These are the Controllable Coronary Artery Disease Contributing Factors. These are the factors that are under your control.
Raising awareness generally leads to positive gains.
•High blood pressure
•High blood cholesterol and triglycerides
•Cigarette smoke - Smokers have 2 to 4 times the risk of sudden death from a heart attack than non-smokers. Chronic exposure to second-hand smoke increases the risk of CAD.
•Obesity
•Physical inactivity
•Diet - A diet high in fats and carbohydrates increases the risk of CAD
•Diabetes
•Stress
Here’s the good News:
There are only three things that you have to keep track of in order to maintain heart health: On a scale of 1-10, rate yourself 1. Your Nutritional Intake - How well do I eat?_____
2. Movement or Exercise - Do I get sufficient exercise daily?_____
3. Mental Health and Attitude. Am I generally a positive and stable person? ______
As you read through this series you will find over many bullet points that are categorized under these 3 broad areas. You may not be able to follow or even agree with all points, but you can remember and hopefully agree to keep track these 3 broad categories. Raising awareness generally leads to positive gains. If you lift your standards even by a few points in each of these 3 areas, then your overall heart health will improve. On a scale of 1 - 10 rate yourself in these 3 areas. If you exercise a little then maybe you are a 3. If you exercise daily give yourself an 8 or a 9. After you rate yourself, then read through the email series to follow and see if any of the suggestions or tips can help you raise your rating within a week. Not every suggestion is applicable to each one, but it’s a discussion and we are always welcome to your ideas, so let us hear from you.
There are links scattered throughout that will take you to much longer articles that bolster the points. Study what you can and what interests you.
The Starting Point: Awareness.
It’s true that U.S. heart disease deaths overall are down. From 1993 to 2003, cardiovascular disease death rates dropped 22.1 percent.But more than 910,000 Americans still die of heart disease annually, according to the American Heart Association. And more than 70 million Americans live every day with some form of heart disease, which can include high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, angina (chest pain), heart attack and congenital heart defects. Heart Disease is still the number 1 killer in the USA. Heart Disease: That’s the bad news. The question is “Why?” “Some 7 million Americans suffer from coronary heart disease (CHD), the most common form of heart disease. This type of heart disease is caused by a narrowing of the coronary arteries that feed the heart.”CHD is the number one killer of both men and women in the U.S. Each year, more than 500,000 Americans die of heart attacks caused by CHD.” The above is true! The actual number of deaths comes much closer to 1,000,000 when you include heart disease, stroke and the related problems. While in Iceland, they hardly know the meaning of heart disease. Statistically, their incidence of heart disease is near nil. Let’s learn from those who have the results we want. This fact alone warrants that we take time to review some simple things that are just common sense. While this report may take a light-hearted attitude at times, know this is serious business. All the same, by making light of and not being serious all the time, we can win a lot of smaller battles in the great war for truth and honesty in health and life style issues. Ours is to approach problems the natural way and see if there is a nutritionally sound way of dealing with a problem rather than putting going for the symtom relieving pharmaceutical. This article doesn’t pretend to be medically underwritten or totally scientific or address acute health issues. While we in North America have the best acute health care system in the world, we are not in agreement with addressing symptoms without looking deeper into the root causes of problems and heart health issues: Root Causes:
•Junk nutrition
•Lack of exercise
•Stress (Poor Mental Health Discipline)
Good News: There is enough information here to give you 3 Magic Potions!
This is what we want to “sell” you on:
Good Nutrition
Good Exercise
Good Mental Discipline
The Goal: Keep Your Ticker Ticking for a very Long Time!
Pharmaceutical drugs are sometimes necessary and especially in emergency care can save lives. I personally believe all the hype you hear on the TV about pharmaceutical drugs, especially statins. Did you know Lipitor is the most profitable and best selling drug in history? I view those commercials are desensitizing and meant to scare you into unusual behavior like telling your doctor what to do. The bottom line is important in any business, but when the bottom line takes precedence over what’s best for the person, then we as individual need to be very involved in the decision making process.
Pay close attention to all their warnings and contraindications being read against the backdrop of smiling, happy people enjoying life without a care in the world; when it says it increases the chances of cancer or other diseases, I mute the volume
or change channels. As my New Yorker friends say, “Forget about it!” Let’s suffice it to say there may very well be holistic or alternative ways to deal with a health problem
and treating the symptom rather than the cause may not be the best way except in an emergency.
The Wellness Revolution is here to stay and we have the “new” neural network of the Internet to use for research and for finding alternatives. Here is a case in point excerpted from Independent Media: This article is being quoted for educational purposes not for any political leanings left or right or otherwise. Pharmaceutical Commercials - Off the Airwaves!
author: North Portlander Heavy television and radio advertising is expensive. Since our government now allows pharmaceutical companies to develop, purchase and air expensive commercials, guess who they pass the cost on to? And that’s something we don’t need when medications in the USA are already too expensive for many to afford.
