As I digest the teachings about connection and faithfulness, I realize that my Teacher is building a foundation. The Revelation of Connection is experienced through relationships, including that with God. It clearly affects everyone, everywhere. I am seeing and feeling for the first time the energetic and divine threads that bind us all to each other, and to God, as one.
But in order to activate those connections, I must conquer my fears and build spiritual trust in the divine. There is a natural pattern to these revelations, and I’m beginning to see a groundwork being established for the next revelation.
My Teacher now takes me to a place that looks like a neighborhood. It has residential houses made out of brick; there are many flowers, including roses, tulips, and impatiens lining the streets. Light from above streams down in every color of the rainbow. It’s magnificent. He chooses this place to tell me about the next revelation—the Revelation of Vital Force—an inner core energy that, when strong, leads to healing, good health, and overall well-being.
He explains:
Vital Force is an energy that flows within us. It can also be called Life Force, General Vitality, or simply vibration. Every living thing is imbued with Vital Force at conception.
As my Teacher continues to help me understand the importance of energy, he tells me that Vital Force and vibration are one and the same. He explains that a person’s Vital Force or vibration increases or decreases throughout that person’s life based on the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual choices that are made each day. The better the choices, the higher the vibration or Vital Force and the stronger and healthier you become. A strong Vital Force makes you less prone to disease, depression, and negative thinking.
The body extracts Vital Force from nutritious food, the sun, the air, and the ground beneath our feet, as well as from positive, loving people. When we strengthen our Vital Force, our vibration increases, and the healing process is accelerated.
However, our Vital Force can be depleted by many things. Examples are toxins and negative influences, temporarily making us sick unless we give ourselves the resources to bounce back. My Teacher explains it to me this way:
Toxins include viruses, bacteria, heavy metals, fungi, parasites, and molds. They lower the body’s vibration as they try to take over and survive. Negative emotions generated from within, like fear, lack of faith, anger, jealousy, greed, ego, self-pity, and negative thinking, also create toxins on physical and emotional levels that affect and lower your vibration.
As the vibration of the physical body declines, the vibrations of the toxins grow stronger. Toxins feed off your Vital Force, and it decreases. Unhealthy cells and disease are created. Toxicity can take over a physical body if the mind, body, and spirit cannot hold and maintain a high vibration. Too much toxicity without proper cleansing allows negative energy to enter into the organs of the body.
I think to myself that this sounds like a serious problem. This must be why so many people get really sick. I can’t help but wonder: How can we protect ourselves against the toxins that diminish our Vital Force? How do we properly cleanse ourselves if we’ve gotten off track?
An important key to staying young, vibrant, and healthy is through the mitochondria that live in every cell of the body. By nourishing the mitochondria, you fight toxic conditions of the body such as infection, disease, and many chronic illnesses. You stave off premature aging, too.
It has been a long time since I took high school biology. I don’t remember much, if anything, about cellular structures, let alone “mitochondria.” I’m not even sure what they are, but they must be important if my Teacher is mentioning this stuff.
I have no idea why I’m being told this. Most of this information is completely new to me. I’m just a plumber. I haven’t studied these things before. It feels like they are being downloaded into my mind, almost as if I’m a computer and my brain is a computer’s brain. It’s not an unpleasant feeling, but I can definitely feel myself getting fuller somehow. Maybe the best way to describe the feeling is to say that I can feel myself becoming “more.”
The complexity of the physical body far outshines the most advanced computer known to man. It would be like comparing the knowledge of a newborn to that of a nuclear physicist. The physical body is the most sophisticated, elegant, multifaceted system ever created. It is a complex combination of many different systems, all interconnected, all working simultaneously to sustain life. And like a modern-day computer, the body performs thousands of internal functions each second.
So, I ask my Teacher, “Can you tell me a good way to stay physically healthy when going through life?”
Yes. That is another good question. You will understand more later, but for now, let me say that the physical body was created to heal itself as long as it is given the positive resources to do so. It is truly a perfect healing machine, but it has an interdependence on physical, mental, and emotional well-being, all within your power.
