Brando's Blog

Public or Private Healthcare?

I recently received a leaflet from my local Member of Parliament warning us all not to vote Conservative as they are going to cut funding to the NHS and introduce an American style medical insurance scheme.

Indeed she quotes two Conservative MPs as saying, "I wouldn't wish the NHS on anyone" and "The NHS has been a 60 year mistake". But I couldn't agree more with these statements. Now, I do not have any allegiance to any major political party. However, when you step back and review the success of the NHS, how successful has it been?

Well, one success has been the fact that it has been the biggest employer in the UK. It provides jobs for people. However, its prime purpose was to provide healthcare. How well has it done in this sense? How much more healthy are we than at the end of the second world war? The rate of infant mortality seems to have reduced as has the level of death from infectious disease. But is this due to better health care or just improved hygiene levels? The level of emergency medical care, for instance, road traffic accident victims has improved greatly.

The truth is that heart disease is now in epidemic levels, as is cancer, diabetes, obesity and on and on and on. We have become a much more sick nation. So has the NHS been a success? Absolutely not!!!

Now, I'm not suggesting that a private medical system would be any better either.

What I am suggesting is that if you wish to become healthy, you need to follow a model of health, not a model of disease. The medical industry (it is an industry more than it is a service) is obsessed with disease. If you focus on disease, guess what you are going to create? Yes, more disease.

If you wish to achieve optimal health and vitality, you cannot expect someone else to heal you. Every cell in your body already knows what perfect health is. All you need to do is give your cells the right environment in which they have the opportunity to be healthy.

By choosing to give your body what it needs physically, mentally and emotionally you can achieve optimal health. It is not imperative that you pay huge taxes or medical insurance to live a healthy, vibrant and happy life. It's all down to the choices you make in life. What you choose to do today will make who you become tomorrow.

Great Healthy Young Looking Skin - Part 4

In this final part, I will details the final factors that require attention in order to achieve greathy healthy, young looking skin.

Detoxification & Elimination

Your skin is an organ of detoxification. If you are experiencing problems with your skin, it is likely that you have a toxic load that your detoxification system is unable to cope with. Therefore, the toxins are trying to escape via the skin. A toxic gut can lead to skin problems.

 

If you are constipated you will have autointoxication (self poisoning). Stools in the large intestine are squeezed as they pass through to recycle water and not allow any to escape as a survival mechanism to ensure you stay hydrated.

 

However, when you are constipated the same stools get continually squeezed and this releases toxic waste back into the blood stream that the detoxification system has to deal with.

 

What can be very useful to do to help the detoxification process are a series of cleanses. They should always be done with professional advice and support. It is recommended that you speak with your Doctor before beginning a cleansing procedure. Cleanses should be done twice per year and include:

 

•      Coffee enemas (can be performed more frequently)

•      Colon cleanses

•      Liver/gall bladder flushes

•      Fungal cleanses

•      Bacterial cleanses

•      Parasite cleanses

•      Skin cleanses (can be performed more frequently)

 

Other things that you can do to reduce your toxic load are to:

 

•      Replace metal fillings with a good holistic or biological dentist who is trained in toxicology

•      Replace toxic cookware with glass, ceramic and high quality metal cookware

•      Replace toxic cosmetics and toiletries with natural, safe organic ranges. I personally use the Mi Essence range which is fantastic.

•      Use a whole-house water, drinking water and shower filtration systems.

•      Eliminate alcohol

•      Eliminate/reduce medical drugs (in communication with your Medical Doctor)

•      Eliminate cigarettes and being around second-hand smoke.

 

Hormone Balance

We also know that skin conditions may be caused by hormonal imbalances. It is advised to have your hormone balance checked.

 

If anyone would like any of the tests discussed above, I can arrange them for you.

 

Now, at age 40, I can at last say that my skin is pretty good. Compared to how it was 15 years ago, I am ecstatic. At age 31, I went to a Chinese herbalist who ran some tests on me. He told me that I had Candida Albicans (yeast infection) and a whole host of food intolerances. He suggested that I stop using anti-biotics and go on an anti-Candida diet and eliminate my intolerant foods.

