Ambien Walking Nightmare.

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A new person came into my life recently who is into the health and fitness lifestyle, so we’ve been hitting it off well over the past couple weeks.

What I soon discovered is that even though this person is slim and fit, they are largely unaware of the more in-depth aspects of holistic well-being.  They actively watch their diet and exercise like crazy…but still take a daily dose of Lexapro and nightly dose of Ambien to fight depression and insomnia respectively.

The Lexapro started because of a divorce that started about six months ago.  The drug was used to help this person navigate the emotional trauma, but since then most of it has been managed, and there is no need to use the drug any longer.  It was a “situational” depression, one caused by a circumstance, as compared to someone dealing with an unknown origin depression that just will not go away.

Having been a victim of the latter, I changed my lifestyle drastically at one point and made a lot of shifts in the way I lived that effectively resolved the condition for me, which I’d suffered from for a lifetime at that point, about 35 years.

I have trouble understanding why a person would opt for a prescription under the former condition; it seems people will turn to a prescription simply because it has become a way of life in western culture.

I used Lexapro when I was in a lot of physical pain, which carried over into a mental hell and no one else knew what to do with me.  This was long before I figured things out for myself.

While on Lexapro, I nearly took my life within the first week.  The drug caused extreme anguish, so much so, that I will never judge a person who commits suicide ever again…I was right there…and, if I ever meet the inventor of the drug, I’d love to spend five minutes alone with him; just five minutes. 

That’s a story for another time.

My friend mixed up the Ambien and Lexapro two days ago, and for the first part of their day saw people with four legs walking around, among other semi-psychosis symptoms that after finally passing out flat on their back, was taken to emergency care.

And they remember none of this today.  All based on third party two-legged witnesses, the four legs being the only part of it they have conscious memory of.

A warm magnesium oil bath works just about as well as Ambien for encouraging sleep.

“And that’s all I have to say about that.”

Obesity as the “New Normal.”

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“On my world,” everyone cares about the health and condition of their bodies as a spiritual practice, believing all is one, everything is tied in together, body/mind/spirit and each other.  With this health-giving mindset, food education takes precedence and because there is no corporate greed, only healthy foods are available for everyone to consume.  People can choose from proteins, fats or carbs depending on their current needs.

On this world, there was yet another news report on skyrocketing obesity today.

Without going into all the stats presented, let’s just make a long story short and sum up the article this way:

Obesity is continuing to rise.

It is causing astronomical health costs for all insurances, public and private.

Obesity was at 12% in 1989 (I remember this…when I was young, most of us were slim).

In 2010, we’re at 35.7%.

2018 projection: 47.5.

In other words, in just a few short years, half the people you look at in public will be obese…defined as having a BMI of 30.0 and above.

I used to take my grandmother, before she passed on, out for lunch on the weekends.

She was hard of hearing, and would always remark loudly “People are so FAT!”

We would scold her for it, telling her to keep her voice down.

But she would know.  She had the perspective, due to being able to get out only so frequently due to health issues over the previous 20 years, and having lived life long enough to witness the dramatic change that took place before her eyes.  People watching was her specialty.

My opinion:

People have become completely accustomed to two problems.  So much so, they may be unwilling to change:

Borderline horrible quality of foods, and eating these foods in high quantities.

It has become a cultural standard.  

When we socialize, we eat crap.  When we see family we eat crap.  When we watch TV we eat crap.  When we hit the vending machine we eat crap.  Most restaurants: crap.  95% of food establishments: borderline crap.  

And portion sizes are often huge.  This gives the perception of added value.

And this is the “norm” now.

If you do not buy in and adhere to it, you’re weird.  Outside the “norm.”

So obesity is becoming the new “norm.”

Once we get past the 50% threshold, the majority of Americans will be the new norm:

Obese.

Just because it will be “normal” to be obese.

Are we all ready for the new way of things?

P.S. I just watched an overweight mom…by about 40 lbs…buy her screaming boys “Naturally and Artificially Flavored” fruit chews out of a vending machine.  The boys stopped screaming once they had their chews.

