Kamis, 30 Oktober 2008

One Thousand Avocados For God

As the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays approach in 2008, we now find ourselves, as a nation and as a planet, in quite a bit of political, economic, health and enviornmental disarray.

We are all looking for ways to make ends meet and cut down on the stress in our lives. So I will address these issues. My guess is that many of you feel some sort of concern about financial issues whether it is the daily budget, dwindling savings, credit card bills, money for college bills, mileage and gas prices for the aging family automobiles, and so on.

Its the same at the Young homestead here at Rancho Del Sol. Every year I pray for more rain and try to figure out how to save money on the expensive California water we need for thousands of avocado and grapefruit trees. I am always trying to figure out where to save money so I can use that money to reach more people around the world with a pH Miracle message of health and well-being.

If you read my email letters on a regular basis, you will know that I am quite positive that following a healthy, organic, alkaline diet with many raw, green vegetables will save you money over time. Whether you have 50 more years to live or 25, most medical expenses have traditionally occurred in the later years of life. And those expenses can be a thing of the past.

Once your body is alkaline, and once you have rebuilt your blood with my C.O.W.S. program, and once the pH of your urine is around 7.4 on a consistent basis, you are well on your way to permanently increased health and vigor as well as great financial savings.

Remember, the #1 reason for bankruptcy in America for many years has been medical bills. That will not happen to you. I hear from people all the time that pretty much the only reason they visit the doctor anymore is to gloat a bit, to follow-up on some old ailment now in the rear-view mirror, to lecture the poor old besieged doc on the importance of nutrition in health, or to give him a copy of The pH Miracle book. By the way, if you write to me and tell me that you really did get your doctor to read The pH Miracle book that Shelley and I wrote, I'll send you a free copy to replace the one you gave to your physician. I will also be fascinated to hear your story. In fact, I may share it with everybody in one of these emails.

Many people who have been following a balanced pH 80/20 alkaline/acid diet for many years tell us about all the different ways they save money. Some people have replaced their health insurance with a combination of self-insurance, accident insurance, a hospital indemnity policy, and disability programs. Some people on Medicare have not purchased the supplemental insurance because they have not visited the former family physician for several years and are hoping not to for the rest of their lives. Besides, they tell me, they aren't likely to go the drug route anyway now that they know the cucumber and avocado route.

Many have told us that they have saved money because they no longer have doctor visits, co-pays, pharmaceutical drugs, deductibles, tests, clinic and lab fees, medical gadgets, lost time and sick days, and so on. Not to mention the increased energy, creativity, and productivity. Now lets talk about stress. About two years ago, I emailed you an article about Mother Theresa whose level of consciousness allowed her to function in love, joy, peace and enlightenment. Many of you said that you enjoyed that article. Such states of mind--whether they are linked to experiences that are primarily sensory, emotional, psychological, intellectual or spiritual--can only be accompanied by an absence of stress at the physiological or body level.

If you read my emails with any consistency, then you know that there is a solid scientific link between the mind and the body, the psychosomatic or the "somatopsychic." It goes both ways.

We started hearing the world psychosomatic at least 40 or 50 years ago. The mind can cause the body to suffer and the body can cause the mind to suffer. Therefore, it makes good sense to take care of both.

I have discussed from time to time the importance of minimizing stress in our lives. When our minds are filled with thoughts and feelings that include the negative perceptions and experiences of fear, anger and sadness, we are vulnerable to the creation of excessive bodily acid. Toxic acids are actually secreted from various parts of the body directly into the bloodstream when we are in a negative emotional state.

On the other hand, leading a life that includes more experiences in what we might call the love zone can be a challenge. I forget who coined the word love zone, but this state of being includes feelings of affection, joy, compassion, empathy, kindness, happiness and bliss. But living in this zone--you may have noticed--is easier said than done. The world seems so often to pull mightily at the most vulnerable areas of our lives. Our preoccupation with the outer world and things over which we have no control can keep us from entering into those precious moments or hours in the stress-free love zone.

There is one thing in particular that we can do to help us frequent this zone as much as possible. And I will back into this concept with a little story which I enjoy. I call this the 1,000 avocados for God story. It goes like this:

A plantation owner, somewhat foolishly accustomed to bartering with God, prayed for a good harvest. He pleaded thusly: "Dear God, if You would please bring me a great avocado harvest, as a service I will give You 1,000 avocados from the harvest."

