Your Health

Eating feels so good. Yet it can become an addiction. Just as one can be a drug addict or sex addict, many people are good addicts.  As in any addiction, you get high. The trick is to be high.

The body, the temple of the soul, must be treated as our most important possession. Without health, other goals become increasingly impossible. We can spend all our time and all our money trying to get well or avoid getting sick.

By spending twenty minutes a day exercising and doing yoga, monitoring food intake, and having some purpose and a little love, we can be high all the time.  In fact, we can be super high and in super health.

Hypoglycemia

Some people love to eat.  They cook, go to fancy restaurants and have snacks around all the time. They love sweets.  Often their eating is driven by low blood sugar.

Overindulging in sweets and processed foods may upset this blood sugar balancing act. Americans consume about 120 pounds of sugar per person annually, a huge amount compared to pre-industrial times when we only took in about seven pounds a year.

While you can't live without blood sugar, too much or too little wreaks havoc on your body and mind. And when blood sugar dips low enough to cause hypoglycemia you may feel like your emotions have been shredded.

Hypoglycemia occurs when you feel dragged out because of low blood sugar. Hypoglycemia may result from munching endless sweets and never exercising.

Researchers have found that hypoglycemia can cause nervousness, irritability, exhaustion, depression struck and drowsiness. Low blood sugar has been associated with fatigue, cold sweats, tinnitus (ringing of the ears), rapid heart rate, blurry or double vision, confusion, sudden hunger, convulsions, sweating, sleeping problems, paleness, muscle pain, memory loss, crying jags, fainting and dizziness.

Hypoglycemia is not a true disease but a condition where you create an environment in your body that allows these symptoms and conditions to occur.

Here is how it works. Your body breaks down carbohydrates, including those in vegetables, fruits, breads and grains, into simpler sugars. As these carbohydrates pour into the blood in the form of glucose. The pancreas reacts and secretes the hormone-like substance insulin. Often too much insulin is produced and the blood sugar drops too low. Then the pancreas releases glucagon, which stimulates the release of glucose into the blood to bring blood sugar levels back up.  

If this does not work, you get super hungry and eat massive amount of carbohydrates and sugar. When the insulin gets low, fats that provide energy in your body are not released and you crave more carbohydrates.  You feel like lying down in a corner and telling the world to go away.  

If anything bothers you in this state, you react with stress. The adrenal glands respond by producing adrenaline and dumps it into the bloodstream. This causes anxiety, trembling and panic attacks: frequent signs of a hypoglycemic reaction. Many with low blood sugar crave food so strongly that they do not want to wait for food to cool, and end up burning their lips.

The reaction to stress can make people want the comfort of something to eat, and the result can be excessive weight. Excessive weight itself can cause stress and all these things reinforce each other.

How to Feel Better

 So it is very important to take care of the body. Each thing we do must be done in conjunction with other steps. It is like a chain.  If you do all of them you should feel really good.

The USDA Food Pyramid is a pretty good guide to eating.

Overkill

At the other extreme is to be obsessed with health. The body is important, but it is not your god. , The trick is to be healthy enough to make the body disappear from our notice most of the time, so we can concentrate on what needs to be done.

There are billions of bacteria all over you right now. Wash hands before cooking, after cleaning cat litter, or using the bathroom, working in the yard, or handling uncooked meat.

There are usuallly more germs in the kitchen than in the bathroom. Using original Pine-Sol or Clorox disinfectant around kitchen and bath. The newer Pine-Sols may be much weaker in killing germs. Wear protective gloves.  

If a health inspector visited your kitchen, would it pass? Use a thermometer and measure your refrigerator and freezers. Check expiration dates. In general, throw food away if kept more three days.

Hatha Yoga

Every morning perform the following yoga exercises:   

Warning:  It is important to be supervised by an instructor. Also read a book on this. Consult your doctor before starting any exercise program.  If it hurts, stop! Be gentle. You could hurt yourself. All yoga is not good. Integral Yoga Institute lists these yoga postures:

1. Soorya Namaskaram Sun worship -Stand, bend back, bend over, touch floor with hands, come down on hands, lay on stomach, bend up, repeat three to ten times.

