Body For Life vs. Burn The Fat, Feed the Muscle

Written by: Tom Venuto

What's the difference between Body For Life (BFL) and BURN THE FAT? Well, all fat loss programs that are bodybuilding-inspired will have similarities; so if you’re looking for “100% new,” “breakthrough,” “revolutionary,” or “original” information, then you won’t find it the BURN THE FAT program...or anywhere else for that matter.

Ask any world-class coach: Fundamentals are fundamentals – they form the foundation of every legitimate program and they will never change.

What Burn The Fat does differently - and superbly well - is to address the 2 major drawbacks of BFL, which are the same problems of most other mainstream diet programs including The Zone, The Atkins Diet, The Ketogenic Diet, the High carb Diet and many others. These drawbacks are: (1) lack of individualization, and (2) way too much push for supplements and other products that are completely unnecessary.

First, BFL and all these other diets have their positive points (and BFL has more positive points than most). The problem is; none of them are 100% applicable to all people all the time. Genetics and metabolic individuality explain why some people thrive on high carbs, while others get fat on high carbs. It explains why some people do extremely well on Atkin’s and Ketogenic diets, while others only lose muscle and feel lousy on these programs.

Burn the Fat is the first program to take the best of all the programs, compile the information into one exhaustively detailed resource, and throw away the junk and the hype - leaving a solid backbone of universal principles which apply to everyone. Then, instead of prescribing one generic program for everyone, this “baseline” program has room to be personalized – which is an absolute necessity for long-term success.

You should question any program that prescribes the same diet and exercise routine for everyone. There are 6.2 billion people on our planet today and no two bodies and metabolisms are exactly the same. Don't you know someone who eats anything they want, yet they have six pack abs and never gain an ounce of fat? And don't you know someone who is the opposite – If they eat one cheat meal, it goes straight to their waistline or thighs? It’s true! The need for customization is undeniable. Doesn’t that make complete sense?

Burn the Fat, is quite simply, incredibly flexible. Once you have your fundamentals mastered (it’s entirely possible you already do if you’re well-read and you’ve been working out for a long time), the question remains; do you know how to “tweak” and fine tune your diet and training to fit your body type? If not, you could be like the fly trying to get outside by flying straight through a glass windowpane. It’s going to die trying right there on the windowsill. With equal or even less effort, the fly could simply change direction and zoom right outside through the open door ten feet away. That’s exactly what happens if you’re eating wrong for your body type and then you switch to the right way for you.

You won’t find one single nutrition program in Burn the Fat – you will find THREE different nutrition programs, starting with the basic fundamentals (which you have to master first). Then you simply adjust your nutrition based on the information you’ll learn in chapter 5 on body types and nutritional individuality (yes, there’s a whole chapter on this subject where you can learn the real reason why some people can eat whatever they want and stay skinny).

And what about training? How could one workout work for everyone? Do you give the same weight training program to a competitive bodybuilder that you do to a complete novice? It’s ridiculous to even consider. Burn the fat has not one, but FOUR training programs. And within each of these four training programs are TWO schedules, one more conservative for time-scrunched people, and one more aggressive for people who really want to go for it (that’s eight routines all together).

Ditto for cardio: How can you recommend one cardio program for everyone? I teach you how to systematically manipulate cardio frequency, duration, intensity, timing and type to accommodate your goals and get the results you want. One cardio workout just doesn’t cut it for everyone. Even if you use a scientifically proven technique like high intensity interval training, how long do you think you could do this before your body adapts to it? The need for variation and individualization is completely obvious.

Okay, second drawback… let’s face it. Who can deny the fact that although BFL has a lot of solid information, it’s also an advertisement for a supplement company? No one can deny that, because it’s true. The author of BFL, Bill Phillips, while he has now sold the company and “retired” to Hawaii, was the founder and CEO of EAS supplement company and publisher of Muscle Media 2000 Magazine (which was also a promotional tool for nutritional supplements, as are almost all bodybuilding and fitness magazines).

I’m not “picking on” BFL specifically – but ask yourself, isn’t this the case with almost every diet program? You buy the book/program and then you’re told that you have to buy all this other stuff to make the program work; pills, bars, powders, drinks, etc, etc. Is all this stuff really necessary? I say it most certainly is not!

Contrary to what some people believe, I AM NOT “anti-supplements.” It’s more correct to say that I am “pro-whole foods” (although I am certainly against unproven, rip off supplements). I believe in proven supplements for “insurance” purposes, such as a daily multi vitamin and essential fatty acids, (2) for convenience purposes (meal replacements and protein powder), and (3) on rare occasion, a legitimate natural product emerges which really does enhance performance (such as creatine). I’ve used these products myself and recommend them to my clients on occasion.

I have nothing against even the most aggressive promotion of legitimate products and services as long as they help enhance the lives of other people. The world does not beat a path to your door just because you've discovered a better mousetrap. You have to toot your horn and let everyone know about the solution you have to their problem or no one will ever benefit from it.

What irks me is NOT the selling of supplements and weight loss products, it's the selling of unproven, bogus products to make a profit, and also the dishonest way legitimate products are often misrepresented and marketed.

Supplements are NOT required to lose fat – they’re not even a major factor!

A GREAT BODY DOESN’T COME IN A PILL!!!!!!

What’s unique about Burn The Fat is that it’s NOT a promotional vehicle for product sales. It’s an information resource and a complete fat loss program that really is for life - not for just 12 weeks. I know people who have spent $3000 to $5000 per year on supplements - and I’m not kidding – that’s not an exaggeration! Think about that for a minute! What’s really ironic is that many of these people – even after spending all that money, haven’t gotten any results!

Look, I think Body For Life is a very solid program. It’s got nutrition, weight training, cardio and motivational aspects all rolled into one, which is a winning combination in my book. I also think Bill Phillips has done a commendable thing by getting weight training and bodybuilding style nutrition out to the general public. Phillips is a damn good motivator too, by the way – I read Muscle Media for years and enjoyed many of his editorials. If I didn’t have my own Program, Body For Life is one of the programs I would recommend (with the previous warnings about supplements and personalization).

If you’re a B.F.L.B (“Body For Life Burnout”) and you want to take it to the next level with a program that that’s individualized and customized to your personal needs, (and you don’t want to miss your car payment because you bought so many supplements), then get a copy of Burn The Fat Feed the Muscle

People tell me all the time how "refreshing" it is to finally see an unbiased opinion on the subject and what a "breath of fresh air" it is to hear honest information on fat loss from the viewpoint of someone who doesn't sell supplements! Even if you’ve read BFL, all the magazines and a dozen other bodybuilding-based nutrition books, you’ll still benefit from this rare, fresh, new, and honest perspective.

http://www.ironmagazine.com/article56.html

Static Contraction Training

by Peter Sisco, John R.

Book Description
"This is truly an incredible discovery that could cause physiology books to be rewritten." -- Ironman Magazine "A thorough, productive weight workout in less than three minutes? You better believe it! Larger muscles. Stronger techniques. Fewer injuries. What more do you want?" -- Martial Arts Training Magazine From bodybuilding and fitness pioneers Peter Sisco and John R. Little comes this revolutionary guide to building maximum muscle size and strength--using workouts that last as little as two minutes! Based on the authors' groundbreaking new research, Static Contraction Training reveals how a program consisting of only six 15- to 30-second exercises per workout will build muscle size and strength more efficiently than any other method. Learn firsthand the concepts that are revolutionizing bodybuilding, including:
Why training more than once a week--or longer than five minutes--can compromise your progress
How to stimulate maximum muscle mass
Nutritional fact vs. fiction
Gaining muscle without fat
Your weak link and how to overcome it in your next workout
The "law" that guarantees you huge muscle growth Whether you are a weekend athlete, beginning bodybuilder, or champion, the information in this book will forever change the way you view bodybuilding and strength training exercise. Peter Sisco is editor of Ironman Magazine's Ultimate Bodybuilding series and co-author of Power Factor Training and The Golfer's Two-Minute Workout. John R. Little, the innovator of the Static Contraction Method of strength training, is the editor of the Bruce Lee Library Series and co-author of Power Factor Training and The Golfer's Two-Minute Workout.

About the Author
Peter Sisco is the co-author of numerous fitness and bodybuilding books, including Power Factor Specialization: Abs & Legs (0-80902-2827-0), Power Factor Specialization: Chest & Arms (0-8092-2828-9), and Power Factor Training (0-8092-3017-2). John Little is known and respected in martial arts and film circles as the world’s foremost authority on the life and philosophy of Bruce Lee. He is the author of The Warrior Within, which offered the first formal presentation of Lee’s philosophy. In 1998, Little produced, directed, and wrote the score for Bruce Lee: In His Own Words, which won the prestigious Toronto World-Wide Short Film Festival award for Best Documentary. Little’s shooting script for this film resides in the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, California, a branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Quantum Strength

"If you're an athlete, train as an athlete." Pat O'Shea

If ever there was a sound mind in a sound body, it is Patrick J. O'Shea, Ed.D., Professor Emeritus of exercise and sports science at Oregon State University. Pat first came to my attention many years ago when I read about him in Strength & Health magazine, but I didn't full appreciate the true breadth of his achievements until I read his latest book, Quantum Strength & Power Training (Patrick's Books, 1996).

Pat has been a student of sports physiology for four decades. During this time he has not only been an outstanding Olympic-style lifter (best lifts at 181 bodyweight: 270 standing press, 276 snatch and 342 clean & jerk) and power lifter (357 bench press, 607 squat and 629 deadlift), but also a cyclist, mountain climber, skier, coach and a distinguished professor.

Dr. O'Shea's textbook Scientific Principles and Methods of Strength Fitness, published in 1976, sold over 75,000 copies and was considered the bible of strength training. He has authored over 125 articles which have been published in both professional journals and mass media publications. He is widely sought as a lecturer and for clinics by coaches in cycling, track & field, skiing, triathlons and mountaineering. Together, Pat and his wife Suzie, over a five year period, backpacked the rugged Pacific Crest Trail from the Oregon/California border up to Canada, a distance of 800 miles.

Pat has done - and still does - it all. But Quantum Strength, his new book, may be his crowning achievement.

It took a long time, but it is now universally accepted that weight training will improve the performance of male and female athletes - in all sports. It's settled, a stronger athlete is a better athlete. O'Shea, however, goes further. He maintains that only through the application of athletic-type lifts (such as the snatch, clean and squat) can peak athletic performance be attained. (more about this below.) That's what Quantum Strength is about, but it's much more.

I've never see a clearer, or more understandable - and interesting - explanation of the physiology and principles of strength and power training than that found in Pat's book. (The tables, graphics and photos are superb.) What's more, Quantum is for everyone from 16 to 80. The focus of Quantum Strength is on athletes in their peak years, but teenagers, senior masters and recreational athletes are also well covered.

Pat says, "Athletes don't plan to fail, they fail to plan," so he maps out training programs (cycle by cycle) for a wide cross-section of both strength and endurance sports, everything from the throwing events (shot, discus & hammer) and football to cycling and alpine skiing. In addition, O'Shea says "Life is too short to be weak," so he gives a five-phase, yearlong program designed to get a senior master athlete back into peak condition. Finally - and perhaps best of all - O'Shea outlines his personal four-season, cross-training program of swimming, cycling, running and weight training.

We recently caught up with Pat - he'd just returned from a weekend of cycling, his favorite endurance sport - and asked him about some things not covered in his book (and a few things that are). Here's what the Guru of Quantum Strength told us:

CB: How did you first get interested in strength and fitness?

PJO: Don't recall a time in my life when I was not involved in physical activity. My mother was a world class long distance swimmer back in the early 1930's, and so I was brought up in a family where fitness and being fit was a way of life. We hiked, swam, and rode bikes, but never thought of doing these activities as exercise. Weightlifting didn't enter the picture until after graduating from high school where I had been on the swim team. Following high school I continued to swim at the local YMCA, where in order to enter the pool you had to pass through the weightlifting area which was quite fascinating to me. I had never been exposed to weightlifting of any kind before. Eventually I began spending more time with the weights than swimming.

CB: Was there any particular person that motivated you to begin Olympic lifting?

PJO: Fortunately, one of the lifters at the Y, by the name of Al Kornke, gave me my early guidance and coaching in Olympic lifting. Al was a former heavyweight junior national champion and proved to be an excellent coach and friend.

CB: Most people stop training for one reason or another. You never did. Why not?

PJO: Raised in a sports oriented family being physically fit was the norm. And to this day for me and my family it is the accepted life-style. In fact, I can't imagine what it would be like not to be fit. Most of all I value the freedom of life-style that being fit permits. For example, living in Oregon and being involved in a wide variety of physically challenging outdoor activities such as backpacking, mountaineering, and wilderness skiing, you have to be in a constant state of "ready" fitness. Due to the risks and dangers involved you can't afford not to be.

CB: You are a strong advocate of what you call "Athletic-Type Strength Training" (ATST). What is ATST and, in a nutshell, why do you believe it is superior to machine training or standard bodybuilding exercises?

PJO: Well, the basic theme of Quantum Strength & Power Training is the utilization of athletic-type lifts to optimize athletic performance. In other words, if you're an athlete, train as an athlete. Athletic-type training is basically using full-range, multiple-joint lifting exercises (power cleans and snatches, high pulls, and squats) as the "core" lifts of the training program. In execution they require acceleration, speed, strength, flexibility, technique, and mental concentration. Not only do such lifts have the greatest carry over value to other sports, they also afford an athlete of any age (male or female) the opportunity to attain their genetic potential. Bodybuilding and machine training have a role in an overall athletic-strength-training program, but one that is very limited.


Pat practices what he preaches: here he is shown doing a split-style snatch

CB: What about the risk of injury, especially for the older athlete or trainer?

PJO: There is only minimal risk involved as long as you execute the core lifts utilizing good technique and lift within your age-related physical limits. Older individuals generally have as their primary goal the maintenance of strength fitness. They are not interested in maximizing strength. In this respect large-muscle-group lifts work best. Thus a routine that calls for a couple of sets of 10 in the power clean or snatch provides better results than 3 or 4 bodybuilding exercises in maintaining full-range strength, flexibility, and body balance. As we age, athletic-type lifting contributes most to maintaining a high level of functional living through each decade of life.

