The 7 Stages Of Disease (Part 6)

It has been some time since I blogged about The 7 Stages Of Disease.

According to Harvey Diamond, author of the bestselling book Fit For Life : A New Beginning, disease never ever sneaks up on you and strikes you down. It takes a long time and a great deal of neglect and abuse of the body for disease to finally occur.

From the 1st stage of disease to the 7th stage (ie. cancer stage), many years may elapse. At any stage you can stop the disease from progressing by doing the right thing.

Before I talk about Stage 5, you may want to take some time to read up on the previous stages or simply refresh your memory by clicking the links below.

Stage 1 : Enervation
Stage 2 : Toxemia
Stage 3 : Irritation
Stage 4 : Inflammation

OK, now that you are familiar with what happens in each of the stages from 1 to 4, let's move on to the next stage which is...

Stage 5 : Ulceration

At this stage, the body has been under assault for such a long time that massive amount of cells and tissues are being destroyed. Lesions and ulcers begin to occur. This condition is extremely painful because of the exposed nerves.


Mouth ulcer image courtesy of Wikipedia

Some examples of ulcers are stomach ulcer, mouth ulcer and open sore on the arm and leg. The body is actually using ulcer as an outlet to rid itself of toxins. If the level of toxemia is sufficiently lowered, the ulcers will heal by itself.

However, if you continue to add toxins into your body, the body will be forced to go to the next stage to heal the ulcers.

That... is the 6th stage, the pre-cancer stage called Induration, which I shall talk about next!

FIRST COMMENTER

The 7 Stages Of Disease (Part 5)

According to Harvey Diamond, bestselling author of the book Fit For Life : A New Beginning, it is not easy to get cancer. One has to go through 6 stages before cancer strikes.

From our original vibrant health state, we had continuously abused our body by ingesting toxins and accumulating them in our body. The body is infinitely smart and tries to eliminate the toxins and even warn us with symptoms and irritations by making us go through 6 stages before reaching the 7th which is the Cancer Stage.

So far, I have talked about Stage 1 (Enervation), Stage 2 (Toxemia) and Stage 3 (Irritation). At any of these stages, if we take action to remove the cause of our health problems, the disease process will stop and good health returns.

But when we continue to ignore these 3 stages, the body will inevitably progress to the next stage which is....

Stage 4 : Inflammation

Inflammation is the body's most intense effort to cleanse and restore itself. When this process occurs, you become keenly aware that a problem exists for it involves pain.

None of us like pain. But believe it or not, pain is our friend! It has a purpose and that is to warn us something is wrong somewhere.

Imagine if you can't feel pain. What happens when you rest your hand on a hot stove without feeling pain? What happens when you step on broken glass without feeling pain? So you see, pain is the body's most effective warning signal.

If the last 3 stages gave you irritations and minor discomfort, you may chose to ignore them. But will you still choose to ignore pain?


Image courtesy of Derby Sports Injuries

When pain is chronic and unrelenting, it is a sign that the body is desperately attempting to get rid of the ever increasing level of toxemia before it causes devastating damage. With inflammation, the toxins in the system have usually been concentrated at a particular organ or a particular area of the body for a massive elimination effort. The area becomes inflamed due to the constant irritation from toxic material.

When inflammation exists, we are diagnosed with words that end with "itis".

Ever heard of tonsillitis? It's the inflammation of the tonsils.

How about appendicitis? It's inflammation of the appendix.

Hepatitis? Inflammation of the liver.

Arthritis? Inflammation of the joints.

Colitis? Inflammation of the colon.

Nephritis? Inflammation of the kidneys.

Sinusitis? Inflammation of the sinus.

Dermatitis? Inflammation of the skin.

OK, I'm sure you get the idea. But what do most people do when they feel pain? Off they go to see the doctor in search for relief. And what does the doctor do? Prescribe drugs to take away the pain.


Image courtesy of HealthJockey.com

Unfortunately, the drugs do nothing to remove the cause of the problem. They only serve to lessen the pain temporarily. Worse, the drugs are adding to the body's level of toxemia which the body is desperately trying to get rid of!

Stage 4 is crucial for it is in the middle of the 7 stages and actions taken at this point will determine whether or not you are going to recover your health and return to a state of vibrancy, or fall deeper into the diseased state.

If you do not start to detoxify your body at this stage, you will most likely progress to Stage 5 : Ulceration, which I shall talk about next!

FIRST COMMENTER

The 7 Stages Of Disease (Part 4)

I wrote a series of posts about The 7 Stages Of Disease last year and somehow, due to some reason or other, I did not complete the series.

Two nights ago, I accidentally came across one of the posts and decided I must not let my readers wait forever for the remaining posts. So today I would like to resume this health series.

By now most of you must have forgotten what this series of posts are all about, so for your benefit and for the benefit of those who are new to my blog, kindly read the following posts before you proceed.

The 7 Stages Of Disease (Part 1)
The 7 Stages Of Disease (Part 2)
The 7 Stages Of Disease (Part 3)

OK, now that you have read the above 3 posts, let's move on to the next stage, shall we?

By the way, whatever that is written here and in the above 3 posts are not something that I simply cooked up but are based on the book Fit For Life : A New Beginning by bestselling author Harvey Diamond.

We learnt that disease does not appear out of the blue but gradually. In Stage 1 (Enervation), the symptoms are tiredness and loss of appetite. In Stage 2 (Toxemia), the symptom is fever. Now if you continue to ignore these warning signs, you will progress to...

Stage 3 : Irritation

Irritation is a condition in which the body sets its defensive mechanism in motion and speeds up its internal activities in order to unload stored-up toxins. This process can happen at various points in the body.

An example of irritation is the urge to urinate or defecate. This is probably the best way to eliminate toxins from your body.

