I received the following email today and enjoyed the way it presented valuable information in a common sense format. I’m not endorsing this doctor, however, and I do think he is a bit mixed on a few crucial points – but this is a great prevention at a glance article.

The following advice, given by Dr. Oz, makes a lot of sense and is important for all to know:

The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

Very true. Global pandemic aside, pathogens regularly invade your body all day long – you can thank your immune system for you generally not noticing. The strength of your immune system can make all the difference between you getting over a common cold swiftly, or suffering as it progresses into bronchitis, and then dying of pneumonia. Or in terms more relevant to the times, taking control of swine flu before it takes control of you and kills you with… again, pneumonia.

Dr. Oz goes on to say:

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. “Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat or bathe..)

3. *Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine or Hydrogen Peroxide if you don’t trust salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, *clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water, or hydrogen peroxide. *Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but *blowing the nose softly once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.*

Four steps that involve killing the virus manually, and an allusion to the Tamiflu shortage to boot! With the juicy intro above, I really thought we’d be talking more about the immune system by now – though I do recommend the neti pot. However, these all still smack of the big pharma paradigm – the practice of taking something after the fact – and neglects to address the big picture: how a strong, healthy immune system does the fighting for you – and how it’s a whole lot easier to boost your immune system right now, than after you’re sick (boosting your immune system before exposure can prevent ‘proliferation’ too). Trust, your immune system’s gonna do a hell of a lot more for you than a salt water rinse.

[Standard disclaimer - if you're going to use any antimicrobial soap or medicine, don't forget about your friendly immune system probiotics! I like to replenish with raw yogurt flavored with cranberry juice, and wash using only natural soaps with 15 seconds of hot water.]

5. *Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla and other citrus fruits). *If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

Ah, there it is! A nod to good old immunity. Or is that just a passing wave? Regardless, it’s woefully incomplete, leaving out key immune nutrients such as vitamin D and the aforementioned probiotics. I would add the tip that your best vitamin C source is to juice your own organic oranges, enjoy organic strawberries, or supplement with non-ascorbic acid if possible (my sources tell me ascorbic acid is synthetic, but one of the few synthetic vitamins that still works well in the body – your call). PS: wtf is Amla?

6. *Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. *Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

This is where I wonder if the “Dr.” in Dr. Oz truly stands for doctor or if it’s all just marketing. Apparently the pendulum swung over to marketing side on this one, because drinking coffee is simply counteractive to a healthy immune system, and if your doctor disregards this fact, I’d start looking for a new doctor. However, several herbal teas can be soothing and energizing while actually giving your immune system an antiviral boost too.

Overall, I’m glad to see a memo from mainstream media (notice the distancing though, from “official communications”) discussing natural preventative measures and quite conspicuously avoiding the vaccine push. I do feel that most of Oprah’s readers missed out on key information that could benefit them and their families who have to listen to talk about Oprah at dinner (kidding!) I hope this article gives you a stepping stone to those benefits.

And maybe I missed it amidst all the media fear and hype about the pandemic and vaccine… but why is nobody talking about what this means??

So you’ve heard me rave before about my beloved Nourishing Traditions cookbook- now I have to rave about a fantastic foundation sharing the same values- the Weston A. Price Foundation. They are hosting an event called “Wise Traditions 2009” just outside Chicago, IL! It is a 3 day (with a 4th bonus day) learning event with a large number of informative speakers and topics.

You can find the full schedule here, but a snapshot of each day would be starting early with yoga and posture class, then health lectures and seminars of your choice. You can learn about everything from traditional diets to grass-based farming and holistic cancer treatments.

Healthy meals are also included with the price of the event, but you can also pay for select lectures/seminars of your choice if you wish to attend only those. There is a $50 discount on the event price if you register by October 1 and a nearby hotel is even offering a lowered cost to those attending the event. From what I can tell, it will be an amazing learning experience that you won’t want to miss!

Health consciousness is absolutely expanding – and I am thrilled to see two budding initiatives in Grand Rapids to help those of us in the “medical capital” of the state achieve a path of wellness and togetherness you just can’t find on pill hill alone.

