What would you do to find out what percent of your body is fat?  Archimedes came up with a pretty infallible test.  Most of the rest are proxies, pretenders at best.  I here examine, for some, the worthless BMI measure and what the military has to say on the matter. Check out the equations, BMI widget and charts.

OVER THE last two days, I’ve been obsessed with measuring fat.

Not how much fat is in a particular food whispering to me.  Not how much covers my own real estate, nicely spread out, I might add.  But how much – measured as a percent of body mass – is in, and on, every body.

This is a long story, and over time I’ll get it out on this blog in sufficient detail to make you batty, but suffice to say for today:

I want to find a way to quickly, easily and accurately measure body fat!

What’s led me to this quest is part of that aforementioned long story; this part:

As I’ve gotten older, this boomer body that once was the high temple of athleticism has over the years, very slowly, certainly imperceptibly month-to-month, gotten fatter.

About 15 years ago, my perennial 34” waist sized pants inched up to size 36.  Now big deal, because you know what?  My upper body got a bit larger too.  So the whole package looked about the same.  Same proportions.

Yes, the resistance training (aka weight lifting) kept the muscle going and the muscle kept the fat from sagging, but you know what?

It’s been dawning on me that if I take off my shirt and peer bare-chested at the mirror, it seems like some cruel artist took a thick paint brush dripping with fat and layered it on sufficient for me to more resemble the Pillsbury dough boy than ever before.

(Ahh, well, I did have that one pre-teen year when my father was stationed in Ethiopia that I was miserable, and – apparently – ate myself into to a so-called “husky” pant’s size.)

There are reasons for this beyond my own fault.

Really?

Yes, it’s not my fault that as I got older certain aspects of my socialization shifted, like from charging up Mt. Tamalpais on mountain bikes with my buddies to swirling some red wine around a glass to see what kind of “legs” it presented.

And it’s not my fault that as I got older certain aspects of my biology shifted around a bit, producing relatively more estradiol than testosterone than before.

Certainly, it’s not my fault that I actually got older.  Can’t beat that, can you?

(Actually, can surely slow it down, as chronology does not equal biology, but exploring that is for another post.)

“Just how fat are you now, Joe?”, I asked the plump figure in the mirror.

Right behind me against the wall, I have something that should be able to tell me, a Tanita BC534 Glass InnerScan Body Composition Monitor.  This means a scale that can suggest what percent of your body is fat.

It looks like this:

In the sentence above, I carefully selected the word “suggest” when describing what Tanita and every other scale does that attempts to measure body fat by a technique called Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis.

You push a button, step on the scale and an unfelt, harmless electrical current passes through your body with greater impedance in the lower water containing tissue, such as fat, than fat-free mass which contains more water. This difference is measured and out pops a reading of your body fat percentage.

The Interpretation of that electrical resistance is, in part, left to certain formulas, and they cannot account for shifting variables.

These variables include age, gender, ethnicity, body size, fitness level and how much water you’ve been drinking.  (It’s probably not enough water and that will make the scale suggest that you’re fatter than you are.  Or not.)

What it all boils down to is that you can not be certain that the egregiously high percent body fat number that gets displayed on the scale’s LCD panel after the electricity gently pervades your body is the right number.

And that’s a relief because when you see that truly big number pop up and your heart starts racing, you’ll soon remind yourself that it might just be wrong, that you might not be quite that fat.

“These damn scales just ain’t accurate!”, you’ll mutter to yourself, because no way you’re going to let anyone else near you and that scale.

And you’re right, gentle reader, but – unfortunately – they’re pretty close.

Lordy Be, I’ve Got Cognitive Dissonance

So, I know what the Tanita will tell me and I’ve been slow to accept it.  “I simply can’t be that fat”, I sputter.

Although that image in the mirror might have shades of P. Boy… after a good weight lifting session, a roll in some olive oil, dimmed lights and some squinting — why, there’s my former lean mean muscle machine self peering back at me.

The psychologists call this “cognitive dissonance”.

I’ll give you the link, but this is worthy of copying the definition here cause it underscores my point (which assumes I know where all of this is going, but I don’t… not yet…), and that is:

“Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognitions (e.g., ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously. In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment”

Surprise… check.

Guilt… nay

Anger… nay

Embarrassment… a bit, after all, I’m a health blogger!

Now, truth be told, if I’m willing to believe Tanita, she suggests I’m only about 10 pounds overweight, depending what is the right percent body fat for me.

Which leads me a step closer to the whole point of this post:

What Percent Fat is Too Fat?

There are two answers to this question – yours and scientists.

The scientists give us charts, like this one (click to enlarge):

And you give yourself your own acceptable level, the athlete’s being lower than the couch surfer’s.

A quick scan of the above chart will show that it’s OK from a health perspective to be relatively fatter as you age, but that such healthy fat levels are quite a bit lower than those associated with being overweight and obese.

If my readers’ bodies have the overall fat distribution of the U.S. population, there’s a 6- in-10 chance that you are in the yellow or orange section of the chart, and a 3-in-10 chance you’re orange.

And yet, I bet that you really don’t know what color you are, speaking contextually.

And, I bet that if you could turn around and grab your Tanita sitting against the wall of your bathroom, push the button, stand on it, peer down at that insulting number which races your heart, you too wouldn’t believe it.

And the fact that you might be justified in not believing it is why for over the last two days I’ve been obsessed with measuring fat.

You and I — we just want another opinion.

BMI Nonsense, and The Search for the Perfect Fat Measuring Algorithm

“BMI” stands for “Body Mass Index”, and is a proxy for human body fat based on an individual’s weight and height. Unfortunately, BMI doesn’t actually measure the percentage of body fat; rather, it’s a simple numeric measure of a person’s “thickness” or “thinness” relative to an average distribution of people (adults) in the population.

A BMI of 18.5 to 25 may indicate optimal weight; a BMI lower than 18.5 suggests the person is underweight while a number above 25 may indicate the person is overweight; a person may have a BMI below 18.5 due to disease; a number above 30 suggests the person is obese (over 40, morbidly obese).

Here’s the chart (click to enlarge):

Here’s the formulas:

English BMI Formula BMI = (Weight in Pounds / (Height in inches x Height in inches) ) x 703
Metric BMI Formula BMI = (Weight in Kilograms / (Height in Meters x Height in Meters ) )

For your convenience, here’s a widget to calculate your BMI:

The odds are that your BMI fairly represents where you sit on the chart relative to the rest of the population.  But if you’re particularly short, or tall or muscular, or an athlete (weekend warriors are disqualified), then the BMI results for you are phooey.

BMI simply does not account for non-average muscle size, density or frame size.

I’m large framed, tall and lift weights regularly.  I wonder what BMI would say about me?

