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1/30/2010

Discovery of the Three Principles.



Sydney Banks' letter to Oprah Winfrey


'I Don't Read ... I Write': Writer/philosopher Sydney Banks has a huge following, but he rarely reads
Vancouver Sun Archives
Sat Jan 20 2007
Column: Douglas Todd

{Read Sydney Banks obituary, 2009}

GANGES - Sydney Banks has written more books than he's read. The clean, spartan study of Saltspring Island's internationally-revered author, down-home philosopher and psycho-therapeutic contrarian testifies to his lack of book learning.
A 75-year-old former welder at Harmac pulp mill, the mostly barren bookshelf in his home office has only a few Reader's Digest novels and a small set of encyclopedias, which he's hardly cracked.
In the spacious house he helped build with his own strong hands on acreage in the middle of Saltspring Island, Banks acknowledges a mild visual impediment makes reading, if not exactly impossible, difficult.
"The only books I've ever read are welding books," he says with a sardonic grin.
"I don't really read. I'd rather write."
At Banks's last count: Three books read; six books written.
They include the best-selling Enlightened Gardener series.
Banks -- who has never given a media interview until now -- blends avuncular modesty and supreme confidence, notably in the controversial psycho-spiritual theories he's been teaching in North America and Europe for three decades.
Merging simple aphorisms with high abstraction, Banks calls himself a philosopher-theosophist (defining a theosopher as someone who learns from direct experience and "innate" knowledge). His adherents say his teaching has reached tens of thousands of people throughout the English-speaking world.
His many admirers include big-name self-help authors, such as Richard Carlson, author of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff -- as well as psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, therapists, police officers, business people, doctors, mental-health professionals and others in the social services.
Banks and his teachings have also been picked up by leading civic officials in cities throughout the U.S., where thousands of people, including prisoners, alcoholics, the homeless and drug addicts, have been drawn to his easy-sounding route to ending inner pain and finding happiness.
Last fall more than 250 people from North America and beyond -- including former B.C. Lions and Chicago Bears football player Tyrone Keys, who now heads a sports program for disadvantaged youngsters in Tampa Bay, Fla. -- flew to Greater Vancouver to take part in one of Banks's rare workshops.
In 2000, Banks even had a health research organization named after him at 25,000-student West Virginia University: The Sydney Banks Institute for Innate Health.
After some faculty protested Banks's work seemed too New Agey, however, the name was changed to the West Virginia Initiative for Innate Health. Still, it manages each month to sell or give away about 1,000 of Banks's books and CDs to program participants.
In a nutshell, Banks teaches that people are unhappy because they choose to be unhappy.
To put it bluntly, Banks's psychological approach to past emotional trauma is basically: Deal with it. Get over it. Move on.
Unlike therapists who believe people transcend their destructive habits by working through their childhood emotional pain, Banks says people should recognize the past is just an illusion and that negative experiences only exist in one's thoughts, which one can control.
"I can guarantee you that while you look through so much ghostly contamination [from your past], you will never know the beauty of living in the now," Banks has written in The Enlightened Gardener series.
In the thinly disguised novels, an unlettered British groundskeeper named Andy serves as Banks's fictional stand-in -- teaching a group of amazed American psychologists about the true nature of the universe.
To Banks, space, matter and time are an illusion, a dream. The only three things that are real are what he calls Mind ("the source of all intelligence"), Consciousness ("which allows us to be aware") and Thought ("which guide us through the world as free-thinking agents").
Banks knows many people find befuddling his three grand-sounding principles about the nature of reality. But he's utterly convinced they hold the keys to enlightenment.
IS SYDNEY BANKS THE REAL DEAL?
When he picked me up at the Saltspring Island ferry dock, Banks seemed like any nice, older guy with an easy-going dog, whose name is Fergus.
After driving into his pastoral acreage on Saltspring, on which he's lived in various locations since 1963 (except for five years in Hawaii), we spent an afternoon at his large home with its wrap-around porch.
With his current wife away in California, Banks was a pleasant host, who occasionally forgot his glasses and shook from mild palsy, possibly a result of a recent heart attack.
He spoke with a grandfatherly Scottish burr while sitting in his living-room, which had a chime clock and over-sized TV. He seemed self-effacing and absolutely sincere.
Those who have wanted to make up their own minds about the authenticity of Banks's teaching have had the opportunity to sift through his often-enigmatic nuggets of wisdom at www.sydneybanks.org.
Or they have tracked down the six books and related audio tapes Banks produced in the past decade, including The Enlightened Gardener, In Quest of the Pearl and The Missing Link.
GREW UP AS AN ADOPTEE
To say Banks is self-taught is an understatement. Being an autodidact is his spiritual claim to fame, his imprimatur.
It's the thing he almost tosses in the face of all those doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists about whom he often talks; all those people who've attended graduate school.
"If they really hear what I'm saying, everything they've taught will be worth nothing," he insists. "My work completely opposes the psychological approach."
Growing up an adoptee in a working-class Scottish family, Banks never got beyond Grade 9. He left Scotland in 1957 and soon began living in the first of many summer cabins and homes on Saltspring Island.
He was working as a welder at Vancouver Island's Harmac pulp mills in 1973 when it happened.
The epiphany.
"It's the greatest breakthrough in the history of psychology and psychiatry. Do you want to hear the story?" Banks asks, with Fergus lying at his feet in his living room.
He recounts how he and his beloved late wife, Barb, were having some marital difficulties. Even though it was the hippie era, Banks considered himself a shift-work tradesman who wasn't interested in the counterculture movement.
Nevertheless, some of the alternative types on Saltspring Island suggested Sydney and Barb sign up for group therapy at Cold Mountain Institute on Cortes Island. It was led by a prestigious psychologist from New York, whose name he forgets.
Banks was petrified at the prospect of revealing himself. So he and his wife cancelled the group therapy. Then they signed up again. Then they cancelled. After a third cancellation, they were finally talked into giving it a try.
"It scared the living daylights out of me," Banks says. Soon after the therapy sessions began, Banks remembers going outside for a walk, where he bumped into a visiting psychologist.
Banks told the psychologist that since he didn't finish high school, he was feeling extremely insecure in such educated company.
"I heard him say, 'There's no such thing as insecurity. It's only thought,' " Banks recounts.
"My insecurity died in that moment. I was so elated. I realized all my past had just gone. It had no power over me any more."
Banks was so overcome he didn't sleep for two nights.
He soon ended up at a beach, where he had a remarkable experience.
"I was literally shrouded in white light and I realized the true nature of God and Mind. I realized life was a divine dream suspended in a place of time, space and matter."
He started to cry, he says. "I realized, 'I made it. I'm home.' I knew this was going to change psychology forever."
When Banks went back to Harmac pulp mill, he says his co-workers, who knew him as Scotty, didn't recognize him. His best friend told him to stay away from his own locker, grabbing his arm and saying:
"That's Scotty's locker."
Judging from the kinds of things Banks was saying to people, friends thought he was having a nervous breakdown.
"I recognized I couldn't just go up to people and say, 'I've found the secret of life.' But I was truly in a new world. I was seeing everyone, whether sad, happy or angry, in total innocence. I'd talk to people, and their problems would just vanish. Unbelievable things happened."
In the years soon after his revelation, he says word got around about him and people searching for the answer to life in the 1970s began coming from all around the world to see him. They'd just walk down the lane to his Saltspring Island home.
Sometimes, he says, he'd get 100 visitors a day.
Hitchhikers. Psychologists. Monks from the Himalayas. Mental patients. And ordinary people from all walks of life.
"I'd talk to people with serious psychological problems, and they'd just change: Like that," he says, snapping his fingers.
Banks usually didn't charge anything for his services. But he became exhausted as he tried to serve the masses. He had to call a halt to it.
Since then he's pursued his life's mission quietly -- agreeing to lead workshops around the world, then writing books. He hauls out files filled with written testimonials, from everyone from medical doctors to prison inmates.
There are also clippings from mainstream U.S. newspapers, which highlight the award-winning community work of people, especially police officers, who have reduced crime rates in tough neighbourhoods using Banks's psycho-spiritual teachings.
"Sydney's influence has been huge. He doesn't even know how big it is, because he's always wanted to keep a low profile," says Judith Sedgman, who co-founded with Dr. Bill Pettit, a psychiatrist, what is now called the West Virginia Initiative for Innate Health (www.wviih.org).
Even though Banks has normally led only two or three workshops a year in North America, Europe and Oceania, Sedgman says his highly-placed students have gone on to develop their own programs based on Banks's methods for overcoming inner fears.
"He just talks from the heart, and it's very touching. He helps people get in touch with their own resiliency," says Sedgman, who teaches courses at West Virginia University and numerous other venues. She's known Banks for 23 years.
"Through the ripple effect," she says, "tens of thousands of people have been affected by his work."
'COMMON-SENSE GUY'
The head of the philosophy department at Vancouver's Langara College, Bonnelle Strickling, says Banks seems like one of those fortunate few people who have had a profound mystical experience that lifted the burdens of his past.
"Most people are not blessed with such a life-changing experience. It brought healing of his burdens, eased his anxiety and changed his life. When most people change, it usually happens in a much more gradual way," says Strickling, who is also a therapist in private practice.
Strickling can understand Banks's appeal. He seems, she says, like a "common-sense guy" who speaks from his own experiences, rather than from the perspective of an academic trained in psychological, theological and philosophical theories.
"Lots of people are intimidated by psychotherapy. And they'd look at this humble guy and think, 'If he can do it, so can I.' All the things he says are in line with religious and mystical traditions, especially those that warn us not to be misled by the ego."
One problem Strickling has with Banks's philosophy is that it makes it appear as if people can, through straightforward positive thinking, "choose" to transcend their troubled upbringings and begin leading a contented life.
"It can be depressing for people to hear it's supposed to be that easy," says Strickling. "It hasn't been my experience that people can simply choose not to be negatively influenced by their past."
Strickling wonders if Banks's teachings are as unique as he believes they are. The purpose of mainstream psychotherapy, meditation and spiritual contemplation, she says, is to help free people gradually from early experiences that subconsciously control their actions.
Since many people are haunted by their childhood in ways that cause them to behave destructively, Strickling says it can be valuable for clients to explore their upbringing to understand why they act the way they act. After doing so, many clients feel compassion for parents or other influential figures who may have harmed them.
What about Banks's teaching that what's ultimately important is to "live in the now?"
While Strickling agrees it can be valuable to "be present" to what you're experiencing in any moment, it has to be tempered against other things humans must do -- such as keeping promises, being responsible to others and planning for the future.
TIME RUNNING OUT
After all these years avoiding the media limelight, Banks has finally agreed to go public because he senses time is running out for himself and humanity.
"I've waited 33 years for this teaching to be accepted. And it hasn't. And before I die, I want to see it go out en masse. I really believe, if this goes out, there will be mass healings," he says as he makes tea in his spotless kitchen overlooking a ridge of hills.
Banks has heard criticisms before like Strickling's, from other highly educated people. But he's convinced his experiences have brought him to a different level of understanding than most psychiatrists and psychotherapists.
According to Banks, the great American philosopher William James said psychology would change forever if someone found the principles to understanding life.
Matter-of-factly, Banks says, "I've found those principles. I've found the secret of what the mind is."
As Banks often teaches: Time, space and matter are all illusory. All that counts are the three principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought.
"People say I'm insulting their intelligence by saying such simplistic nonsense," he says.
"But they're listening with their intellect, which is ego. What I'm teaching is God-given wisdom."
UPBRINGING ‘QUITE HARSH’
It's time to catch the only afternoon ferry back to Vancouver. Banks and I head out to his station wagon. But he's forgotten his glasses. He apologizes and rushes back inside the house; bustling back out to the car a few minutes later.
As Banks drives rapidly to the Long Harbour ferry, he talks about his childhood in Edinburgh in the 1930s. An orphan, he had been taken in by a family that didn't believe in education.
Was that upbringing hard?
"I thought it was," he says softly. "It was quite harsh."
But, with the help of his philosophy and theosophy, he believes he's long over his hurtful childhood.
"The past is only history," he says, "an illusion in your head."
Banks's beliefs about his parents have changed over time. "Somewhere in there I came to see a lot of love," he says in the car. He wishes he could have said goodbye to his parents before they died: "I would have liked to tell them I love them."
At the ferry dock, the gates to the on-ramp are closing and I have to jump quickly out of the car to make it on board. In a moment, however, Banks has come round to the front of his car to say goodbye.
His arms are open wide, offering a giant hug.



