Health Tips

It is another new year and time to make some New Years Resolutions.  One of the most important and within everyone’s control is health and wellness.  Very attainable and easy to implement.  Depending upon your current state of health, genetics, age and physical status will determine what you need to do and how aggressively you need to pursue it.

What You Need to Be Healthy:

• Nutrition
• Rest/Sleep
• Exercise
• Detoxification
• Stress Management

Nutrition is the fuel and building blocks for repair and growth of the body.  Your body is a symphony of chemical actions and reactions.  Like a recipe, one missing ingredient and the result is not as good as intended.  One missing or deficient vitamin or mineral can interfere with bodily functions and processes.

Food should be the primary source of nutrition for the body.  Supplementation helps fill in the gaps as our food today is not as nutritious as in the past – depleted soils, chemical fertilizers, mega-farming, food processing stripping out nutrients…  Animals loaded with hormones, antibiotics, toxins such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides are all detrimental to human health.  Water polluted with chemicals, pharmaceuticals, hormones – all of which adversely affect bodily processes.

Nutition Plan

• Drink filtered water
• Eat organic when possible – grass fed/free range animals
• Take a food based multivitamin daily
• Supplement according to your body’s needs
• Additional supplementation of:
• vitamin D3 (5000iu)
• vitamin C 2000mg+

By taking 5000iu of Vitamin D3 and 2+ grams of vitamin c daily, I have not been sick at all.  My family and my coworkers all have been sick a couple of times this winter alone – colds, flu, swine flu (H1N1)…  If I feel a tickle in my throat, I take a couple extra grams of vitamin C, an allicin (garlic) immune booster and beat it before I get sick.  I have not used a sick day at work in years!

Sleep/Rest

Everyone is a little different in their sleep requirements but generally need 8 hours of quality sleep.  The majority of bodily repairs and growth occurs during sleep.  It is a “recharging” of the body.

Sleep Tips

• Do not eat anything 2+ hours before bedtime
• Train yourself to stop thoughts while laying down
• Eliminate noises and distractions
• Go to bed the same time every night

Exercise

The human body is meant to move and several bodily processes are assisted by moving:

• Digestion/Elimination
• Lymph movement
• Circulation
• Detoxification…

It does not take hours a day to achieve the benefits of exercise.  If done correctly, 10 to 15 minutes a day is enough to become fit and healthy.

Quick Fitness Tips

• Build your heart and lungs with oxygen deprivation exercises
• Sprinting, sprinting up stairs or a hill
• Short intense bursts of up to 2 minutes until you are breathing heavy
• Any heavy weight lifting that makes you breathe hard

The key here is to push yourself to oxygen deprivation (to the point of breathing hard).  This forces your heart and lungs to improve efficiency and capacity.  With a strong heart and lungs you will feel almost invincible.

Detoxification

In our polluted world (especially indoor air pollution) and contaminated food and water supplies make detoxing important.  There are several methods to do this but 2 of the best are sweating/sauna and chlorophyll (algae – chlorella, grasses – wheatgrass, Kamut…)

Consume a chlorophyl green drink or tablets
Sit in a sauna or exercise in the heat and sweat out toxins

Stress Management / Stress Relief

Long term stress is accumulative and interferes with hormonal levels.  Cortisone being the main stress hormone but other hormones are involved as well.  Much of how we handle stress is determined by our mindsets and beliefs.  How one chooses to allow external factors affect one self is very powerful.  Generally, if it is outside of your control – let it be.  Do not focus on anything negative, try to see a positive for every situation or tell yourself – this will pass.

Tools for Stress Reduction

• Deep controlled breathing
• Meditation
• Bio-feedback
• hypnotism
• exercise

Notice how exercise covers, physical fitness, detoxing and stress (and more)?  That is 3 major benefits in one!  Find a way to incorporate this in your daily routine.  Entire books are written on each of these areas so for brevity I am passing along the main points of wellness.