I’m eager to learn more about how my body works. I am trying to grasp how one tiny part of a cell could possibly control all of life. I’m in awe about the knowledge being given to me—and humbly grateful that God designed our bodies so wonderfully that they can self-heal under the right conditions. In the past, I just took my medicine and went about my life. The human body is remarkable, if you think about it. It kills germs. It repairs cuts. It knits bones back together. It regenerates tissues. All of this is driven by our Vital Force.
When our Vital Force is kept strong, our vibration is higher, and healing is all the quicker and more complete. I want to take this revelation more seriously. It builds the foundation for health and well-being.
After I got to know Tommy better, I really quizzed him about any medical science revealed to him by his Teacher. Did he really talk about mitochondria? It was hard for me to comprehend how incredible it was that Tommy had received all of this information.
Tommy told me that, yes, his Teacher explained all of those things. I was stunned and excited at the same time. For one thing, I knew from my medical practice that when mitochondria and ATP are supported, not only can organs, particularly the heart, be repaired, but they can also be rejuvenated.
So what Tommy heard and learned was absolutely correct. Without going into too much detail, here is what it means medically.
Mitochondria are tiny cucumber-shaped power plants in cells that generate this Vital Force, which we call ATP. It stands for adenosine triphosphate. Mitochondria are energy factories in your cells. Using the food you eat, they produce your Vital Force. This Vital Force is called chi by the Chinese, ki by the Japanese, prana by Hindus, and breath of God by Hebrews and Christians. ATP is a molecule that powers the activities of every cell. In all of these traditions, when that Vital Force is interrupted or cut off, disease occurs. But when that energy is restored, cells are revived, and the body begins to heal.
ATP is the energy of life, and our body must make it continuously or else we perish. We store enough for only 8 to 10 heartbeats. The food we eat and the air we breathe are converted to ATP, which then drives all the metabolic reactions in the body to sustain life.
In all forms of heart disease—especially congestive heart failure (CHF)—there is dysfunctional metabolism of ATP, creating a relentless deficit. CHF is literally an “energy-starved heart.” When ATP levels drop, the heart suffers. When ATP levels are normal, energy is supported, cellular activity increases, and the body thrives. One of the most important ways to sustain and build lifelong health is by producing and preserving ATP in the mitochondria.
Since learning about all of this more than 30 years ago through my study of nutrition and aging, I’ve been a committed “mitochondriac,” obsessed with the importance and care of these infinitesimal structures that churn out the energy that stokes each cell and thus, in sum, your heart and the rest of your body. I was taught very little about mitochondria in medical school, but I realized after years of clinical practice, that health and vitality relate directly to the health and vitality of the mitochondria. As they go, so go you. Their status is your status. Mitochondrial DNA—unlike nuclear DNA—has no defense mechanisms, so you must nurture and support these tiny structures.
To boost ATP, it’s important to “fertilize” your mitochondria in order to counteract all the toxicity to which you are exposed in society. This concept works the same way as caring for a garden. You use natural fertilizers and then watch your plants grow and reach for the sun. As I’ve told my patients many times, you want to give similar loving care to your mitochondria so they stay healthy, vibrant, and long-lived.
One way to fertilize the mitochondria is with a nutrient called coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10). This vitamin-like substance plays a vital role in the production of energy at the cellular level. ATP can’t be produced without CoQ10, which the body takes in from the foods we eat. Wild migratory salmon and sardines, as well as organ meats such as liver and heart contain the highest quantities of CoQ10. You can obtain this nutrient from supplements, too. The body cells also make CoQ10, which is referred to as “endogenous” (endo = inside) formation. The liver and kidneys assist the most in this production. CoQ10 is an incredibly important ingredient in your body’s makeup.
