Are you as healthy as you would like to be???

[Kathe]

OK! I want to start a thread about getting healthy. You may be overweight, underweight or just plain not feeling as good as you can. I am going to post lots of great information on hormone health, nutrition, exercise, detox and more in this thread. If you are someone who is tired of feeling tired and you have a few (or more) pounds you'ld like to lose, join in here.

Since I turned 50 it seems much harder to stay healthy and at a good weight so it's time to really get serious about health and fitness.

I hope you all join with me on the quest to get as healthy as possible. Chime in and let me know you are "in".

I just picked up the new book by Suzanne Somers called Breakthrough. I picked it up at Sam's for $14.

In it she talks about 8 steps to wellness:

1. Bioidentical hormone replacement
2. Avoiding chemicals and detoxify your body
3. Take nutrition seriously
4. Create a healthy GI tract
5. Avoid pharmaceuticals unless absolutely necessary
6. Supplement your diet
7. Exercise regularly
8. Get proper sleep

I'm going to go through each one of these briefly over the next couple of days and do a check for yourself how you are doing on each of them.

I'm also making an appointment with a homeopathic doctor to do a full check on my hormone and nutrition levels to see what I'm missing for hormone balance and nutrients in my system.

Anyone who wants to jump on board with this let me know. We'll do it together!

[Kathe]

1. Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

Real bioidentical hormones are the backbone of breakthrough medicine, and any cutting-edge doctor will tell you that is where it starts. Doctors say they can't even begin to try to influence a patient on the next seven steps until they get the hormone issue on track.

This step explains all of the hormones, the different stages of hormone loss, and why replacing your lost hormones with bioidentical hormones is absolutely vital.

So many are "toughing it out" due to all of the negative publicity surrounding hormone replacement, which is always about synthetic hormones, not bioidentical hormones. Synthetic hormones are the harmful hormones that do not replicate what our bodies produce.

When you experience the joys of real hormone replacement, you will understand that replacing lost hormones reinstates your health and vitality, plus it gives you back your edge. Without hormones you can expect a slow but steady decline in you.

Minor Hormones:

Estrogen
Progesterone
Testosterone
Pregnenolone
DHEA
Melatonin
HGH - Human Growth Hormone

Major Hormones:

Thyroid
Adrenals
Cortisol
Insulin


These hormones regulate every single cell in your body. When one or more of them are "off" then your whole system is "off".

[Kathe]

2. Avoid chemicals and detoxify your body.

We truly are what we eat, and it has never before been as important. We are experiencing an environmental assault unlike anything human beings have ever known in the entire existence of mankind. Toxins are everywhere in our homes and offices, in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we consume.

We are able to control this exposure to some degree. We will never again be able to live an existence that is devoid of chemicals and toxins unless we move to the most remote part of the globe and eliminate all modern conveniences and technologies from our lives, and even then acid rain and chemical clouds would be passing overhead. But making simples changes in your lifestyle and diet will not only add up, it will create an internal environment predominantly made up of healthy cells rather than unhealthy cells; this ratio is key to beating the present un-avoidable environmental assault. Simple eat clean, real (organic if possible) food and try at all costs to avoid chemicals in the foods you consume. Eat at home more often so you know the exact quality of your food. Switch to clean, chemical free cosmetics (YAY Arbonne) and take steps to eliminate as many pollutants from your home as possible.

You don't have to do this cold turkey. Start with baby steps. It won't take long before the idea of eating chemically laden food will seem outrageous. Each doctor in this book stresses the need for detoxing patients through different modalities including:

homeopathics
energy medicine
intravenous treatments
chelation
cleansing diets (YAY Arbonne)
infrared (Formostar anyone?)
colonics
hyperbaric oxygen chambers

When you change the way you eat and the way you live your life, and switch your household cleaners to natural products, your health will get better. This is your choice to make, and it determines whether your health will soar or spiral downward. by making these simple changes, you will restore your energy and good health will become who you are.

[Kathe]

3. Take nutrition seriously

Nutrition goes hand in hand with good health. Seriously embracing the quality of the food you consume will save your life. Toxicity is no joke. Diet sodas are creating havoc with our health and our brains. According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, a renowned neuroscientist, "Young people are experiencing dementia and mental problems on a scale never before seen." Alzheimer's is epidemic and the most feared ofall possible conditions.

Autoimmune diseases, GI problems, cancers, mood control, and happiness are all seriously affected by the food we consume on a regular basis., Good, real, healthy food is delicious, and it does not mean you have to abandon wonderful flavors like olive oil, sea salt, butter, herbs, spices or flavorings; meals like roasted chicken, meat or fish; delectable vegetables flavored with olive oil and lemon, or sauteed in butter; potatoes of any kind, peppers, fresh garden salads; fruits like mangoes, papayas and all the berries you can consume. Eating correctly is a joy; each meal provides an opportunity not only for pleasure, but also a chance to build up and create an environment that will strengthen your body.

[Kathe]

4. Create a healthy GI tract.

Most everyone I know has trouble with their stomach - when I say "stomach" here, I am including everything from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract is called the second brain. It is vital for our overall good health to keep this beautiful, ingenious organ intact and working well.

