Main Causes Of Death

Well, ain't this blog a downer!  After all, who wants to think about the  top three main causes of death.  Unfortunately, when I saw this list the other day in a class I took, I was kind of shocked.

Maybe you're not as shocked as I am.

In fact, as I look at this list, I'm thinking to myself that many of them could probably be altered.  In a way, it feels like they are something we can do something about in this country.

Yet, why do we not do the things that we need to do to make ourselves truly more healthy?

Top three main causes of death

1. Heart Disease
2. Cancer
3. Medical Errors

Before reading any further, take a look at the list again. 

Let it sink in for a few moments.

Heart Disease

Heart Disease is something that can be impacted I think by lifestyle and healing those rough experiences in your life.  If you don't eat right and push garbage into your body, you're only going to get garbage out in the way of disease, illness and in this case, heart disease.

There are far too many broken hearts out there and hearts that have had to endure far too much pain.  In fact, if you read the ACE study, you'll see how past experiences and trauma physically impact the body.  Take a look at an earlier blog post I wrote on "The Bomb In The Brain" for more details.

The point is, there are things that we can do and change in our daily life that will impact our body in a positive way.  We only have one heart and if we beat the crap out of it every day of our lives, can we expect any different result?

If we are living a sedentary lifestyle with no activity, a poor diet, and not dealing with things in our life, we're just setting ourselves up for this ultimate cause of death.

You may want to read Jeff's article on The Truth About Sugar and Heart Disease.

Cancer

Next up is Cancer.  We had a personal loss in our family with this one and it is not easy to watch someone go through it.  Cancer is growing to alarming rates.  When I was a kid, it was something you heard people getting every now and then.  Now, it seems as if everyone knows someone with cancer or who died from cancer.

While I realize a lot of research is still going into this, there are lifestyle things that we can do to change it.  Again, if you fail to take care of your body and your mind, you are just setting yourself up for failure and disease at some point in the future.

One of the last things a family member said to me before she passed away was to cut down on sugar.  I have been trying to do that, but I also know that some of the stuff that goes in our food is no more healthy than sugar.  If you're not reading the labels on what you buy at the store or paying attention to what you eat in restaurants, you're walking into a mine field.

What we are doing in this country is not working and in order to change things, we need to change our approach.  I don't believe taking more medications is the answer.  This is my personal opinion and belief.   I believe there are other ways to take care of ourselves that are natural, not for the profits of a pharmaceutical industry.

Each day, we do our smoothies made from fresh and whole vegetables and fruits found in our local grocery store.  We blend it up and it helps not only digestion, but we just don't get flu and colds like we once did.  No, I do not buy into the flu vaccinations either.  I do natural stuff instead and even if I pick up a little virus, usually by the next day, it is improving.  We have seen remarkable effects of doing these smoothies and I would urge you to read my blog post on "Healing Diseases With Smoothies"

Medical Errors

The last one up on the list is medical errors. This one shocks and horrifies me, especially knowing just how addicted we are these day to surgeries and procedures.  I know that in Florida as a Licensed Massage Therapist, we are required to take CEU's on medical errors to renew our licenses.  I'm sure most of the medical professional in this state are required to do that as well.  I'm not sure what other states require.  Obviously the training is not working!

Just think about this for a moment.  Someone's death has been caused by a medical error and it is the third leading cause of death.  It is mind blowing to me.  I can't even begin to comprehend this.  Yet, we are looking for surgeries and procedures to help save us from ourselves.  Take a look at Dr. John Sarno's book, The Mind Body Prescription. It is mind blowing some of his pioneering discoveries that are still being ignored to this day.

Instead of taking care of ourselves and realizing that we are in control of our health, not our doctors, we're opting for surgeries and procedures that are putting us at risk of death through medical errors.  Does that make sense to anyone?  Perhaps, there is a different way we should be doing things with our health?

Health Care System

We are reaching a critical mass period I think in our health care system.  No, it is not the fault of some politician or some company or whatever it is you may feel.  It is the result of each one of us not taking care of ourselves and being so numb and disconnected to our body, that we don't see what is happening until it is too late.

