Never Be Sick Again (27 page)
Help your liver's phase-one detoxification process with antioxidant nutrients: vitamins C, E and A, along with coenzyme Q10, carotenoids, bioflavonoids, selenium, manganese, copper and zinc. Some of these nutrients neutralize free radicals directly; others activate enzymes that neutralize them. Red, yellow and green vegetables are loaded with these antioxidant nutrients. Assist your liver's phase-two detoxification with cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, green onions, kale and brussels sprouts. These vegetables enable the liver to eliminate powerful carcinogens, helping to protect us against cancer. These dietary suggestions, combined with high-quality supplements, can keep your liver's toxic defenses at peak function.
Much of our body is made of water; the kidneys need it to excrete water-soluble toxins. Water constantly moves throughout your body and must be changed frequently to keep it pure. A minimum of eight glasses of pure water should be consumed every day, and more is better. Your water supply must be pure so as not to add to your toxic load. Water should be consumed as water, not as beverages such as coffee, tea or alcohol (these substances may cause the body to lose water). Water is a simple choice, often overlooked. Dehydration is a common problem, especially among our elderly population.
A toxic lifestyle is often created unwittingly. We fail to appreciate that many small toxic exposures over time, to a wide variety of toxins, lead to an accumulation, causing our cells to malfunction. Even small amounts of toxins can perform amazing feats of chemistry by inhibiting hormones, deactivating enzymes, compromising our detoxification systems and using up precious nutrients. Toxicity is seldom recognized as a primary cause of our health problems. The toxic invaders in our livesâwhether they are brought into our homes or they are created in our own bodiesâare also not easily detected by typical “radar.” The toxins that harm us seldom are labeled hazardous, and they are difficult to identify.
Once we understand the role toxins play in cellular malfunction, we can understand the importance of minimizing toxic exposure and maximizing the body's ability to detoxify. In order to protect yourself and your family, you must learn how to spot these silent and hidden dangers, and how to keep your defenses strong in order to avoid toxic overload. Never before has the human body been faced with such challenges of personal and global pollution. To respond to these challenges and to move yourself in the right direction on the toxin pathway, learn to make the daily choices that will reduce your toxic exposure and support your detoxification systems.
“The simple truth is, happy people generally don't get sick.
One's attitude toward oneself is the single most important factor
in healing or staying well. Those who are at peace with
themselves and their immediate surroundings have far fewer
serious illnesses than those who are not.”
Bernie Siegel, M.D.
Love, Medicine & Miracles
E
ven when nutrients are scarce and toxins abundant, one's potential for health is nearly limitless, and it relies almost entirely on ourselves and the power of the mind. Thoughts and emotions have a tremendous effect on our cells and therefore our health. What we put into our minds may be more important than what we put into our bodies. The power of the mind is your best ally in choosing to get well and stay well.
You are what you think.
“How can it be,” you might ask, “that the mind has so much control over the body?” This question assumes that one is separate from the other; in fact, they are inseparable. All the cells in our body contribute to what we call the mind, and what goes on in our mind affects what happens in all our cells.
Chemical reactions are produced throughout the body by our thoughts, emotions and interactions with others. Fear makes us turn pale; embarrassment makes us blush. Modern science has proven that these “thought chemicals” either can be beneficial or detrimental to health.
We can choose what we
put into our minds, and in doing so, we can choose between
health and disease.
This concept is sometimes difficult for people to embrace because thought chemicals are abstract. Their effect, though, is reflected in Dr. Bernie Siegel's 1986 book,
Love, Medicine
& Miracles
: “If I told patients to raise their blood levels of immune globulins or killer T-cells, no one would know how. But if I can teach them to love themselves and others fully, the same change happens automatically.”
Consider how thought chemicals can improve or damage health:
⢠A 1991 study in the
New England Journal of Medicine
found that stressful life situations (such as losing a job, breaking off an engagement or simply feeling overwhelmed by life's problems) nearly doubles the risk of catching a cold.
⢠A thirty-five-year study (1946â1981) of Harvard graduates showed that people who had a pessimistic outlook on life suffered significantly more disease after age forty-five than people with a positive outlook.
⢠A 2001 study in
Psychosomatic Medicine
found that optimism protects against heart disease. People who are pessimistic and blame themselves for everything were much more likely to die of a heart attack than their optimistic counterparts.
⢠Dr. O. Carl Simonton, in his 1978 book,
Getting Well
Again,
talks about how visual imagery with positive mental images had a beneficial effect on patients with advanced cancer. Simonton found that people who used their minds to heal had double the survival rate of those who did not.
⢠A study in a 2000 issue of
Lancet
concluded that women who experience severe emotional stress during the first trimester of pregnancy are 80 percent more likely to have a child with birth defects.
Body, Heal Thyself
You must believe in your health if you are to maintain or regain health. You must actively care for your health when you are well, and actively pursue wellness when you are ill.