Sydney Banks - A Quiet Mind








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This Common Food Ingredient Can Really Mess Up Your Metabolism




This Common Food Ingredient Can Really Mess Up Your Metabolism
Posted by:
Dr. Mercola
January 26 2010


What if you were to learn that every day, 25 percent of your calories came from a poison, disguised as a food?
And what if you discovered that this chemical imposter was responsible for your insulin resistance and weight gain?

And elevated blood pressure ...And elevated triglycerides and LDL ...
And depletion of vitamins and minerals ...
And even gout, heart disease and liver damage?
What if you were to discover that this toxic substance had been dumped into your food in gradually increasing quantities for the last thirty years, with the full knowledge and blessings of the American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, the USDA and the FDA?
Would you be angry?
I wish I could tell you that this is just a dramatic plot from some fiction novel, but it’s actually a shocking reality.



The substance dealing such a crushing blow to your health and responsible for many, if not most of the chronic diseases that are so rampant in our society, is sugar -- and more specifically, fructose.
We now know without a doubt that sugar in your food, in all its myriad of forms, is taking a devastating toll on the health of this nation.
By the end of this article, you will have a solid understanding of how and why this has happened. In order to really grasp this material, you’ll have to learn a little of the biochemistry of energy, which is rather technical. But hang in there -- the knowledge you’re about to gain, and the impact it will have on your health, will be well worth the effort.

I will try my best to make the more technical aspects as simple as I can for you.

Big Gulp, Meet Big Belt

We are eating far more than we were 25 years ago.

On average, men are consuming 187 more calories per day, and women 335 more calories. People who were never heavy before are becoming overweight, and the obese are becoming more so. We are now a “supersized” population.
But why?
Modern science has shown that the obesity epidemic isn’t simply about lack of self-control, but rather a phenomenon driven by biochemical changes that have altered the way your body regulates energy.
Something has caused your appetite regulation system to go awry. Leptin, the hormone responsible for satiety, isn’t working. It isn’t simply a matter of calories in and calories out. Six-month old babies are the latest victims of the obesity epidemic--diet and exercise cannot explain that.
So, what are you eating now that you weren’t eating thirty years ago? What are you doing to yourself that started the day you were born?
Studies show that all of those extra calories are coming in the form of carbohydrates.
What carbohydrates in particular?
Sugar -- specifically, sugared drinks. Soft drinks (41 percent) and fruit drinks (35 percent) make up the majority of these extra calories.
Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In fact, the average American drinks 60 gallons of soda every year.

