My inspiration for the day can be found here
"I enjoyed your post. I'm wondering, though, how much your slower more deliberate life is possible because your children are grown and gone? I have tried to be more deliberate in my life, but I have children and I teach them at home. It's certainly a challenge to take from your posts and apply them to my busy life, but I have learned from you and the others. What's really working for me is to take one change at a time. That was great advice. ~ Anonymous
This is a comment from those made yesterday. I'm sorry I can't name the person who wrote as she is only know to me as anonymous. Anonymous, I wanted to address your comment today because I think "living deliberately" can confuse some of us. My interpretation of deliberate living is that I have intentionally taken my life in the direction of my values. I needed to sit and think, and I needed to work out for myself what was important to me. I knew how I didn't want to live, but what exactly did I want? When I changed, I knew I didn't want to keep spending and rushing around like a loon but I had to replace that with something, and that required me to decide on what my core values were and how I could live by those values.
Essentially, I deliberately focused on my values - generosity, kindness, independence, self reliance, self respect and respect for others - and I made my everyday life reflect those values. That, to me, is living deliberately. You make a deliberate decision to live a certain way and every day make sure your life stays true to that. It sounds like a huge commitment, and it is, but it is done in small steps, every day, without fail, deliberately following that path.
I read Walden by Henry David Thoreau about 15 years ago, well before I made my changes towards simplicity. I have no doubt that book, and in particular this quote below, influenced me more than anything else; although I didn't know it at the time and only made that discovery in retrospect.
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience ... "
It still takes my breath away to read those words. I am trying to live deep and to suck all the marrow out of life; I want to know if life is mean or sublime, and I want to know it by experience. I do not want to read about it in a magazine or a blog, I want to truly experience my life every day, and every day it is deliberately focused on the values I want to live by.
Now to answer your question: I'm wondering, though, how much your slower more deliberate life is possible because your children are grown and gone? Living deliberately isn't reliant on who is living in your house. It is the decision to discover your real values and live them, on purpose, everyday. That is important when you're raising children. You want them to reflect and live to your values until they have grown and are capable of making a sound decision for themselves on how they want to live. Hopefully, by that stage, your life and the way they were raised will influence them towards the kind of life you want for them. So for instance, deliberate living would be to decide you want to pay off your debt: you want to homeschool your children: you want to instil in them the values of care for others, kindness and generosity; you want to be healthy and connect with nature. Once those decisions on values (whatever they are) are made, everyday from then on, you would make sure your every day life reinforced those ideals, and deliberately move your family towards them. Every day you would deliberately work towards the outcomes you want by the way you homeschool, the behaviour you model for your children and the example your life sets for those young eyes. You would make sacrifices to pay off debt, even when it's difficult, you would continue to homeschool, you would plan into your homeschooling a few nature days and read books about the natural world. You would do all that deliberately - even when it's difficult to do.
Slowing down is another aspect of a simple life. It's concentrating on the task at hand and being mindful. It doing and knowing and experiencing what you're doing, and not thinking about what you'll do later in the day. I've written about slowing down before so I won't repeat that again now. I hope I've answer your question.
Walden, and in particular the quote above did more for my resolve to live as I do than anything else I've read. As I said I read it many years ago, but reread it when I started to live a slower and more deliberate life. That second reading made me certain of the truth of Thoreau's words and I have tried to live true to them ever since. Walden is available free online here. I have it quietly tucked away on my computer and frequently revisit it. It is fine inspiration. It's not an easy read because it is written in the vernacular of the 19th century, but if you decide to take it on, I'm sure you be rewarded for the effort. It would be a great holiday project to read a little bit of Walden every day and if you do that, I hope you gain as much as I did from it."
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Just in time for Christmas
The Issue of Toys, Children, and Materialism
By Marsha Johnson, December 2004
Shopping bags and baskets full, parents and family friends arriving with
parcels, long store lines, and big dollar prices...birthdays, holidays,
other occasions both secular and religious, family rooms, play rooms,
bedrooms, living rooms, filled with play items, bright colors, plastics,
woods, cloth, books, and more....is there room for the child? Where is the
child? In late fall, these questions start to present themselves to even the
most unconscious person as we strive to find the `perfect' addition to an
entire house filled with personal items...as well as strive to come up with
a wish list for ourselves. This year, I notice the most advertised item is a
S'more cooker! If only we could just package the happy feelings that we
experience when gathered around a cozy campfire, in the woods, while
toasting food on a stick! This is what the manufacturer knows will sell his
silly little invention: he is selling memories.
Burdened with possessions from before birth, we stumble along this
treacherous pathway at holidays, driven by commercial interests, lists of
best sellers (if other people bought it, it must be good), and short lived
desires stimulated by visual, auditory, and olfactory images. Artistic and
historical pictures of holidays always include the scene where wrappings are
torn off and cries of joy fill the room as each receives exactly the right
gift. Does this sound familiar to you?
I distinctly recall a holiday when our oldest son was two years old, and in
his stocking, he discovered a tiny metal truck and a tiny yellow metal
bulldozer. At that point, his holiday was complete and he was not interested
in any other gaily wrapped packages or presents except one large cardboard
box left over from some item that he played with for weeks. Did this wake us
up a bit? Well, frankly, not enough. Our family cultural background, our own
perceptions of the `ideal' holiday scene, and an inability to resist
commercial pressures and peer pressures, drove us on the mad buying road for
quite a few years to come.
We tread this delicate path each moment, and it seems that their influence
increases geometrically at major holiday times. We smother our children
under a plethora of physical goods! It is no wonder that we cannot breathe
freely under the weight of our possessions.
Reading through a stack of books on child development, from ones generated
out of Waldorf education to just about every other approach, there is indeed
a common theme. Children should be surrounded by a few multi-purpose,
open-ended items that encourage imaginative play, social interaction, and
healthy bodily movement. Young children need to be interactive with the
physical world in a direct sense, stomach or back to the earth, although a
blanket, skin, or floor may lie between. The urge to rise must be allowed to
flourish independently in the infant human being, and nearly all children do
indeed push themselves away from the horizontal and ascend to a vertical
stance. The miracles of scooting, crawling, standing, cruising, and walking
need no artificial assisters such as walkers, jumpers, or swings.
Nearly all of the most popular toy items do not meet the 3 basic criteria
listed above: hard plastic items are too formed to be open-ended, they must
adhere to their pre-conceived shape and form. They feel dead to the touch
and are non responsive to the mood of the child. You can see this disdain in
the actions of the children who play with plastic items as they throw them
around rooms, kick them, leave them outside in the yard, litter them
everywhere and have trouble cleaning them up. Parents literally have garbage
can sized containers into which all these plastic goodies are shoveled and
rarely sorted. Landfills are overwhelmed with plastic debris and it requires
thousands of years to decompose. Plastic also use valuable petroleum
resources and is filled with toxins for the most part. Does this discourage
us? I wonder. Stroll without your child down a toy store items and simply
look for plastic. It is unavoidable.
Open ended items are simple, often made of natural materials such as wool,
wood, metal, or cloth. Undefined or lightly defined toys allow children to
use them in a multitude of ways. A new playmate brings new ideas for logs,
scarves, blocks, and playhouses. Endless games with ropes, sticks, and
simple tools will result during afternoons with friends. Finding toys that
work with social settings as well as all-alone times is a key factor for
parents. Creating and combining personal play areas of family play areas is
important and requires some consideration. Clearly, adults need space for
adult activities and babies need to be protected from dangerous items. It
might be helpful to sit down and think over your home, your room
assignments, notice where your family gathers, do children actually play in
the bedroom? Or do they bring all their play items into the kitchen, the
living room, or family room, where the parents tend to be?
Social interactions can begin for children at about age 3 or 4, when they
can start to actually `play with' another child instead of `play near'
someone else. The child in the 3rd year begins to use the word "I" to
designate self, and this is a critical consciousness step in development.
When we use the word "I", we experience an inner feeling of our free selves,
our free will, our own being, our souls and spirits. We are unique and can
express this wonderful word that only we can use for ourselves (no-one else
can call us I). Before this time, parents notice that children are exploring
their surroundings with interest, imitating the actions of their parents or
caregivers, perhaps using the broom to sweep the floor. Babies under 1 year
are observers and listeners as they move their limbs and learn to manipulate
their small physical bodies in that all encompassing drive to rise. Their
social encounters are based on human interactions, facial expressions, and
echoing or mimicking what they see. Have you ever been about a baby about 9
months old who literally stares at your face until you make eye contact?
Serious hopeful expression transforms into a beautiful body-wide smile! What
a wonderful feeling!
Body movement is critical to healthy brain development and according to
every study in the world, video and computer activities are contributing to
an unprecedented decline in child physical heath. Running, skipping,
dancing, moving, climbing, chasing, and hopping are on the decline! Teachers
see children in the grades who have great challenges with basic balance
skills such as walking a straight line. What to do? Parents are often
exhausted in their own work, and insert the video into the machine to escape
into solitude for 90 minutes while the child is occupied. Our families are
often so isolated from one another that there is no respite or very little.
I know a child who is 18 months old who can turn on tv and video player,
insert and remove the movie, and operate the remote control.
Relatives of families who are trying to find a different path often fall
into a situation where they create conflict with gifts of commercial plastic
or media items. The common culture is such that refusing such gifts often
induces arguments and antipathy. Children of these families are sometimes
then over-exposed to these influences during visits or vacations, when
grandparents can follow their own beliefs and stuff children with nitrite
laced hot dogs and movies. Has this happened to you? It can be a very
difficult emotional experience for the adult children of baby boomer
generation grandparents, born in the 40s and 50s, which was also the birth
of the plastic toy industry. I recall wishing for the Mr. Potato Head Toy
that came with nose, ears, mouth, etc. that were to be pushing into a real
potato. The innocent (?) beginnings of a world wide lifelong addition to the
acquisition of things that have very little significant purpose or meaning.
And most of us do not even realize that we have been registered in this
senseless buying club for life.
Families who are seeking a different way of providing toy items and play
spaces for their children must be willing to undergo some conflicted
feelings and pressures. In addition, parents must be able to agree to
adopting a new approach and support one another: it is not uncommon to find
one parent wishing to be dedicated to a less materialistic lifestyle while
the other one is sneaking the Gameboy into the stocking.
PLAY ITEMS CHECKLIST AND ADVICE:
If you are not a parent yet, good, you can skip the rest of the this
paragraph and go on to the section for specific recommendations for children
by ages. If you have children already, then you must make some tough
decisions. Here is one method that works well and it gentle in its approach.
If you follow this advice, you will find that in about 1 year, your home
will be free of all commercial/material istic toy burdens, you will feel
lighter and more in tune with nature and the seasons, and your family time
will be enhanced and enjoyable with the need to spend hours organizing and
cleaning up after your children and yourself.
First, have a private discussion with spouse and come to agreement. This is
critical and this program will not work unless this has been completed. Then
examine your home and its contents. Go into your child's room and count how
many items are in that space. Include clothing, shoes, and coats. Count
aloud and be amazed. How can one being be surrounded by so many physical
things? Notice how many images or hanging items are on the walls, how many
things hang in windows, etc. Do the same activity with your play room or
family room where toys are kept. Look into the movie cupboard and notice how
many boxes or cases. Count how many TVs are in your home. How many music
CDs? Where are these items kept? Peek into the attic, the basement, the
garage, the kitchen cupboards, the laundry room, the sheet storage, the
towel closet, obtain a good impression of how many items there in your home.
Take a break and have a cup of tea. In a day or two, send the children over
to play at a friend's home. Strengthen yourself with prayer and go into your
play spaces and remove about one third of the toys not on the list below.
Put into large black storage bags and drive over to someone else's home or
garage. (No temptation to retrieve and after 3 months, you can given them to
charity). Include books, posters, stuff, even expensive stuff. This first
foray is the hardest and you can select items that you know your child
rarely plays with. Try to include mostly plastic junky items that will never
be missed. Include stuffed animals that are sitting, lonely, and plastic
dolls that lie heaped in the corner. Sentimental items like grandma's doll
clothes should be kept, there is love in the stitches that cannot be
replaced.
If you are really strong and on a roll, you can do this for other areas of
the home and include the clothing drawers: children do NOT need walk-in
closets, this accumulation of 24 pairs of shoes is both confusing and
ridiculous and I am old enough to remember when children under 3 wore white
baby shoes (1 pair) which we polished. Do your kitchen (who need 4
tablespoon measurers?) and your own closet. Donate your items to charities
and store if you must.
If children notice something is gone, if under six, distract them with a
play idea, or tell a little story about a bunny who had so many things she
couldn't sleep in her cozy bunny hole. Leave it at that if possible.
Children six and older may need to know that the family is making some
changes that are healthy for everyone and that is probably enough. If you
try this on older children, you will need their cooperation.
In about three months, do this again. In the meantime, begin adding to the
store of items listed below. Slowly replace various toys with substitutes
that meet the three criteria of being open-ended, socially healthy, and
encourage body movement. If you continue this pathway for a year, that will
give your four opportunities to reduce, diminish, refocus, alter, redefine,
and re-direct your child's play environment, sleep environment, and living
environment.
In your organization, create specific areas of particular play items:
outdoors for certain pursuits, an art space with paints, crayons, brushes,
pastels, paper, and more, a reading/book area to share, and a game playing
space. These spaces can share your dining room or family room. Bedrooms are
for sleeping and keeping clothing in, maybe 1 special stuffed animal friend,
or 1 doll cradle. When a child is sent to clean their room, it means change
the sheets, sweep the floor, wash the window, and take care of shoes and
clothing. How many times do we confuse cleaning with picking up?
MUST DO:
1) Remove all TVs from home if possible with young children and middle aged
children and teenagers. You will not regret this decision.
2) If not possible, keep one and put in closet that locks or some space
inaccessible to family members without a lot of work.
