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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Eczema: An Introduction to This Chronic Skin Disorder

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10038

Did you know that your skin is the largest and fastest-growing organ in the body?1 It holds fluids in, keeps harmful microbes out, balances your body temperature and even plays a crucial role in vitamin D production from sun exposure.2 There is no doubt that it is one of your body’s most important organs.

Unfortunately, there are many conditions that can affect your skin’s health. One example is eczema, a disorder that causes your skin to become red, itchy and scaly.3 Eczema is much more common today than it has ever been before. It occurs because of a combination of different factors, such as skin structure, genetics and environmental conditions.4

Eczema usually appears between 6 months and 5 years of age. Infants typically develop it on their face, often affecting the cheeks and chin. However, it can appear on any part of the body, and the symptoms may differ from one child to another. In most cases, the symptoms go away as a child grows older, but some children will continue to suffer from it into adulthood. It is also possible for adults to develop this condition suddenly.5

If you think that you or your child may have eczema, you are not alone. More than 30 million Americans have this skin disorder, according to the National Eczema Association,6 and at least 17.8 million of these cases are moderate to severe.7

You Can Treat Eczema Naturally

Eczema is a resilient skin disorder, typically getting worse the longer you have it. There is no cure for it, but there are ways to manage the symptoms.8

Conventional methods generally involve the use of topical steroids, but be warned that these drugs can cause a variety of side effects such as thinning of the skin, discolorations and unwanted hair growth. Certain topical steroids can even reach your bloodstream, causing adverse effects (especially on children).9

This is why effective natural treatment methods that don’t have potential adverse effects are recommended. For instance, a study published in the British Journal of Dermatology indicates that a diet rich in omega-3 fats can help people with eczema, reducing the severity of their symptoms.10 More detailed information on alternative therapies will be covered in the treatment page.

Eczema Comes in Different Forms

You should remember that treating eczema depends on the particular type and how severe it is. The most common type is atopic dermatitis, a chronic and inflammatory condition. Its cause is still unknown, but it occurs when your immune system goes into overdrive.11 The other common types are contact dermatitis, dyshidrotic eczema, hand eczema and neurodermatitis.

Learn about the different types of eczema, its causes, symptoms and the best treatment options for this condition. Discover how you can control your symptoms through a special diet. Through these articles, you will discover all the essential information you need to treat and manage this skin disorder.

MORE ABOUT ECZEMA

• Eczema: Introduction

• What Is Eczema?

• Eczema Types

• Eczema in Children

• Eczema Causes

• Eczema Symptoms

• Is Eczema Contagious?

• Eczema Versus Psoriasis

• Eczema Treatment

• How to Get Rid of Eczema

• Eczema Diet

• Eczema FAQ

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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How Many People Are On Psychiatric Drugs?

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10036

By Jon Rappoport

“Antidepressants are neurotoxic, that is, they harm the brain and disrupt its functions. As a result, they cause innumerable kinds of abnormal thinking and behaviors, including mania, suicide and violence. In the process, they cause detectable damage to the brain of the child or adult, and also to the fetus of pregnant mothers who take the drug.” (Peter Breggin, MD and psychiatrist, author of Toxic Psychiatry, St. Martin’s Press)

“I keep telling people all over the world that there are no reliable lab tests for diagnosing ANY so-called mental disorder. I explain this in great detail. Of course, for many people, this is too much to handle. They run away. What is my strategy for dealing with this? I keep finding new ways to tell them the truth. I don’t stop. That’s what an actual reporter does.” (The Underground, Jon Rappoport)

I came across a Forbes article (5/27/15) by Judy Stone, “Why the U of Minnesota Research Scandal threatens us all.” In the piece, Stone mentions some boggling reports about Americans diagnosed with so-called mental disorders taking psychiatric drugs:

“The use of drugs for mental health conditions in the U.S. is staggering, according to a 2011 mental health report by Medco Health Solutions:”

“—more than one in 5 adults was on at least one psychiatric med in 2010, up 22% from 2000”

“—more than 25% of adult women were on mental health meds in 2010 vs. 15% of men; 21% of women were on antidepressants”

“—11% of women aged 45-65 were on anti-anxiety meds”

“—4% of adults were on medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). There are an estimated 5.4 million children carrying a diagnosis of ADHD”

“—The figures for use of these anti-depressants in children are even more appalling, being 2-3%. (This is especially scary since the drugs themselves can increase the risk of suicide).”

These numbers show there is a plague afoot in America—a plague of diagnosing and prescribing drugs.

Over the past 35 years, I’ve spent a great of time reporting on the complete falsity of psychiatric diagnoses, as well as the extreme toxicity of the drugs. We’re talking about nothing short of chemical warfare against the population. The nation is being eaten out from the inside—and all under the guise of proper psychiatric treatment.

I’ve spoken off the record with psychiatrists who readily admit that the whole basis on which mental disorders are labeled and described and diagnosed is a rank fraud; and they’ve also told me that this is an open secret inside the psychiatric profession.

I’ve published quotes from well-known psychiatrists admitting there are NO diagnostic lab tests for ANY of the 300 officially certified and labeled mental disorders.

To grasp the sheer insanity of this, imagine sitting in a doctor’s office chatting for a few minutes, when suddenly the doctor says, “You have cancer.”

“What?!” you say, bolting out of your chair.

“Yes,” the doctor says, “no doubt it’s cancer.”

What about tests??”

“Not necessary. I can tell it’s cancer from your answers to my questions. Anyway, there are no tests…”

Of course, manufacturers of the psychiatric drugs are having a field day. Researchers keep claiming they’ve “discovered” new mental disorders, and the manufacturers keep putting together new drugs to fit these research “breakthroughs.”

Psychiatry has monopolistic protections from the federal government. Without them, in a truly free and competitive market, the profession wouldn’t last another 20 years.

But that’s socialism for you. The government, colluding with corporations and professional organizations, gives credence and primacy to a whole industry that is based on fabrication and does grave harm through its products (the drugs, in this case).

“Dear Citizen, We, the government, care about you and love you. We keep psychiatry alive for you, so you can benefit from the most absurd and unfounded diagnoses possible, and the enormously toxic drugs that follow. Trust us…”

Who could resist such a good deal?

(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.

Image credit: TFTP

Credits: Original Content Source

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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A Simple Reason So Many Older Americans Are Overdosing on Opioids

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10032

As the body ages, it often aches. In the United States, 81 percent of adults over 65 endure multiple chronic conditions such as arthritis, hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes. There also can be emotional pain from the loss of relatives and close friends, and concerns about the continued ability to live independently.

For those whose physical ailments prove almost paralyzing and chronic, health providers often prescribe opioid painkillers, such as hydrocodone and oxycodone. But that can lead to trouble. Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a public-health emergency. The department has spent almost $900 million on treatment services and other initiatives, but still more and more Americans are dying of overdoses on opioids—in the forms of prescription pain pills, heroin, or synthetic drugs. While older adults are not the age group most affected by the crisis, the population of older adults who misuse opioids is projected to double from 2004 to 2020.

A lot of factors contribute to this rise among the elderly. Many undergo several surgeries and are prescribed opioids they use for a long time, which heightens their chances of developing a use disorder. Some take more than they need, because the opioids they’ve been prescribed aren’t holding their pain at bay. Older adults of color, who face more barriers to getting the medications they need for pain, may get prescriptions from friends or family without proper instructions. But a recent poll highlights just how widespread another factor might be: doctors failing to warn their own patients about the risks that come with prescription pain relievers.

Researchers involved with the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging polled a nationally representative sample of 2,000 Americans, aged 50 to 80, about what their health-care providers talked about when prescribing opioid medication to them. In the past two years, 589 said they filled an opioid prescription. This group knew how often to take the medication, but the majority didn’t recall their doctors or pharmacists talking about the risk of addiction, the risk of overdose, or what to do with leftover pills. About 40 percent said their doctors didn’t talk to them about the side effects of opioid use or guide them on when to cut back on pain medications.

Drug policy makers and researchers I spoke with about these findings weren’t surprised by the evidence that health providers might be neglectful. Doctors failing to communicate effectively with patients is an ongoing issue, they said. A lot of doctors are burned out. Others don’t have enough time to spend with their patients. They’re often overcommitted because their offices are understaffed and underresourced. And many fumble with relatively new technology such as prescription-drug-monitoring programs (PDMPs), statewide electronic tools that are meant to improve opioid prescribing by helping states keep track of where substances are going, says Gary Franklin, the vice president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.

The hospital is no place for the elderly.

Working with older people can also just be different, and perhaps inherently more challenging, than working with younger people—especially when it comes to opioid prescriptions, says Shannon Skowronski, a specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration on Aging. “The prevalence of chronic and acute conditions that might result in pain, along with the physiological changes in the body as you grow older … that’s really complicated,” she says. In fact, the Washington State Agency Medical Directors’ Group has started to address the elderly as a special population, because “aging is associated with unique biological, psychological, and social factors that all play an important role in pain management.”

To further complicate matters, Baby Boomers, who are included in the new poll, “have used alcohol and other drugs at higher rates compared to other generations of older people that have preceded them,” says Sheila Vakharia, a policy manager at the Drug Policy Alliance, “which means these same people are at higher risk of overdose and adverse effects because they may be drinking a little bit more often and a little heavier than some folks who are in their 80s.” And opioids can make it harder to breathe, cause confusion, and increase falls, which are harder for older adults in general to deal with.

In the moment when a doctor is prescribing pain-relief pills to an older patient, the physician might not go into the nitty-gritty details of using opioids, because they assume only young patients are at risk. “The messages that doctors give to patients are largely dictated by how they perceive patients,” Vakharia told me. “You don’t often see the elderly as a population at risk for developing substance-use disorders.” Yet older adults are likely to have higher levels of pain compared to younger populations, which can inspire misuse and abuse. And though older adults have lower rates of abusing opioids than young adults, when they do have opioid-use disorder, they appear to be at a higher risk of death, according to a report from the Administration for Community Living co-authored by Skowronski.

Doctors tell all—and it’s bad.

Doctors might not be solely to blame for miscommunication: Growing older often also means it’s harder to absorb information, interpret numbers, and do calculations, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has resources specifically for communicating health issues to older adults. The new poll was not able to address whether older adults simply forgot receiving certain information about opioids. Calista Harbaugh, a general surgery resident at the University of Michigan and a researcher on the poll, suggests it would help if care providers shared information “not just when we first meet them and maybe not even just when we give the prescription, but also when we’re following up with them and when patients are seeing providers for other reasons.”

While providers are the first line of education, “we certainly know that older adults live most of their lives outside of the doctor’s office and the pharmacy,” Skowronski says. “I think there’s growing recognition that we need to find ways to reach them outside of the office wall.” Vakharia agrees, and suggests, for instance, a series of TV commercials targeting America’s many older adults who are homebound.

Older adults seem to understand what’s at stake: The new poll found that older adults heavily support policies that require providers to review prescription records and undergo special trainings on opioids, as well as policies that require patients to disclose prior opioid medication. “A lot of doctors and state medical societies are opposed to” PDMPs, Franklin notes. PDMPs are widely used in the United States, but they can be difficult to integrate into existing technologies, and some evidence suggests they might push prescription-opioid abusers toward heroin because the programs often reduce prescribing rates.

“It’s interesting to see that these elderly patients were overwhelmingly in favor of [these programs],” Franklin says.

https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/mt/2018/08/Chris_Shinn_Getty/lead_960.jpg Credits: Original Content Source

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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013: Confessions of a Group Fitness Instructor with Ashley Pitt

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10034

Hey friends! In today’s episode, I’m chatting with my good friend Ashley Pitt about the behind-the-scenes info for being a group fitness instructor and personal trainer.

Whether you’re considering teaching your favorite group fitness class one day, or just want to hear more about what it’s like to teach and train, this episode is packed with fun tips and stories. We share our favorite certifying organizations, tips for the NASM test (it’s intense!), where we get our music, and embarrassing teaching moments. We’ve both been teaching and training for years and I’ve been fortunate to hang out with Ashley a few times in real life. This episode felt like we were chatting over lunch: kind of sarcastic and silly and laughing a ton. I hope you enjoy this episode!

Here’s a little bit about Ashley:

Ashley Pitt is a NASM certified personal trainer, a Les Mills BODYPUMP, BODYATTACK and CXWORX group fitness instructor, as well as a Bootybarre instructor. She is also the creator of the lifestyle blog, A Lady Goes West, which is a healthy-living community for busy and fit-minded gals, where wellness is made easy.