When my own body was in progressive deterioration during the depths of my illness, I began to realize that, for survival, I needed to employ my mind as well as my body. I began to repeat a version of an old affirmation to myself, again and again, a mantra of sorts:
Every day, in every way, I get
stronger and stronger and better and better.
At first, when I would say this to myself, my mind would fight back, saying something like,
Wow, are you a liar! You
feel worse today than you did yesterday.
I realized that my positive mental affirmations were being negated by my own thinking about my situation. I began to reply to my mind's objections by saying,
I know I am worse today, but I am giving
you an instruction.
Once I became comfortable giving my body instructions, my own objections began to disappear and my body began to respond. I would say my affirmation, sometimes out loud, with passion and expectancy, many times daily, repeatedly, until I could feel strength coming into my body as I said the words. After a few weeks, my subconscious mind began to implement the instructions and intent of my conscious mind. One day, after saying these affirmations, I felt the best that I had felt since the onset of my illness. The feeling lasted only five or ten minutes, but the fact that it happened proved that I was on the right path. Soon, the feelings of strength came more often and lasted longer. Later in my studies, I learned of the close connection between the mind and the immune system. My badly damaged immune system was responding!
These affirmations had a profound effect on me. I began to understand that health and disease can be the reactions of the subconscious mind to the thoughts of the conscious mind; the subconscious takes orders from the conscious mind and implements them. Minds do what they are programmed to do, even though much of that programming is unintended. I began to realize my power to influence my health simply by choosing the daily thoughts I was putting into my mind. By focusing on my illness, I had been putting thoughts of disease into my mind, thereby creating more disease. The mind is always working, so why not make it work for rather than against you? Keep your images and suggestions as positive, simple, clear and concise as possible. Then repeat them as often as possible. Allow the subconscious to accept them as a command and implement them.
Over the past sixteen years, of all of the people I have known with “incurable” and “fatal” diseases, the thrivers and survivors have been those individuals who used the power of their minds to heal their bodies consciously. Take the case of Karl, a concert violinist who became paralyzed by a stroke. His physicians told him the paralysis was permanent. Confined to a wheelchair, Karl was unwilling to accept such a fate. He decided to use the power of his mind to establish new connections in his brain. He started by focusing intensely on just one finger. He commanded it to move, and eventually it did! Now a medical curiosity, in 2001 Karl was invited to give a concert at an international medical conference where his doctor presented his story. Brain scans show that Karl's miraculous recovery resulted from using entirely new areas of his brain and bypassing the damaged areas. Music critics claim he is playing better than ever! How's that for the power of the mind?
Choosing to Stay Sick
In contrast to Karl, other people in my experience have failed to strengthen their psychological pathway and lost the health benefits of positive efforts. Lisa was one. She had suffered from extreme chemical sensitivity for twelve years before coming to me for help. I was confident I could help her, based on my own experiences. I taught Lisa how to improve her health, mostly through dietary and vitamin supplement suggestions, and she made some striking initial improvements. After a few months, Lisa was living her life in ways that she had not been able to for many years; she had started dating, going out dancing and even going on sailing trips. Lisa's friends commented about how well she looked and her good progress. After twelve years of sickness, Lisa seemed to be on a path to a more meaningful life. She learned what was necessary to choose health and seemed to have developed the psychological willingness to stick with it.
One day, I received a frantic call from Lisa. Her disability caseworker had contacted her and informed Lisa that it was time for an annual review. Lisa had been receiving disability funds from social security and state welfare, and she was living in subsidized housing. For many years, Lisa had been too sick to work and needed this financial support. Now, her health having taken a dramatic turn for the better, Lisa feared that her caseworker would notice the improvement and revoke financial assistance. Lisa panicked.
She had been unable to work for so many years that she had not a clue about how she could support herself without those benefits. Perhaps her desire to get well simply could not compete with her fear of losing support. Perhaps twelve years of “sickness programming” deprived Lisa of the self-confidence she needed to thrive. Sadly, the last time I heard about her, Lisa had stopped applying what she had learned about deficiency and toxicity, and her health had regressed. The potential to get well (that is, her new diet, supplements and workout program) was lost because she could not unlearn her programming to be dependent and disabled.
Will You Care for Me If I Am Well?
Unhealthy psychological programming derailed the health efforts of another client named Ruth, who suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome. Although she followed my recommendations regarding diet and nutritional supplements, she made only modest improvement, and I realized that Ruth was going to be a tough case. I suspected that she needed a great deal of assistance along her psychological pathway.
I learned that when Ruth was a small child, the only time her father paid attention to her was when she was sick. Then, he would buy her toys, sit by her bed and read her stories. Most other times, he either ignored her or related to her superficially. Subconsciously, Ruth learned, “If I want attention, I need to be sick.” No doubt she did not intend this, but her behavior was programmed nevertheless. Years later, when her marriage was falling apart and her husband was giving his attention to someone else, Ruth's programmed response was to get sickâthis time in order to regain the attention and affection of her husband. In the long run, of course, this kind of behavioral pattern inevitably fails; Ruth's husband eventually divorced her, leaving her alone and sick.