The Health Plus Letter
July 24, 2008 Vol. 6, No. 15
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher
http://www.1healthyworld.com
You can read all back issues of The Health Plus Letter at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine.
Table Of Contents
New This Issue
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Spiritual Health
Fibrinogen: A Threat To Your Heart
Self-Care Tips for Preventing and Managing Sciatica
Gardasil Update: Just As I Warned
Recommendations
Medical Freedom
Contact Information
New This Issue
Welcome to another issue of The Health Plus Letter. This week, I’m sharing an article on spiritual health that is taken from one of my books. In addition, you’ll also find an important article on fibrinogen, which can be far more dangerous than high cholesterol when it comes to heart attacks and strokes. You’ll also find self-care tips for dealing with sciatica, and an update on the Gardasil vaccine, which has proven to be just as dangerous as I warned my readers two years ago.
Be sure to also check out the websites and links I’ve recommended to learn about other things you can do to safeguard your health and find physicians who can assist you in doing so.
As always, please continue to send me your comments and suggestions. And please spread the word about The Health Plus Letter by passing it along to your friends and inviting them to subscribe.
Quote Of The Day
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
-- Zen saying
Fast Fact
Most people in the US and other Western nations fail to obtain 75 percent of the established recommended daily allowances (RDAs) for minerals, according to research conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Unabashed Plug
Protect Yourself From Energy Pollution With the BioElectric ShieldTM. Energy pollution is all around us in the fo/rm of harmful electromagnetic frequencies and radiation (EMFs and EMR) emitted by power lines, cells phones, computers, and many other so-called modern conveniences. By wearing the BioElectric Shield pendant, you can protect yourself from the harmful effects of EMFs and EMR. To obtain a BioElectricShield, visit http://www.mcssl.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=408491. To learn more about how and why the BioElectric Shield works, see my article about it at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine/vol4no9.cfm.
Spiritual Health
Spiritual health, while often the most overlooked aspect of healing, is actually the ultimate goal of holistic medicine, and leads to a heightened awareness of the Divine Spirit referred to by all religions. It isn't important what name you give it. What matters is that you come to know and attune yourself to its guidance in all areas of your daily life. Doing so will reduce your feelings of fear, and provide you with a greater capacity for loving yourself and others unconditionally. It will also help you reconnect to your special talents and gifts and use them to fulfill your life's purpose.
In addition to being consciously aware of the role Spirit plays in your life, being spiritually healthy also means being intimately connected to your spouse, partner, family, friends, and community, resulting in social health, as well. Spiritual and social health are interconnected, since it is through our committed relationships that we find the greatest opportunities for spiritual growth and for learning how to receive and impart unconditional love.
In addition to the observance of spiritual and religious traditions, working with spiritual counselors and support groups are common methods of creating spiritual and social health, as are the opportunities afforded us through our friendships, marriage, intimate relationships, and parenting. A variety of self-care approaches, including prayer, meditation, gratitude, and spending time within nature, can further deepen your awareness of yourself as a spiritual, socially-connected being, and are increasingly being recommended by conventional and holistic physicians alike.
Prayer is the most common type of spiritual practice performed by most Americans, and the majority of people who pray report a greater sense of well-being than those who don't. Harvard researcher and mind/body medicine expert Herbert Benson, M.D., author of The Relaxation Response, has found that regular prayer or the repetition of spiritual phrases such as "Shalom," or "Hail Mary," triggers relaxation and reduces stress.
There are many effective ways to pray, both for yourself and for others. Many people find great benefit using the prayers from their religious upbringing. Others make prayer a time of personal conversation with God, stating their need or concern and asking for divine intervention. Others find talking a walk in a place of natural beauty to be a type of prayerful worship. Simply taking the time to acknowledge all you have to be grateful for and giving thanks can be effective as well. Choose the type of prayer that feels most comfortable for you, and then establish a regular routine of repeating your prayers daily.
Meditation has been scientifically researched and proven to have physiological benefits for decades. Besides its physical benefits, which include stress-relief, improved immune and cardiovascular function, relaxation, and decreased pain, the regular practice of meditation can lead to new insights about life issues (often resulting in the healing of past emotional trauma), heightened creativity, inspiration, greater compassion for others, and a greater connection to one's own inner guidance.