After moving from Florida to California several years ago, Ashley started A Lady Goes West to share her fitness tips, simple meals and everyday commentary on life in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has since been published on Mindbodygreen, POPSUGAR, LiveStrong, Spark People, Healthline and more, and has also been named one of the “40 under 40” in the East Bay of San Francisco by Diablo Magazine.

Before becoming a fitness professional and blogger, Ashley began her career in the corporate world in both public relations and writing. She now lives with her husband, Dave, her baby boy, Brady, and her maltipoo, Rudy, in the East Bay of San Francisco.

Resources from this episode:

AFAA

NASM

Tips for taking the NASM test

ClickMix by Power Music

You can find Ashley on her blog, Instagram, and Facebook. She also has an ebook, Fit and Fertile, that you can check out here!

Thank you so much for listening and for all of your support with the podcast! Please leave a rating or review if you enjoyed this episode. If you leave a rating, head to this page and you’ll get a little “thank you” gift from me to you.

You can listen and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play.

The post 013: Confessions of a Group Fitness Instructor with Ashley Pitt appeared first on The Fitnessista.

https://traffic.libsyn.com/fitnessista/013final.mp3 Credits: Original Content Source

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Keeping Seniors Active: Ideas to Keep the Elderly Busy

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10027

As summer starts to wind down, it’s a great time to start looking for new ways to help keep seniors busy. Staying active in mind and body is essential for our health and well-being. Oftentimes, the hardest part of getting started is taking the first step. But there are a variety of simple ways to keep seniors active, if you know where to start looking.

Socialization Activities

It’s no secret that seniors are at greater risk for depression. About half of all seniors report experiencing loneliness regularly. And suffering from isolation is a strong predictor of eventually needing home care because it contributes to a variety of health problems. Those who struggle with depression suffer far greater risk of mental and physical decline. This is why many of the best ideas to keep seniors busy are those that allow for opportunities to socialize. A good place to begin looking for ideas to keep the elderly busy is within local event calendars. There are always new things going on around us: local community festivals, theater shows, performances, and so on. A little planning is all it takes to give a loved one something they can look forward to. But you don’t have to wait for an event. Anyone near a city should have little trouble finding a variety of community organizations for seniors as well as a variety of clubs and senior-specific activities. People enjoy feeling like they can contribute to their community. And the community benefits in-turn.

Staying Active

Cooler weather can make it harder to stay physically active. But rain or shine, remaining active is important throughout your entire life. And finding senior friendly exercises isn’t challenging. Even seniors with mobility issues can find less strenuous armchair exercises. And there are exercises to accommodate those suffering from joint pain. The CDC recommends 30 minutes of daily activity to reach doctor-recommended targets. Because exercise is something you need to do consistently, it’s best if you can enjoy the activity to some degree. The diverse range of possibilities, from tai chi to swimming, can provide something for everyone. And many of these types of exercises are a great opportunity for social interaction, both with family and for meeting new people.

Senior Gaming

Staying mentally active is equally important, and the options are even more limitless. The right puzzle can make anyone curious. Board gaming provides great opportunities to socialize and exercise your mind at the same time. And there’s an almost endless list of card games to consider. If you can ignore stereotypes about the elderly, video games provide another great opportunity for keeping seniors busy. Over the past decade, research has shown a variety of cognitive benefits for seniors who play certain types of video games. Some video games have been shown to help prevent cognitive impairment and in some circumstances may even be used to help improve mobility after stroke. There are also noteworthy improvements to be gained in short-term memory, but the types of benefits received depends on the game played. For instance, 3D gaming is better at engaging visual systems in the brain, while titles that are puzzle-oriented engage the memory. And anyone with an Internet connection has an opportunity to turn their gaming into socialization time with players from around the globe. You can even combine gaming and exercise with a variety of products like Wii Fit Plus. Whatever makes it fun!

Continued Education

Learning is a lifelong process. It’s also extremely healthy. Gray matter atrophies with age, but research shows that learning new things can counter those effects. That’s why one of the best things seniors can do for their health is to learn something new or engage in creative projects. Every state has some type of program for seniors to enroll in college courses, often with little to no cost. For example, Oregon allows seniors over 65 to audit classes without tuition. Regional differences exist with respect to age limits, income limits, and time of year. These programs provide excellent opportunities to engage with the community and learn something new. But even outside of the classroom, you can encourage seniors to pursue new hobbies in arts and crafts, writing, painting, and similar creative ventures.

Keeping Busy

Among all the numerous ways to keep seniors active, the right choice is typically whatever activities your loved ones find more engaging. Whether it’s swimming, tai chi, playing video games, or playing blackjack with a friend, staying active and social is what matters the most.

Read more articles by Alex Pietrowski.

About the Author

Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com. Alex is an avid student of Yoga and life.

This article (The Race to Patent Magic Mushrooms Heats Up) originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Alex Pietrowski and WakingTimes.com.

Like Waking Times on Facebook. Follow Waking Times on Twitter.

Credits: Original Content Source

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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RHR: How Sauna Therapy Can Prevent & Reverse Chronic Disease, with Brian Richards

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10031

In this episode, we discuss:

The history of saunas

Using sauna therapy to prevent and reverse chronic disease

The benefits of saunas

How heat therapy works

What makes near infrared sauna therapy different

Why light is a nutrient

Tips on how to use sauna therapy effectively

How electromagnetic stress is damaging our health

Show notes:

SaunaSpace - Use promo KRESSER10 for 10% off

Sauna Therapy for Detoxification and Healing, by Dr. Lawrence Wilson

Light Therapeutics, by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg

“The Health Benefits of Saunas,” by Chris Kresser

[smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/thehealthyskeptic/RHR_-_How_Sauna_Therapy_Can_Prevent__Reverse_Chronic_Disease_with_Brian_Richards.mp3" title="RHR - How Sauna Therapy Can Prevent & Reverse Chronic Disease, with Brian Richards" artist="Chris Kresser" ]

Chris Kresser: Hey, everyone, Chris Kresser here. Welcome to another episode of Revolution Health Radio. This week we’re going to be speaking with Brian Richards, who’s the founder and lead product developer at SaunaSpace. Brian fully healed his toxin-related acne, brain fog, adrenal fatigue, and more with the power of the near infrared sauna, near infrared light for mitochondrial simulation and deeply detoxifying heat therapy. His personal journey to optimal health inspired him to create SaunaSpace’s incandescent light therapy sauna product in order to help others to the pathway to natural healing through infrared detoxification and light therapy.

So I met Brian at Paleo f(x) last year and have long been a proponent of sauna therapy. I have used many different saunas myself, have had saunas in my home for several years, and have done a ton of research on the benefits of sauna for a wide variety of conditions and just optimizing our health and extending our lifespan. I recently became interested, particularly in near infrared saunas, after learning more about the differences between the far and near infrared and then getting a chance to experience Brian’s SaunaSpace sauna on the Paleo f(x) exhibition floor and then getting one for my home.

I’ve become a huge believer, and I wanted to invite Brian on to talk about the benefits of sauna use overall, the differences between the different kinds of sauna, how to use saunas effectively in terms of frequency and duration, what to do before and after, EMFs and how they relate to sauna use, and several other topics. So I think you’ll really enjoy the show if you’re interested in saunas, and maybe even if you aren’t. And let’s dive in.

Brian, such a pleasure to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us.

Brian Richards: Thank you for having me, Chris.

Chris Kresser: All right, well, let's start little, with a little bit about your own story and background. I'm always curious about that. Learn how people came to the work that they're doing, and I know a little bit about your story. So I’d love for you to share, how did you end up in the world of saunas and phototherapy, photobiomodulation?

Brian Richards: Well, I definitely stumbled into it. I do come from bit of a science background. I do have a chemistry degree. But at the point I was having some of my health problems, I was doing a remodeling of houses. So this is about six or seven years ago, and I was just having issues with nine or 10 with things that are hard to diagnose. And I didn't ever get a diagnosis from a physician, but I was dealing with brain fog, insomnia, mind racing, and I had this really odd acne only around my torso. So if you met me in the street, I kind of looked fine, and people would say, “Well, what's your problem, man?” But I didn't feel good inside, and I had low energy levels too. I had what I know now is adrenal fatigue. I didn’t know it as such, but I'm a curious man and I did my research online, like people do nowadays, to discover what's going on.

Artificial light, environmental toxins, and unmitigated stress can all wreak havoc on your health. What’s the antidote? Spending time in a sauna. Learn more about the benefits of sauna therapy and get tips on how to fit this step into your wellness routine.

And through my research I just came across this concept or just this phenomenon, this epidemic of illness that we’re dealing with. It’s what Klinghardt calls an “avalanche of chronic illness.” So many people have so many diseases of civilization now. Autoimmune disease is one of the top five, and cancer as well, are one of the top five killers of Americans. We’re dealing with this incredible toxic burden that we carry around all day long. And so that’s what my research led me to. We all have all these weird diseases now, we all have this incredible toxic burden from all the plastics, petrochemicals and solvents we’re exposed to, as well as our modern lifestyle. It's so high stress. Combine that with our nutrient, what we get from our diet is so nutrient depleted now, and we all eat things out of bags and plastic. It's just, it's a tidal wave of illness and of toxic burden and even electrosmog too, which I'm sure we'll talk about EMF later. And so I realized that I'm just one of thousands, if not millions, of people around that are dealing with things that are hard to diagnose, and conventional medicine doesn't have any good treatment for. They pretty much are doing pain management, prescriptions, and talk toxic pharmacological drugs, which are their own chemicals. And so it didn't seem to be sensible to me. I wanted to address the root cause of my problems, and my research led me to sauna.

The History of Saunas

So every human culture on earth has some kind of sauna tradition, from the Korean hot baths and the sweat lodges of America to the sauna. And I love this idea, and I coincidentally at the end of my research when I was about to kind of get my own sauna, or perhaps make my own sauna, I stumbled upon this incredible concept. It's called the electric incandescent bath. Now there's a modern book called Sauna Therapy for Detoxification and Healing written by Dr. Lawrence Wilson that kind of modernizes this concept or brings it back into the forefront. But the incandescent sauna that I eventually made, and I eventually started making, and that is what SaunaSpace is, dates back to Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Dr. Kellogg’s sanitariums. And some people are familiar with Kellogg's Corn Flakes. He's an incredible man. Some of the things he had, he didn’t understand everything, and some of the things he was wrong about.

Chris Kresser: Like corn flakes. Right.

Brian Richards: Like corn flakes, yeah. It’s pretty funny they thought that male libido was a problem back in the day, so they came up with corn flakes to supposedly lower male libido. Now we have …

Chris Kresser: It’s the opposite, yeah.

Brian Richards: Yeah. Anyway, he invented what's called the electric incandescent bath, 1891, just a couple years after electricity and the light bulb were invented. This Dr. Kellogg looked at it and said, “Oh, my goodness. We can take these lamps and shine them on people and make them sweat like a sauna. And we’ll heal their maladies.” And he wrote a book in 1910 called Light Therapeutics and I found this, and also Dr. Wilson's book, and I said, “Hey, this is the sauna that I want to do.” And so that’s kind of my story. I built my own. I’m a tinkerer, I’m a builder, and it was pretty ugly, pretty bricolage, but my insomnia was cured in probably two sessions.

So I did 40 minutes before bed, had what’s called parasympathetic relaxation, got my body out of stress state, had wonderful sleep, and then subsequently, so two sessions and that was gone, and then over probably six months all of my other stuff that is collectively adrenal fatigue all went away, and I also looked back and noticed, “Hey, there’s some things that got fixed here that I didn’t even know were a problem.” I have improved cognitive functioning, which causes more clarity, more energy, more ability and patience to deal with things. And I work long days running the business here, and I just take everything with gusto. So it was really just, changed my life and it set me on this path. I said, “Well, why is this not available?” And so that put me on the journey to make the world’s most perfect sauna.

Using Sauna Therapy to Prevent and Reverse Chronic Disease

Chris Kresser: Awesome. It's really interesting hearing that story, and I mean, there are a lot of parts of it I can relate to from my own history. And now as a clinician, I completely agree with your assessment of where we are in terms of chronic disease and also just the multiple challenges we face. In a way, that can be, that's a pretty depressing conversation. And one way to look at it is that it's amazing anybody's healthy. With the number of challenges we face from nutrient-depleted diet to toxic burden to reduction in physical activity to primarily living in isolating, alienating social arrangements rather than in the tribal way that we lived for so many generations, the modern lifestyle is antithetical to health in so many different ways. Which for me leads me to what are some of the simple, relatively simple changes that we can make that will have effects across all of those different domains, or at least many of them. Because as a Functional Medicine practitioner, this stuff can get really complex.