To recap – Give your body:

• The nutrition it requires
• The rest/sleep it requires
• The exercise/movement it requires
• The detoxification it requires
• The stress management / stress relief it requires

What to Avoid

Just as important as what to provide your body for good health is what to avoid.  Here are some of the biggest health threat offenders:

• Sugar & HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) – diabetes, obesity…
• Artificial sweeteners (excitotoxins – kills brain cells)
• Highly processed foods (nutritionally empty calories)
• Junk foods (high calorie, low nutrition, bad for gut bacteria…)
• Sodas, fruit drinks (empty calories and HFCS or artificial sweeteners)
• Fake fats – trans fats – margarine, vegetable oil, canola oil, hydrogenated oils…
• Chlorinated water, fluoridated water

Do this and you will be healthier than 99% of the world.  Be the top 1 percent, feel great, accomplish much and be happier!

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Health secrets – what are they and why are they secret?  Actually they are not secret at all, just not well known.  Even most medical doctors lack the knowledge to obtaining and maintaining good health.  It is not taught in medical school or their other college courses.  It is not taught in our public schools so how would we know how to obtain optimum health?  The knowledge is not provided by any government agency, how would one know?

Yes the government and other health related agencies push their agendas and mediocre at best health tips and advice.  The food pyramid is a perfect example of bad information.  Recently revised food pyramid pushes carbohydrates, tells people to shy away from meats and fats which are essential to good health (sorry vegetarians – you are operating under bad knowledge).  Too many carbs are bad.  Notice how we are getting fatter and heart disease, cancer and diabetes is growing?

How many times have they retracted their statements on health?  Eggs are bad – nope eggs are good, butter and lard are bad, use margarine and vegetable oil – wait, margarine and vegetable oil are hydrogenated oil / trans-fat – causes inflammation clogs your arteries and veins.  Dairy must be pasteurized and homogenized(per FDA) – changing the milk into Franken-proteins which wreak havoc on our digestive systems and bodies – not to mention the antibiotics and hormones pumped into the cows.  Milk is not even a good source of absorbable calcium.  This “health knowledge” is pushed by whoever funds the study (profit or control is the motive) – not your best interest.

With our ever increasing knowledge of health, why the increase in allergies, heart disease, digestive problems, diabetes, autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety…  Why the need for drugs which only treat symptoms, they don’t fix a thing.  Ever look at the over the counter drugs in the grocery store?  At least an entire isle is set aside for heartburn, constipation, diarrhea, headaches, pain, female issues, allergies, colds, coughs – the list goes on and on.  There is more money in treating symptoms – if you cure the illness or affliction, you are no longer a customer.

What are Health Secrets?

Genuine health tips that work.  Here are the building blocks of good health:

• Nutrition – Our bodies require nutrients to function properly

Nutrition – protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, fiber and many more are all required for optimal health.  Like a recipe, 1 missing ingredient and the dish is not as good – same with your health.  Nutrition from our food is the best source if you can find or afford organically grown  fruits and vegetables, organically raised, grass fed livestock and chickens…  Natural based nutritional supplementation must fill in the gaps.

• Exercise – Our bodies need to move

Blood circulation, lymph movement, digestion and detoxification are all improved with exercise.  Compare it to a car that hasn’t moved in some time – seals dry out, fluids break down, corrosion all occur without movement.

• Toxins – Removal of the unnatural poisons in our body that man has created

Man has created over 70,000 chemicals, many of which are unhealthy, causing disease, inflammation, DNA damage and cellular death.  These toxins are consumed in the air we breath, water and food we consume and every other un-natural product we consume, bath in or put upon our body.

• Pathogens – Removal of bad germs, viruses, fungus, yeasts and parasites

This may be the one exception where a drug can cure rather than just mask the symptoms although there are many effective natural alternatives to drugs.  Notice I said bad germs / bacteria, our digestive system and immune systems require “good bacteria” in our gut to assimilate nutrition from our food and displace or kill  bad bacteria, yeasts, food poisoning…  The good bacteria in our gut is said to comprise 80% of our immune function.