However, one of the common symptoms of irritation due to toxemia is itchiness. Perhaps you are not aware, but the skin is the not only the body's largest organ but also an organ of elimination. When toxins in your body are removed via the skin, they cause itchiness on the surface areas of your skin.


Image courtesy of fasting.ws

This is in fact, your body's way of getting your attention. It is not serious unless you ignore it and do nothing, in which case, you will progress to Stage 4 - The Inflammation Stage.

Not everyone will experience itchiness however. You may feel queasy or nauseated for no apparent reason. Some people will feel that persistent tickling sensation in the nose. Yet others experience nervousness, depression and anxiety.

Other classic symptoms of irritation includes headaches, difficulty falling asleep, putting on weight easily, bad temper, coated tongue, bad breath, body odour, dark circles under the eyes, and for women, out of the ordinary menstrual problems.


Image courtesy of Harbor Family

You might be thinking - don't everyone experience these symptoms one time or the other? You are correct. Unfortunately, some people live for years in this state of irritation they even learn how to adapt and live with it!

This is because the discomfort they experience is not serious enough for them to go for a medical check up or for treatment.

But here's the problem. When the effects of enervation, toxemia and irritation are ignored long enough, and the toxic residue in the body that started all these builds up to an even higher concentration, the 4th stage of disease ultimately, and inevitably, results.

Stay tuned for Part 5 where I will talk about Stage 4 : Inflammation

FIRST COMMENTER

Random Notes 10

1. There is a strange phenomena happening in my bedroom. I am a subscriber to Readers Digest magazines and I keep them in my room so that I can read them before I go to sleep.

Recently, I noticed that the older magazines started to curl up at the edges. Take a look.



The magazine on the left is the November 2009 issue whereas on the right is the more recent March 2010 issue.

Can you see how curled up the magazine is on the left? The one on the right is already showing signs of curling up! And no, it has nothing to do with how I handle the magazines, if that's what you think.

Why do I say that? Well, the much older Readers Digest magazines (2008 issues) that I have in my collection never did curl up no matter how badly I handled them! But then again, those issues were not placed in my bedroom. They are all in the store room after spending like one whole year in my bedroom.

So why are these Readers Digest magazines curling up in my bedroom? Anyone of you have any good theory on this? Or is it time for me to call Agent Mulder and Scully?

2. Recently, I was down with a migraine attack. It was a shock to me as I rarely have migraines. I would say this is the second time in my life suffering from migraine, my first time being 2 years ago!


Image courtesy of healthjockey.com

It all started late one morning when I experienced vision disturbances. I had difficulty reading as I was seeing black patches and dark spots! Any pictures I saw appeared to be pixelled or blurred. Straight lines seemed crooked to me!

Having experienced this unusual symptoms before the onset of my migraine attack 2 years ago, I quickly went to my bedroom and laid down. The first time I had this experience, I thought I was going to die! Now I knew better.

Minutes later, the throbbing on one side of my head started. I felt nauseated and wanted to vomit. Lying down and sleeping provided no relief whatsoever. I went to the doctor and he prescribed me anti-migraine drugs.

I never really like to take any form of drugs but this migraine was paralyzing me to the point where I could do nothing but lie down the whole day! There goes my revenues for that one day!

The doctor advised me against sleeping late at night and drinking too much coffee. Well, I don't drink much coffee but I have to admit I sleep pretty late at night! I am a night owl if you don't already know me! Haha! But I guess I would have to sleep earlier from now on!

By the way, I learnt to massage some acupressure points in relieving migraines, and they really helped to give me some relief! For more details, read HERE.

3. I hate to touch anything after washing my hands in a public toilet! Like turning off the tap, or pulling down the roll of tissue to wipe my hands, or turning the door knob to open the toilet door.

It defeats the whole purpose of washing my hands! That's why I simply love taps and tissue roll with auto sensors! Like this one in the Gardens Mall.



Just place your hand in front of the sensor machine and the tissue paper will roll out from below. Love it! : )

4. Last year, I and my friend went for lunch at Prego, an Italian restaurant in Westin Hotel KL. Now, you may be wondering why I am blogging about something that happened last year.

Well, I just realized I have forgotten to blog about this and as I happened to come across these photos, I thought why not include them in my random notes today? Haha!



The above is the complimentary bread given to us as an appetizer before our main meals. The bread was huge and I was already half full eating it! What I really like was the slightly spicy sauce that came with it! Eating the bread dipped into that sauce was heavenly!

We shared the pizza...



...and the pasta.



And we were so full by the end of it! Gosh! I guess I am NOT such a big eater after all! Haha!



I don't mind going to Prego again, even if it's just for that complimentary bread alone! LOL!

FIRST COMMENTER

I Received A Book From Lydia Teh

Two weeks ago, I received a mail in the post box. When I opened the mail, I found a book called "Stretching Your Dollars And Sense" by Lydia Teh.



It was Lydia Teh herself who mailed me this book, which happens to be her latest book. I had just won a contest on her blog and this book is the prize. Thanks Lydia!

And oh, she also left me a personal message in the book. Cool!



I have yet to read this book but I am sure it will come in handy especially at times like this when we need all the tips available to stretch our money!

By the way, I am a big fan of her other two books which I have finished reading some time back.



"Honk! If You're Malaysian" was thoroughly entertaining and utterly enjoyable! It was Lydia's amusing view on Malaysians' way of life.

As for "Do You Wear Suspenders?" I think it must be the best book to brush up on my English! Funny and interesting at the same time, I enjoyed reading every single page!

If you have yet to read these books, I highly recommend them! They are guaranteed to make you laugh or at the very least put a smile on your face!

FIRST COMMENTER

Glimpses Of My Childhood

Do you like to read? I assume you do otherwise you won't be reading my blog, right? But then, maybe you just like to look at pictures. Haha!

I have a friend who said that she seldom read books because she will go to sleep after a few paragraphs. So her pastimes are spent watching DVDs on her computer. How sad!

