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Remember food combining, developed by William Howard Hay MD? It has changed thousands of people’s lives, protecting them from fatigue, weight gain, degenerative diseases and early aging. The basic principles behind food combining are simple: Don’t mix foods that fight. Never eat proteins and starches at the same meal. Never eat fruit and vegetables at the same meal. And do not eat dessert after a meal. If you do, the dessert gets trapped in the stomach and starts to rot, since it can’t be digested properly. These fundamentals of what has long been known as Conscientious Food Combining are easy to learn and even easier put into practice. The benefits of doing so are many, including freedom from reflux, poor digestion and long-term fatigue. DIGEST TO THRIVE Your body expends more energy on the digestion of food than on any other function. Think how sluggish and sleepy you feel after a traditional Sunday lunch. It may surprise you to learn that the energy your body needs to digest food is even greater than that which you use when taking strenuous exercise. When you take in food, your system has to redirect blood supply—and therefore vital life energy—away from the brain and other organs towards the gut. Once there, your energy reserves get busy breaking down your meal. When you eat foods that fight each other, or more food than your body needs, you greatly diminish your overall vitality. You also build up body pollution. Any food—even good quality food—in excess tends to pollute the body. PROTEINS AND CARBS ARE NO-GO Leave behind the old practice of meat-and-potatoes or fish-and-chips. When the wrong foods are mixed together, this further delays digestion and produces toxicity while increasing both appetite and digestive upsets. Most people’s bodies are not designed to efficiently digest more than one concentrated food in the stomach at once. In the simplest terms, you need an acid medium to digest protein and an alkaline one to digest starch. Eat concentrated proteins and starches together—fish and chips, bacon sandwiches, meat and potatoes—and nothing gets digested. An awareness of this principle lies at the core of virtually every tradition of natural healing. Eating concentrated proteins and starches at the same meal wreaks havoc with digestion. It increases the number of incompletely broken down food particles that find their way into the bloodstream to cause food allergies, depression and exhaustion. Concentrated proteins such as cheese, eggs, fish and meat must have an acid medium for good digestion. If there are any starchy or sugary food including breads, pastas or sweets in the stomach at the same time, they neutralize the acid medium, so the proteins remain incompletely digested and poorly assimilated. All carbohydrates foods need an alkaline medium for digestion and must be eaten at a separate meal. What you can get away with is the occasional garnish for protein foods or fruits—such as sesame seeds or raisins—but you would not want to add them in greater quantity. OUT WITH Convenience FOODS Ready-in-a-minute pre-cooked meals, junk foods, and the standard meat-and-two-veg Western meals are incredibly energy-draining. They present your digestive system with the greatest difficulty of all. Virtually all of these manufactured items are grossly deficient in essential nutrient. for it to break down and make use of. Convenience foods and junk foods are also grossly deficient in essential nutrients as well. So are chemically fertilized fruits and vegetables and foods which have been excessively processed to alter their natural state. Convenience foods contain additives such as artificial colorings and flavorings which are potentially harmful. Such foods include breads, sugar, most meats, sweets, and coffee and all the ready-in-a-minute snacks and meals that fill the shelves of our supermarkets. They have no place at the food combining table. CREATE VITALITY If you want to build energy quickly, start right now to separate your concentrated starches from your concentrated proteins, eating each at separate meals. This will help protect your system from a build-up of acid wastes, restore metabolic balance, and resolve the energy crisis which takes place when digestion is overtaxed. Most important, it can bring you a whole new kind of energy which can have you looking good and feeling better than ever with each week that passes. It is not only separating the kind of foods that you eat that matters for an abundance of energy. You need to be just as conscientious about what you eat. The human body is not genetically equipped to handle the refined flours, sugars and excess quantities of poor quality proteins that make up the typical western way of eating. Our ancient ancestors, whose genetic makeup we share, had no bread, sugar, junk fats or pre-packaged, pre-cooked convenience foods. They ate simple, ordinary, wholesome foods—as much of them as they could kill or gather. Their diet was high in green leaves and vegetables—all complex carbohydrates—and moderate in protein. This is the way our own bodies genetically expect to be fed: Good, wholesome, preferably organic foods, simply prepared and eaten as closely as possible to their natural state. FREEDOM TO THRIVE This way of eating calls for real foods rich in fiber, and plenty of the best fats: Organic coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil, for instance. The health-enhancing properties of real living foods have long been tested and eulogized by highly respected European and American physicians—from Gordon Latto and Philip Kilsby in Britain, Max Bircher-Benner in Switzerland and Max Gerson in Germany, to Henry Lindlahr and JK Tilden in the United States. Eating for energy asks that you combine your foods sensibly, and that as much as possible you choose foods grown on healthy organic soils and served as closely as possible to their natural state, either cooked or raw. This is not as complicated as it sounds. Here are the basic principles of eating of high vitality eating. They quickly become second nature. EAT FRUIT ON ITS OWN Fruit passes through your digestive system very rapidly. It needs little help from digestive enzymes to break it down. If you try to eat fruit at a meal with other foods, its digestion and assimilation are slowed drastically and you can get fermentation in the gut causing indigestion, wind and discomfort. If you have a blood sugar problem, insulin resistance or an overgrowth of Candida albicans, then stay away from sugary fruits altogether, or eat no more than a couple of servings of berries a day. Instead of fruit for breakfast you might have a green drink made from the tops of green vegetables in a juicer or a blender. MAKE ONE MEAL A DAY A BIG SALAD A vibrant, living salad based on home-grown or store-bought sprouted seeds and green vegetables is the mainstay eating for high energy. It’s the best way to get optimal support for rebuilding cells and tissues, rebalancing biochemical processes, and restoring normal metabolism. Sometimes, of course, this is not possible—for example, when you have to eat in restaurants all the time. In this case, you can replace the living salad with a big dish of lightly steamed or wok-fried fresh vegetables cooked in coconut oil and served with a side-dish of soup or a protein food. That being said, the more often you are able to make a living salad the focus of the meal, the sooner you will reap the rewards of your new lifestyle. Remember that your digestive system needs time to complete the digestion of a meal before you put anything else into it. Four or five hours need to elapse between lunch and dinner. Otherwise digestion is not complete, and increased toxicity ensues. Always drink as much filtered or spring water or herb teas between meals as you like. But don’t drink liquids at a meal as they will dilute the important digestive enzymes. AIDE MÉMOIRE Eat fruit or a green drink in the first half of the day followed by a protein or carbohydrate lunch and dinner, both of which should include a big, fresh, raw salad. Leave four to five hours between lunch and dinner for efficient digestion. Eat as much as your body needs and listen to its signals of how hungry you really are. Take your time, chew thoroughly and stop as soon as you feel you have had enough. Never overeat. Get rid of packaged convenience foods that rob you of vitality and undermine well-being. These include breakfast cereals, breads, pasta, sugar and all the so-called goodies made from it. Cut back on tea and coffee. If you drink either, make sure it’s organic so you avoid taking chemicals and pesticides into your body. After wheat, coffee is the second most sprayed commodity in the world. Restrict alcohol to a glass or two of good wine with a meal, once a day. Never eat a concentrated starch food with a concentrated protein food at the same meal. Eat fruit on its own, or leave at least 20 to 30 minutes between a fruit starter and the next course of your meal. You can pick and choose your own foods and make up your own menus once you get your head around these basic principles. Practice Conscientious Food Combining for a month and I think you’ll be delighted with how you look and feel. You can also say goodbye forever to mainstream medications designed to treat GERD—gastroesophageal reflux disease—with all their nasty side effects. Meanwhile your energy will just keep on building.