• Mindset – Positive attitude, relieve stress, promote happiness, have purpose

Our minds are very powerful influences on our health.  Psychosomatic illnesses are negative manifestations of our thoughts/mindset and are very real.  A strong will to survive, abundant happiness and positive thinking go far in maintaining health and relieving stress – another killer.

Genuine Health

To have genuine health you must educate yourself in the areas of natural health and self improvement. Don’t fall for every fad or “miracle supplement” out there but filter it with common sense and more natural health information. There is a lot of good information out there and a lot of crap. A good all around natural health website to visit is Mercola.com. There are many good ones out there, some require subscriptions. I have 7 natural health subscriptions to various print and online information websites. For me, it has improved my health immensely and is well worth it. Read some books, go online and find some health secrets.

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Blocked arteries are not a death sentence or a life sentence to using heart drugs.  There are natural alternatives to expensive and dangerous drugs.  So called cholesterol drugs – statins are actually dangerous and rob your heart of vital coenzyme Q10 or CoQ10.  Coenzyme Q10 is necessary for cell energy and your heart needs lots of it.  Why would you take something that robs your heart of CoQ10?

Cholesterol is not the heart disease factor it is made out to be.  Inflammation, free radicals and fibrin are much bigger problems as far as blocked arteries goes.  Arteries are damaged by free radicals, cholesterol and fibrin are the body’s attempt to repair the artery.  It is when the cholesterol patch to the arterial wall is hardened by oxidizing from more free radicals or calcified by too much calcium in the blood and/or fibrin not dissolving after it’s short term patching function .   Calcium needs to be balanced with magnesium to be utilized effectively by the body and not combine with cholesterol.

Two natural alternatives to pharmaceuticals are nattokinase and serrapeptase.  These two enzymes dissolve fibrin and cholesterol, clearing the arterial wall throughout the body and brain.  Fibrin is used in the body as a short term patch – scabs are made of fibrin.  The problem is when the body’s natural process to remove the fibrin does not kick in, it builds up.

Nattokinase is a potent fibrinolytic enzyme extracted and highly purified from a traditional Japanese food called Natto, a fermented cheese-like food that has been used in Japan for over 1000 years for its popular taste, and as a folk remedy for heart and vascular diseases. Now, after many centuries in secrecy, nattokinase is finally available in America. Natto is produced by a fermentation process by adding Bacillus natto, a benefical bacteria, to boiled soybeans. The resulting nattokinase enzyme is produced when Bacillus natto acts on the soybeans. While other soy foods contain enzymes, it is only the natto preparation that contains the specific nattokinase enzyme.

By eating this powerful enzyme, the Japanese keep their blood vessels clear and free of dangerous blood clots. Plus, there’s an amazing side effect; because blood flows more freely through your arteries, less blood pressure is required. In fact, a blue ribbon study in Japan showed a 10.9% drop in systolic blood pressure and a 9.7% drop in diastolic blood pressure with nattokinase supplementation.

Doctor Hiroyuki Sumi discovered nattokinase in 1980 while working as a researcher and majoring in physiological chemistry at Chicago University Medical School. After testing over 173 natural foods as potential thrombolytic agents, Sumi found what he was looking for when Natto was dropped onto artificial thrombus (fibrin) in a Petri dish and allowed it to stand at approximately body temperature. The thrombus around the natto dissolved gradually and had completely dissolved within 18 hours.

Blood clots (or thrombi) form when strands of protein called fibrin accumulate in a blood vessel. In the heart, blood clots cause blockage of blood flow to muscle tissue. If blood flow is blocked, the oxygen supply to that tissue is cut off and it eventually dies. This can result in angina and heart attacks. Clots in chambers of the heart can mobilize to the brain. In the brain, blood clots also block blood and oxygen from reaching necessary areas, which can result in senility and/or stroke.

