Magnesium/Gallstones

(Sorry, but I'm not sure where I copied this from)

There's more good news about one of my favorite minerals: magnesium. According to a new study, a diet rich in magnesium can reduce the risk of developing gallstones. And, in case you haven't heard, gallstones are an amazingly painful malady.

As you know, I'm a big fan of magnesium for overall health – it's a great boon to bones and bodily tissues of all types, plus it helps release stored energy from your muscles. I've also recommended it for a myriad of more specific medical issues, like osteoporosis. So I'm glad to see that this helpful supplement has yet another benefit for your health.

Researchers studied data of more than 42,000 men from ages 40 to 75 and found that those with the highest magnesium intake decreased their risk of gallstones by as much as 33 percent. Magnesium helps to keep down triglyceride levels and raise HDL (the "good cholesterol) levels in the blood. Since cholesterol is a major component in the formation of gallstones (actually, some gallstones are made up entirely of cholesterol), a higher magnesium level helps to stop the gallstones from forming.

But in spite of its benefits, magnesium consumption has declined over the years. The reason? Today's foods have become so over processed that the magnesium (along with countless other healthy vitamins and minerals, no doubt) has been processed right out. It's just one more reason why you should be eating more organic and whole foods and steering clear of foods that have had too many things done to them, like pre-made packaged meals you'll find in the grocery store.


[Conventional farming practices also has the soil depleted of magnesium, so be sure to buy organic when possible]

The Five Things That Kill Us

From a US Wellness e-newsletter:

By: Catherine Ebeling, RN, BSN

Most all chronic diseases including: acne, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, autoimmune diseases, ADD, allergies, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, strokes, most cancers, weight gain, premature aging, cataracts, macular degeneration, infertility and IBS stem from five basic causes.  For more information on diseases caused by inflammation go here.

Eliminate the causes and you can eliminate your chances of getting any of those diseases—and more. If you already have a serious health issue, you can still improve and even cure yourself of those diseases by making some simple changes in diet and lifestyle.

Our bodies are amazing—they are constantly in a state of rebuilding, regenerating and renewing cells.

So you don’t have to believe that you are merely a victim of your genetic makeup, and that you have to succumb to disease because your inheritance carries that possibility.

What are these five contributing factors?

Inflammation

Inflammation can be both good and bad. Acute inflammation is our body’s response to infection, illnesses, and injuries. Inflammation fights infection, heals wounds, repairs our bodies, and helps to get us back to a state of health. It is a part of a complex biological cascade of reactions to harmful stimuli in a protective attempt to get rid of the injury and to initiate healing.

However, there is another form of inflammation, and that is chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation can result from an ongoing injury to a particular area of body system.

Prolonged inflammation, known as chronic inflammation, leads to a progressive shift in the type of cells present at the site of inflammation and is characterized by simultaneous destruction and healing of the tissue from the inflammatory process.

But chronic inflammation is different. Unlike the redness and pain that tells us loud and clear that our body is in repair mode, chronic inflammation is a silent internal process that slips “under the radar”. This quiet killer is the cornerstone of degenerative disease and physical aging. However, the good news is that the primary causes of chronic inflammation are completely within your control.

Some of the primary causes of chronic inflammation include high blood sugar, eating excessive amounts of the wrong types of fats, and excess body fat. In addition, cortisol, a stress hormone can also contribute to inflammation.

Glycation
We all have heard sugar is bad for our health, but do you really know what it does in your body?

Quite simply, glycation is the process where sugars attach to proteins in the body. It may not sound like much, but like inflammation, it can cause a slow deterioration of your health.

When sugar and protein molecules combine, they form a tangled mess of tissue. Glycation causes wrinkling not only of the skin, but also of connective tissue and internal organs. Glycated tissue is tough and inflexible, leading to problems in the functions of our organ systems.

Tissue that has become glycated then produces Aged Glycation End-products (AGE’s), which further compound the problem by producing large numbers of damaging free radicals.

Tissue glycation is a serious, deadly process which degrades important body tissues. It must be dramatically reduced if aging is to be minimized.

The tough, inelastic connective tissue is especially damaging to organs where flexibility is vital, especially for organs like the heart, kidneys, digestive system, brain, eyes and pancreas. The lack of flexibility in the important organs leads to reduced functionality and early death. This is the reason diabetics suffer from diseases like heart disease and blindness earlier than most people.

So what causes glycation? Chronically high blood sugar levels, and to a lesser extent eating a diet of foods cooked at high temperatures. Eating foods high in sugar, including starchy foods and grains, results in an increase in blood sugar. The sugar binds to your red blood cells, as well as other proteins and fats and creates AGE’s.

The sticky AGE’s bind to blood vessels and other body tissue. These glycated masses create havoc on your cells and cause oxidation and inflammation.

Oxidation

Oxidation, like inflammation is essential for our bodies to function properly. Oxidation is important to energy production.  But oxidation has a bad side too. Oxidation is the removal of an electron from an atom or a molecule. Since they are missing an electron, they spend their time robbing electrons from healthy cells. The result is a cascade of cellular damage. Sometimes this can damage the molecule itself which causes damage to proteins, lipids and DNA in our cells.

Free radicals can cause cholesterol to be more likely to stick to your blood vessels, increasing your risk for heart attacks and stroke. They can damage DNA and cause mutations including cancer. Free radicals can attack and destroy the delicate nerve cells in the brain and eyes, causing cataracts, blindness and Alzheimer’s disease as well. And free radicals damage and weaken the skin structures and connective tissue.

What causes oxidation? Pollution, smoking, medications, alcohol, and eating processed foods with few nutrients will all increase oxidation. In addition, aging and exercise also cause oxidation as well.

But we can fight back by avoiding those things that cause free radicals, reducing inflammation, and by getting plenty of antioxidants, primarily in the foods we eat. These include vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, beta carotene and many other important phytonutrients in vegetables and fruit.

Toxification

Our exposure to harmful toxins is increasing every day. We are exposed to toxins in our food supply, toxins in our environment, and toxins in our everyday personal items such as shampoo and soaps, as well as household items. Beyond that, there are toxins in our water, toxins in medications, and toxins virtually in almost everything that we come into contact with, in some degree. It’s very difficult to escape toxins, unless we live a primitive life far, far away from civilization.

However, our bodies have an amazing capability to detoxify themselves, but if overloaded and left unguarded without the fortification the body needs to fight and filter toxins, it soon becomes overwhelmed and diseased. The liver is our primary source of internal detoxification and when our liver is overloaded, our health pays the price.

