First of all, thanks so much for the thunderous response to the co-op proposal. There are 100 people subscribed to the "keep informed" list and many who wrote messages supportive of my back, mission, and request for help. This will happen!
I would like, however, to take one more moment of your time to discuss my concept but also to emphasize that I am giving this to you and you can do whatever you want once the transition is complete. People have always said that I am on the side of the patient. Once in a while, this irks other practitioners, but it's who I am so the co-op idea is basically intended to support the needs of people who want to be healthy, which, of course, is everyone on the Planet except for the fact that everyone has a different idea about what this means — which is what the second half of this email is about.
There are many types of co-ops and purposes for each. One can, for instance, have a buyer's co-op to bargain for the best prices possible in a world where the playing field is not level. There are marketing co-ops that help farmers find buyers. There are small co-ops of a few neighbors who together own one cow or one lawnmower and there are enormous co-ops that own thousands of acres where they grow the foods and herbs sold in their stores. The limit is the imagination of the group, but my intent was to focus on getting patients what they need to be well, starting with herbs and no doubt including items for personal care and hygiene and perhaps adding heirloom seeds or air purifiers or whatever the members regard as important.
This list has matured over the years. Strangely, it has not increased much in size. It has become a sort of private world of very special connections. I have implicit faith in the overall sincerity and consciousness of the subscribers. Many have written me privately, and I am absolutely blown away by the depth of the correspondence with those who do write me so I am not the slightest bit worried about "new management." In fact, I am sure it will be an improvement over what I have been able to do as one person with way too many fingers in too many pies.
So, let me just say that we have our lawyer and we will get cracking on the paperwork. Many others have volunteered and I will delegate the assessment of who can do what best to one of those who offered help, good first step for me!
Nutrition
Now, to the bigger question of how you get well. Have you ever asked why some food makes you grow more or how an herb helps your bones to regenerate or what exactly has to happen to boost immunity? Let's take some herbs out of the packaging and put the herbs into some hot water and ask what has to happen for the herbs to work their wonders? First, the herbs have to go where they are needed. Herbs don't just go into the mouth and eventually come out the other end, something valuable has to extracted from the herbs or food. Some of the herb might be absorbed in the mouth itself, but a lot is absorbed in the stomach, then in the small intestines, and later in the large intestines. To some extent, the place of actual assimilation is predictive of the tissues that will be impacted by the nutrients. For instance, food absorbed in the stomach is mostly liquid and goes into the blood stream fast. If you doubt it, have a shot of your favorite liqueur or wolf down some of my Goji Tonic or Potent Potention. You are going to feel it immediately. How is this possible? It's possible because the body is just amazingly efficient.
Because I am so fascinated by what I can see in the microscope, I have had the great good fortune to come into a loving and deep appreciation for the blood cells. I am totally convinced they are sentient beings in their own right, very interesting guests in our complex bodies. I know they have methods of communication, strategies, hierarchies, roles, functions, and responses.
The red blood cells, yawn, yawn, you get tired of hearing this, don't you, are miniature, really, really tiny transporters. They take nutrients and oxygen and deliver them where needed — and they pick up the carbon dioxide and waste and take it to the lungs where they discharge the toxic payloads and get recharged with oxygen before going for their next load of nutrients. Well, this might be just a tad romanticized, but my point is bad breath has a cause, oh, gosh, and what these busy cells get to eat in exchange for their services to you makes an enormous difference both to them and you. They can't utilize toxins; they have to dispose of them. They are not suicidal, but they will sacrifice themselves for others.
Cell Phone Experiment
How do I know such things. Well, remember my experiments with the cell phones? If you point the a/````2ntennas of two phones towards each other — with a slide in between — and then initiate a call, the blood on a slide goes wild. A whole lot of red blood cells will organize on the periphery to protect the ones in the middle, like the penguins in Antarctica who take turns standing in the blistering wind to protect others from the icy cold. When the interference of the cell phones is removed, the surviving red blood cells, many of them quite severely wounded, regroup. There is no question but that the response to the threat was as appropriate as possible and that it involved more risk to some cells than others. One turns off the light of the microscope with a deep sense of awe for the cooperation exhibited and selflessness demonstrated by some of the cells so I just have to love them.
