Health for The Body, Mind & Spirit

Vitamin D

Barbara  had suffered for several years with increasing fatigue , considerable muscle and joint pain, and depression. Her condition deteriorated to the point where she was bed ridden most of the time.

The doctors varied in their diagnosis from fibromyalgia to muscular Dystrophy.  A new physician called on board took her vitamin D levels. The levels were so low as to be almost undefinable. She was

immedately placed on vitamin D therapeutic amounts. Today several months later she is back at work feels great and is off all medication.

Always be sure your doctor periodically checks your Vitamin D levels.

VEGETABLE STEW

Late summer is the time to introduce your family to the delicious flavors of fresh garden vegetables.  They don’t have to come from your own garden but any local country side stand will do. Begin to  fill your basket with two or three yellow squash add a couple of zucchini (I prefer the smaller thinner squash as they are more tender than the large ones) .  Next add about three handfuls of string  beans, two ears of corn, one large onion, three nice size tomatoes,  three beets, one garlic bulb and any other fresh vegetable that catches your eye.  Now try  to ignore the fact that you may not (or a family member) may not like a particular vegetable because after your vegetable stew is finished the family will be unable to distinguish one from the other and they will love them all.

On the stove place a large deep pot.  Add enough cooking olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot. Add a layer of the garlic cloves which have been peeled and sliced thinly.   Next add the onion which has been peeled  and sliced in inch size sections.  Then add the well washed squash sliced in approximately one quarter inch sections then the beets (peeled and sliced)  Finally the string beans (tips snapped off)    and placed on top of the vegetables the two ears of corn (husked and washed), Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid and put the heat on simmer. After about ten minutes add the washed tomatoes sliced and quartered.  

Sometimes I cook the string beans and corn separately in my steamer as they take a little longer to become tender. My vegetables in the pot (I stir them occasionally) are firm to tender in approximately 15 minutes. The string beans and corn are usually done at the same time.   Add the string beans to the vegetable pot. Slice down the kernels from the corn and add along with 2 tbs. of sugar to the pot . Stir well. Finally add one can of well drained black beans. Stir well………..And serve.  You will finally have discovered the secret to your family loving vegetables!

HOLISTIC SINUS HEALING

Don had suffered  from  sinus infections for as long as he could remember.   Invariably  he ended taking an antibiotic to resolve his discomfort,  However there always seemed to be  a trade  off.  As the sinus problems disappeared he developed stomach pains and constipation.  A friend mentioned that he should talk to  a nurse….  and so we  met.  Although the shape and size of the nasal membranes certainly make some people more prone to sinus conditions as well as the climate, there are other players involved here besides nasal structure, and climate. The body has  a powerful allay designed  to fight off any  invader to our  health. This invader is the immune system.  Its job is to fight off free radicals the culprits that lower the bodie’s defences.

Two factors were in play in Dan’s condition that made him already target for his condition.  First his  diet although compared to many people was fairly  healthy, was not adequate to meet the climate changes and genetic structure of his nasal passages. He needed EXTRA support for his immune system. I immediately suggested in addition to his daily one a day multivitamin 3000 milligrams of vitamin C daily ( spaced throughout the day. Because vitamin C is water soluble ane washed out in a few hours and to do the job we need to keep the tissues saturated. )  Secondly a well rounded B complex to be taken at the same time as the vitamin C.  Thirdly Transfer Factor (provides immune support , a tri-factor  formula combines Transfer Factor  E-XF and Naofactor. These concentrates consist of small messenger molecules that educate the immune system to respond quickly and effectively in combination with Cordydant, a proprietary blend of  highly advanced broad- spectrum immune support.

Don decided to stop his antibiotic therapy and began the suggested nutritional changes.  I explained to him that when we take an antibiotic the harmful bacteria are destroyed but so also are the good bacteria that grow in our intestinal tract and produce healthy B vitamins. After any regime of antibiotic therapy it is important to begin a two week program of  Probiotics (These capsules contain billions of cells that promote healthy bacterial flora)  Dan calls his recovery in record time a miracle……I see  as applying the laws of good nutrition  and watching them work.

