Insomnia--another tip

My wife’s insomnia seems to be persistent. She’s used both Spirulina and Stem-Kine, separately and together, as recommended in a previous blog. Until recently, they have been effective. But the insomnia has returned, in spite of taking both. 

One of our team members, Shonye Talor, who owns RenewU4Life, a natural health studio here in Houston, suggested that Dottie take Protivity an hour before bedtime. Protivity is RBC’s amino acid supplement. Shonye claimed that it would help and it did!

Protivity is a LARGE tablet, and the label recommends taking five tablets a day.

Dottie tried one tablet the first night and she slept better. So she gradually increased the amount until she takes the labeled amount. She now sleeps soundly and throughout the night. Thank you, Shonye!

Dottie still takes the Spirulina and Stem-Kine at bedtime in addition to the Protivity.

But the size of the Protivity tablet is a problem for her, so I now pulverize the Protivity in a blender. I do about a third of a bottle at a time, because the Protivity turns into a very fine powder. (Covering the lid of the blender with a dish towel traps any powder that escapes around the lid.)  A little less than a tablespoonful is equivalent to five tablets.

Dottie mixes the powder in water. It dissolves slowly and much stirring is needed.

As a side note, I have added Protivity tablets to smoothies. They blend in easily and have hardly any effect on the taste. It’s a great way to include free-form amino acids in your diet.

Mosquito bites

We are well into Houston’s worst season—summer.

I used to think of summer as the best season of the year. But that was when we lived in New York, Michigan, Delaware, or Nebraska.

In Houston, summer brings hot, humid days and warm, humid nights. The warm nights bother me most. I prefer to sleep with cool, fresh air coming in through open windows. Not in the summer. A typical summer night may cool down to 75 degrees by early morning, with humidity in the 90 percent range. Not what I consider refreshing sleeping conditions. So we sleep with our air conditioner on and our thermostat turned down.

And mosquitos. Mosquitos thrive in our warm, humid days and nights. They attack any person who dares to come near the shrubs and bushes in our backyard.

Since I mow my own yard, aggressive mosquitos create a problem for me.

You see, as a natural health advocate, I really despise applying anything toxic on my skin. Do you realize that 60 percent of what you apply to your skin gets into your bloodstream? That’s why skin patches are effective for drugs.

So I do not use toxic mosquito repellent. We have discovered a non-toxic, natural product, called CedarCide,  manufactured right here in Spring, Texas, that repels mosquitos. When the mosquitos are especially aggressive, I apply CedarCide to my exposed skin and all thin clothing, like a tee shirt.   

But sometimes I don’t apply enough, and I still get bitten. There have been times that I have had over a dozen bites by the time I finished the lawn.

So after I’ve showered, I coat the bites with Aloe Gelee, a pure aloe vera gel from RBC Life. In half an hour, the itching is gone.

Not everyone will have the same results with mosquito bites that I have, but I believe that Aloe Gele̷e is worth having around. Aloe vera is well recognized for its ability to help the body heal burns and minor wounds. Me? I use it for all kinds of insect bites. And insects thrive in Houston in the summer.

Lest I leave you with an impression that I hate Houston, put that to rest. Summer is Houston’s worst season in my book. I love the other three seasons. For at least half the year, we have no insects and the weather is delightful. We get plenty of rain to support lush natural vegetation. And our flowering shrubs, trees, and bushes offer a beautiful array of color throughout the spring, summer, and fall.

We’ve lived here 38 years and have no plans to leave.

A natural approach to sinus problems

Last night before bed, Dottie and I were cooling down the house to nighttime temperatures. We sleep better when the house is cool, so lowering the thermostat is one of our routines before bed.

With the cool draft on my bald head, I had to clear my throat.

That’s not unusual. I clear my throat many times a day. It’s just normal for me.

But last night was different. I was clearing my throat more frequently than normal. A lot more frequently.

I’ve learned to pay attention to signals from my body. Phlegm in the throat is often a sign of sinus drainage. It’s one of those things that sneak up on a person. You don’t notice it at first. In fact, it’s easy to overlook if it’s not too bad. But if you don’t deal with it, you will develop chest congestion that can put you down for days.

So I did what any natural health advocate would do. I took a slug of Vitamin C.

Did you know that Vitamin C is a natural antihistamine? Well, it is. How much you need to be effective depends on your condition and the type of Vitamin C that you take. I strongly recommend a buffered and esterified Vitamin C, not ascorbic acid.  Your body can utilize it far better.

