A Healing Gesture of a Gift from
Dr. Habib Sadeghi & Dr. Sherry Sami beingclarity.com
MegaZEN VOLUME 7
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WELL-BEING JOURNAL
ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS:
Health & Medicine M I N D - BODY W ELLN ESS In Sync with Health
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Oral Evidence
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Self-Conscious or Self-Care
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Minerals as Medicine
152
Family Matters I M P O R TA N T L I F E TO P I C S Role Reversal
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After the Affair
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Pet Predicament
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Feminine Health W ELL- B EI NG FOR WOM EN A Minor Adjustment
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Running on Empty
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Invisible Dangers of Estrogen
136
Infertility Illusion
148
Contributions ARTICLES FROM EXPERTS Spiritual Psychology
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It's All Connected
142
7 Ways To Reignite Sexual Intimacy 188 Conscious Connection Leads to Deliberate Desire
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Food & Nutrition CHOICES FOR W ELL- B EI NG For What Ails You
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Worth Its Salt
199
Label Language
202
Second Opinion TA K I N G A C LO S E R LO O K Invisible Assault
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Health, Power & Politics
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Under the Influence
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In One Basket
166
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G N I N R A
LT H O F A E H E H G U S TO T O LIMITIN D R D A N Z A A S ES EN IS H S H OW N RLESSN S E A W H M EGA Z O H P C F RESE AR A D S TO ENSE O . E S L G R N N I U E L O A Y AZ E N T, OUT HE O M EG M B T E A E G R S F D U E U S F-J PO BELI OF SEL L AR E X S U S USION G F O E L T R L N T A E A T O TH AN AL OR T E PER M I T H T R A N P I . LT THE & SOUL Y RESU A Y D M O H B C D, WHI OF MIN
UT O O P E E K
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WELCOME TO THE 7 TH VOLUME OF MEGA ZEN
A Virtual Roadmap for Life
Exploring the powerful concepts of Spiritual Psychology
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very year we try to open each new volume of MegaZEN with a welcoming message that includes some of the wonderful things and challenges that have occurred in our lives since the last edition. Our intention in doing this has always been to show readers how the spiritual principles we share in MegaZEN can really help them find abundance and overcome adversity when put to good use. We do our best to walk our talk, and the annual MegaZEN address has always been a way for us to show how the universe will respond to you differently when you engage it through living consciously. In thinking over what we wanted to feature on the cover of MegaZEN Volume 7, we considered a lot of things. There are some excellent features in this edition that could easily catch people’s eye. We also know a fair amount of prominent people in business, politics, and entertainment whose cover photo would sell lots of copies, but that’s not our style. Then the thought came to us almost at the same time. What better way to emphasize the power of the spiritual concepts that we share than to introduce you to the two people who changed our lives forever by sharing these concepts with us. Yes, we know a lot of famous people, but Ron and Mary are easily the biggest superstars in our lives. Not only are we proud to introduce you to them but also honored that they’ve agreed to write the cover story for this edition. Ron and Mary Hulnick are Co-Directors and the President and Chief Creative Officer of the University of Santa Monica (USM). We first met them when we enrolled in the Master’s degree program in Spiritual Psychology. To say that our experience in working directly with Ron and Mary during our studies was transformative doesn’t even begin to describe the impact their knowledge and compassion had on us. It changed everything about who we are and how we live our lives. In adulthood, no two people have had a greater impact on us. They simply embody everything MegaZEN is about. After we earned our degrees, we were blessed to remain friends with Ron and Mary. In fact, we’ve mentored with them privately for years. Their book, Loyalty to Your Soul: The Heart of Spiritual Psychology, is a wonderful introduction to Ron & Mary’s work and a virtual roadmap for life. Every spiritual concept we share in MegaZEN is based on its principles. We hope you enjoy the article by Ron and Mary, and highly recommend that you attend one of the Loyalty to Your Soul workshops at USM that they facilitate themselves. If you feel it beneficial, you might also look into their other offerings. No matter how you experience USM, as well as Ron and Mary, your life will never be the same. No need to thank us; we already know you’ll be very, very grateful. We certainly were and continue to be.
Love and Light in the Year Ahead,
Dr. Habib Sadeghi & Dr. Sherry Sami
INVISIBLE
ASSAULT YOUR MYSTERY SYMPTOMS MAY BE CAUSED BY ENVIRONMENTAL ILLNESS By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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mostly see patients with serious chronic illnesses like cancer and autoimmune disorders, but there is a growing population of people complaining of long-term symptoms that doctors can’t seem to pinpoint. They report headaches, sinusitis, fatigue, joint aches, breathing difficulties, chronic infections, dizziness and rashes that have gone on for years. Other doctors haven’t been able to get to the bottom of their illness because the related hodge-podge of symptoms are common to about one thousand other illnesses. In the best cases, patients are unfortunately misdiagnosed and mistreated. In the worst, they’re told they’re imagining it all and referred to a psychiatrist. Yes, that’s actually happened. MULTIDIRECTIONAL ATTACK
While it doesn’t seem possible that all these wildly different symptoms could be tied to just one cause, in many people, they are. It’s the environment that’s making them sick or, as it’s come to be known, environmental illness. Chemicals in the everyday environment from items like cleaning products, fragrances, perfumes, off-gassing from carpet and plastic products, car exhaust, pollen, mold, and hundreds of other incitants can trigger mild to severe reactions. Significantly compounding the problem is technology. As the world becomes increasingly wireless, more people are developing sensitivities to electromagnetic fields (EMF). An EMF is a field of electrical intensity emitted by an object that can affect other objects within its field of influence. The effect depends on the individual sensitivity of the target object, the strength of the current and voltage of the wave. For example, high powerlines that carry 765,000 volts can generate a field that extends 2,500ft. from the lines. In the 21st century, it’s virtually impossible to escape EMF exposure. New cell phone towers are popping up like weeds across the country, even in rural areas. They’re even placing modified cell phone towers on the tops of buildings in cities where they’re completely unseen. It seems we can’t go into any public building today without swimming in the Wi-Fi. With microwave ovens, appliances with smart technology, more Wi-Fi and smart meters on our homes, we’re not safe there either. Forget about going to the hospital because it’s the worst with all the wireless pads, cell phones, and e-records systems. To top it off, there’s a cell phone tower on the roof of most hospitals. C ON T I N U E D. . .
