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Aging Consciously

By Namaste Staff Writer

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen.

The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, "Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I recommend it highly."

The other man said, "What is the name of the restaurant?"

The first man thought and thought, then finally said, "What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know, the one that's red and has thorns."

"Do you mean a rose?"

"Yes, that's the one," replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchen

and yelled, "Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?"

In our culture, it’s just assumed that when most of us age, we will begin losing our faculties, especially our ability to remember. Loss of health and mental faculties have come to be equated with aging.

But loss of mental acuity and severely declining bodily health do not automatically go hand-in-hand with aging. There are too many examples of people who simply grow old and wear out, dying peacefully instead of in a decrepit condition.

It doesn’t seem to occur to many in western society that what we do with our bodies and minds our whole life long tends to affect how we spend our later years. The way we have eaten for decades, used or not used our minds, exercised and in other ways cared for our physical bodies has a huge impact on how we will pass the last five, ten, or fifteen years of life.

The “golden” years are often a miserable experience for people. Right when they have accumulated enough resources, and have the time, to participate in some of their favorite activities, they find themselves greatly restricted in their ability to enjoy their days. I am watching this happen to an elderly friend of mine right now, and it deeply saddens me to see someone who so enjoys life no longer able to do so much of what she wants to do. But for most of us, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Ron Garner’s book Conscious Health is quite different from most other books about health, in that it takes a wholistic approach to just about every area of our daily lives that have an impact on our health. In fact, Ron shows that there isn’t any area of life that doesn’t affect our health.

Instead of offering quick fixes, this book asks us to consider every aspect of our lives—from the way our food is grown, how it is prepared, and the kinds of food we eat, to our outlook on life, how we think, our beliefs, and whether we are being true to ourselves in the way we live or simply fitting in with the expectations of others.

The body works synergistically. That is, all the parts affect each other. Which means that you can’t pop mega doses of vitamins without upsetting the balance of specific chemicals in the body, any more than you can go around complaining about the way your day is without undermining the sense of well-being that is the foundation of health. You can’t shower in chlorinated water, then buy bottled water to avoid chlorine, and think you are benefiting your body. You can’t make fresh vegetable juice, then nuke your dinner, and expect to feel tip-top.

Ron doesn’t ask us to follow his personal health regimen, because each person’s body is unique in some respects. Instead, he shares his experiences of discovering his individual health needs, and he illustrates how we can become conscious so that we make wise decisions for our particular makeup, metabolic type, and life situation.

Conscious Health is a book you’ll not just read, it’s a book you’ll keep close at hand and go back to again and again. It’s a vital key to taking charge of every aspect of your entire life.

Live consciously, in full awareness of all that you are and all that you participate in each day, and you may just find that you can remember your partner’s name in old age.

A Dash of Dining

By Namaste Staff Writer

Do you realize that you have a different relationship to food and beverages from the people you share meals with? This is because the way we each learned to eat took place in a different constellation of physical and emotional influences.

One of the important events in my day, just about every day, is dinner time. It was this way in my childhood. It helped that my grandparents and parents were grocers, which fostered an intimate relationship with food.

These were the days before everything was canned or shrink-wrapped. I understood where meat came from because I visited the farmer with my father. Unlike many city kids, I knew how a dairy was run. And I regularly accompanied dad to the mill where the stream turned the millstones that ground the wheat.

Mom prepared dinner each evening, everything made from scratch. Pies––savory and sweet––casseroles, homemade dumplings. But mom wasn’t the only cook in our house. Dad baked bread, and I have vivid memories of it rising in large bowls with damp tea towels over them on the hearth in front of the fireplace.

If our relationship to food is individual, so is our talent for cooking. For some, it comes naturally. It’s that way for my son. He has a flare for it—the ideal combination of spices, the perfect degree of doneness.