Last night, I took 2500 mg before bed. At 2:00 am, I still had throat irritation, so I took another 2500 mg. Ditto at 4:00 am. Once again at 6:00 am. Throughout the night, I gave my body 10,000 mg of Vitamin C, but this morning, my sinus drainage has stopped and I’m back to normal.

I can tell you from experience, had I not done that, I would have chest congestion, a condition that would hinder me for weeks.

June is a little late for sinus problems in Houston. Normally, they appear in March and April.

One of the things I’ve noticed over the years is that complaining about their sinus problems creates a bond among people. Perhaps they get some value from that.

Frankly, I prefer to be healthy.

Guidelines for Weight Management

If you want to make a long-term change to your body, 

you have a make a long-term change in your lifestyle.

1.    The body is comprised of water, bone, lean cells, and fat cells. The objective of a weight management program should be to reduce fat content without destroying lean tissue.

2.    Nutrition is critical.

·        The body requires adequate nutrition to function properly.

·        If it does not get adequate nutrition from the foods you eat, it will scavenge it from lean tissue in the body.

·        People who “go on a diet” may lose weight, but more than half of that weight is typically lean tissue. And when they resume a normal eating pattern, the body will rebuild its store of fat cells first, leading to higher body fat than before starting the diet.

3.    Calories are important.

·        Your long-term body weight can be approximated by your daily caloric intake divided by 15. For example, if you eat an average of 3000 calories per day, your body weight will tend to be 200 pounds. If you eat an average of 1500 calories per day, your body weight will tend to be 100 pounds.

·        If you are an active athlete, you will need to consume more calories to reach a similar weight.

·        If you are inactive, you will need to consume fewer calories.

4.    Cravings are a sign that the body is missing one or more nutrients.

·        Cravingsfor sweets and chips are typically signs of a deficiency of polysaccharides.

5.    Everything you consume has a caloric content and a nutritional content.

·        A goal should be to eat foods that have a higher nutritional content and a lower caloric content.

·        Eating foods that have been sweetened with zero or low calorie artificial sweeteners is not recommended.

·        A good surrogate for caloric content is glycemic load. An alternative is glycemic index.  

6.    Eat nutritionally-rich foods that have a low glycemic index.

·        These tend to be complex carbohydrates—typically green vegetables

·        Take phytonutrient supplements

·        Eat raw vegetables. Cooking reduces the nutritional content and destroys the enzymes within the vegetables.

·        Not all vegetables are low glycemic.

·        Stay away from foods labelled “low fat.” They are high in sugar content or salt content.

7.    Exercise

·        To burn fat, you must get a minimum of 20 continuous minutes a day of aerobic/cardiovascular exercise in your target heart rate five days a week.

·        Wear a heart rate monitor to keep your heart rate within your target range

·        Your target heart rate is 50-75% of your maximum heart rate, which is 220 minus your age.

8.    Keep the pH of your body within a range of 6.5 to 7.5. A urine pH of 6.4 or lower will inhibit the ability to lose weight.

9.    Do not snack between meals.

10. Do not eat anything between the evening meal and bedtime.

11. If you must snack, eat only high protein snacks.

Night-time cramps

Ever get cramps in the night? The kind that forces you to jump out of bed to deal with them? I do.  

Mine first started about 20 years ago. Particularly memorable was a night when Dottie and I were visiting her step-mother in Grand Island, NY. In the middle of the night, my feet cramped up.

They were the kind of cramp that points the toes upward and the foot downward.

In both my feet, the cramps were painful and demanded immediate attention. I jumped out of bed and stood up to break the cramps. But they didn’t break.

Don’t ever try to stand on your tippy toes when you’re half asleep. You can’t do it.

Well, I just toppled backward, landed on my behind and crashed into the bedroom wall.

Now, Dottie is a light sleeper, but this would have awakened the dead. She bolted upright from her sleep, completely befuddled. I scrambled to my feet determined to try again.

You know, when cramps are really hard, it takes a bit of time to loosen them. The little time I had to balance on my tippy toes was not enough and I again landed on my bottom and crashed into the wall.

Obviously alarmed, Dottie was shouting, “Earl, what’s going on??!!” Of course, my focus was on those cramps, not having a night-time conversation with my wife.