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HEALTH, POWER &
POLITICS HOW ONE OF THE GREATEST HEALTH DISCOVERIES OF THE 20TH CENTURY WAS LOST By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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n 1935, nylon was created and the discovery of the neutron won the Nobel Prize. The Gallup poll was brand new, and the DC-3 took its first flight. It was also the year that a cure for polio was discovered, 20 years before the official vaccine, and yet no one noticed. How could one of the greatest health discoveries of the 20th century just vanish into time?
Claus Washington Jungeblut received his MD from the University of Bern in 1921. Later, he worked as a bacteriologist for the New York State Department of Health and also spent time as an associate professor at Stanford University. In 1929, he joined the faculty at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons as associate professor of bacteriology where he remained until he retired in 1962. It was during his time at Columbia in 1935 that he would make his landmark discovery, that vitamin C (ascorbate) is highly effective at preventing, as well as neutralizing, the polio virus.1 After publishing his first official paper on the subject that year, he would later find that vitamin C also possessed extremely powerful capabilities in deactivating other viral and bacterial pathogens and their related toxins including diphtheria,2 tetanus,3 hoof-and-mouth disease,4 staph, hepatitis, and herpes.5 The evidence was incontrovertible; vitamin C was a wide-spectrum, antiviral agent with no harmful effects. In fact, when monkeys infected with various pathogens, including polio, were administered vitamin C, not only was the severity of the disease significantly diminished, but it also enhanced their resistance to it. As groundbreaking as the discovery of vitamin C’s antiviral and antibacterial properties was, Dr. Jungeblut and his achievements have been downplayed by medical historians to such a degree over the last 84 years that they’ve basically been rendered all but nonexistent. Aside from a mention in TIME magazine in 19396 in which Dr. Jungeblut stated low levels of vitamin C were associated with polio, both he and his amazing discovery were all but ignored by the mainstream establishment. In fact, Columbia University, where he made his monumental discovery and worked for 33 years, houses little information on him. While the most random of TV reality show celebrities are listed on Wikipedia, Dr. Jungeblut is nowhere to be found. How could this have happened to one of the greatest researchers of our time? Unfortunately, Dr. Jungeblut became one more casualty in a long line of forgotten heroes in the race for power, prestige, and profit in modern medicine. C ON T I N U E D. . .
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MegaZEN
VOLUME 7
IN SYNC WITH HEALING HOW CRANIAL NERVE ZERO ALIGNS THE BODY FOR HEALTH By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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hen we say something is synchronized we mean that a number of separate parts are working together as a whole to achieve a particular purpose. In a way, those separate parts are acting as a single unit toward an expected outcome. The intricate gears and weights of a clock work together in absolute precision in order to track the time within a fraction of a second. All parts of an Indy 500 race car, including the driver, interact tens of thousands of times to execute a superior performance that gets that car across the finish line first. If even one element, no matter how small, was out of place in either of those systems the outcome would be completely different. This is the power of alignment, what it means to have all parts completely synchronized and working toward a common goal. In the most basic terms, when we speak of health what we really mean is a body that is synchronized, in which all parts are working for a unified purpose—wellness. So regardless of the disease one may be dealing with the goal is always the same, to re-synchronize the system. In a sense, there aren’t lots of cures for lots of different diseases, but one that touches them all, realigning the body
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for health. Coordinating thousands of different organs, tissues, fluids, hormones and cells to work together in harmony once again might seem like an impossible task, but it’s not a matter of working with all these elements separately. That really would be impossible. When dealing with a system as complex as the human body, it’s best to take a holistic, top-down approach. When we interact with elements at the top of a system, all the parts and processes that come after it will be modified by that change and function in a different way. We’ve all seen movies where someone flips a hidden switch that triggers lots of gears and gizmos that interact in just the right way to open a secret door. Medical disciplines like osteopathy and chiropractic care work the same way by realigning the body from the top so that any other misalignments below that point fall back into form naturally. Science is now beginning to discover how an obscure and mostly disregarded nerve in the brain has a similar power to synchronize a host of biological systems and realign the body for health. When properly activated, cranial nerve zero is showing great potential to fight disease and bring the rest of the body back online.
DISCOVERY DISMISSED
Medicine has known of the cranial nerves since at least 250AD. These nerves emerge from the bottom of the brain in pairs and govern major functions of the body. They’re numbered 1 through 12 beginning with those closest to the forehead following backward to the spinal cord. Among their functions is providing for the vital senses of smell, sight, hearing, taste, and touch, as well as movement of the eyes, tongue, jaw, and face. Cranial nerve 1 is the olfactory nerve that branches to the nose and governs the sense of smell, while cranial nerve 2 is the optic nerve managing sight, and so on. In 1878, German scientist Gustav Fritsch detected a new cranial nerve in the brain of a shark. It was at the front just before cranial nerve 1, the olfactory nerve, and running parallel to it. It was much thinner than the other nerves and could be easily missed if a person wasn’t looking for it, but its presence was unmistakable. The existence of a 13th cranial nerve seemed preposterous to the medical establishment, and its reality was quickly dismissed. It was believed by anatomists back then, as well as today, that the reason the 13th cranial nerve was missing in brains used in medical research was because it was inadvertently removed along with the tough coverings of the brain during dissection. Even so, scientists who believed in the 13th cranial nerve’s existence didn’t know how to categorize it in their studies. In reality, the new nerve should have been numbered cranial nerve 1 because it emerged first in the brain ahead of the olfactory nerve, but the existing 12 cranial nerves were too entrenched in medical history and literature to renumber all of them. As such, it was decided the classification would be cranial nerve zero (CN0), sometimes called the terminal nerve. Even today, the presence of CN0 is still debated, and most doctors aren’t aware of it because it doesn’t appear in any medical textbooks. This is in spite of the fact that since Fritsch’s discovery, CN0 was found in the brains of nearly all vertebrates and in humans by 1913. SEXUAL SUGGESTIONS
“Even today, the presence of CNo is still debated, and most doctors aren’t aware of it because it doesn’t appear in any medical textbooks. This is in spite of the fact that since Fritsch’s discovery, CNo was found in the brains of nearly all vertebrates and in humans by 1913.” 27
All the evidence we have about CN0 strongly suggests that its function involves subliminal sexual attraction by transferring signals from pheromones received in the nasal cavities to the brain.1 Like the olfactory nerve, CN0 sends its endings to the nose. What makes it different is that instead of being anchored in the region of the brain that deals with smell, CN0 bypasses the olfactory bulb and sends its signals to the areas of the brain that deal with sexual reproduction. These include the lateral septal nuclei and preoptic
MegaZEN
VOLUME 7
FOR WHAT AILS YOU EXAMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF POPULAR HOME REMEDIES
By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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or minor health problems, it’s always best to try to help yourself at home first before taking lots of prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) medications. The natural way of healing small health issues is always the best way. Hundreds of home remedies claiming to help treat countless physical problems have been around for generations. While some people swear by them, how many actually work? Have they been researched, and what does the science say? Here, we take a closer look at several popular home remedies. C ON T I N U E D. . .
