Fruits of Our Labours

After attending a Conference in Melbourne, we were faced with the question of whether to purchase food for the two days prior to the next farmer's markets upon our return? Or, upon arriving home, would we find an abundance of food or an empty pantry?

The following photos will provide you with the answer:

These are Brazillian Cherries. Slightly tart when ripe, and very tart when un-ripe. A very thirst quenching fruit.

This is the bush upon which the Brazillian Cherries grow and at its maximum is about two metres tall.

This is the Surinam Cherry bush which grows  a little taller to the Brazillian Cherry.

In this view we see the fruit with the flowers prior to setting the new fruit.

The fruit is sligly sweeter than the the Brazillian Cherry, although still slighly tart. And whereas the Brazillian Cherry seed is somewhat round and usually consisting of only one seed, and occasionally in the largest fruit two, the Surinam Cherry has usually three rather triangulated seeds.

In this bowl we see the last of the black Mulberry crop, along with the shiny black Jaboticabas. These have a very pleasant flavour along with being slightly tart.

The Jaboticabas grow on a small tree which reaches about five to six metres in height when fully grown.

The Yellow Sapote, botanical name, Lucuma nervosa, or Canistal, not related to the other Sapote's, is a very rich, fruit with dense flesh, quite sweet in flavour.

The Lucuma tree grows from five to eight metres tall with the fruit born in clusters. The new crop forms when the current crop is being harvested. Under the right conditions it can bear two or three crops per year.



The Pomelo is a giant tropical grapefruit. The outer rind is very thick and the inner flesh covering the edible part is quite tough and requires tro be also peeled away before eating. Slightly sweeter than the grapefruit grown in the cooler limate.

The Pomelo tree looks the same as any other citrus tree and hardly grows any bigger in spite of the size of the fruit it bears.

The Jakfruit when opened, looks like crayfish and tastes like bubblegum. In the Asian countries it usually made into curries when still somewhat green. It is a sweet fruit, and can grow to be 30 Kilo's in the right conditions, the fruit growing on the trunk or main branches, and can at times even grow on the roots of the tree.

The timber of the tree is used for building in Asian countries, with the young trees being used for fruit bearing. They are then harvested for their timber as they age.

Harmfulness of Prostrate Cancer Treatment

All conventional prostate cancer treatments harm quality of life


by David Gutierrez, staff writer



(NaturalNews) All major prostate cancer therapies reduce men's quality of life through increased urinary incontinence and hampered sexual function, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and published in the Journal of Urology.



Researchers followed 1,269 men who had been treated for early-stage prostate cancer and assessed their urinary continence, sexual function, energy levels, pain levels, emotional well-being and ability to perform daily tasks. The men were also questioned about each of these quality-of-life measures.



Sixty percent of study participants had been treated with radical prostatectomy, or complete removal of the prostate gland. Seventeen percent had been treated with brachytherapy, the implantation of radioactive "seeds" in the prostate gland. Twelve percent had undergone external radiation treatment, 6 percent had been treated with both forms of radiation therapy and 5 percent had been treated with hormone-blocking drugs.



The researchers found that in all surgery and radiation groups, symptoms of urinary incontinence worsened in the first year after treatment and then improved in the second year, but did not return to pre-treatment levels. Symptoms tended to be worse in patients who had undergone surgery.



In men who had been treated with hormone-blocking drugs, urinary incontinence tended to worsen gradually over the course of four years. The researchers speculated that the drugs might lead to a degeneration of the pelvic muscles.



All treatments led to a decrease in sexual function over the first year after treatment, with surgery once again leading to the greatest effect. Yet while surgical patients tended to undergo improvement in sexual symptoms during the second year after treatment, no such improvement was seen in patients who had undergone other therapies. Thus after the second year, sexual dysfunction was roughly similar in men of all treatment groups.



Because the majority of prostate cancers are slow growing and will never pose a threat to men's health, screening for the disease has become controversial in recent years. Doctors increasingly worry that large numbers of men are being subjected to severe side effects without good cause.



Sources for this story include: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS....

Fluoride, It's Dangers

Fluoridation of our water supplies continues to forced upon us. The media has at last picked up the truth of how harmful it really is. Read all about it on youtube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZBRBPgTOt0&feature=player_embedded#!

Drugs

pharmaceutical sales representative discloses big pharma secrets: the industry has no interest in your health. it's only goal is to get you on drugs and keep you there your whole life








http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqmeB6GB25Q

Pyschiatric Drugs

The damaged brain, by Lynne McTaggart, WDDTY


Just occasionally, I come across a doctor willing to break the conspiracy of silence on the damage caused by their tools. My hero of the hour is American psychiatrist Grace E. Jackson, who is utterly and refreshingly horrified by psychiatric and most other forms of pharmaceutical medicine. In fact, so incensed was Jackson over the current state of affairs that she felt compelled to self-publish a whistle-blowing book—Drug-Induced Dementia—that painstakingly catalogues the vast amount of scientific proof that modern medicine is the primary culprit behind all forms of dementia, one of the more rampant epidemic conditions of our time.





One of her more outrageous snippets of information is that, in the 1950s, doctors discovered that synthetic-dye and rocket-fuel derivatives had what they considered to be medicinal effects on psychiatric patients. Chlorpromazine, the first antipsychotic agent, was born.





There was only one hitch: the drugs caused the patient to ape the symptoms of sleeping sickness. The doctors also noted that, over time, the drugs produced all the hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease—abnormal gait, tremor, dementia and involuntary movements. Patients were also stupefied, with no feelings or excitation—in effect, a vegetable.





However, with the sort of logic peculiar to modern medicine, these debilitating effects were welcomed as being better than having a crazed hallucinating patient. Indeed, doctors viewed the arrival of parkinsonian effects as a benchmark of the patient’s therapeutic progress: they were proof-positive that the drugs were working.





