About two years ago I really let myself go and I gained a lot of weight. I was eating almost nothing but junk food and I had stopped exercising. I decided to see a Doctor and get my blood tested as I felt like crap and looked like it as well. My blood work came back that my bad cholesterol was high, but my triglycerides were off of the map!! They were over 1,700!! Yes you read that correctly and it was certainly no joke as my father died at the young age of 63 years old of a heart attack.

Of course my Doctor put me on a statin for high triglycerides (Gemfibrozil) and recommended me to eat better and to exercise. Well I still was very fatigued and felt like dog poo so that was my excuse for not exercising and I cannot cook worth a damn so I was still eating out very often and still eating too much junk food. Then I let my prescription for Gemfibrozil lapse and the *snip* hit the fan. I got very sick and I was throwing up all day long until I had the dry heaves and at the same time I had enormous pain near my abdomen. The first time I drank nothing but water for about 4 days and ate nothing and just laid in bed in a lot of extreme discomfort and gutted it out until the pain finally stopped and I finally stopped trying to throw up. So I went back to eating again thinking that I had just had a very bad case of heartburn.

Well about a month after that the shit hit the fan again but this time it was worse so I finally called my mother and she took me to the Emergency Room. After some sort of X ray and CT scan the Doctor let me know that I had Pancreatitis and that I would need to stay in the hospital for at least five days without eating anything. They gave me morphine for four of those five days as Pancreatitis is very painful.

Since then I finally got my act together a couple of months ago. I stopped eating red meat entirely as it is high in animal fat and my triglycerides were still way too high. So I started on a low fat diet of just chicken and fish and rice and kidney beans and vegetables and fruit. And I finally got motivated and got my but back into the gym. I lost over 10 pounds in less then one month and my triglycerides which had been above 1,000 still went to just over 200. My bad cholesterol also went down and my good cholesterol went up as I was eating some Salmon and taking fish oil capsules.

To say that I feel a lot better would be an understatement. But something else I did is what really woke me up mentally a couple of months ago and that is I stopped drinking diet Coke and anything "diet" as it all has ASPARTAME in it. My mother had warned me over a year ago that aspartame is dangerous but I did not listen to her. I finally read up on it and decided to do an experiment and stopped eating or drinking anything with it. I drank unsweetened iced tea instead of diet sodas. After two weeks my mental clarity improved dramatically. I had been very fatigued both mentally and physically. IMO aspartame is pure poison to your brain and to your nervous system. It is especially toxic to young children. One girl went into a coma and her parents spent about 500K in medical bills trying to figure out what was wrong. NONE of the Doctors could figure it out. A friend of the mother told her to read about aspartame. The mother realized that one of the medications had aspartame in it!! On top of this the little girl had been a heavy drinker of "diet" sodas, so she was saturated with this poison. The mother insisted that the medication with aspartame be stopped and the girl came out of the coma. After that her health improved dramatically and the mother and father never let the girl touch aspartame again.

I highly recommend you to google aspartame and read up on it. Do NOT let an expectant mother take this highly toxic poison--it will poison her baby.

I also recommend that if you are on a statin medication (Lipitor, Gemfibrozil, etc) to read up on co-enzyme Q 10 ( coQ10 ). It was discovered by a Japanese researcher and it is claimed that it helps to prevent heart attacks. Statins are good at lowering cholesterols but they also deplete your body of its natural coQ10. So it is a very good idea to take it if taking a statin. I also take L-Carnatine to help me burn fat and give me energy for my workouts.

I am up to working out 4 days a week and as I get more energy I will increase it to 6 days a week. Even if all you do is walk briskly on a treadmill for 20 to 30 minutes 3 to 5 times a week it will help you incredibly. (twenty minutes is the minimum for cardiovascular improvement)

The old knowledge is that you must both diet and exercise to be physically fit and to feel and look your best. If you drink at all drink only in moderation. Alcohol is also poison to your body in excessive quantities. I do not drink at all as I want to continue to do my skateboarding and other athletic endeavors.

If you cannot cut out all red meat at least cut out hamburger meat. If you knew how it was made it would make you want to throw up. It is basically highly processed garbage. I say garbage in garbage out. Replace it with very lean cuts of meat, or eliminate red meat entirely.