I think people who don't read are missing a big part of life! There are so many things you can learn from books and blogs!

I love to read. Unfortunately, I just cannot find the time to read as much as I wanted to. I still remember when I was a small kid, I had all the time to read! Oh, those were the days!

During my early primary school days, I read mainly Enid Blyton's books. They were my source of joy and entertainment! Although I could not remember most of the stories, names like Big Noddy, Mr Pink Whistle, Mr Twiddle and Mister Meddle do strike a chord in me.

Enid Blyton was such a wonderful story teller! I had so much fun reading her books and all those wonderfully weird characters she created. Besides writing funny and interesting stories, she was also good at mysteries. Who could ever forget her popular Adventurous Four, or The Famous Five or even The Secret Seven?


Image courtesy of worldpeacepoll.com

The Famous Five was a big hit with me. Do you remember that tomboy George who was really Georgina and she had this adorable dog by the name of Timmy? And then of course there were Julian, Dick and Anne that make up the rest of the team!

It was The Secret Seven books that introduced me to the word "password". The Secret Seven were really a group of 7 children who loved to hold secret meetings at secret places. All the members must say the password in order for them to be allowed in for their meetings.

Guess what? I was so fond of the Secret Seven when I was small I actually played what I now call "The Secret Seven Game" with my siblings. Yes, we had secret meetings under the staircase of my house. That's right, under the staircase! haha! Well, that time, we were all tiny enough to gather together in such a small space. I vividly remember my sister actually calling out the wrong password and I did not want to let her in! It was just so fun at that time!

When I was a little older, I lost interest in Enid Blyton's books and got myself immersed in Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators. That was my first introduction to famous movie director Alfred Hitchcock, although I never ever knew who the author of the books is to this day! Well, I just checked Wikipedia and found that this detective series was created by a person named Robert Arthur Jr.


Image courtesy of threeinvestigatorsbooks.com

Do you still remember the names of the Three Investigators? They were Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews. Jupiter is the smart one who always lead the way in solving all the mysteries. Pete is the athletic one, while Bob is studious and wear glasses.

The Three Investigators even inspired me to come up my own riddles! I still remember a game I had when I was small. I would hide an object somewhere in the house, and then wrote a riddle for my siblings to solve in order to locate that object! What fun I had!

Thinking back of my childhood days just brings back a flood of memories. The good and the bad, the funny and the embarrassing ones. Perhaps I would share more of my childhood days with you readers in my future posts.

FIRST COMMENTER

Would You Like To Live To A Hundred?

There is a small village in Southern China called Bama where people are living to the ripe old age of 100 and above. It is so famous that now tourists are flocking to that village to see for themselves and to discover the secret behind the villagers' longevity.

Watch this video for the report.



Could their longevity be due to the water they drink? Or the food they eat? Or the clean air they breathe? Or is it due to their carefree, relaxing lifestyle devoid of any stress and mental problems? Could their daily activities and 'tai chi' exercises contributed to their long life span?

Or even maybe, it's all due to the good feng shui or the magnetic field in the area.

Perhaps it is the combination of all these factors that hold the secret to their longevity.

Whatever it is, do you want to be like them - to live to a hundred and beyond?


100 Longevity Characters from Csymbol

Let's take it further. What if humans one day discover the elixir of youth and live forever? What if we can choose not to die? Live eternally forever and ever? Like the vampire Lestat in Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire.

Will you then yearn to die? To end it all?

Will dying become your goal in life? Wouldn't that be ironic?



To me, I would love to live to a hundred. But maybe not more than a hundred. And definitely not forever. But it all depends.

If I am healthy and still mentally sharp and still able to enjoy sex at the ripe old age of hundred, why not? Haha! Although I would want to look as youthful as now. Not with all those wrinkles! Talk about vanity!

But if I am sick, cannot walk without a walking stick, or bedridden, is there any point in living to a hundred? Might as well die earlier, no?

But nowadays, you will be lucky to live to a hundred. Especially for those of us who stay in the cities. At least those who are living in kampongs or villages still have the chance. With all the stress and fast-paced city lifestyle, and the pollution and the type of food we eat daily, we are lucky if we make it past 60!

Humans' life span are getting shorter. I still remember people during the Biblical periods lived to a few hundred years. I wonder if there is any truth in that!

Although advancement in science and medicine had managed to prolong humans' lives, yet most of the prolonged years are lived in misery.

As for the prospect of living forever, I think I will be bored to death. Tell me what can you do when you are 6,000 years old! You would have visited every corners of the world! You would have tasted every single food there is to taste. You would have done all there is to do except maybe, killing yourself.


Image courtesy of Write Spirit

But hold on. We are meant to have eternal life. That's according to the Bible. But every religion does mention that we are eternal. We may pass on, but our souls continue to live. And according to Buddhism, we come back to Earth again and again and again until we can break out of that karmic cycle.

So will our souls be bored? Perhaps not. Because we seek to experience different things. We seek to create different things. In different lifetimes. In different parellel universes. We are after all, creators.

Perhaps that's why not many will reach Buddhahood. Not that they can't. They don't want to. They choose to come back to Earth and create a different experience so as to know who they really are.


Image courtesy of 100 Musical Footsteps

So perhaps living eternally in our same physical body is not such a good idea and it may be against the nature of things. We need to die so that we have the chance to change our experience.

But living to a hundred? That's OK provided we have not achieved what we have set out to do. Otherwise, why bother to live to a hundred?

FIRST COMMENTER

The 7 Stages Of Disease (Part 3)

Health is your birthright. You are not meant to be sick.

Our body is constantly trying to maintain a high level of health. But if we consistently abuse our body with unhealthy food and unhealthy habits, even the most healthy body will suffer.