CB: What do you mean by "quantum" strength and power?

PJO: Quantum denotes a discrete jump in strength and power due to athletic-type training. It is based upon an understanding of the physiological and psychological bonding process that works to produce peak athletic performance.

CB: What was your primary motive in writing Quantum Strength & Power Training: Gaining The Winning Edge?

PJO: Actually I had been preparing to write this book for 30 years. It represents a culmination of my experiences as a competitive Olympic-style lifter (13 years), strength coach (Oregon State University 1965-76), and professor of exercise and sports physiology (29 years), and multi-sports athlete - cycling, running, and Nordic skiing. In writing the book, I have integrated scientific principles and concepts of gender-free athletic-type strength training together with applied methods of multi-sport cross-training which will provide an athlete with the scientific knowledge necessary to achieve his or her genetic potential. Achieving ones athletic potential is a difficult task. However, my book can serve as a compass and point the young athlete in the right direction. The basic motivation then in my writing this book was to pass on to future generations of athletes my knowledge and experiences in athletic strength training and conditioning. Hopefully, it will shorten their road to success.

CB: Your daughters, Katie and Kerry, and your son, Sean, are active in sports and fitness. Did you and your wife do anything special to kindle their interest or was it mainly their idea?

PJO: Our three children had the good fortune of being raised in a family environment where fitness was just part of life. Very early in their young lives they were doing all the outdoor activities their parents were involved with - backpacking, snow camping, cross-country skiing, etc. They were not left home with a sitter. At the time, I don't think they really understood the significance of their outdoor life-style which taught them to be self-sufficient and rely on themselves while still looking out for others.

CB: You recently celebrated your 67th birthday by doing some outstanding lifts. What were they and what's your next athletic goal?

PJO: A week following my March 10 birthday, on St. Paddy's Day, weighing 188, I made the following lifts: squat 375, power clean 220, deadlift 450, and benched 225. The squat was a conservative effort as I had strained a knee skiing a few weeks before, and too, I don't bench due to an old shoulder injury. The next day, I made a 40 mile bike ride in just a little over 2 hours. As for future lifting goals, I really don't have any except to maintain as much of my current strength and fitness for as long as possible. I do plan to continue participating in master age-group competition in cycling. For the past 20 years or so my training has been on a seasonal basis. From November to March training focuses on powerlifting, stationary biking, and cross-country skiing. April to October, it is cycling, backpacking, and other mountaineering related activities. With the seasonal training approach I'm never bored or suffer from burnout (lack of motivation).

CB: Thanks Pat. You're a role model for the ages.

Quantum Strength is available from Ripped Enterprises, $19.95 + $7 priority mail or $5.00 media class mail in USA (foreign postage extra). To order click on "TO ORDER" below.

FLOW IN SPORTS: The keys to optimal experiences and performances

FLOW IN SPORTS: The keys to optimal experiences and performances
(Susan A. Jackson, PhD, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD)

Clarence first wrote about Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s pioneering work on flow in The Lean Advantage 3. “Flow” is the term coined by Dr. C. to describe those times when people report feelings of enjoyment, concentration and deep involvement, or a genuinely enjoyable state of consciousness. It usually occurs when we are struggling to overcome a challenge or achieve a difficult goal. In this book, Dr. C and Susan Jackson collaborate to bring the concept to bear on sports, perhaps the most fertile field for flow. Athletes, coaches and psychologists call it a natural “high” or being “in the zone.” It’s an elusive and desired state of consciousness conducive to optimum performance. The authors explain the thoughts and actions that athletes and coaches can use to set the stage for flow to occur during training sessions and performances. Their insights are supported throughout the book with real-life examples, and quotes from athletes in a wide range of sports. Get in flow, and achieve the most incredible performance state you’ll ever know. (To read more about flow and how Clarence has used it to his workouts, GO Row and Flow)

Paperback, 181 pages, 9 X 6, $15.95 + $6 priority shipping, $4 media

http://okinawaprogram.com/

Welcome to The Okinawa Centenarian Study!
Elderly Okinawans have among the lowest mortality rates in the world from a multitude of chronic diseases of aging and as a result enjoy not only what may be the world's longest life expectancy but the world's longest health expectancy. Centenarians, in particular, have a history of aging slowly and delaying or sometimes escaping the chronic diseases of aging including dementia, cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease and stroke) and cancer. The goal of the Okinawa Centenarian Study is to uncover the genetic and lifestyle factors responsible for this remarkable successful aging phenomenon for the betterment of the health and lives of all people.

The Okinawa Centenarian Study (OCS) is a population-based study of hundred-year-olds (centenarians) and other elderly in Okinawa, Japan. The study began in 1976, after the Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare confirmed initial reports of outstanding health and long life in Okinawa through validation of birth certificates and other statistical data. Since then our research group has investigated over 600 centenarians to uncover clues to their outstanding health and long lives. Studies have concentrated on the genetics, diets, exercise habits, and psychospiritual beliefs and practices of the Okinawan elders.

When Dr. Suzuki, the Principal Investigator of the OCS, first began his studies, he found an unusual number of centenarians to be in extraordinarily healthy shape. They were lean, youthful-looking, energetic, and had remarkably low rates of heart disease and cancer-even stomach cancer, which claimed many mainland Japanese. And they enjoyed the longest life expectancy in the world. By 1995, according to Japan Ministry of Health and Welfare life tables, Okinawan life expectancy had even surpassed the absolute limits of population life expectancy estimated by the Japan Population Research Institute and many biodemographers (see Fries JF. New England Journal of Medicine 1980;303:131-5).

Biomarkers (Evans & Rosenberg)

"If ever a book could take the worry out of aging, this one's it." Kenneth Cooper, M.D., founder, The Cooper Clinic

The landmark book detailing why strength training has emerged as an equal partner with aerobic exercise in combating the aging process. If you think the benefits of bodybuilding are mainly cosmetic, then you need to read this book. No fitness program is complete without strength training. This book about the 10 key controllable "biomarkers" associated with aging explains why.
297 pages, $14.00 + $4.00 shipping (media class) or $6.00 shipping (priority). Foreign postage listed on ordering page. [Size, 6 x 9]

The Bible of Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger

Amazon.com
Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn't competed as a bodybuilder since he won the Mr. Olympia title in 1980, but he remains the sport's No. 1 icon. He hosts an annual bodybuilding contest in Columbus, Ohio, and allows a column to be ghost-written under his name in a muscle magazine. Today's bodybuilders may have bigger muscles than Arnold ever did, but everyone inside and outside the iron game gives him credit for exponentially broadening the popularity of physique training.
With this updated Encyclopedia (it was originally published in 1985), Schwarzenegger wraps his huge arms around the entire sport. He hits the history of bodybuilding, the champions (he's quite generous in his praise of predecessors, contemporaries, and successors alike), the training systems. Some of the information is more bodybuilding lore than science; for example, exercises are said to "expand the rib cage" or develop the "inner" or "outer" chest, all physiological impossibilities. But they're still good exercises, and the book includes every movement imaginable for every muscle group.

If you love the sport of bodybuilding, you'll want this book in your library, if for no other reason than to feast your eyes on the hundreds of photos of the best physiques in the history of the sport. And, in a pinch, the 800-page encyclopedia can fill in nicely for a missing dumbbell. --Lou Schuler--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Description


From elite bodybuilding competitors to gymnasts, from golfers to fitness gurus, anyone who works out with weights must own this book -- a book that only Arnold Schwarzenegger could write, a book that has earned its reputation as "the bible of bodybuilding."

Inside, Arnold covers the very latest advances in both weight training and bodybuilding competition, with new sections on diet and nutrition, sports psychology, the treatment and prevention of injuries, and methods of training, each illustrated with detailed photos of some of bodybuilding's newest stars.

Plus, all the features that have made this book a classic are here:



Arnold's tried-and-true tips for sculpting, strengthening, and defining each and every muscle to create the ultimate buff physique

The most effective methods of strength training to stilt your needs, whether you're an amateur athlete or a pro bodybuilder preparing for a competition

Comprehensive information on health, nutrition, and dietary supplements to help you build muscle, lose fat, and maintain optimum energy

Expert advice on the prevention and treatment of sports-related injuries

Strategies and tactics for competitive bodybuilders from selecting poses to handling publicity

The fascinating history and growth of' bodybuilding as a sport, with a photographic "Bodybuilding Hall of Fame"

And, of course, Arnold's individual brand of inspiration and motivation throughout

Covering every level of expertise and experience, The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding will help you achieve your personal best. With his unique perspective as a seven-time winner of the Mr. Olympia title and all international film star, Arnold shares his secrets to dedication, training, and commitment, and shows you how to take control of your body and realize your own potential for greatness.

High Intensity Training - Dorian Yates

Dorian Yates impressed me the first time I saw his photo in a muscle magazine. But I didn't fully appreciate his massiveness until I saw him guest pose in Albuquerque about six years ago. He weighed 295 and even though not in contest shape, his proportions were absolutely mind boggling. It didn't seem possible that a 5'10" man could pack on that much muscle - all in the right places. But seeing is believing. There he was in the flesh, not to be denied. It is beyond dispute that Dorian Yates has taken bodybuilding to a level of massiveness that even Arnold would not have dreamed possible. The nearby photo of Dorian, weighing 269 a month or so out from his second Mr. Olympia victory in 1993, hangs on the wall of my gym to remind me - and others - not to set limits.

This photo hangs on the wall of my gym; it's also on the back cover of the book.

And now that Dorian has retired from competition he has surprised me once again - with a down-to-earth, sensible and well-written bodybuilding book. With the help of Flex Editor in Chief Peter McGough, who like Dorian is from England, Yates has produced A Warrior's Story (1998), which was released in this country only a few weeks ago. Having read his previous book, Blood and Guts (1993), I anticipated a good read, but the new book exceeded my expectations. In addition to a moving word picture of Dorian's humble beginnings and how he made his way from incarceration to bodybuilding, A Warrior's Story explains step-by-step how he moved from beginner to intermediate to advanced to Mr. Olympia. He was obviously a good student and this book proves he's a good teacher as well. There's something for everyone.

Beginners may save themselves months, perhaps years of wasted effort by reading this book, and advanced bodybuilders will benefit as well. It's all there - training, nutrition, recuperation and mental approach, the works - all presented in a no-nonsense manner. For example, Dorian says the notion that successful bodybuilding is as much as 80% correct nutrition is bull (my word, not his). Diet is important, of course, but it's not the whole ball game by a long shot. Clearly, Dorian is not out to sell you a bill of goods, just give sound advice.

Finally, what makes Dorian's story even more instructive is the fact that from the very beginning he rejected the high-set, volume approach and followed the HIT (high intensity training) philosophy of bodybuilding. Influenced by the teaching of Mike Mentzer - it made sense, he says - Dorian began with hard, brief and infrequent workouts. That system - and great genetics - took him to the pinnacle of the sport of bodybuilding, the Mr. Olympia title, not once but six times. Even as a beginner, Yates never did more than three sets per exercise and one of those sets was a warm-up. Over a period of several years, he progressed to doing only one all-out main set (after warm-up). That method, consistently applied, made him the world's best bodybuilder.

Do I have your attention? I thought so. A Warrior's Story - 11 x 8 1/2, 146 pages, great photos - is available from Ripped Enterprises. The price is $19.95 + $5.00 shipping media class or $7.00 priority (foreign shipping see ordering page). To order by credit card call (505) 266-5858 (8-5 Mtn. time M-F), FAX (505) 266-9123 anytime, or if we have your address and credit card information, including the current expiration date, e-mail cncbass@aol.com giving your name, zip code and what shipping you want. Get all the details. Order today.

Biomarkers of aging

Deepak Chopra shares ageless wisdom

By Adele Slaughter, Spotlight Health
With medical adviser Stephen A. Shoop, M.D.


By Jeremiah Sullivan
Deepak Chopra: Cut 10 years off of your mental image of yourself, and you may just live longer.

In a string of bestselling books such as The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, Dr. Deepak Chopra has advocated an East-meets-West program for healthy and happy living. Now Chopra turns his gaze toward the ultimate human problem — aging.

In Grow Younger, Live Longer, released this month, Chopra and co-author Dr. David Simon give advice on how to reverse the aging process.

"You are ancient and eternal," says Chopra, in his usual New Age prose flair. "You have come and gone in innumerable forms — your essence is not the body. This book is about making the body function better and yes — grow younger. It is as if you have an automobile that you take care of so you can enjoy it for a long time."

Because we have made huge advances against disease and eliminated most of our natural predators, humans beings often die of old age — a phenomenon not typically seen in the animal kingdom.

Scientists have long theorized as to how and why humans age. Today, there are two main theories. One holds that aging is born of random events from the environment or from the day-to-day metabolic processes of the body. The other, opposing theory would have it that aging is a direct result of programmed human responses, and that there is nothing random about growing old.

As in the old nature-vs.-nurture argument, most scientists today acknowledge that aging is most likely caused by several mechanisms, and that both random events and programmed responses play a role.

Whatever the answer, one thing is clear: Chronologically, the USA as a nation is getting older.

The aging boom

"The percentage of people in the upper aging group is growing rapidly," says Dr. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Center of Aging. "In the U.S. today there are 13 million people in the 65-plus age group. The fastest growing age group is 85-plus."

The elderly population group will swell markedly between 2010 and 2030, when the "baby boomers" reach age 65. Estimations are that the older generation will grow to about 70 million by 2030.

"So thanks to advances in medical technology we are living longer," says Small, "but we just may not be living better."