 

After just two weeks my skin improved dramatically. Over the subsequent years, I have learned a great deal and have indeed discovered better ways of testing and better ways of eating, healing the gut and detoxifying the body. I would say it has been a nine year project to heal my insides from the damage caused by the anti-biotics.

 

So if you would like better, healthier or younger-looking skin, I am in great position to help you. Feel free to contact me for more details.

Great Healthy Young Looking Skin - Part 3

In the next two posts, I will explain the factors that require addressing of you wish for great, healthy, young looking skin. In this post, i will be focussing on hydration, nutrition and the digestive and immune systems.

Hydration

Bad skin is often caused by an overworked detoxification system  that is backed up like a blocked toilet. So the solution to pollution is dilution.

We need to ensure we are fully hydrated at all times. This includes drinking a minimum of 0.033 litres of good quality water per kilogram of body weight per day per day. So if you weigh 50kg, you would be required to drink at least 1.65 litres of water per day.

Good quality water includes reverse osmosis filtered water, Evian and Vittel.

Drinks that should be avoided are tap water, caffeinated drinks, fizzy drinks, alcohol and fruit juices.

Nutrition

To be adequately nourished, you need to:

• Eat right for your metabolic type®
• Eliminate foods that you are intolerant too (MRT® Test)
• Eat organic.
• Use organic ‘real’ supplements in accordance with your metabolic type®
• Eliminate blocking factors such as tap water, metal fillings, non-stick and aluminum cookware and toxic cosmetics and toiletries.

Digestive & Immune Health

Your skin is only as healthy as your digestive system.

Psoriasis is an over-stimulation of the immune system that has not shut off. Most of your immune system is in your small intestine which is a major digestive organ. To ensure optimal digestive and immune health it is advised to test for

• gut health (liver overload, protein breakdown, oxidative stress)
• immune function (intestinal barrier screen)
• infections.(fungal, bacterial, parasitic)

If your immune system is under constant attack due to the above why would it shut down? It is crucial to find out what might be causing the stimulation of the immune system and the way I do this is by testing. After all as Paul Chek would say, “if you’re not assessing you’re guessing”. I do not like to guess when it comes to your health!

Stay tuned for Part 4, when I will outline details of the other factors involved in acheiving great healthy, young looking skin.

Great Healthy Young Looking Skin - Part 2

In the last post, I described how skin conditions affect many people, how they can be debilitating and what the general beliefs and approaches are to skin conditions.

A New Perspective

If you were to have a plant in your home and it started to wilt and turn brown, what would you do? Would you paint the leaves and branches green and reinforce the stem with a stick? Most sane people I know would consider what they are putting into the soil, i.e. the nutrition of the plant.

So why is it that when we look to improve the health of the plant we look to its nutrition and when we consider our own health, we do not consider what we put in our mouths?

People today spend £100’s, if not £1,000’s per year on fake tanning products, cosmetics and toiletries and other treatments to look and smell good and to stay looking young. Yet what most do not realise is that the very things they are using are highly toxic and contributing to bad skin and aging skin.

Good Skin – The Factors

So, to improve your skin, you have to improve the health of your internal systems. To do this you need to have optimal:

• Hydration levels
• Nutrition
• Digestive system health
• Immune system health
• Detoxification system
• Elimination system
• Hormone balance.

Stay tuned for Part 3, when I will explain each factor in detail.

Great Healthy Young Looking Skin

In the next few posts, I hope to show you how most skin conditions are a good indication of your internal health and how to achieve healthy, young looking skin.

Skin Condition Statistics

Whilst there are many skin conditions, I wish to look at three common skin conditions. I will be focusing predominantly on acne, eczema and psoriasis.

It is estimated that acne affects an estimated 3.7 million people in the UK and 18.4 million in the USA. Eczema affects an estimated 3.3 million people in the UK and 15 million people in the USA. At the same time psoriasis affects an estimated 3.7 million in the UK and 18.4 million in the USA.

From the ages of 13-31, I myself suffered from severe acne and have also suffered from eczema from time to time too. I can speak from experience how debilitating skin problems can be.