Young people nowadays do not bother about their health. They eat what they like, drink what they want and think it's cool to smoke. They cannot possibly imagine they would get sick or get cancer as they feel they are fit and healthy. To them, cancer is only for older people. Diabetes and heart attacks are for those over 40s. Well, how wrong they are!

I am fortunate to have learnt a lot about health the past few years that some people even call me a doctor. Haha! But I am not a doctor of course. I just love to read up about health because to me, health is my no.1 priority in life. I want to start living a healthy life now so that hopefully, by the time I reach 40 or 50 years old, I will still be as healthy as now.

Think about it. What's the point of having lots of money if you don't have the good health to enjoy it? Without good health, can you do the things that you really enjoy like traveling, eating good food, play sports, even spending a good time with your friends and loved ones?


Image courtesy of americanprogress.org

What most youngsters do not realise is that diseases progress slowly. You don't get cancer overnight. A man who discovers he has cancer at the age of 45 probably started abusing his body since his early 20's.

According to Harvey Diamond, author of the best-selling health book of all time, Fit For Life, we can actually divide the progression of disease into 7 stages.

I have discussed about Stage 1 in Part 2. Now let's move on to the next stage.

Stage 2 : Toxemia

Toxemia or toxicosis occurs when the uneliminated toxic material in our body starts to saturate the blood, lymph nodes and tissues of the body. The body recognizes that this situation must be remedied, and will attempt to cleanse itself by initiating a fever.

Yes, that's right! Getting a fever is what you will experience at this stage. But before you run to the doctor and get some drugs to lower your fever, let me explain why that is not such a good idea!

A fever actually mobilizes the body's defences. When there is an emergency, such as an over-accumulation of toxins in the body, metabolism is accelerated by increasing the heat available. This is controlled by the hypothalamus in the brain which acts like a human thermostat.


Image courtesy of eapbiofield

The heat is necessary to eliminate the toxins which have accumulated beyond the body's ability to tolerate them and beyond the body's ability to eliminate without some extraordinary modifications, like a fever. Heat acts as a catalyst which causes the toxins to liquefy and pass into the bloodstream where they are transported to the organs of elimination (bowels, bladder, lungs and skin) and thus out of the body.

As you can see, fever is actually your friend! If you have fever, do not attempt to lower the fever by taking drugs. Doing so will stop the fever from accomplishing its intended task of eliminating toxins from your body. Instead, drink lots of water and have lots of rests.

Perhaps some of you may have heard that if you don't lower a high fever, you may suffer from brain damage and may even die from it! Well, according to Harvey Diamond, this is plain nonsense!

Temperature regulation is one of the most basic mechanisms of the human body. It is initiated and controlled by the body and is intelligently utilised as one if its primary defensive techniques. The idea that the body would raise its own temperature until the brain is fried or damaged is ridiculous to say the least.

Fever is one way in which the body uses to eliminate toxins. You may or may not know this, but drugs are not natural and the body identifies them as toxins. When we take in drugs to suppress the fever, we are in fact, adding more toxins into our body. Now how will your body cope when it's trying to get rid of excess toxins by way of a fever, and here you go, adding even more toxins instead? Is it any wonder that some patients die not from high fever but from the drugs they ingest in an attempt to lower their fever?

When you don't interrupt the fever, it will accomplish its intended task, and subside on its own.

Note: Personally, I think if a fever is too high (which is above 41°C), it must be treated as an emergency, especially those who are elderly and have heart diseases. This is because fever increases the heart rate thus putting additional strain on elderly people and those with weak hearts. If you have low grade or moderate fever, you do not need to take any drugs to lower them. If you feel uncomfortable, you may lower the fever by using a wet cloth to wipe the forehead and body. Try to avoid drugs as much as possible.

In Part 4, I will talk on Stage 3 : Irritation. Stay tuned!

FIRST COMMENTER

The 7 Stages Of Disease (Part 2)

As explained in Part 1, we all started out with vibrant health (provided you were born healthy), but years of self abuse made us progress from a totally vibrant health to Stage 1, 2, 3 and so on until Stage 7, which is the cancer stage.

It must be noted that disease never suddenly sneaks up on us and strikes us down. It takes a long time and lots of neglect for disease to occur. As such, each stage may take many years before progressing to the next stage. However, the good news is, at whichever stage you are in, you can halt the disease's progress by taking the correct action.

The correct action simply means the removal of the cause of the disease. When the root cause is removed, pain stops, the disease process stops and health returns. However, if drugs are used to relieve the discomfort, which is the usual course of action, the cause remains unchecked and the disease process continues to the next stage.

Therefore, be aware if the drugs you take are really removing the cause of your disease, or are they simply masking the pain and discomfort giving a false impression that your health situation is improving?

Let's start with Stage 1.

Stage 1 : Enervation
The word 'enervation' comes from the word 'energy'. We all know energy is the essence of life. We need energy to carry out all the functions of the body. Enervation is a condition whereby our body is either not generating enough energy for the tasks it must perform or the tasks our body must perform is greater than what the normal energy supply can cope with.

When does enervation occurs? When your body is loaded with toxic materials and it has limited energy to eliminate them. This creates a cycle because when toxins become overloaded in your body, you produce even less energy to eliminate them from your body.

Since energy is restored when you sleep, the first warning sign that you are becoming enervated is when you become tired and sluggish and require longer sleeping hours and frequent naps in the day.

Do you know that digestion requires more energy than running? This is a fact and so people who are at the enervation stage will have problem with digestion as they do not have enough energy for this essential bodily function!

Furthermore, as their condition worsens, they will suffer from a loss of appetite. The body is instinctively smart and when your digestion power is reduced, it will automatically decrease your desire for food. That's why always be aware when you lose your appetite. It is in fact, a first sign of your disease progressing to the next stage.

However, just because you have a huge appetite does not mean you are healthy. Our body is very adaptable and it may have adapted to your situation and you may have already skipped Stage 1 and moved on to Stage 2!