Olay All-Day UV Chemical Shield:

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Below is the ingredient list of a product I saw advertised this afternoon, designed for women, to put on their skin to protect them from sun exposure:

Active Ingredients: Octisalate (5.0%), Avobenzone (3.0%), Homosalate, Octocrylene (2.6%)

Inactive Ingredients: Water, Glycerin, Polyethylene, Dimethicone, Niacinamide, Pentylene Glycol, Panthenol, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Isohexadecane, Polysorbate 60, Dimethiconol, PEG 4 Laurate, PEG 4 Dilaurate, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, PEG 4, Stearic Acid, Cetearyl Glucoside, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate (Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolyme), Cetearyl Alcohol, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Benzyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Behenyl Alcohol, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Disodium EDTA, PEG 100 Stearate, Fragrance (Parfum)

There is no question that excessive sun exposure, depending on the person’s skin tone, can be problematic.

Kinda like anything we over-expose ourselves to.

But look at the chemicals in the product above, and tell me you know what each one of them is, and how applying it to your skin will be beneficial, and absorption of the chemicals into the body will be non-toxic.

Some of the group are recognizable, B vitamins, C and E.  Others are complete unknowns to me, and others are on the “questionable” list in my book of food safety (which includes a cosmetics section).

The sun produces vitamin D.

Moderate exposure is hugely helpful, and this is a fact that cannot be disputed.

Unless someone wants to dispute the eons worth of life-giving magic that the sun provides.

If one is outside constantly, of course precautions need to be taken.

But to block the UV spectrum, and any/all of the other of the sun’s wide spectrum, considering that without it we’d all be dead…

Just seems a little “off” to me.

Especially using all those chemicals to attempt to accomplish this goal.

We KNOW the sun, respecting the sun and our exposure to it, is healthful.  The sunblock companies may desperately like you to believe otherwise, but gosh darn it, the sun provides life, and I would love to debate these issues with the company heads at any time…kinda an easy win.

Or at least ask them if the chemicals they use in their products are life-enhancing…or life-degrading.

Wanna bet the answer is the latter?

So I’d prefer covering up with loose light-colored clothing, after obtaining my 20 to 30 minutes of nakedness in the sun.

Just another in a long list of what to me is “common sense.”

Things ARE Getting BETTER:

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I know how the world can look at times.

With all the wars, unemployment, rising gas prices, and Justin Bieber concerts, the world can sometimes seem like a hopeless place.

My personal beliefs are that all is as it needs to be.  I’m not sure if there is a “Grand Plan,” but I lean towards the notion that such is the case.  It helps me rationalize, and gives me a spiritual anchor of sorts, at times when I need one.

When we experience the worst of the worst, it seems that something positive follows.  A lesson is learned, and we grow on individual and mass levels.  Perhaps in some ways, even worse happenings need to come into play to really wake people up.

And I believe most people recognize, and know, when something is not right, and needs to be attended to and changed.

But let’s focus on some of what is changing for the better, and in big ways:

Look at how much the gluten-free market has grown in just the past five years alone.

The growing attraction and promotion of organic foods has also increased greatly in this time period.

The “Green” lifestyle, is becoming much more of an actual lifestyle, as compared to an image to uphold.  People are understanding that the planet is our home, and are developing genuine care for their relationship to the Earth in this regard.

Alternative and effective remedies for the worst of our people’s illnesses are coming more and more into the foreground, from the underground…and they’re actually affordable and often far safer than the common medicines we associate with standard treatments.

The internet is becoming the most effective consumer watchdog of all-time.  If a company does bad, it is known immediately, and boycotts can and do happen, forcing corporations to change their behavior to stay afloat.

And there are many more.

When we THINK about bad things, don’t we feel bad?

Where is our focus.

A favorite of mine is to not think about anything at all.  Living in the now, in the moment.  When the thought stream returns, a positive focus tends to yield a positive life.

Watch Justin Bieber dance.

 

If You are Sick…WHERE do you place your PERSONAL POWER?

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I remain amazed at how many people have all these ailments…go to the doctor…acquire their label…and abide by the doctor’s dictates no matter what they are, and without any further research.