I popped my numbers into the BMI widget:

Which brings me back to my “cognitive dissonance”, for as you can see, with a BMI of 25.8, I’m considered overweight.

Overweight on the above Body Fat Ranges chart (OK, they call it “Overfat”) would put me at around 23% body fat.

Even Tanita isn’t that cruel!

I want another approach.  Enter stage right, the Navy and Air force (and others) to the rescue.

The Navy, Air Force and Whatever Algorithms

Let’s cut to the chase – these fine institutions recognize that BMI ain’t where it’s at, that there needs to be some way to factor in density, muscle and frame size.

The Navy, Air Force and others came up with proxies – decent representations – for density, muscle, fat and frame sized based upon thousands of data points that show a strong relationship between certain physical parts and these attributes.

They are, depending on the test: wrist size (proxy for frame size), neck size (proxy for muscle) and belly size (proxy for fat).

Here are some examples of the equations:

males: % body fat = 86.010 x log10(abdomen – neck) – 70.041 x log10(height) + 36.76

females: % body fat = 163.205 x log10(waist + hip – neck) – 97.684 x log10(height) – 78.387

The bad news is that I don’t have a handy widget for this to present you so you can calculate your own body fat via this method.

The good news is that you can use these formulas in Excel, plug in your numbers and get your results.

I did.

My result was 19% body fat… lower than what BMI suggests and Tanita whispers, but leaving me stuck in my cognitive dissonance nonetheless.

So, I’m going to stay obsessed with this… in fact, I’m seeking to come up with my own simple and accurate body percent fat calculation method… till I get what I want to hear… err, I mean, till I get it right.

Have you any thoughts on this matter? 

If so, please submit them in the Comments section below.

I WRITE about this reluctantly.

Penis Size Matters More to Men than Women

It’s Tuesday morning, the time each week when I chain myself to the desk and pray to the muse that I can write something of interest both to me and the readers of this blog.

If a topic hasn’t already been itching me, I scan articles I’ve bookmarked for the purpose of commenting, expanding or simply inspiring me to write on the subject.

I also will look at my blog stats and see which article topics are being read the most.

Sometimes, I peer out the window and scan Richardson Bay for a mermaid muse.

Some time ago, I had a laugh when I read about a South Korean study that showed that the relative size of a man’s index and ring fingers indicate penis size.

“I’ve got to write about this… it will go viral!” I said to myself.

So I wrote Drats! It’s No Longer a Secret — Penis Size Is Determined by Finger Length. The post did not go viral, but it’s among the top 10 read here on this humble site.

Given the prominence of the subject among my readers, when I bumped into a Time Healthland article by Meredith Melnick called Add Inches!! (No, Really, Men Can Make It Longer), I thought, “I gotta put my spin on this!”

With all that as an explanation for this most importantly trite subject, let’s get to the chase:

Fellas, the gals care a heck of a lot less about your junk than you do!

Now, to you puerile hecklers, let me say that this definitive factoid does not come from my own experiential research trove of three data points, but from those Kinsey Institute sex researcher types.

Armed with clipboards and penis tissue expansion implements resembling Middle Age spine stretching, pain inflicting torture devices, among others, these able scientists romp through the countryside, surveying woman and testing the permanent expansion capabilities of said penises. (Temporary blood flow augmentation will not suffice.)

Here, in two bullet points, their findings:

• Although only 55% of men are satisfied with their third leg, 85% of women are, the best indication yet that they really should rule the world.

(We men still need to adjust their appetite for girth, as they still kinda like that, at least relative to length.)

• Among all the touted miracle grow wand enhancing devices and potions, Tristan and Iseult had it right – only the pull-it-apart-stretch-traction devices worked, averaging an increase of wonderwang size between 0.7 and 0.9 inches while flaccid, and 0.67 inches when at full mast.

(Best done when unemployed, unless you’re willing to take said devices to work cause it requires hours of stretching each day.)

Now, before I continue, a word to those who have contemplated the uncontemplatable – letting a scalpel carve your manhood into some Mt. Rushmore edifice…

Don’t!

The surgical treatments, the researchers found, were dangerous and had “unacceptably high rate of complications.”  Yeah, and unless self-adornment is only for the mirror’s sake, for whom would you be slicing and dicing for anyway?

Remember that first bullet point above.

What About Erectile Dysfunction, You Breathlessly Ask?

Before I conclude this memorable post that surely you’ll want to share with all your buds on Facebook, let me report what these able medical people discovered about what works for erectile dysfunction.

They found that the use of Peno-scrotal Rings, which fit around the scrotum and base of the penis, helped beef up size and maintain erection.  That said, the sample size was the mind numbing number of 2, which makes the results rather completely inconclusive.

Turning next to the honed art of Penis Pumping, the data suggested that a six-month regimen of daily penis pumping — using a pump to create a vacuum inside a cylinder to stretch the penis — was both painful and ineffective.

In Conclusion

Fellas, your takeaway from this post is that your edifice for procreation is sufficiently appreciated by women that you should relax about its power to awe, and redirect such energies to developing a six-pack, cause there’s some pretty strong evidence that supports the contention that strong abs are preferred by most women over the Michelin Man.

And about that I do speak from my own trove.

Yep.

P.S.  You can read the article from which these stats were unceremoniously extracted here, and which were partly based upon a review of studies conducted by the British Association of Urological Surgeons.

P.P.S.  If you wish for me to stop blogging about such small and trivial matters, let me know in the Comments section below.

Related posts:

1. Drats! It’s No Longer a Secret — Penis Size Is Determined by Finger Length
2. Guidelines Push Back Age for Cervical Cancer Tests
3. A New Birth Control Method for Brave Men

When life puts you in a hard place, you scramble to find out why.  The mind lurches backward, picking away at clues you may conjure, and then stumbles forward into a future projection of fear or fantasy.  Is there value to simply stay in the present?

OVER THE past weekend I had a visit from an ole college friend now living in Copenhagen.  He married a Danish lass, and after starting the family in Portland, they decided that their two kids would get a better education and learn more of the world in Denmark.

His girl is now in a college in Scotland that’s over 500 years old, and his son at a college in England that’s just a bit younger.

Each year, “Tom” travels to the Bay Area (California) to visit his parents.  Both in their mid-eighties, they’re now at the stage of life where they need his and her sister’s help.  She lives in Mexico.

Unlike me, Tom’s always has been a diligent and consistent worker. After the last ten years with IBM, he was caught in a downsizing downdraft last month and spun out of employment.

We had lots to talk about; our venue was a long walk through the hills of Sausalito.

So, here we are, Tom and I drifting along in a modern stereotype: Two unemployed 50-something year-olds caught between the generation that made us and that which we made (in Tom’s case), like a deer in the headlights.

“How did we get here?”

