Thursday, December 20, 2007

The Ten Commandments for Good Health

It has been on my mind for some time that everyone sort of skips over the really basic medical pricipals and instead they concentrate on the more subtle aspects of Good Health. As a result, many people have totally missed the fundamental prerequisites of a normal healthy body. Here I attempt to enumerate them and expand on their critical uses. I am shooting for a sort of "Ten Commandments to a normal Healthy Life".

Number One has to be "Thou Shalt stimulate your body".

1.) Good circulation is essential to many functions of the human body, and the simplest and most important way to increase circulation is through stimulation of the various body parts. Perhaps the most important organs to stimulate are the heart itself and the lungs. Getting them to work properly will increase circulation and it's healing oxygen to the rest of your body. The lungs, of course are most easily stimulated through deep breathing. Anytime you exert yourself, you automatically go into deep breathing. This is something of a given and a daily regimen of excercise will accomplish the goal, however, one should concentrate on filling the lungs completely full, as full as you can stretch them and exhaling completely to the point where you can not further deflate them. This guarantees that the deepest recesses of the lungs will be excercised and purged.

The heart needs a little more specific attention. We need 20 to 60 minutes of continuous excercise each day or at least three days per week, to raise the heart-rate to a Target Level and hold it there for a specified period of time. Each person must discover his/her own Target Heart Rate. To do this, you must first discover your normal Resting Heart Rate. Check your pulse first thing in the morning before you have exerted yourself significantly. Do this several days in a row to get a good average RHR. Secondly, we turn to a simple formula to determine the Low end of your THR. Start with 220 and subtract your age. Next subtract your RHR. If you are 35 years old with an RHR of 60, you will have 125. Multiply this number by 50% and add the RHR back into the result. What we are doing here is increasing our goal heart rate by 50%. The result in this case would be 123 beats per minute. Now if you do your excercise at a gym, you simply get on a machine that monitors your heart rate, watch the monitor until your minimum is reached and stay on for the specified period of time. Watch carefully to see that you do not exceed your maximum. Use the same formula to discover your Maximum Heart Rate with 85% instead of the 50% used for Minimum. In this example the MHR is 166 Beats Per Minute. If you want to do these excercises jogging around the neighborhood, buy yourself a heart rate monitor that you can strap on your wrist and take with you. You can easily start at a lower pace (50 to 60% for example), and work yourself up to the maximum (75 to 85%), once you get in better shape. One of the best ways to get a varied regimen is to join a gym and use their machines. Paying the monthly fees will keep you going on a regular basis, (Got to get your money's worth) and the machines can be easily adjusted to fit your goals and comfort zone. A simple Treadmill with adjustable elevation works very well. Adjust the elevation as steep as it will go and run the speed up as high as you can so you are exerting maximum effort. When you reach your MHR, quickly reduce elevation to zero and take a break while you puff away and watch your Heart Rate drop again to the Minimum and then gradually increase again. Try to get to where you can keep this up for an hour, or better yet, three separate machines for 20 minutes each. Then go sit in the sauna for an additional 20 minutes before showering down.

This type of excercise regimen will pretty well accomplish the goal of increasing your circulation to an acceptable level, which will positively affect the health of most of your organs, however some areas need a little more specific treatment.

When I was a young man, I was having painful urination and by consulting my Physician, I discovered I had Prostatitis. Naturally, he prescribed me the usual antibiotic of the day, but along with that, he recommendad stimulation of the prostate. He accomplished this in the one visit I had at his office by a method that was pretty uncomfortable to me, but showed me how to do that on my own at home, sitting on the side of the bath-tub. Without going into a great deal of explanation here, suffice it to say that a lot of homosexuals the world around and for many centuries have known the various gratifications of stimulating the prostate in this manner. Since this is sort of a controversial subject, many people avoid adding this to a regular Health Regimen. Unfortunately, as a result, many men suffer needlessly with prostatitis and eventual prostate cancer. It is not necessary to use such severe tactics to stimulate the prostate. Normal heterosexual activity will also stimulate the prostate to some extent and a healthy sexual appetite will keep the prostate healthy for many years. If it becomes too difficult to pursue normal sexual activities, even masturbation will accomplish the same result. Let me reiterate, it is FUNDAMENTAL to a normal healthy male body that he must find a way to stimulate his prostate until the day he dies.

