Integrative Medicine refers to healthcare services and education not often found in traditional Western medical centers. The OSU Center for Integrative Medicine incorporates the art and science of caring for the whole person – body, mind and spirit – to treat and prevent disease, encouraging patients to create a condition of optimal health.

Located in Columbus, Ohio, The Ohio State University Medical Center is one of the largest and most diverse academic medical centers in the country and the only academic medical center in central Ohio.

The Center, located at 2000 Kenny Road, provides an evidence-based, patient-centered approach to holistic health care.  Some of the services include:

• Traditional Western Medicine
• Whole Alternative Medical Systems
• Mind-Body Medicine
• Biologically-Based Practices
• Manipulative and Body-Based Practices
• Energy Medicine

Driven by the mission to improve people’s lives through innovation in research, OSMUC saves lives and improves the quality of life by rapidly translating the latest discoveries from the research lab to the bedside. It educates a large percentage of the region’s physicians and provide advanced training and continuing education for clinicians.

Here are some vital statistics and information on “how our nutritional errors affect our health (both mind and body).  This is a known fact and nobody can ignore these. This has been shared by Dr. Glen Aukerman, MD, who is the Medical Director of OSMUC.  Worth reading it.

“It’s not just a matter of following food pyramid guidelines anymore, not plain and simple.”   The 1992 food pyramid originated in 1991 by the USDA based on the 1980’s general knowledge about nutrition but highly influenced by agribusiness interest groups.

The 2005 pyramid embodies the 1980s nutritional errors with little adjustments of food groups, but did add an exercise base to the pyramid from the fitness interest groups, but does not fix the negative nutritional impacts of today’s available foods on our human immune system of:

• Gluten imbedded as filler in most manufactured or processed foods
• Soy imbedded from prenatal lattes, to infant nutrition, to fitness and health promotion companies
• Flax which worsens the toxic omega-6 levels (is only, 0.2% converted as an omega-3)
• Latex-like proteins in foods out of season/out of region due to ethylene gas ripening process
• Deficiencies for 6 nutrients documented by the USDA food data base (published Dec 2004)
• Loss of Magnesium and Calcium from water supply, city, bottled, soft and reverse osmosis

Today’s food pyramids do not account for nutrition impacts of 5 new fields of knowledge:

• Human Genomic Project provides understanding of the power of nutrition on health
• Pharmacogenomics which looks at the impacts on genes of foods(grapefruit juice) on drugs
• Nutrigenomics which studies the impacts of nutrition on the gene and organ functions since food must provide complete nutrients for genes to manifest as healthy functions phenotypically
• Nutrigenetics (USDA)which restores food base crops to their full 1950 nutritional content
• Integrative Medicine, integrating Genomic Nutrition into Health, Prevention and medical treatments by understanding that the underlying cause of most chronic modern diseases begin in the immune system from the Nutrient-gene mismatch of the Food pyramid eating and our ‘casual grazing’ brought about by hurried lifestyles and the agribusiness fast-food marketing

Top opportunities and ways to help us live longer and manage stressful lives:

• Realize that the real cause of most modern chronic illnesses, including stress and fatique, begins with our food’s nutrient gene mismatch affecting the immune system,
• Consult an Integrative Medicine specialist for a Personalized Genomic Nutrition Intake and Evaluation which addresses and corrects the negative nutritional impacts of today’s available foods on our human immune system by correcting the;

o    Gluten imbedded as filler in most manufactured or processed foods
o    Soy imbedded from prenatal lattes, to infant nutrition, to fitness and health promotion companies
o    Flax which worsens the toxic omega-6 levels (is only , 0.2% converted as an omega-3)
o    Latex-like proteins in foods out of season/out of region due to ethylene gas ripening process
o    Deficiencies for 6 nutrients documented by the USDA food data base (published Dec 2004)
o    Loss of Magnesium and Calcium from water supply, city, bottled, soft and reverse osmosis
o    Addition of missing nutrients per USDA food database analysis(calcium, vit C, phosphorus

Reduction of the 20-30 times excess of omega-6 plant oils in the western diet by reducing:

• Poultry and farm-fed fish, due to being corn-fed
• Nuts and nut based products like nut butters
• Chips prepared with omega-6 plant oils from seeds like canola, sunflower etc
• Excessive Corn Products, tortillas, nachos, breads
• Flax, Soy, Trail-mix, grain-based snack products and bars, granola-like
• Garbanzo bean, hummus

Visit http://www.medicalcenter.osu.edu/go/integrative for class schedule and information for restoring your immune system.

From our upcoming workbook, Getting to Your Genomic Diet Plan

For the many who visit the OSU CIM, Integrative Medicine represents the hope for regaining their health. Many believe it stopped their ravages of premature aging, disease and death. Many patients ask me daily at their office visits, on reporting-in phone calls, at our community education lecture series, at the grocery stores, in restaurants, health food stores and even in the parking lot, “Doctor, Why am I not well?   What is wrong with me?  When / how did I get sick?  How can I ever regain the health I had as a child?”

This collection, in addition to the OSU CIM CORE Series of lectures and daily personalized-care research help each of us by “Getting to Your Genomic Diet, Where Everyone has Health” Glen Aukerman, MD

“Why I Am Not Well” is all about the silent food nutrient deterioration, and its Nutritional Impact.

In the beginning with Creation or over time with Evolution (depending on one’s belief system) the very narrowly fixed nutritional requirements of our human genome, its DNA, RNA, and the metabolic enzyme systems were set by foods of those times, leaving little variability in nutritional content of diet (monthly or annually) if one is to be truly healthy, disease free and fully functional today, tomorrow and beyond.

