Mind Over Matter

We just talked about how the mind has been shown to be more powerful than morphine when we wrote about the placebo effect. The human mind is so powerful, yet most of us discount the power of positive thinking when we are in a tough situation.

I’m sure most everybody has heard the expression, “Mind over matter,” but how much do you really believe that expression. Mind over matter is the belief that the mind is more powerful than the body. Tony Robbins has even talked about through positive thinking, people can walk across a bed of hot coals. What if positive thinking could do more than just help a person overcome physical pain? What if positive, or negative, thinking could effect every aspect of your life?

There are many motivational speakers that believe that your mind does effect what happens in your life. In fact, the first universal law of attraction says, “Like attracts like.” Have you ever REALLY focused on something you truly wanted and not gotten it? If you focus on what you want on a daily basis, you can find a way to get it. I can honestly say that anything I have really wanted and focused on getting, I have gotten. I’m not talking about some fleeting thought that crossed my mind over the course of a day or two, but something that I was persistent with over weeks or months.

A vision board is a great way to help focus your thoughts on what you really want to achieve in your life. It can be clippings from a newspaper or magazine or pictures you find online, anything that is a physical representation of the goals you really want to achieve in your life. Your call to action this week is to create a visual representation of what you want in your life. While you are selecting objects, don’t try to create a plan for how you are going to get it, just focus on what you want to achieve. The how will eventually work itself out. A person I really look up to once said that you can go from Florida to California without seeing the entire path if you go a few feet at a time. Focus on what you want and if you are given an opportunity to take a few steps towards it your goal, take it. Anything can be achieved no matter how far away it may seem as long as its taken a few feet at a time.

Your Mind is More Powerful than Morphine

When health is discussed, most people immediately focus on physical well-being, but health is also a state of mental and social well-being; true health is only 1/3 physical. Even if we take amazing care of our bodies, true health can never be achieved unless we have a healthy mind.

The best way to convey the vast power of the mind is by explaining the power of the placebo. Henry Knowles Beecher, M.D., made a huge contribution to our knowledge of the human body when he discovered the placebo effect. Beecher began investigating the relationship between subjective psychological states and objective drug responses during World War II. Beecher was an anesthetist involved in treating wounded soldiers and during the height of the war morphine supplies ran out. In desperation, Beecher injected saline solution

into the wounded soldiers instead of morphine. When the soldiers were injected with the saline, they were told it was morphine and the pain would go away. To Beecher's surprise, shortly after the injection the soldiers reported that the “morphine” eased their pain. Beecher wrote about his findings, stating, “Three-quarters of badly wounded men, although they had received no morphine for hours...have so little pain that they do not want pain relief medication, even though...such is available for asking.” This vital discovery by Beecher lead him to write one of the most influential papers in medicine, The Powerful Placebo, leading to the prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials used as the standard of testing new medicines today.

Medical researchers are constantly frustrated with the fact that the drug or surgery they are testing often achieves the same results as a placebo (a fake drug or surgery). More emphasis is now being put on researching why placebos are so effective, yet the answer is simple. Your mind controls your body. Your mind is what controls the healing power in your body. Why is that a cut on our arm heals without us having to think about it, but we are told we cannot heal from an illness or disease without help? Many in our society rely heavily on medicine to "heal" the problems in their bodies and give little credit to the body's own ability to heal itself. When somebody spontaneously heals from a life-threatening disease or an illness without the use of medicine, doctors quickly credit the results as miracle, giving no credit to the body's ability fight the disease and heal itself. The fact is, we are born with an amazing healing power in our bodies, and when the body is functioning properly, it can innately heal itself. It is becoming more and more essential that the accountability of our health is shifted from "bad genetics" and a "pill for every ill" back to the individual. We need to learn when it is necessary to seek emergency medical care and when our bodies can handle it on their own. Everything you do to your body either takes away from health or adds to it; taking away life or adding to it. If we can accept that we are responsible for how well our body functions, we allow ourselves to live a life of true health, living up to our full potential and taking away the constant fear of sickness and disease. When we accept responsibility, we take back control and allow ourselves to live a life that is truly fulfilling.

