Robert Dahmen Holistics 2050

What Went Wrong?

Welcome
Welcome to reactivateyourself.com where one can instantly become part of a much-needed culture change. On behalf of those of us who know that first-hand, thank you for your interest in learning more about the Holistics 2050 premise of Complete Nutrition, Internal Purification, and Balanced Activity. It took many years to assemble reactivateyourself.com. Use it to obtain your health & fitness goals, to improve the environment, and to become less reliant on prescription drugs and avoidable need for health care services.

Reactivateyourself.com draws a critical distinction between problems and symptoms. For example, some will say obesity, inflated health-insurance rates, and environmental irresponsibility are problems. I'll postulate here that those are mere symptoms of much larger problems ... ones that we can all begin to solve as individuals by altering some of our most basic habits.

(i) too many people eat and drink some of the worst possible things for their bodies thinking (in many cases) they're doing the right thing
(ii) serious illness rates have ballooned causing overwhelming increases in health care insurance and Medicaide costs
(iii) the unhealthy affinity for animal meat and processed food heavily taxes the environment as the animal production and slaughter industry is a major consumer of fresh water only to be a polluter of those precious water resources ... topsoil is eroding ... forests are being decimated .. much of the ammonia and methane released into the air is from farm animals. The Natural Strategies Group of Australia estimates animal meat consumption accounts for 50% of our entire ecological footprint!
(iv) the "American" populace is commonly perceived abroad as overweight, wasteful, and complacent

Before you dismiss that premise believing you were spared, please read on. When I think back of all the slop I was served as a child in the public school cafeterias, it's no wonder I could barely remain awake in class and why my digestive system was rebelling. Millions of people wake up in the morning and ingest some combination of

whole wheat bread,
"heat-treated‟ yogurt,
bacon,
(tainted) eggs,
hash browns,
a cheap vitamin

and wash it all down with cow‟s milk or orange juice from a carton or even worse, coffee, thinking they've had a relatively "healthy" breakfast. Stay with me here. I used to do the same thing until I discovered how each of those "foods" was reeking havoc on my overall health. When I stumbled upon the truth in the early 1990's, I literally became enraged. Since then, I've completely reactivated myself with proper nutrition, internal purification and balanced activity. My blood test results (3-page .pdf) from Nov 2008 and my overall state of health indicate my dietary habits over the past two decades have saved me countless days of discomfort.

Essentially, we are being preyed upon by profiteers who make some of the worst foods and beverages the most convenient to us. This formula of sorts is very easy to fall victim to. In May 2009, I saw a "yogurt" candy bar in a vending machine with the words, "excellent source of calcium" on the label. I don't want to know how they get away with advertising such blatantly misleading information, but please know, if you are relying on such labels or simply eating what everybody else eats, your path to vibrant health is blocked.

F-O-S-S-S Food
Take a look at most any menu in a common restaurant or food container in a common grocery store and you'll find the following 5 ‘products' (often added to water) make up the basic ingredients: (i) flour, (ii) some sort of dead oil, (iii) refined salt, (iv) refined sugar and (v) a starch such as potatoes or white rice. I call it, ‘FOSSS' food (Flour-Oil-Salt-Sugar-and Starch). Of course, some spices, flavorings and other bits of product are added to give the end result a name, but ingesting that stuff on a regular basis all leads to the same result, obesity and disease.

In a late 1950's American Medical Association annual conference, a doctor asserted, "All diseases known to man are caused by an improper diet (and) all diseases known to man can be cured by a proper diet" (Kordich, 1989).

Improper Rest Can Cause Weight Gain!
According to Dr. Ann E. Rogers, numerous studies have found that insufficient sleep can lead to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and a negative impact to the immune system.

I used to have a job where I worked the day shift for 2 months, afternoons for 2 months, midnights for 2 months, then the cycle repeated itself. It was a recipe for sleep deprivation. According to Allen Blaivas, M.D. on healthcentral.com, one of the best things one can do to ensure consistent, healthy sleep is maintain a stable bed and wake time. Dr. Blaivas goes on to write, "We all know teenagers have a tendency to stay up late (like 2AM or later) complaining they're not tired. This is because their circadian clock is ‘delayed' meaning they get a melatonin surge much later in the evening than a typical adult. This is also the reason teenagers can have difficulty getting up in the morning. It's not typical laziness. Their body clock is set so they can sleep very well between 3AM and 11AM and they probably DO need about 9 hours of sleep compared to the normal 7 to 8 hours. Now think about older persons in their late seventies or eighties. They like to get to sleep by 7 or 8PM, and then typically wake at 4AM. This is because their circadian clock is ‘advanced' or set earlier than the mainstream."