For me, learning to cook didn’t come easily. In the movie Mrs Doubtfire, Robin Williams is divorced by his wife. So when the kids come to visit, he has to provide them with a meal. I roared with laughter when I saw this movie because I was once a Mrs Doubtfire. Though I remember many hours passed messily in the kitchen as a child, as my brother and I mixed flour and water in imitation of mom, I emerged into adulthood unable even to boil an egg and get it right­­—the white was either not done, or I cremated it because I got distracted and it boiled dry.

These days dinner guests occasionally say to me, “I could never have you to my home, I couldn’t cook like this.” Amazingly, they are in fact complimenting me. What a transformation a person is capable of experiencing if they are open!

But I think the comment about not having me to their home misses what preparing a meal is all about. Preparing food ought to be a form of self-expression, and fun, not a means of impressing each other.

So I’ve learned to laugh at my Yorkshire puddings when they don’t rise and turn out like hockey putts. Like the first time Helen Hayes cooked turkey for her family, she gave fair warning as she went into the kitchen to ready it for serving. “If it isn’t right,” she said, “I don’t want anybody to say a word. We’ll just get up from the table, without comment, and go down to the hotel for dinner.” When she returned, she found the family seated at the dinner table, wearing their hats and coats.

When we are striving to impress, we undercut the enjoyment of preparing food. Ego generates tension, replacing the flow of pure pleasure. Once in the mindset of impressing someone, we lose what dining is all about.

For me, dining is an exercise in being present in the now, celebrating the wonder of life, enjoying rather than rushing through things. Taking time out each day to dine healthily and heartily is a means of de-stressing. To savor the food instead of inhaling it before you race off to some event—to share dinner time for fun, romance, and relaxation—goes hand-in-hand with a more wholistic lifestyle, a lifestyle of which we in fast-paced western countries are sorely in need.

It’s not more neon signs for fast food that our cities and towns need, it’s a home-cooked, wholesome dinners at the dining table, and more great cookouts with friends.

When there’s more than one of you, dining is an opportunity to reconnect with each other after the hectic pace of the day. It’s a way to touch each other’s hearts, look into each other’s eyes, perhaps with soft candlelight instead of the fluorescents of the office, and share your joys and your concerns. Creativity, connection, conviviality—these are the fruit of a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner at which you dine instead of dash.

Eating, then, is about more than satisfying hunger, more than physical nourishment. A conscious approach to eating means that, as far as possible, you grow food, prepare food, and eat food in a manner that caters to the hunger of the soul.

For me, this is reflected in my devotion to organically produced foods. The extra that organic foods cost are a vote for my health, and a way of caring for the earth by poisoning it as little as possible.

Fresh, wholesome produce tantalizes my palate come evening. From being a person who once hated cooking, I’ve become someone for whom chopping and seasoning is a good way to unwind after the day—a therapy rather than a chore.

Some have remarked, “You mean you cook for just one every night?” I feel like looking around and asking, “Do you see anyone else?” It’s like when you go to a restaurant and the maitre d’ asks, “Just one?”

I hear people say, “It seems pointless to cook for one.” They find fixing dinner for just themselves a lonely experience. But Thomas Merton once said that “a person who fears to be alone, will never be anything but lonely.”

What do you do if it causes you to feel anxious to prepare and eat dinner alone?

There’s a part of us that’s able to step back from our anxieties and watch them from a distance. This part of you that can watch yourself is a deeper you that knows no fear. It’s the you that cannot help but love yourself, nurture yourself. So if you become anxious about eating dinner alone, and you start telling yourself how awful it is, simply become an observer of such thoughts—and amazingly they dissipate. (You can learn more about how to do this from several of our Namaste Publishing books, CDs, and DVDs, found on this website—especially The Presence Process, The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, and A New Earth.)

We are talking about eating consciously, instead of just going through the motions. The ability to savor food and hold an awareness of our connection to the earth is a barometer of personal development.

In your own unique style, invest time in dining. You may opt to barbecue, or go out to eat, or take a picnic to the beach or the park. One of you may prefer to cook, and one clean up. But whatever your style, savor the entire eating experience.