Many diseases that afflict Americans today appear as we age. And while we live longer, the severity of most of our diseases increases with age. The most prevalent age-related disorders include:

Alzheimer's disease
Breast cancer
Prostrate cancer
Depression
Diabetes
Heart disease
Macular degeneration
Osteoarthritis
Osteoporosis
Stroke
"Even without a bona fide disease, older people feel a little creakier in the morning and their memories aren't as good," says Small. "We have this tip of the tongue phenomenon — where there is a problem with retrieving information. We're slower in learning new things, and we all joke about it but it is an issue, and as you get even older there is the risk of getting Alzheimer's and other serious memory problems."

But Chopra says it doesn't have to be this way.

"I like to stretch boundaries and transcend limitations," says Chopra, "whether psychological, physical, or spiritual. I've jumped from airplanes; I scuba dive; I want to master the game of golf. Biologically, I'm more fit now than I was at 25. Chronologically I'm 55, but psychologically I'm 40."

Fountain of youth

In Grow Younger, Live Longer Chopra suggests we accept our chronological age, but reverse our biological and psychological age to re-establish the physical and emotional well-being of youth.

According to Chopra, there are 10 to 15 biomarkers of aging, including:

Blood pressure
Bone density
Fat content
Strength and muscle mass
Sugar metabolism
Sex hormone levels
Hearing and vision
Skin thickness
Fortunately, we can reverse or slow down these biomarkers, says Chopra. In the new book, explains 10 things that can help reverse the aging process.

The most important, he says, is changing our idea of who we are. Chopra suggests that people think of themselves as being 10-15 years younger than their chronological age.

"The first one is perception — changing your perception of time, by finding that part of yourself that is timeless and stilling the mind."

His additional nine practical suggestions are:

Learn restful awareness and restful sleep
Nurture the body through healthy foods
Use nutritional complements wisely
Enhance mind-body integration
Exercise and practice yoga
Eliminate physical and emotional toxins
Cultivate flexibility and creativity consciousness
Love fully and joyfully
Maintain a youthful mind through growth and flexibility
"The recommendations that Dr. Chopra put forth make sense," says Small. "It is good for your physical and mental health, to reduce stress from your life, eating right and so forth."

Scientists around the world are investigating the how and why of aging — looking at the food we eat, the air we breathe, how much exercise and sleep we get.

"So you have physical and mental decline, and that tends to define our perception of old age. But it's not always the case," says Small. "I'm sure there are genes for longevity and healthy aging."

Understanding why cells — the critical building blocks in our bodies — age, lose their ability to function, and eventually die can help researchers cure age-related diseases and conditions.

"In the MacArthur Study of Successful Aging," says Small, "researchers found remaining physically and mentally active in meaningful activities to be the key predictor to aging well."

In addition, the MacArthur study found it is never too late to adopt healthy habits.

The wildly productive Chopra is himself a case study in successful aging. He has just published his 28th book, is releasing two meditation CDs this fall, and manages The Chopra Center in La Jolla, Calif. Chopra also has a Web site that includes an e-mail community and prayer circle.

The key is trusting yourself, maintains Chopra.

"Your body is more intelligent than your brain, it is more intuitive, more relational, more nurturing and more wise."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/spotlight/2001-10-03-chopra-aging.htm

The science of aging by Dr. Deepak Chopra

By Deepak Chopra

You have been living inside a prison that has no visible walls - the confines of your self derive entirely from the habits and conditioning of your mind. If you are committed to growing younger, you must escape this prison of conditioning. You are not to blame for living within unnecessary limitations.

If a rope is tied around the leg of a baby elephant and attached to a stake in the ground, it learns that it can only move within very narrow limits. Years later, as a powerful adult, it still remains within narrow confines when its leg is staked, even though it has the strength to uproot an entire tree. It has been conditioned to accept the limitations imposed upon it.

In a similar way, most people think and act within the narrow limitations of what they have been taught during childhood, without questioning the basic assumptions that structure their worldview. To live a healthier, richer, more creative life you need to recognize that most of what you hold to be true derives from habits of thought. We are born into a prevailing conversation about the world.

As soon as we are capable of speaking, we engage in this conversation, reinforcing with our own thoughts and actions the patterns of thinking and behavior that surround us. This is unmistakably true in regards to how we view the body and its aging.

Until recently, few have questioned the assumption that aging is irreversible, and therefore, for generation after generation, people have reinforced the habitual thinking that growing older meant a progressive decline in mental and physical capacity.

It is now time to change our habits of thinking and behaving and alter our experience of the body and the aging process.

the quantum possibilities

Drawing upon the wisdom traditions of the East, the dramatic new discoveries of modern quantum physics, and our own personal and professional experience, we invite you to change the way you think about and experience the world and your body.

Despite how radical some of these ideas may at first appear, we encourage you to try out the practical approaches we offer and experience for yourself how this program can revitalize your body and mind.

From the perspective of quantum physics, reality is a mysterious, magical place. While on the physical plane of everyday life, time and space predominate and entropy, decay, and aging are the normal course of events, these are not features of quantum reality.

The quantum realm is the fountainhead of pure potentiality, giving rise to the raw material of your body, your mind, and the physical universe. The quantum realm is the womb of creation, the invisible world where the visible is designed and assembled.

We can summarize the key principles of quantum physics in five main points:

1. In the quantum realm there are no fixed objects, only possibilities;

2. In the quantum realm, everything is interwoven and inseparably one;

3. Quantum leaps are a feature of the quantum realm. A quantum leap is the ability to move from one location in space or time to another without having to go through any place or time in between;

4. One of the laws of the quantum realm is the Uncertainty Principle, which states that an event is a particle (matter) and a wave (energy) simultaneously. Your intention determines whether you see a particle or a wave; and

5. In the quantum realm, an observer is needed to create an event. Before a subatomic particle is observed, it exists only as a virtual particle; all events are virtual events until the moment they are observed.

Your own bodymind system is also an expression of the same quantum field that underlies everything in the universe. Therefore, you can apply these quantum principles to the way you look at your body and aging.

Rephrased in terms of your biology, they would be:

- You are not merely the physical body that you identify with out of habit. Your essential state is a field of infinite possibilities;

- Your body is inseparably one with the whole universe. When you are perfectly healthy or whole, you feel expanded. You become constricted only when you have discomfort or dis-ease. This comes from a feeling of separation;

- You are capable of taking quantum leaps in perception and interpretation. With these quantum leaps you can alter not only the experience of the physical body but its very structure. Your physical body is capable of taking a quantum leap from one biological age to another without having to go through all the intervening ages in between;

- Your body is simultaneously material (particlelike) and non-material (wavelike). You can choose to experience your body as physical or as a network of energy, transformation, and intelligence; and

- Before you decide which biological age you choose to experience, you are all possible biological ages. It's up to you to decide what age you want to be.

If you choose to see yourself as a physical entity, separate from everything else, you discard the chance to reverse the aging process. If you are able to look at yourself as a field of possibilities, intimately interrelated to everything else, wonderful new opportunities emerge.

We encourage you to use these thoughts to trigger a paradigm shift in your awareness. With this shift you can gain a completely different understanding of the bodymind system you inhabit, the world you perceive, and the essence of your being.

Viewing your body from the perspective of quantum physics opens up new modes of understanding and experiencing the body and its aging.

The practical essence of this new understanding is that human beings can reverse their aging.

in the language of spirit

Knowledge traditions seek to understand and explain the workings of the cosmos. The perspective of quantum physics offers a fascinating way to view life, the body, and aging. The perennial wisdom traditions of the East offer equally amazing insights into the nature of reality.

As explorers of both modern science and the ancient knowledge traditions, we are enthused and inspired by the closer and closer alignment between these different perspectives on life.

According to Ayurveda, the ancient healing tradition of India, aging is an illusion because your true self is neither your body nor your mind. Your essential nature, who you really are, is the domain of ever-present witnessing awareness that is beyond your physical and mental layers.

This field of consciousness gives rise to both the thoughts in your mind and the molecules in your body. Tapping into this realm of awareness where time and space have no meaning is the basis of emotional and physical renewal.

Accessing this field of pure potentiality has spiritual as well as physical consequences. Knowing your essential self as a nonlocal being, inextricably interrelated to everything else in the cosmos, awakens greater creativity, meaning, and purpose in life.

Although the most profound way to improve health and reverse aging is ultimately a spiritual one, not everyone is immediately ready to accept this approach.

One person may want to lose weight, another may need help to stop smoking, while a third may be seeking a more fulfilling love relationship. Each of these needs is important in its own right, but taking a spiritual approach opens the door to the evolution of consciousness, which can make all these things possible, and many more.

A spiritual approach means that we expand our awareness, even while focusing our attention and intention locally.

The reason we perform any action is in the hope that it will bring us satisfaction, fulfillment, and happiness. Embracing the spiritual domain, which is the source and goal of all desires in life, creates the possibility for satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment independent of the inevitably changing situations, circumstances, and people that surround us.

Those fortunate ones who dwell in this domain have achieved what is often called enlightenment.

Viewing your choices from a spiritual perspective means asking the big questions: Who are you? Why are you here? What do you really want? How can you best serve?

Although at first glance these questions may seem irrelevant to slowing the aging process, they are actually essential to renewal. Shifting your internal reference point from an egocentric being, whose sense of worth depends upon the positions and possessions one has accumulated, to a network of conscious energy, woven from the threads of universal intelligence, has a profound effect on your mind and body.

When you become clear that the reason you want to live to a hundred or more years is so you can express your full creative potential, you change your chemistry and physiology.

When you identify your unique talents and commit to using them in the service of others, you strengthen your immune system. When you decide that exercising regularly or preparing a balanced meal is an enjoyable experience, you improve your circulatory health and lower your blood pressure.

Your perceptions, interpretations, and expectations influence every aspect of your mental and physical health. Shifting your perspective and making new choices provide you with powerful tools to change your life.

the window to renewal

One of the ways science makes major advances is by studying situations, circumstances, and events that are the exception to the usual way things work. These are sometimes called anomalies, or exceptions to the rule. Most scientists ignore anomalies, but in fact, these are the very things we should be studying.

If something breaks the rule, no matter what it is, no matter how infrequent it is, no matter how remote the probability, it means that a new possibility has arisen. And if a new possibility has presented itself, there must be a mechanism. Even if only one person out of ten million cures himself of cancer or of AIDS, we have to pay attention.

Most scientists tend to disregard events that are so rare they do not regularly infringe upon the prevailing view of the world. They may dismiss an anomaly by saying that it is so rare-one in ten million-what's the point of investigating it?

The point is that it doesn't matter if something happens only once in ten million, because if it has happened even once, there must be some mechanism to account for its occurrence. And if there is a mechanism, then as scientists we want to know what that mechanism is, because once we understand the mechanism, we may be able to reproduce the phenomenon.

Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, and Einstein are examples of scientists who questioned the prevailing assumptions of their time and expanded their view to include phenomena that had previously been ignored.

These and other great scientists paid attention to anomalies and sought to understand the mechanism that explains them. When something doesn't fit the paradigm, doesn't fit the pattern, doesn't fit the theory, it forces us to examine the model we are using. It compels us to expand or change the theory to incorporate the exceptional situation.

A good example of this is a friend of ours who was diagnosed with AIDS over fifteen years ago. He was close to death when he made the choice to change his life. He started meditating, began eating a healthy diet, and made the commitment to eliminate toxins from his life. Fifteen years later he is feeling completely well and has undetectable levels of the HIV virus in his blood. When we first met him, he was an anomaly, but now we know many more people like him.

Our theory of consciousness predicts that if we reach a critical mass of people who have the same experience, then it will become true for everyone.

We believe that these same principles apply to human aging. If we look at recent historical times we see that the average life expectancy has shifted remarkably. The average life span of a human being during the Roman Empire was twenty-eight years.

The average life span of a human being born in the Western world at the beginning of the twentieth century was forty-nine years. Although in the past, high rates of infant mortality influenced human life expectancy, the fastest-growing segment of the American population today is over the age of ninety years.

A baby girl born in America today is expected to live just less than eighty years; an infant boy has a life expectancy of almost seventy-four. Historically, there are many people who have lived to ripe old ages and have made major contributions to civilization. Leonardo da Vinci was drawing sketches in his sixties, Leo Tolstoy was writing novels into his seventies, and Michelangelo was sculpting in his eighties. Winston Churchill, with his fondness for cigars and Scotch, was active and productive until his death at age ninety.

As our collective consciousness embraces the belief that we can have the biology of youth with the wisdom of experience, it will become the pervasive experience.

the science of aging

Recognizing that human beings do not age at the same rate, scientists have described three different ways to characterize a person's age. The first is chronological age, which is what your birth certificate says.

Your chronological age measures the number of rotations Earth has performed on its axis and around the sun since you left your mother's womb. Your chronological age cannot be altered through mindbody approaches, but it has the least relevance to how you feel or function.

Biological age is a measurement of how well your physiological systems are functioning. It is the most important component of the aging process. Your biological age is calculated in reference to an average population of people who have the same chronological age that you have.

Values for almost every biochemical and physiological process can be determined for different age groups. Known as the biological markers, or biomarkers, of aging, these include blood pressure, amount of body fat, auditory and visual thresholds, hormonal levels, immune function, temperature regulation, bone density, skin thickness, cholesterol levels, blood sugar tolerance, aerobic capacity, and metabolic rate.

Once you know your results, you can compare them with the group average and see if your biomarkers are older or younger than your chronological peers. Your biological age can be very different from your chronological age.

A fifty-year-old who takes good care of herself can have the biology of a thirty-five-year-old. Alternatively, a fifty-year-old who has not been attentive to his health may have the biology of men many years older. Whatever your biological age is today, we believe we can alter it by implementing the changes recommended in this book.

© 2002 Deepak Chopra, M.D. and David Simon, M.D.

It is not some dark continental landmass or dangerous uncharted sea. It is our conditioning, our current collective worldview that we were taught by our parents, teachers, and society. The way of seeing things - the old paradigm - has aptly been called 'the hypnosis of social conditioning', an induced fiction in which we have collectively agreed to participate ...

The biochemistry of the body is a product of awareness. Beliefs, thoughts, and emotions create the chemical reactions that uphold life in every cell. An aging cell is the end product of awareness that has forgotten how to remain new ...