Sadly, most of us rush through our meals, hardly tasting and rarely chewing properly We fill ourselves with chemical-laden foods; we overeat, abuse sugar, abuse alcohol, and expect to be well. Couple this with hormone imbalances, throw in cigarette smoking and pollution, and it's no wonder we are always holding our stomachs in agony.

When you follow the pathway of the GI tract, you will understand why chewing your food is the first change you can make toward wellness; then by also eliminating toxins, you will understand how you can turn your food into superfood, build up your body, build healthy cells, and keep malfunctioning cells at a minimum.

One you understand the function, importance and workings of your GI tract, you will have a new and profound respect for this ingenious body part. You cannot be healthy without a good working gut, yet it is the most abused part of our bodies.

[Kathe]

5. Avoid pharmaceuticals unless absolutely necessary.

Antiaging medicine, longevity medicine, alternative medicine, energy medicine, cutting-edge medicine, or what I refer to as breakthrough medicine, are all saying the samething - we are taking too many pharmaceutical drugs!

Please know that these doctors are not anti-pharmaceutical, nor am I. As I will state over and over in this book, when you need a pharmaceutical, it is a godsend - particularly for pain, infection, mental illness, and other conditions outside my scope of knowledge - but whenever you can treat a problem or a condition without pharmaceuticals, it is always the better and safer way.

This new shift in medicine is exciting; thse doctors are making patients well. They are healing; they are thinking outside the box and practicing the "art of medicine." Imagine cleaning out the arteries without statins. Imagine being able to restore hearing and to prevent the continued deterioration of macular degeneration, in many cases actually reversing the condition. Imagine healing the GI tract and eliminating the stomach problems that have plagued you all of your life. Imagine taking away pain without drugs, imagine sleeping nine hours a night without drugs, and imagine not having acid reflux. It goes on and on. Today's new medicine heals rather than manages, and eliminates this Band-Aid approach to which we have been accustomed.

Imagine the possibilities if you are willing to embrace change. Imagine not ending up in the sorry state so many people are now experiencing: drugged out of their existence, sick, crippled, and in nursing homes with dementia or Alzheimer's. This does not have to be your fate if you embrace the new breakthrough medicine that is available now and being practiced by Western-trained, highly credentialed doctors, all of whom collectively realized that the way they were approaching medicine (allopathically) was, in fact, not only no longer working but working against us. Today's new medicine is life changing and lifesaving.

[Kathe]

6. Supplement your diet.

Our food supply is horribly depleted and supplementation is more important than ever before. To get all the proper nutrients we need to build healthy cells, it is vital we supplement our already good diets. There are several new breakthrough supplements that have surfaced and are spoken about by the doctors in this book. Resveratrol is certainly discussed with extreme enthusiasm. There are other new and exciting supplements available such as turmeric, vitamin D3, zinc, niacin, rhodiola, cinnamon, and omega-3 fatty acids. The more antioxidants we can load up on the better. Supplementation is necessary to be truly well, even if you are eating only the best of foods.

(Arbonne has awesome nutritional supplements and omega-3 fatty acid supplements as well!)

[Kathe]

7. Exercise regularly.

We have all heard it over and over, and yet it mostly falls on deaf ears. I always take the example of a brand-new car left in the garage for weeks, just sitting there. Of course, when you finally go to start it up, the car will sputter and choke from lack of use. Our bodies are the same in that they require usage to operate correctly. Walking forty minutes a day is miraculous for the frame, and free weights stimulate bone growth and give beautiful definition to our muscles.

Choose something that you know you will stick with and make it an enjoyable activity, like taking a beautiful walk each day and deep breathing.

[Kathe]

8. Get proper sleep.

You cannot be healthy if you cannot sleep, and here is where hormones kick in. With imbalanced hormones sleep is impossible. I will explain in chapter 30 the medical value of sleeping and why chronic sleeplessness may lead to heart attack and weight gain. In order to be thin, you must sleep. In order to be happy, you must sleep; to be healthy, you must sleep; to be hormonally balanced, you must sleep.

Sleep is nature's way to restore health, yet most American adults get no more than five hours of sleep a night (if that). Inadequate sleep is a recipe for disaster. The good news is that you can retrain yourself to sleep again, but it won't happen until you replace missing hormones lost through the aging process, or if you have hormonal imbalance due to great stress (this pretty much includes everyone), or if you are consuming toxic chemicals.

[Kathe]

Interview between Dr. Russell Blaylock and Suzanne Somers.

SS: Thank you for your time, Dr. Blaylock. I know you are a neurosurgeon by profession but you've recently retired. Why?

RB: I decided to devote my time to neuroscience and general nutrition studies. I have a newsletter that I write on all different subjects. For instance, I write about diabetes and hormone problems and anything that has to do with human health. But my primary interests are excitotoxicity, brain function, and nutritional protection of the brain.

SS: I am quite familiar with your newsletter and eagerly wait for it to arrive each month. Explain excitotoxins.