I became aware of CoQ10 through an article that discussed how administering this nutrient is associated with stronger heart function. I immediately started to prescribe CoQ10 to any patient about to undergo open heart surgery. It wasn’t long before I discovered that CoQ10 offered much, much more, and is, in fact, a true lifesaver.
One of my earliest clinical encounters with the power of this nutrient was with a patient named Joan, who was 34 when she came to see me. After giving birth to her second child, she suffered “postpartum cardiomyopathy.” This is a very rare, life-threatening form of heart failure that can occur in a pregnant woman when the fetal circulatory system steals too many nutrients from her body. Consequently, while the baby gets the nutrition, the mother becomes malnourished. After the baby is delivered, the mother is at risk of suffering heart failure.
Joan went from doctor to doctor, hearing only that she needed a heart transplant or she would die. She was even placed on a heart transplant list.
Joan consulted with me, and I put her on CoQ10 for a few weeks. Her symptoms began to subside. I doubled the dosage twice, and she vastly improved. A year after being placed on the transplant list, she was informed that the medical facility had found a heart match for her.
Joan contacted me to report: “I feel fine. Should I get a heart transplant?”
“Follow your own intuition. I can’t make that decision for you,” I advised.
Joan refused the heart transplant and stayed on my plan. Today, she is almost 72 years old and still going strong.
Joan is just one of many cases I’ve had like this, in which fertilizing the mitochondria repairs and rejuvenates the heart. Over the years, I’ve helped avert heart transplants in dozens of patients by boosting their bodies—and theoretically, their mitochondria—with natural substances such as CoQ10.
I’ve had doctors call me to say how amazed they are that their patients are still alive and doing so well. To be sure, it wasn’t just the food and supplements I recommended, but an overall plan of physical activity, stress reduction, and thinking positively that helped turn around declining hearts. But behind all that is the core issue: the quantity of ATP supported by targeted nutrients generated by your mitochondria to run your body—a program I call Metabolic Cardiology.
As the Teacher explained to Tommy, all sorts of toxins, from chemical and electric pollution to pharmaceutical drugs, assault the mitochondria and create dysfunction. This leads to DNA damage, tissue deterioration, and organ impairment—and that means impairment of any organ because every cell is connected to every other cell. Thousands of studies have now been published on mitochondria and the abnormal mitochondrial dynamics involved in diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune conditions, cancer, heart disease, migraine headaches, chronic fatigue syndrome, and even aging itself. More than 50 million people in the United States are said to be affected by conditions involving mitochondrial dysfunction.
As a young cardiologist, I was surprised to learn that widely used, everyday substances in the environment are toxic to the heart and can deplete the Vital Force. The very first case I encountered involved a young man (he was my own age at the time, 32!) who developed a wild, life-threatening arrhythmia while painting a windowless room in his house. It turned out that the paint was the toxin threatening his life! It was touch-and-go for more than a day before we finally pulled him out of the lethal arrhythmia and into a normal heart rhythm.
I’ll never forget that case. It opened my awareness to a source of trouble that cardiologists-to-be were not taught about in medical school: There are toxins we encounter every single day that disrupt our bodies’ functioning. The potential is real and often something right under your nose.
In fact, according to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, there are some 90,000 chemicals commonly circulating in our lives, with perhaps 10 to 15 percent of us believed to be reactive to one thing or another, even natural substances.
Over the years, it became obvious to me that anybody can be reactive to almost anything in the environment—food, pesticides, solvents, mold, airborne particulates, air fresheners, and, of course, the medications doctors use to treat symptoms—and that reactions are extremely individual. One person may have an allergic reaction; another might develop fatigue or a headache, and another an arrhythmia.
Acute exposures aside, doctors specializing in environmental illness often talk about the “total load” of environmental stressors, or insults, that result in symptoms. Think of your immune system as a barrel with a specific capacity. That capacity can shrink or enlarge depending on your toxic exposure at a given time, whether to physical toxins or to toxic psychological stress. You may or may not be aware of the specific toxins filling up your barrel and only know that something is wrong when the barrel spills over and you develop symptoms.