There are a wide variety of meditative techniques to choose from and, as with prayer, choosing the one that you are most comfortable with will provide the greatest benefit. Meditation can be performed while sitting, lying down, or while walking or jogging. Some people also prefer singing or chanting a word or phrase that has spiritual significance to them. What all meditative techniques have in common is conscious breathing (see above) and a focus on what is happening in each present moment, until the mind becomes empty of thoughts, judgments, and past and future concerns.
A simple way to meditate is to sit comfortably erect with your eyes closed, while paying attention to your breathing. Observe yourself inhaling and exhaling, allowing whatever thoughts you have to pass you by. In the beginning of your practice, you will find your mind wandering. Each time this occurs, gently refocus on your breath. To improve your concentration, you can also silently repeat a word, or mantra, such as love, peace, or Jesus. Eventually, you will experience longer periods of silence between each thought, although it may take months before this occurs. Be patient and don't force matters. Try to sit for 10 to 20 minutes once or twice a day, but if you find yourself too distracted or pressed for time, end your session, instead of sitting restlessly. With commitment and consist practice, the benefits of meditation will become apparent to you, and you'll realize your efforts are well worth it.
Gratitude Dr. Robert Anderson describes gratitude as the Great Attitude. "Gratitude produces feelings of joy and self-acceptance, and is an attitude that anyone can choose to have, just as we can choose to see the glass half full or half empty" Dr. Anderson says. "Being grateful for what you have, instead of worrying about what you lack, enables you to let go of negative thoughts and attitudes more easily. This can be difficult at times, especially if you are feeling a great deal of fear or anger, but if you make the effort to release these painful emotions and choose to be grateful, instead, positive benefits can be achieved."
One method of cultivating feelings of gratitude is keeping a gratitude journal, which involves writing down in your journal or diary all the things that made you grateful during the day. A variation of this technique is to close your eyes before bed and mentally review your day, taking an inventory of all the things that happened for which they feel grateful, silently giving thanks for them. "By making gratitude a regular part of your daily experience, you set the stage for living more deeply connected to spirit, "Dr. Anderson says. "In the process, your life will be transformed into an increasingly joyous adventure."
Spending time in nature. The most visible manifestation of spirit is nature, where we most fully encounter and interact with life's primal energies in the forms of earth, water, fire, and air. Taking a walk in a park or hiking through the woods are easy and practical ways of reconnecting with nature and the earth, as are gardening, bike riding in the country, and camping and boating trips. By making it a habit to spend regular amounts of time outdoors within a natural setting, you enable yourself to better appreciate the rhythms of life, including your own. We need to recognize that cities and other industrialized areas can prevent us from living a life of balance. Spending time in nature helps restore that balance, while also deepening our connection with Spirit.
Spending time near the water can also be a spiritually healthy experience, due to water's higher concentration of negative ions, which can contribute to feelings of well-being. Swimming in the ocean, lakes, or rivers is a great way to benefit from this life-enhancing energy. Soaking in a mineral hot spring can provide therapeutic benefits for a variety of ailments, as well.
Exposure to fire around a campground or before a fireplace can also have health benefits, according to Leonard Orr, who has found that fire cleanses the bioenergy field of negative energies, and can be a powerful aid in curing physical disease. Orr recommends spending a few hours each day before fire for people who want to experience such benefits. Fire is also an important component of the vision quests undertaken by Native Americans to connect with the Great Spirit and discover their life purpose.
Of all nature's elements, perhaps the closest expression of Spirit is the air. Clean, fresh air is essential to health on all levels, and practicing conscious breathing as outlined above is a potent self-care method for restoring energy and making you more aware of the power of Spirit as it flows through you.
Regularly exposure to each of these four elements can help you become more conscious of how Spirit's loving intelligence sustains the world, while more deeply recognizing your place within it.
