“Thai Classes with a Difference.”

"Khru Kaew’s bright little classroom sits at the end of an orange single story building opposite the Ban Lamorn Restaurant. If you are coming from the Lamai direction work your way through Hua Thanon, follow the road as it sweeps right at the market and then fork left the intersection with the non-working traffic lights. The sign reads Ban Thon Krut. This road is the 4170. The classroom itself can be found on the right hand side some 100 meters before the T junction that will take you to “The Samui Aquarium and Tiger Zoo”.
Sitting beside me on the chair is a small black and white kitten whom we have just named “Kitty”. She has a number of stitches across her fat little belly but is presently looking very comfortable. Kaew recued her from behind the building a couple of days earlier. She had been attacked by a larger predator, possibly a dog that had literally ripped out her guts. An emergency visit to the “Animal Rescue Centre” in Talig Nham saved her life . She is only one of a number of animals that the teacher has rescued. Often the class is joined by a puppy or cat who sit quietly as the foreigners struggle with the vagaries of the Thai language.
Kaew completed a B.Ed program and Chaing Mai University and went on to get a Masters at Silpakorn University; located just outside the gates of the Grand Palace. Yes, why do we call it Bangkok when the correct Thai name is Khrung Thep? Ajarn Knew went on to teach at Buurapha University. Those familiar with Pattaya know it is situated at the Bang Saen exit of the Motorway. An indication that the journey from the city or the airport is almost over and Pattaya awaits with open arms. Life teaching Thai language and literature in an academic institution can be tough and the gentle teacher succumbed to the pressures by suffering a series of blinding migraines that persuaded her to hand in her notice. As a child her parents had often brought her to Koh Samui for holidays and this is where she came to start a new life. To support herself she decided to open a Thai language school.
It offers two levels of study in listening and speaking. The beginners’ class introduces spoken Thai whilst the Intermediate stage works with more difficult structures and vocabulary. After that the avid student has the chance of going on to learn how to read and write. The course is divided into a beginners’ and then intermediate level. Some students have been with her for some years which speaks highly of the quality of instruction. Fees are very reasonable. She charges THB 200 per hour but if you feel fit enough to tackle 90 minutes the rate rises to THB 250. This is extremely good value for money!
Learning Thai is not easy as there are very few reference points for speakers of European based languages. However, making the effort to learn is always well received by the locals even if the “farang’ has only grasped a few rudimentary basics. Everybody respects this effort is an important step in the bridging of the gap that divides the two cultures
Ajarn Kaew has her own animal rescue centre where she uses her earnings from teaching to support 40 stray dogs and cats in her own home located some distance from the school. Feeding her flock is an expensive business; the bill usually exceeds THB 10,000 per month. That is a lot of teaching hours! Often she runs short of cash and has to ask her parents for help. Perhaps, you could help her in her struggle to give injured animals like “Kitty” the opportunity of life. She is not asking for charity, but really welcomes you as a student which would then aid her fund her passion. Khun Kaew would really welcome your call or inquiry. Her telephone number is 081-928-9146. Isn’t it time you learned Thai?"
This article first appeared in the "Samui Gazette" of August 5th 2011

The Amazing Story of German New Medicine:

"Dr.Ryke Geerd Hamer, one time chief internist of the Cancer Clinic of Munich University Hospital met horrific tragedy when in 1978, his 19 year old son Dirk, was shot dead in front of his eyes! Shortly afterwards he developed testicular cancer and wondered why! His exploration brought him to a dramatic conclusion that he called "The Iron Rule of Cancer"! However, in the light of Meta-Medicine which is a newer and perhaps less stringent take on Dr. Hamer’s work, this rule applies equally well to all disease.
The "Iron Rule" states that a sudden and unforeseen incident of a highly charged emotional nature leads to illness. He says this can be cured once the emotional conflict is resolved. He suggests this is why so many conventional treatments are unsuccessful. The same phenomenon occurs in the animal world. A sheep loses its lamb to a predator and goes on to develop teat cancer. The cancer disappears when the ewe falls pregnant once again.
The "Significant Emotional Event" (SEE) leads to what Hamer calls a "Dirk-Hamer-Syndrome", which produces a lesion on the brain. In the first phase of disease the body is dominated by the stressful sympathetic nervous system .The person obsesses about the event. He/she encounters high energy levels but hands and feet become cold, appetite drops off, blood pressure increases, constipation can occur and sleeping becomes difficult. In this phase the body creates a symptom. Hamer was able to trace this development by using “Computerized Tomography". He then produced a chart that relates specific emotional traumas with the formation of lesions in the brain that result in cancerous tumors growing in predictable parts of the body.
For instance a child is knocked down by a car and enters a coma. The mother witnesses this; she is distraught. A lesion forms on her brain and that prompts the breast milk producing glands. Instinctively her old self believes that she needs to nurture the child through the crisis. The child is in the hospital and cannot take the milk, as a result a tumor forms. She drops everything and focuses all her time and attention on her injured child. One day he wakes up in his hospital bed. The trauma instantly resolves itself and she feels overwhelming relief. The brain lesion turns to an edema and the tumor stops growing as no more milk is required. She can relax and she enters the healing stage of the disease. Naturally occurring bacteria in the body can now consume the growth; however she also feels uncomfortable and has low energy. She goes to see her Doctor who diagnoses breast cancer.
The manufacturers of the CT equipment, Siemens, testify that Geerd Hamer used over 6,000 scans in his work in developing this extraordinary theory. What he appears to be saying is that the cancer is a symptom of the real illness, which lies painfully embedded in the psyche and in the brain. He appears to have thoroughly researched his explanation to boot!
Hamer criticizes the orthodox medical treatment of cancer by saying that 98% of patients die from the treatment and not the disease. He claims: "Nowadays most people with cancer die from the affects of the medical diagnosis and prognosis. It is this which produces the supposed metastases!" He maintains there is no such thing as cancer spreading as conventionally supposed. Instead the metastasis is the growth of another cancer caused by yet another Significant Emotional Event, which is the shock of the medical diagnosis and negative prognosis.
Dr Hamer does not offer solutions how these conflicts are to be resolved, but stresses resolution has to be gentle. Rough analytical abreactive therapies are to be discouraged because they might trigger another cancer causing Event. However, many gentle therapies such as EFT, Ambit, and the Emotion Code abound; they might just play a big part in resolving these disease producing conflicts in what must be a milestone in Mind-Body Medicine."
This article appeared in "The Samui Gazette" of 25th June 2011.
Alister Bredee is a freelance author living on Koh Samui. He is a health care practitioner (working with the amazing CoRe system to find out more ask about a free introductory session), trainer and a partner in The Health Ambit Consultancy, which is named after the Meridian Energy therapy he developed. It involves diagnosis by muscle testing and treatment using the meridian system. 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: http://healthambit.blogspot.com/ . You can find him and the Health Ambit Consultancy on Facebook.

Something To Think About!

I don't really know where this comes from, but I think it is well worth a moment's consideration.


Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest:
Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400.00 in your private account for your use.

However, this prize has rules, just as any game has certain rules.

The first set of rules would be:
Everything that you didn't spend during each day would be taken away from you.

You may not simply transfer money into some other account. You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400.00 for that day.

The second set of rules:
The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, Its over, the game is over!

It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

What would you personally do?
You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right? Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, right?

Even for people you don't know, because you couldn't possibly spend it all on yourself, right?
You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?

ACTUALLY, this GAME is REALITY!

Each of us is in possession of such a magical bank. We just can't seem to see it.

The MAGICAL BANK is TIME!


Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.

What we haven't lived up that day is forever lost.

Yesterday is forever gone.

Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time....WITHOUT WARNING.

SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds?

Aren't they worth so much more than the same amount in dollars?

Think about that, and always think of this: Enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

So take care of yourself, be Happy, Love Deeply and enjoy life!

Here's wishing you a wonderfully beautiful day!!!