Our body sends us messages, but more often than not, we don't hear the messages and even if we do, we don't listen.  We push our bodies beyond the limits.  We put garbage into them expecting them to just balance and keep going.  We allow the food industry to entice us with healthy stuff and then eat as if there is no tomorrow.  We sit at our computers and in front of our video games and TV, hoping that a trip to the refrigerator for another beer or more food will be all the exercise and activity we need.

Surely we can do better as humans.  Surely, our brains know much more than this.  Each one of us has a much greater impact on our health than we realize or even care to think about in a day.  We just know that we've got health insurance and our doctor will give us a pill or a surgery or a procedure to make us all better.  Unfortunately, we're living in an illusion.

It is up to each one of us to choose how we will live our life and what we will do to our mind and body.  If we choose wisely, it has good benefits.  If we continue to make poor choices, than we may become another statistic in the main causes of death.

#Health

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Is The Food You Eat Killing You?

I know at one time, I never really worried about what I ate.  In fact, I doubt I even understood what good nutrition was.  I grew up in a home that had a big garden and so we enjoyed fresh vegetables much of the year or even canned produce through the winter.  I didn't realize for a long time that vegetables came from the store.

Unfortunately beyond that, we didn't practice good nutritional eating skills in the house I grew up in.  We didn't have an overabundance of candy or soft drinks, but we had plenty of cookies and other things.  Until I got sick in high school, much of our food was fried or cooked in ways that weren't healthy.

I'm glad we didn't have all the candy that there is on the shelves today.  I'm glad we didn't have the sugar flavored coffees and endless supplies of junk food.  Heck, I'm grateful we didn't have "normal food you now buy" that is so adulterated with foodstuffs and ingredients which in my view, are not healthy.  The food manufacturing industry wasn't quite as toxic as it is today.

Consume far too much sugar...

These days, everyone consumes far too much sugar.  In fact, if people really stopped to look at how much sugar they consume in their day, maybe they would wake up.  Maybe you're one of those people like I was that didn't pay attention to this.  Don't just assume that the products you buy or the things you eat don't have added sugar.

Most people barely eat whole foods in a day.  They miss out on the phytochemicals, the enzymes and the raw vitamins and minerals.  They miss out on the live stuff that helps fuel the body and keep it healthy.  The whole foods helps counteract some of the junk that we stuff into our body.  Every day, we do a whole food smoothie and you can read about it in my blog post at Making Whole Healthy Food Smoothies.

Sure, you may have gotten this far in life and have no health issues that you know of at this moment.  The more junk and sugar and non-whole food stuff that you consume, the more you're taking on a risk that could get life threatening.  It really can.  Just observe the increase in cancer and diabetes and other health ailments.  So many of these things can be prevented or reduced, but once we get past that point of no return, then we play havoc with our lives.

Start paying attention to what you eat...

If you want to change the course of things in your life and really take care of your body, then start paying attention to what you eat.  Know what is in the stuff you consume.  Read the labels.  Take notice of it.

Make little changes each day.  Trying to change all at once can be overwhelming, but make it a goal that you replace something that is junk or full of sugar with something that is more healthy.  Replace soft drinks and coffee with pure water, not some adulterated sugar flavored beverage that claims to be healthy.

Start making yourself whole healthy food smoothies using a Blentec Blender.  I will tell you that this has been one of the best things we ever did.  We don't get sick and we don't do flu shots.  We have a much more responsive and healthy digestive system.  We feel better and don't need to go to the doctor constantly for everything.  Whole food smoothies are nature's medicine.  If you truly care about your body, you will strongly consider doing this.

Take an inventory of what is in your cupboard and look at all the sugar amounts plus other ingredients.  Now, I do realize the food manufacturers try to hide some of the ingredients and there are some I don't think they actually list on products.  Be careful when reading the labels, because sometimes they are very tricky.  Get to know what you consume.