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Embracing the Rhythm of Life Misfortune always brings with it some kind of hidden blessing. By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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he end of the year is usually the time most of us look back on everything
that’s unfolded in the previous 12 months and assess how we’ve met our challenges, what we accomplished, and what we’d like to change in the coming year.
For me, everything that happened in the last three to four months of 2018 could have filled an entire year. It’s as if all the drama I normally would have experienced throughout the year was condensed into a much smaller period of time, but life often works that way. When it rains it pours, and you have to be ready to adapt to the changes that are coming your way fast and furious. I’ve talked quite a bit in my writing about how life moves in a recurring pattern of expansion and contraction. The cold dark of winter is necessary to the rhythm of life but always gives way to spring, which is equally important. In the same way, our lives go through periods of darkness, but if we can hang on through the contracted periods when everything seems to be closing in on us, we can be sure the contraction is setting us up for another expansion. It must, because that’s the rhythm of life. While I can’t provide all the details here, just the highlights of the last two months have been overwhelming. On October 12th, a car veered off the road, crossed the medical center parking lot and crashed into the garden wall, shattering the entrance gate. The car left the scene immediately, and police never solved the mysterious incident. On October 23rd, my parents were visiting from out of town. On their way back to my house, a vintage WWII airplane flew right over their heads and crash landed in front of their car on the 101 freeway in Agoura Hills. Naturally, that gave Sherry and me an awful scare. Just two weeks later on November 7th, Sherry and I were in the same shopping center at the time of the shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grille in Thousand Oaks, getting caught up in the ensuing chaos. The next day, the Woolsey fire started in the Santa Monica Mountains and by November 13th, we were forced to evacuate our home. Sherry went to Texas with the children because the air quality was so unhealthy, while I took refuge in Sherman Oaks. One week later when our family was reunited and allowed to return home, we were astonished to find both our house and business completely intact and untouched by the fires. All around we saw blackened trees with broken, charred limbs dangling down like phantom arms and the gray skeletons of automobiles still smoldering days after the fire passed. The entire scene looked like war zones in Lebanon and elsewhere I’d remembered seeing on TV. C ON T I N U E D. . .
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MegaZEN
VOLUME 7
AFTER TH
HE AFFAIR SAVING YOUR MARRIAGE FROM INFIDELITY
By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY
THE LONG-AWAITED CONVERGENCE By H. Ronald Hulnick & Mary R. Hulnick - University of Santa Monica
AUTHOR NOTE:
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Ron and Mary Hulnick University of Santa Monica 2107 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90403 E-mail: ronandmary@universityofsantamonica.edu
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WHAT IS SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY?
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or more than 35 years, we have provided students with opportunities for learning and applying life-changing Principles and Practices of the newly emerging field of Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica. You may be asking, “What is Spiritual Psychology? What are these Principles and Practices? Can they help alleviate the mental anguish and emotional suffering I experience at times? Can they assist me in transforming my consciousness and my life—knowing my life purpose and living into it?” We say, “Yes. That is exactly what they’re designed for!” If you delve into the meaning of the word psyche, you’ll find phrases such as “breath, principle of life, soul.” But if you explore the meaning of the word psychology, you’ll see “the science of mind and behavior.” Somehow, in the translation from essence to clinical practice, the most important aspect of “psyche” has been lost. We recognize our calling as restoring the spiritual dimension to the Heart of an authentic psychological inquiry. It is this reintegration that is the Heart of a truly Spiritual Psychology, which we define as the study and practice of Conscious Awakening. As my [Ron] first spiritual teacher was fond of saying, “The reason psychology was inspired onto the planet was because humanity forgot why it was here.” And what does Awakening mean? It begins with the awareness that we simultaneously reside in two worlds. We are most aware of the one known as physical-world reality. It’s the world of our everyday existence, including relationships, work, finances, health, weather, politics, etc., with which we are familiar and which we think of as reality. It is the world we know through our five senses. C ON T I N U E D. . .
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MegaZEN
VOLUME 7
THE COURAGE TO LEAD DR. SADEGHI ADDRESSES THE BRILLIANT MINDS CONFERENCE IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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loyd Bankfein. Robert Ben Mosche. Andy Grove. Warren Buffet. Steve Jobs. Habib Sadeghi. What do we all have in common with every CEO? Just like you, we share a sense of creativity, competitiveness, and colorfulness. We also share another C-word, cancer.
Ladies and gentlemen of Brilliant Minds (and soul I might add), as a physician who specializes in mind/body medicine, I find it unnerving how many CEOs just like you are getting cancer. Every year, I see increasing numbers of business professionals being diagnosed with lymphoma, pancreatic, colon, lung, prostate, and breast cancer. I know from firsthand experience after years of mentoring and treating some of the most powerful business executives on the planet how years of stress, including pressure from stockholders and governing boards, can have a devastating effect on the body. I have witnessed both personally and professionally how not being true to one’s thoughts and feelings by dishonoring or dismissing them can deteriorate and wear down our physiology over time. In certain cultures, social mores can weigh heavily on us, preventing us from accomplishing all of which we’re capable and being all we can be. Such is the idea of lagom in Sweden, which chides us to be good, but not “too good” so that we don’t upset the status quo or heaven forbid, make someone who accomplished less feel bad about themselves. How can creative minds thrive under such social constraints? How can anyone become all they were meant to be under those circumstances? After all, consciousness precedes our phenomena or phenotypic expression. I know. I’ve been there. I was given just a 30% chance of survival after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in medical school. It was highly recommended that I get retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy, a 16-hour surgery where they fillet the gut open, remove most of the lymph nodes, and follow it up with multiple rounds of cis-platinum chemotherapy and radiation.