It’s Raining Oil in New Orleans:

Unfortunately, we live in a very toxic world. Yes, this is a toxicity of the mind, body and spirit, because we cannot really look at one of the headings without taking into account another. We all know, although the full story has not been revealed that millions of liters of crude oil are flowing from the rupture at the sea bed out into the Gulf of Mexico. This threatens to destroy wildlife, sea life and the environment in a huge swathe of destruction that will spread its web deep over the Atlantic Ocean unless swiftly stopped. As the sun heats the water of the Gulf, it will vaporize and eventually fall to the land as rain. This rain will contain oil which will damage plants and animal life far inland from the actual site of the spill. The Gulf Stream starts in the Gulf of Mexico so vast globs of this poisonous crude will be transported across the Atlantic to Europe. They are trying to mop up the spilt oil with toxic chemicals which simply compound the problem and to make matters even worse; much of this is under-reported by a compliant media.

Other than the oil presently spewing into the Atlantic Ocean we are bombarded by toxins on a daily basis. There are pesticides in vegetables and fruit, there are noxious chemicals in the cleaning products we use in the home and the beauty products we slather onto our skin contain potent poisons like glycol and sodium laurel sulphate. It is little wonder that good health is on the decline and diseases like cancer have reached epidemic proportions. The manufactures tell the public that a little of this and a little of that poison is perfectly OK and harmless in such small amounts. They have a blinkered view as a little of this and a little of that in one product is probably relatively all right but when the problem is viewed cumulatively, it definitely is not acceptable. We are looking at the straw that broke the camel’s back type scenario.

In order to survive the body has to detoxify these poisons. The principal organ of detoxification is the liver. Nobody is safe from mass contamination and the liver needs a lot of help so that everybody can stay as healthy as possible. The picture grows a little less bright, on realizing that most if not all pharmaceutical medicines and over the counter drugs are in themselves poisonous. These have to be cleared by the liver. Stress surrounds everybody. The autonomic nervous system has a design fault. It emerged at a time when very real threats like saber toothed tigers lived just around the corner. On encountering a tiger the choice was either to run (fear) or fight (anger). To activate these responses adrenaline is needed. The adrenal response floods the body with hormones that switch us into accelerated, sympathetic mode designed to increase strength, stamina and alter blood flow amongst many other changes which are there to improve coping skills in a dangerous situation. Hans Selye called this the “flight or fight” response. These hormones are poisons, too. It is the liver’s function to neutralize them so they pass safely out of the system.

The liver has an unenviable job. It generates enzymes that convert these poisons, including alcohol, into harmless carbon-dioxide and Oxygen. Too many toxins overwork the liver and cause it to harden. This is what cirrhosis is. However, the liver, which is the largest organ in the body, is fully able to regenerate itself. It deserves a break, because if the it wasn’t working properly your system would be overwhelmed by all these toxins and you would die. Silymarin or Milk Thistle is nature’s remedy for an overloaded liver. This is the supplement to take with you when you are marooned on a desert island and can take no other with you. If cash is an issue this is the one supplement to buy. It replaces a myriad of other supplements, saving you a lot of money in the long run.

Milk Thistle is a tall spiky plant which grows best in regions with a Mediterranean type climate. It can be found growing in Spain, Italy and the South of France. The legend goes that the white milk like substance that flows from the leaves is “milk” from the Virgin Mother herself! It is not a new remedy. Historically it has been used to treat liver problems since Roman times. However, in much more recent times it was found that Milk Thistle could neutralize the poisonous effects of carbon tetrachloride, which can cause live failure. Carbon tetrachloride is a cleaning agent and a component of Freon gas used in refrigerators and air conditioners. However, when the dangers of this chemical became apparent its usage was severely reduced. In the USA it served as a pesticide until banned in 1970.

