Book Cover

Yesterday morning at approximately 2 a.m., I officially finished my first, full-length novel, The Gaslight Journal.

Begun back sometime in 2001, this book was originally a fluke of an idea.  Because I’ve said previously that I had no confidence in my writing, I did not work seriously at the thoughts of ever finishing this book, let alone trying to shop it around for either a publisher, or to make available as a Kindle title, which I plan to do.  I am shooting for an early to mid-November release date, hyping the publicity for Christmas.

It was around this time that I also joined an online writing group on Usenet.  That group of people that I met there, taught me a lot about life, growing up, the value of friendships of people you’ve never met, and how with just a little relentless encouragement and a whole lot of craft, I was the only one holding me back from doing this.  Some of those people–Steve W., Barry A., Joe K., Alaric M., Bob W., and Amanda T., are still close friends and confidants to this day.  To be honest, I have no idea where I would be in all this, if it hadn’t been for their kind hearts, and taskmaster discipline.

I highly encourage you to find a good, active online or face-to-face writing group.  The benefits of an online group, are that it’s easy to post excerpts or short stories for critique, and many, many people have the benefit of making comment, so you get many varying POVs.  Plus, my favourite, being able to post stories, comment and commiserate, all without leaving your chair or changing from your peejays.

The downside of a group of this nature, is that you generally have to wade through several timezones before you get an answer, sometimes waiting for days or even weeks in some cases, as people are extremely busy and the level of posting is in high volume.  The other drawback is that because each poster is in equal probability an amateur as well as a published, experienced author, you never know, without trial and error, if the advice you receive will truly work for you.

The pros of seeking out a face-to-face writing group, inherently, are the same as an online group:  you learn how to give–by mere repetition and discussion–effective constructive critiques, and you get them in return, which, since true writing is only in the RE-writing, will only make you a better writer.  You also have that immediacy of advice, because once you read your excerpt, you then have the luxury of hearing its immediate affect on those listening, and they can offer comment while the work is still fresh in their mind, and they haven’t had an ample amount of time to think about it, which often happens in online groups–people have lives to live between the time they read your story, and the time they have to comment, so opinions are sometimes in jeopardy of changing in that time, and you just don’t have the access to those visceral, gut-wrenching opinions.

The downside of this sort of group, is that you have to get dressed before you leave the house.  Oh, and you have a specified time to meet each and every week, rain or shine.  You can’t just sit back in your cozy armchair if the snow is too deep and you don’t feel like reading Shteeve’s latest tome until in the morning.

As you can see, both groups have benefits and both have their drawbacks.  As to which one will work better in your situation is entirely up to you, but the important and only thing is, that you find one and become an active part of it.  Those who offer critiques and read our stories are an integral part of the writing process.  Even if your average reader does not know how to place into words why your story sucks, if it’s not polished and snazzed up, is rife with misspellings, grammatical errors and typos, he will simply know it does, and that will be more than enough to kill your sales, because avid bibliophiles TALK.

Now that my own group disbanned about a year ago, I am also, in want of a new, constructive and active group, because I’m not nearly done writing–I’m just getting started!

My web-site: http://www.carlarene.com

My blog: http://carlarene.blogspot.com

Become a “Twit:” http://www.twitter.com/carlarenecomedy

A recent study shows that obese children in grades three through six are more likely to be bullied than children of a normal weight. Teen suicide due to bullying — an absolutely horrifying thought — has tragically been in the news a great deal, raising awareness of the psychological impact of constant harassment. Now we discover that that it begins at an early age, with overweight children as the primary target.

Based on my own memories, I didn’t find this to be news. However, I had assumed, or maybe naively hoped, that things had changed. Not so, as researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed over 800 children ages eight to 11. In the third grade, 15 percent of the children were overweight and 17 percent were obese. A quarter of the students admitted to being bullied; with 45 percent of the mothers reporting that her child had been bullied for his or her weight. The odds of being bullied were 63 percent higher for children who were obese than their classmates of a normal weight, and bullies did not discriminate based on gender or economic status. Overweight boys were just as likely as girls to be bullied, and even those with good social skills weren’t spared.

“I thought maybe (good social skills) would protect obese kids from being bullied. But no matter how we ran and re-ran the analysis, the link between being obese and being bullied remained,” said Dr. Julie Lumeng, lead researcher. She is concerned that the perception surrounding obesity is that it’s caused by a lack of exercise and overeating when the underlying condition is often driven by other factors. “Many times, children who are not good at dealing with their emotions become emotional eaters,” she explained, noting, “we really need to work on changing this view of what causes obesity.”

My first response to this story was sadness, bringing me back to my own early days. The study suggested that we not only need to encourage healthy eating habits for young children, but also need to set a good example by refraining from making negative comments about people who are overweight. Children of course, are mirrors of us and they pick up our attitude, which results in bullying behavior. In effect, we indirectly teach our children to bully.

However, there is a bigger picture. We need to remember that each and every person has habits about which he or she is not proud. The difference is that if over-eating is the habit, it cannot be hidden. It is on display for all to view.

Smoke too much but hide well? No one knows. Have trouble with anger management but it doesn’t leak into public? We won’t judge you. Yet, eat too many fries and not exercise enough, and everyone’s got a comment. Seems to me that if we each paid a little more attention to our own issues, we’d all be happier and healthier.

Maybe, when I’ve achieved complete perfection, I can judge others.  However, I don’t see that happening soon.

About the author: Scott “Q” Marcus is a THINspirational speaker and author. Since losing 70 pounds over 15 years ago, he works with overloaded people and organizations who are looking to improve communication, change bad habits, and reduce stress. He can be reached for consulting, workshops, or presentations at 707.442.6243 or scottq@scottqmarcus.com. He will sometimes work in exchange for chocolate.

What could have sickened me was an article that broke just after the healthcare bill’s passage. The Associated Press reported that Republicans originated and supported the health insurance mandate in President Obama’s healthcare reforms. The mandate is now behind Republican cries of “Armageddon” and “the end of the American way of life,” to the extent there is anything behind those bleats beyond hot air.

According to the AP report, Republicans crafted the mandate during the 1990s as a private sector alternative to Clinton era healthcare reform proposals. At that time, Republicans didn’t see the mandate as socialism but instead called it taking responsibility. The individual insurance mandate is at the core the Massachusetts reform plan that Mitt Romney signed as governor and newly elected Senator Scott Brown supported as a state legislator.

What’s sickening to me isn’t that Republicans would so blatantly flip-flop strictly for political advantage and predict disaster from a policy they once championed. I’m appalled that during a 14 month fight for its political life, the Obama White House didn’t uncover and use the Republicans’ flip-flop against them. Unlike the arcane and windy arguments Obama and his team put forward to support healthcare reform, here was a sound bite sized argument that would put Republicans on the defensive about their opposition to reform they once championed.

At least one progressive political group uncovered Republican mandate support ahead of the AP, so why didn’t the White House? Heads should roll for failing to unearth such a tasty political truffle nestled right under their noses. Getting the healthcare bill passed doesn’t excuse the failure. There are plenty more tough battles to come – over financial reform and climate change, for starters – and the White House can’t afford to miss this kind of low hanging political dynamite, especially in an election year. Get some people in there who are smart enough and work hard enough to do the job right and give Obama the support he deserves.

Totally globalized native New Yorker and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, financial crisis, and cheap lingerie.

Upon hearing me make my way, my wife got me a cup of coffee, generally a prize for the last one getting up. I gave her a kiss and sat down, feeling odder by the second. She sensed something was wrong and asked and I told her I didn’t feel good. I was slurring my words and having trouble concentrating. After not meeting her request of sticking my tongue out straight, she brought me a pair of shorts, called out doorman and BAM, I”m in the ER.  By this time I don’tt know my name, social security number, what day it is, nothing. Well not quite nothing. Oddly, all I remembered was that I had a hair appointment that day and kept telling the docs and nurses that I couldn’t stay, I was supposed to get a haircut.

Three days later most of my long term memory had returned bit I had lost all short term memory. Major league scary. I’d also developed an eye tic and my left leg dragged. Thankfully, after a couple of months of rehab, the tic is gone and most of the left leg dragging has disappeared but I lost half of my vocabulary. It’s frustrating having to ask the name of things but it’s starting to come back. Beats the alternative by a long shot.

Will I ever write again? Remains to be seen. Thankfully I have a five book backlog. I lose concentration when going over an edit but my editor is working with me extra hard. This is the longest piece I’ve written to date but I’m going to use Brother Bobs site as practice so I’ll be posting regularly. 

One thing I’m absolutely sure of—STROKES SUCK.

Yet, once in a while, something crashes through that dense wall of denial and I can no longer avoid looking.

Today, at a very powerful, presentation, I learned that the three leading causes of death in the U.S. in 1900 (Pneumonia, Influenza, and Tuberculosis) are not even in the top five 100 years later (heart disease, Cancer, and stroke). In effect, over the span of an extended lifetime, our biggest health concerns have shifted from being “attacked from the outside” to being “attacked from the inside.” That’s a powerful bit of data.

Part of the reason is that we are now under constant, unending, on-going, chronic stress. Sure, we’re not fighting off saber-tooth tigers anymore; but we pay too many bills with too few dollars, or we attempt too many things with too little time, or both, or more. Our body can’t perceive the difference between “saber-tooth tiger stress” and the “IRS is on the phone for you” stress. All it understands is that something is a kilter; we are under pressure. (Whether the stress is caused by actual or perceived events makes no difference; we respond the same.)

Couple that fact with the detail that our modern diet is so out of whack that nutritionists refer to it as “hyper inflammatory.” That means that when threatened, our body throws the preverbal kitchen sink at almost any problem. Instead of marshalling a couple of “antibiotic soldiers” to quell a minor disturbance, it delivers an entire, heavily-armed, fully equipped battalion. Once the threat has been eliminated, those extra soldiers hang around with nothing to do – except leave waste products. Blend that with our constant stress-level, and well, we’ve got bunkers of waste-producing soldiers camped out all over our insides, lining our cells with all sorts of unnecessary non-disposable nasties.

Since stress is beyond our control, we cannot dispel it and send the soldiers on leave. Rather, we can only disarm the situation by thinking differently, moving more, and changing how we eat.