High Fructose Corn Syrup Has Only Been Around One Generation!

HFCS was invented in 1966 in Japan and introduced to the American market in 1975. Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose (table sugar) to corn syrup when they discovered that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was far cheaper to make -- sucrose costs about three times as much as HFCS.
HFCS is also about 20 times sweeter than table sugar. So it was expected that less sweetener would be needed per product. Instead, the amount of sweeteners has steadily risen.
The switch from sugar to fructose drastically altered the average American diet. The statistics are beyond alarming:

  • Corn syrup is now found in every type of processed, pre-packaged food you can think of. In fact, the use of HFCS in the U.S. diet increased by a whopping 10,673 percent between 1970 and 2005, according to a report by the USDA[i].

  • The current annual consumption of sugar is 141 pounds per person, and 63 pounds of that is HFCS.

  • Adolescents are taking in 73 grams per day of fructose, mostly from soft drinks and juice drinks -- and 12 percent of their total caloric intake is from fructose alone.


  • In the past century, fructose consumption has increased 5-fold.

  • Processed foods account for more than 90 percent of the money Americans spend on meals.
You’ve probably heard the statistic that one soda a day is worth 15 pounds of fat per year. However, one soda today does not equal one soda of yesteryear. The original coke bottle was 6.5 ounces. Now, you have 20-ounce bottles and a 44-ounce Big Gulp.

Tragically, many infant formulas are more than 50 percent sugar -- 43 percent being corn syrup solids. You might as well be giving your baby a bottle of Coke or Pepsi.
No wonder there is an obesity epidemic.

The War on Fat

Sugar’s rise to power was really an accidental by-product of three political winds, beginning with the Nixon administration:

  1. In 1972, Richard Nixon wanted to reduce food costs as part of his “war on poverty.” He partnered with the USDA to do whatever means necessary to bring food costs down.

  2. In 1975, HFCS was introduced, replacing sugar because it was cheap and readily available.

  3. In the mid 1970s, dietary fats were blamed for heart disease (more about this later), giving rise to the “low-fat craze.” Market response was an explosion of processed convenience foods, all nonfat and low fat, most of which tasted like sawdust unless sugar was added. Fructose was used to make fat-free products more palatable.
In 1982, the American Heart Association (AHA), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA) reduced fats from 40 percent of your diet to 30 percent. You eagerly complied, believing you were lowering your risks for both obesity and cardiovascular disease.
Yet, as the low-fat craze spread, so did rates of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity -- the very illnesses you thought you were preventing. Clearly, the plan wasn’t working.

Justification for Low-Fat Diet

But how did the war on fat start, in the first place?
It began with a study called the Seven Countries study by Ancel Keys[ii], a Minnesota epidemiologist who used multivariate regression analysis to examine diet and disease. He compared the diets of seven countries, and his main conclusion was that saturated fats were responsible for cardiovascular disease. After much heated public debate, this notion that saturated fats caused heart disease was widely adopted, especially once he made the cover of Time Magazine in 1980.
Keys’ study laid the foundation for nutrition science, education, and public policy for the next three decades.
There was only one problem. His conclusions were dead wrong.
Keys’ neglected to perform the converse analysis demonstrating that the effect of saturated fat on cardiovascular disease was independent of sucrose. In other words, sucrose and saturated fat were co-mingled into his data. In retrospect, it is impossible to tease out the relative contributions of sucrose versus saturated fat on cardiovascular disease in this study because the original data is long gone and Keys has passed on.
Additionally he never separated out the issue of how the fat was consumed. There is a major difference in raw and cooked animal fat, especially fat cooked at high temperatures, which clearly produces known carcinogens.
Nevertheless, lowering fat (without regard to sugar) became the nutritional model that persists to this day, despite copious evidence that it doesn’t work.
As your fats went from 40 percent to 30 percent, your carbohydrates went from 40 percent to 55 percent. And this carbohydrate increase was of the worst possible kind: SUGAR.

Proof that Sugar Cause Obesity

The American Beverage Association claims there is “no association between high fructose corn syrup and obesity.”[iii]
However, a long lineup of scientific studies suggest otherwise:

  • Dr. David Ludwig of Boston Children’s Hospital did a study of the effects of sugar-sweetened drinks on obesity in children[iv]. He found that for each additional serving of a sugar-sweetened drink, both body mass index and odds of obesity increased in the children he studied.


  • Dr. Kelly Brownell of Yale University did a systematic review and meta-analysis of 88 studies about the association between soft drink consumption and health outcomes[v]. He found clear associations between soft drink consumption and higher body weight.

  • The Fizzy Drink Study in Christchurch, England explored the effects on obesity when soda machines were removed from schools for one year. In the schools where the machines were removed, obesity stayed constant. In the schools where soda machines remained, obesity rates continued to rise[vi].


  • A study by Schulze in JAMA in 2004[vii] provides further evidence that sugared drinks cause type II diabetes.

  • A similar study in 2008 of African American women[viii] demonstrated higher intake of both sugar-sweetened soft drinks and fruit drinks leads to higher rates of type II diabetes.

  • In a very recent study[ix], sixteen volunteers were fed a controlled diet including high levels of fructose. Ten weeks later, the volunteers had produced new fat cells around their hearts, livers and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. A second group of volunteers who were fed a similar diet, but with glucose replacing fructose, did not have these problems.
But it doesn’t stop at soft drinks.
Sweetened fruit drinks are contributing to your expanding waistline as well. High fruit juice intake (sucrose) is associated with childhood obesity, especially in low-income families[x].
What is it in soft drinks and juice drinks that is damaging your health?
Primarily, it’s the fructose. Read on to discover exactly how and why this is so.

Fructose is NOT the Same as Glucose
Glucose is the form of energy you were designed to run on. Every cell in your body, every bacterium -- and in fact, every living thing on the Earth -- uses glucose for energy.
Glucose fructose molecular structure


Fructose is not the same molecule. Glucose is a 6-member ring, but fructose is a 5-member ring. Sucrose (table sugar) is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose, and HFCS is 42-55 percent fructose.


If you received your fructose only from vegetables and fruits (where it originates) as most people did a century ago, you’d consume about 15 grams per day -- a far cry from the 73 grams per day the typical adolescent gets as a bolus from sweetened drinks. In vegetables and fruits, it’s mixed in with fiber, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial phytonutrients, all which moderate the negative metabolic effects.
It isn’t that fructose itself is bad -- it is the MASSIVE DOSES you’re exposed to that make it dangerous.
Before you can understand the differences between how your body metabolizes glucose and fructose, you have to have a basic understanding of LDL.

There are Two Types of LDL -- and Only One is Bad

In the 1970s, low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) were discovered. LDLs were found to be higher in people with cardiovascular disease, so the focus of medicine and nutrition became lowering your LDLs.
One of the crucial pieces of the puzzle that wasn’t recognized at the time was that there are two kinds of LDL: Pattern A and Pattern B.


  1. Pattern A LDLs are large, light, buoyant “floating” LDLs that don’t get under your endothelial cells, and they don’t cause plaque formation. They are harmless.