Milk Thistle protects the liver by, firstly, forming a protective shield around the organ itself. This keeps toxic invaders out and helpful nutrients in! Secondly, Milk Thistle is a very powerful anti-oxidant, thus is acts as a free radical scavenger which gives added protection to the beleaguered liver. When Oxygen molecules lack an electron things go a little crazy! Lone electrons have to find a partner at all costs. Whilst they do this they rip through cell walls and cause a lot of serious damage. Milk Thistle gives up an electron of its own to halt this destructive process. Thirdly, Silymarin or Milk Thistle serves as a powerful detoxificant due to a process called conjugation. Molecules attach themselves to silymarin. In essence what occurs is the invasive non-polar compounds are dissipated because they make water soluble metabolites which then can excreted in the usual way.
If you want to protect the liver which is a very necessary precaution to take in today’s world, a regular intake of Milk Thistle will help the liver cope better with today’s toxic world. The suggested dosage is 200mg first thing in the morning and another 200mg last thing at night. Milk Thistle might not stop the Louisiana oil spill but it will help protect your body’s responses to the all pervasive toxic overload to which it is constantly being exposed!

Royal Raymond Rife had a Cure for Cancer in the 1930s.

Royal Raymond Rife was, perhaps, the greatest medical scientist of the twentieth century and yet, sadly, very few people have ever heard of him. He died of alcoholism in obscurity in 1971. Royal Rife was the inventor of the "Dark Field Microscope" and this he did in the 1920s. His "Universal Microscope", magnified objects 60,000 times, and this made him the first man in history to view a living virus. Ironically most of today's scientists using powerful electron microscopes are viewing dead bio-organisms, because the powerful electric field of their equipment kills the virus. Rife, a brilliant inventor was the "Father of Electronic Medicine", which he used very successfully to treat cancer patients in his clinic in San Diego in the 1930s.He suggested cancer was a virus and was able to facilitate cures by killing the virus with an electronic frequency generator.
Rife realized that everything on the planet has a vibrational frequency. The wall that surounds the room in which you sit, is a) not solid and b) all the atoms that go to make up thast seeming solid wall are vibrating at a frequency or more precisely a frequency span.Thanks to his microscope, he was able to culture a variety of pathogens and then subject them to the frquencies generated by his beam.This killed the pathogens. The result was very successful according to Barry Lynes who wrote a book about Rife in the 1980s. It seems that many people had their cancers turned around by the system. He also claimed cancer was a virus and his "zapper" generated a frequency that killed the virus. The late Dr. Hulda Clarke took this a little further in the 1990s. She too subscribed to the frequency theory, but did not attribute cause to just one virus, but a series of factors including candida and other parasite that seemed to depend on ethyl-alcohol for their food source. The CoRe system is able to generate all the frequencies suggested by Rife and Clarke with interesting results.
The CoRe can be used to create the frequencies and then transmit them to the client by means of light or vibration. We did some work on this several years ago, when the frequency information was transmitted to the body by means of tapping on the acupoints a la EFT. The results were very satisfying. The CoRe system is now able to take this even fuirther, which promises to be exciting. Of course no one treatment technique is the answer in the healing of any malady. We can kill the pathogens on one hand, but it is also necesary to work on nutrition, stress control, emotional imblance and many other factors that go to make-up the whole of the disease state. The whole does comprise mind, body and spirit and let's never forget that!

Rife found, as we see with increasing frequency today, that toxins assault the body, and it seems the number of these are rising at an alarming rate. This gives some explantion to the almost epicdemic rise in cancer today. These poisons cannot be excreted effectively; as they build up they cause electrolyte imbalances within the cells. This accumulation prevents the absorbtion of nutrients and effectively gets rid of waste. Iranian Doctor F. Batmanghelidj in his book: "Your Body's Many Cries for Water" stresses the problem is further aggravated because most people drink far too little water. Thus dehydration and toxicity are the root cause of most of the congestive and degenerative diseases prevalent today.

Turmeric nature’s best Cancer Champion!