A couple weeks ago, I met two very inspired ladies; I could sense a kinship and synergy between them immediately, and after further discussion I learned they are opening a community center in downtown Grand Rapids. This special place starts with a red front door and opens into a creative space for gathering, teaching, learning and networking in the healing arts. You can visit them online right now at naturesspiritualconnections.org, and their goal is to open their facility for service in July 2009.

Some of their services will include:

• A monthly connection for Reiki share
• A free Reiki night for community members in need
• Art gallery featuring local artists
• Business networking
• And more!

These lovely ladies are taking on this labor of love and I see huge benefits for those souls who are lonely, lost, and need some love and light. Please consider helping them by donating any materials you may have, and of course please visit and enjoy once the center is open this summer.

In this month’s Food For Thought issue (free if you pick it up at any community location), I was delighted to read an article about Raymond Wan, a Chinese gourmet guru who is also heading up an online networking portal for natural health in the West Michigan area. His site, minaturalhealth.net was briefly featured in the article and I immediately went online to check it out.

While just as new as Nature’s Spiritual Connections, I can see that the Michigan Natural Health Network is going to be a huge asset to us soon. His site will open up the door to health practitioners and seekers alike, as he provides information about the healing available to us here, resources to find a practitioner to meet your needs, and a community discussion board and news center.

I am adding both of these sites to my favorites and I suggest you do the same! Our health is just not a spectator sport. We must participate, grow, and most of all, have fun! And these two sites are fabulous destinations for all three.

One of the perks of living in a so-called free country is that we are allowed to have our own ideas about how things should be. Further, we can share our ideas with our elected officials and encourage them to see things our way. And if there are enough of us who feel the same way about the same subject, then we become a force powerful enough to influence our politicians to form our ideas into a democratic reality.  This is also called a petition.

I will almost always lend my signature to a petition I believe in because, as small a grain of sand as my name might be, I know each and every grain is what creates the beach – which becomes more than just the sum of the grains of sand, the beach becomes an entity in itself. But it starts, and builds, one grain at a time.

This petition, the Health Revolution Petition, excites me because if the politicians take it seriously, it will completely overhaul our flawed health care system and virtually eliminate the current disease industry paradigm. More details are in the petition, but it basically covers 10 key points.

1. Federal govt initiatives for personal health responsibility and proaction
2. Restore freedom in healing practices, education, and decisions
3. Overhaul FDA conflicts of interest, corruption, & censorship (regulate the “regulators”)
4. Food supply measures – end GMOs and harmful food additives, require honest labeling, establish sound practices of commercial farms
5. End the medical industry’s infatuation with junk science; restore true scientific practices in the medical research field
6. Dethrone Big Pharma
7. Protect children from dangerous foods and products that are currently ubiquitous
8. Ban carcinogens and other dangerous artificial chemicals in personal and cosmetic products
9. Support disease prevention, especially in relation to vitamin D
10. Protect us and our environment from chemical and drug companies, including removing fluoride from the public water supply

As you can see, this petition is pretty comprehensive and it aligns with all our principles here at openeyehealth.com. I have signed the petition and I would encourage everyone who reads this to do the same – but take it one step further. Pick one bullet point that hits closest to your heart, and then pick one action item from that bullet point. Make it YOUR action. Many many things we are asking our government for, WE can initiate on our own. Think about some ways you can help accomplish this goal – maybe you know someone who’s in the right place. Maybe you have a special skill you can use to promote your action item. Health is about you, and it’s about action. Let’s get started today – and please share – we’d love to know what you’re doing out there!

This is not a political blog, but that doesn’t mean the authors don’t have their opinions, and further, the changing political climate has some heavy implications on the future of health care (and many other things). Since openeyehealth.com is about, well, opening eyes to important health topics, and improving the way the world approaches health, it’s only fitting – nay, our duty – to include this important information here today.

The good folks at Americans for Prosperity have put up a great website, sponsoring an online petition that, as of this writing, more than 460,000 Americans have signed (and continue to sign, though the legislative and executive bodies have turned their backs on the People and passed the stimulus anyway).

The petition is the highlight of the site, but it’s not without other important features. A crucial point the site details is the hidden heath care socialization bundled into this package. It appears that not only is this stimulus designed to continue destroying the dollar, but it is also intent on destroying our health freedom.