It can be really difficult to find the root cause or causes in a situation where someone is dealing with multiple different conditions, multiple exposures, they’ve got infections, they've got toxins, they've got autoimmunity, they’ve got injuries, brain injury in the past. Like it's not always easy or even possible to find a single root cause or several root causes that you can address and then the patient will just get better. And so the more things we can find, interventions like healthy diet or appropriate physical activity, sleep, and I would include sauna, phototherapy, photobiomodulation in this group, that it's so powerful because it has so many different impacts and you don't need to know what's going on in order to benefit from it. And I think that's one of the most useful aspects of it. Your story really illustrates that because you never really found out per se what the triggers were, even the mechanisms. But you had still managed to address all of them.

Brian Richards: Yeah, I didn’t want to take Accutane and other drugs, but you're right. I didn't know what it was. But if we look back, we are, we’re all exposed to, we all get a lot of mercury, aluminum, toxicity.

Chris Kresser: Thallium and lead now and arsenic are even more prevalent.

Brian Richards: All these things, and we’re also so far gone from our ancestral lifestyle. The modern lifestyle is so far from that. The ancestral human was naked under the sun on the equator getting the appropriate ratio of blue to red, to near infrared light in the morning, the evening, resting in the day, completely in parasympathetic, in a rest-and-heal state when they went to bed. So they had perfect sleep.

And of course, not to mention their diet was also just much more nutrified, much more natural and again, none of the toxic exposure we have. So yeah, it’s no coincidence why everybody is so sick. But like you said, what do we do to address that? There’s so many, there’s so much gadgetry out there now and there's a focus on one thing. What's the one thing that I can fix? People love a diagnosis, and they love having all these blood tests. And I’m sure you’ve experienced that in your practice. But then information becomes the enemy almost. Like it’s too much data and diagnostics.

Chris Kresser: Overwhelmed.

Brian Richards: And they’re overwhelmed and yet there’s not a simple solution. So the question is, what are simple multifactorial solutions that hit many, we get many birds with one stone?

Chris Kresser: Yeah.

Brian Richards: And to do so in something that’s enjoyable and that’s kind of, what I think I’ve stumbled on here is it’s really, it’s enjoyable to sweat under near infrared light in a quiet space that's protected from the sensory overload that we’re just inundated with in blue light and flickering light and just the stress. Nobody's carved out that space in their life anymore for a parasympathetic experience for meditation, for healing. It's just something that we want to do, that with everything else. We want something that we can do while we’re working, while we’re doing other things. And it just, the human body doesn’t work that way.

The Benefits of Saunas

Chris Kresser: Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about briefly about the, some of the benefits of sauna use in terms of the research and the mechanisms. This has been covered quite a bit on other shows and I've written about this myself, so we’ll provide links in the show notes. And I want to spend more time with you talking about different sauna types and EMF and some considerations for sauna therapy, like frequency and duration, etc. But for those who are listening who aren’t really that familiar with the very well-documented benefits of saunas in terms of cardiovascular, lifespan expansion, blood pressure, etc., let's maybe go through a few of these.

Brian Richards: Yeah, for those who are not familiar, you can sum it up really simply. Doing sauna frequently reduces your probability of dying from all causes. It reduces all-cause mortality. There's no other moderate healing practice that impacts every cell of the body in this way, and so if you want to give a few examples, we see so many Finnish population studies now where frequent sauna use results in reduced risk of stroke, of heart attack, of Parkinson's, of Alzheimer's, of all these things. Essentially, if you use sauna frequently, you will live longer with less chronic disease and be happier and healthier.

Chris Kresser: And these are big reductions too. We’re not talking about like 2, 3 percent. Some of the studies I've seen, we’re talking, 20, 30, 40 percent on a relative basis.

Brian Richards: Yeah. And some of the studies, like the Laukkanen study was a 20-year study on a large Finnish male population, so these are very large population, very impressive studies. It's just been studied so much. So that's kind of in a nutshell, and the more the study of particular disease types, we see improvement in those as they’re studied. It also has some other benefits, like when you heat up the body, you heat up the body routinely and you keep coming back and doing that day after day and week after week, you improve cognitive functioning.

So your brain works better, your nervous system works better. Sure, some stuff going on at the cell level, it's called BDNF production, is improved in the nerve cells. But there’s also a study I saw where they improved overall nervous system, motor system functioning in spinal cord injury victims just with heat therapy, just with the sauna therapy.

Chris Kresser: Amazing.

Brian Richards: So really a wide array of studies that if there ever was a modern healing practice you could do to heal from everything and take care of, do a preventative practice, a healing maintenance practice for all things in all cells, it's definitely sauna.

Chris Kresser: Imagine if there was a drug that had cardiovascular benefits, blood pressure, lipid profiles, fitness, detoxification, I've seen studies with sauna reducing pain in fibromyalgia patients, fatigue and anxiety and chronic fatigue, lower risk of Alzheimer's and dementia, lower risk of depression, improved insulin sensitivity, respiratory symptoms. Can you imagine if there was a drug that did all this? Like how much airplay that would get. How it would be, like, hailed as a sort of miracle treatment. And yet, this is actually what sauna does, and certainly the word is getting out there. I think more people are becoming aware of it.

But still on, it kind of, and in other areas of the world, like in Finland, as you pointed out, everybody knows that. And most houses have saunas in them. But in our culture, I think saunas are still largely seen as something you might go in when you go to the gym to work out for a couple minutes after your workout or something, just for relaxation, and the health benefits are not widely known.

Brian Richards: Yeah, that’s true. It’s unfortunate, but people are, we are changing minds every day here at SaunaSpace. I’ve got about 7,000 customers now. They use a near infrared sauna, so we’ll talk about that in a minute. But it’s growing, and the more, and I think it’s also an increased awareness that toxicity and toxic burden is one of the core disease factors that we have here in modern life, and it's something that needs to be addressed. You can't just exercise and eat your way out of disease. There is a need to reduce the toxic burden somehow and sauna’s clearly the most effective way to detoxify the cells and the body as well. And that's what I wanted to talk about, actually, before we go into different sauna types.

How Heat Therapy Works

Some people are unclear as to the difference between sauna and hot tub or sauna and a hot pad, or heat pack, or maybe a far infrared heating mat, different ways you can heat the body up. People see them as different things, and in a way they’re kind of the same in how they heat the body up. So just briefly, the mechanism of heat therapy, of detox therapy, of the heat benefiting the body and the cells is very simple. You just heat up the cells by three degrees for a period of minutes and you get a detoxification response in the cell. You get these, heat shock proteins are produced, and you probably covered that in your, some of your articles and your other podcasts and stuff.

But basically you get the cell detox going on in the cell, more blood supply, more tissue oxygenation, and then the toxins come out of the cells into the bloodstream. And if we’re sweating, which is what we do in a sauna as opposed to a heat pad, or just a heat therapy where we’re not sweating, the sweat eliminates the toxins in the most effective, least energetic fashion possible.

So that's the big difference and that's why you need to sweat. That's why just a light therapy device or just a heat pad is not doing this deep, effective, least stressful way to do full-body toxin elimination, as is passive sweating. And that's also a big difference between passive sweating, which is parasympathetic, healing sweating, and exercise sweating. And then it has to do with being in a stress state, your autonomic nervous system when you're in a parasympathetic state, your sweat has a very high concentration percentage versus when you're on the treadmill running. You’re in what’s called fight-or-flight, you’re in sympathetic dominance, you're responding to the stress of the environment. All of your cellular energy is going towards locomotion and responding to the environment. Your cells are saying, “I don't have any energy left over to heal and to eliminate and to repair. I need to survive here.”

Chris Kresser: Right.

Brian Richards: And so we see that in the studies too. There's a cool study, or a very interesting study, on the 9/11 rescue workers where they got all this toxic petrochemical exposure from the 9/11 rescue efforts, and they did the Hubbard sauna protocol twice a day, wet sauna with a high-dose niacin, and their toluene, like their petrochemical concentrations in their blood, were reduced incredibly. Like in some cases up to 90 percent over a couple months of sauna use. And that's very different from if you measure the sweat concentration of someone running on the treadmill, there's just not much toxin concentration in the sweat. So very different sweating in the sauna is definitely detoxing you. Running on the treadmill is not, even though you’re sweating.

Chris Kresser: Yeah. Totally different set of benefits for different reasons, which I think you explained well. So I'm going to put a link to an article I wrote about health benefits of sauna, which links to the studies we’ve been talking about and many others. And those who want more information about how incredibly diverse and powerful sauna use can be, you can check that out.

We’re going to move on now to talk a little bit more about the different types of saunas and some of the other questions that, I see a lot of confusion about from people in the space, and I get a lot of questions about from my patients. So let's start, Brian, with the different types of sauna and then why you ended up choosing near infrared for SaunaSpace.

What Makes Near Infrared Sauna Therapy Different

Brian Richards: Yeah. All saunas deliver heat therapy and all saunas, or almost all saunas, you sweat in. So in that sense, they have similarities. But then there are many differences. The classic sauna is the Finnish sauna, the wood-fired is the original sauna, and then they came up with the electric hot rock sauna. So you pour water on the electrical coil-heated hot rocks, but it’s still a wood cabinet.

And then in the 60s or the 70s, I think 50 or 60 years ago, they came out with a far infrared emitter. So it’s a long, skinny ceramic emitter that emits far infrared wavelengths, those are the low-energy infrared wavelengths, 3,000 nanometers and greater. And that was an advancement because it was much lower energy consumption and it was dry. So it was much more tolerable to do 150-degree far infrared sauna than a 200-degree wet sauna and also more energy efficient. And it also fit into, it’s a thin element, so it fits into the wall of the sauna and it allowed them to keep the same wood box sauna aesthetic that the market understood, “this is a sauna.” It’s this big wood cabinet or this big, this wood hut.

But interestingly enough, like I said in the beginning, the first electrically powered sauna was actually the incandescent lamp sauna. So that's what we do here. We use an incandescent-based near infrared sauna. So it's a different light technology. It's 200 … we use four 250-watt red-filtered incandescent lamps to heat the body up, and this is definitely quite a bit different from any other sauna. Number one because it’s a light therapy sauna. And that’s kind of where the confusion comes in. People think that all infrared is the same. It's not. The near infrared wavelengths exclusively stimulate the light therapy systems in our cells, what’s called photobiomodulation, or mitochondrial, stimulation. And I’ll mention that in a second. Or I can explain that a little more here in a minute. But before that, first of all, near infrared, why near infrared for detox or heating the body? Near infrared wavelengths penetrate up to 9 inches into the body.

It Provides a Deeper Detox

So when you sit in a SaunaSpace sauna, in a near infrared sauna, and your shirt’s off,

of course because your clothing blocks the light, the core cells of your body are being heated up immediately. So it's a more effective, deeper detox and deeper heating effect, and it occurs at a lower ambient air temperature. In a near infrared sauna, it's only, like, 110 degrees inside because we are using these deep-penetrating, radiant heating methodology. That's in contrast to a far infrared sauna. Due to water absorption, far infrared wavelengths are 100 percent absorbed by water. And you can see this concept more in detail on my science page on SaunaSpace.com. So you can see the graphs and the spectrum and the water absorption. But basically our bodies are all water, and there's a lot of water in the atmosphere, and if you look at sunlight, 40 percent of sunlight that reaches the earth is near infrared. Because near infrared is not well absorbed by water. In compare and contrast, only 5 percent of far infrared reaches the earth. Almost all of it is absorbed by the water in the atmosphere, and it’s the same thing in our body. And since our body is, there’s so much water in our body, far infrared wavelengths are stopped once they hit water. Whereas near infrared can get in really deep.

This is why I think it's no coincidence that the light receptor cells in our body, the mitochondrial ones, are uniquely activated by near infrared. We don't have any light receptors for far infrared. So that's a big difference between near and far infrared. The near infrared sauna is a deeper, safer, more effective detox that also brings these light therapy benefits. Whereas a far infrared sauna, or a wet, a Finnish sauna is just a heat therapy. And that’s good, but it’s only like a piece, that’s a part of the pie here. There’s another part of, there’s a bigger pie here that SaunaSpace is dealing with the infrared, and that’s this light therapy stuff.