Some time ago, I developed a list of what I consider the most toxic substances in our daily life. I share them with you here, along with the same advice I gave to my patients. You obviously can’t dodge all of these bullets. We live in a sea of chemicals. But do try to avoid or minimize exposure to as many of them as you can in order to keep your barrel from spilling over. Here is a list of the 10 common toxins we encounter in everyday living and, in my opinion, how to avoid them.
1.Pesticides. Many of our fruits and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides, and we end up ingesting the residues. To avoid pesticides and other additives in food, eat washed organic produce. Researchers have found that organic fruits and vegetables are much, much lower in pesticide residue, and perhaps higher in natural antioxidants, compared with nonorganic produce.
Avoid using toxic pesticide products in your home and yard, too, and seek out other, more natural solutions for pest control. An example: A mixture of ¼ cup lemon juice, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, and 15 drops of lavender oil, and enough water to fill a 16-ounce spray bottle makes a superior mosquito repellant.
2.Prescription drugs. Citing the Institute of Medicine, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that each year, more than two million adverse drug reactions (ADRs) occur, and these reactions account for 100,000 annual deaths, making ADRs the “fourth leading cause of death.” ADRs are largely preventable, and side effects often compound the original problem drugs are taken for. Unfortunately, side effects are often dismissed by doctors and grossly underreported. Many pharmaceutical drugs are mitochrondrial-toxic and can deplete the body of nutrients, which is something that doctors never tell you. Many drugs are too strong.
Often, natural alternatives can help get at the underlying causes of chronic problems and minimize or eliminate risky medication usage. These alternatives include eating organic, nutritious food; taking nutritional supplements; engaging in regular exercise; and following a good stress-reduction method. However, if you want to stop taking a drug or ease back on it, always consult your doctor first.
3.Alcohol. Moderate intake—one drink daily for a woman, two for men—may have therapeutic value, but imbibing more than that is asking for trouble. Liver destruction and nutritional deficiencies are among the many possible consequences of heavy drinking. Excess alcohol causes nutritional deficiencies. Alcohol breaks down into aldehyde, a substance that damages cellular membranes and causes premature aging.
4.Indoor and outdoor pollution. Air pollution is no joke; it does damage to cells and organs over time. Use an air purifier, at least in the rooms where you spend the most time, to reduce dust and other particulate matter. Install a water-filter system to purify the beverage your body needs the most: water. Be aware of sensitivities to outdoor chemicals, pollen, and mold. Don’t walk, jog, or bike in the city during rush hour.
5.Cigarette smoke. Smoking is a cardinal sin against health. Lung cancer aside, this habit is the most destructive for the heart and nearly every other organ in the body. Each puff carries a toxic payload of chemicals and carcinogens, including nicotine (used as a natural pesticide for hundreds of years), carbon monoxide, ammonia, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and formaldehyde, to name just a few of the 600 ingredients. If you smoke and recognize that you need to stop, seek help through your physician or a credible smoking-cessation program.
6.Formaldehyde. This chemical is also used in the production of fertilizer, paper, plywood, particleboard, and urea-formaldehyde resins; as a preservative in some foods; and in many products used around the house, such as paints, antiseptics, medicines, cosmetics, furniture, carpets, and cabinetry. Formaldehyde can irritate the skin, throat, nose, and eyes; high-level exposure, most commonly related to the resins industry, is linked to some cancers. In 2006, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, classified formaldehyde as a “known human carcinogen,” and the US government followed suit in 2011. The primary way you can be exposed to formaldehyde is by breathing air containing it. Open windows to bring fresh air indoors. Also, reduce your dependency on dry cleaning, since the process used to keep clothes wrinkle-free often involves the use of a formaldehyde resin. Air out any clothes or other products that may have been exposed to formaldehyde.