Here’s where today’s talk made its impact on me. Eric, the presenter, offered clear, easy-to-implement ideas to begin to reverse the course. Take some Fish Oil, increase Vitamin D, drink Green Tea now and then. He was honest; it’s not a panacea; it’s merely a few doable actions that can improve one’s heath. They are things I can do right now – and I did.

Not only are simple ideas usually the best, but, now knowing what I’ve learned, they don’t stress me out as much as doing nothing.

Totally globalized native New Yorker and former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen is author of Hong Kong On Air, a novel set in his adopted hometown during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal, financial crisis, and cheap lingerie.

We welcome your thoughts and comments.

Do you think there should be a Magic Pill for Everything?  A fix for something that will naturally happen?

By Alan Caruba

At age 72, I have been spared major injuries and sickness. Other than birth, I have never spent a night in a hospital, but I paid a visit a few years back for a common ailment of men of my age. I was in and out of surgery the same day.

In Monday’s early morning hours, still almost asleep, I had an accident that put me on the floor with a shoulder full of hurt. I went back to bed and when the sun came up I called the local rescue squad to take me to a nearby hospital, one of the best in the state. I know this because in the final decades of my parent’s years, both were fairly regular visitors. It is a penalty of aging that our bones break and other misfortunes occur.

When I got up on Monday morning after a fitful few hours, I took a look at my swollen shoulder and said to myself, “busted clavicle, deep hematoma.” The latter is a medical word for a bruise.

The emergency area was nearly empty when I arrived. Prior to that, I had to give the EMS officer information so that the trip could be charged off to Medicare. Same thing at the emergency area. More information. You hand them the cards from Medicare and AARP and they look relieved.

X-rays followed and a visit from a physician who, for some reason, thought I should have my heart checked out and Lord knows what else. They had already hooked me up to an EKG machine so I assumed that was sufficient.

I said, “Doctor, we both know I have a busted clavicle and a hematoma. Nothing but a lot of rest will heal it, so I want to go home.” Hospitals make money off of testing you for things unrelated to your actual problem. It’s also called “defensive medicine” in the event you have the bad manners to die from something else while in their care.

And, in my case, they love to tell me about my high blood pressure. I have always had high blood pressure. It is the silent killer and, frankly, I am going to be very annoyed when it finally gets me. Until then, like my late Mother who lived to age 98 and also had high blood pressure, I am not going to worry about it. I maintain a moderate diet and even exercise daily on a treadmill.

I was impressed by the nurse who drew a blood sample and did the EKG; pleasant and efficient. The young man who took the x-rays was the same.

I have heard that the one area where jobs are still available is healthcare and I believe it. This is particularly true because much of the U.S. population is aging.

How sad that, as this occurs, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress want to strip a half-trillion dollars out of Medicare, add several thousands more to the rolls of the rapidly insolvent program, and tack on a whole bunch of excise taxes for medical services and stuff. We shall all be paying a lot more for insurance and health costs.

No one has ever explained why because it is essentially irrational. Those who do offer explanations are lying through their teeth. By federal law, no one who shows up at an emergency room can or will be denied care.

If ever there was a government more determined to make life a misery for its citizens, I cannot recall one like the present administration. Under Obamacare, would the rescue squad have to cut back on its hours of service? Would the x-rays be deemed optional? Would I get the pain pills the same day or would a panel of bureaucrats decide if I really needed them?

It took Obama three days to find a Tele-Prompter to tell him what to say after the Christmas day attempted bombing. And then he had to come back the next day because the Tele-Prompter got it wrong. His Secretary of Homeland Security got it wrong, too, the first time.

Thanks to the pain pills, I have been in a pleasant fog since Monday, but I have the nagging suspicion that the President has been similarly disengaged since the day he took the oath of office.

Other than finding ways to plunge the entire nation into debt and impose new taxes, I cannot think of a thing he’s done of any real use to any of us.

If this keeps up, the whole nation will be in the emergency room.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center – he blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.c

Said I, adjusting rose-colored glasses, “I disagree. None of us know how much time we have, but good health allows us to enjoy it as long as possible.”

Came the reply, “Personally, I think good health is merely the state of dying at the slowest possible pace.”

Clunk. Ouch. End of bizarre conversation.

That said, in light of all the discussion lately, I’ve got a thing or two to say about a thing or two about health care. Since my column is not political in nature, I’ll attempt to steer clear of that sticky widget. Yet, I’m assuming, no matter one’s political leanings, we agree that something is unwell within our health care system.

They say, “Figures don’t lie, liars figure.” So knowing I could be stepping into an ugly morass, I still wish share a few statistics that I find particularly noteworthy.

According to the 2006 revision of the United Nations World Population Prospects report, for the period 2005-2010, our country ranks 33 when it comes to infant mortality. We are sandwiched between New Caledonia and Croatia.

On the other end of life, from our own CIA’s World Factbook, last updated April 2009, our life expectancy is 50th. A child born in the U.S. today will likely be around for 78.1 years.  Combine those statistics with the staggering fact that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (a group representing 30 wealthier, industrialized countries) computed that the United States spent $7,290 per capita on health care, ranking it first among the countries studied.

Might just be me, but I don’t think we’re getting our money’s worth.

Whether the solution is public option or private health insurance is not the issue I’m trying to address. Yes, what our government does might indeed affect us for generations far beyond our (hopefully extending) lifespans. Yes, there is much to be corrected.

But, quoting Cassius, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves…” It’s easy to pronounce and pontificate about what “they” should do, it’s quite another little something to step to the platform, roll up our sleeves, and actually take action. Irrespective of legislation regarding “single payer” or “pre-existing conditions,” we must each make a difference in our own lives by establishing good health as a higher priority in day-to-day decisions.

This does not mean uproot and rebuild your entire routine, throwing every habit into the waste bin.  Make a small stand if that’s all you can do but make it now. Opt for less processed food. Lower your sugar intake. Park your car at the far end of the lot. Small steps done regularly have more impact than big steps done intermittently. In other words, it’s better to get out and walk around the block — and really do it — than it is to promise to run a mile someday soon but never get around to it.

Find an excuse to act in a healthier fashion. It feels good; it’s even patriotic.

About the author: Scott “Q” Marcus is a THINspirational speaker and author. Since losing 70 pounds 15 years ago, he conducts speeches, workshops, and presentations throughout the country. He can be reached at  scottq@scottqmarcus.com or you can follow him on twitter at twitter.com/bestdietingtips

Most of the people who write for this website are male and I want this to have some effect on you as something more than a woman complaining about a female health issue. The new study suggests some major changes in the way women are screened for breast cancer. Instead of starting to have mammograms at the age of 40, they are saying women should start at the age of 50. They added that after 50 women should only have the test every other year. This study concludes with the strangest statement of all: this change of procedure could lead to more deaths from breast cancer. Some doctors agree that there is too much testing, too many biopsies and too much stress on women when a doctor says they found something on the mammogram and you need to have further tests. For the insurance companies it’s a way to refuse paying for treatment. For some women it could be a death sentence.

What is commonly considered a female problem becomes a family issue when someone you love is diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly jokes about boobs and breast implants and what a nice rack disappear and you are sure exactly what you should say. Caring men adjust to the situation by understanding and giving support. Insensitive morons can’t believe it is happening to them. That their woman might loose her breast. I know of a couple who split up because the man couldn’t stand the thought of his wife being breastless. Another husband wasn’t able to handle taking care of his spouse and the kids doing the chemotherapy that followed. My right breast is smaller than my left because I had an operation after they saw something on a mammogram. After several more mammograms, sonograms and other tests they removed what they found It was pre-pre-cancerous they told me and I knew I was extremely lucky. The surgeon said she took out a lot of tissue because she wanted to make sure she got it all. It did not matter to me or to my husband that in the future one side would be a little off, a little less full. I would be alive and well.

Had we followed this new study I would have not had a mammogram that year. I was 51 when they found the lesion. If my first mammogram had been at 50 the way the insurance companies want to play it, I would not have had a test at 51 and by 52 I might have had full blown breast cancer.

Then there are my friends who found out they were in the early stages of cancer because they got tested every year after 40. They could have died or become severely ill before they reached the age of insurance consent for mammograms.

The problem with this study is that there are already several women who do not get breast cancer screenings when they should. Many are afraid it is painful or that the technicians will find something. No woman likes to have her breast crushed in what reminds me of a vice grip attached to a camera. It’s not so much painful as it is uncomfortable. The most painful thing about it is waiting to find out if they found something wrong. Most times it’s just a blur on the film. Still returning to have it done again is nerve wrecking.

After the surgery I had mammograms every few months for at least two years. Nothing returned. For some reason I got cocky and forget to get a mammogram one year. When I finally did the technician, who had worked with me before, reminded me that I had to keep up the practice. Now I mark my calendar, I make the time.

There is a scar and a deflated area on my breast that reminds me each day how close I came to having cancer. I was so down after the surgery that to pull me out of the doldrums my husband made a joke and started calling the breast with the scar his favorite.

I am sharing this extremely personal bit of information to rally support for women who are feeling put upon by the insurance companies for doing this study and for the women you love who may someday need the care of a supportive male to get through a bout with the biggest cancer killer of women. And although the odds of men having breast cancer are small there is always still a chance when someone as macho as Shaft can get it. We must take care of each other. We must learn to care. And we must definitely fight the powers that be over this new study.

By

I‘m all for doctors. To me, there is no more valuable service on this earth than the professional care administered by a qualified practitioner of the medicinal arts. I don’t particularly enjoy going to the doctor (they always lecture me about smoking) however I can’t think of too many things more comforting than the knowledge that an experienced doc is close at hand should I get a treble hook in my eye, shoot myself in the thigh, or get my foot stuck in mouth.

Being from the Missouri Ozarks, I grew up with a lot of “untraditional” home medical practices. We always figured that there was no need to waste the doc’s time if you could fix it yourself – kinda’ the same theory as changing your own oil on the family Chevy. It’s not that tough a job and the pros have more important stuff on their minds.