  2. Pattern B LDL (or VLDLs) are smaller, denser LDLs that are able to wedge themselves under your epithelial cells and therefore roughen surfaces and stimulate plaque formation. These are the bad guys.

Unfortunately, when you get a standard lipid profile at your annual check-up, the LDL measured is a combination of both types. Lab measurements lump them together unless you have a very specialized panel, which most physicians don’t order.

To decipher whether or not you have an excess of the bad type, you can look at your triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. (HDL, or “high density lipoprotein is commonly called “good cholesterol.”)

Here is a simple way to determine if you have too much bad LDL:

  1. If your triglycerides are low and your HDL is high, then the LDL you have is the good variety.

  2. If your triglycerides are high and your HDL is low, then the LDL you have is the bad variety. The triglyceride-to-HDL ratio is a far better indicator of cardiovascular disease than the total cholesterol-to-HDL ratio that everyone uses.
Now, here’s the bottom line: Dietary fat raises your large, buoyant LDL -- the one that is harmless. Dietary sugar raises your small, dense LDL -- the one that correlates with heart disease!

So, what has happened over the past 30 years was that sugar was added to our low-fat foods to improve palatability -- in the form of either HFCS or sucrose -- and a high-carb, high-risk diet was created -- simply the worst combination for your health.
And the fiber was eliminated.

Fiber Foregone

Fiber is an important nutrient (although not acknowledged as such by the government) and offers many health benefits, particularly if the fiber comes from vegetables.

A high-fiber diet may offer some protection from colorectal cancer, although the research is unclear exactly how this works and what all the factors are. The benefits of vegetable fiber are not yet completely understood. We do know that the risk of colorectal cancer is lower among populations with high intakes of vegetables and fruits, and there is some evidence that vegetable fiber may offer some protection from prostate cancer.

Fiber has three important roles:

  • It reduces the rate of intestinal carbohydrate absorption, reducing your insulin response.

  • It increases the speed of transit of intestinal contents to your ileum, which speeds up release of satiety hormones.

  • It inhibits absorption of some free fatty acids to your colon, which would become short chain fatty acids, which suppress insulin.
Thousands of years ago your ancestors likely consumed 100 to 300 grams of fiber every day. Now, you are lucky to get 12 grams daily.
Why is this?

  • Fiber-less foods are cheap.

  • They have a longer shelf life and are easier to ship. This makes them easier to export to other countries.

  • Fiber-rich foods take too long to prepare and eat, and are often less appealing to the general public.
The standard American diet (SAD) is typically loaded with processed foods full of sugar, and devoid of most nutrients and fiber. Sounds like the perfect recipe for an explosion of chronic disease.

The Molecule that Makes Fat Stick to You

Obesity is a disorder of excess fat accumulation. But what regulates fat accumulation?
Fat is a metabolically active tissue. Your adipose tissue is in a perpetual state of flux with free fatty acids (FFAs) being converted into triglycerides and back again, in an ongoing cycle.
FFAs can move in and out of your cells, across cell membranes, but triglycerides (three fatty acid molecules plus one glycerol molecule) are too big to cross. Fat enters and exits a cell as FFA, but is stored as a triglyceride. When fuel is needed, the triglyceride is broken down into FFAs, which can then be burned as fuel.
The glycerol molecule, which is a primary component of a triglyceride, comes from something called glycerol-3-phosphate (g-3-p), or “activated glycerol,” which originates from the metabolism of glucose. The amount of G-3-p you make determines the rate that FFAs are “esterified” into triglycerides inside your fat cells[xi].
The rate of deposition of fat into your fat cells is dependent on the presence of g-3-p. The more g-3-p that is available, the more fat is deposited.

Carbohydrate Biochemistry 101

I promised you a crash course in biochemistry -- so here we go.
Much of the following information comes from the important work of Dr. Robert Lustig[xii] Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco.
In order to appreciate just how damaging fructose is to your body, it is crucial to have a basic understanding of how different types of carbohydrates are metabolized.
We’ll start with glucose since it’s the basic carbohydrate energy source for all living cells.

I. Glucose Metabolism
Glucose is the basic fuel for living organisms, from bacteria to humans, and is the primary energy source for your brain. It is a product of photosynthesis and is found in rice, corn and other grains, and bread and pasta.

Once you take in glucose from a meal -- like, say, from two slices of bread -- 80 percent of it is used by all of the organs of your body -- every single cell. The remaining 20 percent goes to your liver to be metabolized and stored.
The following is what happens to that 20 percent, once it reaches your liver:
  • Whatever glucose your body doesn’t need immediately gets converted into glycogen for storage in the liver. Glycogen is your body’s non-toxic short-term energy storage package, where it can be easily converted to energy when you need it. Your liver has no limit to how much glycogen it can store without detrimental effects. (That is what athletes take advantage of when they “carbo-load.”)

  • A small amount of pyruvate is produced, which ends up being converted to ATP (the chemical storage form of energy) and carbon dioxide. An even smaller quantity of citrate is produced from this process through the “citrate shuttle,” which ends up as VLDL (very low density lipoproteins, the bad ones) in a process known as de novo lipogenesis -- but we’re talking about a very small amount (less than one calorie from two slices of bread).

  • Insulin is released by your pancreas in response to the rise in blood glucose (i.e., blood sugar), which helps the glucose get into your cells. Without insulin, your cells would not be able to process the glucose and therefore would have no energy for movement, growth, repair, or other functions. Insulin is key to unlocking the door of the cell to allow the glucose to be transferred from the bloodstream into the cell.

  • When you consume 120 calories of glucose, less than one calorie contributes to adverse metabolic outcomes.
This is all very normal, and it’s how you were designed to operate.

II. Ethanol Metabolism

Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is the favorite carbohydrate of many. But it is also a carbohydrate that undergoes a very different metabolic process, leaving in its wake a trail of toxins a mile long.
Ethanol is an acute central nervous system toxin and a chronic hepatotoxin due to the fact that it must be metabolized almost completely in the liver.
After consuming an alcoholic beverage, 10 percent of the ethanol gets broken down by the stomach and intestine as a “first pass” effect, and another 10 percent is metabolized by the brain and other organs. The fact that ethanol is partially metabolized in your brain is the reason you experience that familiar “buzz.”
The remaining 80 percent hits the liver, where it must be broken down. This is four times the load on the liver as the same number of calories from glucose.
But the metabolic process in the liver is quite different from that of glucose.
This metabolic cascade can be summarized as follows:

  • The liver converts ethanol to aldehydes, which produce free radicals that damage proteins in the liver.

  • Some of these aldehydes are converted to glucose, but a large amount of excess citrate is formed in the process, stimulating “junk chemicals” that result in free fatty acids (FFAs), VLDL and triglycerides. As compared to the 1 calorie from glucose that was converted to VLDL (see previous section), the same caloric intake from ethanol produces 30 calories of VLDL that are transported to your fat cells and contribute to your obesity, or participate in plaque formation. This is what leads to the dyslipidemia of alcoholism.

  • The resulting lipids, together with the ethanol, lead to an enzyme that begins an inflammation cascade, which in turn causes hepatic insulin resistance, liver inflammation and cirrhosis.

  • Fat globules accumulate in the liver as well, which can lead to fatty liver disease.

  • Free fatty acids (FFAs) leave the liver and cause your skeletal muscles to become insulin resistant. This is a worse form of insulin resistance than hepatic insulin resistance and can lead to type II diabetes.


