A different health checklist

Since the start of the year, a lot of tips and health checklists have been published to enjoin us to be healthy this 2003. One of my favorite wellness practitioner Dr. Christiane Northrup proposes a different one.

A trained obstetrician/gynecologist, she is internationally known for her vision and empowerment approach to women’s health and wellness. A firm believer and advocate of the powerful role of the human spirit in creating health, she encourages women to focus more on prevention and wellness rather than cure. Through 20 years of practice, Dr. Northrup sadly observes that life-threatening, chronic, or acute illness is often the sole catalyst for significant inner growth, healing and change.

Dr. Northrup maintains that "the only way to change the system is for women and men to reclaim their inner wisdom, learn to trust what they know in their bones, and become active participants in their own healthcare ideally before problems arise." She is helping women learn how to improve their health daily by understanding that their bodies are largely a barometer of the quality of their thoughts, relationships, diet, and environment.

Dr. Northrup is author of two New York bestseller books that have both been No. 1 books at Amazon.com. Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom was #1 on Amazon.com in 1999, has been translated into 11 languages, and has sold over 1.2 million copies. The other book The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change was Amazon’s no.1 in 2001 and 2002.

Northrup observes a dramatic increase in such conditions as insomnia, anxiety, depression, allergic reactions, and infections after 9/11 and the current uncertainties about a US-led attack on Iraq. She urges though that we have more than enough power to stay healthy than we think we do. She listed the attitude and habits that will create positive health daily:

1. Put strict limits on your news consumption. Many people admit that they’ve become addicted to the news. The media is good at saying the same thing every 20 minutes or so, but making it sound a little different each time to keep you "hooked." It is also the media’s job to keep your interest. Reporters do this by focusing on the worst and most unusual stories they can find. The risk of immune system depression (and enhanced susceptibility to illness) from staying glued to TV news has been well-documented. Dr. David McClellan at Harvard, for example, studied the immune systems of medical students after they watched movies of war and found that their immune systems (measured as salivary IgA) significantly dropped.

2. Resolve to live your life as normally and as joyfully as possible instead of waiting until the outside world changes. This is the only way to achieve biochemical balance. Our bodies were designed to stay in states of "fight or flight" only for short periods of time – just enough time to run away from danger. When we stay on hyper-alert for hours, days, or weeks, we’re subjecting our bodies to prolonged levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Over time, this results in all the well-known side effects that you see when someone is on prednisone: Excess body fat, water retention, thinning skin, increased susceptibility to infection, decreased muscle mass, and thinning bones. That’s too high a price to pay for conditions outside yourself that you can do little to change.

3. Don’t feel guilty for allowing yourself to feel hope, happiness, or joy. Staying positive and healthy doesn’t mean denying what’s going on. Instead, it means that you’ll actually have something of value to contribute to any situation that may arise. It’s easy to remain positive. Look at all the profoundly moving things that have happened since September 11th: The national and global unity that makes us truly feel as though we are all one planet – a feeling that enhances immune system functioning.

4. Use prayer, meditation, and visualization to increase your energy and tap your inherent positive creative power. This helps you and everybody else. Here’s why: Thoughts have a tendency to become their physical equivalent – in other words, all events begin first as energy, and then they become physical – not the other way around. In fact, French physicist Bernard D’Espagnat once said, "The doctrine that the world is made up of objects whose existence is independent on human consciousness turns out to be in conflict with quantum mechanics and with the facts established by experiment." The great physicist Max Planck supported this when he said, "I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as a derivative of consciousness." Dozens of studies have documented the fact that our thoughts do, in fact, impact others. Over 180 studies on prayer show that this form of thought has a positive effect on plants, humans, and even yeast cells.

Here’s what this all means and why it’s so critical to understand right now. When you are tuned in to your inner wisdom, higher self, or God in whatever way you understand God, your energy lightens up – your vibration literally changes. And this lifting of energy also helps others rise as well. You know the old saying: When the tide rises, all boats are lifted. It’s the same with energy. When we raise our energy through concentrating on those things that are positive and joyful, we raise the energy of everyone. Not only that, we connect more fully with our Divine Guidance – which provides intuitive answers and solutions to our concerns.

Here are some other suggestions that I’ve personally found very helpful:

1. Continue to exercise, eat well, and take care of your precious self – your own life and health are the parts of the planet that you can influence the most positively and directly.

2. Use immune-system-enhancing supplements:

Though many different herbs and vitamins, such as garlic and vitamin C, positively affect the immune system, there are two herbal preparations that I’ve found especially helpful at this time. One is known as Samento, which is a very rare form of the Peruvian medicinal plant commonly known as Cat’s Claw. Samento is a much more biologically effective type of Cat’s Claw that has a remarkable ability to help restore immune system function. Samento works by enhancing the immune system directly. Usual dose is 1-4 extra-strength capsules per day for two to three weeks. After that, use one capsule per day of the maintenance strength.

Kan Jang is a combination of Chinese herbs that have been shown to decrease the incidence of colds. Dose is two tablets in the morning and two at night, the minute you start coming down with a cold. Many people take it daily during the winter months to prevent colds in the first place. This herb has helped hundreds of people with sinusitis and chronic upper respiratory infections. I carry samples in my purse and hand them out to friends all the time.

3. Take a moment to uplift yourself and the world by imagining that there is a ray of light spreading to the entire planet and back out into the universe – enveloping all of us with clarity, peace, love, and joy. Imagine this ray of light illuminating all the dark places on the planet – whether they be caves in Afghanistan or dark areas in human hearts. Imagine the spirits of all of those who died in attacks assisting us from the other side, just a thin veil away, letting us know that they are okay and that we can still be in contact with them simply by thinking about them and sending them our blessings.

Know that the Light is always more powerful than the Dark, and that those of us who are attuned to the light are infinitely more powerful and effective than those who are in the dark.

4. Finally, cultivate inner peace. See yourself as a source of peace. Radiate that peace outward to your family, town, place of business, and to the whole planet as you go forth each morning. And send that peace forward into your dreams as you lie down to sleep each night.

Joy, peace, hope, faith, love and optimism – these may just be the prescriptions we need to fill our homes and lives with to ward off depression, stress, and disease. Surely, trying out this health checklist (with the exception of the two supplements Dr. Northrup recommended) will not cost a cent and may spell a big difference in the quality of our lives!

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E-mail: mylene@goldsgymmanila.com for comments and questions.