Magnesium, Nature’s Natural Stress Buster.

Stress is the number one cause of illness the world over. But what is stress? We all need some to get out of bed in the morning and embrace the process of living! That sort of stress is probably of the positive variety. It’s negative pressure that causes problems. It comes in various forms. Not eating, not drinking sufficient water and exposure to extremes of heat and cold all constitute physical stress. Without doubt, many people are affected by these stressors. However, it’s emotional stress that probably does the most harm.

What then is emotional stress? I would like to describe it as resistance; pushing against the current or fighting what is. Austro-Hungarian born researcher Hans Selye working from McGill University in Canada and then the “Universite de Montréal “was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1949 for the work he did on “General Adaptation Syndrome”. He called negative stress “distress” and positive stress, "eustress". It was Langley who first coined the term “Autonomic Nervous System” in 1903, and was the earliest proponent of flight and fight. When exposed to “distress” the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body to either get angry and resist or nervously run away. To do this successfully, some changes take place, triggered by the hormone adrenaline. These, increase blood pressure; divert blood flow to deeper muscle, improve eyesight amongst myriad other changes which better prepare individuals to cope. When the danger has passed, there is a switch to the parasympathetic state; this allows the body to rest and recuperate. The ANS was designed to help humans, when wild animals roamed the forests and early man was continually faced with life threatening crises.

Today, the crises are of a different sort. In the past, when confronted by a fierce saber tooth tiger, you could run away or fight it and get the meat back to the cave to feed the family. Now, saber toothed tigers are extinct and threats are generally less hostile. However, when confronted by an irate bank manager, which is not a life threatening situation, we regress and treat it as if it were! Adrenaline is switched on and the body goes through the same changes as if it were fighting for survival. Besides in the past, the threats were less frequent, having returned to homeostasis, several weeks could pass before the next dangerous situation emerged. This gave the system ample time to rid itself of the toxins that prompted the original stimulus response. Today, the situation is vastly different. Many people can be confronted by perceived threats several times per day. There is no time to relax and recover. It is little wonder that chronic ill health is on the rampage.

Nature has an extraordinary “destressor”. It is the mineral Magnesium. This alkaline metal plays a vital role in the production of ATP (Adenosine-5-triphosphate). This has been described as the dynamo, producing body energy. It works with Calcium to maintain the free flow of energy to the cells. To achieve this Magnesium keeps its opponent, Calcium in balance. When Calcium is overabundant there is a scary prospect of tics and muscular cramps occurring. These can cause heart conditions like angina and high blood pressure .Both increase the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke. Today, Calcium gets all the publicity; there is negligible talk about Magnesium lack, but it exists in, perhaps, the majority of people. Gall bladder removal is a common intervention, but in my opinion gall stones don’t form if Magnesium levels are sufficient.

This alkaline mineral soothes the body, calming the nerves whilst promoting sound sleep. This is the natural way of being. Stress is an emergency situation that should occur infrequently. Magnesium combats over acidity, which is the pH level where illness occurs. The substance now occurs less often in soils depleted by the over use of NPK artificial fertilizers, which like Calcium are antagonistic to Magnesium. The deficiency was noted by the US Senate as long ago as 1936, yet, nothing has been done to alleviate the problem!

It would be a good idea for everybody to increase Magnesium in the diet. The understated RDA for Men is 400 and Women 310 mg per day. If encountering stress this could easily be increased significantly. 1000 mg would not be too much. Spinach, black beans, halibut and pumpkin seeds provide good sources, but you have to eat a lot to get anywhere near the recommended daily dose. If in doubt it is a good idea to buy a good quality nutritional supplement and take a high daily dose for three months to overcome any deficiency. As in all cases going to see a health care practitioner like Health Ambit Consultancy will help you find the solution best suited for your individual needs.
This article first appeared in the Samui Gazette of April 4th 2012

The Sad Story of Masha and Dasha!

"On a frozen Moscow morning in January 1950, Siamese twins, Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyopova were born. The delivery was by caesarian section. On awakening from the anesthetic, the mother was told her babies had died shortly after birth. This was a blatant lie by the Soviet medical authorities. Instead, they took the girls away to a medical institute in the Moscow region and used them as guinea pigs in a curious human experiment.

Doctors coldly calculated that they had a lot to learn by studying “ischiogagus tripus” twins. The girls were joined at the spine at an angle of 180 degrees. Between them, they possessed four arms, three legs a separate small intestine but they shared the same colon and rectum. They had four kidneys but only one bladder along with a shared reproductive system. Their circulatory system was interconnected; they shared the same blood supply. They had separate spines. This meant the twins had their own Central Nervous System. This allowed them to experience individual emotions, which in turn produced two different personalities. They may have had to share a bladder, but they were two people in their own right!

The medical profession treated the girls appallingly, subjecting them to painful experiments. For example, they would stick needles in one twin and assess the other for reactions; or toss one into a tub of icy water and check the other’s body temperature. As the girls only had three legs it took them five years to figure out how to walk, and this they did with the aid of crutches. This hideous experiment did, however, produce some astonishing results that need to be common knowledge because they turn conventional medical thinking upside down. This information is kept back because vested interest decides what is secret and what is not!

Masha and Dasha shared the same circulation system. To understand the importance of this we need to turn the clock back more than 100 years. Louis Pasteur is trumpeted as the father of the germ theory. The notion bacteria cause disease has become the foundation stone of modern, medicine. Pasteur’s contemporary Bernard had a different view; he said germs flocked to the site as a signal disease existed. They were not the cause. To look for the reason, we need to examine the environment. Some say Pasteur changed his mind on his deathbed, claiming it was the territory and not the bug which was the cause of disease. However, it was by then too late. The germ theory had taken off; it was about to give rise to a billion plus dollar pharmaceutical industry.

