ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 Napoleon said “If I am tall it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants.” The giants of the fields of nutrition, alternative health and the ancient healing traditions of many diverse cultures have been both the inspiration and the source of much of the material in this book.
 Special indebtedness goes to Ruth Sackman who has generously been there for more people, more times than can be counted. She has made clear that she does not agree with absolutely everything in the book; however, I am confident that, in the main, the book reflects the philosophy of health and healing that I learned from her during the years that I volunteered for the Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Therapies.
 Special thanks also to Gregg Lalley, who has kept me company all through the building and growth of both La Casas. Much of the physical beauty of  La Casa Puerto Rico is due to his keen eye and his ability to translate ideas into structures and plans, from everything architectural to placement of light switches on the walls. As well, he manages La Casa Day Spa, seemingly seamlessly, certainly enthusiastically.
 Without Liz and Russell Pentz, La Casa Puerto Rico would be a different place today than it is. In terms of focus, service, the feeling of welcome and tranquillity that our guests received during their stay -- all these jumped ahead light years when Liz and Russell came on board. Many of the recipes in the cookbook section are Liz’s and it was only through her doggedness that we were able, finally, to put our recipes down on paper.
 I think it no accident that both of La Casa’s physicians have been women. Dulce Cepeda is our Naturopathic doctor and Carmena Carreras is our M.D. These two women have embodied, for me, the basic sensibility of the Feminine Principle that I feel defines La Casa. Both Dulce and Carmena have been important in La Casa’s evolution. They are models of what women can be: creative, independent, resourceful, generous. They have both suffered debilitating illnesses -- Dulce before I met her, Carmena during the time of our friendship. Their recoveries have been no miracle. Rather, recovery came from hard work and the strength of  conviction that natural methods of healing could do the job that western medicine could not. I aspire to have their Feminine Strength. Specific to Carmena, I knew from my first meeting with her that she was a soul sister; that feeling has never diminished.
 Thanks to Robin Traiger, who went far above and beyond the call of duty to help me bring this book to computer life and literally saved me hundreds of hours with her expertise as well as devotion. Truly, an act of love from her.
 I thank Sheila and Saul Zaretzy. They have come to La Casa Puerto Rico every year since its inception. Sheila is responsible for much of the beauty of the landscaping. Saul has been faithfully documenting the beauty of La Casa through his magnificent drawings. As well, his recovery from heart disease and his commitment to the Dean Ornish program for reversing heart disease has influenced our cuisine: for every dish that we use oil, we now know that we can make it just as deliciously without oil.
 Thanks to Dr. Gurudev Singh Khalsa who has greatly expanded our knowledge of yogic science as a philosophy of life as well as a discipline for health.
 Thanks to all our chef interns at La Casa Puerto Rico from The School of Natural Gourmet Cookery. Each of them surely qualifies as real artistes in food preparation.
 Thanks to Mikel d'Amico who generously shared with us some of the recipes he developed while studying at The Culinary Institute.
Thanks to Mike Shapiro who has supported all La Casa projects since our inception.
Thanks to Molly, my daughter, who did nothing whatsoever to contribute to this book (other than allow me to raise her according to its principles), but who does everything to contribute to my life.
 Finally, thanks to all the guests and clients of La Casa. Their interest and receptivity is the drive that has moved this whole, wonderful adventure.

Jane G. Goldberg

From the beginning of time, the peoples of the earth have set aside time to be devoted specifically to one’s physical and spiritual regeneration. These rejuvenative periods of time were, traditionally, a part of religious practices. Ancient healing traditions were embedded within the religious practices of the time and culture. Periodically, pilgrimages were made to sacred sites; rites of regeneration were performed for both earth and her peoples. In today’s more secular world, however, pilgrimages and rites have been largely replaced by visits to secular centers of healing and rejuvenation. Among these centers are places that we call, of course, SPAS.
This book, Insparations, is a compilation of collected facts, understandings and wisdoms. The knowledge collected for this book comes from all over the world. Each healing tradition, whether from the frigid region of the Baltic Sea or from the tropical islands of the Caribbean, has an essential “truth,” an understanding that helps us to center ourselves and to become ourselves. Some of the techniques proffered here go back 5000 years; the use of botanicals, seaweed, water, clay and herbs is as old as civilization itself. Other techniques described arise from technological advancements in understanding that are cutting-edge. The philosophy that underlines each understanding and each treatment, however, has a common thread. This philosophy that underlines this book is: the earth is an abundance of riches; Mother Earth has every ingredient, every substance that is necessary for both the maintenance and the restoration of health.
More and more people are choosing to spend their time in spas, day spas as well as resort spas. America is catching up, finally, with the European tradition, where spas are often considered to be the first line of medical intervention for health problems; some countries abroad actually provide visits to spas as part of their national health insurance. The recent surge of interest In the U.S. in spas surely reflects a need for us to find reunion with an ancient part of ourselves, and our mother, Earth, as well as a need to reclaim knowledge of health, healing and regeneration that had been, in our ancient past, an integral part of everyday, human life.
The inspiration for this book has come from the founding and operating of two spas, La Casa Resort Spa, located in the majestic Puerto Rican rain forest, and La Casa Day Spa, in New York City (and collectively called La Casa de Vida Natural). I have been privileged to own both of them. I have made the mandate of both spas the dedication of learning and therapies based on the notion that health and beauty derive from informed natural living.
 One of our country's earliest nutritionists wrote a book some years ago called Health is Your Birthright. It's a principle that many of us forget. The odds are heavily in your favor that you were born perfectly healthy, and that your progeny has been or will be born in this same state of perfect health. I believe that this natural state of health is not only your birthright, but your liferight, and that it can follow you to the end of your days.
 Since 1986, when La Casa de Vida Natural was founded, our guests have been insistent and persistent about their interest in having written material for them to bring back to their own homes. They have wanted recipes, information on detoxification, the rationale for distilled vs. bottled water, the health benefits of ozone -- all the material that is in the heads and hearts of the La Casa staff. This book is in response to that demand.
 There is a saying in Puerto Rico which reflects the warmth and hospitality of its people: mi casa, su casa; my house is your house. We would like to reverse that saying: su casa, mi casa; your house is my house. We would like to give to people the knowledge that will enable them to transform their own homes into their own version of our La Casa. We feel that this is the greatest gift we can give. All of the therapies as well as the recipes presented here were developed initially at La Casa Resort Spa.
As you will see when you read this book, both the therapies and the cuisine are truly international. Over the years, I and the La Casa staff have read, researched and studied most of the world’s traditions of natural healing, nutrition and methods of detoxification. We have integrated and implemented what we consider to be the best and most effective aspects of these approaches. We call our approach “5-elements healing.” We have found that even a short exposure to our program of healthy nutrition, detoxification and 5-elements healing is rejuvenating and brings to its participants a soul-deep calmness.
 We conceptualize our job as being about much more than teaching our clients about holistic health principles. Rather, we see our mission as being about helping people to get back to a more natural way of living; it means thinking and seeing things from a new perspective. Over the years, we have found that change doesn't come about by giving people rote formulas for health. Rather, we have found that if the ideas and principles of health are understood, then people can think for themselves.
 We believe in arming people with knowledge. We believe that knowledge leads to intuition and that intuition leads to wisdom. We believe that wisdom leads us to make the best choices for ourselves. In this book, we present ideas about cleansing, about food and its nutrient properties and about using the 5 elements of the earth -- the earth herself, as well as air, water, fire and sky -- for healing. We believe that you can transform your own home into a temple of healing and that each of you has the wisdom to choose, from moment to moment, which healing activity will offer you maximum benefit.
 

Jane G. Goldberg, Ph.D.
 December, 1996
at La Casa Resort Spa
El Yunque, Puerto Rico

I. CLEANING UP YOUR ACT

The 3 Basic Health Principles

Every ancient spiritual and healing tradition has ideas about rejuvenation. From the beginning of time, man has always understood that he cannot toil indefinitely. The Bible says: Six days shalt thy labor, but on the seventh day thy shalt rest.
 Included in each of the world’s traditions of health and rejuvenation are methods of cleansing. For all ancient healing traditions, cleansing body and mind is the sine qua non of a healthy as well as a spiritual existence.
 The American Indians would periodically purify themselves through their sweat lodges. Communally, the Indians would subject themselves to intense heat, thus eliminating accumulated bodily toxins, while also entering a state of meditative calm, facilitating the removal of psychic stresses. Similarly, the Ayurvedic tradition recommends Panchakarma cleansing three times a year, at the change of the seasons, in order to maintain well-being in healthy individuals or to restore balance in those who are ill. Panchakarma consists of a series of therapies, including colon cleansing, designed to remove deep-rooted biological and psychological toxins. The yogic tradition, too, has developed techniques for purification that lead to rejuvenation. In Sivinanda Yoga, these techniques are called kriyas, a word that means sacrifice. Yogis spend many years mastering elaborate techniques of muscular control in order to cleanse even deep internal organs. The Jewish tradition devotes one day a week -- the Shabbos -- to eating lightly and resting; Jews fast all day on Yom Kippur, allowing their bodies to detoxify as they turn their mental and spiritual attention to atonement, release from guilt and from negative thinking. Catholicism embraces the concept of abstinence in its celebration of Lent, also known as The Big Fast, a period of 40 days in which participants cleanse themselves of desire.
 These beliefs in abstinence, cleansing and rest are not frivolous notions. They are based on sound understandings of the nature of health. Ancient peoples understood that without setting aside specific times for periodic purification, vitality and regeneration were not possible.  They understood as well, the notion that the occasional denial of pleasure and desire leads to the greater benefit of consciousness and healing.  This notion is the essence of detoxification.
 Unfortunately, most of us in contemporary culture have lost our knowledge of many of these techniques. Today, rather than being interested in the process of elimination, rather than understand the need to not eat, we seem to be exclusively preoccupied with what we do eat (and how it tastes).
 Western dietary habits uniquely ignore the body's need to rid itself of its waste products. It has been estimated that the body contains somewhere between 70 and 100 trillion cells. To illustrate the absolute necessity of each of these cells needing to stay clean and waste-free in order to stay healthy, there is no better story than that of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Alexis Carrel. Carrel had kept cells from the heart of a chicken embryo alive by simply immersing the cells in a nutrient solution and changing the solution. Each day new nutrients were added and waste was cleaned out. This experiment continued for 29 years without a hitch. It was beginning to seem as though with the right nutrients and with proper waste elimination, the cells would go on living forever. Until a fatal mistake was made! Carrel’s lab technician accidentally forgot to change the solution, and the cells died from being immersed in their own waste products. The cells were, in effect, lethally autointoxicated. To clean out the over 70 trillion cells that comprise the human body, we need to pay a lot of attention to waste elimination.
 And so, we need methods of Detoxification. Detoxification is the first principle of health. It is absolutely primary, above even our need for nourishing food. All the nutrients in the world won’t do one whit of good in a toxic body.
 The beauty of a detox/rejuvenation program is that you can do it at your leisure, in between all your other activities, or you can devote a whole slice of time to it -- hours or even days. You get to pick your time and your level of commitment. For instance, you can decide to go on a rigorous fast for several days, including intensive colon cleansing. For this you would want to commit full time to your program and do a lot of resting. But you can also do something as simple as dry skin brushing -- a procedure that takes only about three minutes. Even this brief activity can make a significant difference in how you look and feel.
Bernard Jensen, one of the world’s leading nutritionists, tells the story of Samson, "the Saxon Giant," as an illustration of the health benefits of detoxifying through skin brushing. Samson was a weight lifter and wrestler brought to the United States from Europe by Florenz Zeigfeld. Samson was one of the features in the Zeigfeld Follies in the 1920's. Besides his strength, Samson was also known for his baby-soft skin, an attribute which Samson attributed to his daily regimen of skin brushing.
Then one year, Samson lost the world's championship heavyweight weight-lifting contest by just ten ounces. Jensen was able to examine Samson's diaries, and found a stunning theory. Samson attributed his loss of the contest to the fact that he had neglected to dry-brush his skin for three weeks prior to the contest.
Jensen decided to do a little experiment to see why Samson would have reached such a conclusion. He bought a skin brush and stood on brown wrapping paper while he brushed. After he had collected enough debris that had fallen from his body from the brushing, he sent the material to a lab. The lab found a lot of dead skin, which would, of course, be expected; but the lab also found dried catarrh, urea, sodium chloride, sebum and metabolic acid wastes. Jensen came to understand that when these substances are not removed from the skin by skin brushing, they can become backed up in the muscle structure and cause a loss of vitality.
Jensen himself is testimony to his own theory. He recently told his story of recovering from cancer at the age of 85 (he was 88 as he told the story with great vigor). He showed us the skin on his arms and legs; there was not a single wrinkle, line or blemish anywhere on this man’s body. He attributed the beauty of his skin, its tautness and elasticity, to his daily regimen of skin brushing.
Exercise is certainly a good way of detoxifying. Sweating cleans out the largest organ we have in our body -- the skin. When our skin is able to breathe more efficiently, the pores are better able to do their job of serving as a huge protective membrane, letting out what is supposed to be out, and keeping in what is supposed to be in. Elimination of up to two pounds a day of toxic wastes takes place through the pores in the skin. Some people are not able to perspire at all; many of them eventually get degenerative diseases. Another advantage of skin brushing is that it will clean out the pores such that the sweat glands in the body are enabled to function.
 Aerobic exercise cleans out the lungs. Mere movement of muscles releases stored lactic acid.
 But exercise alone doesn't give the organs a thorough cleansing. For instance, after years of eating processed foods and too much meat, the colon has almost always become so clogged as to be inefficient, at best, or worse, dangerously toxic, like Carrel’s chicken heart cells after the lab technician forgot about them. The cleanliness of the colon is tremendously important -- so important that we can say with great certainty that health cannot be achieved without it. The reason for this is that the colon has a large vein, the portal vein, which crosses from the colon to the liver. If the colon has malignant bacteria or toxic residue sitting in it, the portal vein carries this material to the liver. Then the liver, the organ whose specific job in the body is to detoxify, cannot do its job. It has become too overloaded from junk that was the purview of the colon. So we need to think about the colon, and how to assure its cleanliness in a direct way. Similarly, each of the body’s organs and tissues can become overloaded with toxins and this condition of toxicity will interfere with proper functioning of the organ.
 It is only after a program of detoxification has been implemented that we begin to think about Nourishment, the second health principle. Here, too, we have forgotten ancient wisdom. Ancient peoples were instinctively drawn to foods that were nourishing. Today, much of our food consists of non-foods that the human body does not have the ability to either assimilate, use or excrete.
 Yet, our innate wisdom about knowing what’s good for us will surface given the opportunity. Even as children, or perhaps we should say more accurately, especially as children, we already have a natural inclination to health. Children are not born with a love for sweets or junk food. To the contrary, left to their own devices, children will intuitively select foods that meet all their nutritional requirements.
 There was a study done some years back that demonstrates the point. The study was performed by Dr. Clara Davis, a researcher at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She studied infants from six months to eleven months who had never been given any food other than their mothers' breast-milk. Each child was offered a wide variety of foods. All foods were unprocessed and natural, of both animal and vegetable origin. Davis' experiment lasted for four years. The results were astonishing in terms of the documentation of children’s innate wisdom in their self-care. All children ate well-balanced meals. Although some children went on food "binges" and ate unorthodox combinations of foods at various meals, the over-all pattern of eating met high nutritional standards. Even more astonishing was that the children seemed to intuitively know how to self-correct deficiencies and problems. Two children who began the study showing signs of rickets continuously chose high calcium foods, and actually "cured" themselves through their own, independent choice of foods. As well, many of the children were uninterested in milk, yet their bone growth was normal, showing that they intuitively understood that the calcium they were receiving from other foods was sufficient for their growth needs.
 Davis' study documents the life-preserving and intelligent natural inclinations of babies. As adults, we still retain this same wisdom. For many of us, however, our disinterest in it has led us far astray from what we instinctively know, but often pretend to ourselves that we don't know. Yet, it is possible to find a way back to these basic instincts.
 The food preparation described in this book is meant to provide maximum nourishment while continuing with a process of detoxification. Our main interest is in promoting an understanding of how and why foods work on and in our bodies the way they do. By this, we certainly mean our palate, because the palate is one of the first parts of our bodies that experiences food (after smell), making taste obviously crucially important. (To most of us, unfortunately, it's the only important aspect of food.) But we also mean all the rest of the body -- the stomach and the intestines, the colon, even the bloodstream.
 We believe in emotional nourishment as well as in nutritional feeding. We think that massage is one of the most powerful forms of emotional nourishment. It’s not just that massage feels good; it actually does emotional repair work, as well.
 Touch has been called the mother of the senses, the earliest to develop in the human embryo. Like other primate animals, we humans are contact animals. We expect clinging, riding, grooming, patting, muzzling, kissing, tickling. (Chimps actually draw a tickler’s hands to their bodies.) The genesis of the ability to love is licking, evolving into tooth-combing among lemurs, finger-grooming in monkeys and apes and hand-stroking in humans. This licking and stroking is the sine qua non of love and survival.
 Many of us have been raised with rearing practices that are desensualized; we were given bottles, blankets, cribs, playpens, toys and carriages instead of the old-fashioned breast-feeding, caressing, cuddling, hugging, rocking and patting. Most of us didn’t get our fill of tactile stimulation as infants and we try to compensate for that deprivation. We substitute self-manipulation in the form of thumb-sucking as children, and then later as adults by carrying worrybeads, chin-stroking, ear and hair-pulling, head-scratching.
 We must begin to think of our skin as a living, breathing organ that expands and contracts, senses and responds, knows as well as remembers, dies as well as becomes. When we treat ourselves to a massage, we honor ourselves through letting our skin be touched and loved by another’s hands.
All kinds of people can be helped through the application of basic health principles. You may be healthy and vigorous; or you may be enervated, barely able to walk. This brings us to our third principle of health -- 5-elements healing: the use of the five elements of earth -- fire, air, earth, water and sky -- from which  medicines can be derived.
 The following story from the yogic tradition tells of the profundity of the five elements in all aspects of life:

 There was once a man known as Avadhuta. He traveled far and wide and learned from every teacher he met. His teachers were each of the five elements -- Mother Earth, wind, sky, water and fire.  From his teachers, he learned everything there was to know. These are the lessons he learned.
 From Mother Earth, he learned the lesson of forgiveness. He came to understand Mother Earth’s profound ability to forgive by observing her tolerance of man’s abuse of her. He witnessed mountains of waste and pollution that man had heaped on Mother Earth; yet, still she never ceased giving him in return valuable minerals and food. The earth element operates in the human body in cooperation with the sense of smell. The earth element relates to the solid parts of body -- bone, skin, flesh, teeth, marrow. It is through our skin, flesh and bones that we maintain contact with Mother Earth as we feel her. This contact keeps us grounded.
 From the wind, Avadhuta learned to be unattached, to be constantly on the move and to be subtle and not perceptible. From observing wind, he understood man’s ability to be a mystic, to live in the depth of spirit rather than on the surface of existence. Wind corresponds in the human body to prana -- life force. Prana produces cells and all your precious seeds. The wind element circulates blood and all fluids around the body. This is why breathing is so important: when you balance the element of air, you gain self-mastery, you balance temperament as well as purity of thought.  The wind element symbolizes the interconnectedness of all people.
 From the sky element, Avadhuta learned that he was pure and unsullied. He observed that sky is the most subtle of all elements. The clouds on the sky appear to color the sky but in reality, the sky is always blue. Avadhuta came to understand that the sky element corresponds to the dirt of life which  appears to sully the soul; but in truth the soul can’t be dirtied by anything. In a heartbeat, we can always relate to the beauty and purity of our souls. No matter how ugly our behavior  -- no matter how immersed we are in sin or bad living -- somewhere within us, on our soul level, we remain unsullied and pure.
 From water, Avadhuta learned compassion and to purify all that comes in contact with him. He observed that water is flowing and progressive. Water can erode mountains drop by drop. Water cleans and washes; it quenches thirst and is essential for growth and survival. In the human body, water carries everything from debris (our waste material) to pleasure (nutrients from our food). Water can take any shape or form; it is soft and gentle in small quantities but can destroy towns in large quantities. In the body, the water element relates to taste. All gland secretions and semen start from water. Our glands are the guardians of our health and this explains why dehydration is one of the major causes of ill health.
 From fire, Avadhuta learned spiritual elimination. Fire gives warmth, heat and light. It removes fear and ignorance; it burns away impurities and sins and gives spiritual solace or comfort. The fire element in the body is related to digestion, absorption and elimination. Fire produces blood and other fluids and controls the body’s metabolism.
 Avadhuta learned, from observing each of the elements the profound interdependence of all things. He understood that the sun represents the fire element, but that the sun is comprised of gases and thus has a close connection to the air element. He understood that the water element is closely connected with the sky element, as water reflects sky. He understood that earth and water comprise the basic material of our planet and that these have the umbrella of air. He understood that sky both surrounds all the elements and contains all the elements.
 Avadhuta learned from his teachers how to live as a human being in harmony with nature, abiding by the cycles of the sun and moon on this, his Mother Earth, sharing her air and her water as part of the infinite cosmos.

*******
 Wherever you live, even in the midst of an urban concrete jungle or in middle America suburbia, you can still live close to the earth. You can use clay as a medicine for all kinds of ailments. You can compost all unused food, and use the nutrient-rich soil that is produced to fertilize your in-door plants and your out-door trees and bushes. Even the most basic activities can be health enhancing. A mere shower can be utilized as a transformative therapeutic experience.
Walking barefoot on grass when the morning dew hasn't yet evaporated yields a powerful electrical resonance with mother earth. When we do this, we are allowing our hair to serve as antennae, pulling in electrical energy from the atmosphere into our heads. This electrical energy is then distributed throughout the rest of our bodies, charging up our organs. Finally, the energy is released through our feet into the ground. When we wear rubber or synthetic soled-shoes, or socks or stockings, we prevent the release of our body’s electrical charge and it builds up as static electricity.
A thunderstorm gives an opportunity for systemic cleansing. Contrary to how most people think about ozone, in fact, natural ozone, created in the atmosphere during rainstorms is incredibly cleansing to our lungs and a powerful destroyer of bodily pathogens.
 Sitting outside on starry nights allows us to take moonbaths.  Our bodies absorb the soft reflected light of the moon. Science hasn’t determined what, if any, actual physiological effect moonlight gives to us. But, whether the effect is physical or purely psychological, those of us who partake in moonbaths say that this time fills them with a powerful peaceful energy.
 Even the most resistant, chronic diseases respond well to the medicinal use of the five elements. We have seen cholesterol levels drop 90 points after just five days of a nutritional program. Multiple sclerosis patients have abandoned their wheelchairs and progressed to walking canes after colon detoxification. Cancer patients who have followed holistic principles of healing have been told by their physicians that there is no longer any trace of the cancer. Over the years, we have witnessed not just dozens, but hundreds, of these “cures.” These are not spontaneous miracle cures (though we have seen our share of these, too); rather they reflect adherence to sound, scientific principles of health by individuals who have worked with diligence, patience, understanding and effort.
 We are fortunate to be blessed with an abundance of riches of the earth. Although most of you will not be able to walk out of your own homes to slather your bodies with naturally-occurring mud, or to take a refreshing dip in mineral-rich mountain streams, we have endeavored, in this book, to find ways of bringing these health principles and health benefits back to your home. Technology can’t improve on nature, but it can make nature more available to more people. We have found ways that you can carry out in your own home, with little expense and minimum inconvenience, virtually all of the health principles and health activities that are practiced at spas all over the world.
 You can avail yourself of health principles that are from ancient traditions, some 5000 years old, to modern-day appliances. For instance, you can clean out your nasal passages the same way they do it in India today and the way they have been doing it for eons. On the other hand, you can clean out your colons through the use of a portable home device that was invented only thirty years ago.
 This, then, is the real meaning of the holistic health revolution: for most of us, even those of us who are ill, our bodies still retain a resiliency for healing; the knowledge of how to heal ourselves remains a long-ago, forgotten memory. But we are able to access our memory through studying the healing traditions of other cultures that have been passed down through the ages. The health revolution is not about new learning; it is about coming to remember what we already know.

Dousing the Fire of Food Cravings

 Too much evidence now exists for any of us to not believe that the healthiest diet is the one with the highest amount of nutrients. Our bodies are living packages of energy, and they need to be fed with foods that are, similarly, alive and vital and energetic. This means food as close to its natural state as possible, freshly picked fruits and vegetables, whole grains, high quality proteins.
 But what we know and what we do are two different matters. We do not always choose to do what is best for us. (There are still hordes of smokers in this country; they have not all been living under a rock for the last 50 years, oblivious to the dangers of smoking; yet their habit persists.) This, then, is the important question: why do we not do what we should do and do what we should not do when it comes to food? Why do we finish off a perfectly satisfactory supper with a sugar-laden dessert, knowing that our guilt in the morning will be a justifiable penance? Why do we add more salt to our food than any competent heart specialist would recommend? Why do we engage in 3 a.m. eating jags, when a host of research shows that most weight gain is acquired from eating between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. when the body needs to be resting?
 Is the answer as simple as that we are at the mercy of our cravings? Well, maybe. But that answer doesn't really get us very far. It only leads to new questions. Why are most of our cravings for salt and sugar? Why do we feel hungry when our bodies are sated? In other words, what is the nature of food craving? If we can figure out the answer to that one question, we will have come a long way toward helping ourselves to be able to eat healthier.
 It has become popular to answer these kinds of questions from a psychological perspective. As a psychoanalyst, no one knows better than I the psychological components that go into food habits. Yet, after studying my patients as long as I have, and with my particular interest in their nutritional habits (because of my long-standing belief in its importance in mental health as well as bodily health), I have become convinced that there is more to the story. Food practices arise as much, if not more, because of biochemical reasons as they do for psychological reasons.
 The implications of such a premise are far-reaching. It means that our food decisions are not really choices, at all, or at least not in the usual sense of the word. Rather, they are rooted in biochemical urges -- more like what psychologists would term compulsions. The nature of a compulsion is that it actually by-passes consciousness; we just do it automatically.
 That's the bad news: that to the extent that we follow unhealthy dietary practices, it is often beyond our control. We may feel temporarily relieved at such news, but absolution of responsibility doesn't help us to improve our habits. It's like the criminal insanity defense. The murderer may not have known what he was doing, or whether what he was doing was right or wrong, but what's the consolation when the body is still dead?
 There is good news, however. The good news is that the human body operates like the United States government -- it has an elaborate system of checks and balances. Its proper functioning is as much a delicate balance as a trapeze act. When one system goes out of whack, another tries to compensate. The whole body is reading itself all the time, consistently and persistently making its adjustments to itself.
 So when we have a food craving -- the kind of feeling that leads us to choose a food without our conscious will -- all that's happening is that our body is engaging in its attempt to correct itself. It's one of the myriad ways it has of attempting to heal itself.
 So far so good. But if the body is attempting to right a wrong, why are our food cravings so often for foods that are bad for us? How many of us have craved a carrot -- a food rich in beta-carotene and vitamin B -- over ice cream -- a food rich in nothing except fat, sugar and cholesterol?
 The answer is that we are misreading the signals. When a craving develops, the body is in a mild case of stress. A biochemical situation has occurred in which our system of checks and balances leaps into action. Too much salt, for instance, will stimulate a craving for sugar. Similarly, too much sugar will make us want to taste salt.
 If we think about it, the food cravings most of us have always have to do with either salt or sugar. This itself is interesting and meaningful. Western science has identified four basic tastes to food: salty, bitter, sweet and sour. In traditional Eastern systems there are two others: pungent and astringent. Ancient East-Indian pharmacology and medical science enumerates 64 basic taste qualities. Yet, with all these varieties possible, most Americans crave the experience only of the two tastes of salt and sugar. In overindulging in these two cravings, we have essentially destroyed our palate's ability to experience the full range of possibilities of taste.
 The craving is deceptive, though. We think we want sugar or salt, and indeed, much of the time, we indulge ourselves in gratifying our craving. The deception, though, is more than problematic. It's outright dangerous.
 If we indulge our sugar craving by eating refined sugar, we satisfy our hunger but meet none of our body's nutrient requirements. All of the vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins that would have come from a food in its natural state are still needed by the body. These nutrients, then, will be pulled from the body's own reserves in order to support the metabolic activity stimulated by the sugar. A condition of nutrient debt is created. So, it is not just that sugar puts on weight. It is not just that it doesn't have nutrient value. It actually creates a condition of stress in the body. Given enough of these stressful events, the body will become exhausted.
 If we indulge our craving for salt, we create an imbalance in the potassium/sodium ratio in the body. Potassium is important for its role in the contraction of muscles, including the heart. An excess of sodium causes an accumulation of water, bringing about an increase in blood volume, blood pressure and heart rate. Too little potassium, which is found in fresh fruit and vegetables, and too much sodium is a sure trigger for cancer, heart disease, kidney failure and stroke.
 