While over the last 10,000 years since our modern human genome is believe to have become fixed,  there have been major shifts in the agriculture and the foods available to our ancestors, it now appears that the most devastating changes have occurred in the last 500 years since the Western hemisphere-based foods began to be introduced to the Eastern hemisphere-based sub-populations (European, Mediterranean,  Asian, African, etc.) for whom corn, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, and coffee had no genomic experience. Similar nutritional genetic chaos began with the introduction of foods from those Eastern hemisphere regions (wheat, barley, rye and condiments) to the native sub-populations of the Western hemisphere for which they have no genomic experience. While the prior minor sub-continental food exchanges are likely to have occurred many times over the preceding thousands of years, most were likely mere samplings of new-to-the-genome foods and unlikely to have been consumed in amounts large enough on a continuous enough basis to produce the devastating genomic metabolic illness or impacts evidenced in modern day.

Onset of the industrial revolution, agribusiness and expanded commercial shipping, the genomes of the entire planet became exposed to increased dietary complexity issues, toxicity of latex in foods, and the fabulous fakes of the food industry (MSG, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, colorings, and flavorings). Starting in about 1909, the food industry began to incorporate ever increasing amounts of omega-6 plant oils (soybean oil at first, then a cascade of other plant oils) into the increasingly complex food base. Only recently have we known that the three essential oils need to be in a 1:1:1 ratio for optimal health, omega (n)-3 from animals (fish, lard, and butter), omega (n)-6 from plants (canola, soybean, corn, cottonseed, safflower, sunflower, and coconut) and omega (n)-9 from trees (olive oil). Alterations from this ratio are known to lead to most modern chronic diseases such as heart disease, hypertension, obesity, depression, etc. and even acute conditions such as panic disorder, pain, fatigue, cancers, diabetes, etc.

Loss of Magnesium in Food and Water since the late 1950 as we shifted from the use of animal-based magnesium / trace minerals-rich fertilizers from the manure of animals eating grass for food-crops to mineral deficient commercial fertilizers. This loss of natural magnesium in the soils has led to an increasing deficit of magnesium in the current grocery-based food supply, compounded by shift of western populations’ food sources from the magnesium-rich home garden to become dependent on grocery-based magnesium deficient produce and fruits. Concurrently, western societies have moved away from the magnesium, potassium and calcium rich well-water to magnesium, potassium and calcium depleted city, softened and bottled water which appears to be a major contributing cause for conditions such as osteopenia, osteoporosis, gastroesophageal reflux disorder, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension, headaches, insomnia, arthritis, constipation, fatigue, and enhanced pain disorders.

The USDA reports declines since 1950 in Nutrient Content of All 43 US Garden Fruits / Vegetables

• Protein – 6%, leading to protein calorie malnutrition,
• Calcium – 16% / Phosphorus – 9% leading to osteoporosis, osteopenia and muscle bone weakness
• Iron – 15%, leading to anemia,
• Riboflavin decreased by 38%, leading to beriberi symptom complex known at chronic fatigue, irritability, memory problems, insomnia, fatigue, depression, nausea, dermatitis, muscular pains, sleep disturbances, impaired coordination, naso-lateral seborrhea (rosacea), glossitis, pellagra with diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia, growth failure, cheilosis, angular stomatitis, beriberi, polyneuritis, and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome,
• Vitamin C – 15%, leading to immune deficiency disorders / lowered resistance to infections.

These deficits in nutrient content are due to changes in cultivated varieties between 1950-1999, a trade-off of greater yield for less nutrient content, leading to large percentages of the world’s population suffering from deficiency disorders with symptoms of B vitamin deficiency that are devastating to quality of life.

Since Geneticists estimate that we take 10,000 years to adapt our genome to new food introductions.

Here are seven steps to Improved Health and Longevity – by eating more like our ancestors ate:

1. Answer is to move toward those original foods available when the genome became fixed which allowed our ancestors to be healthy enough to survive, flourish, and become our ancestors.
2. Select Original foods match the foods that were responsible for our specific genome surviving, the foods fit for our genome, allowing our DNA and mRNA to work optimally for health and longevity.
3. Avoiding the fabulous fakes of the food industry such as MSG, preservatives, artificial sweeteners, colorings, and flavors we have less to be detoxified by our liver.
4. Limiting foods entering the food system in the last 500 years (corn, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, wheat, barley, rye, condiments and coffee).  Reduce gluten, soy and avoid flax products completely.
5. Avoiding and limit extracted omega-6 plant oils of the last 100 years, such as canola, soybean, corn, cottonseed, safflower, sunflower, coconut oils.
6. Avoid and limit  foods that accumulate omega-6 corn oil (chicken, turkey and farm-fed fish)
7. Avoid fruits / vegetables (picked early out of season / out of region) = Latex exposed to ethylene gas =  increased latex-like injury protein in our fruits and vegetables, even by organic suppliers >1959

Dr. Glen Aukerman M.D.
Medical Director
Ohio State University Center for Integrative Medicine

Glen Aukerman – A biography

Dr. Aukerman, M.D. is a tenured Professor of Family Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine at The Ohio State University and Medical Director for the University’s Center for Integrative Medicine.

Glen Aukerman has served as a professor in the OSU School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine since 1995 and as chair of the department from 1995-1998. He was one of four OSU Family Medicine practitioners named to Best Doctors in America in 2003-2004. He also serves as interim medical director for The Ohio State University Managed Health Care System.

Among other positions, he has also served as chief medical officer at the National Practitioner Data Bank and as deputy director and chief medical officer in the Division of Quality Assurance for the Bureau of Health Professions of the Health Resources and Services Administration in Rockville, Md.

Dr. Aukerman’s other areas of expertise include managed care and medical quality assurance. He served in 1993 on the White House Health Reform Task Force Speakers Panel and is a past president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He has served on many steering and development committees addressing managed care issues.

