Installing Love on the Human Computer:

Installing Love on the Human Computer:

Tech Support: Yes, how can I help you?

Customer: Well, after much consideration, I've decided to
install Love. Can you guide me through the process?

Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?

Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?

Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running ?

Customer: Let's see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.

Tech Support: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However,you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off ?

Customer: I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me
how?

Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been
completely erased.

Customer: Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.

Customer: Oops! I have an error message already. It says, "Error - Program not run on external components." What should I do?

Tech Support: Don't worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before
you can Love others.

Customer: So, what should I do?

Tech Support: Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files: Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.

Customer: Okay, done.

Tech Support: Now, copy them to the "My Heart" directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming.
Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer: Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files.Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?

Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running.

One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.

Customer: Thank you, God.

God/Tech Support: You're Welcome, Anytime.

- Anon

__._,_.___

Let's Set Ourselves Free"

“Time for a little Stress Busting on Koh Samui.”

Christmas is coming and that’s a good time to remind ourselves of the importance of good health. After all we live in a “healthy destination” whose provenance goes back almost twenty years, when Guy and Toi Hopkins opened the “Spa Beach Resort” in Lamai. It and the Resorts that followed in its successful track focused primarily on fasting and inner cleansing, following the regime laid down by Dr. Jensen .The people who came to find health in this manner were “new age seekers. This was the backpacker brigade that discovered and later made Samui a popular destination. Today, Samui’s development, some would say over development, has brought in a new guest. Yes, many of the old Detox Resorts still flourish and regulars return time and again, but it is now the corporate client who is attracted to Samui’s fair shores

The new breed is reflected in chains like “Four Seasons” and “Sixth Senses”. These hotels embrace wellness, too and the Detox Industry has moved with the changes. Kamalaya emerged in 2003. Here the concept was to encourage the executive market with a four star hotel and wellness spa perched on the quiet sunset coast of the island. The new seekers from the corporate culture were executives eager to scramble back to wellbeing. They needed a philosophy which they could use to get into shape after long hours of work, extensive air travel and pressured meetings. These people were used to comfortable accommodation and a hut beside the beach was not for them!

Many of these business people are taking their first baby steps to self awareness Dr. Norm Shealy is a retired Harvard trained neuro-surgeon. He started looking at alternative health at a time when it was considered dangerously unfashionable! He consulted medical intuitives and made Caroline Myss famous. He spends a lot of time working as a stress reductionist now that he is retired. We can learn from him how to develop programs especially suited for the exhausted executive.

Dr Norm, as he likes to be called, ardently believes that stress is the main cause of “dis-ease”. There are four types of stress. Firstly, emotional stress which shows up as anger, frustration, fear, depression and so on. “I, personally, have yet to meet a heart attack victim who is calm and serene!” Yoga, meditation and emotional clearing are all good techniques for clearing. Visitors to Samui are principally short stay, so brief and effective interventions like EFT are required to help them on their way. Several Samui Resorts offer these life changing practices besides there are also independent practitioners available to help.

Next there is physical stress. Christmas is a time for parties so people eat and drink too much. They stop exercising and begin to put on weight. This creates physical stress. Dr Norm feels the most dangerous thing we can do to our health is to smoke cigarettes. He reckons smoking a pack a day shortens life span by 7 years. He claims being 30% overweight creates as much stress as smoking three packets of cigarettes per day! The key to physical stress has always been relaxation diet and exercise. Of course if you smoke, you can choose to stop! Resorts could offer stop smoking courses and while we are at it we could look at alcohol and recreational drugs, too!

Next there is chemical stress. Yes, there are over 600 chemical toxins in a cigarette, but we also eat food that has been sprayed with insecticides and other toxins. Genetically Modified foods contain poisonous weedkillers, like Monsanto’s “Roundup” crafted into the crop itself. People need to know how to wash produce properly and take steps to find a good organic supplier!

Finally, there is electro-stress. “Did you know there are 230 million times as many radio waves today than there were 70 years ago?” asks Dr. Norm, “We have mobile phones, Wi-Fi, microwaves all apart from radio and TV! We need to protect ourselves from these sources, too.” Indeed a good stress busting program shows ways to reduce exposure to EMFs.

There are some vital health lessons to be learned from combating stress. Some Detox Programs look at some solutions, but the busy executive needs a ‘Stress busting program” that answers his own problems. So what are we going to do about it?

This article first appeared in "Samui Gazette" Dec 17th-Jan 6th Vol 1. No 11.