That was Tom’s voice. I had already answered the question for myself a thousand times, each with it’s own unsatisfying twist, as if one could be bend the light to illuminate.

We had both gone to good universities, graduated with technical degrees of sorts and did well in our careers for a while; he a longer while than me.

Now, we’re aimlessly wandering around hill and dale picking away at whatever shreds of understanding the winds of change have not blown away.

“One foot after another”, I replied to his question.

Tom didn’t even bother to grin at that remark, as his brain’s neurons were hopping synapses in a flurry.

“I was reading Ekhart Tolle”, the other day, he said.

“Which book, The Power of Now or A New Earth?”

“The first one.”

“And?”

“Tolle has helped me stay centered, stay present.”

“Yes, well that’s his thing.”

“I mean, think about it,” Tom continued, “Right now we couldn’t want for anything. Right now.  Here.  The sun warms us, the air is fresh and fragrant, we’re getting exercise and that cappuccino we just drank was delicious!

“Yep”.

“So, what Tolle is saying is that it’s only when we conjure up the past, which no longer exists, or project the future, which has yet to exist, do we get all wound up and off kilter.”

“Yep”.

Four more strides in silence, then I responded:

“I’ve given this a lot of thought, Tom.  I read Tolle after having read several books on Buddhism.  The Buddhists say that to be alive is to suffer due to attachments, and that the solution to suffering is to drop the attachments to things.

“At the time I was reading this Buddhist stuff about 20 years ago, I was at my first inflection point in my career.  I was seeking to understand where I was in life and how to move forward.

“I was stuck at what I perceived to be a dichotomy in this Buddhist philosophy – if the aim is detachment, how do you cultivate the energy, focus and drive to create anything good in your life?

“What is produced without desire?  This was my quandary.

“Which ties into Tolle’s, (and Ram Dass) admonition to, in effect, be here now… not in what happened yesterday or may happen tomorrow.”

Tom looked up and at me thoughtfully, encouraging me to blab on.

“Well, assuming you’re not in pain, the present moment is a relatively suffer free zone.  The suffering the Buddhists refer to happens in the mind and it happens when the mind is sifting through the past or projecting an unhappy future.  Tolle says the same thing.

“This doesn’t mean that you can’t want something to happen in your life, but that you need to be detached from it unfolding exactly like you want it.”

Tom has a way of scrunching his forehead and twisting down his mouth in a wonderfully unique expression of a frown, which is what he did.

“I need an example”, he said.

“I’m better at abstraction.”

“Don’t be lazy… I need an example.”

Four more strides in silence.

“OK, this is inane, but what if you had yourself all twisted in a knot over the blond next door.  You grew up together and you just knew that she was the one you had to marry or your life would be shit.

“She marries someone else, and, as you’ve determined it, you’re life proceeds to be shit.

“Rather than having been so attached to an outcome where only the blond next door could have been your wife, the Buddhist/Tolle slant would suggest that you focus instead on the feeling you want to cultivate in a marriage and seek to attract the person who could help provide that. This way, you would not have completely missed the sultry brunette that lived just a block away who wanted you.”

“That’s inane”, Tom said.

“It’s the best I’ve got right now”, I said.

The next four strides extended into another mile in silence as two unemployed boomers were left to their respective thoughts about a future, with or without suffering.

I know which I’ll endeavor to have.

Yep.

Related posts:

1. Be here now: “Gerry’s” Dharma Lesson
2. Did Steve Jobs’ Life Exemplify Zen Buddhism?
3. Addicted to the Past?

Feed yourself through the nose on the new fad K-E Diet and lose weight fast!  It works… you can lose 10, 15, 20 pounds in 10 days, but only temporarily. You will rebound, perhaps gaining it all back and more! Read (watch) about this new diet fad taken up by soon-to-be brides desperate to fit into their wedding gowns.

HOW CAN I possibly understand the monstrous stress that soon-to-be brides are under to fit into an impossibly small wedding gown?  Stress so poignant that some are willing to feed themselves a slurry of protein and fat through their noses.

Yes, you’re reading this right.

As reported in Good Morning America yesterday (April 16, 2012):

“Brides-to-be looking to shed that final 10, 15 or 20 pounds in order to fit into their dream wedding gown have taken a controversial approach to crash dieting that involves inserting a feeding tube into their noses for up to 10 days for a quick fix to rapid weight loss.”

This quickie solution to a long-term problem is called the “K-E Diet”.

Dr. Oliver Di Pietro, who promotes the K-E Diet, says that its a perfectly safe, “…hunger-free, effective way of dieting,” under a doctor’s supervision.  Further, he remarks:

“Within a few hours and your hunger and appetite go away completely, so patients are actually not hungry at all for the whole 10 days. That’s what is so amazing about this diet.”

So, I just pulled a needle out of my bachelor’s sized sewing kit, and am about to jab this inflated quick fix diet.

First, how is it that the bride-to-be comes to Jesus about her weight – that she’s too heavy to fit into her custom-fit gown – just 10 days before her wedding?

Next, what’s the point of pretending to yourself and your spouse and the 100+ guests in attendance that you’re really 10, 15 or 20 pounds lighter than you really are, and will soon be again after the wedding, particularly after the heavy feeding and drinking bouts during the honeymoon?

(No, sex doesn’t burn it all away.)

If this was not an exercise in self-deception, the bride would have known long before the wedding was imminent that she wanted/needed to lose weight for whatever reason, fitting into the wedding gown being a pretty good one.

The Good Morning America show showcases 41-year-old Jessica Schnaider of Surfside, Fla., who said she felt that she couldn’t lose the needed 10 pounds in time for a fast approaching June wedding approaching.

She was desperate for a quick fix.

“I don’t have all of the time on the planet just to focus an hour and a half a day to exercise so I came to the doctor, I saw the diet, and I said, ‘You know what? Why not? Let me try it. So I decided to go ahead and give it a shot,” Ms Schanider said, and further explained that she had a lot of explaining to do to those thinking that an already fairly svelte woman running around 24/7 with a tube in her nose and a pouch of slurry in her bag is a bit odd.

I guess because I have a finance background, I quickly made an analogy of this quick fix K-E Diet to lottery tickets.

Stay with me here…

You’re 60+ years old and the date of your retirement looms.  Problem is, you haven’t saved any money for it.  So… eureka… you’ll start buying lottery tickets.  If you win, you’re retirement is assured.

OK, so to make this analogy fit to the brides on the K-E Diet, our lottery buyer wins the money for his retirement, just as the bride-to-be loses the weight she wants in time for her wedding.

Problem is, most lottery winners lose their money way before they’re in the grave.

Because they didn’t go through the process of earning and saving he money, learning investment and spending lessons along the way, the lottery winnings are quickly frittered away.

Similarly, because the K-E dieter didn’t learn to eat properly for sustained nutrition and weight, she will inevitably regain the weight lost on her K-E lottery ticket diet.