In my mid-twenties, while searching for my own healing, I was blessed with friendship from some of the world’s finest physicians. These were men and women who had turned away from what they had been taught in medical school: Namely, that people need to be treated with drugs. They worked differently. They taught me that the power of healing always comes from within, thanks to the healing powers of Nature. These special physicians spent many days showing me how to prepare delicious, life-enhancing organic salads and juices, amongst hundreds of other things. I remain infinitely grateful for all they taught me. It changed my life. I keep getting requests from you all to write about some of the things I know, and how anyone can apply them to their own life. So let me begin with raw, organic juicing. LIFE IS THE SECRET Drinking raw juice is far more than the latest craze to hit a public grasping for its next quick fix. The dynamic lift, clean refreshment and sustained energy you get from drinking fresh juice is not an indulgence. And how to make and use these juices correctly is still one of life’s best kept secrets. As you begin to incorporate freshly-extracted, organic, raw vegetable and fruit juices into your life, wonderful changes begin to occur. At first you’ll notice the lift that just one glass of fresh juice can give you, especially if you drink it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Your head clears. Your abdomen tightens. Your finger tips tingle. A few weeks down the road, you are likely to discover more energy, sharper thoughts, greater concentration, even a different outlook on your life. If you’ve never experienced a juice high, it’s time to buy a juicer, and get started. What’s the secret behind all this? Life is the secret—the most profound mystery in the universe. Raw organic foods and juices are bursting with life force. They are the perfect fuel for the body—easily assimilated and supplying a full range of essential minerals, nutrients and the power of living plants. That's all there is to it. REGENERATION AND RENEWAL Fresh fruit and vegetables are excellent foods. Most of our energy is derived from the food we eat. But the body has to break down and digest most foods before we can derive nutritional benefit from them. By extracting the juices of fruits and vegetables, you provide the body with an excellent source of nutrition that is virtually pre-digested, so it can be absorbed into the system in a matter of minutes—with a minimum expenditure of our own energy. There is nothing in raw juice that your body cannot make use of and, therefore, nothing that it need work hard to expel. Instead, the body can concentrate on getting rid of old waste. Raw juice helps the body detoxify itself, restoring its chemical balance. It creates an ideal environment for physical regeneration. However, it must be said that raw juicing will not bestow its blessings on you if you are still eating the standard western diet of convenience foods full of grain-based carbs and sugar. (Download my free book Healthy and Lean for Life from the home page of www.curaromana.com to learn about the best way to eat.) WHEN YOU NEED HELP What fascinates me is the way specific combinations of fruits and vegetable juices have specific therapeutic properties to offer help with common issues that we struggle with—from hair loss and insomnia to depression and prostrate trouble. Let me share with you a few juice recipes designed to help some common challenges. CLEAR FATIGUE One of the underlying causes of fatigue, particularly in women, can be iron depletion. Spinach juice is a far better way of boosting iron levels than taking tablets, which tend to be constipating and are poorly absorbed. The iron in natural foods and juices, including all our green leafy vegetables as well as in poultry, liver and molasses, is highly bio-available. This means your body has no trouble making use of it. Remember that replenishing the body’s essential nutrients takes time, so be prepared to work with organic foods and juices for several weeks before you start to see lasting results. Magnesium is another important mineral when it comes to fatigue. Low intracellular magnesium makes the body very prone to infection, food allergies and chronic illness. Good sources of magnesium are dark green vegetables, seaweeds, molasses, fish and organic raw nuts. DANDELION PLUS 4 or 5 carrots A handful of dandelion leaves 1 bulb fennel Juice as usual, then squeeze a tablespoon of lemon juice to the mixture. GREEN ZINGER 2 leaves kale or beetroot tops or a handful of spinach 4 or 5 carrots A small handful of parsley HI MAG 4-5 carrots 2 florets of broccoli 2 leaves dandelion, beetroot tops, spinach or kale Juice and season with a twist of lemon and a pinch of salt. HANGOVERS There is an art to hangover management. The key to it is looking at detoxification as the other side of the intoxication coin. All drugs provoke a strongly acidic reaction in the body, which causes the symptoms of a hangover, and the first step to recovery is to correct the body's chemical imbalance. Plain old carrot and apple juice is effective for re-balancing, and it's easy to take when you're feeling weak. By incorporating beetroot juice, you will greatly assist the repair of any possible damage done to your liver and kidneys. The inevitable consequence of over-indulgence is waking up dehydrated and nauseous, with a brain that feels like it’s banging against the side of your head each time you move. You need to replenish bodily fluids, nourish exhausted muscles and get your head together. Fruit juice is strongly indicated. Citrus juices, being full of natural sugar vitamin C, are an immediately effective remedy, but they may be a bit harsh if your stomach is delicate. Watermelon, being exceptionally mild, is an ideal substitute if you happen to have some. APPLES & PEARS Apples and pears are closely related. They make a sublime combination when juiced together. 2 pears 2 whole apples Juice as usual and drink straight away as this juice oxidizes very quickly. VIRGIN MARY A Bloody Mary without the vodka, the flavor of this refreshing tomato-based cocktail benefits from a few drops of Tabasco. (Add a clove of garlic and it becomes a Vampire Mary; a fresh jalapeno or other hot green chili pepper turns it into a Scary Mary.) 2 ripe tomatoes 2 carrots 1/2 a beetroot 1 stalk celery 1 cucumber BERRY MELON Berries combine well with melons. The array of flavors gives lots of scope for experimentation. Try Cantelope & Raspberry, Honeydew & Blackberry or the classic Watermelon & Strawberry: 1 slice of watermelon, 3cm wide and cut into chunks to fit your juicer 6 strawberries, washed and with their green stalks removed (In hot weather, a good tip is to freeze your berries before juicing them.) HAIR LOSS You may have been genetically programmed to lose hair, but that doesn't mean it has to happen. There’s a great deal you can do to prevent hair loss, to slow it down dramatically, and in many cases to stop it altogether. Eat foods that are rich in the sulfur amino acids, L-methionine and L-cysteine. Eggs are a wonderful source so devour them with enthusiasm. When it comes to protection from hair loss, cabbage is a real help too. You must also cut out the foods that work against you stopping and eliminating hair loss. Sugar in any form is a killer. Stop eating it altogether. Use a good tasting real stevia in its place. So are the grains and cereals—breads, biscuits and pasta. Eat foods rich in PABA, inositol and choline, such as organic liver, spinach, grapefruit, and raw nuts. Consider adding vacuum-packed flax seeds to your diet. You can grind them in a coffee grinder and sprinkle them on salads or soups. You can also add them to your juices. Finally, the alfalfa has long been believed to stimulate hair growth, particularly in its sprouted form. ALFALFA—FATHER OF ALL JUICES The word alfalfa means ‘father of all grains’ and when it comes to hair health you can't do better than alfalfa sprouts and carrot juice. 