The prostate is perhaps the most difficult area of the body to stimulate, however all organs need stimulation to increase circulation, if you expect that body part to remain healthy, and most areas are simpler to stimulate. Everyone realizes the medical value of a good shower every morning. Use this shower as an excuse to stimulate your skin. Every inch of your skin. When you apply shampoo, scrub your scalp vigorously with your fingertips. Scrubbing your scalp is far more beneficial than whatever shampoo you are using. Scrubbing your gums with the toothbrush is far more beneficial than whatever tooth-paste your Dentist recommends. Don't be misled. Getting the particles of food from between your teeth is secondary to gum and tooth health. The primary gain is from stimulation of the gums. Whatever toothpaste you choose almost invariaby contains sugar, which is the worst enemy your tooth enamel has. Your dentist wants you back on a regular basis. Don't expect him to be too helpful in getting you to where you don't need to go there. In like manner, shaving is a considerable stimulator of your face. Do so daily, and it would not be a bad idea to shave your entire head and everywhere hair grows. Remember, it is not the fact of having bald skin, it is the stimulation of the skin that is the goal. Using a whirl pool style bath tub is another way to stimulate your entire body while taking your daily bath. Using a vibrator style foot bath on a daily basis will make your feet much healthier and happy feet will make your entire life that much easier. Sit yourself right down on the side of the tub when you shower and work for a few minutes on your toes and feet. Scrub them and rub them and work on those callouses. Our ancestors needed callouses on their feet because they ran around bare foot. If you are going to cram your feet into uncomfortable shoes for the day, keep them as healthy as possible in the meantime. For the most part, wear loose-fitting comfortable shoes with only a thickened sole with minimal arch support. If you are working at something where your feet are at high risk, wear something that provides more protection, but as soon as possible, get those contraptions off your feet and allow them to breathe.

When Showering, Concentrate on stimulating your fatty tissue areas, as they have poor blood circulation and are prone to getting skin infections. If you are over-weight, you need to be especially careful to work hard on increasing your circulation daily or even several times a day, especially in the lower extremities. Slapping your skin is a simple method of increasing the circulation to that area. The skin turning red is an indication you have increased the blood flow to that area.

When you are through with your shower, we come to the Second Commandment.

2.) "Thou shalt wisely use alcohol as your primary medication." Especially after shaving, you have caused a number of miniscule cuts and abrasions on your skin. The simplest and most effective counter is a good healthy sousing with plain old pure and simple rubbing alcohol. Forget the lotions. They may help protect against further drying out in the few hours they remain on your skin, but the primary thing is to look for a good high alcohol content after-shave. Use a good scented version if you must, but don't forget that the primary advantage is gained by the application of alcohol as a deterrent to bacteria, fungus and yeast. These are your enemies, in general. Fight them with alcohol, where-ever they occur. If you are having trouble with soreness and irritation in your crotch area, under your breasts, or other areas where you skin rubs, the problem is being caused by bacteria. Getting it dry is nothing. Forget the lotion. Killing the bacteria is essential. It might make you grind your teeth to put straight alcohol on irritated skin, but you will clear up the source of the irritation. Do this on a regular basis and it will no longer be painful. If you have open sores from your daily work activities, a little alcohol and fresh air is what they need for quick healing. Use the bandaid while bleeding is of concern. As soon as possible, get rid of the bandages. Souse your feet and toes with alcohol to prevent the growth of fungus. Afterwards, take an old toothbrush and scrub Vicks Vaporub up under and around your nails to prevent fungus from growing there. Here again, the stimulation of the brush is primary to the medicinal value of the Vaporub.

Use the strongest mouth-wash you can buy. I recommend the original Listerine Antiseptic. It contains 16.9% alcohol. The Alcohol is listed as an inactive ingredient. Beleive me when I tell you, that is the one ingredient that is doing you any good, other than making your breath smell better. Here again, avoid anything with sugar. Also, do not make the mistake of using rubbing alcohol as a mouthwash or gargle. You will not make this mistake a second time.