God granted him a great harvest. Thus, the plantation owner loaded up a thousand avocados in his wagon and had his foreman deliver them to the temple. Along the way, the foreman was pestered by two little beggar boys who pleaded for an avocado to ward off their hunger. "Shoo, shoo, go away," said the foreman, knowing that the plantation owner had loaded exactly 1,000 avocados.

The hungry little boys ran alongside the wagon and continued to beg. Finally, the hired hand relented and gave each of them an avocado. He thought to himself, who would count all these avocados and know that two are missing from a thousand?

But the plantation owner had warned the chief overseer of the temple to count the avocados to make sure that the foreman had not sold some along the way. He found out that two were missing and had been given to beggars and the plantation owner fired the foreman. That night the plantation owner had a dream. In his dream, God came to him and said, I have granted your prayer for a great harvest, but you have not kept your agreement.

The plantation owner pleaded his case, But God, I took the avocados to you just as I said. God replied, Well, I am sorry that you are in error my friend, because so far, I have received only two. I think you can see why I enjoy this story. And it has many implications far beyond the simple notion that Divine Providence and charity are related. In fact, we might say that Divine Providence resonates to charity.

There is a great deal of emerging evidence and a wonderful new area of study which says that there is a human field of energy which is very subtle, yet powerful, pervasive and immortal.

There is a field of energy which connects every one of us to every one of us. Some refer to this energy as levels of consciousness--and the study of this energy focuses especially on various states of higher consciousness.

Regardless of our personal level of consciousness, we are not only connected to this field of energy, but we are influencing it just as it influences us in return. There is emerging evidence, both experiential and research, that says that as our level of consciousness rises, our body has an increasing ability or tendency to heal itself. There are increasing numbers of prayer studies that show that healing is affected by prayer.

In Dr. David Hawkins book, Power Vs. Force, he designates and describes our levels of consciousness from low to high levels. In the pathological area, he lists (low to high) shame, guilt, apathy, grief, fear, desire, anger, and false pride. The ascending corresponding emotions at those lower levels are humiliation, blame, despair, regret, anxiety, craving, hate, and scorn. As we pass from pathological states into higher states of health and well-being, Hawkins designates and defines (low to high) courage, neutrality, willingness, acceptance, reason, love, joy, peace, and enlightenment. The ascending corresponding emotions at these higher levels are affirmation, trust, optimism, forgiveness, understanding, reverence, serenity, bliss and ineffable.

By contemplating upon these two hierarchies of human levels of consciousness and corresponding emotions, you can easily see the beauty that unfolds as we achieve higher and higher levels of consciousness. Higher levels mean less stress, or course, which means less acid in your body. The simple question then becomes, what is it that I can do to help myself achieve an increasing degree of health, happiness and serenity in my own life? As I have written before, a healthy and peaceful lifestyle includes choosing an alkaline and nutritional diet, exercise, rest and relaxation, good company, doing work which we enjoy, body massage, meditation, sincere gratitude, a reverence for all life, and so on. Some will argue that these conditions are difficult to achieve in a world of economic disarray. Just viewing the problems of hunger and homelessness in the world is frightening. In America, we are told that more than a million people are now losing their homes due to mortgage default. And so, how can we ascend to levels of peace in such a world with so much apparent negativity?

What else is it that we can do to ascend our own levels of consciousness and somehow feel a greater sense of love, the absence of fear, and more acceptance of so many people with whom we seem to have nothing in common, little understanding, a different set of values, and with whom we perceive ourselves to operate from a completely different belief system about the world?

How do we come to a sense of peace and diminish our reflexive stress--the same stress that causes acidic reactions in our body--to the many seemingly unacceptable political, economic, unhappy human elements that surround us?

I believe that science will soon confirm what some have known over the millennia. Virtually all Holy Scripture from all the major religions are in accordance with the idea that the highest devotion to God--man's greatest gift to the energy field of the world in which we are all encompassed--is service to mankind. Research into higher consciousness tells us that the energy of loving service is recorded in the universe on into infinity.

Thus, as Thanksgiving and Christmas approaches in the problematic year of 2008, one of the greatest stress-releasing gifts we can give to ourselves is to give the gift of service to others.

And nothing fosters charitable feelings like charitable actions. Nothing fosters more the acceptance of other people than lending a helping hand. Nothing will bring forth the peace and wisdom that we need to create within ourselves more than providing service to the poor, the needy, the uneducated, the downtrodden, and the afflicted.