3) Obviously same with all video equipment..dvd players
4) Remove all computer games from computer and put cds in a box and hide
them in a closet. Computers are for `working', writing, communicating. If
you play games, do it only after kids are in bed.
5) Ask or persuade friends and family to switch from giving more toys and
clothes to a) buying items you request, b) gift certificates to particular
catalogs (Magic Cabin, Chinaberry Books), or c) put the money they would
have spent into certificates of deposit for future educational expense
(tuition is a big issue for the future) or d) be willing to substitute time
together for physical items. Come over for dinner and stay for a games
night, go out for a walk in a bird reserve, take a trip to the beach, cook a
family recipe together..beg, plead, and insist. They will adopt your
methods, slowly.
6) If child receives an unexpected objectionable item, be gracious and enjoy
it for a while, then `disappear' it magically. Time is a great healer.
7) Frequently visit other families who are like minded to encourage yourself
and find support. You will find that all the children in the neighborhood
will want to hang out at your house! Bring them in and teach their parents.
8) Take the money you save and enjoy a fantastic family camping trip or
vacation. You will literally save thousands and thousands of dollars over
the 18 years of your child's life.
9) Examine wardrobes and put together fourteen outfits for your children,
enough for 2 weeks without laundry, for each season, and donate the rest.
Buy good quality wool, cotton, and natural fiber clothes that will last
through several children, practice the fine art of hand me downs, and gather
a group of other families to have a twice a year `share' time where you all
bring extra clothes and parcel them out. You will be shocked at how this is
so very freeing although you will spend a bit more time doing laundry on
your new schedule.
10) Begin a rhythm in your household that includes all members in a
reasonable cycle of chores that includes and shares out cooking, cleaning,
washing, and gardening. Spend your time together with purpose as opposed to
trying to get a few chores `done' while everyone else sits in front of a
screen. Laundry day can be a good social time to visit over sock matching,
laundry line hanging, and there is nothing that can beat (Sorry commercial
artificial laundry scent manufacturers) the smell of wind-dried sheets on
summer days. Avoid using machines for your household work, study up on how
to make your own healthy cleaners, and treasure old towels for wonderfully
soft rags. Step away from silly products that promise to somehow make your
life easier that actually are simply substitutes for old fashioned, tried
and true methods.
11) Get together with a couple other families and form a study group to
enjoy dinner together once a month and talk about parenting, read new books,
enjoy community, and share ideas. Insist that gift giving occasions be
primarily social events, outdoor adventures, nature immersed, and
intentionally diminish or reduce the time of `gifting' in your life. Try an
`exchange' habit, instead, or take a class and learn how to make something
useful, for example, learn to carve wooden spoons and give these as gifts.
Simple and very helpful and useful. Do not overdo it and give dozens! Avoid
the consumption addiction in all respects.
PLAY ITEMS FOR PARTICULAR AGES LIST:
INFANTS UNDER 1 YEAR: (Secret! Children under 1 year old do not need ANY
toys! None at all. They need humans and something to suck and chew on, like
their fingers and toes. But if you must..)
Wooden chew toy/rattle (1)
Soft ball (size of an adult fist)
2-3 silks to play peek a boo
1 soft cottony type stuffed thing to chew on, can be animal or shape
A special snuggly blanket for bed time
A nature table to observe
1YEAR TO 3 YEARS OLD:
The above items plus....
A set of wooden blocks (can be made by hand, or tree limbs that are smooth
and splinter free, cut into rounds and sanded)
1 soft doll, no features, stuffed with wool, with doll cradle and blanket
Several soft balls
Baskets of smooth sticks, shells, nuts in the shell, stones
Stacking toys (there are wooden ones that are nice)
Small truck or car
Basket of silks, six or eight, in large squares for playing and dress up
3 stick crayons in red, yellow, blue and some sturdy paper for coloring
6 small board books, classics
1 nice picture on the wall
1 nice hanging hand made mobile
4 YEARS TO 7 YEARS
Same as above
Plus dress up capes and crowns
Stick horse is nice, jump rope
Play areas for pretend kitchen, pretend laundry area
Digging tools for the garden, seeds
Board games (2-3 at one time)
Crayons in eight colors
Water color paints in 3 colors (red, yellow, blue)
Beeswax for modeling, sewing kit with big needle
Playstands for creating homes, forts, pirate ships
Simply music instruments are nice: rattles, bells
Outdoor riding toys are enjoyed
Wagons, swings, ropes, small logs outside
1 doll with legs and arms, clothes for the doll
Small animals for playing, wooden shapes are nice
Often a small playhouse with furniture, all wood
Or a barn with horses, stalls, fences, etc. of wood
No more than 2 dozen books on shelf for a few months
Candle next to bed for lighting and night time song and story
8 YEARS TO AGE 12
Cards, dice
Board games for the age: checkers, chess, cribbage
Collectables (big age for starting collections)
Kits for building, tool sets that are real tools
Wood carving with supervision
Sewing kits
Knitting kits, wool, crochet sets and patterns
More paints, include pastels, chalk
Blackboard is nice for wall with chalk
Sport equipment as your family enjoys
Bike
Treasure box for rock collection
Often a more complex doll
Roller Skates, or blades
Bird watching kits, books
Excursions: Take them places!
Books on a shelf, family books, carefully selected for content
Binoculars, telescope, microscope
Magnifying glasses
Items that your child really desires and will take care of...
This is a only a partial list and I am sure more can be added as you think
of your family and their needs. As time passes, the children will become
more independent and the parental guidance loosens quite a bit. If we can
help our children perceive that we can escape from the commercial/material
treadmill that keeps so many sad captive people enslaved to both earning the
money to purchase items and time sacrificed to maintain them, we are doing a
good deed for the world and the future.
--
For more information you can check out Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. I love this website.
By Marsha Johnson, December 2004
Shopping bags and baskets full, parents and family friends arriving with
parcels, long store lines, and big dollar prices...birthdays, holidays,
other occasions both secular and religious, family rooms, play rooms,
bedrooms, living rooms, filled with play items, bright colors, plastics,
woods, cloth, books, and more....is there room for the child? Where is the
child? In late fall, these questions start to present themselves to even the
most unconscious person as we strive to find the `perfect' addition to an
entire house filled with personal items...as well as strive to come up with
a wish list for ourselves. This year, I notice the most advertised item is a
S'more cooker! If only we could just package the happy feelings that we
experience when gathered around a cozy campfire, in the woods, while
toasting food on a stick! This is what the manufacturer knows will sell his
silly little invention: he is selling memories.
Burdened with possessions from before birth, we stumble along this
treacherous pathway at holidays, driven by commercial interests, lists of
best sellers (if other people bought it, it must be good), and short lived
desires stimulated by visual, auditory, and olfactory images. Artistic and
historical pictures of holidays always include the scene where wrappings are
torn off and cries of joy fill the room as each receives exactly the right
gift. Does this sound familiar to you?
I distinctly recall a holiday when our oldest son was two years old, and in
his stocking, he discovered a tiny metal truck and a tiny yellow metal
bulldozer. At that point, his holiday was complete and he was not interested
in any other gaily wrapped packages or presents except one large cardboard
box left over from some item that he played with for weeks. Did this wake us
up a bit? Well, frankly, not enough. Our family cultural background, our own
perceptions of the `ideal' holiday scene, and an inability to resist
commercial pressures and peer pressures, drove us on the mad buying road for
quite a few years to come.
We tread this delicate path each moment, and it seems that their influence
increases geometrically at major holiday times. We smother our children
under a plethora of physical goods! It is no wonder that we cannot breathe
freely under the weight of our possessions.
Reading through a stack of books on child development, from ones generated
out of Waldorf education to just about every other approach, there is indeed
a common theme. Children should be surrounded by a few multi-purpose,
open-ended items that encourage imaginative play, social interaction, and
healthy bodily movement. Young children need to be interactive with the
physical world in a direct sense, stomach or back to the earth, although a
blanket, skin, or floor may lie between. The urge to rise must be allowed to
flourish independently in the infant human being, and nearly all children do
indeed push themselves away from the horizontal and ascend to a vertical
stance. The miracles of scooting, crawling, standing, cruising, and walking
need no artificial assisters such as walkers, jumpers, or swings.
Nearly all of the most popular toy items do not meet the 3 basic criteria
listed above: hard plastic items are too formed to be open-ended, they must
adhere to their pre-conceived shape and form. They feel dead to the touch
and are non responsive to the mood of the child. You can see this disdain in
the actions of the children who play with plastic items as they throw them
around rooms, kick them, leave them outside in the yard, litter them
everywhere and have trouble cleaning them up. Parents literally have garbage
can sized containers into which all these plastic goodies are shoveled and
rarely sorted. Landfills are overwhelmed with plastic debris and it requires
thousands of years to decompose. Plastic also use valuable petroleum
resources and is filled with toxins for the most part. Does this discourage
us? I wonder. Stroll without your child down a toy store items and simply
look for plastic. It is unavoidable.
Open ended items are simple, often made of natural materials such as wool,
wood, metal, or cloth. Undefined or lightly defined toys allow children to
use them in a multitude of ways. A new playmate brings new ideas for logs,
scarves, blocks, and playhouses. Endless games with ropes, sticks, and
simple tools will result during afternoons with friends. Finding toys that
work with social settings as well as all-alone times is a key factor for
parents. Creating and combining personal play areas of family play areas is
important and requires some consideration. Clearly, adults need space for
adult activities and babies need to be protected from dangerous items. It
might be helpful to sit down and think over your home, your room
assignments, notice where your family gathers, do children actually play in
the bedroom? Or do they bring all their play items into the kitchen, the
living room, or family room, where the parents tend to be?
Social interactions can begin for children at about age 3 or 4, when they
can start to actually `play with' another child instead of `play near'
someone else. The child in the 3rd year begins to use the word "I" to
designate self, and this is a critical consciousness step in development.
When we use the word "I", we experience an inner feeling of our free selves,
our free will, our own being, our souls and spirits. We are unique and can
express this wonderful word that only we can use for ourselves (no-one else
can call us I). Before this time, parents notice that children are exploring
their surroundings with interest, imitating the actions of their parents or
caregivers, perhaps using the broom to sweep the floor. Babies under 1 year
are observers and listeners as they move their limbs and learn to manipulate
their small physical bodies in that all encompassing drive to rise. Their
social encounters are based on human interactions, facial expressions, and
echoing or mimicking what they see. Have you ever been about a baby about 9
months old who literally stares at your face until you make eye contact?
Serious hopeful expression transforms into a beautiful body-wide smile! What
a wonderful feeling!
Body movement is critical to healthy brain development and according to
every study in the world, video and computer activities are contributing to
an unprecedented decline in child physical heath. Running, skipping,
dancing, moving, climbing, chasing, and hopping are on the decline! Teachers
see children in the grades who have great challenges with basic balance
skills such as walking a straight line. What to do? Parents are often
exhausted in their own work, and insert the video into the machine to escape
into solitude for 90 minutes while the child is occupied. Our families are
often so isolated from one another that there is no respite or very little.
I know a child who is 18 months old who can turn on tv and video player,
insert and remove the movie, and operate the remote control.
Relatives of families who are trying to find a different path often fall
into a situation where they create conflict with gifts of commercial plastic
or media items. The common culture is such that refusing such gifts often
induces arguments and antipathy. Children of these families are sometimes
then over-exposed to these influences during visits or vacations, when
grandparents can follow their own beliefs and stuff children with nitrite
laced hot dogs and movies. Has this happened to you? It can be a very
difficult emotional experience for the adult children of baby boomer
generation grandparents, born in the 40s and 50s, which was also the birth
of the plastic toy industry. I recall wishing for the Mr. Potato Head Toy
that came with nose, ears, mouth, etc. that were to be pushing into a real
potato. The innocent (?) beginnings of a world wide lifelong addition to the
acquisition of things that have very little significant purpose or meaning.
And most of us do not even realize that we have been registered in this
senseless buying club for life.
Families who are seeking a different way of providing toy items and play
spaces for their children must be willing to undergo some conflicted
feelings and pressures. In addition, parents must be able to agree to
adopting a new approach and support one another: it is not uncommon to find
one parent wishing to be dedicated to a less materialistic lifestyle while
the other one is sneaking the Gameboy into the stocking.
PLAY ITEMS CHECKLIST AND ADVICE:
If you are not a parent yet, good, you can skip the rest of the this
paragraph and go on to the section for specific recommendations for children
by ages. If you have children already, then you must make some tough
decisions. Here is one method that works well and it gentle in its approach.
If you follow this advice, you will find that in about 1 year, your home
will be free of all commercial/material istic toy burdens, you will feel
lighter and more in tune with nature and the seasons, and your family time
will be enhanced and enjoyable with the need to spend hours organizing and
cleaning up after your children and yourself.
First, have a private discussion with spouse and come to agreement. This is
critical and this program will not work unless this has been completed. Then
examine your home and its contents. Go into your child's room and count how
many items are in that space. Include clothing, shoes, and coats. Count
aloud and be amazed. How can one being be surrounded by so many physical
things? Notice how many images or hanging items are on the walls, how many
things hang in windows, etc. Do the same activity with your play room or
family room where toys are kept. Look into the movie cupboard and notice how
many boxes or cases. Count how many TVs are in your home. How many music
CDs? Where are these items kept? Peek into the attic, the basement, the
garage, the kitchen cupboards, the laundry room, the sheet storage, the
towel closet, obtain a good impression of how many items there in your home.
Take a break and have a cup of tea. In a day or two, send the children over
to play at a friend's home. Strengthen yourself with prayer and go into your
play spaces and remove about one third of the toys not on the list below.
Put into large black storage bags and drive over to someone else's home or
garage. (No temptation to retrieve and after 3 months, you can given them to
charity). Include books, posters, stuff, even expensive stuff. This first
foray is the hardest and you can select items that you know your child
rarely plays with. Try to include mostly plastic junky items that will never
be missed. Include stuffed animals that are sitting, lonely, and plastic
dolls that lie heaped in the corner. Sentimental items like grandma's doll
clothes should be kept, there is love in the stitches that cannot be
replaced.