The Russian experimenters on the Siamese twins found irrefutable evidence that Bernard was right and the germ theory wrong. The girls shared the same blood, but they did not get the same illnesses. During childhood one twin got measles and the other did not. How is that possible? Surely the same germs were shared by both of them and yet only one was affected. This phenomenon occurred repeatedly. One girl got a cold, and the other remained healthy. One got flu the other didn’t. Dasha was given to immune weakness, was right handed and short sighted. Her sister became a smoker, later developed a taste for alcohol, had higher blood pressure, enjoyed clear vision and was left handed. In reality, two different people shared the same blood supply.
How could this be? They had shared blood, had a common digestive, excretory, endocrine and skeletal system but did not go halves on the same illnesses. The key to understanding this lies in the fact they had separate nervous systems. They both experienced an individual emotional environment. This fitted into Bernard’s theory, which stated diseases are not caught by breathing in germs but come about by emotions that cause stress at the brain level thus weakening the system and provide a place where germs can live. A bacterium looks for its natural habitat which is abnormal tissue. The microbes are the result and not the cause and fulfill their real purpose which is to heal by breaking down illnesses.

As surgical procedures improved many doctors offered to split the girls, but they declined. On April 17th 2003, Dasha died of a heart attack. Even then Masha refused separation and died herself seventeen hours later. The time has come to recognize the wrongs done to these girls, and to acknowledge them in the role they played in relaying the truth. Truth that is still suppressed because of its threat to commercial interests. I wonder if the same problem occurs on the Spa soaked isle of Samui?"
This article first appeared in the Samui Gazette of March 21 st 2012

Coconut Oil Can Help Heal Alzheimer’s disease.

"Coconut Oil has had a poor press over the years. This was mainly due to a campaign planned to promote the benefits of Soya, and like in so many publicity related conflicts the facts gave way to fictional commercial interests. Now, a Florida physician has written a book demonstrating the benefits of coconut oil. Hopefully, this will dispel many of the half truths that have surrounded this oil for far too long!

Dr. Mary Newport runs a neo-natal ward in a Florida hospital but her interest in the coconut began not in her work environment but in her home. Her husband, Steve, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease after a poor showing on the traditional clock test used to signal the disease. Patients are asked to draw a clock showing a numbered face and hands capable of demonstrating time. Steve performed so poorly that he was described as having severe symptoms. He had been withdrawing both socially and emotionally during the two years prior to diagnosis. It had also been difficult for him to read and he found he could no longer run. Mary was scared when she witnessed what was happening to her husband. So she set about studying Alzheimer’ s and was determined to find a way to help improve her husband’s failing health.
She explored the disease and found that it was best described as a diabetes of the brain. The culprit she discovered is the hormone insulin, manufactured by the beta islet cells of the pancreas. In the case of Alzheimer’s, because of the insulin problem, the brain cells stop accepting glucose. Glucose is the principal brain food, and when cells begin to starve they start to die. When this occurs, there is an alternative food that remains acceptable, and this is ketones. Insulin, a storage hormone, sweeps glucose into the liver where it changes to glycogen and is stored as an energy source. This means when the sugar supply expires, the liver changes fats to ketones. This is one reason that people who fast on a Detox program lose weight. They stop eating, so glucose dries up and then the body has to start burning its own fat deposits as an alternative fuel.

Dr. Newport found that long chain fatty acids like coconut oil provided the necessary fats for the ketone process to happen. She then started adding pure, non-hydrogenated coconut oil to her husband's diet and was astonished to see an improvement in just two short weeks. It was then he re-did the clock test and the result was noticeably better. He also became more talkative and less emotionally detached. After a month, he was able to run again, and the ability to read came back to him, too. She was so delighted with the results that she decided to write: “Alzheimer’s Disease; What If There Was A Cure?”, and share this new knowledge with other people. She received an encouraging response with feedback messages flooding in from family members awestruck with the improvements they were seeing in their loved ones.

Another issue raised its head. When the campaign to denigrate fats as harmful to heart health emerged, the cholesterol myth began to appear. Anything that raised cholesterol was dammed and outed as harmful. Even in the writing of this short article I have experienced such a response whilst talking to a physician from Europe. There are two types of cholesterol that are named after their transportation systems. One is LDL or Low Density Lipoprotein, and the other is HDL that translates to High Density Lipoprotein. LDL is said to be harmful and HDL is described as being healthful. Coconut oil aligns itself with HDL, thus is by definition healthy fat.

According to Dr. Beverly Teter of the University of Maryland, coconut oil improves the overall cholesterol factor in the body. She also found that it helped diminish the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, as well as Schizophrenia and acted as an antibiotic which can kill viruses. Conventional antibiotics don’t destroy viruses although frequently they are mis-prescribed to do just that. Dr. Teter tells us that coconut oil helps boost the immune system, and it is this, that is the body’s defense system responsible for killing harmful pathogens.

Thankfully, finest quality extra virgin coconut oil is easily available. Make sure you buy the crystal clear variety, which is slightly sweet to taste. The brown version often used for massage is heat treated and frequently rancid. Be sure to add a spoonful to your shakes or smoothies, pour it over vegetables in place of butter or just drink it from the bottle. In Thailand, it will be liquid, but in cooler climes it solidifies. Don’t worry; it’s still the same product."
This article by Alister Bredee first appeared in the Samui Gazette of 8th February 2012

Scottish Doctor had a Cure for Cancer 100 years ago.

Scottish Doctor, John Beard had a Cure for Cancer 100 Years Ago!

By Alister Bredee

Scottish embryologist, John Beard proposed as long ago as 1906 that pancreatic enzymes were the body's main bulwark against cancer. Having published "Enzyme Therapy of Cancer" in 1911,his work attracted a degree of medical attention until his death in 1923. These ideas then died away only to be occasionally awakened from their slumbers by complementary therapists looking for alternative and less intrusive treatments than those offered by the Medical mainstream.