Become conscious about every aspect of your body and its health. To help you, we offer a wonderful book, Ron Garner’s Conscious Health. It’s about far more than vitamins and minerals. It’s a wholistic approach to life.

Your Daily Dairy Diet

By Namaste Staff Writer

When I was in elementary school in England, our 15-minute break at 11 AM each morning began with the handing out of half-pint bottles of milk, which had been delivered fresh in crates that very morning. The milk was free, and its consumption mandatory, part of a government program to ensure that children received adequate nutrition for their growing bodies.

I never liked milk. All those years, I forced myself to drink it. But I wasnÕt allowed to listen to my body back then.

It turns out that, while we are told continually that "milk is good for you," most milk isn't all that good for us after all.

Today, I do drink milk, and enjoy it, about a quarter pint a day. But it is a very different kind of milk than comes from most supermarkets. It's also different from the pasteurized milk that was forced down me as a child. The milk I'm referring to is raw, unpasteurized, non-homogenized. It is also from cows that graze in fields that have never been treated with chemical fertilizers.

I find myself thriving on organic, grass-fed, raw, untreated milk. Mostly, I consume it in the form of kefir. It is whole milk, with all the cream present, and it is fermented. Sometimes, I add a handful of fresh, organically grown blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries into the mix, according to what is seasonal.

The internet is making more and more wholesome products available to us. You can buy raw, grass-fed cheese online in a number of flavors. You can buy whey powder that's been produced healthily. You can find a cow-share program and have a supply of healthy milk.

Contrary to all the hoopla about drinking your "pint of milk a day," pasteurized milk isn't good for us. The pasteurization process destroys enzymes, which renders the milk acid-formingÑand we already get far too much acid-forming food. Plus, pasteurized dairy products form an over-abundance of mucus. Also, dairy is highly concentrated protein, which we can have too much of once we stop growing.

Even good dairy needs to be balanced with lots of alkali-forming raw vegetables. If most of your food is coming in the form of packages and cans from supermarket shelves, you are setting yourself up for illness, especially in the later years of life.

Also, some are allergic to dairy. It's important to watch for signs of this in infants and children especially. Although it can be difficult to diagnose the difference between milk allergies and lactose intolerance, symptoms can include: irritability or colic, upset stomach, vomiting, gagging, refusing food, loose stools possibly containing blood, wheezing, and skin rashes.

Ron Garner's book Conscious Health is enormously helpful because it teaches you to investigate for yourself to take responsibility for what you put in your mouth. A great deal of what is promoted as "good" for us simply isn't. With Conscious Health, you'll discover how to make wise choices for yourself and your family.

An Eggsample of Misinformation

by Namaste Publishing Staff

Quite a few years ago I bought an electric egg cooker, because I enjoy both boiled and poached eggs. It was in the shape of a hen, sat on my counter, and worked well for a time. Its ability to cook eggs with a firm white and soft center was so much more reliable than plunging the eggs into water that, when it wore out, I went out and bought another. The new model was in the shape of an egg. A few days ago, it too burned out.

So I scoured the kitchen shops, and in process of seeking a new egg cooker got into a conversation about eggs.

“I always cook my eggs hard boiled,” said one of the staff.

“I eat the white,” said another, “and throw out the yolk.”

“Why do you throw out the yolk?” I quizzed.

“Oh, all that cholesterol,” the person explained. “I don’t want to get cholesterol into my arteries. That’s why I never eat the yolk.”

Cholesterol has been big news for the past several decades, and eggs got a large slice of the blame for clogged arteries. This is why, throughout North America, you can find “eggbeater” breakfast offerings at restaurants, billed as “reduced cholesterol.”

As for cooking at home, recipes advise that we can “reduce the number of fat-filled egg yolks in baked goods” by substituting two egg whites for one whole egg. Alternatively, there are those low-cholesterol powdered or frozen egg substitutes. Or, says the advertising, you can buy a drug that blocks the absorption of cholesterol and eat your eggs anyway.