"Getting back to the topic at hand. The circadian rhythm functions at all times, but due to its influence on metabolism and hormonal levels, there are certain times of the day (and night) that the sleep drive is running at its highest. This spike generally occurs between the hours of 2AM and 4AM, but also during the afternoon between approximately 1PM and 3PM. The more you have slept previously, the less you are susceptible to it, but it is actually a normal response to feel sleepy in the early afternoon."To help alleviate that sleepy feeling, Dr. Blaivas recommends brief exposure to the sun.

When I started sleeping on an adjustable (Select Comfort) mattress, I slept much better. When sleeping on my side, I always place a pillow between my knees to keep my spine aligned. Like many others, I have occasional bouts with insomnia, but keep proper sleep a number 1 priority.

Plenty of Sleep, Still Tired?
If your body'spH level is elevated from eating too many acidic foods, your energy level could drop drastically. The human body naturally regulates its pH to about 7.35 and communicates with itself at the cellular level through pulses of electricity. Those electrical pulses are where pH comes into play. Lets first know the pH scale goes from 1 to 14 ... a pH of 1 is very acid, 7 is neutral and 14 is very alkaline ... If your pH was 1 to 2 points outside 7.35, it would change the electrical chemistry in your body and cause death.

The primary cause of an acidic condition in your body is from what you eat and drink. Acidic foods are not recognizable by an acid-type taste. It has more to do with what is left over after digestion. For example, when your body digests scallops, it leaves an extremely acid ash. In fact, scallops are one of the most acid foods you can eat. Unfortunately, some of the most common things most people consume create an acid ash SUCH AS alcohol, coffee, and flesh protein. Interestingly enough, stress also tends to create an acid condition in the body. To make matters worse, acid also weakens red blood cells and they begin to die which increases acid levels even more.

Fortunately, you can alter your pH for the better (that is, more alkaline) by eating certain foods. According to Kal Sellers, a Master Herbalist, "no known disease occurs that is experienced while being too alkaline." Knowing which foods and beverages are acid vs. alkaline will help. For example, Scallops, Oysters and Sausage are acid foods whereas Raw Spinach; Molasses, Celery, and Dried Figs are alkaline foods. Olive and other oils are considered neutral. An easy way to determine one's average pH is by testing the pH of thesaliva with pH test strips on a regular basis (normal pH range for saliva is 6.4 to 6.8). More details are provided at www.ajpip.com/resources/site_map.htm.

The above information on pH was paraphrased from an article provided by Andy Long of ajpip.com.

Most Computers have One Operating System ... Your Body has Sixteen!
Not having a basic understanding of how your body works is an open invitation for a bad diet and over-reliance on pain pills.

Dr. Ben Kim puts it very well by stating, "the health of your organs is determined by the health of your cells, and that the health of your cells is determined by all of your daily food and lifestyle choices." That has got to be one of the most important sentences one could ever read.

The larger pointis this: Not choosing the proper foods to eat will impact your ENTIRE BODY! Of those 16 systems, Dr. Kim goes on to list the eleven organ systems that govern all of one's physiological activities. They areas follows: the Nervous System; ..... Endocrine System ..... Cardiovascular System ..... Respiratory System ..... Digestive System ..... Urinary System ..... Muscular System ..... Skeletal System ..... Integumentary (or skin) System ..... Immune System (which includes the Lymphatic System) ...... and the Reproductive System.
Not included are the five "special sense" organ systems needed to see, hear, smell, taste, and maintain balance. That makes up the 16 systems of the human body.

Where is the logic in becoming an expert in anything prior to becoming (at least) knowledgeable about one's physical self? Spending a mere 10 minutes perusing Dr. Kim's article about organ systems and an hour or two at reactivateyourself.com could conceivably help one avoid weeks, months or even years of needless suffering. What could be time better spent?