Nothing is worse than a hypochondriac (unless it’s a sick hypochondriac) and so, like I said, we often doctored ourselves. Bee stings were treated with a baking soda poultice. If you had a sore throat, you got a long Q-Tip and swabbed your throat with merthiolate. Chigger bites? Dry them up with toothpaste (preferably Crest). If you cut yourself, you doused the gash in hydrogen peroxide and connected the escaping folds of skin with duct tape. If you got strains or sprains or bone aches, you just sprayed some WD-40 on the afflicted area.

Many people dislike my usage of WD-40 on creaking joints. A friend of mine just about had a conniption fit when I sprayed a bunch of the stuff on her blown-out knee, but the pain was relieved within forty-five seconds and now she swears by this all-purpose rusty-nut buster/blown-out ACL remedy.

As an aside, WD-40 is also a pretty good scent to spray on nightcrawlers. The catfish seem to love it, and as an added benefit they don’t squeak when you cut into them

So, I’m all for docs. What I’m against is socialized style medicine ala El Presidente Obama. Both he, and the flaming liberals who sip at his tankard of Koolaid, seem to feel we should follow the lead of rotting countries like England and Canada and dispose of the advances in medicine that occur when physicians and surgeons and such are allowed to practice their arts in a free market economy.Those Socialist types would prefer that everyone have access to free health care, even if the folks who run the el-cheapo clinics can’t speak but about ten words of English and nine of those are “You want buy pretty brass elliefant? Only twenty dollar.” Have we forgotten that it was the government who gave us Amtrak, the U.S. Post Office, The IRS, Cash for Clunkers, and thousands of other enterprises and programs that work about as well as teats on a bull?

There is much discussion over a “public option,” but lets just face facts here. The entirety of Obamacare is nothing but a giant public option. The quality of care will plummet, and rationing is a given. You best hope you only have Stage One cancer at the time of diagnosis, because by the time you get a second appointment you will either be pushing Stage Four or pushing up daisies. You will wait, and wait, and wait, and it’s very possible that you will end up paying more for the privilege.

There are really only two goals behind federally mandated health care programs. The first is control. The current crop of clowns feel that they should control your every move, monitor your every whim. They believe they should not only tell you how to handle your health concerns, but also be allowed to pry into the most intimate details of your life. What’s more, if you refuse to participate, you will either be fined or tossed in the pokey.

The second goal is the outright destruction of the companies that offer health insurance. There is no way a private insurance company can compete against government insurance. If they even try, they will be fined and regulated up the wazoo. Seriously, how can a private insurance company make a profit if they have to cover those with pre-existing conditions for a minimal sum? This is a little like saying car insurance companies have to provide you with low-cost insurance after you’ve smashed your Camaro into a bridge.

Thanks to the liberals in Congress, there is a very good chance that government-run health care will be a reality. Over fifty percent of Americans don’t want it, but that matters not a whit to the folks in Washington. They view themselves as an aristocracy, and besides, they won’t have to use the crappy programs that you’ll be forced to endure. Your health care, if the government programs become a reality, will be provided by organizations devoted to providing the least amount of care at the cheapest cost and making big bucks by getting chintzy on service, I’d just as soon give my cash to a joint boasting a sign reading “Bar, Grill and Mortuary.”

Sadly, for America, it looks like some version of Obamacare will be a reality. The wishes of the citizens don’t matter, for we have a man in the White House who was suckled on the milk of radical socialism.

My suggestion, is that you stock up on baking soda, merthiolate, Crest, and WD-40.

You’re gonna’ need them.

Bob has completed his excellent book and is now trying to sell it. As the wise guy said “Anybody can write a book, but it takes a genius to sell it,” and part of the sales process will be for Bob to have a nice plump website full of thoughts about cancer.

These are mine. Please post some of your own so that Bob can add them to his website too.

*  *  *

I have known a lot of people to die of cancer. I am talking personally here. Not about celebrities or friends of friends I have never met, but people I have spoken to or who are related to me.

Despite the statistics which supposedly show an ever-increasing success rate, that is not my personal experience. I watch films on DVD and I see hospitals positively gloating in bright, shiny, intelligent, irrefutable medical and surgical gizmos. They are not my experience of the real world either. Product placement is great, but it hasn’t reached any UK hospital near me.

My experience of conventional medicine is this. The consultant looks over at the patient and says “This is what we are going to do ….” As my friend Margaret Gillies used to say “Is this the ‘I’ part of ‘we’ or is this the ‘you’ part of ‘we’, or will we be working together on this one?” In this case it is the medical professionals’ part of we. They are going to do it to you and you are going to lie there and take it. They are going to give you their best shot and you are going to live with the consequences.

I cannot say how it works in the US, but in the UK (with the worst national record of treating cancer in Europe) there is even a stage before this. “Mr. Smith, we do not know what is wrong with you. We are going to have to conduct some more tests.” Yes, those are the medical professionals who will be conducting the tests, not the patient who will be having things scanned and extracted.

Usually, the family, the friends, the postman and the cat know that Mr. Smith has cancer before the medical professionals do, or own up to knowing it at least. “It’s a benign polyps, they say. No sign of cancer.” And they may continue saying that for another two years

That was exactly what happened to my brother Bill, a truly lovely person who didn’t deserve any grief in his life and who managed to accumulate more than his fair share.

Once upon a time Bill was a Hull trawlerman. There is no job in England tougher than being a Hull trawlerman. However, the Hull fishing industry collapsed and he had to look for other work. He ended up in a quarry which, as you might guess, was full of fine carcinogenic dust. Bill, being a quasi-macho Northern bloke, failed to wear his dust mask. It actually didn’t matter. The dust mask he was given was next to useless anyway. After a few months he developed a chronic croak which would have served him well if he had nurtured ambitions to be a rock star, but wasn’t so much use at home. Thirty years on, his voice deteriorated rapidly, he lost significant amounts of weight with no plausible explanation, and he felt uncharacteristically weak much of the time.

He went to see a specialist. “You’ve got some polyps,” the specialist told him after running some tests, but they are benign. “Pop in and we’ll pop them out.”

I suspected otherwise. “Bill has cancer,” I told my mum who was nearly 90 by now and who had devoted herself to Bill’s welfare throughout her life since he suffered a level of brain damage as a child.

“Oh no, dear,” she replied, “the consultant assures us that there is no cancer there at all.”

“Ma,” I scoffed, “sudden weight loss, feeling ill, in pain. The consultant is an idiot.”

“Well that is what he said.” Not the idiot bit, apparently.

So Bill had some polyps taken out, and some more, and he lost more weight and he didn’t feel any better.

Eventually, my sister Sally decided to tackle the consultant. “We are concerned that Bill may have more than benign polyps,” she suggested tentatively.

The consultant swore, lost his temper, and threw her out of his office.

Brave man.

Sally and my other sister, Carolyn, got a second opinion. “Unfortunately, the growth now appears to be cancerous,’ the second consultant said.

Bill had a tracheotomy, which is to say that they cut his throat out and they put a separate tube through to his lungs to allow him to breathe.

Initially, Bill thought this was quite fun. He attracted a great deal of attention and had all his hospital visitors hanging on his every written word. Writing was not his strong point, but for all that attention he was going to stick with it.

The great worry in the family was whether Bill would ever manage to learn to speak with his new prosthetic device. He did, relatively quickly in fact. However, what nobody mentioned is that the plastic device they insert into your throat is an absolute abomination. Bill must have spent half his waking hours cleaning the part that was detachable. However, there was another part he needed to clean, and that was firmly built into his neck. To clean it he had to stick a brush down his oesophagus and twizzle it all around. He hated doing it, as did everybody else. If they weren’t careful, the plastic contraption disappeared down the hole altogether and Bill had to be dashed off to Accident & Emergency in the Hull Royal.

After a period of recovery, Bill fell apart, helped by acquiring a case of pneumonia for which he had to be hospitalised again, then the standard-issue Hull Royal Infirmary MRSA, then another hospital-acquired infection which eventually drowned him.

*  *  *

Twenty-five years ago, my father, at the age of 69, collapsed into a flower bed close to the house in outright agony. He too had been losing weight and not feeling well.

“We’ll do tests,” said the doctors.

Predictably, they couldn’t find anything.

For nearly two years they could not find anything. Eventually they announced that he had prostate cancer. Impressively, they were the last people to know by at least a year.

However, they did have a cunning plan. Their theory was that semen accelerated the growth of prostate cancer so they strongly suggested that my father be castrated. Such a course of action might have been motivational for someone wishing to build his nascent career in a sultan’s harem, but for a seventy-year-old dying man one had to have one’s doubts. The operation was a great success. My father deteriorated faster than ever and died six months’ later.

I suppose one could stand and admire the amount of accumulated wisdom and knowledge his medical team had acquired over the years, but my assessment is that you really have to be a special class of buffoon to be quite so moronically ignorant, and Hull Royal Infirmary seems to have bought its lemons in bulk.

Sadly, I can go on with cases like this for a very long time. In fact, out of my personal experience I can summon only my cousin who survived post-menopausal breast cancer and two friends who had hysterectomies as some sort of evidence that the medical profession can address cancer. Everybody else I know died after great worry, great optimism, great gadgetry, great cost and then “Sorry, the treatment is not working.”

On the other hand, I know personally almost an equal number of people to those who have died using conventional treatments who have recovered from cancer using alternative therapies.

But that is another story and I am sure I am imagining them anyway.

from ConspiraZine Magazine–posted below:

911 and Avian Flu Legislation Were For the Sake of Martial Law: Just Say No to Mandatory Vaccines

In America, we may be on the verge of martial law, the current excuse being the threat of Avian Flu. While remaining calm, we do need to address this potential while we still have the freedom to do so. Perhaps we can stave it off if we look squarely at what is happening, and why. We have to look more deeply into the reality of vaccines, and why they are really being imposed upon us. We can look at 911 to realize that the government will use any deception to control us more. 911 didn’t work to bring total martial law, which is what it was intended to do, so bird flu is now being used to accomplish that state. Martial law is not being used as a last resort because of disaster out of our control. Martial law is the goal, and the disasters are hoisted on the public for the express purpose of making them give up their freedoms. Let’s not.

