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Musings About Birds, Fall and the Flu

I live in the foothills outside of Boulder at 8200 feet and every year around this time as I walk out to my back deck very early in the morning, I think that today I am sure to get the message. The chittering hummingbirds (fondly called humming pigs) are dive bombing me as I fasten their feeders on the hooks. They are hungry and anxious to sip on their sugar nectar because quite soon they will be - impossibly! - flying all the way to Mexico . As I look around, I see the pine siskins perched on the straw basket that holds my clothes pins, and I notice many, many birds - grosbeaks, nuthatches, chickadees and an errant blue jay - sitting in the ponderosa pine just off the deck waiting not so patiently for their breakfast of cracked sunflower and nyjer seeds. I give the little black, perky eared mountain squirrels their breakfast of unshelled peanuts and fill up the bird bath with fresh water. I sniff the air and suddenly I get the message, loud and clear.

Immediately after this lovely interlude, my mind then goes to "Oh dear, the cold and flu season!" And how I want to write my yearly newsletter on how you shouldn't get a flu shot. But, I won't lecture you this year. Suffice it to say, I would never ever put that crap into my body. But if you want to give yourself a fighting chance of staying well, it might be a good idea to talk to me about my Teflon Mix and Cold Combo next time you're in.

Teflon Mix and Cold Combo have saved me many times over from a nasty achy flu or a runny nosed cold, and I hear that it does the same for you as well. Teflon Mix is just two products: Calcium Lactate and Cataplex ACP. Take a few of each every day and the bugs will just "slide" off you (Get it? Teflon?) This year I am suggesting that you add one more thing to the Teflon Mix and that is Del Immune V.

Cold Combo is dynamite and consists of five products: Congaplex, Phytogen, Thymex, Zinc Lozenges and Gan Mao Ling, not the wimpy Plum Brand, but the full bore Chinese stuff. I have a handout which explains how to use Cold Combo at the onset of the cold, in case the bugs get through the Teflon, and yes, "Stuff Happens" now and again despite the religious swallowing of the blessed Teflon wafers. There are no guarantees.

Now for my antibiotic lecture: First of all, I hope you will trust me to know when you should go to your mainstream doc for antibiotics, because my dictum is "Do No Harm", no matter what, and if antibiotics are called for and my medicine just isn't doing it I will tell you. But before you toddle off for antibiotics, there is so much we can do to make you feel better in record time and without the nasty pharmaceutical side effects. No doubt some of you will end up with sinus infections either during the active part of your cold or perhaps after the worst is over, but lingering on and on afterwards as the gift that keeps on giving. This is when many of you will want to cave and run to antibiotics. Don't!

A new study conducted by Swiss researchers and published in Lancet (the British version of the New England Journal of Medicine) found that a third of all doctor's visits for upper respiratory infections in the United States end in a diagnosis of rhinosinusitis or nasal/sinus inflammation. Approx. 80% of these patients are prescribed antibiotics. Because of the proliferation of in-your-face Big Pharma advertising, MD's are even getting calls from their patients, demanding a specific antibiotic and asking for it by name because they have read about it in Reader's Digest. And the doctor will prescribe these antibiotics because, one, I guess it's easier than saying no, and two, because they really don't have anything except topical steroids for sinus problems and steroids aren't very effective. In their frustration, the MD will write the script for antibiotics. But here is the caveat and something most of us tend to ignore: Most sinus infections are either viral or fungal and antibiotics will not touch either one. In fact, it will make the fungus worse. The researchers found that for every 15 adult rhinosinusitis patients treated with antibiotics, only one would receive any benefit from the drug. They went on to say that "antibiotics are not justified even if a patient reports symptoms for longer than 7-10 days."

Now with the advent of drug resistant bacterial strains like MRSA, it's even more important not to "waste" your antibiotic use on something as trivial as a cold. Let your healthy immune system fight it on its own, with the assistance of natural herbs and supplements. Then, if, God forbid, (cross yourself and knock on wood) you are unlucky enough to get something truly bad, you will have a clean slate of a body - one that is healthy and with a strong immune system because you haven't gunked it up with pharmaceuticals - for the antibiotics that will save your life. But, you know what? You won't get something horrible, because for many years now, you have treated yourself with love and respect and fed your body right, exercised, meditated, etc. You know the drill.

I would also recommend that you invest in some powerful essential oils for winter: I particularly like R.C., Thieves and Purification for starters. Ask me how to do that. And, if you can afford it, get yourself an ozonator for your home. I have one in my office which runs all the time, protecting us both from the sneezes, the coughs, and the bugs that you and I carry in from the outside. Dig out the Purel and carry a little one in your purse. If you travel by plane, get yourself a small ozonator that you wear around your neck. I have one and swear by it.

Footnote: Regarding the muscle testing class I mentioned in my last newsletter: I thought I would let you know more about how I am thinking about presenting it. First of all, I will explain basic muscle testing and how to do it. We will discuss muscle testing with another person's arm, self-muscle testing and then we will briefly discuss using a pendulum or wands. I will also explain a bit about Dr. David Hawkin's method of calibrating the world along with his calibration scale. With this scale we can assess people, teachers, movies, books, music - basically the world around us - to see if it supports us.

I am thinking about a 2 hour class to begin with for $50 per person, maximum ten people in the waiting room of my office. Perhaps a Saturday afternoon? You will bring pendulums, wands, whatever you have, but primarily this will be practiced with other classmates along with basic self muscle testing. This is pretty intense work, so I can't imagine doing more than 2 hours at a time. We will see how far we get and go from there, perhaps we will agree to schedule another class.

If you are interested, please call me or email me.

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