How to be Healthy - In a Nutshell

Your guide to abundant health

Disease thrives in unhealthy conditions. To prevent disease, we have to create health.

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

- Hippocrates

Do you want to know the best-kept secret in the field of medicine? It is this:

Your body is your best doctor, and if you create the right conditions, your body can heal itself.

The first step to healing and abundant health is to stop doing things that contribute to poor health in the first place. Whether your goal is to prevent or to reverse poor health, this booklet will be your most reliable guide.

The major cause of poor health: Metabolic Stress

Metabolism is the term used to describe the body’s capture and use of energy and nutrients to sustain life. Your metabolism is kept in good working order (in balance) by the endocrine system.

The endocrine system is made up of glands that produce and secrete hormones that regulate the activity of your cells and organs. These hormones regulate the body's growth, metabolism (the physical and chemical processes of the body), and sexual development and function.

When the endocrine system is “in balance” the mitochondria (the powerhouses of your cells) turn the energy you take from food into energy that your cells can use to keep you alive and well.

When the metabolism is stressed (out of balance), every single cell in the body pays a price.

What causes metabolic stress? Four things:

• Poor diets

• Poor lifestyle habits

• Mental/emotional/physical stress

• Toxins

Poor diet, poor lifestyle habits, stress, and environmental toxins, are the major stressors that disrupt metabolic function, damage cells and the cardio-vascular system, accelerate the aging process, and cause dis-ease. Sad but true, most all poor health is self-induced - the result of “daily” poor diets and life-style habits.

Disease doesn’t emerge with just one bad meal or snack; but it develops from the cumulative effects of many bad meals and snacks. The long-term effects of your diet (and lifestyle habits) determine your long-term metabolic health, energy, quality of life, and longevity. Your diet and habits either support a balanced chemistry or trigger daily imbalances that harm your metabolism.

The good news is that you can control your health. If your metabolism is out of balance, you can fix it.

YOUR body is your best doctor.

Everyone knows that if you put the wrong fuel in your car’s gas tank, it won’t run well — or at all. Likewise, if you put the wrong fuel in your body, it won’t function well — or at all. Your diet and your lifestyle habits greatly affect your body’s metabolism—and you control both.

How do you know if your metabolism is out of balance?

Symptoms are your first warning signs that your chemistry is out of balance. Short-term symptoms would be things like anxiety, hyperactivity, dizziness, headaches, brain fog, poor memory, weakness, fearfulness, anger, restlessness, insomnia, depression, inflammation, infections, mood swings, and many others.

Long term imbalances develop into diseases: seizures, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, dementia, diabetes, hypoglycemia, congestive heart failure, heart disease, cancer, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, and more.

Monitoring your blood sugar (glucose) is the best way to test your metabolic chemistry. If you don’t know how to do that ask a diabetic or purchase a glucose test kit, the instructions will be included. Test your blood sugar in the morning on an empty stomach (fasting blood sugar), drink a sweet smoothie (8-10 oz. orange juice blended with a whole banana), test again one-half hour after breakfast, and every hour after that for 4-6 hrs. Nothing else should be consumed during the test.

A healthy blood sugar range is 80–100 mg/dl. If your blood sugar is below 80 or above 100, it is out of balance. When it is out of balance hormones are released to restore balance. The pancreas releases insulin to lower blood sugar and adrenal glands release adrenaline and cortisol to raise blood sugar.

What foods and habits stress your endocrine system?

Sugars, starches, and stimulants (caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, drugs) are the biggest offenders. You’ll find caffeine in cocoa and chocolate (which also contain toxic heavy metals) as well as in soda, coffee, teas, and energy drinks. And caffeine is added to many foods, medications, and skin-care products.

Also complicit are refined carbohydrates and fats, all processed foods, and certain lifestyle habits: skipping meals, sleep deprivation, emotional stress, and excessive exercise. All take a toll on your endocrine system and your cellular health and energy.

Most chemicals added to foods as well as those in our air and water are toxins that have no nutritive value; they accumulate in body tissues and can compromise metabolic balance and mitochondrial function. Healthful eating is your best defense.