Perception appears to be automatic, but in fact it is a learned phenomenon. The world you live in, including the experience of your body, is completely dictated by how you learned to perceive it. If you change your perception, you change the experience of your body and your world ...

The world is a reflection of the sensory apparatus that registers it ...

A meticulous 1987 study from Yale, reported by MR Jensen, found that breast cancer spread fastest among women who had repressed personalities, felt hopeless, and were unable to express anger, fear, and other negative emotions. Similar findings have emerged for rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, intractable pain, and other disorders ...

All my reactions are part and parcel of the time-bound self and its tendencies. In less than a 1000th of a second, its preprogrammed fear arouses the whole sequence of bodily messages that produce my actions ...

You can choose to see the rose bloom and die; you can choose to see the rose as a wave of life that never ends, for next year new roses will spring from the seeds of this one ... No two people experience their bodies in exactly the same way, because each of us interprets experience - including the experience of inhabiting a body - according to his own personal beliefs, values, assumptions, and memories. An aging body involves one style of interpretation; an ageless body involves an opposite style ...

No matter how separate anything appears to the senses, nothing is separate at the quantum level ... Reestablishing the memory of your connection with the quantum field will awaken the memory of renewal in your body ...

There is no normal curve of aging that applies to everyone. Some people entirely escape certain aging symptoms, while others are afflicted by them long before old age sets in ...

Despite the evidence that aging is a shifting, fluid phenomenon, we still find ourselves operating under the belief that aging can be understood strictly as a biological process ...

I wasn't seeing old people at all; I was seeing sick people. All over America doctors were making the same mistake. Caught up in treating various diseases, we forgot what aging is like when disease is not present. Moreover, the few medical researchers who took an interest in the aging process tended to work in veterans hospitals like the one in which I worked.

By definition, the 'normal' aging they observed was abnormal, because a normal person isn't hospitalized. No one would dream of defining childhood by studying patients in a children's hospital ward, yet old age was largely defined that way. Across the general population, only 5% of people over 65 are institutionalized, in either hospitals, nursing homes, or mental institutions. Surprisingly, this figure is not significantly higher than for younger age groups ...

The three ways of measuring age:

- Chronological age; - Biological age; and- Psychological age.
Major factors that accelerate aging: depression, lack of daily routine, lack of regular work routine, job dissatisfaction. Minor: inability to express emotions ...

Larry Scherwitz, a University of California psychologist, taped the conversations of 600 men, a third of whom were suffering from heart disease, the rest of whom were healthy. Listening to the tapes, he counted how often each man used the words I, Me, and Mine. Comparing his results with the frequency of heart disease, Scherwitz found that men who used the first-person pronoun most often had the highest risk of heart trouble. In addition, by following his subjects for several years, he found that the more a man habitually talked about himself, the greater the chance that he would have a coronary ...

Valliant was among the first researchers to establish that depression often leads to premature aging, chronic illness, and early death. Generally, at the root of depression is a kind of emotional numbness ...

Being holistic, exercise sends chemical messages back and forth between the brain and various muscle groups; part of this flow of biochemical information stimulates the production of catecholamines. Thus, whenever a doctor writes a prescription for an antidepressant, Boritz declares, he is handing out a proxy for the body's own inner prescription, which is filled by exercise.

Although we are not ordinarily aware of it, the body is constantly regulating temperature, heart rate, and other automatic functions by listening to its own internal messages. The slightest change in any function registers, however faintly, in the awareness of the nervous system ...

The basic fuel of the body is glucose, or blood sugar, which is the brain's only food. Burning a sugar cube over a gas flame yields a flash of light and heat and a greasy lump of carbon, but the same sugar burned in the brain produces all the thoughts and emotions we have.

The Sistine Chapel … and Beethoven's Ninth are accomplishments of burning sugar ... A message is not a thing, and yet your body turns it into a thing. This is how nature operates behind the illusion of physical reality ...

If you hear the words I love you and your heart starts to pound, an ... astonishing metamorphosis has taken place. An emotion in another person's mind has been transformed into molecules of adrenaline rushing through your bloodstream ...

Child psychologists have found that young children are much more deeply influenced by ascriptive statements from their parents than by prescriptive statements … in other words, telling a child WHAT HE IS makes a much deeper impression than telling him WHAT TO DO ...

Pain in the present is experienced as hurt. Pain in the past is remembered as anger. Pain in the future is perceived as anxiety. Unexpressed anger, redirected against yourself and held within, is called guilt. The depletion of energy that occurs when anger is redirected inward creates depression ...

The emotions that frighten us are the complex ones, because they overwhelm the natural release mechanism. You cannot simply release guilt or depression. They are secondary formations that arose once you forgot how to release hurt

Music is metabolized in the same way as narcotics in that it creates the release of endogenous narcotics in the body. Exhilarating music creates natural anti-depressants in the body."

- from Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: A Practical Alternative to Growing Old, by Deepak Chopra

Recently the term PLACEBO was inverted into a new term, NOCEBO, to describe the negative effects of a doctor's opinion ...

[Medical assistance should be associated with healing] If a patient regards any treatment as violence, then his body will be flooded with negative emotions and the chemicals associated with them. It is well documented that in a climate of negativity, the ability to heal is greatly reduced - depressed people not only lower their immune response, for example, but even weaken their DNA's ability to repair itself ...

Doctors push patients into predictable thinking all the time, because medical school training is focused entirely on the horizontal axis.

- from Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind / Body Medicine by Deepak Chopra

Healthy, Vibrant Aging – What Works?

Erica Goode, M.D.
"In ancient times, people understood universal energy and the numbers of heaven. They understood how to choose and control their diet. They knew what time to wake up and what time to go to sleep. They did not exhaust their minds and physical bodies. Their body and mind were harmonized, which meant they could live for over 120 years."
— Chi Po, Scholar to Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor of China

No one can say for sure what healthy aging is. With the average age of death advancing in the United States, the focus often shifts to quality of life, especially when illnesses emerge and we feel challenged to reconsider our relationship to our bodies.

One lovely example of a healthy older person is that of Belle,(5) a 109-year-old African-American lady from rural Texas who lived alone in a cabin without running water until the ripe old age of 100. At that time she moved into a Houston nursing home. She is lean, alert, amusing and reasonably active. She had none of the "advantages" in terms of supplements, skin creams, spa retreats, surgery and the myriad other "youth-enhancing behaviors" that many people pursue.

What we know about the characteristics of the healthy elderly comes from studies like that reported by Dr. Albert Rosenfeld,(17) who summarized the findings of a l990 survey of 1,200 centenarian Social Security recipients.

Dr. Rosenfeld said, "It was clear that, though these individuals worked hard and enjoyed their work, there was a marked lack of high ambition. They had tended to live relatively quiet and independent lives, were generally happy with their jobs, their families, and their religion, and had few regrets. Nearly all expressed a strong will to live and a high appreciation for the simple experiences and pleasures of life."

Another interview study conducted by Dr. Stephen Jewett as reported by Deepak Chopra(5), included 79 people of 87 years of age or more. Jewett found no particular "longevity personality" per se, and stated that subjects could be "selfish, sarcastic, and unsociable." The common threads were an ability to be self-sufficient, to possess a superior native intelligence, and a keen interest in current events, along with a degree of optimism and a good sense of humor. Subjects also had limited illnesses, maintained fairly steady weight through adulthood and engaged in moderate activity. None was preoccupied with death.

However, not everyone evolves with the equanimity of these subjects and many people face daunting challenges to healthy aging. Hence for most adults, the need for some health care maintenance and treatment is obvious. However, the raging debate in the 21st century between the longevity people (those advocating early use of growth hormone and multiple supplements) versus those who have serious doubts about the extension of life(14) misses the point. Many of us would prefer quality over extreme quantity.

Thousands of rigorous studies have been conducted that prove the beneficial effects of taking certain vitamins, minerals and herbs. While these studies may generate controversy among some of my more conservative colleagues, here is my list of recommendations for maintaining good health.

Weight Management
Weight should be maintained at plus or minus l0 percent of optimum. Weight changes should be made slowly and consciously through exercise and nutritious diets, which include high fiber, fruit and vegetables (organic if possible), some protein (range-fed animals are preferred if meat is eaten), ample liquids, limited saturated fat, no trans-fatty acids, adequate omega 3 (linolenic acid) fats, and two to five servings of red wine, red grapes or grape juice a week. Meals should be fairly regularly times and whole grains should be emphasized along with low or nonfat, certified, or organic dairy products. This may sound boring, but using cookbooks like Laurel's Kitchen, Chez Panisse Cooking or Whole Foods Cookbook, can make meal preparation and consumption exotic, delightful and healthy.

Eye Care
Macular degeneration is best avoided through the ingestion of lutein and other carotenoids derived from spinach, kale, collards and broccoli. Measurable improvement has occurred in patients with early advanced macular degeneration (AMD) who eat these foods. For cataracts, protection from ultraviolet rays, avoidance of tobacco, a diet rich in vitamin C and antioxidants protects the eyes as they age.(18)

Optimum Bone Density
Calcium (from dietary sources supplemented with calcium magnesium citrate capsules to a level of l,200 milligrams for men and 1,500 milligrams for post-menopausal women, plus adequate folate, vitamin B-6 and B-12 to avoid increased homocysteine (which interferes with collagen cross-linking) and weight-bearing exercise, is enough for healthy bone maintenance. With osteoporosis, etidronates for osteoclast blockade (Fosamax, Actonel), or the new teriparatide, an osteoblast stimulant (Forteo) are often necessary. Calcitonin is of less benefit. Toning several times a week helps improve arm and leg strength. Vitamin D at 400 to 800 international units (iu) a day is also recommended.

Skin Care
Avoid tobacco and stay out of the mid-day sun. Use sunscreens to protect against ultraviolet A and B wavelengths that produce glycation, collagen-elastin damage, and enhanced free-radical injury.(13) Retinyls such as Retin-A cream enhance apoptosis of aged cells. Nicholas Perricone, MD,(16) has developed both a vitamin C ester cream (which enhances collagen and elastin formation) and alpha lipoic acid cream, (which acts as an antioxidant). My favorite skin-care product for sunburn is aloe liquid from the aloe vera leaf, or 95 percent aloe gel. An inexpensive and effective brand is Lily of the Desert. Be warned, however, that this product does not protect against sunburn.

Cardiovascular Health
An excellent life-long anti-aging remedy for cardiovascular health is a diet rich in Omega-3 fats and low in saturated and trans-fatty acids. One and a half tablespoons of ground flax seed supplies approximately two grams of Omega-3 fats. Ground flax seed can be eaten in cereal, cottage cheese, salad, soup or yogurt and it tastes like wheat germ. It should be fresh ground seed or purchased in a vacuum-packed container and always refrigerated after opening.(10) Hawthorne leaves or flowers act as an inotrope in mild congestive heart failure (CHF).(14) The recommended dose is 100 milligrams twice a day.

Coenzyme Q-l0 is a normal component of cells but declines with age. Because it facilitates muscle metabolism and acts as an antioxidant, many studies have shown its benefit in the elderly, particularly post-myocardial infarction (MI) and pre-operatively for those undergoing cardiac surgery.(17) The recommended dose is l20 milligrams taken with meals containing some fat. Low dose aspirin has a proven track record for decreasing stroke and cardiac arrest through platelet inhibition in men and women. Willow bark may do this as well, but no standardized aspirin equivalent exists. To enhance circulation, ginkgo biloba at approximately 120 milligrams per day has been shown to improve brain circulation, and in some studies, to assist with claudication.(14) Folate (from a healthy diet or supplemented with the usual 400 milligrams found in an adult multivitamin), prevents harmful elevation of homocysteine levels. Red yeast rice, (not currently available in the U.S.) is an hydroxy-3-methl-glutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG–CoA) reductase inhibitor used by the older Chinese in several provinces prior to it's development as Mevacor, Lipitor and other drugs in this class.

Vitamin E (400 iu mixed tocopherols) despite "iffy" studies, is very likely cardio-protective.C A large hypertension trial showed that adequate dietary calcium, magnesium, potassium and omega-3 fats all are useful in maintaining normal blood pressure.(10)

Digestive System Health
Ample fiber — both water-soluble and insoluble — ample liquids, vegetables, and fruits, and adequate, balanced calcium and magnesium helps to keep the digestive system eliminating properly. If this doesn't keep bowels soft, two to three teaspoons a day of aloe liquid will. Epidemiological studies have shown a statistical reduction in colon carcinoma in those taking low-dose aspirin and adequate dietary calcium.

Joint Care
Glucosamine sulfate may be insufficiently produced or otherwise interfered with in people who develop osteoarthritis. A dose of l,500 milligrams a day can help significantly with pain, stiffness and possibly osteoarthritic progression. Omega-3 fats (flaxseed, eicosopentanoic acid (EFA)and decosa hexanoic acid (DHA), all suppress inflammation. Some patients find further pain relief from the gamma linolenic acid found in borage, evening primrose, or black currant seed oils.

Finally SAM-e (s-adenosyl methionine) at 400 milligrams to 1,200 milligrams a day often helps joint or tendon pain and inflammation. It must be an individually foil-wrapped product, such as that by Nature Made, Natrol or Twin-Lab, and must be taken with water. I advise taking SAM-e in the early morning, even a few minutes before breakfast, as some people experience sleep delay if it is taken in the evening.

Brain Functioning
Lecithin in 1,200 milligram capsules acts as an acetylcholine source. In some people it is apparantly transported across the blood brain barrier. Ginkgo biloba at 120 milligrams to 80 milligrams per day of the flavonoglycoside extract enhances brain circulation. SAM-e provides a notable mood improvement. It is my experience that this is true for roughly 40 percent of mildly depressed patients. SAM-e is a normal component of cells, so we infer that suboptimal production of this substance leads to mood disorders.