Related articles

• US replaces food pyramid with “healthy plate” (beinghealthyhomeandaway.blogspot.com)

While stressful situations may be inevitable, the damage and side-effects of stress are not. There is a way to stop stress from affecting your body and mind. Fortunately nature has equipped our bodies with the perfect antidote to stress. It’s called the relaxation response.

Early on, Helicor decided to focus on creating a personal, affordable medical device. Typical medical-grade biofeedback systems cost thousands of dollars and require a person to be attached to a computer. Helicor team chose to create a unit that would be self-contained, portable and had no external wires or leads to attach. It is intended to be used for relaxation, relaxation training, and stress reduction.

After 4 1/2 years of design development, prototyping, testing, programming, and user feedback, the StressEraser was launched at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in August 2005. First customer shipments began in October 2005.

Biofeedback and Heart Rate Variability

The StressEraser provides a daily points-based system that allows each user to tailor the relaxation training to his schedule. The points-based system also allows the therapist to tailor the relaxation training homework to the individual treatment needs of the client.

The StressEraser personal biofeedback device is intended to be used solely for stress reduction, relaxation, and relaxation training. The device has not been clinically tested for the treatment of any psychological or physical medical conditions such as insomnia, hypertension, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, etc. The product is not intended to be used for the treatment or diagnosis of any medical condition.

The Science of the StressEraser — how it works

Your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) controls functions in the body that normally occur unconsciously, such as heart rate, respiration rate and digestion. This system is responsible for keeping your body in a regulated, balanced state. This balance is created by the constant back and forth nature of the two primary branches of your ANS: the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).

Your SNS is involved in mobilization responses that enable “fight or flight” behaviors known as the stress response. Your PNS is involved in “rest and renew” behaviors that enable growth and restoration and are known as the relaxation response. Parasympathetic activity is regulated by your vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body, extending from the brain stem to the base of the spine and to several organs and your heart. When the vagus nerve activates, the relaxation response is turned on. When the vagus nerve is inactive, the relaxation response is also inactive.

Your “fight or flight” or stress response can become activated by both major and minor stressors. Even states of excitement and emotions such as anger and fear activate the SNS. The primary pacifying nerve in your body, the vagus nerve, mediates the activity of the “rest and renew” or relaxation response. Overall, activation of the PNS promotes calming so you can recuperate from day-to-day stress, keeping the ANS in balance. To know more about SNS and PNS, click here.

Ideally, the SNS and PNS operate in an evenly balanced manner, keeping your body in a state of physiological homeostasis. Although there are exceptions, in general when SNS activity increases, PNS activity decreases. In particular, when SNS activity increases, the activity of the vagus nerve decreases. SNS changes in your body are all extremely important, particularly if you are in a life threatening situation in which you have to fight or escape. When the stressful moment has passed, the PNS response kicks in to relax your body and return it to a balanced state.

Our nervous systems have not yet adapted to the type of ongoing stress we face today. Ongoing minor stresses such as traffic jams, work demands, problems at home, or financial concerns tend to build up. Emotions such as anger, fear and anxiety will cause your SNS to activate. As stress accumulates, your stress response remains active for longer than your body can handle. Your relaxation response, therefore, is less active, which throws your ANS out of balance. Over time, repeated stressors and negative emotions have a cumulative wear and tear on the body that can lead to significant health problems. This is called “allostatic load.” When you are healthy, your nervous system returns to normal functioning after a stressed situation by increasing vagus nerve activity. This helps the system to recover.

When you are faced with stress on a daily basis, however, your stress response fails to shut off in a timely manner. Allostatic load leads to reduced activity of your vagus nerve. As a result, your system becomes hyperactive or begins to burn out. Hyperactive stress responses cause your system to remain in fight-or-flight mode for an extended period of time. Burn-out inhibits both your SNS and PNS from activating. In both cases, your body becomes out of balance, making your system less flexible and less able to effectively adapt to external demands. Over time, allosatic load can cause significant health problems. There is now a large literature on the relationship to stress and disease. According to the American Institute of Stress, “it is hard to think of any disease in which stress cannot play an aggravating role.” In fact, the Institute reports that up to 90% of doctors visits are stress related.

Perhaps the two most important methods of actively triggering your relaxation response are:

1. learning to change your breathing and
2. learning to change your focus. By changing your breathing and your focus, you can increase the vagal influence on your heart—and therefore relax your body.

There is growing literature on the effects of these relaxation exercises on stress-related illnesses and performance. In particular, breathing slowly can activate the vagus nerve to help enhance autonomic control. However, slow breathing without physiological biofeedback—which provides the cues that you are doing it correctly—can actually be counter-productive because you are not breathing in sync with your nervous system.

The StressEraser is a tangible biofeedback device that was specifically designed to help you find the unique breathing pattern that maximizes RSA, maintains your focus, and most efficiently triggers increased vagal influences on your heart.

Greater variability, especially due to larger rhythmic changes associated with breathing, leads to a higher amplitude RSA wave – and therefore more parasympathetic (relaxation) activity. When there is greater parasympathetic tone, it supports health, growth, and restoration.

As you learn to find this breathing pattern, the StressEraser simultaneously guides you to focus your attention, a key aspect of proper physiological relaxation. The goal of this strategy is transform a heart rate pattern characterized by short, jagged RSA waves into one characterized by large, smooth RSA waves. The StressEraser is the only portable HRV/RSA biofeedback device that allows you to follow and manipulate your RSA wave in real time. When used properly, it enhances the state of your nervous system, while inducing feelings of calm and relaxation.

The StressEraser measures your real-time beat-to-beat heart rate via an infrared finger sensor. The finger sensor has a built-in photoplethysmograph to identify the pulsation associated with each heart beat. The StressEraser accurately identifies the time of each pulse and calculates heart rate based on the time that has elapsed between the two most recent pulses. The StressEraser plots the up and down, wavelike movement and displays the pulse rate wave on the LCD screen.