Toxins damage our cells’ DNA, and affect hormonal balances, causing weight gain, thyroid dysfunction, cancer, and more.

While most of us cannot retreat to the country and live a primitve life far away from the ills of civilization, we can avoid many toxins by eliminating chemicals in our personal care products, avoiding household cleaning chemicals, and most of all, eliminating or greatly reducing the chemicals and toxins in the food supply that come from conventionally raised meats, pesticide laden vegetables and fruits and processed foods with preservatives and artificial ingredients.

Deficiencies and Depletion

The last thing in this interwoven list is deficiencies and depletion. It’s a sad fact that the vegetables and fruit that we buy in the grocery store are far lower in minerals (including selenium, magnesium, iron, zinc and calcium) than the ones from 50 years ago.

Conventional farming methods and widespread use of chemicals in farming have depleted the soil and the nutrients that we receive from these foods. And livestock raised on an unnatural diet of grain, antibiotics and hormones are also sickly and low in the esstential nutreients we need in our diets to thrive. 

Many of us who may be following a reasonably healthy diet, are missing important nutritional elements in the foods eaten. And, even worse, are those people eating a diet virtually devoid of natural nutrients, phytochemicals and anti-oxidants. (SAD) And that comes at a huge cost to health.

Even Dr. Linus Pauling, winner of two Nobel prizes said, “You can trace every sickness, disease, or ailment in the human body back to a trace element deficiency.”

Most of us are deficient in at least one or two vitamins and minerals. And deficiencies in dietary nutrients feed into the rest of the contributing factors that cause diseases.

Beyond our dietary deficiencies, many of us can be suffering from an unhealthy digestive system that doesn’t absorb nutrients well.

What can we do to avoid disease as best we can and achieve optimal health?

• - Eat real food—Avoid artificial, processed, packaged, nutritionally devoid, chemically laden foods. Eat high quality, organically raised, local foods, and naturally raised meats.

• - Avoid chemicals in your foods—Eat organic as much as possible, eat locally, eat naturally-raised grass fed meats,poultry, eggs, and dairy; and eat only wild caught fish.

• - Avoid chemicals in your environment—Eliminate dangerous household chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides and personal care items. These add a heavy load of toxins.

• - Optimize your fats—Eating naturally raised meats and fish will give you a better omega 3:6 ratio, but also avoid transfats, and added processed fats and vegetable oils.

• - Avoid sugar—as much as possible. That means not only avoiding sugary drinks like soda and avoiding candy, but also avoiding foods made from grains like whole grain breads, pastas, and baked goods. Sugar also lurks in fruit drinks and starchy foods like potatoes as well.

Each of these killer causes is interwoven with the others but amazingly the same things we do to prevent one of the above causes also prevents the others. Simply being aware and making changes in your diet and lifestyle can help to minimize these five things, and contribute to your optimal, vibrant health and long life.


Sources:

Kelly Herring, “Do you know the 5 main causes of disease?”, Healing Gourmet, July 20, 2011.
Living to be 150, Aging and Longevity, http://livingto150.com/aging-and-longevity-glycation.

Cell Phones / Tumors / EMF

 Opposing views on EMF, taken from different sources:

"I just posted on the recent cell phone-brain tumor epidemic article where I shared my clinical findings about wireless EMF combined with underlying heavy metal toxicity in the body or what I like to call 'The Antenna Effect' (currently working on a book about this).  I strongly feel that those with EHS (highly sensitive to EMF) ALL have significant levels of heavy metals in their body acting like an antenna source drawing in the EMF around them and that combo is what makes them very sick.  This is what I find in my clinical practice.  Here is part of my post from the previous cell phone-brain tumor article as it seems to fit:

"This is a tradegy waiting to happen of course but my view is slightly different.  A great deal of my work is focused on heavy metal and chemical toxicity as it relates to illness and dis-ease in the body.  My clinical findings suggest that those with the highest level of metals in their body have the most difficulty with EMF (their cell, pda, microwave oven at home, and even the electronics in their car can occasionally cause rather bizarre symptoms in these patients but not always as most of the time people are completely unaware that they have metals as this truely is a silent epidemic).  The metals in your body simply acts like an antenna drawing in EMF.  That is why it is my mission to educate everyone to get screened for metal and chemical toxicity and God willing our healthcare system will catch on to environmental causes.  It is a tradegy that we all have to tolerate the increase in unavoidable EMF from wireless emissions among other sources.  The jury is out as far as what effects the radiation alone will do to our delicate brains but eliminating 'The Antenna Effect' by cleaning the metals out of the brain and nerve tissue may very well be one of the best forms of prevention within our control."

_____

"The Health Effects of Electrical Pollution" published by the National

Foundation for Alternative Medicine.

www.electricalpollution.com/.../NFAMemf.PDF

------

New Cell Phone Study Says Hang Up & Use a Land Line

www.seventhgeneration.com/.../new-cell-phone-study-says-hang-use-land-line

By the Inkslinger - April 30, 2008

No Cell PhonesIf you're a cell phone user (and who isn't?), you've no doubt been reading along for several years as we've reported various studies addressing the safety of this technology. Some have said that cell phones are safe to use. Some have suggested they might not be. For our part, we've urged precaution until more is known. Now a new examination of the available evidence says that was wise advice.

The new study, Mobile Phones and Brain Tumors – A Public Health Concern, was conducted by noted Australian brain surgeon Dr. Vini Gautam Khurana. Dr. Khurana analyzed more than 100 separate studies, both pro and con, on the potential health effects of cellular phone usage and concluded that the electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted by cell phones will likely lead to an epidemic of brain cancers within the next decade.

Among the points the new research phones home:

• There is a "significant and increasing body of evidence" that demonstrates a link between "excessive and/or prolonged" cell phone usage and certain brain tumors.

• This link should be taken seriously and no longer regarded as a myth.

• The time between the start of regular cell phone usage and the diagnosis of a brain tumor in susceptible individuals can be anywhere from 10 to 20 years. Thus, a statistically significant spike in brain cancer rates should be seen sometime in the next four years (assuming the mid-90s marks the moment cell phone adoption became widespread).

• Enough evidence currently exists to compel government and the cell phone industry to take immediate action to alert consumers to the hazards posed by cell phone EMR.

• This evidence suggests that cell phone radiation will eventually pose a larger threat to public health than asbestos or smoking.