4-5 carrots 1 cup alfalfa sprouts Optional: chopped parsley Juice as usual, top with some chopped parsley and drink. GINGER’S BEST cantaloupe melon ¼ inch slice root ginger 1 lime (peel, leaving pith) PARSNIP PERFECT Parsnips, also known as anemic carrots, are well known for their ability to strengthen hair, skin and nails and can protect against hair loss. 2 parsnips 3 carrots 1 beetroot Ease yourself gently into raw juicing. If the juices you make don’t taste sweet enough to you at the beginning, add a good quality stevia to taste. There are a lot of so-called “natural” stevia products which are gross distortions of the natural stevia. I have found that they give a lot of trouble to many people. Avoid them like the plague. (Aaron please put check out my video on this issue and give the link to it here) When it comes to the very best stevias (it feels like I have tried them all), below are the crème de la crème. BEST LIQUID STEVIA Wisdom Natural, SweetLeaf, Liquid Stevia, English Toffee Sweet Leaf liquid stevia with all natural flavors is convenient and easy to use. As a supplement, add this nutritious stevia to water, tea, coffee, milk, sparkling water, protein shakes, plain yogurt or anything else you can imagine. It comes in many different flavors including lemon but English Toffee flavor is the best by far. Order Liquid Stevia from iherb BEST GRANULATED STEVIA Spoonable Stevia by Stevita uses only stevia extract with at least 95% pure glycosides (extremely sweet tasting ingredients of the Stevia herb leaves), and a little erythritol, a crystal granulated naturally produced filler found in fruits, vegetables and grains. It is best for baking and sprinkling Order Stevita from iherb

Quite apart from all the mind-boggling new research into how the right kind of exercise can rejuvenate your body,  I have discovered for myself that exercise is a great deal more than something you do to counteract aging or protect yourself from heart disease. It can be used to fan the flames of creativity and help make you more true to yourself. It can also foster personal metamorphosis of the deepest order - physical, emotional and spiritual. Not only is such transformation possible, it is virtually guaranteed - provided you are patient, and provided you are willing to put real muscle behind it. I have always been fascinated by the idea of transformation - you know the kind of thing: Frogs into princes, Cinderella becomes belle of the ball. Most people believe that in real life, transformation is not possible. They have obviously never learned to work with muscle. Some time ago I made a decision to explore just what kind of transformation was possible for me by working intensively with muscle.  I had come to understand the enormous importance of enhancing Lean Body Mass (LBM). I knew that skillful weight training (not the slap-about kind you see carried out in most gyms) is the fastest and most efficient way to do this. So I searched out someone who could work intensively with me as a trainer to shift the LBM to fat ratio in my own body. I found a Welsh champion weight lifter, Rhodri Thomas, who said he would take me on. When we began to work together I was scared to death that after the first two hours I would collapse in a heap. After all I am no athlete. However, I was keen to find out for myself just how change happens through muscle, so we trained six days a week. Every day we would work with weights backed up by aerobic exercise such as running, swimming and cycling interspersed with other activities like squash and tennis - just for relaxation. I found to my amazement that I did not collapse. Instead I watched as all sorts of deep changes began to take place. Muscles I didn't know existed slowly and quietly began to surface through my flesh. I discovered that the psycho-physiologists are right - feelings, thoughts and past experience is indeed held within our own flesh. All sorts of old memories, feelings, fears, I discovered seemed to be encoded in some mysterious way in my muscles. As you work muscle intensively, sometimes these rise to the surface to be lifted off - much as the body is detoxified of physical toxins on a fast. Frequently I found myself pushed to my absolute limits. Then the gym floor would be covered equally with my sweat and my tears. Still, thanks to Rhod's presence and a will that came out of somewhere deep inside me, I kept working. I was glad that I did. I discovered that working with muscle in this way transforms the body in an outer way by changing LBM to fat ratio and reshaping your body, which has all sorts of wonderful rewards including more energy, freedom from aches and pains, and a lean, firm body, as well as better hormonal balance. In many ways even more wonderful, it helps develop from within you a slow but steadily growing sense of self confidence, clarity and independence. For many - myself included - this was a deep change which had been virtually impossible to come by any other way. It now seems to me that working with muscle slowly and steadily day after day builds a powerful bridge between one's inner and outer world, so that with each passing week you become freer to live the truth of who you are. So now when I think back to all those fairy tales about transformation, about frogs and princes, for the first time in my life I feel I am beginning to understand them and to understand what real transformation through the body is about. It is not all glitzy, like they say in the movies. It is slow and inexorable. Yet it brings in its wake gifts far beyond our wildest dreams. Now I wonder, would Cinderella have been prepared for union with her Prince Charming had she not for many years before strengthened her body and purified her spirit through hard work?

I have often found that great gifts come in small packages. This is why I’m so excited about bringing you my brand new little book Kick Colds which has just been published. For many, the cold and flu season brings nothing but misery. It doesn’t need to happen. This year, suffering can be optional. Kick Colds tells you how to clear cold symptoms, and then how to make some simple natural changes that can protect you from getting a cold afterwards. It shows you easy and effective natural ways to boost your immune system. It brings you simple, practical guidance on how to get shot of sniffles, coughs and nasty throats when they threaten. It teaches how making changes in the way you eat and calling on the best anti-viral herbs and nutrients available can help you thrive even if all around you people are succumbing to a cold. This little gem of a book is packed full of healing power—from specific herbs and nutrients to easy-to-carry-out techniques, helpers and healing tools that can work wonders. The earlier you get on to them, at the first sign of sniffle or cough, the faster they can bring relief. IF YOU ASK ME I hate colds. To me, colds are the nastiest of all common sicknesses—sheer misery. They make me depressed, constipated and bad-tempered. This is why I’ve spent a lot of time learning how not to catch a cold in the first place and. if the first sign of one threatens what is the most effective way to ward it off. The time I’ve spent researching this stuff has been well spent, since I literally can’t remember when I had the last cold. By now it must be several years. Before that I used to suffer the common cold’s miseries once or twice a year. Everything you’ll find in this book relies on the powers of nature. Standard methods of treating colds with drugs and antibiotics don’t work. Antibiotics are useless against a cold virus. They only target symptoms while driving wastes and toxicity associated with the infection deeper into the body, from which they are likely to emerge in the form of another ailment in the future. Colds are associated with anything up to 200 viruses. Viruses are weird—so small you can’t even see them under a normal microscope. Scientists still can’t decide if they are living things or not, since they don’t eat, use oxygen or eliminate wastes. What they do—in no uncertain terms—is reproduce inside your body. Anti-viral drugs are as scarce as hen’s teeth, and antibiotics can’t deal with viruses. Viruses are not able to replicate themselves without entering your own cells and altering their function. Once you learn how to keep a virus from invading your cells then you can stop colds and flu in their tracks. Giving your immune system a boost for the cold and flu season is the key to doing this. COLDS HAVE REASONS We come down with a cold for two reasons: First is that the body needs to eliminate the wastes and toxins it has been carrying