Chris Kresser: Let me just interject before we go there. Because it's a really, it's a noticeable difference. I had a far infrared sauna for, as you know, Brian, for a few years and enjoyed using it. And then I tried the SaunaSpace when I was at Paleo f(x) on the exhibition floor, and that's where I met Brian. I talked to Brian and did some of my own research and learned a little bit more. But the real practical proof of it was just my first session in the near infrared sauna. So with the far infrared sauna, I used to have to heat it up for two hours.

That was one of the biggest bummers on a practical level. Because if I wanted to use the sauna and I had forgotten to turn it on and heat it up, I couldn’t do it. So it would take a couple hours for me to get it up to, like, 145, which is where it needed to be for me in order to get a good sweat. And it would take me quite a bit longer to start sweating in the far infrared unit. And then when I tried the near infrared at SaunaSpace, first of all, I turn it on five minutes ahead of time instead of two hours, which is a huge benefit for me just from a practical perspective. And then I started to sweat within five to seven minutes rather than maybe 20 minutes in the infrared sauna, which meant I was sweating for much longer throughout the course of being there. And I felt that deep penetration. I could just sense that it was penetrating much more deeply. And that’s why perhaps I was sweating so much more easily. So it’s a really, it was a palpable difference, for me at least.

Brian Richards: Yeah, and it typically is for folks like yourself who have already, who know sauna, have had a far infrared sauna. The near infrared sauna, like you say, it just heats you up so much better, so you sweat faster and you do it at a lower ambient air temperature. Which means it's not just quicker to preheat, which is more convenient for you, it's also safer. And that’s a big, for me, that's a huge advantage of near infrared. This is safer, it's more effective and deeper heating, but it's also safer.

It’s Safer for People with Heat Sensitivities

So for folks with heat sensitivities, with chronic illness, with neuropathies, of many thousands of customers that we have, a huge portion of them are dealing with severe chronic illness. So they have neuropathies, heat sensitivity, tachycardia-like symptoms where they just can’t handle anything intense. They can't use a regular sauna at all at 200 degrees. They can’t even handle far infrared, many of them, at 150 degrees. Not to mention the electromagnetically sensitive crowd. They also have issues with some of these other saunas. This is a sauna that even the most neuropathic, heat-sensitive, weak folks can use. And we've also put some design elements in there, like the ability to reduce the number of lamps used and the ability to keep the curtain open so that people can do a reduced protocol, and it just really widens access to sauna.

Here's a sauna for the first time that folks with, we were just at the Wahls Protocol conference, an MS-focused conference, and it was just so exciting to see people there who were, they don't have access to sauna otherwise. But they do with SaunaSpace because it's a more gentle thing to do it with the infrared. It's just, and everybody needs this, but they need to detox, but unfortunately, in other saunas they can’t handle it.

Chris Kresser: Yeah.

Brian Richards: I think that’s a huge benefit.

Chris Kresser: Yeah, I met an MS patient when I was skiing in Park City last year and he moved to Park City and spends the winter there because he is so heat sensitive that he just feels better. He kind of goes or moves around to cold places basically and is super heat intolerant. And I've seen that in a lot of MS patients as well.

Brian Richards: Yeah, I even have another quick story I can tell. Her name is V Capaldi, she's an MS warrior, she's an MS advocate, she's been dealing with progressive MS for many years, I think seven or eight years at least, maybe more. She travels around the country promoting MS awareness. It's called the BAM Van. She’s also called Paleo Boss Lady on social media. Anyway, I met her last year and she travels around in a van, and she can’t fit our whole pocket sauna in her van, of course, so she actually uses our targeted therapy product, called our single light.

And one of her major symptoms of MS is that she has body temperature regulation problems. It’ll get too hot and too cold, kind of like the example you mentioned where if they just can’t handle heat, they can’t handle cold, and then their body heats up and they can’t cool down and vice versa. So just using the targeted therapy of the single lamp on her feet, on her gut, on her head, a couple times throughout the day every day, she’s had a major reduction in her body temperature regulation symptoms. And when she stops using it, they come back. So she’s had kind of a full-body response to even a targeted therapy, which I think is really, it just speaks to how our bodies really crave this light and this heat, this particular form of it. This natural form with lots of near infrared that you don't get from other light sources other than sunlight.

It's a Pleasurable Experience

Chris Kresser: Yeah, yeah, it’s a really … Yeah, I mean, I think that like we were saying before, that thinking about therapies like this that have worked via multiple mechanisms but are also well tolerated by a wide number of people and are, I think you mentioned something that’s very important, are pleasurable. So many health practices involve restriction or taking something out, people going on specialized diets. I enjoy exercise and many people do, but not everyone does. And so having to exercise regularly can be a drag for some people. And even things like sleep is very pleasurable when you're sleeping well, but a lot of people feel like they don't have enough time to do other things that they want to do in the evening. And so it can be sometimes a drag to go to sleep. But it's pretty cool when we stumble on something that’s actually really pleasurable and enjoyable, and also is really good for you.

Brian Richards: Yeah, that's what people reported. Certainly I feel that too. It's that same kind of feeling you get in sunlight were the sun heats you from within. It feels groovy. Also, if you're in front of a fireplace or in front of a campfire, these are also incandescent light sources. So you get that same kind of “ah, this just feels good.” The indescribable feel-good feeling. And that really is what we call mitochondrial stimulation. That's what this light therapy stuff is. So that's what's also so exciting about near infrared saunas. We’re doing all the things we just described. Deeper, better, more effective detox. We’re also doing light therapy.

Why Light Is a Nutrient

Light therapy is a fascinating concept. I mentioned it before a little bit with Dr. Kellogg’s Light Therapeutics book. There’s so much that's going on here that it's hard to address all of it in just a few minutes, but certainly we have a lot in our research archive if you want to dive into a lot of the low-level light therapy studies. We have a nice sampling of them in our research archive on SaunaSpace.com. There's over 8,000 light therapy studies now or more in the literature. So this is very well documented. But basically it's, light is a nutrient. Natural light is a nutrient and there are definitely benefits of UV light with vitamin D production and blue light in terms of regulating our circadian rhythm and telling us when to be awake, when it’s time to go to bed. But if we look at sunlight and humans’ experience with sunlight, 40 percent of it, so a plurality of the sunlight that we get is near infrared. And it's only near infrared, also a little bit of red light, that stimulates our mitochondrial healing systems, what's called photobiomodulation of the light receptor protein in the mitochondria.

And so we have all these amazing healing benefits, just an array of healing pathways that are activated when the light, just by a function of the near infrared light hitting the mitochondria. And so for those of you who aren’t familiar, the mitochondria are a little battery, little batteries in the cells of our body. We have them in every cell of the body except red blood cells. So it’s everywhere and they all are activated by infrared light. And when we shine infrared light on them, we get some amazing effects. First of all, cell metabolism is boosted, vasodilation occurs through nitric oxide release, and the reactive oxygen species is formed. And for those of you who are familiar with that, unlike with blue light, in this case the reactive oxygen species is a good thing. These three entities—the ATP being produced, the NO, the nitric oxide, and the ROS—interact together and promote all these different effects called the mitochondrial functions:

Inflammatory mediation

Cell regeneration

Epigenetic repair

Genetic, or a gene expression, repair

So we’re antiaging the cell and the DNA itself, we’re also fixing how the cell works, we’re also promoting beneficial healing effects outside of the cells, and it's something we can do in every cell of the body. So there’s a cellular effect, if we look at the tissue studies and the organism studies, animals and humans, we see some incredible stuff. We see, just to give you a few examples, Chris, we see:

Amelioration from neuropathies

Improved recovery from TBI, from heart attack, from stroke

Reduced inflammation in the tissues

And then if you look at some of the other studies, I mean, you name the study and you look at it on the PubMed, whether it’s psoriasis or like I said, TBI, or even MS studies now, and others, this light has a healing effect on the whole body, on the whole organism. And it’s also a nutrient. So it’s, it actually satisfies a caloric requirement in part. It’s literally energizing the cell without sugar and at the same time doing all these healing benefits. And so imagine you do all of these healing benefits while you're doing the sauna. So it's making the detox less stressful, more effective, just more cellular energy means the cell has more energy to detox with.

So again, a safer way to do detox, a more accessible way, and then all these benefits that are conveyed by the light therapy itself are tremendous. And they were a core part of our ancestral experience that we got every day and that we don’t get now anymore with what we have. Not just being indoors and being closed, but we now use LED and fluorescent light to light our homes, and that’s all blue light, which is, it’s just high-energy damaging light. It damages our cells and it stresses us out and makes us unhappy.

Chris Kresser: So I think the mitochondrial benefit is really interesting to me and I think can go a long way toward explaining how a single therapy like this could affect so many different conditions. Because as you explained, mitochondria are the fundamental battery of the cells. And if the mitochondria are not functioning well, then nothing's gonna work right. Conversely, if the mitochondria are functioning optimally, then everything else is going to get better. And I think that together with the reduction of inflammation and the release of stored toxins, toxic burden and the improvement of circulation, since blood carries everything that we need to heal, nutrients, oxygen, anti-inflammatory substances, etc., when you understand the various mechanisms, it becomes a lot more clear how it could have an impact on such a diverse range of conditions.

Tips on How to Use Sauna Therapy Effectively

Let's switch gears and talk a little bit about some considerations for sauna therapy. Okay, saunas are great, near infrared sauna has some unique benefits. But I rarely hear much discussion about how do you use it.

How often should you use it?

How long should you stay in?

What should you do before and after to optimize the experience?

Are there any special considerations, contraindications, cautions, etc.?

I'd love to chat about that for a little bit. Maybe just starting with kind of, we can look at it kind of temporally. What are the best things to do before you go in the sauna? Let's start there.

Drink Plenty of Water Beforehand and Pay Attention to Your Diet

Brian Richards: Yeah, it's definitely a few things to consider. You definitely want to drink clean water, either spring water or clean water before and after the sauna. You do lose a lot of water. Other lifestyle considerations definitely include having a nutritious natural food diet, whatever is good for your body. And because you're detoxing all these chemicals and toxins and heavy metals out of your body, the heavy metals, the body’s using heavy metals because you didn't have enough good metals in the first place. And so you need to replace all those protein sites and cofactor sites, and just areas in the body with good nutrients, minerals, and vitamins. And of course a few other considerations too. You don't want to go into a sauna after you ate a heavy meal because your body's energy is going towards digesting that meal. But otherwise you can.

Chris Kresser: What about exercise prior to sauna?

Brian Richards: Great question. So some people will say don’t do sauna immediately after exercise because you’re too sympathetic dominant. But if you’re a person who exercises in the evening after work, then in some ways sauna is, the best time to do sauna is after you exercise because your body is so stressed out. Let’s get it back into a parasympathetic healing state. Not just for the healing benefits and the detox of the sauna, but also to prepare you for sleep. So we have a big portion of our customers who are big exercise folks and they do their workout after work. And they get in their SaunaSpace when they get home, or they do their sauna right before bed, and that’s fine. So it’s fine right after the exercise, and I also recommend that in some ways for the lactic acid detoxification is accelerated, there’s associations of near infrared light therapy with accelerated wound and muscle healing. So the tearing of the muscle fibers and just recovery overall after the workout.

Chris Kresser: One thing I’ve noticed is if I exercise at some point, let's say I exercise in the afternoon and then I go in the sauna a couple hours later before dinner or something, I will sweat a little more quickly than I will if I go in the sauna first thing in the morning, like right after I wake up and I haven't really moved my body at all. So I don't know that that really matters much, but if I wanted to sweat more quickly and more throughout the sauna use, that’s something I’ve noticed on a personal level.

Choose a Time That's Convenient for You

Brian Richards: And that’s echoed by others as well. I think it's, what's going on there is your body is already a little bit heated up. So it just takes less time to get to that point and you will sweat a little more. It just depends on the flow of your day and what's most convenient. I'm all about convenience being king, and that's one of the primary focus points of SaunaSpace design and my company, everything I do. Do it when you can do it and when it's convenient for you. If it’s the morning or the evening or right before bed or after your workout, do it where you can increase your frequency as much as possible. So if we’re talking about frequency and duration and how do we use this thing, all the studies show that the more frequency per week leads to increased benefits, proportionally better benefits, it's better.

So at least once a day, at least three times a week. But ideally five times a week. I personally use it before work on the work day. So that's about five days a week, and I don't actually use it as long as I used to. When I was doing my serious healing recovery, I would do 45 minutes religiously right before bed. Now I am so well acclimated, and I sweat so quickly, and in general I’m just more or less in general good health and feeling great, so I do 20 minutes, 20, 25 minutes before work. But the maximum use is a one-hour session up to twice a day. So there are cancer protocols out there like the McDougall cancer protocol and others where they’re doing an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.