References:

American Society of Anesthesiologists- http://www.asahq.org/Newsletters/1999/09_99/beecher0999.html

Mary Robinson Reynolds, M.S. http://www.makeadifference.com/publish/articles.php?c=0d14_PEC

The RAW Truth about Food:

The process of pasteurization was invented by Louis Pasteur to ensure that food was safe for everyone to eat. The problem with this process is that it doesn't just kill the bad bacteria, it also kills the good bacteria and enzymes and takes away vitamins and minerals. Eating some foods raw is actually a great way to ensure that you will get all of the vitamins, undamaged proteins, and unoxidated fats.

Raw food is simply uncooked (never heated about 188 degrees Fahrenheit), unprocessed (as few ingredients as possible), and organic (no preservatives or pesticides). There are several reasons why it is best to eat some foods raw. When a food is cooked over 188 degrees, the enzymes needed to digest your food are killed off, along with most of the vitamins and minerals. It also changes the pH of the food, making it more acidic, and denatures the proteins and oxidizes the fats. A good way to think about eating raw foods is when you pick a living vegetable or fruit it continues to ripen, but once it is cooked it starts to decay.

Incorporating a raw food diet is easy to do and the rewards can be amazing. Some of the benefits that occur when a diet is 75 percent raw include: more energy, requiring less sleep to feel refreshed, weight loss, less susceptibility to colds and the flu, decreased allergies, better functioning immune system, decreases symptoms of PMS, and increased sexual function.

There are many types of raw food diets that limit what you eat or force you to completely revamp your diet. For some people, something like that may be necessary, but for others the most important thing is finding a way to incorporate raw foods into your current diet so that it can become a long term change.

For recipes or ideas regarding raw foods you can check out these websites:
http://www.rawinten.com/
http://www.sustainabletable.org/
http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/

The Value of Health: The Value of Life

What is the value of health? Of your health? Of your life? Can you put a price on it? Why is it that we are not willing to invest in our health by preventative means, yet when faced with a crisis situation we are willing to shell out tens of thousands of dollars! Why is it that we never make time for our health?

Your value system dictates how you spend your time. The things you value the most are the things you make the most time for; the things you value the least are usually the things you never quite get around to. Although the majority of people say they value their health, those same people usually are the ones who say they don't have time to exercise or to eat right. Without your health NOTHING else matters. You can spend your life working hard to raise an amazing family, get that big promotion and build your dream home, but without your health none of that matters. If you are not able to enjoy the time with your family because your body is filled with disease, nor be around to watch your grandchildren grow, what did you work so hard for? Many parents tend to neglect their own health in order to give their children everything, but your children need you to take care of yourself. If you are unhealthy, how are you able to be there for your children or take care of them? If something were to happen to you, think of the burden they are left with.

It can sometimes be difficult to find examples of science and religion agreeing, but one very important issue that the two agree on is how long humans are supposed to live. Genesis 6:3 states, “My spirit will not remain in humans forever because they are flesh. They will live only 120 years.” In 2005, Harvard put out a special health report stating that the human body is designed to live 120 years in perfect health.

So what is “perfect health?” Perfect health is not having to take medications. Perfect health is when the body is functioning the way it is designed to. When we eliminate toxins, stay active, eat the right nutrients, and have the right frame of mind we allow our body to function the way it is designed to. Living the life you were created to live cannot be achieved following the average American lifestyle. How many people that you know in their 60's are healthy? (Meaning they are not on medication and are still physically active). According to way our body was designed, when we are 60 we are only supposed to be half way through our life.

Perfect health cannot be achieved by changing only one aspect of your life. It takes effort and dedication, but the rewards of feeling true health are certainly worth it. The people that achieve lasting health make lifestyle changes and do not look at their health as something that can be managed with a quick fix.

The Human Body- The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts

Inductive Reasoning works by moving from specific observations to generalizations and theories, known as the bottom up approach. Beginning with observations and measurements, patterns are looked at to form hypotheses, which are then developed into conclusions or theories.

Deductive Reasoning works just the opposite, from the more general to the more specific, the above down approach. Beginning with a theory, deductive reasoning works to confirm that theory. Aristotle summarized the principle of holism with the saying, “The Whole is more than the sum of its parts.” This is true for the human body. If a person who is considered dead has all of the parts that make up a human being, why are they not alive? If you take someone who dies of heart failure and put a new heart in them, will they come back to life? Of course not, because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The complex system that makes up the human body cannot be explained by reducing it to it's fundamental parts. We cannot keep thinking that we are smarter than our own bodies. By taking medications which alter the chemistry of our bodies we are messing with a complicated system that after hundreds of years of studying we still haven't even begun to understand.