around and a cold is the way it chooses to do this. Second because your immune system is much in need of a boost. Colds are a body’s way of getting rid of all the wastes and toxins it has collected from our modern life filled with convenience foods, stress, inactivity and pollution. Keep your body free of toxins, and you need never have to go through the misery of a cold again. By this I don’t mean living in a plastic bubble and eating like a rabbit. It’s just common sense. Learn which foods support your body’s own ability to clear waste day by day, and avoid eating foods that put more toxins into it. Kick Colds tells you how to make simple changes to what and how you eat that shift metabolism in powerful ways so it can you free from becoming cold-fodder. LEARN TO FIGHT BACK Your immune system is a complex network of specialized cells and processes which form your body’s natural defense against invasion, poison and disease. It is like an elaborate, highly organized secret police in a totalitarian country which, together with its special branch of armed militia, has the job of ensuring that absolutely everything foreign is kept out. There are two sides to immunity: the secret police themselves—humoral immunity; and the militia—cell-mediated immunity. Your humoral immunity collects a vast log of thousands of antibodies throughout your lifetime which it has created in response to specific viruses, chemicals, bacteria and foreign substances which have invaded your system. As we now know, there are around 200 different viruses associated with the common cold. When your body is invaded by a new one it is the militia, the cell-mediated immunity, which goes out to fight it. This part of your immune system is centered around specialized cells called T-cell and B-cell lymphocytes. Build it up, and you have an in-built resistance to infection. A healthy immune system can stop a virus in its tracks. There’s plenty you can do to keep yours in peak condition. Become aware when your immune system is being breached, and act quickly to heal the invasion. Don’t even wait for the first sneeze. Take action now to nip it in the bud. FOOD CHANGE FOR INSTANT RELIEF To clear a cold fast, stop eating all grains, sugars, starchy vegetables and foods made out of them. Ready-in-a-minute pre-cooked meals, junk foods and even the standard meat-and-two veg Western meals can fill you with rubbish and create catarrh. They introduce your digestive system to the most difficult of all foods for it to break down and make use of: concentrated carbohydrates (e.g. breads, cereals, starchy vegetables and sugars of all kinds). Convenience foods and junk foods are also grossly deficient in essential nutrients, further inhibiting your body’s ability to eliminate waste. If your first response to all this is to say ‘How ridiculous, I’ve been eating bread and potatoes for years and they’ve never done me any harm!’ think back to how many colds you’ve had in your life. The digestive system of anyone who lives on manufactured foods or who chronically overeats doesn’t function normally because it remains in a state of permanent stimulation. Many people in this state eventually develop chronic fatigue, unrelenting hunger or food cravings, as their body calls out for the essential vitamins and minerals it is lacking. Poor digestion triggers metabolic slow-down, you lose energy, gain weight easily, and come down with frequent minor illnesses like colds and flu. INSIDE STORY My goal in writing Kick Colds has been to share with you tried and tested inside information, natural remedies, tools, and techniques both for banishing a cold if you’ve caught one, as well as helping you develop an immune system of the highest order. I’d love to see you enhance your wellbeing so well that, when someone asks you “When did you last have a cold?,” you’ll be able to look them straight in the eye and answer, “I’m not sure... it must be a few years back by now.” It can be great fun when, having tucked under your belt all you need to know to keep from catching colds, the last cold you had was so long ago that you can’t quite remember it.

Laughter and humor are much needed in the over-serious world of health and beauty, a world which tends to measure health not as joyous energy and creativity but in terms of cholesterol levels, blood pressure and sedimentation rates. The irony is, that according to the latest research into the mind body relationship, a life which sparkles with laughter is not only good for you because it feels good, it can also help look after the state of your blood pressure, immune system and cholesterol levels. Some researchers believe laughter can help look after the state of your blood pressure, immune system and cholesterol levels far better than high powered medical care and drugs. Drugs, after all, have deeply worrying side effects. The worst of laughter's side effects is joy. When we laugh we shed feelings of judgment, self pity and blame. Our perception shifts and we come to know another level of consciousness. Laughter deepens your breathing, expands blood vessels, heightens circulation bringing more oxygen to your cells, increases the secretion of hormones beneficial to your body, speeds tissue healing and helps stabilize bodily functions. A new philosophy is emerging from studies carried out in France and Canada by philosopher Andre Moreau on the notion that one should seek in all philosophical teachings the keys for releasing innate human tendencies towards humor, laughter and positive energies. It is known as "Jovialiste" which advocates the practice of smiling as a free expression of human vitality and creativity. Meanwhile, hospitals both in the United States and Europe are even prescribing laughter in the form of Jerry Lewis and Marks Brother's films, humorous books and any other simple triggers to put patients into a blissful state of spontaneous giggles. life on the flip side The way that emotions and health are closely related has been investigated for many years. The scientific press is full of papers which show the way that negative emotions such as anger, resentment, fear and despair are major factors in the development of serious illness from cancer to coronary heart disease. Scientists have charted direct pathways between mind and immunity via anatomical connections that link the brain directly to organs such as the spleen and the thymus gland. They have also shown that hormonal secretions induced by emotions and thought patterns create a second pathway between mind and body which is carried on the blood, and there is strong evidence that excess adrenaline from high levels of stress can significantly depress the body's immune system. But until recently most of the focus of mind-body research has been on the negative. Now, thanks to the new fascination with laughter, many scientists are beginning to investigate the biochemical changes brought about by positive emotions and encouraging their use as tools for health and healing. Researchers now find that laughter, relaxation, meditation and hope not only produce beneficial changes such as lowered heart rate and breathing, they can even improve the way your body responds to stress hormones, and bring about a shift in your perception of potentially stressful situations so you can look on them as challenges rather than as insurmountable problems - a vital attitude in preserving and enhancing the health of your mind and body. One of the very best things of all about laughter is that it breaks through the tendency each of us has to take our self and our values too seriously. It breaks down the roles we play and liberates the self locked within. It is our tendency to identify with our own self-created image, fears, beliefs and assumptions that takes us away from the joy which we believe is normal for each of us to feel. Give yourself a chance to laugh, and it will make you feel more alive, healthier and more beautiful. learn to laugh Seek out and spend time with people who make you laugh - often. Look for books that make you laugh, and keep a file of cartoons and magazine articles which you can share with your friends. Learn to be silly sometimes - like a child. Maybe join a drama class where they do improvisation, or make friends with children who still remember how to laugh and play and let them be your teachers.

