Lifestyle Management -- an introduction

By Lama Shree Narayan Singh.

The concept of lifestyle or holistic health management is new to this country. It includes a healthy life style as generally understood but goes far beyond. Its fundamental concept is the empowerment of an individual to take care of oneself with the least disruption to one's life, rather than having to depend on physicians and the medical industry for one's health and well being. It has been proven repeatedly through extensive scientific research validated by personal experience, that this is certainly possible.

One can remain healthy through an intelligent use of nature's own products which gently nudge the human body to function normally. Moreover select herbs may also be used to eradicate the root cause of many diseases, be it a transient stomach disorder or something even as severe as cancer or HIV. Tibetan Herbal Medicine has an exceptional track record in the treatment of various chronic diseases; cancer may also be cured provided it is treated early enough. The herb known as reishi or ganoderma lucidum too has the amazing ability of effectively enabling terminal cancer patients to return to normalcy. In Japan it is now legally binding for cancer treatment to incorporate reishi as a supplement. Tata Memorial Cancer Research Institute in Mumbai and the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi , Kerala, established by Mata Amritananda, the hugging saint, are both experimenting with reishi in the treatment of cancer. AIIMS in New Delhi too has developed a dedicated following.

The basic problem with modern life is the rapid degradation of our environment and the widespread and indiscriminate use of chemicals in nearly each and every sphere of life. Almost all of them are harmful to people. The nutritional value of foods is deteriorating particularly in India , due to the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in agriculture, with the quality of top soil being degraded day by day. These chemicals gradually find their way to underground water tables, lakes and rivers as also into the food chain with disastrous consequences.

Scientists have only recently concluded at Colorado University , USA , reported in Eureka , a science journal, that 'Excess nitrogen [used in fertilisers] poses a health concern for humans including respiratory ailments, heart diseases and several cancers.... It also potentially affects the dynamics of several vector borne diseases, including ... Malaria & cholera.' ANI report in HT Patna 28-6-03 .

Research carried out recently in Patna too proves conclusively the presence of pesticides in food and water in India , particularly the river Ganga , at levels far higher than internationally acceptable. The report titled 'Pesticides polluting precious water', published in Hindustan Times, Patna July 19, 03 comes as a serious warning to us all. Moreover the mud of the Ganges too has become contaminated with high levels of lead, chromium and zinc. Resultantly, sculptors making images of the Goddess Durga in West Bengal are having sores break out on their hands!

Similarly bottled mineral water and soft drinks in India have also been found to contain toxins way in excess of internationally permitted limits. They can gradually cause cancer, nerve damage, hormonal changes, DNA mutation and fetal damage. The various chemicals contained in them, including the carbon dioxide fizz, do an incredible amount of damage to the human body. Grains, vegetables, fruits and so on in India have also been found to contain high levels of various toxins deleterious to health.

Clearly an individual is compelled to involuntarily ingest a variety of toxins which the body is unable to process, resulting in a wide range of illnesses.

It is in this context that lifestyle management becomes pertinent to our daily life. The basic question is 'Can one continue to ingest toxins regularly and yet remain healthy?' The answer is: 'Yes, through the regular use of select herbs and Bio-Active Energy products which activate, balance and cleanse or detoxify the human system!' Their use prevents the emergence of any disease whilst simultaneously enabling the dis-eased to get cured.

In the west organic farming has now become accepted as a viable source of food readily available through organic food stores. An awareness of organic farming and organic foods in India is yet at an incipient stage.

Unbelievably the Govt of India permits the production and distribution of sugar high in sulfur content. This is extremely deleterious to the human body resulting in multifarious diseases. Similarly synthesized fats or hydrogenated vegetable oils such as Dalda, are in vogue, much to the detriment of its populace. Milk generally available is derived from cattle injected with hormones to enhance milk production. Synthetic milk, prepared from a combination of urea, detergents, vegetable fats and so on, supplied by unscrupulous milk traders, merely compounds the problem. The government's policies in this context certainly need to be made more people friendly!

