Healthy Herbs for Healthy Immune System

Healthy Herbs

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, once said: “Let food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.” There is much wisdom in what he said. Unfortunately, nowadays we are constantly bombarded with ads and the media about medications and pharmaceutical drugs, which are no more than toxic chemicals aimed at making you forever dependent on them because they only address your symptoms but without curing you of your ailments and disorders.

Herbs, on the other hand, are natural foods that can improve your health conditions. Of course, they do not offer instant cures.

“Ginseng is a natural herb with its branched roots in the shape resembling that of the human form, and that is why it is called “man root” in Chinese.

Ginseng is the king of herbs because of its potency in healing and nourishing for rejuvenation. It has qualities that treat the entire body and not just a part of it. As such, it is used to keep the body balanced and healthy. The potency of ginseng has long been recognized; in ancient China, soldiers were given ginseng before they entered the battlefield: they used it not only to restore strength, but also to ameliorate the effects of shock and stress in the battle itself.

According to Chinese medicine, ginseng brightens your eyes, opens your heart, enlightens your brain, and strengthens your soul and spirit. For centuries, ginseng has been present in many classical prescriptions for adjustive, preventive, and restorative purposes.

The human body is a self-cleaning mechanism, which utilizes the liver, kidneys, urine, feces, breath, and sweat for detoxification of toxins. Ginseng is instrumental in helping the metabolism for detox and weight control with stopping food cravings.

In addition, ginseng benefits the mind by overcoming burnout, irritability, mental fatigue and concentration problems.

Most importantly, ginseng is anti-aging in that it helps memory problem, a major characteristic of aging. Ginseng stimulates the production of DHEA, a hormone produced by the adrenal glands, responsible for protecting human memory. It is recommended to take 20 drops of ginseng tincture three times a day for 6 weeks, and then stop for 2 weeks before repeating the cycle.The explanation is that it may prevent your body from adapting to the ginseng and thus causing the herb to lose its potency. Ginseng tincture helps sleep, mobility, and joint health, which are especially important in aging.

Ginseng is the king of the herbs because it provides holistic health for the body and the mind at any age.

TIPS: Some of the most common healthy herbs include: black walnut, cascara sagrada, cayenne, dandelion, Echinacea, fennel seed, Indian rhubarb root, licorice root, milk thistle, psyllium husk, red clover, slipper elm inner bark, and yarrow.”

The above is from Health and Wisdom Tips.

Use herbs in your cooking: herbs, such as garlic and ginger, cinnamon etc to .

 make your immune system healthy.

Stephen Lau

My Myasthenia Gravis 2

After I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, I began to look back to find out why I had that autoimmune disease in the first place

I knew it was stress that triggered the onset of my myasthenia gravis, but it was by no means the only cause. I knew if I did not have it then, I would probably have it further down the road. It was just a matter of time—only at that time I was not aware that I had the problem all along. I was carrying a ticking time-bomb all ready to explode on me.

Now as I look back, I think it was a blessing in disguise. Everything happens in one’s life with a divine purpose. In a way, I was grateful that I had the illness—which has changed my life forever and for the better. For one thing, without my myasthenia gravis, I would not have written this book, and many other books on health and healing. For another, my myasthenia gravis was a self-awakening for me. Often times in life, it would take a crisis of some sort for self-enlightenment. My myasthenia gravis was a wakeup call for me: it initiated my passionate pursuit of health and healing in my life. To me, my myasthenia gravis was indeed a blessing in disguise—a misfortune that I have to be thankful for.

I did not blame anyone or anything for my illness, nor did I have any regret. I totally accepted my fate. Recognition and acceptance of one’s conditions is the first positive step towards natural healing. Denial and despair, on the other hand, would only be roadblocks to self-healing and recovery. I was determined to find out the causes of my health problems. I wanted to know why I was struck down with myasthenia gravis.

