Who Wants to Live Forever?

So, you want to become an immortal? This is a path that has been practiced by Taoist masters, sages, yogis and hermits for centuries. Is there a reason for the search for Immortality, one beyond living forever? After all, who wants to live forever without a purpose? I think that would be a terrible waste of time.

This man was said to be  256 year old. Notice the root in his hand.

Even if one ascribes to the idea of reincarnation as a path to living forever, to what end I ask?  My Tibetan Buddhist teachers taught me that this life has two primary purposes; to evolve and be helpful. 

Evolving can be sort of selfish "I want to become a Higher Being". the other more altruistic, "I want to be helpful" relieving the suffering of self and others.

But there are ways, methods, if not to cause one to live forever, to extend our lives and their quality far beyond the norm.

Before I get into offering a list of so-called super foods and herbs let me first get practical with you. Our bodies are wonderful and resilient creations, but we should not expect anything to last long when not cared for and abused.  Mindless living is the most causative factor in the development of disease and by extension a shortened life span. We must be mindful of how we live, what we eat, not only through our mouths but also via all the gates of our body; mouth, eyes, ears, nose and tongue.

We must sleep well, move well, and look upon things that bless us, inhale beauty and not noxious flumes and listen to sweet calming sounds, sounds closer to nature and less like war.  Loud, sharp noises send us into a war zone; firing up our fight flight mechanism, cause our adrenals to pour our cortisol, accelerating our heart and raising our blood pressure. All this is harmful. This state was never meant to be lived in, this state was meant to save our lives when we were prey, when we were more primitive, when men ate men, killed each other for food, mates, land (oh what’s changed?). The point is, these states of mind steal days and even years of our lives.

Concerning food. I will only offer very general rules because  everyone is in a different place health wise and some just do better on one food than another. So I suggest eating “real food” in moderation. Real food being any food you can recognizes for what it is without an ingredients label, food grown organically and to vary what you eat over time. Try to eat seasonally and foods that are native to your location. Doing so will offer balance more readily, for your body knows where it is, knows what best for it, nature knew “the people here would need to eat this”. Today it is not so, we can easily eat everything everyday or one thing forever. Please understand balance is required.  

Also please remember proteins and carbs don’t like to be severely heated. Doing so converts these very important foods into harmful denatured “products”. Heated proteins get carcinogenic due to changes in their molecular integrity; reduced digestibility and increased nitrogen waste. The reduced digestibility of cooked proteins increase the load of nitrogenous waste material reaching the colon via fermentation to ammonia and phenols – both of which are cancer promoting. Other processes just as bad occur when we super heat (BBQ, Roasting) carbs and dairy. Please treat your foods kindly, don’t change them too much. I’m not advocating a 100% Raw Diet, instead a 70% cooked diet, one that has been cooked to make the food more bioavailable but doesn’t change the food into a poison.

Being awake to all these suggestions will offer you a leg up on most westerners and at the very least a better chance of living longer and living those years well, not on six different pharmaceuticals and with a very limited ability for “enjoy" life to the fullest. Living in Florida I see too many men and women my age (66) who can’t function. They live like OLD PEOPLE. There is no need for that.

Now for the magic pills… There are none. But there are a few herbs, when taken as a tonic, that will offer you more years. Years you may not achieve without them, but please don’t make the mistake in believing you can ignore the first part of this blog and jump to the last and gain results. I promise you you’ll only harm yourself.

You can make a decoction (boil them) of these herbs and drink a small amount everyday for the rest of your life. This is not a magic pill, this is something that slowly builds you up and keeps you there.

Wild reishi, chaga and turkey tail mushroom, and he shou wu (foti) decocted in fresh clean water. Spring water is the best. This is a good start. I suggest if you are willing to do this right and long term you find a licensed and experienced herbalist to guide you. There are many other herbs that also help, but they must be prescribed only after a consultation for everything is not for everyone and what might help you may kill someone else. Be wise.

I offer reasonably priced herb consults at my office or on the phone. I’m here for you and live what I say. I’m the real deal.

Be well…gi

All Real Foods are Super Foods

All "real foods" are "super foods".  Yet depending on how we select, prepare and combine them with other foods they will either be helpful or do us harm.