Alister Bredee is a freelance author living on Koh Samui. He is a health care practitioner, trainer and a partner in The Health Ambit Consultancy. He also works as a Detox Consultant and Locum with extensive experience. He can be contacted via his website: www.healthambit.com. He publishes a regular blog at: www.healthambitblogspot.com. You can find him and the Health Ambit Consultancy on Facebook.

AAMET Life Magazine . Winter Edition

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The Triple-Filter Test

Author Unknown

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge
in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great
philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about
your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before you talk to
me about my friend, it might be good idea to take a moment
and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it
the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have
you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me
is true?"

"Well, no," the man said, "actually I just heard about it
and..."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don’t really know if
it’s true or not. Now, let’s try the second filter, the
filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about
my friend something good?"

"Umm, no, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something
bad about my friend, but you’re not certain it’s true. You
may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter
left—the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me
about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is
neither true, nor good, nor even useful, why tell it to me
at all?"

Hot Yoga Oils the Joints.

Hot Yoga Oils the Joints.

Bikram yoga emerged out of Calcutta in the 1970s. This was shortly after Bikram Choudhury went to Japan to teach and found that too many of his yoga students hurt themselves during practice. This had not happened in his hometown, so he decided he would re-create the conditions of Calcutta and see if that made a difference. So he heated the yoga room to 37 C or body temperature and upped the humidity factor to 65%. The injury rate decreased and he fashioned what is known as Bikram or Hot Yoga.

Traditionally the classes are 90 minutes in duration and consist of 26 postures or asanas plus two breathing exercises. According to Polish born Tomasz Goetel who runs the “Hot Yoga Studio” in Phuket, “the sweat is cleansing because it removes toxins from the body.” “The joints are nicely oiled up to encourage stretching!”

Choudhury himself claims that his system considerably enhances blood circulation by two processes referred to as extension and compression. He says this transports oxygen to every system in the body. We know that oxygen both energizes and detoxifies, so his claim sounds to be of immense benefit to health.

“You must also have mirrors, so that you can see yourself.” What sort of voyeuristic activity is this? It looks to be a long way from early morning asanas in a wooden sala, situated meters away from the gently lapping swell of the sea.

“No mirrors are important. You can admire yourself! They make you look good,” says Tomasz. That’s fine if you have a sylph like figure shining with the polish of youth, but as age takes its inevitable toll this initial bloom gives way to bulging stomachs and flabby muscles, not at all a pretty sight!

“No you don’t understand. Mirrors help you align the body. You can see what you are doing and this simplifies the instructions”, asserts Tomasz who is the founder of “Hot Yoga Evolution”. This is really his take on the teachings of Jimmy Barkan one of the world’s most respected hot yogainstructors.

Tomasz’s classes are for everybody. “This is fun and I practice a sweet and friendly approach. This is a gentle way and all are welcome.” This take was very far from my own views on the subject. Yoga means union of mind, body and spirit, and it was developed as a spiritual form of exercising. It always seemed that this new fad was simply a trendy way of getting fit. A gym workout dressed up in yogic clothes seemed a very far cry from getting in touch with a power greater than ourselves.

Tomasz smiled at this cynicism. “No. it is a supportive endeavor. I work on a multi-level basis by offering individual tuition to the beginners until they can catch up with the rest of the class. Beginners are encouraged to join the classes. True this makes the teacher’s job more challenging but it also lets the advanced students inspire the less able.”

I had met some of his students during “Hot Yoga Evolution” trainings at Absolute Sanctuary in Cheong Mon. Some were stunners, radiating youth and fitness but others I could relate to. Here were men who had passed their forty mark, they carried a bit of weight and did not appear to be super fit.

“It is these people who feel they are in the right place. Once that starts happening they begin swimming with the rest of the class.” That’s one of Tomasz’s claims that seemed to hold water.

Apparently it “takes five classes to get used to the heat and then participants begin to realize that hot yoga is a perfect environment for the non-yoga person. Men begin to relate to the cardio-fitness and ladies understand calorie burn for weight loss.”

Was I convinced? Yes, the exercise related benefits were plainly evident and the talks and lectures that comprised the practical side of the Hot Yoga Evolution training brought out the more philosophical and spiritual elements and so this removed some of my remaining prejudices.