RB: Excitotoxins are a special group of amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins that we call glutamate, aspartate, and cysteine. The food manufacturers add tons of these excitotoxins to foods of all kinds, including baby foods. The only reason glutamate and similar excitotoxins are added to foods is because they greatly enhance the taste of foods - they make foods taste scrumptious. For instance, MSG (monosocium glutamate) is a dangerous brain-toxic compound that should not be added to baby food, or any food. MSG is not the only taste-enhancing food additive known to cause damage to the nervous system.

There is a whole class of chemicals that can produce very similar damage. They all share one important property: When neurons are exposed to these substances, they become very "excited" and fire their impulses very rapidly until they reach a state of extreme exhaustion. Several hours later these neurons suddenly die, as if the cells were excited to death. As a result, neuroscientists have dubbed this class of chemicals "excitotoxins".

SS: I believe if the public really understood this they would never consume any food containing these harmful chemicals, yet when you walk through the grocery store, the labels speak. Food-additive chemicals are everywhere.

RB: That's why you and I are speaking. So much negative information had come out initially on MSG that they came up with yet another substance called hydrolyzed vegetable protein that contains three known excitotoxins and, in many cases, also has added MSG. This substance is even more dangerous than MSG. As soon as negative information gets out they always find another way to fool the public; now they are adding even more excitotoxins, but they are called caseinate, autolyzed yeast extract, beef or chicken broth, or natural flavoring.

Ironicaly, the government regulatory agencies allow food manufacturers to call these excitotoxin additives by any name they choose as long as the glutamate content is less than 99 percent pure.

Now, what if someone told you that a chemical added to food could cause brain damage in your children, and that this chemical could affect how your children's nervous systems formed during development so that in later years they may have learning or emotional difficulties how would you feel?

(NOTE from Kathe: are you angry yet? I am. That's why I'm sitting here typing all of this out for you.)

SS: I would feel betrayed. Explain the pathway.

RB: Glutamate is one of the many neurotransmitters in the brain - in fact it is the most common neurotransmitter in the brain. Neurotransmitters function by interacting with receptors on the neurons - sort of like plugging in an appliance into a wall socket. When the glutamate enters the receptor, it turns on the neuron, making it very excited. Because glutamates are so toxic outside the neurons, where they can interact with the receptors, the brain has a very elaborate system to keep these glutamate levels extremely low. Even SLIGHT elevations in glutamate levels outside the neurons can result in widespread damage.

Recently they've discovered that virtually every tissue in the body has glutamate receptors and that overactivation of these receptors can cause a wide variety of disorders, including diabetes, heart failure, atherosclerosis and lung damage - and even make cancers grow faster and spread throughout the body.

This is only a tiny taste of this interview. Please please go buy this book and read it and get it into the hands of everyone you love. It was only $14 at Sams club. I bought 4 of them last night to send to each of my older children along with a pack of Arbonne vitamins and omega-3's.

This information is critical for us and for our families. The more I read the more I realize that I know NOTHING. UGH! We have been duped!

And what really makes me mad on top of all of this is that these food companies can get away with this and we can't even say that tanning/sunlight is good for you. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kathe]

Here are some other bits and pieces from the interview:

- All the way back in 1957, glutamates were found to be toxic to the retina of the eye...destroy it.

- The infant and child's brain is four times more sensitive to the damaging effects of glutamate than an adult's. In addition, glutamate in excell alters the way the brain forms, because glutamate plays a major role in how neuron pathways develop.

- Aspartame is becoming a major addictive substance and the health effects are absolutely profound. It should never have been approved, and it was approved over the objections of some of the major neuroscientists and toxicologists who served on the board of the FDA. They recommended that it not be approved, but is was approved over their objections for monetary reasons.

- Studies show an increase in cancer incidence from doses of aspartame equivalnet to drinking diet sodas. ....showed a dramatic increase in leukemia and lymphoma and it was accumulative over time. Also increased breast cancer and brain cancers. We also know from previous studies that aspartame produces the very same brain damage that MSG does.

- ...aspartame ruins the immune system.

There is so much more in just this one interview. I can hardly stand it.

[Kathe]

So I went through some of the food in my cupboards and fridge. I truly thought we were eating healthy but almost everything had one or more of the ingredients I'm going to list below - some form of MSG. This is sickening. I have this bag of "All Natural" chicken breasts and it has it in it as well. We are really going to be making some changes and eating more from scratch food. I think I'm going to be cooking a lot on the weekends to be prepared for the week ahead. I am committed to getting rid of junk in our diets and getting healthy. I have an appointment on Oct 13th with a doctor who practices natural medicine so I'm excited about that and will report back on what he says.

I really recommend getting this book as it will show you why certain ingredients are bad for you, not just say don't eat them.

Here are some bad ingredients to watch out for. These all do harmful damage to the brain, which will then cause damage to our health.

-Natural flavoring
-Vegetable protein extract
-Aspartame
-MSG
-Monosodium glutamate
-Any glutamate
-Caseinate
-Autolyzed yeast extract
-Beef and/or Chicken broth
-Hydrolyzed protein
-Soy protein
-Soy isolates
-Soy protein concentrates
-Hydrolyzed vegetable protein