Initially, I was confused and befuddled: Why did I get sick? For the past several decades, my health had been good, if not excellent—or so I thought. All those years prior to my myasthenia gravis, I had been quite health conscious in matters of foods and drinks; I had never been hospitalized all my life, and before the onset of my myasthenia gravis, I seldom paid a visit to the doctor. I had been having a clean bill of health up until then.

So, what was wrong with me? I began to do some soul-searching.

Unlike most other kids, I did not have chicken pox until I was a teenager. That was a telltale sign that my immune system was different from that of others, or at least not as good as I thought it was. There was something amiss, but I did not know exactly what it was and I could not put a finger on it.

Then I recalled that when I was a child, I had been constantly bed-ridden with fever and coughing—my mother always worried that I could get infections from other kids, or worse, I would not live long.

I remember I never liked green vegetables and fish—which I would gobble up, stuff them in my mouth, and then spit them out as soon as I got out of the house. That was how bad I was.

As I stepped into my teens, my health conditions suddenly and significantly improved. In fact, all my symptoms of ill health disappeared soon after I had my chicken pox at the age of thirteen or fourteen. The experience of my chicken pox was excruciating, but it seemed to have changed my health conditions completely for the better. Ever since then, I had not had any major physical ailment, except I was still susceptible to the common cold—which I overdosed myself with over-the-counter cold medications. I did not know that all these years I had been shuffling toxins into my body!

There was another episode during my young adulthood. I was involved in some artwork, which required me to make some fiberglass from newspapers by pouring some chemical solution over them. On one occasion, I accidentally mixed some toxic chemicals, giving out some toxic fume. After inhaling it, I passed out for some minutes, and felt sick for the entire day. In addition, my regular exposure to toxic chemicals in my artwork through inhalation must have further damaged my immune system.

Nevertheless, for many decades, I had enjoyed relatively good health—or so I thought.

In my late forties, I had shingles—which was another red flag that there was something wrong with my immune system. However, I did not pay much attention to that episode.

In my mid fifties, the stress in my life eventually triggered the onset of my myasthenia gravis, which was the outcome of my over-stressed immune system and my toxic body.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

My Myasthenia Gravis

My Myasthenia Gravis

Many years ago, I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis. It was one of the most stressful episodes in my life. I was in my fifties—call it midlife crisis if you would.

One day I felt intense pressure on my eyes. My first concern was glaucoma (a condition of increased fluid pressure inside the eye). I went to see an ophthalmologist who subsequently referred me to a neurologist, who was then the head of the neurology department in a well-known healthcare system in Cleveland, Ohio. After running some medical tests, he confirmed his diagnosis that I had myasthenia gravis.

I had developed ocular symptoms: ptosis (drooping of eyelids) and diplopia (double vision) in my myasthenia gravis.

My neck and limb muscles were also weak. I had to use a neck-rest to prop up my head when I drove; I could hardly use my fingers to control the mouse when I used my computer; and I could not raise my hand without using the other hand to help prop it up.

Fortunately, I did not experience any weakness of the muscles of my pharynx, which could cause difficulty in chewing and swallowing, as well as slurred speech, in many cases of myasthenia gravis.

Naturally, I was devastated at the diagnosis and the conditions of my myasthenia gravis, which all happened within a matter of days. Worst of all, the neurologist told me that there was no known cure, although he reassured me that he could improve my symptoms.

In the first two or three years, I was prescribed several medications not only to address the symptoms but also to treat the side effects from the medications. There was some improvement, but I decided to drop all medications.

I‘ll tell you more next time.

Stephen Lau

Foot Pads to Detoxify

Foot Pads to Detoxify

The use of foot pads is an easy and unobtrusive way to assist your body in the removal of a myriad of pollutants that invade your body on a daily basis, as well as the health-repressive toxins that prevent your body from achieving the true wellness you really should be experiencing.