Hot Yoga is available on Koh Samui at Absolute Sanctuary and at Bikram Yoga in Chaweng. Tomasz Goetel holds twice yearly retreats on the island usually at Absolute Sanctuary, so perhaps there is an opportunity to learn from the horse’s mouth. It’s usually the best way. Oh, to track him down, you could try Mr.Google!

Alister Bredee is a freelance author living on Koh Samui. He is a health care practitioner, trainer and a partner in The Health Ambit Consultancy. He also works as a Detox Consultant and Locum. You can find him and the Health Ambit Consultancy on Facebook.

This article first appeared in "The Samui Gazette" of 3rd December 2010

THE 12 LAWS OF KARMA

THE GREAT LAW
As you sow, so shall you reap.
This is also known as the Law of Cause and Effect.
Whatever we put out in the Universe
is what comes back to us.
If what we want is Happiness, Peace, Friendship, Love...
Then we should BE Happy, Peaceful, Loving, a Friend.

THE LAW OF CREATION
Life doesn't just HAPPEN, it requires our participation.
We are one with the Universe both inside and out.
Whatever surrounds us gives us clues to our inner state.
BE and DO yourself...
what you what to have in your Life.

THE LAW OF HUMILITY
What you refuse to accept, will continue for you.
If what we see is an enemy, or someone with a character trait that we
find to be negative,
then we ourselves are not focused on a higher level of existence.

THE LAW OF GROWTH
Wherever you go, there you are.
For us to GROW in Spirit it is we who must change and not the people,
places or things around us.
The only given we have in our lives is OURSELVES
and that is the only factor we have control over.
When we change who and what we are within our heart
our life changes too.

THE LAW OF RESPONSIBILITY
Whenever there is something wrong,
there is something wrong in me.
We mirror what surrounds us
and what surrounds us mirrors us
We must take responsibility what is in our life.

THE LAW OF CONNECTION
Even if something we do seems inconsequential,
it is very important that it gets done
as everything in the Universe is connected.
Each step leads to the next step and so forth and so on.
Someone must do the initial work to get a job done.
Neither the first step nor the last
are of greater significance
They were both needed to accomplish the task.
Past, Present, Future
They are all connected...

THE LAW OF FOCUS
You can't think of two things at the same time.
When our focus is on Spiritual Values it is impossible for us to have
lower thoughts such as greed or anger.

THE LAW OF GIVING AND HOSPITALITY
If you believe something to be true,
then sometime in your life
you will be called upon to demonstrate that truth.
Here is where we put what we SAY
that we have learned
into PRACTICE.

THE LAW OF HERE AND NOW
Looking back to examine what was,
prevents us from being totally in the HERE AND NOW.
Old thoughts, old patterns of behavior, old dreams...
Prevent us from having new ones.

THE LAW OF CHANGE
History repeats itself until
we learn the lessons that we need
to change our path.

THE LAW OF PATIENCE AND REWARD
All Rewards require initial toil.
Rewards of lasting value
require patient and persistent toil.
True Joy follows doing what we're suppose to be doing and waiting for
the Reward to come in it's on time.

THE LAW OF SIGNIFICANCE AND INSPIRATION
You get back from something whatever
you've put into it
The Value of something is a direct result of
the energy and intent that is put into it.
Every personal contribution
is also a contribution to the Whole
Lack luster Contributions have no impact on the Whole
or work to diminish it.
Loving Contributions Lift Up and Inspire the Whole

__._,_.___

"What we Teach our Children", by Pablo Picasso

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment
that will never be again.
And what do we teach our children?
We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital
of France.
When will we also teach them what they are?
We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are?
You are a marvel.
You are unique.
In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child
like you.
Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move.
You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven.
You have the capacity for anything.
Yes, you are a marvel.
And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a
marvel?
You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its
children.

~Pablo Picasso

Tsunami Alarm:

On Monday October 25th October we were sitting in a practically deserted beachside hotel in Polyhena. Polyhena is the resort attached to the Sri Lankan city of Matara, one of the country’s larger towns with a population hovering just under 80,000.
We searched out the hotel because our guest house did not boast an internet connection which is difficult in many parts of the island. Unfortunately they were not able to get the Wi-Fi to work so once again communications with the rest of the world lapsed. I asked the staff to switch on the TV and as we were there it looked a good place to eat. We were about 15 minutes into the BBC news from London which meant the time was approximately 7.45pm. Sri Lanka is an awkward 4 hours and thirty minutes ahead of GMT.
“We interrupt this broadcast with a newsflash. An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale has hit the western shore of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. A tsunami warning is in force!”
Ranil was local facilitator and driver to the project that brought me to Sri Lanka. His jaw dropped and he sat in stunned silence. He knew all about tsunamis and this news dashed him back to December 26th 2004. He had returned early from Colombo to his family home nestling close to both shore and the river in nearby Matara. It was a full moon day and his wife wanted to attend the temple. He had dropped her off and returned home and was thinking of getting a bite to eat when he heard the sound of lapping water. The river had risen and was now washing against the rocks beside the house. He tried to move his vehicle out onto the road but was blocked by a rapidly rising flood. The water was coming from the river rather than the sea, but he knew he had to get to higher ground. He climbed onto a wall but his view of the ocean was blocked by a small house. The house suddenly collapsed and he could see the sea, eerily silent.
There were four waves that day. In the case of the third and fourth he watched as the seawater drew back in a wall formation revealing the sand and rocks of the seabed. It was the fourth wave that did most of the damage. An earthquake measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale with an epi- center off western Sumatra had hit with such force that it constituted the third most powerful earth tremor ever recorded. This wave swept across the Andaman Sea and slammed into the Eastern coast of India and Sri Lanka and propelled onwards to east Africa. Sri Lanka was devastated. A train travelling near Hikkaduwa on the west coast was derailed and the official overall death toll for the country was recorded at 40,000, but many Sri Lankans feel this was an underestimation. Ranil’s house was washed away. All that remained was the concrete outline of the floor. Sadly too, so was his sister in law living next door. Her body has never been found. Ironically, many charities and the government worked to provide housing for the victims. Ranil was never compensated as they said there was no evidence that his home ever existed. It seems a concrete floor did not count!
We spoke to the hotel staff to see if there had been any local alarm, but no, the Sri Lanka media was silent about the earthquake.
“What should we do?”
“We’ll be all right our rooms are on the second floor!” But what about the mini-bus? It’s a long walk to Colombo!”
I decided to phone home to Samui to see if the Thai 10pm News had anything to add to the announcement from the BBC. No there was nothing there either.
“Should we hurry to the hotel, pick up the luggage and head for relative safety inland?"
“No we would wait for a local warning!”
I returned to my guesthouse situated feet from the beach and was told to keep my phone on during the night in case we had to make a fast evacuation. Sitting on the balcony watching the fleet of fishing boats on the horizon was strangely comforting. Dogs barked incessantly during the night, but as the dawn came up we realized the threat had passed. We were lucky. Sri Lanka was spared. The earthquake created a Tsunami that swept onto the Mentani Islands off Sumatra causing heavy loss of life. Because of poor communications help was slow in arriving and Mount Merapi in Java has continued to erupt. A tropical storm has lashed the southern provinces of Thailand for the past week. Samui has experienced severe floods and Songhkla has been devastated with rising water causing some of the ancient walls to collapse. A mini-Tsunami swept across Songkhla Lake dashing away the entire community of houses that nestled on the shoreline. The wave cost three lives and breached the local crocodile farm where 70 big crocs were set free much to the terror of local fishermen. What is going on?

This article by Alister Bredee first appeared in "The Samui Gazette" on 19th November 2010

50 one-sentence lessons

You’ve probably seen some of Regina Brett’s “Life Lessons” before, like “When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile,” or “Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger”. They’re from her book God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours. Advice like this never grows old – or unwelcomed – so enjoy these mighty morsels of insight.

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
Peace without Comparison and God Never Blinks
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
Candles, Purple and Sex on the Brain.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over-prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
Change, Miracles and Second Childhoods.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
Is it Useful, Beautiful or Joyful?
41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Which is your favorite? Drop us a quick comment and let us know!
You Might Be Interested In