I hope the above makes you think about your diet and exercise and I hope it helps you to strive to improve.

Here is to your health,
and Best Regards!!

Rubicon.

A link to some information about Aspartame:

http://www.dorway.com/badnews.html

METHANOL (AKA WOOD ALCOHOL/POISON) (10% OF ASPARTAME) Methanol/wood alcohol is a deadly poison. People may recall that methanol was the poison that has caused some "skid row" alcoholics to end up blind or dead. Methanol is gradually released in the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounter the enzyme chymotrypsin.

Methanol breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde in the body. Formaldehyde is a deadly neurotoxin. An EPA assessment of methanol states that methanol "is considered a cumulative poison due to the low rate of excretion once it is absorbed. In the body, methanol is oxidized to formaldehyde and formic acid; both of these metabolites are toxic." The recommend a limit of consumption of 7.8 mg/day. A one-liter (approx. 1 quart) aspartame-sweetened beverage contains about 56 mg of methanol. Heavy users of aspartame-containing products consume as much as 250 mg of methanol daily or 32 times the EPA limit.

"In other words: Aspartame converts to dangerous byproducts that have no natural countermeasures. A dieter's empty stomach accelerates these conversions and amplifies the damage. Components of aspartame go straight to the brain, damage that causes headaches, mental confusion, seizures and faulty balance. Lab rats and other test animals died of brain tumors."

A link about the benefits of COQ10:

http://www.preventive-health-guide.com/coq10.html

wikipedia article about L-Carnitine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnitine

Last but not least L-Carnitine can greatly help guys with "potency" problems!!

A link to over the counter and prescription medications containing aspartame:

Don't take them, you will be sorry!! Don't drink diet drinks w/ Aspartame!!

http://www.oasisadvancedwellness.com/learning/drugs-containing-aspartame.html

And ask yourself, why is Aspartame banned in Europe for childrens products?? (It really should be banned in all countries for all humans!!):

http://www.aspartame.ca/page_a2a.html

NOTE On the European Common Market Aspartame is banned for all children's products. Why not in Canada and the USA? Because Monsanto pays off the FDA, the American Medical Association, The American Dietetic and Diabetic Associations, Congressmen and Senators and virtually anyone who gets in the way, and in other countries too. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation caught them red handed and aired a program where Monsanto was trying to bribe a couple of Canadian Doctors at Health Canada.

Author Peter Sills writing in the Toronto Globe and Mail said, after a three and a half year court case against Monsanto, brought by railroad workers exposed to dioxin following a train derailment had ended and in which the jury awarded a $16 million in punitive damages against Monsanto, "The evidence of Monsanto executives at the trial portrayed a corporate culture where sales and profits were given a higher priority than the safety of products and it's workers. They (Monsanto) just didn't care about the health and safety of their workers. Instead of trying to make things safer, they relied on intimidation and threatened layoffs to keep their employees working.

Good topic Rubicon,

A good rule of thumbs is, don't eat or drink anything with 'Diet' or 'Low Fat' in the title, they are usually far worse for you than the normal/standard products.

Aspartame and lots and lots of other man made additives are very bad for you.

Diets high in carbohydrates, with carbohydrates accounting for more than 60% of the total energy intake, can increase triglyceride levels significantly, but basically nearly ALL fast foods or processed foods have something in them that is bad for you.

Best thing to do to get healthy is to reduce and eliminate eating processed foods completely, and start eating lots of fresh vegetables and fruits with added nutrients such as milled organic flaxseed, L-Cartinine, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Gymnema Sylvestre, Chromium, and others, drink green tea that contains flavonoids, use natural spices and seasonings, not man made rubbish, add Cayenne Pepper ( a wonder spice) to your vegetable juices and drinks, get your diet to more of an alkali diet and less of an acid diet and you will find that your health will improve significantly and many ailments will start to get better.

The problem with a lot of drugs (most of them in fact), and also such as the Statin drugs is that they help the body to reduce the particular problem they are designed for, but you can become reliant on them and worse still, they DON'T tackle the ROOT cause of the problem, which is usually a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle! However, natures fruits, vegetables, fish products, spices and so on actually will detoxify the body and eventually help to start it to work and heal itself again if the diet is changed radically from a mainly processed food diet to a mainly natural diet.