Yet, the damage caused by psychiatric medicine is only the tip of the iceberg. As our cover story this month reveals, a number of the major classes of drugs can bring on dementia, including heart drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs, sleeping pills, antidepressants, narcotics, stimulants, anticholinergics and antiepileptics.





As most people over the age of 50 are taking at least one prescription drug, and up to six or more a decade later, it’s small wonder that dementia is one of the world’s fastest-growing disorders, now absorbing one-third of the entire US Medicare bill. It’s now expected that one in four of us will have some form of dementia by the time we reach 80.





This giant problem, created entirely by the pharmaceutical industry, is once again a byproduct of the refusal of our current medicine to consider the body a holistic entity.





In 1970, German physicist Fritz-Albert Popp stumbled upon the fact that humans emit a tiny current of photons, or light, from the DNA of every cell. He also discovered something else remarkable. If a medicine was applied to one part of the body, a massive change occurred in the amount of light emitted not only from where he’d applied the agent, but also from other, more distant parts of the body. Popp soon recognized that this light was a communication channel within a living organism—a means of instantaneous, or ‘non-local’, global signaling.





Popp’s work affords us a glimpse of the body at work as an exquisite, interconnected whole. What affects one part affects every other part simultaneously. Whenever we atomize anything, such as our body—dividing it up and treating each piece separately—we invite calamity.







Published 31 August 2010 10:07 by Joanna Evans

Filed under: dementia, drugs, Parkinson's disease

Breast Cancer

Although this article is directed at Breast Cancer in women, I would not hesitate to say that the causative factors referred to can be, and more often than not are, contributting factors in the development of all types of cancer.  A very little publicised fact is that breast cancer can occur in men also, and appears to be closely connected to the feeding of growth hormones to the animals which are subsequently killed for human consumption. Or, as often happens, in the consumption of the dairy products that are made from the milk produced by these animals.

New Delhi: Are you eating too much of meat and sweets?






Think twice because it might increase risks of breast cancer, says a recent study in China.





Subjected on more than a thousand women, this study found that western diet increases the risk of breast cancer in post menopausal Asian women.





"Western diet consists of meat and animal fats and refined bread. This triggers hormonal imbalances that increases the risks of breast cancer," says nutritionist, Dr Shikha Sharma.





The study also stated that the risks of breast cancer highest among post-menopausal women and also that high fat intake could trigger the risks of breast cancer.





Ten years ago, the numbers for women with breast cancer in urban areas in India were five to eight women per 10,000. Now number has risen to 12, which is almost double.





Dr Sharma adds, "Asian diet is traditionally low in fat and is genetically not tuned to western fatty diet. But now trends crossing borders, along with the lifestyle changes, more fat is coming into the Asian diet pattern."





Cancer specialist/Oncologist, Max Hospital, Dr Amit Bhargava says, " The rising numbers are a result of socio-economic changes in people's lifestyle. More and more people are adapting western patterns of living and diet."





Although doctors agree that the genetic pattern also plays a huge role in resisting this change but they also warn that small lifestyle changes can go a long way.





So one should start pay more attention to diet and eat less red meat and include more fruits and green leafy vegetables in the diet.

50 Reasons why GMOs are Cause for Great Concern

Simplifying the GMO debate: the Harmful Effects of GM Foods. 
Download and read:


50 Reasons why GMOs are Cause for Great Concern (pdf 372kb)

Natural Pest Control

This article is in line with our experience on the farm over the past fourty years, and underlines the work of the founder of Organic farming, Sir Albert Howard, and other leading researchers in the organic farming community.

Sir Albert Howard pointed out that the insects are natures monitors, that they only attack the unhealthy plant. They are warning us that the conditions in which the plant is growing are not supplying the necessary ingredients, or oversupplying some and undersupplying others, or in some instances stopping the uptake of essential nutrients. All of these situations can be caused by a number of factors, including, poor soil conditions(management),chemical farming,weather conditions(too hot or cold, too dry or wet etc.)to name a few.

Over the years we have demonstrated the validity of these claims on many occasions. One of our favourite ways of doing so has been to withhold water from our vegetable plants, In a relatively short time they are being devoured by insects. Restore the water(remove the stress), and almost immediately the insects disappear, and the plants return to their former healthy state.



Better Pest Control with Organic Agriculture


02/07/2010

Washington State University has found that organic farms are better at fighting pests. The researchers discovered that there was a much better balance of animal and plant communities on organic farms compared to standard high intensive farms and this resulted in bigger and healthier crops.



For the experiment, the researchers chose to test a potato crop and by regular analysis they found there to be a more balanced insect population in which no one species was able to dominate. Plants in these balanced environments grew better.



Post-doctorate research associate in entomology at Washington State University, David Crowder, said "I think 'balance' is a good term,"

because "When the species are balanced, at least in our experiments, they're able to fulfill their roles in a more harmonious fashion."



The conclusions being made are that to restore an ecosystem, both richness and evenness are needed.



French fry customers such as McDonald's and Wendy's as well as the potato industry in general are taking keen note of the results from this and other similar studies as they are needing to know which pest control practices are ecological sustainable.



In most current pest control management systems, the biological communities that result on farms are ones that are dominated by just a few species. This often results in one species accounting for 75% of the insect population. In stark contrast, on organic farms the most abundant specie of the farms’ predators and enemies amounted to only 38% of the insect population.



Crowder suggested that the reason why conventional farms get a much lower specie balance may be due to different methods used for crop fertilization and/or from unwittingly killing certain crop enemies over others.

Modern Psychiatry - A Danger to Humanity

The total failure of modern psychiatry


by David Gutierrez, staff writer



(NaturalNews) Modern psychiatry went wrong when it embraced the idea that the mind should be treated with drugs, says Edward Shorter of the University of Toronto, writing in the Wall Street Journal.



Shorter studies the history of psychiatry and medicine.