Over at Forbeswoman, Alice G. Walton weighs in about this diet in her article, The ‘Feeding Tube Diet’ And Our Limitless Weight-Loss Idiocy, where she quotes David L. Katz, MD, MPH, founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center.  He says this about the K-E Diet:

“In terms of quick weight loss, it is a guarantee of quick rebound, since it involves no useful behavior change whatsoever. It has nothing at all to do with health, and basically endorses the notion that weight loss by any means is acceptable. If that is so, I recommend a 10-day cocaine binge. It will work as well, and probably be more fun, than a nasogastric tube.”

Cocaine binge aside, with us humans, it seems that most things propagate from our psychology, our attitudes, which brings me to the comment made by psychoanalyst Bethany Marshall, who said matter-of-factly:

“If you lose the weight too quickly your mind is not going to be able to catch up with a newer, skinnier you.”

He didn’t expound further on this line of reasoning, but me thinks he’d concur with my assertion that the K-E Diet is another crazy diet that’s hardly worth it.

Watch Dr. Di Pietro’s video about the K-E Diet below. You can watch the Good Morning America show here. Tell us what you think in the Comments section below.

Related posts:

1. Five Diet and Exercise Myths that Need to Die
2. Dr Oz and the 14-Day Reboot Diet Plan
3. Weighing the Evidence on Exercise and Diet to Lose Weight

Overfed and under nourished?  Overweight?  Tired?  Eat a lot of bread, pasta and soda?  Time to Watch Hungry for Change. Peak Performance guru Tony Robbins says, “This inspiring film has the power to transform your health!”  Expect it does, should you follow its insights, for these 12 health experts know about what they speak and live their talk.

Hungry for Change, the documentary

NOW THRU Sunday, March 31, 2012 you can watch Hungry for Change free.  Fine, but why would you want to?

Well, it could be that your physical self could use an overhaul, or perhaps just a tweak.  If neither is true, you might just be interested in the topic of how diet relates to… no, in fact, determines health.

I certainly learned a few things from watching Hungry for Change, and as I watched about twelve health professionals be interviewed about food, diet, chemicals, cleansing and disease, I took notes.

Here are my notes followed by the Hungry for Change trailer:

Most Americans are overfed and under nourished, which leads to being overweight with an incessant desire to eat.

Many chemicals we ingest from polluted and/or manufactured food are fat loving, in that they get stored in fat cells.  When we lose fat, we also need to detoxify, not just by burning fat but also by getting rid of chemicals released by the fat. The chemicals need to exit the system.

[Read It’s Detox Time, A Simple, Effective Cleanse and Dr Oz: How to Prepare for Your Cleanse.]

The body yearns to detoxify. Foods that are chlorophyll-rich, such as green vegetables, bind to heavy metals and chemicals and pass out of the body. Gelatinous plant foods, like chia seeds, psyllium husk powder and seaweed become gelatinous when wet.  As they move through the gastrointestinal track they absorb bile salts, bind to them and pass them out of the body before they get reabsorbed.

Certain “greens” like parsley and cilantro are effective chemical detoxifiers (as is niacin).  Parsley cleanses the blood and cilantro binds with heavy metals, like mercury, which gets into our body through polluted air, some types of fish and silver/mercury amalgam teeth fillings.

[Read The Right Tuna for You and the Ocean and The Ultimate Heavy Metal Detox]

Eating abundantly from the veggie kingdom is vital for proper nutrition. If perplexed about how to go about this because either you’re disinterested in becoming a veggie chef or are unwilling to train your palette to appreciate the taste, get a juicer.

The idea behind juicing vegetables and fruit (more veggies than fruit, as too much fruit yields too much sugar) is that you can consume much more of the healthy phytochemicals if the juice is separated from the pulp.  This nutrition is absorbed and building up your body within 15 minutes.

[Read Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.]

Evita Remparte was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  First she did a juice cleanse detox for three days and lost seven pounds. She continued and revamped her diet, making it vegetable and juice focused.  After four months, she was cancer free and lost a considerable amount of excess weight. Hers is probably not a prescription for combating cancer, but what she did worked for her.

Lustrous skin and hair indicate health. It’s the outer evidence of inner health.  The plentiful consumption of natural foods can result in lustrous skin and hair.  This can happen in 30 days.  The skin is a symbol of our nutrition, as it conveys what’s going on inside our bodies.  Improve the quality of your skin and hair by eating less wheat-based and packaged foods, replacing them with foods that look like they just came from the farm.

Cosmetics are a chemical dumping ground: horse urine and fragrance chemicals get absorbed into your body and potentially excite disease.

Traumas and Dramas.  The “A Study” is a study about obesity.  It posits that obesity is the result of stress and emotional adversity.  People turn to food to nurture themselves.  Stress causes cortisol, the so-called “death hormone”, which makes you gain weight.

Visualization is the language to use to communicate with your subconscious. Make a visual image of the way you want to look.  Focus on it and absorb it regularly.  Imagine being and living in that body.  This can turn the program off that undermines you.

Love of self and others is cited as the crucial component for health and weight loss. When you feel unloved, you feel unsafe. If you feel worthless and unloved, you need to unwind the internal chatter that limits and undermines you.  Tell yourself this:

“I accept myself unconditionally right now”.

Then pause and observe the nasty, contradictory messages that challenge this assertion, such as:

“You’re overweight, you’re unloved, and you don’t have a job”.

Repeat the affirmative self-talk.  After 30 days of consistently repeating this mantra, those nasty voices will go quiet as you get stronger

Three questions to improve your life:

1. Where does my food come from?
2. What attitudes care or love went into the food?
3. What is my intention with this food – nutrition or entertainment?

Paying attention to these three questions throughout that day will shift your response to, and selection of, the food you eat.

OK, so that’s what I got from my notes; and, mind you, I only started taking them about half way through the documentary.  Watch the trailer below and than go see the whole kit and kaboodle free until March 31, 2012, at either at Dr. Mercola’s website here, or sign-up and watch it at the HungeryForChange.tv website.

Here’s the trailer to Hungry for Change:

Contributors to Hungry for Change include:

Related posts:

1. Need to Change? Make it Fun!
2. The Reboot Diet and the Detox Effect
3. The Reboot Cleanse Diet – Two Common Struggles

Gynostemma pentaphyllum, also called jiaogulan, is a powerful adaptagen-type herb.  Studies indicate it may help reverse some chronic illness and give your longevity a boost.  Listen to health advocate David Wolfe and herbalist Truth Calkins explore the benefits of Gynostemma.

Gynostemma, a Poweful Herbal Adaptagen

EVER ON the lookout for the means to help us live a long and strong life, I regularly dive into information that may lead me on my Ponce de León quest for the Fountain of Youth.

