I’m writing this the morning of my father’s passing.  I wanted to use this as a part of my own process of grief.  And I will post it immediately.

Most of you know my father has not been well.  He suffered a heart attack over seven years ago, and most of the doctors he saw told him he was a high risk and would not do any surgery.  He also did not want to do anything invasive.  He walked around for the past seven years with 30% of his heart working.  During the last years he worked through some issues he’s had his whole life and seemed to process a lot of his own grief.  About three months ago he found a doctor at the VA Hospital in Florida that seemed to give him hope;  that bypass surgery would give him a better quality of life.  I remember the call from my father after he spoke with this surgeon.  He really made a “connection” with him.  And he was going to go ahead with the surgery. 

The doctor advised him to get a flu shot.  My father has never believed in the flu shot and I don’t think he has ever gotten one.  But he did, and he got the flu.  A very bad case of the flu.  He was in the hospital for a bit during this time and he wasn’t interested in eating and he was having trouble with his kidneys.  I believe now, that his body was starting to shut down.  Please know that none of my brothers and sisters (there are 9 of us), could convince him not to have the surgery.  After he recovered from the flu, the surgery was scheduled very fast.  I was with him and my mom during this time.

Why am I writing this?  Because you know I’m all about “feeling the feelings“.  My dad ate healthy and was very physically fit.  His heart was not healed though.  And eventually his heart could not handle the stress of the emotion he had, but was not taking the time to feel.  After the surgery, he seemed to be getting better.  Right on track.  However the doctors told him although the arteries were now good, his heart was not functioning any better.  Prior to the surgery, his heart was operating at 13%.  That was very hard for him to hear and at that time, only two days after surgery, he started his decline.  On the third night, he was given something to help him sleep.  That med made him anxious and he was given something to help with the anxiety.  That didn’t help and he was subsequently given three more meds.  He became psychotic and it took many days to turn that around.  Now it’s over a week and he is still in ICU.  His lungs had fluid and his kidneys were suffering.  He was finally transferred out of ICU and as the doctor was taking out his stitches, he told my dad that he should be swinging a softball bat in two months or so. 

That didn’t happen.  He was again given the wrong meds one night that set him back.  During his time in ICU, he spoke with me about the pain he felt about not being there for his kids.  About this part of him that he kept hidden from everyone.  I tried, and so did my brother, to help him forgive himself.  But these emotions, the ones he ran from his whole life, where finally catching up with him.  And sitting in a hospital for two months didn’t help that.  Yes, he had psychiatrists come in, priests come in, therapists come in.  But his mind wouldn’t let go and his body was continuing to let go.  He was tired of holding on.

He was transferred to another VA closer to my mom.  One week actually going into the rehab portion of the hospital, but that was short lived.  His body could not process the fluids because his heart was not functioning.  After a conversation with the doctor (I still don’t know what was said.  I can only imagine), he made the choice to move to a Hospice Facility.  This was last week.  After a few days there, his body started shutting down.  He stopped eating and everything started to swell with fluid.   Another doctor came in a couple of days ago and stated that “he should have never had the surgery”.  The doctors convinced my mom to go home last night, that this is what patients need to let go.  And let go he did.  Peacefully, in the middle of the night. 

Has the grieving started?  For me it started years ago.  Grieving for the life I thought I was going to have.  I’ve made my peace with my parents.  I’ve thanked them for making me who I am today.  I’ve tried to help them through their own grief.  But each of us processes this differently.  We all have different filters.  Did they accept my process and believe me when I said I’d forgiven them?  I doubt it.  That’s the sad part.  Most of the time we grieve only for ourselves.  This process is for us, not for those around us.

All this talk of 2012…has anyone seen the movie yet?  What’s it about?  My belief is it’s about making peace with yourself, your loved ones, your friends.  Our earth can only hold so much negative emotion.  Do your work.  The denial, the blame, the guilt and the anger, don’t work anymore.  We need to heal as a planet. 

Is today the day you will make that appointment with your therapist?  Today the day you will hug your child and not put your expectations on them?  Is today the day you will start that yoga or meditation class or start eating healthier?  Will you grieve today?  Will you cry for the pain, for the life you thought you were going to live?  Will you let go of all you are holding onto?  All that is making you unhealthy?  I pray you do not wait. 

I wish you peace during this season and always.  Thank you for your prayers and thoughts.