  • After a 120-calorie bolus of ethanol, a large fraction (about 40 calories) can contribute to disease.
Why am I including a discussion of ethanol metabolism in a report about fructose?
Because, in nearly every way, fructose is metabolized the same way as ethanol, creating the same toxins in your body.

III. Fructose Metabolism
Now we finally come to fructose.
When you consume fructose, 100 percent of it goes directly to your liver to be metabolized. This is why it is a hepatotoxin -- it overloads the liver. Fructose metabolism creates the following adverse effects:

  • Fructose is immediately converted to fructose-1-phosphate (F1P), depleting your liver cells of phosphates.

  • The above process produces waste products in the form of uric acid. Uric acid blocks an enzyme that makes nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is your body’s natural blood pressure regulator, so when it is blocked, your blood pressure rises -- leading to hypertension. Elevated uric acid levels can also cause gout.

  • Almost all of the F1P is turned into pyruvate, ending up as citrate, which results in de novo lipogenesis, the end products of which are FFAs, VLDLs, and triglycerides. The result -- hyperlipidemia.

  • Fructose stimulates g-3-p (activated glycerol), which you will recall is the crucial molecule for turning FFAs into triglycerides within the fat cells. Remember, the rate of deposition of fat into fat cells is dependent on the presence of g-3-p. The more g-3-p that is available, the more fat is deposited. Fructose is the carbohydrate most efficiently converted into g-3-p11. In other words, fructose is the most lipophilic carbohydrate.

  • FFAs are exported from the liver and taken up in skeletal muscle, causing skeletal muscle insulin resistance.

  • Some of the FFAs stay in the liver, leading to fat droplet accumulation, hepatic insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)[xiii][xiv].

  • Insulin resistance stresses the pancreas, which pumps out more insulin in response to rising blood sugar as your cells are unable to get the sugar out of your bloodstream, and this can progress to type II diabetes.

  • As with a bolus dose of ethanol, a 120-calorie bolus of fructose results in a large fraction (again, about 40 calories) that directly contributes to disease.
Do these symptoms sound a bit familiar to you? Hypertension, lipogenesis and dyslipidemia, obesity, inflammation, insulin resistance, and central nervous system leptin resistance?
If you are thinking it sounds a lot like classic metabolic syndrome, you are dead on!
The point to take away is: consuming fructose is consuming fat. Fructose is not really a carbohydrate -- a high fructose diet is a HIGH FAT diet. A high-fat diet that creates a vicious cycle of consumption that won’t turn itself off.
You can see by comparing the metabolism of fructose with the metabolism of ethanol that they are very similar. In fact, when you compare the metabolism of 150 calories of soda with 150 calories of beer (a 12 ounce can of each), about 90 calories reach the liver in either case. Fructose causes most of the same toxic effects as ethanol because both come from sugar fermentation.
Both ethanol metabolism and fructose metabolism lead to visceral adiposity (belly fat), insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome.
Studies are accumulating that bear this out.
For example, high-fructose diets were shown to cause dyslipidemia in healthy people with and without a family history of type II diabetes, a recent study showed[xv].
Two other studies were done using medical students, both looking at biological responses to fructose loading. In the first, the med students were given either a large glucose load or a large fructose load. In the students given fructose, almost 30 percent of the calories ended up as fat. In the students given glucose, almost none ended up as fat.
In the second study, medical students were given a high-fructose diet for 6 days. In just that short time, their insulin resistance and triglycerides doubled!

The Neurochemical Basis for Gluttony

You eat as a result of the activation of the “reward pathway” (also known as the hedonic pathway) of your brain.

Your brain’s pleasure center (aka ventral tegmental area, or VTA, and nucleus accumbens, or NA) is the root of all behavior, driven by chemical messengers that are intimately tied into the energy processes I have outlined above.
The part of your brain that responds to what you eat is the same part that responds to nicotine, morphine, amphetamine, ethanol, sex and exercise! That is why people taking narcotics tend to overeat.
Leptin and insulin are modulators of these reward responses, decreasing this VTA-NA activity. In other words, leptin and insulin cause your brain to send you signals to stop eating.
Fructose undermines these normal satiety signals, increasing caloric consumption both directly and indirectly:

  1. Fructose does not stimulate a leptin rise, so your satiety signals are diminished.

  2. Glucose suppresses ghrelin (the hunger hormone—it makes you want more food), but fructose does not.

  3. By raising triglycerides, fructose reduces the amount of leptin crossing your blood-brain barrier.

  4. Fructose increases insulin levels, interfering with the communication between leptin and your hypothalamus, so your pleasure signals aren’t extinguished. Your brain senses starvation and prompts you to eat more.

  5. Fructose decreases the production of malonyl-CoA, which may help promote a sense of energy adequacy.
Along with causing insulin resistance, fructose alters the hedonic response to food thereby driving excessive caloric intake, setting up a positive feedback loop for overconsumption.

Big Fat Lies From the Corn Industry

Now that scientific studies have shown the metabolic similarity between HFCS and sucrose, the Corn Refiners Association has embarked on a vociferous campaign to convince the public that their product is equal to table sugar, that it is “natural” and safe.
Of course, many things are “natural” -- cocaine is natural, but you wouldn’t want to use 141 pounds of it each year.
The food and beverage industry doesn’t want you to realize how truly pervasive HFCS is in your diet -- not just from soft drinks and juices, but also in salad dressings and condiments and virtually every processed food. The introduction of HFCS into the Western diet in 1975 has been a multi-billion dollar boon for the corn industry.
Now the corn industry has come up with another product it’s using in beverages called “crystalline fructose.” This is produced by allowing the fructose to crystallize from a fructose-enriched corn syrup, resulting in a product that is 99.5 percent pure fructose -- a fructose level twice as high as regular HFCS!
Clearly, all the health problems associated with HFCS could become even more pronounced with this product.

Making matters worse, crystalline fructose may also contain arsenic, lead, chloride and heavy metals -- a virtual laundry list of toxic agents you should clearly avoid. In fact, more than one study has detected unsafe mercury levels in HFCS[xvi]. If you have children, all of these contaminants can impact your child’s development and long-term health.
Why doesn’t the FDA regulate fructose since it poses the same health risks as ethanol -- and it regulates ethanol?
The FDA doesn’t touch chronic toxins. They regulate only acute toxins, and ethanol falls into that category because it produces immediately toxic neurological effects. Fructose doesn’t get metabolized in the brain, so it’s effects, although damaging, are cumulative and magnify over time.
Also realize that nearly all HFCS is made from genetically modified corn, which comes with its own set of risks.
The FDA classifies fructose as GRAS: Generally Regarded As Safe. Which pretty much means nothing and is based on nothing.
It is interesting to note that soda taxes[xvii] have recently been proposed both in New York and California, and legislation for the removal of soft drinks from schools has been enacted in several states.

What’s a Sugarholic to Do?