We've only got one body in this lifetime.  If we abuse it, it will try to keep up for a time. If we continue abusing our body, it will not be there for us.  Minor changes in what you eat can make big differences.  We all owe it to ourselves to be the healthiest we can be and we owe it to the ever increasing costs of health care to try to help ourselves, rather then just sit back and let our food kill us.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Toxic Vegetables For Sale

As I saw the sign above the produce, I gasped with frustration and anger.  After all I was shopping for some healthy vegetables in Publix.  When I looked up, I was greeted with a sign that said, "these fruits and vegetables are coated with Food-Grade Vegetable Petroleum Beeswax and/or Lac Resin-Based Wax or Resin".

Oh, so delicious!  Give me some more of that stuff.  I like eating unnatural stuff on the healthy vegetables that the earth provides.  Yes, I love "petroleum" based products on my nice raw vegetables.  After all, that's the way they were created on earth to be consumed.  I'm sure they come out of the ground that way.

I know, I know, the reason for this is to help the shelf life.  I know, I know, these products have all been tested on lab rats to be 100% safe or that's what they tell us at least.  Poor rats!  I'm sure the food companies all have our best interests in mind when they add this stuff and they would never dare do something that would harm us.  The food companies would never do that to us.  Excuse me for a moment.... cough,,   cough,,,  sputter....

I Will Miss You Crystal

I kept saying, one of these days I need to get back to Miami and stop and see her.  After all, she had become a friend to me ever since I went to Educating Hands School Of Massage.  Time and distance had taken my life to a different location.  I figured, though, there was always tomorrow.  There was always plenty of time.

Last night, I found out my friend had gone to be with the angels after a long battle with cancer.  My heart is heavy and the tears keep welling up in my eyes.  No, I'm not sad she is now out of pain, but I am sad because I will miss her.

Crystal accepted me with open arms.  In a time when I had just lost my own mom to a tragic car accident and I was coming to terms with being gay, she just accepted me.  She treated me as if I was a normal person, deserving love and respect.  She treated me as a friend and a valued member of society, as if this was the only way to treat other people.

Prevent Cancer With Aspirn

Here we go again!  The latest rage in the news is that to prevent cancer, one must take aspirin daily.  Yep, the silver bullet, the magic potion that will make everything better.  Do I sound sarcastic?  Most likely I am because that is the way I feel when I see these "medical treatments' reported and regurgitated in the media as if there is no tomorrow.  No one considers the harmful long term effects of this practice, only the immediate hope to alleviate the fears of cancer.

Of course, you may be saying, but what if this truly works?  You may have a good and valid point.  However, why is it that we gravitate towards some type of medication we can take rather than taking an inventory of our life and how we live each day.  Ahhh, please teacher, I know the answer - pick me, pick me!  Could it be that instead of really getting to know our life, it is easier to just take the magic pill or potion that will make everything fine in our life.   It requires no effort on our part to get to know our body and learn how to take care of our body.

Okay, before I get carried away here in my sarcasm, let me make something crystal clear.  I'm not turning my nose up to medical discoveries, but I am challenging the status quo about what medicine really is and what health means to our body.  We fall for the slick marketing campaigns of the drug marketers instead of using our vast brain cells to really think and become aware.

Modern Medical Paradigms

An Apple A Day
www.womenspost.ca

In an article, An Apple A Day, by Andrea Zeelie, posted on womenspost.ca, I have to take issue with the author's conclusion.  While Andrea Zeelie does post some relevant pieces of information and discussion points, I feel that her own paradigms limit her conclusions. 

Like so many others on the internet, the name of Steve Jobs is being used in all types of articles and websites as if everyone knows Steve Jobs personally.  I realize that this is how the internet world works, but I don't agree that this is what is always best for our society and culture.  Of course history will render its verdict after years have elapsed.

On to the article and important stuff - Andrea Zeelie claims that if Steve Jobs would have listened to the medical establishment and followed normal procedure, that he would most likely still be alive today.  In her claims, alternative medicine does little to heal people unlike the practices of modern medicine.  This is exactly what is missing in this world when it comes to health care.  We burrow down in our own area of expertise and claim that anything outside of that will do very little to help heal the body.  When we go to our respective corners of our own beliefs, we limit the potential of the human race.  Unfortunately, far too many do not even comprehend that they operate from a set of derived beliefs rather than a truth based system.