Muscle Maintenance
Muscle function is sometimes compromised due people losing large amounts of weight, experiencing poor digestive absorption, or following a prolonged illness, including CHF. Carnitine, which is often limited in these debilitated individuals, facilitates muscle access to intracellular fats for contractility and can be supplemented in the range of one gram twice per day. Following vigorous exercise, micro-tears and inflammation occur routinely, but symptoms can be relieved by pre-and post-exercise and taking 800 to 1,000 international units of vitamin E for two days.(20) Mixed tocopherols are best, and several brands are available. Carnosine, a putative membrane-protective antioxidant, also is helpful in some older individuals beginning an exercise program.(10)

Prostate Health
Prostate size almost universally increases in older men and may cause delayed stream, nocturia and sleep-disruption. It can be significantly improved through the intake of saw palmetto (Serenoa repens.(3) The recommended dose is l60 milligrams once or twice per day.

Immune System
Optimal immune system functioning is supported broadly by the aforementioned healthy diet, plus zinc supplements of 15 to 30 milligrams a day to enhance T-cell function.(4) I generally recommend a good multivitamin/mineral capsule with 10 milligrams or less of iron, for everyone over the age of 50. Several components help with immune and other physiological system functions.(9)

Finally, on an intriguing note, since 1998, increasing research has demonstrated the gene for telemerase, which maintains and rebuilds telomeres. In normal aging with each replication of a gene, the ends of the DNA molecule tend to shorten. This is thought to be primse reason for aging. These studies may eventually lead to meaningful prolongation of healthy cell lines in humans.(8)

If stem cell research is freed up politically we may indeed make major strides in the business of anti-aging remedies. Stem cell research also could provide retinal cells, chondrocytes, and possible relief for Parkinsons' disease and other afflictions.

A final quote from one of the oldest humans, ever:

"I had to wait 110 years to become famous, and I intend to enjoy it as long as possible." — Jean Calment, age 120

Erica T. Goode, M.D., MPH, nutrition, works with patients with a variety of nutritional and medical illnesses at the Institute for Health and Healing at CPMC in San Francisco. She teaches in the department of family and community medicine at UCSF.

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Gershwin, M, et al. Trace minerals, aging, and immunity, J Am Geriatrics Soc, 31: 374-378, 1983.
Hypertension trials, Phase I, Calcium, magnesium , KCl, Fish oil, JAMA 267: 1213, 1992.
Kaplan, GA. Epidemiologic observation on the compression of morbidity:evidence from the Alameda County Study, J Aging Health, 3: 155-171, 1991.
Morley, J.E., Nutritional status of the elderly, Am J Med 81:680-688, 1986.
Murad, H. The effect of an oral supplement containing glucosamine, amino acids, minerals, and antioxidants on cutaneous aging:a preliminary study, J Derm Treatment, 12:47-51, 2001.
Murray, M., Pizzorno, Journal Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine, 2nd edition, Prima Publ, 1997.
Olshansky, S.J., Hayflick, L., Carnes, B., No truth to the fountain of youth, Scientific American, 92-95, 6/02.
Perricone, N., The Wrinkle Cure, Warner Books, 2001.
Rosenfeld, A., Prolongevity II, Harper Collins, 1992.
Seddon, J., et al "Dietary carotenoids, Vitamins A,C,E, and advanced age—related macular degeneration, JAMA 272: 1413-1420, 1994.
Stuerenberg, H., "Concentrations of free carnosine (a putative membrane-protective antioxidant) in human muscle biopsies and rat muscles" Arch Gerontol Geriatrics 29:107 – 113, 1999.
Tufts Newsletter 20 g. 3, 5/02.
Additional Resources:
A. Buck Center for Research in Aging, 505 A. San Marin Drive, #300, Novato, CA 94945. (415) 899-1800.
B. Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies for the Elderly, East Boston, Mass., Iowa and Washington Counties in Iowa and New Haven, Conn.
C. Gladstone Foundation for Lipid Disorders. Tom Bersot, MD, PhD, Director.
D. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), Bethesda, MD, 20892. Stephen E. Strauss, MD, Director.
E. National Institute on Aging. Richard Suzman, MD, Director.
F. New England Centenarian Study. Thomas T. Peaes, MD, Director.
G. UCLA School of Medicine, Dept. of Nutrition. Daniel Heber, MD, Director.
H. USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University. Tom Evans, MD, Chief, Human Physiology Lab. Irwin Rosenberg, MD, Director.

http://www.sfms.org/sfm/sfm203b.htm

Sly Moves!

Sly Moves
My Proven Program to Lose Weight, Build Strength, Gain Will Power, and Live your Dream

by Sylvester Stallone

Book Description

In his first book ever, you'll read what makes Sylvester Stallone fit, and much more: Part 1 is a retrospective on Sly's life and career, from his early days when he used to curl cinder blocks in old junkyards to the grueling training workouts that prepped his body for different movies. Drawing on these experiences, Sly formulates a complete program for getting fit, with Part 2 outlining a plan that includes classic and advanced exercises, and, for those who dare, a hardcore session that will push you to the max. Part 3 offers a stripped-down nutritional regimen that allows you to eat your favorite foods -- and you absolutely will get results. Part 4 shows you how to put these simple techniques into action in every part of your life.

Like Rocky Balboa, his inspirational creation, Sly has overcome numerous setbacks and believes no one should ever give up on their dreams. Whether acting, directing, or staying fit, Sly has always found the will to come out on top. By seeing how Sly does it, you can find lessons to incorporate into your own life to make you stronger, healthier, happier, and a champion of your own dreams.




ISBN: 0060737875; Imprint: Collins; On Sale: 05/10/2005; Format: Hardcover; Trimsize: 7 3/8 x 9 1/8; Pages: 224; $24.95;

Chapter Excerpt


Chapter One
The Making of a Contender
Growing up in Silver Spring, Maryland, I'd spend my Saturday afternoons at the Silver Theatre, an old Arabian Nights-style movie palace, mesmerized by matinee idols like Commando Cody, Masked Marvel, and Sinbad the Sailor. Like the comic book characters I loved so much, these movie icons had powerful physiques that made them invincible, and as a 98-pound weakling, I couldn't get enough of their adventures. Still, none of them came close to making an impression like the mighty mortal they called Hercules.

I was 12 when I first saw Steve Reeves in Hercules, and I probably watched the movie 15 or 16 times that summer. My mind exploded! I saw a perfect physical specimen that was both heroic and human, and it was the first time in my life I started thinking about what I wanted to look like physically, how I wanted to develop in terms of proportions. So don't tell me films don't have a lasting impression on children. Sitting in that dark theater, being so enthralled by the images on that screen, is definitely the major reason I am here today.

My own life wasn't quite so heroic in those days. I was born in a clinic on Tenth Avenue and Forty-ninth Street in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in the summer of 1946. A forceps accident at birth immobilized the motor nerves on the left side of my face, leaving me with a crooked mouth, a droopy eye, and this famous locution of mine.

As I got older, people teased me all the time and I became a chronic misbehaver. I wasn't a big kid or especially handsome. And with my speech problems and a name like Sylvester, life was becoming a cruel joke with no punch line in sight. I transferred from school to school because of behavioral problems; one teacher actually introduced me by saying, "Class, we have a new student today. His name is Sylvester, as in the cartoon." So for the rest of the year I got "Hey, Tweety Bird!" or "What's up, Poody Tat?" Nice, huh? A real confidence builder.

Back home, my father taught me how to be physically strong. Just watching him was a lesson in the power of kinetic energy. He didn't lift weights, but he'd constantly be moving rocks, cutting down trees, and pushing heavy machines around. There was nothing elegant about it, but the guy was definitely in great shape. Country strong, they call it.

My mother, Jacqueline, was also very physical, but she was a little more scientific about it. Her father was a district court judge who'd once roomed with Charles Atlas, the most famous bodybuilder ever. Mom started exercising with her father when she was very young, and she grew up hitting a punching bag and tossing around a medicine ball.

My mother is a certified eccentric, and one of the most unusual things she's ever done in her life was to open a women's gym in Washington, D.C., in 1954, when hardly anybody went to gyms. Especially not women.

When I was in sixth grade, I was so obsessed with the idea that I could become Superboy, I actually tried to make it happen. I went out and bought some red dye and a wax crayon and painted a big S on a shirt. I found a barber's cape, dyed it red, and then slipped into a blue bathing suit. For days, I'd literally wear this crazy getup under my clothes. It was like I was telling myself that if I wished hard enough, the transformation would begin.

Unfortunately, I decided to share this top-secret information with my friend Jimmy. He promised and crossed his heart he'd never reveal this extraordinary information. Of course, he told the teacher. She brought me in front of the class. "Children, we have a special guest today, Superboy." She made me take my clothes off. Standing knock-kneed in my baggy Speedos, everybody could see what a puny superhero really looked like. After the laughter died down, I took my breadstick arms and pipe cleaner legs and blew out of there, my wrinkled cape flapping pathetically in the breeze.

But it didn't matter. I knew I'd found a superhero I could emulate in Hercules. It helped that Reeves was as impressive off screen as he was in the movie. The son of a farmer from Glasgow, Montana, he began bodybuilding as a teenager and soon developed one of the most remarkable physiques around. After returning home from World War II, he racked up titles as Mr. America, Mr. World, and Mr. Universe before Hollywood made him the biggest action star of his day.

Later in my life, Reeves and I became friends. What I most admired about him was how modest he was. He was never a poser or a show-off. He wasn't one of those guys who announced to the world how fit he was. Steve wore oversized sweat suits. Best body in the world and he covered it up.

Reeves was the real deal, and his influence on my life was truly profound. Here at last was a way out of my awkward youth. If I wasn't happy with myself as I was, maybe -- just maybe -- I could sculpt myself into the person I wanted to be.

After one of those Saturday matinees, I decided to start building myself up, so I went to the town junkyard and just started lifting whatever I could find: a brake drum, half a fender, a steering column. I started tying rocks together with ropes. I'd do curls with cinder blocks strapped to a broom handle. My friends probably looked at me back then and thought, "Oh, this too shall pass."

Soon enough, I found this dungeon-like weight-lifting place called Iron City. We're talking old school. The grizzled old stalwarts there would work out and smoke cigarettes at the same time. It was all iron bars, not a weight machine in sight. It was a hellhole to the passerby, but to me it was a godsend.

What I began realizing was that the body is nothing but an honest machine that will never cheat you. It gives back exactly what you give it, good or bad.


The foregoing is excerpted from Sly Moves by Sylvester Stallone. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission from HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022

Sauna Therapy

by Dr. Wilson,

A Short Autobiography

Early Life. Born in New York City, I grew up in Larchmont, New York, a suburb 40 minutes north of New York on the Long Island Sound. The house was a small split-level block home on a quiet street about a mile from the beach.

My Dad was a lawyer and had a little office in New York City. He played the piano beautifully and one of my best memories was falling asleep most evenings to my Dad playing Chopin, Brahms or Debussy. My mother was somewhat the opposite, extremely emotional and changeable from day to day. She was often angry for no apparent reason, and nothing was good enough for her. I had a brother, Rick, two years younger than I. He was a good companion and we did a lot together. We played sports and music together.

I was interested in electrical gadgets and could fix household appliances and built mechanical and electrical devices. I did well in mathematics and science, but had no particular interest in the biological sciences. I was very socially awkward and hardly dated.

I had asthma and allergies as a baby and through childhood. My uncle was a doctor and the family was totally oriented toward conventional medicine.

College and My Brotherís Illness. At 18, I left home to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to become an electrical engineer. In fact, I had no idea what an engineer did, except the ones who run trains. The first two years were difficult, as there were no choices of courses and the competition was fierce.

I dropped out of engineering after two years, feeling that MIT had destroyed my interest in math and science by making it so difficult and competitive. I was discouraged, but happened on the writings of Buckminster Fuller, who restored my faith in technology, in the future and in all things good. He became my mentor and all the rest of the courses I took in college were based on his recommendations to study education, systems theory, civil engineering and architecture, philosophy and others.

Soon after entering college my brother was diagnosed with Hodgkinís disease. This was terrifying, as it was advanced when diagnosed and his prognosis was poor. For two years, I accepted the radiation and chemotherapy he went through as the only solution. However, one day I read about the Hunza people who were cancer-free. This seemed amazing and I soon was reading every natural health book I could find at health food stores, the MIT library and elsewhere.

I studied raw foods with Ann Wigmore and macrobiotics with Michio Kushio. As a senior project, the MIT Department of Nutrition gave me a grant to study the relationship between diet and cancer. I spent weeks reading on the subject at the Harvard Medical School Library and later at the New York Academy of Medicine Library. I read the work of Max Gerson, MD, William Frederich Koch, MD Weston Price, DDS, Melvin Page, DDS and others. I also studied iridology with Dr. Bernard Jensen.

After college, I briefly took a job with the US Office of Education in Washington, DC as a management analyst. I was told to work slowly, everyone did as little as possible to get by, and I was bored. However, I read a lot at the HEW library in the basement of the building.

I decided to study healing and was accepted at a naturopathic college . However, a compromise with the family led me to a regular medical school in Mexico. I never applied to US medical schools, which I knew did not teach nutrition or natural healing methods. Medical school in Mexico was an eye opener. It was a beautiful and strange country, I enjoyed learning Spanish and while a student worked as medical director at a Natural Hygiene fasting spa. I also worked at several orphanages, bringing better nutrition to the children. However, all the stress, lots of illness and a foray into vegetarianism at the health spa combined to damage my health severely. I developed chronic fatigue, joint pains, liver pain, and more.

On graduating from medical school, I began a family practice residency at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. However, I did not stay long. I spoke up for natural healing, and once requested of my supervisor that we run a hair mineral analysis on a patient that we could not diagnose. Another time I did foot reflexology on a patient. On another occasion, I asked that a senior member of the hospital staff be allowed to come and speak to us about alternative cancer therapies.

A combination of speaking up too much for natural healing and not being well-prepared from Mexico caused the Family Practice Department at the University of Cincinnati to dismiss me without even a hearing, which I was entitled to. I was told if I made any trouble, they would blacklist me and I would not be able to work in any US hospital.