Ideally, I recommend that you avoid as much sugar as possible. This is especially important if you are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure.
In fact, I believe that the positive health impacts of breaking the country’s sugar addiction would be even greater than if everyone stopped smoking, because elevated insulin levels are the foundation of nearly every chronic disease known to man, from cancer and arthritis to cardiovascular disease.
I also realize you don’t live in a perfect world, and following rigid dietary guidelines is not always practical or even possible.
If you want to use a sweetener occasionally, this is what I recommend:

  1. Use the herb stevia

  2. Use organic cane sugar in moderation

  3. Use organic raw honey in moderation
Avoid ALL artificial sweeteners, which can damage your health even more quickly than HFCS.
And I don’t recommend agave syrup since it is a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose. Your blood sugar will spike just as it would if you were consuming regular sugar or HFCS. Agave has gained meteoric popularity due to a great marketing campaign, but any health benefits present in the original agave plant are processed away.
Be sure to eat your sugar with fiber ... as in a piece of fruit. As Dr. Lustig says, “When God made the poison, he packaged it with the antidote: fiber.”
Wait 20 minutes before second portions at meals, giving your brain a chance to receive satiety signals.
And exercise regularly. Dr. Ludwig recommends you “buy your screen time with physical activity.”

Exercise is important for several reasons, some of which might surprise you:

  • Exercise improves skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity (insulin works best in your muscles)

  • Exercise reduces stress and lowers cortisol, which decreases appetite


  • Exercise suppresses ghrelin, thereby decreasing appetite

  • Exercise speeds up metabolic cycles, reducing citrate levels, thus reducing fat production

  • Exercise can make you sharper, reduce arthritis, lift your mood, strengthen your bones, and even slow down aging
Avoid so-called energy drinks and sports drinks because they are loaded with sugar, sodium and chemical additives.
Rehydrating with pure, fresh water is a better choice.
If you or your child is involved in athletics, I recommend you read my article Energy Rules for some great tips on how to optimize your child’s energy levels and physical performance through good nutrition.

A Word of Warning About Infant Formula
And finally, be extremely careful about the infant formula you are feeding your baby. Nearly all infant formulas have as much or more high fructose corn syrup than a can of soda -- in addition to many other things that are extremely detrimental to your baby’s health and development.
You have learned that, metabolically, there is very little difference between ethanol and sugar, so by giving your infant formula, you might as well be giving him a bottle of beer or soda!
And studies have shown that the earlier you expose kids to sweets, the more they crave them later.
It is important for pregnant women to keep their blood sugars well managed not only for their own health, but also for the long-term health of their children.
Researchers have found that children born to mothers with gestational diabetes (high blood sugar during pregnancy) had an 82 percent chance of becoming obese between the ages of 5 and 7 through a phenomenon called “metabolic imprinting.” Even mothers with elevated blood sugar, short of gestational diabetes, had children with a significantly increased risk for obesity.[xviii]

I advocate breastfeeding if at all possible -- it is by far the healthiest option.
One of the most clear-cut, non-debatable topics in health care is that breast milk is the best source of nutrition for newborns. The benefits to the baby and the new mom are enormous. Breastfed infants have shown lower obesity rates in later childhood[xix].

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Robert H. Lustig, Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at University of California, San Francisco, for sharing his incredibly important insights, without which this article would not have been possible. Much of the above information came directly from Dr. Lustig’s work related to central regulation of energy balance, and I am very grateful for his willingness to share it with me so that I can pass it along to you.


[i] Wells H.F. and Buzby J. c. “Dietary assessment of major trends in U.S. food consumption, 1970-2005. USDA Economic Research Service, Economic Information Bulletin Number 33, March 2008.


[ii]Ancel Keys—villain or hero?” Stop Trans Fats.
[iii] American Beverage Association, News Release, March 25, 2004

[iv]
Ludwig D.S., Peterson, K.E. and Gortmaker, S.L. “Relation between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and childhood obesity: a prospective, observational analysisThe Lancet Feb 17, 2001 Volume 357, Issue 9255, pp 505-508
[v] Vartanian L.R., Schwartz M.B. and Brownell K.D. “Effects of soft drink consumption on nutrition and health: A systematic review and meta-analysis” AJPH April 2007, vol 97, No. 41, pp 667-675.
[vi] Esterbrook J. “Schools that can soda cut obesity,” CBS News Health April 23, 2004

[vii] Apovian C.M. “Sugar-sweetened soft drinks, obesity, and type 2 diabetesJAMA 2004;292:978-979
[viii] Palmer J.R., Boggs D.A., Krishnan S., Hu F.B., Singer M., and Rosenberg L. “Sugar-sweetened beverages and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in African American womenArch Intern Med. 2008;168(14):1487-1492.

[ix] Stanhope K.L., et al. “Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humansJ Clin Invest. 2009 May 1;119(5):1322-1334
[x] Faith M.S., Dennison B.A., Edmunds L.S., Stratton H.H. “Fruit juice intake increased adiposity gain in children from low-income families: weight status by environment interaction” Pediatrics 118:2066-2075.
[xi] Taubs G. Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease, 2007, Knopf; and Medical Grand Rounds presentation, Datmouth-Hitchcock,
[xii] Robert H. Lustig, MD: UCSF faculty bio page, and YouTube presentation “Sugar: The bitter truth” ; and “The fructose epidemic” The Bariatrician, 2009, Volume 24, No. 1, page 10)
[xiii] Lim J.S., Mietus-Snyder M.L., Valente A., Schwartz J.M., and Lustig R.H. “Fructose, NAFLD, and metabolic syndrome,” Dept. of Pediatrics and Medicine, University of California, San Francisco 2009
[xiv] Ouyang X., Cirillo P., Sautin Y., McCall S., Bruchette J.L., Diehl A.M. Johnson R.J., Abdelmalek M.F. “Fructose consumption as a risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver diseaseJ. Hepatol. 2008 Jun;48(6):993-9

[xv] Le K.A., Ilth M., Kreis R., Faeh D., Bortolotti M., Tran C., Boesch C., and Tappy L. “Fructose overconsumption causes dyslipidemia and ectopic lipid deposition in healthy subjects with and without a family history of type 2 diabetesAm J Clin Nutr. 2009 Jun;89(6):1760-5
[xvi]Why is the FDA unwilling to study evidence of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup?” 20 Feb 2009, Grist
[xvii] Brownstein J. “Public health leaders propose soda tax” ABCNews/Health, September 17, 2009
[xviii] Hillier T.A., Pedula K.L., Schmidt B.A., Mullen J.A., Charles M., Pettitt D.J. “Childhood obesity and metabolic imprinting: The ongoing effects of maternal hyperglycemiaDiabetes Care September 2007 vol. 30 no. 9 pages 2287-2292
[xix] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC) “Prevention of overweight and obesity in infants and toddlers


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The Five Tibetan Rites: Exercises for Healing, Rejuvenation, and Longevity



Five Tibetan Rites: Exercises for Healing,
Rejuvenation, and Longevity
Yoga
Background

In 1985 a book called The Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth written by Peter Kelder was published which for the first time fully described an exercise program for "youthing". This is an exercise program used by Tibetan monks to live long, vibrant and healthy lives. In fact, this book states that many have lived longer than most can imagine by following the program often called the "Five Tibetan Rites".

WORK OF:
http://www.connieleemarie.com/healing/the-five-tibetan-rites-exercises-for-healing-rejuvenation-longevity/


The benefits are described in this book and a subsequent book 2 with an expanded description of the program by the publisher called the Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth - Book 2, a companion to the original book by Peter Kelder. Many thanks to the publisher Doubleday for such a special an expanded explanation of the Five Rites.

Potential Benefits of the Five Rites

The authors provide many examples of the benefits of the "Five Tibetan Rites" including the following: looking much younger; sleeping soundly; waking up feeling refreshed and energetic; release from serious medical problems including difficulties with spines; relief from problems with joints; release from pain; better memory; arthritis relief; weight loss; improved vision; youthing instead of aging; greatly improved physical strength, endurance and vigor; improved emotional and mental health; enhanced sense of well being and harmony; and very high overall energy.