Quite literally, the menses is the period of waxing and waning between one new moon and the next. Once menstruation begins at puberty, which is a woman's first rite of passage, the ebbs and flows which her body goes through each month are the stuff of which the second movement in her life's hormonal symphony is made. This part of her life has one major goal - childbearing. Its success depends greatly upon the two major steroids - the oestrogens and progesterone - working in close communication with her body's major control centers, the pituitary and hypothalamus. Only since the late nineteenth century have women's menstrual cycles - the menses - been investigated scientifically. The name menses also comes from a Greek word - meaning `month'. It in turn is derived from an even older word meaning `moon'. master controls A neural nuclei in the limbic brain, the hypothalamus, is the control center for homeostasis. It balances and oversees biochemical and energetic changes throughout the body. The limbic system in which it sits is the most primitive part of the brain. It is the part which deals with emotions and with our sense of smell, with our passions, and with all the unconscious interfaces that take place between mind and body. The actions of the limbic lie beneath the level of the thinking mind. This is one of the reasons that the hypothalamus is often referred to as the `seat of emotions'. When excited, the hypothalamus triggers desire - for food, for water, for adventure, for sex. Its actions can also be influenced by inhibitory thought patterns. In a woman frightened of becoming pregnant, for instance, the fear itself - via the hypothalamus - can dampen sexual desire or even disrupt menstrual cycles so she remains barren. The hypothalamus also responds to alterations in the electric and magnetic fields of the earth and of moon, and to other planetary events, as well as to electromagnetic pollution in our environment and the positive stimulus of energy medicine. It reacts to bodily changes that take place as a result of meditation, and its activities are influenced by spiritual practices - which is a major reason why women who meditate regularly tend to develop greater emotional balance, as well as why repeated experiences of joy or stillness can dramatically improve various female complaints such as PMS and hot flushes in both menstruating and menopausal women. sacred cycles There are three main branches of the female endocrine system involved in menstruation. The first is the master gland, the hypothalamus. It releases gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). The second is the anterior pituitary, which releases follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) - both of which are secreted in response to GnRH from the hypothalamus. The third is made up of the oestrogens and progesterone which, during a woman's non-pregnant childbearing years, are secreted by the ovaries in response to FSH and LH. It is the symphony of interactions and feedback mechanisms between these three branches that bring about the blood ritual of menstruation. All of the hormones released during a menstrual cycle are secreted not in a constant, steady way, but at dramatically different rates during different parts of the 28 day period; a cycle which like everything else in a natural world involves birth, maturation, and death, only to lead to new birth again - in this case, of the egg a woman's body produces. Menstruation itself is simply the elimination of the thickened blood and blood filled endometrium in the womb - the lining developed in preparation for a possible pregnancy. For when a pregnancy does not occur, this lining is shed at monthly intervals under the control of oestrogen and progesterone with a little help from their friends GnRH, FSH, and LH. When ovaries are not stimulated by the gonadotrophic hormones from the pituitary, they remain asleep, as they were during childhood and as they become again after menopause. For the first 8 to 11 days of the menstrual cycle, a woman's ovaries make lots of oestrogen. Within the ovary itself are little things called follicles - partially developed eggs. One of these will be released each month in hopes of meeting up with the sperm and creating an embryo. It is oestrogen which prepares the bloody lining of the uterus and causes the follicle to develop in the ovary, bringing it to the surface of the ovary and preparing for the release of one of the eggs. The word oestrogen, like the hormones produced in a woman's body which belong to this family - oestrone, oestradiol, and oestriol - comes from oestrus, a Greek word meaning `frenzy', `heat', or `fertility'. It is oestrogen which proliferates the changes that take place at puberty - the growth of breasts, the development of a girl's reproductive system, the reshaping of a woman's body. It also alters your vaginal secretions, making them more viscous and less watery, and it causes your body's temperature to rise at the time of ovulation, by about one degree. Each girl baby is born with all the primary follicles she will ever need. At the time of puberty, a girl's ovaries contain about 300,000 of these follicles. And while each woman only produces one or two fully developed eggs each month, somewhere between 100 and 300 follicles have to start developing in order for one to become fully grown, so a woman can lose between 100 to 300 follicles a month. However, since she started with 300,000, she will have enough to last all her reproductive life. On day one of each monthly cycle - that is, the day of the onset of menstruation - first the production of FSH and then of LH increases. This increase in hormones from the anterior pituitary triggers a group of ovarian follicles each month, causing accelerated growth in the cells surrounding them. As cells around the eggs grow, they secrete a follicular fluid which contains a high concentration of the oestrogen oestradiol to bring about many other changes, developing the potential of one of the follicles so that it becomes capable of being fertilized by the male sperm. It is not the oestradiol alone secreted by the follicle which brings about the maturation of the egg, however. Luteinizing hormone (LH) from the anterior pituitary continues to be secreted to help the process along until after a week or more, when one of the follicles outgrows all of the rest. This is the one that will become the female egg ready for impregnation. The remainder of the follicles now begin to involute. LH becomes particularly important at this stage in order for the final follicular growth to be completed and ovulation itself to occur - that is, the release of the egg into the fallopian tubes for its journey down into the uterus. So the rate of secretion of LH by the anterior pituitary increases markedly, rising 6 or 10 times then peaking about 18 hours before ovulation - the release of the egg into the fallopian tubes for its journey down into the uterus. The production of FSH also increases at this time, and these two hormones act together to cause a swelling of the follicle during several days before ovulation. Finally ovulation takes place usually around the fourteenth day, in the middle of your cycle. enter progesterone LH also alters the cells around the egg follicle, so that now they secrete less oestradiol, but progressively rising amounts of progesterone. This means that the rate of oestrogen secretion begins to fall about day thirteen, one day before ovulation occurs. But as small amounts of progesterone begin to be secreted, very rapid growth of the follicle takes place. Beginning with this secretion of progesterone, ovulation occurs too, triggered yet again by the luteinizing hormone from the anterior pituitary. During the first few hours after the ovum has been expelled from the follicle, more and more rapid physical and chemical changes take place to the egg in a process called luteinization. At this stage - known as the luteal stage of a woman's cycle - the follicle becomes known as the corpus luteum, or yellow body. The cells around the egg begin to secrete larger quantities of progesterone, as the level of oestrogen decreases. Some of the cells around the egg become much enlarged. They develop inclusions of lipids or fats which give them their distinctive yellow color. From now on, development becomes rapid until seven or eight days after ovulation, when it peaks. As soon as a follicle releases an egg, the ovary switches over from pumping out oestrogen to primarily making progesterone. Progesterone is only synthesized when you ovulate. In fact, ovulation changes the whole ball game. No longer is there a need for further build up of the womb lining. The challenge now is to hold on to the secretory endometrium, and to render it capable of nurturing a fertilized egg long enough for it to grow into a baby. That is progesterone's task. The progesterone released with the egg has a negative effect on the other ovary. Its release tells the other ovary: "Hey, we've got an egg out now, so you don't have to worry about producing any." For even though women have two ovaries, they usually produce only one egg a month. The business of fraternal twins - that is, both ovaries releasing an egg at the same time - only happens once every three hundred months, which is why fraternal twins are so rare. The corpus luteum, which forms each month, is a tiny organ with a huge capacity for hormone production. It releases large quantities of progesterone, plus some oestrogen, which cause a feedback decrease in the secretion of FSH and LH by the anterior pituitary, so that no new follicles begin to grow. But as soon as the corpus luteum degenerates at the end of its 12 day life - which is about the 26th day of the female sexual cycle - this lack of feedback triggers the anterior pituitary gland to secrete several times as much FSH, followed a few days later by more LH as well. This in turn stimulates the growth of new follicles to begin the next ovarian cycle. And at the same time, a fall in progesterone and in oestrogen secretion trigger menstruation. peaks and falls From day 1 until about day 13 of a woman's menstrual cycle, the level of progesterone in her body is very, very low. Yet the point at which a follicle is released, it continues to rise dramatically until day 21 to 23, at which point it begins to fall down again to its lowest level, as menstruation begins around day 28. In addition to maintaining the endometrium and shifting down activity in the other ovary, the progesterone provided each month travels to other parts of a woman's body to fulfill other roles. It protects her from the side-effects of oestrogen for one thing, helping to protect her from getting breast cancer, from retaining water and salt, from high blood pressure, and from becoming depressed. Progesterone also brings surges of libido. You still hear a few so called experts say that oestrogen increases libido. But think about it. Which hormone would you rely on for sex-drive - oestrogen, which is present before the egg is made, or progesterone, which