The greatest danger to health emanates from the free availability of spurious drugs in the Indian market. The govt has so far found itself utterly powerless to deal effectively with these unscrupulous vendors of death! The Week in its May 18, 03 issue delves into this peculiar phenomenon in detail. The electronic media too has delved into this phenomenon in some detail subsequently. This has now evolved into a burning issue. The govt in India needs to take stringent steps to curb this menace to civilized living.

It needs to be emphasized here that each system of medicine has its own strengths, weaknesses and limitations. That which is feasible through one system of treatment may not necessarily be possible through another. No system can therefore make absolutist claims concerning health! For example even though modern medicine fails to enable the pancreas or kidney to regenerate itself, research has substantiated that this is possible through alternative therapies.

This must surely be the rationale behind Harvard Medical School in the USA establishing a separate branch of medicine for the study of alternative medicines about ten years ago. Readers will be intrigued to learn that during the American Civil War of the 1860s, homeopathy was widely and efficaciously used for treating soldiers. Its fall from grace and its subsequent reinstatement in that country is a totally different story altogether.

Simply stated, alternative or complementary therapies are far less expensive. Neither do they require a disruption in one's lifestyle, as is necessitated during hospitalisation. They can be conveniently implemented within the comfort of one's home! Many are known to affect the human body deeply, producing long term benefits. It is also possible to effect cures of many diseases through alternative medicines. This has now been validated by extensive scientific research as also the experience of countless people throughout the world over centuries. The internet is full of such authenticated information which the genuine seeker may access. It is certainly not dependent on faith or belief!

It is now scientifically established that a regular intake of natural and organic supplements of vitamins, minerals, trace elements, herbs such as reishi, chlorophyll, ginseng and spirulina amongst others, are also prophylactic. Moreover they act as powerful antioxidants, neutralising the free radicals now understood as being responsible for disease.

Vitamins are defined as organic substances which are essential for the normal functioning of the body. Apart from a few exceptions, vitamins cannot be synthesised by our bodies. They are necessary for our growth, vitality and well-being. Our body obtains vitamins, minerals and trace elements from organic foods and/or dietary supplements. Moreover, the capacity to assimilate them from food reduces considerably with age. These are now the more necessary as it is not humanly possible to maintain a balanced diet.

A sedentary lifestyle coupled with undue exposure to electromagnetic frequencies, emfs, or electrosmog, radiated by electronic and electrical appliances, electrical wiring and so on, merely compounds the problems. The biggest offender is the ubiquitous mobile phone which continuously radiates emfs affecting the human body directly where it is placed. The frequency of its emissions have been found to be similar to the natural frequencies occurring in the cerebrum where it sets up resonance and imbalances nature's processes. The inquisitive reader is urged to search for electrosmog in www.google.com for further information on this.

Yet other offenders are computers and TVs. Research has now found that prolonged and excessive exposure to them is particularly unhealthy. It is also unhealthy to keep them on standby. Besides consuming a trickle current of about 8% they continue to radiate emfs when not in use. The good news is that bioactive energy products have been found to be highly efficacious in neutralizing the harmful effects of electrosmog or emfs.

Even synthetic fabrics are not healthy for the body in that they create and radiate positive ions. An excess of negative ions in one's environment induces a sense of relaxation and well being, besides removing suspended air particles responsible for pollution. Professional climate control therefore incorporates negative ion generators which release them in the trillions in the controlled environment. This is why one feels a sense of undue elation and relaxation as one enters a five star hotel. Domestic negative ion generators are now available in India for use at home, in office, as also in vehicles. These are also highly efficacious in dust precipitation, removing pollution from one's living space.

The widespread use of plastics in the food industry, particularly bottled water, too causes various problems. One series of research in the 1980s in western Europe found that pseudo estrogen compounds, leach into food through its packaging with disastrous consequences for males, decreasing fertility! Further details may be obtained from BBC World Service. The intelligent use of herbs have been found highly efficacious in the treatment of male infertility.