[This article is adapted from the book The American Holistic Medical Association Guide to Holistic Health by Larry Trivieri, Jr. (John Wiley & Sons, May, 2001)]
Unabashed Plug
Discover and Gain Control of Your Human Energy Field. Read Dr. Valerie Hunt’s Mind Mastery Meditations: A Workbook for the “Infinite Mind,” the empowering guide created by one of the world's foremost researchers into the human energy field, energy medicine, and the relationship between consciousness and health. Each of the meditations this eBook contains is designed to give you mastery of your mind and to empower you to discover the answers to why you are the way you are, your soul's needs, your unique talents and capacities, and your self-designed destiny. By practicing and mastering these meditations, you will become able to live your life with greater ease and success, speed your self-healing, and dramatically increase your ability to manifest your deepest goals. To order this life-changing guide, visit
http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Mind-Mastery-Book-Info.cfm.
Fibrinogen: A Threat To Your Heart
Most people are aware of obvious risk factors for heart disease such as high cholesterol, obesity, and smoking. However, there is an equally serious risk factor that is often ignored, even by many doctors. It's called fibrinogen.
Fibrinogen is a type of protein, and recently health researchers have discovered that when it is present in the blood in high levels, it can dramatically increase the risk of heart attack and other forms of heart disease. In addition, it can also multiply the risks of heart disease associated with other health hazards, such as those mentioned above. That's because high blood levels of fibrinogen can significantly increase the likelihood of blood clots and other types of damage to the cardiovascular system.
Like cholesterol, fibrinogen is a naturally occurring substance in the body that plays an essential role in your body's overall health. In the case of fibrinogen, it is necessary for normal blood clotting that occurs in the body, such as in response to wounds. But when fibrinogen levels become higher than normal, they can cause abnormal blood clots to form, thereby making heart attacks, stroke, and other types of heart disease more likely. Unfortunately, our modern lifestyle means that elevated fibrinogen levels is far more likely than it was for our ancestors, due to the fact that most people today live a sedentary life where exercise-which can help keep fibrinogen levels under control-is too often neglected. In addition, many of us do not eat healthily and are also overweight. Both of these factors also increase fibrinogen levels, as does smoking. The risk of elevated fibrinogen also increases as we grow older. That's because, even in healthy people, fibrinogen levels rise by an average of 25 mg/dl per decade.
Stress is another factor that can dramatically increase fibrinogen levels. This was conclusively demonstrated by a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The study involved nearly 900 adult males workers in Belgium whose health (specifically their blood levels of inflammation and infection) was evaluated in relation to their levels of job stress, job control, and social support. The researchers who conducted the study found that there was a direct correlation between higher job stress and a lack of job control and social support and elevated fibrinogen levels that could not be explained by more common heart disease risk factors such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure. In addition, the link between lack of job control and elevated fibrinogen levels remained significant after taking into consideration other variables such as age, occupation, use of cholesterol or blood pressure medication, smoking, and alcohol use.
In addition to blood clot formation, high fibrinogen levels can also lead to heart disease, including heart attack and stroke by increased platelet clumping and increased fibrin formation (fibrin is another blood protein). Blood clots form when platelets and red blood cells stick together. It is fibrin that causes them to stick together. Fibrin is formed at the site of a clot from circulating fibrinogen. As mentioned above, if a blood clot forms at the site of a wound (including a broken or cut blood vessel), this is a normal process that can even be life-saving. But blood clots that form inside a blood vessel in the absence of a wound are abnormal and can become life threatening, since it the clot can block a crucial heart or brain artery. High fibrinogen levels increase the risk of spontaneous and unhealthy blood clot formation, which in turn increases the risk of heart disease. This was further made clear in study of 2,116 men that found that those who had high LDL ("bad") cholesterol-but low fibrinogen levels-had only one-sixth the heart attack risk of men with high LDL and high fibrinogen levels.
What You Can Do To Control Fibrinogen
There are a number of steps you can take to control your fibrinogen levels and thereby reduce your risk of heart disease. The first step is to have your doctor determine your current fibrinogen blood level, something he or she can do using a simple blood test. Having your fibrinogen level checked is something you should do as part of your yearly physical exam.
