The Choice Is Ours

I feel like we've had a huge breakthrough with my mom's health.  Discovering how her blood pressure and her blood sugar affect her mental state of being has given me hope for a recovery for my mom.  I have hope that we can help my mom heal her heart damage, damage that was caused from her diet rich with simple carbs, a sedentary life and pharma drugs that were prescribed to counteract the poor choices that my mom had made throughout her life.

I've said it before, pharma drugs do have a place.  Pharmaceutical drugs allow folks who choose to ingest processed and packaged foods, to eat the so called food.  Pharmaceuticals are a bandage that help folks to keep ingesting the fake foods, cheap food that fill our supermarkets.  It appears that the Food Industry and the Pharmaceutical Industry are in the business of making us sick so that they can take our money, health and ability to choose.

What I've discovered through my mom is that it's all or nothing.  It takes a committment to change, to want to be healthy.  I've learned that we can not be healthy eating processed food, period, the end.  The body doesn't know how to handle synthetics.  Synthetic food brings on inflammation, leading to illnesses that require powerful synthetic pharmaceuticals to calm the disease.  The trouble with the pharmaceutical drugs is that they all come with side effects, side effects that can be managed with more drugs, expensive drugs.  I still find it hard to believe that it's legal for pharmaceutical companies to pitch their drugs on TV.  How is this different than a drug pusher on the streets?  Both make you sick, one is legal and one is not... why?

Something that I find illogical and always have is when a drug is prescribed and we are instructed not to eat certain real foods because of the drug interaction.  For example, high blood pressure medicines ... when folks take the pharmaceutical drug to lower blood pressure, grapefruit is not allowed. 

Grapefruit naturally lowers blood pressure.  I've seen how well it works with my mom's blood pressure.  Garlic too.  Garlic lowers blood pressure, it's incredible.

Real food is a choice, just as eating cheap food and taking the expensive drugs is a choice.  I have eaten the "cheap food."  I also was on my way to having similar illnesses that my mom has experienced in her 80 + years on this Earth.  The one ailment that she has that scared me totally off processed foods is her Alzheimer's diagnosis.  Living with her, seeing her frightened by hallucinations and all the angst that comes along with this dreaded disease, was all I needed to put the breaks on and re-evaluate my approach to a happy life.

Food is medicine, good medicine that will keep us happy through good health.

How come we are not instructed by doctors to eat real foods, nutritious foods?  The food may cost more money, but what's the difference... paying for expensive food or expensive drugs?  How come people skimp on their health?  How come people will pay a small fortune for a new electronic gadgets and drugs but they have trouble paying for food?  I just don't get the logic, I never have. 

How come real MD's who totally get Food as Medicine before drugs are not invited to speak at big name hospitals?  Could hospitals be in the business of making money too?  Are they all in kahoots?

Why is it that when one of their own, a REAL MD sees the hypocracy of the system then goes out and tries to educate folks, they're stopped?  I don't understand, really... the only explanation is money.  Makes me ask the question, does the health establishment wants us all sick because a sick population is great for the bottom line, they make more money. 

Ah, capitolism... should it really be a part of our healthcare?

Can someone explain to me why drugs are better than real food?  I need to understand why people choose to accept the side effects of the new pharma drugs that are designed to "treat" disease of the body, but cause more disease? 

Why is real food looked down upon when it's really the best medicine we can reach for when are bodies are ill?

Is it because we are lazy as a people or just gullible?  We don't want to have to make choices, even though we have so many choices, choices that overload us to the point where we are confused and say "Oh fuck it?"  Why do people follow the leader?  Why aren't more people taking responsibility for their own health? 

As you can see, I have a lot of questions around the topic of real nutritious food versus drugs.  Personally, I don't buy into the lies that are perpetuated through TV Ads, ads designed to manipulate us into "asking our doctor" about a drug.  Why is healthcare for profit OK?  Why are people blind to the manipulation of the ads that convince us that there's better living through chemistry?

I have learned that there's hope, that we can break free from the processed food and pharmaceutical grid.  It's our choice. 

Personally I feel great and am at a body weight that I haven't seen in decades.  Getting back to basics has helped me and my family to have better health.  We don't need the pharmaceutical drugs because we use natures medicine cabinet, plants!  No side effects, just good health.