-----

"I don't agree with this. The entire Earth is a magnet. This is why we have a North/South pole. This magnetic field is constantly changing and works at many many frequencies including 2.4GHz. The power of a wifi magnetic field doesn't even come close to the frequency / power of the sun. Numerous things in history have operated at 2.4GHz. HAM radio operators for instance have used this frequency on huge amplifiers. This frequency has also been used for data transmission VIA packet radio for HAM operators. Pagers amplified off huge towers.

"Everything has a magnetic field working at numerous frequencies. Blenders interfere with televisions for example. 2.4 GHz is a high frequency, but no way near unheard of. (even a chunk of wood has a molecular magnetic field)

"2.4GHz, is just the wavelength of the radio signal. Smaller (less broad) and not broad makes more penetration at less power. Lower frequencies are more broad and take more power to amplify.

"So for a police radio, operating in the 40MHz frequencies, penetrate your body at 4 Watts (usually minimum, but often upwards of 7 watts for hand held units) Wifi on the other hand from most routers, operate around 20-28 mw (milliwatts). 28 ten thousandths of 1 watt. or 28 X 10 to the -3 power. Wifi barely makes it through a wall, while things like police radios make it through cities & buildings. Police radios also can truncate at 2.4GHz as well shoving 7 watts @ 2.4 GHz right through your body.

"There's nothing that can be done about this. Your body is bombarded with radio signals at huge wattages, powers, and frequencies constantly - either naturally, or man made."

-----

"Interesting article.  My wife is very chemically sensitive, and we're almost through a process of getting our house completely freed from mold.  It's been a interesting journey so far, and thankfully the Lord has provided the means to help take care of the house problem.  Right now, she's on a special diet to help rid her body of the mycotoxins and to get her hormones back in the right order.   For those with mold, lyme's disease, and chemical sensitivities, you may want to look into www.chronicneurotoxins.com and http://www.moldwarriors.com for more information with the problems of neurotoxins from mold and lyme's disease.  Also, the diet my wife is taking is based on the "Maximized Living", www.maximizedlivingchiropractic.com, healing diet that uses charcoal as a natural alternative to elminate toxins from the body instead of cholestrol binding drugs.  The diet has been helping, but after reading this article, I think we need to seriously start looking into getting her fillings and crown replaced.  She has a lot, and we think that may be contributing to her sensitivities."

Coconut Oil

From Radiant Life:

Coconut oil is uniquely beneficial to health in ways that range from disease prevention to anti-aging. Whether taken as a supplement, used in cooking, or applied to the skin, the benefits of coconut oil are many!

Did you know?...

• Substituting coconut oil for vegetable oil in all your cooking is one of the best things you can do to help your thyroid gland, control your weight and brighten your mood.

• Coconut oil increases the body's metabolism, as it takes more energy to metabolize the medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) than the MCFAs provide. Eating meals containing MCFAs can increase your metabolic rate.  When MCFAs are consumed, they are immediately converted into energy by the liver, not circulated in the bloodstream as lipoproteins, which then may be deposited as fat.

• A diet composed of saturated and monosaturated fats (butter, lard, coconut oil and olive oil) helps protect against heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and many other degenerative diseases.

• Heavy metals and other toxins in the body are eliminated by binding to dietary fats such as coconut oil, butter, and olive oil.

• Coconut oil contains the right kinds of fats that insulate the nerves, helping them to function normally.

• Coconut oil has been and often still is a main ingredient in baby formula (Coconut oil contains lauric acid, an important fatty acid that is abundantly found in breast milk).

So, enjoy coconut oil daily for its nutritional and health benefits!

1. Strengthen your immune system

2. Improve your digestion

3. Prevent premature aging of your skin

4. Promote healthy weight loss permanently

5. Protect against many degenerative diseases

6. Detoxify and heal your body through oral cleansing (oil pulling) 

7. Improve your health

8. Beautify your hair and skin

9. Experience Nature's ultimate germ fighter (caprylic acid is a potent anti-fungal)  

10. Recognize coconut oil as both a food and a medicine

Go to this link to order from Tropical Traditions coconut oil:
http://tinyurl.com/3f7zp82

Sleep

Things to do to help get a good night's sleep:

-Sleep in complete darkness. Get room darkening shades and make sure all little lights from chargers, clocks, computers, etc are off or covered.

-Go to bed at a set time every day and get up at a set time.

-Get at least 6 hours of sleep, 7 or 8 is better depending on your age. Children should get more.

-Make sure your feet are warm enough. If cold feet keep you awake put on socks.

-Use 100% cotton sheets.

-Don't sleep on your stomach.

-Don't have any electronic devices within 6 feet of you.

-Make sure your room is cool enough. It is better to sleep in a 60 degree F room with blankets than in a warm room.

-Pray or read spiritual books just before falling asleep.

-Don't eat or drink anything for a couple of hours before bedtime.

-Eliminate all processed foods that have any chemicals in them. For example: MSG, preservatives, dyes, natural flavors, unnatural sweeteners, bad fats (margarine, vegetable oils) etc.

-Do a good examination of conscience, make an act of contrition and firm resolution of amendment. If you are aware of grave sin on your soul go to Confession as soon as you are able.

-Make sure to do some strenuous exercise each day or every other day if possible. This releases a lot of toxins caused by stress which will help your body relax and have rejuvenating sleep.

-Don't watch TV or look at a computer for at least an hour before going to bed.

-Try to have your bedtime be 9 or 10  since most reparative sleep supposedly occurs before midnight.

The Number 1 Reason You’re So Tired?

This is from Caring.com. I'm just throwing this out there for those of you who suffer from insomnia. There are several things one can do to help get a good night's sleep this may be one thing to look into if you are baffled.