Doctor Hiroyuki Sumi had long researched thrombolytic enzymes searching for a natural agent that could successfully dissolve thrombus (fibrin) associated with blood clots associated with heart attacks and stroke. Sumi named the newly discovered enzyme “nattokinase”, which means “enzyme in natto”. Sumi commented that nattokinase showed “a potency matched by no other enzyme.” Since then, Nattokinase has been the subject of 17 studies.

It has recently been revealed that thrombotic clogging of the cerebral blood vessels may be a cause of dementia. It has been estimated that sixty percent of senile dementia patients in Japan is caused by thrombus. Thrombotic diseases typically include cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, cardiac infarction and angina pectoris, and also include diseases caused by blood vessels with lowered flexibility, including senile dementia and diabetes.

Don’t you think these inexpensive, natural alternatives make sense and are worth a try?  As always, you will need to check with your doctor if you are on pharmaceuticals for cholesterol, high blood pressure, blood thinners…

Dr. Wright is one of the doctors I follow.  I subscribe to his natural health newsletter.  Here is his general advice for dissolving blood clots (not patient specific – seek the advice of your doctor, unless he recommends a statin).

Dr. Wright: Presently, my recommendations for breaking up clots are:

• Nattokinase — two 138-milligram capsules every four hours to start. Then, as your condition improves, you can taper off to one capsule every four hours, eventually taking only one capsule three times daily.
• Fish oil — 1 tablespoon three times a day to start, tapering off to 1 tablespoon, twice daily after some progress is made. Eventually, you will be able to take a general maintenance dose of 1 1/2 tablespoonful daily.
• Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) — 400 IU, three times a day to start, tapering down to 600 IU daily.
• Vitamin C — 2 grams, three times daily to start, then taper down to 1 gram, three times daily. Vitamin C isn’t a “clotbuster” itself, but it should always be included when your body is under stress.

Also see: Reversing Heart Disease

PS – Also works on fibrin based joint pain.  Clear your blocked arteries and eliminate joint pain – nice bonus.

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What Are Enzymes?

Enzymes are energized protein molecules that carry the body’s life force. They are involved in every action and reaction that occurs in every single function and cell of the body. We cannot live without enzymes. If we suffer from enzyme deficiency, our health deteriorates. Degenerative diseases are a direct result of insufficient enzyme levels. All other nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and also hormones need enzymes to carry out their functions. Enzymes are the body’s labor force. The life energy of enzymes is what sets enzymes apart from all other nutrients.

Types of Enzymes

Enzymes fall into three basic catagories of enzymes:

1. Metabolic Enzymes – These reside in your body and their function is to build and repair cells and tissues. They are also a large part of our immune systems. Metabolic enzymes carry out the body’s work.

2. Food Enzymes – These enzymes reside in raw food (not cooked or processed). Food enzymes aid in the digestion and assimilation of the food’s nutrients. Heat of over 118 degrees fahrenheit will destroy live enzymes.

3. Digestive Enzymes – These enzymes assist in the breakdown of cooked (or dead) food. Cooked food has no live enzymes to assist in the breakdown of the dead food so the body must supply the enzymes. Digestive enzymes are limited in the body and if pushed beyond their reserves will borrow from the metabolic enzymes which sets the cycle for degenerative disease.

Diagram Human Digestive System

As you can see in the above diagram, The human digestive system is very complex. There are many parts with different functions that all contribute to the desired final result – complete digestion and absorbtion of the nutrients from the food we eat. With todays “modern” foods, it is obvious as to why we need to supplement with a digestive enzyme formula. This digestive system blend must contain at least, the 7 main digestive enzymes to ensure complete digestion and utilization of food nutrients. Without it, we are destined to suffer from digestive system problems.
Why Supplement with Digestive Enzymes?