What’s become clear is that – so far – no one thing will do it; rather, living a long and strong life requires a mix of simultaneous, consistent actions, which include these six:

1.  Attitude: The “right” mindset, achieving equanimity, reducing stress.

[Resource: Inspirational Alice – Dancing Under the Gallows at 107]

2. Nutrition: Clean, non-manufactured, unadulterated, organic (preferably), superfood-based food, drink and supplements.

[Resources: Diet 101 and Superfoods Anyone?]

3. Nurtaceuticals: The common term for these are “vitamin supplements” and I break them out from “Nutrition” because, although food/drink can be the best from of bioavailable nutrition, certain nutracueticals, such as antioxidants and herbs, are often more targeted and potent.

[Resources: Dr. Hyman: 4 Supplements Reduce Healthcare Costs and Groovy Supplements.]

4. Detoxification: Cleansing the ubiquitous toxins of the modern world from our lungs, skin, kidney, liver and gastrointestinal track.

[Resources: It’s Detox Time and The Ultimate Heavy Metal Detox.]

5. Exercise: Beyond helping you be more functionally fit so you can climb stairs and lift yourself over a wall (hey, it may happen someday), exercise includes being flexible and properly aligned.

[Resources: How Exercise Slows the Aging Process and How to Boost Your Human Growth Hormone in 20 Minutes.]

6.  Socially/Emotionally Connected: The data clearly shows that people who are connected with their family and community live longer and happier lives.

[Resource: A Mega-Pastor and Three Famous Doctors Hatch “The Daniel Plan”]

So, as you can see, this longevity gig is not some casual, short term endeavor.  It takes a lifetime to live a long time.  And over time, we’re going to learn a lot, requiring constant tweaking of habits.  Almost daily, it seems, science is declaring yet another insight and/or another protocol that may help us reach a very ripe young age – young in terms of how we feel and what we can do.

Today, I want to introduce you to Gynostemma pentaphyllum, also called Jiaogulan, a herbaceous vine indigenous to southern China, northern Vietnam, southern Korea, and Japan.

Gynostemma/Jiaogulan is best known as a herbal medicine reputed to have powerful antioxidant and adaptogenic effects that are thought to increase longevity. Clinical research has indicated a number of therapeutic qualities of Gynostemma, such as lowering cholesterol and high blood pressure, strengthening immunity, and inhibiting cancer growth.

Here’s a quick look through some of the reported benefits of Gynostemma, as presented by wikipedia (check wikipedia for sources of the studies cited below), followed by an audio file interview between health advocate David Wolfe and herbalist Truth Calkins.  Their conversation may convince you to try this remarkable herb.

Antioxidant

Gynostemma/Jiaogulan has been found to increase superoxide dismutase (SOD), which is a powerful endogenous cellular antioxidant. Studies have found it increases the activities of macrophages, T lymphocytes and natural killer cells and that it acts as a tumor inhibitor.

Adaptogen

Gynostemma/Jiaogulan is known as an adaptogen, which is an herb reputed to help the body to maintain optimal homeostasis, which many scientists think is a key for longevity. Most research has been done since the 1960s when the Chinese realized that it might be an inexpensive source of adaptogenic compounds, taking pressure off of the ginseng stock.

Blood pressure

Laboratory tests demonstrate that Gynostemma/Jiaogulan stimulates the release of nitric oxide, causing blood vessels to relax, which is one mechanism by which it reduces high blood pressure. In a double-blind study, Gynostemma/Jiaogulan administered to those with Grade II hypertension showed 82% effectiveness in reducing hypertension, compared to 46% for ginseng and 93% for Indapamide (a hypertension medication).

Cholesterol reduction

Numerous clinical studies in Chinese medical literature have shown that Gynostemma/Jiaogulan lowers serum cholesterol,^[18] triglycerides, and LDL (the “bad” cholesterol) while raising HDL (“good” cholesterol) levels, with reported effectiveness rates ranging from 67% to 93%.

Diabetes

Gynostemma/Jiaogulan tea has been studied in a randomized controlled trial in type 2 diabetic patients. It may have potential as a hypoglycemic treatment to reduce blood glucose.

Now, Listen to health advocate David Wolfe and herbalist Truth Calkins explore the benefits of Gynostemma by clicking the picture below:

Listen to health advocate David Wolfe and herbalist Truth Calkins explore the benefits of Gynostemma

If you’ve used Gynostemma, let us know what you think in the Comments below.

Related posts:

1. Eating for a Long Life: WebMD’s 13 Tips
2. Three Months to Longer Life
3. Ray Kurzweil’s March to Extend Life

A mood-altering simple walk between hill and dale lasts for days.

HOW ‘BOUT a quickie, feel good post for a change?  Seth Godin does them, and he’s among the top bloggers in the world.

This one is triggered by a simple thing I did yesterday that produced a feeling good enough to sustain me now.  This one act was, in effect, a multi-day mood enhancer.

Yesterday, here in southern Marin County — the first landmass north of the Golden Gate Bridge — was a splendid day.  T’was so warm that some, like me, risked ridicule as we bared our sun-deprived, Lille-white torsos to the world.

In my case, I grabbed a book (which I’ll review here someday) by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D. called Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever.  I then drove a short distance to Tennessee Valley, named after the SS Tennessee, a ship that sunk right off the coast where this valley ends.

There’s a loop you can walk in Tennessee Valley, or if fit enough, jog… or if a true athlete, run around, up and down.  I don’t know the distance, but there’s enough altitude to make a walk, jog or run challenging enough to leg and lung.

In my youth, I jogged.  Yesterday, I walked.  Within my fanciful self, someday I’ll jog again. Running… well, thinking that I’ll actually run this loop makes me think of that old distinction between neurotics and psychotics:

A neurotic builds sand castles in the sky, and a psychotic lives in them.

I was breathing pretty deeply at the first apex of the loop, a place that faces the ocean and has several tempting spots for repose.  That was the idea.  I chose one and settled in with my book.

From time to time, a fellow bare-chested fella (the women were more modest) huffed by, and we glanced at one another and nodded approvingly.

I read about the importance of eating alkalizing food and water.  I read about addiction to the simple carbohydrates that are taking a toll on people’s health, weight and is an instigating factor in creating Type 2 diabetes.  I read about the glycemic index and glycemic load.

[Read The Seriously Serious Problems of Obesity, Diabetes and Obesity, The Diabesity Epidemic – It May Be Coming to You, and How Sugary is Your Blood?]

But what I was reading is irrelevant to the point of this story, which perhaps by now I should get to.

You see, all along the way, the vistas of hill and dale, and of the shimmering, beckoning ocean conspired to inspire me to love life more, despite my problems.