 When we crave sugar or salt, most of the time what the body really needs (as opposed to wants) is simply pure H2O -- pure, clean, unadulterated WATER. In not reading the signal properly, we feed the body precisely what it needs the least of, the same salty or sugary substances that created the deception in the first place. The body becomes even more depleted of water.
 An overload of salt or sugar has created a condition of mild dehydration in the body, and the body is asking that its fluid demands be met. We read the signal as wanting more food (usually sugar). Yet, a mere glass of water will satisfy the craving.
 I know that this explanation sounds ridiculously simplistic -- too easy to be true. Yet, I, and other smart doctors and researchers who have understood the value of water, have recommended water as a cure for food cravings to scores of people with absolutely impeccable results. Unfortunately for all the people who have suffered needlessly, it is only recently that any of us have begun to see the error of the ways of traditional western medical thought in regard to water.
 When science began its inquiry into the human body, it followed the basic principles that had been established in chemistry. The 25% solid matter of the body was considered to be the solute, the substances that are dissolved and carried in the blood and serum of the body. The 75% water part was seen as the solvent, meaning that whatever it touches, it begins to dissolve that substance. Following the laws of chemistry and test-tube experiments, it was assumed that the solute composition of the body was the truly important part of the body. The solid materials were seen as the regulator of all bodily functions. The solvent, the water in the body, was seen as a mere space filler whose only function was a means of transport for the important solutes.
 This erroneous assumption prevented researchers from even asking the question of whether or not the regulation of the fluids of the body ever go awry. Now that we understand the multiple functions of the solvent, the water in our bodies, we know that the answer is that the fluids in our bodies can and do go awry, and much more often than we would imagine. Most of us have an undiagnosed condition of sub-clinical dehydration. The traditional assumption that we only need to drink water when we experience "dry mouth" is totally false, and is, as well, a dangerous assumption. In fact, dry mouth is the last outward sign of dehydration. Food craving, in particular sugar craving, is a much earlier sign, but one that is not read correctly, and thus not responded to appropriately. So is tiredness. Fatigue can occur when the body is trying to carry out its normal functions on a limited supply of water. Many of us eat when we’re tired in order to get the energy surge that food gives us; what we need, however, much of the time, is just water.
 Why is it that we experience wanting food when what our bodies need is water? And what is the relation between water and weight?
 It goes without saying, of course, that a healthy body is not overweight. It is now well documented that sating the body with water eliminates the craving for sugar and salt. Drinking sufficient quantities of water is not only the best diet you can go on, it is the last diet you'll ever go on. This is, of course, because it's not a diet at all. It's merely a way of rebalancing the body so that all the organs and tissues can do what they're supposed to do.
 In fact, incredible as it may seem, water is the single most important factor in taking off weight and keeping it off. Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake causes fat deposits to increase, and an increase in water intake reduces fat deposits. Water is essential to help the body to metabolize fat. It also acts as a natural appetite suppresser.
 The biochemistry behind the fact that drinking a sufficient quantity of water is the best way of losing weight is actually quite simple. The kidneys cannot function properly without enough water. If the kidneys are not doing their job well enough, then they will dump their overload into the liver. Normally the liver has the function of metabolizing stored fat into usable energy for the body. But if the liver has to do part of the kidneys’ job, then it can't do its own job well enough. It metabolizes less fat than it should, and the unmetabolized fat stays stored in the body. Weight loss cannot occur when there is excess fat stored in the body. When the body's need for water is met, the liver can return to its normal operation of metabolizing stored fat, and more fat is used as fuel. There is a loss of food craving almost overnight. Weight stabilizes automatically at the correct weight for every body type.
 But weight-loss is not the most important reason to drink sufficient quantities of water. Keeping the body well-hydrated is, as well, absolutely essential to keeping the body in good health. Now that we know that the solvent is as important to bodily functions as the solutes, we have been able to investigate all of the purposes of water in our bodies. The body uses water for virtually all of its functions -- for digestion, absorption, circulation, excretion, transporting nutrients, building tissue and maintaining temperature. So important is water for health that insurance statistics show that people who drink a lot of water live an average of five years longer than those who don't make drinking water a habit.
 Clinical studies at Johns Hopkins University have shown that low blood pressure can be corrected when the amount of fluid in the body is increased. Because low blood pressure is associated with chronic fatigue syndrome, elevating the blood pressure gives some relief from symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.
 It is now known that water has an essential hydrolytic role in all aspects of body metabolism. This means simply that there are all sorts of chemical reactions that take place in the body that need water to occur. Since the chemistry and the electricity of the body are intimately intertwined, without sufficient water, both the chemistry and the electrical energy of the body will be unbalanced. Water, too, is employed as an adhesive material in the integrity of the cell architecture. Also, proteins and enzymes of the body function more efficiently in well-hydrated, watery solutions. Water helps to maintain proper muscle tone by giving the muscles their natural ability to contract. Water helps the body to eliminate waste. Water is an important constituent of the body's lubricants, helping to cushion the joints and internal organs, keeping body tissues such as the eyes, lungs and air passages moist. It should be clear by now that without sufficient water intake, one simply cannot be healthy.
 What precisely happens when there is insufficient water intake? When the body is not getting enough water, it perceives that there is a threat to its survival, and it shores up its defenses. The body sets up a kind of drought management program. A priority distribution system is set up for the small amount of water that is available from the intake and for the small amount that may be left in the body's reserves.
 One of the things the body can do is siphon the water it needs from its internal stores.  For instance, one place where there is usually a lot of water is the colon. Water can be pulled from the colon to be redistributed to other parts of the body. But then the colon is left with too little water. A dehydrated colon is a plugged up colon, and constipation occurs.
 When there is insufficient intake, the body wants to hold onto every last drop of water that it has. Water is then stored in abnormal places, for instance, in the extracellular spaces (outside the cells). This condition shows up as swollen feet, hands and legs. Traditional medicine reads these signals incorrectly, and sees that the body is holding onto too much water. Diuretics are prescribed, which, in fact, force the stored water out and give temporary relief. But, nutrients are also lost, and the body is more depleted than ever of its water reserves. In fact, the body will naturally release its stored water when it has the quantity of water it needs for healthy functioning.
 Numerous diseases have been related to dehydration: stomach upset, rheumatoid arthritis, morning sickness, colitis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma and allergies, stress and depression and, finally, cancer.
 Most stomach upsets are symptoms of dehydration. We have seen relief from pain within 10-20 minutes after ingesting water. The principle is as follows: hydration is essential for the proper functioning of the mucosa, the innermost layer of the stomach. Normally, a portion of the stomach cells secrete sodium bicarbonate, and as the stomach acids try to move through the mucosa layer, the bicarbonate neutralizes these acids. Without enough water, or with too much salt, this protective mechanism breaks down. The acid is permitted to get through to the mucosal layer and pain ensues. Proper hydration provides a better acid barrier to the mucosa than any antacids or medication on the market. Even in the case of ulcers, hydration will allow the ulcer to repair itself in time.
 Colitis, constipation and abdominal pain are often related to the body's need for water. Colitis is often associated with constipation. One of the functions of the large intestine is to take water out of excrement so that there is a minimum loss of water from the body after food digestion. Proper hydration is essential for easy passage. Without enough water, the waste material will be dry and hard, and eventually the build-up of this undischarged waste will cause pain, or worse, inflammation.
 Arthritis is helped by hydration because the cartilage in bone joints consists of a large amount of water. Cartilage surfaces need to glide gracefully over one another. In well-hydrated cartilage, this gliding takes place with a minimum amount of friction. In a dehydrated cartilage, abrasion occurs, and this abrasion damages the cartilage, thus causing pain. Eventually the damage can become severe enough to cause osteoarthritis.
 The spine, too, as part of the bony structure of the body, needs water. In the spinal joints, not only is water a lubricant for the surfaces that come into contact with one another, it is also held within the core of the discs. In fact, 75% of the weight of the upper body is supported by the water volume that is stored in the disc core. The spine is one of the first places that systemic dehydration will show. The fifth lumbar disc, which causes low back pain, is almost always affected.
 At times, a state of bodily dehydration manifests as psychological problems. The brain needs water in order to generate electrical energy. We may experience the state of brain dehydration as depression or apathy. As well, stress may be related to a water shortage. When we describe that we are experiencing stress, we should remember that stress can be physiological as well as psychological. Dehydration is, in fact, a great stress on the body. When the body is in stress, it will assume a crisis posture and will begin to mobilize a "fight or flight" response. Hormones are poured into the bloodstream. One of these hormones is vasopressin, which has the job of regulating the selective flow of water into some cells. Bodily stress will create the production of too much or not enough vasopressin. Thus, stress is both caused by dehydration as well as causing dehydration. The malfunctioning becomes circular.

The Prescription:
 All of us have been told for as long as we can remember that we should be drinking three 8 ounce glasses of water every day. While this amount would be sufficient for a healthy body, most of us have for so long ignored our bodies' hydration requirements that we need to make up for lost time, and that amount may not prove sufficient in the beginning.
 We recommend starting each day by drinking three glasses of water. You can add a little chlorophyll to one of the glasses. This will cleanse the kidneys and wash away the residue that gathers overnight in the bladder. You can also make a big jug of lemon water in the morning so that you can easily partake of lemon water throughout the day. The lemon, too, aids in carrying off the wastes that have built up during the night. The lemon water has another beneficial effect. Chefs throughout the ages have known the secret of using lemon as a seasoning to cut down on the use of salt in food preparation. Lemon has unique qualities that curtails the craving for both salt and sugar.

Re-hydrating the body:
Start your day with 3 glasses of water. In one of the glasses, add a teaspoon of liquid chlorophyll. Another glass should be lemon water. For the rest of the day, we suggest that you alternate taking four ounces of water and four ounces of lemon water every half-hour. Essentially, you are rehydrating your body on a continuous basis.

Water (and all liquids) should always be drunk at room temperature. If cold liquids are drunk, the body temperature drops. The heart responds by pumping faster and the whole body is jolted.
You should stop drinking water a half-hour before you eat, not drink at all while eating, and you can resume drinking an hour after eating. Water dilutes digestive enzymes, thus making digestion more difficult. As well, drinking water with meals changes the way your body absorbs oils. People who drink water when they eat almost invariably suffer from dry skin. This is because small oily globules are released when you eat and then absorbed into the bloodstream. When you drink water while eating, the small oily globules become large pools of oil and water. Oil and water don't mix, and this holds true in the stomach as well as anywhere else. These oils are then sent to the gall bladder, then to the liver which either digests them or stores them for fat -- usually in your waistline. The oil never makes it to your skin, and, in addition, you grow fatter.
If you drink cold water when you eat, the problem is even greater. The cold solidifies the oils and turns them into grease. These oils in your stomach will be the same sludge as the oil that hardens after you fry eggs in shortening or oil. Then when the oils are burned in the liver, they leave ashes, just like the ashes in a fireplace. These ashes are tiny cholesterol crystals that deposit in your bloodstream and clog your arteries.
 Next comes the question of what kind of water to drink. If you’re living in an urban area, the chances are that your tap water could make you sick. In 1992 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found over 800 municipal water supplies polluted with dangerous lead levels: these water systems supplied water to over 30 million people. The National Resource Defense Council found that 43% of all water systems in this country violated federal health standards. Researchers in Montreal, Canada concluded that one-third of all gastrointestinal illnesses are caused by drinking water.
Most people assume that bottled water or spring water is cleaner and healthier than tap water. This is an incorrect assumption. In fact, there is no regulation for bottled water and often this water is more polluted than your municipal water. The kind of water that approximates purity without pollution is distilled water. Distilled water has the advantage of actually pulling out toxins and debris in the body as it winds its way down your digestive track. Distilled water helps to clean out our cells, organs and fluids. Distilled water is the water of choice for drinking and cooking.
 Because the skin is an organ of absorption, swimming is an excellent way of giving the body a good rehydrating boost. Swimming in the ocean rehydrates your body to a saline condition that your body will welcome because it is close to the original home that your body developed in -- your mother’s womb. Swimming in clean, fresh water also has advantages. Fresh water lakes, for instance, generally have algae growing in them. Algae brings oxygen into the water, so not only will you be rehydrating your body but you’ll be getting a good dose of oxygen, as well. Fresh water also has lots of minerals and will help your skin to be baby-soft. Fresh water can cause a mild detox reaction (runny nose and teary eyes), whereas the salty, ocean water generally clears up detox symptoms.
 Once you start adhering to this program of gradual systemic rehydration, you will be amazed at how quickly persistent health problems clear up. You will recognize other people who understand the importance of hydration because they carry water bottles with them at all times.

Salting Your Sugars

 One of the things that puzzles many devoted, die-hard vegetarians and health-food freaks is how frequently they crave oily, buttery, sweet-laden goodies. Vegetarians often assume that because their diet is pure, it is also balanced. What we don't know, however, is that sodium is absolutely essential to biochemical balance, and that if we do not eat sufficient sodium, we will be deficient in vital minerals, a condition which will effect the health of our entire body. Many of us don’t concentrate on the foods which are naturally high in sodium -- goat whey, okra, lentils, celery, turnips, raw egg, black figs, fish, spinach, cucumbers.
 A deficiency in sodium will create the same kind of craving for sugar and sweets that a need for water does. Ironically, not only does drinking sufficient water cure a sugar craving, so does eating pure, unrefined salt.
 Salt and water are, in fact, so intertwined in the body that we could say that they're married to one another. Not only are our bodies 85% water, this watery solution is salty. Our blood is salty, our tears are salty, our sweat is salty and our urine is salty. The very first environment that each of us experiences -- the intrauterine environment, and the amniotic fluid that suspends us weightlessly in the uterus -- is salty, actually equivalent to the ocean. In this, our first salty home, the embryo grows over three billion times in weight. We are in need of salt throughout the rest of our lives just as much as we were originally in our intrauterine home.
 The role of salt in sugar craving is similar to the role of water in sugar craving. Deficiency causes the craving. In the case of salt, sodium is essential for all stages of digestion. Without salt, no digestion is possible. Digestion begins in the mouth, and salt plays its first role here. Salt activates the first enzyme in the mouth, salivary amylase. Salt exposes food to the taste-buds, which is why we salt our foods "to taste."
 In the stomach, salt generates hydrochloric acid. Only when there is a sufficient amount of hydrochloric acid can food be  digested. Hydrochloric acid digests the glucides of cereal grains, breaks down the fibers of vegetables, and emulsifies fats and oils. If there is insufficient hydrochloric acid, the glucides are not transformed and the natural sugars in the food are not released through the process of digestion. The body then enters an internal state of a sugar deficiency, and there will be a felt craving for sweets. It is this deficiency which causes vegetarians and specifically macrobiotics, with their heavy emphasis on grains, to crave sweet desserts, even after having a balanced whole grain and vegetable meal. This sugar craving arises not from some psychological weakness, but from an actual physiological imbalance in salt intake.
 Sodium deficiency interferes with many bodily processes other than digestion. Our bodies, in fact, consist of a series of three miniature oceans, salty, watery solutions that comprise the 85% fluid of our bodies. These three internal oceans require frequent replenishment of trace minerals. Each of these internal oceans surrounds and circulates through our bodies. One forms the plasma of our blood; another forms the lymphatic circulatory system; the third forms the extracellular fluid that bathes every living cell. It is this mineral replenishment which occurs through absorption in the skin, that is why bathing in the ocean is so invigorating. A few minutes in ocean water has an immediate strengthening effect of the salty, watery lymphatic system.
 These three salty fluids are close in their chemical composition as well as in their physio-chemical and biological properties. They are intimately interconnected, and each bodily fluid can influence the others. Each requires trace elements which exist in both the earth's oceans and our bodily internal oceans. These trace minerals all work together to maintain balance and proper functioning of all of the body's systems.
 If any of our internal oceans are short-changed of trace nutrients, the bio-electric impulses which trigger all chemical processes of the body will be hampered. All nervous impulses depend upon a difference of potential between the inside and outside of the cells. This cellular integrity is accomplished through an accumulation of potassium and magnesium inside the cell and sodium and calcium outside the cell. The leniency for variation from this balance is extremely small. If there is more than a 1% change in the necessary amounts of these trace minerals, the cell loses its ability to control its ions, and pathology on the cellular level occurs. In particular, there is a breakdown of the regeneration and growth process of the cell, an essential process as a prophylactic against cancer.
 Salt deficiency is a major cause of fatigue. Sodium and chloride help stimulate the synthesis of anti-stress hormones from the adrenal glands. These hormones are necessary in that they regulate metabolism, maintaining circulation and boosting energy. Muscular weakness, muscle soreness and leg cramps are all symptoms of sodium deficiency. Furthermore, many of the common medications, including aspirin, cortisone, prednisone, diuretics and antacids deplete salt from the body.
 Since sodium is essential to so many bodily functions, we have to ask why salt has gotten such a bad rep. We have been led to believe that salt will kill us through high-blood pressure and heart disease. For 50 years medical studies have confirmed the relation between salt intake and high blood pressure: yet, all these studies were performed on refined, white table salt. This substance can, indeed, kill you, and in more ways than through heart disease. This salt, in fact, is not even made for human consumption. Salt that is eaten accounts for only seven percent of the total salt production, the balance used by the chemical industry and manufacturing. There is no distinction in origin of the salt, nor in the manufacturing process. Most salt comes from dried-up inland seas, dead salt lakes or dead salt mines. What is created, for eating and for industry, is a chemicalized, unnatural and biologically damaging substance. It bears little relation to salt in its natural state, either the salt taken relatively recently from our oceans, or the salt in our bodies’ internal oceans. In the industrial refining process, over 92 trace minerals and essential nutrients are removed. A single, devitalized, unnatural compound made of sodium and chlorine is left.
 Table salt also contains added aluminum and sugar. Sugar is added to enhance the taste; aluminum is used to make the salt slippery and prevent caking so it will shake easily from the salt shaker. (We already know the problems with sugar; aluminum has been implicated in the causation of Alzeimer’s.)
 In addition, most table salt is taken from cement-lined salt flats which draw their water from industrially polluted bays and coasts. This crude salt is unsuitable as a table food because it is filled with dirt, oily sand, concrete efflorescence and heavy metal pollution. This salt needs refining, and gets it. The refining process, too, introduces its own set of pollutants. The end result is a chemical substance which, indeed, causes heart disease as well as many other bodily dysfunctions and diseases which have not yet been linked directly to this refined salt.
 Many health-food practitioners who are even minimally aware of the refining process of salt have opted for sea salt, thinking that they are giving themselves a healthy alternative. This is false reassurance, however, and any commercial brand of sea salt will have the same dangerous effects as refined salt. Although the origin of the salt may be the ocean, the salt is still harvested mechanically by bulldozers from dirt or concrete basins. The salt is processed, using many artificial processes which degrade the quality of the salt and rob it of all of its essential minerals. Sea salt is heated to the point that its molecular structure is cracked. Finally, it is further adulterated by chemical additives which make it, like regular refined salt, free-flowing, bleached and iodized with inorganic iodine.
 We fare no better with most of the so-called "natural" products that include salt. The salt that is found in tamari, soy sauce and miso is Mexican in origin. This salt is crude salt that is shipped in bulk to Japan where most of these products are made. It is actually illegal in Japan for any individual or firm to make salt. The refining and sale of salt is a government monopoly. The entire supply of salt in Japan is imported and highly refined. This salt is then artificially remineralized with a few specific minerals so that it can be sold as a natural product. This salt is not a natural product. It is a pale imitation of natural.
 Many vegetarians believe that they get sufficient salt from the small amount of sodium that is in vegetables and other foods.  However, many vegetarians are not attentive enough to their sodium needs and don’t consume enough sodium to satisfy their body’s sodium requirements. When this happens, vegetarians will experience a craving for salty snack foods as well as for sugar.
 Meat-eaters, as well as vegetarians, can suffer from sodium deficiency. Many aboriginal peoples who were meat-eaters would only eat from a fresh-kill. They would drink the blood of the animal, suck out the marrow and gnaw on the cartilage. These habits increased the ratio of minerals to protein, thus giving the people necessary sodium and protecting them against many diseases, including heart disease. Today, however, we eat aged meat that has had the blood drained from it. With the high degree of meat protein that most meat-eaters today consume, and without the balancing trace minerals, it is almost impossible for the body to regulate itself adequately. The rampant extent of heart disease in western countries may be partially attributed to this habit of ours.

The Prescription:
 Our ancestors may not have known the chemistry to know the effective component was sodium, but nevertheless they understood the amazing health benefits of natural salt.
 Salt was so valuable in ancient times that it was regarded as worth its weight in gold. Much of the exploration of the Far East was for the rare spice that was salt. Wars, even, have been fought to gain control of the commodity of salt.
Our forbears knew that natural crystal salt was life-giving and a powerful healing agent. Initially, man probably began eating salt by using the rock salt of the earth, the same salt licks that animals used. Rock salt has high concentrations of calcium sulfate and potassium chloride, materials that are appropriate for the meat-eating nomadic tribes.
 In the warmer climates, however, concentrating and drying the brine from salt waters was a relatively simple procedure. Proximity to salt springs or to oceans became an important determinant in where people chose to live. Among these ancestors were the Celts, who revered three major symbols of life and harmony with the cosmos: wheat, which is the symbol of life; salt is the extension of fire, issued from the waters; and water, which bestows spiritual strength. Together, this trilogy gave these peoples a philosophy of life and a reverence for basic elements.
 The method these ancient Celts used to collect their salt is still in practice today in the coastal region of Brittany, France. The particular ecology of this region makes it among the most pristine in the world. In 1991 the French government proclaimed this area to be a national shrine, and the Celtic practice of gathering the salt to be a national treasure. Here, farmers in the tradition of their Celtic ancestors, use only the wind and sun as mechanisms for drying the salt. Salt crystals are harvested by hand in wooden spoons. This salt retains all 92 minerals that are in the sea, as opposed to common table salt which has had all but two minerals refined out. As well as trace elements, Celtic salt contains the valuable macro-nutrients of boron, lithium, iodine, phosphorous, ammonium, strontium and fluorine.
 We believe Celtic salt is the only salt that should be used. We feel that it is the highest quality salt available.  You can use it in cooked, raw and fermented foods. When using this salt for consumption,  it is important to not cook the nutrients out. Thus, you should add it to food only at the end of the cooking process. It dissolves quite nicely on moist food. You will notice that it actually has a sweet taste. As well, Celtic salt will not result in a water craving, as all other salts do.
Celtic salt, as well, makes a wonderful substance for skin cleansing. Feel free to rub it on your body and to use it in a bath. Any exposure your skin has to this salt will only be health-enhancing.
 Celtic salt can also be used as medicine. The salt is strongly alkalizing and will, in fact, rebalance acid/alkaline levels. Many illnesses include or are even caused by an acid/alkaline imbalance.  At the beginning of an illness, increase the quantity of salt you eat for just a few days and luxuriate in a warm salt bath. Meat-eaters will almost always suffer from an acidic condition since meat is strongly acidic. We encourage meat-eaters, particularly, to feel free with their use of Celtic salt to rebalance the acidity of the meat. You can also use this salt for burns, bleeding and acute localized infections.
 In ancient Celtic days, salt was the most precious element that could be given as a gift. Similarly, you could introduce this salt to friends and help them to understand the high quality of Celtic salt.

Tissue and Organ Cleansing

 A dramatic illustration of the importance of detoxification is the story of Selena. Selena reported that in just one month, she had lost 20 pounds. She lamented that every time she put any food in her body, she had excruciating abdominal pains and nausea. She hadn’t been able to eat any solid food for that entire month. Selena was scheduled for exploratory abdominal surgery the next day.
 At the eleventh hour, Selena opted for a natural approach. She first had a colonic, then drank some green water (see Let’s Eat) and soothing teas. That afternoon she had another colonic. For three days, Selena had two colonics each day. By the second day she was able to eat watermelon without pain and by the third day she was cheerfully chomping down a baked potato. Selena never had her surgery.

 Digestion
 Food, like germs, is recognized by the body as a foreign presence. The process of breaking down this foreign entity is the process of digestion. This is normally completed without ill consequences when the individual is able to break down the chemical components of the food.
 Digestion occurs in a part of the body that is not, topologically, inside the body. The body can be seen as a thick, misshapen cylinder, the outer surface being what we see, the inner surface being the alimentary canal. This digestive system consists of a single convoluted tube, some thirty feet long, open at its beginning, the mouth, and its end, the anus. Various sites in the tube, such as the stomach, are enlarged enough to accommodate the task of holding food and mixing it with glandular secretions. Some components of food, such as the cellulose in bread and vegetables, enter and leave the digestive tract never having entered the body itself. It is only when food components are broken down into small particles, simple enough to be absorbed, that the surface of the cylinder is finally breached, and nutrients enter the blood and lymphatic systems which, in turn, will carry them to every cell in the body. Toxins, as well as nutrients, enter the body systemically through digestion, and then through the fluid mediums, the blood and lymphatic.
 Digestion begins in the mouth with the release of the first digestive enzyme, pytalin, which changes (digests) starches to sugars. When the food has been chewed, muscles in the cheeks, tongue and roof of the mouth all cooperate together to form a kind of chute so that food can be pushed down into the pharynx, then, through involuntary movements, into the esophagus. From here the food passes into the stomach where the effect of hydrochloric acid will break down the food particles into still smaller units. Large quantities of digestive enzymes are secreted so that the food gets converted into a semi-fluid state called chyme. This chyme now passes into the beginning of the bowel, the duodenum, the first portion of the small intestine, where the enzymes combine to further digest the food substances. It is here in the small intestine that 90% of the absorption of all food constituents into the bloodstream takes place.
 By the time the chyme has reached the end of the small intestine, all that remains of what started out as food in the mouth is water and waste. This solid waste passes to the large intestine, the colon, for the final stage of digestion and elimination. The large intestine swarms with billions of friendly bacteria whose function is to accomplish the final synthesizing of nutrients. Rhythmic motions of the muscles of the five foot long organ, called peristalsis, push the solid waste toward the rectum and anus where it is eliminated from the body. The walls of the colon absorb most of the water which will be evacuated as urine.
 As we improve our diets, waste elimination becomes more important than ever. Nutritional factors become available to cells which they may not have had for years. As a result of this more concentrated nourishment, cellular metabolism will speed up and more metabolic waste will be dumped into the bloodstream. Usually the organs of elimination are not used to handling this larger amount of waste, and they will prove to be not up to the task. Uneliminated waste will then collect in the bloodstream, and we will experience the same kind of autointoxication that Carrel’s chicken heart cells suffered from (though usually not with lethal results, or at least not without 20 to 30 years of waste accumulation). Ultimately, we will even defeat the purpose of the original dietary improvement because the cells will no longer be able to utilize the fresh nutrients being provided by the nutritional program.
 Digestion and elimination of undigested food is only one of the means that the body has of ridding itself of waste. There are five eliminative channels of the body: skin, liver, lungs, kidneys and, of course, the bowel. Each of these organs will carry away waste adequately so long as the demands on the organ do not exceed its capability. Together all five comprise a multi-layered structure, consisting of a series of back-up systems. Exquisite checks and balances insure that should one eliminative channel fail, another is waiting to step in. Material that should normally be discharged through one organ will find its way to another eliminative organ. For instance, toxins that have not been eliminated through the colon may find themselves attempting to be released through the skin, causing rashes or other skin disorders. The body will attempt, always to find its way back to homeostatic balance.
 When the body has exhausted even its emergency back-up systems of elimination through its ordinary eliminative organs, it seeks even more drastic solutions. For instance, in cancer, toxins have been unable to find proper elimination, and they settle in the connective tissue of the body. Every cancerous tumor is surrounded by this connective tissue; wherever cancer has established itself in the body, connective tissue is found. When even this method of storing toxins fails, when the connective tissue can no longer receive any more material, then toxins will pass into the bloodstream and other tissues, thus creating systemic autointoxication.
 Heart disease, like cancer, begins as a healing response to an abnormal condition. The arterial system of the body is like an extraordinarily complex map. Tunnel-like vessels carry blood to every part of the body. In order to accommodate to the body, the vessels turn and twist incessantly, and in doing so, tiny wounds or tears are created. These internal wounds are quickly healed normally through the growth of new cells. In effect, internal scabs are formed. Cholesterol and fats form around the scab as it heals. This is a completely natural process, and one that is handled easily when blood flow is strong and when the amount of scarring is not too great. However, when there is more scarring than the body can handle, or when more cholesterol deposits around the scab than the body can tolerate, then the natural healing cannot continue. Further growth is promoted; the cholesterol actually begins to act as a carcinogen within the artery by promoting wild, new growth. The arterial wall becomes so coated with abnormal growth, called plaque, that blood flow is diminished. The coronary arteries are no longer able to transport an adequate amount of blood to the heart.
 It is clear that to stay healthy, we need to keep all of the eliminative channels of the body in good working order. Given how little attention we pay to our own bodily waste removal, it is actually rather amazing that we live as long as we do. But think about how long we could live if our bodies, on the inside as well as the outside, were clean.
 In fact, we are unique in our neglect of this facet of our health. Most cultures and traditions of medicines have practices designed specifically to eliminate bodily toxins. Among the most advanced are the techniques of the yogis. Sivinanda yoga teaches various kriyas -- purification practices which cleanse parts of the body that have a tendency to collect unwanted debris.
 You can take as your point of departure these various yogic traditions of cleansing. Some should be performed precisely as they have been practiced for thousands of years. For others, you can use convenient, modern techniques.  Now all of us have the ability to gain control over certain functions of our bodies without the steely discipline of a seasoned yogi.

 Cleaning the colon
 It is unfortunate that American doctors have contended for decades that the number of bowel movements an individual has is unrelated to health. They have convinced most of us that they are correct. Most people think that they are not constipated if they are having one bowel movement a day. Yet, we eat three meals a day. Where are the other two meals going if they're not being eliminated through the colon? The answer actually is somewhat frightening. The rest of the food that is not absorbed by the body as nutrients stays around the body in unlikely places -- against the colon walls, in tissues and organs, in arteries -- any place at all in the body can serve as a receptacle for uneliminated waste.
 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of the famed Battle Creek Sanitarium, maintained that 90% of modern diseases are the result of improper functioning of the colon. British physician, Sir Arbuthnut Lane concurred after performing hundreds of bowel resections where diseased portions of the bowel were removed. He noticed that during the time that the patient was recovering from the surgery that other diseases, seemingly unrelated to the colon problem, were cured.
 Sir Lane came to understand that a large part of the problem in many diseases was the body's inability to adequately carry out its normal waste disposal functions. He calculated that a healthy intestine requires emptying every six hours, and that more commonly, it is emptied every 24 hours.
 There is scientific research, as well, showing the relationship between bowel functioning and health. British and South African scientists have shown a lot of interest in this issue and have conducted elaborate experiments involving the clocking and weighing of feces of human volunteers. It has been confirmed that too few bowel movements and too little bulk in the stool is related to a variety of disorders, including heart and gallbladder diseases, diverticulitis, varicose veins, hiatal hernia and cancer of the large intestine.
 There is also a study of over 1000 women with histories of constipation. Fluid was extracted from the breasts of the women. This fluid showed abnormal cells which are the same abnormal cells found in women with breast cancer. These cellular abnormalities occurred five times as often in women who moved their bowels fewer than three times a week than in women who did so more than once a day.
It is probably the case that Sir Arbuthnut Lane was overly optimistic about the bowel functioning of most of us. The truth is that most people don't know that their bowels are not functioning properly. Humans are the only animals who have such insufficient bowel functioning. Breast-fed babies, indigenous peoples, birds and animals all evacuate their bowels shortly after each meal.
 Normal bowel functioning means there is waste for everything that goes in except distilled water. We need to find those other, lost meals.