Modern U.S. psychiatry has adopted a philosophy that psychological diseases arise from chemical imbalances and therefore have a very specific cluster of symptoms, he says, in spite of evidence that the difference between many so-called disorders is minimal or nonexistent. These "disorders" are then treated with expensive drugs that are no more effective than a placebo.



"Psychiatry seems to have lost its way in a forest of poorly verified diagnoses and ineffectual medications," he writes.



Shorter calls for U.S. psychiatry to abandon its emphasis on "psychopathology" and instead adopt the European approach, which focuses on the symptoms and needs of people as individuals. Yet the draft of the latest edition of psychiatric diagnostic "Bible," the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), shows that U.S. psychiatry has no intention of changing course.



"With DSM-V, American psychiatry is headed in exactly the opposite direction: defining ever-widening circles of the population as mentally ill with vague and undifferentiated diagnoses and treating them with powerful drugs," Shorter writes.



U.S. psychiatry was not always obsessed with psychopharmacology, he notes. Its early years were marked by a psychoanalytic approach that categorized mental disorders in broad, fluid categories such as "nerves," "melancholia" or "manic-depressive illness." These categories sufficed because similar treatments would work for people suffering from any version thereof: lithium treated both mania and severe depression, for example, while the specific symptoms experienced by an anxious person had little influence on the therapies needed.



"Our psychopathological lingo today offers little improvement on these sturdy terms," Shorter said. "A patient with the same symptoms today might be told he has 'social anxiety disorder' or 'seasonal affective disorder.' ... The new disorders all respond to the same drugs, so in terms of treatment, the differentiation is meaningless and of benefit mainly to pharmaceutical companies that market drugs for these niches."



In the 1950s and '60s, a new wave of psychiatrists sought to turn away from psychoanalysis -- perceiving it as focusing excessively on "unconscious psychic conflicts" -- and toward a more "scientific" model instead. As a result, the DSM-III introduced the vague new categories of "major depression" and "bipolar disorder," even though evidence suggests that there is no substantial difference between the two conditions. At the same time, "major depression" absorbed what Shorter calls two very different conditions, "neurotic depression" and "melancholia."



"This would be like incorporating tuberculosis and mumps into the same diagnosis, simply because they are both infectious diseases," he writes.



DSM-V only continues the trend of extending the disordered label to more and more normal people, Shorter warns: "To flip through the latest draft of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, in the works for seven years now, is to see the discipline's floundering writ large."



For example, the new disorder of "psychosis risk syndrome" associates a whole new class of people with full-blown schizophrenia, under the logic, Shorter says, that "even if you aren't floridly psychotic with hallucinations and delusions, eccentric behavior can nonetheless awaken the suspicion that you might someday become psychotic." The implication, of course, is that such people should be treated with antipsychotics.



Symptoms of "psychosis risk syndrome" include such vague descriptors as "disorganized speech."



Other new "disorders" include hoarding, mixed anxiety-depression and binge eating. "Minor neurocognitive disorder" describes a reduction in cognitive function over time, such as that normally experienced by people over the age of 50, while "temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria" refers to children who suffer from outbursts of temper.



"DSM-V accelerates the trend of making variants on the spectrum of everyday behavior into diseases," Shorter says, "turning grief into depression, apprehension into anxiety, and boyishness into hyperactivity."



Sources for this story include: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100....

2010 ROW Lecture Tour - Delhi,India.

This year my first port of call was to Delhi, India. My initial reaction was one of extreme surprise on the lack of beggars that I saw in my wanderings around the city. This was at complete odds with what I had expected. And yes, there is extreme poverty, with people living on the streets, yet not once was I approached by any-one begging. In spite of their lack of wealth, and worldly goods,the people I saw and came into contact with, and I can assure you, I visited areas of the city which were occupied by the poorer people, as well as those which were not lacking in wealth, were basically happy and friendly.

On my journey I had picked up a book written by a Catholic Priest, on his time spent in the slums of Calcutta. In it he describes how the people used every possible occasion for the celebration of life, and inspite of the hardships they were confronted with on a moment to moment, and day to day basis, as they struggled to survive in the harsh environment, were ever assisting one- another whenever possible. And through it all they maintained a level of happiness, and humanity that is almost hard to imagine given the prevailing circumstances.

Nearly everything was carried out on the street, including barbering

Within a short distance in one street I passed three barbers plying their trade.

Each of them having a different modus operandi. From the most simple with just a plastic sheet covering, and squatting on the ground to the more elaborate and sophisticated chair and all the accoutrements to be found in most western establishments. Albeit though, still on the roadside and in the open air.

The bulk of the population live in these high rise apartments separated one from the other by the mostly narrow ,dark, cavern, like laneways.

And some are even wider with much more light.

And the main interconnecting streets are much wider with, on the whole, far less rubbish obstructing the passage of cars and multitudes of people. This photo was taken in the early morning before the bulk of the people were up and about.

Then there are the broader main thouroughfares along which trundle the ancient and rather decrepit buses, which appear to be kept mobile more by gosh and good-luck than regular maintenance and care.

This is another early morning shot, for within a very short time these roadways have become crowed with both foot traffic and motorised vehicles including the ubiquitous tuk-tuk.

These are some of the street scenes which are a true presentation of the ever present derritrus of our societies as occurs when the population is beyond the physical capacities of the infrastructure to cope with.

 

And through it all, the people struggle on in their endeavours to attain at least a minimum of dignity, cleanliness, and self-reliance.

Each day the residents endeavour to maintain a modicum of cleanliness and tidiness in their limited way. The mountain of accumulating rubbish though, is far beyond their ability to do so.

Even the goats live on the street.

In the midst of all this clutter and debris are to be found the flower sellers

Their efforts, as they laboriously weave the flowers into intricate and attractively pleasing displays, assists in offsetting the effects of the continual exposure to the mounds of rubbish on the senses.