A regular intake of reishi by couples for nine months or so, has successfully resulted in pregnancies and healthy babies. Many such cases have been documented by Dr. Mrs. Rathna Vasupal of Chennai. Expensive and time consuming IVF procedures may thus be successfully bypassed.

In India too it has been found that PVC containers used for storing blood for transfusion, contains a highly toxic chemical, DEHP, leached into the blood upto 0.15 gms per litre of blood from the plastic.

The list is endless! Clearly an ordinary person is left extremely vulnerable to such toxins! The concept of food grade plastic is still foreign to the Indian psyche!

It has now become commonplace for individuals to spend extended hours in controlled environments during most of the day. Resultantly they are unable to draw from the nurturing energy of the sun. One way to compensate for this is through the use of FIR or Far Infra Red rays garments. These have bio-ceramics incorporated into the fabric which radiate the required energy spectrum of 4 - 16 microns into the body merely by wearing them.

This is compounded by irregular lifestyles, eating habits, enhanced levels of stress, anxiety and so on. Recent studies have shown that those working in call centers soon develop stress and insomnia due to working night shifts for extended periods. The stress resulting from high ambitions, performance and extended work hours are hardly conducive to a balanced life.

The spiritual component of life has all but evaporated, resulting in an abject selfishness unable to differentiate between that which is wholesome for one and that which is deleterious! Scientifically stated, a healthy individual needs to have a balanced mind -- the two cerebral hemispheres both need to be trained properly so that they may coordinate better. This has given rise to a new technology abroad where music is used to synchronise the two hemispheres. Such CDs are commonly available in the west. In India too, research is being carried out on the healing effects of ragas. Disciplines such as yoga and Falun Gong are proving to be indispensable because of the deep effect they exert on the psychosomatic complex of the human body.

Education as understood in many places today seeks to develop merely the left hemisphere, leaving the extremely critical right hemisphere untrained. Anyone who has been exposed to child education in the west will understand the vast differences in the way children are educated in Europe for example, and in India. A subject called Religious Education has been introduced into British education at the school level with amazing results. This may certainly be incorporated into the curriculum in India. It will help in the formation of entire generations of balanced individuals!

The introduction of TV into India and now computers with its games, the internet, chat rooms, abridged phoneticised language, and so on, have brought with them their own set of problems. On the one hand soaps merely portray mores and values depicting a particular culture which may be totally alien to that in another part of the country. This results in a cultural invasion and the creation of a homogenous culture. Parents regularly ask their children to sit in front of the TV or give them computer games in order to keep them engaged and out of trouble. This is where the addiction starts. Children start imbibing movements from preverbal stages. As they grow up watching TV, they learn from the language, identify with characters and grow up expecting a surreal life as depicted on the small screen. In this way their education suffers. Children are unable to develop reading and writing skills essential for human life.

Resultantly children grow up inadequately equipped for an adult life. Sitting and watching the TV passively, playing computer games, surfing the web, do not encourage the development of skills in social interaction -- they merely nurture isolationism. Moreover they detract from essential physical activity required for their balanced and healthy growth in the form of fun, games, sports and so on. Researchers have found that mothers who watch TV during the latter months of pregnancies, give birth to babies who are extremely cranky and cry a lot! Clearly the unborn are also able to respond intelligently to such stimuli, exemplified by Abhimanyu in the Mahabharata!

The combined result of all the above is the exponential growth of various diseases, previously unknown, spreading throughout the country like wildfire, including a drop in male fertility. This is simply mind boggling. Simultaneously it is noticed that those engaged in ancient disciplines such as yoga, meditation, Falun Gong, spiritual healing and so on, tend to emerge as more balanced individuals.

The situation today is in direct contrast with the level of good health enjoyed by our predecessors barely four decades ago whose lifestyle was less complex and more in consonance with nature!

Thus is emerging in India, a growing awareness of the dictum 'prevention is better than cure'. This is precisely the principal aspect of 'lifestyle management'.