How metabolic damage occurs

The glands in your endocrine system keep your metabolism in balance through the interactions of hormones. When repeatedly stressed, your endocrine system reacts with hormonal responses in an attempt to regain lost balance.

Chronic stimulation results in over- and eventually under-active glandular function and cellular damage, producing symptoms and resulting in cumulative physical damage to your body’s glands, circulation, tissues, and organs. Some describe it as a feeling of physical, mental and/or emotional burnout.

How sugars, starches, stimulants, and poor lifestyle habits contribute to metabolic damage

• Sugars trigger your pancreas to release the hormone insulin.

• Insulin converts starches to sugar and fat.

• Stimulants (caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, drugs) trigger your adrenal glands to release the fight-or-flight hormones adrenaline and cortisol that constrict blood vessels and prompt your liver to release stored sugar.

• Skipping meals, sleep deprivation, and stress, whether emotional or physical, trigger the adrenal glands to keep you functioning, and over time can contribute to adrenal burn out.

Repeated over-stimulation of your pancreas, liver, adrenal glands, and hormones, contributes to metabolic imbalance and a number of health problems:

• disruption of all metabolic hormones

• exhaustion of endocrine glands and cellular energy

• constriction of blood vessels

• inflammation anywhere in the body

• imbalances of minerals

• imbalance of blood sugar

• disturbances in pH

• buildup of plaque in teeth, blood vessels, heart, extremities, joints, brain, etc.

Daily poor dietary and lifestyle habits trigger blood sugar and hormonal imbalances that cause cellular damage and create multiple metabolic and degenerative conditions over time.

Metabolic conditions connected to an over- or under-active endocrine system

The list of conditions and illnesses attributed to endocrine system malfunction and exhaustion is long and not limited to the following list:

How to prevent or repair degenerative damage and disease

Maintain metabolic harmony by balancing blood sugar!!

• Read labels and eliminate foods that trigger blood sugar and hormonal responses: sugars (sugar has 54 names), starches (processed), and stimulants. Stimulants burn out the adrenal glands, damage the cardiovascular system, and cause anxiety, hyperactivity, anger, and other unbalanced symptoms.

• Eat more protein.

• Consume organic, whole (unprocessed) foods and liquids.

• Stop unhealthy lifestyle habits: get sufficient sleep, don’t skip meals, and don’t overdo exercise.

• Avoid or redirect stress, and don’t procrastinate (it’s a stressor).

• Avoid toxins if you can. They store in body tissues and compromise metabolic and mitochondrial function. A balanced metabolism helps prevent and eliminate toxic buildup.

• Be consistent and faithful in respecting your body’s needs (balance).

• Be patient while your body readjusts and heals. It takes time.

You will be well rewarded for your time and effort!

Smoothies curb cravings and addictive habits

Longtime habits are hard to break; however, as difficult as it might be, your healing depends on eliminating sugars and stimulants as well as reducing starches, replacing all with healthier alternatives.

Balancing your blood sugar is critical to curbing your cravings. Healthful, sugar-free “healing” protein smoothies and snacks are the easiest, quickest way to help achieve the necessary balance. I instruct clients to use my one-ingredient-only (no sugars, fillers, or flavorings) Georgia’s Protein Powder.

Mix in a blender container 2 heaping tablespoons (1 ounce) of powder and 8 ounces of unsweetened liquid — purified water with, for example, 2 ounces of cream and 2 ounces of carrot juice, or 4 ounces of spinach, Swiss chard, or kale juice with 1/8 banana and ¼ tsp cinnamon.

Tip: Do not add banana or any fruit to carrot or beet (high starch) juices; they are sweet enough by themselves. Limit starchy vegetable juices to 2 ounces — just enough to flavor your smoothie but not enough to disturb blood sugar.

Include ¼ avocado for extra nutrition, thickness and satiety. Yummy!

Artificial sweeteners or even natural sweeteners (honey, raw sugar, maple syrup, etc.) are not healthy substitutes. Artificial sweeteners are toxic, and even natural sugars trigger undesirable blood-sugar reactions. Transition to healthier flavorings — tiny amounts of fruit or vegetable juices — to support the healing process.

