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That Gateway We Call Death

I’ve spent the majority of my professional life in the acquisition of knowledge, wisdom and skill to treat illness and help heal disease.  I’ve spent almost 30 years in the practice and application of that wisdom.  That’s nearly 100,000 hours of my life, dedicated to health and healing of my patients. 

My greatest foes over the years are and have been ignorance, disease, distress, anxiety, depression, disability, apathy and ultimately, death.  I come in contact daily with those who are seriously ill facing the very real prospect of death.  Of necessity, I have come to look upon death as a formidable foe to be fought.  For all conscientious doctors, death’s gateway from life threatens us as the prospect of individual defeat.

I attended the funeral of a friend today who was only a few years older than me.  His life was cut short.  His passing has been weighing upon my mind, as similar events occurred in the life of my brother-in-law last year, my sister a few years ago and my father before that.  I find myself re-reading the words and passages I wrote a number of years ago at the time of my father’s death. I re-post them again, partially for myself, but also for any who may be pondering the gateway we call death. 

The famed scientist Madame Marie Curie returned to her home the night of the funeral of her husband, Pierre Curie, who was killed in an accident in the streets of Paris.  She made this entry in her diary:

Madame Marie Curie

“They filled the grave and put sheaves of flowers on it. Everything is over. Pierre is sleeping his last sleep beneath the earth. It is the end of everything, everything, everything.”

BUT IS IT?

What is this thing that men call death,

This quiet passing in the night?

Tis not the end, But Genesis

Of better worlds and greater light.

O God, touch though my aching heart,

And calm my troubled, haunting fears.

Let hope and faith, transcendent pure,

Give strength and peace beyond my tears.

There is not death, but only change

With recompense for won;

The gift of Him who loved all men,

The Son of God, the Holy One.

(G. B. Hinckley)

This blog is intended to help those struggling with their health, in particular, weight gain, diabetes and the diseases of civilization.  One of those diseases frequently affecting weight is the depression and fear that accompanies the death of a loved one.  Often, the answers science offers are only cold and empty, and we are required to rely upon our faith.  I share some of that with you here.Every patient of every doctor, if followed long enough will pass away. 
The first rule I learned in surgery is that “all bleeding stops eventually.” The inescapable rule of life is that no matter how good your treatments are, all patient’s will meet the undertaker, eventually.  None of us get out of this alive. 

When this happens, and it happens to all of us, a sense of sadness naturally prevails regardless of the age or nature of the deceased.

If death is to happen to all of us, then why do we feel sadness at the death of a friend or loved one?

This sadness is caused by the feeling of loss tied to three age-old unanswered questions:

  1. Did you and I exist before we were born, and if so, where were we?
  2. Why are we here together and what is the purpose of this life?
  3. Where do we go when we die?

Are there answers to these questions?

When science does not have the answers, I have found great hope and answers in hidden within the teachings of my faith. I share them with you, not to preach, but in hopes that you might find peace and solace in your life as I have in mine.

The spiritual leader Wilford Woodruff said “that if the people knew what was behind the veil, they would try by every means . . . that they might get there, but the Lord in his wisdom has implanted the fear of death in every person that they might cling to life and thus accomplish the designs of their creator.” (The Gateway We Call Death, Russell M. Nelson, p.96)

The Lord explained to Moses, “For this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39)

This work and glory is referred to by a number of names including The Plan of Salvation, The Plan of Redemption, The Plan of Eternal Progression, The Plan of Happiness and others.

I often speak with people that say to me, “I just want to be happy.” Or they question me asking, “Will I ever really be happy?”

Happiness is the object and design of our existence . . . and well be the end thereof if we pursue the path that leads to it.  Along this path lies virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness and keeping the commands of our Creator.  So how does this help us find happiness in the face of the death of a friend or loved one?

The answers are found in contemplation of the the three age-old questions.  First, where were we before we were born?

The Old Testament prophet Job, one of the more ancient writers of the Bible, gives us some insight. The Lord asked him the same question: “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where was thou when I laid the foundation of the earth . . . when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:2-7)

You and I must have been somewhere – the Lord asked us where we were. And, who were all the “sons of God shouting for joy?” Why were they shouting? Where were they?

The apostle, Luke, in the New Testament answers those questions years later as he lays out the genealogy of the human family.  He starts at Christ and then names each subsequent father leading up to ” . . . Enos, which is the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.” (Luke 3:38)

The apostle, John, must have had some idea of a pre-mortal existence because of the way they phrased the question to Jesus Christ about the man who was born blind, “Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2) The question was not “could he have sinned before he was born?” but instead, “who did sin?” Christ’s answer implied that both were possible, but neither was the case in this situation.

Paul writes to the Hebrews, “Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of our Spirits, and live?” (Hebrews 12:9) We are also given instruction to open our prayers with a phrase like, “Our Father in Heaven.” Hence, He is the Father of our Spirits, our Heavenly Father, our spiritual Father.

We then are brothers & sisters in the spiritual sense, and Jesus Christ is our elder brother, being the firstborn spirit child of God.  If this is the case, then all of us, including you and I, were among the sons and daughters of God who shouted for joy along with Adam.

The Lord explained to Moses, “I have created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of the earth . . . for in heaven created I them.” (Moses 3:5) In addition to this, we learn from Moses that a council was held in heaven in which you and I were present. At this grand council, the plan to create this earth, including the fall of Adam, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ was presented and accepted.

There was, however, someone who opposed this plan. Lucifer rebelled and was cast out of heaven with those who chose to follow him.

If all this is true, then it means you and I accepted this plan and here we are. Accepting this plan as described by the prophet Abraham is defined as accepting our First Estate.

So, the first question is where did we come from? We came from the presence of God, the pre-mortal spirit world, in the company of all our spirit brothers and sisters.

Second question, why are we here? Trying to wrap the whole of this question into a nutshell gives us the following answer.

First, on the eternal perspective, progression requires that we each have our own physical mortal body that has the capacity of becoming refined, immortalized or glorified through the process of death and subsequently resurrection.

Second, we had to be sent somewhere outside of the presence and powerful righteous influence of God our Father to prove ourselves, to exercise our own agency, and determine in this life the nature of our life to come – the life after death. One of the prophets, Jacob, tells us that Adam & Eve were expelled out of the Garden of Eden into a “lone and dreary world” and on a probation of sorts, where a person could chose from a myriad of different things that were either good or evil. It is necessary for man to taste the bitter to enable him to appreciate the good, is one way to explain it.

The ancient prophet Alma calls this a probationary state, a time to repent, to grow, to learn responsibility, and to prepare for the next life. (Alma 12:24, 42:4)

Said the Lord, “And thus did I, the Lord God, appoint unto man in the days of his probation – that by his natural death he might be raised in immortality unto eternal life, even as many as would believe.” (Doctrine & Covenants 29:43)

Obtain a Body . . . Prove Ourselves . . . Get Experience . . . this is your first estate.

Some of us live 80 years, some of us live 50 years, some of us live 39 years, and some live only a brief few years on this earth. Will you and I be given as much time? There are laws to be learned and lived, ordinances to experience, and covenants to be made and kept, and faith and obedience to demonstrate in this life.

Third, where do we go from here? Where will I go when I die? Where have friends and family that have passed on gone to?

The penitent thief on the cross being crucified with the Savior, Jesus Christ, asked the Him the same question. The Savior responded with this answer, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

Christ died in the literal sense that you and I will die. He underwent a physical dissolution by which His immortal spirit was separated from His body of flesh and bones, and that body was actually dead. While the corpse lay in Joseph’s rock-hewn tomb, the living Christ existed as a disembodied Spirit. Where was He?  We naturally assume that he went where spirits of the dead ordinarily go. He was in the disembodied state a Spirit among spirits. He went to the Spirit world.

We know that the spirit world is not heaven, as the Savior, on the third day after his crucifixion, met the weeping Mary Magdalene and said: “I am not yet ascended to my Father.” He had gone to Paradise as he told the penitent thief, but not to the place where God dwells. Sprit Paradise, therefore, is not Heaven, or the place where God the Eternal Father and his celestialized children dwell and make their abode. Spirit Paradise is a place where dwell

righteous and repentant disembodied spirits between bodily death and resurrection. Another division of the spirit world is reserved for those disembodied beings who have lived lives of wickedness and who remain impenitent even after death.

The ancient prophet Alma explained to his son Corianton who was confused on this matter, “Now there is must needs be a space betwixt the time of death and the time of resurrection.” (Alma 40:6) “Now concerning this state of the soul between the death and the resurrection, behold it has been made know unto me by an angel that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to God who gave them life. And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happens, which is called Paradise, a state of rest from all their troubles and from all care and sorrow.”

“And the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil – for behold they have no part nor portion of the Spirit of the Lord; for behold they chose evil works rather than the good; therefore, the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house – this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and as a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection.” (Alma 40:11-14)

The Spirit World is therefore quite a unique place.