CHRONIC FATIGUE

Jill was an energetic,  cheerful  divorced woman  mother of three grown children.  At fifty years of age she had  been staff manager for a large pharmaceutical company for ten years. Without warning she developed a severe case of bronchitis from which she still carried a persistent cough. At about the same time she suffered from an abscessed tooth.  As she was struggling to recover from these problems she found herself more and more fatigued from the simplest of tasks.  Over time the fatigue grew to the point of weakness . Just the process of getting out of bed in the morning  seemed as she described it so difficult that she literally had to crawl to the bureau to get out her clothes. Along with the acute weakness Jill became deeply depressed.  As she explained it not only was her physical condition the cause of her depression but the report of her physicians left her feeling totally hopeless.

Her lab reports showed that she suffered from a condition called chronic fatigue,  an illness for which there was no specific cure.  It will never kill you they assured her.  You will just have to adjust your life around it.  The doctors prescribed Elavil for her depression.  At this point Jill recalls that in spite of her tremendous fatigue she had great difficulty sleeping at night .  Sometimes only getting two hours of  sleep a night.  She had dropped her work hours to half days,  However her exhaustion became so great that she could only stand on her feet for five minutes at a time. At this point she was forced to take medical leave from her job.  Her exhaustion was so severe that she described it as feeling the need to have a sling to hold up her arm.

Being single and living alone it wasn’t long before Jill lost all hope of recovering.  However the realization that her savings would in time run out jolted her with the realization that she would lose her home  and be on the  street if  somehow  she didn’t  get well.  Like many of her friends  she had in the past attended a bible believing church.  How many times she had heard the teaching that “by the shed blood we can be healed”.  She dug into an old pile of books and found a small paper back book entitled GOD’s CREATIVE POWER by Charles Capps.  The book began by stating that faith filled words will put you over.  Fear filled words will defeat you.  Jill immediately realized that the doctor’s words had filled her with fear that she would never get well. She began to literally dig into this little book .  Charles Capps said that God’s word was medicine.  The book contained every healing scripture  found in the bible  Jill began to read them on a daily basis . Her favorite was “By his stripes I am healed”

Her determination to get well coupled with her faithful daily reading of the scriptures found her slowly regaining her strength. During this period she decided to find a nurse  ..and this is how we met.  I put together a combination of vitamins especially the B vitamins  [ they are water soluble and quickly washed out ] so she took  them periodically throughout the day.  Co Enzyme Q 10 combined with DMG  300 mg. of each daily  and a special formula of  a yeast drink  began to renew her immune system . Within a month she was back at work full time and has been symptom free for five years!……..Never let a doctor’s words be the final words concerning your health!

EXERCISE

All exercise is good. The key however is consistancy.  What type of exercise motivates you ?  Does it help to be doing yourexercise to music?  Find the environment  that keeps you looking forward to the  special energy surge that exercise will give you. Would you feel best going for a long walk out of doors?  If this is the case how about eventually moving that walk up to a walk/run.  Maybe you like the comradery of other people .  How about joining a Jazzersize class where you work out at an easy pace with other folks and eventually make some new friends.  Or just maybe you would prefer to exercise alone in the privacy of your home using a treadmill  while watching your favorite  TV show . Your body temple is similar in a sense to the car you drive.  It is only going to carry you for as long as you keep it in shape.  We are not talking having perfect figures,  we are talking about  staying alive.

Have you ever thought of getting a Pilate Ball ?  This is a large ball available in sizes according to your height. There are many exercises that can be done with this ball but the one I recommend is incredibly easy yet incredibly  good for your health. If you sit on the ball [as you would sit on a chair] and begin to bounce up and down [similar to posting on a horse] for 4 minutes you will have flushed your entire lymphatic system………However for it to be fully effective  you must do it on a daily basis.  Again bounce once a day watching your favorite TY show.

Impossible healings

In the course of my career I owned a heath and fitness club.  It was a full service club with 400 pounds of free weights, a full set of universal equipment, a whirl pool, sauna, tanning beds, aerobic and weight loss classes. Living in a university town with thousands of students I fully expected to be successful. However the Small Business association with whom I counseled on a regular basis insisted the town could not support a fitness club. Enthusiastically I ignored their advice.

The first several months ran relatively well until the students went home for Christmas vacation. There were no new memberships and not enough money to pay the rent. One of my aerobic instructors who was a Christian said “Polly you must be out of God’s will or you would have the rent money you need.” I told her she could be right and together we prayed about the matter. within approximately two hours a man came into the club carrying a briefcase. I knew immediately he must be a salesman and  told him  that I could not afford any new advertising . He ignored my statement and looking me squarely in the eye said ” My name is Grady and I am here with a word from the Lord. ”  Then without pausing he asked if I had any oil. “You see”, he said,” This is a house of healing . People will be healed in your doorways. I want to anoint all the lentils. It so happened that I did have a bottle of oil. 

