Here is my interpretation of the medical literature as to which environmental factors increase optimal health:
1. Eating more than 9 servings each day of non-starchy vegetables and berries
2. Daily physical activity, such as walking more than 10,000 steps each day
3. An optimal vitamin D level
4. Normal stress hormone levels maintained by effective stress management
5. Close ties to family and/or friends
6. Lowering the levels of toxic compounds stored in the fat and in the brain
My recommendation to patients, family and friends who want to reduce the severity of their health problems and lower the cost of their health care is to adopt more health-giving behaviors. Some people address everything all at once. Others pick the one behavior they are most confident they can adopt and sustain. Later, as that habit becomes ingrained and energy improves, an individual can successfully add another health behavior. Remember, your health depends much more on your behaviors than on medication, which may control current symptoms but will not reverse disease. To do that, you must adopt more health behaviors. You may be surprised by how much improvement is possible.
Lowering our resting cortisol or stress hormone levels is an important health behavior. One way to do that is through meditation and mindfulness practices. Kilpatrick has shown that individuals who do daily mindfulness practices have reduced cortisol levels and improved connections between their brain cells, both of which are really good for you.
For many people meditation seems intimidating. Many studies have examined the health benefits of transcendental medication done 20 minutes twice daily. Taking the time to focus on breathing and visualization for even five to ten minutes twice a day is also helpful. I encourage you to learn more about visualization and meditation.
The “Soft Belly Meditation”
picture source: anandamarga.org
Sit comfortably in a chair. Close your eyes. Focus on the air coming into and out of your nostrils. As the air comes into your nostrils, imagine the word “soft.” As the air exits your nostrils, imagine the word “belly.”
Meditate for 5 minutes, twice a day. As you become more proficient with meditation, add more minutes to your meditation sessions or more meditation sessions to your day.
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By Dr. Terry Wahls
Dr. Wahls' Amazon Top Seller: "Minding My Mitochondria"
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As a chronic Lyme Disease patient who shares many symptoms with MS patients, I am encouraged. I cannot wait to implement the recommended strategies.
Your story has made such an impact on my family. At 50, my youngest sister was diagnosed with macular degeneration, wet in the right eye, dry in the left. 18 months ago, her daughter (my gorgeous niece) was diagnosed with Bechet’s disease. They live in Wisconsin, and have been trying to adapt their diets per your suggestions. My niece is a terrible eater, is a freshman in college, and doesn’t have access to organic foods.What can they do? Also, you recommended some meditational music in your book, “minding my mito..,” and I was wondering if you had updated your recommendations. If not, could you post them? I’m out of town taking care of my mom, who has Alzheimer’s and would like to order them via Amazon. Thank you, so many blessings and prayers are said for you for all you have done, how you have shared your journey.
Mary
I am guessing you might have got an email reply not shown on here but in case you haven’t here’s the advice of a non-professional paleo eater…do the best you can. I have no idea whether diet will help with either of those two problems but it cannot hurt to imporve diet generally for supporting health if not curing (my suspicion is it might help in one case at least). It is so easy to get hung up on perfect diet vs current diet, but for the majority of us moving in the right direction is the thing we can all achieve. Buy the best veg and food we can afford, trying to source it from cleanest areas without getting too stressed over it, would be my advice.
All the best
Rich
Nancy
Check out Bill harvey’s antibiotic protocol..in three months I went from very ill to functioning much better. Also I credit (although it would need a controlled study to prove) meditation with helping ahuge amount. Also, paleo diets (like Dr Wahl’s) were indicated by many of the LLDs
All the best
Rich