While Bush’s publicly proposed martial law in response to Avian Flu may seem like an answer to a problem, the “problem” is martial law. Republican Congressman Ron Paul represents the 14th Congressional district of Texas. He also serves on the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, and the International Relations committee. On the Alex Jones show, he said this about Avian Flu: “I believe it is the President hyping this and Rumsfield, but it has to be in combination with the people being fearful enough that they will accept the man on the white horse. My first reaction going from my political and medical background is that it’s way overly hyped and to think that they have gone this far with it, without a single case in the whole country and they’re willing to change the law and turn it into a military state? That is unbelievable! They’re determined to have martial law. ….”They don’t want any resistance to their authoritarian rule.” (www.prisonplanet.com)

Obviously, it is not only conspiracy buffs and militia spouting off about martial law abuse. On Ted Koppel’s Nightline, former Bush official, Richard Clarke, told us we should get used to the idea the Bush Regime will sponsor a cataclysmic event for the purpose of martial law.

Stanley Hilton was a senior adviser and chief of staff for Senator Bob Dole and has personally known Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz for decades. On the Alex Jones show, he said: “This (9/11) was all planned. This was a government-ordered operation. Bush personally signed the order. He personally authorized the attacks. He is guilty of treason and mass murder.”

How can we turn our backs when all around us people are exposing the government’s plan to take us over? Reporter Steve Watson at www.infowars.com shows how the federal government, under the Bush administration is using any excuse to usher in Martial Law. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a terrorist attack, a threat, a fake threat, or a natural disaster. Bush wants the ability to declare Martial Law. He wants the power to declare war IN the United States.”

http://www.firedupmissouri.com/node/335 After 9/11, plans for martial law plans became obvious. The Pentagon proposed deploying troops on American streets. In April 2002, Defense Dept. officials created a new U.S. Northern Command (CINC-NORTHCOM) for the continental United States. The Command will respond to attacks and natural disasters. Bush also created the National Security Service (NSS); a branch of the FBI that answers completely to his authority.

Political scientist and lawyer Stanley Hilton, Bob Dole’s chief of staff, interviewed people working for NORAD and the Air Force, who said there were five drills that simulated the events of 911, or dress rehearsals, on Sept. 11^th, and at least 35 drills over at least two months before. (The Alex Jones Show.)

Dr. Paul Rea, who wrote the book Still Seeking the Truth About 911, tells us that, with no evidence to support it, the 911 Commission Report altered the timeline for many significant events of the day. For example, government agencies had established that the Air Force was alerted about a plane at 9:16 a.m.. But the report changed it to 10:07. 51 minutes later than it happened.

Former MI5 counter subversion agent David Shayler points out that the Twin Towers and the never- shown- on- TV sudden collapse 8 hours later of WTC Building 7 were the first buildings ever to fall from fire damage. No other buildings have ever gone down exactly like a controlled demolition unless they were controlled demolitions. In which case, they’d need a good deal of preparation and access to the buildings. Who would have had access to the buildings? Well, hmm, Marvin, the President’s brother, was in charge of the security for the WTC.

Shayler has gone on the record concluding 9/11 was an inside job as a pretext for the already planned invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq and ultimately Iran and Syria. Shayler says the evidence suggests the attack was supposed to create enough damage to allow martial law.

Bush signed orders giving him sole authority to impose martial law, suspend habeas corpus and ignore the Posse Comitatus Act, which disallows deployment of U.S. troops in our country. This allows the Constitution to be suspended, martial law to be declared, people to be imprisoned in internment camps, and the President to seize control of the entire government.

KATRINA

White House senior adviser Karl Rove ordered the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, to find a way to impose martial law, in September 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, we were told by the Washington Post. The White House tried unsuccessfully to force Gov. Blanco to yield control of the state National Guard. Preceding Katrina, Donald Rumsfeld had repeatedly said that he wanted to use the military domestically. The administration was put the Pentagon in charge. This caused a 3 day holdup in the federal response to the tragedy. The choice was made to withhold aid until the governor capitulated.

In Washington,as William Arkin reported in the Washington Post, NORTHCOM conducted Granite Shadow exercises. “Granite Shadow is yet another new Top Secret and compartmented operation related to the military’s extra-legal powers regarding weapons of mass destruction. It allows for emergency military operations in the United States without civilian supervision or control.”

“Visible Intermodal Protection and Response” teams, or VIPER teams, patrol various mass transit systems such as Amtrak, ferries, and bus stations. This began one week after the incident in Miami where Rigoberto Alpizar was gunned down on board American Airlines Flight 924 for supposedly saying he had a bomb. According to witnesses, Alpizar never screamed that he had a bomb. Passengers said they were more frightened of Air Marshals putting guns to their head and threatening them not to look at what was taking place. The incident was an excuse for more Federal militarized police in the public.

VACCINES

911 and Katrina have set the stage for the quarantine imposing mandatory vaccines, requiring martial law. 911 shows that the government is capable of putting one over on the public in order to control us. Now, we see one way they are attempting to do this right now, and I would ask all reading this to contact authorities, and write letters, and pass along this article, in order to stop their current ploy, which is the Pandemic Preparedness bill called BioShield Two. If it is not allowed now, martial law may be postponed long enough for the population to wake up to the deceptions, and may be avoided forever. In the meantime, just say no to vaccines. My article will explain the reasons this is important to do.

Bush’s announced on on major TV stations that he would impose martial law to enforce mandatory vaccines if one case is found to jump from person to person. Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate Dean of Columbia University’s School of Public Health for Disaster Preparedness, told the Associated Press that giving the military a law enforcement role would be an “extraordinarily Draconian measure” that would be unnecessary for the distribution of vaccines.

“The translation of this is martial law in the United States,” said Redlener.

We’re exposed to harmful chemicals every day, but some of the most damaging are delivered in supposedly benign vaccines. Vaccines are implicated in causing cancer, autism, Alzheimers, Guilliane-Barre, heart trouble, developmental diseases, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, lupus, MS, ALS, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, and many more pandemics. Some people have been able to avoid vaccinations to some degree, but now the government, sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies are using the fear of an avian flu pandemic to coerce people to accept a mass vaccination by companies who have contaminated the public in the past. The pharmaceutical companies are now being told, through the bill called Bioshield Two, that they should make vaccines even more quickly, surmising what mutation may possibly develop. The bill gives them the message it doesn’t matter if the vaccines are contaminated. Stopping this bill from passing could be the most important thing we can do to avoid martial law, which will be imposed in order to force the American people into having vaccines. S 1873 was considered in committee in October, and was recommended to be considered by the Senate as a whole.

If we want to keep some semblance of freedom, it’s the time to stop the bird flu vaccine and anti-virals from being mandatory. Yet, while we were watching the BioShield Two, in December, Senator Frist’s Pandemic Funding, Lability Shield Cleared Congress while snuck in with the defense spending bill. We already have much to counteract.

The bill provides $3.8 billion for pandemic influenza preparedness and a liability shield for those who produce and administer drugs and vaccines used in a declared public health emergency $350 million goes into vaccine production, and stockpiling antiviral drugs.

People who are damaged by the drugs can sue only if they prove “willful misconduct” by those who made or administered it. This is our task. We must prove that this is not being done for our welfare.

But Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Speaks for us when he says that the bill allows the HHS secretary to use a variety of common diseases as an excuse to activate the liability shield. He is backed by Senators Tom Harkin from Iowa and Chris Dodd from Connecticut.

Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, allows the HHS secretary to apply the liability protection by declaring an emergency. No criteria are given and it is not open to court review. Should we just hunker down and accept vaccines? Many people still believe the story that they are useful and safe. However, I will show that this is not the case.

In the pretense of stopping or abating one specific illness, vaccines damage the immune system, creating the possibility for future physical ailments. The U.S. National Vaccine Information Center reports more than 54,000 adverse events following vaccination, such as convulsions, encephalitis, and death were reported to the FDA between 1990 and 1993. The FDA says that only ten percent of doctors report adverse effects. Of course, only a very small number of patients would even recognize that their illness was related to a vaccination, especially as not all occur immediately. And only a small number would report reactions they identified. Connaght Laboratories, a vaccine manufacturer, believes that a fifty-fold under-reporting of adverse effects occurs, and considering their line of business, we should multiply that figure greatly.

A physician, Montague Leverson, M.D., Ph.D., M.A., said, “Now the forcing of these inoculations upon individuals by law is one of the worst tyrannies imaginable, and should be resisted, even to the death of the official who is enforcing it.” (Pearson, The Dream and Lie of Louis Pasteur.)

The Center for Disease Control, admitted that almost every case of polio in the U.S. between 1980 and 1994 was caused by the vaccine itself. You can only imagine that they, who are in the unfortunate business of promoting vaccines, would give us as little against vaccines as they could get away with. If even the have to admit the truth to come into some semblance of realism, we can see that there is some evidence t hat can�t be swept under the rug entirely, much as they would like to.

The Centers for Disease Control has been injecting children with high levels of mercury (called Thimerosal) in almost all vaccines. Although we are told not to eat fish with mercury, we are required to stand by while health professionals inject it.

Why the persistence in using mercury? The Bush family and the administration have many ties to Eli Lilly, the makers of Thimerosol used as a preservative. Bush senior sat on the company’s board in the 1970′s. Eli Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel is on the homeland security advisory council.

White House budget director Mitch Daniels was an Eli Lilly executive.

The effects of Thimersol are identifiable, including ADD, ADHD, autism, trouble focusing and coping, personality disorders, and depression, and other symptoms. Teen Screen and New Freedom Commission screens every child, every year, for mental illness, in order to find children they can administer more drugs to.

If the CDC admitted the real problem, parents would be told to check out the possible mercury cause of their children’s apparent personality and mental dysfunction.

Instead, children are often prescribed psychiatric drugs, which are degenerative, linked to suicide, violent crimes, and physical ailments. Zyprexa, for example, can cause hyperglycemia/diabetes in one week�s time. The side effects of these prescribed drugs are the focus of national lawsuits.

Vaccine safety studies are only allowed for 14 days maximum after the shot, and they compare a new vaccine to a so-called placebo. However, the placebo is not a benign, inert substance. It is another vaccine. If the new vaccine has the same side effects as the “placebo”, the new vaccine is called “safe.”