A few sips of a sugar-free protein smoothie with a healthy protein snack (boiled/deviled egg, cheese, unprocessed meat, raw veggies, nuts, etc.) will ease cravings — which, by the way, occur when your blood sugar falls too fast or too low, triggering the fight-or-flight hormones that affect energy, mood, and behavior. A sugar-free smoothie and healthy snack help re-establish blood sugar balance and subdue cravings.

Tip: Eat small snacks with a few sips of your protein smoothie with each wave of craving — every 15–20 minutes if necessary — to support and rebuild your adrenal glands. In time, your adrenals will get stronger, your blood sugar will stabilize, and your cravings will subside.

The best diet

The best diet balances your metabolic processes—most importantly, blood sugar—and mitochondrial (cellular) chemistry. It eliminates addicting stimulants and replaces them with healthy protein smoothies and snacks. It replaces refined sugar and carbohydrates (starches) with natural and unprocessed sugars and carbohydrates—fruits and vegetables.

The best diet includes higher amounts of protein — meat, fish, poultry, eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, and moderate amounts of unprocessed carbohydrates and fats such as cream, butter, olive oil, etc.

My mentors, the late Keith S. Lowell, M.D., and the late biochemist James Klinkhammer of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, conducted live-cell research. Based on their results, both recommended a diet of 60–70% protein and 30–40% combination of carbohydrates and fats, ratios that balance blood sugar and metabolic function.

Without exception, I find that unhealthy people ingest or use one or more addicting stimulants daily and consume 50–90% carbohydrate (mostly refined), only 10–25% protein, and 0–25% fat. Yes, unhealthy people consume more sugar and refined carbohydrates than protein or fat.

Remember, sugar triggers the release of insulin and insulin turns excess sugar into fat. Is your high cholesterol and excess weight due to fat—or due to excess SUGAR being converted to fat????

Ignoring your body’s needs is a prescription for failure. Dr. Lowell cautioned:

• You can fool yourself, but NEVER your cells.

• Keep your body in balance so it can heal itself.

• If you don’t control your chemistry, your chemistry will control you.

• Every time you “cheat,” it takes 3–6 days of eating correctly to undo the damage.

Every meal and every snack will influence your body’s metabolism to either disturb balance (causing dis-ease) or maintain balance (preventing or curing disease).

Your health is up to you

When you experience symptoms, your body is telling you that something is wrong. The problem should not be ignored or covered up.

“Symptoms are not enemies to be destroyed but sacred messengers who encourage us to take better care of ourselves.” — Alex Steblowsky

Medications do not — they cannot — cure the effects and damage caused by poor diet and lifestyle habits; instead, they create new problems. There are no magic bullets.

In reality, most diseases result from imbalances in metabolic function. Bringing back the balance requires personal responsibility and commitment.

The good news is that YOU control your diet and lifestyle habits. No doctor or medication can do for you what you can do for yourself.

“If you listen to your body when it whispers, you won’t have to listen to it when it screams.” – Unknown

Only you can get your body in balance so it is able to heal. Your body will repair itself if you provide it with the right tools.

“Good body chemistry is the key which unlocks the door to perfect health.” – Melvin E. Page, DDS

Every day offers another opportunity for you to improve your health or to contribute to cumulative metabolic damage.

For more detailed information or support, contact me for a private consultation or group presentations and workshops.

“If you think the pursuit of good health is expensive and time consuming, try illness.” — Lee Swanson

Excellent references

• Diet Prevents Polio, Benjamin P. Sandler, M.D. (1951)

“From my observations and studies in human nutrition I have become convinced that Nature originally did endow us with natural powers of protection and that we have lost these powers through errors in diet.”

“The method which I offer as a protection against polio is based on the concept that the maintenance of normal blood sugar levels will prevent the invasion of the body’s tissues by the polio virus and thereby prevent the infection … I shall offer evidence to show that a lowering of the blood sugar to abnormally low levels is the most important factor of susceptibility to infection. Since the maintenance of normal blood sugar levels is fundamentally dependent on the food we eat, the method of prevention becomes a matter of diet.”

• Food, Teens & Behavior, Barbara Reed, Ph.D. (1983)

“If we are to solve problems of disease and delinquency we must start at the root of those problems — the diet.” p. 148

“One of the discoveries we made is who got in trouble with the law came from families which were plagued with diabetes, hypoglycemia, alcoholism and other metabolic disorders.” p. 152

• The GP and the Endocrine Glands, Dr. Louis L. Rubel (1959)

“Dysfunction of the glandular system, nervous system and nutritional support are of concern in connection with “balance” or equilibrium. Balance does not mean that a specific part of the body is not functioning, but rather that it is not functioning in a synchronous correlation to other parts of the body… Therefore, disorder of the endocrine gland system affects the nutritional system, nervous system, mentality, personality, physical appearance and the general health of the person.”

• Goodbye Allergies, Judge Tom R. Blaine (1965)

“Physicians now know that patients with hypoglycemia (low blood sugar—the opposite of diabetes) and hypoadrenocorticism (inadequate hormone production by the cortex of the adrenal glands) usually have hay fever, asthma, migraine, hives or eczema, and frequently suffer from other respiratory, gastro-intestinal or genitor-urinary disorders … doctors have found that when a low blood sugar condition is corrected, and when the adrenals are put into proper working order, the patient no longer had allergies.” inside cover

• Your Body is Your Best Doctor, Melvin E. Page, DDS and H. Leon Abrams, Jr., Ph.D. (1972)

“You are what you eat and drink. Maintaining good health largely depends upon eating sound foods and drinking healthful beverages … The state of your health is in your hands …” Preface by H. Leo Abrams, Jr.

“The secrets to the inner workings of the body chemical laboratory are the glands. The body has numerous glands such as the sweat glands and salivary glands, but the master regulators of body metabolism are the endocrine glands.” p. 41

• Hypoglycemia — One of the most widespread and misdiagnosed diseases, Marilyn Light (1983)

“The brain and central nervous system derive their support from adequate supplies of blood sugar. Low blood sugar, therefore, has its most dramatic effects on the function of the brain and nervous system.” p. 5

“Conservatively, 25 percent of the population is prone to hypoglycemia--millions of people. Yet hypoglycemia continues to be the stepchild of medicine.” p. 21

• The Schwarzbein Principle II — A regeneration process to prevent and reverse accelerated aging, D. Schwarzbein, M.D. (2002)

“You can control your aging process by adopting the nutrition and lifestyle habits that bring your body’s systems back into balance, thus promoting health and longevity … Part of successful aging is the ability to heal your metabolism or keep it running efficiently if you already have a healthy metabolism. As you adopt good habits and your metabolism begins to heal, you will go through a transition time where your body repairs the damage caused by your previous years of poor nutrition and lifestyle habits.” preface

• Life Without Bread—How a Low-Carbohydrate Diet Can Save Your Life, C. Allen, Ph.D., & Wolfgang Lutz, M.D. (2000)

“Discover how a low-carbohydrate/high-protein diet can prevent — and even cure — heart disease, diabetes, and gastrointestinal disorders” cover page

“Many age-related and degenerative diseases often accompany diabetes. The onset of diabetes and insulin resistance are actually the first physiological changes to take place before many other diseases begin to appear, such as cancer and heart disease." p. 33

• Curing the Incurable — How to use your body’s natural self-healing ability to overcome M.S. and other diseases, Jacque C. Rigg (1999)

“A healing diet is far from addictive. You might even feel worse before you get better because if you are loaded with toxins, they are going to get stirred up as your body starts getting rid of them. You will probably have headaches if you go through caffeine withdrawal. I can only promise you that it is ultimately worth every bit of discomfort to enjoy the energy you will experience in a very short time.” p. 76

• Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival, T.S. Wiley with Bent Formby, Ph.D. (2000)

“When we don’t get enough sleep in sync with seasonal light exposure, we fundamentally alter a balance of nature that has been programmed into our physiology since Day One. This delicate biological rhythm rules the hormones and transmitters that determine appetite, fertility, and mental and physical health.” inside front cover

• Your Drug May Be Your Problem, Peter Breggin, M.D. and David Cohen, Ph.D. (1999)

“The modern medical approach to almost any human problem is to find a drug — a sort of magic bullet — to fix it. But many drugs do more harm than good, and some even cause the problems they are supposed to fix.” advance praise: Stephen Rose, Ph.D., professor of Biology and Director, Brain and Behavior Research Group, Open University – Milton Keynes, England

• Poison With A Capital C — A Case Against Coffee and Other Brown Drinks, Agatha Thrash, M.D. & Calvin Thrash, M.D. (1991)

“For years we have heard coffee referred to as an ‘eye opener,’ but now we really want to open your eyes to the danger lurking in your cup.”

