plot, you can also get some other land-less but eager, health-conscious locals involved as well. Put up posters or advertise in the classifieds or local papers, for both growing areas/land, and similar like-minded people to help with the cultivation of this newly found 'life-saving and health-enhancing' land space.

A recent article by Dr. Mercola really hit me hard and woke me up to some important facts. His email headline had me hooked immediately, 30 Times More Nutritious Than Most Organic Vegetables - You Can Easily Grow Them in Only 7 Days! The title of the article being, “Great Reasons to Eat Your Sprouts.”  It focuses on and in simple to understand language, how to grow your own sprouts; a self-help video is also included; as well as, to help you get immediately started, the good Dr., also provides you with a DIY Sprout Doctor Starter Kit, should you decide to purchase this online and have it directly delivered. 

Now, how easy is that?

From Sunflower seeds to Alfalfa and Wheatgrass, to Mung beans, Lentil sprouts, and even Brussels sprouts, you can do it all with ease and limited space. The great reasons for this type of activity are listed as being, higher vitamin content; higher enzyme content; increased essential fatty acid and fiber content; increased bioavailability of minerals and protein; not to mention, being totally pesticide and chemically free of any toxic elements. How great is that?

See the video and starter kit for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c40Df2iIvQA

Another article written a few years ago goes into greater detail about gardening in small spaces, even apt's.

Now, I hope you believe me when I say that home gardening is totally possible for truly ‘natural and abundant health’ while using any space or place, even an apt?

Discovering Highly Workable Alternatives to Drug Addiction and Harm Reduction Programs

Drug addiction continues to flourish, despite the best intentions of the many programs out there claiming to have some of the answers to this social, economic, and political conundrum. Lives are lost, and countless other lives are ruined every single day, and in every city and town within our country. All the while, we as good citizens pay the ultimate price of this dreaded disease, by the consequences of its growth and its damaging effects.

Robberies, assaults, thefts, and frauds, are all rising in most cities, just check out the stats for yourself. Furthermore, these addictions only help contribute to the spread of infectious disease! This problem inevitably becomes, a truly monstrous burden on our health care system. No matter what you may think, or believe, we are NOT heading as a society, towards more prosperous and peaceful times!

The cold hard truth of the matter is that WE desperately need truly workable solutions that matter to the lives of the individual drug user, as well as to the rest of society as a whole! WE, need to SHARE this burden and responsibility. Otherwise, this unsolvable as yet drug problem will continue NOT to be resolved; while, its attended impacts, continue to shatter lives and destroy our quality of life!

It’s NOW or NEVER.

We can indulge ourselves with more studies, reports, and countless other well-intentioned social research papers; yet, we will still find ourselves knee-deep in this fowl smelling pile of bureaucratic, bumbling-buffoonery at its very best! Our Government is to blame for this continued drug problem and its subsequent proliferation. The raw truth is this, it can only provide cheap, highly unworkable, and extremely ineffective, cookie-cutter solutions to this growing and deadly pandemic!

Drugs kill, and drug addicts kill, or haven’t you noticed? Yet, our friendly and benevolent Government chooses NOT to help with permanent solutions; mainly because, they take more time, more money and more resources, while NOT guaranteeing any real results; at least, that’s based on the unreliability of existing drug programs out-there! Most just don’t work, and our Government knows this! So, they really don’t want to throw money away on these poorly-effective programs. Would you?

Individuals, like individual drug users, are the sum of their many parts. There are many parts to the makeup of a whole being, and as such, we need to directly address these individually and collectively, if we are to see some real long-term solutions. People are radically simple, yet we still remain complex to ourselves and to others. There’s no escaping this apparent paradox.

Most existing drug programs focus on one part, a few parts, but, NEVER the complete parts of the whole being, the desperate and frustrated individual drug user. Their whole is NEVER seen, and their self-discovery is NEVER the only goal or end-game! 