By observing the RSA wave derived from your beat-to-beat pulse rate, the StressEraser provides a window into the activity of your vagus nerve.

The StressEraser then breaks down the RSA waves to analyze the frequency of each individual wave.

Once the frequency of the wave is computed, you receive immediate feedback on whether the wave was sufficiently long and smooth to receive credit. If you are breathing in your unique optimal pattern – and have a calm, neutral mind – you score 1 point for a large smooth wave, as marked by three vertical squares. The goal is to achieve this type of wave continuously. If the wave is long enough to indicate sufficient, but not optimal RSA, the user receives 1/2 point as marked by two vertical squares. If the wave is too short, the user receives no points, as marked by one square. (Note: Seniors and beginners can set a goal for continuous two-square waves.)

The minimum suggested session is 30 points (about 5-7 minutes) with a goal of 100 points per day (approximately 20 minutes).

To achieve continuous three-square waves, you are instructed to inhale until your heart rate peaks. This point is marked by a triangle. The triangle indicates the moment that a natural burst of vagal activity is about to begin, indicating your parasympathetic response. When the triangle appears, begin your exhale and shift your thoughts to a calming focus phrase (such as counting your exhale). Then, extend your exhale until the wave begins to rise again. At the end of your exhale, inhale until the next triangle appears.

The slow breathing rate required to create this wave varies from person to person, but is usually somewhere between 4.5 and 7 breaths per minute. Your unique pattern is called your “resonant frequency.” When you attain your own resonant frequency pattern, there is a perfect phase relationship between your breathing rhythms and your heart rhythms. That is, they are in perfect sync with one another.

Breathing and heart rhythms are the two most important mechanisms involved in the neuroregulation of the heart. As with your breathing, you can consciously alter your natural heart rhythm (known as the “baroreflex”) to a certain extent. When they are in perfect sync, studies show that it helps strengthen and balance the autonomic nervous system. Once you learn to find your resonant frequency pattern, you will notice it induces feelings of mind-body relaxation.

One of the most useful features of the StressEraser is that it does not give credit if there is a disruption or “break” in the flow of a wave because of withdrawal of vagus nerve activity. These breaks might be caused by a variety of factors, including:

• Extending the exhale for too long
• Strained or improper breathing
• Excessive emotion
• Being highly distracted
• Fever or illness
• Specific medications blocking vagal regulation
• Or irregular heartbeats

The StressEraser recognizes these breaks and informs you that a disruption occurred. Since the StressEraser’s feedback is in real-time, you can immediately correct the behavior that caused the wave break. Typically, a wave break is your cue to re-focus on your breathing.

In summary, the StressEraser is a tangible biofeedback device that was specifically designed to help you find the unique breathing pattern that maximizes RSA, maintains your focus, and most efficiently triggers increased vagal influences on your heart. Therefore, the StressEraser promotes health and calmness. It can be used to reduce stress for those who have issues dealing with constant stress, brief stressors (i.e., deadlines, public speaking) or to simply enhance health, performance and overall feelings of calmness.

How to Use the StressEraser

There are two primary goals of each StressEraser session – to relax your body and to calm your mind.

1. Your first goal is to relax your body by making tall, wide, smooth waves. Because breathing directly affects your HRV, the most effective way to relax is to dramatically slow your breathing. When your waves are tall, wide, and smooth, you have engaged the natural relaxation response in your body. Repeating for 10-15 minutes at a time has a lasting effect.
2. Your second goal is to calm your mind by reducing negative emotions and thoughts. Even when you are breathing properly, negative emotions will cause your waves to get shorter or to become jagged. You can reduce negative thoughts by focusing on your waves and by counting during your exhale. This exercise will clear your mind.

Practice Slow Breathing. Before you start your first StressEraser session, it is important that you practice breathing slowly. This will give you a feel for the type of breathing you will be doing with the StressEraser. To practice, inhale for 4 seconds and then exhale for 5 seconds. Feel free to follow your watch or to simply count slowly to yourself. Continue breathing at the 4-second/5-second pace for about 2 minutes. Remember, your goal is to learn to breathe slowly – not deeply. As long as you are breathing slowly, depth will come. Your breathing should always feel relaxed, not strained. Creating a wave pattern similar to the pictures below may take a while. So take your time and do the best you can.

Your First Session

1. Press the POWER button on the right side panel (not one of the buttons on the front).
2. When prompted, insert your left index finger into the clip. Wait 5 seconds for the sensor to adjust to your pulse rate.
3. As soon as your wave appears on the screen, press the BREATHE button.
4. Whenever you are ready, inhale slowly and gently. When a new triangle appears above the wave, exhale slowly and gently. During your exhale, slowly count 1.2.3.4.5.
5. When your wave begins to rise, start your next inhale.

Note: While triangles cue your exhale, there is no cue for the inhale. If you like, you can use the squares as an approximate cue. Begin your inhale when you see the squares appear under the previous wave. Alternatively, you can count 1 second after your wave has started to rise – whichever works best for you.

Score your waves. Your goal is to consistently score 2 and 3-squares under each wave. You get no credit for 1-square waves. Each 2-square wave is worth 1/2 point. Each 3-square wave is worth 1 point. To get 2 squares, follow the instructions to create waves that are tall, wide, and smooth. Keep exhaling at the triangle and counting your exhale.

Your optimal exhale count. If 5 is an uncomfortable count for you – or if you’re not scoring 2 and 3-square waves – try exhaling for a count of 4 or 6. You can try even faster or slower, depending on your comfort level. Once you have found an exhale count that is comfortable and consistently results in 2 and 3-square waves, you have found your optimal exhale count. Continue with that count until you have scored at least 5points. (Your points accumulate in the top-left corner of the screen.)