Infographic Alternative Therapy Resource For Cancer

Click To Learn More

Via: Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance 

Note:  I was contacted by Jackie Clark about an Infographic that she created in regards to alternative therapy for cancer.  It was well done and I felt like it truly fit up here on this blog.  The following article is written by her and I hope it is very helpful to all that read it.

By Jackie Clark - The effects of mesothelioma and other kinds of cancers can be very painful and debilitating for patients. Traditional cancer treatments can unfortunately be just as harsh thanks to side effects such as muscle weakness, fatigue, nausea and difficulty sleeping. It is for this reason that more and more doctors are recommending alternative treatments such as Reiki and acupuncture to help cancer patients relieve some of their symptoms. These treatments are by no means meant to be a cure for mesothelioma or any other type of cancer, but by relieving some of the symptoms of the disease and its treatments they can improve a patient's quality of life. This is known as palliative therapy, and it can really make a big difference in the recovery of a cancer survivor.

Cancer Linked to Childhood Vaccines

Most likely, we've all heard the controversy of vaccines. On the side of the pharmaceutical companies, the claims prove how beneficial they are. On the other side, parents and natural living people claims how deadly they are.

Just recently, the media did an all out blitz on Andrew Wakefield, saying all of his research with autism was a fraud. Of course, it is important to note that because of some of his research and findings, that the pharmaceutical manufacturers were seeing vaccine sales drop by as much as 70%. There was big money being lost and even though I have absolutely no way to prove it, in the back of my mind, I can't help but wonder if this was not an orchestrated attempt to smear Andrew Wakefield to help turn the tide of vaccine revenues. I hope I'm wrong, but it is my gut feeling.

Anyway, I saw another article come along where a leading vaccine doctor has stated that 60 lab studies now confirm cancer link to a vaccine you probably had as a child. Keep in mind that this doctor is Dr. Maurice Hilleman, the developer of Merck's vaccine program. Dr. Maurice Hilleman developed over three dozen vaccines, more than any other scientist in history.

He was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Science, the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He received a special lifetime achievement award from the World Health Organization. Hilleman was one of the early vaccine pioneers to warn about the possibility that simian viruses might contaminate vaccines.

For the video interview with Dr. Maurice Hilleman, click on the following YouTube video.


The source of this information is from Mercola.com and here are some further comments made on this website by Dr. Mercola in response to vaccines.

1) As of December 13, 2010, there have been 20,915 adverse reactions to Gardasil that theoretically guards against cervical cancer in young girls. Evidence of new research suggests that under certain circumstances, the vaccine increases risk of precancerous lesions by nearly 45%. In 2009, the FDA approved Gardasil for use on young boys and in September [2010] a young boy died just eight days after being vaccinated with Gardasil.

2) In 2002, the Lancet journal published evidence that contaminated polio vaccine was responsible for up to half of the 55,000 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cases occurring each year. In 1994, Dr. Michele Carborne, a researcher at Loyola University, found the virus, SV40 (which you see talked about in the video). SV40 is a cancer causing monkey virus which had never before been detected in humans. Since then, 60 different lab studies have confirmed that SV40 has been found in a variety of human cancers. At first no one could fathom how the virus had been transmitted to humans but in the uncensored video, Dr. Maurice Hilleman admits Merck's responsibility in unleashing this virus via their polio vaccine, as well as the likelihood that there was an importing and spreading the AIDS virus in the same manner.


Of course, I cannot verify or deny any of the findings that are printed on this website. You have to decide for yourself if any of this is possible and if it is plausible. Some days there is misinformation on both sides and that makes it difficult to sort through facts and truth versus fiction. Hearing an actual doctor that developed vaccines for Merck, it does influence my thinking. As a child, I got all the vaccines that were required. So am I at risk? Possibly I am. However, I don't live my life worrying about the risks.

All I want to do with this particular blog post is put the information out there and let everyone decide for themselves what to believe and what they wish not to believe. I want people to be more informed before making medical decisions for themselves and their children because the more information we have, the better decisions we can make. In the words of one TV channel, the more you know, the better off you are! Don't just take the medical establishment's word that everything they tell you to take is what you need to do. Question it, research it and check it out. See if there are any other ways that you can help yourself before just accepting the standard medical cures of the day.