Another apostle and scriptural historian, Bruce R. McConkie, explains from the Savior’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus, “The spirit world is divided into two parts: Paradise which is the abode of the righteous, and hell which is the abode of the wicked. Until the death of Christ, these two spirit abodes were separated by a great gulf, with the intermingling of their respective inhabitants strictly forbidden.” (Luke 16:19-31)  We know that Christ visited this spirit world because the apostle Peter’s biblical account tells us the following: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” (1 Peter 3:18-20)

When Christ visited the Spirit world, he also organized the affairs of this kingdom such that the righteous spirits began teaching the His gospel to those who had not heard it and those who were disobedient or wicked.  Although, there are two spheres within the one spirit world, there is now some intermingling of the righteous and the wicked that inhabit those spheres; and when the wicked spirits repent, they leave their prison-hell and join the righteous in spirit paradise. Hence Joseph Smith said, “Hades, Sheol, paradise, spirit prison are all one: it is a world of spirits. The righteous and the wicked all go to the same world of spirits until the resurrection.” (Teachings, p. 310).

Life, work and activity all continue in the spirit world. Men and women have the same talents and intelligence there which they had in this life. They possess the same attitudes, inclinations, and feelings there which they had in this life. They believe the same things, as far as eternal truths are concerned: they continue in effect, to walk in the same path they were following in this life. (Mormon Doctrine, Spirit World, McConkie) The prophet Amulek said, “That same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in the eternal world.” (Alma 34:34) Thus, if a man has the spirit of charity and the love of truth in his heart in this life, that same spirit will possess him in the spirit world.

Family and friends who have passed away with the spirit of joviality and happiness will find it will carry them forward in the gospel and in the teaching of the gospel to many others on the other side.

When I leave this frail existence,

When I lay this mortal by,

Father, Mother, may I meet you

In your royal courts on high?

Then at length, when I’ve completed

All you sent me forth to do,

With your mutual approbation

Let me come and dwell with you.

(Eliza R. Snow, “O My Father,” Hymns, #292)

This post mortal world is a place to await resurrection. All will be resurrected. The Atonement of Jesus Christ ensures a universal resurrection. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor 15:22) Judgment will then, after the resurrection, be passed on all according to individual works and obedience while in mortality. The great prophet Nephi says, “For by grace are they saved after all they can do.” (2 Nephi 25:23) Said the Savior to His disciples, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me because I live and ye shall live also.” (John 14:19)

Inheriting the glory that Christ has been resurrected into is conditional and is based upon the laws by which individuals choose to govern their mortal lives.

Said the prophet Alma, “The plan of restoration is requisite with the justice of God; for it is requisite that all things should be restored to their proper order. Behold, it is requisite and just, according to the power and resurrection of Christ, that the soul of man should be restored to its body, and that every part of the body should be restored to itself.

“And it is requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also as the last day, be restored unto that which is good.” (Alma 41:2-3)

The righteous who understand and live the truth will be resurrected to receive a glory in heaven referred to as Celestial and Paul refers to this as comparable to the glory of the Sun. In this celestial kingdom also known as the Kingdom of God, marriages and eternal family relationships are secured, eternal progress and progression is uninterrupted forever and ever.

The less valiant who choose the lesser law will be resurrected to receive a glory Terrestrial that Paul compares to the glory of the moon. They chose not to enjoy that which they could have enjoyed. These would not accept the words of the prophets in this life and died in their sins, but accepted afterwards.

And to the undisciplined, wicked, liars, sorcerers, adulterers, whoremongers, and the unrepentant who are shut out in spirit prison until the Savior finishes his work (D&C 76:85), they will be resurrected to a glory Telestial or that equivalent, as Paul puts it, to the “glory of the stars, for one star differeth from another star in glory.” (1 Corinthians 15:40-44)  The remainder will become attached to Perdition, those who refuse any part of the Atonement of Christ – those that are cast off forever, as the scriptures say, into outer darkness.

What of those that have taken their lives prematurely when the Lord has said, “Thou shalt not kill”? Are they consigned to spirit prison and later a telestial glory?

Another of the Lord’s modern day apostles, M. Russell Ballard, recently stated that there are “some things we know, and some we do not . . . [the] judgment for sin is not always as cut and dried as some of use seem to think. . . the Lord recognizes differences in intent and circumstances: Was the person who took his life mentally ill? Was he or she so deeply depressed as to be unbalanced or otherwise emotionally disturbed? Was the suicide a tragic, pitiful call for help that went unheeded too long or progressed faster than the victim intended? Did he or she somehow not understand the seriousness of the act? Was he or she suffering from a chemical imbalance in their system that led to despair and a loss of self control? Obviously, we do not know the full circumstances surrounding every suicide. Only the Lord knows the details, and he it is who will judge our actions here on earth.” (Liahona, March 1988, Suicide: Some Things We Know, and Some We Do Not)

Said the prophet Joseph Smith: “While one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard . . . He is a wise Lawgiver, and will judge all men, not according to the narrow contracted notions of men, but ‘according to the deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil,’ . . . We need not doubt the wisdom and intelligence of the Great Jehovah; He will award judgment or mercy to all nations according to their several deserts, their means of obtaining intelligence, the laws by which they are governed, the facilities afforded them of obtaining correct information, and His inscrutable designs in relations to the human family; and when the designs of God shall be made manifest, and the curtain of futurity be withdrawn, we shall all of us eventually have to confess that the Judge of all the earth has done right.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 1938, p218)

When we are judged, the Lord will take all things into consideration: our genetic and chemical makeup, our mental state, our intellectual capacity, the teachings we have received the traditions of our fathers, our health, and so forth.

That is the plan. Those are the answers. Death, then, is a gateway.

Upon the cross he meekly died

For all mankind to see

That death unlocks the passageway

Into eternity.

(Hymns, #184 – “Upon the Cross of Calvary”)

“The keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name.” (2 Nephi 9:41)

To live, to love, and to be loved are the essence of what is important in this life.  Those we have known and passed on have lived great lives, they were loved and are still loved.

Mourning and tears are normal – in fact, they are a healthy reaction. Mourning is one of the purest expressions of deep love. It is a natural response in accord with divine commandment: “Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die.” (D&C 42:45)

By mortal standard time, it’ll be much longer than we like till we see our loved ones again. By eternal standard time – “We’ll see you soon.”

Until then watch. There are another set of hands you should look for, pierced at the palms and at the wrists. You will recognize His hands when you see them. You will recognize Him when you see Him. His hands are always open. The brightness of His eyes and smile will warm the darkest recesses of your soul. When you meet Him, touch his hands, feel the mark in his side, and bow at His feet. He knows you by name. He knows each of us by name. He will offer you the peace, the rest and the love that you seek.

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to be born and a time to die . . . A time to weep, and a time to laugh, at time to mourn, and a time to dance . . . a time to get and a time to loose . . . a time to embrace . . . and a time to love.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

This death of which I speak eventually comes to all. It comes to some in childhood, to some in ripe old age, and to others in the prime of life. To some it comes by natural means, anticipated and expected, to others it comes without warning, unannounced. It may come quietly in the peace of the night, or it may come violently in the confusion of an instant, but assuredly, it comes to all.

To you my beloved friends and patients and family, remember His invitation.  “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

This yoke is a conviction, a way of life; it is called the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It does not take away challenges, disappointments, frustrations, pain or sorrow. But, when lived, it lifts burdens, lightens loads, and makes life bearable. It empowers you with light and strength from on high to learn and grow from experiences in spite of whatever life brings.

This is my conviction. This I know to be true. It is what brings hope in the battle against that inevitable foe, death. May it bring you the warmth of heart and the solace of soul that it brings to me as I ponder its meaning in my life and the lives of my family. May the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation bring you comfort in knowing that those we care about have passed through the gateway we call death to look forward upon immortality and the Glory of the Savior Jesus Christ.

Living With Pandemics and Potential Nuclear Warfare

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[Adapted from “On Living In An Atomic Age (1948), by C.S. Lewis]

Too many of us spend way too much time thinking about the global pandemic, economic collapse and nuclear war.

“How are we to live in this era of nuclear threat, escalating inflation and rampant viruses?”

I am often tempted to reply, “The same way you would have lived in the early twentieth century when the great depression hit, or like you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of tuberculosis, an age of paralyzing polio, an age of syphilis, an age of air raids, and age of railway accidents or an age of motor vehicle accidents.

In other words, don’t begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, you and everyone you love have already been sentenced to death before the threat of viral pandemics or nuclear warfare was ever invented: and a high percentage of use were going to die in unpleasant ways.  You and I have a great advantage over our ancestors – antibiotics and anesthetics – to this day we still have them.

It is perfectly ridiculous to go whimpering about the day with long drawn faces because the great scientists of our time have added one more chance of a painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.  None of us get out of this alive.  None.  Not one.