Breathing Tips:

1. Don’t lean. For best results, find a comfortable place to sit or recline. Don’t lean forward – make sure your sitting position enables you to keep your air passages and abdominal muscles free. Breathe in and out through your nose or mouth, whichever is more comfortable for you.
2. Pursed lips. If you are having trouble breathing slowly, try pursing your lips. To do this, pucker or “purse” your lips as if you are going to whistle. This will release less air as you exhale and will help slow down your breathing.
3. Always comfortable. Remember, your breathing should always be gentle, quiet, smooth and comfortable. You should not be straining, taking long inhales, holding your breath, or doing anything that is at all uncomfortable.
4. Slow not deep. StressEraser breathing is NOT “deep” breathing. Depth will come as long as you are breathing slowly. Breathing deeply too quickly can cause you to feel dizzy or lightheaded. StressEraser breathing is like normal breathing, except it is a little slower. And of course it is synchronized with the activity of your nervous system.
5. Extend your exhale. Once you are familiar with the StressEraser and are consistently scoring 3 squares, extend your exhale as long as you can until your wave starts to rise again – then begin your inhale. Remember, you benefit from making your exhales longer and longer, as long as your breathing remains comfortable and relaxed. The idea is to extend your exhale for as long as your nervous system can handle.

If you are not able to make out the above instructions, you can watch the video to understand more.

Results may vary

The indicated use of the StressEraser is for relaxation, relaxation training and stress reduction. The StressEraser is currently being tested in numerous controlled clinical trials at leading academic institutions for stress-related issues such as Anxiety, Asthma, Depression, Insomnia, Migraine Headaches, Performance (occupational & sports), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD, Stress levels in physicians and pregnant women, etc

Several StressEraser studies have been completed and overall results indicate users both prefer and find the StressEraser more helpful than other relaxation techniques. Immediately after using the device, users report significant reductions in feelings of stress related anxiety, increases in feelings of calmness and relaxation, increases in cognitive performance and decreases in heart rate. Moreover, results indicate that the more efficient someone is at using the device, the more they report improvement in stress related symptoms of anxiety.

Studies reveal that the StressEraser reduces feelings of stress-related anxiety and anger, increases objective indicators of work performance, and increases heart rate variability. You can access more published work here.

Fred Muench
Stress Eraser

Fred Muench – A biography

Frederick Muench has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and is currently serving as the Director of Clinical Research and Development, Helicor, New York, NY where he is responsible for new project development, clinical trials and professional education and consulting for the StressEraser biofeedback medical device. He is also an adjunct Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University in New York, NY.

About Stress Eraser

StressEraser is an award-winning small portable medical device, that relaxes the body and calms the mind in 15 minutes. The StressEraser can be used to quiet the mind before sleeping, rapidly relieve intense stress, and even to stay calm during highly stressful situations.

From beat to beat, your heart rate reflects the activity of your stimulating and pacifying nerves. The StressEraser displays these tiny changes as a wave. By watching your wave characteristics in realtime, you learn to adjust your breathing and mental focus. This decreases the activity of the stimulating nerves (thereby decreasing stress) and increases the activity of the pacifying nerves (thereby increasing relaxation).

The StressEraser is classified by the FDA as a Class II 510(k) exempt medical device. The indicated use is for relaxation, relaxation training and stress reduction. The StressEraser is available for $299 from the StressEraser web site at http://stresseraser.com. The StressEraser is currently available to U.S. residents only.

Cover via Amazon

We all know that human body is complicated and consists of 90% of water content. It’s a great challenge for all of us to be in better health. Dr. Mark Hyman shares some insights on better health without having any medicine and how we can achieve these.

He strongly feels that our eating habits determine our health. It’s the root cause of all health problems. He talks about how we changed our eating habits over a period of time. Basically, he strongly condemns the food factory and medical doctors. He suggests that a simple food plan over 2-4 weeks can change your health and if you continue to follow these, you will feel better and healthy and get rid of aging.

UltraWellness is a new approach pioneered by Mark Hyman, M.D., that shows you how to work with the fundamental underlying laws by which your body operates to create optimal health. This is 21st-century medicine is finally available to everyone.

This new approach is based on the cutting edge science of systems biology and functional medicine. If put it simply, this means that UltraWellness works with your body as an integrated whole to achieve what conventional medicine cannot.

Here are the 7 keys to your UltraWellness. Try it and you will be amazed with its powers.

1. How Your Environment Affects Your Health
2. The Hidden Threat of Inflammation
3. How to Balance Your Hormones to Control Your Mood, Weight and Health
4. Why Your Digestive System is the Core of Good Health
5. How to Rid Your Body of Deadly Poisions by Optimizing Your Detoxification System
6. How to Boost Your Energy By Optimizing Your Mitochondria
7. How to Improve Your Health by Optimizing your Body-Mind Connection

The process is relatively simple:

• first, identify which of your seven key underlying systems isn’t working correctly;
• second, remove the sources that are causing problems with each one of those keys; and
• third, nourish each of these systems with what it needs to function optimally. Then, your body’s natural intelligence takes over and automatically fixes your remaining problems.

Dr. Hyman has written several books (UltraMetabolism, The Ultra Thyroid Solution, The UltraMetabolism Cookbook, The Ultra Simple Diet, UltraPrevention) and many audio video programs. You can also visit http://www.ultrawellness.com/store to know about these.

UltraMetabolism is a simple plan of 8 week program for automatic weight reduction and optimal health. It consists of mix of recipes and natural way of achieving this. You can also search more UltraMetabolism recipes or join the community for more details.

UltraPrevention is a 6-week plan that will make you Healthy for life. In this book he talks about how to eliminate the five forces, which makes us sick. Also, talking about the principles for restoring and maintaining health. He speaks about underlying causes of sickness.