Chris Kresser: Right, it’s kind of like a form of hyperthermia.

Wait Until You're Sweating Vigorously

Brian Richards: Yeah, this is absolutely hyperthermia therapy. And again, a very safe way to do so. But for those of you who, again I don't, we don't want this to be a burden for you. We don't want it to be just another thing you have to do that is its own stress to have to get to and do to it. So every time you want to get in the sauna, you want to sweat through your torso, strong sweating for five or 10 minutes. And that's at least 10 minutes.

Chris Kresser: And it depends how long it takes you to start sweating. I mean, that's what you just mentioned in terms of, like, if you've done it a little bit more, you might start sweating a little sooner or maybe your sessions can be a bit shorter. I've noticed, as I mentioned, that when I exercise at some point, maybe a couple hours prior, I sweat more quickly and therefore my sessions can be a little bit shorter. So it seems to depend on a few different circumstances. But it sounds like you want to be sweating, you want to be in there for at least what, 10, 15 minutes after you start sweating?

Brian Richards: Yeah, 10 minutes, at least 10 minutes. So when you get in there, it takes between five and 20 minutes to start sweating vigorously. Very much is dependent on your toxic profile, where you're coming from, and so forth. But when you start sweating vigorously, that's when you’ve relaxed the nervous system into that parasympathetic heal state, and you're getting the maximum detox and the maximum kind of light therapy benefits. And it really behooves you to just stay in a little bit longer. So you want to sweat, beading up sweat on your torso at least, for about 10 minutes. And that's good enough definitely to start out. That would be the minimum. Each time you get in, you get that sweat going on. But it's important to understand that you don't need to get that the first time.

And folks who are heat sensitive have low resting body temperature. And I've met many of these, many new customers have been dealing with this, you might not sweat at all the first time or the first couple times. And that doesn't mean it’s not working. That means that you’re in a toxic homeostasis and you need to shift your body's profile over to healing. And it's kind of counter, it's fighting against that a little bit. But eventually you stay in, you keep trying it, you keep sitting and doing the session, and you will eventually provoke a sweat. And then eventually you'll provoke a sweat more quickly and you’ll sweat more easily as your body acclimates to the therapy. And it's the same for folks who are very neuropathic and very heat sensitive. They may only start out with five minutes. They may only use only two lamps, but eventually the mitochondria get reactivated, the body shifts, it starts to detox, and it's an intelligent way of detoxing, unlike chelation, which is nonselective and kind of takes everything out. This, you’re stimulating the body to do detox and healing in the way it wants to, in the order it wants to.

So all the, everybody who's ever tried it eventually comes around. Even I've had customers who it took them three months to be able to sit in the sauna for 20 minutes, and the whole time they had to keep the curtain open or were using less lamps. Some people are very, start out very sensitive. But everybody comes around, and then you get to a regular standard sort of use of at least 20 minutes or so. And just the more the merrier in terms of frequency. But also if you take a break for a month or two, no big deal. It’s no reason to be blameful of yourself or anything like that. You just come back to it and put it back into your life.

Shower after You're Done

Chris Kresser: Cool. So how about after. So you finished sauna, you sweat, some of that sweat has toxins, so what do you suggest in terms of cleaning after a sauna use?

Brian Richards: So I highly recommend you have a natural bristle or a boar bristle brush, a shower brush, and you get in the shower, either hot or cold water, whatever you prefer, and you scrub every single inch of your body. Your scalp, all of your skin, even your nether regions. And what that does is it exfoliates and makes your skin look amazing, but it also pulls the dead skin cells off your body that the toxins are kind of clinging to. And it's an important step to just kind of end the whole session. Get in, rinse off the sweat that has all these toxins in it and scrub. So it’s not so important to use soap as it is to just scrub your body. And so either a loofah or a bristle brush, it feels amazing, even though it's kind of rough the first time. Maybe you do it and it really, that's a really key step. And that also gives you a chance to ease out of your sauna. So you rinse off in the shower, do your scrubbing, and you take another 15 or 20 minutes before you jump back into the stress of modern life and back into all the sympathetic activity.

Chris Kresser: Yeah, that’s helpful. I have the brush myself and do that. I really love it. It’s its own therapy as you pointed out, like the exfoliation and just how that kind of seems to wake up the skin and open the pores. It feels really good. It’s a great way to end the therapy.

Use a Light Panel for Localized Relief

We’ve only got a few minutes left. I want to talk a little bit about EMF just in general, but more specifically in relation to infrared sauna therapy before we finish up. And I also, before we even go there, I wanted to mention you have a pretty unique product that can be used to extend the benefits of sauna use and give yourself exposure to near infrared light even when you’re not in the sauna, which is your single light panel.

And I know from talking to you and also reading some of the reviews that people are using it in really interesting ways. Some people are using it to deal with neuropathic foot pain or lack of circulation in the lower parts of their legs, and they’re applying just the single light maybe when they’re seated at their desk or something like that. It has in some cases regrown capillaries and nerves in those lower parts of the legs for EMF patients or diabetics with neuropathy. And people are using it, shining it on their gut if they have GI issues, or on their face if they have acne. And tell us a little more about that because I think it’s pretty interesting as a complement or way to extend the benefits of sauna therapy, or maybe for someone who doesn’t have the space for the full unit or can’t afford it yet.

Brian Richards: Yeah, that’s SaunaSpace’s single light panel. I mentioned that story about V Capaldi earlier. You kind of hit all of the major points of what people are using this for. It does not replace the sauna. The sauna, you’re also sweating. It’s a full-body experience. You’re having deep detox with sweating, which makes the detox the least stressful and most effective way to do it. But nonetheless, you can use the single light for localized relief. So it’s a targeted therapy product. People are using it for relief of localized, or at the local tissue level. So you just shine it on the exposed body part one to two feet away for 10 minutes or more, and maybe even up to an hour, depending on the body part, except the head, and you can do that many times a day up to 10 times a day.

Chris Kresser: That’s what I was going to ask you. So just to clarify, up to an hour but you can do it multiple times a day.

Brian Richards: Yeah. Up to an hour, up to even 10 times a day. So maybe once an hour. If you’re doing it on the head or the throat, the protocol is to limit to 10 minutes. But you could still do that many times a day. So people are using it for, if they have TBI or fog issue, the brain fog issues, or me personally, it makes me feel better and happier if I don't get enough sleep or if I’m traveling, I always bring my single light. Because travel is stressful. And there are other things too, though. You mentioned gut, for gut health, for neuropathies in the extremities, for cramping, for headaches. A few other, it’s basically, it’s helping heal and it’s bringing light and heat therapy to that local body part. And so whatever your problem is, it may very well help what’s going on there just shining this light on it.

And our products are EMF shielded so there’s no electric or magnetic field stress to the user when we use it. So you can use this very close to the body, one to two feet away. And another application is what I personally use, you can see that on our Facebook or also on our website on SaunaSpace.com. I use it at the office. So I have it mounted to a computer monitor arm on QuickConnect, and I shine it on my body and on my head throughout the day periodically to counteract the blue light stress from the computer screen and also from, unfortunately, we have fluorescent lighting in the office still, and so it’s really interesting. Infrared light is the antidote to blue. So blue is damaging, and infrared counteracts that, and it also counteracts the flicker stress of LED and of fluorescent light, so from our monitor screens and also from the lighting above us. It’s a great way to get this healing light into your life, especially if you’re like me, many hours at the computer running my business. It’s a key thing that I can’t even work at a computer without it honestly. So it’s really cool the way to use it.

But you can also use it at the home, on the couch, when you’re reading a book, when you’re watching TV. It’s so small and portable you can bring it anywhere. And it’s just an adjunct to the full-body therapy of the full sauna. But it definitely, people are getting some amazing relief with it.

Chris Kresser: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to trying that because I’m someone who’s pretty sensitive to blue light and also work a lot at a computer, and I use some software applications to kind of change the light that’s emitted. That helps a little bit and I have pretty good light in my office. But still, I just feel totally zonked after many hours in front of the computer and I’m trying to reduce that in other ways. But I’m looking forward to having the benefit of the near infrared. Because I certainly know how I feel when I get out of the sauna.

Brian Richards: Yeah, and so it's very helpful. But there's another aspect, and you’ll really love it once you try it out, Chris. But there’s another aspect that is really stressing us out in the office and also in our lives. It’s what you asked me to mention here.

Chris Kresser: Right.

How Electromagnetic Stress Is Damaging Our Health

Brian Richards: It’s EMF issues. We are surrounded by what's called this electrosmog. Electromagnetic stress is definitely damaging to our health. And for those of you who are not familiar with this, you can look up Dr. Pall's work, the voltage-gated calcium channel effect, where basically we have these little voltage-gated calcium channels in every cell of the body, and most densely in the nervous system and in the brain. And those are seven million times more sensitive to electromagnetism than a water molecule is.

So the telecom industry says, “Well, here’s water, and here’s what a microwave signal from a cell phone tower does to water. It doesn't do a whole lot. And so EMFs are not bad for us. So they’re okay. They’re safe.” But the fact of the matter is, the voltage-gated calcium channels in all the cells are way more sensitive to this. And when we actually understand that and look at this and study this, we see that, and Dr. Pall has, again, done some of the best work in this, we see so many problems that these cause. And we’re talking about non-ionizing, non-thermal radiation. So even the microwave thing on the cell phone towers, even the electricity, the dirty electricity leaking out of our walls, increases our body voltage. We absorb it and it causes all these different bad health effects in the cells. And some of the basic ones are like anxiety and depression and nervous system issues. But also, it's been associated with other things like cancerous issues, there’s also heart issues because the heart is controlled by electricity, the beating of the heart.

And really, if you look at it and you step back and say, “Well, what’s going on here?” Every single system in the body is electromagnetic much more than biological. We are, we’re a quantum mechanical electromagnetic organism. Everything is all about voltage gates, and the blood–brain barrier is a voltage gate. And the mitochondria we talked about is an electric, it’s an electrical potential drop that the electrons are passing through. So all of these systems are disrupted by EMF stress. It’s man-made EMF stress. So it's a bad nervous system stressor, it's in all of our lives, and it's a subtle thing. So it’s slowly wearing us down. And it’s worse in the office, in places with a lot of electronics and a lot of Wi-Fi and cell phone signals, those are the most damaging spaces. And so we need protection from this. And that is one of the core things that SaunaSpace has addressed. Our product doesn't, our product is the only sauna on earth and the only light therapy device on earth that delivers zero electric and magnetic field stress on the user. So that’s pretty cool. It's pretty unique. I’ve worked a long time to get that to be that way.

And then what we’ve done in our journey now in product development is we’ve taken it to the next level. We have an electric field-shielding liner system we’ve developed for our pocket sauna for our sauna. And so it’s an optional upgrade that prevents all Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and dirty electricity, all of these electric fields from getting inside the sauna. So now for the first time ever, it’s not just a light therapy sauna and a better detox, it’s now a therapy that’s protected from all this EMF stress that’s around us 24 hours a day. So we don’t have any research, of course, on the degree to which this is better, but certainly one could speculate that the parasympathetic relaxation, the mitochondrial stimulation, the detox, all of the cellular systems we’re trying to activate and trigger in this multifactorial near infrared sauna therapy, they’re all better. They’re all working more optimally.

Chris Kresser: Right, and that’s going to be, as you argued, arguably important for everybody. But there are some people who have really severe electrical hypersensitivity, and probably many listeners to this show. And the ability to have a space where they can not only be exposed to more because the lamps themselves are protected, but also kind of have a respite from additional exposure from the ambient environment is a pretty amazing thing to offer.

So, Brian, thanks so much for joining us. It’s been a really fascinating conversation. I know folks are going to get a lot out of this. And so they can learn more about SaunaSpace at SaunaSpace.com. You’ve got a lot of articles there too and videos, I think, which are really helpful. Tell us a little more about what’s there, what they can find.

Brian Richards: So in our science section on SaunaSpace.com you can find some of my in-depth articles where I review the literature. And for those who like the citations and like the research, we also have a research archive as well, where we house not everything, but a lot of these PubMed articles are linked to there. But we do have a lot, some growing number of videos to kind of explain some of these things. It is complicated. So for those of you who want dive into the science of light therapy, of heat therapy, of EMF protection we have a lot on SaunaSpace.com. And I'd like to just say one more thing before we go.