By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com senior editor

Does this sound familiar? You finally manage to get everything done and fall into bed, where it’s easy to fall asleep because you’re bone-tired. You sleep a reasonable number of hours–at least it seems as if you do–but when you wake up, you feel like you hardly slept. Then you drag around all day, feeling fuzzy-headed, grumpy, and longing for a nap.
If this sounds like you or someone close to you, you’ll want to know about a little-known breathing problem called Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS). Unlike sleep apnea, which has been well known for a long time, UARS has only recently been getting attention. The term “resistance” refers to the fact that something is slowing or blocking air in the nasal passages. The most common causes are mild nasal congestion or tongue position during sleep that blocks breathing. Because resistance in the upper airways makes it harder work simply to breathe, your sleep is disrupted throughout the night. According to otolaryngologist Steven Park, UARS is extremely common in older women–one French study found that nearly half of all women with chronic insomnia and daytime fatigue turned out to have this type of sleep-disordered breathing.
Park says he sees many patients with UARS who think they’re sleeping poorly due to stress or insomnia, but it’s more complicated than that. He wrote a book about the phenomenon called Sleep Interrupted: A Physician Reveals the #1 Reason Why So Many of Us Are Sick and Tired. What’s really happening, Park says, is that your body is half-waking up over and over again during the night. Since you’re unable to fall into a deep restorative sleep, you don’t feel refreshed in the morning.
While sleep apnea is much more common in men (only 5 percent of those with apnea are women) UARS affects men and women about equally. Other characteristics common to many people with UARS: having a narrow face, having a small or narrow jaw, and having a thin neck. In fact, if you had to have orthodontia as a child for overcrowded teeth, Park says it’s very likely you could develop UARS. Some people with UARS also have low blood pressure and cold hands and feet. And, says Park, if you have found over the years that you simply cannot sleep on your back (you invariably wake up) it’s very likely the reason is UARS.
UARS is so new, not all doctors are familiar with it, and many sleep clinics don’t use techniques capable of identifying these subtle changes in breathing patterns. (UARS may not show up in traditional tests for disordered breathing, which measure oxygen levels.) So if you suspect you have UARS, choose a sleep study lab that’s familiar with the disorder and has the equipment to test for pressure changes in your nose or alternations in breathing or pulse wave signals.
Over-the-counter products can be effective at treating UARS, says Park, so this is a great first step. Many people benefit from breathing strips, such as “Breathe Right.”
To see if breathing strips might work for you, try this simple test: Looking in a mirror, press the side of one nostril firmly to close it off. Then close your mouth and try to breathe. If you feel resistance as you inhale through the open nostril, try holding it wider open with your pinky finger or the flat side of a toothpick. Try this on both sides. If you notice that you breathe more easily with your nostril propped open, you’re a good candidate for breathing strips.
If these don’t work, the next step is to ask your doctor for a referral to an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist. With the help of an ENT, you’ll have access to a number of treatments, including dental devices and Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), a specially designed nasal mask that prevents your nasal passages from collapsing and delivers air directly into your airway.
If the otolaryngologist determines that tongue position during sleep is causing your UARS, she might recommend a dental device that pushes the jaw forward, which also pushes the tongue forward and prevents it from blocking the opening to the throat. If the obstruction is in the nasal passages, then CPAP is likely to work best. There are also minimally invasive surgical techniques available in cases where the obstruction is located in the area of the soft palate.

The Truth is, Acne is one of the Easiest Problems to Treat Naturally

From Mercola.com: 

Just like other chronic diseases running rampant in Western society (like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity), acne is primarly a disease of the Western world.

More proof is continuing to emerge that the root cause of acne is not bacteria or genetics, but environmental factors—particularly your diet. Acne is much less of a problem in non-Westernized societies, where refined carbohydrates and sugar are consumed in much lower amounts. Solid evidence exists that diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates are the primary CAUSE of acne.

We now know that a low-grain or no-grain diet will very likely clear up your skin, permanently! Antibiotics are unnecessary because correcting your diet creates an internal environment that does not ALLOW bacterial overgrowth to occur.

After diet, the other major factor is stress.

Part of a holistic plan for preventing acne flare-ups is managing your stress. We know that stress is a major factor in infections of any kind. So why aren't physicians lining up to give you the good news? Well, they can't "sell" you a healthful diet. The only one who will reap the benefits from that is you!

Grain-Free Diets Can Clear Up Your Acne FOR GOOD!

Not all carbohydrates are created equal. Carbohydrates can be categorized into the following types:

• Simple carbohydrates are sugars, such as those found in candy, soda, and baked goods. Your best bet is to strictly limit those in your diet—working toward eliminating them completely. Be especially careful to avoid all high fructose corn syrup, which is a major component of sodas and processed foods.
• Complex carbohydrates are found in natural whole foods such as beans, nuts, whole grains, and vegetables. Although beans, nuts and grains contain more nutritive value than simple carbohydrates, you will need to limit them if acne is a problem for you.

Your body "prefers" the complex carbs found in vegetables to the complex carbs found in grains, because your body handles their digestion differently. Vegetable-carbs are slow to break down into simple sugars, with minimal insulin impact, whereas digestion of grain-carbs raises your insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1).

Higher IGF-1 levels can lead to increased male hormones, which cause your pores to secrete more sebum, a greasy substance that traps acne-promoting bacteria. IGF-1 also causes skin cells (known as keratinocytes) to multiply, a process associated with acne.

This is why most grains should be avoided if you have acne issues.

The research holds this up.

In a 2007 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, young men (ages 15 to 25) with acne problems were placed on low-glycemic diets for 12 weeks, showing significant improvements in acne and insulin sensitivity.

Similar findings were shown in this 2002 study.

Simply eliminating grains, sugars (particularly fructose), cereals, potatoes, corn, rice, pasta, processed foods, etc., radically improves acne for most people. Fruit contains a fair amount of fructose, so it should be consumed in very limited quantities if you are predisposed to acne. And fruit juices should be strictly avoided since the sugar is very concentrated in them. (Vegetable juices are great, though, especially green juices.)

If you incorporate these dietary changes, not only will your acne subside, but also your complexion will become more radiant and youthful.

Can Gluten Make Your Acne Worse?

Gluten in wheat and other grains may be contributing to your acne symptoms if you have a gluten intolerance, which many people do. This is a separate issue from the insulin effects already discussed. Gluten is a prime suspect if you have rosacea, a growing problem, especially for Baby Boomers.

According to The Gluten Free Diet:

"A person who is gluten intolerant cannot digest gluten, so the body will not recognize it when it is eaten and therefore treats it as a foreign body when trying to digest it.

Because the body of a gluten intolerant person cannot process gluten properly, the small intestines become damaged slowly over time causing digestive issues. The gluten intolerance can produce other symptoms and push the toxins through the skin such as acne."

Since gluten sensitivity is so pervasive anyway it would make loads of sense to try a a gluten-free diet for one month and see if your acne or any other health symptoms improve. This shouldn't be too difficult if you are already implementing a low-grain or no-grain diet, which minimizes sources of gluten.

The Milk-Iodine-Acne Connection

You may already know that I am an advocate of raw milk for its vast nutritional benefits in general. However, there is a cautionary statement for you, IF you are an acne sufferer. Milk generally contains a fair amount of iodine, although there is less in raw milk than pasteurized milk. Iodine is known to aggravate acne.

Several studies document this relationship as farmers often feed their cows iodine-fortified feed to prevent infection.