Failed drug programs produce failed individuals that think much less of themselves and their WILL to permanently change. In other words, they lose HOPE, because the HELP they relied on, believed in, failed them, again and again. I've heard stories of some people that have gone to 8 different rehabs and programs, with ZERO success; including, developing through–out all of this, a much greater habit to deal with!

In the next installment of this series, I will propose a general idea and a workable plan, of taking the whole individual/drug user into account, as if their LIFE truly mattered.

The End to Harm Reduction Programs

Harm reduction programs ineffectively approach a ‘life and death’ condition, like drug addiction...with these limiting qualifiers, “Recognizing that drug use cannot be completely eliminated….” Thus, the predefined need for harm reduction programs! In other words, hope and help are both limited and finite quantities and qualities, to a point! Endless hope, limitless help, and unbridled compassion don’t exist in this finite Universe of Harm Reduction. I need to ask, why not?

What if there was a way to actually help people stop using the drugs they are so dependent upon?

What if there was real hope for a better life, a healthier and happier life, for EVERY drug user?

What if there was a place beyond harm reduction; a place called, harm elimination; where total drug abstinence, comfortably existed for every drug user as a real possibility? An end to harm reduction programs!

Sure, sure, I know, there are so many unworkable and failure dependent drug addiction programs and therapies out-there; with zero-2% success rates as the norm; is it any wonder social agencies, Governments, corporations and, even every- day-people have lost hope in them?

My approach to this myth of failure is not a fantasy or just my optimistic reality; this is real, it is tangible, and, an observable actuality; this end condition of drug abstinence is realistically achievable; given the means to make every single and precious life matter. That’s the start and foundation for all of this. That EVERY life matters! And, it needs to matter to every one of us in part, and as a whole society! People need to be responsible for each other and help each other while giving each other hope in the process! We ALL need to be involved in the well-being of any of our societal members.

When we ‘just’ reduce the harm, we do not salvage the individual drug dependent user from their crippling drug use and its ill-effects. Instead, we just prolong their misery and suffering. They are suffering, every second of every waking day! Let’s address the real spiritual needs of the individual drug user, instead of their drug habit. Let’s zero-in on what’s ruining their lives, and not, that they are taking/using drugs in a harmful way to themselves, others and society!

Is this the best that we can do for them…these miracles of human existence, these wondrous beings of life…harm reduction?

Why? Because we ‘think’ we don’t have the money or the social will to go all-the-way, and take full- responsibility for that troubled and scarred individual drug user?

Instead, we offer doomed-to-fail and highly contrived, cookie-cutter solutions to this problem of drug addiction; allowing the users to continue on and on, eventually, the drug or associated lifestyle contraindications take their toll and their life!

Another classical/farcical definition for this no-end game is one offered by our Government social research scientists, ““Harm reduction” is a pragmatic, non-judgmental set of strategies to reduce individual and community harm caused by drug use. The focus is on taking incremental steps to reduce harm rather than on eliminating drug use. Abstinence may or may not be the end goal.” Thomas, G. (2005). Harm reduction for special populations: Harm reduction policies and programs for persons involved in the criminal justice system. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

As you can see the options for abstinence is not the focus, aim, goal or ‘life-saving application’ of these harm reduction programs. In the next posting, I will offer practical, affordable and highly workable solutions that we as a society and drug-users can work through together; cooperating responsibly and proactively with each other, to eliminate drug dependence; while creating together, a truly achievable and everlasting abstinence!

Media Sensationalized Vitamin and Supplement Studies: Who or What Are We to Believe?

What I am about to share with you is not news; truthfully, it is ‘manufactured-news’ that’s been creatively written to strike an emotional chord, directly aimed at your vitality and good health!

Hey, I really get that we’re all trying to be ‘healthy’; whatever that term actually means? These days, even the words, ‘natural’ and ‘organic,’ exist in questionable forms; as examples of ‘down and dirty’ and ‘deceptively devious’ creations of Corporate America! So, we need to be continuously educated and informed. We also need to be reminded that our choices and voices do matter; and that WE can become instruments of change, individually and collectively for the greater good!