Skin problems are known to cause:

• Psychological damage
• Physical scarring
• Itching
• Loss of self confidence
• Loss of self esteem
• Relationship challenges
• Embarrassment
• Non attendance of activities and social events
• Development of psoriatic arthritis in 10-15% of psoriasis sufferers
• Physical pain.

 When I first visited my Doctor at the age 13 or 14 in the hope that he could help me reduce the acne, I was given a topical cream and was suggested a skin cleanser to use. After using these products, the acne became worse and my skin became very dry. After some time I went back to the Doctor and he decided to put me on anti-biotics. I asked my Doctor if my diet had any affect on my skin and he said categorically, “no, your diet has no affect on your skin”.

For a few weeks and months, the acne did improve after beginning the anti-biotics. However, after this time, the acne began to continually worsen. I would have some good weeks interspersed with very bad weeks. This continued until my early thirties. For most of this time all my Doctor would do was give me different ant-biotics in an attempt to help me, sadly for me with no success.

It is generally believed in the medical community that acne is caused by a bacterial infection which develops due to an over-secretion of oils from the sebaceous gland which is believed to be caused by androgen (male hormone) stimulation. There is some validity in this theory.

Eczema is believed to be an interaction of genetic and environmental factors. This is an interesting view as every living thing is an interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Some more open-minded Doctors also believe there is a link between certain foods and eczema.

The cause of psoriasis whilst believed to be an auto-immune disease, the actual cause in medicine tends to be classed as unknown.

Tune in next time to discover a new perspective on skin problems.

A Too Familiar Story

Today, we hear of the sad loss of two celebrities at a relatively young age.

Patrick Swayze, (57) the hollywood actor died of pancreatic cancer and Keith Floyd, (65) celebrity chef died of a heart attack.

Cancer and heart disease have become the big killers since the beginning of the 20th century and even more so since the end of WWII, with almost all of us in the western world statistically due to die from one of these chronic degenerative diseases. The sad thing about these diseases which are killing people in their millions is that it is cutting people's lives very short and these diseases are completely man-made and completely preventable.

In native tribes around the world who have not been exposed to westernised foods like white flour, sugar, processed salt and pasteurised dairy, many elders live very healthily well over 100 years old. By following a few simple lifestyle tips every day, you can stay healthy and lead a vital, energetic, happy and productive life for much longer than most people live today.

Ultimately, it more important to live a healthy and happy life than a miserable long life. However, when you discover what great health actually feels like, you will know what it is to really live!

Until next time.

When is Wild Salmon not Wild? Part 3

I have finally received a response from Waitrose concerning my delivery of Wild Salmon, which I believed to be farmed salmon.

I have been informed that the salmon I received was Coho Salmon, whilst the usual type of salmon I receive is Sock Eye Salmon. I have no way of knowing for sure whether this is true and that Coho Salmon looks and tastes awful or whether they did in fact make a mistake with their packaging and are unwilling to admit it.

If you buy Salmon direct from a fish monger, I suggest you check the colour before you buy and ensure it is a deep red and not a grey-pink colour and ensure you ask that it is Sock Eye Salmon.

When is Wild Salmon not Wild? Part 2

In my last post, I stated that I had received farmed salmon from Waitrose, when it fact, I had ordered wild salmon and it came in ‘Wild Alaskan Salmon’ packaging.

 

Following my return from the tennis match, I called the Ocado Call Centre and spoke with a very pleasant and polite young lady. I explained that whilst I had ordered ‘Wild Alaskan Salmon’ and it clearly stated the fact on the container, due to the colouring and taste of the fish (which was competely void of taste), it was clearly not ‘wild’, but had to be ‘farmed’.

 

Straight away, she agreed to refund the money due to a lack of satisfaction in the product. I accepted and appreciated the gesture. However, my main concern was the fact that the product had been incorrectly packaged and was misleading to the public and potentially harmful to people who are paying a much higher price for a higher quality product, yet receiving a very poor quality product that could potentially be harmful to health.

 

I have asked for Ocado to call me back to explain how the error happened and how they will ensure this will not happen in the future. Initially, I was told that they do not call customers back, but after I explained that they have broken Trading Standards laws, the young lady informed me that they would call me back. Three days later, I am yet to receive a call to explain the situation.

