EXERCISE

Research indicates that over 45 million adults in the United States are overweight. In the Commonwealth of Kentucky over 63% are overweight, and 33% of those are obese! You are considered overweight if you weigh 10 pounds more that you should or have a Body Mass Index greater than 27; and are obese if you weight 30 pounds more than you should with a BMI over 30. One is considered to be morbidly obese if he weights 75 pounds more that he should.
Exercise helps the flow of oxygen to the cells, organs and tissues of the body. Exercise moves the lymph through the lymph system. Exercise strengthens the muscles, bones, ligaments and tendons in the body. Without proper exercise the body loses its tone and strength, gains excess weight, and will deteriorate very quickly. Without sufficient exercise cells become weak, toxins accumulate, arteries clog, and heart, lungs and other internal organs begin to die.
There are two basic types of exercise that everyone needs, aerobic and resistance. Aerobic is anything that helps to increase the intake of oxygen. Walking, jogging, swimming, singing or doing deep breathing are some examples of this. Resistance exercise is any type that requires the muscles to expend more energy than normal. Going against the force of gravity is the resistance that causes the muscles to grow and be strengthened. You can do isotonic exercises in a doorway by pushing out and up against the door frame or pushing against a wall. You can do isometric exercises sitting in a chair by grasping hands and trying to pull them apart.
To exercise does not require a large outlay of money. You can use what you have in your house. For resistance exercises begin with a can of vegetables, or jug of water. Walk around your yard or street. Run in place. The main thing is to begin doing something! A resolution to exercise more is useless if not implemented!

AIR WE BREATHE

The air we breathe is composed of approximately 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. The first and most important need a child has when it is born is oxygen. That need remains the same for the rest of his life. It has been said that we can live without food for about 40 days, and without water for 4 days and without oxygen for 4 minutes.
The air we breathe needs to be pure, free of pollution. In our world today the air is often polluted with chemicals. The air in our homes is polluted by the chemicals we use to clean or the chemicals in the carpet and materials that have been used to construct the house.
The air we breathe has several functions in the body, among them is energy. The more oxygen available to your cells, the more energy you will have. Yawning is a mechanism that the body uses to self-regulate the intake of oxygen for sleep or upon waking up in the morning.
Deep breathing brings in copious amounts of oxygen and allows the body to release stress. The oxygen brought in by deep breathing helps the heart and other vital organs regulate themselves.
Without sufficient oxygen a person will have foggy thinking, weakness, and tiredness, and if the lungs are not functioning properly, eventually carbon dioxide poisoning.
So get to it! Exercise, walk, jog get the oxygen flowing!

WATER AND MORE WATER

Approximately 70% of the body is water therefore we know that it has many uses in the body. It helps to dilute the toxins and to flush them out of the system. It helps to down regulate high blood pressure. It helps purify the skin. Along with fiber it helps to regulate bowel movements. One can only live a few days without it.

Most Americans are dehydrated! I have had many people tell me that they do not like water. It often times shows in the wrinkling of the skin or constipation. How much water should you be drinking? Take your weight and divide it by two and drink that many ounces of water per day. I encourage people to drink distilled water which has a PH value of 7 which is neutral. If one is very acidic then you might want to add some minerals to it to raise the PH value into the alkaline level.

Water does a body good! Drink it throughout the day and stay healthy!

LIVING FOOD

What is living food? It is vegetables and fruit that have life in them. They may be cooked with low heat or raw, but they have not had the life destroyed. Vitamins, minerals, fats and amino acids are intact in living food. Living food gives the body what it needs to sustain life and enables it to fight off disease.
Living foods are complete foods. They contain carbohydrates, protein, water, fiber and enzymes also. All of these are in balance and in the right proportions that a body needs. Because they are complete foods, our bodies need to eat less to be satisfied.
Living foods are more alkaline than dead foods. The body must keep the blood's PH at 7.365 or as close to it as possible. If we eat foods that are acidic our body has to buffer that acid by taking alkaline substances, such as potassium, calcium, magnesium or sodium from other parts of the body to keep the PH of the blood where it needs to be. All food leaves either an acid or alkaline ash effect in the body. Just like burning wood leaves an ash behind, so does the metabolizing of food. The ash left in the body has an acid or alkaline effect on the organs and systems of the body. Raising the PH level of your body will assist your immune system in fighting off bacteria, viruses, fungi, and degenerative illnesses. All meats leave an acid ash in the body! All vegetables leave an alkaline ash while some fruits leave an acid ash and some leave an alkaline ash.
The solution for pollution is dilution! Drink lots of water to flush the acid ash out of your body. Take your body weight, divide it by two and drink that many ounces of water per day. More about this in an upcoming post.

Dead Food

We do not get energy from all foods, we only get energy from the foods that have energy in them. Certain man made foods, such as creme puffs and donuts, have no energy in them. They are items that have had chemicals thrown together and have no life in them. Or if genuine food is cooked at too high heat for too long it kills it, many of the nutrients in the food are dead and you get very little, if anything, from the food. A good example of this is pasteurized milk. Milk is pasteurized at 145 degrees to kill all the pathogens in it. It also destroys the vitamins, such as vitamin D, and proteins in it. As a result many people have allergic reactions to the protein casein, and the milk companies have to add back vitamin D and other ingredients.
Sometimes real food is destroyed by the preservatives and other chemicals that have been added. Most food from a fast food restaurant is dead food. French fries, hamburgers, hotdogs, pretzels and ice cream are all dead.
Dead foods to avoid: refined sugar, table salt, white flour, alcohol, soft drinks, caffeine, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, genetically modified foods and irradiated foods.
What can I eat? Real food such as vegetables and fruits. More about these next time.

VITAMIN D ANYONE?

If adults and adolescents regularly avoid sunlight exposure, research indicates a necessity to supplement with at least 5,000 I.U. of vitamin D3 daily. To obtain this amount from milk one would need to consume 50 glasses. With a multivitamin more than 10 tablets would be necessary. Neither is advisable. The skin produces approximately 10,000 I.U. in response 20-30 minutes of summer sun exposure - 50 times more than the US government's recommendation of 200 I.U. per day!
There are 3 ways for adults to ensure adequate levels of vitamin D:

• regularly receive midday sun exposure in the late spring, summer, and early fall, exposing as much of the skin as possible (being careful to never burn).
  
• regular use of a sun bed (avoiding sunburn) during the colder months.
• take 5,000 I.U. per day for 2-3 months, then obtain a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test. Adjust your dosage so that blood levels are between 50-80 ng/ml. year round.

John Jacob Cannell MD Executive Director VITAMIN D COUNCIL

Suppressing the Immune System

Many prescription drugs suppress the immune system. The reason they do is to allow them to work like they are designed to work. Our bodies recognize what is natural from what is synthetic. Natural substances will be accepted by the body with little or no resistance. Synthetic substances are recognized as foreign and the immune system will fight against it. So when a synthetic medicine or food is taken in, the body does what it can to keep that substance from doing harm. The pharmaceutical companies know this so they put things in their medicines to suppress the immune system. In affect, they are trying to counter what the body does on its' own. Your best bet is to eat natural, unprocessed foods that the body will recognize and accept. And to take supplements, and medicines that are from whole food, natural substances.