My first point in this monologue is that you and I must pull ourselves together.  If we are all going to be destroyed by a virus, skyrocketing inflation or a nuclear bomb, then let that destruction, when it comes, find us doing sensible human things like praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing golf (scratch that – I hate golf), chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of chess or darts – not huddled together like frightened sheep, thinking about viruses or nuclear warfare or gasoline prices.  They may break our bodies (in my experience, any microbe can do that) but, they need not dominate our minds.

“But,” you will reply, “it is not death – not even painful and premature death – that we are all hot and bothered about.  Of course, the chance of that is not a new thing.  What is new is that the virus or the bomb or climate change may finally and totally destroy civilization itself.  The lights may be put out forever.”

This brings us much nearer to the real point.  Let me try to make clear exactly what I think that point is.  What were your views about the ultimate future of civilization before the pandemic appeared on the scene? What did you think all this effort of humanity was to come to in the end?   The real answer is clear to almost everyone who has even a smidgeon of scientific background; yet, oddly enough, it is hardly ever mentioned.  And the real answer (almost beyond doubt) is that with or without viruses, nuclear warfare and economic collapses the whole story is going to end in NOTHING.

The astronomers hold out no hope that this plant is going to be permanently inhabitable. The physicists hold out no hope that organic life is going to be a permanent possibility in any part of the material universe. Not only this earth, but the whole show, all the suns of space, are to run down. Nature is a sinking ship, and we are but passengers.

Nature does not, in the long run, favor life. If Nature is all that exists — in other words, if there is no God, and no after-life of some sort somewhere outside Nature — then all stories will end in the same way: in a universe from which all life is banished without any possibility of return. It will have been an accidental flicker, and there will be no one even to remember it.

No doubt a nuclear bomb may cut its duration on this present planet shorter that it might have been; but the whole thing, even if it lasted for billions of years, must be so infinitesimally short in relation to the oceans of dead time which preceded and follow it that I really feel no excitement about its curtailment.

What the wars and the weather and the pandemic have really done is to remind us forcibly of the sort of world we are living in and which, during the prosperous periods before 1914 and 2021, we began to forget.  And, in reality, this reminder is actually a good thing.  We have been awakened from a pretty dream, and now we can begin to talk about reality.

We see at once (when we have been waked, no “woke”) that the important question is not whether a virus or a nuclear weapon is going to obliterate our “civilization.” The important question is whether “Nature” — the thing studied by the sciences – is the only thing in existence? Because if you answer yes to the second question, then the first question only amounts to asking whether the inevitable frustration of all human activities may be hurried on by our own action instead of occurring at its own natural time. That is, of course, a question that concerns us very much.

Even on a leaking ship that is known to certainly sink sooner or later, the news that the boiler might blow up now would not be heard with indifference by anyone.  But those who knew the ship was sinking in any case would not, I think, be quite so desperately excited as those who had forgotten this fact, and were vaguely imagining that it might arrive somewhere.

It is, then, on this second question that you and I really need to make up our minds.

Let us begin by supposing that Nature is all that exists. Let us suppose that nothing ever has existed or ever will exist before or after except this meaningless play of atoms in space and time: that by a series of hundredth changes it has (regrettably) produced things like — conscious beings who now know that their own consciousness is an accidental result of the whole meaningless process and is therefore itself meaningless – though to us, it feels quite significant.

In this situation (in which the Oxford Handbook estimates 25-50% of civilized countries seems to believe is the present reality), there are really only three avenues of action:

(1) You might commit suicide. Nature which has blindly & accidentally given me for my torment this consciousness which demands meaning and value in a universe that offers neither, has luckily also given me the means of getting rid of it. I return the unwelcome gift. I will be fooled no longer.  (I do not recommend this avenue.)

(2) You might decide simply to have as good a time as possible. The universe is a universe of nonsense, but since you are here, grab what you can. Unfortunately, however, there is on these terms, with inflation and gasoline prices so high so very little left to grab — only the coarsest sensual pleasures is really left. You can’t, except in the lowest animal sense, be in love with a girl if you know (and keep on remembering) that all the beauties both of her person, and of her character, are a momentary and accidental pattern produced by the collision of atoms, and that your own response to them is only a sort of psychic phosphorescence arising from the behavior of your genes.

You can’t go on getting any very serious pleasure from music if you know and remember that its air of significance is a pure illusion, that you like it only because your nervous system is irrationally conditioned to like it.

You may still, in the lowest sense, have a “good time”; but just in so far as it becomes very good, just in so far as it ever threatens to push you on from cold sensuality into real warmth and enthusiasm and joy, so far you will be forced to feel the hopeless disharmony between your own emotions and the universe in which you really live.

3) You may defy the universe. You may say, “Let Nature be irrational, I am not. Let it be merciless, I will have mercy. By whatever curious chance it has produced me, now that I am here, I will live according to human values. I know the universe will win in the end, but what is that to me? I will go down fighting. Amid all this wastefulness I will persevere; amid all this competition, I will make sacrifices. Be damned to the universe!”

I suppose that most of us, in fact, while remain materialists, adopt a more or less uneasy alternate position between the second and the third attitude. And although the third is incomparably the better (it is, for instance, much more likely to “preserve civilization”), both really end up shipwrecked on the same rock. That rock — disharmony between our own hearts and Nature — the is obvious in the second. The third seems to avoid the rock by accepting disharmony from the outset and defying it. Yet, it won’t really work. In it, you hold up your own human standards against the idiocy of the universe.

That is, we talk as if our own standards were something outside the universe which can be contrasted with it; as if we could judge the universe by some standard borrowed from another supposed realistic source). But if Nature — in the space–time–matter system — is the only thing in existence, then of course there can be no other source for our standards. They must, like everything else, be the unintended and meaningless outcome of blind forces. Far from being a light from beyond Nature whereby Nature can be judged, they become the only the way in which anthropoids of our species feel when the atoms under our own skulls get into certain states — those states being produced by causes quite irrational, unhuman, and non-moral. Thus, the very ground on which we defy Nature crumbles under our feet. The standard we are applying is tainted at the source. If our standards are derived from this meaningless universe they must be as meaningless as Nature.

For most modern people, thoughts of this kind must be thought through before the opposite view can even get a fair hearing. All Naturalism leads us to this in the end — to a quite final and hopeless discord between what our minds claim to be and what they really must be if Naturalism is true. They claim to be spirit; that is, to be reason, perceiving universal intellectual principles and universal moral laws and possessing free will. But if Naturalism is true, they must in reality be merely arrangements of atoms in skulls, coming about by irrational causation. We never think a thought because it i s true, only because blind Nature forces us to think it. We never do an act because it is right, only because blind Nature forces us to do it. It is when one has faced this preposterous conclusion that one is at last ready to listen to the voice that whispers: “But suppose we really are spirits? Suppose we are not the offspring of Nature . . ?”

For, really, the naturalistic conclusion is unbelievable. For one thing, it is only through trusting our own minds that we have come to know Nature itself. If Nature when fully known seems to teach us (that is – if the sciences teach us) that our own minds are chance arrangements of atoms, then there must have been some mistake; for if that were so, then the sciences themselves would be chance arrangements of atoms and we should have no reason for believing in them.

There is only one way to avoid this deadlock. We must go back to a much earlier view. We must simply accept it that we are spirits, free and rational beings, at present inhabiting an irrational universe, and must draw the conclusion that we are not derived from it. We are strangers here. We come from somewhere else. Nature is not the only thing that exists. There is “another world,” and that is where we come from. And that explains why we do not feel at home here.

A fish feels at home in the water. If we “belonged here” we should feel at home here. All that we say about “Nature,” about death and time and mutability, all our half-amused, half-bashful attitude to our own bodies, is inexplicable on the theory that we are simply natural creatures. If this world is the only world, how did we come to find its laws either so dreadful or so comic? If there is no straight line elsewhere, how did we discover that Nature’s line is crooked?

But what, then, is Nature, and how do we come to be imprisoned in a system so alien to us?

Oddly enough, the question becomes much less sinister the moment one realizes that Nature is not the end all be all. Mistaken for our mother, she is terrifying and even abominable. But if she is only our sister — if she and we have a common Creator — if she is our sparring partner — then the situation suddenly becomes quite tolerable.

Perhaps we are not here as prisoners but as colonists: only consider what we have done already to the dog, the horse, or the daffodil. Nature is indeed a rough playfellow. There are elements of evil in her. To explain all that would carry us far back: I should have to speak of Power and Principalities and all that would seem to the modern reader most mythological. This is not the place, nor do these questions come first.