I was devastated, and it was a low point in my life. I briefly got a job at NIOSH, the research arm of OSHA with William Halperin, MD. I began meditating and on one freezing morning decided I would turn my life over to God for real, if I could get well. I felt an energy move through me, as I was focusing on bringing energy down into the body from the top of the head. I never got worse after that day.

Nutrition Consulting. A friend called and insisted he would help me heal if I moved to Phoenix, Arizona. I moved to Phoenix in December 1979. The friend started me on the Kelley cancer protocol. Dr. William Kelley had recovered from pancreatic cancer with a health program involving metabolic typing, coffee enemas and many nutritional supplements. This helped me get back on my feet and gave me an opportunity to experience a comprehensive metabolic healing program.

Within a year I took over the friendís nutrition consulting practice. I found that I was better off without a medical license and decided to work as a nutrition consultant. About 6 months later I met Dr. Paul C. Eck. He used hair analysis for nutritional assessment and offered to teach it to me. I had tried hair analysis before. After speaking with several laboratories, I had decided they did not understand it and it was probably just a fad.

Dr. Eck uniquely interpreted hair analysis using general systems theory, metabolic types, stages of stress, oxidation rates and other concepts others were not using. I began to incorporate his ideas on myself and with patients, with excellent results. I set about learning it and worked for Dr. Eck one day a week for over 10 years. I wrote about his marvelous work in Nutritional Balancing and Hair Mineral Analysis. I developed a large nutrition consulting practice in Scottsdale, Arizona and did seminars and public speaking as well.

Phoenix became larger and more polluted. In 1996 I began to have anxiety attacks and knew I needed to move out of Phoenix. I ended up in Prescott, Arizona, some two hours north of Phoenix. I continued consulting work and had a smaller private practice.

In early 2002, I had bought an old sauna. A friend suggested experimenting with infrared lamps to heat up the sauna. I was familiar with saunas, but was amazed when I started using the new design of an electric light sauna. Though not sold commercially, John Harvey Kellogg, MD had recommended light saunas over 100 years ago. I began a year-long intense therapy program, and wrote about the results in Sauna Therapy. Since then I have added sauna therapy to all the healing programs I design, as the results are wonderful.


Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Lawrence Wilson



FORMAL EDUCATION
9/74-8/79 Centro De Estudios Universitarios Xochicalco, A.C. M.D. degree awarded August, 1979. (awarded through the Universidad Del Estado De Guerrero, Mexico)
9/68-6/72 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. B.S. degree in Urban Studies and Planning awarded June 1972.



OTHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
1972-present Various courses and consultation with authorities in the field of nutrition and holistic medicine. These include Dr. Jeffrey Bland, Dr. Christopher Gian-Cursio, Dr. Bernard Jensen, Michio Kushi, Ann Wigmore and others.
1982-1996 Study and research with Dr. Paul C. Eck, mineral researcher and founder of Analytical Research Laboratory, Phoenix, Arizona.
1972 Extensive library research in nutrition at Harvard Medical School Library, the New York Academy of Medicine Library, and the National Library of Medicine.
1972 Grant awarded by the Departments of Nutrition and Urban Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for study of the relationship between urban diets and cancer incidence.



PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT
9/82-present Nutrition and Lifestyle Consultant, Scottsdale and Prescott, Arizona.
1/97-present Course author and instructor, University of Natural Medicine, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1/90-present Course author and instructor, Westbrook University, Aztec, New Mexico.
1/86-present Author, The Eck Institute Bulletin (a monthly bulletin for physicians), Eck Institute of Applied Nutrition and Bio-Energetics, Ltd., Phoenix, Arizona.
9/84-present Consultant, Analytical Research Laboratories, Phoenix, Arizona.
5/81-6/85 Instructor, Southwest University of Natural Therapeutics, Tempe, Arizona.
5/81-9/82 Nutrition consultant, Mesa Whole Life Center, Mesa, Arizona.
7/80-1/81 Medical writer and researcher, U.S. Public Health Service, Center For Disease Control, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, Ohio.
5/76-1/79 Health Director, Villa Vegetariana Health Institute, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico.
11/72-4/73 Management Analyst, U.S. Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HHS), Washington, D.C.



ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS
1986 "Determination of Oxidation Types Based on Tissue Electrolyte Ratios". Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Vol. 1, #2, 1986.
1980 "A Comparison of General Medical Screening and Screening in the Work Place". National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, Ohio.
1980 "Common Denominators in Community Preceptorships: Implications for Primary Care, Family Medicine and Medical Education". Co-authored with Dr. Rhoda Halperin and Susan Kyle, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
1979 "La Diarrea Aguda: Etiologias, Diagnostico, y la Experiencia Rural". Medical school thesis.
1972 "A Comparison of Two Global Planning Projects: The World Game and The Limits to Growth Project". Bachelor's thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.



COURSES AND SEMINARS GIVEN
1997-present. Clinical Biochemistry, Legal Guidelines for Unlicensed Practitioners, and Hair Mineral Analysis. Three distance learning courses offered through the University of Natural Medicine, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

1996-2003. Clinical Biochemistry, Legal Guidelines for Unlicensed Practitioners, and Hair Mineral Analysis. Three distance learning courses offered through Westbrook University, Tijeras, New Mexico.

1982-present. Numerous presentations to community groups. Topics include: How Nutrition Affects Emotions and Behavior, Toxic Metals, Nutrition and Energy, Biochemical Basis of Positive Thinking, Behavior and Learning Disorders and Nutrition, Sauna Therapy, Tissue Mineral Analysis and Nutritional Aspects of Arthritis, Allergies, Candida Albicans, Developmental Disorders and other health conditions.



SEMINARS

2001 Four seminars on nutritional balancing, Mexico City, Cuernavaca, & Toluca, Mexico

1998 Seminar on Nutritional Balancing, Bologna, Italy.

1995 High-copper personality, Trophoblastic Theory of Cancer, Mineral Analysis Interpretation.

1994 Nutritional Approaches to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

1993 Cholesterol and Cardiovascular Problems, Disturbance of the Apestat Mechanism, Trace Mineral Analysis and the Endocrine System.

1992 Oxidation and Biochemical Energy, Nutritional Aspects of Arthritis and Premenstrual Syndrome, Understanding Mineral Ratios, Troubleshooting Nutrition Programs.

1992 Two Seminars on Hair Mineral Analysis and Nutritional Balancing Science, Milan and Rome, Italy.

1991 Seminar on Nutrition, Tall Timber Ranch, Grants Pass, Oregon.

1991 Interactions Between Attitudes, Behavior and Nutritional Status, Improving Digestion Through Nutritional Balancing.

1990 Nutritional Aspects of Headaches, Children's Disorders, and Enhancing Success with Chronic Viral Syndromes

1989 Multi-media Presentation on Nutrition and Natural Healing, Basic Mineral Ratios and Their Meaning.

1988 Strengthening the Immune System - Nutritional Aspects of AIDS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Learning Disorders.

1987 Avoiding Today's Health Catastrophes, Glucose Tolerance, Measuring Energy Efficiency, Personality and Mineral Testing.

1986 The Role of Copper in the Body, Copper Toxicity and its Correction, Other Toxic Metals.

1986-88 Three one-day nutrition seminars on Nutritional Balancing Science, Austin, Texas.

1985 Adrenal Burnout Syndrome, Basic Ratios, Oxidation Types

1984 Hair Analysis and The New Nutrition - Basic Theory, Disease Trends, Use of Diets and Supplements, Lifestyle Considerations.

1983 Physiology of Fasting and Design of Weight-Loss Programs based on Metabolic Types, Conference on Obesity And Weight Loss, Los Angeles, California.

1982 Principles of Traditional and Holistic Medicine, course given at Professional Studies Institute, Tempe, Arizona.

1981-1985 Beginning and Advanced Nutrition, 24-week course at Southwest University of Natural Therapeutics, Tempe, Arizona.

1980 Wellness and Wholistic Health Development. Course on various aspects of Wellness, involving community physicians, nutritionists, etc. Cincinnati, Ohio.

1975-1978 Lecture Series on Health. Ongoing series, three times per week, at the Villa Vegetariana Health Institute, Cuernavaca, Mexico.



ARTICLES (published in various journals and magazines)
Acid-Alkaline Balance and Oxidation

Addictions and Biochemistry

Adrenal Burnout Syndrome

AIDS and Public Health Policy

Alcoholism and Nutrition

Allergies and Nutrition

Alternative Cancer Therapies

Aluminum Toxicity

Alzheimerís Disease

America's Destiny

Amino Acids

Anemia - Variety of Nutritional Causes

Animals, Nutrition and Hair Analysis

Anorexia and Nutrition

Anti-aging and Nutritional Balancing

Antibiotics and Alternatives

Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Arteriosclerosis

Arthritis and Joint Pain

Asthma and Bronchitis

Athletes and Hair Analysis

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Attitudes For Optimum Health

Aura, What Is It?

Autism and Nutrition

Basic Health Imbalances

Biounavailability

Bladder Infections

Blood Type Diets

Bone Conditions

Brain Fog

Butter Versus Margarine

Cadmium, The Pseudo-Strength Element

Cancer Therapy Alternatives

Candida Albicans Infection

Canola and Other Vegetable Oils

Calcium Confusion

Calcium Shells on Mineral Tests

Calcium/magnesium Ratio in Hair

Cardiovascular Disease

Catabolism, Tissue

Chakra Balancing

Charity and Compassion?

Chelation and Alternatives

Chemical Sensitivity

Childrenís Health

Cholesterol Phobia

Chromium

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Cleansing Diets and Foods

Co-dependency and Nutrition

Colloidal Silver

Colon Health

Compulsive Running

Congestive Heart Failure

Constipation and Diarrhea

Consumer Cooperatives

Copper and Estrogen

Copper and Behavior

Copper Elimination

Defenders Among Minerals

Delayed Development

Dentistry, Holistic

Depression, New Hope

Deregulating Health Care

Determination of Oxidation Types by Means of Tissue Electrolyte Ratios

Detoxification

DHEA and Pregnenelone

Diabetes, Nutritional Causes

Diets

Digestion and Its Improvement

Dosages of Nutrients

Drop Out of Toxic Society

Dyslexia, The Gift of

Earth Energies and Geopathic Stress

Eat Organic, Save the Planet Fibromyalgia

Eczema and Dermatitis

Elderly, Treating the

Emotions, Behavior and Nutrition

Emotional Healing Crises

Emphysema

Energy Efficiency in Human Beings

Environmental Illness

Environmentalism and Private Property

Epilepsy, A Nutritional Approach

Etheric Healing

Exercise, Donít Overdo

Fast Oxidation

Fasting, Is It A Good Idea?

Fats, Good and Bad

FDA, A Regulatory Menace

Fear and Disease

Fertilizers and Toxic Metals

Fibromyalgia

Financial Healing

Fluoridation and Truth Decay

Food Allergies

Food Combining

Food Faddists, Who Are They?

Food Habits - A Hidden Cause of Addiction

Food Irradiation

Four High Electrolytes in the Hair

Four Low Electrolytes in the Hair

Fruit, An Over-Rated Food

Fully Informed Juries

Gall Bladder Disease

Generational Healing

Glandular Products

Glucose Intolerance and Minerals

Glycemic Index

Government, Its Purpose

Green Revolution

Hair Analysis Accuracy

Hair Analysis Controversy

Hair Analysis Interpretation

Hair Analysis Retesting

Hair Sampling Procedure

Hair, Skin and Nails

Hair Washing at the Laboratory

Headaches, Causes and Correction

Healing Path

Healing Reactions

Health Care, Why So Costly?

Healing The Health Care System

Healing, The New Paradigm of

Health, Its Causes

Hemp, The Truth

Hepatitis

High Blood Pressure - Causes and Correction

Holistic Healing, What Is It?

Home, The Healthy

Homosexuality, Nutritional Aspects

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Hydrotherapy For Healing

Hypoglycemia, A Hidden Epidemic

Immune System, How to Boost It

Infant Mortality, Why Is It Rising?

Infants and their Health

Infections, Natural Prevention and Correction

Infrared Saunas

Indigo Children

Insomnia and its Correction

Injuries and Nutrition

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Juices Are Best Avoided

Jurisdiction and Federal Laws

Kidney Problems

Kidney Stones

Layered Toxins

Lead Toxicity

Learning Disabilities and Nutrition

Learning Revolution

Lemurian Tantra

Letting Go

Libertarian Thinking

Licensing, The Case Against It

Lifestyle and Healing

Light Worker Survival Guide

Local Currencies

Magnesium, The Wonder Element

Magnets and Iron Toxicity

Marriage and Spiritual Principles

Meat-Eating As A Cause Of Health

Medications and Your Health

Meditation-Observation Exercise

Meditation Reflections

Mercury Toxicity

Metabolic Typing

Menopause Naturally

Menís and Womenís Health

Mental Health and Nutrition

Mineral Balancing, The Theory

Minerals and Personality

Mineral Relationships

Money and Banking, A Must to Understand

Muscle Cramps, Tone and Weakness

Natural Healing Tradition

Nonviolent Communication

Nutrition Myths

Nutrition Programs, Why Use Hair Analysis?

Nutritional Balancing Science

Nutritional Balancing and Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis

Obesity, Causes and Correction

Obstetrics and Trace Mineral Analysis

Oils For Health and Longevity

Osteoarthritis

Osteoporosis

Ozone Scare; The Sky Is Not Falling

Pain and Nutritional Methods

Paradigm, The New Healing

Parenting, Preparing for Healthy Children

Parkinsonís Disease

Pattern Recognition in Nutrition

Periodontal Disease

Phosphorus on Hair Analyses

Poisons in Foods Versus Additives and

Pesticides

Positive Thinking, The Biochemical Basis

Preferred Minerals

Pregnancy and Nutrition

Premenstrual Syndrome

Progesterone Cream

Prostate Health

Protein For Health

Prozac and Alternatives

Random Vitamin and Mineral Intake Can Cause Havoc

Radiation Toxicity

Ratios Versus Levels of Minerals

Reactions to Foods

Replacement Therapy

Restoring America

Reversal Process in Healing

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Salt and How To Use It

Sauna Therapy

Schizophrenia

Schools, Why Donít They Work Better?