This Will Change the World as We Know It" by Dr. Al Sears

This had such an impact on me, I still remember it: I was sitting at my desk almost 20 years ago. I like to stay abreast of non-medical scientific literature. So I picked up my issue of Scientific American and something jumped off the page at me.
Elizabeth Blackburn had made a truly revolutionary discovery. I'll never forget it.
When I read that she'd found a solution to aging already in our genes, I took out a piece of paper and wrote down something that I still have today. It says, "This will change the world as we know it."
Now, finally, it seems other people think so, too. Elizabeth Blackburn won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Why all the fuss? Let me explain why this discovery is so powerful…
She and her colleagues had discovered the enzyme telomerase that allows you to rebuild the end part of your chromosomes called the telomere.
Telomeres are like the plastic caps on your shoelaces … only at the ends of your DNA. They keep your chromosomes from unraveling.
But here's the rub…
Each time your cells divide, your DNA copies itself exactly. And every time that happens, the telomeres get a tiny bit shorter. When telomeres get too short, the cell stops dividing. This is because there's not enough of the "cap" left to stop the DNA from unraveling.
In other words, it's the length of your telomeres that let your chromosomes know they can't make good copies any more. It's like an auto-shut-off mechanism so you don't make damaged DNA.
What this means is that telomere shortening serves as your genetic clock. This in itself is a huge discovery, but there's even more to it. After years of research and testing, scientists have found a way to stop your telomeres from shortening.
How? The enzyme that can turn back your biological clock: telomerase.
Telomerase is in all your cells, but it's usually turned off. The key to slowing or even reversing the aging process is activating it.
Telomerase's job is to make a blueprint so your telomeres can rebuild themselves when your DNA makes copies. This way, your telomeres don't get shorter. Sometimes they even get longer.
In fact, Blackburn discovered that telomerase is so important, even healthy, growing cells can have "catastrophic telomere shortening" without the enzyme. And when it's active, telomerase rebuilds telomeres that have suffered shortening.
Eventually, this discovery could lead to immortality. But activating your telomerase has benefits for you, right now.
Old Cells Can Be Young Again. When you get sick, your immune system makes copies of its disease-fighting white blood cells called T-cells. These cells divide over and over again to fight off the bacteria or virus that's invading your body.
The more often these cells reproduce, the shorter their telomeres become until they stop copying. The older you get, the fewer active T-cells you have because they've fought off as much sickness as they can. The bottom line is that when your telomeres are short, your immune system looks and acts old.
This makes your risk for infection and disease much higher. One study looked at about 150 people from 60-75 years old. The ones who had shorter telomeres were three times more likely to die from heart disease. And they were eight times more likely to die from an infectious disease.
Shortened telomeres also appear to be the mechanism for many chronic diseases like:
• Diabetes. When you eat too many carbohydrates, your pancreas is asked to create more insulin than it's supposed to. And to get the job done, the pancreas has to create more of a factory to create the insulin it needs by making more cells. If the pancreas is continually challenged to produce more and more insulin, the cells have to continue to divide. When their telomeres are too short, they can't reproduce anymore. And your body can't make the insulin you need. This is what causes diabetes.
• Atherosclerosis. One study I read looked at men with high blood pressure. Those with shorter telomeres in their white blood cells were more likely to get heart disease.
• Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's patients' glial cells, the maintenance cells to the brain, have short telomeres. Some kind of toxic environmental hazard caused those cells to replicate to defend themselves.
But you don't have to let your immune system grow old. When telomerase is activated, you strengthen your cells by keeping the telomeres long, strong and young. And the younger your cells are, the more powerful they are at fighting sickness and disease.
In fact, for most of the people in a brand new study, telomerase activation therapy reduced the percentage of immune cells with short telomeres by 10-50 percent. And the amount of older immune cells decreased by 10-20 percent.7 This represents an "apparent age reversal of 5-20 years!"