It is enough to say here that Nature, in her different way, is much alienated from her Creator, though in her, as in us, gleams and rays of the old beauty remain. Yet, they are there not to be worshipped, but to be enjoyed. She has nothing to teach us. It is our business to live by our own law, not by hers: to follow, in private or in public life, the law of love and temperance even when they seem to be suicidal, and not the law of competition and grab, even when they seem to be necessary to our survival. For it is part of our spiritual law never to put survival first: not even the survival of our species. We must resolutely train ourselves to feel that the survival of Man on this Earth, much more of our own nation or culture of class, is not worth having unless it can be had by honorable and merciful means.

The sacrifice is not so great as it seems. Nothing is more likely to destroy a species or a nation than a determination to survive at all costs. Those who care for something else more than civilization are the only people by whom civilization is at all likely to be preserved. Those who want Heaven must have served Earth best. Those who love Man less than God do most for Man.

The Coddling of the American Mind: The Catalyst for the Anxiety Overwhelming Us Today

I have seen dramatic increases in anxiety, fear and depression in my practice over the last 20 years. I keep asking myself why. My amazing wife shared this video with me and I think Jonathan Haidt has the answer. (Thanks, Tiffini!!)

Watch the video below.

Are we being too protective of our kids as parents today? Do we let our kids do all the things we did as kids? Are we stifling childhood discovery and independence, even though we have the best intentions?

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University Stern School of Business who has written multiple books exploring morality and society. In 2018, he authored the book “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure,” which delves into how overprotective parenting is leading to more harm than good, especially on college campuses. Jonathan has many thoughts on what parents can be doing to support students, without focusing only on their safety. Here are the Top 5 lessons we learned about being antifragile from Jonathan Haidt.

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Joy & Love this Christmas

My wife and I were driving home from a Christmas Day visit to Grandma’s house this afternoon.  On the street corner was a young man, probably in his early twenties, who was “tweaking” from what looked like a serious crystal-meth high.  I was surprised to see this on Christmas Day in the sleepy suburban city of Surprise, Arizona.  But, I realized that life has been hard on all of us, and it looked like It had been very hard on this young man.

Why would I be surprised?  For most of us, this has been an awful year when so many around us have lost their jobs, lost their hope, lost their health, and  lost their lives.  Those of us that have survived are so angry and divided that we can barely tolerate our neighbor, let alone love him.

A few weeks ago, I created myself a Christmas playlist of music in an attempt to put myself in a festive Christmas mood. I’ve found myself torn this year between feelings of anger, discouragement, anxiety and stress, and feelings of hope, love and joy.

Listening to this playlist on repeat, I was reminded of the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and the lyrics.  At the time this song was written, the world was at war in 1944, loved ones were apart. They were thousands of miles away, many of which were never coming home.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Let your heart be light,

From now on, our troubles will be out of sight . . .

From now on, our troubles will be miles away . . .

These lyrics were appropriate then and they are appropriate now.  In light of all that has gone on this year, the lyrics to the song have retained their wistfulness and joy.  The lyrics remind us that Christmas brings a feeling of expectant joy that may seem out of reach at the moment.

“Joy,” C.S. Lewis once wrote, “ is distinct not only from pleasure in general, but even from aesthetic pleasure. It must have the stab, the pang, the inconsolable longing.”   Every consolation we seek in life – love, beauty, money, pleasure, power, and even sex – is only a poor representative of something beyond Itself.  Those who dedicate their lives to pursuing the symbol rather that’s the thing the symbol represents invariably end up disappointed – or worse.

The misery so many celebrities that people have known in their youth who wanted fame, worked and pushed and fought for it. Then, the moment they became famous, the wanted to take an overdose.  The giant thing they were striving for, the fame that was to make everything OK, that was to make their lives bearable providing personal fulfillment and happiness occurred, and they found they were still the same person.

That thing we want, that thing that the riches of the world attempt to represent, that thing that seems so near and yet so maddeningly out of reach, is the love of God who made us in his image.  It is the only real North Star of our life’s journey, the only true guidepost to become the person we were divinely made to be.

On the very first Christmas, that longed-for thing broke through the earthly barrier and arrived upon our earthly plain.  When you and I celebrate this day, we are boldly declaring our faith in the reality of that event and the truth of It’s infinite meaning: God Is there for you and God Is there for me.  We know within our souls that our yearning is not in vain.

Maybe in this year of anger, pain, death and sickness, when we all have to muddle through day by day, it would be good to remember the people that we disagree with most, the people we hate most, the people we want to throttle most are also desperately yearning and suffering this year. They, too, are striving for the thing they can’t quite reach.  And, many of them do not have our hope and our Christmas faith.

The Savior, Jesus Christ, did not tell us to love our enemies, or our neighbors because he thought it would make them better people or make the world a better place.  He told us to love our enemies so that we ourselves might “be children of our Father in heaven.  He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous.”

To love in that way, the way that Jesus Christ exemplified, is to experience within this vale of tears the vale beyond.  The reality is that God loves you.  Left or Right, black or white, straight or gay, He loves you, and you and I were made in His image.

So, this year, remember, that far-away joy is more real that all of our troubles. Remember, you are not alone. Have a Merry Christmas.

Obesity, Anxiety and The Divided Mind

In past posts, we’ve discussed how to effectively and efficiently lose weight and open the gates of the fat cells.  We’ve talked about the keys to the back doors of the fat cells that must be opened to create effective lipolysis (releasing of fat from the fat cells) and weight reduction.

I want to focus, today, on another key found in the brain.  The brain neuropeptides play a huge role in metabolic balance of the body and have direct relationships to anxiety, stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  In the last few years, research into the hormones of the brain (neuropeptides) and body demonstrates that the “autonomic nervous system” plays a very significant roll in losing weight.

The autonomic nervous system is the part of the nervous system responsible for “fight or flight responses.”  If a bear rises up in front of you while you are strolling in the woods, and begins to chase you, the autonomic nervous system kicks in to speed up the heart rate, shunt blood to the muscles and turn down the processing of food in the gut while you run from or fight the bear.  This autonomic nervous system is also the system that links emotions (like happiness, sadness, stress, anger, depression) between the conscious and subconscious mind and creates the attachments of these emotions to specific memories.

The Divided Mind and Disease

A disconnect or poor communication between our conscious mind and subconscious mind wreaks havoc in the balance between memory, emotion, cognitive function, endocrine glands and immune system.  One example of this is the onset of panic attacks for no reason.  Another example is chronic fatigue and many symptoms found in autoimmune diseases.  This same autonomic nervous system, when malfunctioning, plays a significant roll in our ability to lose weight.   The subconscious mind triggers the autonomic nervous system without the conscious mind’s involvement.

Thanks to the work of John E Sarno, MD, and Candace B. Pert, PhD, the link between our subconscious mind and the autonomic nervous system is much more clear.  This opens the door to our understanding how the subconscious mind can have a profound effect on obesity.

This field of research requires one to understand a concept about the psyche initially outlined by Dr. Sigmund Freud and his colleague Dr. Josef Breuer (the Father of Psychoanalysis) in the 1880’s.  Misconceptions regarding the basic drives of the human psyche aside, they identified through their clinical evaluations that the human psyche is made up of three parts, the subconscious (the id), conscious (the ego), and the super-conscious (the superego).  They identified an essential concept that the subconscious is a more primitive and childish component of the mind functioning much more instinctually,  and that the ego and super-ego house the intelligent, ethical, and moral consciousness.  They also identified that a split or division can arise between these two partitions causing physiological conflict to arise (i.e. – onset of a panic attack for no reason).

Autonomic Nervous System is made up of two parts: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic divisions. These divisions act like a gas pedal or brake for various organs and functions.

It is important to understand, as Freud pointed out, that you cannot divide the mind into neat compartments suggested by these three divisions.  The mind acts as a single unit.  However, understanding the “id” and it’s instinctual functions being tied to the autonomic nervous system is central to understanding how subconscious can derail weight loss.

Freud and Breuer identified in their Studies on Hysteria that a simple subconscious idea or instinct could be strong enough to exert powerful physical responses without  sufficient intensity to become conscious thought recognized by the individual. This means that a physiologic motor response in the body could be stimulated without being conscious of the reason for the stimulus.  They, along with Jean-Martin Caharcot, Alfred Alder, Franz Alexander and Allan Walters, witnessed this multiple times clinically.  They came to the conclusions that pain and other nervous functions could originate and could actually be created by the mind.

The Mind has the Power to Create Disease

Dr. Pert’s research over the last 40 years has been able to clearly identify a communication system between the brain, the endocrine system and the immune system.  Dr. Pert’s research identified that memory and/or subconscious idea is directly tied to emotion through the brain hormones called neuropeptides that, when triggered, reproduce stored memory, emotion physical autonomic responses (like changes in heart rate, dry mouth, dilation or constriction of the pupils, sweating of the palms or trunk, chest pressure, etc) and even auto-immunity.