In the 1960s Beard's work resurfaced in Texas, when a dentist named William Kelley started treating cancer sufferers with proteolytic enzymes. Kelley's treatments were highly controversial as they flew directly in the face of orthodox cancer medical care procedures that relied heavily on radiation treatment and chemotherapy. Thus he was castigated by the media and hassled by the authorities.

New York physician and ex-Cornell Medical School graduate Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez met the Texas dentist in 1981. Instead of confronting a demon as portrayed by the press, he met a self-effacing man who like Royal Rife before him only wanted his work to be evaluated by the Academic World of Medicine. Gonzalez thought this to be a reasonable request and set out to do something about it. Although a mere medical student at the time he elicited the help of the then Sloan Kettering President, Robert Good. Good supported Gonzalez in his quest and he was allowed to conduct a thorough case review of Kelley's work as part of his own medical studies.

Nicholas Gonzalez reviewed 10,000 patient records; He interviewed and evaluated 500 of Kelley's patients who had all been diagnosed with advanced cancers. He summarized his findings in a monograph completed in 1986. His overall conclusion was that Kelley's treatment procedure resulted in an above average survival rate, with many of the sufferers enjoying an apparent regression of their disease.

In a separate chapter he took 22 pancreatic cancer patients; this form of cancer has a very low survival rate. Statistically speaking there is a 0% likelihood of surviving 5 years.

Twelve of these patients visited only once and then were persuaded to quit treatment due to the negative reactions of friends, family and physicians who branded Kelley as a charlatan. These he took as his control group. They demonstrated an average survival rate of 67 days. Another 7 members of the control only partially followed the Kelley treatment. They displayed a survival ratio of approximately 7 months. However, and much more interestingly those who followed the treatment to the letter lived for an average of a stunning 9 years! This example serves as good demonstration of the folly of following the well-intentioned yet prejudiced advice of other people!

Nicholas Gonzalez is continuing work using these protocols dating back at least 100 years and hopes to be able to raise the interest and or money to have a full-scale scientific review conducted on the effectiveness of the enzyme treatment of cancer. The price of enzyme therapy comes out at between $5,000 and $6,000 per year, which in itself is a fraction of the cost of conventional medical care.

Alister Bredee is a freelance author specializing in articles on health related topics. He is also a health care practitioner and trainer. He is a senior partner in Health Ambit Consultancy and is available for consultations. He currently lives in Thailand and can be contacted via his website: http://www.healthambit.com. He publishes a regular blog http://www.healthambit.blogspot.com and can also be contacted via Skype where his address is alisterbredee.
His work is unique and he has many satisfied clients worldwide. See the website for more details.

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“The Cooking Oils War”.

"You would have to be blind not to notice the number of coconut palms on Koh Samui. In fact the same has to be said for the remainder of Thailand. Samui has been dubbed “the coconut capital’ of the country because it sends more than 2,000,000 nuts to Bangkok each month.

The ubiquitous coconut has played a healthy role in the staple diet of tropical dwellers for as long as time itself. In 1939 an American dentist called Dr. Weston A. Price published a book called “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,” His thesis was that the standard American diet high in sugars and flour caused nutritional deficiencies that were the root cause of poor dental health. In order to write his book he travelled the world examining the teeth of people in what were considered to be more primitive cultures who had not been exposed to poor American eating habits. He went to the South Pacific and found island inhabitants eating a staple diet built around coconuts. These people enjoyed overall good health and had reasonable body fat in spite of a diet high in saturated fat. A further study releasing similar findings from the same area was published in “The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition” in 1981.

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 so beginning the US participation in World War 11. They invaded the Pacific islands and occupied coconut growing areas like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Prior to hostilities these countries had exported their products to the West where coconuts had played an important role in food production. Suddenly this supply ceased and the producers had to look for substitutes. This was how the polyunsaturated oil story began!

Soya beans had been introduced to the USA from China as long ago as 1770. The product was used at first as animal feed, but in 1904 the noted scientist George Washington Carver noticed the beans had high protein content making them suitable fodder for humans. In spite of Henry Ford’s effort to make a car from soya beans, production did not really take off until the war years. Soya oil became a major substitute for the tropical saturated varieties. The Soya Bean Growers of America invested a lot of money in this crop and when the war ended they were not happy to see their industry dwindle because of the re-importation of coconuts and palm oil. The Association hired a powerful public relations company whose job it was to extol the virtues of soya and denigrate the benefits of coconuts. Soya became a health product and coconut was portrayed as a danger to heart health. The largest producer of Soya beans was the United States!

In the 1950s the medical profession was spurred on by this propaganda to claim that saturated fats like coconut oil were the main cause of heart disease because they stimulated the production of cholesterol, whilst polyunsaturated oils like sunflower, soya, corn, sunflower and Canola worked to protect the body from the ravages of LDL, otherwise known as “bad” cholesterol. This was blatantly untrue, but the world came to believe the spin put forward by the Soya Producers and their allies. Saturated fats were demonized and cast aside!

Coconut Oil contains medium –chain fatty acids (MCFAs). Most other vegetable and seed oils are composed of long-chain fatty acids. These LCFAs are difficult to digest; they stress the digestive system and put additional pressure on the liver and pancreas. As they don’t break down easily excess is stored as body fat, thus perpetrating another myth that all fats make you fat! Conversely the MCFAs contained in coconut oil are considerably healthier because they are smaller and can be digested easily. They go directly to the liver where they are released as energy; there is no need for them to be stored as body fat. Experts have found that coconut oil stimulates the body’s metabolism and supports blood sugar levels. This results in weight loss and not gain!

Frying is not the healthiest way of preparing food. It is dangerous because it destroys the anti-oxidants present in the oils. This oxidizes it making it rancid. Olive oil is monounsaturated. It is a healthful oil which is great for preparing salads but has a low burning point that causes it to smoke at relatively low temperatures. This means it is unsuitable for frying. The one oil that resists heat induced damage is coconut. Use this instead; throw out all the other oils and start cooking with extra virgin coconut oil which is plentifully available on Koh Samui. The brownish heat treated versions are usually rancid, avoid them for cooking but go instead for the clear, clean smelling variety sold by many shops. Please note that frying oil should not be re-used. Once it has been heated toss it out and use a fresh batch for the next cooking foray."