Pharmaceutical ads . . . out of control. In the past, when they were banned from television and radio, the promotional campaigns of pharmaceutical companies were directed towards doctors and hospitals which makes sense. Consumers can’t buy this stuff off the shelf at the drugstore; it can only be purchased through prescription. That means that commercials push consumers to hound their medical providers for medications that may not only be inappropriate, but actually dangerous when compared to ways of healthy living (exercise, good nutrition, eating the proper amounts of food) which are often as effective in heading off problems. It’s not good for the consumer and it seeks to second-guess the medical profession.
One recent commercial is particularly annoying. Lipitor has recruited Dr. Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart to hawk its product. Jarvik lacks credibility for several reasons. First, his kind of science represents “last resort” medicine while Lipitor is supposed to head off high cholesterol and prevent heart attacks and heart disease (and that may be questionable; it has been proven to introduce other problems in some patients).
Secondly, Jarvik’s heart was not the roaring success it was cracked up to be. Twenty years ago when Barney Clark became the first recipient, he was never able to leave the hospital. He had to be kept on blood thinners to prevent clots and strokes and suffered from them anyway. He finally died of multiple organ failure.
Jarvik was forced from the company he worked withand retired from public view. He started another business with a more modest goal that did not involve the production of artificial hearts; rationale for development of the current product, the Jarvik 2000, a thumb-sized heart pump came, “. . . from the understanding that people want a normal life and just being alive is not good enough,” said Jarvik.
The commercials themselves contains some curious faux pas: The most recent one appears to take place in the sweeping futuristic lobby of a medical facility. But despite the fake signs and people walking around in lab coats, the location (as a blogger recently noted) is easily recognized as the new addition to The Brooklyn Museum of Art. The voiceover in both commercials hails Jarvik as “the inventor of the artificial heart.” He isn’t, however, and why he didn’t insist that this be corrected is unknown. More correctly, he invented the first permanently implantable artificial heart. Although the invention was called the Jarvik 7, it was developed with the aid of a partner, William J. Kolff. Paul Winchell first invented the artificial heart and donated it the University of Utah. Any improvements were probably based on Mr. Winchell’s original heart.
Finally, Jarvik says, “The average heart beats two billion times.” If the average heart beats 2 billion times and we assume an average heart beats at 72 pulses per minute then - according to the commercial - the average heart beats for only 52.9 years. The
last I heard, the life expectancy of an American was somewhere around 70. If a couple of commercials about a product can be so full of interesting errors, do you think it’s possible
that large multinational pharmaceutical companies just might lie to us about other things as well?(End of Article )
I just wonder at the medical-educational system and their reliance on pharmaceutical companies to underwrite and support it to the point that alternatives to invasive techniques are not brought to light. One of my doctor friends told me he had all of 12 hours of instruction in nutrition and 0 hours on prevention in his 8 years of medical studies. At one point he had to reject that traditional model and start his own
research in his chosen medical profession. He is now helping people to overcome toxic metals poisoning. In one study in which I participated 750 test results showed 55% of persons with serious toxicity, 40% with slight elevations and only 5% were in the safe zone.
Our bottom line is that it is okay to question doctors and make sure your health choices and decisions are well thought out, researched and that it is really your decision. Afterall, it’s your body and your health.
Back to the heart health issues, did you know there is a statin like and very effective herbal supplement that lowers cholesterol very rapidly? It’s called red rice yeast and it’s
the basis of the pharmaceutical statins but it’s non-toxic and there are no reports of side effects other than possible muscle cramping for which we always recommend CoQ10. Red rice yeast has been used in Chinese medicine for 6000 years. It’s $19.95 for a month’s supply. I don’t recommend it as a first course as we will discuss later, Omega-3s are the best protection from heart attacks, stroke, arrythmias, blood clotting, etc.
But for those that must lower cholesterol quickly this is an alternative method.
Here are Two Attitude Adjusters:
Find Out the Truth about cholesterol and heart disease by reading
Raising your awareness by itself will point you in the right direction. Next email - Part II - The Role of Mental Fitness in the Fight for Optimal heart health. Next we get you moving along the right path.
Recommended by Cardiovascular Surgeon, Dr. Frederic Vagnini, M.D., FACS
In a recent study published in the Lancet medical journal, 18,645 people were randomly assigned to receive omega-3 fatty acids every day, plus a statin (cholesterol reducing drug). Another group was given a statin alone.
After 4 1/2 years, the researchers found a 19% reduction in major coronary events including sudden cardiac death, among patients taking omega-3. Patients taking omega-3 also had 19% fewer non-fatal events—including non-fatal heart attack, unstable angina and coronary revascularization—than people taking statins alone.
The study shows that taking the omega-3 fatty acids with a statin can greatly reduce your chance for heart disease. Omega-3 is one of the most beneficial nutrients you can include in your diet. In addition to the cardiovascular benefits, omega-3 has also been found to help improve memory and brain function, reduce allergies, improve mood, reduce symptoms of PMS and improve skin and hair health.
Res-Q® 1250 Omega-3 supplement
It is almost impossible to obtain enough EPA and DHA from the foods you eat. That is why supplementing with omega-3 is so important to your health. Res-Q® 1250 is the purest, most potent, pharmaceutical grade omega-3 available. Manufactured under stringent guidelines, Res-Q® 1250 undergoes an extensive purification process to ensure that there is no trace of contaminants such as mercury.
“Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to be quite beneficial for triglyceride reduction, arrhythmias,irregular heartbeat and to help reduce the incidence of sudden cardiac death. I recommend Res-Q® 1250 to all of my patients who take medication to reduce their cholesterol.This product is great for everyone who is concerned about heart health.”
Editor’s Note: CoQ10 is another supplement that can offset some of the negative effects of statins. Statins reduce cholesterol production in the liver. But they also reduce the production of CoQ10 a catalyst needed by the body for production of energy in the muscles (including the heart muscle) CoQ10 is contained in Res-Q Cell Power.
Another important distinction to understand is that statin pharmaceutical drugs were “discovered” from studying a chinese herb called red rice yeast. This herb has been used for 6000 years in China. It is sold as a dietary supplement on our website for $19.95. We have a long list of clients who have successfully used red rice yeast to bring their total cholesterol down below 200 in a very short amount of time. We always recommend CoQ10 with red rice yeast. Red Rice Yeast.
Things we talked about:
-Omega-3s
-Mike Ciell, Unified Theory of Heart Disease
-Vitamin C, nature’s statin
-Move your body
I was reviewing my notes and came across the name of Mike Ciell, the pharmacologist and inventor I met at the Natural Supplements Trade show in October. He was the one who helped me to get a better handle on the whys and wherefores of Omega-3s. Well, in my notes there was a website that he posted an article on. I have borrowed the article and it’s well worth the read.
Did you know there were “other” theories of heart disease besides (lipid) cholesterol theory?
After reading this, I can tell you, you will want to be getting more than 60mgs of Vitamin C per day. (I am now taking 1200 mgs. 20X more than the recommeded dose. I am not trying to stave off scurvy, I have bad genes and this really helps. Mike calls it Nature’s statin.)
Oh, I signed up to run in a 5 mile race on December 15th in Baltimore. Everyone thinks its the Celtic Solstice celebration but really its my birthday and I figure I can run the 5 miler with the older crowd. Waddle, waddle, jog, jog, walk, breathe.
I have been doing the run/walk/run thing about 3.5 miles every other day. I am sure the momentum of 3000 people joining me on my birthday will carry me through. I will take plenty of Res-Q 1250 and Vitamin C that day, as I do every other day.
When I was 14 I ran the mile in 7 minutes. Who decided to make the mile so long that it now takes me 12 - 13 minutes? And that’s only the first mile. Jog, jog, jog. Ugh. But it feels really good when it’s over.
Take plenty of Omega-3s and Vitamin C every day. Shake that bottle of water before drinking it. The water molecules will thank you. Get up off the couch, park far away from the mall, walk a lot, jog a little. Breathe. Enjoy the season.
So I am glad I reviewed my notes. I will get in touch with Mike. I have some ideas for a new project that I want his help on.
Edit Your Life. Don’t accept a rough draft for publication. You are the Editor-in-Chief for your life. Life is freely given to all of us, but you can edit, modify or delete entire “scripts” out of your life. You can create, write and replace the old scripts with entirely new ones.
Here is a lifestyle tip that has helped me to be a lot happier, and healthier. It the era of 15 second sound bites and the overwhelming abundance of information available to us through television, radio, the Internet, the skill of editing, deleting and filtering out what is not wanted or desired is extremely important. Dare I say, vital?
To know what you should edit, delete and filter out of your life, you will need to know what it is you really want. If you aren’t sure of the results you are looking for then how will you ever know if you are getting them?
Write the Laundry List. Having a written list of what it is you really want is absolutely necessary for success but do you know how many people have written goals? 2%. Only two people out of every hundred will take the time to think about life and write. Then we wonder why 2% of the population control 60% of the wealth in the country! That’s a clue.
Of course, it’s not just about the money. Most lottery winners compound their problems by having access to large amounts of cash. Moral discipline lacking, most, not all, lottery winners tend toward excess, poor decisions, momentary pleasures and lack an expressed purpose in life.
This formula works: Thoughts lead to feelings; Feelings lead to actions; Actions lead to results. If you don’t like your results, you have complete editorial control to change your thoughts!
The Passion Test
There is a book by this name that you can order and read but the test is quite simple. Start with a notepad (or computer) and write the sentence, “In my ideal life, I________________
Then fill in the blank with a ‘to be’, ‘to do’, or ‘to have’ verb that pinpoints who you are and your desires in life. Do at least 10 or 15 of these sentences and you can keep doing them if you like the exercise. Mark Victor Hansen teaches you should have a list of 101 things you want to do before you expire.
It’s important to do at least 15 if you can because we are going to edit and mark the list with your top five. Here are my top five in this present moment but I do have the freedom to edit the list and change it at anytime.
In my ideal life, I give value to every person I meet. (This sets a context for every interaction I have with any human being and gives me the edge I want.)
In my ideal life, I weigh 165 and enjoy excellent health. (This safeguards me from pigging out and eating the wrong kinds of foods and fats.)