Memory, Emotion & Storage Controlled by Neuropeptides

Neuropeptides also participate in memory sorting, storage and recall .   In his recent book, Beyond Order, the clinical psychologist and professor Dr. Jordon Peterson explains that the miracle of memory is not that we remember, the miracle of memory is that we forget and that we only remember what is necessary.  The miracle of memory is that we only remember those things that are important and teach us meaning.  Because we can forget, we don’t drag the horrible details of the past along with us.  Our memories allow us to get free of the past.  All you need is three sleepless nights in which you cannot dispense with the past and you would understand that life would be a literal hell if we cannot dispense with the day, the memory and the emotions of each day. We must renew ourselves in this cyclical unconsciousness we call sleep and resetting of the memory.   It is during this time that memory, emotion and neurohormones are tied together.

Our memories are tied to emotions through neurochemical synapses created in the brain by the neuropeptides.  Forgetting and remembering are very complex and sophisticated cognitive processes.  Our subconscious reduces the memory, emotion and experience to it’s significance.  The significance is then recorded as memory with it’s associated emotion, then our brain lets go of the details.
If you think about it, we boil our lives down to the “jest” of the story and then we remember only the significance of that story with attached emotion.  This process saves us from being crushed by days, years and decades of the gory details of day to day experience.

Anxiety Provoking Memories are Experiences that Still Need Unpacking

If memories from 18 months or older are still bothering you, if they produce negative emotions, that is a sign that that memory has not been correctly or completely unpacked by the complex processes of the brain. It is essential that the brain unpack wisdom from the past that learning can occur and it can be applied to the future.  This process occurs so that you don’t do the same stupid thing over and over again.  Or, it is there so that you can repeat things that worked well.  That is the purpose of memory.  Not recollection, our memory is the extraction of wisdom for the lesson of life from vast experience.
If you have a memory that is still hurting you, making you anxious, causing, fear, guilt or shame, you have not undertaken the complex process of analyzing that memory, pulling out from it the moral, and dispensing with the details.   This is why writing down these specific memories is so very important.
You must write the bad memory out.  You must write out all of the details you remember and the emotions of that experience.  It allows the mind to do the complex processing of identifying wisdom and social moral barriers of uncertainty, anxiety, threat, fear and panic that are bothering you.  This is what therapy does when talking about and discussing the past.
If journaling and writing out the memory is not effective in resolving the anxiety or if you are unable to identify the memory causing the anxiety, you may want to consider hypnotherapy and directed meditation.  This has been very effective with many of my patients having anxiety relating to childhood experiences improperly tied to strong emotions.
W. Dennis Parker does a wonderful job in his book, Spiritual Mind Management, elucidating how our subconscious mind inappropriately ties emotion to simple experiences and memory, and how these can cause anxiety. For those with resistant anxiety to journaling and therapy, hypnotherapy has been very effective.

Other Hormones associated with Anxiety and Obesity

Over the last two decades, I’ve found that two other hormones play a huge role in handling stress, anxiety, brain repair and play a very large role in sleep.  Both of these hormones are derived directly from cholesterol.  Low fat, vegan and vegetarian diets lead to low cholesterol availability and I commonly see low levels of the following hormones in both men and women.
The first of these is Pregnenolone.  Pregnenolone is the precursor sex hormone derived from cholesterol in the blood stream.  When serum pregnenolone level is lower than 50 mg/dL anxiety, insomnia, hair loss, poor recovery from exercise and difficulty with concentration become chronic.  The cognitive cloudiness that occurs with low pregnenolone levels make the unpacking of traumatic experiences and the sorting of wisdom from day to day experience difficult due to poor sleep.  I have been amazed that just the simple supplementation of pregnenolone nightly reverses anxiety, improves sleep, stops chronic migraine headaches, increases cognition and frequently allows people to “feel normal again.”
The second hormone is Progesterone.  Interestingly progesterone is derived directly from pregnenolone.  If large amounts of mental or physical stress are occurring, pregnenolone is used to make DHEA, Cortisol and Cortisone.  Little is left to make progesterone which is necessary for further hair growth, sleep, focus, memory, the healing effects from stress and trauma in the brain.  Progesterone often acts like a “brain steroid” healing both brain and spinal cord from stress and trauma.
Any evaluation for anxiety, insomnia, PTSD or stress must include screening both of these hormones, because without them, I’ve seen patients suffer for years with failure of the standard approaches.
One other molecule that has hormonal activities in the arena of anxiety and weight loss is that of methylated folic acid.  Folic acid is converted into L-Methyl Folate within every cell of the body.  This is accomplished by and enzyme called methytetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR).  About 60-65% of the patients I see in my office with insulin resistance, impaired fasting glucose or diabetes have a deficiency in one or both of the MTHFR genes leading to poor conversion of folic acid to the methylated form.   This is detrimental as methylated folic acid is essential in using Vitamin B12 within every cell of the body.
Lack of effective MTHFR enzymes leads to neuropathy, anxiety, depression, obesity and in severe cases elevated homocysteine levels and schizophrenias.  You can learn more about that by reading my blog article on Folic Acid here and a youtube video on it here.

The Search for Individual Meaning is The Deepest of Human Instincts

The human psyche is stabilized by the search for and the experience of individual meaning within life. The subconscious instinct for understanding our individual meaning is the deepest thing about us as humans.  It is innate and is part of our survival instinct.  What if the instinct understanding or experiencing meaning meaning goes wrong?  Pathologizing or lying about that individual meaning causes one to become “lost.”  Understanding that the instinct for meaning can be distorted or lied about is the most frightening thing upon this planet.  If you pathologize that individual meaning with deceit, you will be in the hands of things you do not want to contemplate.  If you have no theory of good and evil, if you’ve never been exposed to malevolence and someone malevolent touches you, you’re done for.
Being true to one’s self or truthful with your understanding of individual meaning helps to properly orient a person in the world, and find middle ground between complete chaos on one side of life and rigid totalitarianism on the other.   Finding and living in that middle ground requires one to rely upon individual instincts founded in truth.   If you want to live in harmony with yourself and your instincts, and live in a middle ground between a life of chaos and one of totalitarianism, don’t feed yourself or surround yourself with indigestible lies, half-truths and deceit.  You certainly shouldn’t try to warp the world around you by intentionally sharing deceitful meaning.

Anxiety Arises from Naivete

The sheltered soul or naive person is raised with the mindset that “all people are innately good.”  The thought or concept that people are “fundamentally good” is a complete misconception.  Being “good” is very difficult.  It is by no means the default position of the natural man and the subconscious mind. Entropy, catastrophe, tragedy, malevolence and death is the default position of human nature and the subconscious mind.  Good struggles up against this continually.
The people who are most prone to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are usually naïve people who have been sheltered from malevolence – sheltered from those who are truly spiteful, hostile, vicious, malicious, malignant, vindictive, pernicious, vengeful, hateful, rancorous, and evil-minded.  This is a well known clinical fact and can be found throughout the psychology literature.  There is nothing about this fact that is questionable.  The naïve world view is that you believe the world is fundamentally good – you believe that good behavior is rewarded with good in return – and you don’t really believe that there is any such thing as evil, and you encounter someone who is malevolent (and often you encounter this in yourself).  That sheltering is general throughout our society.  Death no longer occurs at home, it usually occurs in a hospital.  People live in cities and are rarely exposed to the death of animals and the cycle of life seen 100 years ago in farm and ranch life.
Often in those with PTSD, people who have been sheltered from these things, do something, or are required to do something, so morally reprehensible that it damages them psycho-physiologically. Until their psychological framework of good and evil changes, it is very difficult to recover.   These people have no framework in which to conceptualize violent death, evil or the reprehensible act.  They are unable to balance the conscious and subconscious memories and emotions attached to reprehensible emotional guilt, and it destroys them.  This is very common among soldiers.  It’s not always what they saw, it’s what they did or what they were a part of.
Telling and teaching people that humans are innately good (which has been part of our school system teaching for decades) and that evil doesn’t really exist makes them ripe picking for the malevolent and there is nothing about that which is positive.  It leaves tremendous anxiety and psycho-physiological scars in the wake.  This sheltered outlook is cowardice masquerading as virtue.  We see it more and more in our society.
This is why a teenage boy or girl in a traditional Christian or Jewish school is wiser and happier than the 50 year old professor of philosophy in a secular college.  The person who innately understand that good and evil exist within the world have a much easier time coping with and handling stress and trauma that will cross all of our paths.

What does anxiety, chronic stress and PTSD have to do with obesity and weight gain?

Signals in our environment from very stressful life experiences on a daily basis, chronic underlying stress, chronic anxiety, radiation exposure, infectious organisms (such as bacteria and viruses), xenobiotic chemicals, allergens, intestinal bacterial metabolites and food-derived bioactive substances (including phytochemicals), all have influence on messages received by our genes that then influences their expression. Gene expression can turn on and off neuropeptides.  This can effect the autonomic nervous system turning the metabolism up or down.  The expression of our genes in turn controls our health and disease outcomes.  This is one of the reasons COVID-19 seems to effect some people more dramatically than others.