The negative ionization that the ocean puts in the air, along with the rhythm of my breath, the flow of my blood, the simple connections with those passing by, the sweet smells – all this was a mood elevator and, as I mentioned, remains with me today.

And so if there is a lesson to this tale, it is this:

Move, cover yourself with natural beauty, connect with nature and others, read a book that deepens your knowledge… do it enough that it all strings together and conspires to inspire you to cultivate gratitude for your life.  Grab a book, or grab a friend, but do take the first step.  The rest will follow.

Indeed.

P.S.  Hmmm… well, this wasn’t like Seth Godin’s posts after all.  Too long.  But then, and I say this ruefully; I’m not Seth Godin.

Three famous doctors and one mega-Pastor have hatched a health plan.  It’s called “The Daniel Plan” and thousands at the Saddleback Church are losing weight and just plain getting healthier.  Here’s what’s happening at The Daniel Plan.

WHAT DO you get when you create a health team with a plan devoted to educating and encouraging people to improve their health, and the players are Dr. Oz, Dr. Hyman, Dr. Amen and Pastor Rick Warren, among others?

Answer:  The Daniel Plan.

Well, unless you’re a member Pastor Rick’s Saddleback Church, that answer begs the question:

“What’s the Daniel Plan?”

Answer: A health strategy with the medical input of heart surgeon Doctor Oz, functional medicine specialist Dr. Hyman and brain health expert Dr. Amen… and the spiritual guidance and community backing of Rick Warren, Pastor of one of the largest churches in the Nation, the Saddleback Church.

You may have heard about Rick Warren from his national best seller, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?.  Rick Warren has, and continues to sell, so many copies of this book that he not only does not take a salary from the church, but also donates most of his earnings to charity.

So, I would venture to suggest, that the man’s heart is in the right place, even if I can’t bend my mind to his religiosity.

(No, I don’t really think it’s “God’s Prescription for Your Health” as one particular byline states, nor do I think anything humans can do would “glorify God” as the byline on the web site suggests.  But, right down here on earth, The Daniel Plan sure could be your prescription to improve your health!)

Why The Daniel Plan?

The reason I’m writing about the Daniel Plan is because several thousand adherents to the plan are losing weight and getting healthier.

It’s obvious that the plan’s methodology is working, and that should be no surprise given the input of those aforementioned doctors, as well as the ability of Pastor Rick to exhort his flock to follow the righteous health path.

And it’s that last point, I think, that’s the real key to success – having a “flock” and a “path”.  The flock is a group of like-minded, connected individuals who support each other along a proven path that leads to health.

This approach has a statistically higher chance of success than trying any behavior modification program by yourself and of your own construction.

The Daniel Plan embraces “The Simple Six” Core Principles:

1. CONNECT for Success – Get in touch with your health and with others!
2. RELY on God’s Power – Willpower is not enough. You need God’s power.
3. EAT Delicious Whole Foods – Imagine the Garden of Eden as your food source.
4. MOVE Your Way to Health – Get going. The more exercise, the more energy!
5. THINK Sharper and Smarter – Better brain health = better life!
6. HEAL for Life – Make a game plan for permanent changes that heal.

Given that this plan speaks to church-going folks and is animated by a church pastor, the agnostics and atheists among you might allow the Plan its principle #2.  Certainly, it can’t hurt to believe that a power greater than yours is guiding you past the fridge at midnight.

Check out the success stories, and this video full of testimonials which looks like this —->

(Suggest you allow the stream to load before playing the video otherwise it may be choppy.)

And here’s a success story about Chef Jenny Ross.

UPDATE: Dr. Hyman in the HuffPost today (1/31/12) reports the following Daniel Plan results:

“Not only were there estimated weight reductions of 250,000 pounds but also equal reductions in medication use, hospitalizations and doctors visits. And it was free.

In a survey after 10 months of the program, participants reported the following:

An average weight loss of 13.5 pounds (and 18 pounds for those who said they followed the program closely)
72 percent of those who wanted to lose weight did
53 percent reported increased energy levels
34 percent reported better sleep
27 percent improvement in blood work
20 percent reported improvement in blood pressure
11 percent reported reduction in medications
31 percent reported improvement in mood

Those who did the plan together lost twice as much weight as those who did it alone.”

There’s a rich amount of information at The Daniel Plan site.  The program is comprised of Eat, Move, Think, Heal and Connect, each with all the component parts necessary to get healthy.

For example:

Eat delves into nutrition, recipes, budgets and Superfoods.

Move gets into motivation and fitness programs for an individual and family.

Think presents the information helpful to understand behavior modification and brain health.

Heal speaks to mental health, hormones, energy, weight, skin, etc.

Connect ties in success stories, God and community.

The search function also brings up lots of information for a particular query. For instance, I searched at the site for “weight loss” and got these results:

The Daniel Plan Conquer Your Cravings
Studies show that people who maintain weight loss eat a healthy breakfast. Add
a dash of cinnamon. This fragrant spice has been found to help regulate blood …

The Daniel Plan Eating Out Rules
I’m going to order a salad to lose weight and be healthy. Because I’m … Often we fool ourselves into thinking that, “if I eat a salad, I’ll lose weight and be healthy.

The Daniel Plan – Food Groups
Calories, Hyman · Calories Count, Amen · Get Dunked · Why Most Diets Don’t Work ·

The Daniel Plan Shopping List
National Weight Control Registry · Why Most Diets Don’t Work

The Daniel Plan Vitamin Supplements
Sleep more soundly, lose weight and improve your overall health and vitality.

The Daniel Plan Recommended Foods
Calories Count, Amen · Get Dunked · National Weight Control Registry · Why Most Diets Don’t Work

The Daniel Plan – Get Your Kids Involved Early
7 Tips to Lose Weight · Calories, Hyman · Calories Count, Amen · Get Dunked · National Weight Control Registry · Why Most Diets Don’t Work

The Daniel Plan Main Dishes
Two bricks, individually wrapped in aluminum foil, make the best heavy weight for pressing …

If you’ve gotten this far without clicking over to The Daniel Plan, might as well fulfill your curiosity now.  Here’s the link.

Related posts:

1. Sugar is a Toxin, say Three Celebrity Doctors. Watch the Interviews.
2. Dr Oz and the 14-Day Reboot Diet Plan
3. The Problem with Dr. Oz’s 4-Step Butt-Blasting Plan

ProHealth’s Rich Carson calls it, “almost a miracle drug”. I call SAM-e the “triple threat”, for it threatens to vanquish depression, arthritis and liver dysfunction.  SAM-e is a powerful, natural supplement that can be superior to antidepressants and as effective as NSAIDs for osteoarthritis, without the negative side effects. Watch the video.  Learn how to use it and where to get it below.