7.Personal-hygiene products. We smear and spray our skin with all sorts of creams, sunscreens, lotions, soaps, perfumes, and what-not. The best strategies are to opt for natural products whenever possible and use personal care products minimally, because what goes on the skin also can go into the skin . . . and into the body. That means multiple chemicals. Most deodorants, for instance, contain aluminum to prevent perspiration; aluminum is known to cause DNA alterations, and daily dermal exposure may, over time, lead to breast cancer. Another example is antibacterial soap, in either bar or liquid form. Americans scoop up nearly $1 billion worth of these products a year, even though studies show that they are no more effective than regular soap and water at reducing the spread of germs. These products contain two active ingredients—triclocarban and triclosan—that have been found in experiments to disrupt reproductive hormone activity and interfere with cell signaling activities, including in the brain and heart. Buyer beware!
For those personal-care products you can’t live without, the Environmental Working Group (EWG—www.ewg.org) has established Skin Deep, an electronic product database through which you can learn about the known chemical toxicity of almost 64,000 cosmetic products. Although labels don’t give you all the information you need to decide whether products are safe, reading them carefully is a good place to start. Choose products with the fewest ingredients and chemicals, and avoid chemical fragrances altogether.
Good alternatives to perfumes and fragrances are essential oils. For sunscreen, apply zinc oxide. It is the best, safest, and most nonabsorbable sunblock you can use.
8.Petrochemicals. Surprise! Derivatives of petrochemicals are found in most processed food, personal-care, and cleaning products. Households are literally brimming with the stuff that has the potential to increase your risks of short- and long-term health issues, including cancer. Try to minimize exposure. For sure, cut down on processed food as much as possible, and eat organic. Be aware that solvents can cause lung and throat irritation, and furniture polish may be flammable and can cause serious injury if accidentally swallowed. (Avoid products, when possible, with the word danger on the label.) The EWG is also an excellent resource for learning more about petrochemicals and other toxins in your everyday life.
9.Heavy metals. Lead from dust, dirt, old house paint, batteries, new toys, and even water flowing through lead-lined pipes can increase the risks of a number of health issues. The nervous systems of young children and the unborn are most vulnerable. Cadmium is another toxic metal, and exposure can contribute to hypertension, among other things. Cigarette smoke is a common source, but cadmium is also found in batteries, pigments, metal coatings, plastics, and fertilizers. Mercury, one of the most potent mitochondrial toxins, is pervasive in freshwater fish and in large seawater fish, such as shark, tuna, swordfish, orange roughy, large halibut, and grouper.
10.Phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA). Both of these common compounds, used in plastics, are under ongoing scrutiny because of potential health risks to humans, including reproductive risks. Phthalates are used in soft plastics, and BPA in hard plastics and food can linings. Both are commonly found in products ranging from cosmetics, soaps, and lotions to food packaging and water bottles. If you’re a dialysis patient, hemophiliac, or blood transfusion recipient, you’re at the highest risk of exposure to phthalates through the tubing or containers made with this compound. The FDA recommends certain steps to minimize exposure of patients to medical devices that contain phthalates, including use of alternative devices for certain procedures. Other people at high risk are painters, printers, and workers exposed to phthalates during the manufacture, formulation, and processing of plastics.
Although there are many concerns over potential risks of BPA, the FDA has not banned it and has deemed it safe at low doses. I have seen research describing an association between higher levels of BPA and risks of high blood pressure and coronary artery disease; however, the degree of the chemical’s influence on health is far from clear. My advice is to simply reduce your exposure and steer clear of plastic containers whenever you can. Avoid canned foods as much as possible, and drink water out of glass bottles or containers.
In addition to all these actions, another way to protect yourself against toxins and fortify your Vital Force is through targeted nutritional supplementation. This fertilizes your mitochondria, thus strengthening your Vital Force. Along with CoQ10, there are three other ATP-boosting nutrients: magnesium, carnitine, and d-ribose. Magnesium is essential for metabolism of food and release of energy; it is also important in preserving the DNA in the mitochondria. Carnitine transports fatty acids to the mitochondria and helps remove toxins. Finally, d-ribose is a naturally occurring sugar derivative of ATP and can help keep mitochondria functioning at a higher level. I call these four nutrients the “Awesome Foursome”; they are the foundation of my Metabolic Cardiology plan.
To that plan, however, I add a fifth element: omega-3 fatty acid supplements. Omega-3’s compounds are additional favorites of mine because of the many benefits for the heart and overall health. Here are just a few perks of supplementing with omega-3s. They:
◼Increase HDL (the good cholesterol)
◼Decrease triglycerides and normalize blood pressure
◼Help neutralize harmful effects of Lp(a)—a protein in the blood that is a risk factor for heart disease
◼Reduce arterial wall inflammation and improve endothelial function (Endothelial cells line our arteries and are the major producer of nitric oxide [NO], a molecule responsible for relaxing the blood vessels and maintaining healthy blood flow.)
◼Make blood less sticky and less likely to form clots
◼Prevent plaque ruptures
◼Prevent and ease cardiac arrhythmias
Omega-3 supplements come in plant- or marine-based forms. Plant-based products are made from flaxseed and chia. My preference over the years has been marine-derived products because they directly supply the beneficial omega-3 fats, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Flaxseeds and chia contain the fatty acid alpha-linolenic acid, which has to be converted to EPA and DHA in the body—a process that requires a lot of energy. Thus, it makes sense to obtain EPA and DHA directly so that you conserve the body’s energy.
For years, I recommended fish oil, but more recently I switched to squid oil because harvesting squid has less impact on the marine ecology. Squid oil also has a higher concentration of DHA, which has added benefits for eye, heart, and brain tissue. Moreover, DHA has a greater ability to lower blood pressure than EPA and may improve learning and memory function among individuals over 55 with age-related declines in brain function.
I take all five as supplements every day, and I also eat foods that are high in these nutrients. The best foods for CoQ10 are wild migratory salmon and sardines; for carnitine, the best source is lamb. For magnesium, consume nuts, seeds (especially pumpkin seeds), leafy greens, beans, and figs. You can’t get ribose from food, so a supplement is your best line of offense. You find omega-3s in wild migratory salmon, tuna, and flaxseeds.
The daily dosages I suggest are:
50–100 milligrams of CoQ10 (preferably in softgels)
200–400 milligrams of magnesium
200–400 milligrams of l-carnitine
1 teaspoon of d-ribose
1–2 grams of omega-3 supplements, taken in divided doses
If you are physically compromised, especially with cardiac issues, you will need higher doses of these supplements; discuss this with your physician. For more clarity or in-depth discussion about my Metabolic Cardiology program, I suggest you read the latest edition of The Sinatra Solution: Metabolic Cardiology, Basic Health Publications, 2011.
I can’t tell you how many of my patients have reported that, by taking the mitochondria-supporting measures prescribed to heal the body, they saw other illnesses improve as well, including macular degeneration (the most common form of blindness in the world; runs in my own family), migraine, diabetes, digestive stress, and musculoskeletal disorders. In my mind, fertilizing your mitochondria is the best way to prevent aging (power blackouts) as you get older.
I also recommend deep and rhythmic breathing to fight the toxins that deplete our Vital Force. You see, the respiratory system helps detoxify the body. In addition to disposing of carbon dioxide, our respiratory system includes several protective mechanisms to prevent infiltration of toxins from the air we breathe. Our first line of defense is the nose, which contains hairs that filter foreign substances. Our bronchial tubes are lined with more hairs, called cilia, which facilitate the upward movement of mucus to enable coughing, sneezing, and swallowing.
Although unpleasant, mucus helps us expel unwanted substances by acting as a fly strip of sorts. When we have colds and take over-the-counter medications to suppress mucus production, we may actually prolong sickness by disabling our bodies’ natural abilities to fight back.