One thing I did not do was to smell the flowers to see if they gave off an aroma. Or, as the case in most westernised countries today, the flowers grown are so hybridised that they no longer have any aroma.

The iceman still lays a major role with he cost of refrigeration and refrigerators being beyond the ability of the average person.

 

The delivery is made, as can be observed, on bicycles, right to your front doorstep. And as many people live on the streets, that happens to be the roadside.

The bicycle is still considered, and actively used as a major form of transportation.

In this photo not only can we see this man straining to transport what is obviously a very heavy load as he is unable to move it by pedalling.

We can also observe one of the modern replacements of the rickshaw - the pedal operated tri-shaw.

Although modern transportation methods are available, such as utilities and trucks etc., a large percentage of the goods are transported by these three wheeled bicycles which not only are they cheap to hire, they also can access the very narow streets and lane-ways that are to be found almost everywhere.

In this climate which is invariably warm and hot all the year round, these juice stalls selling freshly made fruit juices are a common sight. My taste buds indicated that the juice was well watered down, refreshing nevertheless.

The street stalls selling fresh fruit and vegetables were always a welcome sight. In the background can be seen the motorised form of transportation which has replaced the rickshaw - known commonly throughout Asia, and even in Cuba, as the tuk-tuk.

The food available is certainly of equal quality and flavour to any I have sampled anywhere in the world. Perhaps even superior in many instances. Much of the food is still grown by the traditional methods without the use of artificial fertilisers and poisonous sprays, the farmers beeing too poor to purchase them. And in those instances where they have been introduced they have often bankrupted the farmers, causing total disruption to the local economy and resulting in the suicides of many of the farmers.

This stall is selling juice made with a hand operated juicer.

And this stall is selling cups of tea, and freshly laid eggs

Here we see the old and the new forms of transport, both actively in use. With in the background the admonition to exercise, which for the tricycle operator appears rather superfluous.

Women still use the traditional method for carrying anything by placing it in a basket on their heads.

In this instance the women are carrying the sand from one side of the street to the cement mixer on the other.

All types of vehicles are utilised as people carriers, such as this LandRover. Stacked in they are.

The rear end of all the trucks, and buses all have this very same sign, or a variation of it, painted on them, which says, "Please sound your Horn". And you may rest assured that every-one does just that, resulting in the senses being continually exposed to this great cacophony of sound, which as you may well imagine results in no-one really taking any notice.

Here is to be seen another very normal street scene. It would appear that the replacement of water pipes and subterranean cables is a never ending process with almost every street being involved.

The street is just as common a place as anywhere for your daily ablutions. All you require is a bowl of water and a cake of soap.

Each street has its roadside temple dedicated to one of the many deities that are worshipped in India.

And in the midst of all this poverty you find these beautifully maintained mausoleums to some past dignity, his wives, and concubines.

Each one is beautifully constructed, with the inticacy of the carved stonework and frieze' rarely, if ever, seen in our buildings today.

Each is unique in its own right, with the acres of surrounding grounds so well cared for and places of peace and quiet, so different from the surroundings, with its wall to wall people, traffic, and inevitable cacophony of sound generated by the people,motor traffic, blaring horns etc.

This brings us to the prime reason for my visit to Delhi. Not only to view the lifestyle of the local inahbitants - also to visit the local so-called Nature Cure Hospital. So why do I refer to it as a so-called Nature Cure Hospital?  My reason for doing so is based upon the fact that, although it subscribes to the use of some of the principles of Nature Cure, such as Hydrotherapy, Heliotherapy, Exercise etc., it also uses Ayurvedic Medicine. And by its very name of Ayurvedic Medicine we are informed that it is the practice of medicine, and not that of Nature Cure. For in the practice of Nature Cure there is no place for medications of any type or description. Medications are used for the treatment of disease. And as Nature Cure subscribes to the principle that disease(acute) is the process by which the body heals itself - any treatment by medication will only result in suppression of the healing process and contribute towards the development of chronic disease.

I was very graciously received by Dr Pradhan the director of the Hospital, and after a viewing of the facilities that they offered, spent the next two hours in discussion of matter of mutual interest, ending with the most kind invitation to visit again any time I wished.

This is the room from which the Ayurvedic medications are dispensed.

These are the various rooms which are used for hydrotherapy with this photo depicting the equipment used for the foot and arm baths.

In this last view we see the room for the teaching of Yoga. I did not enquire as to the capacity of the Hospital, yet from the size of this room it would indicate that it is quite substantial..

John W's Story

Note 5: Clohesy River Health Farm - May 2010


For those of you who have followed my natural healing journey, Note 5 is an update to the previous 4 (emailed at various intervals since I was first diagnosed with prostate cancer, May 30th 2006). All the notes, combined, form a telling 'timeline' of that journey - and the capacity of mind and body to heal itself of its own accord; given the right environment. Interested readers will see, in as much detail as possible, the evolutionary process laid bare.

At this point in time, I am collating all the notes so that there is a coherent and accurate story, both for those who have followed the journey, and those who have perhaps just stumbled across these journal entries. I should have that work completed very shortly and will accordingly advise you. Importantly, I want to tell all who are interested: please, feel free to pass my story along or post it to any blog you may participate in. Doing so will encourage or help others who may be seeking to sustain or regain their own health, naturally. If you have a family member, friend or colleague that might want to contact me, I will certainly respond. There is one note of caution: please, do not publish my personal contact details online - the volume of correspondence that would result would simply not be possible to deal with.

Dear Family, Friend and Colleague

I would dearly like to report, categorically, that my cancer of the prostate has completely healed, but without the precision of a biopsy read-out one simply cannot make such bold statements. What I can say is that my most recent PSA (prostate specific antigen) score has remained steady and significantly below the level it was when I was first diagnosed four years ago.