Whichever of the choices above you elect, you’ll be shortchanging your health. That’s because eggs were jumped on unjustly as a cause of heart disease, the result of faulty research. If you test powdered eggs that have been oxidized, you’ll certainly come up with a bad reading! Many industrially-modified foods are harmful to the body.

You may be surprised to learn that in a book packed with over 450 pages of information, health researcher Ron Garner devotes only two pages to the bugaboo of cholesterol. That’s it—two pages. Conscious Health, you see, isn’t backed by research carried out by people with a profit in mind, and it doesn’t focus on the latest fad as a “cause” or “cure.” It takes a wholistic approach to health.

The body needs cholesterol, and when it doesn’t receive an adequate amount from your diet, it manufactures it. Cholesterol is a key ingredient in health—especially the health of your brain.

You don’t want too much cholesterol. Gallstones, for example, contain a lot of cholesterol combined with calcium salts. But the reason people get gallstones isn’t a simple matter of eating too many eggs. It’s because their diet is overly acid-producing instead of tipped slightly in favor of alkali-producing foods. (If you want to learn how to alkalinize your body for better health, it’s covered extensively in Conscious Health.)

Eggs can be a regular part of an overall balanced diet, in which lots of fresh vegetables are eaten, and they can be consumed both raw and lightly cooked. They are a nearly perfect source of protein.

But it’s a matter of how the eggs are produced, and how they are prepared. If you are eating regular store-bought eggs, from hens in cages, you are not getting the healthy kind of egg that you get when an egg is produced by hens running around in a field. You are receiving a lot of chemicals fed to hens that exist in continuously stressed conditions—hens that amount to nothing but laying machines.

You’ll want to buy organic eggs at the very least. But even more preferable, find a local supply of eggs from hens raised outdoors on pasture, and not given chemicalized feed. If you can’t find local eggs, you can buy pastured eggs online (simply type “pastured eggs” into Google, for instance).

Eggs from a healthy supply can be eaten raw if you like them this way. Generally, the less cooked foods are, the better they are for us. But healthily-raised hard boiled eggs, while not as nutritionally available to the body, are not harmful as part of an overall healthy diet that contains a good proportion of raw plant foods to sweep excess cholesterol from the body.

It’s vital not to allow eggs to oxidize. Once you crack an egg, eat or cook it immediately. When the yellow starts to darken from standing, it’s oxidizing—just like an apple does if you leave it sitting out after you cut into it. Oxidized egg yolks are not healthy.

Eggs that are naturally raised and untampered with—which leaves out the packaged kinds on supermarket shelves—will serve your body’s needs well when combined with a wholesome diet of the kind recommended in Conscious Health.

Out With the Trans Fats?

By Namaste Staff Writer

McDonalds has announced that it is switching from cooking oil that contains trans fats to a an oil that doesn’t. The move was initially to comply with a New York law that prohibits the use of trans fats. In light of the fact that more cities are considering banning trans fats, McDonalds has chosen to gradually phase the new oil in nationally.

Wendy’s already switched from hydrogenated fat to a blend of corn oil and soy oil, which has zero trans fats. Taco Bell has also switched, among others. McDonalds will use a blend of canola oil that also contains corn and soy oils.

All of this is meant to reassure us that eating fast foods is okay. We are assured that the chains are “watching out for our health.”

Trans-fatty acids have been useful to the fast foods industry because they have a long shelf life. But the U.S. government now says there is no safe level of trans fats. They are known to promote heart disease.

But are the new oils particularly healthy? And, even if they are free of trans fats when cold, are they still free of trans fats after being heated to high temperatures?

There are other problems with the oils that are now replacing the hydrogenated fats that are known to be so harmful.

When oils are refined, as most cooking oils are, they lose nutrients. When they are heated to high temperatures, they form chemicals, such as acrylamides, that can be harmful—even cancer-causing. And when they become rancid, they introduce large numbers of damaging free radicals into the body.