In Part 3, I will talk on Stage 2 : Toxemia. Stay tuned!

Note: This post is based on the book Fit For Life : A New Beginning by Harvey Diamond.

FIRST COMMENTER

The 7 Stages Of Disease (Part 1)

Reading the newspaper the other day, I was depressed by the news that Farrah Fawcett, one of the original Charlie's Angels was fighting a losing battle with cancer. Read about it here.

It was already depressing to learn about Steve Job's battle with cancer a few months earlier, although sources close to him denied his current health problems have anything to do with cancer.

Cancer is a killer. My own brother-in-law died of colon cancer a few years back. At the time of diagnosis, he was already at Stage 4 where doctors said his chances of survival were slim.

Nobody likes to read depressing news and I am not going to depress you further with my post today. But, I am just very concerned that most people are largely ignorant about this disease.

Cancer doesn't just happen overnight. It takes years and years for cancer to develop. You don't wake up one morning and discover you have cancer!

Let me clue you in on this. It takes one year for a single cancer cell to become 12 cells. At that rate, it will take 6 years for cancer to be the size of a pencil point and about 10 years to even be detectable.

Most people will agree that cancer is a lifestyle problem. As you can see, it is not easy getting cancer. It takes years and years of health abuse to reach the cancer stage. But nowadays, the statistics are really frightening. 1 in 3 people will get cancer in their lifetime in USA. In Malaysia, it is 1 in 4 people. How can that be?

If you analyse how people live their lives nowadays, you will then understand why the rate of cancer cases is so high. If people continue to be ignorant, I won't be surprised that one day, 1 in 2 people will get cancer in their lifetime.

So what really is cancer cell? According to Harvey Diamond, the author of the book Fit For Life, a cancer cell is a normal cell so deranged by toxic substances that it loses contact with and is no longer controlled by the brain. It is literally been driven 'crazy' by poisoning and it is 'out there on its own'.



In his book, Harvey explained how cancer develops. I find it interesting and would like to share with you all here. Hopefully with this piece of information, you will be more aware and prevent cancer from happening in the first place.

Harvey divided the process of getting cancer in 7 stages. As you start to abuse your body and your health, you will progress from a totally vibrant health to Stage 1,2, 3 and so on until the final stage 7, which is the cancer stage.

In my next post, I shall share with you each and every stage. Stay tuned!

FIRST COMMENTER

Is Homosexuality A Choice?

I know of someone whose teenage daughter is a lesbian. Not that this is a big deal in this day and age, but I later learnt that she does not really want to be a lesbian. She is just being a lesbian because she thinks it is trendy! Can you believe it?

Well, blame it all on Lindsay Lohan and some other Hollywood actresses who practise lesbianism!


Lindsay Lohan

However, I believe most gays and lesbians did not become who they are because it is trendy. They are born with a different sexual orientation. In other words, they did not have a choice in their sexual preference.

Some critics say that homosexuals are a result of upbringing and environment. They theorised that a boy became gay because his father was cold and emotionally detached. Or a girl became a lesbian because she had an aggressive mother. But this theory is neither correct nor proven.

According to the book 'Why Men Don't Listen & Women Can't Read Maps' by Allan and Barbara Pease, there were a lot or research done that concluded that homosexuals are born and not conditioned.



Scientists have already confirmed that the basic template for the body and brain of a human foetus is female in structure. That's why men have redundant female features like nipples and have mammary glands that do not function. In other words, we all started as females.

But 6 to 8 weeks after conception, a male foetus receives a massive dose of male hormones called androgens which help form his testes. Later, he receives a second dose which alter his brain from a female to a male configuration.

Now, if during that time, the male foetus did not receive enough androgens due to some reasons, he may be born with a more feminine brain structure, and is therefore likely to be gay by puberty.

Or he may be born with with a fully feminine brain structure yet still have the male genitals. In this case, he's likely to be a transgender, which means biologically, he's male but feel as if he's a female inside.

Even worse are some children who are born with both male and female genitals. They are sometimes born and raised as girls only to become boys at puberty. Their parents were shocked that their little girls had turned into boys! This change occured despite all the social conditioning and upbringing, which proves that social environment and upbringing had little to do with one's sexual orientation.

The important question is how does the male hormone, androgens get suppressed? Well, there are several causes among them, severe stress, sickness and certain medications will reduce the production of this male hormone.

So if during the early stage of pregnancy, the male hormone is suppressed, and the foetus is male, the chances of giving birth to a gay boy are high.

However, if the foetus is female, then the likelihood is that the girl will be a very feminine girl.

It is interesting to note that certain medications like contraceptive pills and diabetic drugs actually dose the body with male hormones like testosterone. This overdosing of male hormones is the cause of the female foetus turning into a lesbian girl!

It is for this reason that you find more homosexual guys than girls. This is because the chances of the foetus not receiving enough male hormone is higher than an overdose.

So pregnant mothers, do be careful of the medication you take! And manage your stress well if you want straight boys!


Poor Fab Five! Apparently, they did not receive enough androgens while in their mommies' wombs.

After having read this, what do you think? Do you still believe homosexuality is a result of social environment and upbringing? Or do you believe that one's sexual orientation is already fixed at birth, in other words, one has no choice in the matter?

If one really has no choice in the matter, isn't it unfair that gays and lesbians are treated with so much hostility, prejudice and discrimination in some parts of the world?

It's like you are shunned because you have blue eyes, or red hair, or you are left handed or dyslexic.

Sometimes, I wonder if it really is a choice, why would any intelligent person choose a way of life that exposes them to so much hostility, prejudice and discrimination? Isn't it so much easier to be straight?

For more reading on this subject, check out the book 'Why Men Don't Listen & Women Don't Read Maps' by Allan and Barbara Pease.

FIRST COMMENTER

Are Men Promiscuous And Three Minute Wonders?