Although sickness and disease are common, they are not normal. Our body is meant to be in a state of health. Sickness and disease do not occur randomly, no one gets sick by accident. When imbalance is allowed to occur in your body, order turns to chaos and disease results.

Epidemiology, the science that studies outbreaks of disease, explains that the existence of disease depends on three factors: 1. the host (the person who is the target of the disease), 2. the agent (the cause of the disease), 3. the environment (where the host and agent come in contact). This explains why two people can come in contact with the same bacteria/virus and only one of them gets sick. The one who did not get sick had a stronger healing system, a stronger host resistance. Just because we come in contact with an agent of disease does not mean we will fall victim to it, and although we cannot always avoid exposure to a disease causing agent, we can build up our bodies' defense system so attacks will be less successful. If we shift the focus from studying bacteria/viruses, pharmaceuticals, and genetics, and instead focus on understanding how our bodies know how to defend and heal themselves, we will be much further along in learning how to prevent illness and heal disease.

Interval Training pt. 2

Hopefully after reading the first blog regarding interval training, some of you were inspired to try and incorporate HIIT into your workouts in some way, shape, or form. I know that without much information it can be difficult to implement new techniques into a workout, so here is a detailed explanation of the most common forms of HIIT workouts. 


- 30 Second HIIT - “The 30 Second HIIT workout is the ideal place to start with Interval training. If you are aiming at training above your lactate threshold you need to go fast enough to feel that the last few seconds feel almost impossible to keep running. Everything in your body should be burning.” - Elite Fitness During the 30 Second HIIT, the work period is only thirty seconds. If you are having a hard time getting to the point where you feel like your muscles are burning, you need to pick up the intensity and try to make it through the remainder of your sets.

Beginners: 6-8 sets 30 second intervals with 90 seconds rest total workout 15 minutes
Intermediate: 8-10 sets 30 second intervals with 60 seconds rest total workout 15 minutes. (If you are going all out and still having a hard time feeling a burn with 90 seconds rest, it is probably best to move into the intermediate range.)
Advanced: 10-12 sets 30 second intervals with 30 seconds rest total workout 15 minutes. (When the intermediate intervals become easier, it is most likely best to move into the advanced range.)

- 60 Second HIIT - “The 60 second intervals completely exhaust your muscles of their stored energy, this energy will take 24hr to 48 hrs to replenish. This HIIT training is superb for immediate fat burning and weight loss.” - Elite Fitness The difference between the 30 second HIIT and the 60 second HIIT is the length of time you have to work at a high level. It is best to begin the 60 second HIIT after a few weeks of 30 second HIIT.

Beginners: 6-8 sets 60 second intervals with 120 seconds rest total workout 22 minutes
Intermediate: 8-10 sets 60 second intervals with 90 seconds rest total workout 22 minutes. (If you are going all out and still having a hard time feeling a burn with 120 seconds rest, it is probably best to move into the intermediate range.)
Advanced: 10-12 sets 60 second intervals with 60 seconds rest total workout 22 minutes. (When the intermediate intervals become easier, it is most likely best to move into the advanced range.)

- Tabata Training - “Tabata interval training is the single most effective type of high intensity interval training, its also the most intense by far, and surprisingly its the shortest in duration, it only last for four minutes, but those four minutes produce remarkable effects.” - Dr. Izumi Tabata

Dr. Tabata came up with this technique of HIIT at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo. What he discovered is that the interval training burns more fat than aerobic training and builds as much muscular endurance as 45 minutes of normal cardio. The most important thing to remember is that Tabata training is EXTREMELY intense despite only lasting 4 minutes. It is very important to warm up before training with this method. If you are going to use weights, it is best to go lighter and be able to finish than going too heavy and ending up on the floor.

Tabata intervals are 20 seconds hard and 10 seconds rest for 8 sets.

Tabata intervals can be difficult to track, so it is best to do them with a partner or use a timer that is specifically made for Tabata training. You also want to focus specifically on larger muscle groups, you will see little results if you are focusing on smaller muscle groups. Finally, this type of training is not to be done every day. “If you can do this every day, you’re doing it wrong.” 