If you are really strong and on a roll, you can do this for other areas of
the home and include the clothing drawers: children do NOT need walk-in
closets, this accumulation of 24 pairs of shoes is both confusing and
ridiculous and I am old enough to remember when children under 3 wore white
baby shoes (1 pair) which we polished. Do your kitchen (who need 4
tablespoon measurers?) and your own closet. Donate your items to charities
and store if you must.
If children notice something is gone, if under six, distract them with a
play idea, or tell a little story about a bunny who had so many things she
couldn't sleep in her cozy bunny hole. Leave it at that if possible.
Children six and older may need to know that the family is making some
changes that are healthy for everyone and that is probably enough. If you
try this on older children, you will need their cooperation.
In about three months, do this again. In the meantime, begin adding to the
store of items listed below. Slowly replace various toys with substitutes
that meet the three criteria of being open-ended, socially healthy, and
encourage body movement. If you continue this pathway for a year, that will
give your four opportunities to reduce, diminish, refocus, alter, redefine,
and re-direct your child's play environment, sleep environment, and living
environment.
In your organization, create specific areas of particular play items:
outdoors for certain pursuits, an art space with paints, crayons, brushes,
pastels, paper, and more, a reading/book area to share, and a game playing
space. These spaces can share your dining room or family room. Bedrooms are
for sleeping and keeping clothing in, maybe 1 special stuffed animal friend,
or 1 doll cradle. When a child is sent to clean their room, it means change
the sheets, sweep the floor, wash the window, and take care of shoes and
clothing. How many times do we confuse cleaning with picking up?
MUST DO:
1) Remove all TVs from home if possible with young children and middle aged
children and teenagers. You will not regret this decision.
2) If not possible, keep one and put in closet that locks or some space
inaccessible to family members without a lot of work.
3) Obviously same with all video equipment..dvd players
4) Remove all computer games from computer and put cds in a box and hide
them in a closet. Computers are for `working', writing, communicating. If
you play games, do it only after kids are in bed.
5) Ask or persuade friends and family to switch from giving more toys and
clothes to a) buying items you request, b) gift certificates to particular
catalogs (Magic Cabin, Chinaberry Books), or c) put the money they would
have spent into certificates of deposit for future educational expense
(tuition is a big issue for the future) or d) be willing to substitute time
together for physical items. Come over for dinner and stay for a games
night, go out for a walk in a bird reserve, take a trip to the beach, cook a
family recipe together..beg, plead, and insist. They will adopt your
methods, slowly.
6) If child receives an unexpected objectionable item, be gracious and enjoy
it for a while, then `disappear' it magically. Time is a great healer.
7) Frequently visit other families who are like minded to encourage yourself
and find support. You will find that all the children in the neighborhood
will want to hang out at your house! Bring them in and teach their parents.
8) Take the money you save and enjoy a fantastic family camping trip or
vacation. You will literally save thousands and thousands of dollars over
the 18 years of your child's life.
9) Examine wardrobes and put together fourteen outfits for your children,
enough for 2 weeks without laundry, for each season, and donate the rest.
Buy good quality wool, cotton, and natural fiber clothes that will last
through several children, practice the fine art of hand me downs, and gather
a group of other families to have a twice a year `share' time where you all
bring extra clothes and parcel them out. You will be shocked at how this is
so very freeing although you will spend a bit more time doing laundry on
your new schedule.
10) Begin a rhythm in your household that includes all members in a
reasonable cycle of chores that includes and shares out cooking, cleaning,
washing, and gardening. Spend your time together with purpose as opposed to
trying to get a few chores `done' while everyone else sits in front of a
screen. Laundry day can be a good social time to visit over sock matching,
laundry line hanging, and there is nothing that can beat (Sorry commercial
artificial laundry scent manufacturers) the smell of wind-dried sheets on
summer days. Avoid using machines for your household work, study up on how
to make your own healthy cleaners, and treasure old towels for wonderfully
soft rags. Step away from silly products that promise to somehow make your
life easier that actually are simply substitutes for old fashioned, tried
and true methods.
11) Get together with a couple other families and form a study group to
enjoy dinner together once a month and talk about parenting, read new books,
enjoy community, and share ideas. Insist that gift giving occasions be
primarily social events, outdoor adventures, nature immersed, and
intentionally diminish or reduce the time of `gifting' in your life. Try an
`exchange' habit, instead, or take a class and learn how to make something
useful, for example, learn to carve wooden spoons and give these as gifts.
Simple and very helpful and useful. Do not overdo it and give dozens! Avoid
the consumption addiction in all respects.
PLAY ITEMS FOR PARTICULAR AGES LIST:
INFANTS UNDER 1 YEAR: (Secret! Children under 1 year old do not need ANY
toys! None at all. They need humans and something to suck and chew on, like
their fingers and toes. But if you must..)
Wooden chew toy/rattle (1)
Soft ball (size of an adult fist)
2-3 silks to play peek a boo
1 soft cottony type stuffed thing to chew on, can be animal or shape
A special snuggly blanket for bed time
A nature table to observe
1YEAR TO 3 YEARS OLD:
The above items plus....
A set of wooden blocks (can be made by hand, or tree limbs that are smooth
and splinter free, cut into rounds and sanded)
1 soft doll, no features, stuffed with wool, with doll cradle and blanket
Several soft balls
Baskets of smooth sticks, shells, nuts in the shell, stones
Stacking toys (there are wooden ones that are nice)
Small truck or car
Basket of silks, six or eight, in large squares for playing and dress up
3 stick crayons in red, yellow, blue and some sturdy paper for coloring
6 small board books, classics
1 nice picture on the wall
1 nice hanging hand made mobile
4 YEARS TO 7 YEARS
Same as above
Plus dress up capes and crowns
Stick horse is nice, jump rope
Play areas for pretend kitchen, pretend laundry area
Digging tools for the garden, seeds
Board games (2-3 at one time)
Crayons in eight colors
Water color paints in 3 colors (red, yellow, blue)
Beeswax for modeling, sewing kit with big needle
Playstands for creating homes, forts, pirate ships
Simply music instruments are nice: rattles, bells
Outdoor riding toys are enjoyed
Wagons, swings, ropes, small logs outside
1 doll with legs and arms, clothes for the doll
Small animals for playing, wooden shapes are nice
Often a small playhouse with furniture, all wood
Or a barn with horses, stalls, fences, etc. of wood
No more than 2 dozen books on shelf for a few months
Candle next to bed for lighting and night time song and story
8 YEARS TO AGE 12
Cards, dice
Board games for the age: checkers, chess, cribbage
Collectables (big age for starting collections)
Kits for building, tool sets that are real tools
Wood carving with supervision
Sewing kits
Knitting kits, wool, crochet sets and patterns
More paints, include pastels, chalk
Blackboard is nice for wall with chalk
Sport equipment as your family enjoys
Bike
Treasure box for rock collection
Often a more complex doll
Roller Skates, or blades
Bird watching kits, books
Excursions: Take them places!
Books on a shelf, family books, carefully selected for content
Binoculars, telescope, microscope
Magnifying glasses
Items that your child really desires and will take care of...
This is a only a partial list and I am sure more can be added as you think
of your family and their needs. As time passes, the children will become
more independent and the parental guidance loosens quite a bit. If we can
help our children perceive that we can escape from the commercial/material
treadmill that keeps so many sad captive people enslaved to both earning the
money to purchase items and time sacrificed to maintain them, we are doing a
good deed for the world and the future.
--
For more information you can check out Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. I love this website.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Natural Remedies for ADHD
Fantastic article
Natural Remedies for ADHD
By Brigitte Mars, Master Herbalist
Funny thing is, A.D.H.D., or A.D.D. as it used to be known, didn’t “exist” 20 years ago. It’s as if a group of drug manufacturers gather around a conference table every once in a while and choose a different unlikable part of the human condition (Depression! Sleeplessness! Anxiety! Stress!), then manufacture and market drugs to match. But drugs, all too often, have their own side effects—and rarely get at the root of whatever issue they’re designed to address.
Now, A.D.H.D. is real enough. Create a society without gaps in activities: “Walking half a block? Waiting for a bus? Check text or call someone on your phone!,” where we often eat bad food on the go or even standing up…a society without meditation in the morning or prayer on Sundays…and you’re going to create individuals who have a hard time focusing, relaxing—whose attention is split into a million little pieces.
Contributing factors to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (A.D.H.D.) include birth trauma, brain injury, environmental toxins (molds, heavy metals and chemicals), genetics, loud music, fluorescent lighting and stress. Those with A.D.H.D. may have had digestive, respiratory and ear disorders early in life—all signals of food allergies.
The easiest factor to change is… diet. Blood sugar imbalance, nutritional deficiency, sugar, caffeine (while in the womb and being nursed) and food allergies can make one prone to A.D.H.D. Wheat, dairy, eggs, tomatoes, corn, soy, sugar, peanuts, shellfish, citrus, peanuts, yeast and chocolate can be allergenic. Keep a food journal to determine what foods have an effect.
Hydrogenated oils, artificial colorings, chemical sweeteners (including possibly-carcinogenic aspartame, found in “sugar free” foods and drinks such as Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi) and meats treated with nitrates can cause problems. Better to eat a piece of fruit than drink fruit juice (which elevates blood sugar). Refined grains like bread, cereals, and potatoes are high glycemic—opt for whole grains, brown rice and sweet potatoes instead. Avoid heated oils, including margarine and peanut butter.
Changing a child’s diet works best when the whole family improves theirs. Encourage peaceful mealtimes: before sitting down to eat turn off phones, say whatever blessing is appropriate to your family. During the meal, try to speak calmly and eat slowly, paying attention to taste. Green vegetables, including celery and cucumbers are cooling to an overly heated condition. Sea vegetables provide trace minerals and brain nourishing D.H.A. (an essential omega-3 fatty acid). Wild salmon or sardines provide beneficial essential fatty acids (raw tahini is a good vegan source). Organic foods and pure water minimize and eliminate toxins. Pack lunch rather than purchase one.
Sleepytime: create a mellow, loving environment. Encourage deep breathing. Strive for regular meals and bedtimes. Get rid of clutter. Provide soft, natural lighting. Clean the house of smoke, molds and chemical fumes. Protect children’s developing nervous systems by keeping beds away from sources of electromagnetic pollution (radios, cell phones, TVs). Play relaxing music. A little waterfall can have a serene effect.
Spend time in nature—gardening, hiking and yard work. Yoga aligns the chakras, helping to streamline tangled energy. Martial arts and exercise focus and use up excessive energy. Find an activity you or your child enjoys and is good at. Encourage followthrough and completion. I find knitting, drawing, sewing and crochet to be grounding.
Breaking tasks into small portions helps avoid overwhelm. Give specific praise for positive behavior. Be consistent, and patient. Avoid loud, crowded places and chaotic situations.
Spend one-on-one time daily. Physical contact like hugging and massage can stimulate endorphins (a good thing). Cranial sacral work can relieve pressure upon the brain stem. Neurofeedback (or biofeedback) helps train the brain’s ability to function normally.
Spend more time reading and playing games. Minimize T.V. and video games. Many T.V., websurfing and video games keep one indoors and promote frantic messages, constant visual changes, violence and hyper chatter. (However, games like wilddivine.com can encourage serenity and mental abilities.) Watch favorite programs together and only after chores and homework.
Encourage hands-on learning. Don’t spend long periods of time near distractions such as pencil sharpeners and areas of traffic. Consider tutoring, alternative schooling, smaller classes.
Herbal tinctures can help A.D.H.D. Look for tinctures in vegetable glycerin rather than alcohol. Herbs that improve A.D.H.D. include calming and intelligence-enhancing Bacopa, Catnip, Lemon balm, Passionflower and St John’s wort.
Herbal baths can provide relaxation. Beneficial aromas include orange, lavender, peppermint and rosemary. They can be used as inhalations with three drops placed on a handkerchief and ten deep inhalations taken. Five drops can be added to baths.
Natural possibilities can always be tried before resorting to drugs. Calcium and magnesium have muscle relaxing properties and aid sleep. A yeast-free B-complex vitamin has a calming effect, improves neurotransmission and appetite. G.T.F. chromium keeps blood sugar levels stable and decreases cravings. D.H.A. made from fish oils or algaes improve focus and intelligence. Digestive enzymes bromelain and papain reduce inflammation and help to calm uneven moods. G.A.B.A. (gamma amino butyric acid) helps protect the brain from excitatory/anxiety-related messages.
Natural Remedies for ADHD
By Brigitte Mars, Master Herbalist
Funny thing is, A.D.H.D., or A.D.D. as it used to be known, didn’t “exist” 20 years ago. It’s as if a group of drug manufacturers gather around a conference table every once in a while and choose a different unlikable part of the human condition (Depression! Sleeplessness! Anxiety! Stress!), then manufacture and market drugs to match. But drugs, all too often, have their own side effects—and rarely get at the root of whatever issue they’re designed to address.
Now, A.D.H.D. is real enough. Create a society without gaps in activities: “Walking half a block? Waiting for a bus? Check text or call someone on your phone!,” where we often eat bad food on the go or even standing up…a society without meditation in the morning or prayer on Sundays…and you’re going to create individuals who have a hard time focusing, relaxing—whose attention is split into a million little pieces.
Contributing factors to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (A.D.H.D.) include birth trauma, brain injury, environmental toxins (molds, heavy metals and chemicals), genetics, loud music, fluorescent lighting and stress. Those with A.D.H.D. may have had digestive, respiratory and ear disorders early in life—all signals of food allergies.