When you feel a cold coming on, quickly getting to the alcohol may help you completely avoid it's side-effects. Imagine, no more congestion, no more sore throat, no more post nasal drip, all because of the prompt and wise use of alcohol on your mucous tissues. I keep a pint of brandy on hand at all times. My wife keeps an especially concentrated version of antiseptic, Dr. Tichenor's Antiseptic, which is 70% alcohol. The label recommends diluting with five parts water. I sometimes use it straight out of the bottle. This stuff tastes and works just like Listerine. Most tinctures use a basis of alcohol. The base is the main ingredient. Even the Bible recognizes the therapeutic value to your stomach of a daily dose of wine. They say the Redder, the Better. I say, it is again, primarily a low dosage of alcohol daily in your stomach that does the most good. If you daily wash your mouth out and gargle with brandy and swallow it after, you have probably accomplished your daily dose of internal alcohol. During Prohibition, it was well recognized that we needed to continue having alcohol for medical purposes and the only place you could buy it legally was from the Dentist. Unfortunately, with the Repeal of Prohibition, we lost sight of the fact that it is the strongest and the most abused drug known to Medical Science and should be treated as such, available only by prescription and through recognized, trained professionals.

3.) The Third Commandment needs little explanation, so it will be brief, but it is third because it is likely third in importance to a healthy lifestyle. When you are training a new puppy, it becomes pretty important to make sure he gets outside for a bathroom call on a pretty regular basis. Why would you think it is any less important for yourself?? It is imperative that you get yourself adjusted to a daily bowel movement. Most important is simple habit. Pick a time of the day that will always work for you and stick with it. This varies by person and life-style, and there will always be days you find it extremely awkward or incomvenient to stick with it, but you MUST figure out a way to accomplish this simple task on a daily basis. Truckers seem to suffer the most and the lesson is simple. Do not get behind the wheel until you have accomplished this daily task. There are literally thousands of supplements out there to assist you in your efforts, but I repeat, the MOST important aspect is HABIT. Make yourself sit there until you have results and go back there and sit at exactly the same time tomorrow and the next until it is ingrained habit and you will find life to be a lot easier, plus the health benefits are immeasurable. People with hemorrhoids are not practicing regular bowel movements, pure and simple. Naturally, the drug industry is interested in selling you lots of Preparation "H", so they are not going to spend much time explaining to you how you may prevent them from ever becoming a problem. Much of your good health depends on diet, and by rights, I should have made diet my number one commandment. A diet high in natural fiber will go a long way toward cleansing your colon and keeping it in working order. Do a little research and find something that suits you. If you want to die from Colon Cancer or have your colon removed by surgery and live out your life attached to a bag, ignore my advice, here. Otherwise, get to practicing daily regularity.  I am coming back to this topic in 2018, these many years later, because I realize I have not said enough.  All this talk about diet masks the fact that the real fundamental truth here is all about "GETTING INTO THE HABIT OF MAKING SURE YOU HAVE AT LEAST A SINGLE DAILY BOWEL MOVEMENT"  It is like the doctors know you already know this, so why should they tell you??  They are certainly not going to tell you you need to start eating Prunes and Oatmeal.  They want you on something they can prescribe, and get their cut.  The trick is, "never get yourself to the point where you need to see the doctor in the first place".  It was very late in life that I learned the true secret of making sure you get your bowel movement.  at the FIRST urging you get, (maybe a little gas passes), head for that bathroom.  Don't wait until you feel "You gotta go, and when you gotta go, you just gotta go.  Chances are, by the time "You just gotta go", it is probably already too late and you will not be able to go at all or maybe be able to squeeze out a little ball.  If you do not realize by now, the problem is, you do not want to be straining.  If you go when you should be going, it will not be a strain.  If you are straining, you have waited too long.  Now I should not have to be visiting the Whys, it should be obvious why you need to not be constipated, but some people are pretty thick-headed.  ( like I have been most of my life.)  When the doctor says,  You got to get your blood pressure down and you got to get it down seriously, because High Blood Pressure is the silent killer, what he should be telling you is,  "You seriously must get your constipation problem under control, or you are going to have a stroke, sitting on the pot."  Yes, friends, sorry to tell you, the number one cause of stroke is not Hypertension, as the Doctor will invariably tell you.  The number one cause of stroke is simple constipation.  And Hypertension like so many other so-called "Diseases" is actually a condition.  It is a condition usually caused by eating more salt than your body can easily handle, just lie Diabetes is a CONDITION caused by feeding your body more sugar than your pancreas can handle.  Nethe same statement about your constipation.  It is not a disease, folks, it is a CONDITION caused by not going often enough to the bathroom, pure and simple.  Stop thinking of every little thing like it is a disease.  Because people nowadays think of addiction as being a "Disease", it  simply gives your mind an excuse to not getting serious about Kicking the Habit.  It is all about cultivating the good habits and get rid of the old bad habits.

Now we come to Diet.