Numerous DC documents show that antibodies are not proven to protect from infection. For example: “The findings of efficacy studies have not demonstrated a direct correlation between antibody response and protection against pertussis disease.” MMWR March 28, 1997/Vol.46/No. RR-7, p.4

Globally, we are being told by our governments that we must take pandemic vaccines and that martial law may be required to handle the process, with restrictions on travel, for example, enforced at gunpoint. The bill shielding pharmaceutical companies from public scrutiny and no liability also creates the first agency to have no liability. The Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005 (S. 1873), “Bioshield Two”, sponsored by Senator Burr, would create the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency, BARDA, which would be exempt from open records.

This is the time to contact the Senators, as the bill is now on the calendar. Now is the time to make some noise. It would be impossible here to cover the whole subject of vaccine history and how they are not helpful but harmful, and all the negative effects of them on the body and society. Knowing the facts about vaccines in particular and government deception in general will help us all be better able to deal with what�s happening in this country and the world. I am proposing that you learn some facts to ready yourself for spreading the word about vaccines to your associates. Memorize a few. So here are a few �strange� numerical facts in question and answer format:

Quiz 1: HOW MANY NON- VACCINATED HAVE AUSTISM?

The mercury in vaccines is believed by many researchers to be responsible for autism. But the numbers are manipulated in the false reports paid for by the vaccine companies and put into the public as if it were true. This type of procedure is the modus operandi in the pharmaceutical field. It is difficult to find subjects who have remained unvaccinated. Can you guess how many among one set of these control subjects had autism?

In Deadly Immunity, Robert Kennedy Jr. tells us that Dan Olmsted used the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania as control subjects in the effects of vaccines, as they refuse to immunize their babies. According to the national rate of autism, Olmsted should have found 130 Amish autistics. There were four. One had been exposed to high levels of mercury from a power plant. The other three autistics in the community had been vaccinated.

Quiz 2: HOW MANY TIMES MORE CHILDREN HAD AUTISM IF EXPOSED TO THE AMOUNT OF MERCURY CONTAINED IN VACCINES?

Andy Waters, with the law firm of Waters & Kraus, who is suing on behalf of the victims of autism, made public a confidential version of a report by the Centers for Disease Control about how a mercury preservative in children’s vaccines causes neurological damage. A falsified version of the report previously made public by the CDC has been used to say the results are inconclusive. The true, confidential version that Waters demonstrated that an exposure to more than 62.5 micrograms of mercury within the first three months of life greatly increased a child’s risk of developing autism.

Children with the exposure were more than twice as likely to develop autism as children not exposed.

The confidential report, states: “As for the exposure evaluated at 3 months of age, we found increasing risks of ‘neurological developmental disorders’ with increasing cumulative exposure to thimerosal … within the group of ‘developmental disorders’… for the sub-group called ‘specific delays,’ and within this sub-group for the specific disorder ‘developmental speech disorder,’ and for ‘autism,’ ‘stuttering’ and ‘attention deficit disorder.’” VaccineInfo.net describes this in more detail.

Quiz 3: HOW MANY MORE CHILDREN DIE IF THEY ARE GIVEN DPT VACCINES?

Children die at a rate of three times the normal rate within three days after receiving dpt vaccinations, such as those created by Chiron. (The American Journal of Epidemiology.) As is typically the case, diptheria had declined 90 percent before the vaccines were created, and the public is led to believe the vaccines were responsible. According to the Presidential Address of the British Association for the Advancement of Sciences, deaths of children under 15 attributed to diptheria declined by 90 percent from 1850 to 1940 due to improved sanitation. Antibiotics and widespread, compulsory vaccinations against diptheria were introduced in 1940.

Quiz 4: HOW MANY STUDENTS GIVEN THE CHICKENPOX VACCINE NOW HAVE IT, AT A KINDERGARTEN IN WISHCONSIN?

According to the La Crosse Tribune, in a current outbreak of chickenpox in the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau School District, in Wisconsin, all but two of the 44 sick children were vaccinated against it. At the Kindernook Learning Center, 36 of 99 kindergartners developed chickenpox. No manufacturer has reported a problematic batch of vaccines.

Quiz 5: HOW MANY ANTHRAX VACCINE HOSPITALIZATIONS DID THE PENTAGON HIDE?

According to The Daily Press, the Pentagon didn�t inform Congress about over 20,000 hospitalizations involving troops who had been vaccinated against anthrax. Generals and Defense Department officials told Congress that fewer than 100 people were hospitalized or became seriously ill after vaccinations between 1998 and 2000.

Quiz 6: HOW MANY DOSES OF CONTAMINATED VACCINES DID CHIRON PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY UNDER- REPORT?

As reported by people like Kathryn Dixon, though the Brits caught Chiron with 60 million doses of contaminated vaccine, Chiron still tried to cover-up and convince the U.S. government to allow the vaccine to be used. Additionally, Chiron said they had only shipped one million already, though it was actually 6 million. Even though damages often take an extended period to show up,they moniter subjects for ONLY up to 7 days for side effects. And that�s BEFORE the bill.

Quiz 7: HOW MANY SENATORS HOLD STOCK IN VACCINE MANUFACTURING COMPANIES?

U.S. Newswire reported that, according to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, forty-two Senators own stock in pharmaceutical companies, which is a conflict of interest, as they vote on legislation which benefits the drug industry. Drug companies give them gifts as well, so are we surprised that they are passing the bill that says drug companies making vaccines need make nothing open to the public any more?

Dr. Alan Cantwell, who wrote Doctors of Death: An Inquiry into the Origin of the AIDS Epidemic, tells us that AIDS first appeared in the New York city gay population in 1979 a few months after a vaccine experiment began in Manhattan, with vaccines said to be purposefully contaminated with HIV virus which was created in the lab. Twenty percent of the gay men who volunteered for the experimental hepatitis-B vaccine in New York later became HIV-positive. Manhattan men had the highest rate of HIV in the world. While I don�t agree that HIV actually causes AIDS, this is still worth investigating.

Quiz 8: WHAT IS THE PROBABILITY THAT THE BIRD FLU WILL MUTATE TO BE HUMAN-TO-HUMAN CONTAGIOUS?

The Congressional Budget Office says the likelihood of a flu pandemic is less than one-third of one percent, according to Atlanta Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Yet the whole world is being told they have to take the vaccines, and the neurotoxin Tamilflu, which supports Rumsfield. Are the labs creating yet another illness, or are they just using the potential for mutation as a scare tactic, and a money maker for Pharma and the government leaders who are tied to it?

Quiz 9: HOW MANY OF US WOULD BE QUARANTINED BY THE ARMY UNDER MARTIAL LAW?

The World Health Organization predicted authorities using the army and police to quarantine about 120,000 people to contain an initial pandemic flu outbreak of just 19 cases, reported David Pilling, Jan. 13^th, Medical Journal.

There is nothing stopping the drug companies from giving us whatever contaminated and harmful vaccines they want to. If BioShield Two passes, that would be the best time for mandatory vaccination of the population. But the bill in place since December is probably all they need, and they could move forward on this at any time, unless we raise our voices and support the Senators opposing this. If the medical authorities wanted to say the bird flu had mutated, they would. If they wanted to make it do so, they could. And if they wanted it to mutate, they could make it do so in the labs. Either way, this would give them the chance to declare martial law. The government has been looking for an excuse to declare martial law. They were close on 9-11 and they�re not giving up on the �holy grail� of martial law. We must prevent them from having any excuse to start rounding people up.

Tantra Bensko, M.A., M.F.A.

]]> http://www.speakwithoutinterruption.com/site/2009/09/9353/feed/ 2 http://www.speakwithoutinterruption.com/site/2009/09/eat-less-extend-your-life/ http://www.speakwithoutinterruption.com/site/2009/09/eat-less-extend-your-life/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:10:37 +0000 scottqmarcus http://www.speakwithoutinterruption.com/site/?p=8916 There is no more sought-after dream than that of eternal life.

Since Ponce de Leon set foot in the new world – and well before that – we have been seeking the fountain of youth, the ability to live longer in good health. “We’re so close to adding another 20 to 50 years to the human lifespan, that not only are we in the neighborhood, we’re on the block; we’re just looking for the right door,” I was recently informed. The key to the house remains hidden.

For yeast, flies, and rodents however, it’s time to party! Scientists have long known that dramatically cutting calories extends their lives. (Who knew that yeast even ate?) Alas, since we do not cavort among baking additives, we have been left out of such advances. Yet, there is hope.

In a recent report, it was discovered that rhesus monkeys, arguably more our kin than yeast, that have been put on a low-calorie diet live longer and healthier lives. Researchers divided 38 monkeys into two groups. One group was put on a diet with 30 percent fewer calories than the other. After two decades, five of the monkeys on the restricted diet had died of normal age-related causes, compared with 14 monkeys on the normal diet. Beyond that, the monkeys on the restricted diet were healthier overall, with no diabetes, and fewer cases of cancer or cardiovascular disease.

“The monkeys on a normal diet also looked visibly older, their eyes more sunken in and their coats thinner and posture cramped when compared with their dieting counterparts,” according to Ricki J. Colman, lead author of the paper.

It is assumed that since monkeys and humans are genetic cousins, such diets might slow aging in people, too. However, due to the long lifespan of people and the rigors of the diet, studies of calorie restriction in humans are ongoing and have yet to show that people live longer. Nonetheless, thousands of individuals now follow calorie restriction diets, hoping to discover what de Leon did not.

In the interest of understanding what life would be like on a calorie-restricted diet, I did some research and found a typical “day in the life.” Here, soup to nuts, is the purported menu required for a longer time on this planet.

Breakfast:
One cup non-fat cottage cheese, 23 nuts, one cup berries, one nutrition bar

Lunch:
Five ounces skinless chicken breast (boiled, baked or roasted), broccoli, cauliflower, one tablespoon olive oil, one medium orange

Meal preparation:
Cook chicken. Add to plate with broccoli and cauliflower. Add olive oil and herbs and spices. Have orange for dessert.

Snack:
One cup non-fat yogurt, six nuts (Whoa! Don’t eat them all in one bite!)

Dinner:
Two cups green, leafy salad (may include lettuce, cabbage, spinach), three ounce salmon filet (canned low-salt or fresh-baked), seven ounce sweet potato (baked), one tablespoon olive oil, herbs and spices, one tablespoon vinegar

Meal preparation:
Sprinkle vinegar, herbs, spices and half of olive oil over salad and salmon. Sprinkle remaining olive oil over sweet potato; have potato for dessert.