Some information and facts mentioned by Dr. Hyman are written below to raise your awareness and consciousness.

According to Dr. Hyman:

“The fact is that the human body is complicated. It has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. There is no one magic bullet that will shoot down all your health issues.”

“I believe, however, that once you stop falling for the myths of modern medicine and once you begin adopting the recommendations of Ultraprevention you will be on your way to a future of better health.”

“Ultraprevention, is a new paradigm of well-being and a system of thought, evaluation, and treatment derived from the scientific study of health. This system is based on remarkable truths uncovered by researchers over the last few years. These truths provide tremendous insights into our health and give us a framework that not only explains but unites the processes of health and illness.”

The five forces of illness are:

1. Malnutrition or sludge
2. Impaired Metabolism or burnout
3. Inflammation or heat
4. Impaired detoxification or waste
5. Oxidative stress or rust

“I believe that every person who pays attention to these forces will enjoy better health. My program is not just about getting better when you feel ill – it is about staying better so you don’t have to feel ill at all.”

“Many doctors talk about early detection as the cornerstone of prevention. But true prevention has to start long before detection can occur. Why? Patients are not an ambulatory collection of separate organs and various conditions – everything in the body is related. Imbalances or dysfunctions in one system lead to added stresses in the other systems. When these stresses and imbalances tax the organ reserve symptoms and illness result. Remember the old children’s song – the Thighbone is connected to the hipbone… No organism can exist in isolation, and neither can a body system. Most doctors don’t try to put the clues together to form a big pictures – we do!”

Consider the person who has a heart attack — The heart attack didn’t occur out of the blue. It was preceded by decades of plaque buildup caused by oxidation (rusting) of fats in the bloodstream, which became deposited in the wall of the artery, followed by activation of the immune system leading to inflammation (heat) in the wall of the artery and this was aggravated by malnutrition (sludge) and tipped over by the resulting stress on the detoxification (waste) system which finally made one of those plaques break open and rupture causing a clot to form that in turn caused your heart attack. There is a similar chain of events with all common illnesses. The beginnings of all these diseases are like the first in a long line of dominoes to fall in a reaction that may take years to complete eventually ending with the diagnosis of a preventable illness. We look for the very first domino and pick it up before it has a chance to fall. The human body can right itself, if given the chance to do so.

You can identify the illness if you conduct the test as per below parameters. Here are some answers to your queries if you have the above illness.

Test for Malnutrition:

• Homocysteine — Blood test. The Ideal level is less than 9
• Essential Fatty Acids — Blood test. Measured in the red blood cells (Test for Omega 3, 6, and other fatty acids directly)
• Red Blood cell mineral levels — Blood test. Test for the levels of Magnesium, Selenium, Iodine, Zinc and Copper.
• Methylmalonic Acid — Blood or Urine Test. High levels indicate a B12 deficiency.
• Stool analysis — determines digestion and absorption. This will identify if foods are not being broken down and digested properly, or not being absorbed.

Test for Impaired Metabolism:

• Urinary Organic Acids — By measuring acidic compounds in the urine provides a rich amount of information about nutritional aspects of cellular energy production.
• Cardiometabolic stress testing: Measuring oxygen consumption during exercise (VO2 Max) tests for your mitochondria’s metabolic capacity.
• Insulin response test: Normal insulin values at two hours are less than 25 and a normal glucose level is less than 140.
• Lipid profile: Total cholesterol (LDL, HDL, triglycerides) A triglyceride level over 150 or a triglyceride to HDL ratio greater than 4.3 are highly suggestive of insulin resistance as is an HDL level of less than 40.
• TSH or Thyroid Stimulating Hormone — Blood Test. Normal Level is 0.3 to 3.5 with the optimal being 1.0-2.0.
• Free T3 and Free T4: Direct measurement of thyroid hormone in the blood in conjunction with the TSH level provides helpful information regarding thyroid function.
• Thyroid antibodies: This test can detect people at risk of developing hypothyroidism because these antibodies attack the thyroid gland.
• Resting metabolic rate. Clues us into the presence of an underactive thyroid gland.

Test for Inflammation:

• C-reactive protein – The high-sensitivity CRP (Normal levels 0.7 or less)
• Sedimentation rate (SED rate) High SED rates indicated inflammation (Normal values <20)
• Fibrinogen level — Blood Test: Fibrinogen is one of the chief constituents involved in clotting and is made by the liver. It rises in response to inflammation.
• Food Allergy blood tests: I measure the levels of antibodies (IgG, IgE) in the blood to a battery of different foods, potentially reactive foods.
• Gluten/Celiac disease — Blood Test: Specific tests check for gluten allergy and include the anti-gliadin antibody test and the tissue transglutaminase assay.
• Tests for Infections: Antibody tests (H. Pylori and Lyme disease), PCR tests and Cultures.

Test for Impaired Detoxification:

• Detoxification challenge test (Blood and Urine Test) Delayed or impaired detoxification in a specific area can point to nutritional deficiencies involved in detoxification or weak enzyme systems in the liver.
• Blood reduced Glutathione
• Hair analysis: A screening test for heavy metal toxicity (mercury, arsenic, lead, and cadmium)
• Urinary organic acids: Provides information about the body’s ability to detoxify certain solvents as well as hormones and carcinogens.

Test for Oxidative stress:

• Lipid peroxides — Blood or Urine. Measuring the level provides and index of the body’s antioxidant status.
• Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Gluathione peroxidase (GSHPx) and catalase. These are three of the most important natural anti-oxidant enzymes.
• Glutathione — Blood Test
• Urinary hydroxyl markers: Levels of free radicals such as catechol and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate.
• Blood anti-oxidant levels. Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Co-enzyme Q10 and Beta Carotene

Why do we test for these?