The site does a great job laying it all out, citing several references as well, so I won’t repeat it all here. The two main points every American needs to know are these:

Under the new “stimulus package”, the government can (and will) now establish a central database to capture, own and control the medical records of each and every American; and bureaucracies will have access to analyze every detail of your medical records and then they will decide and approve which medical services you get based on your statistical need (in relation to everyone else’s need – and let’s face it, there’s always someone who’s worse off and another who’s better off than you. And your ability to actually pay for the medical service factors into the equation at NIL. Think there’s no way our bureaucracies could handle a task that big? Well, that’s where the billions of dollars in “new jobs” are going! Welcome to the Socialist State of America, where your “rights” are determined by some bureaucratic drone on a $40K a year salary. The corruption, waste and fraud would be entertaining if it wasn’t true).

Mike Adams foreshadowed this issue last year in this superb, chilling article. Mr. Adams also did a great podcast on the health implications of the stimulus, available on NaturalNews.com right now.

Americans are wisening up – almost half a million banded together in this last week alone to sign this petition. The fight still rages on, but here are two little words to help you win by denying the government your participation in their socialism health care scheme: preventative medicine. Now it’s more important than ever to boost your immune system and stay fit. Stay proactive (not reactive) about your health; eat right, reduce stress, detox, and get outside. Seek out a complementary health care provider. What has conventional medicine done for you lately anyway?

Update: That was a rhetorical question, but in case you’re thinking, “I just got back from the ER, and conventional medicine saved my life,” I just want to state that emergency rooms definitely have their place and I have no problem with emergency medical use.  I am speaking more in the sense of overall health and health care. This is an older article, but pretty interesting. Doctors are the third leading cause of death in the US!

I found this awesome resource for anyone who values health for their family and self, but is short on money or time (who isn’t?). It’s called healthbooksummaries.com, and it’s a giant FREE database of important health books – with a twist. Every book featured on their site is in summary form – meaning, someone already went through and and condensed the info into twenty pages or less for your easy access and use.

This novel concept has made the impossible – reading a 200 page non-fiction work in 20 minutes or less – not only possible, but doable on a regular basis.  Forget rushing to the library before it closes or spending a fortune at Barnes and Noble on books that never make it off the shelf. The same info is now just a free click away.

HealthBookSummaries titles include:

Health Begins in the Colon: The Ultimate Guide for Cleansing Your Colon, Body, Mind & Home!

I love this one, because it touches on a subject that’s taboo for too many people – the colon.  It seems society’s most common approach to the colon is via jokes on shows like MTV’s Jackass. But really, a healthy colon is the foundation of health in the rest of your body and life, which is why it’s crucial we all get to know our colons intimately.  You’ll get access to this download and thousands more as soon as you register with the site, which is free.

More titles from the site include:

The Thrive Diet: The Whole Food Way to Lose Weight, Reduce Stress, and Stay Healthy for Life

I heard a really good phrase earlier this week: if you want to feel crappy, eat crappy foods. If you want to feel whole, eat whole foods. That’s a pretty concise little nugget of truth. If you want to explore deeper into the connection between whole foods and whole health, go for this one.

The Vitamin D Cure

I love this one because it really exposes the modern myth that sunlight is bad for us. Au contraire – sunlight is not only NOT harmful, the Vitamin-D creation process that sunlight activates in your skin is ESSENTIAL to staying healthy against cancer and other degenerative diseases. If you’re slathering your skin with sunblock every summer, make this your beach read and you won’t regret it.

And lastly, one of my favorite topics, The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracle.

This summary explores the fascinating link between our thoughts and our physical reality – and the true influence we have over our day to day decisions and situations. If you have read The Secret or you are interested in the natural laws of attraction, this one is for you.

I hope you enjoy looking around the HealthSummaries database and picking up important, reliable health knowledge on the fly. Be sure to print out any downloads you love, and keep the hard copy in your files. Oh yeah, and share this post with everyone in your life. There are thousands of titles, you’ll feel like a kid in a candy store -  well, a healthful candy store (as if such an oxymoron existed. Hey, there’s a unique business opportunity!).

Karen highly recommends

Well, today has been one of the most liberating Saturdays I’ve experienced in a few months.  The cow-share program we’ve recently joined was hosting a Dairy Essentials Class free to all members (classes are open to the public at a reasonable rate during the summer), and there were at least 15 of us there today.