There you have it, the bill of fare to achieve a longer life. Don’t get me wrong; I plan on hanging out on Mother Earth for many a decade. However, if a sweet potato smattered with a few drops of oil for dessert is the price to live to 125, I’m not quite sure it’s worth it. Maybe I could have a chocolate bar once in awhile and make it to 120.

About the author: Scott “Q” Marcus is a THINspirational speaker and author. Since losing 70 pounds over 14 years ago, he conducts speeches, workshops, and presentations throughout the country. Join him on facebook at facebook.com/scottqmarcustwitter.com/bestdietingtips or follow him on twitter at

This is a common condition and statistics show one in ten have symptoms of IBS. Where celiac affects the small intestine, IBS affects the large intestine, also called the colon. While IBS is painful, it doesn’t damage the colon or digestive system and it doesn’t lead to other health issues. Just so we are on the same page – the large intestine or colon is where the stool is stored. If you are experiencing these symptoms and have been diagnosed with IBS, there are simple, natural strategies you can use in place of drugs like the antispasmodics and antidepressants that are typically prescribed and carry their own side-effects.

Going on a gluten-free diet is the first and most basic step. While there are many gluten-free foods available today, gluten is “hidden” in many foods you might not suspect.  So you must be vigilant about reading labels and making wise choices.

Another issue to consider is whether you may be allergic or sensitive to other foods as this can also trigger IBS. The most common food allergens besides wheat and dairy are eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts like walnuts or cashews, fish and shellfish. The best way to determine if you are sensitive to one of these foods is to keep a food diary. This is one of the first things I have clients do. You can and should do this for yourself.  Once you suspect a food, it is best to eliminate it from your diet for several weeks and then reintroduce it gradually to determine whether you are truly sensitive to it.

Along with food allergies/sensitivities, keep in mind that it is important to eat for your metabolic type.   Very simply, the three basic metabolic types are: Protein, Carb or Mixed. Your specific nutritional needs must be met based on your unique biochemistry.  Nutrition affects overall health in a very powerful way.

It goes without saying that eating nutrient-dense, fresh, high quality unprocessed food is the foundation of a healthy diet.  The more high sugar, processed food you eat, the greater the chance it contains gluten or another offending substance that can cause problems for you.

Besides adding a quality probiotic and enzyme supplement to your regimen, fiber is very helpful in controlling IBS symptoms. Fiber is important for many reasons and whole flax seeds not only provide necessary fiber but quality plant based omega-3 fats as well.

Finally, many people with IBS are found to have unresolved emotional issues and stress, which is why antidepressants are often prescribed for this condition. I would suggest prayer, meditation and other stress management and relaxation techniques.  Prayer is one of the most powerful and effective stress-reducing strategies known to man.  I highly recommend it!

So what is celiac disease? It is an autoimmune disease that is caused by the genetic inability to digest gluten, which is the protein portion of many common grains – particularly wheat. This undigested protein then attacks the body’s immune system causing inflammation and damaging the small intestine. Damage to the small intestine results in the inability to absorb nutrients from your food, leading to malnutrition.

While celiac is considered a “digestive disorder” and the “classic” symptoms include weight loss, chronic diarrhea, bloating and abdominal pain, here’s the kicker – there are often a wide variety of symptoms that seem to be unrelated to digestion. They can range from anemia, dementia, infertility, bone pain, weakness/fatigue, mouth sores, dehydration, back pain, tooth enamel defects, irritability or depression. Many people who have been diagnosed with celiac disease actually report no symptoms at all!

Because the symptoms vary so widely (depending on the severity and amount of damage to the intestine) and the disease itself can mimic other conditions, this disorder is frequently misdiagnosed. Studies have shown it takes anywhere from 5 to 10 YEARS from the first onset of symptoms to correctly diagnose celiac. This delay in properly diagnosing the disease results in extremely ill health and needless suffering for many.

It has recently been recommended that in diagnosing ANY chronic problem, celiac should be considered as a possible underlying cause. The reason for this is that the majority of people with celiac have no symptoms and the rest may experience a wide range of symptoms which seem unrelated. For example neurological conditions, such as migraines, may be the result of gluten sensitivity. The connection between celiac and osteoporosis is so common that it is recommended that all patients diagnosed with osteoporosis be screened for celiac as well.

Other studies show that the damage and inflammation in the intestines caused by celiac is the primary cause of most autoimmune diseases. Other diseases that are associated with celiac are: chronic fatigue syndrome, gall bladder disease, liver disease, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, depression, psychiatric problems, epilepsy, skin conditions, obesity, alcoholism, recurrent pancreatitis, lymphoma and arthritis. Nearly every one of these conditions show improvement with a gluten-free diet, which happens to be the only treatment for celiac disease.

There is no “cure” for celiac but symptoms can be controlled by following a gluten-free diet. There are also supplements that can help the body recover from the damaging effects of the autoimmune reactions. Probiotics are helpful for gastrointestinal health by providing necessary good bacteria to digest food. Digestive enzymes allow for better absorption of nutrients while the gastrointestinal tract is recovering. You can find gluten free supplements and I strongly recommend you do. There are also gluten-free cosmetics and as odd as that may sound, that’s also something to consider if you are dealing with celiac.  If a gluten-free diet is not followed, there is a greater risk for gastric cancer and lymphoma. Proper diagnosis and management is critical in addressing these risks as well as correcting the inability to absorb nutrients.

The connection between a healthy digestive system, proper nutrition and supplementation and overall health is clear!

Back to the original subject, which is how to rebalance your system and get the good bacteria to outnumber the bad as it is supposed to.

Here are some simple things you can do:

1. Do not use antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals unless absolutely necessary. Antiobiotics are extremely overused and a major factor in the overgrowth of Candida. Make every effort to use and exhaust all natural methods before resorting to pharmaceutical drugs. A good natural alternative to regular antibiotics is using colloidal silver. This is a very effective natural antibiotic which will address the bad bacteria without killing the good. There are other natural supplements you can use to strengthen the immune system and fight off invaders as well as herbs and supplements that are used specifically for dealing with Candida.
2. Eliminate sugar in all forms including refined grains, alcohol, milk/dairy products, dried fruit, peanuts and peanut butter (which contain certain molds that can stress the immune system).
3. Clean up the diet: eat clean, nutrient-dense, fresh foods, including properly prepared, soaked whole grains IN MODERATION; raw or gently cooked vegetables; legumes and beans; no more than 3 pieces of fresh fruit daily while dealing with Candida overgrowth; seeds and nuts; milk alternatives such as almond, hemp, oat or rice milk. They do not contain lactose, which also feeds Candida.
4. Increase your fiber intake as this will help clear the colon and reduce inflammation. Include natural fiber sources such as old fashioned or steel cut oats, flax seeds, chia seeds and fresh, leafy green vegetables.
5. Consider adding coconut oil to your diet. It is an extremely healthy form of fat which not only improves metabolism but also contains lauric acid which is antimicrobial and antifungal. It has been shown to be very effective in dealing with Candida.
6. I suggest you begin using a good quality probiotic. Eating fermented vegetables and foods like miso is an excellent way to increase the good bacteria in your system.  If you eat yogurt, be sure it is not the fruit-on-the-bottom or flavored kind, which are high in sugar.  Plain kefir is another good option.
7. I also recommend you try to use a good quality enzyme supplement with every meal, as well as between meals on an empty stomach. Using it with meals helps you digest your food more effectively (preventing unnecessary fermentation) and using it between meals on an empty stomach will actually help clear the yeast and bacteria from the system.

Identifying and dealing with stress in your life, getting sufficient rest, learning and using effective relaxation techniques and getting adequate exercise are also recommendations for balancing your system and getting rid of yeast overgrowth.  You cannot deal with only one aspect. We are complex, tri-part beings and spirit, soul and body must all be addressed as each impacts the others.

Candida is a yeast overgrowth that is reaching epidemic proportions and is associated with a wide range of illnesses and conditions.  Most women have experienced the discomfort of a “vaginal yeast infection.” A yeast overgrowth or infection is precisely what Candida is. It is the same yeast that causes thrush in infants. It can be responsible for a whole host of symptoms that can easily be misdiagnosed or overlooked. Here are some of the symptoms that Candida can produce:

General, unexplained fatigue, food cravings (particularly sugar cravings), cold hands and feet, joint pain, heartburn, feeling “spacey,” depression, poor memory, tingling, bloating, constipation, crying, anxiety, alcohol intolerance, chemical sensitivities, athlete’s foot, sensitivity to bright lights, blood sugar imbalances, increased allergy symptoms like hives, food allergies, hay fever and menstrual irregularities. Candida can also grow through the intestinal wall causing leaky gut syndrome to develop. This, of course, allows undigested food particles to enter the blood stream and cause inflammation and allergic reaction.

Be aware that even though it is commonly known as a yeast infection and seems to be more common in women, men can have Candida as well. It does not discriminate! Yeast infections can occur anywhere in the body and affect the skin, mouth, digestive tract, esophagus and urinary tract.  Many health experts are now researching the possible connection between Candida and cancer.

So what causes Candida to develop? The primary cause of imbalances in gut flora (the bacteria that populates your digestive system) is antibiotic use. Antibiotics kill bacteria – and they don’t discriminate – they kill the good and the bad, thus causing the imbalance. Other drugs can also lead to a Candida problem such as steroids and oral contraceptives.

Excessive consumption of alcohol, sugar and white, refined carbohydrate foods also trigger a spike in yeast growth. Yeast feeds on sugar.  In order to activate the yeast in any recipe, you “feed” it some sugar. And all white flour, processed foods like white bread, pasta, rice, etc. are very quickly converted to sugar when you eat them. Yeasts also create alcohol from sugar! One study actually proved that patients with Candida overgrowth became intoxicated after a high carb meal! This infection also affects people with weakened immune systems. Other causes include emotional and mental stress.

I believe this type of yeast overgrowth has reached epidemic proportions because of the typical, refined carbohydrate and processed food diet and high stress lifestyle that is so common today. Good nutrition is vital and this is a great example of why.

Cleaning up your diet and eating a nutrient-dense, whole foods diet is the first step to improving your health. It is also the most critical change you can make.