He then proceeded to walk through the club taking the oil and making the sign of  the cross over each doorway. The men lifting weights asked me if I was running a church or a gym. In the aerobic room he asked if  there were any sick in the class. The embarrassed instructor  immediately  turned up the music as loud  as loud as possible. Then as quickly as he had arrived Grady was out the door and gone. The following day the Bicycle  Club of  Newark  joined and I was able to pay the rent.

Unfortunately it wasn’t long before I found myself  again without enough income to pay the rent. Now my employees all of whom were students at the university and had witnessed the miraculous  appearance of Grady began to chant “Lets call on Grady.  Grady we need you!”  I must confess it was done in jest they never fully expected him to show up.                     

Since my budget was limited I was forced to use as my electrician the young brother of  my hairdresser who having had his right leg crushed in a motorcycle accident was forced to walk dragging his leg in a heavy metal brace. I had called him to do a minor electrical  job and as only God could have orchestrated it no sooner did he arrive than in walked Grady. As a registered nurse I was quite aware that the condition of this young electrician was beyond medical repair.  Yet as I heard Grady call out to him , “Son this is the day of your healing.”  I had that indescrible  feeling one gets when something impossible is about to happen. Grady took the young man into my office for what seemed like an eternity.   Although it could not have been more than 10 to 15 minutes, when they finally came out Grady handed me the metal brace and told me to hang it with the bar bells on the wall as the electrician  would have no more use for it.  I watched in amazement as the electrician picked up his tool box and walked with a normal gait to the area that required his electrical skill.

Three years after this event I was in the office of a young human resources consultant in preparing for a lecture I was to give.  I happened to look up at her bulletin board and commented to her that the man in one of her snapshots looked familiar………..”Oh my gosh ” she exclaimed. “Your Polly!…………..Do you realize that was on this very day three years ago my husbands was completely healed at you gym and he walks perfectly to this day.”

RIGHT WAY CHOCOLATE PIE

One package of semi sweet chocolate chips

2 Tbs. honey

One block firm tofu

Melt chocolate chips.  Add the honeyand tofu. { Pour off the water around the tofu before mixing}. Whip in a blender or food processor. Pour into a graham cracker crust.  Refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours. Serve with a whipped topping.

This recipe is not only delicious but extremely nutritious and low in calories and fat gams!

THE MIRACLE BEAN

Miracles can come in very small packages.  Today’s miracle is a tiny bean…….the soy bean.  I wrote a book entitled Soy and Me {available on my web site.} The reason for writing the book was because I represented the soy bean board of Delaware at their promotional events and had to be able to answer  any questions the public had………and I had to give out delicious samples of foods made from soy beans. The recipes I created were so scrumptious that children at the state fair came  back for second and third helpings.

Now the reason I consider this tiny bean a miracle is because of its many many talents. Not only can it transform itself into endless forms {tofu, tempeh, miso, edamame, soy cheese, soy milk, soy oil} it is the only bean that is a complete protein and filled with vitamins and minerals. One half cup of  cooked soy beans contains:

Calories 14

Protein {Gms}    14;3

Total Fat [GmS) 1.1

Saturated fat(gms) 1

Unsaturated fat{gms} 6′6

Carbohydrates {gms} 8.5

Crude Fiber {gms} 1.8

Calc1um {gns}  88.o    

Iron {mg} 4.4

Zinc {mg.} 1.0

Thiamine {mg} 0.1

Riboflavin {mg} 0.3

Niacin {mg} 0.3

Vitamin B6{mg} 0.3

Folic Acid {mg} 46.2

 Notice this one half cup of soybeans has as much complete  protein as a large serving of chicken!

The health benefits of this little  bean are endless . For folks who are not able to digest milk well soy milk is the answer. The people who want to eat fewer meat products that all contain saturated fats, soy is the answer. People on weight loss programs will find endless soy substitutes for meat. Studies have shown soy to  reduce the symptoms of menopause, help prevent osteoporosis ,cancer, diabetes and  heart disease……….But you tell me soy looks uninviting  and what in the wor;ld do I do with it?Lets visit my healthy recipe web site and you will find miraculous ways to transform an innocuous bean into delicious delicasies.