Fries may well be one of the most damaging “foods” a person can put in his or her body. No only are the fats harmful, insulin levels are adversely affected. There’s simply nothing redeeming about such a diet.

It’s also the case that the Western diet generally contains an imbalance of Omega 6 fats and needs to be balanced by a lessening of vegetable oil consumption and an increase in Omega 3 fats.

There are times when you will want to fry. Rather than using canola, corn, soy, safflower and other polyunsaturated oils for cooking—which contain high amounts of Omega 6—it’s preferable to opt for coconut oil. At low temperatures, olive oil is a good oil to use. But when heated to high temperature, it too becomes harmful. Coconut oil remains stable even at high cooking temperatures.

Coconut oil should be organic, virgin, and unrefined. You can find such oil in your local health food store or order it online. There are many misleading myths about coconut oil, but it is a highly beneficial oil. Some have found that they can lessen or even eliminate thyroid medications by regular consumption of coconut oil.

Butter is also useful for sautéing food. Raw, organic butter, now available online, is your best choice.

Avoid the “fast” variety and eat real foods.

Feeling Healthy

by Namaste Publishing Staff

Thanks to tireless research, people who are willing to think in new ways, and those who have the ability to bring together our best minds to pool their insights, there is a growing awareness of the connection between an individual’s health and emotional and social factors.

We are increasingly realizing that our mental state, coupled with our social environment, cannot be ignored when seeking the causes and treatment of disease. In recognition of this link, the nonprofit Heal Breast Cancer Foundation is granting awards to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to this aspect of health research.

In Beverly Hills on February 22, a gala evening will honor seven individuals for their work. One of these is the Namaste author Eckhart Tolle, whose book The Power of Now has enabled people worldwide to bring stillness and calm into their lives.

The link between emotional, social, and biological factors in health is highlighted by another Namaste publication, Ron Garner’s Conscious Health. Fifty pages of this insightful book address the issue of our beliefs and feelings, and how they help make us either well or sick.

Dietary information, medical examinations, and the advice of health professionals are aspects of what it takes to be healthy, but they are not the whole picture. Becoming conscious of the link between the state of your mind and social life, and the state of your health, is also a key factor in being well.

For instance, if you are not living authentically, so that your days don’t reflect who you really are, you are harming your health. If you hold beliefs that have a negative, fear-generating impact, you are harming your health. If you tell yourself all kinds of self-limiting statements, you are harming your health.

When we live our lives in a condition of resentment or resistance, as so many do, this damages the body’s ability to function optimally. On the other hand, when life is lived with gratitude and thankfulness, every cell of the body is nourished. This is because cells don’t simply work in a mechanical manner but respond to the emotional and social environment in which they are immersed.

A negative flow of emotions disrupts the functioning of cells. They are literally bathed in the harmful chemicals such emotions trigger. In an average human body there are something like 100 trillion cells. Yet, when you experience negative emotions, the effect in the body is all but universal. Many of the cells that are the building blocks of life are instantly affected by detrimental emotions. And all it takes to trigger such emotions is the wrong kind of thought or a disempowering conversation!

What we say, and how we say it, affects our health by sending a chemical surge throughout the body. How we feel affects our health. The social situation in which we live and work affects our health. Research is showing us that these aspects of everyday life are far more powerful than we have imagined and work to undo our dietary and exercise efforts when we don’t attend to them.

Conscious Health is a powerful book not simply because of the health information it contains, but more especially because it will help you to begin listening to your own body. It will show you how to pay attention to what your body is saying to you so that you can take charge of your wellbeing.

What’s right for one isn’t necessarily right for another. There’s no “one size fits all.” But as you become conscious—aware—of all that goes into the makings of your health, you can tailor your lifestyle for your unique makeup.

We are deeply grateful for Eckhart Tolle and the wonderful insights he shares with us in The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, A New Earth, and his many DVDs, which can be found on the Namaste Publishing website.