We talked so much about how we want to heal and the therapy and what's going on scientifically. I think it's important to understand too, doing this, what we do here at SaunaSpace is not just the healing therapies. It's about the escape, as you mentioned, the respite from the sensory overload. We’re inundated with all of this over-stimulus and stress all day long, and we don't have a space that we can do healing in, a core rejuvenative practice to make us more successful in life and feel better and happier. And that's what we've designed here is it’s a very clean space from a sensory perspective. The beauty is in the simplicity of it. And so it doesn't have glass doors and Bluetooth-enabled stereo speakers. It's just, it's quiet. It's quiet to the senses and you can just sit there and do all this healing, do all these amazing things and just be. And not to mention, it's pretty cool.

The design is very convenient and portable, not like your cabinet sauna that you used to have, Chris. It’s a pop-up, it’s very, it’s modern, it’s lightweight, it’s more portable. I think it has a convenience to the design that helps people maintain the discipline and how to be fun and pleasurable. So they can get all these benefits and have it not be just another gadget, another burden in their life that it’s another thing they have to do. It’s something that they will want to do.

Chris Kresser: Yeah, I’m glad you brought that up. I definitely appreciate the design. It’s elegant all the way down to the stool and the wood and the finishing. It’s a pleasure to see and use. The fact that it’s relatively portable, it’s not something you’re going to take on a plane when you go on a weekend trip, but if you move, you can easily bring it with you, which is absolutely not the case for my big cabinet cell sauna. In fact, when we sold it, we had to completely take it apart in order for the people to take it away. It was kind of a hassle. But this is, I actually, one of our staff members, Jon, who you met, Brian, I think because he has more limited space, he actually collapses the sauna after use. He takes out the front bar and just collapses it and tucks it away in a corner. So if you do have limited space, I like that about it too. I’m lucky to have a space for it where I just keep it set up, but even then, it doesn’t take a lot of space, which is great.

Brian Richards: Yeah, yeah. It's definitely, it's just a better approach to it. It’s a more thoughtful design. It’s more private, too, for people. If you’re going to get better, it’s got to be in your home. It’s got to be convenient. It’s got to be fun to use. And so that’s what we’ve really emphasized for about six years now. SaunaSpace is all that.

Chris Kresser: Great. Well again, thanks so much for coming on the show. It’s been a wealth of knowledge, and I’m just grateful for what you guys are doing, the product you’re putting out there. It’s something I recommend to my patients and anyone who asks me about what sauna that I suggest and prefer. And this has come out of my own experience, having used lots of different kinds of saunas over the years. I’ve been a big proponent of saunas for many years and then ultimately ending up with this near infrared unit that I'm very happy with. And I feel like I've finally found my, the one that makes the most sense for me, both from a research, evidence-based perspective and also just from an experiential perspective. So thanks for making this and continuing to do the work that you do.

Brian Richards: Thanks, Chris. Yeah, we’re just getting started here at SaunaSpace, but we definitely have something completely different here. It’s like no sauna anyone has ever seen before.

Chris Kresser: Awesome. All right, thanks everyone for listening. Continue to send in your questions, ChrisKresser.com/podcastquestion, and we’ll talk to you next time.

Brian Richards: Thanks, Chris.

The post RHR: How Sauna Therapy Can Prevent & Reverse Chronic Disease, with Brian Richards appeared first on Chris Kresser.

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Why STD Rates Are Higher Than They’ve Ever Been

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10026

The numbers are clear: With nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis diagnosed in 2017, rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are at an all-time high in the U.S., according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What’s harder to pinpoint, however, is the reason behind those soaring statistics.

On paper, it seems like STD rates should be dropping. Condom use is up. Teenagers and millennials are having less sex with fewer partners than generations past. Stigmas around sexuality and sexual health are beginning to break down. And yet, for four consecutive years, STD rates have broken records. Why?

The problem is complicated, says Dr. Bradley Stoner, medical director of the St. Louis STD/HIV Prevention Training Center at Washington University in St. Louis. But a good portion of it, he says, can be traced back to lackluster funding for federal resources like the CDC, which has seen its budget for STD prevention sit stagnant for almost two decades. Increasing federal funding, he says, could allow organizations like the CDC to hire more people focused on STD prevention, increase public health education campaigns and make testing and treatment resources more accessible.

Without adequate resources, however, Stoner says the STD prevention community doesn’t have the manpower to take steps that could really work — things like building out systems and procedures for contacting and screening the partners of people who are diagnosed with infections, who may be carrying and spreading STDs without knowing it. (Many STDs are asymptomatic, often making it difficult to know if you have one, Stoner says.)

“If we could bump up the STD workforce, in terms of things like partner notification and outreach, education and awareness, then we would have a better chance at bringing these rates down,” Stoner says.

The nationwide closure of publicly funded STD clinics hasn’t helped matters, either, Stoner says. “With the Affordable Care Act, there was a sense that people are going to have a medical home and you’re not going to need these publicly funded clinics,” Stoner says. But as these facilities close their doors, more and more people are either unable to get the care they need, or are turning up at emergency rooms or urgent care clinics “where they may not have the STD expertise” necessary to screen and treat patients properly, Stoner says.

Alison Marshall, a clinical expert at the Sylvie Ratelle STD/HIV Prevention Center of New England and a clinical instructor at Boston College’s Connell School of Nursing, says a counterintuitive factor may also be contributing to riskier sexual behaviors: medical advances against HIV and AIDS.

In the past, Marshall says, people thought of AIDS as a “death sentence,” and took precautions accordingly. But today, with effective treatments and preventive measures on the market, “our younger generations didn’t grow up with that pressure. We wonder if that public health message dimming down a little bit has had the repercussions of certain people choosing not to use contraception,” Marshall says.

That effect may be particularly pronounced among men who have sex with men, who accounted for around 70% of syphilis diagnoses in 2017, according to the CDC report. Even still, syphilis is slowly but surely spreading to other populations, according to the CDC, which could point to changing cultural norms.

“There’s a lot of sexual fluidity right now,” Marshall says, with more and more people identifying as bisexual or gender fluid, or deciding not to self-identify at all. These “bridge populations,” Stoner says, may spread traditionally group-specific diseases, such as syphilis, to new communities.

Syphilis is also a good case study for how socioeconomic factors can influence STD prevalence. Rates of congenital syphilis — infections that affect babies at birth — are also up, which Stoner says points, at least in part, to lax screening practices among doctors. But diagnoses are also concentrated among mothers in the South, “where health care access for under-resourced women is pretty poor,” Marshall notes. “Part of the congenital syphilis problem is access to care.”

Similar trends occur at the local level for virtually any kind of STD, Stoner says. “You can look and map STDs in any city, and you’ll find some parts of town that have higher rates than others,” he says. “A lot of it’s along those gradients of economic disparity and other markers of societal marginalization.”

That pattern, Marshall says, partially explains why national STD rates are increasing, even in the face of seemingly promising research about things like more widespread condom use. “People who tend to think about STI prevention are often the people who are risk-averse” — that is, people who don’t abuse substances or have sex with multiple partners, she says. “You can have 10 non-risky people adopt using condoms and really have no effect on the STD rate. But if you have one risky person who’s not using them, you can have a multiplier effect.”

That problem, she says, again gets back to funding for STD prevention, and the need for a renewed focus on public health campaigns and education. Stoner agrees.

“This is not a moment where people are really excited about tax and spend opportunities,” Stoner says, “but I really do think there’s a responsibility of public health systems to use tax money for the betterment of the entire community.”

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Interactive Science App for Special Education

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10020

I am SO happy to introduce a new app that is the perfect addition to your classroom this year, Tappity! When Tappity reached out to me about how they had some parents mentioning that this app was so beneficial to their kids with special needs- I knew this would be a great tool for the classroom too!

Disclosure: I received compensation and/or products in exchange for writing this review, however all opinions are my own.

When I first downloaded the app I was SO HAPPY to see that they used emoji’s as visuals to support text all throughout the app. Why is this great? With our special education students already familiar with both emoji’s and visuals- the app is already appearing relatable and accessible.

Tappity does a great job of giving kids a variety of ways to access the fun topics on each page. They support their text with visuals, include interesting audio, have an interactive component, and include video on almost every page! This is great for kids that need multiple modes of learning or for kids that benefit from one mode over another.

The topics currently available in Tappity hit many grade level standards, many of which are part of state assessments. From the solar system to Earth’s core to the ocean floor- this app has topics for every learners science interest.

How would I use this in the classroom?

We all know our students LOVE the iPad right? So why not make it learning not just play! This app has so many interactive components that your students will enjoy using it.

+ Use this app for independent work during classroom centers.

+ Use the app for early finishers

+ Support student interest by allowing them to explore topics they love through this app

+ After learning about one of the topics included (they add new topics weekly!, use the app for review and to reinforce information learned

How do I get it?

You can download Tappity in the app store today!

Tappity provides “snack-sized” interactive adventures that instill a love of science early in a child’s education. The app is SO interactive, and DOES NOT spend too much time on one topic- they definitely kept attention spans in mind! They give interesting facts and information without being overwhelming. Download Tappity today to try it in your classroom and let us know in the comments how you plan to use it!

Disclosure: I received compensation and/or products in exchange for writing this review, however all opinions are my own.

The post Interactive Science App for Special Education appeared first on Simply Special Ed.

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Why We Need To Stand Up To The Illuminati Together Right Now

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10022

In my previous 7-part series of articles on Who Lucifer Really Is & Why They Are Here, we became aware of the existence of a highly organized group of bloodline families that have essentially been ruling our planet since antiquity. There we focused on the spiritual contradictions about who Lucifer was and his ultimate purpose for being here.

Here, we will use that discussion to center ourselves in a more narrowly focused examination of our material world, of what is actually happening on the ground, ‘in the game’ as it were. Of paramount importance now is that we, as conscious individuals in the awakening community, band together to expose the hidden evils of those in power in order to achieve the particular real-world changes that we came here to instigate.

The Mission Of The Bloodline Families

For those who have not read the Lucifer series, I will state briefly the working paradigm for our discussion here. It was revealed by an anonymous source called Hidden-Hand during a set of posts to the Above Top Secret forum in 2008 that the world is run by extraterrestrial beings (individuations of the Lucifer group soul) who have incarnated throughout history into ‘family’ bloodlines that have always held the levers of power in the world. These extraterrestrial bloodlines have guided the lower human bloodlines (let us call them Illuminati bloodlines, based on the testimony of famed whistleblower Svali) to become the de facto hands-on rulers of the planet. This powerful elite group includes royal families, aristocracy, clergy, top bankers, corporate heads, military heads and people in any other important axes of power and wealth.

Hidden-Hand said that his Lucifer group soul has this particular mission:

In order to “win” (or more accurately to be successful in) the Game, we must be as Negatively Polarized as possible. Service to Self in the extreme. Violence, War, Hatred, Greed, Control, Enslavement, Genocide, Torture, Moral Degradation, Prostitution, Drugs, all these things and more, they serve our purpose. In the Game.

The human Illuminati bloodlines, numbering several million people, according to Hidden-Hand, are known to go through extremely harsh and severe training since birth in order to fulfill their mission, which for them is understood to be complete world domination through the use of fear, coercion and deception. In reality, their mission is merely an extension of the mission of the Lucifer group soul in ‘the game’: provide all manner of evil as a catalyst for human free will, and subsequently human growth and evolution.

And so, we have a basic context to understanding how, at the highest levels of power globally, there is an occult philosophy/religion taught from birth, call it Illuminism (as Svali does), Luciferianism, Satanism, or other such title, which leaves its members with the absolute conviction that conducting themselves in the most self-serving ways possible, in the complete absence of any compassion, respect, or humaneness towards human beings outside of the cult (and in some ways, within it) is the road to their collective salvation.

What Salvation?

From a spiritual angle, their salvation involves acting in full service-to-self 95% of the time, in order to ‘ascend’ from the 3rd Density to the 4th Density (again, this was all covered in the Lucifer series). At the appointed time, there was supposed to be a return of their demonic leader, and their families would openly rule the planet, putting the rest of the human population in abject slavery, a population which, as prophesied by the Georgia Guidestones, would have been reduced to a manageable 500 million.

Alas. As we concluded in the Lucifer series, the human bloodlines were actually fooled into believing this, in order that they would fulfill their mission properly. The real goal was to help prepare all of humanity for the ‘Harvest,’ which represents the ‘Ascension’ of those that become ready to move into a higher density of existence. While ascension has not yet happened, there is a growing feeling that the rule of the bloodline families has passed its expiry date, and it is time for them to step down.

