Category Archives: Health And Body

Christian Health – Body, Soul and SPIRIT Connection

Posted on by
Reply



Are you a Christian are wondering why Christians are having the same medical issues as non-believers? You know you’re saved and have inherited eternal life but are plagued with health issues that no one seems to be able to resolve? Do people tell you that you don’t have enough faith? Are you wondering why God doesn’t answer your prayers for healing?

You’ve heard of the mind-body connection…well as a Christian you should know of the body, soul & spirit connection when it comes to your health. We know that our thoughts affect our physical health and vice versa. An injury or pain can bring about depression. Or being nervous about speaking in public can give you butterflies in your stomach. But, your health depends on more than nutrition, exercise and the power of positive thinking because our wellness or wholeness goes far deeper than that. “For our struggle is not against flesh & blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world & against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12

Our fears, anxiety and “stressors” cause clear physical consequences to our bodies. Our bodies reacting to our thought processes remain in a fight or flight readiness. And instead of returning to homeostasis or a normal balance of hormones, if we continue in the same thought patterns, we hold our bodies hostage to a constant barrage of alarm reaction hormones. The perception of danger or fear of the unknown triggers a response that travels from the sensory cortex of the brain through the hypothalamus to the brain stem. That signaling starts a reaction of hormone secretion of epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine from the adrenal glands. You don’t have to think about it. Your autonomic nervous system takes over and takes charge. The following responses take place:

Heart rate and strength of cardiac muscle contraction are increased Increased blood pressure Alternating dilation and constriction of the blood vessels Digestion slows down or stops Spleen contracts and discharges stored blood Sweat production increases Fat and glucose are released for muscular action Rate of breathing increases Pupils dilate Bladder relaxes Loss of hearing Loss of peripheral vision Acceleration of instantaneous reflexes Shaking

A “stressor” is anything that causes fear or anxiety in your life. If you maintain continual “stress” in your life that your autonomic nervous system handles daily on a fight or flight basis all of your organs begin to be affected. You don’t even see it happening. Although your lab results and your symptoms will give it away. Now we come to cortisol, a steroid hormone. Its primary functions are to increase blood sugar, suppress the immune system, and aid in fat, protein and carbohydrate metabolism.

It also decreases bone formation. It’s release is controlled by the hypothalamus. Under normal circumstances, cortisol, like other agents of fat, protein and carbohydrate metabolism, has widespread actions which help restore balance after a stressor or fight or flight occurrence. Although cortisol secretion is a natural function, prolonged cortisol secretion due to chronic stressors causes many physiological consequences.

Counteracts insulin Induces collagen loss in the skin It stimulates gastric acid secretion Acts as an anti-diuretic hormone Lowers bone formation favoring osteoporosis Weakens the immune system May result in damage to cells involving memory retention Increases blood pressure Shuts down the reproductive system

If your body stays in a chronic stressed state it degenerates to a dis-eased state. It reaches the point of exhaustion and can no longer return to balance. The medical answer to this is medicine. Drugs. But, drugs are a poor substitute for the peace of God that passes all understanding. John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Fear is a sin as it places doubt in your mind about God’s ability to take care of you. 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.” Spiritual roots of disease such as fear go beyond changing your nutrition, setting up an exercise plan and using positive affirmations. The question begs why would God heal you if you are co-operating with a spirit of fear, anxiety and stress in your life? If we do not remove the spirit of fear we are vulnerable to the same bodily responses that brought us to a dis-eased condition.

We are like Pavlov’s dogs that became famous for conditional reflexes. Given a certain stimuli their bodily functions automatically reacted with the same response. I know families that even pride themselves in the fact that their pessimism and worrying runs in the family. They feel that how they handle fear, anxiety and stress is familial and can’t be changed.

That is an excuse from responsibility and what God calls the iniquity of generations. There is a correlation and consequence of sin and disease. If you have exhausted your options turning to man’s answers and thought God has given up on you and that He wants you to have disease, I want to tell you that is far from the truth. We can readily see the mind/body connection as much information is distributed about it.

But, too often we ignore, are blind, or minimize the spiritual connection to one of the psychological realm. The Bible however tells us we wrestle not with flesh and blood and not of ourselves and our subconscious. It is time to take an inventory of what is in your spiritual diet! “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23 To see if I may be of help in this area take Your Next Step.

Optimal Sleeping Postures for Ideal Health and Body Oxygenation

Posted on by
Reply



Modern books, articles, and websites generally suggest that we should select the optimal sleeping position based on less pain in a spine and other parts of the body. Meanwhile, should we consider the human body as a purely mechanical machine? Could a certain sleeping position be temporary good for a spine, but eventually lead to various health problems due to some fundamental abnormalities created by this “ideal” sleeping position? This is exactly the situation with supine sleep or sleeping on one’s back.