We are also grateful for Michael Brown’s The Presence Process, another amazing tool to help us become calm, peaceful, and in tune with our deepest selves.

These wonderful gifts work in a beautiful synergy with the wealth of helpful information Ron Garner shares with us in Conscious Health.

Light and Dark

by Namaste Publishing Staff

“Stay out of the sun,” we’ve been warned for a generation or more now. The sun is blamed for skin cancer, especially the deadly melanoma.

Recent research has been throwing a little light on the topic of sunlight, however—and it doesn’t conform to the traditional advice.

The fact is, we need sunlight, and we need it in its unfiltered form, unblocked by suntan lotions. Apart from the fact that lotions can be harmful because they can be toxic and are absorbed through the skin, they block out the vital light that is actually a preventative against many cancers.

There’s a difference between tanning for the sake of appearance, and getting enough sun to promote health. Says health researcher Ron Garner in his book Conscious Health, “Moderate exposure of skin to the sun is healthful in many ways, but must not be overdone.” You don’t want to burn your skin.

Ron suggests the use of hemp oil if you have had sufficient exposure and need protection. This oil has a natural protective factor of 15. It’s also beneficial to the body.

Vitamin D is emerging as a major weapon in the arsenal of anticancer agencies. Sunlight is the best source to obtain this vitamin. But if you receive an inadequate supply of light, in Conscious Health Ron shows how you can supplement through diet.

Just as we need sunlight each day, we also need complete darkness at night. Our bodies manufacture melatonin at night, which is a known cancer preventative, as well as performing many other restorative tasks. We also rest more deeply in a truly dark room.

But it seems that in the modern home, achieving a completely dark sleeping environment can be difficult and requires a little effort. Clocks, computers, night lights, skylights, stray light through an inadequately curtained window—all of these disrupt the body’s rest and lessen the benefits derived from sleep. Cover sources of light or pull plugs out of electrical sockets so that your room is dark. Especially don’t leave your computer running with a screensaver if it’s in your sleeping quarters.

If you have children, it may be a challenge to get them to sleep in a completely dark room because we have become so accustomed to artificial light in our culture. But especially during the first two years of life, light at night is known to damage an infant’s eyesight. Gradually lowering the lights over a period of days or weeks is an approach that may work, until the room is dark.

It’s also a good practice to begin lowering the lights as the evening moves toward bedtime, signaling to your own body that it is approaching the time for sleep.

It’s especially important, if you are a shift worker, to ensure that when you are asleep during the daytime, your room is thoroughly darkened. The body’s circadian rhythms are governed by light.

Light and dark—we need both. But in today’s society, we too often receive neither in uncompromised form. So enjoy the sun in moderation, and turn out those artificial lights at night. Light and dark are important factors in promoting good health and the ability to function well.

Is it Allergy, Flu or Cold?

By Namaste Publishing Staff


At the bank, the teller had the sniffles. We both agreed that colds are no fun. I guessed that she’d rather be home resting, but decongestants can keep a person going at a time like this.

In the sort of society we have created, it’s not that simple to rest your body when you might sense it really needs it, as it is in some cultures. In a lot of jobs, you’re expected to show up at work unless you are at death’s door. It’s expected that you’ll dose yourself up with medications to keep you going.

What’s good for the workplace isn’t necessarily good for the body, however. Allergies, flu and colds are indications that all isn’t well and our health needs to be attended to.

A few days later when I again visited the bank, the teller was still experiencing congestion. “I think it’s allergies,” she said.
Another of the tellers had similar symptoms. “Mine, too,” she said. “Allergies.”

How do you know whether it’s an allergy, the flu, or a cold? There are some telltale signs.

An allergy tends to come on quickly. You’ve moved into the presence of something your body reacts to, and it’s not long before your nasal passages are letting you know. An itching throat, nose and ears are also probable symptoms.