This article by Alister Bredee first appeared in the "Samui Gazette" of December 14th 2011

The Great Garbage Dump in the Sea

"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch” was discovered accidentally by yachtsman Charles Moore and his crew, who decided to take a shortcut back home to California, after competing in a sailing race to Hawaii. Their 1997 shortcut took them into an area of the North Pacific known as the “doldrums”. This region of high atmospheric pressure has been historically avoided by mariners because it is renowned for a lack of wind that becalmed sailing ships. It is a zone where many maritime currents converge, creating a slow vortex. This whirlpool effect sucks floating filth from the landmasses forming the Pacific Rim.

Moore discovered an enormous floating accumulation, that some have calculated to be the size of France, of non-biodegradable material, most of which is plastic. It comprises shopping bags, water bottles, polystyrene containers and much more. Just walk down any beach in Koh Samui after a patch of rough weather to view a similar assortment.

Plastic is a by product of the oil industry,where heavier cuts of crude are used to make “nodules’ that are melted down to make plastic products. It does not break down easily, but will decompose to make smaller flakes due to heat and light. These tiny chips are quickly unidentifiable. Scientists tell us that it will take up to 450 years for these particles to bio-degrade. The plastic in the Pacific has accumulated to a depth of 10 meters and has a cumulative weight in excess of 300 million tons. It sits in the ocean polluting the water and killing marine life at a truly alarming rate. Experts claim that a similar pile sits in the South Pacific off Easter Island and an alike mound wallows in the Atlantic.

Ireland was one of the first countries to register awareness of this growing catastrophe. Plastic bags were first introduced by the Supermarkets in the 1960s. Today 260 million tons of plastic products appear annually and bags make up a significant proportion of this total. As a result Ireland introduced legislation requiring the supermarkets to charge 13 Euro cents per bag. This swiftly deterred customers from acquiring the bags: the canny Irish swiftly brought their own reusable cloth carriers to the stores. This made a significant difference to the number of bags blowing in the wind! Other European countries have followed this example and this has seen a drop in the amount of plastic produced worldwide.

The production of bottled drinking water was a trend that began in the late 1980s and now sees more than 200 billion litres of bottled water sold annually. Most of this appears in plastic. This leaches into the water creating pcbs which reduce the pH of the water from a healthy 7 to much more acidic levels, sometimes lower than pH 6. This must have an affect on the health of the population! All of this, however, begs the question what can we do as concerned individuals to help reduce this horrendous problem?

Recent pictures of receding floods in Thailand show mounds of rubbish, most of it plastic, beginning to appear where water once stood. Klongs have been clogged by this material, which has blocked important drainage channels, thus worsening the extent of the floods.

The first thing to do is to stop taking the plastic bags offered by supermarkets and convenience stores. Andy Batts is an expert in recycling. He collects everything he can. He says there is “a recycling depot on the Ring Road, opposite the Bophut Fresh Market. You will find it on the left hand side of the road behind white gates.”
“There is a similar establishment in Nathon. These facilities accept what is considered to be re-cyclable waste and pay for it. Two kilos of plastic bottles sell for 9 THB. There are many Thais who earn their living by collecting these materials which they sell to the dumps.”

The biggest manufacturer of plastic product in the world is China. The Chinese are very happy to buy this waste back from other countries. This helps them reduce the consumption of raw materials and thus keeps their costs down.

We can all help this valuable cycle either by taking stuff to the dumps, or more importantly by aiding those who use this system to make a living. Place your re-cyclable materials like aluminum cans, plastic bottles and even newspapers in bags separate from organic waste. Leave these beside the rubbish bins so the collectors can find them easily. If you meet the collectors who often come round using motorcycle and sidecars, invite them to come and pick up from your home. If done properly this can help everybody and make a few small steps to protect the environment. Oh, be sure to buy bio-degradable black bags from the Supermarket!
This article first appeared in the Samui Gazette

High Blood Pressure the Silent Killer.

"Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of the body. Veins, on the other hand, carry the de-oxygenated blood from the rest of the body to the heart. The arteries themselves when healthy are smooth and flexible; this insures blood flow is unobstructed. This flow puts pressure on the elastic arterial wall. The measurement of this force is what is known as blood pressure.
The pressure is not recoded as a single number, but as two, double figure digits. The higher number is known as the systolic pressure. This records the pressure in inches of Mercury when the heart beats and sends blood forcibly to the arterial wall. The lower number is known as the diastolic pressure. This is the pressure exerted in the space between the heartbeats. This is the resting phase and thus registers the relaxing pressure. A normal blood pressure would be 120/80. Higher readings such as 135/86 indicate a warning that something might not be quite right and deserves further attention. A one off reading is seldom to be trusted as blood pressure can fluctuate. For a more accurate picture, readings need to be taken over a few days to show a more precise trend. If the blood pressure is drifting off to the high side, then remedial steps need to be taken.
High blood pressure can damage the arterial and venous system and this puts the individual at increased risk of stroke, kidney failure, and heart disease and can sometimes predict a heart attack. The alarming fact is that high blood pressure is rarely discernible, and that’s why it is referred to as “the silent killer.” As a safety precaution it is necessary to have the numbers verified on a regular basis You can do this by going for check-ups with your Doctor or health care professional and to make matters even easier many pharmacies now offer blood pressure testing as an over the counter service. If you find that your blood pressure is on the high side, say 150/90 then you need to make some positive changes and you need to make them quickly!
If you are a smoker, stop a.s.a.p. Chemicals in tobacco, and there are over 600 of them can raise blood pressure. When you inhale cigarette smoke you adrenal glands get a huge kick. This shifts you into “flight or fight mode”. In sympathetic dominance your blood pressure automatically rises. Another factor is being overweight, as this has a tendency to increase blood pressure. If you are carrying a few extra kilos introduce a healthy eating program and start an exercise regime. Begin easily, and if you are very heavy seek advice so you don’t overdo things! In any case a regular brisk walk is probably good for everybody.
Another sign is “ormentum fat”, namely a spreading waistline which often becomes an unsightly beer belly. If weight piles on easily and becomes difficult to shift there is an indication you might well have a blood sugar issue. This condition is known as metabolic syndrome and warns you that insulin is beginning to lose the ability to enter cells and scoop up glucose. Alcohol is a sugar and can often lie at the root of this condition. If you find yourself experiencing some of these symptoms coupled with irritability and mood swings, go and have you blood sugar levels checked. A fall off in the production of insulin will see blood sugar levels rising and with them an increase in blood pressure. Don’t despair all of this can be addressed by altering the diet and introducing a regular exercise e regime. Oh, and it might be a good idea to reduce alcohol consumption!
Another blood pressure increaser is stress. Again the story goes back to the “flight and fight syndrome”, If we are either angry or afraid there is an adrenal response that puts our bodies in a perceived better state to deal with the increased stress, just like smoking this will result in increased blood pressure. If you find yourself getting increasingly wound up by the vagaries of life, then that is a good indication you are negatively stressed. It also warns you that the time has come to do something about the problem. There are many people qualified to help you discover techniques to bring the stress levels down. Yoga, meditation, bio-feedback, are some answers, but so are a host of therapies designed to root out the cause and bring you back on an even keel. Health Ambit Consultancy is very happy to offer advice to achieve this end, use the website to get in touch." This article appeared in the Samui Gazette of 28th October 2011
Alister Bredee
Koh Samui, October 2011

Traditional Thai Treatments on Koh Samui:

"Santi Lunli is a far cry from your usual massage therapist on Koh Samui. He is a male practitioner of traditional Thai medicine with thousands of satisfied clients from all over the world. His clients like him so much that they take him back to their countries of origin to work on an occasional basis. He has just returned from a three month stint in Greece and somebody is presently trying to entice him to Norway.
He was born and raised in Bang Na, situated on the south eastern outskirts of Bangkok, quite close to what is now Suvarnabhumi International Airport. When he was 17 a horrific accident befell him when he was electrocuted by a high power cable. Five days later he collapsed and found himself unable to walk. His distraught parents rushed him off to the Dr. who said there was nothing he could do, suggesting the boy remain an invalid for life. But his wise grandmother was steeped in the ways of traditional Thai medicine. She took him to see an old lady called Kanchon. She massaged his body, used hot rocks to smooth damaged muscle and tendon and made up powerful medicines made from local herbs. Many Thais had turned their backs on this old form of healing in favor of western allopathic medicine, but Santi’s case was to prove them mistaken. In a long series of treatments spanning more than a year the old healer was able to get the young man to walk again! What was more; she taught him her massage skills and schooled him in herbal lore. It was something for him to do during treatment but once he was well, his interest swiftly waned. Santi was young and business interested him. He wanted to make money and acquire the good things in life like houses, cars and electronic goodies. He found business easy and quickly established a successful tailoring outlet which made it easy to amass material wealth. His business thrived for ten years, but he was beginning to get bored. It was all too easy. He decided the time had come to use the knowledge he had gained in his own healing. He went to work in the Khao San area in a series of massage establishments. He extended his skills with the experience and further study at Wat Poh, the temple of the reclining Buddha situated besides the Grand Palace in Ratnakosin. This is the foremost centre offering education in massage and Thai traditional medicine.
Fourteen years ago he decided to re-locate to a much quieter Koh Samui. At that time there were four teachers offering training in Thai healing arts and he came to learn from them.
His specialty is pressure or trigger point massage. This focuses on releasing hyperirritable muscle knots that can refer pain all over the body. He used to have a shop on the ring road on the outskirts of Maenam. Over time he felt this location to be unsuitable and has subsequently moved to the Temple Khao Hua Jook Road which loops down from the ring road south of Tesco Lotus to link with access to Chaweng Lake and beyond. The place is reasonably easy to find, just look out for the big sign. You do, however, need to make an appointment as he is too busy to see people wandering in off the street. His rooms are clean and air conditioned comfortable.
If you have specific problems he will diagnose the problem and if you are not too sure he will soon set you right on what is going on. It is unlikely he will be able to heal you in a single session but will give some indication of the number of sessions required to achieve success. His techniques help overcome pain, weight problems, toxicity and a myriad of other issues. Over the years the island has gained a reputation as a centre for fasting and body detoxing. Many spas and resorts have sprung up to answer this need. Santi offers an altogether superior treatment at a considerably lower cost. Many detoxers have found him and flock back to see him regularly. Concerning Detox, his knowledge of herbs makes him a specialist. He makes up the medicines for visitors whilst residents are required to boil up the packs in their own kitchens and drink the mixture two or three times per day. Such treatment does not blend well with fasting!
If you are experiencing long standing health issues, you can ring him on +66 89-4711 to make an appointment. He will be able to check out what is going on and advise you on an appropriate form of treatment."
By Alister Bredee who is a partner in Health Ambit Consultancy in Koh Samui, Thailand. He is an author and writer who is the originator of Ambit Healing, that has contributed to change in many people's lives.

“The Islands May Call; You Come Away, Come Away!”