Therefore, if you drink milk, you should seek to choose raw over pasteurized—this is true, regardless of whether or not you have issues with your skin. Since raw milk naturally contains iodine at healthier levels, it is less likely to aggravate your acne than pasteurized milk—but the potential still exists for even raw milk to trigger flare-ups. In the interest of eradicating your acne once and for all, then, it seems wise to eliminate milk and other dairy products from your diet altogether.

There are no studies of which I am aware investigating the relationship between raw milk and acne. If you want to test it out for yourself, you can try consuming raw, organic, grass-fed milk, and if it seems to be making your acne worse, then eliminate it from your diet.

Many Skin Care Products Only Contribute to the Problem

What you put on your skin is as important as what you eat. In fact, what you apply topically is readily absorbed through your skin, which is really a semi-permeable membrane through which substances pass directly into your body.

Many of today's skin care products and cosmetics are nothing more than a toxic mélange of harsh chemicals, which cause more skin problems than they solve. And when it comes to acne, these chemicals can seriously inflame an outbreak, or prevent one from healing.

Why do so many cleansers, lotions and potions contain these potentially hazardous ingredients?

Because they're cheap, readily available, and easy to dilute.

When it comes to the skin care industry, anything goes. The Environmental Working Group estimates 99 percent of personal care products contain more than one ingredient that has never been evaluated for safety. It's a self-regulated industry—an industry that operates on "the honor system" but has a multitude of dishonorable players.

So you have to be a meticulous, well-educated label reader to know what you're getting.

You should spend five minutes every day cleansing your face, which removes the impurities that collect on your skin during a typical day and clog up your pores. And ladies, please never sleep in your makeup. It's also advisable to exfoliate your skin once or twice per week. But do so gently, especially if you are experiencing an outbreak, and never pull or rub your skin aggressively.

You should use pure, safe, natural skin care products—preferably organic ones. Apply your skin care products to warm skin, which maximizes absorption.

And once you've cleansed, exfoliated and moisturized, take a deep breath and… rela-a-a-a-x.

Relaxing Your Way to Clearer Skin

Stress can potentially worsen just about every condition, including acne. It's important to learn how to manage your stress, BEFORE it becomes overwhelming. It is even more important to teach your children how to do this when they're young, before stress accumulates unabated and begins to take a toll on their health.

Recent studies substantiate the hypothesis that stress can aggravate acne.

One study involving college students found a connection between acne flare-ups and stress from final exams. Researchers found that subjects who had the most stress during examination periods also had the worst acne outbreaks, suggesting emotional stress from external sources is a significant factor.

While it has been argued that the stress associated with acne is an effect of acne rather than a cause, the above researchers believe this new evidence proves otherwise—that it's the stress that is exacerbating the acne, not vice versa. 

You Can Take Control of Your Skin Health

Remember, your complexion is a reflection of your overall health. Don't forget to incorporate these essential factors into your acne-busting plan:

• Sugars and Grains: This is probably the single most important step you can take to improve your skin health.  If you can eliminate all sugars and grains for a few weeks there is a major likelihood you will notice rapid improvement in your complexion.
• Water: Drink plenty of fresh, pure water every day. Hydrating your body facilitates cell growth and regeneration, elimination of wastes, and sloughing away dead skin cells. Hydration will also improve your skin tone.
  
  
  Every day, drink enough water so that your urine is a pale yellow color. If your urine is bright yellow, you probably need to drink more water (unless you take B vitamins, which themselves turn urine bright yellow).
• Exercise: Getting plenty of high-intensity exercise helps your body flush out toxins, including those in your skin's pores. Plus, exercise is vitally important to all other aspects of your heath. If you happen to have access to an infrared sauna, this can be helpful, because the more you sweat, the more you flush unwanted debris and contaminants out of your pores.
• Sleep: Did you know that a good night's sleep can decrease your stress and lead to clearer skin? Your body's time for healing and rebuilding is at night while you sleep, and this applies to your skin. Sleep is also required for good energy and mood.
• Proper balance of bacteria: This is especially important if you have been on antibiotics, because those drugs indiscriminately kill off the beneficial bacteria in your gut, without which you cannot have a strong immune system. You can reestablish your bacterial balance by taking a high quality probiotic supplement, and by incorporating naturally fermented/cultured foods into your diet.
• Vitamin D: This important nutrient is crucial for maintaining a healthy immune response, and most people are deficient in it. Without adequate vitamin D, your body cannot control infection, in your skin or elsewhere. Exposing large areas of your skin to appropriate amounts of sunshine is the best way to optimize your vitamin D levels, or use a safe tanning bed. You should expose your skin until you just barely begin turning pink, which indicates you've generated the optimal amount of vitamin D for the day.
  
  
  If you don't have access to regular UV exposure, the next best thing is an oral vitamin D supplement, accompanied by regular monitoring of your vitamin D levels with a blood test.

If you change your diet and lifestyle in the ways I've recommended, you can expect significant improvement in the health and appearance of your skin. Plus, those same strategies will lead to improvements in your overall health, as well as relieving your bank account of expensive acne drugs that don't offer any real or lasting solution to your skin's woes.

Remember lifestyle changes are not a "quick fix," but over the long run, they reap endless rewards!

Accutane: One of the MOST Dangerous Drugs Ever Made

This is from Mercola>com:

Accutane is a highly controversial drug yet incredibly remains the industry standard for severe acne. Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG, manufacturer of Accutane, has spent most of this century in court defending itself against lawsuits from people whose health has been irreparably damaged by this menacing drug.

Roche has lost six out of six lawsuits and was recently ordered to pay $25.16 million in damages to an Accutane user who developed inflammatory bowel disease as a result of the drug. Due to generic competition and the exorbitant cost of defending personal injury lawsuits, Roche stopped selling the drug in June 2009.

However, the generic form of Accutane (isotretinoin) is equally deadly and remains available in the marketplace under the names Claravis, Sotret and Amnesteem. More than two million people have taken Accutane, despite the fact that it is known to cause depression, suicide, inflammatory bowel disease, and 100 percent guarantee of birth defects if taken by a pregnant woman.

In 2004, brain scans showed that people taking Accutane suffer a 21 percent decrease in frontal brain activity, the part of the brain that plays a critical role in mood and social interaction. These brain changes may explain the depression, suicidal and aggressive behavior, and psychotic reactions reported by some Accutane users.

Is reducing your acne worth that?

