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500 Word Project – Day 234
2:53 p.m. 22AUG14
I listened/watched several teleseminars over the past two days. One that caught my particular interest addressed autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases are those in which our own bodies attack ourselves. Graves, arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis are just a few of the diseases classified as autoimmune diseases.
My niche in the health and wellness field is ‘cause and effect’ – what causes something to occur. If you treat symptoms, you will always treat symptoms – they are not the cause of the problem. You must treat the cause of something to get rid of the problem. Not all problems can be treated. Not all causes are known.
However, with autoimmune disease there is mounting evidence that there are multiple causes that influence the ability of your immune system to operate optimally. Your immune system is the number one key to your health and survival. Keep you immune system fully charged and you will generally be the healthiest person you know.
What negatively affects your immune system? Toxins, allergens, infections, poor diet, stress and inflammation. Each one of those causes can be eliminated. Eighty percent of your immune system is contained in your gut. Start with the food you eat on a daily basis. Remove all allergens (even if you are not allergic to something – you might be sensitive enough to start a reaction in your body (low level chronic inflammation) that is difficult to diagnose.
Eat clean whole foods – nothing from boxes, cans, jars, etc. Drink clean filtered water. Ensure that the foods you choose do not have hidden pesticides, hormones, fillers, etc. I buy milk, butter, cheese, meats that are organic and free of the common toxins most other processed foods contain. I also eat a lot less of these foods than I did decades ago. Fewer calories combined with balanced nutrition work in your favor to reduce disease, and to actually make you look younger and live longer.
Ensure that you are getting adequate amounts of probitics and prebiotics to keep you digestive track balanced. Eat the kinds of foods that help your body detoxify itself. An occasional fast helps your digestive system to relax and recover. The standard American mantra is to eat five or six meals a day. I don’t support that standard. I suggest that you eat when you are hungry, not because it is ‘time’ to eat.
Eastern medicine tells us that breakfast is not the most important meal of the day – lunch is. In fact, Eastern medicine tells us that we don’t even have to eat breakfast if we aren’t hungry. The extra fast is good for us. However, that being said, when you awaken in the morning, you should be drinking lots of water to replace the fluids lost through respiration and elimination.
According the Donna Jackson Nakazawa’s book, Autoimmune Epidemic, toxins are the number one cause of autoimmune disease. Think about it for a minute. Do you have any idea how many toxins enter your body each day? Some you control and some you don’t. You can’t control the exhaust you breathe when walking outside. However, you can control the other types of toxins that are attacking your immune system.
If you eat and drink clean, healthy foods/beverages, then your next attack should be on the chemicals you put on your body every day – lotions, shampoo, conditioners, deodorant. With the nano-technology today, the toxins contained in personal care products enter your blood stream with extreme ease. Toxins affect different organs in different ways. Toxic chemicals are generally fat soluble, which means that if they are not eliminated right away, they will be stored in your fat cells.
Stress is the genesis of 80+% of doctors’ visits. Stress accumulates daily and is not removed from your body unless you do something to remove it. It is insidious because many of us don’t feel lower levels of stress; however, it builds and builds and builds daily. You should be fully engaged – daily – in multiple types of stress management. Exercise is good in both stress management and for reoxygenating your body. Oxygen in your blood stream is your first line of defense again viruses, bacteria and fungi.
Very few of us know how to breathe properly. The two to three percent of the population who breathe properly are never sick a day in their lives. Take a deep breath and hold it for a second. Slowly exhale and begin counting out loud in a whisper as fast as you can from one to as high as you can count on that one breath of air you took. The vast majority of people cannot count to one hundred on one breath of air. The ‘good’ breathers can easily count to one hundred fifty or much higher.
Meditation is beneficial in many ways – it calms your body and mind – helps you look younger and reduces stress. I strongly recommend EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) for daily relaxation and stress relief. Go to YouTube and type in EFT and Stress, or EFT and Relaxation. Watch three or four EFT videos to get an idea of how to do it. Follow along with the video and begin a daily eight to ten-minute EFT program daily. In two weeks you will see and feel differently.
One organ we don’t think about detoxifying is our brain – not the physical brain (which also needs detoxification), but our subconscious minds. Every thought you have produces a chemical in your body. If you are constantly focusing on the negative, you are generating chemicals in your body that are harmful. Turn off the spigot of self-generating bad chemicals and turn on the positive thoughts and generate helpful chemicals for your body.
I tell people often to not allow any person or event to control their emotions. Why allow someone to control your life? It’s difficult, but if you want good health, then you need to give up allowing other people to control your thoughts. I suggest smiling whenever a person or event is creating stress in your life – that car in front of you that didn’t move when the light turned greed – that person in front of you talking on the phone loud enough for everyone within 50 feet to hear – you get the picture – something happens, smile.
You cannot have a positive and negative thought in your subconscious mind at the same time. By smiling, you are forcing a pleasant, happy, positive thought backwards into your subconscious mind. Try it and see – smile and see how your mood, your body feels.
1096 words 3:27 p.m.