Sleeping on one’s back or supine sleep, according to medical studies, associates with higher chances of asthma; asthma and allergies in wheezing children; nocturnal asthma;back pain in pregnancy; bruxism and swallowing; bruxism;clenching episodes and gastroesophageal reflux; chronic respiratory insufficiency; cough (nocturnal) and coughing attacks; GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease); health of geriatric inpatients; heart failure with central sleep apnea/Cheyne-Stokes (irregular) respiration; irregular or periodic breathing; health of pregnant women; sleep apnea; sleep paralysis and terrifying hallucinations; snoring; hypopneas and apneas; stroke with sleep apnea; stroke in elderly patients; and pulmonary tuberculosis.

However, there were no published studies that tested effects of sleeping positions on cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and many other conditions. Medical professionals are busy with an eternal search for better drugs, while it is known that severely sick patients are most likely to have exacerbations of their health problems during sleep (from 4 to 7 am). Furthermore, epidemiological research articles have found the highest mortality rates for these early morning hours. Would it be smart then to investigate the effects of sleep lifestyle factors (breathing route, sleeping position, air quality, hardness of the bed, thermoregulation, effects of late meals, effects of exercise with mouth vs. nasal breathing and its duration, etc.)?

Should such research studies be conducted, sleeping on one’s back would be declared as a one of the leading immediate causes of mortality in the severely sick. (The other key cause is mouth breathing during sleep leading to dry mouth in the morning.)

Surely, we are biochemical, not mechanical machines and sleeping positions should be selected according to better health, prevention and treatment of chronic diseases and better well-being in the morning. Since chronic diseases are based on ineffective breathing and low body oxygenation, choice of optimum sleeping postures for modern people must be based on better respiratory parameters and minimum losses in body oxygenation in comparison with evening values.

Hence, our next question is what is the ideal or optimum breathing pattern for proper body oxygenation? If we consider modern people, dozens of studies found that modern people breathe about 2 times more air at rest than the medical norm. This norm is only about 6 liters of per minute, while ordinary adults breathe about 12 L/min. Can overbreathing improve oxygenation of cells and tissues? Thousands of medical publications have revealed that hyperventilation makes us HYPOXIC. We get less O2 in cells due to 3 factors:

1. When we breathe more, we start to use chest muscles for respiration. As a result, instead of normal 98% for oxygenation of red blood cells in the arterial blood, we get less oxygen in the arterial blood.

2. Since we remove too much CO2, arteries and arterioles get constricted (CO2 is a powerful vasodilator) and all vital organs get less blood supply.

3. Less oxygen is released in tissues due to the suppressed Bohr effect (CO2 is also the key factor for oxygen release in tissues).

Indeed, not only medical research has found all these effects in vivo and in vitro, you can easily confirm this fact on your relatives and friends. Normal breathing is light, slow, inaudible, and with strictly nasal breathing. We take very small and short diaphragmatic inhalations and then have long relaxed and quiet exhalations. This breathing pattern is also the key criteria for good sleep and best sleeping positions.

You can easily notice that, when we have better health, our breathing during sleep is lighter and slower so that others cannot hear and see it. Breathing of sick people, on contrary, is fast and noisy due to their ineffective breathing pattern or irregular breathing pattern during sleep. You can observe this effect, if you pay attention to breathing of your spouse, children and/or relatives and friends during sleep. When they are healthy, their breathing is quiet and relaxed. When they are sick, you can easily hear them.

As a next step, you can measure your or their body oxygenation using a stress-free version of the BHT (breath holding time) test. After usual exhalation, pinch both nostrils and count the number of seconds for the breath hold, but do the test only until first or initial signs of stress or discomfort. Heavy breathers have short breath holding times, while normal breathing corresponds to 40 seconds. [Since most modern people breathe twice the norm, they have about twice less oxygen in cells or about 20 seconds. Sick people usually have less than 15 s BHT after one's usual exhalation.]

You can also test the effects of sleeping postures on your body oxygenation measured in seconds. Practical experience of Russian and western Buteyko doctors and practitioners found that if you have a certain BHT when you go to sleep, sleeping on a chest (or tummy) or your left side will not change your BHT. (Your BHT will go down, if you sleep for hours without changes in your body position.) Sleeping on the right side will cause about 20% reduction in your BHT. Sleeping on your back will decrease your body oxygenation by around 40%.

Hence, ideal sleep postures are prone and on the left side. Hence, ideal sleep for modern people should include alternations between these 2 optimal sleeping postures: sleeping on your stomach (or chest) and the left side.