Most doctors don’t pay attention to any of these forces because they operated under this method — if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The problem as I see it is that “it” may well be broken already. But most Doctors don’t realize this because they wait until something is damaged almost beyond repair before they act.

Knowledge provide by these tests gives us the advantage over other Doctors — they give us lead time to prevent them from occurring.

It is up to you. One of the greatest changes taking place in our medical system is the empowerment of the patient. Everyone needs to become their own health advocate.

Dr. Mark Hyman M.D
Author of UltraPrevention and UltraMetabolism

Dr. Mark Hayman – A biography

Mark Hyman, M.D., is author of the New York Times bestseller The UltraSimple Diet, co-author of the New York Times bestseller Ultraprevention (Scribner), which won a Books for a Better Life Award, creator of The Detox Box, and author of The Five Forces of Wellness. There are nearly 1 million copies of Dr. Hyman’s books in print in the U.S. His New York Times bestseller, UltraMetabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss, published in more than 12 languages, also hit The Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller lists and was the #1 health book on Amazon the year it was published. He is Editor-in-Chief of “Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine” and the Medical Editor of “Natural Solutions.”

He has appeared on Weekend Today, Good Morning America Weekend, The Early Show, The View, and CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR, as well as in leading consumer magazines including Body & Soul, Elle, Family Circle, Fitness, Glamour, Health, Men’s Health, Natural Health, Parade, Self, Shape, Town & Country, and Woman’s World. Hyman’s website, www.ultrawellness.com, empowers health care consumers by enabling them to take advantage of the medicine of the future, today.

Here is one company called Maximized Living and a Chiropractitioner by Dr. Chris Niedzinski.  Maximized Living concept was founded by Dr. Ben Lerner and Dr. Greg Loman.   These simple tools have been practiced by many people and have been benefiting them immensely.

The main objective of Maximized Living is living fully for better health and wellness.  It is not just the concept—but also your ability to achieve that level of excellence.  The Maximized Living Health Center is a place, where people can go and receive the best care for removing the obstacles to optimal health and to achieve balance in their body and in their lives.  The goal is to demystify health and create one place you can go and not just get “better” but more importantly–get well.

In today’s world, people are more stressed or depressed due to some thing or the other.  Here are some factors that contribute stress:

• Chemical toxicity (medications, environmental, heavy metals, biotoxins, nutrition).  These all directly alter organ function and hormone production.  Most antidepressant medications significantly INCREASE depression and stress.
• Physical nerve stress will damage the nervous system directly and limits the control of organ function leading to decrease in hormones that reduce stress
• There is a deficiency of nutrition which accumulates stress on body and our internal system
• Limited exercise and movement.  This limits the oxygen ability of body, leading to cellular dysfunction and disease. It is no doubt that exercise alone can drastically reduce stress.
• Relationship and workplace stress.  Marital problems, job difficulties, etc. all create physiologic change.  Skin, heart rate, digestion, hormone, energy change with emotions.
• Improper time management skills (one of the biggest factors)—we are living in a rushed, emergency-centered world.  We are busier than we are successful.

If you look at the above causes, then it’ll only add stress and you’ll be more depressed.  So, we need to heal our brain in a systematic way to eliminate stress.  You can never eliminate stress, but can learn new techniques to build peace.

Fixing the above points one by one will not solve the problem, we require an internal biostructural changes. Maximized Living involves a unique biostructural alignment approach, and also promotes natural, drug free living and optimal nutrition for your body, allowing it to perform at optimal levels.   When your body is in this state of wellness, it becomes self-regulating. It will actually heal itself in most cases, and all you have to do is not interfere with it. That entails avoiding harmful foods and substances that will get in the way of your body’s natural processes. It also means taking care of your body, staying active and keeping fit.

Using the Five Essentials, Maximized Living helps to remove the obstacles to wellness, and restore your body to the balance it naturally seeks:

1. Minimize your exposure to toxins (Eg: medications & refined foods)
2. Maximize nerve supply.  All life and function revolves around this—all else is negligible.
3. Maximize the quality of your nutrition. Not diet, but making better choices of nontoxic fuel.
4. Maximize oxygen and lean muscle As little as 12 minutes per week! (www.12minutemakeover.com)
5. Maximize peace and relationships.  Anger Management, Peace Management, Reprogramming Perceptions (the art of overcoming, moving from pain to purpose), and Effective Time Management

Literally thousands of people across the country have transformed their lives (and stress) with these easy principles.  If you would like more information please click here.

Dr. Chris Niedzinski DC
Maximized Living Mentor

Dr. Chris Niedzinski – A biography

Dr. Chris Niedzinski is a Maximized Living Mentor in Farmington Hills, MI.  He has one of the most successful Chiropractic practices in Metro Detroit, seeing hundreds of patients each week.  He has trained with Drs Ben Lerner and Greg Loman-founders of Maximized Living.  These Doctors have written NY Times Best-Selling Books based on Stress Management, Time Management, Nutrition, Exercise, and Chiropractic (Body by God, One-Minute Wellness).  Dr. Chris is an expert on stress management and has helped many people transform their lives through the Maximized Living principles.

Maximized Living Inc. was established in 1999 and is located in Celebration, Florida, USA.    The company was founded by Dr. Ben Lerner and Dr. Greg Loman. Dr. Ben is a world-renown chiropractor, two-time New York Times best-selling author, and two-time U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team physician. Dr. Greg is a world-renown chiropractor, New York Times best-selling author, and host of the radio & television show “Ultimate Health.”

The highly skilled team consists of 12 coaches and 6 staff members with over 150 years combined industry experience. The diversity of team, and affiliation with the leading experts & companies in industry, enable them to provide you with the best training & resources to help you achieve your goals.