In my ideal life, I provide a great environment for my family. (This keeps me focused on my family goals.)
In my ideal life, I have excellent friends and business partners. (This reminds me to spend time with quality people)
In my ideal life, I earn twice as much as I spend. (This keeps me creative, actively engaged in doing more and doing better.)
If you have your top five selected, then this becomes your template for making critical decisions with your time, your relationships and your life. If any activity arises yet does not support one of your five top ideal life scenarios, you have permission to delete that activity from your life or edit and modify ’til it fits with your purpose.
Let me give you an example of editing my life. In the past month, I set my intention and made a commitment to let go of some weight. I didn’t say lose the weight. If I lose something, I may try to find it again! The reason (my “why”) was very base and instinctual. I wanted to increase my life insurance policy and I didn’t want to pay standard rates. I wanted preferred. Purely economic and by that I mean, purely monetary. Who wants to pay $400 a month when there is a $150 rate out there?
Of course the side effect of wanting to save money in this manner is that I learned a lot about my health habits and then there are more benefits to boot. It is true that all diets work and all diets fail. Guess who makes the difference? Point your thumb into your chest and say, “ME.”
It’s how big a reason and what is your “Why?” Why do you want this and how badly do you want this? Michael Jordan attended Laney High school in Wilmington, North Carolina, but as a 5-11 skinny sophomore, he was cut from the varsity basketball team. The summer before his junior year, he grew to 6-3 and began his path to super-stardom. Instead of giving up after failing to make the team, Jordan used it to spur himself to greater achievements, practicing hour after hour on the court.
“Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I’d close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it,” Jordan said, “and that usually got me going again.” It may not be that unusual for a high school sophomore to grow 4 inches in one summer but it was a manifestation of his extreme desire, of his competitiveness that caused him to work extremely hard and grow and make the team as a junior. He made the team and led his school to the state championship.
An interesting side note, Jordan was the one who introduced longer basketball shorts to the game as he always wore his North Carolina shorts under his NBA shorts. Others followed. How embarrassing is it to watch those games from the eighties see those tall, grown men in those skimpy shorts? Thank God for Michael Jordan and longer shorts!
Back to editing. I should edit my stories too. I had originally gotten down to 165 when I first started using Res-Q 1250. Over time, with holiday eating and a more sedentary life style (working at a computer replaced swinging a hammer), my weight had crept back up to 180. I am a mere 5′8″ so the Body Mass Index (BMI) charts that insurance companies use to determine a portion of your insurability pegged me as “overweight”. According to the Insurance companies, I should weigh between 125 and 164. This is normal range for my height. I am going to include a link to a BMI chart and calculator here with the disclaimer that I don’t think it is the only predictor of good health. I think if I weighed 125 at my age, the wind would knock me over. It’s a numbers game that insurance companies play. I want to win the game, that’s all.
All diets work and all diets fail. What ensures success is finding one that resonates, makes sense and works for you. I like the Isagenix program (see http://www.isamiracles.com/) because the nutritional products have made it easy for me to replace empty junk calories with nutritional calories. I have lost my gut in one month. I usually weigh in between 168 and 170 these days so about 5 more pounds to go. The interesting thing is that by curbing my intake and sticking to the replacement shakes, I found the innate intelligence of my body making some decisions for me.
For example, without realizing it, I stopped coffee. I just “forgot” to make it and after several days realized, I didn’t need it. No one said, “you must stop coffee” it just happened. And I can still drink a cup when I like but I am not dependent on it. Likewise, when I go grocery shopping, I spend much more time in the fruits and vegetable sections and avoid all the process foods altogether. That also happened “by itself.”
Really, losing weight has two parts. 1) Burning more calories than you consume. Add weight training to your exercise program brings a lot of benefit. Fat gets morphed into muscle. You will look better and feel better too. 2)Take in nutritional calories. It’s a no-brainer with a program like IsAgenix as the nutrition is already there for you and the cravings for the bad stuff disappears on its own. The Res-Q Trim system works too if you can exercise and follow the meal plans provided.
Who’s in Charge? There is only one person in charge and that is you. Choose your activities based on your “Ideal Life” list; choose your friends; choose your life; choose your health. Choose your habits. You are in charge, make no mistake about it. Congratulations on your new posting as Editor-in-Chief of your life. Don’t accept anything less.
Yesterday I attended the Health Products Expo in Baltimore and was amazed at the 1700 exhibitors and the 400 exhibitors in the New Products Pavilion. Paul Zane Pilsner was right in his assertion that the next wave of economic boom was going to be in the field of Wellness. Common everyday folks like you and me are going outside the box of traditional “pill for every ill” treatment, and being proactive in maintaining health through nutrition and exercise.
Due to technological advances, outsourcing and the world being so interconnected, inventors and marketers can leverage whatever they need to get to market quickly. Watching one of the presidential debates, it was stated that at the time of the creation of social security, life expentancy was a few months past retirement. We as a population are now living 15 years past retirement age.