Even official regulation policy acknowledges the real danger of Accutane. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned physicians and consumers about reports of "depression, psychosis, and rarely suicidal thoughts and actions" related to the use of Accutane. Patients using Accutane reported to the FDA that these psychological symptoms improved after stopping Accutane therapy, but worsened with re-start of the drug.

In light of this evidence, the labeling of Accutane was changed to strengthen the warning about its risk for causing depression.Isotretinoin now has the strongest warning available for any drug category—and given a FDA Pregnancy Category X rating..

If you are taking isotretinoin and become pregnant, you are virtually guaranteed to be damaging your baby. Accutane is extremely teratogenic (causing damage to a fetus).

According to the Mayo Clinic:

"Isotretinoin is associated with severe birth defects, so it can't be taken by pregnant women or women who may become pregnant during the course of treatment or within several weeks of concluding treatment. In fact, the drug carries such serious potential side effects that women of reproductive age must participate in a Food and Drug Administration-approved monitoring program to receive a prescription for the drug."

In addition to teratogenic and psychological adverse effects, Accutane (isotretinoin) users have reported the following negative effects:

Increased levels of triglycerides and cholesterol in your blood	Increased liver enzyme levels and liver damage	Erectile dysfunction
Headaches and brain swelling	Disturbances of your central nervous system	Seizures
Damage to skin and mucous membranes Premature epiphyseal closure	Hyperostosis (excessive bone growth) and bone demineralization	Neutropenia, agranulocytosis, and rhabdomyolysis (blood disorders)
Development of inflammatory bowel disease	Damage to your eyes including cataracts	Hearing impairment
Pancreatitis	Heart attack and stroke	Allergic vasculitis

More info on REBIANA (TRUVIA)

This is from the link attached to the title of this post (it seems like it was written in some other language and auto-translated, poorly):

Do not upset this with pristine stevia, it is a multiple of chemicals with a dab of a stevia plant. Stevia itself is a sugarine base as good as nonetheless they have been regulating Erythritol that is a sugarine ethanol well well well known to means such things as bloating, disease as good as cramps. That tells we they have been not regulating many stevia. Nor have been they stealing a unwholesome aspartame from Diet Coke as good as Diet Pepsi. They have been simply perplexing to prove a partial of a race that knows how lethal aspartame is as good as wants to make make make make use of of of of something else.

Notice this sentence: “Stevia was not authorized as a food further by U.S. regulators, yet a U.S. Food as good as Drug Administration released letters to a companies upon Wednesday observant it had no objections to their sweeteners, that have been subsequent from a plant.” The FDA has done themselves clear. Industry can do anything they greatfully yet they have no goal of commendatory something protected for a ubiquitous public. They do not wish to insult a aspartame attention who is absolute as good as takes caring of those who urge their poison. Make certain we assimilate this is a multiple of sweeteners as good as chemicals as good as not genuine stevia. The cocktail companies feel “a dab will do you, so usually buy a product in any case of how a made”. The open again will be a guinea pigs as good as lab rats. Also, see a acknowledgment that Pepsi’s Purevia is being grown with Merisant, an aspartame manufacturer. Nobody should make make make make use of  these products until they have been analyzed. Industry is all a time adding tiny amounts of aspartame since a addictive. If they do this to these products aspartame victims will conflict since aspartame is so unwholesome it causes containing alkali hypersensitization.

Lab Tests Point to Problems with New Sweetener

Consumer organisation says product can enlarge cancer risk 

September 2, 2008

A consumer organisation says a code brand code brand code brand code brand new blurb sweetner, pronounced to be 200 times sweeter than sugar, competence means illness problems as good as needs some-more study. Coca-Cola as good as Pepsi have been formulation to deliver code brand code brand code brand code brand new drinks done with a sweetner, rebiana, an remove of stevia leaves.

In a minute to a Food as good as Drug Administration, a Center for Science in a Public Interest (CSPI) says a group should need one some-more tests, together with a pass animal study, prior to usurpation rebiana as Generally Regarded as Safe, or GRAS.

The minute cites a code brand code brand code brand code brand new 26-page inform by toxicologists during a University of California, Los Angeles, several, yet not all, laboratory tests uncover that a sugarine base causes mutations as good as DNA damage, that raises a awaiting that it causes cancer.

“A safe, natural, high-potency sugarine base would be a acquire further to a food supply,” pronounced CSPI senior manager executive Michael F. Jacobson. “But a FDA needs to be as certain as probable that rebiana is protected prior to permitting it in to dishes that would be used up by tens of millions of people. It would be comfortless if a sugarine base incited out to means cancer or alternative problems.”

One pass animal investigate has not been conducted, according to a UCLA experts as good as CSPI. The FDA’s discipline suggest contrast impending vital code brand code brand code brand code brand new food additives upon dual rodent species, customarily rats as good as mice. The code brand code brand code brand code brand new sugarine base has usually been tested upon rats, yet not mice.

The toxicologists’ inform pronounced that since multiform studies found mutations as good as DNA damage, a lifetime rodent investigate written to weigh a risk of carcinogenicity as good as alternative illness problems was quite important.

The UCLA toxicologists emphasized a need for some-more genotoxicity tests, since of a justification that derivatives of stevia that have been closely compared to rebiana repairs DNA as good as chromosomes.

Their inform remarkable that many of a code brand new investigate upon rebiana was sponsored by Cargill as good as urged a FDA to acquire exclusively conducted tests to safeguard that corporate biases do not change a design, conduct, or formula of a tests.

Rebiana is shorthand for rebaudioside A, a member of stevia. It is performed from a leaves of a plant local to Brazil as good as Paraguay. Coke, Pepsi, as good as alternative companies have been vehement about rebiana, since it presumably tastes improved than wanton stevia, that is sole as a dietary further in health-food stores.

After all the controversies regarding to saccharin, aspartame, as good as alternative synthetic sweeteners, a food attention expects many calorie-conscious consumers to energetically opt for this healthy sweetener.

Two companies — Cargill as good as Merisant — have told a FDA that rebiana should be deliberate GRAS, a difficulty since reduction inspection by a FDA than typical food additives. A third company, Wisdom Natural Brands, has spoken that a stevia-based sugarine base is GRAS as good as will marketplace it though giving justification to, or even notifying, a FDA. That association gave CSPI usually a heavily redacted inform rebuilt by scientists it hired to acknowledgement a stevia derivative, that is of different purity, is safe.

Stevia is authorised in dishes in Japan as good as multiform alternative countries, yet a United States, Canada, as good as a European Union club stevia in dishes since of comparison tests that referred to it competence meddle with reproduction. New tests sponsored by Cargill did not find such problems.