                                                                                        A SOY BEAN THOUGHT

If all that soy could think or dream

was  just to be a tiny bean

Then where would all the mystery be to  push through earth and grow

to see

If somewhere up ahead that light and sunshine would emerge

And so embrace their tiny bed.

In fact this mystery is the key

that  causes them to reach ………..to be

And I just like this tiny bean,

Still reach for heights I only dream,

That still remains the mystery t

That makes alike the soy and me.

          Quote from Polly’s  book  “SOY and ME”

Syndrome x

Jane’s miracle is an interesting sequel to Charles. Charles came to see me as a patient suffering from high cholesterol, (high LDL) levels and hypertension. Both were being controlled by medication. However Charles was very concerned about possible liver damage from the medications. He also wanted to find a more natural method of managing his condition….could I help?

“Well I told him’ We shall see. I  studied his diet and exercise habits. He ate very much the way Jane had eaten before she developed hypoglycemia….simple carbohydrates for breakfast {cereal,or a sweet bun, coffee with cream and sugar.} Usually a sweet snack in the mid morning ,and lunch was pizza, or anything he could grab quickly in his one half hour lunch break. Charles had several sodas during the day. Dinner consistedof pasta more often than meat or poultry with a sweet snack (usually ice cream for dessert.}

Charles exercise routine consisted of a sporadic walk with his wife or occasionally using the family treadmill. Having studied Charles lifestyleI determined that he suffered from syndrome X. His obvious symptoms of elevated cholesterol, and hypertension had been medically managed by medication. His physician was satisfied with his success. Unfortunately although everything appeared under control a dangerous scenario was being played out in his body.Charles high carbohydrate diet was causing the pancreas tobe overworked. The constant rapid need for the pancreas to secrete insulin was stressing the Islets of Langerhan {the glands that open and close the doors of the pancreas to allow th flow of insulin into the blood stream were becoming weary. At the same time the cells of the body were becoming more and more reluctant to open their doors to a constant bombardment of insulin. Eventually over time the inevitable occurred. Charles developed type two diabetes.

Fortunately for Charles we began to work together to change his diet and his exercise habits. We followed the same general meal plan I had given Jane  and within forr months his blood sugar was normal and remained so. It is unfortunate that many physicians donot realize that the critical role food plays in the ultimate development of illness. Medication stopped Charles high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol but no attention was payed to the underlying cause…………….Never forget only fuel that sustains all your body functions is the food you eat and the air you breath.

Hypoglycemia

Joan called and made  an appointment for help in determing her accurate medical diagnosis. Over the phone she told me that she suffered from fatigue especially in the midmorning and mid afternoon. This was associated with “foggy thinking”and generalized body weakness.Her medical doctors said she appeared to be in perfect health  in spite of her complaints. Their final diagnosis  was depression. She was immediately put on antidepressants at which point her symptoms became worse.

The day of her appointment I left her in the waiting room to fill out her information form. Returning a few minutes later I found her slumped  over almost to the floor. All she could utter was a feeble “help.” On a hunch I quickly got her a glass of orange juice and a piece of candy.Almost immediately like awilted flower needing water she sat up and said she felt alright.. Joan didnot suffer from depressio0n but from hypoglycemia.{hypo stands for less than, gly stands for sugar and emia stands for blood) Therefore the orange juice and candy which are very quickly absorbed gave the bloodstream the necessary glucose

Taking her history I found  that like most folks Joan”s breakfast consisted  of cereal, sugar , small amount of milk and coffee with cream and sugar. All of these foods are simple compared to complex carbohydrates such as vegetables and le gumes  } Simple carbohydrates  are very quickly digested , rapidly entering the bloodstream and stimulating the pancreas to shoot out a hefty supply of insulin,Actually only a asmall amount of these insulin curriers were neede to do the job.L[e  unemployed workers the majority of  insulin roams through the bloodstream stimulating glands that triggered the weakness, fatigue etc.

Six small high protein {meat, fish,eggs, poultry, dairy and soy} meals a day soved Joan’s problem. One of the most significant  changes she made was learning how to turn acarbohydrate food into a protein. {ex’ adding 1 or 2 Tbs. of fat free powdered milk to her cereal{such as oatmeal} or simply mixing it with the milk being used in her cereal} The recipe for Right Way New Cheese was a first rate addition to her diet. It not only gave endless opportunities for making high protein snacks but helped her to lose 5 pounds of weight in two weeks.

   to    

to revive her.