The mission is to maximize the lives of millions of people so that they can achieve their God-given potential through their health centers, chiropractic coaching, wellness programs, wellness products, and ministry foundation.  Over the past decade, Maximized Living has assisted hundreds of chiropractors in building successful practices and assisted thousands of people in living healthy lives.

They are committed to helping you live life to the max!

Have you ever felt that there was something odd about the world we live in? Like there is something about reality that isn’t quite random, as it should be? Something a little too organized, a little too planned, a little too programmed?

What is reality — really?

Did you know that it is impossible to tell the difference between reality and an illusion?

Did you know that it is impossible to tell the difference between “the past” and implanted memories?

Did you know that we are only 30 years away from technologies that could completely fool us through implanted memories and full-scale total immersion reality simulations?

So how do we know we’re not already there?

In fact, the evidence is overwhelming that we already live in a programmed reality!

The Universe Solved: A new provocative view of the true nature of reality…

Jim Elvidge, Author of the book “The Universal Solved” does not have all the answers but it presents the evidence and has a lot of entertaining speculation!

Jim Elvidge – A biography

Jim Elvidge holds a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. Beyond his entreprenurial and management career in high-tech, he is also a musician, writer, and truth seeker. Research in the fields of physics, cosmology, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and metaphysics has provided the foundation for his first book, “The Universe-Solved!“, which presents the astounding evidence that our reality may be under programmed control.

Science tells us that we’re already hard-wired to live to 100 and beyond.

There is no reason to fear living to 100 years of age or beyond.

There is no reason to think that you will be a burden to your children as you age.

You can set longevity goals for yourself and achieve them — How long do you want to live a happy and productive life — 75, 85, 95 or beyond.

Keeping your weight in check helps you age correctly — There aren’t obese centenarians!

Will their be enough — Yes their is always enough of whatever you need — it all depends on your mindset!

Increased life expectancy is affecting the U.S. economy every day as older entrepreneurs enter the global marketplace

Retirement is for the lazy and an outdated concept that has no place in todays society – Today many senior citizens are delaying retirement, going back to college, and starting new businesses.

If you knew you were going to live to be 100, how would you change your life this year? The bottom line is, today’s centenarians make up one of the world’s fastest growing segments of the population-but they got there by accident. Blindsided by their unanticipated longevity, they suffer a myriad physical, financial, emotional and spiritual ills. Luckily, the rest of us are getting advance notice that our parents and grandparents never received.

Based on Dr. Plasker’s bestselling wellness system, this revolutionary book reveals the secret to making the most of your extended lifespan. A unique, total-life program for balancing diet, nutrition, exercise, mental agility, creativity, finances, friends and family, work, community, and achieving a sense of purpose, The 100 Year Lifestyle offers the mindset, tools, and strategies to enjoy the highest quality of life as you age in years-without aging in body and mind.

Dr. Plasker inspires his patients and the public alike to realize “a long life, well lived.” A graduate of Life Chiropractic College and former owner of two highly successful family practices, Dr. Plasker is the founder of the Council on Family Wellness for the World Chiropractic Alliance. Featured on the Discovery Channel’s Forever Young and Connecting with Kids television network, he’s shared the stage with such luminaries as Dr. Barbara De Angelis, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and Dr. Andrew Weil. He’s sold more than half a million copies of his health and wellness guides, audiotapes, CDs, DVDs, and related material, which have been translated and distributed in more than fourteen countries. In just five years, Dr. Plasker’s wellness messages and products have reached nearly one million people around the world through second hand distribution by doctors. See www.100yearlifestyle.com for more information.

About Dr. Plasker

Dr. Eric Plasker is a native of New York where at the age of 15 he had his first life-changing chiropractic experience. The chiropractic care and education he received from his “family chiropractor”, Dr. Ernie Landi, not only inspired him to enroll in Life Chiropractic College, where he earned his Doctor of Chiropractic degree in 1985, but helped shape his personal and company visions of making chiropractic family practice and LCFE (Lifetime Care for Everyone) a reality in communities across the world.

Dr. Eric Plasker – ran two highly successful practices in Georgia for 16 years before launching The Family Practice, Inc., a mission-driven training, coaching and turnkey implementation program that is helping chiropractors around the world unite to lead family healthcare.

During the years before founding The Family Practice,Inc., Dr. Plasker served as an active team teacher for Quest Alliance and the Chiropractic Leadership Alliance. He was a frequent instructor and teacher in patient management at his alma mater and served as the Vice President and President of the Life College Gonstead Club where he taught chiropractic techniques and practice management.

Dr. Plasker currently travels all over the world with The Family Practice Seminars where he provides all the tools and training (office, communication, referral, marketing, and financial systems) to help chiropractors build the family practices of their dreams.

He created and designed the best-selling patient education programs: Chiropractic Mother’s Morning Out™, the Human Potential Program™, and the Lifetime Care Referral System. He is also a team teacher for The Parker Seminars on family practice excellence.

Dr. Plasker and the LCfE grass roots movement are making a major impact on the world and with chiropractors of every technique and political persuasion. His unique style of instruction and promotion of contemporary chiropractic principles (in conjunction with the family practice and LCfE visions) speaks volumes to both patients and chiropractors in a way that touches the heart and inspires people to action.

What others are saying:

“Dr. Plasker has committed many years to developing health and wellness programs for communities around the country. His book reflects this same commitment and will help you improve the quality of your life.” –Stedman Graham, Founder of Athletes Against Drugs

“If you want to live the long, healthy, quality life you deserve, you must read my friend Dr. Eric’s new book.” –Mark Victor Hansen, Best Selling Author, Chicken Soup for the Soul and Make the Rest of Your Life, The Best of Your Life

“Dr. Plasker’s innovative 100-Year Lifestyle Fitness Assessment on getting your ESS in Shape, your endurance, strength and structure, will help you add years to your life and quality of life to your years.” –Scott Goudeseune, President, American Council on Exercise