The wellness revolution means that not only will those of us who pay attention to diet, exercise and nutrition will live even longer, we will be living a higher quality of life. Octarians are on the golf courses in record numbers and some of the doctors, scientists and inventors I met yesterday are helping to ensure that at age 100 we will be bicycling and rock climbing. I kid you not.
I had a chemistry lesson from a pharmacologist and inventor who wanted me to know in no uncertain terms that 1 gram of vitamin C a day (in any form - abscorbic acid in powder form costs pennies) along with sufficient quantities of Omega-3 oils, will indeed reverse plaque build up in the arteries.
There was a study in Italy among 1st heart attack survivors. One group was given a statin drug that starts with a Z as a treatment to prevent a second heart attack and the other group was given 1 gram of Vitamin C a day. Guess which group had a MUCH lower incidence of 2nd heart attacks? You guessed it. Vitamin C won hands down.
Drinking 5 cups of H2O (water, in laymen’s terms) reduces your risk of heart disease by 50%, so says a study of 7th day Adventist women over those who drank less water. Soda and coffee don’t count. If I can convince you to make one change over the next 90 days, drink more water.
Short List of Heart Health To Do’s:
1. Drink more water
2. Take more Omega-3s
3. Add more Vitamin C to your diet daily in fruit or supplement form.
You may ask, “how much vitamin C?” As much as you can while maintaining a regular soft bowel movement. Oh, did I mention that water and Vitamin C will cure constipation?
At some clinics, cancer patients are receiving 125 grams of Vitamin C through an IV (that’s 125,000 milligrams a day). Cancer cells see the vitamin C and see a glucose molecule and gobble it up. But the Vitamin C is a smart bomb and oxygenates the cancer cells and cancer cannot reproduce in the presence of oxygen.
These studies are out there but not in the mainstream. We are still in the evolution of the wellness revolution and this information has to be sought out, we are still looking under rocks and in caves to find the wise ones. But they are there. Be proactive, ask a lot of questions. Let me borrow a line from my pharmaceutical brothers, “Ask your doctor about Vitamin C.”
Be well, be encouraged, be happy, smile a lot, and keep breathing (mindfully)
Garey Simmons
PS I always intend to write short emails as your time is so valuable but once I start I forget about the off switch. Somebody, please remind me to share in the next email what I learned about HDL and LDL cholesterol, man oh man. If LDL cholesterol had a good lawyer big Pharma would be paying on a class action lawsuit. Ok, next time.
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right, I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘ Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas that ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘ Nam
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue… an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”
“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret, “Just tell us you love us, and never forget. To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone, To stand your own watch, no matter how long. For when we come home, either standing or dead, To know you remember we fought and we bled. Is payment enough, and with that we will trust, That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”
PLEASE, Would you do me the kind favor of sending this to as many people as you can? Some credit is due to our U.S. Service men and women for our being able to celebrate these festivities. Let’s try in this small way to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people stop and think of our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for us.
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC, Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq
“We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives, not looking for flaws, but for potential.” -Ellen Goodman
Walk one mile a day in 2008 and you will have walk 365 miles in 2008.
Give a $1 a day in charity you will have given $365 to charity by year’s end. That’s school books for about 25 kids in Africa or Ecuador. The choices are unlimited. (Why do our college textbooks cost $156 on average?)
Find a person a day to shakes hands with, give a hug to, or speak a word of encouragement to and you will have brightened the world at least 365 times. Life, light, laughter, love, a nice set of ‘L’ words.
Eat lunch with a new person once a week, you will have about 50 new deeper relationships by year’s end.
Add one new raw or organic food to your diet per month and you will have a whole new range of healthy choices in 2008.
Type the word GIFT in the coupon box on our check out page to receive $15 off your next order of $100 or more. http://optimalhealthRSQ.com
Pull up a chair and let me tell you a story. In October of 2006 I met Joe Theismann who was the Notre Dame Quarterback who threw for 526 yards in the pouring rain in 1970. He jokes that his name was pronounced THEEZMAN his whole life, but the president of Notre Dame thought he had a better chance to win the Heisman if his name rhymed. So he forever will be known as “Theismann rhymes with Heisman.” Joe went on to become a Hall of Fame Washington Redskin Quarterback, had a great career until in 1985 he met with Lawrence Taylor and another NY Giant who tackled him from opposite directions and sandwiched him breaking his fibula and tibia right there live on Monday Night Football for the nation to see. His career abruptly ended and a new life began.
In 2006, he spoke for 45 minutes to a group of vendors at the International Food and Dietary Supplements Trade Show. One of the main points he shared with this unlikely group of business men and women was about “WRITING DOWN YOUR GOALS.” It’s not-so-common knowledge that only 2% of the population actually take the time to write down their goals. And it’s almost laughable when you consider that 2% of the population controls 80% of the wealth in the country. Is there a connection? Hmmm? I will let you be the judge.
OK, so I am a bit late in sharing my goal setting philosophy but actually I purposely held off until now with the express purpose that maybe you have fallen off the wagon from your New Year’s Resolutions already. Is it true? How do I know this? From experience!