I could go on about this for ages, I have done a lot of research on this subject lately, and have just started myself changing my diet radically in the last few weeks, but already, even in such a short time, the benefits are already starting to show and pay off.

As an aside to this, I will tell you a couple of short stories:-

It is often said that there is a cure in nature for every health problem humans have. In fact I once heard that only around 3% of the Amazon Rain Forest had been explored, but yet, it had a very high percentage of the health cures we already use confined within its boundaries. (Cannot remember the exact figures so not stated any, but they were pretty impressive)

My wife (Ukrainian) is a believer in natural cures for various ailments. I have suffered very badly from hay fever all my life from being about 10 years old, which sometimes turned to asthma, it was really bad most summers, my wife told me the winter before last that it was to do with the lungs, and breathing, I of course took very little notice, but one day she told me we would be going to a forest today to cut some pine needles, so we did, and for the next month each night she placed a few of the pine branches in a pot of boiling water and left it in our room each night, so we breathed it in all night long. 3-4 months later when summer started and usually I would start to be suffering from hay fever, I had nothing at all. Over the next 2-3 months when normally I would be on drugs for hay fever, I had very little suffering at all. Why was that? I don't know, it may have been the breathing of pine needles over the winter, but who knows.

So this winter, we did the same, now in summer, this is the first British summer I have had since I was about 10 years old where I have had NO hay fever/asthma problems at all. Coincidence? who knows, but its worth a try.

Finally, my stepdaughter, has been in the UK now 3.5 years, she has been healthier than she ever was in Ukraine, however, 12 months or so ago she started with a very bad cough, it lasted weeks, and despite numerous visits to the doctors we could not get a cure and they didn't know what it was. Eventually it seemed to just disappear on its own, 5 - 6 months ago, it came back again, so off we go again to the doctors, the walk in centre and so on, again no drugs worked, so my wife said right I will try one of my cures then! She bought a turnip (Black radish) (don't laugh) cut the top off carefully, scraped some of the middle out, put a spoonful of honey in it and placed the top back on loosely, she then placed the whole concoction in a bowl over night, in the morning there was a juice in the bowl that had been created from the turnip/honey overnight, she gave my stepdaughter 3 or 4 spoonfuls per day of this juice, 3 days later the cough had gone completely, again a coincidence, I don't know, but so far it has not come back.

So now I have started to take notice of her, she who must be obeyed, is always right afterall!

Great post Chris. What your wife is doing is using Homeopathic remedies. By breathing small amounts of the pine needles your body builds up its own immune system prior to the onset of hay fever season.

In regards to eating whole foods (best foods are organic as they do not have harsh chemicals and antibiotics which pollute our bodies) they work much better because they are not highly processed with a bunch of junk chemicals in them.

I had a free workout with a personal trainer at the gym. I thought I knew a lot of exercises because I was a gymnast in High School. He had some exercises to help me stretch out and help me with my balance which I had never thought of. Most importantly to me was his nutritional advice. This guy was very strong and very lean. He had just run an Iron man Triathalon (swim 2.5 miles, bike I think 12 miles and then run 26 miles!!) in Idaho. His best advice was to stay away from processed foods and normal meat. Best is organic food and free range organic meat (no antibiotics and steroids and other chemicals in the meat). He explained that food at McDonalds is so highly processed that there are no enzymes in it for you body to digest it with. So people glut themselves on Big Macs but their body is really still hungry. Of course McDonalds loves that because then people tend to overeat their junk.

Exactly right, processed food is full of junk and chemicals, corn fed beef and chicken full of antibiotics, steroids, growth hormones and more. Organic is undoubtedly better, but even then you need to check, as some foods can be labelled organic when in fact they really only contain a high percentage organic ingredients and are not fully 100% organic.




Yes so true, no one should be eating it in the quantities many do in the Western world.



Yes they love it, it rings those cash registers very loudly, same reason drug companies don't actually (in many instances) create drugs that actually cure/tackle the root problems of many diseases, they don;t make money unless people continue to keep using their drugs.