The easiest factor to change is… diet. Blood sugar imbalance, nutritional deficiency, sugar, caffeine (while in the womb and being nursed) and food allergies can make one prone to A.D.H.D. Wheat, dairy, eggs, tomatoes, corn, soy, sugar, peanuts, shellfish, citrus, peanuts, yeast and chocolate can be allergenic. Keep a food journal to determine what foods have an effect.
Hydrogenated oils, artificial colorings, chemical sweeteners (including possibly-carcinogenic aspartame, found in “sugar free” foods and drinks such as Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi) and meats treated with nitrates can cause problems. Better to eat a piece of fruit than drink fruit juice (which elevates blood sugar). Refined grains like bread, cereals, and potatoes are high glycemic—opt for whole grains, brown rice and sweet potatoes instead. Avoid heated oils, including margarine and peanut butter.
Changing a child’s diet works best when the whole family improves theirs. Encourage peaceful mealtimes: before sitting down to eat turn off phones, say whatever blessing is appropriate to your family. During the meal, try to speak calmly and eat slowly, paying attention to taste. Green vegetables, including celery and cucumbers are cooling to an overly heated condition. Sea vegetables provide trace minerals and brain nourishing D.H.A. (an essential omega-3 fatty acid). Wild salmon or sardines provide beneficial essential fatty acids (raw tahini is a good vegan source). Organic foods and pure water minimize and eliminate toxins. Pack lunch rather than purchase one.
Sleepytime: create a mellow, loving environment. Encourage deep breathing. Strive for regular meals and bedtimes. Get rid of clutter. Provide soft, natural lighting. Clean the house of smoke, molds and chemical fumes. Protect children’s developing nervous systems by keeping beds away from sources of electromagnetic pollution (radios, cell phones, TVs). Play relaxing music. A little waterfall can have a serene effect.
Spend time in nature—gardening, hiking and yard work. Yoga aligns the chakras, helping to streamline tangled energy. Martial arts and exercise focus and use up excessive energy. Find an activity you or your child enjoys and is good at. Encourage followthrough and completion. I find knitting, drawing, sewing and crochet to be grounding.
Breaking tasks into small portions helps avoid overwhelm. Give specific praise for positive behavior. Be consistent, and patient. Avoid loud, crowded places and chaotic situations.
Spend one-on-one time daily. Physical contact like hugging and massage can stimulate endorphins (a good thing). Cranial sacral work can relieve pressure upon the brain stem. Neurofeedback (or biofeedback) helps train the brain’s ability to function normally.
Spend more time reading and playing games. Minimize T.V. and video games. Many T.V., websurfing and video games keep one indoors and promote frantic messages, constant visual changes, violence and hyper chatter. (However, games like wilddivine.com can encourage serenity and mental abilities.) Watch favorite programs together and only after chores and homework.
Encourage hands-on learning. Don’t spend long periods of time near distractions such as pencil sharpeners and areas of traffic. Consider tutoring, alternative schooling, smaller classes.
Herbal tinctures can help A.D.H.D. Look for tinctures in vegetable glycerin rather than alcohol. Herbs that improve A.D.H.D. include calming and intelligence-enhancing Bacopa, Catnip, Lemon balm, Passionflower and St John’s wort.
Herbal baths can provide relaxation. Beneficial aromas include orange, lavender, peppermint and rosemary. They can be used as inhalations with three drops placed on a handkerchief and ten deep inhalations taken. Five drops can be added to baths.
Natural possibilities can always be tried before resorting to drugs. Calcium and magnesium have muscle relaxing properties and aid sleep. A yeast-free B-complex vitamin has a calming effect, improves neurotransmission and appetite. G.T.F. chromium keeps blood sugar levels stable and decreases cravings. D.H.A. made from fish oils or algaes improve focus and intelligence. Digestive enzymes bromelain and papain reduce inflammation and help to calm uneven moods. G.A.B.A. (gamma amino butyric acid) helps protect the brain from excitatory/anxiety-related messages.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Formula Fed America
"When we trust the makers of baby formula more than we do our own ability to nourish our babies, we lose a chance to claim an aspect of our power as women. Thinking that baby formula is as good as breast milk is believing that thirty years of technology is superior to three million years of nature's evolution. Countless women have regained trust in their bodies through nursing their children, even if they weren't sure at first that they could do it. It is an act of female power, and I think of it as feminism in its purest form." -Christine Northrup, M.D.
Formula Fed America
Formula Fed America
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Green Our Vaccines
This is a pretty powerful video. We were lucky enough to be at this march in DC to hear Jim and Jenny speak. What they are doing for the autism community is unbelievable.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Children Always Cooperate
This was in my inbox from Scott Noelle at The Daily Groove.
:: Children ALWAYS Cooperate ::
Parents often feel frustrated when their children
don't "cooperate" -- when they don't go along with the
parents' stated intentions.
Today, no matter how your child behaves, take the
perspective that your child is *always* cooperating
with you -- if not behaviorally then *vibrationally*.
Children sense their parents' "vibes" and reflect back
a similar vibration, often exaggerated in their
behavior.
For example, if your child is impatient, ask
yourself how s/he might be "cooperating" with
you vibrationally. "In what way(s) have *I* been
emanating an impatient vibe?"
If your child is resistant, ask yourself, "Am *I*
being resistant in some way?" Look beyond the
obvious and *feel* for an answer.
Fortunately, it works both ways, so that when you're
feeling joyful, your child will "cooperate" with that,
too. But depending on your established patterns of
interaction, it may take some time for your child's
*behavior* to reflect your positive vibration.
In the meantime, you can be enjoying Well-Being
*unconditionally*. :-)
:: Children ALWAYS Cooperate ::
Parents often feel frustrated when their children
don't "cooperate" -- when they don't go along with the
parents' stated intentions.
Today, no matter how your child behaves, take the
perspective that your child is *always* cooperating
with you -- if not behaviorally then *vibrationally*.
Children sense their parents' "vibes" and reflect back
a similar vibration, often exaggerated in their
behavior.
For example, if your child is impatient, ask
yourself how s/he might be "cooperating" with
you vibrationally. "In what way(s) have *I* been
emanating an impatient vibe?"
If your child is resistant, ask yourself, "Am *I*
being resistant in some way?" Look beyond the
obvious and *feel* for an answer.
Fortunately, it works both ways, so that when you're
feeling joyful, your child will "cooperate" with that,
too. But depending on your established patterns of
interaction, it may take some time for your child's
*behavior* to reflect your positive vibration.
In the meantime, you can be enjoying Well-Being
*unconditionally*. :-)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Keepers of the Health
Wives and Mothers as "Keepers of the Health"
blog post over at Nourishing Days
From the day their children are born mothers have a natural instinct to care for these little people that have been gifted to them. It is not only our job but our deepest desire to feed them, clothe them, bathe them, and shower them with affection, love, training and, when necessary, discipline. This has been the role of the mother since Eve.
Somewhere along the way, however, the role of wife and mother as "keeper of the health" has gone out the window. Perhaps it was when the majority of women left their home careers for a career elsewhere, or when we blindly accepted large companies as the source of our food, or maybe when we were backed into a corner of fear by the medical community.
Which ever way we got here, it is clear that we need to get back to being the "physic" for our families, as Laura Schenone writes in A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove:
During the 17th century, food and medicine did not reside in the separate spheres they do today. Before the rise of professional medical schools (exclusively for men) during the 19th century, the job of healing, or "physic," naturally belonged to women. Most doctoring came from the kitchen and its gardens, and you were as likely to eat or drink something for your ailments as to take a specialized medicine.
Much of the knowledge that our foremothers held has sadly not been passed down. If you are like me you get married, have children and then wake up and realize that you are either too afraid or uninformed to help heal your family of even the most minor of ailments.
That needs to change.
The first step is prevention and with a nourishing diet we can give our families a head start. But there is so much more that we can do for our families, with the right knowledge and support.
blog post over at Nourishing Days
From the day their children are born mothers have a natural instinct to care for these little people that have been gifted to them. It is not only our job but our deepest desire to feed them, clothe them, bathe them, and shower them with affection, love, training and, when necessary, discipline. This has been the role of the mother since Eve.
Somewhere along the way, however, the role of wife and mother as "keeper of the health" has gone out the window. Perhaps it was when the majority of women left their home careers for a career elsewhere, or when we blindly accepted large companies as the source of our food, or maybe when we were backed into a corner of fear by the medical community.
Which ever way we got here, it is clear that we need to get back to being the "physic" for our families, as Laura Schenone writes in A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove:
During the 17th century, food and medicine did not reside in the separate spheres they do today. Before the rise of professional medical schools (exclusively for men) during the 19th century, the job of healing, or "physic," naturally belonged to women. Most doctoring came from the kitchen and its gardens, and you were as likely to eat or drink something for your ailments as to take a specialized medicine.
Much of the knowledge that our foremothers held has sadly not been passed down. If you are like me you get married, have children and then wake up and realize that you are either too afraid or uninformed to help heal your family of even the most minor of ailments.
That needs to change.
The first step is prevention and with a nourishing diet we can give our families a head start. But there is so much more that we can do for our families, with the right knowledge and support.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Fighting off sickness with real food
I've had quite a few people ask me about the flu vaccine, winter sickness, etc. My own experience has taught me to always try natural remedies first. Soft nourishing foods, lots of purified water, herbal tea, garlic, and warm cozy socks are all I need this year to keep my family healthy. I've got a big batch of chicken broth cooking on the stove today so that I can start feeding it to my family as a preventative measure. I've got my Temp Assure herbal drops for the kids, lots of fresh garlic, and Olive Leaf Extract. As soon as I feel a warm forehead I give my kids the Temp Assure....within about an hour they are always feeling much better. Our naturopath recommended that we use nature's antibiotic, Olive Leaf Extract, at the first feelings of a bug. I also keep our lives a little more slower paced in the cold weather. This is nature's time for rest, as it is ours. Lots of books, games, puzzles, cooking, warm cups of tea with honey, and jammies.
Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat wrote this fantastic article about fighting the flu with real food. Enjoy and stay healthy this fall!
The flu, especially H1N1, is big news today. The words “Swine Flu” invoke fear and even panic.
The general focus on dealing with the flu is with vaccines and drugs. However, your body’s first line of defense against the flu, real food, is all but ignored.
Hippocrates of Cos is perhaps the most famous physician of all time. He is known as the father of medicine. He wrote the Hippocratic Oath, which used to be taken by all doctors. He is famous for his dictum, “First, do no harm.” What is not so well known is that Hippocrates advocated using food and other natural methods first, before anything else was tried. Drugs would only be used if the more natural methods failed, and surgery was used only as the last resort.
I have followed Hippocrates’ advice, and it has worked very well for me, my family, and others.
The First Line of Defense—Broth
Traditional peoples knew which foods could heal and prevent many illnesses. This knowledge was gained by observation, sometimes over thousands of years.
After much research, I have combined a number of these traditional healing foods into one broth. I call this Quadruple Healing Broth. We have found this broth to be a cold-buster and a flu-stopper.
Chicken soup is one of the most famous home remedies for colds and the flu. Recent studies have found that chicken soup has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory qualities. The nutrients in a good chicken soup will strengthen your immune system, giving your body the nutrients it needs to heal itself.
Onions were prized by the ancient Egyptians, the ancient (and contemporary) Indians, and many other peoples for their healing qualities.
Green onions were valued by the Chinese, who often ate them daily and used them to treat colds and the flu.
Leeks were also used by the ancient Egyptians for healing all sorts of ailments, and were so loved by the Welsh that leeks became a symbol of Wales, signifying pride, strength, and health.
Garlic was used for healing by the ancient Egyptians, the Indians, the Chinese, and many other peoples. Garlic has many anti–inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and immune-boosting qualities.
However, it must be understood that all foods used for healing by traditional peoples were organic and were not GMO. Modern factory versions of these foods are very different and just will not work. The chicken soup was always made from scratch. You cannot pour health-giving nutrients out of a can, or extract them from a bouillon cube.
Quadruple Healing Broth is the cornerstone of our Hippocratic first line of defense. At the first sign of a cold or flu, we sip plenty of this broth, hot, not scalding. Usually, a few cups of this broth (sometimes only one or two), is enough to stop the cold or flu in its tracks.
However, sometimes you cannot sip broth because you are throwing up or coughing. This led me to develop two food-based remedies, one for vomiting and one for coughing. I came up with both of these after researching a large number of Ayurvedic remedies, and trying a few combinations.
Food-Based Vomiting Remedy
You will need the following ingredients:
1 organic onion, peeled
1 (2-inch) piece of organic fresh ginger, peeled, sliced, and crushed
Pure filtered water, (reverse osmosis water is best, but distilled water will also work)
1.Make ginger tea. Place the ginger in a small pan with two cups of filtered water, bring to a boil, and simmer uncovered for ten minutes. Remove from the heat.
2.Grate the onion into a bowl, using a hand grater. Place the grated onion in a clean, chemical-free cloth (cheese cloth works fine), and squeeze the cloth-covered onion over a bowl until no more juice drips through the cloth. You should have a tablespoon or so of juice in the bowl. Immediately place the juice in a small cup (like a shot glass), and have the sick person swallow it all at once. It goes down easier if the swallower holds their nose shut with the other hand.
This should stop the vomiting immediately.
The onion juice should be made just before using. It should be taken immediately after being made, and should not sit in a bowl.
3.10 minutes after the onion juice is taken, one tablespoon of strained ginger tea should be taken.
4.Every 15 minutes for the next hour, take one tablespoon of strained ginger tea. This will help rehydrate the body and prevent further vomiting.
5.After this hour, small sips of broth can be tried.
If vomiting reoccurs, the whole remedy should be repeated. Usually, this will not be necessary.
Recently, a teenage boy who had the swine flu was vomiting every few minutes. He stopped vomiting after he swallowed the onion juice. Several hours later he gulped down a cold drink and threw up once. He took the remedy once more and never vomited again. The next day he was almost completely well.