As some of you know, that diagnosis, not surprisingly, accompanied a range of other acute disease conditions - some serious, all problematic. As a reminder they were:



Overweight

Hypertension (high blood pressure)

Hypothyroidism (an under active thyroid)

Continuous diarrhoea

Various perennial skin ailments

High cholesterol

Regular bouts of Hay Fever and Itchy Eye

Chronic exhaustion







Each of those other conditions is now completely healed as you can see below:

1. Weight: reduced from 83.7kg (184.1lbs) to 60.7kg (133.5lbs); a drop of 23kg (50.6lbs).

2. Blood Pressure: dropped from 135/85 to 110/60 (the blood pressure of a 21 year old, not a 67 year old - at one point sticking around 140/90).

3. Thyroid Function: TSH down from 27.90 to 3.12 (Healthy Range 0.40 – 4.00).

4. Diarrhoea: about 6 months into the raw food program, after initially getting worse, the perennial diarrhoea stopped - normal bowl movements returned and have been sustained.

5. Perennial Skin Ailments: after a very bad eczema attack on my shins, all skin ailments including tinea between my toes and a groin rash I had had since my youth; disappeared; never to return.

6. Cholesterol: reduced from 5.3 to 3.8 (Healthy Range <5.5*).

 LDL Cholesterol (the bad stuff) down from 3.8 to 2.6 (Healthy Range <3.5).

 Coronary Risk Ratio has come down from 5.3 to 3.8 (Healthy Range <5.0).

7. Hay Fever and Itchy Eye: this annual, disabling condition suffered since childhood, has completely cleared.

8. Chronic Exhaustion: three times a week I engage in serious group outdoor personal training: sprinting, endurance running and weight training as well as weekly sessions of Yoga. On my 'off days' I pursue other gentle and not so gentle physical activity - walking, gardening, solo running (6 - 10 kms non-stop) and working out in my home gym with yoga postures and weights. I have reached the point at which my cardiovascular fitness and endurance level compares favourably with people 20, 30 or even 40 years my junior. I feel blessed and very grateful. Blessed, for obvious reasons. Grateful, because it took a life-threatening wake-up call to goad me into action. I feel fit and well...

But after healing these acute conditions, progress plateaued. The chronic condition, the cancer, stubbornly refused to succumb, as the PSA test at that time attested (PSA tests are an unreliable gauge at best but other than a biopsy, they are the only marker currently available as far as I know). My carefully studied lifestyle change had supported my body in its clearing each acute condition, and was sufficient to allow my body to hold the cancer in check, but insufficient to eliminate the cancerous cells. Since that was now my remaining challenge, clearly I needed to take my healing approach to a higher level...

For the curious new reader, I should perhaps outline as briefly as possible what that healing approach is... my philosophical stance on the cause of illness and healing. In this way, my journey will be in context and you will more easily make sense of what follows...

As we Sow So Shall we Reap

Like a lot of people, I used to think I could sustain myself with whatever I wanted to eat and drink, lead a sedentary life, stress myself and assume that my body could handle what I now know, with every sense of my being, to be self-inflicted physical abuse. I passed the buck to my body to deal with the toxic stuff I ingested, the physically inactive life I lead, and the stressful thinking I entertained. And if my body became overwhelmed with the daily intake of lifeless and toxic food, drink and thinking, I could hand-ball my failing health to the medical fraternity who would obligingly prescribe all manner of over-the-counter or prescription drugs. Failing that, I could have the diseased parts replaced, zapped with radiation, sliced away or chemically poisoned...

Yes, I was the quintessential Aussie male. I thought "she'll be right mate" and didn't take care of myself. At gut level (literally, bulging bigger by the month) I didn't grasp that I only had one body and that I was responsible and accountable for its care and maintenance: what I ingested, how I exercised and how I used the power of thought. And more fool me, because I was ignoring knowledge from an earlier study and a significant personal healing experience on achieving and maintaining optimal health. Despite that I was still putting the burden on my body to keep me alive in the face of gross neglect and mistreatment.

But the wake up call was imminent - my urologist presenting the news with a warning that there was limited time to have the tumours cut, drugged, or burnt away; or that they would metastasize, most likely to my bones. "When this happens," she said, "you will die a slow painful death."

I had already been told a short time earlier that I should take medication for my high blood pressure and my rapidly failing thyroid and would need to do so for the rest of my life. I had a range of creams for my skin conditions that gave temporary relief. And I also had undergone blood tests, endoscopies and colonoscopies - all without finding out why I had had 'the runs' for the preceding 5 years. For the onset of each hay fever and itchy eye season, pharmaceuticals were taken to make life bearable. And to make up for my demineralised and devitaminised diet I was taking, on a daily basis, an array of vitamin and mineral supplements in a vain attempt to offset the tiredness and lethargy I felt. I had been taking a variety of supplements religiously for many, many years including saw palmetto (a preparation derived from the berrylike fruit) and selenium; both of which were supposed to deter/prevent cancer of the prostate.

News of the cancer jolted me to my core. I was scared. What to do? Having failed to take care of my health, was I going to continue to pass the buck? Was I going to, like most Westerners, hand the care of my life over to the medical, pharmaceutical, and complementary or alternative medicine fraternity? Or was I going to meet the challenge and allow my body to heal via its own resources? After all, I could now clearly see that the cancer and assorted other conditions were symptoms of neglect and abuse; an irresponsible lifestyle...

Was I ready to take responsibility for my ill state of health? From the deepest recesses of my memory I recalled the books read and lectures attended in my twenties, which spoke to the body's inherent ability to heal. I recalled too, with a mixture of hope and chagrin, a remarkable personal healing experience which had clearly demonstrated that fact: those readings, lectures, and the subsequent natural healing event demonstrated that a 100% raw organic diet, coupled with significantly reduced eating, done in concert with an energetic exercise program and a contented state of mind, would, practiced with daily discipline, enable the body to do what it is designed to do… self-heal.