Tibet

How the Five Rites Work

Medical professions explain the benefits based on their personal perspective and I suggest you read the entire two books for a broad overview. However, the majority share the view that the rites represent a system of exercise that affects the body, emotions and mind. The Tibetans claim that these exercises activate and stimulate the seven key chakras that in turn stimulate all the glands of the endocrine system. The endocrine system is responsible for the body's overall functioning and aging process. This means that the Five Rites will affect the functioning of all your organs and systems, including the physical and energetic systems and that includes the aging process. The man who brought these Five Rights out of Tibet stated that "performing the Five Rites stimulates the circulation of essential life energy throughout the body".


Chakras

Chakra is an Indian Sanskrit word that translates to mean "Wheel of Spinning Energy". Chakras are spinning wheels or vortexes of energy of different color that perform many functions connecting our energy fields, bodies and the Cosmic Energy Field. Chakras are powerful electrical and magnetic fields. Chakras govern the endocrine system that in turn regulates all of the body's functions including the ageing process. Energy flows from the Universal Energy Field through the chakras into the energy systems within our bodies, including the Meridian System.

Our bodies contain seven major chakras or energy centers and 122 minor chakras. The major chakras are located at the base of the spine (Root Chakra), at the navel (Sacral Chakra), in the solar plexus (Solar Plexus Chakra), within your heart (Heart Chakra), within the throat (Throat Chakra), at the center of your forehead (Brow or Third Eye Chakra), and at the top of your head (Crown Chakra). These chakras are linked together with all other energy systems in the body and various layers of the auras.

The Speed of the chakra spin is a key to vibrant health. The other keys to vibrant health that relates to the chakra is ensuring they are clear of negative energy and that they are perfectly shaped and not distorted.

The Five Rites speed up the spinning of the chakras, coordinate their spin so they are in complete harmony, distribute pure prana energy to the endocrine system, and in turn to all organs and processes in the body. This is one of the major requirements for vibrant health, rejuvenation and youthfulness.


The Five Rites Exercise Program

This program is often described as a modified yoga program. Simply put, yoga is a science that unites the body, mind and spirit. Today this is often called Mind/ Body Healing. The author of the book believes that yoga was brought to Tibet from India in the 11th or 12th century and that Tibetan monks over time developed modified these exercises and developed an effective program of exercises that western society now calls the "Five Tibetan Rites". The rugged mountainous conditions these monks live in may well account for their particular emphasis on vigor. Many of the yoga exercises and practices being taught in the western world today are very new. The "Five Tibetan Rites" are exactly what the ancient Tibetans developed over many centuries of time. Therefore it's very important to do the "Five Tibetan Rites" exactly as they are presented without altering the form or sequence to achieve some of the benefits accrued to these "Rites".


Beginning the "Five Rites" Exercise Program

1. For the first week, and only if your are relatively healthy and fit, do each exercise three times.

2. If you are inactive, overweight, or have health problems begin these exercises doing one of the first three each day, and only if you feel totally comfortable doing this. Later in this article I will describe exercises you can do to help yourself strengthen so you can begin to do the "Five Rites". If you have any concerns whatsoever, please consult with your physician. Individuals on serious medications should consult with their physicians.

3. If you are overweight do not do Rites #4 and #5 until you have developed some strength and endurance. Do the substitutes for #4 and #5 until you yourself feel ready to begin doing #4 and #5 of the "Five Rites".

4. Do only what you feel comfortable doing. That may be only one of each exercise for the first week. Build up to two of each exercise the second week, three of each exercise the third week, etc. or at a faster pace only if your body does not hurt when you do these exercises.

5.21 is the maximum of each exercise you should ever do. If you want to enhance your program, do the exercises at a faster pace, but do not so more than 21 of ea ch exercise each day. Doing more than 21 repetitions of each exercise in any day will affect your chakras negatively and can create imbalances in your body.

6. The "Five Rites" may stimulate detoxification and often creates many unpleasant physical symptoms. This is why it's recommended to increase the number of each exercise gradually on a weekly basis. I also recommend a vibrational detoxification with Choming Essences. For more information on vibrational detoxification with Choming Essences please visit my website www.mkprojects.com.

7. If you have not exercised for some time, prepare to begin your "Five Rites" exercise program by walking daily, for a half hour each day if possible. Another alternative in preparation for the Five Rites is a stretching program with a gradual increase in the types of stretching exercises and the duration of this program.

8. A sugar free and low fat diet is an important support when integrating the "Five Rites" exercise program into your life. Also check for Digestive Food Sensitivities and eliminate all foods you do not digest easily.

9. Do the Five Rites exercises every day. The maximum you should skip is one day each week. If the exercises are done less than six days each week, the results will be greatly reduced.

10. If on certain days your time is limited, do 3 repetitions of each exercise. This takes less than five minutes.

11. For maximum benefit, do the exercises before breakfast in the morning, if at all possible. If this is not possible do them anytime during the day.

Detoxification

Detoxification is a process that helps to clean out of the physical and energetic body toxins or poisons that have accumulated in your physical cells, organs, systems and in your energetic systems (auras, chakras, meridian system and all electromagnetic, magnetic and electric systems). I strongly recommend that people beginning the "Five Rites" exercise program undertake a Choming Essence detoxification program either before or as they begin these exercises.

If you have never detoxified you will probably have many poisons accumulated in your body and energetic systems. A full detoxification program with Choming Flower Essence, Gem Essences, and Tree Essences will eliminate all toxins. Detoxifying with Choming Essences uses vibrational essences, or what is sometimes called vibrational medicine to clear your systems of toxins and poisons. This includes the elimination of parasites, candida, viruses, and all poisons from pollution, pesticides etc.

This vibrational approach to detoxification is completely complementary to the exercises of the "Five Rites". Detoxification is essential for vibrant and long life. For more information please refer to my article "Detoxification with Choming Essences" and other vibrational health articles on my website at www.mkprojects.com.

"Five Tibetan Rites" Exercise Program


The following instructions and photographs for the "Five Rites" and other preparatory exercises as taken from the book Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth, Book 2. I will show the exact Five Rights exercises, a group of exercises for those who need to develop flexibility and strength before beginning to do the "Five Rites", and a set of warm-up exercises. I strongly recommend you purchase the book since it provides detailed information about methodology, concerns and benefits not included in this article.

SPECIAL CAUTION: Spinning and stretching through the following exercises can aggravate certain health conditions such as any type of heart problem, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons's Disease, severe arthritis of the spine, uncontrolled high blood pressure, a hyperthyroid condition, or vertigo. Problems may also be caused if you are taking drugs that cause dizziness. Please consult your physician prior to beginning these exercises if you have any difficult health issues or if you have any other concerns.

The Five Tibetan Rites

Rite #1

Stand erect with arms outstretched horizontal to the floor, palms facing down. Your arms should be in line with your shoulders. Spin around clockwise until you become slightly dizzy. Gradually increase number of spins from 1 spin to 21 spins.

Breathing: Inhale and exhale deeply as you do the spins.








Rite #2


Lie flat on the floor, face up. Fully extend your arms Along your sides and place the palms of your hands against the floor, keeping fingers close together. Then raise your head off the floor tucking your chin into your chest. As you do this, lift your legs, knees straight, into a vertical position. If possible, extend the legs over the body towards your head. Do not let the knees bend. Then slowly lower the legs and head to the floor, always Keeping the knees straight. Allow the muscles to relax, and repeat.