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That’s not the kind of decision anyone just rushes right into. I walked away from the doctor’s office stunned that in the late 20th century, that was the best modern medicine could offer me. In that moment, I realized it wasn’t for me. With low survival odds and no guarantee from such a radical treatment, I decided to do the only thing that was in my control at the moment; I took my power back. I decided that I was going to do things differently and approach the disease from a different perspective, come what may. That was in 1997, and 21 years later, I’m still here. All my medical records from various world-renowned cancer treatment and research centers like City of Hope in Duarte, California that document my journey are published in my book, The Clarity Cleanse.
“To make better choices and find solutions to our challenges, we must learn to look beyond the material details of a problem and place it in a different context that can make things clearer for us.”
Leadership Principles Today, if you want to be a phenomenon, a trailblazer who lives a full life and not only contributes to our present world but leaves a legacy that inspires others to change the future, it’s essential to live from three key principles.
1. THE SOUL MUST BE PRIORITIZED OVER PROFIT. Are you in touch with the deeper needs of your
soul? What lights you up inside and fills your soul with joy and passion? How are these principles woven through your company’s mission, and how does it feed your soul? Perhaps this is what renowned thoracic surgeon, Dr. Mehmet Oz, referred to yesterday in his presentation. This underscores what Don Katz care-shared yesterday when he emphasized it’s more important what his company means rather than what it does. Is it the heart-centered purpose of what your company stands for rather than its profit-and-loss statement that gets you out of bed in the morning and makes your employees proud to work for such a cause? Is this high purpose emphasized among your employees and part of your corporate culture? This is what Aristotle referred to as entelechy or the spark that turns mere potential into reality, the journey of the acorn into the great oak. We all have the potential to take the journey to greatness within us. All it requires is the right kind of passion to ignite the process. 2. PLACE CONTEXT OVER CONTENT. In
my book, The Clarity Cleanse, I include a paragraph that’s made up of a collection of seemingly nonsensical, unrelated sentences. Then, the reader is asked to reread the paragraph with the word “kite” in mind. By placing the words in a particular context, the content of the paragraph suddenly makes perfect sense. To make better choices and find solutions to our challenges, we must learn to look beyond the material details of a problem and place it in a different context that can make things clearer for us. We misinterpret the true meaning of circumstances in our lives when we place them within the wrong context. We never get the real content or message of why we got sick, lost the job, or divorced, usually because we’re blaming someone or something outside ourselves for our situation. That only leaves us confused and unable to interpret the meaning in what’s happening to us, so we continue to perpetuate the problem. To decode our problems and decipher the hidden messages they have for us (which are crucial to finding solutions), we must place them within the proper context. Because we co-create our experience of reality through our consciousness, we must place every problem we have into a personal context if we are to understand what our challenges are trying to tell us about ourselves, and if we intend C ON T I N U E D. . .
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MegaZEN
VOLUME 7
RUNNIN EMPTY 90
NG ON Y WORKING MOMS TRYING TO LIVE TWO LIVES ARE INCREASINGLY EXHAUSTED By Dr. Sherry Sami
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MegaZEN
VOLUME 7
ORAL EVIDENCE HOW DENTAL HEALTH REFLECTS BODY HEALTH
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By Dr.Habib Sadeghi & Dr. Sherry Sami
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ust like oxygen and water, the body uses electricity to function. In fact, we couldn’t live without it. The entire nervous system works via a series of billions of electrical impulses, and every cellular function generates an electrical charge. The energy generated by these electrical impulses was called Qi, or life force energy, by ancient practitioners of Chinese medicine. It’s still referred to by that term today by acupuncturists, massage therapists, naturopaths, osteopaths, and holistic physicians. This vital life energy travels throughout the body along twelve pathways or meridians that intersect with every organ, tissue, and organ system, maintaining its vitality and proper function. This includes the teeth. Because the energy meridians run through the teeth and various other organs, it’s possible that a problem in a particular tooth could be creating a secondary health issue elsewhere in the body or vice versa. With a proper understanding of how meridians work, the mouth should always be a place to look for clues with regard to unexplained health problems in the body. This is because, with a fair amount of reliability, the state of oral health usually reflects the quality of physical health. INTIMATE ASSOCIATIONS
There are twelve energy meridians that run through the body, and each is named for the major organ or organ system along its route. These include the lung, large intestine, spleen, stomach, heart, small intestine, bladder, kidney, pericardium (circulation/sex), triple warmer (head, also assists the pericardium meridian), liver, and gall bladder meridians. All 32 teeth are also intersected by one of these meridians. The bicuspids will share one meridian, while the molars share another, the anterior or front teeth are intersected by yet a different meridian, and so on. Because of this unique association between teeth and different meridians, it is possible to use the teeth to diagnose and treat health problems elsewhere in the body. You may have heard of the cuspid being called an “eye tooth” when people say things like, “He’d give his eye teeth to have another shot at the championship.” That association or figure of speech isn’t an accident. From the graphic accompanying this article you can see that the third tooth from the center front on each side of the upper and lower jaws, the more pointed or canine teeth known as the cuspids, are in fact associated with the meridians that intersect the eyes. Therefore, pain or sensitivity in these teeth may signal a problem that originates in the eyes. It may also be that when a problem with the cuspids is treated, an existing issue with the eyes may finally resolve on its own. The wisdom teeth are associated with our sexual and reproductive organs, and so on. In fact, the energetic association between the teeth and the rest of the body is so specific, that astute practitioners can even pinpoint specific diseases in particular organs based on symptoms in a single tooth. For example, pain in the first incisor could point to infection in either the prostate or tonsils. It is also important to remember that the organs which share an energetic connection with our teeth are connected to our emotions, as well. Problems with our kidneys and bladder are associated with fear; the liver, anger; lungs, grief; the stomach, anxiety or non-acceptance of a chronic issue; and the heart and small intestine, sadness. Because teeth are intimately connected to the rest of the body through energy meridians, highly invasive dental work such as root canals, crowns, implants, and amalgam fillings could result in serious health problems throughout the body if the body is already compromised or highly inflamed. What’s more, the patient usually never suspects that the seemingly unrelated problems could be due to previous dental work. A root canal in a six-year molar could relate to a stomach problem; performed in a second bicuspid, it could be related to breast or lung tissue. Certain metal used in these oral fixtures also holds the potential to interrupt the flow of energy from one body part to another as it passes through the teeth, again depending on the vulnerability of certain patients’ bodies. C ON T I N U E D. . .