Then, I look at other behavior in the blood, under slightly more normal conditions. There are little creatures that look like tiny worms that are a little bigger at the head than the tail. They are very thin and not very long when you first see them, but they grow astonishingly fast. Lots of people have these guests and they want to poke their heads inside red blood cells. They hammer away at the surface of the erythrocytes, sort of like woodpeckers. If the membrane is weak, they easily penetrate and start draining the red blood cells of nutrients, probably nutrients needed by the red blood cells and you. If the membrane is tough, these little creatures get tired and then the red blood cells begin to act like bullies, bumping up against the little creatures and playing games like you see in a schoolyard. However, if the little creatures had a good feeding, they triple in size in an hour or so and they become quite a concern.
So, what makes the membrane weak or strong? It's a lipid membrane and I keep saying that you can make a 30% improvement in health simply by selecting your oils wisely. I am totally convinced that ghee is the absolutely best general oil for cooking and consumption but there are other wonderful oils with high essential fatty acids. The most popular one on my web sites is black cumin. The seed is actually grown in India and cold pressed in the U.S.
Other oils are fine. People always respond to posts like this with a deluge of links to sites selling coconut oil or cold pressed sesame oil or something else, but I just report what I have seen. The membranes of the red blood cells are improved after just one single meal in which ghee was substituted for the normal cooking oil, which is usually olive oil. In Europe, where I made most of these observations, people nearly always claimed to be using the best olive oil (I'm clueless what happens to the oil that isn't best, but you probably don't really want to know.) They were absolutely astonished that olive oil isn't as marvelous as they thought. Sunflower oil is much better for the lipid membranes of the erythrocytes. Poppy seed oil is also great. You can get it in Canada and Austria but not everywhere.
Now, try to think energetically, that membrane is a wall and it protects. The Ayurvedic language for foods that function in this way is more like the viscosity of the oils increases elasticity and buffers the cells in a manner that affords some protection against attack. The "attack" usually comes in the form of viruses and bacteria and many scientists refer to worms or parasites as bacterial forms but the vocabulary is sloppy at times.
If you want to get rid of parasites — which I know many of you are now planning since we are moving towards the full moon — it's easier when the parasites are weak. They are too tired to hang on so they are more readily flushed out. Loosely translated, that also means, eat less when doing the parasite cleanse.
Regeneration vs. Degeneration
Okay, so we gave the red blood cells better coats to wear and they now look rather spiffy, honestly, they do look better in the microscope. Now, we need to think about what they need on the inside. We always talk about hemoglobin and act like it only needs iron, but it needs lots of other trace minerals so you want food that is rich in minerals, meaning it was grown in good soil and it didn't have to surrender all its minerals just to survive the acids sprayed on them. I'm sure there are countless studies measuring the vitamin and mineral counts of plants grown in different soils. Keep in mind that the body requires a certain pH before crisis alarms are sounded. When there is a shortage, it has to cannibalize and your bones are rich place to forage for missing minerals. You protect them by giving the red blood cells what they need so the red blood cells can deliver rather than raid. It's the difference between regeneration and degeneration.
Minerals are hard to assimilate so you need them in a form that promotes good assimilation. This is what is unique about Chyawanprash. It has the acids and spices that improve digestion and assimilation so you get the benefit of the foods you eat, which, in turn, is why the hair doesn't fall out and bones don't become even more porous than they already are.
I want to go on and on and on, but my point is really that while it might not be true that we are what we eat, it is true that what we eat determines whether or not we can heal. There is wear and tear on the body so we have to have mechanisms for repair. Only what is organic can be used to regenerate. Other substances can act as catalysts or even interfere completely with the healing process, but since the body itself is organic, it needs micronutrients that are also organic.
Now, why am I harping on and on about this. Your sources of organic food and medicine are limited. In the U.S., we don't even know what is genetically modified and GMO sugar is coming soon to a store near you. I cannot imagine what this means, especially to the younger generation who live on candy bars and other things that are loaded with sugar. Having a very conscious co-op run by people you elect and trust is going to help a lot of people. Sign up to be on the list:
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blood cells of nutrients, probably nutrients needed by the red blood cells and you. If the membrane is tough, these little creatures get tired and then the red blood cells begin to act like bullies, bumping up against the little creatures and playing games like you see in a schoolyard. However, if the little creatures had a good feeding, they triple in size in an hour or so and they become quite a concern.