comes after the egg is released and is ready for fertilization? Libido increases with progesterone surges. When this rhythmic cycling of oestrogen and progesterone during each lunar month gets out of sync (and many things in modern life can cause this) then all sorts of things can go wrong - from infertility to PMS, depression, bloating, endometriosis and fibroids. For the oestrogens and progesterone, each have their characteristic roles to play, and for a woman to be healthy they must balance each other. the last and the first So do all the other steroids: This group of hormones to which cortisol, aldosterone, progesterone, DHEA, testosterone and the oestrogens belong, is intimately involved in how you feel both physically and emotionally, as well as how rapidly your body ages. Steroids have a characteristic molecular structure which resembles cholesterol, from which they are all ultimately derived. Cholesterol is the vital fatty substance that has had such a bad press in recent years, but which is absolutely essential to life. Out of each steroid hormone made from cholesterol, yet another - and following that another - can be made in a knock-on effect. For instance, pregnenolone is the steroid manufactured directly from cholesterol. It in turn becomes a precursor to progesterone, as well as to other hormones. Natural steroid hormones such as progesterone, made by biosynthesis in your own body, have this remarkable capability to act as precursors. In other words they are capable of being turned into other hormones further down the pathways as and when your body needs them. Progesterone is mother of many other hormones. It can eventually be turned not only into various oestrogens, but also into cortisol - the anti-inflammatory hormone - and into other steroids such as corticosterone or aldosterone, with equally important jobs to do. All of these conversions happen through slight alterations in the shape of a molecule, thanks to the actions of enzymes, each of which carries out a specific task. But these conversions can only take place if the molecules on which the enzyme is acting "fit" precisely - both electromagnetically and stereochemically - into its structure. All of these changes which take place through the magic of enzymes occur in the presence of vitamin and mineral cofactors such as magnesium, zinc, and B6, which catalyze each enzyme reaction. They are all carefully modulated by elaborate feedback mechanisms as well. The names and chemical transformations from one steroid to another are not important to remember. What is important is that you get some sense of just how complex hormone synthesis and interactions can be, and how important it is to have sufficient cofactors as well as `primary' hormones, such as pregnalone and progesterone, to be able to synthesize others. A rich hormonal symphony? Immeasurably. Yet all this still does not even begin to take into account the myriad pathways by which these steroid hormones interact with other hormones, or master central mechanisms within the hypothalamus and pituitary, or psychoneuroimmunological pathways by which hormones effect our emotions, and emotions our hormones. sabotage It is in coming face to face with the rich textures of such hormonal symphonies that the synthetic progestagen drugs can come a cropper. When you look at the structures of their molecules, in every case you find that although they resemble your body's homemade hormones, their shapes have been altered slightly by adding extra atoms here or there at unusual positions. It is this that has enabled them to qualify as patentable drugs. However, unlike the natural hormones - which they attempt to mimic, and which not only fulfill their own functions by binding with their own receptor sites but also act as precursors for a myriad of other hormones with other important jobs to do - the progestagens are end-product molecules. They are also completely foreign to the living body. Unlike nature's own steroids they can also not be augmented or diminished as necessary to maintain balance, and to keep the body's hormonal symphony flowing smoothly. They also cannot easily be eliminated when their levels get too high. Although the synthetics can still bind with the receptor sites of the hormones they are made to mimic, they don't fit as well as the homemade steroids do into the enzymes meant to act upon them. This means they are not under the watchful eye and control of these enzymes, nor of the body's self-regulating capacities. Drug-based oestrogens and progestagens in contraceptives and HRT cocktails can significantly disrupt a woman's normal hormonal cycles by introducing foreign elements into her body. They also virtually wipe out the moon cycles to which a woman's natural fertility and spiritual balance are inexorably bound from puberty onwards. So although in the short term they may temporarily do a job such as provide birth control or quell heavy bleeding in a menopausal woman, in the long run they only sabotage hormone balance, by turning harmony into dissonance - a dissonance capable not only of causing disruptions in a woman's health and physical body, but also of creating emotional and spiritual confusion in her life. This, sadly, is not something you will find described in the Merck index that warns doctors of a drug's side-effects, however. For the spiritual aspects of health and healing tend to be all but forgotten in the linear thinking that underlies most twentieth century medicine. In the mechanistic western world of drug-based treatments, where we are trained to take a pill for whatever ails us, this concept can be a little strange for some women to grasp. Especially if they are well educated, intelligent, and if they have been urged from puberty to rely on oral contraceptives - even told they are irresponsible if they don't. Or if they have been filled with fear that if they don't take HRT as menopause approaches their life is going to fall apart. friends and lovers Quite apart from their biochemical actions, rather like people, hormones have characters with highly individual personalities. To the biochemist, the `personalities' of the oestrogens and progesterone will always remain a mystery. He is interested in nothing beyond their molecular configurations. But many women come to know these personalities well - by allowing intuition and instinct to be their teachers. When progesterone is surging through the body, a woman can feel high. Provided her body is producing enough of this steroid, she is likely to feel great. Your senses are keen when progesterone is running. Smells smell sweeter - or more horrible. Touching, sensing, tasting, hearing, are all richer experiences than usual. In the presence of progesterone, women have a desire to do something, to create something, to work in the garden, to dance or sing a song, or make love. Sometimes progesterone surges can feel like falling in love. They can bring feelings of balanced wellbeing together with excitement - a desire to explore new worlds, and to try new things. This can happen during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle after ovulation, when the follicle turns into the yellow body (or corpus luteum), but it becomes far more intense when you are pregnant. It is a high level of progesterone that makes a woman feel on top of the world during the last months of pregnancy. At this time the placenta churns out an amazing 300 to 400 milligrams of the steroid, while during the luteal phase of your menstrual cycle it will have only been producing 20 milligrams or so a day. I suspect that among those women who seem to get pregnant over and over and who so love the whole experience, you are likely to find high progesterone levels. You also find them in women who have trouble-free menstruation. Sadly the opposite is true too: When progesterone is low - as it is in a growing number of women now, who have been subjected to manufactured hormones and who, living in the polluted world, have become oestrogen dominant - women never seem to feel well even during pregnancy. Many have all sorts of troubles with their female organs and cycles including PMS - sometimes from puberty right through to death. when oestrogens flow The oestrogens have quite a different character. When oestrogens peak in the menstrual cycle just before the `fall' of ovulation, a woman feels less independent. She is more willing to adjust herself to the needs of others. She is more inclined to see herself in relation to men too instead of as a woman in her own right. When the oestrogens are running, women like to attract a mate not so much to draw him into her body as to comfort, admire and care for her. Her ovaries seem to be smiling - `whatever you want, I'm happy to give', they seem to say. A few women who by nature are high oestrogen producers feel quite dependent on others for approval, and for the definition of their being. While such an experience can be lovely and make a woman feel highly `feminine', it can also go too far. However, in these women, when menopause finally arrives and oestrogen levels drop dramatically, often they find to their surprise and delight that for the first time in their lives they begin to feel complete in themselves - as though they don't need anybody else to validate their lives. Provided they are otherwise well, menopause can be sheer joy in the sense of freedom it brings these women - that is, once they get over the shock of being such a `different person'. From a biological point of view, there are many important actions that progesterone and oestrogen exert upon the body and psyche. Since these are little known among women and doctors alike it is worth looking at a few: Effects of Progesterone Effects of Oestrogen Increases libido Decreases libido Prevents cancer of the womb Increases risk of womb cancer Protects against fibrocystic breast disease Stimulates breast cell activity Maintains the lining of the uterus Proliferates the lining of the uterus Stimulates the building of new bone Slows down the resorption of old bone Strengthens skin Thins skin Is a natural diuretic Encourages salt and water retention Brings antidepressant effects Can produce headaches and depression Encourages fat burning and the use of stored energy Lays down fat stores Normalizes blood clotting Increases blood clotting Concerned with the procreation and survival of the fetus Concerned with the development and release of the egg Precursor to important stress hormones End-molecule steroids The reproductive hormonal menstrual cycle of a woman between puberty and the menarche is a superbly ordered natural work of art. It becomes so much a part of our lives that unless we have some particular difficulties with PMS or fertility, we hardly give it any thought. Not, that is, until things begin to alter. Once they do begin - in most women sometime between the age of forty and fifty - they usually change gradually, until finally a woman senses that something deep in her being has shifted. Such feelings herald the coming of menopause - the third phase of a woman's life.