Grow Younger Naturally
Tons of research is going on every day and you'll be reading more and more about telomerase in the coming months. But in the meantime, you can help slow the aging of your cells with nutrients.
One of the best nutrients for activating your telomerase is trusty omega-3. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association followed about 600 people over a full five years. They found that daily supplements of omega-3 significantly increased telomerase activity.
Luckily for you, there are lots of foods you can eat to bulk up on omega-3 right now. Cold-water, high-fat fish like mackerel, wild salmon, lake trout and herring are good sources. Also, you can eat plenty of raw nuts and seeds. Walnuts, brazil nuts, almonds and pumpkin seeds are some of my favorites.
The good news doesn't stop there, though. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recently looked at telomere length in about 600 women. Those who used vitamins had telomeres that were on average 5 percent longer than those who didn't supplement.
Three vitamins your telomeres need are B12, C and E. You can get these in a variety of foods.
Unfortunately, in most circumstances, you might not be able to get enough of these vitamins from what you eat. If you can't, supplementing is a good option.
• Vitamin B12 – I recommend taking at least 100 mcg per day. But, you can take as much as 500 mcg per day to help improve your brain function and boost your energy levels.
• Vitamin C – Based on my own experience, taking up to 3,000 mg per day is a good amount if you're currently in good health. And in times of stress or sickness, you can take up to 20,000 mg.
It's very important to make sure you're getting a natural form of vitamin C, not a synthetic form. Natural vitamin C is over 100 percent more effective than the synthetic form. And it can stay in your system longer.
• Vitamin E – There are eight different types of vitamin E. And they get divided into two different groups: tocopherols and tocotrienols. Most multivitamins you find have only synthetic alpha tocopherol. Make sure you get a vitamin with a natural E complex. That way, you get all four tocopherols. Plus, natural E has twice the bioavailability of the synthetic form, so your body can absorb it better.
Vitamin D is called the "sunshine vitamin" for good reason. But it might soon be renamed the "telomere vitamin." That's because a separate study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at more than 2,000 women of all ages. The more vitamin D they had in their bodies, the longer their telomeres were. On top of that, people who supplemented with vitamin D had longer telomeres than those who didn't.
To get some vitamin D in your system, go out in the sun for 20 minutes each day. Your body will use sunlight to make tons of the stuff. If you don't live in the Sunshine State, like I do, you might need to eat some of those same cold-water fish that give you omega-3s. There's also vitamin D in egg yolks and orange juice.
If you need to take a vitamin D supplement, I recommend 2,000 IU a day.
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1 Cong, Yusheng, Shay, Jerry W., "Actions of human telomerase beyond telomeres," Cell Research June 2008; 18:725-732
2 Simon, R., Chan, W. L., Blackburn, Elizabeth H., "Telomeres and telomerase," Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 2004; 359, 109-121
3 Cawthon, R.M., Smith, K.R., O'Brien, E., et al, "Association between telomere length in food and mortality in people aged 60 years or older," Lancet 2003; 361(9355): 393-395
4 Sampson, M., Winterbone, M., et al, "Monocyte Telomere Shortening and Oxidative DNA Damage in Type 2 Diabetes," Diabetes Care 2006
5 Benetos, A., Gardner, J., et al, "Short Telomeres are Associated with Increased Carotid Atherosclerosis in Hypertensive Subjects," Hypertension 2004
6 Farfara, D., Lifshitz, V., et al, "Neuroprotective and neurotoxic properties of glial cells in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease," Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 2008
7 Harley, C., Weimin, L., et al, "A Natural Product Telomerase Activator as Part of a Health Maintenance Program," Rejuvenation Research 2010
8 Ibid.
9 Ramin Farzaneh-Far, M.D., "Association of Marine Omega-3 Fatty Acid Levels with Telomeric Aging in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease," JAMA 2010; 303(3):250-257
10 Xu, Qun, Parks, Christine G., DeRoo, Lisa A., et al, "Multivitamin use and telomere length in women," Am J Clin Nutr March 2009; 89: 1857-1863, 2009
11 Richards, J Brent, et al, "Higher serum vitamin D concentrations are associated with longer leukocyte telomere length in women," Journal of Clinical Nutrition Nov. 2007; Vol. 86, No. 5, 1420-1425
Dr. Al Sears