The hormonal counterbalance of blood sugar is regulated, in part, by the autonomic nervous system.  Changes to this system increase or decrease cortisol & glucose production, thereby affecting production of insulin and other weight mediating hormones.  Changes in neuropeptides from stress or anxiety can act just like eating a meal.

As blood sugar falls, the autonomic nervous system responds to balance the blood sugar.  If this system is dysfunctional or under chronic stress, cortisol and adrenalin will cause higher blood sugars due to the stress response and can trigger increased hunger inappropriately.

This is why chronic stress, poor sleep, or even getting cut off while driving in traffic is the equivalent of eating a donut to your hormone responses.  If you’re not exercising, theses hormones will cause weight gain without any change in your diet, and even with caloric restriction.

How Do You Combat Chronic Stress or Anxiety?

  1. Exercise – Because these hormones are released subconsciously, the only way to help control them is regular and consistent physical activity or exercise.  Exercise, 20-40 minutes 3-6 days per week, is often the only way my patients have been able to combat the weight gain from chronic stress, anxiety and PTSD.
  2. Adequate ProteinRecent studies have demonstrated that hitting protein thresholds in men ( > 150 grams per day) and women ( > 90 grams per day) increased growth hormone and decrease insulin, helping to offset the negative effect of stress and anxiety.  This is a key component of a ketogenic or carnivorous lifestyle.
  3. Sleep -Lack of sleep has been implicated in difficulty with weight loss and weight gain.  Lack of sleep places the body into a state of chronic stress. This elevates cortisol, lowers testosterone, increases insulin (there’s that insulin problem, again) and increases the other inflammatory hormones. This perfect storm of stress, driven by lack of restful sleep, plays a big role in fat loss. My average patient needs at a minimum of 6-7 hours of restful sleep to maintain and lose weight. This is where untreated sleep disorders like sleep apnea play a big role. If you have sleep apnea, get it treated. What else can you do to help improve sleep?
    • Remove the computer, iPad and cell phones from the room.
    • Lower the room temperature. Men sleep better around 68-70 degrees F and women sleep better when the temperature is <70 degrees F.
    • Close the blinds or shades to add or darken the room.
    • Don’t study or watch TV in the same room you sleep in. Your body gets used to doing certain activities in certain rooms of the house. The bedroom should be reserved for sleep.
    • Go to bed at the same time
    • Get up at the same time. 
  4. Journaling – Daily journaling of experiences is one of the most powerful keys to helping the brain sort powerful emotions related to anxiety and memory.
  5. Meditation – I’ve created a 23 minute relaxation/meditation audio file that you can listen to for 30 days to help change your subconscious script on weight loss.  You can find it here.
  6. Some people need additional help through hypnosis.  Talk to your doctor about a certified hypnotherapist near you.  If you are a patient of Dr. Nally’s, he offers these services. Set an appointment today.
  7. Additional Resources – If this information is helpful, you may find additional interest in the following books:
  • “Loving What Is ” by Byron Katie
  • “Overcoming Worry and Fear” by Paul A Hauck
  • “The Joys of Living” by Orison Swett Marden

What to Expect

It may take your body and body’s biorhythm 3-4 weeks to adjust to changes you make around exercise, journaling, protein & sleep habits. Be patient with yourself.

Knowing that these challenges plague people on and off throughout the year, and, seeing people get hung up on these issues, I’ve created the Ketogenic Lifestyle 101 Course.  This program gets you jump-started into ketosis and gives you the tools to overcome the individual hurtles you will experience on your health journey.

 

Men's Hearts Failing Them for Fear

I am always fascinate when religious or spiritual topics collide with medical evidences and/or disease.  I am convinced that “the natural man” has trouble recognizing that all things are spiritual unto God (1 Corinthians 2:14).  Unfortunately, training in medicine often attempts to “educate the spirituality out of you.”

However, this week,and in church today, I’ve been reading about “signs of the times.”  Of interest, and something that I’ve been pondering, is the statement made in Luke 21:25-26 where the Savior, Jesus Christ, specifically foretells the signs of His Second Coming. Among the perplexities and distress outlined, one statement stands out this week and has been the food of much thought, “Men’s hears failing them for fear,…” (Luke 21:26).

heart failure help

This food for thought is actually what directed me to this verse, as I’ve had a number of people express notable fear and worry over whether their diet is correct, because so much miss-information abounds in society today. Argument, stress and fear over diet, apparently, is not new and was something that even Paul noticed and wrote about in his Epistle to the Romans (Romans 14:1-3).

Stress and fear are two of the biggest hindrances to health and weight loss in my office.  The most common non-food cause of failing to maintain ketosis while living a ketogenic lifestyle is stress.   Stress is often due to fear.  Men, and women alike, become fearful because they seem to:

  1. Forget their Purpose
  2. Forget their Identity

When heartache arise from illness, injury, disability, death, divorce, wayward children and the other innumerable causes, stress and fear abound.  Worry about diet and health, in a time when so much contradictory advise is at our fingertips, adds to that fear.

I dont careWhen we forget our purpose and our identity, three symptoms arise both physically and spiritually:

  1. Apathy toward some or all parts of life (“It’s just going to change again so why even care . . ?”)
  2. A mental slumber due to temporal or carnal pacification (“I can just eat and/or drink my problems away”)
  3. Fear of change and the pain or effort it may take to make a change (“I don’t have the will-power to change anymore.”)

The scriptures call this “weak hands & feeble knees” (Isaiah 35:3), and we in medicine refer to this as dysthymia, the first step in progression toward chronic depression and/or anxiety.

These symptoms all increase chronic levels of cortisol and Ponderinginsulin.  Amplified “brain fog,” weight gain, and inflammation are physical responses to the mental fear that is chronically unresolved.  These symptoms just add to the apathy, mental slumber and fear of pain that was already present.

The problem is that over time, this progressive triad lead down the hormonal path to what we now call atherosclerosis, narrowing of the blood vessels, increasing the risk for heart attack, heart failure and stroke.   This was seen in Hippocrates day as “sudden death related to episodes of chest distress” (Leibowitz, 1970).  The Italian anatomist Giovanni Morgagni (1682-1771) described it in his day as “the force of the heart decreases so much more in proportion as the greater number of its parts becomes tendonous instead of being fleshy.”

SO, WHAT DOES ONE DO?

First, realize that the problems you are facing have been faced by millions of human beings and you are not alone.  But, to paraphrase Irene Dunne, if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.

I no longer believe in coincidence.  Whether you have thought about it or not, every interaction you have with others (even our interaction . . . your reading this blog), are not by coincidence. There is a reason.  Whether you believe it or not, everything around us testifies that God exists; the Hand of Providence can be seen from the rotation of the earth, planets and stars, the precision of the seasons, the balance of the atmosphere allowing for the perfect pressures and concentration of elements to sustain a life giving breath, to the perfect replication of DNA within billions of cells throughout the body.

I’m not trying to get religious, and, no, I can’t prove this through the scientific method . . . But, that is just the point.  Hands are weak because of lack of faith.  Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidences of which are not yet seen.  Even though we do not see the evidences, we can discern the light and that gives hope.  Hope is a substance that gives purpose.  I can strengthen hands by sharing a little light and stabilize knees through friendship and fellowship (Romans 14:1).

If the Big Bang started the universe, what started the Big Bang?  Where did the first atom or molecule or particle of dust come from?  I have a very difficult time accepting that you and I are here by accident, by a chaotic explosion that created order.  That implies that there must be a plan, and that plan had to have been set in motion by a Creator.  You and I have a place in that plan.  That also implies that that Creator placed solutions to our challenges, including the diseases of civilization, within our grasp and available to those seeking the solutions upon the earth today.

PleasurePrincipleSecond, today’s society teaches the Pleasure Principle.  This is the human instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain, including avoiding painful recollections.  We often define ourselves by those things that bring us pleasure.  We each go through personal tests, failures and triumphs. Some of us harness all of those experiences for good, others find worsening mental paralysis due to fear of them. We often hide from the painful experiences and attempt to bury or forget them.  Food is often involved with many of the experiences of life, and for a significant number of people, the endorphin release from eating a meal, sometimes just the act of chewing, may be the only pleasure one experience in a day, in a week or a in a year. Many people hide from painful recollections behind the simple pleasure produced by the eating of “comfort foods.”  Food, and our opportunities to experience pleasure from it’s various flavors, textures and physical stimulus, begin to define us.  However, hiding from life’s painful memories with momentary pleasures usually prolongs or makes the problem worse. The ingestion of simple foods containing glucose and fructose, their effect on the liver, and the hedonistic hormonal response is the basis of addiction, and simple carbohydrates provide the perfect fix.