If you eat cooked or processed food, you need additional digestive enzymes. Our bodies were not designed to eat dead food. The act of eating dead food places an additional workload on the body’s stores of digestive enzymes and after some time, will be required to “borrow” from the body’s metabolic enzymes. By depleting the metabolic enzymes, you are now setting yourself up for degenerative diseases.

There are only two animals on earth that suffer from degenerative disease and premature death – mankind and our pets. This is a direct result of our “dead food” diets and digestive enzyme deficiency. Aside from cooking food, irradiation, pasturization (which is cooking = dead milk), processing and chemical food additives all destroy enzymes. You can see why our bodies cannot keep up with their repair and rebuild functions.

It is estimated 65 million Americans suffer from digestive problems. Antacids, laxatives, fiber, prescription and over the counter medications are used to mask the real problem – insufficent digestive enzymes and incomplete digestion of food. These products alone fill an entire isle in the grocery and drug stores. Antacids are actually the worst thing you can take as far as digestion of food. It neutrilizes your stomach acid which is an essential part of the digestion process. Now the body has to work even harder “trying” to breakdown the food in the intestines (food is supposed to be mostly broken down before it hits your intestines). Incomplete digestion causes many ailments further down the line (intestines) and affects the entire body’s health.
Seven Digestive Enzymes and What They Aid

1. Protease (digests proteins): anxiety, low blood sugar, kidney problems, water retention; depressed immunity, bacterial and viral infections, cancer, appendicitis, bone problems such as: osteoporosis, arthritis, and bone spurs.
2. Amylase (digests carbohydrates): skin problems (rashes, hives, herpes, canker sores), liver and gallbladder disease.
3. Lipase (digests fats): high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure, chronic fatigue, spastic colon, and dizziness.
4. Cellulase (digests fiber): gas, bloating, acute food allergies, facial pain or paralysis, candidiasis (yeast infections).
5. Sucrase (digests sugars): lung problems, asthma, bronchitis, seizures, hyperactivity, mood swings, insomnia, depression, chronic diarrhea, and dizziness.
6. Lactase (digests dairy products): Relieve discomfort caused by lactose intolerance
7. Invertase (breaks down sugars): Splits sucrose into glucose and fructose – an acidic environment occurs without the action of Invertase.

In Europe, martial artists use enzymes to speed up recovery from injuries. On average, the recovery time is cut in half. An injury that would sideline an athlete for 2 weeks would now only take 1 week before they are healed! Enzymes are the “repairers” of the body. Enzymes taken on an empty stomach go straight to the blood to digest undigested food particles in the blood and tissues, repair tissues, attack parasites and more.

The best digestive enzymes (most potent and effective) I have found

Protease 120,000 HUT
Amylase 18,000 SKB
Bromelain 1,500,000 PU
Invertase 225 Sumner
Lipase 8,000 LU (800 FIP)
Cellulase 1050 CU
Lactase 225 ALU
Ionic Trace Minerals 20 mg

also see Reversing Heart Disease

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Natural Health and Wellness

Vital wellness – the goal of this natural health and wellness website is to make people aware of natural health alternatives to drugs (prescription and over the counter).  To assist in creating a healthy lifestyle using natural alternatives, stress relief and keeping closer to your body’s natural design. Our philosophy is – we only need to provide the body with what it requires and it will perform as it was divinely designed.  We cannot improve upon it’s design.  Vital wellness can be attained using this wellness resource site.

Why aren’t most people healthy?

Why does anyone need prescription drugs?  Are people suffering from drug deficiencies?  How did mankind get by without them for thousands of years?  Do you know the majority of drugs are based on natural substances?  Do you think man can out do God when it comes to providing healing solutions?  Why are there hundreds if not thousands of “conditions” “diseases” and “afflictions”?  Why are more and more people suffering from these “dis-eases”.  Why are these diseases and conditions not being addressed by modern medicine?  It is the result of the complete lack of nutrition in the majority of foods we eat, the toxic chemicals we are exposed to.