Superfoods has become a catch word for the many foods and products that have come out of the health foods movement of the last twenty years. Unfortunately many of these items have been misrepresented, misused, and extremely overpriced based on overblown and ill informed or just plain deceitful marketing claims. Claims such as; heals all cancers, cures diabetes, lengthen life and extreme sexual vitality. Even when some of the claims have some truth, those offering the items do not have the education or wisdom to sell these with proper disclosure and instructions.

Many people in a quest to reap the promised benifits are taken advantage of losing both money and even their health and at the very least finding no benefit at all.

An example is Lu Rong a Chinese herb made from deer antler. Many in the raw food and health communities have picked up on this herb for it empowering abilities; strengthening the body, longevity and the sexual prowess it is said to offer, but if one would take the time to read the "Materia Medica" one would find a whole list of conditions it would aggravate, but none of these are even offered to potential buyers and the crazy prices I've seen asked are little more than a rip off.

Here's one I just found: VELVET PLATINUM — 30 ML - $240.

Seriously 30ml? I can buy a pound of velvet for $300. I find it sad and disturbing.

Even dear Dr Ann Wigmore
has been taken out of context. Her protocol of raw foods and wheat grass was meant as a healing protocol, not something to live on. The Chinese state "raw food is too cooling to the body" (just like Lu Rong is too hot for some) and will debilitate the sick if consumed too long and weaken the health, especially of the sick, weak, old or those who live in cold climates and tend to feel cold when others around them are not.

The point is all foods have their properties, hot, warm, cold, cooling, moving, stabilizing, some go up, others go down and so much more.

But for many all they require is Real Food prepared well. Real foods are the foods that can be recognized without an ingredients label. Really foods are foods that have been untouched, grown in clean earth or water without chemicals and other poisons and NOT genetically modified. 

When we change our diets from processed food to real food, learn a little about how to prepare them without killing their nutritional value; then we will find our health blossoming, maladies falling way without intervention and years, vibrant years, added to our lives.

Please don't take your advice from a post, a single article or tv show (The Dr's) or follow fads that pop up all the time. Do your due diligence. Know what your doing and eating. Your life and happiness depends on it.

If you'd like to investigate these options with me. I offers reasonably priced 30 min consults at my office or phone.

be well...gi

Dissatisfied with Things “As They Are”

My friends, I only offer what I see and what I see here in my world is all too often a society filled with human beings who are lost in their consumerism. They are trapped in an endless cycle of buying and losing. A perpetual cycle satisfied and dissatisfaction, never finding a place, a sable place, where enough is enough. A place where they can find joy in the natural course of things, of aging and falling away, even their own precious bodies.

I’m a physician. As such I have a insiders view of the motives of many who come to a doctors office for help. Yes, some come with true issues, a pathology that needs be addressed, but there are those, many, who come to have the faces and bodies reworked, trying to defeat father time, chasing down wrinkles, sucking out fat and injecting it elsewhere, etc, etc. Others who want to be sexually active in the same fashion they were in their twenties and thirties, asking for little blue pills or Chinese herb formulas to recreate the essence that has been lost to time.

This dissatisfaction with things “as they are” is a cancer. One that often takes much more than it gives. One that makes us incapable of sitting quietly and observing our lives passing with joy, in peace, and with the knowledge that “all is well” just as things are...

I'm not condemning "anti aging protocols" staying as healthy and vital posible as long as one naturally can. What I am addressing are the unnatural goals and unhealthy efforts many desire and take.

As an herbalist and practitioner of Chinese medicine I am very much aware of how to reinforce the body, to offer it more vital years and how to even bring back some things lost too soon because of abuse or neglect. This path I have no issues with because the end results can be both sustainable and not cause other issues. But many of these herbs used to return vitality are consider "hot"and these hot herbs when used in excess, for too long or in a poorly designed formula can burn up the body's fluids, one of which is blood. Having energy without blood is a short term gain and one that leads to more problems beyond aging, sometimes even death. I've heard of men ejaculating blood after misusing such herbs, not a good thing.

