Lose Weight Get Healthy Now!!!

[Brandy]

I do get sleep. Yay!!

[Kathe]

Originally Posted by Brandy

I'm failing this test!

That's the whole point. I think most of us are failing this test. This is why I started this. I'm going to commit to changing these 8 things in my life. I'm going to make an appointment with the natural doctor to get my hormone levels checked and go from there. You can do it, too.

[szgirl]

great info kathe. i saw Suzanne Somers on a show last week. i thought her book sounded very intriguing.

[Kathe]

Interview between Dr. Russell Blaylock and Suzanne Somers.

SS: Thank you for your time, Dr. Blaylock. I know you are a neurosurgeon by profession but you've recently retired. Why?

RB: I decided to devote my time to neuroscience and general nutrition studies. I have a newsletter that I write on all different subjects. For instance, I write about diabetes and hormone problems and anything that has to do with human health. But my primary interests are excitotoxicity, brain function, and nutritional protection of the brain.

SS: I am quite familiar with your newsletter and eagerly wait for it to arrive each month. Explain excitotoxins.

RB: Excitotoxins are a special group of amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins that we call glutamate, aspartate, and cysteine. The food manufacturers add tons of these excitotoxins to foods of all kinds, including baby foods. The only reason glutamate and similar excitotoxins are added to foods is because they greatly enhance the taste of foods - they make foods taste scrumptious. For instance, MSG (monosocium glutamate) is a dangerous brain-toxic compound that should not be added to baby food, or any food. MSG is not the only taste-enhancing food additive known to cause damage to the nervous system.

There is a whole class of chemicals that can produce very similar damage. They all share one important property: When neurons are exposed to these substances, they become very "excited" and fire their impulses very rapidly until they reach a state of extreme exhaustion. Several hours later these neurons suddenly die, as if the cells were excited to death. As a result, neuroscientists have dubbed this class of chemicals "excitotoxins".

SS: I believe if the public really understood this they would never consume any food containing these harmful chemicals, yet when you walk through the grocery store, the labels speak. Food-additive chemicals are everywhere.

RB: That's why you and I are speaking. So much negative information had come out initially on MSG that they came up with yet another substance called hydrolyzed vegetable protein that contains three known excitotoxins and, in many cases, also has added MSG. This substance is even more dangerous than MSG. As soon as negative information gets out they always find another way to fool the public; now they are adding even more excitotoxins, but they are called caseinate, autolyzed yeast extract, beef or chicken broth, or natural flavoring.

Ironicaly, the government regulatory agencies allow food manufacturers to call these excitotoxin additives by any name they choose as long as the glutamate content is less than 99 percent pure.

Now, what if someone told you that a chemical added to food could cause brain damage in your children, and that this chemical could affect how your children's nervous systems formed during development so that in later years they may have learning or emotional difficulties how would you feel?

(NOTE from Kathe: are you angry yet? I am. That's why I'm sitting here typing all of this out for you.)

SS: I would feel betrayed. Explain the pathway.

RB: Glutamate is one of the many neurotransmitters in the brain - in fact it is the most common neurotransmitter in the brain. Neurotransmitters function by interacting with receptors on the neurons - sort of like plugging in an appliance into a wall socket. When the glutamate enters the receptor, it turns on the neuron, making it very excited. Because glutamates are so toxic outside the neurons, where they can interact with the receptors, the brain has a very elaborate system to keep these glutamate levels extremely low. Even SLIGHT elevations in glutamate levels outside the neurons can result in widespread damage.

Recently they've discovered that virtually every tissue in the body has glutamate receptors and that overactivation of these receptors can cause a wide variety of disorders, including diabetes, heart failure, atherosclerosis and lung damage - and even make cancers grow faster and spread throughout the body.

This is only a tiny taste of this interview. Please please go buy this book and read it and get it into the hands of everyone you love. It was only $14 at Sams club. I bought 4 of them last night to send to each of my older children along with a pack of Arbonne vitamins and omega-3's.

This information is critical for us and for our families. The more I read the more I realize that I know NOTHING. UGH! We have been duped!

And what really makes me mad on top of all of this is that these food companies can get away with this and we can't even say that tanning/sunlight is good for you. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kathe]

I'm looking at some of these ingredients he mentions and they are ingredients used in a lot of tanning lotions. Since whatever you put on your skin is absorbed within your blood stream and major organs within 60 seconds this could be an issue for us.

These are some of the other ingredients:

hydrolyzed protein, soy protein, soy isolates, soy protein concentrates or autolyzed yeast extract.

I just looked at all of the lotions I have in stock and they ALL have at least one or more of these ingredients.

[Kathe]

Here are some other bits and pieces from the interview:

- All the way back in 1957, glutamates were found to be toxic to the retina of the eye...destroy it.

- The infant and child's brain is four times more sensitive to the damaging effects of glutamate than an adult's. In addition, glutamate in excell alters the way the brain forms, because glutamate plays a major role in how neuron pathways develop.

- Aspartame is becoming a major addictive substance and the health effects are absolutely profound. It should never have been approved, and it was approved over the objections of some of the major neuroscientists and toxicologists who served on the board of the FDA. They recommended that it not be approved, but is was approved over their objections for monetary reasons.

- Studies show an increase in cancer incidence from doses of aspartame equivalnet to drinking diet sodas. ....showed a dramatic increase in leukemia and lymphoma and it was accumulative over time. Also increased breast cancer and brain cancers. We also know from previous studies that aspartame produces the very same brain damage that MSG does.

- ...aspartame ruins the immune system.

There is so much more in just this one interview. I can hardly stand it.

[tam_marie]

Originally Posted by Kathe

That's the whole point. I think most of us are failing this test. This is why I started this. I'm going to commit to changing these 8 things in my life. I'm going to make an appointment with the natural doctor to get my hormone levels checked and go from there. You can do it, too.

Where do you find a natural doctor?

[Kathe]

It's not easy. There are some resources in the back of the book. I have a friend that goes to one and I have a call into them. In TN they list 2 in the book: One in Nashville and one in Franklin. It also has a website www.lef.org where you should be able to locate one if there is one near you.

The other way is to find a local health food store and ask them. They will usually know of someone nearby.

[tam_marie]

Thanks Kathe

Great info!

[SandiGirl]

Originally Posted by Kathe

8. Get proper sleep.

You cannot be healthy if you cannot sleep, and here is where hormones kick in. With imbalanced hormones sleep is impossible. I will explain in chapter 30 the medical value of sleeping and why chronic sleeplessness may lead to heart attack and weight gain. In order to be thin, you must sleep. In order to be happy, you must sleep; to be healthy, you must sleep; to be hormonally balanced, you must sleep.

Sleep is nature's way to restore health, yet most American adults get no more than five hours of sleep a night (if that). Inadequate sleep is a recipe for disaster. The good news is that you can retrain yourself to sleep again, but it won't happen until you replace missing hormones lost through the aging process, or if you have hormonal imbalance due to great stress (this pretty much includes everyone), or if you are consuming toxic chemicals.

So a couple of months ago I couldn't sleep in if I tried...and wanted! Now, I think since Layla (my friend's dog) has been with me, I can't drag my ass outta bed! I have been up a bit later reading, but to go from before 8am to dragging myself out of bed at 11:30am...man oh man!