The class was led by Karen (the Cow Lady!) and we also got to meet her husband Jeff for a quick minute. (Aside – we both agreed that this pair have a rare spirit of kindness and enlightenment, and a down to earth, accessible nature. We are so grateful to have found these remarkable people doing this good work for the community here.)

We then took turns introducing ourselves, and I was pleased to see many people my age in the crowd, as well as seasoned raw milk pros. Everyone had a unique story; one woman is severely allergic to commercialized milk, but she has never had a problem with raw milk since she started drinking it a few months ago.

Another woman (I apologize, I’m horrible with remembering names) had  allergies all her life, but when she started drinking raw milk a few years ago, she found she didn’t need to take her allergy medications anymore.

A few other people were talking about how difficult it is to get the picky eaters or ‘traditional’ milk drinkers in their life to even consider raw dairy as a real option. If you think you are at this stage, you may want to check out realmilk.org to help you make an informed decision.

I personally knew I had to stop supporting the commercialized food industry when I saw the video expose the humane society produced when they infiltrated mass-produced dairy farms last year (I’m not going to post the link because it’s terrible – but the treatment of an animal does ultimately affect the energy of that animal as food in your body). And when you research the commercial processing of the dairy product, including pasteurization, raw milk develops even more appeal.

Cows should be pastured and content, as they are at Lubbers. We happened to see the cows milking process today and had to comment on how robust and healthy they looked. The average commercial dairy cow lives 42 months – the cows on Lubbers farm easily pass 8-12 years, with one cow even giving birth at age 16!

The cows are milked twice a day, every day. The milk travels in stainless steel pipes, passes through two filters and is kept at a cool 38 degrees. The entire tubing, piping, and storage system is flushed and sanitized every three days.

We got our milk today and, thanks to what we learned in the Dairy Essentials Class, we are now able to make (all raw):

• Butter
• Yogurt
• Simple cream cheese
• Crème fraîche
• Sour cream
• Whipped cream
• Ice cream!
• Vanilla Extract

Karen demonstrated how to make butter, and it’s surprisingly simple:

Pour about a quart of heavy cream (you can collect it over a span of up to 2 weeks) into a food processor. Process until butter forms (varies; about 10 minutes). You’ll know when it’s yellowish and “set”, or solidified. There will also be a lot of liquid too; this is true buttermilk (not what any stores sell) and can be stored for a variety of culinary uses. Press all the buttermilk out of the butter with a wooden butter paddle (Karen gave each family one free at the class), salt with a little sea salt to flavor and preserve (I use Himalayan pink crystal rock salt, just don’t use sodium chloride, or table salt), and store in a container at room temperature.

Karen let us sample the butter she made and it was to die for – we also got to try batches she had previously whipped up of yogurt w/ three different types of cultures, cream cheese w/ two different cultures, crème fraîche, sour cream, and ice cream! The ice cream was unlike any ice cream I’d ever known, it was soft, rich, and I could really enjoy savoring each flavor of vanilla and maple syrup.

She also recommended a variety of books with further recipes including cheesemaking. Karen is just a wealth of information on practical applications of real food in your own life; if you live in the Grand Rapids area I highly suggest you seek her out and get to know more about this amazing food source. If you live somewhere else, look around your community and see if there is a local farmer you can support. As more customers make the switch, more farmers will rise to meet that demand. And you can be assured their standards of quality, cleanliness, and ethics are in line with yours – because you are right there, hands-on in the process. Knowing where your food comes from is a huge leap in a healthy direction. Now I’m just going to sit back with my glass of milk and revel in this sweet success.

Words of ancient wisdom, still relevant today:

“This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.” – Plato

By now, most people know better than to trust the FDA, but here is proof we need to go on the offensive against these tyrants (especially since they started it).

One of the most popular news items on NaturalNews.com right now details why: FDA Running Extortion Racket: Natural Companies Threatened with Arrest if They Don’t Pay Up

Of course, this is a subject near and dear to my heart, and though it’s a lengthy article, I recommend you absorb at least these key points:

• The FDA uses automated software to scan the web for “offending” natural health supplement companies and websites
• “Offending” includes, for example, a cherry juice supplement company adding links on its website to clinical studies that indicate cherry juice is excellent for gout
• The FDA then launches a full-scale attack on the ‘offending’ company that eventually forces the company into bankruptcy; this nefarious attack also ensures that the public be denied access to healing supplements, and further, remain ignorant about them.
• This is happening to companies around the nation, including the one I work for. In fact, we can’t publish a testimonial on our website if the person states that he or she was able to quit taking drugs because of our natural product.