And then wonder why their condition never goes away.

Nor bother to even explore “alternative” routes…or really, properly defined, routes that go back to bare basics.

Such as revamping the diet, getting back to plain ole’ veges and other raw foods, perhaps a few clean non-raw foods, plenty of spring water, and perhaps just a few nutritional supplements that are known to increase vitality and health in the vast majority of us.

A friend of mine at the gym, he works there, has had a long-term issue with IBS.  He has dealt with it over ten years, minor but with intense flare-ups at times.

Recently I noticed him losing substantial amounts of weight, where he was always somewhat average in weight, somewhat small in stature. 

He was becoming far too skinny, and I could see discomfort and dis-ease in his face.

He was using steroids for a time to manage the inflammation, explaining that they helped, but that they needed to be dropped down in dosage over a few days (of course).

I cringed regardless.

Last week he told me about a chiropractor that someone suggested he see, and it happened to be one I knew.  One of the best in the area in fact.

He said he was pretty much done with conventional medicine and was going to do it holistically from here on out, and would do whatever the chiropractor told him to do.

I supported his venture into something different, and encouraged him to keep an open mind, consider strongly what the chiropractor suggested, but go with his heart and gut instead of blindly following the chiropractor.

This is really my main point.

There are plenty in the “holistic health” arena that are not much better off than the money-mongering side of conventional medicine.  Both have positives (tho the latter has proven to have far fewer in my experience) but still need to be navigated carefully and with thought.

The very FIRST step, I strongly feel, is to simply clean up the diet.

When I first asked him about what he ate, he was completely oblivious to gluten being an issue.  He did not even know what foods contain gluten.

And it’s this mentality…as much as I love my friend…that angers me the most.

The seeming willful intent to remain ignorant, and place one’s authority in another person’s hands.

This is the downfall of our world. 

And I am convinced it is by design.

HOWEVER…this design does not have to be interpreted as a BAD thing.

I believe the design is there to finally FORCE us to take personal responsibility.

How else can we obtain a heightened state, unless we are put in position enough to make the choice?

Vaccination Controversy: Simple Solution.

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The vaccine profiles that kids are subjected to these days are multi-fold what I was exposed to when I was a kid growing up in the late 60’s and on.  I have heard of just huge huge numbers of shots given out, that go way beyond my ability to understand, as hard as I’ve tried.

I do not have a firm opinion yet on the issue, but I lean strongly against most vaccinations, potentially all of them.

I base this current stance on knowing three families whose children are not vaccinated at all.  All of them have healthy children, with some minor issues here and there relating to gluten intolerance and another common gut-related problem in another child, and perhaps an allergy or two with one or two of the children.  In all, there are about a dozen or more children (yes, one of the families has a larger-than-average number of kids).

One common part of this controversy does not have anything to do with the actual pathogen component of the vaccine, but rather the mercury preservative used in the vaccine itself.  The argument is rather ethyl mercury in Thimerisal is safer than methyl mercury, which is known to be harmful.

I get really pissed off…to be blunt…that this “controversy” is even raised.

The safety is said to related to the idea that ethyl mercury leaves the body about ten times faster than methyl mercury, and is completely safe.

Let’s just present those that administer vaccines with this option:

If it is as safe as is claimed, load a syringe with the same proportion of ethyl mercury as would be found in a vaccination, the rest filled with placebo, and administer those shot amounts (which seem to be in the dozens these days) to the person administering the vaccine.

If there is ANY hesitation about doing this, WHY?

And if so…considering that it’s of course a licensed adult doing the administering…WHY would we then be willing to do the same with a CHILD…while INCLUDING the introduction of a disease into the body?

Just seems like common sense to me.

Is there nothing to the notion of vaccines?

I think they may hold a lot of importance for certain applications.

But what I have a serious problem with, is the medical community…and big pharma…capitalizing on this potentially highly effective means of preventing disease, and *complicating it*…or USING it…as a way to either make more money, or do more harm than good as some people believe, while using the positive perceptions of what vaccines are capable of doing to help perpetuate their objective; what ever that objective may actually be.