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'IN EQUILIBRIUM 11'        
                           
 
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CONTENTS           
    
THE REGULARS                  FEATURES      
Stress Tip

Detoxification

Quote
Al's Column: Play that Funky Music
Book Review    Supplement of the Month- Preventing Infection
Words From the Past

Meditations

 

THE REGULARS

 
STRESS TIP
 
THE BUBBLE TECHNIQUE

This is a useful technique you can teach yourself which has helped many people in situations where they have felt under pressure or have faced aggression.

Visualise yourself inside a bubble.  The colour and texture of the bubble is up to you but they must make you feel comfortable and safe.  Now fill your bubble with all your favourite things, including music, memories, smells and feelings.  Develop the habit of being in your bubble whenever you can.  Think of practicing this exercise as a ‘treat’ you are allowing yourself, brief periods of relief during your busy day.

The surface of the bubble can protect you from negativity and aggression from outside sources.  Visualise aggressive words and attitudes bouncing off or being deflected round you by the bubble surface.  Simultaneously the contents of the bubble make you feel relaxed, calm and confident which allows you to think clearly and respond in an assertive manner.

Eventually you will find that you can visualise yourself surrounded by your bubble during actual stressful events and feel safer and more confident in those situations. 

Remember this is a technique which, like any other, improves with committed practice and application over time.   


 
QUOTE
 
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.

Milton Berle
(1908-, American Actor, Entertainer)


 
BOOK REVIEW              
 
CONNECT: 12 Vital Ties That Open Your Heart, Lengthen Your Life, and Deepen Your Soul by Edward M Hallowell M.D.

Forget the very American title that prompts you to stick your fingers down your throat, this is a great self-help book.  ‘Ned’ Hallowell (he wouldn’t call himself that if he lived in Glasgow!) is a famous Psychiatrist in the States who’s written a number of best sellers about things like worry and obsession.

This book is all about connections not just with family, friends and colleagues, but also with ideas, institutions, animals and nature.  It looks at their critical importance, their varying nature, and about how we can develop them to our benefit.  The benefits are not just feel-good, they are much more than that.  The quality of our connections largely predicts our health, happiness and longevity. 

The great news is that even though your connections may be poor in one area, you can make up for them in others.  The author uses his own life as an example.  He had a particularly lousy childhood, blighted by abuse and parental mental illness, yet he was able to make nourishing connections elsewhere (e.g. with teachers) and these basically saved him.

Hallowell discusses all the potential areas we can make connections with, as well as what you can do to improve your connectivity in each area.  Great stuff – you’ll get a lot out of this book.

Connect: 12 Vital Ties that Open Your heart, Lengthen Your Life, and Deepen Your Soul by Edward M Hallowell M.D.

Review by Alan Bradshaw


WORDS FROM THE PAST
 
Two hundred years ago many more words were hyphenated.  I suppose someone was trying to be efficient by taking the hyphens out, but in the process diluted the meaning.  Here are some examples: Head-ache, Dis-stress, Gentle-man, or even most telling: Dis-ease.  Yes, doctors like Dr Furlong Churchill, who wrote The Family Physician in 1808, felt that you became ill when you were not at your ease, because you had dis-ease!

Sometimes names have changed completely.  One of my favourites is the 1808 name for the common cold.  It was called the Morbid Snuffles.  Could you imagine phoning up your boss and saying: ‘I cannot come in today, I have the morbid snuffles’?

Also to save space, phrases were converted into longer single words and in the process could lose some of their meaning.  For example, the phrase: ability to respond became the word: responsibility.  Dr Furlong Churchill said that inability to respond was caused by two components, lack of an insight that there was something that needed to be altered or responded to, and also lack of the skill to do it.

By Dr David Mason Brown


 
FEATURES

 

The Second Article in the Toxicity Series by Dr David Mason Brown….

DETOXIFICATION: FOR EXTRA ENERGY AND HEALTH

The previous article in In-Equilibrium 10 explained how we take in toxins, how these reduce our energy levels and make us feel tired, and how the body tries to get rid of them.  This article looks at ways to remove the toxins from our bodies.

Car paintwork if damaged can result in rusting due to the effects of moisture and oxygen being made worse by pollutants such as acid rain or salt.  In a similar way all living tissue can be damaged by free radicals, which can be formed by anything from radiation, to excess sunshine (well, not often this summer), cigarette smoke, toxic chemicals, and also the waste products of body cell chemistry.

Some foods such as bilberry, green tea, or extracts from grape seeds are rich in antioxidants.  Antioxidants can help to reduce the negative effects of these free radicals.  Some vitamins are antioxidants, such as A, C, and E, as are some minerals such as zinc and selenium.  However, the British soil is very deficient in both selenium and zinc, and with the levels of pollution it may not be possible to obtain adequate levels of antioxidants from the diet alone.

This means it can help to supplement with specially produced multiple antioxidants.  The most effective ones, which can be up to fifty or more times as strong as Vitamin E for example, have not only anti-oxidant effects, but may also help to prevent cancer, and reduce inflammation.  This may help prevent heart disease, ageing of the skin, poor circulation and cell vitality.  Antioxidants can also reduce tiredness by increasing general vigour and vitality.  However, the single most important effect of antioxidants is removal of the backlog of accumulated toxins from body tissues, including accumulation in the body fat.  Many of the more effective ones contain a strong antioxidant, called Pycnogenol.

The multiple antioxidant I have mainly used with my patients is called Revenol.  I have tried many, but found this to be the best.  I have been prescribing it for about 5 years, and like many supplements I recommend I used it myself first.  I found it was one of the most powerful detoxifiers on the market.  You can order Revenol by calling 0131 476 7183.

The next article in this series will be about a particularly common toxin for some people, the organophosphates.


 
AL'S COLUMN
 
Play that funky music

I grew up in the 70s.  What a great time that was artistically.  Being ugly did not preclude you from pop stardom.  There were some phenomenally successful, yet gruesome, pop idols.  Now you have to be pretty and thin, and that’s just the guys.  Would Demis Roussos make it these days?  I think not.  Mind you, these days he would lose 12 stone and make his fortune selling his book on the chat show circuit.

It was the age of Glam Rock and Disco, and I became a lover of seventies funk.  And of course, dancing to it.  I love to dance (but my baby just loves to love – remember that Tina Charles classic.  Come to think of it she wasn’t exactly a supermodel either).   Most people are surprised when I tell them I love to dance.  They just have no idea how gracefully and dynamically I can move my sixteen-stone frame round a dance floor.

We have odd cultural attitudes toward dance in our society.  Many people, especially men, just don’t dance.  We are too embarrassed, too worried about making a fool of ourselves.  Too often, the only time we give ourselves permission is when we’re blind drunk.  This is very sad.  Dancing is good for you, physically and mentally.  It’s good to let it all out.  Most of the time we keep it all in and that’s not healthy.

Other cultures have not had this problem and they are mentally healthier as a consequence.  In many cultures dance has spiritual, medical, ritual or psychological significance.  Dance is for celebration, thanks, or for prayer.

Some time this month, defy the critics and do some dancing.  At home, at work, wherever you feel.  Have a funky month.    

By Alan Bradshaw.


SUPPLEMENT OF THE MONTH by Dr David Mason Brown:
 
Colloidal Silver - Preventing Infection
 

Colloidal Silver is an extremely important trace element that has stood the test of time, especially for the prevention of infections, and the clearing of residual infections.  The reason for recent interest in Colloidal Silver is that so many bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, also broad-spectrum antibiotics have side effects by killing the good bacteria in our gut, which are needed for health.

Many of my patients have found a number of benefits.  They are having fewer infections, they are better protected when travelling in crowded trains, aircraft, etc, or when there are infections around their offices.  They have also found that they are no longer needing courses of recurrent antibiotics.  Some patients, the ones who have been on it the longest, are also reporting that they have more stamina and feel less tired.

Colloidal Silver is especially effective in individuals who have become run down due to work pressures, who have had a chronic illness, or those who have to travel abroad and want to increase their levels of protection from infections around them.

Colloidal Silver is interesting historically as it was used in a more primitive form by the very wealthy to prevent or treat infections from the Middle Ages onwards.  The wealthy took silver made up for them by their pharmacist when there were epidemics of fatal diseases.  However, they had little idea about dosage levels and in times of severe epidemics took so much that their blood turned blue; they were the true blue blooded and this is where the term 'blue blooded aristocrats' comes from!  They also ate from silver dishes, drank from silver goblets, and literally were born with the proverbial silver spoon in the mouth.  

As well as fighting infection, Colloidal Silver also boosts the immune system.  All of us have bad bacteria in parts of our bodies that produce localised chronic inflammation, tiredness, and lack of stamina.  According to Glen Gillard, a highly respected Australian naturopathic physician, it is in these areas and for prevention that Colloidal Silver excels.

Colloidal Silver is completely non-toxic to Humans in normal dosages, even the higher dosages for more severe chronic infection such as chronic severe acne, and it is also non-allergenic.

It is important to remember that in sudden acute bacterial infections modern antibiotics can be life saving and essential.  Colloidal Silver is used to help prevention and to eliminate various milder chronic infections.  Their uses are different and complementary. 

Call 0131 476 7183 to order Colloidal Silver. 

Remember: You should always consult your doctor before taking any supplements.   This information is not a substitute for seeing your own doctor, especially when you do not know what is wrong with you.  
 
As with most supplements, you should avoid taking Colloidal Silver if you are pregnant.
 

MEDITATIONS
 
Some thoughts on contentment.
 
Do you think contentment is something that is commonly felt in our society?  Or are we more likely to think along the lines of 'I will be content when I.....'? 
 
Are the goal posts of contentment constantly moving for you?
 
Perhaps we could all be more content if our focus was to change.  Some of us find it difficult to see what is good in our life because we are focused on how it could be better.  We might feel as though the badness of things outweighs the good.  But remember, the bad can actually be the raw material for the good!
 
Take a few moments to think about the goodness in your life:
Enjoy the emotions that these thoughts bring.  
 
Let yourself:

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Edited by Jan MacGregor.