Food-Based Coughing Remedy
You will need the following ingredients:
Organic turmeric
Organic raw honey
This remedy could not be easier. You mix one-quarter teaspoon of organic turmeric with one teaspoon of the honey, then swallow it. It should provide immediate relief from any cough. You can repeat this every four hours, as needed.
Recently, a woman with severe immune problems caught the swine flu. She was treated with Tamiflu, but developed a constant, horrible wracking cough that was so bad she could not sleep. The cough medicine prescribed by her doctor did not help. She had tried the remedy using non-organic turmeric, and it did not help. I convinced her husband to get organic turmeric. She took the remedy again, and her cough was reduced to a very mild, occasional cough, and she was able to sleep. She never had a bad cough again. She went on to make a full recovery from the swine flu.
The Second Line of Defense—Supplements
What does a family do on the rare occasion that the broth does not kill the flu? We use a product created by Doctor Mayer Eisenstein of Homefirst Health Services. This product consists of vitamin D3 with probiotics. The web address for this product is as follows: http://store.homefirst.com/font-size4bPro-D-50-with-Probiotics/productinfo/KD50P
Doctor Eisenstein, a true Hippocratic physician, explains how to use the product at the bottom of the page.
This product, taken with the broth, has never failed us.
The Third Line of Defense—The Doctor
This would be to go to a doctor. Hopefully, a doctor who listens to his or her patients, is open to alternative remedies, and is much more than a pill pusher. I have not had to go to the third line of defense for over five years.
Real food has enabled me and my family to defeat colds and the flu for years. Unlike drugs, the only side effect is that real food improves your general health and immune system.
The following recipe for Quadruple Healing Broth is taken from my cookbook, Tender Grassfed Meat: Traditional Ways to Cook Healthy Meat.
Quadruple Healing Broth
Makes 6 to 8 quarts
4 to 6 pounds assorted free range chicken parts and bones, such as wing tips, backs, necks, carcasses from a roast chicken, legs, wings, etc.
Enough filtered water to cover the bones by 2 to 3 inches
½ cup organic, raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar
Assorted Root Vegetables
1 large organic leek, carefully washed, and chopped
1 large or 2 medium organic onions, peeled and chopped
1 bunch organic green onions, roots trimmed off, chopped
1 bulb of organic garlic, peeled and slightly crushed
For Simmering
Several chicken giblets
½ bunch organic Italian parsley, including stems, each stalk cut in half
2 tablespoons coarse unrefined sea salt
1.Peeling and crushing a whole bulb of garlic may seem like a lot of work. It is actually quite easy with the proper technique. You need a heavy cleaver or rolling pin. Separate the garlic cloves out of the bulb. Place the clove on a wooden cutting board, and press down hard on it with a rolling pin, or the flat of a cleaver. The clove will crack, and the skin will pop off easily. You may need to make one small cut at the root end of the clove to remove the remaining skin.
2.Put the bones and scraps of meat in the pot, except for the giblets. Add the water and the vinegar. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
3.Add all the vegetables. Heat the pot until the water begins a strong simmer. This will take a while due to the large volume of ingredients and water.
4.When the water is close to boiling, remove all the scum that rises to the top with a skimming spoon. This can also take a while, but is necessary.
5.Once the scum is gone, add the giblets, parsley, and the salt.
6.Cover and simmer gently for 12 to 14 hours.
7.Using a ladle, strain into jars, cover, and refrigerate once the bottles have cooled down. The fat will rise to the top, and will solidify in the refrigerator. This fat cap will help preserve the broth. The fat should be removed before the broth is reheated.
I am not a doctor, and the above is not intended to be medical advice. Quadruple Healing Broth is a food, not a medicine. By all means, see a doctor if you want medical advice. The above is just a description of how some families deal with colds and the flu.
Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat wrote this fantastic article about fighting the flu with real food. Enjoy and stay healthy this fall!
The flu, especially H1N1, is big news today. The words “Swine Flu” invoke fear and even panic.
The general focus on dealing with the flu is with vaccines and drugs. However, your body’s first line of defense against the flu, real food, is all but ignored.
Hippocrates of Cos is perhaps the most famous physician of all time. He is known as the father of medicine. He wrote the Hippocratic Oath, which used to be taken by all doctors. He is famous for his dictum, “First, do no harm.” What is not so well known is that Hippocrates advocated using food and other natural methods first, before anything else was tried. Drugs would only be used if the more natural methods failed, and surgery was used only as the last resort.
I have followed Hippocrates’ advice, and it has worked very well for me, my family, and others.
The First Line of Defense—Broth
Traditional peoples knew which foods could heal and prevent many illnesses. This knowledge was gained by observation, sometimes over thousands of years.
After much research, I have combined a number of these traditional healing foods into one broth. I call this Quadruple Healing Broth. We have found this broth to be a cold-buster and a flu-stopper.
Chicken soup is one of the most famous home remedies for colds and the flu. Recent studies have found that chicken soup has anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory qualities. The nutrients in a good chicken soup will strengthen your immune system, giving your body the nutrients it needs to heal itself.
Onions were prized by the ancient Egyptians, the ancient (and contemporary) Indians, and many other peoples for their healing qualities.
Green onions were valued by the Chinese, who often ate them daily and used them to treat colds and the flu.
Leeks were also used by the ancient Egyptians for healing all sorts of ailments, and were so loved by the Welsh that leeks became a symbol of Wales, signifying pride, strength, and health.
Garlic was used for healing by the ancient Egyptians, the Indians, the Chinese, and many other peoples. Garlic has many anti–inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and immune-boosting qualities.
However, it must be understood that all foods used for healing by traditional peoples were organic and were not GMO. Modern factory versions of these foods are very different and just will not work. The chicken soup was always made from scratch. You cannot pour health-giving nutrients out of a can, or extract them from a bouillon cube.
Quadruple Healing Broth is the cornerstone of our Hippocratic first line of defense. At the first sign of a cold or flu, we sip plenty of this broth, hot, not scalding. Usually, a few cups of this broth (sometimes only one or two), is enough to stop the cold or flu in its tracks.
However, sometimes you cannot sip broth because you are throwing up or coughing. This led me to develop two food-based remedies, one for vomiting and one for coughing. I came up with both of these after researching a large number of Ayurvedic remedies, and trying a few combinations.
Food-Based Vomiting Remedy
You will need the following ingredients:
1 organic onion, peeled
1 (2-inch) piece of organic fresh ginger, peeled, sliced, and crushed
Pure filtered water, (reverse osmosis water is best, but distilled water will also work)
1.Make ginger tea. Place the ginger in a small pan with two cups of filtered water, bring to a boil, and simmer uncovered for ten minutes. Remove from the heat.
2.Grate the onion into a bowl, using a hand grater. Place the grated onion in a clean, chemical-free cloth (cheese cloth works fine), and squeeze the cloth-covered onion over a bowl until no more juice drips through the cloth. You should have a tablespoon or so of juice in the bowl. Immediately place the juice in a small cup (like a shot glass), and have the sick person swallow it all at once. It goes down easier if the swallower holds their nose shut with the other hand.
This should stop the vomiting immediately.
The onion juice should be made just before using. It should be taken immediately after being made, and should not sit in a bowl.
3.10 minutes after the onion juice is taken, one tablespoon of strained ginger tea should be taken.
4.Every 15 minutes for the next hour, take one tablespoon of strained ginger tea. This will help rehydrate the body and prevent further vomiting.
5.After this hour, small sips of broth can be tried.
If vomiting reoccurs, the whole remedy should be repeated. Usually, this will not be necessary.
Recently, a teenage boy who had the swine flu was vomiting every few minutes. He stopped vomiting after he swallowed the onion juice. Several hours later he gulped down a cold drink and threw up once. He took the remedy once more and never vomited again. The next day he was almost completely well.
Food-Based Coughing Remedy
You will need the following ingredients:
Organic turmeric
Organic raw honey
This remedy could not be easier. You mix one-quarter teaspoon of organic turmeric with one teaspoon of the honey, then swallow it. It should provide immediate relief from any cough. You can repeat this every four hours, as needed.
Recently, a woman with severe immune problems caught the swine flu. She was treated with Tamiflu, but developed a constant, horrible wracking cough that was so bad she could not sleep. The cough medicine prescribed by her doctor did not help. She had tried the remedy using non-organic turmeric, and it did not help. I convinced her husband to get organic turmeric. She took the remedy again, and her cough was reduced to a very mild, occasional cough, and she was able to sleep. She never had a bad cough again. She went on to make a full recovery from the swine flu.
The Second Line of Defense—Supplements
What does a family do on the rare occasion that the broth does not kill the flu? We use a product created by Doctor Mayer Eisenstein of Homefirst Health Services. This product consists of vitamin D3 with probiotics. The web address for this product is as follows: http://store.homefirst.com/font-size4bPro-D-50-with-Probiotics/productinfo/KD50P
Doctor Eisenstein, a true Hippocratic physician, explains how to use the product at the bottom of the page.
This product, taken with the broth, has never failed us.
The Third Line of Defense—The Doctor
This would be to go to a doctor. Hopefully, a doctor who listens to his or her patients, is open to alternative remedies, and is much more than a pill pusher. I have not had to go to the third line of defense for over five years.
Real food has enabled me and my family to defeat colds and the flu for years. Unlike drugs, the only side effect is that real food improves your general health and immune system.
The following recipe for Quadruple Healing Broth is taken from my cookbook, Tender Grassfed Meat: Traditional Ways to Cook Healthy Meat.
Quadruple Healing Broth
Makes 6 to 8 quarts
4 to 6 pounds assorted free range chicken parts and bones, such as wing tips, backs, necks, carcasses from a roast chicken, legs, wings, etc.
Enough filtered water to cover the bones by 2 to 3 inches
½ cup organic, raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar
Assorted Root Vegetables
1 large organic leek, carefully washed, and chopped
1 large or 2 medium organic onions, peeled and chopped
1 bunch organic green onions, roots trimmed off, chopped
1 bulb of organic garlic, peeled and slightly crushed
For Simmering
Several chicken giblets
½ bunch organic Italian parsley, including stems, each stalk cut in half
2 tablespoons coarse unrefined sea salt
1.Peeling and crushing a whole bulb of garlic may seem like a lot of work. It is actually quite easy with the proper technique. You need a heavy cleaver or rolling pin. Separate the garlic cloves out of the bulb. Place the clove on a wooden cutting board, and press down hard on it with a rolling pin, or the flat of a cleaver. The clove will crack, and the skin will pop off easily. You may need to make one small cut at the root end of the clove to remove the remaining skin.
2.Put the bones and scraps of meat in the pot, except for the giblets. Add the water and the vinegar. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
3.Add all the vegetables. Heat the pot until the water begins a strong simmer. This will take a while due to the large volume of ingredients and water.
4.When the water is close to boiling, remove all the scum that rises to the top with a skimming spoon. This can also take a while, but is necessary.
5.Once the scum is gone, add the giblets, parsley, and the salt.
6.Cover and simmer gently for 12 to 14 hours.
7.Using a ladle, strain into jars, cover, and refrigerate once the bottles have cooled down. The fat will rise to the top, and will solidify in the refrigerator. This fat cap will help preserve the broth. The fat should be removed before the broth is reheated.
I am not a doctor, and the above is not intended to be medical advice. Quadruple Healing Broth is a food, not a medicine. By all means, see a doctor if you want medical advice. The above is just a description of how some families deal with colds and the flu.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Your Brain on Food
Go to the bathroom, grab a snack and get cozy....it's a long one.
Your Brain on Food
William J. Walsh, PhD
& Fernando Gomez-Pinilla PhD
In 1972, William J. Walsh was working with ex-convicts, helping them return
to society. While conventional wisdom of the day held that childhood
influences were the main cause of behavior problems and mental illness, he
learned that many of his clients were raised alongside siblings who had
developed no law-breaking or criminal tendencies. In fact they were well
adjusted, normal people. Walsh couldn't understand, he says, "how some of
these people who did such horrible things came from nice families." He
suspected that criminal behavior had a lot to do with genetics. Murderers,
he suspected, likely had faulty brain chemistry. So he started testing
people who had committed violent acts, ex-cons, imprisoned serial killers
and mass murderers, including Charles Manson and Richard Speck. He tested
their blood, urine and tissues, and compared them to samples from normal
people. After many years of such research, Walsh discovered that indeed the
violent people did have distinct biochemical imbalances, compared to the
general population.
This set Walsh on his life-long quest for answers regarding brain chemistry
and its effect on behavior and mental illnesses such as autism, depression,
schizophrenia, ADHD, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and other
illnesses. His findings have implications for most of us because nutrients
in our diets, he has found, can have a profound effects on our moods, our
capacity to learn, and many of our mental functions.
William J. Walsh is president of the newly-created Walsh Research Institute
in Naperville Illinois. He has authored more than 200 scientific articles
and reports and been invited to speak at 28 international scientific
symposiums.
In the 1980's, Walsh founded the non-profit Health Research Institute (HRI)
and its clinical arm, the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Warrenville,
Illinois. Walsh named the center after his long-time collaborator, the late
Carl Pfeiffer, M.D., Ph.D., a physician and pharmacologist who was one of
the world's leading nutritional biochemists.
Walsh's most recent work includes: a research project on Alzheimer's disease
with Argonne National Laboratory and Louisiana State University;
collaborations with, among others, the University of Pennsylvania Medical
School, Case Western Reserve University, and Bruce Ames PhD at Children's
Hospital Oakland Research Institute.
Here, William Walsh talks to Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema about nutrients,
mental illness, genetic individuality, and the difficulty of getting
innovative research noticed my mainstream medicine.
RD: You started out studying criminals' brain chemistry. What did you
discover?
WW: We found that criminals - not all of them, but most of them - have
distinctive chemical imbalances that have a striking impact on their
behavior. We've now tested and treated more than 10,000 behavior disordered
children and adults. We've published highly successful outcome studies. The
frustration is that no one in the established field pays attention to this
kind of research. We think we have probably the best answer for reducing
crime and violence in America, yet we haven't been able to get it into the
mainstream. So now I've recently been collaborating with scientists at
universities and publishing more articles, and I'm hoping that that will get
more attention.