Turmeric is an herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family. It is grown in tropical Asia. It is hugely popular in India where it is an ingredient used in curries. Many recipes call for Saffron, but this herb is hugely expensive and so Turmeric has been used for centuries as a cheaper alternative. It was once know as “Indian Saffron”, which appears to get this distinction across.
The rhizomes or root stalks of Turmeric are boiled for hours and then dried in hot ovens. Once pounded down to make a deep orange powder the Turmeric that we recognize emerges. Its active ingredient is curcumin.
Curcumin is a powerful anti-oxidant which has been used medicinally in India for centuries. It is used in food because it is not only a tasty spice but from a more practical viewpoint it serves the purpose of an antiseptic and antibacterial agent. Curries had a purpose, especially in the days prior to refrigeration, many foods went bad quickly, the spices in curry disguised the taste. Spices like turmeric protected people from bacterial infections that would come as a result.
Turmeric has many health benefits. It is a liver detoxifier and a mighty anti-inflammatory agent. Inflammation is present when the body is fighting an infection. Its presence is really the key to heart disease and diabetes. Turmeric helps the body fight inflammation which is imperative for avoiding dangerous conditions. Note that arthritis is an inflammatory condition.
However, Turmeric’s real potency is its role in fighting cancer. Shane Ellison in his book “Over the Counter Natural Cures” calls it a chemotherapy agent. Everyone has cancer cells. But cancer becomes a problem only when those cells begin to proliferate out of control. All cancer cells are programmed to self-destruct. This immune-protective procedure is called “apoptosis”. It seems that the body replaces 1,000,000 cells per-second thanks to apoptosis. To trigger the mechanism we require specific nutrients. Appropriate weapons can be found in broccoli and green-tea, but the best of the bunch is turmeric. In the 1990s the University of Texas, Anderson Cancer Center described the affect “Indian Gold” had on tumor production as “staggering”. They found that it blocked the pathways that enhanced cancer growth. It seems the spice blocks “VEGF” or vascular endothelial growth factor. Lacking VEGF the cancer cells weaken and then implode upon themselves. The transcription factors in the cells are turned off and so the cancer cells subsequently die of their own accord. Why? It appears that transcription factors turn off the cells natural tendency to do away with themselves. Once you turn off the transcription factors then the cells natural tendency to self destruction is restored. Turmeric helps destroy cancer cells but it advantageously also promotes the growth of healthy cells.
Turmeric is available as a kitchen spice, but can be difficult to take in large quantities because it can cause indigestion. However, it is easily available in capsule form. The best way to take the capsule is with food. A review of Turmeric studies indicate a good maintenance dose would be in the region of 400 to 600 mgs per day. To ease the assimilation of the condiment it is a good idea to take it with a little olive or coconut oil. For cancer treatment the dose would be much larger. Take 0.05 mgs per kilo of body weight. If you weigh 70kgs then expect to take 3.5 Gms of Turmeric over the day. It seems that Turmeric causes few side effects, but as I said it can cause a little indigestion. The Linus Pauling Institute also mentions that Turmeric is contraindicated in cases of gallstones or of bile insufficiency.
There have been several studies that favorably propose Turmeric as a cancer fighter: see Dhandapani, Mahesh and Brann “Journal of Neurochemistry 2007 and the American Cancer Society’s Guidelines 2006.

Alister Bredee is a Clinical Nutritionist, Holistic Health Practitioner and Detox Specialist with more than a quarter of a century of experience. He is the founder of Health Ambit Consultancy, for contact details see www.healthambit.com

Cholesterol Myth (Part 2)