I have been reading this book by Allan and Barbara Pease called "Why Men Don't Listen & Women Can't Read Maps" and I must tell you, it's one of the most interesting books I've ever read!

From the book, I learnt why most men are promiscuous in nature.

You see, promiscuity is wired into a man's brain and is a legacy of his evolutionary past. Throughout human history, wars were fought and had greatly diminished the number of men, so mating became an important activity to increase the tribe's population to ensure their survival.

For this to happen, nature equipped men with large hypothalamus and enormous amount of testosterone.

Hypothalamus is the part of the brain that controls sexual drive. It helps to stimulate the production of testosterone. Men have a larger hypothalamus than women. As a result, men have 10 to 20 times more testosterone than women. That's the reason why men have higher sex drive!


Picture courtesy of becomehealthynow.com

The sad thing is, in this modern times, men still have large hypothalamus and lots of testosterone although they no longer need to. Perhaps this explains why men are promiscuous and polygamous in nature.

Is it any wonder that a woman wants lots of sex with the man she loves but a man just wants lots of sex? : )

However, this is by no means an excuse for men to have affairs outside of marriage. Despite being promiscuous by nature, men can still control their sexual urges.



A healthy man takes an average of about 2 and a half minutes to reach orgasm from a cold start. A healthy woman reaches orgasm in 13 minutes! That is why men are known as 3 minute wonders!

Perhaps that is why after love making, the woman will complain to the man and say "You're a lousy lover!" And the man will respond by asking "How can you tell that in 2 minutes?" : )

Why men had it all done in a few short minutes? In other words, why are men quickies? Well, if you look at nature, you will notice that copulations in mammals are all fast affairs because during copulation, the animals are vulnerable to attack from predators and their enemies. Therefore, the quickies is nature's way of preserving the species.

However, as modern men are not being hunted down by any predators, they have no need to have it all done with fast.

So if you are a man, may i ask if you are promiscuous and a 3 minute wonder?

And if you are a woman, what do you think of all these?

There are a lot more interesting topics in the book, and I highly recommend that you read them! One of the topics I will touch on in my next post is homosexuality. So, stay tuned!

FIRST COMMENTER

Do You Wear Suspenders?

This week is the MPH Sales week. If you are thinking of getting some good books, this is the time to get them! The books are going at 10% discount for non members and 15% discount for members from 18th to 22nd February 2009. However, members are entitled to an additional 5% discount on three days from 18th to 20th February 2009, which is of course too late now.

I bought a whole load of books last Wednesday to take advantage of the 20% discount for members. One of the books I bought is a book by a local author by the name of Lydia Teh. I am sure you have heard of her, right?

I have enjoyed her previous book, Honk! If You're Malaysian. It was one of the most entertaining books I have ever read! There were lots and lots of jokes on the Malaysian habits and way of life and I found them totally hilarious!

As such, I did not hesitate to get her latest book called Do You Wear Suspenders - The Wordy Tales of Eh Poh Nim. Well, the title already caught me there! How could I not get the book?

Here's the trailer for you to enjoy.



In conjunction with the release of the book, Lydia came out with a contest. Anyone can join and all you need to do is to put up this trailer on your blog and leave a comment at Lydia's blog with a link to your post. The contest ends on 20th March 2009 so hurry if you are interested! Visit Lydia's blog, Life's Like That for more details on the contest and the prizes on offer.

Today's post is rather short, isn't it? Well, that's because I can't wait to log off and immerse myself in the world of Eh Poh Nim!

An Unexpected Gift In The Mail

Today I receive an unexpected letter all the way from Melaka. Now who do I know in Melaka? I couldn't think of anyone unless it's this long time friend who never ever send me letters before.

So I quickly opened the envelope. And guess what I found?



A very cute rabbit key chain from blogger QuaChee! It is a souvenir he bought from Shanghai during his recent trip to China. He actually offered this key chain to anyone who can give him a good feedback regarding his China trip posts on his blog. And I happened to be the one! Haha!

Thanks QuaChee for giving me this souvenir. Didn't expect to win this! I was hoping to get these art paintings, but I guess they are not for giving away, yes? : )



By the way, do drop by his blog and read about his very interesting China trip! Makes me want to go there too!

This is not the first time I receive something free from QuaChee. Last year, I received his book '50 + 1 Malaysia' free too.



He sent it to me free so I could write a review of his book on my blog. You can read my review here. A lot of bloggers also got this book free just for putting up a review of the book on their blogs. This book is currently sold in bookstores.

Talking about free stuffs, do you like to receive free gifts and free vouchers and stuffs like that? Actually, I must be really dumb to ask this question. Who wouldn't want free stuffs, right?

What things would you love to receive for free?

What God Wants

Do you know what does God want from you?

What if I tell you what you think God wants from you is not what God wants from you?

Will you reject it outright? Will you say I'm blasphemous?

Well, since reading Conversations With God Book 1 by Neale Donald Walsch, I've continued reading many of his subsequent books. One of his many books which stand out is this book published in 2005 called WHAT GOD WANTS.



When was the last time you read a dangerous book?

Well, be careful because this book is dangerous.
It explores with startling freshness the most important question you could ever ask, and offers with breathtaking courage the most extraordinary answer you could ever imagine.

That answer is so theologically revolutionary and so spiritually empowering that it could change the course of human history. If embraced, it most certainly will change your life.

There are people and institutions in the world, long in place and long in power, that want neither of these outcomes to occur. They would rather that you put this book down right now.

It's up to you.

Here are three chapters from the book itself. Just a taste of what is to come in the rest of the book. Don't worry - they are very short chapters. (I've taken out Chapter 3 as it's a bit long)

1.

Very few people will be able to believe what's in this book.

At least, at first.

That may make it one of the most unbelievable books of all time.



2.

This book answers the most important question in human history.