What you are going to read below is the Jack Canfield method of not just setting goals but attaining goals. Interested?
Before the process begins, consider these 7 areas to focus on in your life with your goals. This is my priority of ordering and you can mix up the order as you like, but for me money means nothing without health, therefore I moved that up to number one. Relationships are really important and maybe I will write about that in another article.
How to make it happen in 2008 and realize your goals:
If you do this process or some form of it, I guarantee that reaching your goals will seem almost effortless in comparison with efforts you may have made in years past without the real results.
The Process:
1) Reflect on these 7 areas of your life and identify 3 goals for each area. Set aside an hour one evening or one morning. It may be the most valuable hour of 2008. Note: each goal must be specific and include a date and time by when it will be completed.
2) Write these areas down on a piece of paper or type them into your computer so you can see all 21 of your goals.
Note: if you want to have more than 3 goals in a particular area, go for it. However, set for yourself to the number of goals you feel you can realistically attain. Do be comprehensive for yourself so you feel complete with each area.
3) When you have your 21 goals (or more), write each one down on a 3 x 5 index card. This is the critical piece right here. On the back of each card, write down an accompanying Visualization of how you will feel when you have completed this goal. Use feeling words such as “I am happily…” or “I’m enjoying…” If you get lazy and skip this part, your chances of success have just diminished.
Example: “I am enjoying going to the gym 3 nights a week.” “I am happy to get up for my 6:00AM cycle class.” “I really enjoy my outing each Sunday with my kids.” Use your mind to visualize these short sentences. Believe me this is the tipping point in making things happen.
When you have your index cards and priorities in place, review your index cards (”flip ‘em”) by reading the front goal and the associated visualization on the back once in the morning when you wake up and once again in the evening before you go to sleep.
For me, this process is a part of my “hour of power” in the morning and the last thing I do before I pray and go to sleep at night. This will keep your mind focused on what it is that you want to accomplish. It will heighten your awareness for opportunities to implement action to reach your goals and see your dreams turn into reality.
In 2007 this process created all kinds of good things for me and my family. I recommend it to you.
Advance Technique when you are ready to commit:
A) Go back to your list of written goals. Prioritize 3 goals from the 21+ goals as your focus for your intentions and attention. These goals should have activities around them every day. Ideally, identify 5 actions you can take for each of these each day to complete.
B) Again review the list of your written goals. Identify which one goal is your breakthrough goal for the year. This goal is a goal that will stretch you, that is not part of your normal routines, and one that you will have to work for.
This goal should have activity around it every day - and ideally 5 actions associated with it.
After Joe’s talk, I went up to the dais to greet him and I pulled out my visualization “map” I had in my pocket and shared it with him. He thanked me for sharing with him that you can write down your goals but you can also use pictures to point your mind in the right direction. Happy 2008!
Here is a story from San Francisco as retold by Cynthia Kersey. I googled the story and ascertained it’s true not a fable.
THE WHALE
If you read the front page story of The San Francisco Chronicle recently, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso and a line tugging in her mouth.
A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. A very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.
They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. Then she came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed gently around - she thanked them.
Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.
May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate … to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you. And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.
end of story from Cynthia
From WebMD
Boost Your Health With a Dose of Gratitude If you want to get healthier, give thanks.
By Elizabeth Heubeck, MA
WebMD Feature
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
What would happen if we extended the tradition of giving thanks, typically celebrated just once a year during the holiday season, throughout the entire year? Such gratitude would be rewarded with better health, say researchers.
No pill? No strict diet or exercise regimen? Can just a positive emotion such as gratitude guarantee better health? It may be a dramatic departure from what we’ve been taught about how to get healthier, but the connection between gratitude and health actually goes back a long way.
“Thousands of years of literature talk about the benefits of cultivating gratefulness as a virtue,” says University of California Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons. Throughout history, philosophers and religious leaders have extolled gratitude as a virtue integral to health and well-being. Now, through a recent movement called positive psychology, mental health professionals are taking a close look at how virtues such as gratitude can benefit our health. And they’re reaping some promising results.
Benefits of Gratitude
Grateful people — those who perceive gratitude as a permanent trait rather than a temporary state of mind — have an edge on the not-so-grateful when it comes to health, according to Emmons’ research on gratitude. “Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular physical examinations,” Emmons tells WebMD.
Stress Buster
It’s no secret that stress can make us sick, particularly when we can’t cope with it. It’s linked to several leading causes of death, including heart disease and cancer, and claims responsibility for up to 90% of all doctor visits. Gratitude, it turns out, can help us better manage stress. “Gratitude research is beginning to suggest that feelings of thankfulness have tremendous positive value in helping people cope with daily problems, especially stress,” Emmons says.
Immune Booster
Grateful people tend to be more optimistic, a characteristic that researchers say boosts the immune system. “There are some very interesting studies linking optimism to better immune function,” says Lisa Aspinwall, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Utah. In one, researchers comparing the immune systems of healthy, first-year law students under stress found that, by midterm, students characterized as optimistic (based on survey responses) maintained higher numbers of blood cells that protect the immune system, compared with their more pessimistic classmates.
