Saturday, December 16, 2006

Wishing You.....A Death-Defying Christmas

Here we are in the midst of another end-of-the-year holiday season. Like a lot of people do during this season, I've been reflecting on this past year and am looking forward with gleeful anticipation to this next year. Have you been reflecting on your life? Are you where you want to be and are you doing what you are meant to do? Are you busting-at-the buttons happy?

It is my belief a great deal of the angst in life stems from people not understanding their purpose in life and not having a passion for what they currently do and/or the life they currently lead. To me that is monumentally tragic. Life is to wondrous and to great an adventure to not be passionate about it.

At least in part of my life I can honestly say I am doing exactly what God means for me to do (i.e. sharing wellness) and I can see a not-to-distant future when I will be able to do so without any of the current distractions in my life. My life truly began the moment I understood my life's purpose. You know what? There is a tremendous joy in knowing your life's purpose. With all my heart I hope you know that kind of joy!

As you reflect on the past year I want you to know something. I want you to know that miracles are within your reach and within your own mind. Do not scoff at that statement. Rather give it your most serious consideration. The quality of your life depends on your understanding the truth of it.

Do You know how special you are?
Do you know your life's purpose?
Are you living your life's purpose?

Do you know you have all you need to create a miracle in your life?

Do you understand the impact of words and thoughts on the quality of your life?

Consider the words of Maya Angelou:

"Words go into the body. So they cause us to be well and hopeful
and happy and high-energy and wondrous and funny and cheerful.
Or they can cause us to be depressed. They get into the body and
cause us to be sullen and sour and depressed and, finally, sick."


Words are important. Thoughts are important. What kind of words or thoughts are you holding inside of you. You have a choice as to what kind of words and thoughts you hold near you. Positive or negative. Words and thoughts can be death .......or death-defying.

What are you choosing to hold within you?

My gift to you this holiday season is a short movie. I hope you will
take 3 minutes to watch it and an hour to consider it.
Click here: http://tinyurl.com/tcyrv

Wishing you wellness and joy,
Pam Murphy,B.S.,RRT



This post may be reprinted in your newsletter or blog only with the following resource box:

Pam Murphy,B.S.,RRT has a thriving network marketing wellness business, is completing a Masters in Holistic Nutrition and enjoys mentoring others in both improving their health and financial freedom. http://pamsnutritionstore.com

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Cancer and Nutrition: Revisited Fairly

In a recent post I was hard on doctors who tell cancer patients not to take nutritional supplements. I spoke in anger and disappointment and did not evenly cover the topic. I am deleting that post. In fairness I need to address this issue again.......

You see there is a controversy regarding certain nutrition supplements and cancer. Consider the information in the following links:

http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-153.shtml#humanresearch

http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-153.shtml#animalresearch

Recent studies have been positive on the use of antioxidants:
http://www.newstarget.com/021070.html


None of these above articles discuss the use of glyconutritional supplements. Glyconutrients are not vitamins, antioxidants, minerals or amino acids. They are in a class of their own. There are so far eight known necessary glyconutrients (ie monosaccharides). These are discussed in Harpers Biochemistry, a medical textbook. Though there are four Nobel prizes which discuss cell to cell communication and the integral part these monosaccharides play in cell to cell communication, glycobiology is a young field and not well understood yet by the vast majority of physicians. There is however, a Glycomics Conference every October in which increasingly more physicians are learning this information. http://www.endowmentmed.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=40

Case studies and research point to a positive benefit with dietary supplementation of glyconutrients:

http://www.fisherinstitute.org/bestcancer.htm

http://www.fisherinstitute.org/cancer.htm

http://glycoscience.org/ (search "cancer")

What I most wanted to get across is that folks need to educate themselves and not rely solely on physician input. Doctors are not gods; nor should we expect them to be. They are not trained in nutrition. They are largely educated by pharmaceutical companies. I learned this the hard way in my battle with Lupus. Had I not taken responsibility for my life and wellness; had I solely relied on my physicians input I would either be dead or in a wheelchair and in a nursing home today; instead of celebrating over two years in remission. My physicians did not value nutrition and didn't know about glyconutrition. Thru all the years I battled Lupus, not once did any of my physicians ask me about my diet. Has yours?

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Uncommon Courage: A Life of Significance

There came a time during my long journey with Lupus when my mother asked me how to cope with illness. She was well into her journey with Shy-Drager, a very debilitating version of Parkinsons. To say it's difficult when the roles in life turn is an understatement. I wish I had been full of wisdom at that moment. Maybe in a small way there was some wisdom in what I said.

I told her my philosophy was to just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going and that's what she had to do too. We agreed we would do that together for as long as we each could. Then we had a discussion about what we each wanted and didn't want in regards to medical treatment. We made each other promises to safeguard each others dignity in the event we couldn't do it for ourselves. There were no tears during our conversation, but in the years since her passing I have often wilted into tears when remembering it. I kept my promise to her, there was no medical intervention with feeding tubes, IV's or medical machinery at the end of her journey.

Thinking back on the difficult times of my lupus journey I can say it's really not a simple thing to do to "keep going" when in the grip of 24/7 pain, shortness of breath and overwhelming fatigue. In fact, when faced with an incurable illness it takes an uncommon courage to even want to keep going. There were many times when I begged God to take me home.