Laughter is good for the soul. And now it seems, is good for the heart too!  Laughter, outward chuckles, inward joy.  Laughing at a joke or a funny movie…anything that gives you pleasure.  There’s even laugh yoga and laughter workshops. Laughter helps relieve stress, enhances your mood, dissolves fear, lessons anxiety, contributes to team work, makes us attractive to others and more pleasant to be around.  And laughter can have physical side effects too.  Laughter will strengthen your immune system, reduce food cravings, increase your threshold for pain, release endorphins, lessen pain, decrease stress hormones, and lead to the general relaxation of your mind and your muscles.  Studies are being done as to the effects of laughter on stimulating healing even in cancer cases.

Wikipedia says…”Laughter is found among various animals, as well as in humans.  Among the human species, it is a part of human behaviour regulated by the brain, helping humans clarify their intentions in social interaction and providing an emotional context to conversations.  Laughter is used as a signal for being part of a group-it signals acceptance and positive interactions with others. Laughter is sometimes seemingly contagious, and the laughter of one person can itself provoke laughter from others as a positive feedback.”

If you’ve been reading these blogs lately, you know my Dad just had a double bypass.  He suffered a heart attack over seven years ago and was considered a high risk for surgery.  He was in great physical shape and had been a vegetarian/healthy eater for many years.  I knew it was an emotional issue and now I believe this; my Dad never laughed.  Sure he chuckled lightly, but I don’t remember him ever having a full belly laugh.  I’ve learned a lot about my Dad this last month.  Could someone who doesn’t consider himself worthy, who feels guilt over some things he’s done in his life, actually make himself sick?  Absolutely.  We know emotions have just as much to do with health as the physical aspects.

So what about laughter?  Did you know that laughter can help prevent heart disease?  Can laugher, along with a healthy sense of humor, may help protect you against a heart attack?  Is this possible?  Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine, dopamine and growth hormone.  Laughter will increase the level of health-enhancing hormones, such as endorphins and neurotransmitters.  It will increase the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T cells.  This is how laughter can strengthen your immune system and allow you to have fewer of the physical effects of stress.  Internally, a good belly laugh will exercise your diaphragm and contract the abs, leaving you feeling more relaxed after.  Laughter can be a distraction for anger, guilt, stress and other negative emotions.  Humor can give us a lighthearted perspective on the way we view the challenges and threats in our life.  It can make these problems less threatening and allow you to feel more positive.

A new study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, found that…”people with heart disease were 40% less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease…..We don’t know yet why laughing protects the heart, but we know that mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels.”  The most significant finding of this study was that “people with heart disease responded less humorously to everyday life situations.”  These people displayed more anger and hostility and laughed less.

Watch a comedy…movie or TV, head to a comedy club with friends or have friends over for game night. And there’s always YouTube.  Have you ever watched Stuart from Mad TV?  Do a search for “Hamster on a piano” on YouTube.  Now that’s funny.  Find the humor in your life.  Sometimes that can only happen after the fact…ha ha.  Look back on what’s happened to you and laugh.  Yeah, that’s been my life for the last few months!  I like this one….Fake it until you make it!  Fake laughter has the same benefits and can lead to real chuckles. 

 So maybe this blog is funny?  Glad I made you laugh! 

Why did the chicken cross the playground?  To get to the other slide!

The American Dietetic Association recommends 25 grams of fiber daily for women and 38 grams for men.  Most of us are only getting 15 grams of fiber a day.  The World Health Organization extimates cardiovascular disease causes approximately 17.5 million deaths per year world-wide.  A vegetarian or living food lifestyle will greatly lower your incidence of heart disease than it will for meat eaters.  Saturated animal fats raise cholesterol levels and clog arteries.  Eating a well balanced vegetarian diet will give your body the heart-healthy nutrients it needs.  Foods like fruit, veggies, and whole grains are easy and fun to prepare and eat. 

These six food compounds can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease: Soluble fiber, Potassium, Carotenoids, Omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins and Flavonoids. 

Soluble fiber combines with water in your GI tract to absorb cholesterol and stop it from being distributed through your body.  It will also push it out of you.  We all know how great fiber is for elimination, right?  Sometimes called roughage, fiber is the indigestable portion of plant food.  Wikipedia says, “Soluble fiber, like all fiber, cannot be digested.  But is does change as it passes through the digestive tract, being transformed (fermented) by bacteria there.  Soluble fiber also absorbs water to become a gelatinous substance that passes through the body”.   What foods are fiber filled?  Whole grains like oats, barley, and pinto beans, potatoes, brussel sprouts and fruits like apples, plums and oranges are good sources of soluble fiber, whereas 100% bran cereal has more insoluble fiber.  Insoluble fiber will pass through the body unchanged.