The Prescription:
 Basti is the yogic tradition of natural cleansing of the lower intestines. It involves the controlled use of muscles to pull water up into the colon, and then, after churning the water around to dislodge old waste products, the water, and whatever it carries off with it, is expelled. We have to admit, though, that this method of colon cleansing will appeal to an extremely small number of people.
 Fortunately, in the last few decades, there have been a number of natural health physicians interested in waste elimination. As a result, there are several methods of colon cleansing that are easier and just as thorough as basti.
 Colon cleansing can be approached from, so to speak, either the top end or the bottom end -- the mouth or the rectum.
 The simplest way of beginning colon cleansing is to add bulk to the diet. Fiber is present in all fresh, raw vegetables. Cooking softens the fiber and renders it ineffective. Dietary fiber in food is indigestible. But when present in the intestinal tract, it supports a multiplying population of intestinal bacteria, and this can be an aid in both digestion and elimination. The detoxifying powers of fiber were demonstrated in a study where rats were fed poison, and simultaneously put on a high fiber diet. These rats survived without harm, while other animals fed the same poison, but without the fiber, became ill and died.
 Many alternative health practitioners have begun to recommend adding whole psyllium husks to the diet.  Even traditional physicians generally recommend Metamucil, which is psyllium with added (unnecessary) sugar.  There are times, however, when psyllium can cause problems. First, these husks can be irritating to the intestines. There is a delicate layer of mucus membranes and villi in the small intestine.  These villi are important in the absorption of nutrients.  The psyllium husks can scrape against these finger-like villi and damage them, thus interfering with the absorption of nutrients.
 Bran is also frequently recommended as a way of increasing fiber in one’s diet.  Bran is even more irritating to the intestines than psyllium. Bran is a part of the wheat grain; it is a partial food rather than a whole food and thus can create a nutritional imbalance. Further, bran acts as an irritant to the lining of the digestive tract. The intestine, in order to rid itself of this irritant, attempts to rush the process of moving waste material through. Decreased nutrient absorption results because of the rapid transit through the tract. Further, constant use of bran can cause a chronic condition of intestinal lining irritation.
 Cleaning out the colon through the use of water injected directly into the colon most closely replicates the basti method. The water shooting through the alimentary canal acts as a gentle stimulus to dislodge old, encrusted fecal material. Methods include colonics, enemas and colemas.
 Most cities have colon therapists who specialize in helping people to know how to take care of their bowels. They also perform colonics, which is an intensive cleansing of the entire colon tract. Many people have an aversion to seeing or working with their fecal material other than at the bottom of a toilet. Colonics are sterile, painless and create an extremely thorough cleansing. This has recently become a popular method of colon cleansing.  Enemas are effective in reaching the low part of the colon, but have the disadvantage of not reaching the entire organ. Adding ingredients to the water in an enema can, however, greatly enhance its detoxifying power. Coffee enemas stimulate the liver; flaxseed tea enemas relieve the colon of inflammation; bentonite, or clay water, greatly increases the absorption of toxins from the colon walls.
 The colema board was developed more than thirty years ago by V.E. Irons. It is a home unit that combines the ease of the enema with the thoroughness of the colonic. It most closely approximates basti in that it is gentle, following the body’s own natural rhythm for retention and expulsion of water. The water enters the intestinal tract, and it is the colon's own spontaneous contractions that pushes water out. Thus, the colema works like an exercise program.  The water trains the colon to begin to correct its atrophied condition.  Because the muscles in the colon are stimulated, the colon sends messages to the rest of the body to release stored toxins and to bring them down through the normal eliminative channels.  Pockets of putrefied material embedded within the colon walls can be dislodged through the colema. We encourage the use of the colema board because the advantage of being able to do it yourself at home makes it economical and convenient, as well as effective. We consider the colema to be an essential part of any health program.

Cleaning the colon:
1) Eat flaxseed cereal: grind up 2 tablespoonfuls of flaxseed. Add yogurt, sunflower seeds and honey.
2) Eat prunes stewed in hot water
3) Do an enema, colema or colonic. Remember each has a specific effect. Choose the one that best suits your needs at that time.
4) Drink an aloe smoothie: blend one inch portion of fresh aloe leaf (with green skin on) with juice of a whole lemon, honey to taste (you’ll need lots to combat the bitter taste of the aloe skin, but the skin is the part of the leaf that has the purgative effect).
5) Herbal laxatives may be taken. Whole leaf aloe capsules are a good choice. There are many special formulations on the market. Laxatives with either senna or cascara sagrada will generally cause peristaltic cramping as they are both herbs that irritate the intestines. These  herbs should be reserved for occasional use.

 Remember that colon cleansing is a process that occurs only over time. It’s taken you a lifetime of bad eating habits to clog up your colon and it often takes many years of good colon cleansing habits to unclog your colon. Be patient with your body.

 Cleaning the skin
 One of the most wonderful things about the human body is that its largest organ is on its outside. This is, of course, the skin. Being on the outside means that the skin is ideally suited for non-invasive therapies. We can, and do automatically and continuously, both nourish and detoxify our bodies through the skin.
 The ability of the skin to accept substances and deliver them to the bloodstream is well-known, and used currently in traditional medicine. This is because the skin serves as a direct link to all the other organs. Physicians are now reviving the age-old practice of delivering medicine through the skin. Heart patients use nitroglycerin patches; cigarette smokers try to break their addiction through the use of nicotine patches. So great, in fact, is the ability of the skin to absorb substances that one drop of essential oil placed on the fingertip will show up in hair analysis ten minutes later.
 The skin's ability to excrete toxins, however, is not as emphasized. In natural health circles, the skin is referred to as the body's third lung, or third kidney. It aids tremendously in throwing off all toxins from the body. We absorb more impurities, and eliminate more waste through the skin than any other organ in our bodies (including the colon). Two pounds of waste are eliminated every day through the skin.  The skin works hand in hand with the kidneys. On hot days, we do a lot of our elimination through our skin, and our kidneys don't have to work as hard. Conversely, on cold days, our kidneys take over this function of the skin because the skin is not eliminating very much.
 The skin is often the first place that biological imbalance appears. When the other systems are overloaded in dealing with too many toxins, the skin is utilized as an organ of detoxification. Eruptions, blemishes, odors and colors may appear as the skin tries to do overtime in ridding the body of waste.

The Prescription:
 Once the skin is thoroughly cleansed, it becomes an ideal organ for the absorption of nutrients. This is the theory behind body wraps performed at day spas. In applying mud, herbs or algae to skin that is ready to receive nourishment, we are literally feeding the whole body. We’ve found two studies enlightening about the value of using the skin as an organ of absorption in the promotion of health. A study performed in Japan demonstrated that cancer growths of the skin, small intestine, stomach, lung and liver were significantly inhibited (by 75%) in mice fed green tea extracts. Researchers at Rutgers University of Medicine and Dentistry took this basic finding, replicated it and gave it a slight variation. This is when it gets really interesting. They reported that the green tea, indeed, suppressed tumor development, and that it didn't matter whether the tea was applied directly to the skin or included in the diet.
 Cleaning the skin is easy, fun and feels good.

Cleaning the skin:
1) Take a dry skin brush and brush up the front of the body and down the back. You will feel a warm glow as you help the body in sloughing off old cells and bring blood to the surface of the skin.
2) Alternating hot and cold water in a shower after the dry skin brush maximizes the effect. This hot and cold alternation exercises the tiny
muscles in the skin which control the opening and shutting of the pores.
 3) After the shower, sitting in a tub of water with either four cups of Epsom salts added or one cup of apple cider vinegar will further the
cleansing. The Epsom salts draw the toxins out; the vinegar restores the normal acid/alkaline balance to the skin.
4) To finish your skin cleansing, give your skin the best meal it could have. After you have towel-dried yourself to a warm glow, feed your skin essential oils made from the seeds of plants.

 Oils are the most concentrated form of botanical extracts. Because seeds represent the reproductive system of plants, the extracted oil feeds the human reproductive system, endocrine glands, nerves and brain (see Essential Oils and Your Immune System).

 Cleaning the lymphatic system
 Internal cleansing of the lymphatic system is essential because the lymph glands serve as one of the body's primary defense mechanisms. The lymphatic system is the only way the body has of cleansing out cellular debris that the bloodstream doesn’t take care of, such as viruses, bacteria and dust. The lymphatic glands are distributed throughout the body and serve as filters which absorb excesses of proteins.
 The lymphatic system is like the circulatory system: it moves a fluid -- which makes up about 80% of total body fluids -- throughout the body. This lymphatic fluid picks up debris as it moves along its path. Normally, excess lymphatic fluid is excreted through the skin, the kidneys and other eliminative organs.
 Unlike the circulatory system which has a pump, the heart, to keep the fluid moving, the lymphatic system has nothing to keep the fluid moving other than your own movement. Good breathing and exercise are crucial to keep this fluid going. When there is toxicity from improper diet or elimination, clothing worn too tightly, or not enough exercise, the lymphatic fluid gets blocked. The lymphatic glands then tend to swell under this toxic condition. This swelling is a sign that the body is overloaded with excess wastes.
 There are a lot of lymphatic glands around the breasts. As well, the female breast contains a lot of fatty tissue which tends to particularly accumulate toxins. The combination of these two factors is probably one reason why breast cancer is so prevalent.
 A French medical professor, Dr. Timothy Murrell, recommends regular breast stimulation to promote lymphatic drainage throughout the breast tissue. Dr. Murrell has demonstrated that nipple stimulation triggers a release of a natural compound called oxytocin. This chemical is important because as it seeps through the nipple, it carries with it a load of toxins, including DDT, PCB’s, dioxin and heavy metals. Nipple stimulation cleanses the breasts of these accumulated toxins and may go a long way toward preventing breast cancer.
 Having regular sex is, of course, a wonderful way of getting the release of oxytocin. But we can also stimulate the release of this chemical through a procedure of self-stimulation that can be performed each night before bed and takes only a few minutes.

The Prescription:
 Everyone should do a daily regimen of dry skin brushing. This brushing has a detoxifying effect that is specific to the lymphatic system. As well, jumping on a trampoline stimulates lymphatic drainage (see our chapter Newton, Einstein and Anti-Aging).
 For a more intensive lymphatic cleansing, we recommend a three-day citrus juice purge that was developed by Norman Walker. We have to take seriously anything Norman Walker had to say about health. He died at the age of 117, and was still romping around the hills of the southwest where he lived until the day he died. You will need to carve out time to do this fast, and to have no other plans for the three days. Hopefully you will be running to the bathroom quite a lot.
There is, also, a special massage technique called lymphatic drainage. This technique uses specially made gloves called Lymphatic Scrubbers. These are nylon gloves made with a rough surface that removes the layer of dead cells on top of the skin so that the skin can excrete toxins. As well, the scrubbers stimulate the lymphatic fluid that lies directly under the skin. This scrubbing is a technique that you can do to yourself with the gloves, but there are certain contraindications. Do not do this technique if you have a heart problem, have active cancer, tuberculosis, severe constipation, kidney dysfunction, or if you are menstruating.
 Finally, there is a special technique specific for lymphatic drainage of the breast.
 
 
 

Lymphatic cleansing:
1) Dry skin brush
2) Citrus purge
Begin the fast in the morning by taking either a bottle of Citrate of Magnesium or a tablespoon of either Epsom or Glauber salts dissolved in a glass of water. We find that most people prefer the Citrate of Magnesium because the taste isn't awful. Most drugstores carry it. Two hours later, or when you feel hungry, start drinking the citrus punch which is alkalizing to the body. To make the punch, mix 6 lemons, 12 oranges and 6 grapefruits in a gallon glass jar. Fill the rest of the jar with distilled water. Drink a glass of this punch every hour throughout the day, with no other drink, food or dietary supplements. If you develop any uncomfortable sensations such as headache, dizziness or nausea, feel assured these symptoms are signs that the fast is doing exactly what it is supposed to do -- cleaning out accumulated poisons from your body. This purge can be performed for one, two or three days (you get the most thorough cleansing from three days) and can be repeated every two months.  To augment the effect, you can go into a vegetable juice fast.  Do both fasts for the same amount of time.
3) Scrubbers massage
Begin with a shower or bath to make sure your skin is clean. Put 2 tablespoons of a cold-pressed vegetable oil (almond or avocado are both good) in a glass, porcelain or ceramic dish. Add a little essential oil to give your oil a scent. Then pull on your scrubbers and dip the
gloves into the oil mix. Massage gently in circles along your jaw line, cheeks, temples and forehead. Circle each place 5 times. Travel down the neck to the collarbone, still moving your massage hand in gentle circles. Circle both shoulders, each arm from shoulder to wrist, inside and outside. Circle above both breasts, on the outside of both breasts and then down the center between the breasts. Place both hands on the right side of the abdomen, fingers pointing down. Circle around the abdomen, going up under the rib cage, down the left side. Circle around the pubic area. Circle from your ankle to your groin on both legs, on both inside and outside of the legs. Circle each buttock. Circle both sides of your waist.
4) Rebounding
Jump in the morning; jump in the evening.
 

5) Breast cleansing
Lying down, raise your left arm over your head. Then gently stimulate your left nipple with your right hand by squeezing it for a couple of minutes. Then, take the lower portion of your left nipple, and move your right hand in an undulating motion, slowly moving the hand up into the armpit area. Repeat procedure with the other breast.

 The liver strengthener
 We all know the importance of the heart and take care to protect this organ. Most of us don't think too much about the liver, yet it is the liver that prevents the heart, as well as the brain, kidneys and pancreas from becoming diseased. The liver is the main organ of detoxification, and fortunately, it has developed the capacity to both break down and eliminate drugs as well as environmental poisons. The liver also metabolizes essential fats (cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoproteins) and digests and assimilates all fat-soluble nutrients such as vitamins A, D, E and K, lecithin and fatty acids. Without proper metabolization, these essential fats and fatty acids accumulate in the bloodstream where they form deposits on blood vessel walls, causing the disease atherosclerosis.

The Prescription:
 These two recipes help the liver to produce bile and keep the bile fluid.

Liver strengthener:
1) Shred 2 beets, add 2 tablespoons flaxseed oil with the juice of 1 lemon.  Eat a teaspoon every hour, 3 days a week for a month.
2) Blend 1 egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of black cherry concentrate in a cup of water. Drink three times a week.

 The liver-gall bladder flush
 The gall bladder and the liver work in concert with one another. The liver secretes bile and the gall bladder stores this bile. The bile carries off all liver wastes. Together, these two organs extract waste, and then carry the waste so that it may be eliminated through the intestines.
 It is not a normal condition for solid particles to remain in the gall bladder, but the health condition of many of us has created just this effect. The gall bladder cannot handle the elimination of solid material, so the free flow of gall bladder contents becomes diminished. The liver, then, becomes congested and cannot perform its detoxifying job. Fats, in particular, are not digested and the body suffers from the effects of poor assimilation of fat-soluble nutrients. We see this in such diverse symptoms as dry skin conditions (eczema and psoriasis), tendonitis, night blindness, hair falling out, excess calcium formation in tissues, prostate enlargement, hemorrhoids and varicose veins.

The Prescription:
 The liver/gall bladder flush was used extensively at the Lahey Clinic in Boston, Massachusetts. It successfully removes debris from the liver and gall bladder. It can be performed every two months.

The liver-gall bladder flush:
1) For 5 days, drink and eat normally, take any supplements that you are used to taking and drink as much apple juice or apple cider as you can. Of course, fresh juice is the best but not essential. Each day, add to the juice a total of 90 drops of Nutri-Phos Liquid (available at most health food stores). If you are sensitive to sugar (diabetic or hypoglycemic), simply dilute the juice with distilled water. Brush your teeth after taking the Nutri-Phos, as it is extremely acidic.
2) On the sixth day, two hours after lunch, drink 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt dissolved in 1 to 3 ounces of distilled water. This will taste awful, so wash it down with a little citrus juice (better if it’s fresh).
3) Four hours after lunch, give yourself either a colema or several clear water enemas before giving yourself a coffee enema. This will prevent the coffee enema from stirring up too many toxins.
4) For the coffee enema, make one quart of coffee from four tablespoons of coffee, and dissolve one-fourth cup of Epsom salt into the coffee. With this solution, give yourself an enema, retaining the solution for 15 minutes.
5) Five hours after lunch, repeat step 2, drinking 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt.
6) Six hours after lunch, eat as much as you want of a fresh fruit salad. Citrus fruit juice can follow the fruit meal.
7) At bedtime, drink half a cup of unrefined, organic olive oil blended with half a cup of citrus juice. After drinking this, lie in the bed on your right side with your right knee drawn to your chin for 30 minutes. This encourages the oil to drain from the stomach, moving the contents of the gall bladder and liver into the small intestine. If there is throwing up while drinking the blended oil, just continue drinking the solution until it is all down. Vomiting indicates that the gall bladder and liver have, in fact, been stimulated. It's wonderful to put a hot water bottle over your liver while you're falling asleep.
8) First thing in the morning, take either another coffee enema or repeat step 2.

 It is good to keep the diet light for the rest of this day. Eating raw foods, vegetable juices and some fermented foods would augment the flush.
 If you become nauseous, rest in bed and eat lightly until the feeling subsides.
 Don't be surprised if you find funny-looking, ball-shaped things in your stool as a result of this flush. These are the solid materials from the gall bladder which would eventually have turned into gall-stones and cause all manner of discomfort. If there're a lot of them, repeat the flush in two weeks instead of waiting the two months.

 Irrigating the nasal passages
 The nose, like the skin, attempts to keep impurities out of the body. It does this through filtering the incoming air. The nasal passages are lined with a thin layer of mucus that traps dirt, dust, pollen and other contaminants. These substances will generally move to the back of the throat, and then be swallowed, thus forcing the stomach to deal with added pollutants. Additionally, the mucus lining may become either too thick and dry, or too thin and runny. It then becomes easier for bacteria and viruses to penetrate the nasal passage. When this happens, the passages become swollen, and excess mucus is discharged because of the inflammation.
 It is a staple of folk medicine, as well as a widely practiced routine in India and other parts of the Orient, to use salt water to irrigate the nasal passages. Salt has an amazing effect on mucus. The molecules of salt are larger than the molecules of mucus. Through the process of osmosis, the salt draws mucus to it. Salt cleansing keeps the nasal passages open, draws mucus from the sinus area, and cleans and carries off impurities before the point where they are swallowed and enter the stomach.

The Prescription:
The Neti pot is a simple device used in India that resembles Aladdin’s lamp. Of course, the salt to use is Celtic salt (see our chapter, Salting Your Sugars), which should be ground first, and then dissolved in enough distilled water to fill the Neti pot. The technique is quite simple.

Irrigating the nostrils:
1) Bend the head over to one side.
2) Put the spout of the pot into the higher nostril so that it forms a seal.
3) Pour the saline solution through the nostril. When the saline solution comes out the other nostril, you'll know that the entire nasal passage has received the solution.
4) Follow this procedure for both nostrils. When you first begin this practice, you may have a lot of mucus that is becoming dislodged. Your nose may well run for a few minutes.

 Regular use of the Neti pot will give your breathing a lighter feeling. We've seen people who have had deviated septums from broken noses and who haven't breathed well for years benefit from the Neti pot. You can use it in the morning just to start the day with clear breathing. When you have a cold or allergy, you can use it several times a day. It's particularly good to use it in the dead of winter and the height of summer if you use air conditioning because both heated and air conditioned rooms dry out the mucus lining of the nose.

II. FOOD FOR THOUGHT WHILE WE'RE THINKING ABOUT FOOD

Making Your Kitchen a Medicine Cabinet

 The Japanese have a saying: Ishoken Dogen. It means that medicine and food have the same source. Nature has a cure for just about everything. We've found some sure-fire remedies using common substances found in most kitchens that relieve the most common ailments:

Food as medicine:
cough: chop an onion and pour honey over it. Let sit for an hour. The cough syrup will be the liquid made.
cold sores: cover the cold sore with yogurt, the longer the better. Leave the yogurt on until the sore disappears.
eye sties: cover the affected eye with a wet tea bag and bandage it in place. Leave it on overnight and, by morning the sty will have disappeared.
something in the eye: mince an onion and let the tears wash away whatever is in the eye.
poison ivy: crush several cloves of garlic and apply juice to affected area. Cover with gauze and repeat each hour 5 times. The itching and inflammation will dissipate almost immediately.
food poisoning: eat a clove of garlic every hour until pain and/or diarrhea are resolved.
aching feet: rub cayenne pepper into the soles of your feet. Voila; this is an instant cure.
headache: fill the bathtub with ice-cold water and walk back and forth in it until your feet feel warm. Then hop into bed and relax.
hiccups: inhale a little pepper -- enough to make you sneeze a few times. Sneezing almost always makes hiccups go away.
nausea: take a few cloves of garlic, a piece of cinnamon or a teaspoonful of powdered ginger in boiling water, let it steep, then drink.
earache: put 4 drops of onion juice in a container with 1 teaspoonful of warm olive oil. Put in ear 3 drops morning and evening until the earache goes away. To keep the oil in the ear, put cotton into ear.
Alternatively, sauté garlic in olive oil (as if you were about to make an Italian meal), and use the oil as your drops.
fever: bind sliced onions or garlic cloves to the bottoms of your feet. Your temperature will drop, and your breath will smell of the onion or garlic. (This is to be used only when the fever is uncomfortably high. Fever is an important aspect of the functioning of the immune system, and that you should say a prayer of gratitude when you get a fever. Fever is actually a prophylactic against cancer.)
asthma and bronchitis: 3 to 6 fresh or dried (unsulphured) apricots a day helps to correct lung and bronchial problems. Alternatively, crush several cloves of garlic and mix with honey, vinegar and raw flaxseed. Take a teaspoon of this several times a day.
impotence: eat tons of raw garlic. And make sure your partner likes the smell of garlic.
nosebleed: use your thumb and forefinger to pinch your nose right below the hard, bony part. Keep it pinched for 7 minutes.
having a bad day: eat some bananas. They have high amounts of serotonin and norepinephrine; these are the same chemicals they use in anti-depressants and which scientists have established helps to relieve depression.
hay fever: chew a bite-size chunk of honeycomb with the honey at the beginning of the attack. Keep chewing the comb until it turns into a ball of wax (at least 15 minutes). Sneezing and sniffles will be alleviated.

 There are certain foods that are so powerful in their nutritional value that they should be included as regular contributors to any health program. Of course, you won’t want to take each of them every day, but do make sure that you get regular exposure to these foods.

 Grape juice, not wine and not aspirin to lower your cholesterol
 By now everyone's heard that you can lower your cholesterol, and thus presumably reduce your chances of heart-attack by drinking wine. You may have heard about it on 20-20 on television; they reported that the French had a real health secret in loving their wine.  But the thinking person may wonder if wine, why not grape juice which has the advantage of being non-alcoholic? Recent research at Cornell University shows this thinking to be on the right track. The protective ingredient is resveratrol. Researchers now know that it is a naturally-occurring fungicide found in grape skins that is part of the plant's immune system: it helps the plant resist disease. In fact, grape juice is a more dependable source of resveratrol than wine. Wines differ in their levels because most inexpensive wines go through a process which removes tannins to make the wine less astringent. This same process, however, also removes the beneficial resveratrol. You can get a lot of resveratrol from expensive wines because they are aged naturally which removes the tannins naturally, but not the resveratrol. But the juice is the best source -- better even than the grapes themselves. Table grapes are usually picked from the best-looking grapes. Grapes grown for their looks are treated with more liberal amounts of chemical fungicides, thus reducing the plant’s need to produce its own fungicide in the form of the resveratrol. This is true for organic grapes as well because organic grapes are often treated with organic fungicides.
Recent researchers have now abandoned the wine connection and gone straight to the resveratrol connection with disease.  As the result of research published in the journal, Science, we now know that resveratrol can prevent cells from turning cancerous and can inhibit the spread of cells that already are malignant.
 As for the aspirin/heart disease connection: the discovery was made by John Folts, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin. However, as a result of new research, Dr. Folts has determined that grape flavonoids are more effective than aspirin in preventing heart disease.
You can find resveratrol in 70 different plants including mulberries and peanuts, but grapes are the richest source. But, to get the full power of the grape cure, you must take the whole grape, seed and fruit together. It’s difficult to get a therapeutic dose from your garden variety grape, so we recommend the soul grape, which is a young wild-growing grape that has not yet sugared. As Dr. Michael Wargovich, a cancer researcher at M.D. Anderson says, the discovery of resveratrol and the benefits of grapes "really hits a home run against cancer (and heart disease)."

Bee products
 One of the great things about bees is that they’re everywhere. This is particularly important because bee products -- honey, pollen, propolis and royal jelly -- are best when they come from your vicinity. Your local bees know your environment and their food reflects this knowledge.  Also, never use dried bee products.  The oils have been removed, rendering them a useless food.
 Honey is rich in vitamins and minerals and easily digested. It is antiseptic and was found in an Egyptian tomb 3300 years old in exactly the same condition as when it was put there. It is a natural diuretic, relieves asthmatic attacks, is an all-round energy food and is exceptionally good for the heart. It soothes pain and aids in healing, especially burns. Hospitals in England use it in dressings. We recommend avoiding orange and alfalfa honey because we find that people have developed allergies to these honeys, probably as a result of the sprays on the flower blossoms. We favor the dark honeys. Also, since heating honey changes its property, it's best to use it only raw.
 Pollen is the male seed of flowers. It is an amazing food. It is a complete food that provides all the nutrients necessary for the sustenance of human life, including the complete list of amino acids. Dozens of studies around the world have proven that it can reverse disease and chemical deficiencies. As well, it has a high concentration of the nucleic acids, RNA and DNA, which makes it an anti-aging food.
Propolis is the sticky resin that exudes from the buds of certain trees. The bees gather it and bring it back to their hive and use it like we use caulk -- to plug up holes or unwanted openings to the outside. Propolis is antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral. It is so powerful as a fighter against microbes that the Russians have done extensive research on it as an alternative to antibiotics and refer to it as "the Russian penicillin." As well, propolis regulates hormones. Finally, propolis effects the process of mitosis -- cell division. Since cancer is essentially a disease of too much cell division, researchers feel that propolis has promise as an anti-carcinogen.
 Royal jelly is the royal milk that is fed to the Queen bee. It is rich in natural hormones, vitamins A, B, C and E. It has 20 amino acids; fatty acids; gelatin, which is a precursor of collagen which is itself an anti-aging element; gamma globulin, an infection-fighting and immuno-stimulating factor; decanoic acid, which is a natural antibiotic; acetylcholine, which is important in the transmission of nerve impulses; and nucleic acids, RNA and DNA. All these properties make it one of the most powerful healing foods on earth, restoring youth and vigor as well as reversing disease processes.

 And, speaking of sweet, try Stevia
 If you've never heard of Stevia, we won't be surprised. This is because its importation into the States was banned by the FDA from 1991 to 1995. It's only recently become available. Your local health food store may not carry it yet, but you can encourage them to find a supplier.
 Stevia is a little known, natural sweetener which is quite remarkable for much more than its sweetening abilities.
 Stevia comes from a plant -- the Stevia Rebaudiana, which is in the chrysanthemum family. Stevia is 30 times sweeter than white sugar, yet non-fattening. It has no side-effects and is fully safe for diabetics to use. In fact, in South America where the plant is cultivated, it is used as a treatment for both diabetes and hypertension.
 Its taste is absolutely unique and changes from moment to moment. Along with its sweetness there is also a slight bitter taste which gives way to a licorice taste. Both the bitterness and licorice taste disappear when the Stevia is diluted in either water or other liquid prior to use.
 You can use the whole leaf product or a Japanese product  called Stevioside which consists of just the sweet glycosides refined out. For use as a sweetener, the Stevioside works fine but it is devoid of the health-enhancing effects of the real thing. For the health benefits, you will need to find either a whole-leaf Stevia product or a water-based (not alcohol-based) Stevia extract.
 Research shows a number of great effects from Stevia. It regulates blood sugar. It lowers blood pressure but does not effect normal blood pressure. It inhibits the growth of some bacteria and infectious organisms, including the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease. Users of Stevia products report a lower incidence of colds and flu as well as improvement in tooth and gum health. It improves digestion and gastrointestinal function and soothes upset stomachs. It is reported by users that it reduces the desire for tobacco and alcoholic beverages.
 Among Stevia's most effective uses is its exceptional quality as a weight loss and weight management product. It contains no calories. It increases glucose tolerance and inhibits glucose absorption. If it is consumed every day, there will be a marked decrease in the desire for sweets and fatty foods.
If you can find premium quality pulverized Stevia leaves in a tea bag, you can use the tea as a sweet liquid for cooking and baking. Or tear the tea bags open and sprinkle the leaves over cereals, salads or vegetables. Both the natural flavor as well as the nutritional benefit of the food will be enhanced.