In ‘An Open Letter to the Illuminati Bloodline Families‘ that comes to us from Adamu, a Pleiadian entity channeled through a healer named Zingdad, there is an assertion that some of the more spiritually inclined bloodline members are starting to realize that there is an energetic shift going on, a change about to take place, and

…that the time of your watching over humanity is at an end. Indeed, that it is ending without the return of your master, your dark god-king. And that there is no longer any real hope that he ever will return. You are on your own. Your secret prophecies have come to naught.

There is much insider testimony, from sources of David Wilcock and others, that confirms that although the Illuminati bloodlines achieved tremendous power in the world historically and seemed to be invincible, and they looked like they were on the cusp of open world rule through novus ordo seclorum only a few short years ago, things have not been working out for them of late. Adamu describes the current situation for them:

[Humanity] are almost ready to be taken and controlled. But… right here at the very last… you find yourselves losing grip here there and everywhere. You find your attention being constantly diverted by all manner of seemingly trivial, but irritating, diversions. And in concert, your energy and attention is so diverted that you can never quite act to gain total power.

There is even some contention that the entire Luciferian group soul has left the playing field, as it were, that perhaps even they were deceived by the Council of Elders as to their mission to create a ‘Negative Ascension,’ and that now the stage is set for human beings to choose what will happen next. If indeed that is the case, then what is our mission, as conscious individuals in the awakening community?

The Mission Of The Awakening Community

Our first objective needs to be awareness. Awareness is curative. And so it becomes very important that we start to fathom and then piece together what has been an all-encompassing hidden network of violence, evil, and inhumanity that the Illuminati bloodlines have had in place since long before any of us were born.

For those who would argue that we should not give credence or attention to these dark forces, for fear of giving then more ‘reality,’ I would respectfully suggest that this a rather disempowering form of ‘spiritual bypass’. Just as we must look at our own shadows for our own healing and freedom, so too do we as a collective need to acknowledge and confront the roots of darkness and evil on our planet to begin to heal ourselves and come together as a collective, a collective which ultimately will not exclude even the worst perpetrators. We need neither obsess with nor become numb to the darkness, but rather give it solemn and courageous attention in order to come to a more holistic understanding of ourselves as a species.

Related CE Podcast: How Conspiracies & Spirituality Are Intimately Connected

For The Skeptics

For those who don’t believe the Illuminati exist, but have gotten this far in the article, I first applaud you for your open-mindedness. But secondly, I would ask you if you have a better and more cohesive explanation for why humanity has been so pervasively fraught with war and destruction, economic fraud of the highest possible kind, drug abuse and trafficking, human and child sex and slave trafficking, murder and human sacrifice, mind-control and genetic experimentation, perversion of the food and water supply, chemtrails and weather warfare, and other crimes against humanity that often reveal the hand of a powerful hidden authority in action.

If you don’t have a better explanation, then let’s agree to the use of the term ‘Illuminati’ to represent the central brain and network of these activities, whether or not the real central power identifies itself fully or partially as such. And then let’s look at all the clues, events, and testimony and see if there’s a way we can piece together the puzzle and gain a big-picture understanding. This will be the purpose of subsequent articles I will be writing on this subject. From this understanding, we can prepare ourselves for the appropriate actions that we can take in the world as part of our mission.

End Times

I truly believe we are in the prophesied ‘End Times’ right now. But this does not mean our world is going to be destroyed. It means the old order will fall, and there are many signs of this happening already. The watershed moment awaits our readiness to put a new order in its place, with values catalyzed by but antithetical to those of the old order; a new order founded on our highest and most positive collective ambitions as a species.

Watch our most recent interview with Franco DeNicola about ‘The Shift In Consciousness‘ we are experiencing.

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Does Bank Of America Drug Test For Employment?

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10024

Bank of America is a big employer, which is why so many people are wondering: does Bank of America drug test?

I’m actually quite close to this, because I’ve also got a brother in Minnesota, who works for Bank of America.

So I thought I would write a post here explain about the Bank of America hiring process, the Bank of America drug testing policy, and also tell you how you can pass a Bank of America drug test, should you ever be in the position of employment with them.

The Bank Of America Hiring Process

In common with most big companies in America, the hiring process can contain background checking and drug testing.

Also, the Bank of America hiring process has much in common with other companies, in that it can vary between state. There appears to be no unified drug testing policy that is adhered to across the entire country.

Basically, the Bank of America hiring process is that you will have one or more interviews, depending on the level of job you are going for.

At the end of those interviews, they will offer you a position conditionally, subject to background checking and possibly drug testing.

If you fail the background check or the drug test, then they reserve the right to withdraw the offer of employment.

Does Bank Of America Drug Test For Employment? | BOA Drug Testing Policy 2018

My brother told me that the Bank of America drug testing policy is that you can be tested during interview, and also randomly during employment.

However, interestingly, my brother told me that he was not tested when he was hired by Bank of America. This confirms my suspicion that it’s state specific, even job specific, or perhaps even about suspicion of you as a person during interview.

So generally, the Bank of America drug testing policy allows them to drug test you any time while you are employed by the company. This doesn’t mean at home, it means when you are on company time.

What Type Of Bank America Drug Test?

Thankfully, it appears that Bank of America drug test using urine drug tests only.

I say thankfully, because they are easy to pass, and especially easy, as the feedback I’ve had from my brother, and online, is that they are unsupervised drug test.

I suspect that during the hiring process this is especially true, and only if you were drug tested under suspicion during employment, would it potentially be an observed drug test.

The truth is, that despite all the fear out there, nearly all basic employment drug tests are done by local lab.

They are cheap tests, that are unsupervised, and it’s only the things like the military, government jobs, driving jobs, where you could potentially face a more rigorous drug test.

Easiest Ways To Pass A Bank Of America Drug Test

So now you know the answer to does Bank of America drug test, and you know the Bank of America drug testing policy both during the hiring process, and on-the-job, then you can be pretty pleased you can easily pass it.

In order to pass a Bank of America drug test, you simply need to submit a fake sample. You can do this because the drug test will be unsupervised. Nobody is going to watch you.

Now before you panic, my recommended brand is Sub Solution. I’ve used several times, and it works like a dream, and it has for my friends as well.

It contains all the key ingredients of human urine, and also doesn’t include some of the preservatives that drug testing labs are beginning to look for. It your best chance of submitting a fake sample that will pass.

On top of that, Sub Solution has a unique heat activator powder. Rather than using a heat pad and microwave, you just put the powder in the sample, and agitate it, and it heats the sample up.

This gives you granular control over the heat of your sample, right up to the moment you submit it, meaning you will never be caught out.

You can read more about synthetic urine here.

If you not brave enough to use synthetic urine, then a high quality THC detox drink will flush the toxins out of your bladder and urinary tract for just long enough to submit a sample (usually about five hours clear).

My recommended drinks, but I’ve had success with, and have written reviews about, are Rescue Cleanse, Mega Clean and Ultra Eliminex.

So if you’re worrying about a Bank of America drug test, you really don’t have to, synthetic urine, or high quality detox drink will help you to pass a drug test with them every time.

You can even double up if you’re worried you might have a supervised test. Take the fake sample along, and also drink the detox drink before you go, that way you know you are covered, and have options when you get there.

The post Does Bank Of America Drug Test For Employment? appeared first on exit-5.

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Severe depression: Vagus nerve stimulator improves lives

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10015

For people with treatment-resistant depression, adding vagus nerve stimulation to medication can drastically improve their quality of life, concludes a new study.

People with severe depression may benefit from the neurostimulation technique ‘vagus nerve stimulation.’

The National Institute of Mental Health suggest that over 16 million people in the United States have had at least one episode of major depression in the past year. Of these, more than 10 million adults report that the condition severely impaired their quality of life.

There are a variety of treatments available for depression, including therapy, medication, and making changes to one’s lifestyle. However, for some, these therapies are not enough to relieve the symptoms and improve quality of life.

Some with treatment-resistant depression turn to neurostimulation. One type of neurostimulation is vagus nerve stimulation (VNS).

In VNS, a device is fitted in the patient’s chest or neck, under the skin. These devices send pulses of electrical stimulation to the vagus nerve, which starts in the brain, goes through the neck, and ends in the chest and abdomen.

However, does VNS really improve the quality of life of those who opt for it? A new study, just published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, aims to answer this question.

The researchers were led by Dr. Charles R. Conway, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

Source: By A. Sandoiu/fact checked by J. Collier for MedicalNewsToday.com

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Spinal Instrumentation: Challenges and Solutions

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10017

Kim DH, Vacarro AR, Fessler RG, et al. Spinal Instrumentation: Challenges and Solutions. Thieme; 2017; 448 pp; 244 ill; $169.99

Publications which address what can go wrong, or what mistakes can be made in either diagnosis or in interventions/surgery, are often of greater value than demonstrations of what is done in standard procedures. Enter the newly published (December 2017), 448 page book Spinal Instrumentation: Challenges and Solutions, edited by Drs. Kim, Vaccaro, Fessler and Radcliff. With over 150 contributors, the book takes 60 spinal-instrumentation scenarios (both cervical and thoracolumbar) and describes with written text, drawings, and images what complications do occur.

So for example, in the chapters dealing with complications of anterior cervical fusions, the authors divide the material into introductory comments, followed by specific complications, properly illustrated — such as dysphagia, adjacent segment disease, pseudarthosis, kyphus deformity, and hardware failure. Relevant anatomic considerations, rationale for certain types of instrumentation, surgical techniques along with summaries and references are included. However, in many figures, far greater attention could have been paid to the quality of the radiographic images. Instances of improper grey scale windowing (level and width) distract in places from an adequate demonstration of the points being made.

The chapters take the reader from the top of spine instrumentation (occipital instrumentation complications) segmentally and step wise inferiorly to the sacral area. Specific complications or associated problem are addressed; such as infection, osteoporosis, use of BMP, vertebral cement augmentation. While obviously written for orthopedic spine surgeons in mind, there is material here which should be of interest to any radiologist, particularly those who deal, clinically, with a large volume of image interpretation of previously instrumented spine. Understanding the complications of importance to the spine surgeon, coupled with a large number of images showing those complications and why they may have occurred, would be of value to all neuroradiologists.

The post Spinal Instrumentation: Challenges and Solutions appeared first on AJNR Blog.

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Even 'Good' Levels of Air Pollution Are Bad for Smokers

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10018

TUESDAY, Sept. 5, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Even low levels of air pollution can pose a threat to the lungs of cigarette smokers, researchers say.

READ: Reasons to Quit Smoking Today

They tested 29 nonsmokers, 71 smokers without lung disease, and 58 smokers with the lung condition chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The study found that the lungs of both groups of smokers could be harmed by levels of air pollution considered good by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Cells lining the small airways of smokers' lungs respond abnormally to pollution, causing disease, the researchers explained. This does not occur in nonsmokers.

"One of the lessons of this study is, 'Don't smoke,' " said senior author Ronald Crystal, chairman of genetic medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian in New York City.

The researchers will follow the smokers without COPD to see if they develop lung disease.

The study was published recently in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

"Even at 'safe' or 'good' levels, smokers may be much worse off than nonsmokers with environmental pollution," Crystal said in a Weill Cornell news release.

SOURCE: Weill Cornell Medicine, news release, Aug. 29, 2018

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Butterfly Pea Tea: Be Captivated by This Color-Changing Drink

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10014

Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmand who lived during the 1st century A.D. and enjoyed all things luxurious, coined the phrase “We eat first with our eyes.”1 Indeed, many people are drawn to food and beverages that look delicious, interesting and unique, making it much more likely that you’ll savor them.

The same can be said for beverages, and one distinctive drink is making waves today because of its ability to change color, going from blue to pink to purple. It’s none other than butterfly pea tea. Discover more about this “magic” concoction and why, aside from its out-of-this-world appearance, it may have potential health benefits as well.

What Is Butterfly Pea Tea?

Known by many different names like blue-pea, bluebellvine, cordofan pea, Darwin pea2 and Asian pigeonwings,3 butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea L.) is a plant from the Fabaceae (Leguminosae) or pea family.4,5 Its origins can be traced to tropical Asia, and through the centuries it was widely distributed in the West and East Indies, and then on to Central and South America, India and China.6

Butterfly pea is a climbing legume, with pinnate, alternately-arranged leaves composed of five to six oval leaflets, which are thin, papery and membranous. The slender stems of the plant are covered with short, soft hairs. The small flowers, which are beautiful and funnel-shaped, come in different colors including pink, white and dark blue.7,8 They resemble a woman’s genitals; hence, the botanical name.9

Different parts of the butterfly pea plant are known for being utilized in medicinal and culinary capacities. The fresh root is used in Ayurveda to help ease conditions like tuberculosis, ulcers and asthma. Root juice can also be ingested to help eliminate phlegm.