What does God want?

For many people that answer will be startling.

Even for those who aren't completely surprised, the answer will be dramatically different. It will not even come close to the ideas that people usually hear about God.

Humanity's ideas about God produce humanity's ideas about life and about people. Dramatically different ideas about God will produce dramatically different ideas about life and about people. If the world could use anything right now, that's it.

We stand today on the brink of a global cultural war. The opening volleys have already been exchanged. The really major clashes, the unthinkable Future World battles, may be yet to come.

Given the direction in which humanity appears to be moving, it may seem as though this larger conflict is inevitable. It isn't. There's something very powerful that can stop it: dramatically different ideas about God and dramatically different ideas about life and about people.

Such ideas, if accepted and adopted, will produce dramatically different ways of living and being. Values will change. Priorities will change. Power structures and power holders will change.

Some of those power holders do not want any of this to happen.

That may make this not only one of the most unbelievable books of all time, but also one of the most dangerous.


4.

Many people will simply be afraid to believe what's in this book.

A dramatically different idea is going to be presented here just 12,108 words from now. So opposed to this idea is the established order that, in some countries, if you said aloud the things that are in this book, you could be killed.

Not by an angry mob.

By the government.

You could be accused of committing a crime against the laws of the land, and sentenced to death. In other countries, while you might not be killed, you could be criticized, vilified, and ostracized. You could also be removed from any place of influence you might hold, and your views would almost certainly be marginalized.

Yes, that's how dangerous what is written here is.

Clearly, What God Wants is not unimportant information. It's so important, in fact, that the words are presented in initial caps and italic type wherever the term is used throughout this book. I wanted those words to stand out, so that they make a point in and of themselves.

You see, millions of people all over the world have been living their lives based on the information they have been given about What God Wants, and if the world's prior information on this topic is inaccurate, the world could be in big trouble.

And here's 2 reviews I found from the Internet.

REVIEW 1
"Fasten your seat belts... this truly IS a dangerous book!!!!
Or exciting... it all depends on how you look at it. This book really is the BEST book Neale has written. It's short, fast, and clear. It provides stunning answers to the biggest question humanity can formulate. What is it, that God, our maker and creator, wants from us? Do we really know? Does any one of our conflicting religions know? Yes and no. Our knowledge is simply incomplete.

To understand the answer, we must zoom out from a piece of the puzzle (a religion, for example), to the broader picture. Wanna take a ride?!? Detach yourself from your belief systems (however inclusive you think they are), open yourself up, fasten your seat belts, and get your insurance papers out before reading this book... and then read it, listen to what it says.... at the very least CONSIDER the possibility that it is true.

I guarantee you, that no matter who you are, how many similar books you have read, or how much you think you know about the answer, you will be shocked (or enlightened) by the answer. The answer to the title, in Chapter 13, may make you feel empty... or full of new life and understanding and energized to change the world for the better... "

REVIEW 2
"....mind-opening, life-altering insights in a book so vital, so urgent in its timing, and so on the nose with its provocative assertions, that I was blown away by its ferociousness... Here is a message of love not bound by any one religion, but transcendent of them all. A message that will unite us, not divide us. Never have we needed this book more."
- Book of the Month Club

So do you want to know what God wants? If yes, go get this book and read it, then let me know what you think!

How To Make Anyone Fall In Love With You

Hi, everyone! Did the title of my post catch your attention?

So are you excited to know how?

Then let me be your love guru for today.

Before you read further, let me warn that this is strictly for those of you without any steady boyfriend or girlfriend. If you are married, you can still take this lesson but do not act them out other than with your spouse, although I don't see what's the point really.

OK, let's begin. Here are 3 foolproof methods to get anyone falling heads over heels in love with you!

Method No.1 – Gaze into the person’s eyes
Did you know that gazing into a person’s eyes can actually make the individual fall in love with you? I’m not exaggerating here. In 1989, an experiment (Kellerman, Lewis and Laird) was conducted whereby two opposite sex strangers were asked to gaze into each others’ eyes for 2 minutes. The conclusion? Passionate feelings were produced between the two strangers.

You can try this with the person you want to attract! When having conversation with your intended person, look him or her directly in the eyes when speaking and listening. Don’t look elsewhere! This way, you can engage this method without being obvious!

Now that you know this, if you ever find someone keep gazing into your eyes while talking to you, then you know he or she is trying to attract you. So if you do not want to fall for him or her, you had better look away!


Method No.2 – Bring along an attractive person of the opposite sex
When you want to meet the person you wish to attract for the first time, bring along an attractive person of the opposite sex with you. The person you wish to attract will feel less confident with herself as she compares herself with the attractive person accompanying you.

Approaching her when she is not feeling very confident will make you appear more attractive to her. This is natural human behaviour. We often feel others more attractive when we feel less confident with ourselves. This is the time to be flirtatious and friendly with her!

Logically speaking, do not of course, attempt to bring a friend of the same sex as you and who is more attractive than you. The person you want to attract may end up attracted to your friend instead!

However, this does not mean you should bring someone very unattractive with you, whether he or she is of the same or opposite sex. The person you wish to attract may associate you with him or her and find you unattractive. This is known as the Law Of Association in human behaviour.


Method No. 3 – Make use of emotional arousal
This tactic alone may get you more dates than any new hairstyle or outfit or job!
Have you ever seen a mismatched couple before – where the wife is good looking, but the husband is extremely unattractive, or the other way around?

They probably met somewhere when the better looking husband or wife was nervous, apprehensive or excited.

You see, when we are nervous or excited, our body produces adrenaline. In fact, any state of heightened arousal like fear, excitement and even exercise produces adrenalin. Anytime a person is aroused, his arousal will in part be attributed to whomever he is with. This is the foundation of human behaviour.

So if you want to attract someone, try and do it when you are both in a situation where he or she is emotionally aroused.