 The sweet smell of garlic
 Garlic has a long and honorable history of being used medicinally. It is mentioned in the Talmud as a parasite killer. In the Middle Ages, it was used to fight the plague. In the 19th century, Pasteur showed that it obliterated microbes. We know today that it helps to neutralize the toxicity of ultraviolet radiation. It’s a good idea to eat three cloves before each airplane flight.
 Garlic lowers blood pressure by thinning the blood, and lowers blood lipids such as triglycerides and cholesterol. It prevents sticky blood platelets from lumping together, which can lead to a stroke or heart attack. It's a much better choice for this effect than aspirin. German researchers have shown that garlic delays the stiffening of arteries, which, until recently, was considered to be an inevitable consequence of aging.
 One of the compounds in garlic, diallyl sulfide, has been shown to inhibit tumor formation in animals at both the Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, Texas and at New York University Medical Center. Studies performed at China’s Medical Research Institute in Tianjin, China show that cancer deaths in countries where garlic is a staple are nearly 10 times lower than elsewhere. Researchers speculate that diallyl sulfide enables the liver to detoxify cancer-causing chemicals. It is likely that the bioflavonoids in garlic also play a role in cancer inhibition. This substance found in cruciferous vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts has been proven to be effective against cancer. One other garlic compound, ajoene, seems to have the power to specifically target malignant cells for destruction. It has been seen to be twice as toxic to malignant cells as to normal cells.
 The compound allicin gives garlic an antibiotic effect. It makes garlic one of the most powerful antibiotics we have. This tuber saved thousands of soldiers' lives in World War 1 when their wounds were wrapped in garlic-soaked bandages. Allicin has been shown to hinder more than 23 kinds of bacteria, and at least 60 types of fungi and yeast, including candida albicans and salmonella.
 One study found garlic to be effective in increasing the potency of the immune system in AIDS patients. T-cell counts and macrophages were returned to normal after 10 weeks of garlic in AIDS patients.
 Raw garlic is the best garlic to use -- not powders, salts, or even cooked. The volatile oils of garlic are fragile; even light cooking destroys the antibiotic effect of the allicin. If you want to use it in cooking, peel it and let it sit out for 15 minutes. Recent research shows that when garlic is peeled an enzyme is released that begins a series of chemical reactions that create anticancer effects. While heating inactivates the enzyme, all it needs is a short 15 minutes and then it’s there even after you heat. Raw garlic is a wonderful addition to carrot juice. It adds a real zing. A clove a day is good protection.
 It’s best to eat raw garlic with fatty foods such as cheese, olive oil or avocados. The fat coats the stomach, reducing the irritating effects of the garlic on the stomach as well as trapping the volatile oils.
And yes, you will smell. But chlorophyll is the antidote. Chew on a sprig of parsley, or drink some chlorophyll water.

 Goat, not cow
 Truly, there was a man, George Sturdel, who lived on goat milk -- just goat milk, nothing but goat milk -- for over thirty years. So chock full of vital elements, it makes a complete food. Bernard Jensen has used it for years as a healing tonic and feels that it restores health like no other food. He used it to restore his vitality after developing cancer and fasting for six months on carrot juice and water. He was experiencing excruciating pain in his hip until he began drinking freshly drawn, raw, unpasteurized goat milk. After just four days on the goat milk, he was totally pain-free.
 To get the best therapeutic value out of goat milk, it needs to be raw. One of its constituents that is the most effective for health and rebuilding is fluorine. Fluorine is unstable and destroyed by heat.
 Goat milk has greater amounts of vitamin A, B and niacin than cow milk. Goat milk is higher than cow milk in minerals, calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, chlorine and manganese.
 There is virtually no comparison between how goat dairy products and cow products are processed by the body. Cow milk causes mucus because the chemical structure of the milk conflicts with the chemical needs of the human body. The body attempts to take care of this imbalance by throwing off the unwanted material in the form of mucus or catarrh. To illustrate: the oil globules in cow products are five times larger than those in goat products making it much more difficult to digest for humans. Goat milk gives an alkaline reaction in the body, the same as mother's milk; the reaction to cow milk is acid. The curd in goat milk is small and easily digested by the human system; the curd in cow milk is large and dense, not easily digested by the human digestive system. Goats are inherently healthy animals, immune to a number of diseases that affect other animals, including cows. Also, goats aren't fed all the hormones and carcinogenic-laced feed (Diethylstilbestrol) that cows are. Goat milk contains 16 vital elements and in quantities that almost precisely parallel the proportions in the human body. Among these are chlorine, which eliminates impurities, aids the heart and is a germicide; calcium, which builds bones, soothes nerves, lengthens the life span of cells and strengthens blood vessel walls; fluorine, which clears out catarrhal conditions, makes teeth, bones, nails and membranes hard; magnesium, which aids in digestion; animal phosphorus, which is unavailable in the vegetable kingdom and is essential to the brain. Goat milk has the highest amount of sodium of any food. Sodium keeps joints pliable, purifies the bloodstream, and is present in the stomach walls, the intestinal tract, throat walls, pancreas, spleen, secretory glands, joints, bones, cartilage, liver, muscles, blood and brain corpuscles. A deficiency of sodium can cause a number of painful conditions, including rheumatic tendencies, burning feet, cold feet, swelling ankles, hair falling out, hives, mouth blisters, cracked tongue and ulcerated stomach.
 Also, goat milk, unlike cow milk, homogenizes naturally. This provides an important health advantage. Cow milk is mechanically homogenized, and thus the fat globules are forcibly broken apart. An enzyme associated with milk fat, xanthine oxidase, is released and when the milk is consumed, this enzyme penetrates the intestinal wall and then goes into the bloodstream. Once this happens, scar damage to the heart and arteries results. The body then releases cholesterol into the blood in an attempt to lay a protective fatty material on the scarred areas. This leads to arteriosclerosis.

Ginger
 Ginger is a food that can be used in practically everything -- soups, salads, dressings and desserts. Long ago Chinese sailors knew that ginger cured seasickness. We know, now, that it is good for all kinds of nausea, from flu nausea to morning sickness. It's used successfully by mainstream physicians to combat the nausea in patients undergoing chemotherapy. There is also some evidence that ginger has anti-inflammatory properties which would make it particularly effective against arthritis. As well, it lowers cholesterol and blood pressure.
 Ginger is an important constituent in Ayurvedic medicine because of its direct effect on the gastrointestinal system. Anybody with any kind of digestive disorder will benefit from drinking a cup of ginger tea half an hour before each meal.

Hot peppers and cayenne
 Peppers grow in practically any old garden. They often grow without care or attention.
 Contrary to how most people think of the effect of hot peppers on digestion, there is now mounting evidence showing that hot peppers are actually good for digestion and help to relieve gastrointestinal disorders. Researchers also say that hot peppers have anti-carcinogenic properties, relieve arthritis and ease bronchial congestion.
 Dr. Richard Schulze has been using cayenne pepper for years in the treatment of a myriad of diseases. He claims it to be the master herb, the one herb nobody should be without. He mixes it with other herbs to potentiate the effect of the other herbs. The idea of using herbs is to digest the chemicals in the herbs, and then to get these chemicals into the bloodstream. If you fail to get the blood to the diseased area of the body -- to the arthritic joint, or to the cancer tumor, or to the damaged liver, then the herb has been worthless. The point of cayenne is that it turns on circulation within seconds. That’s why your face turns red and you feel hot when you eat food spiced with cayenne pepper. Your whole circulatory system has been revved up by the cayenne. Schulze uses cayenne as a carrier for other herbal medicines.
 Schulze claims cayenne to be the number one remedy for heart disease prevention and cure. He explains that most people’s blood becomes thick, and instead of flowing like water, it flows like molasses. Since the heart is a pump, it needs free-flowing liquid to move through it. But if the blood is thick, it becomes more like pumping concrete through a hose; you need a lot more pressure to move concrete than to move water. Cayenne instantly dilates the arterial walls. It also increases circulation to the extremities, thus lowering blood pressure because the blood is being pumped over a larger area.
 The way to use cayenne is to allow its healing power to begin in the mouth. As cayenne touches your tongue, it is absorbed in seconds and nerve endings send out signals, and waves of fresh blood circulate throughout the body.
On the other hand, when you take a capsule, the healing bypasses the mouth, and begins in the stomach. When the capsule reaches your stomach, the gelatin suddenly dissolves, and you have half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in your stomach. It’s a shock to the stomach.
The cayenne plant is highly prone to insects and is one of the crops that is most heavily sprayed with pesticides. It’s important to use only organic cayenne. The hotter the better.
Here is one of Schulz’s remedies:

For energy:
Chop finely ½ lb. fresh Chili peppers, ½ lb. fresh garlic bulbs and grate ½ lb. fresh ginger root. Blend with enough apple cider vinegar to make into soup consistency. Place in covered glass jar. Make on New Moon and let sit until Full Moon. Then strain off liquid. Start by taking 1/8 teaspoon and work up to 1-3 teaspoons 3 times a day.
 
 
 

For sinus infections, allergies, stuffed up noses:
Mix in jar 7 tbspn goldenseal root powder, 7 tbspn bayberry bark powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp 200,000 heat unit cayenne (or 1 tbspn 40,000 heat unit). Shake jar, then snort a pinch into each
nostril. Don’t blow your nose. Wait a few minutes, then blow your nose and it will be completely clear.

Chlorophyll: bloodstream of the plant

 The human body is composed of the same elements as the earth. We depend on plants to transform, through the process of photosynthesis, the inorganic minerals of the soil into a higher, living form that is able to be assimilated by the human body. Photosynthesis is synonymous with the production of chlorophyll.
 Chlorophyll is the bloodstream of the plant. It carries all the nutrients to all parts of the plant. In fact, the analogy is even more precise: the chlorophyll molecule is almost precisely the same as the hemoglobin molecule, the main constituent of human blood. The two molecules differ only in that the mineral nucleus of the blood molecule is iron; in chlorophyll, it is magnesium.
 Chlorophyll has a direct effect on calcium. This is important because calcium is the first line of defense against disease. The trick is to make sure that the calcium is in an activated form that can be carried to each cell in the body and, as well, in a form that is easily assimilated by individual cells. Chlorophyll is the best way of effecting this function of calcium.
 During summers, you can make fresh chlorophyll by wandering around your neighborhood and foraging for wild edibles. We’ve seen wild dandelion growing everywhere, in driveways and along sides of roads. Wild purslane grows in sidewalk cracks in New York City. Two big handfuls of leaves will make about a blender full. Depending on which leaves you choose, the mixture may or may not be a little bitter. If it is too bitter, just add a bit of honey to make it more palatable.
 You can also make green water using store-bought veggies. It's a great way to insure that each day you get the assortment of six vegetables that you should have. You can put all six in one glass.

 Sea vegetables

 Sea vegetables are a 21st century food; they are so loaded with nutrients that they actually reverse the aging process. They have incredible amounts of DNA, RNA and nucleic factors -- and these are, of course, the building blocks of life itself. They're higher in chlorophyll than any land plant and the ocean water in which the seaweed is saturated is practically identical to human blood plasma. As well, in their ability to transform poisonous gases to oxygen, sea vegetables have a unique detoxifying effect. It is a rumor, but perhaps there is some truth to the story: it is said that the Japanese who consumed sea vegetables were much better protected than others against the radiation fall-out after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
 The various forms of sea vegetables are agar, arame, dulse, hiziki, kombu, kelp, nori and wakame. Each has its own special properties but collectively they are about the healthiest foods we can find.
 Agar has lots of fiber. It's high in vitamins A, B1, B6, B12, Biotin, C, D, and K. It aids intestinal action and bonds with radioactive and toxic wastes to carry them out of the body. It's particularly effective in helping to detoxify after you've had x-rays. We use it to make gels and aspics but you can sprinkle it in hot soups to give an instant fiber boost.
 Arame is high in protein, potassium, iron, calcium, iodine, vitamins A, B1, B2. You don't need to cook arame; soaking is sufficient for about 15 minutes but drain and rinse it three times. Use in salads, particularly sliced cabbage and carrots.
 Dulse has the highest concentration of iron of any food source as well as lots of protein, calcium, phosphorus, iodine, potassium, magnesium and vitamins A, C, B6, B12 and E. It's a particularly good food for menstruating women. We generally get the powdered dulse and add it to nut milks and soups. It adds a kind of "chowder" flavor.
 Hiziki is very high in calcium (one portion supplies 14 times the amount of a glass of milk), as well as phosphorus, iron, protein and vitamins A, B1, B2. We generally prepare hiziki with carrots, onions and ginger. It makes a nice side dish for fish.
 Kombu is high in protein, calcium, phosphorus, vitamins A, B1, B2 and C. It's particularly good for high blood pressure, anemia and weight control. It helps the kidneys and cleanses the colon. We always use about a 3 inch piece of kombu to cook beans as it aids in making the beans more digestible.
 Nori is high in protein, calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, iodine, vitamins A, B1, B2, C, D and niacin. It lowers cholesterol and aids digestion. It's a great snack food. Hold it over a gas flame for a minute until it turns green. Toast only one side.  Crumble it and eat as is, or sprinkle over vegetables, grains or salads. Roll it for nori balls or mix it with toasted sesame seeds as a condiment.
 Wakame is particularly high in vitamin C, as well as in protein, iron, calcium, magnesium, vitamins A, B1, B2, B12, and niacin. Wakame also doesn't need to be cooked, just soaked. The Japanese use it with cucumber as a salad.

 The real story about soy
 Soy has been touted a major health food. Tofu is suggested as a high protein alternative to meat; soy milk is suggested as a non-mucus forming alternative to cow milk; tamari made from soy beans is used as a salt substitute; tempeh is suggested as a meat substitute. Yet, our research shows soy products to be a food that you should use only infrequently.
 Soy products come from Asia, where they have been used for centuries in abundance. The metabolism of Oriental peoples is well equipped to handle this food.  Soy products were traditionally fermented before consumption and they were used only as a condiment rather than as a primary food. It is only recently that soy products have been used without going through the important fermentation process first. Unfermented soy inhibits a valuable enzyme called "trypsin." As well, soy contains an excess of a chemical called phytic acid which inhibits the assimilation of a number of vital nutrients including calcium, magnesium and zinc. The soybean also contains hemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together. Numerous studies have shown that soy formula causes a deficiency in infants in zinc, interferes with fat assimilation and is associated with autoimmune thyroid disease.
 Some people in serious health conditions rely on soy -- tofu and tempeh -- as their major protein source. Yet, the research supports the idea that soy products should be used only sparingly and occasionally. We know this goes against a lot of the information that is coming out of the alternative health field but the documentation of the potential malignant effect of soy on western metabolism is too strong to ignore.

 Avoid canola oil
 Canola oil is one of the new products that's being touted as healthy. The Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Therapies decided to do thorough research on this product. It turns out that canola oil, previously known as rape seed oil, was originally used as a lubricant, as fuel, in soap, as a rubber base and as an illuminant for color plates for magazines. The key to its multi-varied use was that it has a high level of erucic acid which is extremely toxic, but useful for commercial purposes. The ever-creative geneticists were able to breed a newer version of rape seed oil with a lowered level of erucic acid, and this version is what has become our canola oil. Yet, according to researcher Udo Erasmus, there are still many harmful effects from canola oil: it forms a latex-like substance that causes the red blood corpuscles to stick together; it can cause loss of vision, emphysema, respiratory distress, anemia, constipation, irritability; it is antagonistic to the central and peripheral nervous systems. These symptoms will not appear rapidly, but rather deterioration takes place over years. Erasmus tells us that even insects will not eat rape seed. He concludes that it is even more toxic than soy oil.

 Don't avoid flaxseed
 It's being touted by the FDA as the most exciting "discovery" in this century. We think with good reason.
 In the mid-1980's the University of Toronto documented that flaxseed, also known as linseed, could lower serum cholesterol as well as preventing the growth of new cancer cells. The NCI picked up the baton and conducted further studies. Their conclusion: flaxseed holds the key to reducing the skyrocketing medical costs.
Here is the short list of its properties:

Therapeutic properties of flaxseed:
1) Stimulates the immune system.
2) Increases vitamin D and the retention of calcium, magnesium and phosphate.
3) Is high in lignans which have anti-tumor properties.
4) An excellent anti-oxidant.
5) Mimics the results of Tamoxifen, the leading drug used in the treatment of breast cancer, but with no side-effects.
6) Lowers triglycerides, total cholesterol and LDL.
7) Has a favorable effect on insulin.
8) Highest of all foods in Omega-3 which has been shown to be effective in heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, asthma,
premenstrual syndrome, allergies, inflammatory tissue conditions, water retention, skin conditions, vitality, calmness under stress, multiple sclerosis, angina, stroke and high blood pressure.
9) Packs more fiber ounce for ounce than oat bran.

 The miracle of flaxseed oil lies in its ability to supply the body with essential fatty acids. Numerous studies have shown that abnormalities in essential fatty acids produce a wide range of diseases. A Canadian study performed by Dr. Horrobin found that alcohol does its damage to the fetus and to the liver by interfering with normal essential fatty acids metabolism. In 1982, Dr. J.R. Vane shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine for showing how the metabolism of Omega-3 fatty acids helped prevent heart disease. Dr. Donald Rudin found that Omega-3 fatty acid deficiency is evident in most major mental illnesses.
 Flaxseed oil is, of course, more concentrated than the seed itself. We use the oil liberally in salads, dressings, mayonnaise, shakes and our nut milks. We make a delicious cereal out of freshly ground flaxseed with some sunflower seeds, chopped banana and goat yogurt.
 A word of caution: as beneficial as is fresh flaxseed, equally malignant is rancid flaxseed. It goes sour relatively quickly so always buy dated flaxseed oil, keep it refrigerated and always grind the seeds for fresh usage. Never use it for cooking or heating.

 Oregano

 Oregano is extremely rich in nutrients. It is a top source for vitamin E, niacin, trace minerals, iron and calcium. Like virtually all other herbs and spices, the active ingredients are found in the oil. Oregano oil exhibits the most potent anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties of any herbal oil. As well, it is a potent antiseptic and helps protect food from spoiling by inhibiting the growth of microorganisms. Just dab a couple of drops on food that is being stored. We always add a little oil of oregano to foods that we’re taking on a picnic. Put a few drops in your liquid dishwashing soap and you’ll need less soap because the oregano will clean the dishes better than the soap.
You can’t find a better cold and flu medicine than wild, organic oregano. When it’s combined with garlic and onion, its natural antibiotic activity is potentiated and all viruses, bacteria and fungi will be killed.
Oil of oregano also cures as well as prevents diarrhea. It can reverse lung disorders. It eases pain caused by toothaches. It takes the pain out of insect stings and burns. It is an energizer. It cures fungal infections of the scalp, toenails and fingernails or any other skin condition.
Caution: Most oregano that you will find is really marjoram or sage. The oregano you get from the supermarket and the oregano on top of pizzas is marjoram. If it’s labeled “Mexican oregano,” it’s really sage. Marjoram and sage don’t have the same effect as oregano.

 About meat
 Vegetarians are usually extremely committed to their nutritional programs. Unfortunately, sometimes they maintain this commitment even in the face of evidence that they should be more flexible.
  In fact, specific health conditions can arise in long-term vegetarians. Some vegetarians seem to not be able to tolerate cold very well. Strict vegetarians often don't generate enough heat in their bodies internally. As well, some strict vegetarians have circles under their eyes. This can be due to kidney insufficiency. The kidneys are being overworked in trying to keep the heat up in the body and thus are not able to move the toxins out of the body adequately. Some vegetarians have what is called "sludge blood," which is blood deficient in iron as a result of not eating meat; sludge blood is oxygen deficient. Female vegetarians who don't have enough iron can begin having diminished blood flow during menstruation. If you are a strict vegetarian, in order to avoid these health conditions, you will need to eat high quality protein three times a day.
 Most educated vegetarians are aware that it is difficult to get enough of the vitamin B 12 because this vitamin is found in meats, fish and poultry. Vegetarians have often eaten soy products thinking that they were getting a supply of B 12. We now know, however, that soy products contain only inactive forms of B 12, and may even inhibit the absorption of the active form your body needs, thus worsening the deficiency.
 This finding is of critical importance to vegetarian mothers who breast-feed. Many babies of vegetarian mothers show signs of deficiency-related blood and nervous system problems within months of birth. Because B 12 is needed throughout the body to make DNA, these problems can be quite serious.
 Not eating meat is particularly problematic for cancer patients. Cancer patients need protein in small amounts, especially sulfur-bearing proteins. The proteins found in a vegetarian diet, such as in beans, grains and soy are among the most difficult of all types of protein to digest and absorb. Absorption of protein from soy or wheat may be as low as 20%; in contrast, protein absorption from eggs is 90%. Dairy products and eggs are particularly rich in sulfur-bearing proteins. The importance of proteins for the cancer patient is evident in the fact that the white blood cells, the number one cancer defense, are made primarily from protein. Also, foods with complete protein will contain the eight essential amino acids. These amino acids must be available in the blood before the reconstruction of critical immune cells, including the white blood cells as well as liver cells and lymph cells. For cancer patients, we recommend eating protein rich foods such as eggs, yogurt, almonds and organic meats on a regular basis.
 Although eating meat is one way of insuring adequate protein we're certainly not proponents of the kind of meat eating that goes on in this country.  The Chinese are more sage in their practice: tidbits of meat in their rice and veggie dishes.  For most meat-eaters small quantities of meat are entirely sufficient.
 Whether one chooses to be a vegetarian or meat-eater, and whether the decision is made for either moral or health reasons, the decision should be made with full consciousness of the health attributes of both in relation to your own body.

Your Body is Alive and So Should Be Your Food

Most people haven't heard much about enzymes. It is an unfortunate truth about most nutrition education that the vital importance of enzymes to health is not stressed. Enzymes are responsible for breaking down and eliminating 27 million cells in the body every minute. These cell-destroying substances have the remarkable capacity of not acting on or affecting normal, healthy cells. They act only on abnormal, worn-out, sick or dying cells and foreign cells, including food.
 Enzymes, in fact, are the foundation of every metabolic process in the body. Without adequate enzyme activity both digestion and all immunological processes are hampered. Our stamina and energy level are both directly related to our body's enzymes levels.
 If you are over 35, you are deficient in both metabolic and digestive enzymes. This is a sad fact, not a negotiable point, and was documented by research done by Dr. Edward Howell. He showed that people between the ages of 21-31 years of age have 30 times more of the enzyme amylase than people between the ages of 69-100.  Like eggs in women, and like brain cells in all of us, we are each born with a certain amount of enzymes, and sooner or later our reserves begin to become depleted. Without adequate replacement, we are subject to a variety of ills. As Howell's research shows, chronic disease, low energy and old age all have in common one factor -- low enzymes levels.
 Digestive enzymes assist in breaking down food so that the nutrients from the food can dissolve and pass through, first, into the intestinal wall, next into the bloodstream, and then finally, into the cells themselves. Enzymes break complex carbohydrates into simple sugars, they break heavy fats and oils into simple fatty acids, and they break large protein molecules into their constituent amino acids. If we have inadequate digestive enzymes, two things happen. First, we don't have enough enzymes to act on the food to release all the vitamins and minerals in the food, so we aren't being nourished properly. Secondly, we don't have enough enzymes to digest the food properly, so our foods putrefy in the intestinal tract. The guy who said, "We are what we eat" had it wrong; we are what we digest and absorb.
 The metabolic enzymes have almost too many functions to list. They assist in storing sugar in the liver and the muscles; they aid in the formation of urea, which is eliminated as urine, as well as in the elimination of carbon dioxide from the lungs; they build phosphorus in the bone and attach iron to red blood cells. The immunological function of enzymes is crucial in defending us from disease.  When there are toxins or foreign substances in the body, our white blood cells attack these particles by literally breaking them apart through the process of secreting enzymes on their surfaces.
 When our endogenous enzyme reserve (those produced in the body) begins to get low, it is crucially important that we replace these enzymes through exogenous enzymes (those which we introduce into the body). It is through foods that are particularly rich in enzymes that we can accomplish this replenishing. Since heat over 118° destroys enzymes in foods, the foods that are richest in enzymes are raw foods.
 Research from Paul Kouchakoff, M.D. at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in Lausanne, Switzerland showed that eating cooked food actually causes a biochemical condition in the body that replicates an infection. After a cooked meal, the number of white blood cells in the blood is increased. This process is called leucocytosis, and it indicates that the body is in a state of defense. This is the same process that happens when there is an acute illness or infection somewhere in the body. Of course, the difference is that after a cooked meal, the outflow of white blood cells subsides almost immediately, whereas they continue to pour out for some time when the body is in a state of infection. Kouchakoff showed, though, that after a meal of raw foods, there is no augment in white blood cells. The body maintains a comfortable level of status quo without having to rev up as though it is being attacked.
 Of the uncooked foods, the ones that are the richest of all foods in enzymes are fermented or cultured foods, now known, through Ann Wigmore's influence, as "living foods." When we eat a diet that includes fermented foods, we rebuild, maximally, our own enzyme load.
 Fermented foods played an important role in sea travel in the history of the world. In the 1700's Dr. James Lind wanted to understand why the Dutch seamen seemed to be immune to the sickness of scurvy that plagued most of the other sea-faring men. The Dutch secret was, of course, their raw, fermented vegetables.
 The living, enzyme-rich foods that are important to eat are fermented seeds, grains, beans or vegetables, as well as raw sprouts, and the liquids made from fermentation or sprouting, including rejuvalac and apple cider vinegar.

 Fermented foods
 The Chinese built the Great Wall eating it; the army of Genghis Khan ate it, as did most of the Roman Empire. So did the Dutch seamen in the 1700's, and Captain Cook's sailors when they discovered Hawaii. They all knew its benefits, and they knew that as long as they made this a staple in their diet, whether on land or sea, they wouldn't get sick. Sauerkraut.
 The Russian researcher Elie Metchnikoff studied a people living in the general region of the Balkans, who were known for their longevity, many of them living to over 100 years of age. He concluded that one of the most important factors was a diet rich in lactic acid. The finest source of lactic acid was their homemade sauerkraut.
 Another good source of lactic acid is fermented or soured milk, what we call yogurt. It has been used in sanitariums in Europe for years as either clabbered milk or buttermilk. Milk today is pasteurized so that bacteria cannot multiply, thus prolonging the shelf life of the milk. However, when milk is unpasteurized, and these bacteria are left to their own devices, they will transform the milk into an ideal food for humans. The most well-known and widely used bacteria which can cause this chemical reaction are lactobacillus, acidophilus and bulgaricus. When these bacteria are introduced into the digestive tract, an internal environment is created that replicates the very first digestive environment of the infant stimulated by the colostrum in the mother's milk. So eating a high quality yogurt is as close as we can come to getting the original benefits of mother's milk.
 A little experiment performed by John Harvey Kellogg is good testament to the amazing properties of fermented foods. He essentially performed the same experiment as Alexis Carrel, but with raw meat instead of heart tissue. He immersed a one-pound piece of raw meat in buttermilk, and regularly changed the milk solution. The meat remained free from any decomposition, still perfectly edible, for 20 years. This same freshness is afforded our intestinal tract when we make some form of soured milk a regular part of our diet.

 Sprouts
 The use of sprouting for food and medicine is even older than the use of fermented foods. It is twice as old as the Great Wall of China, its earliest reference being in a book from 3000 B.C.E.
 The importance of sprouting is that digestion actually begins before the food is put into your mouth. This is a tremendous aid since all seeds, beans and grains contain enzyme inhibitors which act as natural preservatives. It is only when certain environmental conditions are met that the inhibitors are deactivated, and the enzymes spring to life. Eating seeds, beans and grains that are unsprouted means a lot more work for your digestive track, sometimes more work than your digestion is up to. Without pre-digestion help, nutrients from the foods may not be able to be extracted.
 There is much research that shows that sprouts are extremely high in good-quality protein, vitamin C and vitamin B as well as minerals. Dr. C.Y. Tsai, a researcher, concluded that sprouts are one of the most perfect foods known to man.
 The list of foods that can be sprouted -- seeds, beans, grains and vegetables -- is long. Included are aduki, alfalfa, almond, cabbage, chick pea, clover, corn, fenugreek, green pea, lentil, millet, mung, mustard, oats, radish, rye, sesame, soybean, sunflower,  watercress and wheat.

 Thermos cooked cereal
 Bread is a food staple for practically all traditions with good reason. Grains are loaded with vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Although fruits, vegetables and nuts contain excellent fiber for roughage, the fiber in whole grains is superior.
 Thermos cooked cereal is an up-dated version of an ancient tradition of using grains. Our ancestors always soaked their grains before baking bread. This soaking was a kind of sprouting, removing the enzyme inhibitors. Often the center of the bread remained raw, thus preserving the enzymes completely. The general health principle of thermos preparation was developed by Bernard Jensen and is quite simple. If the grains can be planted in the earth, and they will still grow, then we are assured that the life force of the grain has been retained. Regular cooking on the stove eliminates this possibility, as the enzymes and natural elements of the food are destroyed through the high heat of the fire. Maintaining the integrity of the grain, while at the same time making the grain soft enough to be digestible, is accomplished through thermos cooking.
 And there is yet another reason to make thermos cereal a daily part of your diet. It is one of the most powerful balancers of hormones we have. Grains are loaded with natural hormones and are a particularly important food for women who are pre- and post-menopausal, as well as for men and women with cancers of the sex organs.
 Several independent research studies by Dr. F. Pottenger, Dr. C.F. Schnabel and Dr. F. Gorda, show that animals can be kept alive through several generations on a diet solely of sprouted grains. All three researchers conclude that sprouted grains are a complete food, able to sustain life and health with no other food added.

 Rejuvalac and apple cider vinegar
 Rejuvalac was popularized by Ann Wigmore. She spent much of her life treating patients with a variety of debilitating diseases including cancer, and found that the liquid fermented from wheat berries, which she called rejuvalac, was incomparable as a healing agent. A chemical analysis of rejuvalac shows that its enzymes have the ability to break down proteins, starch and glycogens, and it is filled with all kinds of good, health-building materials including vitamins B, C and E. Laboratory studies show that it extends the life of animals by 40%.
 Rejuvalac is easy to make; it just takes time. It is made by soaking sprouted soft wheat in distilled water for about 24 hours. If you watch the brew as its "cooking," you will realize that you have created a real chemical factory there.
The taste of rejuvalac is refreshing, somewhat like a carbonated water with yogurt added. You can also find good use for the spent berries. After they have served their purpose as providing the material for the fermentation process, you can recycle them in the form of pancakes or dehydrated crackers.
 It’s true that rejuvalac is a wonderful fermented food, but it's also a lot of trouble to make. There is another product that is similarly healthful, and is infinitely more convenient: it's plain old apple cider vinegar. Probably the reason apple cider vinegar hasn't had the resurgence of interest of rejuvalac is precisely because it's so easy.
 Dr. D.C. Jarvis was the first physician in modern times to understand the medicinal value of vinegar. He knew that vinegar is nature's most  potent potassium supplement, and he understood that it has a powerful effect on diminishing the aging process.
 First, what exactly is it? Vinegar is fermented from sweet apple cider, and takes its honey-gold color from tannins which flow from ruptured walls of fresh, ripe apples. When these naturally occurring, colorless preservatives come into contact with air, they develop the rich, golden color we associate with cider. This is called enzymatic browning. It contributes to the distinctive flavor of cider, a flavor with a bit more spunk than simple apple juice. Vinegar is made when fresh, naturally sweet cider is fermented into an alcoholic beverage (hard cider). Then it is fermented once again. The result is vinegar.
 What does it have in it? Apple cider vinegar contains more than 30 important nutrients, a dozen minerals, over half a dozen vitamins and essential acids, and several enzymes. Plus, it has a large amount of pectin.
 What effect does it have on health?

Vinegar, fiber and cholesterol:
Vinegar contains a treasure trove of complex carbohydrates, as well as a good dose of dietary fiber. Both of these have been recommended by the U.S. Surgeon General to help build resistance to cancer. One of the ingredients in apple cider vinegar is pectin, a water soluble fiber. Unlike other fibers, such as wheat bran, which are not water soluble, pectin dissolves in water and slows down the absorption of food and liquid in the intestines. As pectin works its slow, gentle way through the digestive tract, it binds to cholesterol. Then pectin pulls the cholesterol which is bound to it out of the body. Less cholesterol in the body makes for a reduced risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks and strokes.

Vinegar and digestion:
Apple cider vinegar is very similar to the chemicals found naturally in the stomach. Because of this, it is an aid to digestion. When digestion is improved, the overall metabolism of the body improves.

Vinegar, beta-carotene and cancer:
Beta-carotene is found in vinegar. Beta-carotene boosts the body's immune system by attacking the free radicals which destroy the immune system. The correlation between eating foods high in beta-carotene and a lower risk of cancer has been documented in over 70 studies.

Vinegar and the skin:
Apple cider vinegar is antiseptic (kills germs on contact) and antibiotic (contains bacteria which are unfriendly to infectious microorganisms). It has a pH which is nearly the same as healthy skin, so using it topically normalizes the pH of the skin's surface. It can be used to alleviate rashes, burns, sunburns, sprains or aches and underarm odor.

 We could go on and on.  Apple cider vinegar is thought to be good for memory loss (including Alzheimer's), arthritis, anemia, osteoporosis, heartburn, throat infections, coughs, disinfectant for wounds, inner ear and eye infections, diarrhea, asthma and hiccups.  It's used by drinking it, soaking one's feet in it, making poultices from it, even douching with it. It just takes a little bit because it's so strong. For best benefits, drink a teaspoon or so in a glass of water before a meal. We use vinegar for cooking in salads as well as in soups. It will aid in digestion as well as help to inactivate parasites or bacteria. Also, it’s best to keep open vinegar refrigerated in order to keep the culture from re-growing.
 

Tips About Food

 It's not only what you cook: it's how you cook, or don't cook, as well.

Spoilage:
Want to know what happens to food inside your body? For some of the principles, you need to just look to see what happens to the same food outside your body. Food inside the body follows the same rules of spoilage as outside the body. Fresh fruit sitting at room temperature will take several days to putrefy; fresh vegetables take less time. Refrigerated foods will keep longer than unrefrigerated; cooked foods spoil faster than food left raw. Because the temperature in the digestive system is around 100° the process of putrefaction within the body takes place more rapidly than at room temperature. Our suggestion: eat as many foods as you can that are raw, in their natural state. Bernard Jensen recommends about a 60/40 ratio in favor of raw foods.

Cooking food:
Food cooked above 118° has lost the potency of its enzymes. This depletion effects your health. The digestive organs, then, must come to the rescue and furnish the digestive enzymes of protease, lipase, and amylase to break down food. To do this repeatedly, however, the body must steal enzymes from other glands, nerves and blood. These excessive demands lead to an eventual deficiency of enzymes. Our suggestion: cook food only lightly over a low flame. You can even get the waterless cooking pots that are made specifically for low-flame cooking. Eat dehydrated food as much as possible; most dehydrators operate at around 112°. Try thermos cooking (see our recipe section) or crock cooking.

Cooking in the microwave:
Do you like using your microwave oven? Latest research is that it doesn't like you. This fact should not really surprise us; we have known since World War II that microwaves are hazardous to biological systems. Perhaps we had thought that our food was not a biological system, so we assumed exposing our food to microwaves
would be harmless.
 Research out of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University Institute for Biochemistry has determined that all food which is heated, defrosted, or cooked in the microwave causes significant changes in the blood of the person eating the food. These changes include: decrease of all hemoglobin values and cholesterol values, especially the HDL and LDL (the "good" cholesterol); decrease in lymphocytes; and an increase in the luminous power of luminescent bacteria. In case you don't understand what all that means, it is quite simple. These are the blood changes that are indicative of an early carcinogenic process, similar to the actual beginning of cancer. Why all this is true is, in part, because of the particular way that microwaves "cook." It is an athermic process, that is, without heat. The structure of the molecule is torn apart, but because of the force involved in this method (much greater than in cooking through heat), the cells are actually broken, thereby neutralizing the electric potentials, the very life of the cells. An impaired cell becomes easy prey for viruses and other pathogens. In a prolonged state of stress, there is suppression of natural cellular repair and the cells are forced to adapt to a state of emergency. Cells then switch from aerobic to anaerobic breathing (from H20 and CO2 to H2O2 and CO), exactly as a cancer cell.
 
 

Tips About Eating

A basic balanced diet
The rules of a basic, good nutritional program are easy to follow and will stimulate biological changes that will improve over-all health.  Changing to this dietary program should be gradual so that the body is not jolted too quickly.  This diet replaces poor quality material which has accumulated in the cells with better quality material.  This program is the basic nutritional program that is recommended by the Foundation for Advancement in Cancer Therapies.
 This program includes eating one starch and one protein a day; the rest of the food consumed should be vegetables and fruit which gives the proper acid/alkaline balance.

Foods to eliminate:
Coffee, tea (except herbal), sugar, white flour, white rice, milk, oils other than cold-pressed, fried foods, meat from animals that have been raised with hormones or antibiotics, citrus fruits, most table salt, cocoa, processed foods, foods with additives and vitamins that are not specifically indicated for you and your condition.  All drugs are to be avoided.

Foods to use:
Raw vegetables (some in the form of juice), fruit, whole grains, lightly cooked vegetables, potatoes, beans, clabbered milk or yogurt, poached fish, nuts (some in the form of nut milks or nut butters), soups, avocado and sprouts.  Sixty-seven percent of the diet should be raw, emphasizing vegetables.  Bernard Jensen recommends having the full rainbow of colors in vegetables each day, adding up to 6 vegetables per day.

 As this diet is followed, the cells will begin to release some of the toxic material that has collected in the organs and tissues over the years.  We recommend the use of enemas, colonics or colema cleansing of the colon in order to help the body carry off these toxins.  If more toxicity is released than the body has the capacity to eliminate, the toxins will be reabsorbed into the body and may cause a toxic reaction.
 There are certain principles about eating that are important to know in order to get the maximum benefit out of your food.

Hot and cold food:
It’s a good idea to always wait a few minutes before serving food. If  the food’s been in the refrigerator, you will want it to warm up a bit; if it's been cooking, you want it to cool off a bit. Serving food neither too hot nor too cold is a Chinese principle of eating. Cold foods make the stomach contract and slows up digestion. Hot foods irritate the tissues of the mouth and throat and destroy the sensitivity of the taste buds.

Fasting

 Fasting is an instinctive response to harmful metabolic accumulations. Domesticated and wild animals refuse food when in a state of illness, and will rest and fast until they feel better. Even healthy animals follow a program of periodic fasting. We commonly observe that dogs and cats will eat grass to induce vomiting. This behavior brings up excess mucus and purifies the lymph system of the animal.
 Fasting increases the power of the enzymes. The enzymes will attack whatever material is present. In the absence of food, they will turn their attention to attacking, digesting and expelling infectious wastes.
 Our suggestion: It is not for nothing that breakfast is called break fast: it should be breaking a fast -- the daily fast that our bodies need as we sleep. Drinking only juices or eating fruit once a week, or once a month is a good idea. Doing a periodic three or five day fast (twice a year) is really helpful. Hunger generally goes away after the second or third day. We recommend doing juice fasts. Water fasts are generally too stringent, too taxing on the body. The beauty of a juice fast is that you get the benefits of the fast, but your energy level is kept high. The three days seem to have some powerful effect on metabolism, so if you get that far, you'll find that from there on in, it's like sailing on a breezy day -- real easy. Break the fast when you feel hungry. It's important here to listen to your body, not your mind. Break all fasts with fruit first, then raw vegetables. The second day after breaking a fast, you can go right back into all your normal, healthy eating.

About vitamin supplements

 The National Research Council has advised that individuals eat five or more servings a day of fruits and vegetables. However, data from a large national nutritional survey showed that about 20 % of the population ate no fruit or vegetable serving on the survey day. Of the 80% who did eat some fruit or vegetable, only one in five ate food considered to be cancer protective.
 Our technology has advanced such that we know which specific nutrients are protective against the major degenerative diseases of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis. We can improve our health by adding nutritional supplements to our daily regimen.
 Yet, there's a lot of controversy these days about vitamins and supplements. These should be thought of as medicine; they are totally innocuous substances that can be taken indiscriminately.
 In order to get mega-doses of any substance, the laboratories need to fragment out the desired ingredient. When you ingest a high concentration of any material, you are asking that your body rise to the occasion of a real physiologic jolt. This adds biologic stress rather than reducing it. It also unbalances your biology. This kind of use resembles an effect that is closer to a drug effect than a true nutritional supplement.
 Yet another problem with vitamins is that most of what you find in the health food stores is made from synthetic material rather than from real foods. The people who sell synthetic vitamins will tell you that their vitamins have the same molecular structure as natural vitamins and conclude that there is no difference between the two. There is a difference, however, and it is a big one. Synthetic vitamins have the opposite polarity of natural vitamins; they refract light the opposite of each other. In other words, they are mirror images of each other. It seems quite obvious that being the opposite of and being a mirror image of is not quite synonymous with being the same as.
 In fact, research supports the conclusion that synthetic vitamins are not good for you. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that giving people synthetic vitamin E and beta-carotene gave them a loss of protection against lung cancer, stroke and other diseases. This study has been widely touted as being evidence that vitamins do not protect against disease. The conclusion should have been that when you buy your vitamins from Hoffman LaRouch, as this study did, you should call these substances chemicals, not vitamins.
 Rather than using either mega-doses or synthetic vitamins, you should use only whole supplements made from food. When the supplements are derived from food sources, only fiber and water have been taken out. Thus, the natural biologic balance of the food is still retained and the result is the restoration of biological and physiological equilibrium in the body. The water is easily replenished by drinking lots of water when you take the supplement. Most people don't realize how important this is, but it actually aids in the digestion of the supplement.

Acid/alkaline balance

 To get an electrical charge, you need to have both a positive and a negative pole. So too with the body; we need an acid/alkaline balance, which is, in effect, the electrical charge of the body.  The fact that we have an acid/alkaline ratio means that we are not just a conglomeration of chemicals, but are also an entire system of highly organized electrical reactions.
 There is an extremely small parameter of this delicate balance in which good health is maintained. We each have an alkaline reserve and every time we eat foods that create too much of an acid condition in our bodies, then our alkaline reserve leaps into action in order to neutralize the acids. But this reserve is limited. It's just a back-up if you abuse yourself with too much acid-producing food.
 You can maintain the proper acid/alkaline balance by choosing foods in the ratio that your body needs. This ratio should be 20/80.
 Acid foods: meats and fish; dairy products, including butter, cheese, whey and eggs; sugar and honey; potatoes and yams; grains; most nuts, including brazil, filberts, pecans, pine and walnuts; most oils, including olive and vegetable oils; most beans, including black-eyed susans, kidney, lima, navy, split peas, chick-peas and pinto; most legumes, including cashews.
 Alkaline foods include most fresh vegetables and most fruits, both fresh and dried (dried prunes are acid). When citrus fruits are ripe, they are alkaline; when picked before they are ripe, they change to an indigestible acid.  The fresher and sweeter the food tastes, the more alkaline it is.
 Injuries, either physical or psychological, produce an acid condition.
 Pathogens in the form of viruses, fungi or bacteria can survive only in an acid environment. The acid/alkaline balance is effected by exercise. The better your nutritional program becomes, the more alkaline your body will become. If you become too alkaline, your bowels will not work well. Every time you exercise, you produce lactic acid which will restore the balance.
 

III. LOOKING GOOD; FEELING BETTER

Einstein, Newton and Anti-Aging

 Everyone knows the story of the man who goes up in a spacecraft and comes back to earth years later. His wife, who was in her prime when he left, is now old and decrepit; his children who were mere toddlers are now grown and have children of their own. The space traveler, however, has only aged a few years. So goes aging in space. It goes so very, very slowly. So goes the theory of time and space by Einstein.
 There are reasons why. And thanks to Newton, we know the main reason. It's gravity. Gravity is one of the greatest forces that we earth inhabitants contend with. It keeps everything in place, holding everything down so that contact with earth is always maintained. It is only since the first Sputnik, in 1962, that man has been able to even dream about transcending the force of gravity. But, space travel has had other advantages. It paved the way for us to begin to understand something about the process of aging that had previously eluded us.
 Because we live day-in and day-out with the force of gravity, we don't often think about how much energy we exert fighting it. Yet, when we feel tired, we are sensitive to the effects of gravity and feel compelled to lie down to ameliorate some of gravity's inexorable pull. When we go to the zoo and look at the animals on all fours, we develop a great appreciation for our up-rightness. However, we don't often think about how much stress our being erect puts on our bodies. When we walk or run, we're putting all of the gravitational pressure of our entire body on one small spot, creating thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch. Merely standing creates tremendous gravitational force against the feet and the spine.
 Wherever there are weaknesses in our bodily structure -- in the knee and hip joints, the lower back, the neck and abdomen -- there will be more frequent injuries. In fact, the single largest health problem in the United States is back pain, an effect from our perpetual struggle against gravity. As well, gravity effects us on a cellular level. Many biologists now feel that gravity plays a significant role in the cell's loss of ability to replicate itself, thus contributing directly to aging and death. Bernard Jensen has said that there is not a single disease in which gravity does not play a part.
 Clearly, if we could diminish the force of gravity on our bodies, we could, as well, diminish the sagging muscles in our faces that give us, after the age of 50 or 60, jowls and necks that look like a chicken. If we could diminish the force of gravity, we can diminish the crowding of our internal organs that occurs because our insides, as well as our outsides, start to sag, thus making them less efficient. In short, if we could reverse the force of gravity on our bodies, we would look and feel younger.
 Well, we can't. Gravity is a fact of life that is inescapable, and short of space travel, there is no way that we can escape its effects. What we can do, however, is find ways to allow gravity to work for us instead of against us.
 What's wonderful about the last 20 years is that the health movement has made working with gravity (and thus aging reversal) so accessible. There are several methods, each thoroughly enjoyable, and you will see and feel the effects almost immediately. They are:  rebounding, skipping, using the slant board and floating.

 Rebounding
 Rebounding is unique as an aerobic exercise because it stimulates, strengthens and cleanses every cell in the body. This is because it uses vertical motion rather than the horizontal motion that is used in all other forms of exercise.
 Simply explained, when you bounce up and down, your entire body goes through repetitive vertical acceleration and deceleration, working against gravity. At the bottom of every bounce, your entire body stops for a split second. At this moment, the force of gravity shoves down on every cell in your body. This is the deceleration working with gravity. Then your body shoots back upward, again stopping for just a split instant. This is your moment in space. The movement upward has exerted pressure on your body from the opposite direction of the downward movement. This is the acceleration working against gravity. Because of the repetitive pushing and pulling on all your cells, the tissues and fibers and muscles in your body all grow stronger. This includes your heart fibers and the muscle layers within the arterial walls, even if you don't dramatically get your heart rate up.
 Also, rebounding cleanses and purifies every cell. Your cells depend on the diffusion of fluid through the permeable membranes in order to carry oxygen, nutrients, hormones and enzymes into the cell, and to flush out metabolic waste. This process is increased by a factor of 300% by rebounding. This is because at the top of every bounce, your body actually becomes weightless for a fraction of a second. The cells therefore oscillate between increased G-force and no G-force, providing a constant compression/decompression factor.  This on-going compression/decompression of the cell membranes significantly boosts the diffusion of fluid into and out of the cells, carrying fresh oxygen and nutrients, and flushing out the toxins. There is literally no other form of exercise that has this same capacity for total cellular cleansing.
 The lymph system, specifically, cleans the body of debris. Lymph fluid surrounds every cell in your body. The human body contains three times more lymph fluid than it does blood. The pressure that is exerted on the lymphatic system in rebounding activates the valves in the lymph channels to their maximum capacity, increasing lymph flow by as much as 30 times normal. In fact, the entire lymph system can be cleansed in the span of a single, short session on the trampoline. Clogged lymph nodes are cleared; tonsils and adenoids are cleansed, as are the larger organs of the appendix and spleen.
 And if you thought that was enough, there is still more. Jumping can also substantially boost the immune system by increasing the activity of lymphocytes within the bloodstream. Any form of exercise can, of course, do this. But research shows that when the body is exposed to higher than normal gravitational pressure, such as that produced in rebounding, that the lymphocyte activity is increased to the greatest extent. With more lymphocyte activity, infectious organisms are more quickly zeroed in on, attacked and neutralized by the lymphocytes, and infection is much less likely to settle in.
 For all these reason, NASA has embraced rebounding, and shown that it is 68% more effective as a fitness conditioner than running or any other form of aerobic exercise. Do yourself a favor. Jump in the morning and jump at night.

 Skipping
 We know you remember skipping. You may also remember how happy you felt when you skipped. We don't mean content, or satisfied, or feeling good or nice. We mean happy. It may seem puzzling, but if you look around at any playground, you will notice that any child who is skipping is also laughing, or at least smiling a big, broad grin. Skipping induces happiness; it did when you were seven, and it will have the same joyful effect now. Just try it, even if just for a few skips (which is all you will be able to do anyway, even if you're in reasonable shape).
 Frankly, we're not sure why skipping stimulates happiness. Maybe it tickles the pleasure center in the brain for some reason. What we know is that anyone who tries skipping for the first time since being a child will invariably break out in a mirthful laugh.
 The health benefits of skipping are the same as rebounding. There's the instant that you're in the air, suspended, before you begin your descent downward. This is the no G-force when all your cells do their backing up trick. Skipping is more aerobic than running with none of the disadvantages of running. It's all done on your toes and the front of your feet, and this area has great padding.  This cushions all the bones and joints in your legs as well as your back, so you will not get injured the way runners do.
 Don't get discouraged. This exercise is so aerobic, and uses muscles that are not used to being used so strenuously that you'll only be able to do a little at a time. But that's another one of its beauties. It's so efficient. And because you can go back and forth within a small space, you can do it indoors.
 We've found that the best shoes to skip in are running shoes in which the fronts of the shoes angle up. Some of the more expensive running shoes don't have this feature. You need maximum flexibility for the front half of the shoe, and the upward tilt at the front will give you that.
 We're hoping to create an exercise revolution. We're hoping that someday soon there will be skipping shoes, skipping shorts and a skipping club, like the New York Road Runners’ Club. If you start seeing people skipping, you'll know that the word is getting out.

 The slant board
 Our bodies have evolved in a way that they normally work, not too badly, with the law of gravity. For instance if we look at the construction of the intestinal tract, we see that through most of the journey, food follows a downward slope. When the food reaches the beginning of the colon, it is now mostly liquid, and thus responds easily to peristaltic movement. In the ascending colon, the appendix lies below, and this organ, usually thought of as useless, actually serves to act as an irritant to force the food material uphill. By the time the material reaches the descending colon, gravity is able to exert its force to pull the waste downward.
 To find an occasional reprieve from gravity, the logical question is: since gravity is the force that keeps pulling everything down, why not change the direction of our bodies so that what was going down in us now goes up, and what was going up now goes down? In other words, since we can't change gravity, we have to change ourselves. We can turn ourselves upside down. In this way, we are using the force of gravity for healing.
 Yoga discovered the importance of upside-down eons ago. They invented the shoulder stand and the head stand. The slant board is, you might say, the short-cut version of these yoga postures.
 When you are standing up, the pull of gravity, and thus the pull on the flow of blood and all other fluids in your body is five or six feet. When you lie on the slant board, with your head lower than your feet, the pull of blood to the upper part of your body is about 18 inches. It's not a lot, but plenty enough to accomplish a considerable task.
 Brain anemia may not be a medically recognized disease entity, but anyone suffering from chronic fatigue has it. If muscle tone or circulation are not good enough, then the blood can't travel uphill to the brain sufficiently to feed the brain. Without sufficient blood to the brain, virtually all of our functions will be weakened. The cerebellum, the back part of your brain, is where every physical organ is regenerated. You cannot breathe, you cannot hear, see or taste, you cannot think properly, nor move any part of your body without your back brain getting enough blood flow. This is, as well, the first part of the brain to be adversely affected by gravity.
 Animals instinctively feed their brains the blood that is needed by how they sleep. An animal is always in a prone position during sleep, and its head falls lower than the rest of its body. In fact, if you hold an animal up by his front feet for long enough (for a dog, it's four hours, for a rabbit, it's three quarters of an hour), the animal will die because its heart and arteries cannot pump enough blood into its brain to keep it alive.
 One of the conditions that we find the most responsive to the slant board is prolapsus of the internal organs. Any of us who have been on a traditional western diet, with refined foods, for any extended period of time, will have a prolapsed bowel. The transverse colon, which crosses over the abdomen, will dip in the middle, thus forcing the waste products in the colon to actually have to go upward, against gravity. This almost always proves too difficult, and a prolapsed colon then becomes a clogged colon. Bladder and prostate difficulties generally arise because the organs have fought against gravity for too many years, and the bladder is no longer in its proper place. Uterine fibroid tumors can be caused by the organs above bearing down, causing pressure on the uterus. The uterus, then, becomes malpositioned, thus rendering the uterus less capable of throwing off toxic material.
 Lying on the slant board repositions all of the internal organs. Gravity pulls the organs upwards, thus creating space between the organs so that the oxygen can reach the organs more easily.
 Simply lying on the slant board with your arms stretched out above your head is wonderful. You may have noticed that between 3 and 5 p.m., it gets harder to keep your energy level up. This is because at this time, the sun and moon change their configuration in relation to each other. The fluids in our bodies make a concomitant change in response. It's best to find time to do the slant board around this time and you will find that you have renewed vigor for the rest of the day. In fact, 15-20 minutes on the slant board renews your body the same as an hour of sleep.
 You can augment the effect of the board by doing simple exercises.

Slant board exercises:
Exercise 1) To bring more blood into the abdomen, pull the stomach in and up, toward the shoulders.
Exercise 2) You can also pat the stomach, stretching your upper torso from side to side. This both increases circulation and breaks down pockets in the intestinal tract.
Exercise 3) Flex the knees, bringing them as close to your chest as you can get. This is a brain exercise.
Exercise 4) Bicycle on the board. This is good for the abdominal organs.
Exercise 5) Lift the legs and rotate them in large circles. This brings circulation into the pelvic area and stretches the muscles around the
prostate. It also releases pressure on the bladder.
Exercise 6) Lift legs straight up to as close to a 90° angle to your body as you can get, then lower them slowly. This builds abdominal strength.

 Undulating

 Dr. Shizuo Inoue, Chairman of Japan’s Oxygen Health Association, has spent decades researching the relationship between oxygen levels in the body and health. He has come to agree with Nobel Prize winner Otto Warburg that a deficiency in oxygen is the root of many diseases. His inspiration for one way of correcting an oxygen deficiency came from observing fish in the water. He noticed that when the fish swim, they move their whole bodies in gentle undulating cycles. He thought that the steady undulation of the spine is, in part, responsible for the full oxygenation of the fish. He sought to replicate this movement in humans.
 Dr. Inoue instructed his engineers to design a machine for humans that would move the spine as well as the rest of the body in these same undulating movements -- to make us fish, in a sense. Dr. Inoue calls the machine the Chi machine because he believes that in oxygenating the body, the Chi, the “life force” or “life energy” of the body is raised.

 Floating
 Children love to spin, to rock, to swing -- to do anything that momentarily changes their consciousness of ordinary reality. It is probably the case that this desire is genetically inbred into us given the tenaciousness with which we hold on to any method that accomplishes this -- from drugs and alcohol, to daydreaming and fantasy, to yoga and meditation.
 In the 1950's, John Lilly started experimenting with the deliberate induction of a change in consciousness through the use of sensory deprivation. By 1970 he had perfected the flotation tank in which the adventuresome person would lie buoyantly atop body temperature water saturated with Epsom salts. The tank inside was pitch black, and there was no sound penetrating through. Although Lilly did some interesting experiments in his tank, it was not for the faint of heart. The tank itself was more like a coffin than a tank. And because of a series of other experiments done on severe sensory manipulation in which experimental subjects had adverse reactions, many people became fearful of the tank.
 Today, we have moved away from any interest in altered states which resemble the drug-induced states of the 50’s and 60’s. Today, instead, most of us are interested in relaxation, stress reduction and relief from exercise-induced injury.
 In pursuit of this goal, John Lilly's original flotation tank has been up-dated into a flotation room. You actually step into the chamber and lie down only when you're comfortable and acclimated to your new environment. An optional soft, blue light and optional piped-in music have been added. Many major cities have facilities with a flotation chamber. It’s a little expensive to create a flotation chamber in your own home, but once you’ve floated, you’ll be hooked and you’ll want to float frequently, maybe enough to create you own home flotation chamber (for a cost of $1500).
These are the benefits you can expect. The relaxation is utterly profound. Research shows that one hour of floating is equivalent to five hours of sleep. New parents and insomniacs (if you've ever been a new parent, you'll know that new parents and insomniacs have a lot in common) say that floating has transformed impossible, exhausted days into high energy days. Some floaters say that they have the experience when they float of "coming home." This is, of course, because the environment in the float room is roughly equivalent to our very first environment, the womb. Our memories may even be reaching back further, back to the sea before we even became human.
 When you float, you are not straining against gravity, and thus every muscle in your body is more relaxed than you can get it in any other way (except space travel). Consequently, you develop a heightened awareness of any tensions, spasms, knots that may have escaped your notice. You can work on consciously releasing the tension in these places. Michael Flatley, star of the Broadway show Riverdance, claims that floating was the only thing that soothed his aching feet after his strenuous performances.
 Floating creates a drop in blood pressure, a slowing of pulse rate and allows the blood to circulate more freely throughout the body. Because of the sensory deprivation aspects of being in the float room, you become extremely aware of your internal world. (It's why, as well, patients in psychoanalysis lie on the couch. The mild sensory deprivation they experience in not seeing the analyst facilitates access to the unconscious.) You become sensitive to your thoughts and feelings, as well as to your autonomic functions such as respiration, heartbeat and dilation of blood vessels. If you choose to use the floating experience in such a way, you can bring these involuntary functions under conscious control, thereby achieving a unity of all parts of your brain, the reptile brain, limbic brain and neo-cortex. This unity, achieved in a state of utter passivity, confers on you a unique state, one that is both extraordinarily quiet and intensely conscious.
 Research on floating shows that it is healing for a number of abnormal conditions. It helps people to fight addictions, depression, anxiety and fears, and facilitates weight loss. There are tons of hard medical data to support these claims.
 One of the most powerful effects of floating is its detoxifying aspect. All that healthy Epsom salt just pulls toxins right to the surface of the skin where you can shower them off. And all that healthy salt is absorbed right into the skin, nourishing everything that lies below the skin.

 Flossage

 If you’ve gone to the trouble to create your own flotation room, you’ll want to experience flossage. Flossage is underwater massage while you’re floating. The benefits of massage are well-known: it increases circulation, eases tension, brings oxygen to all parts of the body. When the benefits of massage are combined with the benefits of flotation, the experience and effects are quite profound.
You need another person with you for flossage, but specific massage training is unnecessary. More important is a sense of trusting the person and allowing yourself to become vulnerable with that person. As you feel the different parts of your body held afloat not only by the water, but also by the hands of your massager, you will begin to experience a profound sense of being supported. In fact, you may come to feel more supported, in all senses of the word, than you’ve ever felt before in your life.
Your massager can use the gentle undulations of the water to gently rock you back and forth so that you begin to have the experience of moving in the water. The stillness of consciousness that you acquire from floating is then combined with the synchronized movement of your body and the water; you begin to experience yourself as stillness moving.

Flossage can begin with your feet or your head. The massage person will gradually move around your body, with gentle, small strokes made in a circular motion. Your feet and your head should both be cradled in the lap of your massager. This is when the rocking should take place. As your massager comes to your sides, he or she should place one hand underneath the small of your back and the other hand remains free for massaging the abdomen.

 Growth hormone, fasting and aging

 Human growth hormone (HGH), also called somatotrophin, has the function of stimulating the growth and maintenance of bone tissue and muscle mass, facilitating the repair of damaged DNA within the cell and controlling proper cell division. Researchers feel that this hormone holds an important key to slowing and even reversing the aging process.
 In 1990 Dr. Daniel Rudman injected 12 elderly men with HGH. The results, reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, were stunning. These men showed significant signs of turning back the clock in the bodies. Their body fat was reduced (14%) and muscle mass increased (9%). Their skin became more youthful looking; they reported more energy and an increased sex drive. Follow-up research and subsequent studies, however, have shown an increase in cancerous tumor growth coincides with the use of HGH.
 There are, however, natural ways of stimulating HGH and deriving these same anti-aging benefits. The highest levels of HGH are released in three conditions: sleep; when we fast for at least 24 hours; and when we avoid foods that cause a rapid increase in blood sugar and eat foods that are favorable to the production of HGH. When blood sugar rises rapidly, as it does when we eat a lot of pasta, potatoes, fat and refined sweets, too much insulin is produced. The body reacts by producing a chemical called somatostatin. This chemical suppresses the production of insulin; but it also suppresses HGH release. Foods that don't stimulate insulin and somatostatin, and are favorable to the production of HGH include beans, legumes, nuts and whole grains.
 Our recommendations are to follow a healthy dietary program. Fast for 24 hours once every two weeks. Avoid going to bed on a full stomach. Exercise also stimulates an increase in HGH levels. To maximize the effect, exercise on an empty stomach (wait two hours after eating to exercise).
 
 

Face up to Face Beauty

There’s a sentiment that if you’re a woman beyond the age of 40, you must choose your body or your face, curves or lines. If your face looks good, it’s because you’re a little plump and the fat cells have smoothed out your facial lines; on the other hand, if you’re thin, your body looks great but your face tends to be more lined.
With a little work on your part, however, (and without that dreaded surgeon’s help) you can be thin without excess facial lines. You just need to make sure that your face is as well exercised, and as well nourished and cleansed as the rest of your body.
 Face exercises are particularly important as we age. We tend to not think of the face as needing to be exercised, concentrating more on the muscles in our bodies. But, after all, the face is, like the body, a conglomerate of muscles. A well-toned muscle elsewhere in the body has elasticity and smoothness. It is the same with facial muscles.
 As we grow older, one form of line we develop in our faces is called character lines. These lines and sags reflect something about how we characteristically feel and manage our emotions.  These lines can actually be a picture of our personalities. Character lines form because we tend to manage our feelings in repetitive ways, and, in doing so, we position our faces in repetitive ways that reflect our feelings.

Exercising the face

You may have noticed that people who do yoga have especially youthful faces. This is because yoga has specific exercises that stretch and contract all the muscles in the face, thus counteracting the fixed muscle positions that we are characteristically inclined to assume. As well, yoga facial exercises bring oxygen to muscles, thus aerating the cell tissue in the muscles and oral cavities.

For rejuvenation of cheeks and eyes:
With fingers spread apart, join fingertips in front of face and close both nostrils with thumbs. Leave eyes open and inhale through your mouth while your lips are puckered. Hold breath with eyes closed.
 

Drop chin into sternal notch (the cavity at the base of the neck) and puff cheeks out with breath. Hold as long as possible. Return head back to normal and open eyes. Exhale slowly through nose.

For the neck and double chin:
Lift your chin with head tilted back. Press surface of your tongue against the roof of mouth. Hold for 1 minute. Bring head back to level position. Then lift chin again; this time, turn head to one side and look over shoulder. Slightly open mouth and jut out bottom teeth and jaw. Hold for 1 minute. Return head to original position. Do same procedure on other side. Repeat whole series 5 times.

For a radiant complexion:
Sit in comfortable cross-legged position. Raise both arms up 60°. Bend wrists back so palms are flat and parallel to ceiling. Do Breath of Fire breathing exercise (see chapter The Breath of Life) for 1 minute. Then hold breath and pump navel 16 times. Repeat 2 more times still holding arms up.

 There is a yoga series of four exercises called “Young and Beautiful in 12 minutes.” Rather than working on muscles, these exercises work on the glands, thought to be in yogic philosophy the guardians of your health. According to yogic principle the glandular centers (also called chakras) vibrate at a certain frequency. Aging (and disease) occurs when this spinning action slows down or becomes unbalanced. The quickest way to regain youth (and health) is to get these glands to vibrate at their normal rate. Because these exercises also recharge and rebalance the electrical circuits in the body, the angles must be precise. If the angles are off, rather than stimulating the various glands, the exercises will stimulate muscles.

Exercise 1) for balancing the lower and upper parts of body
Lie on back with arms at side and heels together. Keeping legs straight and heels touching, raise legs to 45° angle. Make sure neck is not tense. Hold for 3 minutes with long, deep breathing through the nose.
 

Exercise 2) stimulates the body to produce energy
Squat on balls of feet with heels touching (frog pose); Bring arms straight down between the legs with fingertips on floor. Let head hang down and relax in this position. Hold for 3 minutes with deep breaths through nose.

Exercise 3) distributes energy to upper body; works on sex organs
From frog pose, slowly and rhythmically raise the hips, keeping neck relaxed and head hanging down without any tension or resistance. You have come into the “up position” of the frog pose, keeping fingertips on floor and legs as straight as possible. Maintain position for 3 minutes with long, deep breaths.

Exercise 4) works on all glands simultaneously for whole body balancing; thymus, thyroid, parathyroid, pituitary and pineal glands are stimulated
From up-frog position, slowly lower yourself down to sit on heels with head still bent forward and neck relaxed and knees together. Slowly raise head up; let it slowly fall backwards while simultaneously raising the arms, extended straight out with palms facing down to shoulder level, parallel to floor. Eyes are closed and focused on third eye point (½ inch above eyebrows and ½ inch inside head) with total concentration. Let head hang back. Hold for 3 minutes with long deep breathing.

It’s recommended that you lie on your back for 10 minutes after completion of the exercises to let the energy circulate throughout the rest of your body.

 Cleansing the face

 In order to have a youthful face, we need to make sure that our face skin is cleansed. The best morning cleanser for your face is the same procedure you use for your body: dry skin brushing. You can buy a cosmetic brush that is smaller and softer than your body brush. Just as with your body brushing, you will be removing dead skin and collected chemical debris from your face, thus allowing your pores to open to receive nutrients.
 As well, there are many cleansers that you can use from your kitchen. You can add essential oils to any of these formulas which will make them more powerful as well as giving a scent. Additional basic ingredients that can be added to any formula include eggs, avocados and honey. The eggs and avocado should be added just before use, as they spoil. Eggs are rich in protein and make good skin and hair conditioners. The yolk has a lot of lecithin, and the whites are naturally astringent, meaning that it will help shrink or tighten pores. Avocados are rich in natural oils, protein, vitamins A and B. You can mash the avocado into your hair as well as your face as a deep conditioner. Use the pits to make a scrub. Dry the pit, then finely grind in coffee grinder. Honey has a high potassium content, which makes it impossible for bacteria to survive. It increases the shelf life of your formulas. Add it to your bath water and your skin will feel like silk.

To cleanse the face:
Rub grated carrots over the face, or for a longer procedure, use grated carrots, egg and honey as a face mask. This will hydrate the skin as well as clear away dead cells. Carrots are chock full of vitamin A, called the beauty vitamin because it is essential for clear skin and shiny hair.

To clear up blemishes:
Wash face with carrot juice.

To cleanse dry skin and reduce eye puffiness:
Rub a slice of raw, peeled potato over the skin. Then rinse. Raw potato patties placed over the eyes will also reduce eye puffiness. The vitamin C is the important ingredient here.

To cleanse oily skin:
Put ½ head of lettuce in pot of water and bring to boil. Lower heat; simmer one hour. Strain off solids. Add ¼ tsp tincture of benzoin as a natural preservative. Wash face with solution twice a day.
 
 
 

Moisturizing and nourishing the face

Most of the time we think about moisturizing our faces, but we don’t think about actually nourishing our faces. The problem with moisturizers and lotions -- even the natural ones -- is that they generally lie on the surface of the skin. But lines and wrinkles come from deeper than surface skin; if you’re going to ease their harshness, you need to help the body to produce its own moisture internally.
If your face is unduly lined, it is caused, in part, by dry skin. Moist skin is smooth; and moist skin comes from internal moisture, not from slathering on oily creams. When your skin is healthy, it produces its own moisture continuously. In addition, dry skin, on the face and elsewhere (elbows, wrists and knees particularly) is indicative of a deeper health issue. If we’re dry on the outside, it is likely that we’re dry on the inside. In fact, according to Dale Alexander, dry skin and arthritis are just two sides of the same coin. They are both symptoms of the same underlying problem, which is lack of lubrication. Too, if your skin is dry, your blood cells are drying out, losing the lubrication that allows them to circulate freely. They clump together, causing sludge blood. Your arteries lose their elasticity, becoming hard and brittle, setting you up for a stroke or aneurysm. The list of health conditions goes on and on. (See Water, Water Everywhere, But Not Enough in Our Bodies for details on the health effects of too little water lubrication in the body.)
The oil that best lubricates the skin is cod liver oil. None of the other oils -- the nut oils, even the health-enhancing flaxseed oil -- work specifically on the skin the way cod liver oil does. All other oils are land oils; the fact that cod liver oil is a marine oil gives it special properties. Cod liver oil contains large amounts of vitamin A, which protects the skin, and essential fatty acids, which have a fantastic ability to heal the skin.
The best way to take cod liver oil is with milk. The milk is an oil-bearing liquid with emulsified oils that mix with the cod liver oil.

Moisturizing your skin with cod liver oil:
For best results, take your cod liver oil before bed or an hour before breakfast. In a small glass jar, mix one tbspn of cod liver oil with two ounces of goat’s milk. (If the jar is large, you will lose too much of

the oil on the sides of the jar. If goat’s milk is not available, substitute whole, not skim, organic cow’s milk.) To sweeten and eliminate the cod liver taste, you can add 1 tbspn fruit concentrate (black cherry concentrate is nice). Shake jar and drink. Take every day until skin is no longer dry; then take every other day for 6 months; then taper off to once a week. (Individuals suffering from heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes will not assimilate the oil quickly, and should take it only twice a week.)

 Bee pollen makes an excellent base for a moisturizer. Bee pollen, you may remember, is chock full of anti-aging properties. It has RNA and DNA nucleic acids, all of the amino acids and is a complete food that provides all the nutrients necessary for the sustenance of human life. Nothing nourishes the skin like a bee pollen mask. If you make these products a part of your regular skin care, you will see dead skin melt away. The only products needed for these formulas that you will not have in your kitchen are glycerin, beeswax, aloe vera, witch hazel and stearic acid; all are totally natural. Glycerin can be made from either plants or animals. All drugstores carry the animal form and health food stores can order the vegetable glycerin. Beeswax can be found at most farmers’ markets and at some health food stores. If you can’t find it at these places, just buy some natural candles, which are made from beeswax. Aloe vera gel is found at any health food store, or better yet, you can grow your own plant indoors. The gel is the center part after you have removed the green surface. Witch hazel is a plant whose leaves and bark can be made into a skin freshener and astringent. It’s been a staple of medicine chests for 300 years and is available at any drugstore. It’s good for tired eyes as well as the face. Stearic acid is a natural butter acid obtained from fats and oils. Craft stores carry it because it’s used in making candles.

Bee pollen moisturizing mask:
Mix 1 tsp of ground bee pollen, 1 tbspn of honey (if you can find a honey with propolis, you’ll increase the vitamin B) and 1 egg yolk. This is the essential mask. You can also add mashed avocado for extra nutritional boost. Smear on face and leave on half-hour.
 

Bee pollen scrub:
Add cornmeal to the mask, and rub on skin.

Bee pollen astringent:
Mix together 1 tsp of ground bee pollen, ½ cup of fresh lemon juice, white of 1 egg and ¼ cup of water. Use daily to cleanse your face.

Bee pollen cold cream:
Stir in ½ tbspn bee pollen with 1 tbspn of water. Mix ¼ cup glycerin, ¼ cup grated beeswax and ½ cup almond oil. Heat on stove until wax in melted. Put oil mix in blender; slowly add pollen and water mix. Blend on high for one minute. Let cool.

Bee pollen moisturizing cream:
Mix together 1 tbspn ground bee pollen, 2 tbspn apricot kernel oil, ¼ cup almond oil and ¼ cup stearic acid. Heat oil mix in water bath (put mix in stainless steel pot and place in larger pot filled with water) until mix is clear liquid. Then mix ½ tsp baking soda, ½ tsp aloe vera gel and 1 cup water. Heat water mix in water bath. Add 1/3 water mix to oil mix and stir until foamy. Pour foamy mix into blender. Add rest of water mix in slow, steady stream on high blend until fluffy white. Put mix in glass container and let cool.

 Smoothing out lines and wrinkles

There are several natural products that have an anti-wrinkle effect. One of the best is Stevia. Stevia has been used traditionally in skin care for centuries. The Indians used it before Columbus. Liquid Stevia is dark, and you’ll actually look like a painted Indian. As you let it dry on your skin, you will actually feel your facial skin tightening. It is easily washed off with water. You can usually see the effects of Stevia on facial lines and wrinkles after just a few treatments. It also works exceptionally well on acne, seborrhea, dermatitis, eczema and just plain old blemishes. If it is used on cuts or wounds, it will speed up the healing and will prevent scarring.
 
 
 

Stevia anti-wrinkle procedure:
Put just a few drops of liquid Stevia each day on your face, right on top the wrinkles and lines. You can also add the white powdered Stevia to your favorite moisturizer and wear through the day.

 You can also give yourself a “fruit peel” as an anti-wrinkle treatment. Papaya has a natural enzyme called papain which works well for this purpose. Pineapple has bromelein, also an enzyme.

Anti-wrinkle fruit peel:
Mash 2 tbspn of outer rind of green papaya or pineapple with 1 tsp aloe vera gel. Leave on only 5 minutes as mix is drying.

 Finally, pine needles make an excellent facial toner and their advantage is that they’re available year-round in any climate. Perhaps when we use a brew made from pine needles, we absorb some of the steady, sturdy properties of the trees. This formula is slightly astringent and will improve circulation. It’s gentle enough to use below the eyes. The subtle scent gives a nice feeling of calm.

Pine needle toner:
Put 1 cup pine needles in pot and cover with water. Bring to boil. Then allow water to cool; strain off pine needles. Add ¼ cup witch hazel and stir.

Nature’s Prozac: St. John’s Wort

 If you’re depressed and you’re not already taking Prozac, you’re probably thinking about it. If you decide to take it, you’ll be joining the ranks of 20 million people in this country. But don’t think too hard about it. There’re several problems. There is the fact that very little research has been done on it. Its manufacturer, Eli Lilly, claims to have done extensive research on it and its side-effects. What they admit to is daunting enough: agitation, irritability, nightmares, abnormal bodily movements, palpitations, loss of libido and weight gain. But what’s worse is that careful examination of the study Eli Lilly conducted shows that the drug was evaluated for only 4-6 weeks and, further, that of the 4000 people who began the study, only 286 people completed the full 6 weeks.
 We know that depression has many causes. It makes sense that it would have many cures. Exercise often helps if the depression is caused by a sluggish metabolism. Psychotherapy is the key if the problem stems from unresolved emotional issues from the past. If there is a biochemical disturbance, nature has a sure-fire remedy and interestingly enough, it works on the same principle as Prozac. The chemical effect of Prozac is that it regulates the flow of serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical in the brain. The herb St. John’s Wort does the same thing and without all the side-effects of a drug.
 The research on St. John’s Wort is compelling. Over fifteen studies have shown that this herb alleviates depression. It is a regularly prescribed herb for depression in Germany where medical schools are required to teach herbal and homeopathic therapies. In fact, in 1993 in Germany, St. John’s Wort represented 50% of the prescriptions for depression whereas Prozac represented only 2%.
 The constituent that makes the herb effective is Hypericum perforatum. You can find either the whole herb or Hypericum extract in most health food stores.
 
 
 

Menopause, Cancer, and Progesterone

 John Lee, M.D. has literally created a health revolution in the last ten years. He has researched the health benefits of natural progesterone. He first noticed how easily he was able to pick out from his female patients which ones were hormonally balanced and which ones were estrogen dominant and progesterone deficient. The estrogen dominant/progesterone deficient patients had a loss of interest in sex, water retention, fibrocystic breasts, PMS, uterine fibroid tumors, endometriosis, dry or wrinkling skin, and irregular or heavy periods. Dr. Lee eventually came to understand that most women in this country are, in fact, estrogen dominant and progesterone deficient. The cause of this condition, he has theorized, is dietary. Further, he has determined that progesterone deficiency leads to cancer.
 Symptoms of progesterone deficiency are rare in non-industrialized cultures where diets are rich in fresh vegetables. The natural diets provide sufficient progestogenic substances to make even the hormonally demanding period of menopause smooth and painless. The majority of these middle-aged women retain a high sex drive, strong bone density, and a youthful appearance. There is no term for “hot flashes” in the languages of these cultures because it is a phenomenon that doesn’t exist. Breast cancer is relatively rare for these third world women; in contrast, it is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women living in North America and Western Europe: the difference between cultures is sixfold.
The reason diet is so important in breast cancer is because of the connection between estrogen and fat. Breast tissues accumulate fat. Increased body fat raises estrogen levels (and vice-versa). The Western diet is high in animal fats, refined fats and oils, refined carbohydrates – estrogenic foods -- and low in vegetables, fruits and fiber – progestrogenic foods. In contrast, the diet in third world countries is low in fat and high in whole, unrefined grains and vegetables. Western women simply produce more estrogen and less progesterone than non-Western women.
 Johns Hopkins did a study that showed the cancer-protective benefits of natural progesterone. They studied women over a 20-year period and found that the incidence of breast cancer in women who were low in progesterone was 80% higher than women with normal levels of progesterone. Then the researchers looked for all types of cancer, and found that the low progesterone women had a tenfold increase in all types of malignant cancers. The findings suggest that having a normal progesterone level protects women from nine-tenths of all cancers.
 Dr. Lee recommends using natural progesterone in cream form. Research shows that applying the natural progesterone on the skin significantly increases the concentration of hormone levels in the breast. Dr. Lee points out that synthetic progesterone, the form that most physicians prescribe for their patients (usually under the name of Provera), is not the same as natural progesterone, which is plant-derived. Synthetic progesterone does not offer the same health benefits, and, like all synthetic substances, can have side effects as well as being difficult for the body to eliminate.
 
 
 
 

Essential Oils and Your Immune System

              If you do some research into the Royal English Archives, you’ll come across an interesting little tidbit. It’s a recipe for “thieves’ oils.” So the story goes: in the 17th century, when all of Europe was in the thrust of the Black Plague, a small band of marauding thieves seemed immune to the disease. They would enter the homes of Black Plague victims and have no fear of touching the bodies as they searched for jewelry and money. The King demanded to know their secret.
 Their secret had to do with the oils they rubbed on their bodies. Because their family was from a long lineage of apothecaries, they had knowledge about how to use oils medicinally and prophylactically against disease. The King got the exact formulation they were using against Black Plague and this saved his entire family from the disease.
 Today we think of essential oils as mere pleasant additions to a relaxing massage. But in olden days, some cultures valued oils even more than gold because their powerful healing properties were known.
 Essential oils have the same function in the plant as blood has to the human. When you cut yourself, blood comes out of the cut. The blood cleanses the wound and kills bacteria so that regeneration of the tissue can begin. Similarly, when you cut a plant, resin, or the oil of the plant is released.
 Blood is a transporter. It carries nutrients to the cells. Oxygen is the constituent of blood that delivers the blood through the cell walls. When oxygen is taken out of the blood, the cells mutate and give off a toxic gas. This, then, creates a host condition that will breed disease. So, too, with plants. Oils serve as the defense system in plants. These oils oxygenate the plant and carry nutrients, vital elements and chemical constituents to every cell in the plant. They contain each of the plant’s healing nutrients including trace minerals, vitamins, hormones, amino acid precursors and other components. They give the plant the ability to destroy infections, stave off infestations, initiate and maintain growth and  repair structural damage. The essential oil of the plant is literally the life force of the plant.
 When essential oils are applied to human skin, they carry the same healing force as they do to the plant. Because they themselves carry such a high concentration of oxygen, they also produce in the human system the highest level of oxygenating molecules of any substance on earth. Because the oils are so highly concentrated, they are at least 50 times more therapeutically potent than the plant itself or herbs made from the plant.
 Essential oils detoxify the body. Oxygen pushes unwanted chemicals out of the cell. Normal cell function and balance is established only when there is sufficient oxygen.
 The absorbability of essential oils into the human system is unsurpassed. If you are deficient in oxygen, your cell membranes will begin to thicken. When this happens, oxygen is not able to get its nutrients through this thick wall. You may have been eating all the nutritional food in the world, but if the blood can’t get the nutrients into the cell, you may have well-nourished blood but you won’t have well-nourished cells. Essential oils are soluble with the lipids in the cell membrane and thus go through the cellular wall.
 As well, essential oils have the capacity to change the electrical frequency of the body. Our bodies are electrical. So is everything around us, including our television, our lights and our microwave. The difference between us and our electrical appliances is that we have a harmonic, coherent frequency whereas appliances operate at incoherent, chaotic frequencies. Our appliances have the ability to fracture the frequency that we operate at.
 We know that the body awake averages a frequency of 62-72 Hz. Disease sets in when the frequency drops. The frequency of the body drops when the body comes into contact with substances that have lower frequencies: junk food, canned or otherwise denatured food, drugs, even synthetic vitamins. Research has shown that merely holding a cup of coffee in your hand can drop your frequency (probably through the aroma which, as we will see, has a more powerful effect on us than any of us would imagine). Television and computers are two of the main offenders in dropping the body's frequency. Most electrical appliances can simply be unplugged to reduce the negative effect. Not so with television and computer screens. The voltage in these screens is so high that it can take up to six hours to unload this voltage. Sleeping with televisions and computers in the bedroom, even when off and unplugged, is one of the leading causes of insomnia.
  The electrical frequency of essential oils ranges between 52 and 320 Hz. They have the highest frequency of any substance known to man. Because they are living substances, their frequency is harmonic with the human frequency. When essential oils come into contact with our bodies, the frequency of our bodies becomes raised to a degree that we become inhospitable hosts to pathogenic organisms.

The Prescription:

Essential oils can be applied directly to the skin. Within 21 minutes of being placed anywhere on the human body, essential oil will penetrate every cell within the body. We rub our bodies with oils as specific medicines.
 Merely breathing in the fragrance of essential oils is a powerful healer. The healing begins in the brain. There are 800 million nerve endings in the nose which detect odors. The nerve from the olfactory bulb extends back toward the mid-brain and then on to the pituitary and pineal glands and finally to the amygdala.
During spring and summer, you can pick fresh flowers,  leaves and herbs. Crush the plants in your hands and just breathe in. You will be breathing in the fragrance of the essential oil as it oozes from the plant, just as blood oozes from our skin when we are cut. Each plant will have its own frequency. Experiment with different plants to see which ones resonate best with your body. (Avoid the poison plants.)
 Essential oils can also be diffused in the air. Research has shown that oils can kill most air-born microorganisms. A French study colonized 210 various microbes; within 30 minutes of misting the air with a mixture of oils only 4 colonies remained alive. You can mist your air with the fragrance of an essential oil by simply placing a few drops of oil -- 10-15 -- in a regular plant water mister diluted with some water.
 Enough research has been done that we now have a lot of information on what conditions are effected by which essential oils.

Therapeutic properties of essential oils:
Rose and lavender work well with insomnia. Rub the oil up and down the spine just before bedtime.
Peppermint relieves nausea, vomiting and fever and soothes indigestion.
Ylang ylang reduces hypertension and high blood pressure. Bergamot is effective for insect bites, cold sores, sore throat and thrush.
Clove is one of three essential oils in which no bacteria, virus or fungi can live. It is used regularly in European hospitals.
Black cumin has been shown to reverse HIV infections.
Bitter fennel, dill and coriander have all been shown to aid diabetics in getting off insulin.
Lavender and orange peel have proven effective against breast cancer in animals.

 As well, the therapeutic effect of food supplements and herbs is augmented when essential oils are part of the formula. When herbs and food supplements are prepared for sale, they are dehydrated. This dehydration releases 90% of the essential oil of the plant. Without the oil, most of the life force of the plant has been evaporated out. This is one reason why herbs used today are less effective than when our ancestors used to just go to the fields and pick what they needed. When the essential oil is reintroduced into the supplement, you are guaranteed that the nutrients will reach the cellular level in your body.
 

IV. 5-ELEMENTS HEALING

Water Therapy: Ishnaan

 Ishnaan is a yogic concept that involves the use of water to utterly transform the body. In yogic tradition, you never say you’re going to take a bath or a shower -- you say you’re going to perform Ishnaan. There’s a reverence, a grace to the concept of immersing your body in water and allowing the water to work a magical transformation and healing on you.
 It is, in a way, unfortunate that modern plumbing brings water to us so easily. It has gotten us to be lackadaisical about the magic and possibility of transformation through the therapeutic use of water. In ancient times, hydrotherapy required 500 men to fill the huge tub. The tub had to be placed 40 feet above the ground in order to create enough water pressure to get the desired effect.
 The science of hydrotherapy is extremely precise and it is here in the ancient yogic tradition that its laws were first discovered. Water therapy forces the capillaries to open and when they close again, the blood returns back to the organs. Each organ has its own blood supply so in doing this you have just given each organ a nice flushing out of old blood and replenishing of revitalized blood. When the organs get a flushing, the glands have to change their secretions. When the glands change, according to yogic tradition, youth returns. If the glandular system is revitalized, it secretes chemicals that are young chemicals, thus returning the body to youthfulness and health.
 Now that you know the importance of drinking water as pure as you can get it, you should also realize that the water that your skin is exposed to should, as well, be as clean as possible. Virtually all city water supplies are chlorinated; most are fluoridated. If it's not good enough for our insides, it's not good enough for our outsides. One of the best treats you can give to yourself is to make an investment in a shower filter. Get a good one, one that filters out most impurities, as opposed to just chlorine. The difference in cost (about $100) will pay for itself in your health. Unfortunately, they have not yet invented a bathtub water filter. So when you use your bathtub as a therapeutic device, fill it up with shower water.

 Hot water therapy
The simple, time-honored approach of warm and hot water hydrotherapy is available to everyone, and you don't need to wait for a trip to a spa to use it. It takes only two therapeutic devices which all of us have: a shower and a bathtub. Hot water therapy is great for injuries that are less serious than those treated professionally, and is a great prophylactic against future injuries. As well, you can create your own mini-ocean environment and your own herbal sauna in your own bathtub for virtually pennies, and at no inconvenience.
 Perhaps what makes hot water therapy so effective -- almost magical in its effectiveness -- is that it represents our origins. Life itself arose out of the primordial soup that was warm and moist. All through the ages, human beings have recognized the enormous benefits of hot water. Wherever natural hot springs bubbled up to the earth's surface, centers of healing and regeneration were created. Today spas occupy these sites, and they remain just as popular and just as effective in healing many ailments.
 When we step into a hot shower or bath, we are calling upon our bodies to make an adjustment to this new environment. There is an immediate increase in blood pressure, followed by a corrective drop in blood pressure as blood rushes to the skin to meet the warmth of the water. This warmed blood then penetrates more deeply into tissue below the skin. Wherever there is more blood, there is more oxygen and more nourishment, since blood is the carrier of oxygen as well as other nutrients. The increase in oxygen brings about a feeling of relaxation. This relaxation of muscles is essential for health.
 Although we generally think of muscles as being like rubber bands which become tighter as they are stretched out, in fact, muscles operate in just the opposite fashion. Muscles are longest when they are at rest and shortest and most constricted when they are in use. When a muscle is contracted, or in use, the fibers which constitute it are spaced relatively close to each other and blood flow is constricted. When a muscle is in a relaxed state, however, these fibers are far apart. There is plenty of room, then, for the blood to circulate, bringing in nourishment.
 We have the general ability to tighten or relax our muscles at will. However, there are times, particularly when we are in one position for an extended period of time, that our muscles seem to have a will of their own. They tighten up, even though we don't consciously will or want them to. Contraction, then, can become a chronic condition; there is an actual shortening of muscles, and we are left in rather continuous pain.
 Hot water has the additional effect of increasing the overall temperature of the body. The heart rate and respiration also increase, as does the rate at which the body uses oxygen and excretes waste material. Perspiration eliminates metabolic waste products, and this cleansing augments the sensation of calmness and relaxation.
 Relaxing muscles has effect on both the skeletal system and the nerves. Nerves run through muscle tissue and constantly constricted muscles can pinch these nerves. Because muscles are attached to bones through tendons, tightness in a muscle can exert pressure on the bones to which they are attached. Each of these conditions can be quite painful. But when muscles are enabled to let go of their tightness, nerves are soothed, pressure on bones is alleviated and pain is relieved.
 The net effect of all these physiological changes is that there is greater mobility for the muscles. Because of this increase in freedom of movement, exercises and stretches can now be performed to give those tired and constricted muscles the workout that will restore them to proper functioning. Lengthening the muscles back to their normal condition is essential for relief of pain, as well as for overall healthy functioning. Performing certain simple exercises and stretches, as well as administering self-massage in the shower or bathtub is the real power behind hot water therapy. As the muscle contracts in the exercise, blood is pushed out, flushing out toxic materials. As the muscle relaxes, the blood rushes back in, bringing in fresh oxygen and nutrients.
 The exercises that are best to do in the shower or tub are yoga exercises. Yoga and hot water both have the effect of stretching, and thus causing relaxation. Each exercise should be repeated a number of times and each posture should be held for a number of seconds. It's best for each individual to decide on his or her level of comfort, but it's important to gradually increase one’s stamina.
 Concentration of breath is very important in yoga.  We are attempting to bring oxygen into every nook and cranny in our bodies, so the breath and movement need to be coordinated.
 In the shower, the exercises are done under the running water, and it's best to position the shower head so that the water is hitting the area that you're stretching.

Shower exercises:
1) For the shoulders and head, you can do the shoulder shrug, which means simply planting your feet about 18 inches apart, raising your shoulders as high as you can get them while you inhale, and then letting them drop as you exhale.
2) Shoulder circles are rotations of the shoulders, first in one direction then in the other. Again, inhale on the upswing and exhale on the downswing.
3) Next you can do the head rotation, circling your head around as far in every direction as you can get it. In yoga, a basic principle is symmetry. Every motion in one direction has to be counteracted by a motion in the opposite direction. So always rotate in both directions.  As the head is in the back, inhale; when the head is forward, exhale.  Each of these three exercises, the shoulder shrug, shoulder circles and head rotation helps to break up calcium deposits at the base of the head.  This calcium restricts blood flow to the brain. So, in doing these exercises we are feeding our brains.
4) For the middle back, the swan to the seal are excellent movements. Bring your shoulders straight forward as though you are trying to get them to touch in front of you. Then bring your shoulders back, letting your hands fall naturally behind you.  Inhale with one motion and exhale with the other.
5) The pelvic tilt consists of rotating your pelvis around with your arms resting on your head. You can do circles, or move from side to side.

 Wherever there's pain, it means there's restriction of movement and not enough oxygen in the area. These are then the areas that you want to work with both most gently and most ambitiously.
 Exercises can also be done in the bathtub. The tub should be half filled with warm water. Place either a cushion or towel on the bottom of the tub to soften the feel of the tub.
 