- Body For Life HIIT - “The Body for life HIIT Training routine comes from a workout made famous by Bill Phillips. The Body for life HIIT training routine has four sets of increasing intervals. Each of these intervals is 1 minute long. Each set is four minutes long.” - Elite Fitness

I had never heard of this type of training referred to as Body For Life HIIT, but I have done it several times in the gym and gotten a great workout from it. It starts at a level 6 (fast jog), after one minute you increase to level 7, after a minute you increase to level 8, and finally after a minute you increase to level 9. After a minute at level 9 you return back to level 6. The final set starts the same as the first 3, but your last interval is at a level 10. If you are doing this on a treadmill you can you the speeds to set your levels. Just remember to adjust the speed according to your ability and wear the safety lanyard in case you cannot keep up with the belt.

Hopefully, with this information you will be able to make your workout shorter and much more effective. I know that I am noticing far greater results in the gym with both strength and endurance after implementing HIIT into my workouts. The biggest benefit is no longer being in the gym for over an hour. Remember, it is very important to warm up before any of these workouts. Also keep in mind the other suggestions from the previous interval training blog.

Fever, coughs, and sniffles are GOOD for you!

So, you're not feeling well. You wake up with a stuffy nose, cough and fever. Not a great start to the day, but you take some medicine to clear your sinuses, suppress your cough and reduce your fever. Now you're feeling great. End of story... Wait, does that mean that your body was finished fighting the infection? Of course not. The symptoms meant that your body was fighting off the infection the way it is supposed to. Mucous is produced as a way to get rid of the dead bacteria/virus.. Coughing is your body's way of moving the infection out of your lungs. Fever is your body's way of heating itself up to kill off the infection (the same way we heat up food or water to kill off bacteria). So if you stopped these things from occurring before the infection was completely gone, how is your body supposed to fight off the infection? You removed your body's defense mechanisms and left it with no way to fight back.

Our culture has been taught to believe there is a "magic pill for every ill." Unfortunately with this type of thinking, people learn to seek chemical solutions to every problem in their life. Mother Nature is the best doctor around because the best doctor is the one who resists the compulsion to interfere with the body's efforts and ability to heal itself. You need to allow time for Mother Nature to work before exposing yourself to the side effects of the medication you take.

“Coughs, sniffles, sneezes, and fever are good for you. Coughing and sneezing clear the airways of harmful irritants and allergy-causing substances while fevers actually fight virus and bacteria. Our body raises its temperature on purpose. Robert Mendelson, M.D. stated, 'Unless there are additional symptoms such as extreme listlessness, abnormal behavior, and other indicators of serious disease such as meningitis, your doctor should tell you there is nothing to worry about and send you and your child home.' Diseases are shortened by letting a safe fever run its course. Taking fever-reducing drugs or cough suppressants can lead to pneumonia or more serious respiratory infections.” -Dr. William B. Greenough, Professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Treating symptoms ends up making a cold, the flu or any other sickness or disease worse. Symptoms are your body's attempt to heal itself. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are not diseases themselves, they are symptoms, your body's attempt to heal itself from another problem. You need to get to the root cause of the disease, not just treat the symptom. If you keep pulling a dandelion out by it's stem, it will continue to grow back until you remove the roots.

So what do you do? Remember, you are in charge of keeping your body well. You should feel empowered by how strong your body is and embrace symptoms as a way of knowing your body is doing what it's supposed to. By providing the proper nutrition to your body, minimizing your exposure to toxins, keeping your body moving, managing stress appropriately and making sure the nervous system is functioning properly will allow your body to respond the way it needs to.

Additional Information

Mechanism of a Fever:

When you contract an infection, your body responds by manufacturing more white blood cells (WBC) to destroy the bacteria and viruses and remove damaged tissue and unwanted materials from the body. When the activity of the WBC's is increased, they move more rapidly to the site of infection by the release of pyogens in the body, which are responsible for the rise in body temperature (fever). A rise in body temperature means the process of healing is speeding up and is something to be happy about. While reducing a fever may be more comfortable, you interrupt the body's natural healing process.

When Fevers are Truly Emergencies

If you are experiencing difficulty breathing, repetitive vomiting, loss of consciousness, twitching movements or you have a reason to believe the fever is the result of a cause other than infection (such as heatstroke or poisoning) you should be taken to the ER.