Using one of the methods above will give you a better chance to make that someone fall in love with you. Use all 3 methods and you are almost certain to succeed in getting him or her to fall head over heels in love with you!

Did I come up with all these? I hope I did, but unfortunately, no. Even a love guru has his own guru. And my guru is David J. Lieberman, PhD who authored this book called "Get Anyone To Do Anything", which is where I got all these information from.



Perhaps you may want to get this book as it teaches you more than just making anyone fall in love with you, though that's a good start, don't you agree?

Earn 12.08% Annual Returns Risk Free

Is it possible to achieve a 12.08% annual returns from your investments risk free?

At 12.08% per year, your money is doubling every 5.96 years and RM1,000 invested a month would grow close to RM1 million in just 20 years.

Most of you will probably think like this.

12.08%? Maybe.

Risk free? Impossible! No investment is 100% risk free!

Well, according to Adam Khoo in his book “Secrets of Self Made Millionaires”, it is entirely possible!


However, you cannot achieve this by investing in individual stocks, or simply choosing any unit trusts funds. Instead, Adam Khoo suggests this - invest in the whole of the US stock market!

"What?! Are you nuts?" you exclaimed.

Well, here’s a fact. The US stock market averaged an annual return of 12.08% per year for the last 20 years. This of course does not mean that every single stock in the stock market went up by 12.08%. It’s the average we are talking about.

For the uninitiated, stock markets are actually measured by an index. An index is a portfolio of stocks that is designed to represent the whole market. The US stock market is represented by many indexes, but the most popular is Standard & Poor 500 Index (S&P 500). This index consists of 500 of the largest companies in the US stock market and represents over 80% of the total stock market value. So, this index actually indicates the average price of all 500 largest companies in USA and can be said to represent the overall performance of the whole US stock market.

If we look at the S&P 500 index graph from year 1952 to 2003, we can see that it keeps moving up over time. Yes, there were some ups and downs, there were bulls and bears, but overall it keeps going up.



This could be due to inflation as prices always increase over time, and this include stock prices. Secondly, due to the inevitable population growth, companies will always have more and more people to sell to so there will be increase in profits and therefore, an increase in stock prices too.

Adam Khoo says that if we were to invest in a mutual fund that tracks the S&P 500 index (aka Index Fund) and keep investing, in the long term, we will have 100% chance of gain and zero chance of loss!

The key word here is LONG TERM. And long term means at least 10 years and above.

It seems the longer you invest, the lower the risk. If you invest for one year, you have 20% chance of losing your capital. If you invest longer for 5 years, your risk of loss is reduced to 10%. But if you invest for 10 years and more, the chances of losing is virtually zero! In other words, you can only gain and profit by investing for 10 years and more.

According to Adam Khoo, you can buy the US Index Fund through online brokers available at Ameritrade.com, OptionXpress.com, or etrade.com. Just open an online account, send them the necessary documents and transfer funds into your account from your home country.

Another alternative is to buy Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that tracks the S&P Index 500. ETF is a kind of investment security that is constructed like a mutual fund but trades like stocks. It charges lower fees and can be bought or sold anytime of the day. You can buy ETF through online brokers at interactivebrokers.com.

Well, what do you think? Would you want to invest in the US Index Fund if you have that extra cash every month? With the stock market falling to an all time low, this may just be your golden opportunity to buy cheap and make huge profits in later years.

Now I am not an expert on investments. I only learnt about this from the Adam Khoo's book I mentioned above. If you are an expert on this, please comment and share with us your opinions and suggestions.

How Grateful Are You?

How many times do you pray to God to ask for something? If you are a religious person, you may be doing this often. If you are not, you probably did it once or twice during those desperate times when you wanted something so badly.

I don’t claim to be a very religious person, or an expert in religion.

But I was reading through this excellent and deeply spiritual (but non-religious) book called “Conversations With God” by Neale Donald Walsch for the second time recently. And it simply inspired me to write this post today.

In the book, Neale was questioning God whether prayer works. Whether God will grant him what he asks for. Here’s God’s reply to him.

“You will not have what you ask, nor can you have anything you want. This is because your very request is a statement of lack, and your saying you want a thing only works to produce the precise experience – wanting – in your reality.

The correct prayer is therefore never a prayer of supplication but a prayer of gratitude. When you thank God in advance for which you choose to experience in your reality, you in effect, acknowledge that it is there …. in effect. Thankfulness is thus the most powerful statement to God; an affirmation that even before you asked, I have answered.

Therefore, never supplicate. Appreciate.”

Let’s reflect on this for a moment. Every time you want to create something or want to have something, are you always hoping or wishing for it? Do you pray and hope it’ll come to you? Or do you feel grateful that it’s already on its way to you?

When you pray for something badly, you will very likely experience the wanting, and not what you want. But if you are grateful because you trust that you will receive what you want, then you will very likely get it.

So here’s how you can shift the energy from wanting to the feeling of already having it and feeling grateful.

Step 1 – Write down what you want eg. increase income, better health, better relationships etc.

Step 2 – Write down how you feel about what you want.
Impatient? Frustrated? Disappointed? Or grateful?

Step 3 – If you feel anything other than grateful, choose this very moment to feel completely grateful and trust that what you want is on its way to you. Say “Thank you” at least 3 times to emphasize your feelings of gratefulness and know that what you want is already being materialized.

Step 4 – Erase all doubts and forget about this exercise. Just let go and allow the Universe to bring it to you.

Some people may ask, how can we practise gratefulness in times of trouble when we don’t feel like feeling grateful? Read this Trusting Life article for the inspiration.

Do you know that feeling grateful about what you have can actually attract more good things to you? It's the Law Of Attraction that can never fail you. When you are focused on being grateful for the good things in your life, the Universe will somehow bring more of those good things to you!

So let’s be grateful and thankful everyday, shall we?