Potassium is associated with lowering blood pressure levels.  It counters the effect of excess sodium and aids in transmitting nerve impulses and promotes normal muscle function.  Both effective for optimal heart and blood vessel health.  Foods like potatoes, bananas, dark leafy greens, pumpkin seed, avocado and almonds are high in potassium.  Potassium deficiency can lead to high blood pressure problems, hypertension, strokes, and heart irregularities.  Meat, poultry and fish are high in potassium, but it’s not healthy to eat an entirely carnivorous diet.  These foods will cause a rise in acid levels and deplete potassium levels.  Instead of supplements, try a slice of cantaloupe, a banana or strawberries. 

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids that play a key role in heart health.  These are a class of polyunsaturated fats.  They cannot be manufactured by the body so must be obtained from food.  They contain molecules that will ward off blood clots that can trigger stroke and heart attacks.  Omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and prevent risk factors associated with chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and arthritis.  You can find Omega-3 fatty acids in flaxseed, flaxseed oil, walnuts, soy, and baby dark leafy greens like watercress and arugula.

Low blood levels of B vitamins and folic acid have been found to increase the risk of atherosclerosis, which can lead to heart attacks and stroke.  Atherosclerosis is a condition in which fatty material collects along the walls of the arteries.  Some sources of B vitamins are fortified breakfast cereals, sunflower seeds, potatoes, broccoli and asparagus.

Flavonoids have antioxidative and anti-inflammatory properties that protect you against heart disease.  They keep the lining of the arteries flexible which will promote healthy blood flow and reduce clotting.  Catechin is a flavonoid compound found in tea and cocoa and it can reduce heart disease.  It’s found in dark chocolate, green tea, red wine, extra virgin olive oil and apples.  Soy flavonoids (isoflavones) can also reduce blood cholesterol and can help to prevent osteoporis. 

Carotenoids have fat solubility and antioxidant properties.  These plant chemicals are a big factor in fighting heart disease. and give fruits and veggies their yellow, red and orange colors, not to mention the green in plants.  There is evidence they interact with bad LDL cholesterol and prevent if from oxidizing and sticking to the artery walls.  Food sources of carotenoids are carrots, spinach, kale, collard greens, red peppers and tomatoes.  However, to maximize the availability of these carotenoids in your food, they should be eaten raw or lightly steamed.

And please….don’t forget your emotional heart.  Feeling emotionally healthy is just as important.  Get in touch with your physical and emotional body.  Yoga, meditation, chi gong…all great ways to start “feeling”.  Releasing all the “baggage” will detox your blood as well as your muscles. 

Breathe, breathe and breathe again.  Keep going……

I’m all about giving you new reasons to eat healthy.  New ways to make your trip to the grocery store more interesting.  New things to think about.  Well this next post may sound weird, but I believe it.  And if I believe it, it must be true, right.

We’ve all heard the saying, “You are what you eat”, right?  Well here’s a list of new reasons to eat your way to health.  Again, it’s not all about what you put in your mouth, as much as what you are NOT putting in your mouth anymore.  The body knows how to heal itself.  But with our unhealthy eating and living habits, the body spends too much energy trying to process and digest.  How about we make it a little easier on ourselves?  

There was once something called “The Doctrine of Signatures”.  This philosophy has been an idea of herbalists and alchemists for centuries.  It is the idea that God has marked everything He created with a sign that was an indication of the purpose if was created for.  A similar belief was held by Native Americans and Oriental cultures. This doctrine did not become a part of the medical thinking until the middle of the seventeenth century.  Colors and shapes of plants remind us of the body part where they would do the most good.  Every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or function.  I’ve listed below a short list of some whole foods and their function.

Grapes:  This fruit hands in a cluster shaped like the heart.  Grapes look like a blood cell and research shows that grapes also are a heart and blood vitalizing food.

Carrots:  A sliced carrot looks like the human eye.  Science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to the eyes.

Tomato:  A tomato has four chambers and is red.  The heart has the same features.  All research shows tomatoes are heart and blood food.

Kidney beans:  These beans actually look like our kidneys.  They help to heal and maintain kidney function

Walnuts:  These nuts look like a little brain.  Left and right hemisphere and upper and lower cerebellums.  We know that walnuts help develop over three dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Celery, Rhubarb and Bok Choy:  These look like bones.  Bones are 23% sodium and these are also 23% sodium.  We now know that if you don’t have enough sodium in your diet, the body will pull sodium from your bones, and make them weak.  Eating these foods will replenish the skeletal needs of your body.

Eggplant, Avocado and Pears:  Are you getting the picture? Have you guessed what these target?  Female health!  Research shows that if a woman eats one avocado a week, it will balance hormones, shed unwanted birth weight and prevent cervical cancers.  These look just like the womb and cervix of the female.  It takes nine months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit.  Interesting, huh?  There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each of these and modern science has studied about 141 of them.

Figs:  These are full of seeds and grow in groups of two.  They increase the motility of male sperm and will increase the numbers of sperm. 

Sweet Potatoes:  These look like the pancreas.  They actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives:  Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.  Enough said?  Ok, here are some more…

Grapefruits, Oranges and other citrus:  They look just like the mammary glands of females and assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions:  They look like body cells.  Research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all the body cells.  They will also produce tears which wash the eyes.

Whew!  That was a lot of information.  Take it one at a time.  Take the list with you to the grocery store.  Eating these veggies in their raw state is even healthier for you.  Keep the enzymes in your food!  Allow your body to heal by eating raw.  Raw food is easier to digest.  Less work, more healing.

Take care of yourself. 

The statements in this blog are for nutritional purposes only.  Please talk to your primary doctor if you have concerns before making any major changes in your  dietary lifestyle.

Here are some warning signs of a heart attack from the American Heart Association:

Chest discomfort, discomfort in other areas of the upper body, shortness of breath, and cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.  Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the chest that can last more than a few minutes to a few weeks.  It could present as pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain.  You could also have pain in one or both arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach.  It is critical not to dismiss any of these symptoms and to seek medical attention as soon as possible to rule out a heart attack.  This will have a big factor in damage to your heart and survival.

Here’s my story, because I always have at least one   About seven years ago, my Dad was in excellent physical shape.  He was 70 years old and was playing up to four softball games a week (sometimes three in one day), working full time at Optimum Health Institute in CA, and eating a healthy diet (mostly vegetarian).  One day I got a phone call from my Mom saying he had had a heart attack.  What?  How did that happen?  He had started feeling bad three weeks prior.  Chest pain and other symptoms, but continued to go about his day.  The only thing that brought him into the doctor that day was because in his softball game he had gone 0 for 4 and he thought something must be wrong.  If you don’t know anything about baseball, that means he didn’t get a hit that day.  Again, he just went to the doctor that day after three weeks of discomfort.  The doctor told him he’d been having a heart attack for three weeks.  His heart muscle was (and still is) working at 30%.  Heart muscle does not repair itself.   Yes, the doctor’s were surprised he was still alive.  To this day, when he walks into the doctor’s office, they say to him “I can’t believe you are still here.”  I tell him it’s time to get a new doctor. 

Obviously, with my Dad being in such good physical shape, blood is pumping through his body without the full help of his heart.  He’s still around although cannot work and has trouble walking upstairs and is learning more and more about himself and his family every day.  It’s not his time; he has more work to do.  And yes, he fights sadness and negativity every day. 

 It is vitally important to have your muscle’s working to their optimum efficiency to support healthy blood movement.  Staying active and eating healthy are two important factors in heart health.  I’m writing this because I have been thinking a lot about the recent deaths of some celebrities.  Better lifestyle habits can help reduce your risk of a heart attack and help to maintain a healthy heart, mind and body.  Choosing the right foods, managing your weight, and exercise.  Emotional health is just as important.  As with my Dad, sometimes eating healthy and exercise aren’t the only things to avoid heart disease.

Heart disease is the number one killer of American women.  Don’t ignore the signs.  What else can cause heart disease?  Weight-loss supplements and recreational drug use may cause life-threatening cardiac complications.  Is it time for you to start a healthier lifestyle?  How about doing it for your kids?  How about teaching your children healthy habits now? 

I just closed my business.  Amazing, but my physical body already feels better.  The stress alone was hurting every muscle in my body.  And yes, it would’ve eventually hurt me in other ways.  I’m convinced of that.  Look at how you really feel and trust your intuition.  Don’t ignore the physical or the emotional signs.

Have a safe and happy Fourth!