The flu also attacks suddenly. The first symptoms are likely to be tiredness, aches and pains, and a headache. You just start to feel awful. In some cases, there may be sneezing and a nasal discharge. A bad cough is almost a cert. You may also have a high temperature for several days. The feeling of weakness and exhaustion that comes with the flu may even continue for two or three weeks.

Unlike the rapid onset of an allergy or the flu, a cold usually takes a few days to develop. It might begin with a sore throat, or with a cough. Or you find your nose beginning to run. The symptoms then intensify into a thick discharge, possibly combined with a mild fever. You just don’t feel yourself.

Knowing which of the three you have makes a difference to how you treat the symptoms. And that’s what most do—treat the symptoms. How else are you going to keep your job? After all, the bank can’t just close because its tellers are sick, can they?

Whether it’s allergies, a cold or the flu, it’s important to recognize that all three point to a need for changes in how you take care of your health. They are indicators that your immune system is in a weakened condition.

Consider allergies. Contrary to what most believe, Ron Garner states in his book Conscious Health, “Allergies are not caused by pollen, animal hair, dust, insect stings, or this and that food. In certain individuals, these substances may cause the body to trigger reactions. But, they are not the reason that the body is reacting.”

Surprised?

Ron explains that most who have allergies have inefficient digestive systems, and their bodies have been subject to an overload of toxins. A buildup of wastes in the body then weakens organs and glands.

Here’s how it works. “Normally, the adrenal glands increase body metabolism in response to any harmful substance that enters the blood, in order to remove it via the liver, kidneys, lungs, and skin. When these organs are overloaded and the adrenal glands fatigued, the body must resort to the backup system of an allergic response. Allergens are removed via mucus membranes, the skin, or the colon with diarrhea.”

In other words, allergic reactions are the body’s alert system. They tell us that it is struggling to survive because we are in a worn down, toxic state.

Another surprise. Colds are not caught from other people! Yet almost everyone believes they are. In Conscious Health, Ron explains why it seems like they are, and what the real causes are. He also shows you how to work with your body when a cold develops, so that the cold benefits you.

As with allergies and colds, the flu is also an attempt by the body to cleanse itself—only in the case of flu, a virus is also present.

The worst thing we can do, then, when suffering from an allergy, cold or the flu is to keep right on going as if nothing of any real significance were happening—all the while suppressing the symptoms with even more toxic substances.

In Conscious Health, you’ll learn how to work with the body’s survival mechanisms. Simple things you can do are able to restore you to a healthy state, with a strong immune system.

When allergies, colds or flu strike, it’s not just accidental. It’s not just something that happens inadvertently. It’s your body’s alarm system going off. Responding appropriately can save you.

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The Winter Blues

In our culture, anxiety is rampant, and there's a fair slice of depression too. January is especially a time when people prone to anxiety and depression struggle. The lack of sunshine in the northern hemisphere contributes to the feeling of discomfort.

If you are challenged by anxiety or depression, there are practical steps you can take to help yourself and in some cases you may experience a dramatic improvement.

Much research indicates that omega 3 oils are a powerful antidote. Cod liver oil, and especially krill oil, are particularly good sources. They also provide vitamin D, which our bodies can't manufacture without exposure to adequate sunshine. And, with modern production methods, they don't taste fishy. They are also available in capsule form for those who wish to avoid the taste or texture altogether.

Another way of easing distress is to increase the ratio of alkalinity to acidity in your body. The majority of foods eaten in Western society are acid-forming. But the body prefers a slightly alkaline state. When there is a severe imbalance, anxiety is a common response.

In his book Conscious Health, Ron Garner shows how to increase your level of alkalinity.

One thing you can do is begin taking raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar and unprocessed sea salt. Many salts labeled sea salt are processed, but a salt such as Celtic salt is superb. It can be purchased from some health foods stores or online (e.g. www.celticseasalt.com). Conscious Health explains how this will benefit you.

Another key is to increase your intake of vegetables, most of which are alkalinizing. Juicing celery, cucumber, and other greens can help accomplish this.