The decision was made; the recovery path clear. For me, shifting the burden of responsibility for my health to others was neither a viable nor a responsible option. I had faith that, as it had become sick with mistreatment, my body would eventually heal, given the care and consideration it should have received long ago.

Two years six months later aged 67, following a natural-healing regime, my body responded - the cancer test results below showing some improvement:

Biopsy Results 2006 Biopsy results 2008

8 Samples Tumour Lengths *8 Samples Tumour Lengths

a) High-grade dysplasia (PIN) a) High grade dysplasia (PIN)

b) Intermediate-grade dysplasia (PIN) b) Atypical gland focus suggestive of malignancy

c) High-grade dysplasia (PIN) c) Gleason 3+3=6 2 glands <0.1mm

d) High-grade dysplasia d) Gleason 3+3=6 0.5/0.2mm

e) Gleason 3+3=6 0.2mm e) No specific pathologic change

f) Gleason 3+3=6 0.5mm f) High-grade dysplasia (PIN)

g) High-grade dysplasia g) No specific pathologic change

h) Gleason 3+3=6 1.0/1.2mm h) Gleason 3+3=6 0.8mm

*2008 samples, except h), are from different parts of the prostate

My experience is real. It cannot be put down to 'fortune' or 'happenstance'. I now see that passing the buck for our health has become so commonplace that it looks as if it is the reasoned, enlightened, intelligent, right thing to do. Passing the buck has become the norm - a deeply ingrained feature of everyday life promoted by self-interested (though in many cases well-meaning) advocates of every hue. Authority comes in many guises. Does that sound anti-establishment, 'lefty' or 'intellectual'? I put it to you; the degree to which this 'norm' is accepted is frightening...

We smoke. We use drugs. We consume alcohol, caffeine and sugar-laden drinks. Some of us, maybe to salve our conscience, take (or worse, provide our kids with) make-believe health drinks: pasteurised, chemicalised, devitalised fruit and veggie juices and a mind-boggling array of other containerised drinks which, while I'm sure the companies involved haven't deliberately set out to poison us, are by their very nature poisonous and should be considered 'anti' health. -We eat make-believe health foods made with devitalised ingredients. We exist on food that has had the nutrition and nourishment cooked or processed to near extinction. We grow increasingly inactive, fat and unhealthy - or just sickly. We line up in our hundreds of thousands each day across the nation at medical practices and hospitals. We believe pharmaceuticals, operations or other remedies will fix our self-induced (and largely unacknowledged) malaise. We have become a nation of life-time medically dependent consumers. We keep the pharmaceutical companies rich beyond imagination. Others, disillusioned with the politicisation and malfunction of modern medicine, and its clear inability to stem our declining health, turn (in vain) to alternative practitioners, hoping that extracts of this or that tree, bark, root, fruit, shrub, vegetable or herb will do the trick. Or that this vitamin, mineral, enzyme, pro-biotic, anti-oxidant, protein supplement or so called super-food will remedy what Mother Nature has the inherent capacity to provide - if only we bypass the dead-food and drink manufacturers and go direct to the only supplier and manufacturer of good health; Mother Nature.

Unfortunately most of us (including me until four years ago) refuse to take the nature-cure road to vibrant, sustainable health. Instead, we live on a lifeless, denatured (or as some have described it) dead-food diet. In quest of good health, some of us lace our diet with vitamin, mineral or super-food supplements of very questionable value. Who can blame us? Who has the time or endurance to question what we are told? In our blind ignorance, we trust the claims that new wave self-styled gurus and purveyors of these products make - the rejuvenation and repair of our bodies a bridge too far - a pointless adjunct to lousy diets and indulgent lifestyle.

The cumulative affects of diet and lifestyle are axiomatic of the Aged-Care Sector: a juggernaut of immense private and corporate wealth created on our seeming inability to predict a very personal and likely future: a wretched, drug dependent, physically and mentally infirmed old age. And in the main, we teach our children to accept, without question, the dogmas and self-interest of mainstream and alternative medicine. We don't even consider an alternative to medicine. Yes! An alternative to medicine; mainstream or alternative.

I understand only too well what it means to question that which is universally accepted. I see also that the 'alternative' route is now more mainstream than we once might have assumed. Money rules, and for the unwary, there are myriad traps! So perhaps it is not surprising that we prefer the safety and comfort of the status quo - the blind acceptance of a malevolent relationship between modern medicine and global pharmaceutical cartels. In short, a failure to question protects trillion dollar investments and perpetuates the illusion.

Sadly, and perhaps because of, our admiration for medical pioneers, teaching and research universities, GPs and frontline practitioners; the truth is that those otherwise talented individuals work inside a health system that is riddled with self-interest. Most of us are blind ignorant to what is happening.

It is difficult, nigh on impossible, for most of us to grasp just how far we have wandered from healthy living. Multinational food producers and processors create addictive and poisonous fake food with shelf-lives that can outlive all of us… Yes, poisonous! So filled is that lethal fare with chemical additives and preservatives. This, because modern food-embalming techniques are promoted by alluring multimedia and celebrity-driven advertising; making multi-billions of dollars in the process.

Isn’t it insane, when you stop and reflect, that life-sustaining, restorative food - raw, simple and delicious nutrition; barely rates a mention in Advertising circles? Isn't it a complete madness that commercial food producers seem bent on killing off (or at least shortening the life of) the very customers they rely on? Is it really so far 'left of center' to imagine a world in which commercial interests and simple humanity come together? Incomprehensible! What chance has humanity got?

But Change (as we know) comes one person at a time... So hear this: my personal responsibility for living simply and naturally has enabled my body to heal eight out of nine ailments. Given time, with the continuation of nature's natural medicine via a thoughtful combination of raw organic nutrition, exercise and healthy thinking; the cancer, if it has not already, will go the same way as my other lifestyle-induced conditions.

Change is here, and passing the buck for my health has stopped.

2010: TAKING MY HEALING JOURNEY TO A HIGHER LEVEL

I had come some distance from that emotionally distressing but life-transforming meeting with the urologist, but I still instinctively felt that more critical fine-tuning was needed to assist my body in the destruction of the cancerous cells and the regeneration of new, healthy cells. Instinct told me that I was still not living an optimal regime for that outcome (and thus giving my body optimum support)...

I sensed that three meals per day, even without any snacking between, was still too much food, too often, for the body's digestive, assimilation, elimination and regeneration processes. It was still in excess of what Dr Fred Bisci, (my primary adviser) had claimed as optimal for healing. Although 100% raw and 99% organic, 'too much of a good thing' was still counter-productive to the destruction and elimination of diseased cells and the regeneration of healthy ones. And, my penchant for filling life with interesting but non-essential and energy-sapping, emotionally challenging activities was stressful. I was falling short in supporting my body and mind and needed sufficient energy to direct toward eliminating the chronic condition called cancer. Fred Bisci was a critical step in my healing journey, but I had pretty well exhausted his pool of knowledge as it applied to me and my specific condition… and New York, where he is based, was too far away for easy personal access.

I really wanted and needed someone within Australia to consult with - someone who had Fred's level of understanding of our mind and body's capacity to regenerate and heal. As luck and diligent searching would have it, I came across Dr John Fielder, a 78 year old Natural Hygienist, Nature Cure Practitioner, Naturopath, Chiropractor and Osteopath who lives and practices from his property Clohesy River Health Farm just out of Cairns, Queensland. John, president of the UK's Incorporated Society of Registered Naturopaths (ISRN) lectures annually round the world.

Talking with John, it became clear to me that he was the man to point me toward a fresh vantage point: a new view of human healing and regeneration. I determined to visit him, and in the late evening light of 22nd February 2010, my descent into Perth punctuated fifteen days at his farm - fifteen extraordinarily challenging days that were enough to have me once more rethink my entire lifestyle!

About an hour's drive due east from Cairns, John's 330 largely undeveloped acerage is situated just beyond the tropical rain forest at Kuranda and incorporates the Clohesy River in one corner. The property was ravaged by fire 9 years back and is now about two thirds into its re-establishment program, including a tropical and citrus orchard, which before being burnt was 35 years in the making. The property is now, once again, reaping a bountiful harvest.

The 2001 fires destroyed his house but fortunately, the consulting office/ablution block was spared, as were three semi-detached rooms and an undamaged client kitchen and library/communal area (currently used as his temporary home). The story becomes all the more real when we view the office windows with large cracks in each pane - evidence of the fierce heat that came close to destroying that building as well. I'm pleased to report that apart from those windows and some charred tree trunks and fence posts, nature's regeneration has pretty well obliterated sight of that destructive episode.

John works mostly a lone hand at restoring and maintaining his property (a mighty effort for a slightly-built near octogenarian and living example of what he espouses).

While I was there, I met a 73 year old man from Cleveland who was assisting John in exchange for food, board, education and the chance of recovery from adrenal fatigue. Also there was a 22 year old male from Chicago who was seeking to understand nature's cure following a recent period of serious unwellness. At 68 I wanted, even though all but one of my ailments had cured already, to take my health to another level after almost four years on a 100% raw vegan diet...

Clohesy Health Farm was a culture shock. John lives simply. Deeply in tune with and in harmony with his place, he bathes daily in the fast flowing Clohesy River using its sandy bed for soap. He harvests and eats twice daily whatever is in season from his garden and orchard, supplemented primarily from organic suppliers. Drinking water is supplied by nature, and his other water needs are pumped from the river by a watermill he constructed. He has no refrigeration, uses an old-fashioned netted food-safe, and recycles like no other I know. Electricity is supplied via solar panels. He is not entirely 'native'! Broadband access and Skype keep him in touch with family, friends, clients and colleagues around the world and abreast of the current health and healing developments.

My accommodation was a small rectangular timber-framed white painted room, semi-detached from another the same size, with one other identical room attached to that. There were two single beds, a wooden table with cloth and an iron-framed bookcase. That was about it other than one critical concession to luxury, an insect net that hung from the ceiling over my bed to keep the flying bugs and insects at bay (those normally having free access through the room's ample supply of unscreened windows and a large door). The humidity was high. With no fans to provide breeze the large openings were a blessing.

The gas-fired hot water-heater to the communal ablutions failed the day I arrived. No doubt it was good for me to take fifteen cold showers daily, but as I came face to face with the reality of fine-tuning my diet, lifestyle and fasting, I could have done without the additional challenge and enjoyed the comfort of a warm wash!

Apart from that, the most significant shift was exchanging three largish meals per day to two smallish meals - one at noon and the other at 5pm. As John explained in our daily sessions together, a critical part of the human metabolic process starts naturally at sunset and continues till noon the next day - allowing for optimal assimilation of nutrition and elimination of waste and thus limiting the amount of energy used for processing food. In turn, this allows both more time and more energy for the removal of old and damaged cells and the regeneration of new cells. The fact is, most of us use 60 to 70% of our energy simply digesting, assimilating and eliminating food.

With two smaller nutrient-rich meals per day, and no snacking in between at all, we dramatically reduce the percentage of energy used to around 10 - 15%. Thus, we make much more available for healing and most importantly; regeneration. This I think is the key. Reduced calorie intake confined within two meals per day. The other critical aspect being to limit the fat consumed to between ten and fifteen percent of total calories. Whilst this eating regime wasn’t news to me it was the first time the fundamental importance of this approach to daily diet had hit home.

I learned from John just how important working in harmony with our natural metabolic process is to healing. The breaking down of old or diseased tissue and cellular waste is part of what is called Catabolism (destructive metabolism). The process of catabolism releases the energy from this old material for rebuilding new cellular material. Catabolism creates the energy that Anabolism consumes for synthesising hormones, enzymes, sugars and other substances for cell growth, reproduction, and tissue repair. Catabolism creates the energy we need for all physical activity. Another element of Metabolism, and complementary to Catabolism, is Anabolism (constructive metabolism). Anabolism enables the body to maintain existing tissue and importantly, grow new cells. Growth and mineralisation of bone, and increases in muscle mass, are both examples of Anabolism.