Look for service projects in your area and take your family into the world to help others. And over time, nothing will help you to diminish the stress inside your own body more than helping to diminish the stress in those around us. What goes round comes round, and to whatever degree your load of avocados means abundant energy, creativity, intelligence, leadership, money, or time for everyone in the world, I know that you can figure out how to deliver more than two.

In light and love,

Dr. Robert O. Young

An Increase In Kidney Stones In U.S. Children

Why is there an increase in kidney stones, considered to be an acid condition of the middle age, now showing up in children as young as 5? The answer is simple! As the song goes, sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, sugar at supper time. . . Sugar, in ALL its forms is the first major cause of kidney stones. The second major cause of stones is animal protein and the third major cause is the lack of physical exercise with sweating.

Our children are over-acid from too much sugar, animal protein and the lack of exercise. If you look at the breakfast that U.S. children are eating it is all highly acidic foods and drinks. From sugary cereals, milk, fruit juices to eggs and bacon. The human body, especially a child's body cannot deal with ALL the food and drink acid. The body has to protect itself from dietary acid so it binds it with mineral salts, like sodium, calcium and potassium. This natural biological process creates stones as a protection to the organs that sustain life. Kidney stones, gallstones, bladder stones, breast stones, brain stones, etc., are all the result of acid from the diet and lifestyle. A stone is just the beginning. If the acid lifestyle and diet continues this will surely lead to stroke, diabetes and cancer, which are all on the rise in our children.

What is happening to our children has to stop and it must begin with the parents. Parents need to be the change we need to see in our children. Parents need to get off their acidic lifestyles and diet and start alkalizing their bodies as they then turn to their children. Just like in an airplane emergency - first put on your oxygen mask and then put on your child's mask.

So, how do you prevent or reverse kidney stones, diabetes, stroke and cancer in a child? The answer is simple! With an alkaline lifestyle and diet. I refer to this alkaline lifestyle and diet as "pH Miracle Living." The program for "pH Miracle Living" is encapsulated in my "C.O.W.S." Plan. The "C.O.W.S." Plan stands for the following:

"C" - Chlorophyll, Clay and Cleansing with green plant foods, green vegetable juices, liquid chlorophyll, and montmorillonite clay.

"O" - Oxygen and Oil including daily exercise for at least 1 hour and 2 to 3 ounces of unsaturated oil from avocado, hemp, pomegarnate, pumpkin, flax and olive.

"W" - Water that is pure and ionized at a pH of 9.5 and an electrical potential of -150 mV.

"S" - Salt and sunshine with an increase in sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium mineral salts and 30 minutes a day of sunshine.

Walt Disney said, "our future is our children." Our children have the human right to health, energy and happiness. Our children need our love and support and a lifestyle and diet that will give them the health, energy and happiness.

The cure for all sickness and dis-ease, including kidney stones is found in its prevention not in its treatment.

And now, for the article by Laurie Tarkan published in the New York Times, October 27th, 2008. To the great surprise of parents, kidney stones, once considered a disorder of middle age, are now showing up in children as young as 5 or 6.

While there are no reliable data on the number of cases, pediatric urologists and nephrologists across the country say they are seeing a steep rise in young patients. Some hospitals have opened pediatric kidney stone clinics.

“The older doctors would say in the ’70s and ’80s, they’d see a kid with a stone once every few months,” said Dr. Caleb P. Nelson, a urology instructor at Harvard Medical School who is co-director of the new kidney stone center at Children’s Hospital Boston. “Now we see kids once a week or less.”

Dr. John C. Pope IV, an associate professor of urologic surgery and pediatrics at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, said, “When we tell parents, most say they’ve never heard of a kid with a kidney stone and think something is terribly wrong with their child.”

In China recently, many children who drank milk tainted with melamine — a toxic chemical illegally added to watered-down milk to inflate the protein count — developed kidney stones.
The increase in the United States is attributed to a host of factors, including a food additive that is both legal and ubiquitous: salt.

Though most of the research on kidney stones comes from adult studies, experts believe it can be applied to children. Those studies have found that dietary factors are the leading cause of kidney stones, which are crystallizations of several substances in the urine. Stones form when these substances become too concentrated.

Forty to 65 percent of kidney stones are formed when oxalate, a byproduct of certain foods, binds to calcium in the urine. (Other common types include calcium phosphate stones and uric acid stones.) And the two biggest risk factors for this binding process are not drinking enough fluids and eating too much salt; both increase the amount of calcium and oxalate in the urine.
Excess salt has to be excreted through the kidneys, but salt binds to calcium on its way out, creating a greater concentration of calcium in the urine and the kidneys.

