Experience Health Bliss by Susan Smith Jones, PhD ©
(Excerpt from Susan’s book—HEALTH BLISS)

Take Charge of Your Health & Life

If you are a “baby boomer” like I am, keep in mind that changes that were once labeled milestones of growing older—such as high blood pressure, fragile bones, significant memory loss, wrinkles, reduced vision and lack of energy and libido—are no longer considered inevitable. The diet and lifestyle choices I recommend in this book (and practice myself) will help you look and feel vibrantly healthy and alive at any age. I feel as young and exuberant as I ever did—and you can, too!

Your level of health, right this moment, is the result of the countless choices you have made regarding your diet, exercise, thought processes, beliefs, and expectations. Undoubtedly, many of these choices have been poor ones. But you can use your past mistakes and learn from them. However, you must start with a commitment.
Specifically, are you willing to make a commitment to your health?

A commitment to health begins with appreciating, respecting and loving your magnificent body. One of the most important things that you can learn in life is to appreciate yourself. As you open your heart to your own self-worth and to the divine essence of all humanity, you access the most powerful healer of all, the healing power of love. And the human body is, indeed, a miracle of love’s creation. The more I study the human body, the more I am amazed and in awe at how beautifully it is designed. Clearly, your body is a fantastic creation that deserves reverence and respect.

Your body is a remarkable feedback machine. If you listen, you will discover that it actually talks to you. When you get a headache, for instance, your body is trying to tell you something. Listen to your body’s signals with health, balance and peace as your goals. The key here is your willingness to listen and act. Start today to tune in more to your body.

Most people think that the way to handle a headache is to reach for a bottle of aspirin. They think that it is normal to have a headache, but they are mistaken. While headaches (and the countless other aches and pains that people experience) are certainly common, health is the truly normal state. Disease is an aberration, caused either by harm you’ve done to yourself or that others have done to you.

Collectively, Americans have been making some very poor choices. Just look at all of the commercials on television and the advertisements in magazines and newspapers. Whatever you are suffering from—headache, constipation, sleepless nights, diarrhea, indigestion, skin rashes, high blood pressure, impotency . . . fill in the blank—the advertisers have a miracle pill, powder or potion for you. We’ve come to believe that things outside ourselves are the keys to health and well-being. We’ve become a self-medicating society because we don’t really understand how beautifully robust the human body is.

Each of us needs to be reminded that our bodies are magnificently equipped to meet life’s problems when supplied with the simple and easily obtainable requisites of health.

Choose to Make Positive Changes

I have some astonishing news for you. It’s normal to be able to go to sleep at night without taking a pill. It’s normal not to have headaches, sinus problems, hemorrhoids, constipation and shaky hands. It’s normal to be well. We just need to stop doing the things that cause the problems in the first place. When you live more from inner guidance, closer to nature, you can enrich the quality of your life and the quality of life on this planet.

It’s simply a matter of choice. And it all begins, as mentioned above, with appreciating, respecting and taking loving care of your body. The body reflects the mind, and the mind reflects the spirit, so choosing to make positive changes with your body is a good place to start.

This book focuses primarily on how to take the best care of your body—starting today—by choosing to eat healthful foods and taking steps to improve a variety of other necessary lifestyle habits. You see, it’s really not about making major lifestyle or food changes; rather, it’s about making simple, effective lifestyle choices. What you eat, how much you move or sleep, what you think, how you deal with stress, how much water you drink, how many bad habits you can discard and how much your social relationships support you—these factors have a profound effect on health, longevity and quality of life.

Of the many positive steps you can take, three are eminently under your control: what you eat, how much you move (physical activity), and what you think about. You have the ability to change all three of those at any time. For example, you are the one who decides what you eat or drink; nobody, I hope, shoves the food down your throat. If you want to be vibrantly healthy, free from disease and filled with energy and vitality, start upgrading the foods you eat.

Most people are digging their graves with their knives and forks each and every day. While your diet is only one of the essential ingredients of vibrant health, it’s a very big one. Think about it this way. Your body is composed of over 70 trillion cells. Think of each cell as a little engine. Some of these engines work in unison, some work independently and they all work 24/7. In order for the engines to work right, they require specific fuels. If an engine is given the wrong fuel, of course it won’t be able to perform to maximum capacity. If the fuel is of a poor grade, the engine may sputter and hesitate, creating a loss of power. If the engine is given none of the fuel it needs, it will stop.

Much of the fuel for our cells comes directly from the things we eat. The food we eat contains nutrients in the form of vitamins, minerals, water, carbohydrates, fats, proteins and enzymes. Just as a car requires different forms of energy for the brakes, transmission and battery to run smoothly, all of the cells of the body require different types and amounts of nutrients, depending on their location and function in the body. These nutrients allow you to sustain life by providing your body’s cells with the basic materials they need to carry on. Each nutrient you ingest differs in form, function and amount needed; however, all of them are vital. Nutrients are involved in every bodily process, whether it be combating infection, providing energy or promoting tissue repair, but their common goal is to keep us going. Although eating has been woven into many cultural and religious practices, the essential purpose of eating is survival.

A fundamental problem for most of us is that we eat too much low-nutrient food. These poor food choices deprive our bodies of the nutrients we need. When you deprive your body of the nutrients it needs for a long enough period of time, you get sick because normal functions are impaired. Even if you are not obviously sick, you may not necessarily be healthy. It simply may be that you are not yet exhibiting any overt symptoms of illness. Unlike a car engine, which immediately malfunctions if you put water into the gasoline tank, the human body has tremendous resilience and often camouflages the repercussions of unhealthful fuel choices. By understanding the principles of holistic nutrition and knowing what nutrients you need and what foods contain them, you can improve the state of your health, stave off disease, and maintain the harmonious balance that nature intended.

One of the most sobering national statistics is that we spent $1.5 trillion on disease care last year, more per capita than any other nation in the world. But we are nowhere near the top when it comes to health. Despite our high tech therapies, we are lagging behind all of the industrialized countries and a number of developing countries, as well.

How can this be? One big reason is that there are huge food and medical industries working hard to convince us that what we eat has little or no effect on our health. We are told by industry apologists that any combination of low-nutrient, processed, chemicalized “foods” will meet our nutritional needs as long as we take plenty of vitamin pills, heartburn medicine, headache pills and other remedies. By contrast, scientists tell us that by the year 2015, over 75 percent of all Americans will be obese (with all of the diseases that accompany moribundity). You don’t need to be a Nobel Prize winner to understand that Western medicine needs to rethink how it views health and well-being, and that changes need to be made now.

Eating for Optimal Health

As study after study has shown, a high-nutrient, plantbased diet is a prerequisite for optimal health. That is why half of this book is devoted to identifying 50 of the most healthful foods—what I refer to as NATUREFOODS—and describing their benefits. I’ve also included a variety of easy-to-prepare recipes that just happen to be as delicious as they are nutritious. Add these NATUREFOODS and recipes to those you’ll find in my books The Healing Power of NATUREFOODS and BE HEALTHY~STAY BALANCED: 21 Simple Choices to Create More Joy & Less Stress to help reduce your risks of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, common forms of cancer, premature aging, vision problems and mental dysfunction.

I also describe the foods that help accelerate fat loss, increase your energy level and joie de vivre, and empower you to achieve control over your life. I list the foods in alphabetical order. Every food is backed by my extensive research and my personal experience of teaching nutrition and healthful food preparation classes (cooked and live-food cuisine) for over 30 years.

As you will discover, there’s more to radiant health than a good diet. Other essential factors must be integrated into your life if you want to maximize your health potential. These include physical factors such as fresh air, plenty of rest and sleep, exercise, sunshine, internal and external cleanliness, and the avoidance of addictions; and mental factors, such as a positive attitude, deep respect for life, high self-esteem, daily respites of solitude and silence, a sense of belonging, and an awareness and trust in your Higher Power, God, or whatever you choose to call this loving presence.

I also encourage you to explore practices such as meditation, deep breathing, intentional profuse sweating (saunas) and body balancing. Finally, it’s essential to keep stress to a minimum. While it’s probably impossible to live without any stress at all, you can still choose to deal with your daily stresses in a healthy way. You’ll learn about all of these topics in the pages of this book. For more in-depth information about these and other holistic health practices, please refer to my other titles, CHOOSE TO LIVE PEACEFULLY, WIRED TO MEDITATE and EVERYDAY HEALTH—Pure & Simple.

For now, let’s take a closer look at how too much stress can play havoc with your body and undermine your best intentions to create health bliss and your best life.

Unmanaged Stress Precludes Health Bliss

Lisa was a hard-working single mother of two in her late thirties, on the verge of becoming a partner in a law firm. In addition to putting in long hours at her office, she commuted ninety minutes each way in heavy traffic. When she finally arrived home for the evening, she was greeted by screaming rap music blasting from her teenage son’s room. With no time to call her own, Lisa felt like she had an endless list of things to do that never got completed. Although she tried to watch her diet and to squeeze in two to three hours a week on her home treadmill, she was gaining weight monthly. Even more alarming, Lisa hadn’t had a period in over a year. She was too young to be entering menopause, although she confessed that she felt twenty years older than her actual age.

At our very first session, Lisa spoke to me through uncontrollable tears. In addition to admitting that she was having a hard time just getting out of bed in the morning, she said that she had been feeling a crippling despair for years, ever since she discovered her husband’s addictions to gambling and infidelity. Just a few months after her
divorce, when Lisa thought she was beginning to get her life back together, her mother died of cancer. Three weeks after the funeral, her daughter was in a serious automobile accident.

Although her family, friends and neighbors all applauded her outward strength and ability to rise above these challenges and tragedies, inside she felt like she was losing control of herself and her life.

As I listened to Lisa’s story, it became clear that she was in the midst of a severe depression. I explained to her that the physiological root of depression is often the chronic, overwhelming floods of hormones that release during times of extreme stress. I also mentioned that depression can be viewed as a form of self-hatred as well as anger with no place to go.

For Lisa, and millions of people like her, finding ways to relieve stress would make the difference between waking refreshed—and bounding out of bed ready to face the day, or waking in a fog of depression—wanting to stay in bed and hiding under a dark blanket of despair. When you fight rush-hour traffic or face a wall of rap music at the end of a demanding day, your brain, with the best of intentions, sounds an alarm. Your heart rate accelerates, your blood sugar soars, and an army of endorphins marches out to dull potential pain. A wave of neurotransmitters—serotonin among them—spreads the alarm from cell to cell throughout your nervous system.

The hypothalamus also gets in on the act, releasing a hormone called CRH that signals for the release of other hormones. Meanwhile, the adrenal glands atop the kidneys send out the stress hormones adrenaline, DHEA, and cortisol, also known as steroid hormones. These substances are usually body-friendly and serve to protect us by increasing our alertness and strength to help us do what needs to be done. The problem comes when the stress is prolonged and the chemicals’ normal routes change—serotonin tends to hasten away too quickly; DHEA can make itself scarce; cortisol can overstay its welcome.

Cortisol’s Role in Stress & Hormone Balance
Produced by the adrenal glands and commonly known asthe “stress hormone,” cortisol helps the body cope with all types of stress, from infection to fright, from a major job change or move to a new home, from a wedding to a divorce, and from birth to death. Whether you are facing an emergency, an accident, a confrontation, or just doing your job or getting some exercise, cortisol is there to get you up and going, to help get you through the day.

Cortisol helps determine how the proteins, carbohydrates and fats from your diet are utilized. For example, cortisol influences the breakdown of carbohydrates into glucose so the body can use them for energy. Cortisol also influences the breakdown of protein into amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and they are also the building blocks of the immune system, blood vessels, muscles and other tissues. Thus, the immune system, blood vessels and muscles all rely on cortisol for strength and proper function. Cortisol prevents the loss of too much sodium from the body and helps maintain blood pressure as well. It also helps to suppress reactions such as pain, allergic reactions and inflammation.

Perhaps most interesting of all, cortisol helps the body protect itself from itself. For example, during a strenuous workout, the body breaks down fat and muscle tissue to produce energy. In order to prevent the immune system from recognizing all of these tissue molecules as foreign invaders, the body produces more cortisol and gently suppresses the immune response so that the body does not go on red alert when it doesn’t have to.

The cortisol that can flood your system to assist you in emergencies helps to provide your body with the nutrients you need to cope with stress. That’s why it’s known as the stress hormone. Typically, once you have managed the stressful circumstances, the brain shuts off the production of cortisol, your physical reactions subside, and soon you are back to normal.

But there is another side of the cortisol story. If the  brain perceives that stress is ongoing or chronic, it can override the signal to shut off cortisol production. Under those circumstances, cortisol production will stay elevated as long as the brain thinks the body needs it to cope with what it is experiencing. So, as important and necessary as cortisol is, you can have too much of it.

If too much cortisol stays in the body for too long, a damaging cycle can begin that can lead to blood sugar problems, fat accumulation, compromised immune function, exhaustion, bone loss, even heart disease. If, like Lisa, you experience one major stress after another—and if you haven’t created ways to reduce and release that stress—it can have a detrimental effect on your health.

Just like everything in nature, the body is in a continuous state of regeneration. It is constantly building itself up, tearing itself down and rebuilding itself all over again. Cortisol levels go up to provide the body with energy, but it breaks down tissue in order to do this. Once the job is done, the body has to rebuild and recuperate. That is when DHEA comes into play to help the body recuperate and get back to normal. DHEA and cortisol work together under normal conditions to handle stress.

Think back to the last time you felt a big rush of adrenaline. I felt it recently when I was invited to appear on a popular national television talk show. We experience these adrenaline rushes when we react to something that excites us, frightens us, surprises us or makes us angry. An adrenaline rush is the first in a chain reaction of hormonal events. It is the signal that sets in motion the release of cortisol and DHEA, which are the hormones that help us to take action, to get a job done and even to get our point across.

However, if you are always “under the gun”—which can mean anything from a continual struggle to make financial ends meet to traveling all the time because you are at the peak of your success in your career—then you constantly have stress hormones flooding into your bloodstream. When this happens, your adrenal glands can become overworked and exhausted. Over time, this excess wear and tear on them can be very serious, creating disease.

Given how most people live these days, it’s no wonder that 80-90 percent of diseases are stress-related. What endocrinologists have learned from studying women like Lisa, who are depressed or experiencing extended periods of stress, is that continually elevated levels of cortisol can prevent them from ovulating. The cessation of regular ovulation means that not enough estrogen and progesterone are being produced. Low estrogen levels can increase the activity of the bonemetabolizing osteoclasts.
 
To further complicate things, the cortisol that provides the extra calcium needed in a fight-or-flight situation also stimulates the bonemetabolizing osteoclasts. Left unchecked over a long period of time, high cortisol levels can cause the body to lose bone faster than it is able to replace it. Low levels of progesterone can lead to a host of serious problems, including weight gain, PMS symptoms, fluid retention, depression, low energy and libido, blood sugar and mineral imbalances and osteoporosis.

In a natural rhythm, the body produces much more cortisol in the morning than in the evening. This helps you to get up and get going, and also helps you to get through your day. At the end of the day, your cortisol level should be going down. One recent study demonstrated that when men come home from work, their cortisol levels go down. This is what is supposed to happen when you come home and wind down. However, the same study showed that the cortisol levels of women like Lisa, who work outside the home and still have primary responsibility for taking care of their homes and families, stay elevated at night. This is evidence that their bodies are responding to the stress of the “second shift.”

Women who have high cortisol and low DHEA levels can experience panic attacks and a strange feeling of being both anxious and exhausted at the same time.

Cortisol, Food Cravings & Weight Gain
Everyday pressures, recent surveys reveal, cause 9 out of 10 of us to look to food for comfort. In fact, almost 40 percent of Americans polled say that they always eat when they see food, and this survey didn’t even factor in how this pattern is affected when we’re under stress. But if you’re one of those people who turn to food during stressful periods in your life, don’t be hard on yourself. What at first may seem like bad eating habits, writes Pamela Peeke, M.D., a former senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health and author of Fight Fat After Forty, are, in fact, “our body’s natural reaction to stress. And strict dieting can actually make you more stressed out, and more prone to weight gain.”

Peeke says that when you’re wound up as tight as a spring, the brain sends out signals—in the form of hunger—to stockpile emergency fuel. But today, it’s not because we’re fleeing from tigers; it’s our day-to-day stresses—struggling with overdue bills, unruly teens, inconsiderate neighbors, loud rap music, relationship challenges, illness in the family, terrorist threats, unending traffic, and other environmental stimulation. So we’re left full of nervous tension, “which we often soothe by chewing,” says Dr. Peeke. And that emergency fuel we stockpiled? It stays stockpiled—as fat, of course.

What’s more, to create instant energy, the body drains its nutritional reserves. Under extreme stress, we need extra good quality protein (as you find in green vegetables and their fresh juices, legumes and other superior plant-based sources, as well as in fish such as salmon, if you eat animal products). What if we haven’t eaten that much? The body uses its own protein-rich tisues—namely muscle. Later in this book, you can read more about how important lean muscle tissue is to keeping metabolism revved, increasing fat-burning enzymes and burning more calories, even when sleeping. And for every pound of muscle destroyed through stress, our metabolism drops, burning approximately 50 fewer calories a day.

Do you ever wonder why some people appear to thrive on stress, while others suffer ill health? New studies suggest that it may not be the stress that lowers immunity, but whether you feel a sense of control over it.

In one Dutch study, scientists compared two groups of men taking a math test under a barrage of noise. Those who could adjust the noise level had little change in immune function, while those who couldn’t experienced a drop in immune-cell production. In many cases, feeling in control has more to do with your attitude than your situation. And as you’ll see later in the book, choosing to be positive and optimistic, and reminding yourself that you’re doing the best you can, will do wonders toward keeping the negative repercussions of stress at bay.

So what can we do to break the negative stress cycle? Although stress can overwhelm us at times, we can choose to take the steps necessary to keep it manageable. First, we need to understand what it means to live a balanced, joyful life. Next, we need to put that understanding into practice. Vibrant health and peace of mind (the opposite of stress) go hand in hand—you can’t reach your potential for physical health without being mentally fit as well. Making choices that integrate and heal the body, mind and spirit is what health bliss is all about.

Make a Commitment for 90 Days
I encourage you to make a commitment for 90 days—just my dietary and lifestyle suggestions as possible into your life. In this short period of time, you will look better than you have in years and also feel more youthful and empowered. In fact, if you make the commitment for 90 days, you can turn back the clock by at least 10 years!

That’s right—you can look and feel ten years younger. What do you have to lose except some extra weight, aches and pains, ailments and diseases and a negative attitude toward your body and your life? I know you can do it. Right now—right this moment—can be a fresh start for you and a new beginning. Choose to live your healthiest and best life starting today. Make health bliss a way of life for you. No more excuses! Choose to make a commitment and stay disciplined. I believe in you and salute your great adventure. And I hope to meet you in person somewhere along the way.

About Dr Susan Smith Jones

For more than three decades, Susan Smith Jones, Ph.D., has been one of the world’s most recognizable names and faces in the fields of health, fitness, and balanced living. In addition to being the author of 17 books and a variety of audio programs, and hundreds of magazine articles.

Susan taught students, staff, and faculty at UCLA how to be healthy and fit for 30 years! A frequent guest on talk shows, she is also renowned as a holistic health consultant and a much sought-after motivational speaker to community, corporate, and spiritual groups worldwide. Susan has assisted thousands of people in becoming more aware of how their food and lifestyle choices affect their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being.

To receive a special gift from Susan, to find out more about her work and life, or listen to her free telephone seminars, please visit: www.PagingSusan.com.

Susan's new e-book SIMPLIFY•DETOXIFY•MEDITATE is available at this site. Only $13.95!

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All that you are looking for can and will be found in these pages. Dr. Susan’s powerful words will take you deep into the intricacies of why so many people self-sabotage their goals and dreams. You’ll find that there is a way to live and create an empowered self. If you want to create optimal health—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—then you have found the perfect match for a balanced life. This book’s timeless content is essential reading for everyone worldwide." Nick Lawrence, Radio/TV Talk Show Host

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The Immune System - Your Greatest Health Asset
by Dr Sandra Cabot

Your immune system is without a doubt your greatest health asset. We need to nurture it regularly so it can continue to protect our body from the microbes that can find a home inside us. Before the age of antibiotics and immunization, infections such as tuberculosis, tetanus and meningitis caused high mortality rates in relatively young people.

When I worked in a missionary hospital in India in the 1980s, I saw the consequences of poverty, overcrowding, malnutrition, inadequate antibiotics and lack of immunization.