 

Bathtub exercises:
1) The first exercise is called the cow/cat posture. Go down on all fours with the top of your toes touching the tub bottom. On the inhalation, sway the small of your back so that your stomach muscles
drop and your head is back.  Then go into your exhalation with the cat posture by arching your back upwards, letting your head drop.  You can alternate between these postures as many times as you want but always do them together.
2) Then go into what is called the swayback horse posture by flattening your back, letting your stomach muscles relax, and then swaying the small of your back so that it drops down. The head needs to be raised now. The movement from cat to horse can be made as many times as you're comfortable.
3) The knee walk is good for abdominal muscles. Relax against the back of the tub and pull your knees toward you. Place a hand on each kneecap, and walk your knees, one at a time. When you get more comfortable with this exercise, you can make it a little more strenuous by placing your hands on your side and letting your knees do all the walking.
4) Knee circles begin with the same posture as the knee walk, and consist of simply rotating your knees around in a circle, keeping your back on the floor of the tub the whole time.
5) You can also do a version of the pelvic tilt in the bathtub.

 These exercises are just a sampling of what's possible. Virtually any yoga exercise can be modified to turn it into a shower or bathtub exercise. You can get creative, and in response to the signals your body gives you, devise your own regimen.

 Cold water therapy
 Cold water specifically helps to oxidize the cells of tissues, increasing the absorption of oxygen and aiding in the elimination of carbonic acid. In making parts of the body cold, you are actually asking your own circulation system to warm you from the cold. This exercising of the circulatory system builds up a resistance in the body to take care of ordinary situations -- drafts, cold weather, and exposure to pathogens -- which might cause illnesses if you’re in a weakened state.
 The yogis understood how to use cold water therapy to achieve absolutely precise effects in the body.

For a clear mind:
In the shower, let cold water fall just below your lower lip for 15 minutes.

For energy:
In the shower, let cold water fall between your eyebrows and upper lip for 15 minutes.

To induce sleepiness:
In the shower, let the water fall on your forehead for 15 minutes.

Cold water for colds:
When you have a head cold, the fastest way of getting rid of it is to do a cold sponge bath. Make sure the bathroom is warm, and then sponge your whole body with cold water. Wrap up quickly in a sheet or big towel, without drying yourself. The principle here is that you're getting your body to respond more vigorously to warm you, so you don't want to interfere with your body's doing all the work. Then hurry to bed and lie there covered as warmly as possible for an hour. Do this every hour four times. Then get up and dress warmly. You'll notice that each sponging gets you to feel warmer. By the third sponge, you should actually begin to sweat when you are in bed. Congestion in your nose will clear up; in fact your nose may begin to run profusely for a while. And your head will feel lighter. It's a guaranteed one-day cure for a chest or head cold. The next day you'll feel 1000% better.

Cold water for infections and inflammations:
You can get good results with local infections and inflammations by using a cold water spray on the affected area. The process is the same. Wet the area with a shower spray, then cover yourself without drying and relax. Repeat this several times. Once you get the hang of this therapy, you can get really creative and follow the basic rules while, at the same time, following your own intuition about what would help your body to respond.
 

Cold water for overweight:
Cold water therapy keeps the glands in good working order. There is almost always some kind of glandular disturbance in an overweight condition. Also, keeping the bowels and kidneys functioning, which cold water therapy effects, helps to discard toxins which often settle in as extra weight. For losing weight, it's best to do a hip spray in the morning and a back spray in the evening. These techniques help to both cleanse and keep the cells of organs well saturated with water. As well, the muscles will stay well-toned, and you will avoid that sagging that comes with weight loss. Of course, cold water therapy should be augmented with drinking lots of water and healthy eating habits. To do the hip spray, aim the shower spray directly at your hip. Do this several times, then wrap up and jump into bed for a half hour. Remove the wrapping and stay in bed for another half hour. To do the back spray, you need someone to aim the water at your back. Go up and down the back several times, wrap and go to bed.

For a complete body rejuvenation:
This is the most powerful yogic water application. Yogis believe that daily performance of this cold water shower will insure health and long life. First, coat your skin with almond oil. Then, immerse your whole body in water as cold as you can stand it. It may take a few attempts to get used to it but what’s remarkable about the technique is that after the first shock of the cold, you actually will feel warm, not cold. Your blood rushes out to meet the challenge of the cold and begins to generate its own heat. This is better than a sauna or a steam bath where your body is passively heated; here it is an active process, activating your entire circulatory system and changing your entire bloodstream. The technique is to stand under the cold shower, massaging each part of your body that the cold water is hitting. Use each foot to massage the calf and foot of your other leg.  The almond oil will help to keep the heat sealed in. Repeat the cold dousing and self-massage several times until you’ve been in the shower for 15 minutes. By the time you get out, you should feel toasty warm or even hot. Then towel dry yourself; put on warm clothes and wrap yourself in a blanket. This technique totally rebuilds your body and you will feel simultaneously invigorated and calm.

 Cold water therapy was also practiced some years ago at the Kneippe Sanitarium in Woerschofen, Germany. This was a highly successful and popular treatment for a variety of health problems; over 4000 patients a week were treated using cold water therapy. One of the keys that Kneippe discovered was that if you have good circulation all the way down to the legs, it gives you good circulation all the way up to the head, and everywhere in between. The Kneippe Sanitarium became known for its Kneippe water walk, which consisted of a 30 foot walk through cold water which reached up to the knees.
 You can create the same effect as the Kneippe water walk.

Kneippe outdoor water walk:
Use a simple garden hose without the sprinkler attachment. Run the water against your leg, starting at the point that is farthest away from your heart, the ankle of your right leg. Move the stream of water up your leg until you reach your groin, then around and down the back of the other leg. Then do the same to the front. Let the water evaporate naturally; otherwise you don't get the benefit of your circulatory system getting activated. To augment the effect, end the treatment with a barefoot walk through either sand or grass.

 In the winter, you can do the same thing in your bathtub.

Kneippe indoor water walk:
Fill the tub with water just a few inches as cold as you can tolerate, and walk back and forth. It may be painful at first, particularly if your circulation is poor. But you will feel your feet begin to get a little numb, and then warm. This is the time to step out. Build up tolerance for being able to walk for five minutes.

 If you're really adventuresome, you can try the same thing outside in new, clean snow. In both circumstances, warm your feet by continuing to walk for a while with shoes and socks.

 Alternating hot and cold water therapy
 Alternating exposure to hot and cold water is an extremely powerful therapy. The simplest way of using hot and cold water therapy for health maintenance in your own home is during your morning shower.

Hot and cold shower:
Start with warm water. You can go to as hot as is comfortable.  This will open the pores in your skin, and allow them to exhale toxins. Then ease into cool water which will close your pores. Make the water increasingly cold until your breath quickens. This is the response that you want and where you should end your shower. At the right dosage, your body will have just received a good influx of invigoration and your skin will glow radiantly if you make this a regular part of your routine.

Another method of alternating hot and cold is to do a hot-cold wrap.

The hot-cold wrap:
You need first to line your bed with plastic. Take a sheet that has been dipped in a warm stew of herbal water, lay it out on the bed and wrap yourself thoroughly in it. Cover yourself with blankets and relax for a half-hour. Then repeat this using the same sheet, now dipped in cold herbal water. This wrap is probably the most beneficial of the hot/cold applications, but also the most work.

 Using alternating hot and cold packs is a way of drawing blood into specific organs and tissues when there are localized problems. In effect, you are stimulating the same circulatory response that is created by exercise. Because hot relaxes the tissues, blood is drawn into the area of the application. Cold, on the other hand, constricts the area, pushing blood away from the exposed tissues. By alternating hot and cold, you draw blood in, then force it out. Alternate the packs ten times, applying them for only half a minute cold, and a minute hot. This is a particularly effective treatment for moving along stagnant blood. Most benign growths are either caused by stagnant blood, or create stagnant blood. For instance, fibroid tumors in women respond well to frequent use of hot and cold packs applied to the abdomen. Using alternating hot and cold water in a sitz bath, which you can buy from your drugstore, is also an effective way of dealing with both gynecological and urinary tract problems.
 

The Living Earth: Clay and Sand Therapy

Most of our guests have had some experience with the healing properties of sun, air and water; the familiarity with clay, however, is not as well known. This living earth, in the form of clay or mud, is, in fact, a synergistic combining of all of the other three elements; the earth receives its vital energies from the sun, air and water.
 The history of clay therapy is as old as is the therapeutic use of water. We know the Egyptians understood its purification powers because they used it in their mummification of the dead. The European healing tradition has always been more knowledgeable about the healing properties of clay. Father Kneippe used clay extensively in his sanitarium, combining it with natural vinegars in order to make poultices and packs. Other German and Swiss sanitariums used clay for the treatment of tuberculosis with great success. During the First World War, Russian and French soldiers routinely received clay in their supplies. These regimens were kept free of the dysentery which was ravaging the troops who didn’t have the clay in their supplies. Contemporary European spas have taken over from the sanitariums the tradition of clay therapy. Many Europeans prefer spa therapy -- the healing waters and clay treatments -- over modern medicines.
 All around the world there are peoples who eat clay, at last count over 200 cultures. This is not some “primitive” act of ignorance by starving people; rather, this is knowledge passed down from hundreds of generations about the medicinal use of clay. All through Mexico and South America, they knead the earth as they do bread, roll the clay into balls and sun-dry these balls when they’re ready to eat them. These people know which ailments respond most vigorously to clay; they determine whether the clay should be eaten or applied topically; they’re aware of locations of different kinds of clay and which clays are best for which conditions. There is a kind of precision to their understanding that is absolutely equivalent to our current knowledge of modern medicines.
 Modern research has shown that different clays have different chemical compositions. Fuller’s earth clay is found on sea and riverbeds and is high in magnesium silicate. Kaolin clay comes from China and is high in aluminum silicate. Green clay comes from France and is high in magnesium, dolomite and silica. Rhassoul mud comes from the Atlas mountain range in northern Africa and is high in magnesium.
 We are fortunate in the U.S. to have a large concentration of an extremely powerful form of clay called bentonite. This clay was originally identified in Montmorillon, France; it is also known as montmorillonite, the name given to the active mineral of the clay, and is derived from weathered volcanic ash. The largest concentrations of bentonite are found in the Great Plains of North America from an ancient seabed. This clay is high in aluminum silicate, magnesium and iron.
 One of the qualities of clay that makes it an amazing healing agent is its unique ability to both stimulate a deficiency and absorb an excess. In other words, you don’t have to be very smart to use the clay because the clay is smarter than you. It knows which of its ingredients you need to absorb and it knows what you need to eliminate from your own body, and it can do either or both.
 Clay is one of the most powerful detoxifiers we have on earth. This is, in part, because of the electrical charge of clay, which is negative. Toxins tend to be positively charged, and the clay attracts toxins to it like a magnet attracts metal shavings. Clay has the ability to first adsorb toxins (heavy metals, free radicals, pesticides), attracting them to its surface area like flies to sticky paper. Then, the clay absorbs the toxins, mopping them up as if the clay were a sponge. According to the Canadian Journal of Microbiology, clay eliminates from the body pathogenic viruses, aflatoxin (a mold), pesticides and herbicides (including Paraquat and Roundup).

 Drinking clay

 Drinking clay is especially powerful because it is able to serve as a detoxifier specifically for the intestinal tract. When clay is hydrated, it swells and greatly increases its surface area. A single quart of clay, when combined with water, can represent the surface area of roughly 12 football fields. The clay is stretched open like a highly porous sponge, and the difference in electrical charge attracts toxins into these open spaces. Because clay is inert, it passes through the body undigested. As the clay is eliminated, so too are the toxins bound to its multiple surfaces.
Clay serves, as well, as a powerful intestinal nutrient. It contains at least 71 trace and ultra-trace minerals. When we drink clay, it moves through the intestinal tract, scraping and cleaning the lining of the colon, thus increasing the colon’s ability to absorb trace minerals. Because trace minerals enable the body to absorb all other nutrients, the entire body is affected by the clay’s healing properties.
Ran Knishinsky, in The Clay Cure, says that drinking bentonite can kill intestinal parasites; it gives allergy and hay fever relief by neutralizing allergens (we’ve seen persistent allergy attacks totally disappear within seconds after ingesting clay); it eliminates anemia because of its concentration of both types of dietary iron (ferrous and ferric); it helps with acne as well as reducing heartburn and indigestion by absorbing excess stomach acids. A study performed by Dr. Frederic Damrau and published in the Medical Annals of the District of Columbia established that clay can end bouts of diarrhea, regardless of whether the diarrhea is acute or chronic and regardless of the original cause of the diarrhea, be it allergy, virus infection, spastic colon or food poisoning.
Clay should always be drunk on an empty stomach. If you drink it before bed, you will be blessed in the morning with a very large bowel movement.
 Clay poultices
 Poultices involve the external application of clay and in this manner the internal organs are fed. Poultices are a perfect medicine for any kind of internal inflammation or digestive disorder. We know women who have reduced the size of fibroid tumors in the uterus using clay poultices.
 The temperature of the clay affects its action on the body. The guiding principle is that every action is followed by a reaction. If the condition in the body is too much heat, such as in inflammation, then the clay should be cold. The body will warm the clay to the temperature needed. If the poultice never gets warmer, remove it; if it gets too hot, change it to a fresh poultice as many times as necessary until it stays tepid. If there is too much cold in the body, such as in congestion, then the poultice should be warm.
 Prepare the clay by placing it in a ceramic or glass bowl and mix it with collected rain water. Sift through it to make sure that there are no particles or rocks; you want it creamy smooth. Then put it out into the sun to sit for a few hours. Clay is alive and its properties are enlivened through its exposure to the sun.

Clay poultice:
If you don’t have sun to enliven the clay, then heat the clay in a double boiler or on top of a hot radiator. If you want a cold poultice, put it in a shady place for an hour after you heat it. Place the enlivened mud on a piece of natural cloth -- flannel is best. The thickness can be anywhere from 1/4 inch to a whole inch. Then turn the whole thing upside down on your abdomen so that the clay is in
direct contact with your skin. Lie down and relax. Sun bathing further enlivens the mud as it seeps through your pores and it will bake the mud right on your abdomen. The amazing thing about this technique is that the clay will tell you when it’s ready to be removed. It will become dry and will come off quite easily with the cloth, leaving only a thin residue of mud that is easily washed off with a wash cloth. After thoroughly cleaning the area, make sure to keep the area treated good and warm for a few hours afterwards.

 Sand baths
The next time you’re at a beach, fill a bag or bucket full of sand so that you have it at your disposal when you’re back home. Rub the sand vigorously all over your body and face and remove all those dead cells on the surface of your skin. In doing this, you are repeating a form of therapy that was mentioned over 2000 years ago by the Greek writer, Herodotus. This sand bath performs the same function as dry-skin brushing but you get the advantage with the sand of using living crystals. (Some day spas have imitated this process by offering a microabrasion facial; these cost $200 a pop; beach sand is cheaper.)
 Then hop in the shower just to get the sand off and finish your comprehensive skin cleansing with a warm epsom salt bath. Your pores will be open like never before. The only thing that competes with this ritual is actually going to the beach and doing the job there, using the salty ocean water to wash off the skin debris.
 

The Breath of Life

Have you ever noticed that after a thunderstorm the air has a poignant, fresh smell? You may recognize the fragrance in the air as familiar, but one that you've never quite been able to place. It’s the same fragrance that’s in the air when there are ocean waves and waterfalls, as well as when sunlight falls on fields of snow. This smell is ozone, a gas that is produced in prodigious amounts during all these natural circumstances.
But why wait for nature? In this instance modern technology has enabled us to be able to produce ozone at will with a machine. This machine-made ozone is the same ozone as nature’s own.
Ozone has the feel of being cleansing and, indeed, that is precisely what it does. It cleanses the atmosphere when nature produces it, and when we are exposed to it, it cleanses us.
 Then why do we hear the weatherman pronounce the “ozone count” in such a dire, dismal tone; why does he warn those of us who are healthy to not jog and those of us who are sick or old to not even go outside? And why does he blame the car emissions for the high ozone count?
 Not only is ozone produced by natural phenomena, it is also produced by pollution. When sunlight, moisture and temperature meet the chemical molecules that constitute pollution, a photochemical reaction takes place which strips off one of the molecules of atmospheric oxygen (O2) and forms ozone (O3). In other words, the more pollution there is, the more ozone is generated. So on polluted days, you will get a high ozone count. But what the weatherman is not telling you is that without ozone, the pollution would be so great that our cities would be uninhabitable.
 Ozone’s most amazing property is that it is an extremely powerful oxidant. It will break down any chemical into that chemical’s most basic component parts. Car pollution generally consists of water, carbon dioxide, sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen which have combined together to form what we call smog. When naturally occurring ozone comes into contact with this soup of smog, these chemicals are released in their elemental form. These are, in their basic, elemental form, substances without which none of us could survive.
 Ozone is a fungicide, viricide, bactericide and immune stimulant. In Europe its medicinal properties have long been recognized and it has been used as a medical treatment for a variety of diseases including cancer, circulatory disorders, arthritis, coronary diseases and many other disorders. It promotes circulation by oxygenating the blood and, among other uses, it has saved countless limbs of diabetics when used intravenously. As well, it refreshes the lungs and thus the bloodstream.
 Your initial exposure to ozone may cause a slight detoxifying reaction. This will most likely take the form of an allergy-like reaction -- your nose may run, or your eyes tear-up. Like any detox, this is good, not bad. The ozone is simply doing its thing by breaking down the pollutants in your body. Spectra tests have shown that the mucus that is discharged is actually by-products of the toxins that are being broken down. The lungs produce the mucus in order to rid the body of these by-products. So when you're in the midst of a storm, near a waterfall, or have your ozone machine turned on, breathe deeply knowing that your lungs are getting a good airing out using some of the purest air on earth.

 Oxygen: natural immunity
 Ninety percent of the body’s energy is created by oxygen. Every single activity of the body is regulated by oxygen. It is a life-giving, life-sustaining element. We can live without food for months and without water for weeks; without oxygen, we can live for only a few minutes. Without oxygen, we cannot think, feel or act.
 The more oxygen we have in our system, the more energy we are able to produce. In fact, a good definition of vitality is the body’s ability to assimilate oxygen.
 Recently scientists were stunned to discover that the air bubbles in fossilized amber contained oxygen levels of 38%. Today, the average oxygen content of air is only 19%-21%. In larger cities, where the pollution is greater, the oxygen content often dips as low as 12%-15%.
 This stunning finding suggests that there was a time on earth when the oxygen content of the air was more than 50% higher than it is today. We might well wonder whether or not our bodies have made the evolutionary changes that would be required to maintain good health with so much less oxygen than we are used to. We think not. In fact, when the oxygen content drops down to 7%, human life cannot be supported. Large, polluted cities are getting dangerously close to that level. In Japan we now see the use of oxygen booths on the streets.
 The link between oxygen and disease has been firmly established. The result of an insufficient oxygen supply can be anything from mild fatigue to life-threatening disease. Otto Warburg won a Nobel Prize in 1931 for his understanding that cancer is a disease of an oxygen-deficient environment. His words describe a core causation of cancer: “Cancer has only one prime cause. The prime cause of cancer is the replacement of normal oxygen respiration of body cells by an anaerobic (oxygen-deficient) cell respiration.” Cancer cells simply cannot survive in an oxygen-rich environment. Renowned molecular biologist and geneticist, Stephen Levine, has concluded that the lack of oxygen in human cells and tissues is the underlying root cause of not just cancer, but of all chronic degenerative disease.
 Oxidation, the process of burning, is the method through which the body is supplied with oxygen. Oxidation contributes to metabolic function, circulation, assimilation, digestion and elimination. The link between oxidation and toxicity is particularly strong; in the absence of normal oxidation, cells are incapable of burning cell waste. These wastes then accumulate throughout the body, causing all kinds of disease, including but not limited to cancer.
 The key to cellular oxidation is electricity. Electricity involves the exchange of electrons. Of all the elements, oxygen is the greatest giver and receiver of electrons. We cannot have a healthy nervous system without sufficient oxygen.

First, to breathe
 Because it is always best to do things naturally, we increase our oxygen load by learning, simply, how to breathe. Breathing well is actually not as easy as one might think. Unfortunately, we have lost much of our knowledge about this automatic process and we have to relearn it. We come into this world with the excellent talent for knowing how to do diaphragmatic breathing.  Infants all breathe deeply from their diaphragms. As we get older, we forget this talent and we breathe primarily from our upper chest. This means that only the upper portion of our lungs has air moving in and out; the lower regions contain stale air. But since gravity pulls most of the blood supply to the lower lungs, our bloodstream never gets the benefit of the fresh, oxygen-rich air. This shallow breathing can cause a plethora of problems. The oxygen level of the entire body and brain is lowered. Physical and mental problems can ensue: respiratory disease, low energy, sluggishness, senility, heart disease, loss of memory.
 The lungs are actually not an organ.  They are a vessel.  They don’t do anything on their own.  They depend on the diaphragm.  Without diaphragmatic breathing, the lungs never get the full oxygenation they need.  The diaphragm is the first pump of the body.  It wraps around the entire body.  This makes it an organ where insecurity and fear can situate. Yogic science postulates that exhalation represents trust because it duplicates the breathless state of death, and inhalation represents expansion.  We find that many respiratory ailments have emotional precursors that have to do with trust and fear.  Giving conscious attention to one’s breath aids in the resolution of these emotional conflicts.  When we breathe diaphragmatically, we open ourselves to experiencing and letting go of past restrictions, both emotional as well as physical.
 DEEP BREATHING or DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING brings oxygen to those portions of the lungs that do not get a lot of air exchange. It relaxes the nervous system as well as toning the heart and digestive system.

Deep breathing:
Place a hand below your navel point.  Push out against your hand, expanding the diaphragm as you inhale. The lungs will then naturally expand.  Push in with your hand, contracting the diaphragm.  Exhalation will follow naturally and the chest will decline.  Continue this method of breathing; take long, slow and deep breaths with one continuous flow.

 RAPID BREATHING or BREATH OF FIRE strengthens the abdominal muscles, diaphragm and heart. It gives a deep massage to the internal organs, stimulating both digestion and elimination. It energizes the nervous system and is good for a quick burst of energy.  Three minutes of Breath of Fire totally cleanses the entire blood stream.  This exercise is also good for systemic detoxification as it produces a gentle heat throughout the body that helps to burn off toxins.  Make sure that the same amount of air that goes in also goes out.  If there is an imbalance between the intake and out, you will hyperventilate or get dizzy.  What is most important is not the rapidity but the steadiness of your breathing.  Three breaths per second is what experienced yogis do, but start slowly to get the balance of movement.

Breath of fire:
The stomach expands outward with the inhalation and there is a quick, forced exhalation by pulling the stomach in and forcing the air out through the nose. This alternation of inhalation and exhalation should be done rapidly. As you’re getting used to this exercise, it’s helpful to actually place one hand on your stomach in order to feel the expansion and contraction. There is initially a tendency to move the shoulders up and down; placing the hand on the stomach helps to limit the movement to just the abdomen.

 OCEAN SOUNDING BREATH is deeply relaxing. The sound you make induces a meditative state, focusing the mind.

Ocean sounding breath:
To begin, just take a few breaths to relax. Then whisper the word home, holding the mmm... sound for a few seconds. Then whisper home on both the inhalation and exhalation. The sound should be even and smooth. When you have mastered this, then close the mouth and continue the sound through the nostrils on the inhalation and exhalation. Take long, deep breaths.

 ALTERNATE NOSTRIL BREATH is the most balancing breath. It stimulates the brain from side-to-side, thereby synchronizing the left and right hemispheres. It strengthens and regulates the nervous system.

Alternate nostril breath:
Using your right thumb, close the right nostril and inhale through the left nostril. Then closing the left nostril with your ring finger, exhale through the right nostril.  Then inhale with the right nostril, close it

with the thumb and exhale through the left nostril.  Then inhale again through the left nostril.  Close it and exhale again through the right nostril.  Continue alternating the nostrils with smooth, deep breaths.

 4-4 COLOR BREATHING combines a color meditation with breathing. Most people are only faintly aware of the healing properties of color. When we combine color meditation with the therapeutic benefits of breathing, the healing effect is quite powerful. It is important to choose the color that will produce the desired effect (see Sun Light; Moon Bright chapter for the healing effects of specific colors).

4-4 Color breathing:
Imagine your whole body bathed in the radiance of the color you have chosen. Visualize that the color is being drawn into the diaphragm and then spreading throughout the rest of your body just under the skin. If you have a particular problem area, target the visualization to that area. As you become proficient at the visualization, then concentrate on the breathing. The 4-4 breathing technique is to inhale to the count of four; hold the breath to the count of four and visualize the color here; then exhale to the count of four. Again hold the breath to four before you begin the series. It is in between the breaths that your body begins to create a new self.

 Breathing exercises are an important part of the yogic tradition. Their health benefits are enormous: they increase the body's supply of oxygen which repairs as well as burns up toxins; they also facilitate the removal of waste products and stagnant air from seldom used portions of the lungs.

 Cleaning the lungs
 Cleaning the lungs in order to get oxygen throughout the lungs goes hand and hand with the use of the Neti pot. When there is excess mucus in the nostrils, the detoxification function of the lungs is impeded. You can do these breathing exercises any time but they’re particularly effective after the nostrils have been cleared using the Neti pot. It's good to take advantage of the free flow of breath through the nose by following with some simple breathing exercises for cleaning the lungs. Taking control of your breathing is one of the surest and fastest ways to boost your energy and strength. The two most common techniques for controlling breathing are NORMAL ABDOMINAL BREATHING and REVERSE ABDOMINAL BREATHING. In normal abdominal breathing, the abdomen expands when you inhale and withdraws when you exhale. This technique has the effect of relaxing you. In Reverse Abdominal Breathing the abdomen withdraws when you inhale and expands when you exhale. This technique energizes you.
 Here are some other breathing exercises that give specific results:

Exercise 1) for cleansing:
Inhale as fully as you can, then hold your breath for a few seconds. Pucker up your lips, as though you are about to whistle, and let just a little air out through the hole with vigor. Stop, still retaining some breath, and repeat the exhalation, letting out a little more air with vigor. Repeat as many times as you need to until there is no more air.

Exercise 2) for nerve revitalization:
Standing erect, inhale fully. While retaining your breath, extend your arms out straight in front of you. Pull your hands back toward your shoulders, slowly making a fist so that by the time your hands have reached your shoulders, your fists are tightly clenched. Holding the fists tight, push them away from your shoulders, then draw them back rapidly several times. Exhale vigorously through the mouth.

Exercise 3) for insomnia:
While lying in bed, do normal abdominal breathing, drawing your concentration specifically to your abdominal region. According to Chinese medicine, insomnia is generally the result of too much Chi (energy) in the head region. This technique helps to draw the Chi down to your mid-section, thus relieving the head area of congestion of too much thought.

Exercise 4) for fever:
Stick your tongue out and roll it (if you can -- it’s a genetic trait; if you can’t, do the exercise without the tongue roll). Inhale through the rolled tongue and exhale through the nose. This cools the body.

Sun Light; Moon Bright

 Our bodies are composed of the same minerals that constitute the sun and the moon.  It takes only a short time of meditative awareness of the sun and the moon to make conscious your individual relationship with these celestial bodies. As we do this, we invite the sun and moon and the fire of which they are comprised into our lives as healing forces.
 There is a long historical precedent for the belief and use of the healing properties of the sun and the moon. Sunlight, as a therapeutic treatment had its hey-day in the time before antibiotics. In 1877, it was discovered that sunlight can kill bacteria, and therapies centered on sunlight took off all over Europe. Of course, the twentieth century and cancer changed everyone’s idea about sun. Now the word out from the doctors is that if you're going to the beach and you don't totally cover yourself with a 1920's bathing suit, a Mexican sombrero and sun-block, then you're a sitting duck for melanoma.
 Yet, it is well-documented that vitamin D protects against cancer, and sun is the major source of this vitamin. A Johns Hopkins study showed that vitamin D protects, specifically against colon cancer. Also, we know that breast cancer is higher in cities with a low total sunlight availability.
 Sunlight effects a number of bodily changes. It lowers our cholesterol and blood pressure; it triggers internal processes that effect blood, bones, protein levels as well as numerous glands and organs.  As well, the sun likes the calcium in the body.
 The discrepancy of opinion on whether sunlight is beneficial or malignant has to do with whether or not the effect on the skin alone, or the effect on the whole body is evaluated. Excessive sunlight does cause skin to wrinkle and it does cause cancerous lesions to form in some skin-sensitive people. But the over-all benefits of sunlight to the rest of the body frequently out-weigh the small risk if sunlight exposure is done judiciously.
 Not only does sunlight hit the skin, it also enters the eyes. After stimulating the optic pathway, the light signals reach the pineal gland and here is where sunlight becomes critically important for health. The pineal gland controls the amount of melatonin that is synthesized. More melatonin is needed in the darkness. Sleep cannot occur without sufficient melatonin; neither can sexual development.
 It is important to set up a routine in which you sun your eyes for at least 20 minutes every day. This is not that easy to do if you work indoors. It means that you have to actually take time to sit or walk outdoors, without glasses or contacts, so that your eyes are exposed to the full spectrum of light. Shade is just as good as direct sun since the idea is retinal exposure, not tanning.
 It is also a good idea to replace your light bulbs with full-spectrum bulbs. Regular incandescent and fluorescent bulbs supply only part of the light spectrum. This artificial light stimulates the production of the hormone cortisol, which puts the body into an energized posture. We essentially get a “light fix,” but we pay for this excess stimulation by ending up in a premature fatigue. Research shows that when people are exposed to full-spectrum lights, the stress response of cortisol does not occur.