Lifestyle management is accomplished through urging nature to heal its ownself through simple techniques which are both prophylactic and also curative with the least disruption in one's life. Regular and intelligent use of select products, together with yoga, meditation and spiritual healing can ensure to a large extent that imbalances in the body are corrected, the body regularly detoxified and thus potential dis-eases preempted. Their users are enabled to enjoy a regular healthy life with having to take less recourse to doctors and hospitals. Those who are sick too benefit from their regular use. It has been found that many diseases are actually effectively thrown out of the human body through the eradication of its root cause. It also incorporates a balanced exposure to TVs, computers and the internet -- all of which are necessary and integral components of modern life.

It is imperative to understand that the human body inherently possesses the natural strength to rejuvenate, regenerate and protect itself. The body is constantly in flux with millions of cells dying every hour and millions being regenerated. These processes however, diminish not only with age as the endocrine system, particularly the pituitary gland, slows down but also due to the gradual build up of toxins within the body resulting in internal imbalances.

Dr. Deepak Chopra in his book 'Ageless Body, Timeless Mind' refers to aging as a mental process conditioned by the young seeing their elders age, suffer and die. The processes of mentation through which he proposes lifestyle management, are based on ancient wisdom, unique and extremely pertinent.

It is now scientifically accepted that it is not necessary to use expensive and high tech methods to tamper with natural processes which are in any case available only to the few. We need to trust in our capacity to heal ourselves! For most of us it is sufficient to urge nature to act as it should, through the use of simple efficacious methods which are cost effective and do not require a disruption of one's lifestyle!

The situation is further aggravated by the involuntary intake of food grown with the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, junk foods, soft drinks which contain calcium stripping phosphoric acid, and so on. The list is simply endless! It is extremely unfortunate that most of what one ingests is essentially low in nutritional content. Resultantly deficiencies occur and people fall ill. Air and water pollution too take their toll separately.

Medical research over the last three decades has confirmed that natural body functions can be enhanced and restored through an intelligent use of select herbs, far infra red rays and a recently understood phenomenon termed Bio-Active Energy. These processes may be subsumed under the six parameters of detoxification, regeneration, balancing, enhancing metabolic functions, boosting the auto immune system and regulating the endocrine system. These result in the change of one's biochemistry and free radicals neutralised. The blood is stimulated to revert to being slightly alkaline, creating an environment in which disease, germs and virus, simply do not find amenable to their presence and growth.

Of particular importance are the problems faced by ladies. During puberty, hormonal flushes bring about mood swings and emotional upheavals. During pregnancies care needs to be taken to tackle morning sickness, ensure the proper growth of the fetus and the delivery of a healthy baby. It is also important that muscles revert to normalcy after labor. Lactating mothers also need to ensure that infants receive the required nourishment through suckling. The intelligent use of herbs during these periods have been found exceptionally nurturing as they automatically remove ingested toxins from the system and balance it as mentioned above!

It is also known that secretions of the pituitary gland start decreasing with age after one crosses 30, dropping to as low as 20% or even less in the later years. This is one of the primary reasons for symptoms associated with aging. It is common for people in the middle stage of their life, to feel lethargic and have their faculties fail. This has been ascertained as due to the lack of secretion of the required hormones. Whereas Hormone Replacement Therapy, [HRT], is now an established reality, this essentially entails the induction of the required hormones into the body. HRT does not induce the body to produce its own hormones, as has been proven possible through herbs, yoga and so on! Moreover it can be exceedingly expensive as in the case of synthetic pituitary hormones which costs $ 17,000 per year of weekly injections.

Many need to understand the necessity of drinking good water in large quantities every day. The best method of obtaining pure drinking water is through reverse osmosis. Units for domestic use are now freely available in India and are actually more economical than purchasing mineral water. Bubbling ozone through water too kills all the germs it might contain and also enables the oxidation and precipitation of toxins which may be present.