"Australian film director Rhonda Byrne took the world by storm in 2006 when she premiered ‘The Secret”. This was not a conventional movie that depended on audiences filling cinemas; instead she set out to sell it in DVD format. Thanks to a stunning trailer the world was agog with anticipation when the sales campaign took off. In essence she adapted a long forgotten book called “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace Wattles which talks about the metaphysical law of attraction. This law states that thoughts are things; if we set out minds on something we will in time bring in into reality. As a result lots of people spent an inordinate amount of time visualizing Porsches for example and in most cases to no avail! Yes, indeed it is possible to bring experiences and material “goodies’ into our world but all limiting beliefs blocking the materialization process will halt the manifestation. The unconscious mind is a bit like an iceberg. Ten per-cent remains above the surface and is apparent for all to see but another 90% lurks underneath quite hidden from view. If for example, your unconscious believes a Porsche is too expensive then there is scant likelihood of bringing one of these vehicles into your possession.
In the film there were approximately 20 individuals, referred to as “teachers” who explained the ideas. Most of these people were drawn from the field of self-development including motivational speakers like Joe Vitale and Bob Proctor. Among them was Michael Beckwith, a minister of religion who founded the Agape International Spiritual Centre located in the greater Los Angeles area. He began his Church in 1986 which today boasts a congregation in excess of 9,000. Michael Beckwith is a powerful orator full of wisdom and common sense. His charisma has drawn celebrity figures like Oprah Winfrey to him and the valuable work done by the church’s outreach program has attracted many thousands more. They feed homeless people, visit prison inmates and help support their families as well as work to ecologically preserve the planet whilst giving assistance to orphanages that are home to children suffering from AIDS.
Where do the islands come into this story? There are two islands very far apart. One of them is Koh Samui and the other Maui. Paul Rambo has been living on Samui for several months now and succinctly draws all these disparate strands together. He and Michael Beckwith grew up together in the same Los Angeles suburb and like Michael he too is a Minister of religion. Paul moved to the Big Island of Hawaii some thirty years ago where he was fortunate enough to study Huna. Huna means “secret” and the islands abound with a rich history of ancient knowledge which because of Hawaii’s remote location has not been diluted by other cultures and other thinking patterns. He studied Ho’opono pono with “National Treasure” of Hawaii, Morrnah Simeona, who adapted an ancient Hawaiian practice for solving local disputes and turned it into a means of communication with what the Hawaiians refer to as the three selves and we in the West know as the Superconscious, Conscious and Unconscious minds. This technique enables us to communicate more effectively with ourselves and ultimately with a higher power. Simeona presented “Ho’opono pono” to the United Nations. It is a great pity they have not been able to use the method to bring genuine and lasting peace to the world!
Paul later moved to Maui where he has officiated at over 100 weddings. When Michael Beckwith and his wife Rikki wanted to renew their vows after 7 years of marriage, it was to Maui they went where Paul assisted with the Hawaiian chanting at the ceremony. Many people come to Samui to get married and Paul is happy to officiate at the ceremonies. As he is on the island he also offers therapy sessions where he incorporates Ho’opono pono and Karuna Reiki. All of this brings the soul into alignment with the spirit self and makes it easier to make the law of attraction work in your life. He can be contacted a via his website http://spiritsoulconnection.com"

This article by Alister Bredee appeared in the Samui Gazette of April 4th 2011

"Making Movies is a Slow Business", by Alister Bredee

They started filming in Alicante and moved on location to Thailand in October. The tsunami drama, “The Impossible” is a Spanish production telling the story of one family’s harrowing experiences when giant waves ravaged the Andaman Coast of Thailand. Ewan McGregor plays Henry and Naomi Watts his wife Maria in the English language debut of director Juan Antonio Bayona. His Spanish speaking horror film “The Orphanage”, opened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and picked up several awards.
The crew needed many extras both Thai and foreign for this production. The final filming sequence was set in the grounds of the Takuapa Hospital which lies 30 kilometers north of Khao Lak. The hospital grounds were transformed into a seeming refugee camp as survivors both injured and unhurt congregated in a desperate search for missing loved ones.
Some 900 extras both Thai and foreign converged on the site before sunrise on February 1st. The ex-pats came from most of the popular destinations in southern Thailand. Koh Samui sent three bus loads that converged on Donsak on January 31st. The adventure started a few weeks previously when small flyers posted in strategic locations asked “would be actors” to contact Danny who sent them all to a casting at the Piano Bar in Chaweng’s Soi Reggae on the 21st January. The successful were texted the next evening.
Once on set the groups were marched crocodile fashion into the “Extras Base Camp” where they were assigned a group and a number. The colored card that went with this determined whether the individual was injured or unhurt. Own clothes were surrendered as colors had to be pastel camera friendly and those who needed it went to make-up. The injured were splattered with chocolate sauce that bore an amazing resemblance to blood. The purpose of the extras was to provide moving background to the central scene. Lucas, played by Tom Holland first appears on the hospital entrance searching the moving crowd below for his missing parents and younger brothers. Later he moves down onto the hospital lawn where his siblings run tearfully into his outstretched arms and they are later reunited with their distraught father, played by Ewan McGregor. Naomi Watts had gone home as her family reunion takes place at Suratthani Airport. When it comes to making movies scenes are not filmed in chronological order so her work had already been completed.
It takes many shots before the director is satisfied with the material. A film is really made on the cutting room floor. This is when the production team pores over every frame and decides what goes into the finished product and what does not. This process can take a year or more, although “The Impossible” is slated to be premiered before the end of the year. Anyway, the extras plodded across the set each time the magic word “action” was sounded and came to a halt with the instruction “cut”! Then it was “back to one” and the whole rigmarole was repeated sometimes up to thirty times. It was long, hot and often dreary work. Production Assistant David doled out sun screen lotion to stop sun burn, but supplies began to diminish as the week went on because the director was disturbed by the white shiny effect this had on his fleet of extras.
Friday February 4th was shooting day 85. They were running over time and over budget. The extras were supposed to go home on the Saturday but many were still needed. They asked who was prepared to stay and surprisingly the majority agreed. Those who stayed were offered reduced salary for two days of holiday and were destined to continue their work on the following Monday when their number was to be culled to 400.
Production Assistant Olga worked like a Trojan to keep everything running smoothly, but she was not looking very happy as filming came to a close because of a heavy downpour on the Friday evening. I have feeling that all those who still want to be extras will have the opportunity right up to the moment the production team board their flight home in mid-February.