“I am not observant that rebiana is harmful, yet it should not be marketed until code brand code brand code brand code brand new studies settle that it is safe,” Jacobson said.

Cargill’s chronicle of rebiana is called Truvia as good as would be used by Coca-Cola. Pepsi’s chronicle is called PureVia as good as is constructed by Merisant’s Whole Earth Sweetener division. Merisant is many appropriate well well well known for selling a Equal code of aspartame.

CSPI has not questioned a reserve of dual synthetic sweeteners, sucralose (Splenda) as good as neotame, yet says that revealing justification indicates that saccharin, aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), as good as acesulfame-K poise tiny risks of cancer.

“The total emanate of what gets GRAS standing needs to be reviewed by Congress,” Jacobson said. “It’s funny that companies can usually sinecure a couple of consultants to magnify their code brand code brand code brand code brand new mixture as good as pour out them to marketplace though any event for a FDA as good as a open to examination all a reserve evidence.”

Two of a many damaging mixture in a food supply have been deliberate GRAS: salt, that raises red blood vigour as good as causes thousands of nonessential heart attacks as good as strokes each year, as good as to some extent hydrogenated oil, that is a source of artery-clogging synthetic trans fat. CSPI has prolonged campaigned to get to some extent hydrogenated oil out of a food supply as good as to revoke salt to protected levels.

From Consumer Affairs

This report is by Creating Health Institute

through a Health Matters(c) project.

View full post upon Natural Health News

Rebiana is a chemically mutated form of  stevia, it is NOT pristine stevia.

Rebounding: Anti-Gravity Cellular Exercise!

To develop core strength for both body and spirit, rebounding may just be the most efficient and effective form of exercise known to man.

Your body is made of cells. Strengthen your cells and you strengthen your body naturally. No more dashes to the gym or having your outdoor exercise plans rained out. A rebounder workout takes as little as ten minutes each day, making it both efficient and achievable! It is easy and fun for all ages. When done properly on a high quality rebounder (we recommend the Cellerciser as the newest in design and the best in quality), rebounding is safer than walking! The mat absorbs 85% of the impact, making "cellercising" the ideal form of exercise for those with back and joint issues. Rebounding also triggers the release of Serotonin (the happy hormone), helping to release stress, and bringing a smile to your face.

Rebounder Benefits

According to Dr. Morton Walker, M.D., here are some of the many health advantages of regular rebounding:
1) Increases respiratory capacity (lowering mortality)
2) Circulates greater oxygen to tissues (raising immunity)
3) Creates higher equilibrium between tissue oxygen need and oxygen availability (creating greater power)
4) Greatly enhances muscular and valvular fluid exchange, lightening the heart's workload and facilitating lymph-flow
5) Tends to reduce levels of arterial blood pressure during exercise (resting the heart)
6) Lessens the higher blood-pressure period after exercise (resting the heart)
7) Increases resistance to cardiovascular disease
8) Increases red-cell production activity of the bone marrow (raising oxygen-delivery capacity)
9) Aids venous blood flow as well as lymph flow (enhancing waste-cleansing)
10) Encourages collateral circulation of blood and oxygen
11) Strengthens heart muscle and other muscles, causing them to work with greater efficiency
12) Lowers elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels (producing arterial health)
13) Allows heart to beat more slowly at rest
14) Stimulates metabolic activity
15) Promotes growth and tissue repair
16) Tones the endocrine system, especially the thyroid, to increase output
17) Enhances the body's alkaline reserve for potential emergency output
18) Attains absolute potential of the cells on a biochemical level (maximizing function and performance)
19) Conserves physical strength and efficiency
20) Expands the body's capacity for nutrient fuel storage and endurance
21) Improves coordination through enhanced transmission of nerve impulses and muscle response
22) Produces vigor through increased muscle fiber tone
23) Provides relief from neck and back pains, headaches and pains due to poorly toned physiology
24) Enhances digestion and elimination
25) Creates purer sleep and relaxation
26) Increases mental performance, enhancing learning
27) Curtails fatigue and menstrual discomfort in women
28) Minimizes colds, allergies, digestive and abdominal problems
29) Slows aging
30) Lessens likelihood of obesity

*Featured Article - Secrets of Radiant Living* Anti-Gravity Cellular Exercise: Rebounding

Real Food For Mother and Baby — The Fertility Diet:

“Another reason to eat whole foods is that many
nutrients work together. Sperm health improves
dramatically when vitamins A and E are eaten together,
probably because E prevents oxidation of A. You need
vitamin C to absorb iron, and saturated fats extend the
use of omega-3 fats. There are countless relationships
like this in nutrition. There is no need to remember
them. Just eat whole foods in their natural state
and in classic combinations, such as leaves with
olive oil, or fish with butter, and you’ll get
everything you need.“

Pressure of False Urgency

Within the article copied below from the blog, Conversion Diary, is the title of this post. It seems to sum up what today's technology seems to burden us with if we let it. This article is about a lot more than the 'pressure of false urgency', but I really liked that title.

The 7 Habits of People Who Place Radical Trust in God

I read a lot of biographies and memoirs about inspiring people who place radical trust in God. (By “radical” I don’t mean reckless or imprudent, but am referring to the difficult, very counter-cultural act of recognizing God’s sovereignty over every area of our lives. More on that here.) From He Leadeth Me to God’s Smuggler, Mother Angelica to The Heavenly Man to The Shadow of His Wings, these true stories are about people from all walks of the Christian life: Catholic and Protestant, consecrated religious and lay people, men and women. And yet they all have distinct similarities in their approaches to life and the Lord.

I found it fascinating to see what common threads could be found in the lives of these incredible people who place so much trust in the Lord, and thought I’d share in case others find it inspiring as well.

1. They accept suffering

One of the most powerful things I’ve read in recent memory is Brother Yun’s story of being a persecuted pastor in China, as recounted in the book The Heavenly Man. After facing weeks of torture, including electrocution, starvation, beatings, and having needles shoved under his fingernails, he was thrown in a box that was four feet long, three feet wide, and four feet high, where he would stay indefinitely. The day after he was put in this mini cell, he felt prompted to pray for a Bible — a ridiculous idea, considering that many people were in prison at that very moment for being in possession of such contraband. Yet he prayed anyway. And, inexplicably, the guards threw a Bible into his cell the next morning. He writes:

I knelt down and wept, thanking the Lord for this great gift. I could scarcely believe my dream had come true! No prisoner was ever allowed to have a Bible or any Christian literature, yet, strangely, God provided a Bible for me! Through this incident the Lord showed me that regardless of men’s evil plans for me, he had not forgotten me and was in control of my life.

Now, the less saintly among us (cough-cough) might have reacted to that a little differently. Had I been tortured and thrown in a coffin-like cell, my reaction to receiving a Bible would have likely been more along the lines of, “Thanks for the Bible, Lord, but could we SEE ABOUT GETTING ME OUT OF THIS METAL BOX FIRST?!?!” I wouldn’t have even “counted” the Bible as an answered prayer since my main prayer — reducing my physical suffering — had gone unanswered.
Yet what I see over and over again in people like Brother Yun is that they have crystal clarity on the fact that suffering is not the worst evil — sin is. Yes, they would prefer not to suffer, and do sometimes pray for the relief of suffering. But they prioritize it lower than the rest of us do — they focus far more on not sinning than on not suffering. They have a laser focus on getting themselves and others to heaven. In Brother Yun’s case, he saw through that answered prayer that God was allowing him to grow spiritually and minister to his captors, so his circumstances of suffering in an uncomfortable cell became almost irrelevant to him.

2. They accept the inevitability of death

Similar to the above, people who place great trust in God can only do so with a heaven-centered worldview. They think in terms of eternity, not in terms of calendar years. Their goal is not to maximize their time on earth, but rather to get themselves and as many other people as possible to heaven. And if God can best do that by shortening their lifespans, they accept that.
The Shadow of His Wings is filled with jaw-dropping stories of Fr. Goldmann’s miraculous escapes from death during World War II, which begs the question, “What about all the people who didn’t escape death?” Fr. Goldmann would probably respond by saying that God saving him from death was not the blessing in and of itself — after all, every single one of us will die eventually. The blessing was saving him from death so that he could continue his ministry bringing the Gospel to the Nazis. He eventually died while building a ministry in Japan, and presumably accepted that God would bring good from his passing, even though there was undoubtedly more work he wanted to do.

3. They have daily appointments with God

I have never heard of a person who had a deep, calm trust in the Lord who did not set aside time for focused prayer every day. Both in the books I’ve read an in real life, I’ve noticed that people like this always spend at least a few moments — and up to an hour or two if circumstances permit — focused on nothing but prayer, every day. Also, they tend to do it first thing in the morning, centering themselves in Christ before tackling anything else the day may bring.

4. In prayer, they listen more than they talk

I’ve written before about my amazement that really holy people seem to get their prayers answered more often than the rest of us. I’d heard enough stories of people praying for something very specific, then receiving it, that I started to wonder if they were psychic or God just liked them more than the rest of us or something. What I eventually realized is that their ideas about what to pray for came from the Holy Spirit in the first place, because they spent so much time seeking God’s will for them, day in and day out.
So, to use the example of a famous story from Mother Angelica’s biography, she had a satellite dish delivery man at the door who needed $600,000 or he was going to return the dish, thus killing all the plans for the new station. She ran to the chapel and prayed, and a guy she’d never met randomly called and wanted to donate $600,000. Her prayer wasn’t answered because she had a personal interest in television and just really, really wanted it, but because she had correctly discerned God’s plan that she was to start a television station on this particular day.

5. They limit distractions

Of all the amazing stories in God’s Smuggler, one of the lines that jumped out to me the most in the book was in the epilogue, when the authors talk about how Brother Andrew’s work has continued in 21st century:

“I won’t even consider installing one of those call waiting monstrosities,” he exclaimed, “that interrupt one phone conversation to announce another.” Technology, Andrew says, makes us far too accessible to the demands and pressures of the moment. “Our first priority should be listening in patience and silence for the voice of God.”

Far too accessible to the demands and pressures of the moment. That line has haunted me ever since I read it. I love technology, but it does come with a huge temptation to feel a general increase in urgency in our lives: I have to reply to that email! Respond to that comment on my wall on Facebook! Ret-tweet that tweet! Read that direct message! Listen to that voicemail! Here in the connected age, we are constantly bombarded with demands on our attention. Periods of silence, where we can cultivate inner stillness and wait for the promptings of the Holy Spirit, are increasingly rare.
One thing that all the people in these books have in common is that they had very little of this pressure of false urgency. It’s hard to imagine Fr. Ciszek coming up with the breathtaking insights about God’s will that he shared in He Leadeth Me with his iPhone buzzing alerts every few minutes, or Brother Yun seeing the subtle beauty of God’s plan in the midst of persecution while keeping his Twitter status updated on a minute-by-minute basis.

6. They submit their discernment to others

People who have a long history of watching the way the Lord works in their lives notice that he often speaks through holy friends, family members and clergy. If they discern that God is calling them to something, especially if it’s something big, they ask trusted Christian confidantes to pray about the matter and see if they discern the same thing. And when others warn them not to follow a certain path — especially if it’s a spouse, confessor or spiritual director — they take those indicators very seriously.

7. They offer the Lord their complete, unhesitating obedience

One of my favorite parts of God’s Smuggler is when Brother Andrew got a visit from a man named Karl de Graaf who was part of a prayer group in which people often spent hours of time in prayer, most of it listening in silence:

I went out to the front stoop, and there was Karl de Graaf. “Hello!” I said, surprised.
“Hello, Andy. Do you know how to drive?”
“Drive?”
“An automobile.”
“No,” I said, bewildered. “No, I don’t.”
“Because last night in our prayers we had a word from the Lord about you. It’s important for you to be able to drive.”
“Whatever on earth for?” I said. “I’ll never own a car, that’s for sure.”
“Andrew,” Mr. de Graaf spoke patiently, as to a slow-witted student, “I’m not arguing for the logic of the case. I’m just passing on the message.” And with that, he was striding across the bridge.

Despite his initial hesitation, Brother Andrew discerned that this was something that God was calling him to do, so he learned to drive. It seemed like a complete waste of time, an utterly illogical use of his resources, but he was obedient to the Lord’s call. I won’t spoil what happened next for those of you who plan to read the book, but let’s just say that shortly after he received his license, it turned out to be critical to the future of his ministry (which eventually brought the Gospel to thousands of people behind the Iron Curtain) that he know how to drive.
I often think of how Mr. de Graaf responded when Brother Andrew was scratching his head about this odd message: “That’s the excitement in obedience,” he said. “Finding out later what God had in mind.”

—

Obviously we can’t grow closer to God by aping the actions of others, but I find lists like this helpful as a starting point for reflection on my own spiritual progress. I hope you found it helpful as well!