Fascinatingly, when fructose is metabolized in the liver, in the presence of glucose (the basic structure of sugar – one fructose molecule bound to a glucose molecule), the byproduct has a hedonic (pleasure experiencing) effect on the exact same pleasure receptors in the brain that bind to morphine.   Yes, that’s why the M&M’s make you forget your troubles and why the Jolly Rancher is so jolly.  And, its the same reason you crave another do-nut two hours after you ate the entire baker’s dozen.

Healing can only occur when one is willing to confront and talk about the reasons, the real reasons you’d rather experience the endorphins from the do-nuts with your family instead of acknowledge your weakness, stresses, and fears.  Many of us are so afraid of where we might be, we avoid acknowledging where and who we are.  It takes courage not to take the easy path.  And I will be the first to admit, pizza is the easy path and it’s scenic views are decorated with french fry palms and sunset clouds of apple fritters.

Third, many cultures and most forms of religion or spirituality incorporate the use of fasting to one degree or another.  Why fasting?  Well, it removes the effect of the pleasure principle for starters.

Fasting is also a simple and inexpensive method of shifting the body’s metabolism to one of ketosis.  Spiritual, physical and mental clarity are more prominent in the ketotic state.  Finding your identity and purpose are often encouraged while fasting.  In fact, a whole chapter in the Old Testament’s Book of Isaiah is dedicated to the powerful effects of fasting and the ketogenic state it produces (Isaiah 58:3-12).

Your life is never without meaning. Keep it real by recognizing that diet alone may not compete your answer for physical health.  Having courage and faith allow you to see and embrace the truth that is right in front of you. The  Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12 step program only becomes successful when one realistically and courageously applies their faith to align with the truth they have felt all along.  For any long-term lifestyle change to take place, one must connect and live the principles before one truly knows they are true.  In this way the Ketogenic Lifestyle becomes real and men’s hearts are less likely to fail them.  You can start here: The Principle Based KetoDynamic Lifestyle.

Psychology of the Ketogenic Lifestyle . . .

Ketogenic Lifestyle – the Balance of Endocrinology & Psychology

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to a number of patients and friends about what it means to live a ketogenic lifestyle.  A low-carbohydrate or ketogenic lifestyle is different from a low-carb diet. It is different because the definition of lifestyle implies the way a person lives their life that reflects specific attitudes and values, not just how they eat. My recent posts, The Principle Based Ketogenic Lifestyle – Part I and Ketogenic Principles – Part II, focus on fundamental principles making the ketogenic lifestyle one in which balance and grounding in all aspects of life can occur.  When the mind, the body or the spirit are out of balance or un-grounded, symptoms of metabolic inefficiency, sickness or disease result. 

I have been fascinated, as a family practitioner, that the body produces “warning flags,” when there is dysfunction in one of these areas: mind, body & spirit. These warning flags are byproducts of inefficient inter-related functionality between the body’s systems and it is one of the foundation principles of osteopathic medicine.  Prior to the advent of many of our diagnostic techniques today like MRI, CT scan, advanced laboratory evaluations, and ultrasound, these were the only indicators of disease that a physician could identify, and upon which diagnosis was made. These flags often show up on the skin, in the hair or nails, in the complexion, or in general appearance or mannerisms.

Skin tags
Skin Tags (fibroepitheial polyps) under the arm

For example,”skin tags” are now recognized as pathognomonic, specifically indicative, of insulin resistance and will often occur up to 20 years before impaired fasting glucose or diabetes is ever recognized.

exopthalmos 2
Exopthalmos (bulging or protruding of the eyes) from hyperthyroidism

Exopthalmos, or protrusion of the eyes, is pathognomonnic for overactive thyroid function (hyperthyroidism), and spider angiomas occur as a somatic flag that cirrhosis of the liver is present.

Alligator Skin (severe dry skin) found in hypothyroidism
Alligator Skin (severe dry skin) found in hypothyroidism

Hair loss and dry skin, or “alligator skin,” represents the exact opposite with an under-active thyroid (hypothyroidism).

spider-angioma
Spider angioma seen with cirrhosis

When metabolic pathways get “clogged” or flow of blood, lymphatic fluid or hormones do not reach the destinations they were meant to reach, symptoms of accumulation or poor function begin to arise.

Anterior Chapman's Reflex Points
Anterior Chapman’s Reflex Points (images adapted from Osteopathic Foundations of Medicine.)

The osteopath is also trained to recognize a corollary Chapman’s Reflex Points that act as flags for dysfunction in specific organs or regions of the body. These points relate directly to what causes the pathognomonic flag.  I frequently identify abdominal, adrenal, pancreatic and liver Chapman’s points present in those with insulin resistance, inflammatory diseases, pre-diabetes and diabetes.  Understanding how to interpret and use these flags comprises four years of medical school and three to four years of residency and often years of clinical application.

Mental or spiritual pathways can often be bloc-aided by poor recognition of, or refusal to acknowledge, individual truths in our lives. Interestingly, the signs or warning flags of spiritual dysfunction are also expressed physically.

“Oh, no?! Dr. Nally are you going to get all religious on us?”

Maybe.

Over the last 15 years of my medical practice, I’ve witnessed the spiritual component of the “mind, body, spirit” unit, or lack thereof, have profound impact on the body’s ability to heal.  Every one of us must defeat what Sigmund Freud called the pleasure principle – the human instinct to seek pleasure and avoid pain, including recollections or memories that are painful.    Hiding from these memories because of pain is very common and is part of human nature.  We often believe that thinking about or re-living the truth may cause us individual overwhelming un-survivable grief.  So, we naturally bury the thoughts and emotions and feelings deep down into our subconscious minds.

In fact, we take irrational risks, busy ourselves, use food or drink for short term comfort and move from one distracting or debilitating relationship to another. We lose and then regain gain weight, become workaholics, hide behind thousands of texts, social media posts and emails in order to protect ourselves from the part of ourselves that we don’t want to think about.

However, when we step away from the distractions and courageously look at our individual history, our personal life story, honestly and completely, feelings of sadness, anxiety, regret and anger may often arise.  These painful emotions bring with them essential insights into how experiences will help you and I individually grow, become a better people, and help others along the path.  It takes faith to trust that these experiences will not destroy us, but were allowed to occur by a loving Father or Creator, understanding that for you and I to grow, we must each be given individual agency to chose.  It takes faith to recognize that that Father has your individual best interest in mind. Hiding from these emotions clogs the mental and spiritual systems and fuels disabling depression, anxiety, insomnia and fatigue. These feelings, real as they are, persist when there is no other physical sign of illness.  That’s because this illness is not physical.  It is spiritual. When we are out of line with the truths that bring peace and balance to our lives, negative, self-limiting patterns of activity and fear stifle growth and development mentally.

It is fascinating to me that on more than one occasion, as an osteopath, when a patient suffering from these symptoms gets a massage or has an osteopathic or chiropractic manipulative treatment, they may suddenly become tearful or have unexpected release of emotion. Physical treatment over the areas of congestion can, and do, cause a reflex triggering of mental, emotional or spiritual release of tensions.

How do I know that it is truth we are hiding from?  Take the words of the Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche found in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying among many others throughout the ages:

“Saints and mystics throughout history have adorned their realizations with different names and given them different faces and interpretations, but what they are all fundamentally experiencing is the essential nature of the mind.  Christians and Jews call it “God”; Hindus call it “the Self,” “Shiva,” “Brahman,” and “Vishnu”; Sufi mystics name it “the Hidden Essence”; and the Buddhists call it “buddha nature.” At the heart of all religions is the certainty that there is a fundamental truth, and that this life is a sacred opportunity to evolve and realize that truth.”

Wait a minute, what does all this have to do with a ketogenic lifestyle?

The ketogenic lifestyle is one that is based on values.  A patient following a ketogenic diet recognizes that food has just as powerful effect on the hormones of the body as does prescription drugs.  Understanding the value of hormone balance and the principles that effect weight, inflammation, blood pressure and cholesterol, the ketogenic lifestyle is one in which carbohydrates are restricted in an individually tailored way to obtain the end goal. How does a ketogenic lifestyle balance mind and spirit?

Step One

Put down your force-field.  This takes courage and it takes faith.  Your force-field is any distraction that keeps you from thinking and feeling and identifying truth.  These include excessive alcohol, illicit drugs, binge eating, smoking, gambling, working excessively or getting lost in repetitive dramatic romantic relationships .

Believe me, the force-field gets heavier every day.  After my father passed away at age 58 from the major complications of diabetes and my sister committed suicide a few years later, I threw myself into work and church service.  I worked 16-18 hour days, completed a second board certification in Obesity Management and a fellowship in Health Policy, all while serving as a bishop and counselor in my church.  I found that I could raise my force-field of justification to hide from the pain and emotions of family illness and depression.

But the force-field saps your energy and cheats you out of seeing your full potential.  I found that as long as I held up my force-field (and some of us care more than one), I couldn’t see the experiences that made me who I am and connect me with those I was trying to serve and help.  As long as I was holding up my force-field, I was living in the fear of re-experiencing the pain of loss and the worry of future disease, . . . and people sense that.