Optimism also has a positive health impact on people with compromised health. In separate studies, patients confronting AIDS, as well as those preparing to undergo surgery, had better health outcomes when they maintained attitudes of optimism.
Gratitude in the Face of Loss
Even in the face of tremendous loss or tragedy, it’s possible to feel gratitude. In fact, adversity can boost gratitude, recent findings show. In a web-based survey tracking the personal strengths of more than 3,000 American respondents, researchers noted an immediate surge in feelings of gratitude after Sept. 11, 2001.
Why would such a tragic event provoke gratitude, and what is its impact? Christopher Peterson, PhD, the University of Michigan psychologist who posted the survey, attributes this surge in gratitude among Americans post 9/11 to a sense of increased belonging. These feelings offered more than community building. Gratitude in the aftermath of 9/11 helped buffer people against the negative effects of stress, making them less likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, explains Emmons.
Who Feels Gratitude?
How is it that some people manage to feel grateful in the face of challenging life circumstances, while others sink into despair? “So much of gratitude is about one’s perspective and framework for looking at the world and at self. People who tend to be more mindful of the benefits they’ve received tend to focus their attention outward,” Emmons explains.
You don’t need to have a lot to be mindful of what you’ve got, according to Edward Diener, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, who has studied extensively life satisfaction of people from various cultures. He found that people in India living in poverty report low levels of life satisfaction. However, a high percentage of people in affluent Japan do, too. Diener suggests that an emphasis on materialism is to blame.
Who, then, has a high level of life satisfaction, if not the very poor or the very rich? The middle class do, according to Diener’s findings — particularly those who have risen from poverty. Moreover, he reports that the people of Ireland, a country boasting a “count your blessings” culture, report high levels of life satisfaction. As for a group of multimillionaires from the Forbes 400 list? They weren’t much happier than the average suburbanite.
Cultivating Gratitude
Income level is by no means the only measure of satisfaction with one’s lot in life. “There tends to be higher levels of optimism among people who have faced losses early in life, suggesting that adversity can promote personal growth over time,” Aspinwall tells WebMD. But you don’t have to wait for a tragedy to grow your feelings of gratitude. You can start today. Here’s how:
Maintain a gratitude journal. Emmons’ research showed that people who keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercise more regularly, report fewer physical symptoms, feel better about their lives as a whole, and maintain greater optimism about the future.
Create a list of benefits in your life and ask yourself, “To what extent do I take these for granted?” Some people need such concrete visual reminders to maintain mindfulness of their gratitude, explains Emmons.
Talk to yourself in a creative, optimistic, and appreciate manner, suggests Sam Quick, PhD, of the University of Kentucky. This could entail simply reflecting on things for which you’re grateful or, if you’re facing a challenging situation, seeing how it can ultimately be beneficial. For instance, having to cope with particularly difficult people in your job or neighborhood can improve your patience and understanding.
Reframe a situation by looking at it with a different, more positive attitude, offers Quick. He provides this example: Rather than seeing his 6-year-old daughter as cranky, irritable, and troublesome, a father might reach the conclusion that the youngster is tired and needs rest.
Not convinced these simple gratitude-enhancing strategies can improve your overall health and well-being? “Try it out for yourself. What’s the alternative? I think gratitude is the best approach to life,” Emmons says.
Published Nov. 8, 2004.
Medically updated Jan. 11, 2006.
SOURCES: Robert Emmons, PhD, psychology professor and researcher, University of California, Davis. Christopher Peterson, PhD, University of Michigan psychologist. Lisa Aspinwall, PhD, psychology professor, University of Utah. Edward Diener, PhD, psychology professor, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Sam Quick, PhD, human development & family relations specialist, University of Kentucky.
end of WebMD article
There is a whole lot more to this subject as to why this is so. We won’t have space to go into the “energy” and vibrations of gratitude and what it does molecularly, but suffice it to say, it’s free. It costs nothing but a shift in consciousness to express gratitude, which can only bring benefits to your mind, heart and health.
Dr Emoto in Japan has done extensive work with water and studying the effects of music and environment on water. Apparently information from the environment is stored in the water molecules which form crystals. The crystals seem to reflect beauty and harmonious sounds or conversely discordant noise generates disjointed shapes.
So by choosing to live in an environment of gratitude, love and peace, your body (70% water by the way ) will respond with beautiful vibrant, radiant health. It’s why I practice yoga and why cardiologists across the country are prescribing yoga for post op recovery!
More to come….
Let the people around you know how thankful you are…
I will close this long email with yet one more story. We were at a seminar this past weekend and some of the processes involved writing out sentences with our non-dominant hand. It’s not easy to write with the left hand when you are right handed. Some people complained. Tony, a participant, was called up on stage. He had a really hard time doing the exercises. He had an excuse. He had no left hand at all! Of his own volition he had the staff duct tape a pen to his stub and completed the exercises with elegance! There are no excuses.