This article first appeared in "The Samui Gazette" of Friday 18th February 2011

"Ex-Samui Resident helps save baby Tuptim!” by Alister Bredee

On Wednesday 19^th January a leading edge transplant operation took place in a well know Bangkok Hospital. Baby Tuptim received a piece of her mother’s liver in a surgery performed by Professor Dr Sumate Teeraratkul of the Ramathibodi Hospital. The eighteen hour surgery involved taking a piece of mother Nit’s liver and placing in her baby daughter. The liver is one of the few human organs known to regenerate itself. The operation was a success and the little girl is now in Intensive Care where she will remain for several weeks. The mother is expected to leave hospital soon.

The eight month old is the daughter of Phuket Tiger Muay Thai trainer Rattanachai “Kru Nai” Jadngoouem and his wife Nit. At three months of age the baby was diagnosed with a bilary obstruction and local doctors said there was nothing they could do to help her. The parents were resigned to her death, besides “Kru Nai” was particularly suspicious of the medical establishment as his own mother had recently died as a result of what appeared to be a simple knee surgery.

Grainne Farrell first came to Thailand to practice her passion which is the martial art of Thai boxing. Although from Belfast she was living in London and working in the pharmaceutical industry. Her Thai experiences persuaded her to start a medical tourism business which she based in the Kingdom. She is the Managing Partner of “Lotus Medical International”, and came first to Koh Samui to locate her new venture. In 2010 she moved to Phuket because it seemed that many of her “tourists” came in search of cosmetic surgery and there were better surgeons available in the larger locale of Koh Phuket.

A rich foreign business man and would be business partner first brought Tuptim’s case to Grainne’s attention. He had heard her sad story and discovered that a state of the art operation could be performed in Thailand and agreed to fund it to the tune of THB 1,500,000. The businessman subsequently disappeared and literally left Grainne holding the baby. He had underestimated the grit of the Irish. Christmas was looming and Grainne being a member of the MuayThai boxing community in Chalong, quickly leapt to the aid of the little girl. She organized a fund raising campaign amongst the community to meet the costs of the operation. This started with a charity yoga event and moved on to a fancy dress theme fundraiser on Christmas Eve. They still had a long way to go when fate stepped in!

The fairy godfather in this case is Dana White who is the President of the UFC or “Ultimate Fighting Championships” in the USA. Someone had told White about little Tuptim’s predicament and he quickly agreed to put up the $50,000 necessary to fund the operation. White has a reputation for outspokenness which does not sit well with some people. However, here he has proved that he does indeed have a heart of gold!

It is White’s generosity that made the life saving operation on January 19^th possible but Grainne and her fund raisers have not finished yet. Tuptim will need to take expensive immuno-suppressant drugs far into the future. The cost of these medications alone will come out at more than the cost of the operation itself. Based on this, the plucky Irish woman has decided to start a foundation to meet these high medical bills. But she is not going to stop there as there are other children like Tuptim who would simply be left to die if it were not for the energy and overall generosity of people like Grainne Farrell. It is her goal then not only to help Tuptim but use the money from her charity to help meet the medical expenses of other children in a similar situation. Maybe you can find it in your heart to help them meet their goals by donating something to what can only be described as a very worthy cause. You will find their website at http://savetuptim.yolasite.com

This article appeared in "The Samui Gazette" of Friday 4th February 2011

“From Hawaii with Love”

His daughter calls him “Aya Kiwawe” which, means “father” in the Indonesian language. He was born in Texas, went to school in Colorado, and then flitted to California before moving across the Pacific to the Big Island of Hawaii.

Scott is his first name and 12 years ago he decided to “go around the world”. The trip took him to Vietnam and then to Thailand. He came south to attend a “Full Moon Party” on Koh Phangan. He didn’t like the experience and gleefully came to Koh Samui where he intended to spend the night. He has been here ever since.

Shortly after coming to Samui he started to experience poor health. He has a background in organic farming, being passionate about growing food that is chemically free and it was then he met another organic farmer. This time one from Chaing Rai in northern Thailand. She is Ms. Ta and she helped him regain his health when everyone was saying he should go to the Dr and take allopathic medication. Instead she nursed him using Thai herbs and raw foods. The healing was slow but successful avoiding the ingestion of the powerful chemicals that serve as western medicine. She fervently believes that “most all diseases and complications in life are coming from unnaturally produced disturbances.”

They rented a peaceful property on the southern tip of the island where they established an organic garden and Scott was able to practice his chosen sport of free diving. In this manner he is able to bring fresh caught fish back to the table for dinner. This he feels is a “natural way to live… and the better it is for our own bodies and the planet.” Sadly, their natural Garden of Eden is about to be destroyed. The landlady has given Scott until the end of January to quit the property because she wants to profit from Samui’s ever expanding housing boom .He is bewildered by this blow and wonders where to go next!

However, before all this tragedy evolved, Ms Ta had long ago decided to go into business for herself. A few years back there used to be a small Sunday Market at the Spa Beach Resort in Lamai. She had a stall there where she sold local produce, especially good quality cold pressed coconut oil. Coconut oil had experienced a bad press for several years because the Soya Growers of America saw tropical oils as competition to soya. Their PR company contended that coconut oil is a saturated fat and therefore potentially dangerous to health. This claim has subsequently been debunked and coconut oil has recently been hailed as a super food with an assortment of health giving properties. Thanks to Ms Ta’s untiring efforts; coconut oil has gained an important place in the economy of the island.

The Spa decided the stall holders were becoming competitors and decided to get rid of the market. Ms Ta soon found a small development of shops that were opening up across the road from the Lamai resort and thus moved her stall to a more permanent home. Scott was able to advise her on the product line, with coconut oil taking pride of place. Ms Ta’s shop opened three and a half years ago and has expanded hugely; now includes high quality slow juicers like the Oscar and many other items including books. The acquisition of a fridge has led to the introduction of organic products and delicious cacao delights.