How I became interested in natural health and wellness
My father died at the age of 37 of a brain aneurysm.  I suffered for many years from excruciating headaches and was looking for answers   (I was extremely concerned).  I came across what I believe was a probable nutritional factor for my father’s aneurysm.  In the 1930′s, turkeys were dying prematurely at a rate of 50 percent from aneurysms.  Because farming was the major industry, the government went on an all out mission to solve this problem.  They discovered a copper deficiency in the diet of turkeys.  Just one trace mineral requirement in their diet.  From that point forward, they added copper to the turkey feed.  SIMPLE SOLUTION – the correlation to human aneurysms was never made! (or released to the public)  Obviously this is far from scientific proof, but this observation should open your eyes to the relationship of nutrition to health and wellness.

At the same time of the turkey study, it was stated as a known fact that America’s farmland soil was depleted of essential minerals for human health.  The farming methods used exhausted the mineral content of the soil, so farmers began adding N,P,K to the soil.  Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus.  While these 3 nutrients will make plants grow, the human required minerals are still missing!  If the soil is depleted, where do we get the required minerals for health?  Supplementation or organically growing your own fruits and vegetables and grazing crops while adding all the required minerals back into the soil in the amounts required and bio-actively available to the crops (very difficult and expensive) are the only ways.  Do you think the soil is better today than it was back in 1936?  Besides the lack of minerals, living micro-organisms and fulvic acids – the soil has been polluted from the air, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and dumping!

Modern day mega farms are still only adding N, P & K to the soil (and pesticides and herbicides).  The soil now is far worse off than it was back in 1936.  Only organic farmers are concerned with the condition and health of the soil.  To naturally treat or restore 1000 acres of topsoil would be a daunting task to say the least for a mega-farm.  A side benefit of the health conscious organic craze is the family farmer can compete once again, at least in the organic market if they choose.

Senate Document No. 264, 1936
Senator Duncan Fletcher, Democrat of Florida, asked that this article be put into the Congressional Record.  This senate document entry is based on the work of Dr. Charles Northen and specifically an article from Cosmopolitan Magazine back in 1936.  The following is the beginning of the article about Dr. Northen written by journalist Rex Beach:

Modern Miracle Men
DR. Charles Northen, Who Builds Health from the Ground Up
“This quiet, unballyhooed pioneer and genius in the field of nutrition, demonstrates that countless human ills stem from the fact that impoverished soil of America no longer provides plant foods with the mineral elements essential to human nourishment and Health!  To overcome this alarming condition, he doctors sick soils and, by seeming miracles, raises truly healthy and health-giving fruits and vegetables.”
By Rex Beach

Do you know that most of us today are suffering from certain dangerous diet deficiencies which cannot be remedied until the depleted soils from which our foods come are brought into proper mineral balance!  The alarming fact is that foods – fruits and vegetables and grains – now being raised on millions of acres of land that no longer contains enough of certain needed minerals, are starving us – no matter how much of them we eat!

This talk about minerals is novel and quite startling.  In fact, a realization of the importance of minerals in food is so new that the textbooks on nutritional dietetics contain very little about it.  Nevertheless, it is something that concerns all of us, and the further we delve into it the more startling it becomes.
The full article (print it out once displayed)

I don’t know about you, but this seems way ahead of what modern doctors are taught as far as nutrition.  If you can’t cut, radiate or drug the condition, it isn’t taught.  Why do heart attack victims in the emergency room receive intervenous magnesium?  Must be pretty important to heart health you think?  Why aren’t we taught these things from our health providers?  Must not be good for business, after all, this is disease management.  The money stops if we are cured, especially if the cure is not an overpriced pharmaceutical drug – where’s the profit? (ok, just a personal opinion rant there – sorry)

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