2. Bhujangasana Cobra pose -Lay on stomach, bend up, pushing up with hands. Up to two times.

3. Arddha Salabasana Half Locust pose -Lay on hands and stomach, lift each leg. Up to two times, each leg.

4. Nauasana Boat pose -Lay on stomach, lift legs and arms. Up to two times.

5. Janusirshasana Head to Knee pose -Sit cross legged. Straighten one leg at a time. Bend over and touch fingers to toes. Once for each leg. Caution: Do not bend knee with toe pointing away from body as places abnormal stretch on the rear bent leg.

6. Paschimotanasana Forward Bending Pose -Sit with legs straight. Bend over and touch fingers to toes.

7. Sarvangasana Shoulder stand -Lay on back. Raise legs to 45 degrees. Repeat raising legs to 90 degrees.  Stay in raised position for up to five minutes. Caution: Check with you doctor before performing. If you have a blood clot, it might be dangerous.

8. Matsyasana Fish pose -Lay on back. Lift chest, with arms at side. Do once.

9. Arddha Matsyendrasana Half Spinal Twist -Sit, with right leg straight, and left crossed over right leg. Place right arm to the right of the right leg, between right leg and left leg.  Reverse pose.  Once each way.

10. Yoga Mudra Yoga Seal -Sit cross legged, with arms behind back. Up to 30 seconds.

11. Yoga Nidra Deep relaxation -Sit cross legged, with arms placed behind back, fingers locked together. Bend over to floor.

     

Note: The Full Locus Pose (Salabasana) and Bow Pose (Dhanurasana) are not listed as they may cause injury.

Excellent Food Magazine

Write:

Nutrition Action Magazine
CSPI/Nutrition Action Health
P.O. Box 96611
Washington, D.C. 20077-7216.   

Eat properly.  There are 1.5 million heart attacks every year in the United States.  Two people die every second from heart disease. About half of these people died suddenly.  

When we eat wrongly, we are buying tickets for the firing squad.  Many spiritual people do not live long enough to do all they can do for the world.

In the west, it is a war zone as far as healthy food is concerned.  The mass media and fast food restaurants make it seem so good.  Yet they are really selling a fast high, and a long term low. The low lasts much longer and is much more expensive.

A person who eats in harmony, digests the food better than when the person is upset.

There are many health food magazines and books that have very poor advice. I recommend magazines and books that say they don't know everything and are moderate.

In one sentence: eat very small amounts of fat, sugar, and salt.

BAD FOOD LIST
Eat little or none of these items

GOOD FOOD LIST
Make you diet based on these or similar items

This is just a guide. For example you might want to drink 1% milk. You need some fat and salt. He who does violence to the peaceful and harmless soon encounters one of ten things - He may experience cruel pain, disaster, physical injury, severe illness, or insanity, or else trouble with the authorities, grave accusation, bereavement, or loss of property, or else destruction of his house by fire, and .. the death of his body...-- Buddhist Texts, Dhammapada, #137, p. 11    

Looking after one's health is done with two intentions.  Man may take good care of his body for the purpose of satisfying his personal wishes. Or, he may look after his health with the good intention of serving humanity and of living long enough to perform his duty towards mankind. The latter is most commendable.  Abdu'l-Bahá, Star of the West, Vol VII, No. 18, p 23.

As this physical frame is the throne of the inner temple, whatever occurs to the former is felt by the latter. In reality that which takes delight in joy or is saddened by pain is the inner temple of the body, not the body itself. Since this physical body is the throne whereon the inner temple is established, God hath ordained that the body be preserved to the extent possible, so that nothing that causeth repugnance may be experienced. The inner temple beholdeth its physical frame, which is its throne. Thus, if the latter is accorded respect, it is as if the former is the recipient. The converse is likewise true. -- The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 95  

Although ill health is one of the unavoidable conditions of man, truly it is hard to bear. The bounty of good health is the greatest of all gifts. -- `Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'lBaha, #132, p. 151  

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Updated February 7, 2008

Copyright ©  2008 George Norwood
Revision 12, February 1, 2008