You don’t have to drop the force-field all at once. You don’t have to quit work and become a hobbit. You just have to lower the field a little bit, enough to peek over and let the Eternal Truth shine on you. Truth is a funny and powerful thing.  The more we overcome our reluctance, face the pain and the fear, the more we realize just how often things begin to go well for us.  Living in the presence of great truth and eternal law and being guided by permanent values is what keeps a man patient when the world ignores him, and calm and unspoiled when the world praises him.

Step Two

Identify emotional or behavioral patterns that you want to change. If you don’t know, ask a trusted friend, your spouse, or your relatives. As I think back over the years, I had a couple trusted friends pull me aside and identify a few of those patterns face to face.  I appreciate that, and I’ve never forgotten it.

  1. Make a list of the events in your life that you regret and wish you would have made a different decision.
  2. Go over the list as many times as you need to to identify the pattern or theme that seems to tie the regrets together.
  3. Then actually write down the theme or reason that you identified as the cause. This allows you to identify and remove the corrupted soft-ware of your soul.
  4. This process can take time and is often camouflaged by denial.
  5. Major insight often comes as a knock on the door of denial, so listen carefully to what is being said.  Listen to yourself listening. Psychiatrists say that if something said while listening to a patient makes them suddenly feel sad or irritable, then that may be a meaningful theme in the patient’s life.  Listen to your gut feelings as you go through the day.  Don’t ignore a prompting from your soul.

Step Three –

Realize that today’s negative emotional and behavioral patterns are connected with painful memories and unsolved past conflicts.

Do you get a gut feeling that you want to change the subject when someone brings up a financial setback?  Do you want to reply with one liners like, “I’m sure it will all work out?”  Are there other topics that make you uncomfortable?  Ask yourself why that topic makes you uncomfortable . . . seriously, ask yourself, and then answer yourself.  Do you suspect your spouse of cheating when there is no objective evidence to support the suspicions?  Recognize these uncomfortable feelings are our subconscious waving flags to make us each aware of unresolved conflicts within our mind and spirit.

Remember, we attract the type of energy we give off.

Step Four

Pray to whatever higher power you believe in.  Meditation, prayer and “ponderizing” brings a reservoir of faith and courage to find and to face the truth.  If you have the faith, get on your knees and sincerely ask God for help facing your truth and the challenges, fears and sadness that reflecting upon it may initially bring. I promise you that you will gain the strength to accomplish the task. It will bring the strength to overcome the hidden trauma in your earlier life and will give you the strength to resist the call of ice cream at 3 am.

d_day_courageFollowing these four simple steps, keeps you vigilant to the physical and spiritual warning flags that may arise on your ketogenic journey and will bring great confidence while modifying your diet to balance your body’s hormonal milieu.  Confidence inspires courage.  Those with courage and confidence in themselves, and faith that they are on the right path, are unstoppable. Good luck . . . I look forward to seeing you on my journey down the same path.

Burnout

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Does your job limit interaction with people and/or do you spend most of your time with a computer screen?
  • Have you become cynical or critical at work?
  • Do you drag yourself to work and have trouble getting started once you arrive?
  • Have you become irritable or impatient with co-workers, customers or clients?
  • Do you lack the energy to be consistently productive?
  • Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements?
  • Do you feel disillusioned about your job?
  • Are you using food, drugs or alcohol to feel better or to simply not feel?
  • Have your sleep habits or appetite changed?
  • Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, backaches or other physical complaints?

burn outThese are the ten most common signs of “burnout.”  46% of respondents in surveys indicate at least one of the above symptoms of burnout. Two or more of these imply that you are suffering from some degree of “burnout.” The classic triad of burnout is:

  1. Exhaustion
  2. Cynicism
  3. Questioning the quality of your work, or questioning whether you are making a difference in the world any longer

What is burnout? It is defined by “Mr. Webster” as “physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress.” But, that definition doesn’t seem to do it justice, and many people experiencing burnout don’t actually “collapse.”  They do, however, become significantly less productive, depressed, and loose the enjoyment of life.  Work begins to feel like slavery, exercise becomes a chore, food begins to have associations with guilt, friendships are seen as obligations and love looses its luster and looks more like a social construct.

Burnout is often likened to discontent, however, these are two very different emotional feelings.  Discontent can be defined as dissatisfaction with ones circumstances. There are two kinds of discontent in this world: the discontent that works and the discontent that wrings its hands.  The first kind often gets what it wants and the second looses what it has.

Burnout differs from discontent, in that continued work toward a goal brings on the triad of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and the feeling of reduced personal accomplishment. Burnout is, in reality, the sum total of hundreds of thousands of tiny betrayals of purpose.

Burnout can occur in any field of work, however, a study published in the 2012 issue of JAMA reveals that over 40% of the ~800,000 U.S. physicians are experiencing burnout and are more prone to burnout than any other worker in the United States.  The journal Academic Medicine recently reported that medical students, when compared to age-matched fellow college graduates, reported significantly higher rates of burnout.

So, how do you overcome burnout?

I’m an Osteopath.  I see disease in the context and inter-relationship of the mind, body & spirit.  Overcoming burnout requires one to restore balance in these three areas.  I am impressed by the work of Charlie Hoehn in his book, Play it away: A workaholic’s cure for anxiety.  Charlie does a wonderful job of describing the broken inter-relationship of the mind, body and spirit in a person experiencing burnout.

The first step to repairing the broken inter-relationship is to recognize and remove those anchors keeping you tethered to the feelings of burnout.  The anchors are the stressors that cause you to worry on a daily and weekly basis.  Journaling these stressors, writing them down in 3-5 word sentences is the start.  Identify which of these stressors is the biggest or causes the most angst, then write out the following question.  “How can I eliminate [stressor] from my life?  Do this with the largest two or three stressors. Then write out a solution that is small and uncomplicated to each stressor.  Put the solution to work immediately. If your solution has not improved your feelings of stress and anxiety within a week, then drop the first and try to find a second stressor, or otherwise switch to a second solution. Journaling these thoughts, questions, feelings and answers allows your mind to change from a self-centered focus to an action based focus.  It clears the mind to move into action. Nothing is more important in reducing burnout, than nourishing the imagination. Using a journal helps stimulate thought and the imagination.

The second technique is scheduling some real play. Write down the five most fun activity involved with play that you did as a child. Then, set aside dedicated time for your favorite activity of play.  It is essential that you actually schedule this play time into your daily activities.  There are a couple of rules associated with play time.

  1. Disconnect from all social media
  2. Harmony of the playtime is more important than winning
  3. Have some serious fun
  4. Shoot for 30 minutes of play time per day
  5. This should ideally be done outside in the fresh air and sunlight

“A lack of play should be treated like malnutrition: it’s a health risk to your body and your mind.”  (Stuart Brown)

“Play is the highest form of research.” (Albert Einstein)

Technique number three is related to sleep.  It is essential that you have a consistent bedtime and give yourself the opportunity to take an afternoon nap.  You can optimize your sleep by turning off electronics before getting into bed, going to bed at the same time each night, decreasing the room temperature to 68-70 degrees Fahrenheit, draw the curtains to make the room dark, and use a relaxing loop of quite background sound like ocean waves, or the sound of a trickling stream to ease your mind (can be found on a number of apps).

It may take up to a week for your body to unwind and get used to this schedule.  Also, schedule a 20 minute afternoon nap.

Meditation and/or prayer is the fourth technique.  Sit or kneel, close your eyes and observe the thoughts that enter your mind for 10-15 minutes. Listen to and keep your breathing calm and deep. Pay attention to the rhythm of your breathing.  Reading can also be a form of meditation and has become an important refreshing part of alleviating burnout.  We can only be as good as the books that we read.  Read, ponder over and talk about good books.

Fifth, eat healthy meals with healthy friends.  Decrease the carbohydrates and increase the good omega 3 fats in your diet.  The insulin response to carbohydrates stimulates the inflammatory and parasympathetic nervous system making you more fatigued and tired. Reduce the bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, carrots and corn intake in your diet.

Increasing the good fat in your diet (like Kerrygold Irish Butter, Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, and real animal fats) actually increases your bodies access to essential B vitamins and improves the use of Vitamin D.  Making dietary changes become a habit is often easier when it is done with a friend.  Schedule opportunities to eat healthy meals with family or friends attempting to do the same thing.  You will help support each other and be more likely to succeed.

The last recommendation is spend time in nature.  One weekend a month spend at least two hours out in nature. Take a hike, go on a nature walk, go camping, swim in the river, etc. Give yourself permission to unplug during these times.  Then, pay close attention to how you feel when your in different environments.

In the words of Shakespeare, “Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin/As self-neglecting” (King Henry V, Act 2, scene 4).

I conclude with the rhetorical question, “If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?” (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly)