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Maximizing Health as a Means to Increasing Freedom

by Frederick Mann

I believe that improving and maximizing one's health is one of the most important aspects of increasing one's personal freedom.

Anecdotal Comparison

I have a friend who is also a raw-food eater. He's 27-years old -- half my age. He's built like an olympic athlete: broad chest, flat stomach; works out 4-5 times a week in the gym. Doesn't take supplements.

I have a flat chest and a typical "middle-age" paunch. (If I could switch my belly and chest and double the size of my arms and legs, I would look like Superman!)

My friend and I used to race each other up and down Camelback mountain in Phoenix once a week. Often I won, both up and down. My best time up is 24 mins 35 secs; his, about 27 mins.

(Most "regulars" are very pleased when they go up Camelback in 30 mins. The top "ironman" tri-athletes could probably go up Camelback in around 20 mins.)

I've been eating raw food much longer than my friend has, so that could account for some of the difference. I have no idea to what extent the supplements account for the difference.

I believe that partially as a result of supplements my heart is stronger, I have more energy and stamina, my digestion is better, my blood quality is greatly improved, in some respects my body is physiologically 10 years younger than it was 11 years ago, my risk of getting "degenerative" diseases is considerably smaller, my immune system is greatly strengthened, etc. I expect to live longer as a result of supplements and to enjoy a higher quality of life.

I also believe that supplements play a major role in my improved mental and emotional functioning.

Now, I'm not suggesting that anyone else take supplements. I believe that individual bodies and metabolisms vary greatly; individuals need to do their own studying and experimentation and decide for themselves what is best for them.

The following is part of a message I posted to the raw@mcmuse.mc.maricopa.edu list:

"Speaking for myself, for me to surrender to "nature"would be a death sentence. It might take another 50years -- maybe a few decades longer -- but if I wereto stick to "nature" I would surely die."

At 01:57 PM 6/18/97, Daniel Greene replied:

"Excuse my incredulity, but what on *Earth* are you saying here? That Nature kills? Gee, I thought it was the separation from Nature that killed people.  Are you saying that if you were to stop taking supplements, "it might take another 50 years -- maybe a few decades longer -- " for you to die? How long do you think you have in this body? And you say if you were to "stick to 'nature' [you] would surely die"? What is the alternative? Eternal life?"

Yes. Death is unaccaptable to me.

People are individual, unique, and different -- so are their bodies and metabolisms -- and so is their knowledge. There's no need for people to agree about certain things.

Anyone interested in "nature as a killer" may want to read the book The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom.

Of course, supplements aren't sufficient to overcome death. Further technology to stop and reverse aging needs to be developed. Such technology is discussed in the book Reversing Human Aging by Michael Fossel, Ph.D., M.D. He claims that medical technology is on the verge of being able to double or triple the human lifespan and to provide the means to rejuvenate the bodies of centenarians to the point that they are like those of 20-year-olds!

Causes of Disease

I believe T.C. Fry's (Natural Hygiene) opinion was that all disease was caused by toxemia. I think he was mistaken. I propose the following candidates as potential causes of ailments and diseases:

1. Ignorance. Out of ignorance, many people do things that result in illness and disease, and don't do things that would prevent or cure illness and disease.

2. Poverty. Many people can't afford the food and supplements (or cures) they need to be healthy. Another aspect of poverty leading to illness and disease is the absence of clean drinking water and sanitation.

3. Toxemia -- the build up toxins in the body. The causes of toxemia include eating cooked and/or processed food, drinking polluted water and/or other inappropriate liquids, and breathing polluted air.

4. Deficiencies, including those stemming from the body reducing and ceasing its production of certain substances, as it gets older. See Jean Carper's Stop Aging Now! The Ultimate Plan for Staying Young & Reversing the Aging Process. (Carper describes aging as, "in large part a monumental, progressive deficiency disease.")

5. Overabundances -- e.g., too much cholesterol and/or homocysteine in the blood tends to cause heart problems. See The Homocysteine Revolution by Kilmer S. McCully, M.D.

6. Genetic variation -- individuals with genes that predispose them for certain ailments and diseases. Includes congenital defects such as Wolff-Parkinson- White syndrome (anomolous electric pathways in heart).

7. Atrophy through lack of use, i.e., lack of exercise.

8. Disturbances in the central nervous system, including improper manufacture of neurotransmitters. Can have a genetic origin.

9. Disturbances in the autonomic nervous system (including the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems) -- can be detected as blockages and imbalances in the body's electrical system -- manifest as improper functioning of any of various organs (heart, liver, kidneys, etc.).

10. Poor or pathetic thinking skills. Self-destructive mental, psychological, and emotional functioning that results in overeating, undereating, wrong eating, negative self-fulfilling "prophecies," negative emotions, and other illness-creating actions.

10a. Gullibility -- an aspect of poor or pathetic thinking skills. People conditioned into dependence on "external authorities" (see #11) are not only prone to believe almost anything, but also susceptible to eat almost anything.

10b. Illusions -- another aspect of poor or pathetic thinking skills. For example, illusions like "aging and death are inevitable" and "the best is to let nature take its course" lead people to nonaction which results in disease and death -- see Grow Young with HGH by Dr. Ronald Klatz with Carol Kahn.

11. Authoritarian personality -- see Kramer & Alstad's book The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. The authoritarian personality tends to look for an "external authority" to tell him what to do, rather than take personal responsibility for his or her actions. Thus the authoritarian personality tends to subject himself or herself to some "guru" or "dogma" as a blind follower. ("Authoritarion personality" as used here includes both "master mentality" and "slave mentality.")

12. "Bugs" of all kinds -- germs, viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc. Poor sanitation and hygiene can cause bug infections.

13. Doctors. With some exceptions, the wealth of doctors depends on sick people who remain sick or gradually get worse over an extended period. If "patients" have to come back over and over for never-ending "treatment," the doctor maximizes his or her income. Authoritarian personalities tend to regard doctors as "authorities" and tend to follow them blindly. Ailments, injuries, and diseases caused by doctors are called "iatrogenic." Could it be that many "doctors" are really parasitic bugs in disguise?

14. Vaccination. Although a strong argument can be made for vaccination against diseases like rabies, typhoid, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, etc. -- once the body is old enough to handle these vaccines with relative ease -- the early vaccination of babies has disastrous consequences. See the book Vaccination, Social Violence, and Criminality: The Medical Assault on the American Brain by Harris L. Coulter. (See also The War Against Children: How the Drugs, Programs, and Theories of the Psychiatric Establishment Are Threatening America's Children with a Medical "Cure" for Violence by Peter R. Breggin, M.D. and Ginger Ross Breggin.)

15. The pharmaceutical industry. Some pharmaceutical companies maximize their profits to the extent that there are many victims who take expensive drugs over extensive periods -- drugs that maintain the status quo or slow down deterioration -- drugs that have side effects, requiring further drugs. Inexpensive cures for cancer, "AIDS," etc. would harm the profits of some pharmaceutical companies. There are probably conspiracies between some top pharmaceutical people, certain doctors, bureaucrats, and media people to suppress inexpensive cures and to promote that which maximizes the profits of the conspirators.

16. Hospitals. These are dangerous places with all kinds of doctors, sick people, and "bugs." Avoid them like the plague! See the book The Great White Lie: How America's Hospitals Betray Our Trust and Endanger Our Lives by Walt Bogdanich.

17. Poor breathing. See the book Rebirthing: The Science of Enjoying All of Your Life by Jim Leonard and Phil Laut.

18. Bad posture. See the book The Alexander Principle by Wilfred Barlow.

19. Stress and tension. A factor in heart disease. 'Rolfing' and 'Postural Integration' can be applied to relieve tension that would otherwise be permanently stored in the muscles and bones. See the book Ida Rolf Talks about Rolfing and Physical Reality edited by Rosemary Feitis.

20. Injuries from accidents and violent sports.

21. Entropy -- the "natural" process of "running down" -- deterioration from order to disorder. Includes "isomerization, free radicals, cross-linked proteins, DNA damage, protein degradation, decreased turnover, and lipofuscin deposition" -- see Reversing Human Aging by Michael Fossel, Ph.D., M.D.

22. The body's aging mechanisms. Fosssel describes aging as "the process that abandons you to entropy." In its youth, the body can effectively deal with the above entropic processes. However, as it ages it becomes less capable of doing so.

23. The Hayflick limit. In general, human cells can only subdivide a certain number of times, after which they die out. Different kinds of cells have different Hayflick limits. See How and Why We Age by Leonard Hayflick, Ph.D. and Reversing Human Aging by Michael Fossel, Ph.D., M.D.

24. Gravity. Once we have data on people who have lived for many decades (or centuries!) in gravity-free environments, we'll discover whether or not gravity causes disease.

25. Eating wrong for your type. According to the book Eat Right for Your Type by Dr. Peter J. D'Adamo, your diet should be very different, depending on your blood type. For example, blood type O's should eat meat, while blood type A's should be vegetarians.

26. Wrong exercise for your type. D'Adamo also advocates different kinds of exercise depending on blood type.

27. Eating too much. Because most of our ancestors experienced food scarcity during much of their lives, they developed the ability to eat more than enough during times of plenty, accumulating fat to help survive times of scarcity. Thus we are biologially programmed to eat more than we need. See The 120-Year Diet by Roy L. Walford, M.D. (Hayflick claims that "Middle-aged people who are slightly overweight live longer than people who are very thin or very heavy.") The book The Fat Blocker Diet by Arnold Fox, M.D. and Brenda Adderly, M.H.A. connects being overweight to several diseases. Also contains information on Chitosan.

28. Diet and diseases of ancestors. Pottenger, with his cat experiments, demonstrated that the diets of parents affect the health of their offspring through several generations. It's also very likely that diseases like syphyllis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, toxoplasmosis, and leprosy have negative influences on future generations. ("Your sins will be visited upon your children and children's children to the fourth generation!")

29. Religion. Generally, most religions (both East and West) tend to promote depency on an "external authority" or "guru" -- the mindset that you can't rely on yourself; you're inadequate. See Kramer & Alstad's The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. One of the consequences of some religions is poor or pathetic thinking skills, resulting in disease-causing behaviors; another is gullibility.

30. Government. In order for the tyrants and bureaucrats who masquerade as "government" to enjoy their coercive power and parasitical wealth, they need weak, brainwashed, dependent victims with slave mentalities. The victims need to be "strong" enough to be marginally productive, but too stupid, weak, and unhealthy to disobey "their masters." Thus people in government tend to promote that which results in dependency, stupidity, weakness, and disease. (Nevertheless, there are some good people in government, exceptions to the general.)

"Government" could be regarded as one of the deadliest diseases. In a recent article, journalist Eric Margolis (The Toronto Sun) wrote:

"But just the figures cited above amount to almost 100 million deaths this century - deaths that were not caused by war or revolution, but by the conscious decision of tyrants, politicians, or bureaucrats to murder great numbers of their own people for reasons of ideology, religion, race or land.

Compare: 100 million people murdered by governments this century; 75% by communist regimes - to about 38 million killed in all wars and conflicts."

Of course, "wars and conflicts" are killing sprees organized by "tyrants, politicians, or bureaucrats" who masquerade as "government" or "wanna-be-government." So Margolis's figures add up to 138 million people who died of "government" this century!

31. Compulsory (mis)education. In order to have a nation of submissive subjects, with poor to pathetic thinking skills, who dutifully obey "their masters," children need to be forced into concentration campuses for brainwashing and feeding on "government food" -- resulting in dependence, stupidity, weakness, and disease. (Nevertheless, there are some good teachers; unfortunately, few of them stick around for very long.) See Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto, Compulsory Mis-education and Growing Up Absurd by Paul Goodman.

32. The media -- "His Master's Voice." Many journalists obey the "party line." They tend to be handmaidens of "the powers that be." Sometimes, they spread information that results in dependence, stupidity, weakness, and disease. (Nevertheless, there are some good journalists -- like Eric Margolis -- who attempt to tell the truth as they see it.)

I would appreciate suggestions for other potential causes of disease -- I may have missed a few!

Cow's Milk

Cow's milk is designed for baby cows. Cows have huge bones, a considerably larger bone/body ratio than humans. So cow's milk contains considerably more calcium than human milk. (This is Guy-Claude Burger's argument.) Human bodies can't properly digest cow milk because of the excess calcium, causing calcium poisoning. Excess calcium tends to be deposited in various parts of the body, particularly the joints. Cow milk plays a major role in auto-immune diseases like arthritis. Guy-Claude Burger's argument makes sense to me. I used to love and crave cow milk -- before Guy-Claude Burger. Now, I wouldn't drink a glass of cow milk if you paid me $1,000 -- unless I were dying of thirst in the desert and the only thing available to drink was a glass of cow milk -- in which case, I might pay $1,000 for it!

Using the fact that you're currently enjoying great health as a criterion to decide that your diet is good is useful. It can also be dangerous. The reason is that certain things you do can have hidden consequences that don't immediately become evident. For example, if you drink a glass of cow milk, you don't immediately drop dead. Your joints don't start getting stiff within minutes. Harmful consequences may only become evident after 10, 20, 30, 40, 50... years. Taking supplements subjects me to this kind of risk.

Even the fact that some people live to the age of 100 drinking cow milk doesn't prove that it's good for them. If they didn't drink cow milk, they might run up the hill faster at age 100 and live to age 120!

(I grew up on a farm with cows and loved milk most of all just after it had been milked from the cow and was still warm and frothy!)

Books to Read Next

I've just discovered the book Grow Young with HGH by Dr. Ronald Klatz with Carol Kahn. HGH = Human Growth Hormone. If there's a "health breakthrough of the century" this is probably it! The authors unabashedly predict human immortality! I've also just come across the book The Homocysteine Revolution by Kilmer S. McCully, M.D. I suspect this is a major advance in preventing heart disease.

Most Important Factors in Health

In my opinion, the most important factors in health are:

  1. Decide to live a long healthy life.
  2. Take personal responsibility.
  3. Educate yourself, utilizing many sources.
  4. Develop the discipline to do what you discover works best for you.

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