 Your body’s internal fire: fever
 Our bodies have an internal source of fire. This regulatory system in the body insures that we maintain a constant temperature of 98.6°. This is the correct temperature for the normal burning of toxins as well as for the assimilation of nutrients. Any variation from this temperature indicates that some aspect of the body is out of balance and that the body is attempting to regulate the imbalance.
 Too low of a temperature is often indicative of a thyroid insufficiency. Conversely, when the body becomes overly acidic or alkaline, the thyroid responds by becoming highly activated; it increases the metabolic rate and raises the body’s temperature. Similarly, when an infection is detected by the body’s immune system, activation of white blood cells occurs. These activated white blood cells stimulate the release of a hormone called endogenous pyrogen (literally, internal fire), which travels through the bloodstream to the brain. The brain responds, setting up a thermostatic regulation between brain and body.
 Fever is an indication that the body’s immune system has identified, within its midst, a pathogen. The fever is the manifest sign of an activated immune system and an inflammatory response within the body. Fever burns out the pathogenic material. It is the body’s natural chemotherapy, killing potential cancer cells as well as bacteria and viruses. It is for this reason that we always welcome a fever. Children’s fevers can rise to as high as 106° without alarm; an adult fever can reach 104° without worry. Almost always, these fevers will resolve themselves without medication.
 It was in the 1800’s that aspirin became commercially available. After aspirin, antibiotics became available. These changes discarded a 2000 year old notion that fever is a beneficial aspect of the inflammatory response. For the next 100 years the focus was on bringing down fevers and inhibiting the body’s natural tendency to create an inflammatory response through fever.
 These changes in medical treatment of fevers has had serious consequences for our health. Aspirin blocks the output of prostaglandins, the chemicals which have the dual function of raising the temperature of the body as well as allowing the body’s natural antiviral substances, interferon and lysozymes, to act chemically on the infecting agent. Thus, aspirin interferes with the body’s natural fight against viruses and bacteria for precisely the same reason that it brings fever down. Research has shown that animals infected with bacteria have a higher death rate when treated with aspirin than when untreated.
 Antibiotics interfere with the body’s own natural defense system. In effect, the antibiotics do the job for the body. Overuse of antibiotics can result in rendering the immune system ineffective in responding to pathogens. In weakening the development of its normal inflammatory reaction, the body is made susceptible to even relatively weak pathogenic entities.
 We know from research that children who do not have the normal childhood febrile diseases have a higher rate of cancer in later life. We consider fever, colds and flu to be normal processes of periodic house-cleaning of the body.

 Color therapy
 The ancient Egyptians were particularly interested in color therapy. They were quite specific about what effect the various colors have on the body, and broke down the effect in terms of times of the day as well as seasons. The Egyptians also developed the technique of using solarized, colored water for healing.
 It’s easy to replicate this ancient Egyptian ritual. Pour distilled water into a colored bottle and then put a top on it. Green is a good choice as this color has an all-round healing effect. Expose this water to the sun for a full day. Then use this water the next day to wash out your eyes or dab it on your skin as though it’s perfume.
 It is also possible to use color by feeding it to the skin. Gelatin filters can be placed in front of a full-spectrum incandescent bulb. This treatment is best done in a darkened room. If there is a problem area, the light can be beamed to that specific area. Otherwise, the whole body can be exposed for a systemic effect. Alternatively, you may be able to find colored bulbs.
 Research shows that the effects from colors are not psychological, but physiological. Studies have shown the same effects on blind people as sighted people. When bands of light enter the eye, both the pituitary and pineal glands are stimulated, which in turn regulate hormones.
 To create a color therapy effect, you can make it as simple as choosing clothing that will effect the physiological response you want.
 Here are the specific effects of the most common colors:

Red: A stimulant; the ray of strength and vitality; increases heart rate, brain wave activity and respiration.
Orange: A stimulant; the ray of energy; stimulates the appetite and reduces fatigue.
Yellow: A stimulant; the ray of intellect; stimulates memory, raises blood pressure and pulse rate but not as much as red does.
Green: A relaxant; the ray of harmony and the master healer; relaxes both body and mind.
Blue: A relaxant; the ray of inspiration; calms the mind and body, lowers blood pressure, heart rate and respiration.
White: Is the reflection of all colors; it expands the body’s electromagnetic field.
Black: Is the absorption of all colors; it shrinks the body’s electromagnetic field.

 Moon bright
 Unfortunately most of us just don’t pay attention to what the moon is doing. Often we don’t have awareness of when it is full, when it is new or all the in-between stages of its monthly cycle. Yet, the light of the night seems to have almost magical properties to it.
 The land that the United States is situated on has a long association with the moon. The original inhabitants of our land, the Indians, believed in the Female Principle governing all life. They laid special emphasis on the Moon, representation of the Feminine. The Indians lived close to the land, literally on top the earth. The Indians were always in direct contact with the earth beneath them and with the sky above them -- with the daily cycle of the sun and the monthly cycle of the moon. These peoples planted and harvested according to the moon cycles.
 If you take time to spend some evenings outdoors, you can begin to feel in touch with the night in a way that you don’t feel when you are indoors. Night-time is not only a good time for relaxing and winding down from a busy day; it is, as well, the best time we have for the use of imagination and emotions and for the giving of nurturance to each other. Our moon energy is softer and more receptive than the bright, focused sun energy that drives us during the day. Whenever there are emotional issues in relationships that need to be addressed, night-time, outdoors when weather permits, is the best time for discussion.
 As well, evenings are a wonderful time to play games. Board games, word games, games of the imagination, and even, at times, games of paranormal senses -- there is almost universal pleasure in games. Games reopen doors into the world of pretending and childhood. They remind us of a time in our lives when we had unadulterated fun and when our creativity was at its highest.
 It is probably the self-imposed structure that exists in games that makes them so magical. Games define the protocol of interaction through its rules, and it is precisely this structure that releases inhibitions and gives a feeling of safety for the expression of feelings that would normally produce stress. Competition, sexual attraction, wanting to defeat your enemy, wanting to go broke or wanting to amass millions, wanting to kill, even to destroy whole civilizations – these are all acceptable within the imaginary world of games. Games teach the important lessons of taking turns, a skill that is essential not only in relationships but in the very fabric of democracy.
 At night, the energy of the moon can be integrated into game playing. In ancient mythology, the moon was a symbol of connectedness; and, indeed, this is what happens when games are played at night. People begin to get interested in each other. They talk and tell stories to each other. Mostly, the stories are simply about themselves and their lives. But it is through these stories that meaningful, important connections are sometimes made.
 Because we sleep during much of the moon’s visible time, the moon has always been associated with unconsciousness. This unconsciousness reflects the parts of our bodily processes that are automatic -- our sympathetic nervous system. We know that most healing in the body takes place during sleep (just as most plant growth occurs at night). How many times have you gone to sleep with a cold or fever and woken up to find that the illness has broken while you laid peacefully asleep? Moon energy, and the relaxation to the body that it brings, is a powerful healing.
 The actual physiological effect of the moon and moonlight on us has not been well researched. Some research suggests that the moon regulates fluid levels in the body, just as it regulates the fluidity of tides of the earth. We also know that the moon has an alkalizing effect on the human body. Even without research, though, we know that the effect of the moon on us is profound. It’s actually a wonderful idea to sleep, as much as possible, with the moonlight shining on your face. In coming to an increased moon-consciousness, we come in touch with a deep and ancient part of our selves. We become whole.

 The meditative sky
 When we wake up in the morning, the first thing we generally do is check out how we feel. The next thing a lot of us do is check out the weather. So pervasive is our interest in the weather that a whole television channel is devoted to it. These two interests -- how we feel and the weather -- are not unrelated: they both have to do with the sky element.
 Each of us has a profound unconscious connection to the sky, as it represents unlimited possibilities, hope and expansion. It is through the sky -- and its sense of limitlessness -- that we get in touch with the infinite aspect of our being. The sky reminds us that we exist both as part of a cosmos and at one with the cosmos. In this sense, the sky, and its meaning to us, remains unchanging.
Yet, the sky also changes constantly and rapidly. Cloud formations are like the sand art of the Tibetans, never to be held onto.  It is the same with weather conditions. We can be in absolutely bright sunlight and within a few minutes, clouds can darken and we will be in the middle of a rainstorm.
 Our feelings are much like the sky. They are changeable; some days they’re gray and some days they’re bright and sunny. But whatever our feelings, when we remain in touch with the deepest part of our psychic existence or with our spiritual selves, we feel assured that the center of our being is unchanging and unchanged. Our feelings remind us that we’re always dependent on something outside ourselves to change us: we feel transformed by our relationships; they make us feel good or they make us feel bad. We are transformed, too, by food, by location, by temperature, by virtually anything external to us that we respond to. Yet, through all our transformations, our spirit or our essence, the part of us that represents our soul, like the sky, stays the same.
 Sky is comprised of gases, and so we see a deep connection between the sky element and the air element. As we enter states of consciousness that reflect the sky element -- the dream state, as well as fantasy and meditative states -- we find that our breathing changes. We normally take 8-15 breaths a minute. With this frequency of breath, we are open to feeling pushed and pulled by our emotions. If we breathe faster than this -- 15-32 breaths a minute, we have entered an hysterical state, an emotional state wherein we are out of control. Breathing 4-8 breaths a minute is a comfortable, relaxed state, equivalent to what we will refer to as the pre-pre and pre-meditative states as well as to the dream and fantasy states. When we decrease our breath to 2-4 breaths a minute, we have entered the meditative state. This state is dreamless, without fantasy and without fear. It is entirely neutral.
 The sky element, too, represents the electrical vibration of things. We are used to thinking that life came originally from a chemical soup. We now know that without an electrical charge, there is no life. Life is electrical. Human life is electrical energy. What else is illness but a lack of energy, a shortage or depression in the electrical frequency of the body?
 Modern technology has developed tools so that we can actually map out the electrical frequencies of health and specific illnesses. We know that the human body at health operates at a frequency between 62-68 hz. Disease begins when the electrical frequency drops to 58 hz. Flu occurs at 57 hz. Candida occurs at 55 hz.  Epstein-Barr occurs at 52 hz. Cancer occurs at 42 hz.
 In coming to the understanding that we are ourselves masses of swirling energy operating at particular vibrations, alternative medicine has begun to develop a science around vibrational and energetic healing. Of course, ancient healing traditions have always known these principles. The principle of stimulating meridian points in acupuncture and shiatsu massage arises out of knowledge of the energy centers and energy pathways of the body. Yogic science, too, has as its theoretical base an understanding of the complexities of the body’s energy centers, the chakras. Healing disciplines based on vibrational medicine more recently developed include homeopathy, flower remedies, therapeutic touch, crystal and quartz healing as well as the use of other gems, and psychic healing.  The age-old tradition of prayer has had scientific confirmation of its efficacy in the ability to increase the speed of healing from physical disorders. Each of these disciplines balances the electrical frequency of the individual.
 We can work with our own feeling states in the same way that psychoanalysis and meditation do. Both psychoanalysis and meditation train the mind to observe thoughts and feelings as passing events rather than as static, unmovable phenomena. Rather than staying attached to them and identifying with them, we simply observe them.
 We should aspire to first know what we feel, then to honor what we feel and finally to develop the attitude toward our feelings that feelings are like the cloud formations in the sky. It is only when we don’t allow our feelings to move through our psyches in the same way that clouds move through the sky that they begin to get stuck in us. When this happens, they no longer feel light and spacious; they begin to feel heavy and unmovable as well as painful and repetitive.
In psychoanalysis, the patient is instructed to put into words all thoughts and feelings. Meditation, also, encourages the practice of observation of mental processes. In both psychoanalysis and meditation, it is only through the commitment to a course of non-action -- no matter what thoughts or feelings are aroused -- that we can come to safely know everything in our minds, the beautiful and inspiring as well as the absurd and the dangerous and destructive.
 Putting all your thoughts and feelings into words develops what psychoanalysis calls the “observing ego” and what meditation calls the “meditative mind.” Thoughts and feelings become like the landscape that whizzes by as you ride a train: sometimes the scenery is quite gorgeous and sometimes ugly. Always, you maintain interest in what you’re seeing. The work of both psychoanalysis and meditation effects the body as well as the mind. There are 84 meridians around the roof of the mouth. When we repeat a mantra, the tongue hits the palate of the mouth, thus stimulating all 84 meridians. Similarly, when we put all our thoughts and feelings into words, we stimulate all 84 meridian points.
 

 Psychoanalysis and dream work
 You can begin to work with your dreams, either alone or with someone you care about. If you do it alone, you will find that long-forgotten memories sometimes surface, and you will begin to make contact with hidden parts of yourself. If you share your dream-work with another, you will enrich the connection between you. In choosing to work with your dreams, you are enacting one of the attributes of the sky element: the interconnectedness of all things. In working with our dreams, we build psychic connections within ourselves and between ourselves and others.
 The Greeks, from whom Freud borrowed core concepts, emphasized the importance of the limb-relaxing qualities of sleep (Hypnos) and death (Thanatos) because they believed in the soul. The soul, then, is encased in the body and it is only when we are supine, when the muscles of the body are relaxed enough, that the soul is set free. Sleep is a precursor for death, a glimpse into our future fate when we will be released from our body. When the constraints of the body are relaxed, the soul is able to fly. Psychoanalysis takes this basic understanding as its departure point. The material produced in the psychoanalytic sessions, while the patient remains still while lying down, replicates the dream state. In both dreams and in the free association technique of psychoanalysis (saying one’s thoughts and feelings without constraints), we gain access into the unconscious.
 When it comes to knowing our feelings, then, it is in the state of dreaming, or its waking equivalent of fantasy and free association of thought, that our feelings are most free. In our dream-life and in our fantasies, we can feel anything and be anything -- we can be kings and queens or killers and rapists. In our dreams and our fantasies, we can do and be all these things and no destruction has been wrought. We are not bound by reason, sanity, concern, altruism, rationality or justification. In our dreams and our fantasies our feelings, like our souls, can fly.
 It is particularly important to work with our negative feelings because these are the ones that are most unwelcome and the ones that give most people the most trouble. Some of us live our lives in a continual struggle to deny that we have negative thoughts and feelings. When these negative aspects of mind are denied in waking life, they often find their way to dream-life in the form of nightmares. Children dream of goblins and witches; as adults we dream of knife-wielding villains and cars careening out of control. We attribute hate and destructiveness to other figures in our dream-life. These negative aspects, then, appear to come from the outside, rather than being our own. These disguised dreams serve as a release valve, reducing the amount of pressure from our unacknowledged and unexperienced feelings.
 We all dream and we all dream prodigiously: every hour and a half, throughout the night, we enter REM (Rapid Eye Movement) state. Sleep is a cycle of varying brain (electrical) states, some profoundly deep, others close to waking consciousness. If you wake up during the night, it is likely that you have just dreamed. The REM state that produces dreams is the one that is closest to waking consciousness. We don’t remember our dreams when we don’t have an interest in our unconscious. This interest can be nurtured, however, and developed.

Technique for catching your dreams:
Tell yourself before you go to sleep that you want to have a dream that will guide you to deeper self-knowledge. Place a pen and paper right next to your bed. Place a few drops of the essential oil blend called Dream Catcher on your temples and around your nose. The electrical frequency of this blend of oils has been shown to resonate with the electrical frequency of the dream state and we find it extremely effective in promoting and remembering dream activity.
 Whenever you wake up, whether it is in the middle of the night or in the morning, take the pen and wait for the dream material to emerge. The act of writing down your dreams will solidify them in your memory. Dreams are ephemeral; if you don’t catch them, they will evaporate. You may find some resistance to waking up suddenly to capture your dreams on paper, but we find that it’s the only way to

train your conscious mind to take your dreams seriously. You will generally go right back to sleep after writing down a dream if you need more sleep.

 Meditation
 The sky element can inspire quite profound meditations. The yogic definition of meditation is the experience of the infinite within the finite self. There are many technologies of meditation but they’re all trying to get you to the same place. They all change brain waves; they change the electrical frequency of the body.
 Meditation, like psychoanalysis, works with feelings. Yogic science posits that each of the five elements has five desires - greed, whose corresponding element is earth, whose sense is smell and is situated in the first chakra; lust, whose corresponding element is water, whose sense is taste and is situated in the third chakra; anger, whose corresponding element is fire, whose sense is sight and is situated in the fourth chakra; pride, whose corresponding element is air, whose sense is touch and is situated in the fourth chakra; and attachment, whose corresponding element is sky, whose sense is hearing and is situated in the fifth chakra.. Each element gives what’s known as rasa -- juice into the body. The body can’t live without rasa. If these rasas fall into the cup of feelings or emotions (the cup of commotion), then one starts to take action and starts to live through greed, lust, anger, pride and attachment. If you live through your feelings only, you live through those five negative actions. However, if you put the rasas into the cup of consciousness and drink it, and if this cup of consciousness is drunk intelligently and devotedly, then you will know your true self and your soul’s purpose.
 The best time to meditate is between 4 and 6 a.m. (called the ambrosial hours) and 4 and 6 p.m. At these times, anywhere on the earth and in any season, the sun maintains a 60° angle to the earth. Yogic science says that the neurons in the brain are able to replicate themselves at these times. Thus, these times are the most creative times of the day. It is not uncommon for writers and artists to be busily working during these wee hours in the mornings. When we meditate during these times, we are enabled to meet our fears with courage and thus we are able to change the subconscious frequency of the brain.
 There is a difference between pre-pre-meditation, pre-meditation and meditation. If you were to sit still and just breathe, holding your physical posture against all impulses, you would be practicing pre-pre-meditation (this is the state you enter on the psychoanalytic couch). Then if you add a mantra to your sitting still and breathing, you would be practicing pre-meditation. The addition of a mantra works with your negative thoughts. These negative thoughts are dumped from the subconscious into the conscious mind in the form of impulses. Reciting a mantra (meaning, literally, “mind protection”) allows you to meet these impulses with the positive vibration of the mantra.  (The mantra is the equivalent of the psychoanalytic practice of verbalizing all thoughts and feelings.)  Meditation happens when you’ve finished these pre-pre and pre forms of meditation. Meditation gives you a neutral mind. The positive energy of the breathing and the mantra meet the negative energy of the mind and cancel each other out, creating the neutrality of meditation. The breathing and the recitation of the mantra, then, are the work; meditation arrives when you stop the work.  (This parallels the psychoanalytic notion of cure.)
 In the meditative state, we enter the brain wave states known as Alpha and Delta. When we pre-pre meditate and pre-meditate, we are in Alpha; when we are in the actual meditative state, we have entered Delta, which in the sleep cycle is the deepest form of sleep. Delta is the state when most healing takes place as it is the most relaxed state the body can enter.
 Meditation is like radar and sonar -- it has the power to project into the infinite consciousness and then bounce back to us. Sky allows us to break through all the interfering voices that arise out of mental speculation and that prevent us from hearing our own true voice. Meditation erases self-defense and self-justification. It is said that prayer is talking to the divine and that meditation is listening. Meditation both depends upon and develops the ability to concentrate and mentally relax and receive.
 One meditation that is particularly powerful is called Kirtan kriya. This meditation gives mental balance through alternating the electrical polarities of the body. The index and ring finger are electrically negative and the middle finger and pinky are electrically positive. Through using the thumb to stimulate each of the other fingers, we are able to charge up our bodies.
 As well, this meditation combines the use of sound. All language comes from the five primal sounds that are used in this meditation. Man’s first language, Sanskrit, developed from the five sounds of s, t, m, n, each with a. These five sounds were used in combinations as the original word forms. In producing the five primal sounds, we replicate the birth of consciousness: these sounds take us through the cycle of life and creation. Sa means infinity or cosmos or beginning; Ta means life and existence; Na means death; Ma means rebirth. From the infinite comes life and individual existence; from life comes death or change; from death comes the rebirth of consciousness to the joy of the infinite through which compassion leads back to life.

Kirtan kriya meditation:
Sit with a straight spine -- either cross- legged or on a chair with feet flat on the ground. Close your eyes and concentrate on the brow point (third eye) which is 1/2 inch above the eyebrow and 1/2 inch into the interior of your head. Elbows are straight and wrists are resting on your knees. Each repetition of the mantra should take from 3-4 seconds. Each fingertip touches in turn the tip of the thumb with firm pressure. Chant the sound Sa while touching your first finger (the Jupiter finger, representative of intuition and intelligence) to your thumb (representative of the ego). Chant the sound Ta while touching your second finger (the Saturn finger, representative of wisdom and patience) to your thumb. Chant the sound Na while touching your third finger (the Sun finger, representative of vitality) to your thumb. Chant the sound Ma while touching your fourth finger (the Mercury finger, representative of communication) to your thumb. Then begin again on first finger. We chant this meditation in the three languages of consciousness: human, representing things in the world; this is a normal voice: lovers, which is a longing to belong; this is a strong whisper: divine, which is infinity or mentally silent; this is without voice. Begin the kriya in a normal voice for 5 minutes. Then whisper for 5 minutes. Then vibrate in silence for 10 minutes. Then come back to a whisper for 5 minutes. Then come back to a normal voice for 5 minutes. To come out of the meditation, stretch the arms up as far as possible and spread the fingers wide. Stretch the spine and take several deep breaths.

Each finger represents a different center in the brain based upon meridian energy patterns. In touching each of your fingers with the thumb, you seal the corresponding center in the brain. Thus, we arrive at the symbolic meaning of each finger. According to yogic science, these are not mere symbolic connections, but rather true electrical brain patterns that are laid.  This meditation is the foundation for all other meditations in Kundalini yoga.
 

V. LET’S EAT: INSPARATIONAL RECIPES

 The recipes were developed at La Casa Resort Spa; they represent an international cuisine, including principles from macrobiotic, Puerto Rican, Nepalese, Caribbean Indian and Living Foods. There are elements of Creole cooking, as well as Mid-Eastern and East-Indian mixed in.
 There are a few basic principles that apply to all healthy cooking. We’ll state them here so that we don’t have to repeat for each recipe. Each recipe is for 4-6 people unless otherwise specified.

 We recommend using only distilled water for all purposes having to do with cooking. In any recipe that calls for uncooked water, rejuvalac is a wonderful substitute; it will enhance both the flavor by giving a zinginess to the taste as well as enhancing the nutritional value of the food.
 One of the greatest (and best kept) secrets of healthy and tasteful food is the principle to never boil food. High heat is one of the main problems with American cooking. Cooking should be at between 190° and 210°. This translates to a low flame. Pre-heating can be done on a medium flame, but the flame should always be turned down just before a boil. If you let the water come to a full boil, you have not only lost valuable nutrients, but flavor as well. We have used the traditional term “boil” in our recipes, but what we really mean is to almost boil.
 We use only goat yogurt and goat cheese, never cow for the many reasons which are listed earlier in the book (see Goat, not cow).
 We use four different methods of salting our foods: Celtic salt, Jensen’s Quick Sip, Jensen’s Broth or Seasoning and Braggs. The only salt we use is Celtic salt for the reasons listed earlier in the book  (see Salting Your Sugars).  Since salt taste is such an individualistic thing, we’ve decided, in most instances, to just say “salt” when a salt flavor is desired. Where the amount needs to be precise, we have included it. Since we generally add salt and salt flavoring at the end of our cooking, it will be easy for you to determine your own saltiness preference in each of the dishes. There are subtle differences in tastes between each of the salts and salt substitutes, with Braggs being the most salty. Be careful with the Celtic salt; it’s much more potent than any salt you have used. We have made recommendations for which one to use and when; the truth is, though, once you get a feeling for their subtle differences, they are fairly interchangeable.
 For sweeteners, we use barley malt, stevia, honey, maple syrup, brown rice syrup and occasionally sucanat. As with the salt substitutes, there are differences in taste; we’ve given our recommendations but you should experiment feeling confident that they are each healthy and guilt-free alternatives to sugar. If you want to experiment with Stevia because of its many health benefits, you can eliminate the licorice taste by letting it soak in a bit of water before use.
 For hot peppers, we favor cayenne. We don’t use black pepper, as it is irritating to the intestinal and stomach linings.
 Because of the enzyme-inhibiting factor of non-fermented soy, we only occasionally use tofu. We find it unsurpassed in dressings and desserts because of its unique quality of absorbing the flavor of whatever you mix it with. We’ve included some of our recipes using it in this manner because when it’s in dressings or desserts, it’s a very small quantity that you eat.
 We don’t use a lot of miso because it’s generally made from soybeans and sea salt (see The real story about soy and Salting Your Sugars). But it is simply not possible to do a macrobiotic cuisine without some miso. Most health food stores have miso that is made from either barley or chickpeas and it is preferable to use this product.
 We use only cold-pressed oils. We are vehemently opposed to the use of heated oil in cooking. It is carcinogenic. Yet, the taste of fried and sautéed foods is hard to give up. There are three alternatives. One solution is to sauté in ghee. Ghee is the part of the butter that is left after all the water soluble constituents have been removed. This means that the perishable parts of the butter have been poured off and that the ghee and any food prepared in the ghee will last longer in the refrigerator. As well, ghee does not burn.  Any time heated oil would ordinarily be necessary in a recipe, ghee is a perfectly adequate substitute. It can also be used as a spread instead of butter.  Ghee is an important part of Indian cooking and absorbs the flavors of herbs and spices particularly well. Also, ghee does have specific health benefits. It is commonly thought in India that ghee enhances the nutritional value of food.
 Food can also be sautéed using just Braggs or Quick Sip. Either will give enough liquid to do the sauté job and simultaneously, you’ll be adding a salty flavor. If you use just a bit, you can get the veggies to actually brown in the skillet and it leaves the food with a wonderful, grilled flavor.
 You can also sauté using olive oil when you want that particular flavor. But dilute the oil with water in the pan, a procedure  that will keep the temperature of the oil down. You get the same flavor without the toxicity.
In the recipes, wherever we say to sauté, what we mean is to use either ghee, Braggs or Quick Sip or oil with water. We never mean the traditional method of just heated oil.
 About the question of eggs. We believe in eggs; we use eggs with great enthusiasm. We believe that eggs are an amazing whole food. We are not alone in our enthusiasm. Many Naturopathic physicians recommend the liberal consumption of eggs for cancer patients. The commonly held idea that eggs increase cholesterol was early research that has proven to be incorrect. In fact, the issue is more complex. Egg yolks do contain significant amounts of cholesterol but they also contain lecithin. Lecithin has the specific property of being able to dissolve cholesterol. Whole eggs, then, have natural checks and balances built in to them. We don’t believe, however, in the preparation of eggs that renders them unhealthy. Whenever the yoke in an egg has become hard, the egg is transformed into a food that will give you trouble. Rather, you should use only raw, poached or soft-boiled egs. (A couple of poached eggs with avocado and boiled plantains, for instance, is a perfectly wonderful breakfast.) As well, we only use eggs whose mother is healthy -- free range, organically fed hens without antibiotics or hormones. We occasionally use eggs in desserts and baked goods because, frankly, we have not found a substitute that works as well. We’d rather use an occasional hard yolk than the synthetic, indigestible thing that passes for food that they call “egg substitute.” Finally, eggs have a protective coating which serves as a natural antibiotic and prevents spoiling. We wash our eggs only before use to retain this coating before usage and to remove accumulations of bacteria or chemicals at usage.
 It’s best to keep all grains in the refrigerator. Glass jars are best for storage. We do not grind grains ahead of time, only immediately before use. Grains have natural oils in them which make them turn rancid when exposed to oxygen or prolonged heat.
 Our pots are one of the most important parts of our kitchen. We believe in sparing no expense in buying pots. The best pots are sturdily-built, stainless steel, waterless cooking pots. The lids seal so tightly that all of the nutrients are kept in the pot rather than evaporating out. You can cook veggies literally without water.
It’s a nice idea to make healthy condiments available at each meal. You can place small bowls in the middle of the table that contain condiments appropriate for the meal. Ground flaxseeds and bee pollen work well with cereal. Powdered kelp and cayenne pepper are nice for soups and veggie dishes. Even small amounts of these foods greatly enhance the nutritional value of your meals.
 We use a lot of Dr. Jensen’s products: Quick Sip, Broth or Seasoning, Rice Bran Syrup, Whole Life Food Blend. The man has been practicing and teaching good nutrition for over 60 years. He’s traveled all over the world to see the dietary practices of all peoples and to explore the keys to longevity. Many years ago, his ranch in Escondido was our first introduction to nutritional eating. At 85, Dr. Jensen was told he had six months to live because of a prostate cancer which he understands he got from over-work, traveling and not being able to stay on his nutritional program. After curing himself of cancer through a renewed commitment to health, a year later he was injured in a car accident and told that he would never walk again. Dr. Jensen is now 90 years old, walking, going strong and cancer-free. He is a living testament to the body’s ability to heal itself from even the most debilitating of injury and disease through proper diet, exercise and will.
 Whenever a recipe calls for vegetable stock, we find that mixing a little of Jensen’s Broth or Seasoning in the required amount of water works just fine and is much easier than searching for some old stock in the freezer. When we have lots of time and want to make a fresh stock, we favor apples, ginger and onions. The contrast of flavors will go with just about any kind of soup or bean dish.
 About meat, small portions of meat can be added to any of the lunch or dinner dishes. Although these recipes are all vegetarian, we do not advocate vegetarian eating for long periods of time without great care given to protein in-take. Rather, our emphasis is on healthy food preparation. When meat is eaten, it should be from an animal that is organically-fed and free-range. Many people need meat for health; we just don’t need the quantities that most of us consume.
 We use a health principle about food preparation that we have never seen written or spoken about, but we are sure is true. It is too logical to not be true. We use our hands as much as possible. So, for instance, when we squeeze lemon juice for our daily lemonade or for our salad dressings, we don’t use a mechanical juicer. Our hands get wet with the juice of the lemon. Same with garlic, onions and all our vegetables. We shred our lettuces and spinach by hand rather than a knife. We hand-press our nut milks. We go to all this trouble because we take seriously, on all levels, the principle that the skin is an organ of absorption. As we move from food to food in the course of our food preparation, we are actually beginning our “eating” of the meal long before our mouths leap into action. We believe that we are absorbing some of the properties of the foods, as well as giving, in a direct way, our own energy to the food.
 Finally, our cooking is conceptual. In spite of having put together this cookbook of our favorite recipes, the truth is we don’t pay much attention to recipes. We free-wheel it most of the time, throwing together a little of this and a little of that -- whatever happens to be around at the time and whatever our taste buds have a yen for. The recipes here are meant to serve as guidelines. You can use these recipes as beginning-points rather than end-points in your cooking adventures. Feel free to make a wide latitude of substitutions. After all, cooking, like all things in life, is about the process as much as it is about the end-goal.

Recipes from the Spa