I can almost guarantee you that once you stop eating processed foods and switch to all natural food, your health will improve.  You won't be able to eat the processed food once you stop, you won't like the taste and you will crave nature's foods.  Your skin will look better.  Actually, you'll start to look younger.  I've been observing this phenomenon with my mom... the more natural foods that I serve her, the younger she looks.  

It isn't as hard as you think to eat healthfully.  It's not that expensive either... grow your own food, it's rewarding on so many levels.  The choice is ours.

It's Only Too Late When We Are Dead

We are now on our 6th day of my mom's hypnosis sessions.  The 15 minute recording that I had made her is working, PERFECTLY. 

She loves listening to the recording and will put the headphones on herself and sit quietly, listening.  My mom, she gets into it.  She closes her eyes and does the breathing exercises that I had taught her, breathing exercises that are designed to relax and release tension.

My mom, she walks around the house with a smile, happiness has replaced her dreary outlook on her life.  Yesterday she was humming, walking around the house... happy!  She's happy today too.

You see, my mom wasn't able to operate the TV Remote control.  For nearly 2 years I have had to change the TV channel for her; the remote controls were too daunting for her.  My mom lacked confidence, which I believe was a big part of her trouble.  She believed that she couldn't do it ... so she couldn't.

Yesterday I was preparing dinner when my mom comes into the kitchen and says, "Oh Susie, you are so cute.  Look  at you, cleaning and cooking.  You are a good girl."

I turned and it was my MOM, she was standing in the doorway.  Not my crazy mom, but the mom I knew and loved before she lost her mind.  Inside, my heart skipped a beat and did a jump for joy.  The hypnosis is helping her to have better days.

Overcome with joy, I said to my mom. "Ma, that was really nice to say.  Thank you.  But, you know, I learned how to do all of this from you.  You were a very good role model.  Thanks Ma... I love you.  Now, get out from under my feet!" I said with a laugh. 

My entire young years, I was always underfoot in the kitchen, I needed to see what my mom was doing.  Now, the rolls are really reversed, she does exactly what I had done 45 years ago.  My mom chuckled and hummed her hypnosis song walking back to her room, just like a teenager.

I'm able to work durning the day.  My mom isn't looking for me every 10 minutes.  She is able to entertain herself and every day in every way she's definitely getting better and better! 

In my opinion, hypnosis is the missing link.  Using the recording helps my mom to feel more independent.  So much so she thinks that she's OK to drive a car again, of course she won't, not yet anyway.  My mom, she wants to exercise.  She's happy.  She's eating her dark greens.  She is sleeping through the night, every night and she appears to be getting younger.  I look at my mom and I see my mom from 40 years ago. 

My mom, she's beautiful... she's a beautiful old lady.  She's taught me a valuable health lesson, it's only too late when we're dead...

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Enemy #1

A few days ago my mom was seeing people in the house that were not here. I knew that I didn't give her anything that would trigger hallucinations because I don't keep anything with preservatives in the house. But, she was still seeing people so I knew that she must have eaten something like the sugar free hard candies that she bought religiously when she was driving for .99 from our local pharmacy chain.

We had stopped in to Walgreens just the day before her visitors returned. I left her to roam freely in the store while I was in a 2nd hand clothing store for children next door.

My mom tells me that she "needs" these candies to suck on when she gets a tickle in her throat. Then she said, "You weren't around for me to ask." Pretty lame excuse.

So, instead of getting mad at my mom, I told her the scientific facts about the hydrogenation process and how in the 1970's these "new" fats began to replace lard and butter.

Looking back in my family history, in the 1970's my dad was unemployed because he couldn't bend steel any longer. He had bursitis in his elbow, the one he shattered when he was 9 years old playing on the freight trains in Chelsea.

At this time, my family was forced to go on welfare to help us get by. During those years the government handed out food in totally generic labels. You'd get a big chunk of butter and cheese depending on how many people in your family. There were 7 of us so we got a lot.

Another item we got was corn syrup. High fructose, more than likely it was hydrogenated. My mom used to cook with this and we often used it as "maple syrup" on pancakes or french toast.

Shortly after our ingesting this food is when my mom began to have health issues and my dad died of pancreatic cancer.

So, this leads me to believe that the "new" HFCS is Enemy #1, it snuffs out lives.

Here's an article about it - The Enemy is in Your Food: High Fructose Corn Syrup