So what I am advising is two fold. First, try to reconcile yourself with the truth of life, that being "all things must a pass".  Second, that moderate use natural methods can return or maintain levels of vitality and appearance many lose too soon, but trying to maintain them beyond nature's boundaries is unwise and often ends in disaster. 

If you are looking for "safe help" in maintaining your vitality and good looks please don't take advice and buy products from those whose only motives are to take your money or from those with little or no medical training. If you do I promise the end will be worse than where you would have found yourself doing nothing.

If you'd like to discuss this further I offer affordable thirty minute consults on the phone or at my office. Any who know me will tell you I am a living example of what can be accomplished. 

I wish you all well… gi

The Change We Require is Found Between Our Ears

Let me begin with this statement. “Its up to us what will happened, our former thoughts, words and actions have become our present state and only new, changed, healing thoughts, words and actions will generate a new present state, one of health and the well being we all seek. Change will not occur without change.”

Our bodies have a very remarkable and wonderful innate ability to heal themselves if we simply stop doing the things that have caused the disease and then feed them the foods they require to do what they do naturally, heal.

So how do we stop doing things that cause us harm? To do so we must understand why we've done these things in the past? We all just want to be happy, we don't want to be in pain whether it be physical or emotional. Much of why we are sick today is the path we’ve taken to deal with such pain, i.e. the things we ate, smoked, drank, watched and listened to in an effort to relieve this suffering. Yes, these things do work, but just for a moment and in that moment they also accumulate in us harm. Harm to our flesh and harm to our mind. With this said we must conclude job one is to see and accept that what we must work on is our motives, why we do what we do, before we can change the actions, thoughts and words that have harmed us.

So instead of offering a diet I suggest we find a spiritual practice. A meditation that will offer us a clear view of why we do things that harm our precious body-mind and stand between us and our path to a new way of life. One that offers healing and the vital, happy life we all seek.













It's up to you what will happen....gi 

From Boot Camp to Boot Hill

Too many people believe cardio and other intense exercise programs such as Boot Camps are the answer to everything related to weight-loss, body toning, wellbeing and longevity. This is misleading and a lie.

Although cardio and strenuous exercise can be helpful (if properly done), they do nothing to slow the aging process and little to help one lose weight. Facts are they do just the opposite, they accelerate the process by generating inflammation which induces oxidative stress and reduces cellular antioxidant capacity.

Overproduced free radicals react with cell membrane fatty acids and proteins impairing their function permanently. In addition, free radicals can lead to mutation and DNA damage that can be a predisposing factor for cancer and age-related disorders.

Participating in long, frequent cardio and weight bearing sessions will break down muscle and increase the production of free radicals. These free radicals are nasty little things that damage the cells in your body and accelerate aging and, as mentioned above, may be causative in the cancer process. Frequent cardio also tends to thicken the heart walls making the heart less efficient and more likely to fail resulting in a heart attack.

But don’t be discouraged! There are ways to lose weight, grow and stay strong while increasing your years without the worry associated with the methods offered by the gyms and trainers most are using today.

Look below at this chart. How many are willing to even put in an hour and if you did what would be burned off? Not much for a lot of work. A dietary change is better advised and more effective. I often tell my patients "you cannot out exercise a poor diet.”

As a local or distance patient I will lead you to a path that will lengthen your life, add to your aesthetics and energize you so you’ll be capable of truly enjoying every moment of this blessed life.

With Care… gi 
x

Eating Right for Every Season of Your Life

Cycling...

This past year I returned to a strict Vegetarian, 60% raw diet. I lost 20 lbs in 6 months and was feeling good, but a few months ago with nothing else changing I began to injure my self doing things I could do forever, nothing big, just a lot of "little itis's." So I examined how I exercise: my form, reps, minutes, etc., did a mental review and remembered no abuse, nothing more that a few over zealous bike rides (I couldn't help myself).  Then I considered my diet might be the culprit.

The fats/oils I was receiving from it were not adequate to nourish (moisten) my body, specifically my tendons. So I gave it some thought and decided to cycle back to a diet containing raw dairy - raw cultured cow butter and raw goat milk and I am again feeling supple, no longer like a dry branch ready to snap. 