You know what, many years ago, I actually paid to privately have some consultations with a Doctor about my hay fever, he was also a Homeopathic Doctor and after years of trying to find something to help, I thought why not, anyway, he treated me and it didn't work at all, so I'll stick with my wife's pine needles thank-you very much.

She has lot more concoctions that I could tell you about that seem to cure everything, but I better not say too much, else she get reported for being a Witch

LOL!! My mother is a devout Christian but her old wives tales and healing practices remind me of witches brews. I told that to my brother and he said don't make fun of her she will probably outlive all of us!!

Guess what, my grandfather died last Christmas, he was also into all this sort of stuff, he was 102 BTW

Rubicon thanks for the tips and Chris it’s about time that we loose some weight, don’t you think?

As it happens after my marriage, I have become very lazy, no exercise and the time I spend in the garden is not good to loose any weight! I now feel it, I am overweight, difficult to walk fast and for long time, so she complains all the time we go to the supermarket……. so I think it’s time to move my backside, join the local gym and start walking in the treadmill.

Unlike you Rubi, our diet is not bad at all and we always cook fresh food, no processed or read meat, veggies and also fresh fruit. I eat very little, like a sparrow, after my operation 2 years ago but I do drink a lot of coffee. Now that my wife is going to Russia for 2 weeks it’s the time to start exercising and walking.

Talking about natural remedies, I have a little story of my own, regarding my back pain and how I have found a good cure and now get very little pain.

Ever since I was working in Corfu Island in Greece and before I moved to the UK, I was having problems with my back after a small accident at work and every so often I used to get some attacks and spent time in bed. When I came to UK I used to visit the Chiropractor for some treatment to stop the pain.

In 1995 I flew out to Kos island to contract accommodation for my holiday business. On arrival I was picked up by my local agent and we drove to the town to visit a bank and have something to eat.

As it happens when I tried to get out of the car my back had gone and I was in great pain and hardly could walk straight!

I explained to my agent what it was wrong with me….. and he said….

“Tonight we are going to the hot water and I can assure you after 30 minutes…. You will forget the pain and walk straight again”

When I told him that only the chiropractor in UK could do something about it he said…..

“Ok you don’t believe me, so when you feel better after coming out of the water, then you will pay the dinner" …….. to which I replied; “I will be happy to do that, if what you say is true.”

At around 8 PM we got in his car and drove out of the town of Kos. The place is well known as one of the most outstanding places on Kos.

The Kos thermal waters are placed at the end of a 250 metre-long pebbled beach, surrounded by a rock pool. In this pool, hot water – usually ranging between 42º and 50º C - mixes with the water coming from the sea, which produces a nice warm bath, avoiding high temperatures.

According to some local advice, the best part of the pool to start is the one at the left (by the sea), where the water is not so warm. Then, one can gradually move towards the hotter waters. The warmest spring comes from a fissured rock, placed on the right side of the shore. The pool has a considerable size, so the temperature can vary a lot depending from their location. However, anywhere in the pool will always be warmer than in the sea.
The mineral water springs of Kos are benefical as they can cure many deseases.

My agent explained to me that the hot volcanic water was coming out at the top of the pool, filing the pool and mixing with cold sea water. Basically it was a big hole and on the side of the sea with many large rocks for protection but would not stop the sea water coming into the hole.

We went into the hot water and lied there without swimming around. After around 15 minutes I notice I was not feeling any pain and at my friends advice I stayed in the water for another 15 minutes before making any move to stand up.

Then carefully tried to stand up and I did without any pain or difficulty!

I am sure you can imagine my surprise, especially when I started walking on the beach with no pain or problem. Well I was very happy paying for the fish dinner……….. and decided to extend my stay in the island and for the next few days I went there every night, as during the day….. it was extremely hot to lie in the sun.

My agent explained to me that the hot water was also very therapeutic for many other things, as you can read in the picture. After that and every October I always go there for a week to swim in the hot water and I hardly remember a time that I had to lie in bed with pain, again.

I also noticed that I have never catch a cold and at the end of my holiday I always feel like a young man and my skin has very few lines…..

On our first trip in Kos, I introduced my wife to this little spot and she loves every minute, when we go there, and can’t wait for our next visit, next October!