It's also important to become aware of the impact of estrogen mimics in your diet. Fatigue, depression, irritability, and mood swings are common reactions to phytoestrogens, along with many other symptoms. Conscious Health tells you how to avoid these damaging chemicals. You'll be surprised how common they have become on our dinner tables.

An overgrowth of yeast (candida) in the body is also not helpful. It can contribute to mental and emotional problems. Why yeast increases, and what to do about it, are addressed in Conscious Health.

Says Ron Garner, the only way out of the problem is through it. When it comes to anxiety and depression, you can mask them with drugs, but you cannot eliminate them overnight.

While there is no instant fix, you can do much to help yourself in quite a short space of time. Conscious Health details how you can put your body into a healing crisis, and then build on a firm foundation by changing your approach to your health. As you do this you will realize that health is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice when you understand what your body requires in order to produce real and lasting health.

Of Mice and Men

It’s long been obvious to many who struggle with overweight that human bodies are not all the same. Some stay slim with little or no effort, whereas others gain weight even while trying to lose.

It’s tempting when faced with a bulging body to turn to drugs. But a new study from Canada, conducted by the University of Alberta Hospital, says that data on the safety of weight loss drugs is too limited, especially where their impact on the cardiovascular system is concerned.

In the three weight loss drug categories—appetite control, regulation of diabetes, and restriction of the absorption of fat—a variety of side effects have been observed, ranging from raised blood pressure to altered mood. Yet, despite such risks, it’s expected more and more will turn to drugs to control weight as the epidemic of obesity grows.

Along with the publication of the six-year Canadian study comes news of experiments with mice that may have an impact on the human obesity epidemic.

Scientists genetically altered a mouse to make it slim. Not only does it eat less, it has a higher metabolic rate, producing a body weight that’s only 75% that of a typical mouse.

Weight loss is big business, and science is throwing its huge weight behind research that will lead to genetic and drug therapies to control obesity. How safe some of these newer therapies will prove to be when they finally reach the market will not be apparent for some years.

In other research with mice, just released, obesity has been linked to bacteria in the gut. The study also looked at the human gut. In both mice and humans, overweight was accompanied by the presence of about 20% more bacteria from the family of firmicutes. At the same time, bacteroidetes were present in far greater numbers in both mice and humans with normal weight.

Interestingly, the bacteroidete count increased as people lost weight, while the firmicutes decreased in population. But when firmicutes were transplanted into mice with normal weight, they began putting on fat.

It’s apparent that the bacterial population of the gut has a lot to do with how well the human body functions. Digestion plays a key role in what goes on in every corner of our bodies.

As with most health issues, it’s crucial to recognize that the body is a complex organism that works synergistically. This is why Ron Garner’s book Conscious Health is an invaluable tool not only for weight loss, but also for correcting many of the diseases of modern society.

It’s not only the amount of food we put in our mouths that affects our weight, nor even just the type of food. It’s also how the food was produced. Many of our food sources are affected by agricultural practices that distort the food to the point that it may be harmful to health instead of nutritious. Ron Garner alerts us to what’s beneficial and what’s detrimental.

Additionally, we are all faced with toxic overload from the widespread use of chemicals in our environment. Phytoestrogens, for example, are abundant in modern society. Mimicking the effects of estrogen, they can cause a range of health problems, including weight gain. Yet even some of the plastics in which our water and food are delivered, particularly some of the plastics that are not clear, release phytoestrogens.

A variety of factors play into the problem of weight gain, and Ron Garner offers us ways to help the body function optimally, minimizing such problems. There’s an especially insightful section about the digestive system, which will help you promote the health of your gut. Simple steps like adding probiotics to your diet can make a world of difference.

Conscious Health doesn’t ask us to become fanatical about our health, but it does ask us to educate ourselves in some basic knowledge that can spare us a great deal of suffering and even save lives.

Conscious Health reads easily for the layperson, even though it presents a wealth of well-researched information. It’s a book everyone should have on their bookshelves.