Many books have been written about Diet and Health and I could write a couple here myself, but it is fourth on my list and I am going to try to condense all there is to say into one simple Principal:

4.) Consume all foods in their fresh and natural state and in moderation. It is essential to avoid processed foods, primarily, and this is almost impossible in today's Society. Try to use your best judgement and a healthy dose of common sense. Why does the Food Industry put MSG into our food and why does the FDA allow it, and why do they require particular labeling to the use of MSG?? Obviously, everyone knows there are health concerns. The Food Companies continue to use it in practically all prepared foods, because, pure and simple it makes you enjoy your food and crave more of it. MSG is the single greatest contributing factor to obesity in this country and around the world. There may be other health concerns as well, but largely unproven.

Take the time to sit down and read the label off a box of prepared mashed potatoes. There are Flavor enhancers and artificial flavors and artificial coloring. Give me a break, people. It is potatoes. Have you ever went to the Grocer and asked for a bottle of Potato Extract?? Potatoes are WHITE. Why is it we feel we have to bleach our Flour, Rice and Sugar because we think they are too brown and we have to add color to our potatoes because they are too white?? We are probably causing many problems with the bleach we are putting in our food aside from the fact that we are removing everything nutritional from the food. There is ZERO nutritional value to a bag of Sugar. If you visited a Sugar Plant in the Red River Valley and saw what they do to that stuff before they place it on our table, chances are you would never eat another spoonful. Pure White Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup are the two things in your diet YOU NEED TO AVOID, people. Forget about the ongoing debate of whether we should be sweetening with Plain old Sugar, from highly subsidized Cane or Beet (Sucrose) or from the much cheaper Corn, (Fructose). They are equally bad for you and are causing the same problems. Here again, sugar is added to EVERYTHING!! They add sugar to salt so the Iodine will stick. When a horse is craving minerals it will chew on trees or the sides of his stall. We call it cribbing, and the horse handler knows he better go get his horse some Mineral Salt. In fact, he will feed his horse mineral salt every day of the horse's life. You want the same protection that farmer is giving his horse, go eat some mineral salt. Throw that table salt out the door. There is nothing in it but iodine, because the FDA has decided we have to have the iodine. Go get yourself some Sea salt and you will get all the iodine you need, plus every other nutrient known to man, more than likely. What are we talking about here?? All salt is Sea Salt. That's how it happens. All the nutrients run down the rivers to the ocean where they are concentrated into Sea Salt. That is before the Food companies get ahold of it and take out everything that is any good. Here we come to the bottom line: Stop eating processed foods. Eat fresh and natural and forget the FDA's Minimum Daily Requirements. These rules were instigated in a day when it was hard to have fresh vegetables all over the country any time of the year. When was the last time you were unable to find an orange?? Of course, Vitamin "C" is probably the single most important vitamin. That does not mean you have to go out and buy a bottle of concentrated Rose Hips to get enough Vitamin "C". Just grab an orange once in a while and eat one. You do not have to eat thirty of them a day to get enough Vitamin "C". And the highest concentration of Vitamin "C" is in the skin, by the way. This is also true of the Apple, which many also peel because they are trying to get rid of the poisons they have been assaulted with. And the highest concentrations of nutrition is in the peel of the potato and other root vegetables. The most good from the Grain is gotten from the bran. We need to eat whole grain and the more roughage the better. Our Food industry is throwing away the best part of the food we eat and adding in whatever additives the FDA requires or will allow.

The best available alternative to eating processed foods is to go buy yourself five acres and build your house there. One or both of you quit your regular job. Get out there and till up a sizable garden patch and fertilize naturally, not so much with the nutrients it takes to make the plants grow, but with the nutrients your body needs. Do a study. There is a pretty good one available on the Northup Family Website on The Colloidal Minerals Page .  Plant a balanced diet of Vegetables and raise and prepare your own. This is a ton of work and may be pretty difficult for most to follow. It may be more practical to get used to reading labels and just buy fresh off the grocer's shelf and prepare your own using your own additives, which we will cover to a greater degree in the 5th Commandment.

From what you have read so far, you may be under the misconception that I am opposed to food supplements. On the contrary, I believe you should:

5.) Supplement your Diet extensively and wisely with everything your body needs, because you are not getting it out of the food available to you on your Grocer's shelves.





I'm going to post this as is, but expect to come back and add to it and modify it as I find the time. Remember, we are shooting for "The Ten Commandments for Good Health" here.

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