Sexual Dysfunctions

Slow Oxidation

Sodium/Potassium Ratio

Sovereignty, Your Birthright

Soy Foods

Spiritual Healing Crises

Starch Cravings

Stress Addiction

Strokes

Sugar Addiction

Substance Abuse and Hair Analysis

Subtle Bodies

Subtle Energies and Health

Supplement Formulation

Supplements, Why Take Them?

Surgery and Stress

Sympathetic Dominance

Tai Chi For Health and Peace of Mind

Taking Responsibility

Target Organs

Tesla, Twentieth Century Superman

Thyroid Imbalances, Causes and Correction

Time Factor in Healing

Toxic Chemicals

Toxic Metals

Toxic Metal Detection

Traditional Diets

Troubleshooting Nutrition Programs

Two Thought Systems

Understanding Stress

Universal Curriculum

Vaccinations and Your Health

Vegetables in Capsules

Vegetarianism, Pro and Con

Veterinary Medicine and Hair Analysis

Victim Mentality

Violence and Nutrition

Water For Drinking

Washing Hair and Test Accuracy

Wellness, The Paradigm

Weight Loss

Wheat Sensitivity

Why Kids Kill?

The World is Perfect

Yeast Infections

Yin and Yang Detoxification

Zinc, The Most Commonly Deficient Mineral





BOOKS

The Manual of Sauna Therapy, (2003), 105 pages, 8.5"x11".
Nutritional Balancing and Hair Mineral Analysis, (1991, 1992, 1998), 391 pages, 6"x9".
Legal Guidelines for Unlicensed Practitioners, (1995, 1998, 2000, 2003), 79 pages, 8.5"x11".
Healing Ourselves (60 articles), (1995, 2000, 2002), 160 pages, 8.5"x11".
The Real Self (2003), 102 pages, 5.5"x8.5".
Toxic Metals in Human Health and Disease, co-authored with Dr. Paul C. Eck, The Eck Institute of Applied Nutrition and Bioenergetics, Ltd., 1989.
Book Chapter: "Nutrition and Mental Health", in the Maricopa County Mental Health Association Health Directory, 1991.
Book Chapter: "Vitamin-Mineral Therapy", in the Holistic Help Handbook, 5th edition, by Stanley Kalson, The International Holistic Center, 1990.
Book Chapter: "The Case Against Medical Licensing", in The Dangers of Socialized Medicine, edited by Jacob Hornberger, Future of Freedom Foundation,1994.
Editor: Nutrition Chapter, Textbook on Health and Wellness, McGraw Hill, 1992.



CASSETTE TAPES

Adrenal Burnout Syndrome (60 min.)
Alcoholism and Nutrition (60 min.)
Anxiety and Panic Attacks
How Nutrition Affects Emotions and Behavior (60 min.)
How to Determine Your Nutritional Needs (60 min.)
Nutritional Help for Allergies and Arthritis (60 min.)
How Nutrition Affects Children's Health
Nutrition and Allergies
Nutritional Help for Panic Attacks (30 min.)
Pros and Cons of the 'Fit For Life' Diet (60 min.)
Rebuilding Body Chemistry (90 min.)
Responsible Approaches to Weight Loss (60 min.)
The Truth About Hair Analysis (90 min.)
The Universal Curriculum
Toxic Metals, Parts I and II. (two 60 min. tapes)
Observation-Meditation Exercise for Awareness & Healing (60 min.)

SIX-TAPE SERIES ON MINERAL BALANCING SCIENCE: (60 min. each)
I. Introduction to Nutrition, Hair Analysis and Mineral Balancing
II. Biochemical Energy, Oxidation Rate, & Stages of Stress
III. Principles of Hair Analysis Interpretation
IV. Correction of the Oxidation Rate, and Use of Supplements
V. Practical Aspects of Mineral Balancing Programs
VI. Understanding Retracing and Healing Reactions



MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

American Association of Physicians and Surgeons
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COMMUNITY SERVICE

1998-2002: Volunteer physician and counselor - The Shanti Womenís Clinic, Prescott, Arizona
1981-present: Contributing author, The Arizona Networking News, Semi-Monthly Newspaper
1998-1999: Vice President, Local Homeowner's Association
1983-1994: Speaker, Arizona State Speakers Bureau
1986-1989: President, Scottsdale Chapter, National Health Federation.
1982-1988: Sponsor, Arizona Networking News
1981-1982: Member, Board of Directors, Cooperative Credit Union, Tempe, Arizona.
1980-1981: Member, Task Force on Nutrition of the Ohio Regional Health Planning Association, Cincinnati, Ohio.
1980-1981: Member, Cincinnati Council to Promote Health and Well Being, Cincinnati, Ohio.




1. Introduction to Saunas 1

Definitions

Sauna History

Five Ways Of Using Saunas

Organic Chemicals

Toxic metals

Biological Toxins

Radiation

Slow Metabolism

An Anti-aging Therapy

Practical Considerations



2. Physiology of Saunas 7

Two-Phase Sessions



Mechanisms Common To All

Saunas

Phase One Effects:

Inhibiting the Sympathetic

Nervous System

Sweating

Reducing Heat Production

Improving Oxygenation

Dilating Peripheral Vessels

Relieving Internal Congestion

Relaxing Muscles and Enhancing

Flexibility of Tendons

Relieving Pain



Phase Two Effects:

Increasing Body Temperature

Hastening the Death of Weaker

Cells

Producing Heat Shock Proteins

Improving Genetics

Increasing the Heart Rate and

Enhancing Circulation

Directly Disabling Microorganisms

Resolving Infiltrates, Edema

and Exudates

Normalizing Enzymatic Activity



Additional Mechanisms of

Ceramic Element Far

Infrared Saunas

Deep Tissue Heating

Enhancing The Activity of Water Molecules

More Yang Therapy

Electromagnetic Field Emissions

Untrue Claims



Additional Mechanisms of Electric

Light Saunas

Shortening Cluster Chains

Removing Telomeres

A Tissue Nutrient

Reducing Lipid Peroxidation and

Enhancing Oxygen Production

Color Therapy

Vigorous Circulatory Effects

Deeper Tissue Penetration

Full Spectrum Effects

Ability to Focus Energy

Chakra Effects

Enhanced Genetic Effects

Chart of Sauna Effects

Organ and System Effects

Other Topics

Fever Versus Sauna Hyperthermia

Hot Tubs and Steam Baths Versus Sauna Hyperthermia

Exercise Versus Saunas

Blankets and Hot Baths Versus Saunas

Fasting Versus Saunas

Repeated Heating of the Body

The Metabolic Rate

Adding Energy to The Body

Weight Loss

Heating Acupuncture Meridians



3. Heat Shock Proteins 19

Renaturation

Heat Shock Therapy

Analogous Concepts

Other Metabolic Effects

HSPs and Nutrition

Coleyπs Toxins and HSPs

Sauna Protocol and HSPs



4. Sauna Protocol 23

The Choice of Saunas

When and How Often

Electrolyte Imbalances

How Long to Remain Inside

How Much Sauna Therapy

Replenishing Minerals

Before a Sauna Session

During and After a Sauna Session

Supervision

Relaxation

Saunas During Acute Infections

Cautions and Contraindications



5. Detoxification 33

The Philosophy of Detoxification

Sauna Detoxification

Mechanisms

Heating the Body

Skin Activation

Sweating

Hot and Dry (Yang) Effects

Improving Circulation

Sympathetic Inhibition

Relieving Internal Congestion

Normalizing Alkalinity

Enhancing Oxygenation

Deep Tissue Penetration

Other Infrared Benefits

Other Detoxification Topics

The Concept of Density

Detoxification Program Qualities

Layered Toxins

To Detoxify, Remove The Need

For Compensations

Preferred Minerals

Seven Methods To Eliminate Toxic Metals

Order of Organ Cleanout

Healing Facility Or Home Therapy

Home-based Therapy

Who Can Do Home Therapy?

Potential Detoxification Program

Difficulties



6. Other Aspects Of Sauna

Therapy 43

Visualization

Sound

Conscious Breathing.

Posture

Color

Massage

Niacin

Water

Aromatherapy

Steam

Ozone

Exercise

Cool Bathing and Cold Plunges



7. A Total Health Program 47

Diet

Water

Nutrients

Rest

Exercise

Positive Action

Healthful Relationships

Healing Attitudes

Medications



8. Effects On Health Conditions 53

Cardiovascular Benefits

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Addiction and Drug Detoxification

Nervous System

Musculo-skeletal Conditions

Skin Conditions

Ear, Nose and Throat

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Enhanced Vitamin D Production

Radiation Exposure

Eye Conditions

Digestive Disorders

Other



Benefits Of A Single Infrared

Lamp

Single Lamp Protocol

Cautions and Contraindications



9. Saunas And Infectious Disease 59

Improving Circulation

Heating The Body

Improved Oxygenation

Production of Heat Shock Proteins

Sweating

Deep Heat Penetration

Other Effects of Infrared Radiation

Color Therapy

Sympathetic Nervous Inhibition

Enhancing Digestion

No Side Effects or Tolerance

Combining With Other Therapies

Inexpensive and Available to All

Acute Infections

Chronic Infections

Saunas Versus Vaccines



10. Saunas and Cancer 65

What is Cancer?

Estrogen, The Primary Carcinogen

Reduced Pancreatic Secretion

Role of the Sympathetic Nervous System

Sauna Mechanisms for Cancer

The Mental State

Tumor Necrosis and Pain Control

Other Considerations



11. Healing Reactions 77

Healing and Disease Reactions

Distinguishing Healing From Disease Reactions

Emotional Reactions

Handling Physical Healing Reactions

Supportive Measures

Discussing Healing Reactions



12. Sauna Design 83

Power Sources

Convection Saunas

Radiant Heating

Ceramic Element Saunas

Electric Light Saunas

Hot Sand or Solar Power

Electromagnetic Fields

Converting A Sauna



Cabinets And Enclosures

Materials

Cross Bars

Handicap Modifications

Bathroom and Closet Installation

Rotting

Insulation

Inability To Heat Up

Thermometers

Thermostats

Timers

Ventilation

Size

Sitting or Lying Down

Shape

Portability



13. Light Sauna Considerations 91

Technical Specifications

Safety

Rotating to Avoid Burns

Lying Down or Sitting

Infrared Lamp Spectral Power Graph

Why Lamps On Only One Wall?

Guards For Lamps

Multiple-Person Light Saunas

Commercial Units



14. Personal Experience With An

Electric Light Sauna 95

Development

Sauna Protocol

Healing Reactions

Validation

Hair Mineral Analyses



15. Sauna Research 105

Research Protocols



16. Review and Conclusion 107



Appendix A. Saunas and

Hair Mineral Analysis 108

Tendency for Toxicity

Detoxification Ability

Hazardous Electrolyte Imbalances

Energy Level

Sympathetic Dominance

Toxic Metal Readings

Which Lab To Use

Monitoring Progress



Appendix B. Light Sauna Plans 111

Materials

Enclosures

Construction

Mounting and Ventilation

Cautions and Disclaimer



Appendix C. Basic Enclosure

Plans 115



Appendix D. Notes For

Practitioners 118

Disclaimer Statement



References 119

Books

Articles



Index 129







************************************************



Preface





Thirty-four years ago my brotherπs cancer diagnosis led me to investigate natural methods of healing. I read about the Hunza people who were cancer-free, perhaps due to their diet and lifestyle. I was an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From their Department of Nutrition, I received a grant to study the relationship between diet and cancer.

I spent weeks reading on the subject at the Harvard Medical School Library and later at the New York Academy of Medicine Library. I also studied Macrobiotics with Michio Kushi, raw foods with Ann Wigmore and iridology with Dr. Bernard Jensen. I went to medical school and while a student worked as medical director at a Natural Hygiene fasting spa. Results with all these methods, however, were less than satisfactory in many cases.

On graduating from medical school, I began a family practice residency at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, but left early. I moved to Phoenix, Arizona to restore my own health. A friend started me on the Kelley program. Dr. William Kelley had recovered from pancreatic cancer with a health program involving metabolic typing, coffee enemas and many nutritional supplements. It certainly helped me, though it was not enough. It also began to answer many questions as to why a particular regimen worked for one person and not another.

In Phoenix, I took over a friendπs nutrition consulting practice and soon met Dr. Paul C. Eck. He used hair analysis for nutritional assessment and offered to teach it to me. I had tried hair analysis before. After speaking with several laboratories I had decided they did not understand it and it was probably just a fad.

Dr. Eck uniquely interpreted hair analysis using general systems theory, metabolic types, stages of stress, oxidation rates and other concepts others were not using. I tried his method on myself and with patients. Results were better than the Kelley program at a lower cost. I set about learning it, including working a day a week at Dr. Eckπs laboratory. I wrote about his marvelous work in Nutritional Balancing and Hair Mineral Analysis.

In 1996, I moved to cleaner surroundings in Prescott, Arizona. Aware of saunas, I had little idea of their benefits or how to use them properly. How could such as simple therapy be effective? I did not appreciate the power of the combination of heat, color, sympathetic nervous system inhibition, increased circulation and infrared energy.

In early 2002, a friend suggested experimenting with an electric light sauna. I converted an old hot air sauna to a light sauna and began an intense therapy program. Chapter 14 describes the dramatic results, including changes in my mineral analyses. I began recommending it to patients, observing similar incredible results even with a terminal cancer patient.

In this age of toxic exposure and drug-resistant infections, saunas are indeed a great blessing. No other single therapy has so impressed me. This book describes protocols, rationales and research that supports the use of this ancient, safe, inexpensive and very potent natural healing method.


Dr. Lawrence Wilson

October 2003





Chapter 1.

Introduction to Saunas





Over the past two years, I underwent an intense electric light sauna therapy program. Results were dramatic and I began recommending it to patients. I observed similar excellent improvement in their health. As I found few books about sauna therapy, particularly using electric light saunas, this volume documents what is known about this therapy and what I have observed.