Breathing: Breathe in deeply as you lift your head and legs and exhale as you lower your head and legs.







Rite #3


Kneel on the floor with the body erect. The hands should be placed on the backs of your thigh muscles. Incline the head and neck forward, tucking your chin in against your chest. Then throw the head and neck backward, arching the spine. Your toes should be curled under through this exercise. As you arch, you will brace your arms and hands against the thighs for support. After the arching return your body to an erect position and begin the rite all over again.

Breathing: Inhale as you arch the spine and exhale as you return to an erect position.







Rite #4


Sit down on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you and your feet about 12" apart. With the trunk of the body erect, place the palms of your hands on the floor alongside your buttocks. Then tuck the chin forward against the chest. Now drop the head backward as far as it will go. At the same time raise your body so that the knees bend while the arms remain straight. Then tense every muscle in your body. Finally let the muscles relax as you return to your original sitting position. Rest before repeating this Rite.

Breathing: Breathe in as you raise up, hold your breath as you tense the muscles, and breathe out fully as you come down.





Rite #5


Lie down with your face down to the floor. You will be supported by the hands palms down against the floor and the toes in the flexed position. Throughout this rite, the hands and feet should be kept straight. Start with your arms perpendicular to the Floor, and the spine arched, so that the body Is in a sagging position. Now throw the head back as far as possible. The, bending at the hips, bring the body up into an inverted "V". At the same time, bring the chin forward, Tucking it against the chest.

Breathing: Breathe in deeply as you raise the body, and exhale fully as you lower the body.







Exercises In Preparation For Doing the Five Tibetan Rites

The following group of exercises has been developed as a preparation for doing the Five Rites, or as an alternative when you are unable to do any of the Five Rites. Doing these exercises will help you strengthen and become more flexible to be able to do the Five Rites as they have been described above.

Do these alternative exercises in the sequence from one to five and when possible, substitute the Five Rite exercise into this alternative program until you have fully integrated the Five Rites.

As with the Five Rites, begin by doing two or three of each exercise daily, until you are able to do 10 each day. Once you are able to do ten of these alternatives, you should be ready to begin doing the Five Rite exercises themselves.

Alternative (for Rite#1) Exercise #1


Stand with your feet about 12 inches apart. Extend your arms palms down until your arms are level with your shoulders. Swing your arms to the right, letting your slapping your left hand against your right shoulder, with your right hand slapping against the small of your back. Then swing your arms in the opposite direction, having your right hand slap against your left shoulder and the back of your left hand slap against the small of your back. As you swing back and forth allow your torso and legs to follow the movement. Allow your heels to lift from the floor but do not allow either foot to completely leave the floor. As you swing right turn your head right, and turn your head left as you swing to the left.

Breathing: Breathe in rhythm to your swinging Movement.











Alternative (for Rite #2) Exercise #2

Lie down on the floor and elevate your head and shoulders propping up on your elbows keeping your forearms flat on the floor, palms facing down. Keeping your legs straight, hold them off the floor For 20 or 30 seconds.

Breathing: Inhale as you raise your legs, breathe in and out normally while holding your legs up, and exhale as you lower your legs.










Alternative ( for Rite #3) Exercise #3


Stand with your back to the wall and your feet 12 - 18 inches apart. Without moving your feet bend forward from the hips so that your buttocks rest against the wall. Slide downward, bending your knees as you go. Keep sliding down until your thighs are horizontal, as if you were sitting in a chair. Hold this position for 15 seconds and then slide back up.

Breathing: Begin to exhale as you slide down to the chair position and inhale when slide back up.







Alternative ( for Rite #4) Exercise #4


Lie flat on your back, your arms straight, palms down, feet flat, and knees bent. Press your pelvis up a few inches off the floor and hold it for 10 seconds. Release and lower your pelvis to its original position.

Breathing: Inhale as you lift your pelvis and Exhale as you lower your pelvis.







Alternative ( for Rite #5) Exercise #5

Begin in the table position. Curl your toes under And bend your hips raising your buttocks so that Your body forms an inverted "V". Your knees will lift up off the floor, your legs will be straight, and your outstretched arms will be in a straight line with your back. Hold this position for 15 seconds.

Breathing: Inhale as you raise your buttocks, breath Slowly and deeply while holding the position, and exhale as you return to the table position.



Warm-up Exercises

The following group of exercises has been developed to open, relax, release tension, to strengthen various parts of the body, and to provide toning to different parts of your body.

If you are overweight, in poor physical condition, or experiencing serious illness, this group of exercises is an excellent to help you begin your journey towards physical fitness. I suggest you do these warm-up exercises prior to the Five Rites if you are overweight or have not exercised in a long time.

Begin this group of exercises by doing 2 of each exercise and then gradually increase the repetition until you are able to do 10 of each warm-up exercise.

Warm-Up Exercise #1


Stand upright, tilt your head sideways towards your left shoulder and hold it for five seconds, then tilt your head towards your chest and hold it 5 seconds. Then tilt your head towards your left Shoulder and hold it five seconds, and lastly tilt your head backward and hold it five seconds. Return your head to a normal position.

Breathing: Exhale as you move your head around, and inhale as you return to the upright position.


Warm-Up Exercise #2


Stand upright, slowly rotate your shoulders in a forward circular motion 5 times, then reverse the movement and rotate your shoulders in a backward circular motion 5 times.

Breathing: Breathe normally but deeply as you do this exercise.





Warm-Up Exercise #3


Stand upright with your arms help up, your elbows bent, and your hands together in front of your chest, with your fingertips touching and palms apart. Press inward on your fingers until their inside surfaces are almost touching. Your palms should not be touching. Release and press your fingers again.

Breathing: Breathe normally.




Warm-Up Exercise #4


In a relaxed standing position, hold your arms in front of you. Clasp your right hand around your left wrist, with your thumb against the inside of the wrist. Squeeze gently but firmly five times. Repeat the procedure with the left hand Squeezing the right wrist.

Breathing: Breathe normally.




Warm-Up Exercise #5


Recline on the floor, resting the upper part of your body on your upper arms. Flex your knees and rhythmically bang Them up and down against the floor in rapid succession. Your heels should remain on the floor throughout this exercise. Do this exercise for 20 - 30 seconds.

Breathing: Breathe normally through this exercise.



Warm-Up Exercise #6


Get down on the floor on your hands and Knees with your hands positioned under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Bring your chin up and rotate your hips so the tailbone moves up, arching your back down. Then tuck your chin into your chest and rotate your back so that your pelvis moves down, arching you're your back down.

Breathing: Inhale as you move your tailbone up and exhale as you move your tailbone down.





Conclusion:
The daily practice of the exercises I have described in this article is an essential element of vibrant health. It's a proven fact that people who loose weight can only maintain their weight loss if they incorporate a daily exercise program into their everyday lives.

These exercises will stretch muscles you haven't felt in years so approach this program gently and begin with one or two repetitions each day, increasing each exercise by one repetition every week. After you are able to do ten repetitions of the Alternate Exercise program, you should be able to begin to do the Five Rites.

And add a half hour of a brisk walk on a daily basis. Not only will it contribute to your physical health, it will give you the opportunity to enjoy all of nature around you. You will feel younger than you have felt in years.

Happy and Joyous Vibrant Health

Mary Kurus


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