I learned the secret of agelessness when, many years ago, I came upon a quotation from someone I much admire. Let me share it with you: “All men dream; but not equally.” he said. “Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find it was vanity: but dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.” The quotation comes from T.E. Lawrence. I adore it. It transformed my own vision of aging. It reminded me of the imaginative power each of us has to create our unique path. It taught me that there is no need to fear growing older. Each one of us can live a rich and fulfilling life at any age. Yet too few of us make use of our powerful abilities to envision, then bring into being, what we long for. If, like me, you’d prefer to die young late in life, there are two things for you to do: First, get savvy about how to care for yourself naturally. Second, start to practice Lawrence of Arabia’s dictate. Decide to become a “dreamer of the day”. Then “act with open eyes to make it possible.” The growing understanding of natural medicine, together with reputable research into high-tech biochemistry, has made this transformation possible. Once little more than a pipe-dream, agelessness is becoming a reality. Savvy gerontologists have challenged the assumed maximum lifespans of human beings. They show us that people in the know can make intelligent use of antioxidant nutrients, electromagnetic treatments, and a myriad of other safe, natural anti-aging tools—including an organic, high-raw diet—to prevent physical degeneration and restore a healthy balance to their bodies and their lives. It is never too late to begin. Instead of prescribing dangerous drugs, this new wave of visionary scientists and practitioners show that the foods we eat exert powerful effects on control centers in the brain. These powerful loci direct metabolic processes on which your health depends—from hormonal behavior, weight and appetite, to emotional and mental states—even, believe it or not, the way we perceive the nature of reality. What few people yet know—and what I have been studying and teaching for decades—is that these control centers in the brain are also filters through which we experience profound spiritual growth. Choose to live on a diet of convenience foods, sugars, and carbohydrates, as more than 90% of people now do, and your brain’s control centers become crippled. You begin to age rapidly. Then, should you be urged to buy into relying on pharmaceutical drugs, eventually your body becomes poisoned by them. Become aware of this. Fresh foods grown on healthy soils foods and top quality nutrients do not poison the body’s crucial enzymes, nor do they block vital cell receptors, on which your health depends. Taking drugs long-term does both, bringing about not only ill-health and rapid aging, but unbalanced emotions, mental fog, and a strong sense that—in ways you cannot even articulate—you have lost trust and connections with yourself, although you may have no idea how this has happened. Changing the way you eat and care for your body can begin, within a few weeks, not only to transform your health. It can expand your consciousness and help you change your life for the better on virtually every level. Forget your chronological age. It’s a very limited indication of your biological and functional age. These are the measurements that really matter. Older people are capable of far more than society would have us believe. At any age, people can learn how to live by the principles of natural wellbeing and become highly resistant to the ravages of degeneration and chronic illness. They come to know their bodies. They face each morning in fresh anticipation about what the day can bring. They’ve learned to dismiss the negative brainwashing continually bombarding us from mainstream media, the medical profession and government directives. They know, for instance that, as George M. Mann MD says, “The diet-heart hypothesis which suggests that high intake of saturated fat and cholesterol causes heart disease has been repeatedly shown to be wrong. The public is being deceived by the greatest health scam of the century.” Those in the know refuse to allow themselves to be deceived any longer. Savvy, independent people have every right to boast of their increased longevity and high resistance to degeneration. They’ve earned it. These people seek truths and continue to uncover them. They choose to shun unnecessary drugs, to banish convenience foods, to make at least 50 to 75% of the foods they eat organic. They reject negative beliefs about growing older. They become not old, but ageless. Agelessness makes available to you a steadily maturing wisdom which is one of the greatest blessings as years go by. You become someone whose experience and awareness has not been distorted by an ill-functioning mind or waning vitality. Our sense of time expands and helps us come alive to the present moment. In a powerful, real, and positive way, this draws it towards the future. And when we are able to project ourselves into the future, that future becomes not an abstract consideration, but an experience of great rewards. The future of the planet is our future. We are responsible for it. If we wish, we can start to see ourselves as caretakers of our earth instead of tenants in a rented property. At last, the freedom from mental and physical degeneration which agelessness brings is no longer an empty dream. It is happening to many who are awakening. Who cares if, at the age of 85, you are still capable of running a marathon, or if you look 20 years older or younger than you are chronologically? Such things matter little by themselves. But high-level health, mental clarity and well-being which are the rewards of agelessness—no matter how old one is chronologically—are of urgent concern to all of us as residents of the earth. They form the foundation on which we human beings can build if we are to make use of our creative potentials. In the full use of such creativity lies the future of ourselves, our children and our planet. Have I become one of Lawrence’s “dreamers of the day”? I certainly have. It’s dreams that create the true mythologies by which we live our lives. I believe each and every one of us urgently needs solid dreams to give our lives direction—dreams which, tempered by the wisdom of age, are large enough and rich enough to carry us forward. Such dreams not only have power. They can help us bring forth exciting new realities.

We are poised at the beginning of a profound revolution in health. It encompasses long-lasting weight control, drug-free ageless aging and protection from degenerative diseases. Until recently, the genuine research findings which are fueling this revolution have been hidden from us by a dark cloud consisting of outright lies, false medical and government directives and corporate greed. For the past 60 years, we have been fed dangerous, inaccurate information in regard to the causes of heart disease, obesity, mental disorders, and other widespread degenerative conditions—from diabetes to cancer and Alzheimer’s, as well as emotional and mental problems. As a consequence, we have experienced an exponential rise in long-term degenerative conditions, a massive dependence on pharmaceutical drugs, and dangerously inaccurate information about what constitutes good nutrition. I’ve just posted on the lesliekenton.com site two videos of programs aired over ABC News in Australia. Do watch them. They could be life-changing for you and your family. I’ll give you a link to them at the bottom. THE TRUTH WILL OUT Here’s what’s important for you to know: The guidelines about health we have been given in the decades following World War II have been wrong. For example, there is NO correlation between high cholesterol plaque formation and heart disease. Second, saturated fats are good for us. Third, statin drugs which are commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol are dangerous. For generations, we’ve been told that “saturated fat is a prime cause of heart disease.” This theory, known as the ‘lipid hypothesis’, was concocted 60 years ago by a number of mainstream scientists, including a physiologist named Ancel Keys, whom I knew personally. Keys’ totally inaccurate “revelations” about the dangers of eating saturated fats were based on bogus research. Yet they earned him a cover on Time Magazine. Other erroneous research, which in truth amounted to little more than “best guesses”, were also accepted as truths by government, the medical establishment and the media, even though several well researched studies showed clearly that they were also wrong. This is how the false notion that “eating fat causes heart disease” became accepted worldwide and it has endured for more than half a century. BIG FAT LIES As award-winning journalist Gary Taubes has pointed out, “In the 1970s and 1980s the US government spent half a billion dollars trying to prove that dietary fat causes heart disease and they couldn’t do it.” Taubes is a courageous science writer. He first wrote about the public fat deceptions in a New York Times magazine article in June of 2002, called “What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie?” Since then, he has written two superbly researched books, in relation to this issue as well as other massively inaccurate beliefs that have also been foisted upon us including the notion that eating a low-fat, high-carb diet is the best way to stay healthy. For five decades, governments and health agencies in the United States and elsewhere have pontificated about what we should eat to prevent degenerative diseases. Most of us have done our best to follow their advice. In doing so, we have become sicker and fatter with each decade that passes. Of course, the powers-that-be still insist that this is all our fault. They tell us that this is because we have not been following their advice carefully enough. So their “best guess” advice, concocted in error all those years ago, still goes on harming millions of people. THE DECEPTIVE 70S The tale continues: After high-level government discussions and consultations about what diet the majority of Americans should eat for health, the McGovern Committee in the United States published nutritional guidelines which, they told us, would “combat cancers, heart disease, high-blood pressure, obesity and diabetes.” Hearings for Senator McGovern’s Senate Select Committee took place between 1976 and 1980. And it was clear right from the start that the outcome would be a bogus recommendation to reduce fat and cholesterol and eat plenty of carbohydrates for energy—despite the fact that valid scientific research had shown quite clearly that both of these recommendations were just plain wrong. Before long, the US government issued their skewed ‘Dietary Guidelines for Americans.’ Their advice boiled down to was this: Replace natural dietary fats (which we humans have been eating for millions of years and which the body handles with ease) with high doses of carb-laden grains, sugars and cereals and use lots of polyunsaturated fats. Then the now infamous U.S. “Dietary Recommendations Pyramid” came along. It urges us to eat as many as 11 portions of bread, cereal, rice and pasta a day. Like obedient citizens, we ate porridge, toast and cereal for breakfast, munched our way through a bagel at 11 o’clock, and downed a sandwich, pizza or pasta for lunch. At dinner, along with our meat and potatoes, or rice and beans, we indulges in a roll or two to make sure we got the 10 carb servings they recommended to us believing that we were living on a healthy diet. Just in case you think these absurd directives only affected the lives of Americans, think again. The rest of the world—with a few exceptions such as France and China—still follow US government directives with amazing slavishness. HOW TO AGE FAST A diet high in cereals, grains and sugars (which 90% of the Western World still consumes) is not only a prescription for obesity—it’s a fast track to rapid aging and degenerative diseases. Grains and sugars in excess lower energy levels, create cravings and addictive eating while encouraging a myriad of long-term health issues. TRUTH ABOUT STATINS Then there is the issue of statins. I was stunned when I learned about the new guidelines just issued by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. These bodies are now encouraging doctors to prescribe statin drugs to well people. The so-called medical experts who issued these directives insist that all healthy people be given statin drugs as a “preventative against possible future illness.” In effect they are keen to see one third of all adults taking statins. One in four Americans over 45 are already on statins, despite more than 900 studies reporting dangerous side effects from these drugs. Side effects range from heightened risks of cancer and diabetes to sexual problems, neuropathy and liver dysfunction to immune system suppression—even a higher risk of cataracts. In Britain, between 6 and 8 million people take statin drugs. If the new directives are accepted by the US and UK medical establishment—as they are likely to be—the numbers of men and women being prescribed statins will become legion. WHY ARE THEY USED Statins are a group of drugs that commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol levels by inhibiting the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which plays a central role in the production of cholesterol in the liver. They have many different names: Lipitor, Lescol, Mevacor, Altocor, Zocor and so on. Statins are given to patients on the assumption that they will lower the risks of heart attacks and strokes. Meanwhile, a recent study in the Journal of Cancer Epidemiology, “Biomarkers & Prevention” by Jean A McDougall and her team, showed that long-term use of statins increases the risk of both lobular and ductal breast cancer in women between 55 and 74. COME THE REVOLUTION I suggest you take a look at my recent blog, “Beware The Statin Pushers”. (Click here.) I also suggest that you read Healthy and Lean For Life, the book I wrote at the beginning of 2013. You are able to download free until the end of December. (click here) Meanwhile I celebrate Dr Maryanne Demasi’s admirable investigative journalism in the two ABC programs which you can watch by clicking here. Come and take part in the exciting revolution based on truth. Share what you learn with those whose health and life may be made better by what you have learned.

Findings show that the structure of cellulite tissue differs considerably in structure and chemical composition from normal fat. This scientific low down on cellulite is useful to fall back on next time somebody tries to tell you those lumps and bumps that you worry about are all in your mind. Curri examined fragments of adipose (fat) tissue taken from the outer thighs of young subjects, obese adults and older subjects, and then compared their physical and biochemical structures with those from women with cellulite. Examining cellulite tissue under a microscope and analyzing it chemically using gas chromatography, Curri established conclusively both from a morphological point of view (structure) and from a biochemical one that cellulite tissue differs in many ways from normal fat tissue. structurally or morphologically only in cellulite is there: a leakage of plasma through weakened capillary walls into the spaces between your fat cells a thickening of connective fiber which encapsulates your fat cells the formation of nodules caused by the hardening of collagen a stretching of your capillaries and blood stagnation with poor circulation Biochemically in cellulite there are significant differences in the ratio of certain fatty acids and triglycerides compared to ordinary fatty tissue. These include: an increase in stearic acid over palmitic acid an increase in stearic acid over oleic-linoleic acid an increase in unsaturated fatty acids over saturated fatty acids the four stages of cellulite In simple terms, Curri's findings showed that the structure of cellulite tissue differs considerably in structure and chemical composition from normal fat. it also tends to develop in stages: normal flesh Skin on your thighs and buttocks is smooth when you are standing or lying down. When pinched it folds and furrows but does not pit or bulge. This is the normal skin of most lean and very healthy men and women. stage 1 Your skin is still smooth when you are standing or lying, but a pinch test reveals the mattress phenomenon of bulging and pitting. Some deformation of the skin surface has taken place. There are signs of waterlogging - interstitial edema - structural dissociation and the beginnings of tissue dystrophy. Your skin has begun to look pasty. Tissue examination reveals the development of hard fibers in connective tissue. stage 2 Your skin is smooth when you are lying but when standing it shows signs of pitting and bulging. (This is common in women who are overweight or past the age of 35). Deep palpitation of your skin produces a dull pain. You cannot detect specific nodules to the touch, but micronodules will be seen in tissue examination. stage 3 The mattress phenomenon is apparent whether you are sitting or lying. Your flesh is painful - sometimes even when not touched - and macronodules or what is known as hypodermic plaque will be seen whether or not there is a lot of edema or water retention present. Histological examination will show that nodules are encapsulated in hardened or sclerotic connective tissue. This stage is very common after menopause, or when a woman is seriously overweight. So much for the scientific low down on cellulite, all of which is useful to fall back on next time somebody tries to tell you those lumps and bumps that you worry about are all in your mind or to suggest they will disappear in a jiffy on a 900 calorie diet. But the important question for any woman with lumpy flesh is, 'What am I going to do about it?' That is where a total shift in body ecology comes in. And I mean total. You can spend as much money as you like, and go through as much agony as you like being stuck and prodded and wrapped in special packages, but unless you go the whole body approach you will be wasting your money.