RD: What intervention are you using with people who have imbalances in
biochemistry?
WW: The weapons we use are strictly nutrients. Vitamins, minerals, amino
acids, and what I call natural biochemicals.
RD: Could you give us an example of what a typical regimen would look like?
WW: Let's say you are deficient in vitamin B6 because of a genetic disorder.
You need B6 in your brain because it is involved in the last synthesis step
that creates serotonin, an important neurotransmitter. If you have this
genetic disorder, you will be low in serotonin and prone to depression,
anxiety or obsessive-compulsiv e tendencies. You could take Prozac or Paxil
and get some benefits, but a more scientific approach is to simply normalize
the B6 levels. We've done this hundreds and hundreds of times with great
success.
This treatment works really well in conjunction with psychiatric medication
and counseling. It's another weapon in the arsenal of a mental health
practitioner.
I get a lot of calls from doctors, who say "I've got this patient I've been
working with for a long time. They went to your clinic, and now they're
better. Can you tell me what you did?" When I explain the testing and the
use of nutrients, about 2/3 of them lose interest. Some of them say things
like, "How can a vitamin or amino acid possibly help somebody with
schizophrenia or autism? Don't they really need a drug?"
The answer is "no." Scientists have figured out, step by step, how
neurotransmitters are formed in the brain, and they know that the raw
materials, the only ingredients for this synthesis, are nutrients: amino
acids, vitamins and minerals. Many people have genetic aberrations that
result in deficient or excessive levels of these chemical raw materials, and
it shouldn't be a surprise that they have mental health problems.
We've also learned that the greatest mischief in the brain is caused by
nutrients that are in overload. You might get a typical input from your
diet, but because of a genetic abnormality something goes wrong and you wind
up with overloads of key nutrients. That's why multiple vitamins don't work;
it's not just a matter of treating deficiencies, but also of coping with
overloads.
RD: What's one nutrient that may be in overload because of a genetic
abnormality?
WW: Copper. There's a protein in the body that has the job of getting rid of
excess copper. Imbalances in copper can cause dramatic imbalances in two key
neurotransmitters, and lead to enormous problems. For example, 68 percent of
all ADHD kids have a tendency for very high levels of copper. Excess copper
causes inattention, distractibility, anxiety and hyperactivity. It's
associated with sleep problems. This is all well known in brain science.
RD: What other problems can be caused by excess copper?
WW: We've found that nearly all women with a history of postpartum
depression have a tendency for very high copper levels in their blood. It is
especially problematic for women, because estrogen and copper are
proportionately related. If you're high in estrogen, you'll be high in
copper. Copper is also associated with an increased tendency for cancer;
that may very well be why high estrogen levels have been shown to increase
the likelihood of hormonal cancers in females.
RD: How would you treat excess copper?
WW: By normalizing a protein that removes excess copper from the body. We
slowly, gradually introduce the nutrients that stimulate the synthesis and
the functioning of that protein. People who are high in copper invariably
are zinc deficient as well, so we also slowly and gradually normalize their
zinc levels. Then the protein begins to function and, in most cases, the
copper levels return to normal. It's about a two-month procedure for most
people. If we did it very suddenly, and we gave them high doses of
everything, the excess copper would be dumped from tissues and the blood
levels would go even higher. You could see a decline in health before the
patient got better, as all the excess copper is exiting the body. So you
have to be somewhat careful with overloads.
RD: What nutrients do you use to enable the genetic synthesis of this
protein?
WW: Glutathione is helpful; also, selenium, vitamin C and vitamin E. I did
patent this therapy for autism. It seems to benefit quite a few of the
autistic kids we've seen.
RD: This is quite an involved protocol; how much would it cost a patient or
an insurance company to learn the diagnosis and undergo treatment?
WW: The cost for initial evaluation at the Pfeiffer Treatment Center is
around $1,000; it might be a couple of hundred dollars more for an autistic
patient or a schizophrenic, because there's more work involved.
There are a few places from which any doctor can order the key labs and get
them done for about $200. The challenge, however, is interpreting the lab
work, putting that together with a medical history and a review of symptoms,
and then coming up with an accurate diagnosis of the chemical imbalance and
the design of the treatment program.
But there's a tremendous amount of interest in this protocol, and more
doctors are getting trained in performing it. I was just in Australia in
April, where we trained 26 doctors, including a couple of psychiatrists.
Hundreds and hundreds of Australians are now receiving these kinds of
therapies, and I'm getting a lot of great reports. I'm scheduled to go to
Norway in November to train 30 to 35 practitioners, then to Tokyo in
January. My goal is to train 1,000 doctors in the next 10 years.
RD: Once you have the initial diagnosis, how much does the treatment regimen
cost?
WW: It varies with each person. A typical program would cost between $60 and
$100 per month, certainly a small fraction of what it would cost for typical
medications. At the high end, treatment for autistic children can be as much
as $100 to $150 per month.
RD: You said earlier that medical professionals don't seem to pay attention
to this protocol, or your results. Why?
WW: It has to do with the history of understanding and treating mental
illness in the United States. Before the 1960s, if you had clinical
depression, you would find yourself lying on a couch with a caring
psychiatrist delving into your background, trying to find out what traumatic
events or circumstances in your childhood may have caused this depression.
The feeling was, at that time, that depression was a result of life
circumstances and negative events that had happened to you.
The big revolution in mental health happened in the mid-'60s, when
scientists discovered that people with clinical depression are born with
these tendencies. It didn't take long to realize that it had to do with
brain chemistry and neurotransmitters. In the middle '70s, neuroscientists
got all excited about this, and they began focusing on neurotransmitters
like serotonin and dopamine. But if you were a psychiatrist, this was a
terrible thing. You had spent 10 years learning how to help your patients,
and then your profession comes to you and says "Sorry, everything we taught
you was wrong. These people actually have some kind of a genetically caused
chemical imbalance in their brains."
Once this was discovered, the entire medical and scientific community
shifted its focus toward drug therapy. At that time, the medications used
were things like Thorazine and Haldol and other heavy-duty drugs. Now, more
modern and effective medications with fewer side effects are available. But
the approach is still drug based, and most studies are focused on improving
drugs - finding newer and better medications.
I think a hundred years from now, people will look back on this and will
belittle the medication-based treatment approach to mental illness. The real
key to treating mentally ill people is to find out what's gone wrong,
genetically or biochemically. What's different in the molecular biology of
the brain? I think that researchers will find that, in most cases, it's a
biochemical abnormality caused by differences in genetics, and those
differences can be corrected without drugs.
We're not at that point yet, because our knowledge is not great enough. For
example, with schizophrenics, my colleagues and I urge them to stay on
medication and to also do our treatment. After 6 months or a year, most of
them say that they've been able to function far better with a combination of
the two. We have hundreds of schizophrenics who are now living normal lives,
but most of them still need some medication support, because we haven't
learned how to do it with just nutrients alone. However, other issues may be
treated by nutrients alone. For example, when we treat clinical depression,
behavior disorders, autism and ADHD, 80 percent of the families we see tell
us that they've been able to completely eliminate their medication after our
protocol.
We are not opposed to psychiatric medications; we think they're a godsend
for millions of people. However there's a more scientifically accurate and
effective way to treat people.
RD: How prevalent are some of these disorders?
WW: More than 1 percent of all Americans are schizophrenics, and 2 to 4
percent experience psychiatric psychosis episodes at least once in their
lifetime. So that's 1 out of 25 Americans right there with severe brain
chemistry imbalances. With respect to behavior disorders, the incidence of
ADHD, according to NIH, is 4.75 percent, although now they're thinking that
number may be closer to 8 percent. Roughly 1 in 12 Americans have a
biochemical brain chemistry problem called ADHD. Some studies say as many as
20 percent of all Americans suffer from clinical depression at some point in
their lifetime, and most of these cases are caused by a genetic
predisposition.
RD: What about mental illnesses that aren't caused by genetics?
WW: We've met people who have had head injuries that cause psychiatric
problems; that's not a biochemistry problem. Once in a while we've met a
person who's had such a traumatic event in their lives that they've not been
able to get over it; their chemistry is normal, yet they're depressed. One
woman we saw said she had plenty of friends, a happy marriage, a job that
she loved, and still she was horribly depressed and had been for 8 years.
Well, we found out that 8 years ago, her only child died of leukemia. That
explained why she was depressed; it was such a terrible event for her, she
couldn't get over it, even though she had normal chemistry.
But that's the exception, not the norm. I've done a lot of forensic studies
on people like Charles Manson and Richard Speck. I have data on more than
800 people in prisons, and roughly 95 percent of them suffer from
distinctive chemical imbalances that have an impact on their brain function.
This is such exciting information; I've known for so many years how to help
these people. I've given presentations in many places, to senators, to heads
of corrections departments. Everyone seems very interested and excited about
this news, but nobody ever seems to have money to pursue it. If I had a
dangerous drug that would help behavior, I think I'd have no trouble getting
support. But people have difficulty believing that nutrients can be
powerful.
RD: If nutrients have such a huge impact on our brains, perhaps the average
American diet is having an impact on behavior.
WW: That's absolutely true. For example, a person who tends toward clinical
depression may have low serotonin levels. These people would do very well on
a high-protein diet, because almost all of these people have a disposition
toward being what we call under-methylated. Methyl comes from methionine,
which is a protein in food. Methionine has a powerful effect on the amount
of serotonin that's produced in the brain. We've also learned that these
same people tend to be very low in calcium and magnesium, so a diet rich in
calcium and magnesium, as well as protein, would really help them.
Then there are people with anxiety conditions who have the opposite problem:
they have too much methyl in their systems. These people thrive on a
vegetarian diet. They're also very low in folate, so they'd do very well by
eating foods that are rich in folates, such as leafy greens and salads. Some
people have to avoid certain things; for example, a woman with a history of
postpartum depression needs to avoid any supplements containing copper,
because almost all such women have high blood levels of copper because of
genetics. They should drink bottled water, since there's an increasing
amount of copper in the water supply in the United States.
But you have to get an accurate metabolic analysis to find out what you need
to emphasize in your diet and what you need to avoid. The best diet for one
person may be the worst diet for the next person. I think that's going to be
the next major advance in nutrition and diet - formulating specialized,
individualized diets for people. You're not going to get a one-size-fits- all
diet, because of the genetic differences in human beings.
RD: We've been talking about some severe cases, like people in prison or
those with significant behavior issues. What about the average person who
may have a higher level of anxiety than is justified by their past
experiences or current lifestyle? Let's say that person is reading this and
can't get a sophisticated diagnostic process for one reason or another. Do
you have any general suggestions for a healthy diet and lifestyle?
WW: I spent a few years looking at the general population, not people who
might have a horrible problem like schizophrenia or autism. About 10 years
ago, I developed a system whereby the average person, at a cost of less than
$100, would be able to identify what their biochemical type was. Every one
of these chemical imbalances-such as methylation problems, folic acid
deficiencies or toxic metal overload - has symptoms associated with it. If
you do a careful medical history and ask the right questions, you can be
quite accurate in identifying what a person's basic biochemistry is.
We found that there were 26 sub-groups, named from A to Z. For example, I'm
a type L, which means I'm a bit obsessive/compulsiv e, and tend to be a
perfectionist; for example, when I play sports, I get overly competitive. I
was playing racquetball yesterday and in the heat of the battle, I got
whacked in the eye with a racket that left me with a big black eye. That
type L behavior is associated with under-methylation.
There are classic symptoms associated with each one of these sub-groups of
chemical imbalances. I'm hoping to include a questionnaire in my upcoming
book, so that a reader can score him or herself to get a good idea of what
nutrients he or she needs to emphasize and which ones he or she would be
better off avoiding.
RD: Let's say someone has been eating a terrible American diet of fast food
containing predominantly white flour, meat, corn, sugar and trans fats, and
switches to a really healthy diet. What changes in mental health would you
expect to see?
WW: I would expect that for people who are biochemically intact, there would
be very little change-maybe a third of the population. But another two
thirds would see a significant change after a few months.
RD: Does diet and nutrition have that kind of dramatic impact on children's
behavior?
WW: Yes, diet has a lot do to with a child's ability to learn. There's no
doubt about that. I have seen more than 6,000 children with ADD,
hyperactivity or learning disabilities, and we've seen a lot of benefit just
by straightening out their diets. Many of them also have genetic imbalances,
where they might need supplement or nutrient therapy to normalize rather
massive chemical imbalance tendencies, but the nutrition piece is critical.
And exercise and sleep are important and well, especially exercise. If you
have the right diet and you exercise, your sleep will, in most cases, be
fine. Again, there are people with genetic abnormalities who will still have
sleep problems, but for most people, many issues can be corrected by the
right balance of nutrition and exercise.
RD: So in terms of public health and treating disease, it sounds like we're
presently barking up the wrong tree.
WW: Yes, the medical system in America is allopathic. That's the number one
problem. Doctors basically sit in their offices and wait for somebody to
come to them with a problem. There's not enough preventative medicine going
on, and that's what's missing. A person shows up with a heart attack, cancer
or diabetes, and the medical profession is trained to do a beautiful job of
coping with that disaster. But they don't know how to prevent these
disorders.
Medical science has spectacularly improved outcomes in the case of physical
problems, like heart disease or broken bones. But this doesn't hold true for
mental problems; that's still a black art trying to emerge into a science.
RD: Why do you think that is? And why is it that preventive medicine and
nutrition are so foreign to our medical system?
WW: It's not how our system is set up. We have a medical system that doesn't
respect and value nutrition. Doctors today might spend two or three days in
all their years of medical training on nutrition. Research isn't focusing on
prevention; it's aimed at finding a better drug, a psychiatric medication, a
foreign molecule that can help somebody. There's nothing sinister or
collaborative in this. It's just a market-driven event. Look in any
university's medical school: where does most of their funding come from?