Lymphatic tissues lining the walls of the throat, trachea, and bronchioles also help rid the lungs of health-threatening invaders. Lymph nodes are clusters of cells that contain immune cells to fight the foreign substances they collect. The adenoids, located at the top of the throat, are lymph tissues, and the tonsils are localized lymphatic tissues within the throat. (Sometimes doctors remove adenoids or tonsils that have become infected and enlarged enough to hinder the respiration process.)
Employing various detoxification pathways when sick can help us avoid lymphatic overload. For example, sweating in a sauna is an excellent way to eliminate heavy metals, toxins, petrochemicals, insecticides, and pesticides that reside in our subcutaneous fat. Several of my patients strongly believe that they “cured” themselves by sweating out such toxins in infrared and Swedish saunas. In addition, taking a day or two of rest and allowing a sickness to run its course may be just what the doctor ordered.
Finally, it is important to know whether your Vital Force is strong or waning. One of the most accurate ways to measure your Vital Force is through this simple method: taking your body temperature. It requires an enormous amount of ATP to generate a normal body temperature of 98.6°F. If body temperature drops below normal, that means cellular energy has begun to drop, setting the stage for a bodily takeover by viruses, bacteria, fungi, and other dangerous diseases.
On the other hand, never be afraid of having a slight fever. A fever is one of the body’s protective mechanisms and can effectively destroy certain microbes, while protecting against infection and stimulating the immune system. The hotter your body temperature, the less likely it is that germs, other invaders, and even cancer cells will survive.
What Tommy’s Teacher told him about the self-healing wisdom of the body is absolutely true. The human body completely regenerates itself over time. The cells in your gastrointestinal tract are replaced once a year; your red blood cells, every 120 days. And 40 percent of your heart cells are replaced over a lifetime. As long as you treat it well, your body can stay in a constant state of renewal and resurrection and has an innate wisdom to heal itself. Treating it well means giving it the resources it needs (nutrition, the Awesome Foursome, water, positive thoughts, and love) and avoiding what is toxic (sugar, pollutants, and negativity).
By taking these actions, you buy time for the body’s intrinsic stem cells—special cells that replace diseased or damaged cells with healthy ones—to take over and drive the regeneration of the body. That, in a nutshell, is how self-healing takes place and how your Vital Force maintains the life—and the aliveness—in your body.
VITAL FORCE
We looked at actions you can take to protect and foster your Vital Force. Consider personalizing those actions in a plan that makes sense to you. For example:
◼I will focus on renewing my Vital Force by caring for my body in a way that allows healing. I will make better nutritional choices daily, taking targeted supplements to support my cells’ ability to rejuvenate and regenerate. I will nurture and “fertilize” mitochondria with foods and supplements containing CoQ10, magnesium, L-carnitine, and d-ribose to support my Vital Force energy for cellular renewal. I will also take omega-3 fats.
◼I will recognize and respect the self-healing powers of my body. It contains its own innate healing wisdom and vast defenses that can overcome illness, prolong life, and work health miracles. I will let go of anything that does not support those powers.
◼I will become more aware of potential toxins in my environment. I will buy pesticide-free foods and products that are safe for my home. I will avoid cigarette smoke and be more aware of sensitivities to outdoor chemicals, pollen, and mold. I will use an air purifier, at least in rooms where I spend the most time, to reduce dust and other particulate matter. Caring for my body, my home, and my immediate environment in this way allows for healing and a vibrant Vital Force.
◼I will support my Vital Force with rhythmic deep breathing. Part of that support will include performing this exercise at least five minutes every day.
•Sit erect (but not stiff) in a straight chair with a pillow placed between your shoulder blades. Remove your shoes. Place your feet firmly on the floor or, weather permitting, barefoot on the Earth outside.
•Gently open your mouth. Let your jaw hang softly.
•Breathe in and out through your nose, with your awareness on each inhalation and exhalation.
•Place your hands over your navel and, with your eyes closed, feel your abdomen rise under your hands.
When our breathing is calm and slowed down, our Vital Force is nurtured.