Health and Gratitude go hand in hand. Be the healthiest you can be with body, mind and spirit. Visit our website for the highest quality products on earth. www.optimalhealthrsq.com
I am going to be blunt here. I have been studying Omega-3s, heart disease, cholesterol and statins for 2 years now. I am not a doctor, not a scientist, and I got a ‘C’ in high school chemistry. I am more than likely just like you - a laymen in this field. And I am going to throw down the gauntlet: Don’t believe a word I say.
I want you to start asking questions. Yep, just like all the commericials on the TV say, “Ask your doctor about…” But here is the question I have been asking for 2 years and finally, finally am beginning to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s about this cholesterol doctrine or dogma, the action of Omega-3s on cholesterol, etc. It is certainly not what you see on the television. So last week I am at a trade show with all the new health products and I run into a gentleman, a pharmacologist, who is also an inventor of nutraceutical supplements. After one hour of being schooled, I have some possible answers. You don’t have to believe it, you don’t have to accept it. After all, you have had 15 years of indoctrination from TV and that is a lot to overcome after reading this short article.
We say there are two kinds of cholesterol HDL and LDL.
HDL equals “Good” and LDL equals “Bad”. The simplicity of modern medicine!
In actual fact there is only one kind of cholesterol and it’s all GOOD. It is called cholesterol. The transport mechanism is Lipid Proteins. Cholesterol being a fat needs a vehicle to travel in through water based bloodstream. The High Density Protein transporter, called Good, is the vehicle that is on a mono rail heading straight to the liver to be pump out or expressed out of the body. We call that Good. HDL has other functions enroute like gobbling up LDL cholesterol that may be hanging around and no longer being needed .
Low Density Lipid Proteins on the other hand, have another function. They don’t go to the liver, they go everywhere else …hence we say “Bad”. The unexplained mystery is that these LDL Bad, nasty vehicles carrying the very same cholesterol actually are there for a reason. Cholesterol is basic to human make up and function. There are too many functions to list in this short article but suffice it to say that it is needed in many parts of the body including the brain where neurotransmitters need to be insulated and coated just like the electrical wiring in your home. This is one entirely needed function of cholesterol. So if you don’t get that cholesterol to your brain by the LDL transporters, you begin to develop degenerative problems.
Now, too much of anything can be a bad thing and the fact that LDL gets really out of whack, the body is telling us something. If the LDL in ratio is abnormally high compared to HDL, this is a sign that there are stressors in the body. The body is ordering up the LDL to deal with some serious problems. High blood pressure, hyper tension, high blood sugar, cigarette smoke and other life style issues that we actually have control over. Could it be the LDL is being manufacturered because of a deficiency in Omega-3s?
Let’s use a simple analogy. I get sick. I have a fever. It’s 102 degrees and I feel bad. Is the fever the cause of my sickness or is it a sign, a signal that something is wrong? Do I just treat the fever? Aspirin may make me feel better, but is it curing my illness? Or is the chicken soup (nourishment) actually helping me to overcome whatever ailment is dragging on me? Or ask the next question, why do I have a fever? So with high LDL cholesterol. It begs another question. Why is my LDL high? Instead of settling for a statin to lower the cholesterol (the symptom) unnaturally, why not look a little bit further and find out why the body feels it needs the extra cholesterol to help body function because of the life style stressor? Again, I ask could it be that a deficiency in Omega-3s could be part of the answer?
My contention is that both types of cholesterol are needed. By ingesting lots of Omega-3s, we are actually adding another fat to the body that will make the blood platelettes silkly smooth because this fat has the proper electrical charge to keep the blood from being clumpy. We are providing healthy fats so that the body doesn’t have to restock on LDLs quite as often. People who take a large amount of Omega-3s find that their ratios of HDL and LDL get better even if total cholesterol takes awhile to level out.
Work with your body. Use natural solutions through nutrition. If the situation is acute then by all means use the pharmaceutical products to save life where necessary, but remember its a marathon not a sprint. Those who have been on statins for years find out that their liver functions are impaired and other side effects present themselves. Some doctors are worried about the overprescribing of statins and their long term side effects. One doctor I heard on radio said that this one action of over zealous prescribing of statins might crash our whole health care system in the future.
This is why respected doctors like Dr. Mercola and Dr. Russell Blaylock decry the myth of cholesterol, tell people to avoid statin drugs and beg people to convert to high potency Omega-3s. Not regular fish oil that can be tainted with mercury, but high powered Omega-3s that are molecularly distilled several times to reduce any risk of mercury. Res-Q 1250 is the highest potency product available in the world today and always tests below 1 ppm (1 part per million) making it absolutely safe for human consumption.
It’s extremely difficult to change a mindset that has been conditioned for many years. I only ask you to consider this viewpoint as silly as it may seem.
To your health,
Garey Simmons
PS. Statins inhibit cholesterol being produced in the liver but it also inhibits CoQ10, a catalyst in muscle energy production. This is why you feel tired and fatigued on statins. The heart is a muscle. So here we are medicating for lowering of cholesterol because of fears over heart disease but the medicine is actually robbing the heart of needed energy to pump blood. Go figure! Take lots of Res-Q 1250, you’ve feel better and be better, my humble opinion.