Where do they get their research grants? Where do they get their endowed
chairs? Most of them come from pharmaceutical companies, so they tend toward
research that would please the benefactors. Nutrient therapy is something
that might actually anger or upset their benefactors.
If you look at the medical journals, almost all of the advertising is for
pharmaceuticals, psychiatric medications. It can be hard for these editors
to accept articles that will tend to harm that industry. But eventually,
people are going to learn that nutrients and a better diet can improve their
lives.
RD: What about insurance companies? How do they factor in?
WW: Insurance companies are a natural ally of preventive medicine, and
they're getting more and more powerful in dictating what kind of medicine is
given to people. Their interest is in keeping people healthy, and not having
to pay for treating disorders or problems. So on one hand you have a very
powerful natural ally, and the other sort of a natural enemy.
RD: How does this affect the research you're doing, and your attempts to
make it public?
WW: If the work that my colleagues around the world and I are doing ever got
enough attention, if we started showing alternatives to psychiatric
medications, you can imagine what would happen to us. We're hoping to get
enough solidarity and collaborations with universities and powerful people
so they won't kill us off. I guess we haven't succeeded enough to get their
attention, but eventually, it will happen. When it does, they'll trot out
experts to say that what we're doing is hokum, because their bottom line
depends on it.
RD: They'll challenge your research.
WW: I recently developed an exploratory treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
After testing 65 people on this therapy, many of them reported part of their
memory coming back, and we have people who have stabilized for many years.
Now, there's a medication called Aricept for Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is a
disease where your brain cells just start dying off at a rapid rate. Aricept
does nothing to stop or slow the death of brain cells. It enables whatever's
left of the surviving brain to function better for a while. So you typically
get 4 to 8 months of better functioning while the brain is dying.
When we present our Alzheimer's research at a medical meeting, if it gets
any kind of publicity, I'm sure we will be attacked by the company that
produces Aricept. So far, I have not had a problem, and I'm doing everything
I can to build partnerships in the traditional medical community, such as in
universities and medical schools.
That was the mistake I made in the past. I worked with a relatively small,
unknown organization that wasn't likely to get publicized. Once, I went to
the American Psychiatric Association and presented data on what I thought
was a key understanding for autism. A number of media people came to me
afterward; someone from Reuter's asked "What university are you associated
with?" When I told him we weren't associated with a university, he said,
"Well, I'm not going to be able to publish this. It will raise too much
hope, and we don't know who you are. We can't have confidence that your
results are really legitimate."
Now I'm doing everything I can to collaborate with well-known, widely
accepted, high-quality people. The main thing is to get this out there and
get people to pay attention.
Your Brain on Food
William J. Walsh, PhD
& Fernando Gomez-Pinilla PhD
In 1972, William J. Walsh was working with ex-convicts, helping them return
to society. While conventional wisdom of the day held that childhood
influences were the main cause of behavior problems and mental illness, he
learned that many of his clients were raised alongside siblings who had
developed no law-breaking or criminal tendencies. In fact they were well
adjusted, normal people. Walsh couldn't understand, he says, "how some of
these people who did such horrible things came from nice families." He
suspected that criminal behavior had a lot to do with genetics. Murderers,
he suspected, likely had faulty brain chemistry. So he started testing
people who had committed violent acts, ex-cons, imprisoned serial killers
and mass murderers, including Charles Manson and Richard Speck. He tested
their blood, urine and tissues, and compared them to samples from normal
people. After many years of such research, Walsh discovered that indeed the
violent people did have distinct biochemical imbalances, compared to the
general population.
This set Walsh on his life-long quest for answers regarding brain chemistry
and its effect on behavior and mental illnesses such as autism, depression,
schizophrenia, ADHD, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and other
illnesses. His findings have implications for most of us because nutrients
in our diets, he has found, can have a profound effects on our moods, our
capacity to learn, and many of our mental functions.
William J. Walsh is president of the newly-created Walsh Research Institute
in Naperville Illinois. He has authored more than 200 scientific articles
and reports and been invited to speak at 28 international scientific
symposiums.
In the 1980's, Walsh founded the non-profit Health Research Institute (HRI)
and its clinical arm, the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Warrenville,
Illinois. Walsh named the center after his long-time collaborator, the late
Carl Pfeiffer, M.D., Ph.D., a physician and pharmacologist who was one of
the world's leading nutritional biochemists.
Walsh's most recent work includes: a research project on Alzheimer's disease
with Argonne National Laboratory and Louisiana State University;
collaborations with, among others, the University of Pennsylvania Medical
School, Case Western Reserve University, and Bruce Ames PhD at Children's
Hospital Oakland Research Institute.
Here, William Walsh talks to Nexus publisher Ravi Dykema about nutrients,
mental illness, genetic individuality, and the difficulty of getting
innovative research noticed my mainstream medicine.
RD: You started out studying criminals' brain chemistry. What did you
discover?
WW: We found that criminals - not all of them, but most of them - have
distinctive chemical imbalances that have a striking impact on their
behavior. We've now tested and treated more than 10,000 behavior disordered
children and adults. We've published highly successful outcome studies. The
frustration is that no one in the established field pays attention to this
kind of research. We think we have probably the best answer for reducing
crime and violence in America, yet we haven't been able to get it into the
mainstream. So now I've recently been collaborating with scientists at
universities and publishing more articles, and I'm hoping that that will get
more attention.
RD: What intervention are you using with people who have imbalances in
biochemistry?
WW: The weapons we use are strictly nutrients. Vitamins, minerals, amino
acids, and what I call natural biochemicals.
RD: Could you give us an example of what a typical regimen would look like?
WW: Let's say you are deficient in vitamin B6 because of a genetic disorder.
You need B6 in your brain because it is involved in the last synthesis step
that creates serotonin, an important neurotransmitter. If you have this
genetic disorder, you will be low in serotonin and prone to depression,
anxiety or obsessive-compulsiv e tendencies. You could take Prozac or Paxil
and get some benefits, but a more scientific approach is to simply normalize
the B6 levels. We've done this hundreds and hundreds of times with great
success.
This treatment works really well in conjunction with psychiatric medication
and counseling. It's another weapon in the arsenal of a mental health
practitioner.
I get a lot of calls from doctors, who say "I've got this patient I've been
working with for a long time. They went to your clinic, and now they're
better. Can you tell me what you did?" When I explain the testing and the
use of nutrients, about 2/3 of them lose interest. Some of them say things
like, "How can a vitamin or amino acid possibly help somebody with
schizophrenia or autism? Don't they really need a drug?"
The answer is "no." Scientists have figured out, step by step, how
neurotransmitters are formed in the brain, and they know that the raw
materials, the only ingredients for this synthesis, are nutrients: amino
acids, vitamins and minerals. Many people have genetic aberrations that
result in deficient or excessive levels of these chemical raw materials, and
it shouldn't be a surprise that they have mental health problems.
We've also learned that the greatest mischief in the brain is caused by
nutrients that are in overload. You might get a typical input from your
diet, but because of a genetic abnormality something goes wrong and you wind
up with overloads of key nutrients. That's why multiple vitamins don't work;
it's not just a matter of treating deficiencies, but also of coping with
overloads.
RD: What's one nutrient that may be in overload because of a genetic
abnormality?
WW: Copper. There's a protein in the body that has the job of getting rid of
excess copper. Imbalances in copper can cause dramatic imbalances in two key
neurotransmitters, and lead to enormous problems. For example, 68 percent of
all ADHD kids have a tendency for very high levels of copper. Excess copper
causes inattention, distractibility, anxiety and hyperactivity. It's
associated with sleep problems. This is all well known in brain science.
RD: What other problems can be caused by excess copper?
WW: We've found that nearly all women with a history of postpartum
depression have a tendency for very high copper levels in their blood. It is
especially problematic for women, because estrogen and copper are
proportionately related. If you're high in estrogen, you'll be high in
copper. Copper is also associated with an increased tendency for cancer;
that may very well be why high estrogen levels have been shown to increase
the likelihood of hormonal cancers in females.
RD: How would you treat excess copper?
WW: By normalizing a protein that removes excess copper from the body. We
slowly, gradually introduce the nutrients that stimulate the synthesis and
the functioning of that protein. People who are high in copper invariably
are zinc deficient as well, so we also slowly and gradually normalize their
zinc levels. Then the protein begins to function and, in most cases, the
copper levels return to normal. It's about a two-month procedure for most
people. If we did it very suddenly, and we gave them high doses of
everything, the excess copper would be dumped from tissues and the blood
levels would go even higher. You could see a decline in health before the
patient got better, as all the excess copper is exiting the body. So you
have to be somewhat careful with overloads.
RD: What nutrients do you use to enable the genetic synthesis of this
protein?
WW: Glutathione is helpful; also, selenium, vitamin C and vitamin E. I did
patent this therapy for autism. It seems to benefit quite a few of the
autistic kids we've seen.
RD: This is quite an involved protocol; how much would it cost a patient or
an insurance company to learn the diagnosis and undergo treatment?
WW: The cost for initial evaluation at the Pfeiffer Treatment Center is
around $1,000; it might be a couple of hundred dollars more for an autistic
patient or a schizophrenic, because there's more work involved.
There are a few places from which any doctor can order the key labs and get
them done for about $200. The challenge, however, is interpreting the lab
work, putting that together with a medical history and a review of symptoms,
and then coming up with an accurate diagnosis of the chemical imbalance and
the design of the treatment program.
But there's a tremendous amount of interest in this protocol, and more
doctors are getting trained in performing it. I was just in Australia in
April, where we trained 26 doctors, including a couple of psychiatrists.
Hundreds and hundreds of Australians are now receiving these kinds of
therapies, and I'm getting a lot of great reports. I'm scheduled to go to
Norway in November to train 30 to 35 practitioners, then to Tokyo in
January. My goal is to train 1,000 doctors in the next 10 years.
RD: Once you have the initial diagnosis, how much does the treatment regimen
cost?
WW: It varies with each person. A typical program would cost between $60 and
$100 per month, certainly a small fraction of what it would cost for typical
medications. At the high end, treatment for autistic children can be as much
as $100 to $150 per month.
RD: You said earlier that medical professionals don't seem to pay attention
to this protocol, or your results. Why?
WW: It has to do with the history of understanding and treating mental
illness in the United States. Before the 1960s, if you had clinical
depression, you would find yourself lying on a couch with a caring
psychiatrist delving into your background, trying to find out what traumatic
events or circumstances in your childhood may have caused this depression.
The feeling was, at that time, that depression was a result of life
circumstances and negative events that had happened to you.
The big revolution in mental health happened in the mid-'60s, when
scientists discovered that people with clinical depression are born with
these tendencies. It didn't take long to realize that it had to do with
brain chemistry and neurotransmitters. In the middle '70s, neuroscientists
got all excited about this, and they began focusing on neurotransmitters
like serotonin and dopamine. But if you were a psychiatrist, this was a
terrible thing. You had spent 10 years learning how to help your patients,
and then your profession comes to you and says "Sorry, everything we taught
you was wrong. These people actually have some kind of a genetically caused
chemical imbalance in their brains."
Once this was discovered, the entire medical and scientific community
shifted its focus toward drug therapy. At that time, the medications used
were things like Thorazine and Haldol and other heavy-duty drugs. Now, more
modern and effective medications with fewer side effects are available. But
the approach is still drug based, and most studies are focused on improving
drugs - finding newer and better medications.
I think a hundred years from now, people will look back on this and will
belittle the medication-based treatment approach to mental illness. The real
key to treating mentally ill people is to find out what's gone wrong,
genetically or biochemically. What's different in the molecular biology of
the brain? I think that researchers will find that, in most cases, it's a
biochemical abnormality caused by differences in genetics, and those
differences can be corrected without drugs.
We're not at that point yet, because our knowledge is not great enough. For
example, with schizophrenics, my colleagues and I urge them to stay on
medication and to also do our treatment. After 6 months or a year, most of
them say that they've been able to function far better with a combination of
the two. We have hundreds of schizophrenics who are now living normal lives,
but most of them still need some medication support, because we haven't
learned how to do it with just nutrients alone. However, other issues may be
treated by nutrients alone. For example, when we treat clinical depression,
behavior disorders, autism and ADHD, 80 percent of the families we see tell
us that they've been able to completely eliminate their medication after our
protocol.
We are not opposed to psychiatric medications; we think they're a godsend
for millions of people. However there's a more scientifically accurate and
effective way to treat people.
RD: How prevalent are some of these disorders?
WW: More than 1 percent of all Americans are schizophrenics, and 2 to 4
percent experience psychiatric psychosis episodes at least once in their
lifetime. So that's 1 out of 25 Americans right there with severe brain
chemistry imbalances. With respect to behavior disorders, the incidence of
ADHD, according to NIH, is 4.75 percent, although now they're thinking that
number may be closer to 8 percent. Roughly 1 in 12 Americans have a
biochemical brain chemistry problem called ADHD. Some studies say as many as
20 percent of all Americans suffer from clinical depression at some point in
their lifetime, and most of these cases are caused by a genetic
predisposition.
RD: What about mental illnesses that aren't caused by genetics?
WW: We've met people who have had head injuries that cause psychiatric
problems; that's not a biochemistry problem. Once in a while we've met a
person who's had such a traumatic event in their lives that they've not been
able to get over it; their chemistry is normal, yet they're depressed. One
woman we saw said she had plenty of friends, a happy marriage, a job that
she loved, and still she was horribly depressed and had been for 8 years.
Well, we found out that 8 years ago, her only child died of leukemia. That
explained why she was depressed; it was such a terrible event for her, she
couldn't get over it, even though she had normal chemistry.