Cholesterol has a very important function in the body. It acts like Elastoplasts or a Band Aid. When there is an injury, cholesterol rushes to the site of the damage. It coats the injured area in an emergency protective layer. This is the same as when you cut yourself. You apply a Band Aid as a protective covering that keeps dirt and bacteria away from the wound and this protection is the first step in the healing process.
Cholesterol gives a protective covering to the injury and then collagen and other re-building blocks come along and start the healing process. Interestingly, cholesterol is transported to the emergency site by LDL, or low density lipoprotein. In tests to determine cholesterol levels, LDL is labeled as the bad guy. The picture is a little out of focus here! Yes, blood fats can be factor in cardiovascular disease, but to label LDL as villain of the piece is bit like blaming the ambulance for the accident. Conversely, HDL, or high density lipoprotein is put in the role of the hero. HDL is simply transportation medium. It takes the cholesterol back to the liver after it has completed its task at the wound site. When it comes to cholesterol the real issue is the size of the molecule. Both HDL and LDL cholesterol molecules are very large, carbon-hydrogen-oxygen chains containing 27 carbon atoms, 46 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. However, the size of the molecules can vary. This is an artery clogging danger area, but as far as I know there is no test that distinguishes between the two.
As an emergency protection device, cholesterol levels will rise after an injury. If you go to the dentist and have a tooth extracted, your cholesterol levels will increase as it goes off to heal the cavity or if you fall down and cut yourself the same thing will occur. If there is inflammation, a cut or extracted tooth causes inflammation. This is the body’s attempt to heal itself. However, there are cases of chronic inflammation where the body is striving to heal or rid itself of an infection over a protracted period of time. Chronic inflammation can be caused by a host of differing reasons, but the upshot is that cholesterol plays an important part in the healing of inflammation. If the inflammation is not healed, and simply persists, then cholesterol levels will increase. To address the issue you have to go and heal the inflammation once and for all. If an injury is slow to heal, your cholesterol levels will be elevated. It is then a good idea to take supplements to help the immune system do its work properly. The supplementation issue is a thorny one, and one day we will take a look at it, but my suggestion would be to take a powerful anti-oxidant and overall detoxer like Alpha-Lipoic Acid with Co-Enzyme Q10 to give the overloaded liver a helping hand. I would add to this some natural Vitamin C. No ascorbic acid is not natural. It’s made in the lab!
There is, however, a condition that gives rise to continuing inflammation and prevents the body from healing itself. It is this which more often than not is the root cause of elevated cholesterol levels, and that ignored substance is insulin. Yes, elevated insulin levels are the root cause of chronic inflammation. Poor diet, and too little exercise are causing more and more people to become resistant to the storage hormone insulin. This condition causes weight gain, high blood pressure and late onset diabetes. It is blood sugar an insulin levels that are the principal cause of heart disease and not cholesterol. This is where you need to go to answer the thorny question of hypercholesterolemia. That comes in a later blog.

Peace of I
Alister

The Four Thieves.

Four Thieves Vinegar: Antiviral, Germicide:

According to herbalist Elizabeth Kastner, "During the height of the plague in France in 1721, it was discovered that the homes of disease victims were being ransacked. At first, no effort was made to find the criminals, since all knew they were fools, soon to die of the plague.

"As time went on, it became apparent that the thieves were continuing in their raids... and quite inexplicably, avoiding falling victim to the disease. Soon, they became highly sought -- not due to their crimes, but in an effort to learn their secret.

"When they were finally captured, they refused to speak until a bargain was offered: remain silent and hang. Divulge the secret to their resistance to the deadly plague and walk away.

"It seems that the mother of several of the boys was a midwife and had a recipe which used plants which were easily wildcrafted... yet, she knew that this would change immediately if anyone learned the formula, so she swore her children to secrecy. Her sons saved their necks and shared the recipe for the disinfectant, which is still used in France to this day."

Given the simple ingredients of Four Thieves Vinegar and with all the yammering about smallpox, bioterrorism diseases, and flu vaccine shortages in the news these days, it seems prudent to me to prepare a home stock of this historical preventative for dread diseases. According to Kastner, the traditional recipe for Four Thieves Vinegar "makes a lot of sense, medicinally speaking."

You can make your own "Four Thieves Vinegar" by following the simple recipe below.

Four Thieves Vinegar Recipe: Use equal parts of the following herbs:

* Lavender
* Sage
* Thyme
* Melissa (lemon balm)
* Hyssop
* Peppermint
* A handful of garlic cloves

Blend ingredients in a glass jar and cover completely with organic, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, which is available in most health food stores. Cold infuse (let sit at room temperature in a cool place) for six weeks and then strain off herbs and garlic.

You can take Four Thieves Vinegar by the teaspoonful, use it as a salad dressing, or even add a spoonful to your bath water for personal protection. Four Thieves Vinegar and warmed organic coconut oil make an excellent salad dressing.

You can also use it as a topical spray to disinfect surfaces -- including skin -- and/or you can take it as a tincture. All of the ingredients in Four Thieves Vinegar are either potent antibacterials or antivirals!