 

It makes me wonder how many people have unknowingly eaten farmed salmon thinking it is wild. I understand that mistakes happen and this could be a genuine mistake. I would like hear from anyone who has experienced the same problem as it might not be so innocent, but a way to cut costs and maximise profits by trying to pull the wool over the customers eyes. If this is the case, they will need to get up a little earlier to catch me out!

 

After going to a Waitrose store and buying Wild Salmon over the counter I returned home and took some photographs so you can see the difference. Note the difference in colour between farmed (which had been packaged as 'wild'), a grey pink (left) and wild, a dark pink (right) prior to cooking.

  Notice the difference after cooking in the colour. The one on the left is the farmed salmon and is much lighter and duller in colour than the wild salmon on the right.

I will update you on any progress as and when I receive feedback, or if indeed I contact Trading Standards.

 

 

 

When is Wild Salmon not Wild?

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know how important it is to eat 'Wild' fish and not organic or non-organic farmed fish.

Farmed fish organic or otherwise are fed unnatural feeds. Fish as far as I am aware over the millions of years they have been in existence have never grown grains to feed themselves. Yet, this is what farmed fish are fed. An unnatural diet to any animal will make it sick. It has been found that farmed fish do not have the same omega 3 fatty acids that wild fish have as they are not consuming a natural diet.

Farmed fish, organic or otherwise are given coloured dyes in their feed to make them look pink and not the grey colour they go when fed an unnatural diet. Farmed fish is analogous to battery chickens, living in confined spaces not able to move around, eating and defecating in a very small area. The same health problems that occur in chicken and cattle that are kept in confined spaces also occur in fish. If animals can't get normal amounts of exercise and they are eating and defecating in the same area what do you expect?

How healthy would you expect to be if you lived in your living room 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with 50 other people and you couldn't move around and you had to eat from and defecate on the floor? Not a nice thought? If you get your nutrients from the animals you eat, how healthy are you if you are eating these sick animals? Not good so far!

So where am I going with this?

Well, each week I order Wild Alaskan Salmon from Ocado, the delivery service for Waitrose. I order Wild Alaskan Salmon as it is believed to be the least contaminated source of salmon. Most fish worldwide nowadays are contaminated with toxic heavy metals from all the pollution in our seas and oceans. I really wish I could get Wild Salmon from Scotland, but it seems you can only get farmed salmon from Scotland.

Anyhow, last week, I received my order from Ocado and early on Saturday morning prior to a tennis match I opened the salmon (see picture above). Straight away, I smelt a rat (well, something fishy anyhow). The colour of the salmon looked too grey to be wild salmon. So I double checked the container and it definitely stated 'Wild Alaskan Salmon' (see picture above). Trusting Waitrose, I thought that perhaps it had been sourced from a different region and was a different colour. I cooked the salmon and the colour again looked too pale to be 'wild salmon'. As I had a tennis match that morning and had nothing else unfrozen to eat, I decided to eat the fish.  It tasted disgusting! As someone who regularly eats wild salmon and someone who is very much in tune with the foods that I put in my body, 'I knew' this was farmed salmon.

Tune in next to see what happened when I contacted Waitrose...

Are Hidden Internal Stressors Making You Sick? - Part 4

If you are not quite feeling yourself or are not feeling as young and energetic as you used to, you may just have a hidden internal stressor such as an infection.

To discover whether you have an infection or not, you may wish to use a good laboratory. It is suggested that a stool sample is taken on four consecutive days. Any less, may miss identification.

 

If an infection is found, firstly, the host needs to strengthen all the bodily systems by:

• Ensuring adequate hydration
• eating a 100% organic diet
• eating right for their metabolic type®
• eliminating any sensitive foods from the diet
• balancing steroid hormones
• supporting the immune, digestive and detoxification systems
• reduction of mental / emotional stressors
• sleeping from 10pm for at least 8 hours every evening in a fully darkened room

 

Once the systems are strengthened, the infection can then be addressed. There are many approaches, including pharmacological (in consultation with your Doctor) and natural therapies.It is suggested that you seek guidance from a professional who has a good track record of helping people with such infections and helping people to feel amazing again.