But that's the exception, not the norm. I've done a lot of forensic studies
on people like Charles Manson and Richard Speck. I have data on more than
800 people in prisons, and roughly 95 percent of them suffer from
distinctive chemical imbalances that have an impact on their brain function.
This is such exciting information; I've known for so many years how to help
these people. I've given presentations in many places, to senators, to heads
of corrections departments. Everyone seems very interested and excited about
this news, but nobody ever seems to have money to pursue it. If I had a
dangerous drug that would help behavior, I think I'd have no trouble getting
support. But people have difficulty believing that nutrients can be
powerful.
RD: If nutrients have such a huge impact on our brains, perhaps the average
American diet is having an impact on behavior.
WW: That's absolutely true. For example, a person who tends toward clinical
depression may have low serotonin levels. These people would do very well on
a high-protein diet, because almost all of these people have a disposition
toward being what we call under-methylated. Methyl comes from methionine,
which is a protein in food. Methionine has a powerful effect on the amount
of serotonin that's produced in the brain. We've also learned that these
same people tend to be very low in calcium and magnesium, so a diet rich in
calcium and magnesium, as well as protein, would really help them.
Then there are people with anxiety conditions who have the opposite problem:
they have too much methyl in their systems. These people thrive on a
vegetarian diet. They're also very low in folate, so they'd do very well by
eating foods that are rich in folates, such as leafy greens and salads. Some
people have to avoid certain things; for example, a woman with a history of
postpartum depression needs to avoid any supplements containing copper,
because almost all such women have high blood levels of copper because of
genetics. They should drink bottled water, since there's an increasing
amount of copper in the water supply in the United States.
But you have to get an accurate metabolic analysis to find out what you need
to emphasize in your diet and what you need to avoid. The best diet for one
person may be the worst diet for the next person. I think that's going to be
the next major advance in nutrition and diet - formulating specialized,
individualized diets for people. You're not going to get a one-size-fits- all
diet, because of the genetic differences in human beings.
RD: We've been talking about some severe cases, like people in prison or
those with significant behavior issues. What about the average person who
may have a higher level of anxiety than is justified by their past
experiences or current lifestyle? Let's say that person is reading this and
can't get a sophisticated diagnostic process for one reason or another. Do
you have any general suggestions for a healthy diet and lifestyle?
WW: I spent a few years looking at the general population, not people who
might have a horrible problem like schizophrenia or autism. About 10 years
ago, I developed a system whereby the average person, at a cost of less than
$100, would be able to identify what their biochemical type was. Every one
of these chemical imbalances-such as methylation problems, folic acid
deficiencies or toxic metal overload - has symptoms associated with it. If
you do a careful medical history and ask the right questions, you can be
quite accurate in identifying what a person's basic biochemistry is.
We found that there were 26 sub-groups, named from A to Z. For example, I'm
a type L, which means I'm a bit obsessive/compulsiv e, and tend to be a
perfectionist; for example, when I play sports, I get overly competitive. I
was playing racquetball yesterday and in the heat of the battle, I got
whacked in the eye with a racket that left me with a big black eye. That
type L behavior is associated with under-methylation.
There are classic symptoms associated with each one of these sub-groups of
chemical imbalances. I'm hoping to include a questionnaire in my upcoming
book, so that a reader can score him or herself to get a good idea of what
nutrients he or she needs to emphasize and which ones he or she would be
better off avoiding.
RD: Let's say someone has been eating a terrible American diet of fast food
containing predominantly white flour, meat, corn, sugar and trans fats, and
switches to a really healthy diet. What changes in mental health would you
expect to see?
WW: I would expect that for people who are biochemically intact, there would
be very little change-maybe a third of the population. But another two
thirds would see a significant change after a few months.
RD: Does diet and nutrition have that kind of dramatic impact on children's
behavior?
WW: Yes, diet has a lot do to with a child's ability to learn. There's no
doubt about that. I have seen more than 6,000 children with ADD,
hyperactivity or learning disabilities, and we've seen a lot of benefit just
by straightening out their diets. Many of them also have genetic imbalances,
where they might need supplement or nutrient therapy to normalize rather
massive chemical imbalance tendencies, but the nutrition piece is critical.
And exercise and sleep are important and well, especially exercise. If you
have the right diet and you exercise, your sleep will, in most cases, be
fine. Again, there are people with genetic abnormalities who will still have
sleep problems, but for most people, many issues can be corrected by the
right balance of nutrition and exercise.
RD: So in terms of public health and treating disease, it sounds like we're
presently barking up the wrong tree.
WW: Yes, the medical system in America is allopathic. That's the number one
problem. Doctors basically sit in their offices and wait for somebody to
come to them with a problem. There's not enough preventative medicine going
on, and that's what's missing. A person shows up with a heart attack, cancer
or diabetes, and the medical profession is trained to do a beautiful job of
coping with that disaster. But they don't know how to prevent these
disorders.
Medical science has spectacularly improved outcomes in the case of physical
problems, like heart disease or broken bones. But this doesn't hold true for
mental problems; that's still a black art trying to emerge into a science.
RD: Why do you think that is? And why is it that preventive medicine and
nutrition are so foreign to our medical system?
WW: It's not how our system is set up. We have a medical system that doesn't
respect and value nutrition. Doctors today might spend two or three days in
all their years of medical training on nutrition. Research isn't focusing on
prevention; it's aimed at finding a better drug, a psychiatric medication, a
foreign molecule that can help somebody. There's nothing sinister or
collaborative in this. It's just a market-driven event. Look in any
university's medical school: where does most of their funding come from?
Where do they get their research grants? Where do they get their endowed
chairs? Most of them come from pharmaceutical companies, so they tend toward
research that would please the benefactors. Nutrient therapy is something
that might actually anger or upset their benefactors.
If you look at the medical journals, almost all of the advertising is for
pharmaceuticals, psychiatric medications. It can be hard for these editors
to accept articles that will tend to harm that industry. But eventually,
people are going to learn that nutrients and a better diet can improve their
lives.
RD: What about insurance companies? How do they factor in?
WW: Insurance companies are a natural ally of preventive medicine, and
they're getting more and more powerful in dictating what kind of medicine is
given to people. Their interest is in keeping people healthy, and not having
to pay for treating disorders or problems. So on one hand you have a very
powerful natural ally, and the other sort of a natural enemy.
RD: How does this affect the research you're doing, and your attempts to
make it public?
WW: If the work that my colleagues around the world and I are doing ever got
enough attention, if we started showing alternatives to psychiatric
medications, you can imagine what would happen to us. We're hoping to get
enough solidarity and collaborations with universities and powerful people
so they won't kill us off. I guess we haven't succeeded enough to get their
attention, but eventually, it will happen. When it does, they'll trot out
experts to say that what we're doing is hokum, because their bottom line
depends on it.
RD: They'll challenge your research.
WW: I recently developed an exploratory treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
After testing 65 people on this therapy, many of them reported part of their
memory coming back, and we have people who have stabilized for many years.
Now, there's a medication called Aricept for Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is a
disease where your brain cells just start dying off at a rapid rate. Aricept
does nothing to stop or slow the death of brain cells. It enables whatever's
left of the surviving brain to function better for a while. So you typically
get 4 to 8 months of better functioning while the brain is dying.
When we present our Alzheimer's research at a medical meeting, if it gets
any kind of publicity, I'm sure we will be attacked by the company that
produces Aricept. So far, I have not had a problem, and I'm doing everything
I can to build partnerships in the traditional medical community, such as in
universities and medical schools.
That was the mistake I made in the past. I worked with a relatively small,
unknown organization that wasn't likely to get publicized. Once, I went to
the American Psychiatric Association and presented data on what I thought
was a key understanding for autism. A number of media people came to me
afterward; someone from Reuter's asked "What university are you associated
with?" When I told him we weren't associated with a university, he said,
"Well, I'm not going to be able to publish this. It will raise too much
hope, and we don't know who you are. We can't have confidence that your
results are really legitimate."
Now I'm doing everything I can to collaborate with well-known, widely
accepted, high-quality people. The main thing is to get this out there and
get people to pay attention.
Food for Thought
Brigham Young, President of the Church, 9 October 1872
"Would you want doctors? Yes, to set bones. We should want a good surgeon for that, or to cut off a limb. But do you want doctors? For not much of anything else, let me tell you, only the traditions of the people lead them to think so; and here is a growing evil in our midst. It will be so in a little time that not a woman in all Israel will dare to have a baby unless she can have a doctor by her. I will tell you what to do, you ladies, when you find you are going to have an increase, go off into some country where you cannot call for a doctor, and see if you can keep it. I guess you will have it, and I guess it will be all right, too. Now the cry is, “Send for a doctor.” If you have a pain in the head, “Send for a doctor;” if your heel aches, “I want a doctor;” “my back aches, and I want a doctor.” The study and practice of anatomy and surgery are very good; they are mechanical, and are frequently needed. Do you not think it is necessary to give medicine sometimes? Yes, but I would rather have a wife of mine that knows what medicine to give me when I am sick, than all the professional doctors in the world. Now let me tell you about doctoring, because I am acquainted with it, and know just exactly what constitutes a good doctor in physic. It is that man or woman who, by revelation, or we may call it intuitive inspiration, is capable of administering medicine to assist the human system when it is besieged by the enemy called Disease; but if they have not that manifestation, they had better let the sick person alone. I will tell you why: I can see the faces of this congregation, but I do not see two alike: and if I could look into your nervous systems and behold the operations of disease, from the crowns of your heads to the soles of your feet, I should behold the same difference that I see in your physiognomy—there would be no two precisely alike. Doctors make experiments, and if they find a medicine that will have the desired effect on one person, they set it down that it is good for everybody, but it is not so, for upon the second person that medicine is administered to, seemingly with the same disease, it might produce death. If you do not know this, you have not had the experience that I have. I say that unless a man or woman who administers medicine to assist the human system to overcome disease, understands, and has that intuitive knowledge, by the Spirit, that such an article is good for that individual at that very time, they had better let him alone. Let the sick do without eating, take a little of something to cleanse the stomach, bowels and blood, and wait patiently, and let Nature have time to gain the advantage over the disease. . . . Ladies and gentlemen, you may take any country in the world, I do not care where you go, and if they do not employ doctors, you will find they will beat communities that employ them, all the time. Who is the real doctor? That man who knows by the Spirit of revelation what ails an individual, and by the same Spirit knows what medicine to administer. That is the real doctor, the others are quacks. [“The Order of Enoch,” reported by David W. Evans, Journal of Discourses, vol. 15 (Liverpool: Albert Carrington, 1873), pp. 225–26.]
"Would you want doctors? Yes, to set bones. We should want a good surgeon for that, or to cut off a limb. But do you want doctors? For not much of anything else, let me tell you, only the traditions of the people lead them to think so; and here is a growing evil in our midst. It will be so in a little time that not a woman in all Israel will dare to have a baby unless she can have a doctor by her. I will tell you what to do, you ladies, when you find you are going to have an increase, go off into some country where you cannot call for a doctor, and see if you can keep it. I guess you will have it, and I guess it will be all right, too. Now the cry is, “Send for a doctor.” If you have a pain in the head, “Send for a doctor;” if your heel aches, “I want a doctor;” “my back aches, and I want a doctor.” The study and practice of anatomy and surgery are very good; they are mechanical, and are frequently needed. Do you not think it is necessary to give medicine sometimes? Yes, but I would rather have a wife of mine that knows what medicine to give me when I am sick, than all the professional doctors in the world. Now let me tell you about doctoring, because I am acquainted with it, and know just exactly what constitutes a good doctor in physic. It is that man or woman who, by revelation, or we may call it intuitive inspiration, is capable of administering medicine to assist the human system when it is besieged by the enemy called Disease; but if they have not that manifestation, they had better let the sick person alone. I will tell you why: I can see the faces of this congregation, but I do not see two alike: and if I could look into your nervous systems and behold the operations of disease, from the crowns of your heads to the soles of your feet, I should behold the same difference that I see in your physiognomy—there would be no two precisely alike. Doctors make experiments, and if they find a medicine that will have the desired effect on one person, they set it down that it is good for everybody, but it is not so, for upon the second person that medicine is administered to, seemingly with the same disease, it might produce death. If you do not know this, you have not had the experience that I have. I say that unless a man or woman who administers medicine to assist the human system to overcome disease, understands, and has that intuitive knowledge, by the Spirit, that such an article is good for that individual at that very time, they had better let him alone. Let the sick do without eating, take a little of something to cleanse the stomach, bowels and blood, and wait patiently, and let Nature have time to gain the advantage over the disease. . . . Ladies and gentlemen, you may take any country in the world, I do not care where you go, and if they do not employ doctors, you will find they will beat communities that employ them, all the time. Who is the real doctor? That man who knows by the Spirit of revelation what ails an individual, and by the same Spirit knows what medicine to administer. That is the real doctor, the others are quacks. [“The Order of Enoch,” reported by David W. Evans, Journal of Discourses, vol. 15 (Liverpool: Albert Carrington, 1873), pp. 225–26.]
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Living Intentionally
"I began to understand the appeal of that old Quaker phrase "living intentionally." We were able to slow down more and more; we saw now that we didn't have to let ourselves be pushed and jostled along with the Joneses. We could take our lives into our own hands, and begin to live them meaningfully. We began to take careful stock of everything we did to see if we were doing what we really wanted to -- the kind of work we did, the parties we went to, the causes we supported, the books we read. One involvement after another fell away, replaced by something better, or not replaced at all except by a little more time, a little more peace of mind."
-Bronwen Godfrey (co-author of Laurel's Kitchen)
Living Intentionally at Homeschool Style Bites
-Bronwen Godfrey (co-author of Laurel's Kitchen)
Living Intentionally at Homeschool Style Bites
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Trip to Norfolk
The beach
The Zoo
Playing with Grandma
The best morning of Seth's life/Playing with Scott
The Zoo
Playing with Grandma
The best morning of Seth's life/Playing with Scott
Friday, October 2, 2009
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