When people talk about the global market and product safety they usually say the Chinese don’t care about their own so you know they don’t care about the rest of us. The same can be said for drug manufacturers in this country. There products are not poisonous- not at first. It takes time for them to pileup in your system and cause everything from leg cramps to liver damage. Years ago I had a cough that would not go away and my doctor prescribed a medicine that was sure to ease my annoyance with hacking all the time. On the way home on the bus I read the side effects: possible nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and a rash. It was just an annoying cough, I didn’t have a fever or congestion. There was no way I wanted to get sick to get better. I remember something I had heard before: you can take medicine and get rid of a cold in seven days or you can do nothing and get rid of it in a week.  The cough went away on its own and drinking lots of liquids helped soothe my throat.

Ever since I have dutifully read every side effect of every medication any doctor prescribes for me. I make the decision whether or not to take it often asking the physician what happens if I don’t follow his medicinal advice. Pharmaceutical companies give doctors free samples, among other things, to prescribe their medications. Some save lives we must admit. But then there are those commercials that scare the hell out of me. Bright happy commercials that promise you better health if you ask your doctor for this but it might cause death. Why would I ask my doctor for a medicine to cure what ails me if it is going to kill me? And why should I ask my doctor for anything? Shouldn’t he recommend something?

On the other hand shouldn’it I do something with my life so that I don’t always need a doctor?

My current doctor offered me some options when I complained about a chest pain that was ruled out as anything to do with my heart. I was grateful that he took my suffering seriously as he explained that the standard for measuring heart disease has always been the symptoms of white men so we have to take the symptoms of women, which are completely different most of the time, seriously. After all the tests he thought I had pulled something or done something to my upper body muscles. The recommended options were a week or two on steroids which would ease the pain or seeing a physical therapist which might help me learn to eliviate the problem with drugs. He gave me the choice and I was glad to take the latter. The thought of steroids frightened me since I know they work but there are those damn side effects. The physical therapy actually made me feel like I was doing something to take care of my health.

Like those who loose weight, change their diet or stop smoking. You are participating in your own health care. But taking drugs is something we have become accoustomed to in a world where we desire a quick fix for everything.

I overheard a woman complaining about her husband’s snoring the other day and her friend responded: “Girl, don’t they have a pill for that?” I could have told her they have a pill for everything but it isn’t always worth it. Over the years I started using ear plugs when my husband snores. I know women who take sleeping pills to knock them out so they don’t have their partners. But I also know that studies have shown there are many different causes of snoring and not all of them require an operation or drugs. At the top of the list is alcohol consumption. The more you drink the louder you snore. The young woman could probably recount the times her husband had a few too many beers and ended up sounding like a freight train. Talking change of habits to him would be cheaper and healthier than her addiction to sleeping pills.

And that to me is the most frightening thing about our connections with the drug companies: the number of young people who want a quick cure all in a pill. I know young women who live on extra strength Tylenol every month because of their menstrual cramps. For five days they take over the maximum dose of tablets so they can work and play and party with less pain. Diet, weather, even wearing too tight clothes contributes to pain during one’s cycle but perhaps adapting the body to change is not what they want to do. Less salt a week before one’s period starts can lessen bloating, but we have a pill for that so why bother cutting down on the high sodium foods you eat? Guys want to look better, workout longer, push themselves to be body builders- there’s a pill for that. Why bother with juices or homemade drinks of natural ingredients that give you more energy when you can take a pill and bam, there is all the energy you need to get those muscles.

The side effects will come back to haunt you in the end. Simply taking one prescription or over the counter medication can lead to problems as you age- or some of them can help you age faster. Then of course some of them might kill you. It says so on the commercial and it has to say so on the label. Pills can kill and there are too many of them on the market to be safe. The drug companies push to get medications out that will ‘help’ us- but they come at a cost. What would happen if medications were required to be side effect free? Unfortuantely there would be no pharmacies anymore because the time line to find the perfect pill would be forever and what kind of profit is in that?

Even natural substances have some side effects if taken incorrectly but companies aren’t pushing those. Right now too many of us are  dedicated to helping the pharmaceutical companies get wealthy simply by attitude. We need our fix and we need it now. We should try to be more patient with ourselves and learn to treat our bodies better but that’s the problem- we are impatient with everything in this universe.

Do they have a pill for that?

Do you know that a teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar can help you live a longer life? In the age of plastic surgery this may be difficult to grasp. How can something so insignificant have an awesome effect on your life? Well give me the chance to explain.

I was told a story by my fiancée that changed my entire belief about apple cider vinegar forever! One day my fiancée went to see his Ophthalmologist to purchase another pair of glasses. After his eye examination, the eye doctor asked him a question. He asked, “How old do you think I am?” My significant other replied, “You must be around 65.” The Ophthalmologist responded, “No, I am 80 years old. The secret is to have a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar once a day.” My husband came home and told me the news immediately. He did his research and concluded that we should purchase some right away!

Every morning I would take a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. This became a part of my daily health regimen. As I stated in a prior article, I would not suggest anything that I have not utilized myself. I tell you, this is a hidden gem! My fiancée would even take a teaspoon when he experienced indigestion. The many purposes of apple cider vinegar are astounding. Although there is not heaps of medical evidence to support this claim, I have heard the testimonies of believers in the miracle of sour wine.

Vinegar originates from the French word meaning ‘sour wine’. This is honestly truth. Did you know that vinegar is a result of fermentation? Yes, this is how wine is produced! In the beginning stages, the sugar from the fruit is turned into alcohol. As the process continues, the alcohol converts into vinegar. I honestly did not know this. I guess you do learn something new everyday! Apple Cider Vinegar is made from pulverized apples and its main ingredient is acetic acid.

Apple Cider Vinegar is believed to be a cure all. It was introduced in the late 1950’s by DC Jarvis in the book, Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor’s Guide. Presently apple cider pills are used as a dietary supplement. It is supposedly used to cure head lice, reverse aging, ease digestion and purge the body of toxins. As I stated earlier, there is little evidence to support apple cider vinegar’s healing power. Yet many still believe and continue to be delivered from various ailments and health conditions.

But there have been recent studies in preliminary stages that reveal promise of the benefits of apple vinegar cider. Here is a brief list.

1. Apple cider vinegar possibly reduces glucose levels. In 2007 a study of 11 people with type 2 diabetes found that taking two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before bed lowered glucose levels in the morning by 4%-6%.
2. A 2006 study has found evidence that it also may lower a person’s cholesterol. .

<!    Another experiment in rats found that vinegar could lower high blood pressure.

<!    A large epidemiological study discovered that people who ate oil and vinegar as a dressing on salads five to six times a week had lower rates of heart disease than people who didn’t.  But vinegar as the pure cause is inconclusive.

<!    A few laboratory experiments have found that vinegar may be able to kill cancer cells or decelerate their growth.  One found that eating vinegar was associated with a decreased risk of esophageal cancer.

<!    For thousands of years, vinegar has been used for weight loss.   A study in 2005 of 12 people found that people who ate a piece of bread along with small amounts of white vinegar felt fuller and more satisfied than those who just ate the bread.

Because apple cider vinegar is acidic, it is important to use with care and discretion. You may want to dilute it with water or juice before ingestion. As always, consult your physician before use.

That’s how cynical I think American corporate thinking is. What Pfizer did was so wrong that even the Bush Administration went after them.

If this were Japan, the top executives at Pfizer would have either resigned or been discharged.

If this were China, these execs would have been summarily executed as they were in the tainted milk scandal.

In this country, we get a PR spokesperson saying we’re sorry, and we won’t do it again.

Pfizer is just the tip of the iceberg in this country where greed is good and government exists to be bribed. The doctors, those paragons of virtue, those upholders of the Oath of Hippocrates, are sleazebags too, for taking the bribes and free dinners and grants for research that confirms the pharma company’s or industry’s foregone conclusion. Just like the college professors, whose job is to instill values and wisdom in children, who apparently have no compunction about selling examination copies of textbooks, given to them for free by the publishers, to the used-book peddlers.

One more: Afghanistan. It’s the world’s leading producer of poppies that are made into opium and heroin, yet our government sends our troops in to defend this scruffy, backward little country and we pour billions of dollars into its corrupt and screwed-up government. Hell, the Taliban was doing a better job of ridding the country of its drug business.

Your tax dollars at work, people. Meanwhile, you and your loved ones wonder why your elected representatives in Congress can’t or won’t support national healthcare. Well, there are two reasons for that: One, they’re in the pockets of the insurance and pharma industries and that money jingles real nice in their pockets. Two, they really don’t give a damn about the people who can’t afford health insurance.

As usual, whenever you scratch your head about social injustice or inequity, it’s follow the money.

The first 48 hours after diagnosis is an important time for the male caregiver. Both you and your loved one will be dealing with a lot of emotions. So it is important to take that time and discuss with her a strategy that you will use during her treatment. The things that I have listed below are not intended to be all-inclusive. I just want to highlight a few points that should be considered right after diagnosis.

Establish Roles: One of the very first discussions you should have with your loved one is about what role each of you will have during the treatment period. In our situation we decided that I would be the caregiver and task manager and my wife would be the patient. Since this site is about male caregivers, I will make an assumption that men reading this would also like to take on that role.
Being the male caregiver is a demanding job that stresses you both physically and mentally. Every situation is unique and you just need to sit down with your loved one and define exactly what it is that you are able to do for her during the treatment period. You may be in a situation where you cannot accompany her to the treatments. If so, you should seek the help of a friend or relative.

Communication: This is probably the most important job and one of the most challenging for the caregiver. After diagnosis the cancer patient will have to live with the physical, emotional and social consequences of having cancer. The caregiver must be able to communicate with the patient in an effective manner. Listen to the needs of the patient. Listen to their fears and be supportive. There are no magic answers. Be mindful that men and women generally communicate differently. Women often express their feelings more openly. When your loved one is talking, listen intently before offering a response. Sometimes she only wants you to hear how she feels and is asking for support not advice. A simple hug and “I understand, and will always be here for you,” is all the response that is needed. I think that establishing open and honest communication throughout the process helps both the caregiver and the patient.