Heart Surgeon Admits Huge Mistake! By Dwight Lundell, MD

We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority
often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to
admit we are wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong. As a
heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over
5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong
with medical and scientific fact.
I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labeled
“opinion makers.” Bombarded with scientific literature, continually
attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart
disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.
The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower
cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The
latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart
disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered
heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.
It Is Not Working!

These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally
defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in
the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading
to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic
ailments will be treated. The long-established dietary recommendations have created
epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any
historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire
economic consequences.
Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive
statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content
of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease
than ever before.
Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75
million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million
have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders
are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every
year.
Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body,
there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the
blood vessels and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation,
cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature
intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.
Inflammation is not complicated -- it is quite simply your body's natural defence to a foreign invader such as bacteria, toxin or a virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects
your body from these bacterial and viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process, a condition occurs called
chronic inflammation.
Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.
What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to
foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body?
Well, smokers perhaps, but at least they made that choice
willfully. The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream
diet that is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. This repeated injury creates chronic inflammation
leading to heart disease, Stroke, diabetes and obesity.
Let me repeat that. The injury and inflammation in our blood
vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.

What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite
simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates
(sugar, flour and all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.
Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. If you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen
infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now.
Regardless of where the inflammatory process occurs, externally or internally, it is the same. I have peered inside thousands upon thousands of arteries. A diseased artery looks as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. Several times a day every day, the foods we eat create small injuries compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously and appropriately with inflammation.
While we savor the tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and simple carbohydrates, or processed
with omega-6 oils for long shelf life have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These foods have been slowly poisoning everyone.
How does eating a simple sweet roll create a cascade of inflammation to make you sick?
Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what occurs inside the cell. When we consume simple carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell
where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works. When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises
producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat. What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach
to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.
While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator — inflammation in their arteries.
Let’s get back to the sweet roll. That innocent looking goody not only contains sugars, it is baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as soybean. Chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil; processed
foods are manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6’s are essential – they are part of every cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell — they must be in the correct balance with omega-3’s.
If the balance shifts by consuming excessive omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation.
Today’s mainstream Standard American Diet (SAD) has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6. That’s a
tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today’s food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.
To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from
eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. The process that began with a
sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and finally, Alzheimer’s disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.
There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.
There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state. To build muscle, eat more protein but not grain fed beef. Choose carbohydrates
that are very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Cut down
on or eliminate inflammation- causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them. One tablespoon of corn oil contains 7,280 mg of omega-6; soybean contains 6,940mg. Instead, use olive oil or butter from grass-fed beef.

By Dwight Lundell, MD

A Look at EFT!

EFT. (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a “revolutionary healing aid” To quote EFT founder Gary Craig; “the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system.” This version of acupuncture without needles depends on tapping the end points of the Energy Meridians, a system first discovered by Chinese Medicine more than 5,000 years ago! Whilst tapping it is necessary to speak of and mentally tune into the causative uncomfortable or disruptive event. The results appear to be truly impressive!
In 1994, EFT founder Gary Craig and his associate Adrienne Fowlie were invited by the U.S. Veterans’ Administration in Los Angeles to spend six days using Craig’s new therapy to help treat a group of veterans from the Vietnam War. These men were still suffering from the traumas they had experienced more than twenty years previously.
“Rich” had served as a warrant officer in Cambodia. He had been released from the service in 1975 and had undergone treatment for his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since 1978. His symptoms included a severe height phobia which had been induced largely by the 50 parachute jumps he had made whilst on active duty. As a result he was afraid to use elevators and would often feel uncomfortable on reaching the second floor of the local shopping mall. Remarkably his phobia disappeared after one fifteen-minute tapping session with Gary Craig. Craig made a video recording of this work with the ‘Vets’. The film shows “Rich” standing on top of the Administration building and waving over the fire escape to his friends below without feeling a hint of his old fear. A truly remarkable outcome which had not been matched by his sixteen years of treatment. Moreover, a little bit more work reduced his intrusive war time memories of entering villages literally littered with bodies to negligible proportions and his previous insomnia cleared up too! The interesting element here was, “Rich” treated himself. Yes, he was taught how to use “EFT” and despite his scepticism tapped on his fearsome memories until they all disappeared. What’s more, Gary Craig reassured the audience that such remarkable cures were usually permanent. In “Rich’s” case they checked back two months later and all was still well. He knew that if anything should resurface he now had in his possession “an awesome tool” which he could use to heal himself without recourse to any intrusive medication. EFT is easy to use and easy to learn. Anyone can get a result with it after a short course of instruction! As an AAMET registered EFT trainer, Alister Bredee is available to facilitate EFT trainings which range from beginner to professional level. If you would like to learn EFT either in Koh Samui or elsewhere, simply send Alister a message via Make Appointment and also be sure to look out for any scheduled trainings which will be featured on the site.
EFT has been used to startling effect on a very wide range of issues such as fears, phobias, anger, grief, anxiety, depression, traumatic memories, PTSD, physical pains, allergies, addictions and cravings, worry, guilt and all limiting emotions in sports, business and the performing arts. Its true potential is only just beginning to be explored. Gary Craig says “We are at the ground floor of a healing high-rise” and encourages people to “Try it on everything” – within the bounds of common sense of course!

EFT Materials – a note from Alister
“I heartily endorse EFT for emotional freedom, physical freedom and performance freedom. Based on impressive new discoveries regarding the body’s subtle energies, EFT has been proven successful in thousands of clinical cases. It applies to just about every problem you can name and it often works where nothing else will. My book “Full Circle, Banishing Fears and Phobias”, available from this website, gives a substantive introductory to Emotional Freedom Technique”, illustrates the tapping points and shows you how to use the technique to help overcome a host of problems in your life. I invite you to take a look.”
Alister Bredee
October 2010