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MegaZEN
VOLUME 7
SELF-CONSCIOUS OR SELF-CARE THERE’S NOTHING EMBARRASSING ABOUT PROSTATE HEALTH By Dr. Habib Sadeghi, certified sexologist
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t seems most men are aware that prostate health becomes a priority at or around age 50, but they’re not exactly sure what that means. Perhaps that’s because talking about the prostate—both its function and location in the body, as well as the nature of the prostate exam—is uncomfortable for most men. This is understandable, but avoidance only leads to health problems down the line. With a bit of awareness and the right preventative health choices, men can give themselves the best chance of avoiding everything from prostatitis to prostate cancer and enjoying optimal function and sexual performance well into later life. LIMITED RELEASE
The prostate gland is about the size of a walnut and is located on the underside of the bladder between it and the penis, just in front of the rectum. The urethra runs from the bladder through the center of the prostate and into the penis to allow urine to flow out of the body. It’s a complex, spongy structure made up of tiny acini or sacs from which fluid is secreted that protects sperm in the acidic vaginal environment. During ejaculation, the prostate squeezes this fluid into the urethra, and it’s expelled with sperm as semen. The vas deferens bring sperm from the testes to the seminal vesicles that connect to the prostate from behind, which also contribute fluid to the ejaculate. In total, prostate secretions make up about 35% of the seminal fluid. By its nature and location, the prostate is the
repository for several fluids. As men age, the prostate can lose some of its suppleness, limiting its ability to vigorously contract and fully expel all its contents. This can result in conditions like retrograde ejaculation where men do not release completely and/or experience a muted orgasm. When the prostate cannot fully empty, residual fluid can build up and, like the deposits in the bottom of a drinking glass, crystalize and calcify over time. It’s this calcification that causes the prostate to become progressively more rigid over time, limiting its ability to fully contract. If not addressed, this limited release not only leads to problems with sexual function, but the stagnant fluid and its resultant deposits invite infections that often become chronic and can lead to cancer. This is known as the prostate stagnation hypothesis.1 Prostatitis, the most common prostate illness in men, occurs when the prostate becomes infected by bacteria, viruses, mycoplasma or other nonbacterial agents. MOUNTING MALADIES
If prostatitis is untreated and becomes chronic, the inflammation from the infection will cause the prostate to enlarge, creating much discomfort, particularly burning sensations during urination. As the prostate continues to swell, it increasingly constricts the urethra, narrowing the pathway through which urine can pass out of the body, making urination slow and difficult. This condition is known as benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) or an enlarged prostate. C ON T I N U E D. . .
THE
FEMININE SIDE OF MANIFESTATION
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UNDERSTANDING THE PASSIVE SIDE OF PRODUCING OUR DESIRES By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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ife comes into being or manifests in the material world through two channels. We can think of it as a coin with two sides; one for heads and the other for tails. The heads side represents the phenotypic or physical/material aspect of whatever it is we want. This is the phenomenon of the unseen becoming seen in our world. In reality, however, it’s the tails side of the coin that’s far more important and what must come first if manifestation of our desire is to occur. It seems contradictory, but it’s a law of nature that consciousness precedes context. Unfortunately, most people are unaware of this, choosing instead to focus all their time and attention only on the physical aspects and demands of bringing their desire into being and yet never wondering why they’re working twice as hard for half the results.
“Before you can create a phenomenon, a phenotypic expression in this physical world, there must first be a genotypic expression to precede it, an internal corresponding state of consciousness, the tails side of the coin or right kind of mental soil, where that idea can be nurtured and subsequently allowed to emerge into existence.” The tails side is the quality of consciousness that’s required to manifest whatever it is that’s on the other side of your coin. So when we say in anthroposophical medicine that consciousness precedes context, the phenotypic expression or the tangible part of our desire, what we’re saying is that tails come before heads. Although the head of a fish is what contains all its senses, navigation abilities and eats to keep it alive, it’s the caudal or tail fin that moves it forward and if lost would render all other abilities useless. Likewise, as beautiful as the head of a bald eagle or blue jay might be, it’s their tail feathers that enable them to take flight and stabilize themselves in the air to get where they’re going. Put another way, it’s the tiny seed that remains unseen in the soil and how we tend to it that determines what plant, vegetable or flower, if any, will finally break through the earth and manifest into the physical word. What we think of as the most inconsequential part of the manifestation process is actually the most important. Before you can create a phenomenon, a phenotypic expression in this physical world, there must first be a genotypic expression to precede it, an internal corresponding state of consciousness, the tails side of the coin or right kind of mental soil, where that idea can be nurtured and subsequently allowed to emerge into existence. A baby’s blue eyes are a phenotypic expression, an outward manifestation of a specific genotypic expression or genotype that already existed within the baby before its eyes were fully developed or it was even born. The proper DNA had to be in place before those blue eyes could open for the first time in the outer world. So the internal conditions or proper genotypic expression has to be in place before the final phenotypic expression or physical end product can makes its appearance in reality. 115
MegaZEN
VOLUME 7
UNDER THE
INFLUENCE THE RISK OF VIOLENT AND SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR WITH ANTIDEPRESSANTS By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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rugs are ubiquitous in our society. Advertisements not just for over-the-counter medications, but powerful prescription drugs are everywhere: on TV, billboards, and in magazines. It’s almost impossible today to find someone who isn’t on some type of regular medication or knows someone else who is. As much as they’ve become a part of daily life (for good or ill), the fact remains that all drugs have negative side effects to some degree, regardless of whether we can perceive them or not. In the last 26 years, no other type of drug has become more prescribed across all population and age groups than antidepressant / anxiety medications, also known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). In fact, prescribing SSRIs has become so pervasive in the last two decades that a 2017 study showed 1 in 6 Americans was taking an SSRI or related psychiatric drug.1 That’s nearly 20% of the population. This is largely due to the fact that because SSRIs have become so common, most physicians and patients don’t view them as dangerous. Antidepressants are the aspirin of the 21st century. At the same time, doctors regularly prescribe SSRIs to millions of people for all kinds of off-label purposes like back pain, insomnia and fibromyalgia. Even though these drugs have not been tested nor approved for such uses, prescribing them in this way is still, shockingly, legal. What most people don’t realize is that there is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence that shows SSRIs are directly linked to drastic changes in behavior, particularly suicide and violence against others. What some casually refer to as their “happy pills” are resulting in wild behavior and mood changes that are having catastrophic consequences on the lives of patients and those around them. When the reports of otherwise healthy, law-abiding people committing murder, mass murder, assault, robbery, rape, and arson finally hit the news, we’re never told that an increasing number of them were under the influence of SSRIs at the time. TALES OF TR AGEDY