IN THIS post, Rich Carson and Karen Lee Richards team up to laud the multiple powers of the natural supplement, SAM-e.  If you’d like to improve the health of your joints or liver, or could use a healthy mood enhancer, read Ms. Richards’ summary of the SAM-e research, and watch Rich Carson’s interview.

Rich Carson is my long-time friend, an expert on supplements and the founder of ProHealth, Inc. Karen Lee Richards is Lead Expert specializing in Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS, for HealthCentral’s ChronicPainConnection.

You couldn’t find two better people to tell you about how SAM-e helps promote a natural improvement in the symptoms of osteoarthritis, depression and liver disease.

I call SAM-e the triple threat supplement – relief from joint pain, blue moods and liver ills.  I take 400 milligrams every morning.

Here, Rich Carson introduces you to the substantial benefits of SAM-e:

OK, now that you’ve absorbed the basics, I’d like to summarize some of Karen Lee Richard’s research on SAM-e from her article, SAM-e: a Hard-Working Molecule that May Help Ease Pain & Brighten Mood. (Thanks to ProHealth for reprint permission.)

Let’s start out by quoting Ms. Richard’s lead paragraph to set the stage:

“Clinical trials have shown SAM-e to be comparable to prescription antidepressants for depression and as effective as NSAIDs for osteoarthritis. But, as SAM-e supports the body’s natural mood and inflammation modulating functions, it doesn’t have all the negative side effects associated with those drugs.”

[I’d argue that SAM-e might be superior to prescription antidepressant, cause they’re ineffective for many users with mild to moderate depression, as Dr. Andrew Weil discusses in this post, Dr. Weil’s Four Alternatives to Antidepressant Drugs.]

Unlike most supplements, SAM-e (S-adenosyl methionine) is not an herb or a vitamin, but rather a molecule naturally produced in all living cells. It is sold as a dietary supplement in the U.S, although it is powerful enough to be designated as a drug, as it is in at least 14 countries.

Thousands of research studies have been conducted all around the world on SAM-e, investigating its supportive effect in those with many different diseases and conditions, including depression, osteoarthritis, chronic liver disease, fibromyalgia, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Let’s delve a bit into how SAM-e can help with each of these diseases and conditions.

SAM-e and Depression

Significant Improvement Seen in Major Depression with SAM-e

Based on my readings and simple, non-scientific self-experimentation, I’ve argued in Dr. Weil’s Four Alternatives to Antidepressant Drugs and A Little Depressed? 10 Actions That Help Me that antidepressant drugs are NOT the way to go for treating mild to moderate depression. (Get your doctor to weigh in here, cause I’m not one for sure!)

Consider three points that Ms. Richards presents about SAM-e’s value to helping with depression (and then note my comment right after):

•  SAM-e has been studied extensively over three decades as a possible option for those with depression, perhaps because 29% to 46% of patients with major depressive disorder have no response or only a partial response to pharmaceutical antidepressants. At this point, there’s an impressive body of literature suggesting the mood-supporting efficacy of SAM-e.

•  In an open trial, 20 outpatients with major depression were given SAM-e, beginning with 400 mg/day and gradually increasing to 1600 mg/day by day 12.  Nine of the participants had a prior history of not responding to traditional antidepressant treatment. All 20 patients showed significant improvement with SAM-e, including seven of the non-treatment resistant and two of the treatment-resistant patients who experienced a full antidepressant response.

•  A double-blind randomized trial compared the efficacy of supplemental SAM-e with the antidepressant desipramine in 26 patients with major depression. At the end of four weeks, 62% of those given SAM-e had significant improvement compared to 50% of those taking desipramine.

OK, here’s my note about the above three bullet points: The studies cited indicate what they indicate, but, frankly, I’d feel uncomfortable to suggest that people experiencing anything but mild to moderate depression trash their doctor prescribed antidepressants in favor of SAM-e.  If you’ve been diagnosed as having strong/severe depression or other psychiatric issues, DO NOT trash your prescribed drugs in favor of SAM-e; rather, take counsel with your doctor!

SAM-e and Joints

Impressive Results in Osteoarthritis Patients Using SAM-e

In her article, Ms. Richards continues with her review of SAM-e, citing how it can benefit those suffering from Osteoarthritis.

She reports that an estimated 27 million people have osteoarthritis, making it the most common form of arthritis.

(Below, I reprint Ms. Richards words; the bold words are my emphasis…)

The pharmaceutical treatment for osteoarthritis is non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) – either over-the-counter medications like aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen, or prescription medications like Celebrex, Relafen, Daypro, etc.

While NSAIDs can be effective pain relievers, their regular use can result in some devastating side effects such as ulcers and other gastrointestinal problems, increased blood pressure and kidney damage.

Notwithstanding the side effects, in the long run NSAIDs may actually worsen joint problems because they slow the production of collagen and proteoglycans, which help to make cartilage an effective shock absorber.

By contrast, SAM-e seems to support an anti-inflammatory response equivalent to the effect of NSAIDs, but without the toxic side effects. SAM-e does not harm the digestive tract, nor does it contribute to the breakdown of cartilage. Instead, one study shows it may actually help the body restore damaged cartilage.

•  A meta-analysis of 11 clinical trials involving 1,142 patients was done looking at SAM-e for support of osteoarthritis symptom relief. The study authors concluded, “SAM-e appears to be as effective as NSAIDs in reducing pain and improving functional limitation in patients with OA without the adverse effects often associated with NSAID therapies.”

•  A randomized double-blind cross-over study of 56 patients diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee compared SAM-e (1200 mg) with the prescription drug celecoxib (Celebrex 200 mg). The results showed no significant difference between the two – both patient cohorts demonstrated significant improvements in pain and joint function – leading the researchers to conclude that SAM-e was as effective as celecoxib in managing the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis.

•  In a German study, 21 patients with finger osteoarthritis were given SAM-e for three months. MRI scans done on their hands both before and after the treatment period revealed significant structural improvement in the cartilage.

SAM-e and the Liver

SAM-e Supports the Prevention and Improvement of Liver Disease

I’m still amazed when I think about how unique is the liver. The liver is unique because it is the only internal human organ capable of regenerating itself. Did you know that a liver reduced to 25% of its normal size could regenerate into a whole liver again?

SAM-e plays a leading role in that regeneration.

SAM-e is thought to be beneficial for those with liver disease by acting as a precursor of antioxidant glutathione; repairing the mitochondrial glutathione transport system; inhibiting the toxic effects of proinflammatory cytokines; and increasing DNA methylation.

There are nearly a thousand published studies documenting SAM-e’s ability to support prevention and improvement in liver disease.  Back to Ms. Richards:

•  In a study of hepatic glutathione levels in patients with liver disease, participants were divided into four groups. Nine patients with alcoholic liver disease were given SAM-e; seven patients with non-alcoholic liver disease were given SAM-e; 8 patients with alcoholic liver disease were given a placebo; and 15 normal subjects served as a control group. Prior to beginning treatment, all patients had very low hepatic glutathione levels compared to controls. Following treatment, patients receiving the SAM-e had a significant increase in their hepatic glutathione levels compared with both the placebo-treated group and controls.