If Catabolism is producing more energy than Anabolism requires, there will be excess energy, which the human body stores as fat or glycogen. This is the principle way in which we become overweight. The foregoing was an exciting discovery for me and it explained why, for maintaining optimal health and to heal from illness, I needed to eat only two, highest quality, modestly sized meals at midday and 5pm daily, with no snacking in between.

And as Dr Fielder reiterated, there are several vital considerations to optimal health, healing and regeneration:

1. Our body's inbuilt intelligence knows exactly how to take best care of itself, and we must heed how we feel after we eat each particular food - or better still, while we are eating it. It is a good idea to smell and taste our foods before we eat them. If something does not agree with our chemistry or body needs at a particular time, we will not enjoy the smell or taste and worse still we may feel unwell after eating it.

2. We really must rest when tired or unwell. This is probably the most ignored health and healing requirement. I can’t emphasise this aspect of healthy living enough. We must allow rest time for the body to use its energy for healing.

3. If sick, we also need to fast while resting to recover our health. This gives our body the optimum conditions to heal and regain homeostasis.

4. Don't eat before heavy work or exercise. Whilst this and other ideas taken from John fly in the face of prevailing ideas and norms, I have found that fasting after my evening meal (which is around 5pm or certainly before sunset unless it is a special occasion and I break that health rule), till noon next day, works wonderfully for me. I do strenuous exercise several mornings each week and do so much better on an empty stomach. And I must say I really look forward to breaking my fast around noon.

5. For almost four years, I had been on a vegan diet and prior to that had been a strict vegetarian for 25 years. But I learnt from John (and numerous texts that outline the diets of the healthiest people to have lived since recorded history) that some animal product is necessary for optimal human health. John eats a small amount of deep-sea tuna about twice yearly. On his recommendation, and in pursuit of optimal health, I have started eating some fermented goat kefir on a regular basis. In short, I'm still a strict vegetarian - but no longer vegan.

I have learned a lot from John and been reminded of many things I had forgotten… and I know that there is still much more for me to learn from this amazing man.

Dear reader, if you have made it this far I will, to keep this piece within reasonable bounds, round off this note with a list of both philosophical and pragmatic natural laws of healthy living and healing - some gleaned from John and others which came to me through reflective time at Clohesy River Health Farm:

• There is no curative power in drugs, medicines, herbs, foods, electrical apparatus or anything else outside of our own body.

• Nature has not provided cures for disease. Nature has only provided penalties for breaking natural laws.

• Returning to following natural law is the only valid method of sustainable cure.

• All action by the body is right action. Our body's innate intelligence knows what it is doing. Make no mistake about that.

• Only man makes mistakes.

• Trust in the process of healing.

• Know that this too shall pass.

• Nature has not provided remedies, nature has provided the body with an innate ability to cure by returning to natures laws:

 At least 20 minutes sunlight per day) is essential.

 Get as much fresh air as possible and sleep with the window open

 Drink as clean and as pure water as possible.

 Eat natural whole organic uncooked food grown in mineralised, fertile soil that is free of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides - all chemicals.

 Eschew all processed, canned, packaged, fast and convenience foods.

 Be happy at home, at work and in one's social life.

 Ensure adequate rest to live life fully and abundantly.

 We only need adequate shelter.

 Exercise your body each and every day

 Exercise you mind each and every day

 Exercise your spirit each and every day

I trust that this has been of interest and of value to you; or someone you know. The earlier notes, 1 to 4, fill in much detail that is missing from this note. These are available if you want to email me.

Love… John - May 2010

Alzheimers-Dementia, Protect Yourself & Loved One's

This Common MISDIAGNOSIS

Can Land You In A Nursing Home!

HERE'S HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR LOVED ONES

By Dr. Mark Stengler



It's absolutely heartbreaking. All over Australia, nursing homes are filled with frail, feeble residents suffering from dementia. In many cases, these folks are so far gone they don't even recognize their own children.



But I'm going to let you in on a dark, dirty secret: Many of these patients do not have dementia at all. Their memory loss, confusion, and delirium are caused by prescription drugs!



And so are many of their other problems.



This is not just speculation on my part. It's fully documented in the medical journals. In fact, it's so common that there are even medical terms for it. Like "polypharmacy," which means giving a patient too many different drugs. And "iatrogenic illness," which means any illness caused by doctors.



According to the medical journals, polypharmacy and iatrogenic illness are rampant around the globe.



One study concluded that one of the major causes of falls in nursing homes is the side effects caused by medications.

Another study found that 97% of nursing home patients take at least one drug, with 17% taking 5 or more!

Yet another study found that many drugs can cause Parkinson's-like symptoms and concluded that "drug-induced parkinsonism is frequent."

And still another study listed 22 different categories of drugs that can cause symptoms that mimic Alzheimer's... plus 14 different over-the-counter drugs that can cause those symptoms!

Here's a typical scenario. A healthy person goes to the doctor for a checkup and is told his cholesterol or blood pressure is high. So he starts taking medication, which causes side effects. This leads his doctor to give him a second drug to treat those side effects. But, of course, that second drug causes new side effects. So the doctor prescribes a third drug to treat the side effects of the second one!



Before you know it, the person's health is spiraling downward and he soon needs people to take care of him. And everyone just chalks it up to "old age."



But you can fight back against this system of medicine run amok. First of all, make sure you always try natural remedies first. Pharmaceuticals should be a last resort, not a first option. Secondly, if you have a loved one in a nursing home, talk to a naturally minded physician about possibly weaning them off the drugs. This single step may make a huge difference in their health and well-being.