Two Japanese doctors, after spending years in search for the secrets behind longevity and wellness, eventually unlocked the mystical powers and energy in the growth of trees. They made the groundbreaking discovery that trees could grow and flourish for years even under the worst weather conditions due to the presence of wood vinegar essence, which enables the absorption of water and nutrients through the process of osmosis.

According to Chinese medical knowledge, the human body has over 360 acupuncture points, with more than 60 acupuncture points found on the soles of the feet alone. Your feet, also known as the “second heart,” contain the reflective zones of your internal organs, where your body toxins accumulate and dissipate. For centuries, Chinese medical studies have held the view that due to gravity, toxins tend to go downwards in your body during the day, accumulating from the tips of the toes to the ankles.

Accordingly, when applied to the soles of your feet overnight, these foot pads not only warm up to open pores of the skin but also stimulate the reflex zones on your soles to draw out and absorb accumulated wastes under osmotic pressure from the blood and lymph systems in your body.

When lying horizontally, your body fluids collect in your head and feet. There is an acupuncture point on each of the sole of your feet, known as “gushing water spring,” through which excess toxins and moisture from your body will be excreted into the foot pads. By applying foot pads on your feet while sleeping, you may be able to extract toxins from your body through the process of osmosis in the form of moisture onto your soles.

Foot pads are obtainable on the Internet or in Oriental drug stores. Get them to remove toxins from your body. Do some internal cleansing to help the symptoms of your myasthenia gravis..

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau

The Dangers of Drugs

The Dangers of Drugs

Millions of people are suffering needlessly as a direct consequence of the unconscionable zeal of the pharmaceutical industry to rake up billions of dollars of profit aided and abetted by scientists and researchers who have been paid handsomely, even to the extent of falsifying test and research results in some cases.

To illustrate, three of the top executives of Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to criminal charges of misleading the public on the risk of addiction and abuse associated with the painkiller drug OxyContin. That was yet another scandal of pharmaceutical companies doctoring research findings of the safety of drugs and masking their undesirable side effects.

For decades, unreliable drug tests have abounded in the medical and pharmaceutical research community.

It is not uncommon for pharmaceutical companies to "influence" researchers through coercion, incentive, and even threat, to produce the desired results in clinical trials. Fabricating data, such as in the case of OxyContin, is no surprise to the pharmaceutical industry.

Clinical trials, usually involving a small number of people, may not truly reflect the outcome of those who will ultimately be using those drugs after their approval.

In addition, drugs tested on animal models may be biased and even irrelevant. An artificially induced disease in non-human animal models may yield results incompatible to a spontaneous, naturally occurring human disease. In short, there is no absolute safety or reliability of pharmaceutical drugs.

The pharmaceutical companies and the FDA have convinced not only the medical establishment but also the gullible public that costly drugs are the answer to all their health problems, despite their dubious track records and often-deadly side effects.

The use, misuse, and abuse of drugs account for 250,000 to 500,000 deaths each year in the United States. And do you still believe that pharmaceutical drugs provide all the answers to your health problems?  Dr. O. W. Holmes, Professor of Medicine, Harvard University, had this to say regarding pharmaceuticals putting you in harm’s way: “If all the medicine in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be bad for the fish and good for humanity.” Dr. Holmes’ statement speaks volumes of the potential harm of pharmaceuticals.

When you give your body a drug that replaces a substance your body is capable of making itself, you body then becomes weaker, not stronger, and begins not only to manufacture less of that substance, but also to become more dependent on the outside source, which is usually the drug.

Unfortunately, no drug can give you insight into the circumstance that created your problems. At best, it can only temporarily reduce the physical pain created by your situation. A drug "cures" your symptoms at the expense of creating more potential symptoms down the road. For a while, you may be symptom-free, but soon enough new symptoms may emerge, requiring yet a more potent drug to deal with them.

Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry

Elaine Hollingsworth, the author, formerly Hollywood film star (under the name Sara Shane in the 50s and 60s), has turned a formidable crusader against the deceit and manipulation of the pharmaceutical industry.

Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry is the joint effort of independent and caring physicians, biochemists, scientists, individuals and organizations—they all have helped expose the extent of fraud and dishonesty, not only amongst their peers, but at the highest levels of government.

Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry reveals damning evidence of the lengths to which corporations and governments will go in order to maintain high levels of profitability. This is an all-revealing book of the complete disregard of the health of the public in the name of profit.

Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry contains well-researched and proven-effective alternatives to expensive medications and surgical procedures, as well as information on how to distinguish between truths and myths, such as some commonly held “beliefs” and even maladies which are nothing more than the inventions of marketing experts to help sell more products.

Get more information about Take Control of Your Health and Escape the Sickness Industry. 

According to Dr. John Tilden, author of Toxemia, the first and only cause of disease is toxemia, which is the accumulation of toxic wastes over a long period of time. In other words, toxicity retained and stored in our bodies is the common denominator for the causes of all human diseases. 

From my own experience, I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis more than twenty years ago, and I was put on steroid medications for two years until one day I decided to stop my medications slowly and gradually. Now, I am completely drug-free.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© 2018 by Stephen Lau  

Autoimmunity and Stress

There are more than 100 types of autoimmune diseases, including myasthenia gravis. These diseases are devastating in that they can attack anyone at any age, although the vulnerability to these autoimmune diseases increases with age; worse, there is no known cure, at least according to conventional medicine.

Knowing the causes of autoimmune diseases may help you prevent and fight against them.

The healthy human body is equipped with immunity to fight against viruses, bacteria, and parasites—in short, diseases. Unfortunately, this immunity, known as the immune system, may become compromised such that, instead of attacking the unwelcome foreign invaders to the body, it begins to attack the cells and tissues in the body itself. In a healthy individual, the immune defenses protect the cells from outside invaders. However, when a person develops autoimmunity, the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own cells instead of protecting them.

The good news is that autoimmunity is present in everyone to some extent. The bad news is that autoimmunity can be triggered by many environmental, physical, as well as emotional factors, such that it can cause a broad spectrum of human illnesses, known as autoimmune diseases, which, according to modern medicine, has no cure.

Essentially, autoimmunity can affect almost any organ or body system. The exact problem you may have with autoimmunity depends on which body tissues are targeted by your immune system. For example, if your skin is targeted, you may have skin rashes, blisters, or color changes; if your thyroid gland is affected, you may feel extremely tired, sensitive to cold, and muscle aches; if your joints are attacked, you may have severe joint pain, stiffness, and loss of function, known as rheumatoid arthritis.

Stress plays a pivotal role in a compromised immune system. If you are living in a stressful environment, you may be at a high risk for developing an autoimmune disease down the road. As a matter of fact, stress is the underlying cause of many diseases, including cancer. The bottom line, try to live a stress-free life. It is not easy, but it is doable if you have the wisdom to let go of all your attachments to this material world. Surely, it is easier said than done, because we all have an ego that we want to enhance and protect. However, the reality is that our ego-self is not our real self; it is someone we wish we were, and in the process of expanding the ego, we create the stress that may lead to the development of an autoimmune disease.

Stephen Lau 

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Healthy Living to Prevent and Cope with an Autoimmune Disease

Healthy Living to Prevent and Cope with an Autoimmune Disease

Healthy living holds the key to preventing and coping with an autoimmune disease.

The World Health Organization defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” That was said in 1948. What was true then is also true today.

If you are healthier in the real sense of the word, you will also be younger; if you have set this as a lifelong goal, you will then experience it for longer in your life.

Life is a learning experience: everything and everyone you encounter can be your teacher, if you are willing to be the student. The more you learn about how to be younger and healthier for longer, the wiser you become. Let healthy living be your lifelong goal and let your healthy lifestyle be upheld by the following:. 