The leaves, on the other hand, are made into poultices to alleviate swollen joints. The flower is also popular in Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines as an edible food dye. The petals are used to garnish salads, ice cream and soups. The flowers are also brewed into tea.10

According to Bon Appetit, butterfly pea tea has a woody and earthy flavor that’s reminiscent of green tea. However, what’s most interesting about this exotic tea is its ability to change colors. The secret lies in its pH level — the drink changes color depending on the pH of any ingredient that’s added to it.

At its first brew, the beverage has a deep, midnight blue color. If you add a squeeze of lemon or any acidic liquid, it changes to a beautiful, rich violet. Add hibiscus flowers and the drink will turn bright red.11

In Asia, particularly in Thailand and Vietnam, butterfly pea tea is consumed regularly. It’s called “nam dok anchan”12 and is enjoyed as an after-dinner nightcap, or served as a welcome drink in spas and hotels. Thai restaurants also add it to puddings and “pulut inti,” a dessert made from glutinous rice and coconut.13

In the U.S., butterfly pea tea is gaining popularity in bars and restaurants, as it is often added to cocktails and other alcoholic drinks.14

Butterfly Pea Tea Benefits

While many enjoy it mainly for its lovely appearance, drinking butterfly pea tea may allow you to reap certain health benefits as well, because of the plant’s impressive properties. According to a study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, butterfly pea is highly valued in Ayurvedic medicine and “has been used for centuries as a memory enhancer, nootropic, antistress, anxiolytic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant, tranquilizing and sedative agent.”15

Studies have highlighted the potential benefits of butterfly pea extract, which may be passed on to the tea:

• May have antidiabetic properties — A 2015 animal study published in the Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science has found that extracts from butterfly pea flower lowered serum glucose levels of diabetic rats significantly and increased their body weight. The antidiabetic effect was said to be comparable to the diabetes drug glibenclamide.16

• Has potential effects against stress and anxiety — A 2003 study published in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior found that butterfly pea extract may have an effect on the central nervous system (CNS) of mice, and that it may particularly work against depression, stress, anxiety and seizures, and help improve cognitive behavior.

The researchers noted that "The extract exhibited tendency to reduce the intensity of behavior mediated via serotonin and acetylcholine."17

• Helps curb hyperlipidemia, a risk factor of heart disease — A 2010 Pharmaceutical Biology study noted that ingesting butterfly pea extract (made from the plant’s roots and seeds) in combination with the herb Vigna mungo, led to a "significant reduction of serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.”18

The combination helped decrease dietary cholesterol absorption and prompted excretion from the body.

• Helps bring down fever — When given in doses of 200, 300 and 400 milligrams per kilogram, butterfly pea extract led to significant reduction in body temperature, which lasted for five hours after administration. This antipyretic effect was said to be “comparable to that of paracetamol.” These findings were published in a 2004 article in the journal Phytomedicine.19

Butterfly Pea Tea Nutrition Facts and Caffeine Content

A study found that petals of the butterfly pea flowers contain flavonol glycosides, mainly kaempferol, myricetin and quercetin.20 Other chemical constituents that contribute to the tea’s pharmacological effects include phenols, saponins, anthocyanins, flavanols and triterpenoids.21 And since it’s not made from the Camellia sinensis plant, butterfly pea tea is naturally caffeine-free,22 making it an ideal beverage for people with caffeine sensitivity.

How to Make Butterfly Pea Tea

Butterfly pea tea can be enjoyed either hot or cold. If you prefer a refreshing, icy drink that will quench your thirst during hot days, here’s an iced Butterfly Pea Tea recipe from the blog Kirbie’s Cravings:23

Ingredients:

2 cups boiling water

6 teaspoons butterfly pea tea

Juice of a medium lemon

Honey to taste

Ice

Procedure:

Add hot water to the leaves and cover to retain the heat. Let steep for several minutes or until the water is a deep shade of blue.

Stir in lemon juice and add honey to taste. Serve with ice.

Note: You can remove the tea leaves or leave them in the brew.

Butterfly Pea Tea Side Effects

While there are no side effects reported to the butterfly pea flower and dyes made from it,24 the book “Home Remedies,” notes that herbal preparations using the leaves and powdered seeds of the plant may lead to severe nausea and diarrhea.25 Should this occur when you drink the tea, stop and consult your physician immediately.

If you have a health condition or are taking certain medications, it’s advisable to get approval from your doctor before drinking butterfly pea tea. Pregnant and breastfeeding women should also avoid consuming this beverage, as studies about its effects for these groups are still lacking.

Have A Colorful Cup Of Butterfly Pea Tea Today

The magical, color-changing properties of butterfly pea tea may have drawn you to try it, however, there’s more to this tea than its mesmerizing appearance and refreshing flavor. Its host of beneficial nutrients may have potential effects on your health, too. Brew yourself a cup of butterfly pea tea today.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Butterfly Pea Tea

Q: What does butterfly pea tea taste like?

A: The flavor of this tea is described to be reminiscent of green tea, as it is woody and earthy.

Q: Does butterfly pea tea have caffeine?

A: Because it's not made from the Camellia sinensis plant, this floral tea has no caffeine.

Q: Where can you buy butterfly pea tea?

A: Butterfly pea tea can be purchased online or from health food stores. Make sure to check the manufacturer to ensure you only buy a high-quality brand.

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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The Importance of a Yearly Eye Exam for Seniors

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10010

Older adults often underestimate the importance of having an annual vision exam. If the prescription on their glasses seems to be working well, a senior might not want to incur the expense of what seems like an unnecessary exam.

It’s important to know, however, that a yearly visit to the eye doctor includes more than just a vision test.

As we age, our risk for a variety of eye problems increases. Routine screenings can help detect a small problem before it becomes a big one. An annual vision exam can also help identify the presence of other health problems, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

In recognition of National Eye Exam Month, here’s a quick summary of the health conditions that can be identified by scheduling a yearly visit with the eye doctor.

Cataracts: Most seniors know age is the leading risk factor for cataracts. What many people are surprised to learn, however, is that untreated cataracts can lead to vision loss. Cataracts occur when the lens of the eye becomes less flexible. Symptoms include blurred or foggy vision, as well as sensitivity to light. The good news is that cataracts can usually be corrected with a simple outpatient procedure.

Glaucoma: This vision problem is caused by a buildup of pressure within the eye. It can damage the optic nerve and lead to peripheral vision loss or a complete loss of vision. What makes glaucoma challenging is there are usually no early symptoms or pain associated with it. A yearly vision exam is important for catching it in the early stages.

Diabetic retinopathy: This is the leading cause of blindness in adults. Unfortunately, it is another vision problem that has no early warning signs. Diabetic retinopathy is caused by damage to the blood vessels of the retina, which can make them swell and leak fluid. During a yearly vision exam, an eye doctor will dilate the eyes to look for signs of this disease.

Hypertensive retinopathy: Many people are aware of the link between hypertension and heart or kidney problems. But hypertension can also cause vision damage. Because some adults aren’t even aware they have high blood pressure, it can go untreated. Untreated hypertension can damage blood vessels in the back of the eye, which leads to narrowing of the blood vessels in the retina. That can cause bleeding in the back of the eye and swelling of the optic nerve. Having a yearly eye exam gives your doctor a chance to diagnose and intervene while the condition is in its earliest stages.

Cognitive decline: Research seems to suggest a link between mild signs of retinal vascular changes and cognitive decline. Scientists believe an annual vision exam can help detect these changes in their earliest stages, when symptom management may help slow the progression of the illness.

At Sunrise Senior Living communities, resident wellness is a priority. Programs such as Live With Action encourage residents to stay physically active, an important part of aging well. We invite you to join us for a wellness activity at a Sunrise community near you. Call today to learn more!

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healthandfitnessrecipes-blog · 6 years

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Essential Taoist Wisdom For Living in Politically Charged and Chaotic Times

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=10012

There’s an old saying, rumored to be an ancient Chinese curse, but it’s been a favorite in the West for some time now.

“May you live in interesting times.”

Political figures like to use it when they want to emphasize just how screwed up things are. For example, Robert Kennedy is quoted here from a speech in 1966:

“There is a Chinese curse which says “May he live in interesting times.” Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also the most creative of any time in the history of mankind.” [Source]

Sounds pretty much like today, as the times are indeed interesting. Shocking and unbelievable things are happening all around us, and with information technologies we can choose to internalize struggles, tragedies and disasters that are far outside of our sphere of personal experience or control. It’s easier than ever to take on the weight of the world.

The burden of doing so is quite heavy, though, manifesting as stress, anxiety, depression, self-abuse or the abuse of nature, conflict big and small, anger, disease, uneasiness, unhappiness, and most insidious of all, fear. In short, absorbing the world’s problems is self-destructive. To resolve this within ourselves, however, it most often only takes a shift in perspective.

Lao-Tzu, the Old Master of Taoism, condensed the human struggle into the prose of the Tao Te Ching. It’s not a religious text, as it doesn’t hail a deity or command you to construct a belief system on its behalf. It’s a simple book of observations about the nature of nature, something that after 2500+ years still manages to serve as a salient guide to living well. For those who understand it, it offers a way of being that helps keep the madness of change at bay.

In times such as these, when uncertainty and chaos seem to be rising against the established order, and when so much discourse is focused on politics and untouchable events and circumstances, it really is up to the individual to create peace, harmony and balance within themselves.

But as humans, we have a tendency to try to control that which is beyond our control, in turn contributing evermore to the development of chaos and disorder. In truth, it is far easier to navigate such discord than we believe, and the way is far simpler than we imagine it to be. Consider for a moment the Taoist view regarding such interesting times.

From verse 16:

When society changes from its natural state of flux, to that which seems like chaos, the inner world of the superior man remains uncluttered and at peace. By remaining still, his self detached, he aids society in its return to the way of nature and of peace. The value of his insight may be clearly seen when chaos ceases.

Here we are informed of the value of tending to the inner world first, which requires the gumption to detach and allow things to be as they are. We are encouraged to let go of personal expectations in order for muddled waters to clear.

From verse 17:

The sage does not expect that others use his criteria as their own.

It is virtuous to allow others to hold whatever insane beliefs and ideas they choose to, and disengage from the struggle to enforce our opinions and values onto others.

From verse 18:

When intellectualism arises, hypocrisy is close behind…

When the country falls into chaos, politicians talk about ‘patriotism’.

From verse 57:

Govern your country with integrity, Weapons of war can be used with great cunning, but loyalty is only won by not-doing. How do I know the way things are?

By these:

The more prohibitions you make, the poorer people will be. The more weapons you possess, the greater the chaos in your country. The more knowledge that is acquired, the stranger the world will become. The more laws that you make, the greater the number of criminals.

Therefore the Master says:

I do nothing, and people become good by themselves. I seek peace, and people take care of their own problems. I do not meddle in their personal lives, and the people become prosperous. I let go of all my desires, and the people return to the Uncarved Block.

Doing nothing, as advised in the Tao Te Ching, runs in opposition to the cultural zeitgeist, but just imagine how quickly things would change if more people chose to withdraw and not participate in the insanity all around us.

Final Thoughts

As individuals we face the same challenges as all of those who’ve come before us. We’ve always had to survive and procreate while striving for progress. That’s the human journey in nutshell, and while it isn’t always pretty, it’s always the same story, no matter how complex things become.

Our role, then, is the role of the sage, which is to act in accordance with nature rather than to resist nature.

About the Author

Dylan Charles is the editor of Waking Times and co-host of Redesigning Reality, both dedicated to ideas of personal transformation, societal awakening, and planetary renewal. His personal journey is deeply inspired by shamanic plant medicines and the arts of Kung Fu, Qi Gong and Yoga. After seven years of living in Costa Rica, he now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and enjoys spending time with family. He has written hundreds of articles, reaching and inspiring millions of people around the world.

References:

The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, Translated by Stan Rosenthal

The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, Translated by D.C. Lau

This article (Essential Taoist Wisdom for Living in Politically Charged and Chaotic Times) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to DylanCharles and WakingTimes.com.

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The post Essential Taoist Wisdom For Living in Politically Charged and Chaotic Times appeared first on The Mind Unleashed.

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