“What we’ve really seen is an increase in the salt load in children’s diet,” said Dr. Bruce L. Slaughenhoupt, co-director of pediatric urology and of the pediatric kidney stone clinic at the University of Wisconsin. He and other experts mentioned not just salty chips and French fries, but also processed foods like sandwich meats; canned soups; packaged meals; and even sports drinks like Gatorade, which are so popular among schoolchildren they are now sold in child-friendly juice boxes.

Children also tend not to drink enough water. “They don’t want to go to the bathroom at school; they don’t have time, so they drink less,” said Dr. Alicia Neu, medical director of pediatric nephrology and the pediatric stone clinic at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. Instead, they are likely to drink only once they’re thirsty — but that may be too little, too late, especially for children who play sports or are just active.

“Drinking more water is the most important step in the prevention of kidney stones,” Dr. Neu said.

The incidence of kidney stones in adults has also been rising, especially in women, and experts say they see more adults in their 20s and 30s with stones; in the past, it was more common in adults in their 40s and 50s.

“It’s no longer a middle-aged disease,” Dr. Nelson said. “Most of us suspect what we’re seeing in children is the spillover of the overall increase in the whole population.”
The median age of children with stones is about 10.

Many experts say the rise in obesity is contributing to kidney stones in children as well as adults. But not all stone centers are seeing overweight children, and having a healthy weight does not preclude kidney stones. “Of the school-age and adolescent kids we’ve seen, most of them appear to be reasonably fit, active kids,” Dr. Nelson said. “We’re not seeing a parade of overweight Nintendo players.”

Dr. Slaughenhoupt has seen more overweight children at his clinic. “We haven’t compared our data yet,” he said, “but my sense is that children with stones are bigger, and some of them are morbidly obese.”

Dr. Pope, in Nashville, agreed. His hospital lies in the so-called stone belt, a swath of Southern states with a higher incidence of kidney stones, and he said doctors there saw two to three new pediatric cases a week.

“There’s no question in my mind that it is largely dietary and directly related to the childhood obesity epidemic,” he said.

Fifty to 60 percent of children with kidney stones have a family history of the disease. “If you have a family history, it’s important to recognize your kids are at risk at some point in their life,” Dr. Nelson said. “That means instilling lifelong habits of good hydration, balanced diet, and avoiding processed high-salt, high-fat foods.”

There is also evidence that sucrose, found in sodas, can also increase risk of stones, as can high-protein weight-loss diets, which are growing in popularity among teenagers.
A common misconception is that people with kidney stones should avoid calcium. In fact, dairy products have been shown to reduce the risk of stones, because the dietary calcium binds with oxalate before it is absorbed by the body, preventing it from getting into the kidneys.

Children with kidney stones can experience severe pain in their side or stomach when a stone is passing through the narrow ureter through which urine travels from the kidneys to the bladder. Younger children may have a more vague pain or stomachache, making the condition harder to diagnose. Children may feel sick to their stomach, and often there is blood in the urine.
One Saturday last February, 11-year-old Tessa Cesario of Frederick, Md., began having back pains. An aspiring ballerina who dances en pointe five nights a week, she was used to occasional aches and strains. But this one was so intense that her parents took her to the doctor.

The pediatrician ordered an X-ray, and when he phoned with the results, her parents were astonished.

“I was afraid he was calling to say she pulled something and wouldn’t be able to dance,” said her mother, Theresa Cesario. Instead, they were told that Tessa had a kidney stone.
“I thought older men get kidney stones, not kids,” Ms. Cesario said.

The treatment for kidney stones is similar in children and adults. Doctors try to let the stone pass, but if it is too large, if it blocks the flow of urine or if there is a sign of infection, it is removed through one of two types of minimally invasive surgery.

Shock-wave lithotripsy is a noninvasive procedure that uses high-energy sound waves to blast the stones into fragments that are then more easily passed. In ureteroscopy, an endoscope is inserted through the ureter to retrieve or obliterate the stone.

Tessa Cesario is taking a wait-and-see approach. Her stone is not budging, so her parents are putting off surgery until they can work it into her dance schedule. In the meantime, she has vastly reduced her salt intake by cutting back on sandwich meats, processed soups and chips.

And, her mother said, “she drinks a ton more water.”