(1) The wisdom of fresh air and healthy sunshine: “Fresh air impoverishes the doctor.” – Danish Proverb

All centenarians have at least two things in common: they all breathe deeply and slowly(i.e. correct breathing); they get their solar energy from green food and salubrious sunshine. Clean air and sunshine provide the groundwork for healthy living and a healthy lifestyle.

(2) The wisdom of clean drinking water: “By means of water, we give life to everything.” — Koran 21:30

Your body is made up of 70 – 90 percent of water, depending on you age and constitution. The most important nutrient in your body is clean pure water. The quality of your tissues, including their performance and resistance to injury, is absolutely dependent on the quality and quantity of the water you drink.

(3) The wisdom of healthy eating: “Your food shall be your medicine.” — Hippocrates

You are what you eat, and you become what you eat. You eat to live, and not live to eat.

(4) The wisdom of physical fitness: “Health is the vital principle of bliss, and exercise of health.” — James Thomson

Physical fitness is an on-going physical activity that must begin today without delay or procrastination, because tomorrow may become a disease. Physical fitness gives you not only a good body image but also a clean bill of health.

(5) The wisdom of good relationships: “You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” – Barbara De Angelis

The art of living well is the capability to live in harmony within the self as well as with others. It requires focusing first on others’ needs rather than on one’s own. Loving-kindness and human compassion constitute mindfulness, which is the key to any good relationship.

(6) The wisdom of natural sleep: “Sleep is the golden chain that ties health to our bodies together.” — Chamfort

Natural sleep relaxes your body, mind, and soul to provide holistic wellness, which is the foundation of health and youth. Natural sleep does not require the aid of pharmaceutical drugs to induce sleep.

(7) The wisdom of life passion: “There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the passion of life.” – Federico Fellini

Life passion is your passion for being younger and healthier for longer. Essentially, it means you are passionate about your well-being: why you want to be healthier and younger, and how you can achieve these goals in life.

Get the wisdom in living for your wisdom in everyday living to prevent and cope with an autoimmune disease.

Stephen Lau

Copyright©2018 by Stephen Lau

Anti-Inflammation Diet for Better Immune Response

Anti-Inflammation Diet for Better Immune Response

Inflammation is a natural immune response to injury, toxins, allergy or infection. Because 70 percent of your immune system cells are located on the lining of your digestive tract, your immune response is greatly affected by the foods you ingest, especially foods that may cause inflammation.

Eat a moderately low-calorie diet with emphasis on weight loss or weight control. Foods that are high in calories are linked to higher amounts of inflammation, and the greater amount of fat tissue you have, especially around your midsection, the more inflammation you are going to have.

Most fresh fruits and vegetables are anti-inflammatory. Eat red, yellow, or orange fruits and vegetables that are particularly loaded with antioxidants such as carotenoids, vitamin C, and quercetin. However, if you are sensitive to food allergies, avoid all “nightshade vegetables” that include eggplant, tomatoes, and potatoes because they contain a chemical called solanine that may trigger an inflammatory response in some individuals who have food allergies. Eggs, dairy products, and wheat are also associated with food allergies in some individuals.

Eat high-fiber whole grains, seeds and nuts to reduce levels of C-reactive protein.

Avoid all highly processed cereals, sweets, fruit juice, white breads and pasta that increase blood-sugar levels that may trigger the release of insulin and pro-inflammatory chemicals in your body.

Cook with anti-inflammatory herbs and spices, such as ginger, cayenne, clove, feverfew, nutmeg, oregano, and rosemary.  Avoid charred or overgrilled foods.

Drink anti-inflammatory beverages, including white, green, and black tea (they contain antioxidant polyphenols), and red wine (no more than 2 drinks per day).

An anti-inflammation diet enhances your immune system to enable you to live longer and healthier.

Stephen Lau

Copyright ©2018 by Stephen Lau