After two failures, I learned that leaning on the bed while putting weight on my feet was the solution. I’ve used that approach successfully many times since then.

The next morning, Dottie’s step-mother confided that she was grateful we were there because of strange noises she heard during the night.

Over the years since then, I’ve learned a better way to deal with cramps.

Cramps are almost always caused by dehydration or a mineral deficiency, or both.

Now, when I get a middle-of-the-night cramp, I take some water along with one or two capsules of Microhydrin. Microhydrin is rich in minerals and helps the body absorb water. Within 1-2 minutes the cramp is gone and I can complete my night’s sleep without any more cramps. And Dottie can sleep in peace.

Cravings are signs of a nutritional deficiency

Cravings are signs of a nutritional deficiency.

One of the most common cravings is for foods that contain sugar or are high glycemic—chocolate, chips, desserts, or fruits.

These cravings may be brought on by low blood sugar levels, but most of the time, they are signs of a deficiency of functional polysaccharides.

Functional polysaccharides are sugars that are used by the body for roles other than a source of energy. Mannose, commonly found in the aloe vera plant, is one of them. Aloe vera is highly regarded for its healing properties, and mannose is key to aloe’s healing abilities.

One of the vital roles of functional polysaccharides is facilitating effective cell-to-cell communication which is critical to an effective immune system. Symptoms of a malfunctioning immune system are allergies, frequent and lingering infections, and auto immune disorders like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, COPD, fibromyalgia, and many more.

So a craving for sweets may be a sign of a deficiency of functional polysaccharides. If you also have symptoms of a malfunctioning immune system, you almost assuredly are deficient in functional polysaccharides.

Where can you get functional polysaccharides? In nature, they are found in fruits and vegetables which have been vine-ripened. The polysaccharides develop in the last few days of ripening on the vine. Vine-ripening is critical. Unfortunately, most of the fruits and vegetables in our grocery stores have been picked before the polysaccharides develop so the produce does not spoil during shipment. As a result, our food supply is woefully deficient in functional polysaccharides!

What are the consequences of long-term deficiencies of functional polysaccharides? How about an increase in allergies, viral and bacterial infections, and auto-immune disorders? And, of course, an increase in cravings for sweet snacks and high glycemic foods like chips and desserts.

So if you can’t get the polysaccharides from foods, what options are available? The best single option in my opinion is a nutritional supplement called VitAloe® from RBC Life. It’s a mild-tasting powder that delivers a broad spectrum of the functional polysaccharides to deal with all potential polysaccharide deficiencies.  

High cholesterol: A problem or a signal?

How important is controlling cholesterol levels?

At an annual physical more than a decade ago, my doctor noted that people with my LDL cholesterol levels were having heart attacks. He suggested that I start taking a statin drug. I opted to investigate alternatives and I’m glad I did.

The medical community has millions of people on statin drugs to manage cholesterol levels in the blood. But is high cholesterol really the problem or is it a symptom of one or more other problems? 

Cholesterol has several functions within the body. One is to be the “patching plaster” for tissue damage in the blood vessels. Blood vessels will get tiny tears in them. Rather than suffer an on-going loss of blood, the body patches the tear with oxidized cholesterol (plaque) until the damage can be repaired. Of course, plaque buildup will force the heart to pump harder, creating high blood pressure. Too much plaque accumulating in one place can lead to a heart attack. But is the problem due to the cholesterol or the tear in the blood vessel? Would it be more effective to focus on the reason for the tear in the blood vessel?

High cholesterol is also associated with chronic stress. Cholesterol is an essential component of hormone production. Hormones are critical to the body’s normal performance. For example, high stress levels raise adrenaline and cortisol levels in the body. Adrenaline and cortisol are both hormones. So chronic stress requires higher levels of cholesterol, and indeed, elevated levels of cholesterol are associated with chronic stress. Would it be more effective to focus on managing stress rather than limiting cholesterol levels?

Statin drugs reduce the liver’s production of cholesterol. Did you know they also reduce the liver’s production of CoQ10? Both cholesterol and CoQ10 are produced in the same reaction. Deficiency of CoQ10 will lead to weak and sore muscles. Of course, the heart is the most important muscle in the body and a deficiency of CoQ10 will likely lead to heart problems.

Me? I address the reason for high cholesterol levels instead of taking a drug. I never did take a statin drug and my cholesterol levels have been fine.