I am going to go out on a limb and make a sweeping generalization regarding most mainstream vitamin and supplement manufacturers; they use cheaply outsourced ingredients of questionable quality and compound strength. Basically, they are physiologically useless; while some can even be dangerous to your health if taken in combination with other supplements or medications.

But the truth of this matter may even be stranger than fiction. I need to ask, why are these media sensationalized vitamin and mineral studies always so outrageous, and their conclusions so damaging to the value and usage of vitamins and supplements? 

With shocking, headline-style-pounding-copy, our media assaults both our senses and sensibilities; undermining our hope for good health and, creating uncertainties as to who or what to believe. Vitamin supplements raise the risk of cancer in men, research shows; Vitamin E Supplements May Do More Harm Than Good; Selenium, vitamin E supplements increase prostate cancer risk; “Studies Suggest Multivitamins Are Useless And Possibly Dangerous”; and, “When Vitamins Backfire.”

Spanning decades, these studies have been ‘trying’ to determine the effectiveness of vitamins and supplements on our health; some, involving tens of thousands of participants that were meticulously tracked for the duration of the study. Somehow, these studies and their startling findings have always managed to garner great press and made people think twice about their healthful usefulness. During these times of vitamin media hype, many people stopped taking them. The scare tactics worked!

Here, it should be clearly stated that not ALL vitamins and supplements are created equal, regarding their ingredients and potency; and most importantly, where their components were sourced. From my research of these studies, and what the press had to say about them, I was able to look for and find things they all had in common; other than, the most obvious, choosing inferior vitamin and supplement brands as part of their study protocols! This alone is an astonishing coincidence. Or is it?

1.       Most of the vitamins and supplements that were part of these studies were of significant low dosages to be of any discernible or measurable physiological effect; in some cases barely the RDI (Reference/Recommended Daily Intake; formerly known as the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance). I say this not as a scientist or doctor, but, as a student of chemistry and human physiology. I know how the body works and what our bodies need, regarding nutrients, vitamins, enzymes, proteins, carbs, minerals, etc. For example, don’t expect a dosage of 40 mg of vitamin C made from cheap synthetic and inferior ingredients, buffered with fillers, colored with dyes, and containing other chemical modifiers, to be able to help anyone prevent scurvy!

2.       Not surprisingly, most of the vitamins and supplements that were part of these studies were of inferior quality and not as ‘bio-available’ as other more expensive and better quality ingredients, easily available in the marketplace. Cheap generic multi-vitamins and supplements were chosen, like Centrum for example!

3.       Some of the vitamins and supplements within each of these studies were of a synthetic origin; which in fact are mass produced, in dubious conditions and, of questionable quality, mainly for the agriculture and food industries, as additives to farmed animal feeds; including, as an unnecessary and useless addition within our processed and packaged foods. For example, when we buy a multi-vitamin at Wal-Mart or Costco, the basic ingredients are all of the same kind and from the same source. China is one of the world’s leading suppliers of vitamins, minerals, supplements and, mainly of an inferior variety!

4.       Interestingly enough, some of these studies are what are called Meta-studies; which were designed to gather data from past studies and re-interpret their findings; sometimes in a new way, or to validate and corroborate already existing vitamin and supplement research data and their pre-designed ‘foregone’ conclusions.

The above facts make me question the purpose of these studies, and their well orchestrated, highly sensationalized accompanying media reports, condemning their usage and warning us of their dangers! This targeted and highly crafted media approach is almost an over-kill and deliberate; from my perspective, it looks more like a ‘propaganda campaign,’ than writings designed for our better health and well-being!

In the next installment of the continuation of this story, we will delve deeper into what some of these common vitamin and supplement ingredients are actually made of; including, introducing you to a host of fillers, modifiers, shellacs, dyes, coloring agents, etc., etc. Do you really know what you are taking? Not all vitamins and supplements are created equal; and next posting, you will find out exactly why; including, the life and death differences!