Their latest venture has been the introduction of low cost take home Detox kits. The packs include all you need to undertake a home Detox program. There is an enema and psyllium and bentonite come in packets so it is easy to make up the Detox drinks. There are also herbal pills to make the process complete. Visitors can easily take them home in their luggage and some people have eschewed the cost of paying for a program at a resort, having completed a Detox on their own. Check out this fascinating Aladdin’s cave of goodies where you’re next in Lamai. You’ll find it right across the road from Spa Samui or see their website www.thaiorganiclife.com.

This article by Alister Bredee appeared in "Life" section of The Samui Gazette, vol 2 #1 Jan 21st-February 3rd 2011

Let's Set Ourselves Free"

Did Atlantis exist or is it a simply a Metaphysical Hoax?

There has been heated discussion for a very long time on whether or not the last civilization of Atlantis existed or not. Academics say there is no evidence to support the theory of a lost continent in the relatively recent geological past. The one who set the story in motion was the Greek Philosopher “Plato” who talked about a lost island lying west of the “Pillars of Hercules”, which was the contemporary name for Gibraltar. This mention appears in two of Plato’s “Discourses”, “Timaeus and the unfinished “Critias”.
“For it is related in our records how once upon a time your State stayed the course of a mighty host, which, starting from a distant point in the Atlantic ocean, was insolently advancing to attack the whole of Europe, and Asia to boot. For the ocean there was at that time navigable; for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together; and it was possible for the travelers of that time to cross from it to the other islands, and from the islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean. For all that we have here, lying within the mouth of which we speak, is evidently a haven having a narrow entrance; but that yonder is a real ocean, and the land surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the fullest and truest sense, a continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there existed a confederation of kings, of great and marvelous power, which held sway over all the island, and over many other islands also and parts of the continent.” These are the words Plato ascribes to Critias, one of the four characters in the discourse “Timaeus”.
It is interesting to note that Plato is able to speak of the Atlantic Ocean in 360 BC and that a continent lay to the other side of this sea, and what’s more travelers could cross that Ocean to the other side. Of course it is naïve to suppose that Columbus was the discoverer of the New World. Others had gone before him. The Norseman Leif Ericson is said to have crossed the Atlantic five hundred years before Columbus, whose fist exploratory voyage took place in 1492. OK but Plato is writing in 360BC, and that is some 1200 years before the Vikings took to their long boats and traversed the stormy Atlantic .The reference tells that the Greeks and before them the Egyptians had an inkling of the existence of the Atlantic and a Continent lying at the other side of this huge ocean. What’s more he says the Kings of this land “were of great and marvelous power”. He points out that they were warlike and their armies crossed over and occupied North Africa and Europe but were stopped by the might of the Athenians in the East. Was all of this a figment of Plato’s imagination or was it based on fact? Plato maintains the information came to light some two hundred years earlier when the Athenian architect and law giver Solon journeyed to the “Temple of Naith” in Seis. Seis located on the upper Nile was at the time in its heyday, was a centre of enlightenment and learning in ancient Egypt. The town has completely disappeared today, but is said to be the site of the grave of Osiris. In the Dialogue “Critias” TELLS OF HOW THE Greek Gods were all allotted lands to rule over. This curbed rivalry and kept feuds to a minimum. Poseidon, the God of the sea was given the island of Atlas or Atlantis. It was we are told, larger than Libya and Asia Minor and made the Atlantic navigable.
The Dialogue also recounts how this Continent was overcome by “earthquakes and floods of extraordinary violence, and in a single dreadful day and night all your (Athenian) fighting men were swallowed up by the earth and the island of Atlantis was similarly swallowed by the sea and vanished.”
Atlantis was comparatively ignored until quite recently, the sleeping prophet Edgar Cayce first mentions it in one of his readings in 1923, but the whole idea poses some interesting questions. There are outcrops of what might once have been mountains in the Atlantic Ocean. Look at Madeira, the Canaries and the Azores to the East and the Bermuda and the Bahamas to the west. The Egyptians had an advanced civilization but so did the Mayans in Mexico. The Mayans and the Egyptians had a lot in common. For a beginning they both worshipped the sun. The Egyptian Sun God Ra had a huge influence on the peoples on the Nile. The Mayans developed a great respect for the sun, too. They realized that if the sun stopped shining, their life would cease. Both societies were adept at building large pyramid structures which would be feats of engineering today, never mind several thousand years ago. If there had been a very convenient quasi land bridge between Africa and the North America continent it would have been relatively easy for this interchange of ideas and people to take place. Did this Atlantean confederation of Kings of “Great and marvelous power” also have great and marvelous knowledge which could have been the catalyst for the rise of Egypt and the Mayan civilizations?
They were hugely advanced in thinking and skill forms because they certainly had learning far ahead of their time. The Mayan preoccupation with the Sun led to a sophisticated awareness of its power. Their years and centuries were closely interwoven with solar activity like sunspots and the approximate eleven year cycles between the highs and lows of these. The Mayans contrary to conventional thinking were skilled mathematicians and saw that the planet went through 4000 year cycles. It appears we are in the fifth of these cycles at the moment. They also made a prophecy for the solstice of 2012, where time as they knew it would come to an end. The Mayans themselves are fairly precise in what they expect to happen in 2012. This prediction is shown at the end of the rather poor movie “2012”. But who is to know what the truth is? Maybe the whole thing is a fiction dreamed up by Plato to elucidate the perfect society in one of his dialogues which takes the form of a debate. However, we do know the Mayans existed, as their buildings are there for all to see in wonderful cities like Chichen Itza in the Yucatan. Can they trace their antecedants back to Atlantis? The big question however, is, what do you think is going to happen in 2012?