Definitions. Sauna, a Scandinavian word, is an ancient form of heat therapy used in many cultures around the world. Sauna refers to dry heat although steam is sometimes added, usually by sprinkling water on hot rocks.

A sauna has two components, a heat source and an enclosure to contain the heat. The heat source may be wood, gas, hot rocks or electricity. Enclosures can encompass the entire body such as a sweat lodge, room or other hollowed out area. Also available are sauna cabinets, with the head exposed.

The sauna concept is to heat the body several degrees. The body attempts to reduce its temperature by driving blood to the surface and by sweating. Repeated heating increases the amount and the efficiency of sweating.

Saunas can be of three basic types. Convection saunas move hot air around the body. Radiant saunas use heat rays generated by ceramic far infrared elements, electric light bulbs or by the sun. Conduction saunas heat the body by direct contact with steam or hot sand.

Saunas improve circulation and relieve internal congestion. Heating the body helps destroy bacteria, viruses and tumors. Sweating promotes elimination of toxic chemicals, heavy metals, radiation and other toxins. The skinπs ability to eliminate poisons increases. Saunas offer many of the benefits of exercise while requiring much less exertion.



Sauna History. Hot air baths have been used by many cultures for thousands of years. Among them are Mayan sweat houses, the Mexican temescal, the Islamic hammam, the Russian bania, Japanese mushi-buro, the Native American sweat lodge, as well as hot air baths in India and Africa. The best known European sauna users are the Finns. Hot air baths are also common among Greeks, Romans, Germans, Turks and others.

In Finnish society, the sauna was definitely multipurpose. Besides the weekly family baths, the building was used for smoking and curing meats, doing laundry, drying thatch, malting barley and drying fish nets. It was also used for massage, nursing the sick, washing the dead and as a birthing chamber.

Settlers in America brought their saunas with them. Often Finnish settlers would build the sauna first. It would serve as a temporary shelter to live in while they were building a house. Pioneers in natural therapeutics also employed the sauna as a healing modality. The best known nineteenth century American sauna proponent was Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. At his Battle Creek Sanitarium he carefully researched various dry and wet heat baths to assess their use as healing modalities. A favorite was the electric light sauna employing the new incandescent light bulb. It never caught on in America, but thousands were sold in Europe, including to members of the royal families.

Sauna use waned during the early years of the twentieth century, outshined by the technological wonders of modern medicine. Over the past twenty years, however, its use has increased, especially as a safe and powerful method for eliminating addictive drugs and environmental toxins. The infrared sauna was also introduced. It provides a more pleasant experience for many people and is more effective for detoxification.



Five Ways To Use Saunas. This book focuses on sauna therapy. Saunas, however, may be used in several ways.



Relaxation. The warm, dry heat of the sauna relaxes the muscles and nervous system. Tensions melt away. The sauna offers a healthful method to unwind after a difficult day.



Health Maintenance. Periodic use enhances circulation, nourishes the glands, cleanses the skin and offers many of the benefits of exercise.



Social Interaction. Baths, saunas and lodges can be community gathering places for families and other groups. The warmth promotes openness and community spirit.



Spiritual Development. Native Americans and other groups use sweat lodges for sacred ceremony. The warmth, atmosphere and shape of the lodge make it excellent for emotional and physical cleansing. Together with others or alone, the sauna is a marvelous place to contemplate, meditate, pray and release fears and negativity. Adding sound, color, aromatherapy and other modalities can enhance the effects of the heat.



Healing. Spending one to four hours a day in sauna therapy is a powerful yet safe healing modality. The sauna is excellent to add energy to the body, decongest internal organs, assist circulation, heal infections and help many other body systems. Medical therapies too often focus on relieving symptoms while ignoring deeper causes which the sauna addresses.

In particular, conventional medicine often overlooks the effects of toxic chemicals and heavy metals on oneπs health. Genetics is emphasized, but there is little mention that nutritional deficiencies and toxic agents cause genetic defects. The following sections describe toxins the sauna can help remove in more detail.



Organic Chemicals. Never before in history have bodies been exposed to such large numbers and amounts of toxic chemicals. From building materials and home furnishings to food additives, solvents and thousands of other products, chemicals are part of the modern lifestyle.

Many harm the body, though the effects are often subtle. They accumulate in the water and air, so no location remains unaffected. Many degrade slowly so their effects are cumulative. Avoiding exposure is all but impossible. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), toxic chemicals are the worst environmental problem in the nation, responsible for up to 80% of cancer deaths.

One class of chemicals, pesticides and herbicides, are among the most toxic substances known to mankind. Several billion pounds are sprayed each year directly on our crops. Besides eating and wearing the residues, they contaminate the air and water supplies for hundreds of years.

Testing for thousands of chemicals is costly when tests even exist, and medicine has little to offer to eliminate them from the body. The diseases they cause have become epidemics. Sauna therapy shines brightly as a simple, effective therapeutic modality to help eliminate chemical toxins from the body.



Toxic metals. According to the United States EPA, toxic metals are the second worst environmental problem. Pesticides may contain lead, copper, arsenic and other metals. Fifty million mercury amalgam fillings are still placed in America each year. Tons of it is dumped into the air from coal-burning power plants and paper-making. Aluminum compounds are routinely added to table salt and municipal drinking water supplies. Arsenic and lead used in pesticides and insecticides find their way into the water and food supplies. In my experience, everyone has excess toxic metals, whether or not they show up on any test.

Some toxic metals replace vital minerals in enzyme binding sites. However, they do not function as well. When they accumulate, they contribute to hundreds of physical and emotional health conditions.



Lead contributes to more than 100 conditions including neuromuscular and bone diseases, fractures, mental retardation, hyperactivity, anemia and others. Some historians believe the Roman Empire fell because lead water pipes slowly poisoned the people and decreased their strength and intelligence. Sources of lead include old paint, inks, pesticides, a few hair dyes, solder and other metal products. During sauna therapy, I have observed lead to have a sickly sweet odor as it is eliminated. Elimination of lead was confirmed with hair mineral testing.



Cadmium contributes to high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, fatigue, arthritis, violence, infections, back pain and other conditions. Common sources are cigarette or marijuana smoke, refined foods and tap water. One may feel tired for a few days if one eliminates a lot of cadmium at one time.



Mercury toxicity is present in almost everyone today. Mercury is found in silver amalgam dental fillings, tuna and swordfish, contact lens solution, vaccines and various other products. Mercury may contribute to hypothyroidism, an impaired immune system, digestive problems such as yeast infections, emotional difficulties, learning disabilities, ADHD and many other conditions. Mercury elimination, if heavy, may be accompanied by a fishy odor during a sauna session.



Aluminum is associated with memory impairment and Alzheimerπs disease. Aluminum is widely used in beverage cans, aluminum foils, antiperspirants, antiacids, and aluminum cookware. Peppermint, spearmint and wintergreen are naturally high in aluminum.



Fluoride contributes to brown staining of the teeth, weakened bones, hip fractures, hypothyroidism, mental impairment, birth defects and cancer. Fluoride compounds are found in pesticides, air pollution, toothpastes, and are added to many water supplies. Foods processed with water including baby foods and juices often contain too much fluoride.

Large, worldwide studies show little or no benefit of fluoride for tooth decay, contrary to many news reports. Only the United States, Australia and Great Britain continue to add toxic fluoride compounds to drinking water.



Chlorine toxicity is associated with fatigue, heart disease, cancer and renal problems. Chlorine is required in the body, and found in salt and other foods. Many chlorinated cmpounds, however, are highly toxic. These include chlorinated tap water, chlorinated hydrocarbons used in pesticides and other chemicals, bathing in chlorinated water, pools and hot tubs, and the use of chlorine bleach and other chlorine-containing household products.



Arsenic contributes to liver and kidney damage, weakness, diarrhea, muscle spasms, headaches and other symptoms. Sources include pesticides, beer, tap water, table salt, paints and other chemical products.



Physiological minerals may also become toxic. For example, hexavalent chromium is toxic while trivalent chromium is not. Vital minerals can also become toxic if they are unusable by the body. Calcium is needed in the bones. When it accumulates in the arteries, joints, kidneys or elsewhere it becomes toxic. A similar situation occurs with iron, manganese, chromium, copper, selenium and other vital minerals, contributing to many health conditions. Of these, the most commonly seen are copper, iron and manganese toxicity. They will often be revealed on a hair mineral test at some point if one pursues a corrective nutrition and sauna therapy program. All three of these minerals help support weak adrenal glands.

Copper is high in vegetarian proteins and associated with zinc deficiency and adrenal exhaustion, both very common conditions. Copper imbalance contributes to emotional conditions, skin problems, joint pain, cancer, migraine headaches and premenstrual tension. The symptoms of copper toxicity are identical to the symptoms of premenstrual tension. Copper elimination in a sauna may be accompanied by a rotten egg odor. This is probably sulfur that is bound to copper to protect the body from the worst effects of excess copper.

Manganese is found in unleaded gasoline and foods such as tea. Both copper and manganese are needed in the body. However, the body may convert manganese into a toxic, oxidized form (MnO6) that helps support weak adrenal glands. This manganese is not usable and must be eliminated. Manganese elimination in a sauna may cause a slightly metallic odor.

Iron toxicity is also very common, although often not revealed on standard tests. Iron is added to all white flour products such as breads, crackers, pasta and pastry. Vitamin and mineral supplements often contain a lot of iron. Iron can accumulate to help support weak adrenal glands. It is stored in the liver and other organs and may contribute to heart disease, cancer, emotional difficulties and other health problems.

Sauna therapy is excellent to remove excess minerals, whether they are toxic metals or unusable or excess physiological minerals.



Biological Toxins. Infection plays a role in more conditions than previously thought, from artery disease and ulcers to arthritis and colitis. Many bacteria and fungi produce endo-and exotoxins that cause both local and systemic disease. More and more of them are resistant to drug therapy. Bodies weakened by toxic chemicals and heavy metals are more subject to attack by infections.

Many infections are chronic, causing nagging complaints that never go away. This occurs especially in parts of the body with poor circulation such as the joints, ears and sinuses. Heating the body is a natural mechanism the body uses to fight infections. Sauna therapy not only heats, but powerfully improves circulation to help fight both acute and chronic infections.



Radiation. An article in The Ecologist, April 2001 issue begins by stating ≥the (radiation) equivalent of a nuclear war has already happened≤. This may not be an exaggeration. The article carefully details that 1900 nuclear tests, accidents and nuclear waste dumping have exposed everyone on the planet to the equivalent of 1000 Hiroshima bombs.

The article reveals details of previously classified accidents including one in Greenland in 1968. A B-52 crashed at a secret nuclear base and its cargo of four nuclear bombs detonated, sending up a cloud of plutonium 25,000 feet into the air. According to US documents, 1250 nuclear weapons have been involved in accidents, a number of which ≥resulted in or created the potential for plutonium dispersal≤. The Soviet Union was notorious for its cavalier attitude about nuclear accidents. A 1991 film documents the poisoning of hundreds of thousands as a result of accidents at their first plutonium factory at Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountains.

Using the official åradiation riskπ estimates published in 1991 by the International Commission on Radiological Protection, planetwide contamination will cause 175 million cancer deaths and another 350 million non-fatal cancers. It will also cause another 235 million illnesses and 588 million children to be born with birth defects such as brain damage, mental disability, spina bifida and childhood cancers.

Depleted uranium, a waste product which every nation that has atomic weapons has in abundance, is another source of radiation exposure. To get rid of it, it is often made into ammunition that was used in the Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo. Leukemia rates have increased in these areas since its use.

Another hidden source of radiation are the fluoride compounds added to many municipal water supplies. Hydrofluosilicic acid, the source of most fluoride for water supplies, is a smokestack waste produce that contains radioactive particles and heavy metals along with fluoride.

Other sources are medical and dental x-rays, medical waste that may contain radioactive materials, CAT and other scans, smoke alarms and proximity to food irradiation facilities.

Radiation is carried on mineral particles. The minerals lodge in the cells where they disrupt DNA synthesis. This causes defective protein synthesis resulting in innumerable subtle metabolic dysfunctions. As the defective proteins replicate, the metabolic errors also multiply.

Electric light sauna therapy promotes rapid turnover of body cells. The deeply penetrating high heat kills damaged cells which are more heat-sensitive than normal cells. Eliminating the radiation-containing cells helps the body eliminate radioactive particles faster and prevents replication of these cells. Over a period of time, light sauna therapy can dramatically reduce the amount of mutated DNA and radioactive material in the body. One needs to continue sauna use on a maintenance basis because exposure to radiation continues throughout oneπs life.



Slow Metabolism. Radiation and other toxins often affect the thyroid and adrenal glands resulting in a slow metabolic rate. This condition affects over 90% of adults and causes fatigue, impaired carbohydrate tolerance, food cravings, allergies, obesity, elevated cholesterol, learning disability, chronic infections and other conditions.

A low body temperature impairs sweating. This hinders elimination and interferes with tissue regeneration. Supporting sluggish thyroid and adrenal glands helps, but is often not enough. By heating the body, saunas activate and enhance many metabolic processes. This is most beneficial for those with sluggish metabolism.



An Anti-aging Therapy. Metabolism slows as one grows older. Most older people exercise less. Sweating occurs less often, impairing elimination of toxins and increasing the risk of major diseases. Since sauna therapy helps reverse all these conditions, it is a prime anti-aging therapy.

Sauna therapy can be used by most people at any age, even by those in wheelchairs. Physicians familiar with it contend that it can be adapted for any condition with proper supervision. Simple yet powerful, it can usually be done right in the home.


Practical Considerations. The FDA approves of saunas as therapeutic devices. Consult with oneπs health insurance representative regarding reimbursement for the cost of a sauna. The Internal Revenue Service may consider sauna therapy a deductible health expense if prescribed by a doctor.

Adding a built-in sauna will increase the value of oneπs home. Unlike hot tubs and steam rooms, saunas require practically no maintenance and are simple and inexpensive to operate.