Education: Most male caregivers have no idea what is involved when their loved one is told that she has breast cancer. It is imperative that the caregivers learn as much about the disease as possible in a very short period of time. There are hundreds of sites on the Internet devoted to this subject. The cancer treatment facility that you are using has useful brochures and pamphlets to help the caregiver better understand breast cancer. You should also learn as much as you can about the treatment your loved one will undergo. I would take a tape recorder to every meeting that you have with your doctors and ask permission to record the session. At the very least, I would keep a journal with very detailed notes to include the date, time, type and amount of drugs that your loved one is taking. It is a very good chance that sometime they will develop an infection and have to be hospitalized. With your notes you can easily tell the attending physician what medication your loved one has taken and when. Finally, you will have to be the one to educate the rest of your family. You will be the one who passes along the information on your loved one’s treatment. It is important to not shield your loved one from your family. They have concerns too.

Taking Care of Yourself: Regardless of your age and physical condition, as a caregiver you will experience both emotional and physical stress. You will feel shock, anger, fear, sorrow, guilt and maybe even hate just to name a few. If you are a full time employee, you will have to balance your work with taking care of your loved one. Then there is the domestic responsibilities of tending the house, cooking etc. If there are young children at home, they need your attention also. Caregiving is demanding and stressful no mater what the circumstances are. I mentioned keeping a journal to track your loved ones schedule. You should also consider a place each day in the journal where you can write about your emotions. It is a way of venting, and it is useful. Lastly, you must take care of your physical health. If you are not sleeping and getting the required rest, it will eventually result in affecting your judgment and your health. If you get a cold or the flu and cannot care for your loved one, seek help from a family member or a friend.

In conclusion, don’t expect to be perfect. You will make mistakes along the way. But learn from your mistakes, and improve. Don’t dwell on them too long. Make adjustments to your plan and move forward. It takes time to learn how to be a successful caregiver. Go slow and methodical in your approach to caregiving. Believe me your loved one will appreciate every little thing you do for them, to include just the simple one of saying, “I love you”.

 By Angela Posey-Arnold

“……But there is something I’m looking for:  a person simple and plain, reverently responsive to what I say. (Isaiah 66:2)

Every day for thirty years Doctor Albert woke early, spent time with God, ate breakfast and happily strolled the two blocks to his office. People, sick and hurting, stood outside the door waiting on him. He unlocked the door and took the sickest ones with him to the exam rooms and began evaluating them before his nurse had even finished her oats.

By the time she arrived he had seen, diagnosed, and treated at least ten patients sometimes forgetting to charge them. Francie arrived to find her work cut out for her for the day. They worked all day sometimes without a break until dark, or until the last patient was seen whichever came first.

Dr. Albert prayed with and for his patients and they knew it. He deeply cared about each one and had been the doctor for most of their families for many years. Birthing their babies, treating their illnesses, and going to their homes in this small rural community on many occasions, he was a humble man.

I remember the day he opened his practice, he worked tirelessly to open the clinic with the most up to date equipment. He was a short man but stout and strong. The years brought somewhat of a stooped appearance but it seemed to only bring him physically closer to his patients.

 Francie loved them too as if they were her own family. And at the end of the day they both went home tired but happy. Francie had been his nurse since the day he opened the clinic. Francie is my aunt and I grew up knowing about the patients and the unselfish care of Dr. Albert.

One terribly cold January morning the line at the door was especially long. The patients waited for a very long time in the cold until Francie came and opened the door. After settling those in she called the Doctor. No answer. “He has never missed a day of work in thirty years, I am going over to see about him, and yall stay here and wait on me. I will be right back.”

Francie walked briskly the two blocks to Dr. Albert’s home and as she got to the porch she saw him through the window. He was sitting in his favorite chair, Bible in his lap, asleep. The lamp still on beside him. She quietly opened the door walking over to him she realized he was not asleep. Dr. Albert was dead. The peaceful smile on his face drew tears to Francie’s eyes. “There will never be another doctor like him.”

After the funeral it fell to Aunt Francie to search for a new doctor. A young doctor who desired to live on the river nearby applied for the job. His name was Albert Doss, M.D. As much as Francie had prayed for a doctor like Dr. Albert she thought this must be a sign so she quickly set up the interview.

The night before the interview Francie talked to her best friend about the kind of man Dr. Albert was. “You know, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, I guess Doc is basking in the glory of the kingdom today. He was such a happy man. I know it was because he was so humble. I believe that humbleness is the first step on the road to happiness and so did he. Happy are those who allow God to break their carnal nature he used to tell me. Dr. Albert didn’t have a carnal bone in his body.”

Betsy replied, “I know Francie, he absolutely was the most unselfish man I have ever known. I remember when he started his practice here he seemed to always be in the process of being conformed to the glorious image of Jesus. Only if all of us could be that way.”

“Doc taught me everything I know about medicine, he also taught me everything I know about being happy. He hung a framed writing on his office wall the day he started his practice, I see it every day. Happy are those who are not driven by ego, vanity, pride or arrogance. Now you tell me how on earth I will find another like him?”

“Well, I suppose you start with the interview tomorrow and see if this young man is driven by ego, vanity, pride or arrogance. If he is, send him packing and wait on the Lord to send the next one.” Betsy said.

“You are right. That is exactly what I will do.” Francie went home and prayed about the interview. She fell asleep praying and woke the next morning praying for the wisdom to know if this young man could possibly fill the shoes of Dr. Albert.

The interview was set for 10:00 AM and Francie straightened the lab and Dr. Albert’s office while she waited. At 9:57 she heard a car. She looked out the window to see a dark handsome spiffy young man step out of what appeared to be some kind of sports car. Francie could not identify it but it was real red. She secretly watched as he looked at his gold watch and swaggered to the door while smoothing his suit and hair.

She smelled him come in. His cologne preceded him. He rang the bell at the front desk three sharp times and she appeared in the front office.

“I am here to interview with Dr. Albert. I have an appointment. He is expecting me. My name is Doctor Doss.”

Francie replied, “Yes I am expecting you. Dr. Albert passed away. I thought you realized you were interviewing for his replacement.”

“Oh, well whatever. Could you just tell the Office Manager I am here?” He snapped.

“Sure. Be seated. It will be a few moments.” Francie walked slowly to the back office shaking her head and whispering under her breath, ‘this ain’t him Lord.”

After a few moments of composure she called him back. “Dr. Doss could you follow me please. My name is Francie Elliott, RN and I will be interviewing you.”

“Interviewed by a nurse, well this is a first.” He mumbled under his breath.

Francie heard the comment so she was ready for him. He sat down in the chair across the huge messy desk of Dr. Albert’s. Francie sat down beside him with a pad a paper. “Tell me about yourself.”

Well, that was an open door she wish she had left closed. For the next 15 minutes he talked about himself. Proud. Arrogant. Self Centered. During the last 10 minutes of his self pontification Francie prayed for the way out of this one. She heard him say things like, “it’s my way or the highway”. Then she thought she heard him say, “I don’t need God, I am sufficient in myself.” All the time he rambled on she wrote on the paper, “He thinks he knows everything, he thinks he is god, he believes his opinions transcend even the word of God. He isn’t a servant, he wants to be served.”

When he finally finished, Francie looked at the framed writing on Dr. Albert’s wall. She thought, ‘this must be the most miserable man on the planet. I sure do not want to work for him or with him. And I would not expose one patient to him’.

She straightened her white uniform, stood up and walked behind Dr. Albert’s desk. She leaned over across the desk and asked him, “How do you feel about those who are broken in spirit?”

He looked like a deer in the headlights. He said, “Sounds like rubbish to me.”

She thanked him for coming, said she just did not think he was right for the job. “But”, she said, “since you are a doctor and will be treating and caring for the sick and afflicted somewhere in the world I would like for you to have something of Dr. Albert’s.” Francie walked over to the framed writing took it off the wall where it left an imprint, and handed it to the young man. He took it, read it, thanked her but looked very confused.

She watched from the window as he got back into his fancy contraption and flippantly tossed the precious writing into the back seat. Francie prayed for him until he was out of sight.

“Well, Jesus, that was not him.”

She waited and prayed for the next applicant for weeks. No one even applied for the job. Patients had to go into the city to see a physician and Francie was ready to give up. One day while she was doing some last minute book work the phone rang in the office. Francie answered in her usual greeting, “Good Morning, Dr Albert’s office, Francie speaking. How can I help you?”

The voice on the other end was deep and soft, “Well, Mrs. Francie you already have helped me. This is Dr. Doss. Do you remember me? I interviewed a few weeks ago with you.” He said.

“Of course. How can I help you Dr. Doss?” Francie replied.

“Remember the framed writing you gave me? Well, after I got back to my apartment, sitting alone and contemplating the words I realized how terrible I must have seemed for you to give me the picture. I was prideful, selfish and rude. It began to eat at me. I don’t want to be that way. I didn’t go to medical school to be that way. If you will give me another interview I think you will see that God has changed my cold heart.”

“Absolutely Dr. Doss, when can you be here?” Francie said, excited by the possibly presenting itself.

“Look out the window. That is me sitting across the street in the red pickup.” He laughed as he saw her peaking out the window. He got out and she waved for him to come on in. In his cowboy boots and blue jeans the handsome young doctor had a smile as big as Texas. He walked in and smelled a bit like Old Spice. He looked at Francie and smiled. “This is the real me, Francie. Can we start over?”

In his hand was the framed writing she had given him. He took it and carefully placed it back up where it had been for so many years. They sat down to talk out the details of when he could start.

I am so glad because I married Albert Doss. We bought Dr. Albert’s home and are filling it with children, laughter and love. Aunt Francie went to be with the Lord 5 years ago. I am the new RN in the office and we carry on the precepts set by two humble people who loved God and His people. We have learned what it means to be broken in spirit, Jesus-centered, totally dependent on God. We grieve over sin and disease and sometimes it means doing unselfish task without expecting reward or recognition. We continually strive to empty ourselves so we can be filled with the love of Jesus. We serve knowing the first step to service is humility. This is where our true happiness began. My humble husband now gets up early, spends time with God, eats breakfast with the kids, and then happily walks to work. He is seeing patients before I ever finish my oats.

©Angela Posey-Arnold 2009

 Related to the book by this author–The Nightingale Protocol—on Amazon and others