Sources of Information:

1) Mercola.com 60 Lab Studies Now Confirm Cancer Link to a Vaccine
2) YouTube Video - Dr. Confesses Cancer Virus in Vaccine
3) CNN Health - Dr. Sanjay Gupta - HPV Vaccine For Boys
4) PR Log.org - Abortion Stillbirth Events from HPV Gardasil
5) Dr. Andrew Wakefield - Callous Disregard: Autism And Vaccines




Blog Post & Images (c) 2/21/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Most Diseases Are Reversible With Food

Did you know that most diseases are reversible with food? According to Jeff Primack, from QiRevolution.com, he has developed Food Based Healing Smoothies that have helped many people.

Just attempting to eat healthy is not enough because so often we either process, freeze or mutilate our food to the point of losing so many of the important nutrients, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Just because we eat frozen vegetables or processed foods with healthy things in it, does not mean we are eating healthy.

Fruits and Vegetables contain naturally occurring photochemicals which Jeff calls, the spark plugs of the immune system. Humans do not generally get enough of them. Phytochemicals hide in the cellulose fibers of seeds, stems, skins and rinds of the fruits and vegetables we eat.

When is the last time you ate the entire apple including the seeds, stems, and apple peelings? Do you realize that the best part of the apple is in the seeds, stems and skin? Or you ate an avocado with including the seed and shell? What about the cucumbers that you buy in the store where you normally peel off the skin and eat the inside? (granted a waxed cucumber is probably not the best thing and our food industry is determined to wax every cucumber sold or charge outrageous prices for ones they don't). Just think of the fruits and vegetables you eat and how much of the "good stuff" of these do you throw away?

What Jeff Primack teaches, is how to make a smoothie using a high powered blender (found on Amazon - Blendtec TB-621) and dumping in all the fabulous phytochemical rich foods. We've been doing this for almost two years and not only does it really (and I mean really) help digestion, but we don't get the colds and flu like everyone else is getting. In fact, I overheard a conversation the other week about how these two people had been through two or three rounds of a cold and flu and it was almost foreign to me what they were talking about. If I feel anything like a cold or flu coming on, the smoothie usually knocks it out so quick that whatever was hitting me comes and goes within a day at the most.

At first, I wasn't sure if I could drink the smoothies. They taste good but sometimes you get ingredients that have off flavors and then it makes it hard to drink the smoothie. Once I got accustomed to it, I really don't mind it at all. It is part of our routine in the morning and we have gotten the prep work down to a science now so that it is not hard to prepare the stuff to put it in the blender. Our biggest problem is living in an area where produce in the stores is sometimes difficult to find. Sad that this happens, but it is true so it makes it a challenge at times.

There are so many nutritional things out there from Green Drink Mixes to Juice Plus to NingXia Red to Healthy Chocolate and so many other things. I know all these places have their research and their success stories and so on and so forth. I'm happy for them. However, when you have to start spending considerable money each month on a processed product that you can only buy from certain places or through some Multilevel Marketing (MLM) system, the questions in my mind run over each other trying to get answered! Sorry, but I'm just not into buying a product that someone claims and regurgitates the claims that it is the best thing since oxygen was discovered!

With the smoothies, I am using natural food that I can buy at my local market or I can grow on my own. I put it in a blender for a couple of minutes and drink it. That is all the processing there is. There is no heating and cooling and pressing into a pill or powder. There is no freezing or bottling and letting it sit in a warehouse or on a truck. There is no wondering what is truly in the product because I can see with my eyes and with my hands, just what is going into what I am consuming.

Even if phytochemcials are not something I specifically know about, it is not hard for me to understand how eating whole, natural and fresh fruits and vegetables is very healthy for a person. We've all been taught that we need to eat our veggies, so it is not difficult to understand how beneficial this is. If you're skeptical, than why not put it to the test? What do you have to lose? After all, I don't make any more money telling you about this if you do it or you don't do it. I'm just passing along something that I do and have had very positive benefits from.