The well known aquaguard range too is efficacious to a certain degree in that the ultra violet rays employed knock out germs contained in water for a period of 24 hrs or so. Amongst the filter candles available in India, except for one particular Kolkata brand -- Domit 2S, which enjoys an IS: 7402 ISI distinction, all others are literally an eye wash where the ill informed consumer is made to believe in their purported functionality. For a filter candle to be effective, it needs to have a porosity of 1 - 1.5 microns. Except for the odd brand, all filter candles available in India have a porosity ranging from 6 - 18 microns. This is simply ludicrous as all they do then is to filter out sediments leaving active germs and viruses present in the water. Boiling water too makes it dead in that it removes its oxygen content and cannot be recommended. Bio-Active Energy may also be used to detoxify drinking water and break up water molecular clusters into smaller units improving both taste and assimilation.

The medical profession is gradually becoming aware of the limitations of its own medications. It is common for them to turn to alternative therapies for personal treatment. That they are deriving concrete benefits from such alternatives is axiomatic!

Scientists moreover, are currently engaged in elaborate research on genes, stem cell research, growing human organs under controlled conditions or in animals, and so on. The attempt is to understand the processes of aging and disease, as also to devise new methods to strengthen the auto immune system. Currently only the privileged few are able to afford the time and money for such treatments, currently considered the frontiers of science! The intelligent reader will certainly appreciate the sheer practicality of using herbs regularly as an alternative to such extreme measures!

It is certainly possible to detoxify fresh vegetables and fruits. The more commonly known methods are to soak them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate or hydrogen peroxide for a half to one hour. Handy ozone producers are also now selectively available which are used to bubble ozone for half an hour or so through the water in which fresh fruit and vegetables are being soaked. These processes effectively oxidize toxins. Bio-Active Energy is also efficacious in this context.

A successful person needs to be healthy. Smooth and unobstructed circulation of heat, air and liquids, as also regular exercise are requisites for good health. Our body is beautiful and precious. Cherished by one and all, it needs constant maintenance and protection in an intelligent and comprehensive way. To take care of our health and economic well being, various international companies are marketing a wide range of health management products whose outstanding features are their cost effectiveness combined with the speedy and efficacious results obtained from regular use.

The marketing plans employed, ensures that members derive the largest benefit in terms of bonus. The dedicated will find that a few months of hard and dedicated work in the service of humanity, spreading an awareness of good health, will be amply rewarded in the form of a regular passive monthly income. This will enable one to opt out of the rat race within a few years and grant countless opportunities for one to spend more time with family, particularly one's children, contributing to their proper growth, the pursuit of creative hobbies and interests, personality growth, travel, holidays, and so on.

Most importantly, members of such networks actively work in the national interest as well, empowering people, particularly the unemployed, to take care of themselves and their families! Potential disruption in their lifestyle caused through disease, expensive treatments and hospitalisation is thus substantially reduced as well, resulting in increased creativity and productivity!

Herein lies its inherent strength -- the empowerment of oneself and others in a comprehensive manner!

These products are invariably prepared from natural herbs, are high in quality, reasonably priced, exclusive in nature, safe and without any side effects, available globally, produced through high tech methods and enjoy high repeat sales.

They have all been researched extensively. Chlorophyll has been studied for nearly a century now with three scientists having been awarded the Nobel Prize for their research on it. The search engine www.google.com lists nearly 180,000 sites on chlorophyll. Similarly with spirulina which has grown into prominence over the preceding twenty five years having emerged as the space food discovered by NASA, USA. Reishi has nearly 16,000 sites. FIR technology has apparently been evolved through NASA research which attempts to create a nurturing environment for its astronauts in space. Bio-Active Energy too has been the subject of study and research for two decades now. www.bioactive-energy.com is an invaluable web site which gives fascinating glimpses of this recently studied energy derived from the first layer of the sun.

The inquisitive are urged to surf the web. This will convince them of their usefulness in our daily lives. Specific information concerning the use of a particular herb in any disease may be searched through www.google.com using 'name of herb in name of disease''. The internet is a vast and amazing repository of information and the inquisitive are urged to verify the above through an independent study of existing research.

The good news is that there is a new awareness which is growing throughout the world concerning intelligent lifestyle management... and let us all be a part of it!