“… some of the immediate effects are imperfect balance, racing of the heart, high-pitched or abnormal pitch of the voice, insomnia, racing but disconnected thoughts, poor memory, fatigue and finger tremor. Some will experience an unexplained sense of dread and anxiety. Other symptoms may be delayed for hours or several days and include sleep disturbance, headache, restlessness, heart palpitations, tremulousness, unsteadiness, vertigo, reflex hyperexcitability, irritability, agitation, anxiety, restless legs and general discomfort.”

• Welcome to the Dance … Caffeine Allergy — a Masked Cerebral Allergy and Progressive Toxic Dementia, Ruth Whalen, MLT

“One woman’s journey and the biochemical balances of allergic response to caffeine, a progressive physical condition diagnosed as ADD, depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PMS and more” cover

• DVD – The Caffeine Story — Hal A. Huggins DDS, MS., https://hugginsappliedhealing.com/product/dvd-the-caffeine-story/

Dr. Huggins discusses one of the most biologically distorting chemicals that we ingest as food: caffeine. It has countless harmful effects.

• Endocrine Aspects of Schizophrenia, John W. Tintera, M.D. (1967) http://users.fred.net/slowup//tint03.html

A growing body of data lends strength to the conviction that schizophrenia can no longer be considered a purely mental disease. Like alcoholism, schizophrenia must be approached with the whole human organism in mind… Our mission is to coordinate and harmonize the “psyche” and “soma” through the principles of genetics, biochemistry, enzymology and especially endocrinology … Freud himself was speaking of endocrinology when he said, “These mental disturbances are open to therapeutic influence only when they can be identified as secondary effects of some organic disease (Freud, 1943). introduction

• Plague — One Scientist’s Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases, Kent Heckenlively & Judy Mikovits, PhD. (2014)

“Given a healthy immune response and no other complicating factors, it seemed this retrovirus could live in many men for years and even decades without causing any noticeable problems. But as the men aged, and the functions of the immune system started to break down, the retrovirus might begin the chain of events that led to prostate cancer.” p. 119

“What’s being discovered in epigenetics (which means “on top of genes”) is that diet, daily stresses, even toxins can turn gene functions on or off like switches, making us more susceptible to disease or infection.” p. 262

• The Cancer Cure That Worked! Fifty Years of Suppression.

Rife said, “In reality, it is not the bacteria themselves that produce the disease, but the chemical constituents of these micro-organisms enacting upon the unbalanced cell metabolism of the human body that in actuality produce the disease. We also believe if the metabolism of the human body is perfectly balanced or poised, it is susceptible to no disease.” p. 51

• The Light: How Stress Poisons the Central Nervous System and Causes ADHD, Parkinson’s, Schizophrenia, Autoimmune Response and More, Ruth Whalen, MLT

Any food, beverage, substance, chemical, drug, or situation that stimulates the adrenal glands is a trigger of stress. There are millions of triggers of stress. Due to oppression, worrying, taking care of someone, sugar, pesticide, cola, tea, aspartame, alcohol, and other triggers of stress, the body poisons itself. This is known as endogeneous poisoning, poisoning of the body by the body… p. 17

People drink coffee, tea, soda, alcohol, and use cocaine, and nicotine, and eat excess sugar and carbohydrates to feel peppier, to feel normal. They may not know that dietary stressors harm and weaken the adrenal glands…

Stress activates the immune system, and it eventually suppresses the immune system… p. 36

Health of the flesh is essential for health of the mind. Health is about biochemical balance. An excess or deficit of one biochemical can derail the entire body. p. 40