To help reduce your fibrinogen level and then keep it under control, commit to a weekly exercise routine in which you exercise for 45 to 60 minutes at least three times a week. One of the easiest ways in which you can achieve this goal is to make it walking a part of your weekly exercise routine.
In addition, also commit to eating healthily. This includes eliminating all junk and processed foods from your diet, as well as all sugars and foods containing food additives and preservatives. Also avoid eating fried foods, and foods that contain hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats). Increase your intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, especially green leafy vegetables, and also eat more complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, beans and legumes. Limit your red meat intake, eating free-range poultry, lamb, and wild-caught fish instead. Also limit your alcohol intake to no more than one or two glasses of beer or red wine per day.
If you are overweight, work with your physician to shed unwanted pounds in a safe manner. If so smoke, seek help so that you can quit.
Most importantly, create a health partnership with your physician and other heath care providers so that together you can create an overall wellness program that not only reduces your fibrinogen levels and keeps them under control, but that also helps to ensure your good health on all levels.
Unabashed Plug
Learn the Truth about Heart Disease, Stroke and Hypertension. Most of what conventional medicine has to offer for treating these conditions is based on faulty and potentially dangerous assumptions. Discover the real causes behind these diseases and learn what you can do today to prevent and reverse them using safe and natural alternatives that have been scientifically proven to be effective. Read the critically-acclaimed eBook Burton Goldberg’s Definitive Guide to Heart Disease, featuring the contributions of Dr. Garry Gordon, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, and many other leading heart specialists. To order or to find out more about this potentially lifesaving guide, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Heart-Book-Info.cfm.
Self-Care Tips for Preventing and Managing Sciatica
Sciatica is characterized by pain that runs along the path of the sciatic nerve, usually traveling from the lower back and buttocks and the back, outer side of the leg, sometimes as far as the foot. Symptoms of sciatica include pain, burning, tingling, stabbing, and aching anywhere along the path of the sciatic nerve. In severe cases, the pain may be associated with weakness. Typically, sciatic symptoms are recurring unless the cause is found and treated.
What To Consider
Distinguishing between sciatic neuralgia and sciatic neuritis is essential for proper treatment. In cases of sciatic neuritis, the pain is due to inflammation of the nerve pathway, whereas in sciatic neuralgia the pain is usually caused by an irritation of the nerve due to disk, bone, and/or muscle dysfunction.
Sometimes chronic musculoskeletal pain may be due to low thyroid conditions, nutrient deficiencies, old injuries in associated joints that never healed completely or correctly, referred pain from problems in internal organs, and/or emotional stress.
Proper treatment of sciatic requires removing the cause of pressure on the sciatic nerve itself, along with abnormal stresses on the foot, knee, hip, and/or back that alter the walking gait and place additional strain on the corresponding muscles.
Note: Insufficient exercise and weak and/or tense, cramped muscles can create the imbalances that ultimately result in sciatica.
Self Care
Diet: Eat organic foods rich in thiamine (vitamin B1) and magnesium, since both nutrients act as natural muscle relaxants. Such foods include dark leafy green vegetables, yellow vegetables, whole grains, and raw seeds and nuts. Eliminate coffee and other caffeinated beverages, chocolate, and all sugars, and drink plenty of pure, filtered water.
Nutritional Supplementation: The following nutrients can help to ease sciatic pain: vitamin B complex, vitamin B1 (thiamine) vitamin B12, vitamin E. calcium, magnesium, and manganese sulfate.
Aromatherapy: Apply a cold press and/or lightly massage the sciatic region with the essential oils of chamomile, lavender, or birch.
Herbs: Mix equal parts of willow bark and St. John’s wort tincture and take half a teaspoonful three times a day. You can also massage the affected areas with warm St. John’s wort oil to help alleviate pain. Other useful herbs that can be taken as teas or tinctures to tone the sciatic nerve are black cohosh, chamomile, fenugreek, juniper berries, mugwort, parsley, rosemary, and skullcap.
Homeopathy: Useful homeopathic remedies include Colocynth, Viscum album, Lachesis, Rhus tox., Aconite, Arsen alb., Lycopodium, Mag phos., Ruta grav., and Atropa Belladonna (6X potency) for neuralgia.