This change is a reflection of my willingness to be flexible with my diet, always eating high quality foods, but not stiff about what foods, for how long and how they are prepared.

Seasonally...



Looking back at the history of human beings on this earth offers us much information concerning the natural way of living. How in the not so distant past we ate seasonally, these seasonal foods seemed to offer what we needed when we needed it. This contrasts how we live today. 

Our ability to grow food around the world and have it available in quantity and out of season year round has caused many of us to eat not only a limited variety of foods, but to eat them year round. This habitual, rather than intuitive and seasonal eating, manifested in many issues we experience today. Things that were not so prevalent in the past are creating many internal imbalances.


Out of Season...

What do foods out of season do to and for us? Lets look at what’s grown, when, and how it works with what we are experiencing at that time of year.


In summer things coming from the earth are plentiful and most are quite cooling. In the past, watermelon (the coldest food on earth from a Chinese medical perspective) was eaten exclusively in the summer. We think of picnics, closing a meal with a big slice or adding chunks to a salad.  This makes total sense as we are hot, the weather is hot and so we eat cool/wet foods.  

In winter we would consume stored, preserved foods and meats that do not really have a season. These for the most part are cooked, nourish blood and warm the body. Again, exactly what is needed for that time of the year. Examples are ubiquitous so I’ll not offer them for now.  If you become my patient, we will investigate it all one-on-one.

Food Allergies...

The first reason we began to become “allergic” to foods few have ever had allergies to in the past is because of two factors; one being the food itself. Eating the same food everyday no matter how “good for us” overloads us with food constituents that would usually not be an issue, but because of what they are and the quantity and frequency they are consumed, reach a tipping point and create problems.



The second is the state of our digestive system. When it is unhealthy because of a flesh-based, fiberless diet, peristalsis slows or stops. We have too few complete bowel movements, our intestines weaken, stretch and become porous resulting in remnants of food entering our abdomen outside the digestive tract (Leaky Gut Syndrome). This food is then seen as "foreign material" which prompts the body to produce antibodies to attack the very food we ate for nourishment. This then manifests as allergies.

Being Wise = Being Practical...

Eating a large variety of foods at different times of the year or eating what your body calls for is always wise. You will have to educate yourself so you will be able to self evaluate. If this is not something you feel comfortable doing then find a physician who works from a natural perspective. An Acupuncturist/Herbalist, Ayurvedic Physician or Naturopath will be able to help you to understand your constitution and what foods will best help you obtain balance AND STAY THERE. 
 



All the Best...Gi

How Shall We Spend the Days of Our Life

Hello my friends... As a practicing Buddhist, yet one who is open to hearing from many sources. I am exposed to practitioners of all kinds. Some who seek knowledge via studying the dharma, the words of those who have perceived their own reality of things “as they are.” Others study little, instead perpetually dive off the springboard of the foundational truth of “space is information." They believe there is no need to learn what others know instead believe it is best to learn for oneself through communicating with space on one's pillow (in meditation).

Now it is said all is empty and everything is an illusion. That we live and swim in an impermanent soup of perception composed of a composite of all things manifest. A soup which has no reality in itself for it does not last, falls away the instant it is manifest, and as such is unreal. 

This is all good, but to what end is this information to be used, and how much of it is needed in order to live this life well and to do the work of a Buddha; an awake compassionate human being?

To think too much about something which has no fundamental reality (if you believe it is so) is a waste of our precious lives. Time might be better spent living the life of a bodhisattva (a compassionate being whose intentions and actions are aimed at relieving suffering, that of their own and others) for to know and not do has little worth, and to do without knowledge will bring little positive results. We need to find balance.

So who can answer this question of balance?  Well certainly not me for you. Instead we all have this responsibility to find balance between compassion and wisdom, doing and knowing and the quantity of time spent in these activities.  Our lives are short, our time precious, and the needs to be met great. We must generate wisdom in order to answer these question.

I encourage all who are “on their way” to use their minds, to not be like lemmings who jump to their death following what’s in front of their nose whether it be true or not because of their fear of not knowing or possibly “doing it wrong.”  

My friends once you have found your way to the silence while communing with space, trust in what arises before you, be fearless in your actions, and do good. 

Warm smiles...gi