•  When SAM-e was given to 62 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis in a clinical trial, they were significantly less likely to die or require a liver transplant within the next two years, compared with 61 patients who had received a placebo.

SAM-e and Fibromyaliga

SAM-e Is Promising for Fibromyalgia Patients

Although SAM-e has not been studied yet as much for support of fibromyalgia patients as for those with some other illnesses, the results thus far are encouraging. In one double-blind study of 44 patients with primary fibromyalgia, improvements were seen in the areas of clinical disease activity, pain, fatigue, morning stiffness and mood.

SAM-e and Alzheimer’s Disease

SAM-e May Help Prevent or Delay Alzheimer’s Disease

Since extremely low levels of SAM-e were found in the cerebrodpinal fluid and brain regions of Alzheimer’s patients in a 1996 study, researchers are examining the potential benefits of supplemental SAM-e in Alzheimer’s.(11)  A recent study stated, “…our findings suggest that dietary supplementation with SAM… holds promise as a therapeutic approach to prevent or delay AD. A preliminary study indicates that SAM can provide some cognitive improvement in AD patients.”

How to Use SAM-e

Facts About SAM-e You Need to Know

Dosage: Recommended therapeutic doses usually range between 400 – 1600 mg a day, although some individuals may require higher doses. Studies suggest that 400 mg per day may be adequate for osteoarthritis patients, while up to 1600 mg a day is often needed for mood support. The usual dose for those with liver disorders has been 1600 mg a day. (As with any addition to your health support regimen, supplementation with SAM-e should be considered only with the approval of your professional healthcare team.)

How to Take SAM-e: SAM-e works best when taken on an empty stomach. Because it is absorbed mainly in the intestine, enteric-coated tablets that allow it to pass through the stomach intact are preferable. Leave tablets in their foil or foil blister packs until you are ready to take them in order to maintain their stability.

Adverse Effects: There seem to be few adverse effects with SAM-e, even at high doses. Occasionally mild gastrointestinal distress has been reported. Since SAM-e can sometimes lead to insomnia, it is usually best to take it early in the morning. Because it plays a role in mood support, SAM-e may trigger manic episodes in people with bipolar disorder.

Contraindications: While there are no confirmed drug interactions with SAM-e, individuals using prescribed medications such as antidepressants, including serotonin re-uptake Inhibitors and MAO inhibitors, should consult a physician before using. Individuals with Parkinson’s disease, bipolar disorder or manic depression should not take SAM-e.

Some Final Words About SAM-e

The Data

The assertions reproduced here are footnoted by Karen Lee Richards’ article her from which they’re extracted.  If you’re interested in the studies she cites, please go to her article, SAM-e: a Hard-Working Molecule that May Help Ease Pain & Brighten Mood.

You’ll discover that more than three decades of solid research support the use of SAM-e to help promote natural improvement in symptoms of osteoarthritis, depression and liver disease.

Where to Buy SAM-e

I suggest you get it at ProHealth, where I get mine.  SAM-e has been one of the cornerstone supplements offered by ProHealth for many years because it’s useful for so many chronic aliments.

This is how I present it in the Products section of this site:

ProSAMe This supplement is a wunderkind – it helps to stabilize moods, support healthy joints AND liver function. It’s an important part of my arsenal, but I refrain from taking it all the time, as I like to check in, unadulterated, to see how my natural emotional well being is doing.

Note: I have an affiliate marketing arrangement with ProHealth, which means if you buy SAM-e from the above link, I will get a commission from them.  This does not at all affect the price you pay.  If you don’t wish for me to get a commission, simply go to ProHealth, search for SAM-e and buy it there.

Well, lots to digest with this post.  If you have comments or questions, please submit them in the Comments section below.

Related posts:

1. Do Depression Drugs Work?
2. Get Relief from Depression with Rumi
3. A Little Depressed? 10 Actions That Help Me

Using antidepressants are not the only way give relief to mild from moderate depression. Dr. Weil has four suggestions, I’ve written about 10.  Here’s how a little walk with Rumi can help relieve the blues.

BEFORE I go amend a post I wrote a while back suggesting some actions to help alleviate depression (or the moody blues), I want to more fully explore a simple but wonderful act with you right here.

Late last November, I wrote a post I named,  A Little Depressed? 10 Actions That Help Me. As I wrote it, I knew that over time I’d keep adding to it as new “acts” arose in my life that I found were worthwhile behaviors that can clearly shifts one’s (or at least my) mind set.

It all began with finding the iPod that I thought was lost forever.  Not one to listen much to music on iPods, I was, nevertheless, so pleased to find it that I affixed the ear plugs, grabbed my walking shoes and went for a jaunt.

I wasn’t in a foul mood at all, but it soon occurred to me that the walking combined with the music – a particular kind (in fact, not music per se at all) – carried me to a place that cradled me with sweet endorphins that swept all my cares away.

Now, readers of my various posts on depression, such as Dr. Weil’s Four Alternatives to Antidepressant Drugs (great pod cast interview there with Dr. Weil), know that I believe (as does Dr. Weil) that many people with mild to moderate depression may be able to control it without antidepressants (go to the above link for more on this).

Dr. Weil has his “four alternatives” and I have my “10 (now 11) actions”, and if you throw them in a shaker jar and shake, shake, shake… just maybe those antidepressant pills can be shaken from the pill box into the garbage.

A Music Recommendation (not quite)

Yeah, whatever moves you, whatever can shift you to a better mental state… that’s the recommendation. But for me today, the music itself was a minor, background harp plucking here and there.  What was front and center, and largely responsible for my shift in consciousness, was Rumi.

For those of you who don’t know, Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī was a brilliant and revolutionary Persian Sufi, mystic, poet and philosopher of the 13th Century.  He’s considered one of the best poets of all time.

It was Rumi’s poetry, as translated and spoken by the wonderfully erudite Coleman Barks, that made that walk great, and inspired this post.

Check it out.  Go here and you can listen to the Coleman Barks album, What Was Said to the Rose. Start with the first selection, What Was Told and keep going till you’re mesmerized.  For your own happy walk, download What Was Said to the Rose on whatever device will play it and go outside and take a walk, particularly the next time you’re blue.

P.S.  I’d really enjoy it if you’d share your favorite poem in the Comments section below.

Related posts:

1. A Little Depressed? 10 Actions That Help Me
2. The “Miracle” Supplement for Depression, Arthritis and Liver Health
3. Dr. Weil’s Four Alternatives to Antidepressant Drugs