SSRIs include drugs like fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), paroxetine (Paxil), citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro), fluvoxamine (Luvox) and others. The internet is awash in tragic stories from the families of patients who either killed themselves or killed others and then took their own lives while on these drugs. In fact, the number of these tragic stories has become so large that they’ve been compiled in various online databases such as SSRIstories.net and SSRIstories.org, where the nightmarish experiences are broken down into categories like suicide, homicide, and assault. More often we’re hearing of how SSRIs have ruined the lives of young people. Recently, 14-year-old Naika Venant of Miami hanged herself live on Facebook. It would later be revealed that she was taking Zoloft at the time.2 Then there’s the tragic story of a teenager who bludgeoned his father to death with a hammer and crowbar, then repeatedly stabbed his mother in the face with a pair of scissors just weeks after being prescribed Prozac. He would later tell investigators that at the time of the crime, “I didn’t feel real.”3
C ON T I N U E D. . .
I also know of a man who was put on SSRIs when his business began to struggle after the 2008 economic recession. His wife later shared that he kept telling her, “I don’t like the way these pills make me feel.” She urged him to stop taking them, but he continued, believing that they would eventually help him. Shortly thereafter, he shot himself. A patient of mine related the story of a friend who, after having an argument with his girlfriend, shut himself away in their bedroom. In recounting the experience, the man told my patient, “I don’t know what came over me, but all I could think about was wanting to kill her, then kill myself. There was no room in my mind for anything else.” He was on Lexapro at the time. Fortunately, he was able to keep his wits about him, contact his doctor, and discontinue the drug after a weaning period. Others aren’t so lucky. When my brother Mehrdad’s health began to decline in 2015, he was put on an SSRI against my recommendation. His behavior soon became hostile and erratic to the point where his wife and children had to leave their home. Instead of taking Mehrdad off the SSRI, the doctors were constantly changing his medication. In a matter of months, he took his own life.
at all ages.5 To this effect, the researchers wrote: “It can no longer be doubted that antidepressants are dangerous and can cause suicide and homicide at any age. It is absurd to use drugs for depression that increase the risk of homicide and suicide when we know that cognitive behavioral therapy can halve the risk of suicide in patients who have been admitted after a suicide attempt and when psychotherapy does not increase the risk of murder.” A study from the Yale University School of Medicine of more than 1,500 cases of patient violence showed that 31 drugs were disproportionately connected to violent behavior toward others. The majority of those drugs were antidepressants, followed by sedatives and other psychiatric drugs for conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).6 The researchers concluded: “Acts of violence towards others are a genuine and serious adverse drug event associated with a relatively small group of drugs. Varenicline, which increases the availability of dopamine, and antidepressants with serotonergic effects were the most strongly and consistently implicated drugs.”
SUICIDE AND VIOLENCE CONNECTION
All of this suffering continues in full view of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has done nothing over the last 26 years to either pull SSRIs off the market or severely limit their distribution. This is in spite of the fact that the FDA itself admitted in a formal statement back in 2007 regarding SSRIs: “Families and caregivers of patients should be advised to look for the emergence of such symptoms on a day-to-day basis, since changes may be abrupt…All patients being treated with antidepressants for any indication should be monitored appropriately and observed closely for clinical worsening, suicidality, and unusual changes in behavior, especially during the initial few months of a course of drug therapy, or at times of dose changes, either increases or decreases. The following symptoms, anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, impulsivity, akathisia (psychomotor restlessness), hypomania, and mania, have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants.”4 A decade later, the evidence continued to pile up. In 2017, the British Medical Journal was just the latest to conclusively show that antidepressants increase the risk of suicide, violence, and homicide
“A study by the Harvard School of Public Health that followed 162,000 subjects between 10 and 64, which found significant risks for all age groups but particularly those 24 and younger, whose likelihood of suicidal or violent behavior doubled while on SSRIs.” SSRI prescription is also relatively high in Sweden with 14% of women and 8% of men taking the drugs. A three-year study between 2006 and 2009, conducted by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the University of Oxford in
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England, found 8,377 people during that time period committed violent crimes like homicide and assault while on antidepressants. The analysis also showed that patients were nearly 20% more likely to be convicted of a violent crime when on the medication than when they weren’t. When isolated to just the 15-24 age group, patients’ risk of committing a violent crime were 43% greater than when they weren’t on SSRIs, and this risk was significant even at low doses.7 These results were confirmed in a study by the Harvard School of Public Health that followed 162,000 subjects between 10 and 64, which found significant risks for all age groups but particularly those 24 and younger, whose likelihood of suicidal or violent behavior doubled while on SSRIs.8 DOWNPLAYING THE DANGER
While the evidence continues to mount, pharmaceutical corporations have attempted to either downplay the threat of suicide and violent behavior from SSRIs or claim that the danger only lies with adolescents. The evidence proves this is patently false. When analyzing the assessments from the drug trials of 13 different antidepressants that included over 600 cases, researchers from the University of Copenhagen found that healthy adults with no previous history of mental disorders doubled their risk of self-harm and violence toward others when taking SSRIs. In his conclusion, the lead researcher, Dr. Peter Gotzsche, said it was clear that during SSRI trials, drug companies were underestimating the adverse effects in their final analysis in order to yield
the results they were looking for in actions that were unethical, if not criminal. The researchers concluded: “While it is now generally accepted antidepressants increase the risk of suicide and violence in children and adolescents, most people believe these drugs are not dangerous for adults. This is a potentially lethal misconception…It is well documented that drug companies under-report seriously the harms of antidepressants related to suicide and violence, either by simply omitting them from reports, by calling them something else or by committing scientific misconduct.”9 That misconduct includes covering up suicides that occurred inside the trial clinics. In 2004, 19-year-old Traci Johnson, who had no history of mental problems, hanged herself inside the Eli Lilly Clinic where trials for the antidepressant Cymbalta, a serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) very similar to an SSRI, were underway. In the end, the suicide was hushed up and didn’t delay the drug’s approval.10 CONFLICTS & CONSEQUENCES
In almost every case, what ends up happening is that the pharmaceutical companies falsified results are published in medical journals overseen by editors who have direct connections with the drug makers themselves. In fact, in recent years, even the chair of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), which exists to oversee best practices in scholarly publishing, has had direct links to pharmaceutical companies like GlaxoSmithKline,
“While the evidence continues to mount, pharmaceutical corporations have attempted to either downplay the threat of suicide and violent behavior from SSRIs or claim that the danger only lies with adolescents. The evidence proves this is patently false.”