Hydrotherapy: Soak in a bath with water at body temperature to which one cup of Epsom salt has been added.
Topical Treatment: Apply moist or dry heat to the affected area for one hour, four times a day.
Professional Care
If your symptoms persist despite the above measures, seek the help of a qualified health professional. The following professional care therapies have all been shown to be useful for treating sciatica: Acupressure, Acupuncture, Applied Kinesiology, Ayurveda, Bodywork, Chiropractic, Craniosacral Therapy, Detoxification Therapy (for sciatic neuritis), Energy Medicine (TENS, Light Beam Generator), Environmental Medicine, Enzyme Therapy, Magnetic Field Therapy, Massage Therapy, Naturopathic Medicine, Neural Therapy, Osteopathy, Qigong, Prolotherapy, Reflexology, Rolfing, and Traditioanl Chinese Medicine.
Note: The information above was adapted from Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, co-authored and edited by Larry Trivieri, Jr. (Celestial Arts, 2002).
Gardasil: Just As I Warned
Two years, pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck launched an aggressive ad campaign that continues to this day touting its vaccine Gardasil as a preventive for cervical cancer. Soon after Merck did so, I warned my readers that Merck’s claims were suspect and based on faulty science. More importantly, I also warned that the vaccine could cause serious side effects and even be fatal. Sadly, I was correct on all counts.
As of today, US federal health officials have more than 8000 cases of “adverse events” in girls and women who received the Gardasil vaccine, including 18 deaths. Despite this fact, Gardasil continues to be widely administered in the US and abroad, and according to documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), last year alone Merck earned $1.5 billion from Gardasil sales.
As of this writing, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken no action against Merck, nor has the agency even issued a warning about Gardasil. (Were any natural supplement to have shown such a record of adverse events, the FDA would most likely have quickly moved to banned it from the marketplace.)
Here are links to two investigate reports from the New York Post about the harm caused by Gardasil, including one that appeared this week. I doubt they will be the last.
http://tinyurl.com/6a5or2 and http://tinyurl.com/6ftuyp.
Recommendations
Websites and Links:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08205/898803-114.stm - I stopped using cell phones years ago because my body instinctively “didn’t like them.” Then I began to see evidence of the health risks they posed, especially cancer. Little of this information has been taken seriously in the US media. With the story at the link above, that may be about to change. (Be sure to also read the PDF links that you will find when you get to the article above.)
http://web.mac.com/rjwinn/Spirit_in_Motion/Home.html - Breathwork is one of the most powerful and easy to master self-care techniques I’ve ever encountered. At this link, breath expert Robert Winn provides three free breathing exercises you can use to heal and free up energy.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24070088-13762,00.html - Do extraterrestrials exist and have they been visiting Earth? According to Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the answer is yes.
Medical Freedom
Please contact and support the following organizations dedicated to protecting our health freedoms.
Citizens for Health - http://www.citizens.org
Alliance for Natural Health – http://www.alliance-natural-health.org (The leading organization fighting to preserve health f/r/e/edom in England and the EU.)
Institute for Health Freedom – http://www.ForHealthF/r/e/edom.org
International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF) – http://www.iahf.com
And to learn how corrupt and extensive Big Pharma’s monopoly is, visit http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html the website for the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research. In particular, read their in-depth report The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket that you will find there.
That’s all for this week.
Health and Blessings!
Larry Trivieri, Jr.
Contact Information: Due to the inordinate amount of spam my email account receives, I no longer use it to receive emails. To contact me, please visit www.1healthyworld.com/contactus
Disclaimer: The Health Plus Letter is a weekly eZine published by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and Library of Health, LLC (dba www.1healthyworld.com) 3 Greenwood Court, Utica, NY 13501. It is made available without charge for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.
The Health Plus Letter is fully compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.
Legal Notice: The information in this eZine may be freely and widely disseminated so long as full attribution is made as follows: The Health Plus Letter, July 24, 2008, Vol. 6, No. 15. Copyright © 2008 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.
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