But why? Why would the FDA being doing this? Why come down so hard on what’s naturally compatible with the body? [like safety has anything to do with it; who has ever heard of a cherry juice overdose? Especially contrasted with hundreds of thousands of people killed just by taking prescribed doses of (p)harmaceutical drugs every year]

Oh.

There is an agenda, and neither of the dog and pony show candidates are talking about it. Ron Paul, of course, has been for a while.

But it’s important that you know about it, because you, being the consumer, actually have the power to stop it. In this increasingly socialist America, how you spend your $$$ sends a stronger message politically than your vote ever will. (perfect example, just in time for Halloween!)

Make a 5 year plan to grow independent of oil, pharmaceuticals, processed & fast food & drinks, Wal-Mart, credit, and your TV (at minimum).  This is one of the strongest ways you can reclaim your health and power from the State. Imagine if 100 million people in America did this! Then we would see a real change for the better.  Supply always follows demand!

Today would have marked the accumulation of 68 years of John Lennon’s own powerful brand of genius in this world – [in proofreading I surmised that I should change the first sentence to the present tense - today marks - for his energy still exists, including thoughts, creations and love; yet it hurts to imagine how the world might be better today, if only...]

But imagine we must – it is the basic law of attraction that to whatever we apply our thoughts (energy); we manifest.  John Lennon’s music, especially the song “Imagine” is a classic example of how just one person can change the world – in his particular case, by brilliantly singing a wide-scale and perpetual execution of the power of attraction; or, helping a massive amount of people to visualize a specific, positive outcome, which in turn harnesses and redirects our energy to make good things happen.

The mainstream media millions of Americans are exposed to every day also employs this technique, though the average viewer does not know it, and the purpose/intended outcome appears to be questionable at best.

For example, and I apologize in advance for doing this to you – and I promise I will make it up to you at the end -  I recently received an email from an Obama campaign manager, forwarded to me by a colleague. The email began with:

Picture this: It’s election night. The polls have closed and the results are in. One candidate will be the 44th President of the United States. If we don’t step up our efforts right now and register as many voters as possible, the winner will be John McCain.

Ugh. No thanks, I’d rather not.

But why is she specifically telling so many people to ‘picture this’ outcome? Because she knows that we will create in our lives that which we envision in our minds.

“But WAIT!” you’re thinking. “Why would an Obama campaign manager tell me to picture, and by your logic manifest, his ‘opponent’ winning?!?!?”

First of all, it’s not my logic! The power of intent is a lengthy subject I fully intend for another post, but if you’re curious now you can search “Masaru Emoto” and/or watch this fascinating clip.

Second, if you haven’t realized by now, Obama and McCain are two sides of the same coin  (not ‘opponents’ – more like ‘frenemies’ – more to come later – wow this is a promising post!)  and ‘they’ frankly could care less who you vote for (as long as you vote for one of the two), because regardless of which puppet is in Office, the Marionette pulling the strings remains unchanged.

What matters is the very fact that you’re thinking about them. The Obama campaign now has you (and countless others) thinking about a McCain w-n, and we have just relinquished our power without even knowing it. Now we’re going to act on how we feel about that ‘picture’, and ‘they’ will manipulate that act to their benefit. Whether we make sure it happens for McCain or step up our efforts for Obama – remember, it doesn’t matter which – they are limiting the unfathomable scope of our power and funneling it into getting US to ensure that absolutely nothing will change for the better for (at least) another four years (AKA an Obama OR McCain adminstration).

Could there be an alternative solution? The truth is, a vote for McCain or a vote for Obama is the wasted vote and there is now a growing movement to get free-thinking voters to send a loud and clear message to the establishment by voting THIRD PARTY (how the tables have turned!) this election. Why don’t you give it some thought?

Thanks for checking out openeyehealth.com – we are here to serve you with relevant knowledge about the issues that matter most. We would love to hear your ideas and comments – visit again soon for more updates!