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VOLUME 7
IT'S ALL
CONNECTED EXPLORING VARIOUS ASPECTS OF MODERN LIFE AND HOW THEY AFFECT OUR OVERALL HEALTH By Cynthia Liu
MINERALS AS
MEDICINE EXPLORING THE HEALING BENEFITS OF HOT SPRINGS AND MINERAL BATHS By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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s there anything better than sliding into a warm, aromatic bath, especially after strenuous exercise or a hard day’s work? The heated water just seems to know how to penetrate every part of the body that needs healing, as the scent of eucalyptus or lavender clears the mind and calms the heart. For thousands of years, humans have been instinctively drawn to soaking in warm waters as a method of healing, especially if the source is natural like a mineral hot spring. As nature’s “spa” treatment, we know that mineral springs are certainly relaxing, but do they really have healing benefits? Research is now showing that while every health claim made for mineral springs isn’t verifiable, many of them are. INSTINCT & INVESTIGATION
Mineral springs are naturally occurring bodies of warm water that have a high concentration of minerals and salts. Located all over the world, their warm, deep blue and turquoise waters have attracted humans seeking healing for thousands of years. Most contain sulfur, which provides hardy whiffs of hydrogen sulfide or the traditional rotten egg smell. Considering the health benefits some claim mineral hot springs offer, most people don’t seem to mind the odor. The waters also contain ample amounts of calcium, sulfate, magnesium, iron, chloride, potassium, and zinc. Today, entire spa resorts are built around mineral springs all over the world. Many health claims have been made for mineral springs including improving circulation, metabolism and the absorption of certain minerals. In Japan, where soaking in mineral hot springs is an ancient tradition, it’s said they can be used to treat chronic digestive diseases, constipation, diabetes, gout, and liver problems. That might be pushing it a bit, but research is being done in all these areas with regard to mineral springs, particularly in Japan, Europe, and the Middle East. It’s called balneology, which is the study of the treatment of disease by bathing, mostly in mineral-rich waters. Although it’s a relatively new field of study, balneology has been able to scientifically verify some of the things we’ve known instinctively about mineral springs for a long time. C ON T I N U E D. . .
EMBRACES COMMUNITY & EDUCATION PROGRAMS LOVE BUTTON GLOBAL MOVEMENT UPDATES
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his year we have been fortunate enough to continue pushing ahead with our outreach programs and humanitarian activities thanks to the support of our ambassadors, donors, supporters, and volunteers! Our new Integrative and Research Program has been making headway as we recently launched a new lecture series to help support the psycho-social needs of students. Here's a small recap of important events we've done over the past several months.
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2ND ANNUAL BASKETS OF GRATITUDE EVENT LOVE BUTTON GAVE LOVE TO LOCAL IN-NEED KIDS Thank you to the Love Button family for supporting our 2nd annual Baskets of Gratitude event on November 30 in Los Angeles. Supporters of the Love Button Global Movement came together to prepare gift baskets for local underserved children. Love Button was joined by the Hearts Giving Hope Foundation and Present Parent, Vibrant Child nonprofit organizations to assemble the gift baskets. The baskets were filled with blankets, sweatshirts, toys, school supplies, books, and toiletries generously donated by Love Button supporters in anticipation of the holiday season. Love Button extends our deep gratitude to our supporters and volunteers for making this program a success for the children. This gratitude program has special significance to Love Button. Dr. Sherry Sami, President of Love Button, stated, “We give gratitude to the children just for being here and adding so much to this world. Loving them is a privilege to us and this is our small token to let them know they are loved. I never forget Oprah Winfrey’s holiday story where she describes an event where someone dropped off a gift at her house that was quite empty at the time. Oprah described feeling so touched by the notion that someone in this world truly cared and she was loved.” This year’s basket program continued the loving theme of togetherness, underscored last year when musical artist Emmanuel Kelly sang the moving song, I Will Never Be Alone. The baskets were distributed to 120 children on December 1 at the “Motel Kids” Christmas Party organized by St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange County. This annual event is organized for disadvantaged children, featuring fun activities and a special visit from Santa Claus. Attending this event was Love Button ambassador Christiane Kinney who is also the co-founder of the Hearts Giving Hope Foundation. She was joined by Jasmin Danesch, of the Love Button board of directors, who described the excitement of the children and joyously watching their faces light up as they were given the baskets. The kindness in their eyes was inspirational to Love Button.