Here are some examples of specific foods for specific diseases.

Kiwi - Helps to reverse Asthma
Avocado: Helps reverse heart disease, plaque in arteries and losing weight
Asparagus: Naturally Reverse Cancer & Detoxification
Bitter Melon: Naturally Reverse Diabetes and Improve Blood Sugar
Reishi: For Reversing Heart Disease, Chest Pains, Asthma & Depression
Maca: For Energy, Better Sex, Menopause, Fertility

Take a moment to look at Jeff's website along with the videos that he has put up on YouTube. It will explain much more and will give you further insight into the healing smoothies. If you want to get the smoothie formula book that I use, see the image link below to purchase this on Amazon.


Further Reading
1) Food Based Healing And Smoothies
2) Smoothies, A Year Later
3) Qi Revolution - Jeff Primack
4) Food Based Healing Introduction

Blog Post & Images (c) 2/20/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

Asparagus the Cancer Fighter

According to Jeff Primack of Qigong.com, Asparagus has more Gluthathione than any other food. Gluthathione is a phytochemical that helps with detoxification of the body.

While you can receive injections of Gluathathione, it has been suggested that better results are obtained by eating asparagus.


According to Wikipedia, Gluathathione has the following functions:

1) It is the major endogenous antioxidant produced by the cells, participating directly in the neutralization of free radicals and reactive oxygen compounds, as well as maintaining exogenous antioxidants such as vitamins C and E in their reduced (active) forms. Note: Endogenous antioxidants are antioxidants that are made by our bodies versus exogenous antioxidants that we get by eating antioxidant rich foods.

2) Regulation of the nitric oxide cycle, which is critical for life

3) It detoxifies many foreign compounds and carcinogens, including heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic.

4) It is essential for the immune system to exert its full potential

Jeff Primack's action strategy for cancer is to boost the immune system and detoxify the body. He suggests lightly steaming asparagus rather than eating it raw. The cancer strategy he uses calls for eating asparagus every day in addition to other foods that are high in phytochemicals.

For more information on Phytochemicals, see my blog post on May 14, 2009.


Blog Post & Images (c) 12/14/10 Don Shetterly - use by permission only

Glucose and Fructose

According to an article published by Reuters and found on the website, rawstory.com, corn byproduct fructose literally fuels cancer cell growth a recent study finds. A team at the University of California, Los Angeles published their findings in the Journal of Cancer Research. The specific study or publication this research is in was not stated in the article so it is hard to verify any of these claims.

One quote from this article sort of sums up what the article is all about. Please read the entire article for the full context of this quote and all other information.

The industry has also argued that sugar is sugar.

Heaney said his team found otherwise. They grew pancreatic cancer cells in lab dishes and fed them both glucose and fructose.

Tumor cells thrive on sugar but they used the fructose to proliferate. "Importantly, fructose and glucose metabolism are quite different," Heaney's team wrote.

Food Based Healing & Smoothies

In May, I went to a Qigong Seminar at the Orlando Convention Center put on by Jeff Primack from the Supreme Science Qigong Center. It was a great seminar and one particular part of it was about food based healing. I will be honest in saying that sometimes I'm a little skeptical about these food based healing/nutritional programs. There are just too many out there claiming that their nutrition concepts and their products are by far the best thing since oxygen was created. With that said, this presentation was not "radical" statements but more down to earth, logically conceived thoughts. So it had my attention. We had considered "juicing" and "juice plus" and the "green drink" before this but were not completely sold on the concept of these things. Plus they were processed products being sold by some company that was getting rich off the concept. I really have a problem with that when it comes to my health.

If you go to qigong.com you will see much of the information that he presented in the seminar on this topic. In a nutshell, it is taking vegetables, fruits and herbs with the use of a high powered 3 hp blender to make smoothies. As he explained, this is not the same thing as juicing or taking supplements or other products. By using raw vegetables, fruits and herbs intact, you get the most benefit because of the phytochemicals that are located within the skins, stems, seeds, etc. The parts that most in our society discard as waste is where the true health benefits of these food items are located. Juicing removes these things and so while you are getting fresh juice, you're missing out on some of the greatest naturally occurring compounds for healthy living. Even all of these supplements, health candies and foods and all the other products on the market, do not have what you can find in raw foods. Processing does nothing positive to foods and so with the 3 hp blender, you're able to keep the foods intact but masticated enough where your body can easily and quickly digest them. I know I'm glossing over the fine details here but if you go to the link at the beginning of the paragraph, you'll see the details behind what I'm saying.

One of the biggest things that got everyone's attention towards the end and had people hysterically laughing was when he said if you do the smoothies every day, you will have big bowel movements (increased digestion). Amongst the gasps in the audience, he assured people that this was a good thing because it removes toxins from our body. Someone asked him how long that took, and he said when he first started doing the smoothies, it was the very next day. We found the same to be true basically. You do not necessarily need to go out and purchase things like Activia to do what natural foods from the grocery store can do for you.

Another thing he shared was that in his smoothie recipe book, there are many recipes that help people recover from all kinds of health conditions. Not only does it help but many people have reversed cancer, diabetes, heart conditions, and so on. I have no way to prove that but he has stated that many people have shared with him how the smoothies not only helped them but it reversed these serious conditions.

The thing I like about this is I am not buying some supplement that has been processed from someone that is getting rich from me. There is just too much of that out there and every time I see it, my eyebrows raise a few feet in the air. There are many claims made and there are many getting rich off of those claims. I have tried these things too and again, I'll just ask that you really and truly consider the "marketing" of these so called cures.

The smoothies are simple. It is pretty simple to cut things up and prepare. We use a recipe that is just for general health and includes the following items - cucumber, avocado, beet, fuji apple, corn, strawberries, lime, cilantro, rosemary, basil, mint, Goji berries, distilled water. Of course if you want the exact amounts, the recipe and more information can be found in the Smoothie Formulas book by Jeff Primack. Almost all of these products we buy in our local grocery store so it isn't like we have to purchase anything real expensive from any one person. The Goji berries are the only thing we have to go to a health store to buy.

Like I said, it isn't easy to prepare this and only takes a few minutes. We purchased the Blendtec 3 hp blender which isn't cheap but it grinds all of this up into a smoothie. Most regular blenders just wouldn't have the power to do that. We drink around 20 ounces of it a day or sometimes more depending upon the quantity made that day.

When we considered doing this, I thought I was going to not want to eat anything else after drinking that much smoothie. I was surprised that within a short time, I am hungry and have a strong desire to eat. This may be due to the fact that the food is so highly digestible in this state that the body absorbs it quickly.

If you do these smoothies, you won't be disappointed and it will not take long for you to see the results. Plus, there is no way I would normally eat all of these ingredients every day. I had never eaten beets or avocados before in my life. The herbs, especially the mint, helps give it a good flavor along with the strawberries. We're learning how to make it so that it tastes a little better to us as well but it has become part of our daily routine.

So, don't just take my word for it that it has helped the both of us greatly, but check it out and read more about it. And if you are wanting to enhance the health of your life, try it out for yourself and see if you don't see the benefits from it!

And NO, I do not make one cent on recommending this or writing this post. I am just doing it because we are pleased with the results. In fact, we purchased our blender directly through the online Target store website and got it a little cheaper plus had free shipping. I would recommend though that you purchase the smoothie recipe book or other information he has so you'll understand what you are doing better.

Just a final side note - the blender for this works in making all kinds of things. It is so simple to use, clean and it will blend anything together you put in it. It is an amazing blender!

For Further Reading: Smoothies, A Year Later

Music As Medicine

MSNBC recently reported in an article titled, "Music As Medicine" how Doctors are using music to help their patients heal. From heart surgeries to brain disorders and cancer, music is being played to help heal their patients.

This article of course touches me deeply because of the music I create on the piano. I classify it as "relaxing piano music from the heart", for it is truly music that comes from my heart. It is healing and life changing for many people who have heard it. If you get a chance, check out the music sound clips on my website at www.donshetterly.com or you can also check out my CD, "Relaxing Spa Music" at Amazon or iTunes.