But at the time when my mother and I had our conversation, I simply thought that to put one foot in front of the other and keep going was all I knew to do and certainly didn't think of it as courageous. To me it was just survival. In fact, everything I did; changing my diet to one without processed foods, being a guinea pig for an investigational drug, reframing my thoughts, exercising when I was physically able and my physician would let me, incorporating daily
meditation, trying glyconutrient supplementation, was all, I thought, just a matter of survival. Not just to stay alive, but to keep my lifestyle and my independence.

But I've been told by four different people in the last few months that they view me as courageous. As I sit here pondering my journey to remission I have a hard time thinking of myself as courageous. It blows my mind that anyone thinks of me as courageous. My journey to remission wasn't about courage, and though I thought it was about survival, it really wasn't even
about survival; it was about having a significant life. Everyone wants their life to mean something. I have always thought one of the worst things about chronic illness is the loss of human potential. Illness illustrated to me very clearly the insignificance of monetary success and about personal growth and living a life of significance. Financial freedom means nothing if you're not also making a difference.

It takes real courage to live a life of significance. It takes insight, (some would say wisdom), to understand you can live a significant life even if you are coping with a seemingly incurable illness. Sometimes that is hard to see when you're living with 24/7 pain and little hope for respite. When illness strikes and your dreams suddenly seem unreachable; you must understand your illness, no matter what you no longer can do, does not make you any
less important to the world. You must understand every existence is significant. By putting one foot in front of the other and keeping going you are, in fact, living a life of significance. You are giving value to life. There is nothing more noble.

So whatever hardships you are coping with in your life; change the things in your life which are negative or don't promote wellness and keep on keeping on. You are precious and your existence is significant.

Wishing you wellness and joy

Pam Murphy,B.S.,RRT
http://pamsnutritionstore.com

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Wellness: The Power of Change

I've talked a lot about taking charge of your wellness and changing the things in your life which aren't promoting wellness. Have you decided to make wellness your top priority? Does changing things in your life to promote wellness seem a bit overwhelming?

The answer to overwhelm is to choose and change one thing at a time. Every week or two weeks (whatever feels right to you) incorporate a new wellness habit.

Here's a suggested (but not all inclusive) list to get you started:

Week One: Drink water instead of soda. If your doctor does NOT have you on any water restrictions divide your weight by two - this will give you the ounces of water you should drink per day. Drink SPRING water ( which you will find in any grocery store) or Wellness Enhanced water http://tinyurl.com/s8b6o .

Week Two: Eat one salad every day. Do NOT use a high calorie salad dressing. I would also not recommend the low calorie "chemical ridden" salad dressings. Try Annies Green Garlic Dressing (found in the health food section of your grocery store or in a health food grocery store). Check out the salads/dressings in the "Healthy Kitchen" section of http://www.drweil.com/ . Go to your bookstore and peruse the vegetarian recipe books for healthy salad dressings.

Week Three: Resolve to eat Five vegetables a day. This isn't hard when you stop to realize a serving is 1/2 cup. Make your plate colorful! Eat veggies of different colors!

Week Four: Resolve to not eat fast food. Fast food is normally high calorie, high fat.

Week Five: Cut down on coffee! Resolve to have only one cup in the morning. IF you are a bigtime coffee drinker you may consider having one cup of caffeinated coffee and remaining cups 50/50. Gradually change over to just 50/50 and then slowly decrease how many cups you have in the morning till it's only one cup. You might even consider booting coffee out of your life.....You might substitute Green Tea for it's antioxidant qualities!

Week Six: Eat four fruits a day. If you haven't been wild about eating fruits up till now then go easy eat two a day and work up to four.

Week Seven: Do you smoke? With the issuance of the recent Surgeon Generals report don't you agree it's clear how bad smoking is for your health. http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/ If you are a heavy "nervous" type smoker I recommend you talking with your doctor about how to quit. You can also find a smoking cessation group in your area. Most hospitals have smoking cessation groups. Call the Respiratory Care department of your local hospital. The American Lung Association offers smoking cessation http://www.lungusa.org/ and also the American Cancer Society http://tinyurl.com/z4vju .

Especially if you are quitting smoking you should consider incorporating an excellent antioxidant supplement into your wellness regimen. Even if smoking is not an issue and you just want to be proactive about your wellness an antioxidant supplement is important.
I recommend: http://tinyurl.com/gt7ur

Week Eight: Incorporate some form of exercise into your daily regimen. Check with physician before starting an exercise regimen especially if you've been mostly sedentary for some time. Your exercise regimen could be as simple as walking. Get a pedometer and work up to 10,000 steps per day. But find some form of exercise you enjoy and DO IT!

These changes will get you started. You might also read the books:

"Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman,MD http://tinyurl.com/po88c

"Ultraprevention" by Mark Hyman,MD http://tinyurl.com/r7y28

So have you decided to change the things in your life which don't promote wellness?
Write to me! Let me know how things go! I care about you........

Wishing you wellness and joy!

Pam Murphy,B.S.,RRT