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IN ONE
BASKET DEPENDING ON FROZEN EGGS TO DELAY MOTHERHOOD LEAVES WOMEN HEARTBROKEN
By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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rigitte Adams was on the top of the world. She was a graduate of Vassar College working in tech marketing for several prestigious international companies, spoke fluent Italian and earned a multiple six-figure salary. In her 30s, her plan was to work a few more years, then find Mr. Right, and start a family. So she contacted a fertility clinic, had a number of her eggs cryogenically frozen, and continued to climb the corporate ladder. During this time, she became a national role model for modern female empowerment when she appeared on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek in a power suit with briefcase in hand under the title, “Freeze your eggs, free your career.” The article celebrated Brigitte’s success as proof that women could use modern technology to delay motherhood in favor of a career in their quest to “have it all.” Four years later Mr. Right never arrived, and Brigitte found herself scrambling to choose a sperm donor and thaw her frozen eggs in an attempt to have the baby she desperately wanted. Two eggs didn’t survive the thawing process. Three failed to fertilize. Six embryos were declared abnormal. When the last embryo implanted into her uterus failed, Brigitte knew that by then, being over 40, there was a near 0% chance of ever being able to have a child of her own. In an interview with the Washington Post, she described screaming “like a wild animal,”1 throwing her books, papers, and laptop across the room, and collapsing to the floor. CONQUERING THE FERTILITY CLOCK?
For years, the media has trumpeted the praises of fertility technology, an industry aimed almost exclusively at women. Among all other procedures, the cryopreservation or freezing of eggs has received a disproportionate amount of attention—or some might say promotion. Years ago the headlines were everywhere implying that the female biological clock had finally been conquered. “Motherhood on Your Own Terms,” “Take Control of Your Body Calendar,” “Extend Your Fertility,” “Leave Conception for Later.” The implication was that women could schedule motherhood as easily as they scheduled a client meeting or business trip. There was no need to worry about age anymore because eggs frozen at 30 would still be viable and healthy, even in a 40-year-old body. The truth is science is nowhere near conquering the fertility cycle of the female body and giving women the option to put off motherhood to middle age (35+) and beyond. So little has been achieved in fertility science that it can hardly be called a science at all. For example, it’s been 44 years since the first baby was born via in vitro fertilization (IVF) and yet, there remains a 79% failure rate2 —and that’s for women under 35. If you’re older, it’s even worse. Healthy men remain fertile into their 80s because they produce millions of new sperm daily. In contrast, women are born with a finite number of eggs, all they will ever produce in their lifetime. The younger a woman is, the more viable her eggs are, and the odds are much greater that she will have a healthy baby through a relatively uncomplicated birth. Because of this and the fact that a woman’s egg count starts to decrease with her first period around age 12, nature has intended that women have their children as early as possible with a relatively short fertility window peaking between the ages of 17 and 30. After 35, a woman’s fertility rate drops significantly in what’s known as the “fertility cliff,” making conception more difficult and bringing with it new risks and possible complications. By age 40, a woman has only a 5% chance of conceiving. This is the way nature designed women and why it still intends for them to have their children early, and no amount of social politicking will ever change that. So the idea that women can cheat Mother Nature when it comes to fertility and timing is simply not true. Unfortunately, the fertility industry would like women to believe the exact opposite and that freezing their eggs is the way to subvert their natural process. Unfortunately, this only makes billions of dollars for the fertility industry and leaves tens of thousands of women heartbroken and struggling with regret.
C ON T I N U E D. . .
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MAXIMIZING
MEMORY SUPPORTING BRAIN HEALTH THROUGHOUT LIFE By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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t was once thought that memory was something we couldn’t improve and that our ability to remember things was static and unchanging. Now, we know that’s not true. Memory is a skill, and like any other cognitive abilities such as mathematics or foreign languages, we can strengthen it by consciously using it.
When people say they want to improve their memory, they usually mean their short-term memory, the function of the brain that helps us store and recall small bits of information like the name of a new co-worker or the phone number from a For Sale sign. Typically, the short term memory can hold up to seven pieces of information at the same time. After that point, something has to go. Long-term memory is for those things we don’t need to recall in the immediate moment, such as important experiences and facts about our lives. While there are many things we can do to improve our memory, it’s important to realize that memory is a function of the brain. As such, anything we can do for brain health will automatically work toward a better memory as well. In the same way, a healthy body means a healthy brain, so anything we do for our overall physical health will also benefit us on a cognitive level. When we learn to feed and exercise our brain properly, we don’t have to accept memory slippage as a natural part of aging, because it’s not.
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ANSWERS & ALTERNATIVES EAT A BR AIN BOOSTING DIET:
The brain is 60% fat and functions best when we eat healthy saturated fats that contain essential fatty acids like omega-3, which are crucial for brain function. Some healthy fat sources high in omega-3s are herring, mackerel, salmon, cod liver oil, sardines, anchovies, flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, and pasture-raised meat and eggs. A Mediterranean diet, which is high in these foods, along with vegetables, non-sweet fruits like avocado, and a daily glass of red wine has been shown to boost memory and delay age-related cognitive decline.1 Seniors on the MIND diet, a version of the Mediterranean diet developed by neurologists, showed a 53% reduced risk for Alzheimer’s disease.2 A ketogenic diet (high fat, low carb, moderate protein) has also shown promise in improving mild cognitive impairment.3 Avoid sugar. High blood sugar levels have been shown to decrease activity of the hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with memory, along with instigating attention and short-term memory deficits.4 Other brain boosting foods include broccoli, cauliflower, celery, and curry. EXERCISE:
Physical exercise increases blood flow and oxygen to all parts of the body, including the brain. In particular, aerobic exercise causes the nerve cells to release proteins called neurotrophic factors that trigger numerous chemical reactions beneficial to cognition and learning. Research also shows that not only does aerobic exercise help the brain learn better and faster,5 but it expands the memory center (hippocampus) of the brain, even in aging people.6 GET GOOD SLEEP:
Getting a full eight hours of sleep every night is essential for overall health, but especially brain function. Studies show that not only is good sleep vital to memory,7 but deep REM sleep improves problem-solving capability and significantly increases creativity and generating new ideas.8 If you need tips for better sleep, see our article “Rest & Rhythm” in MegaZEN Volume 4. SUPPLEMENT:
Even people with the best diet don’t always get the proper amount of nutrients they need. To ensure optimal brain function, take a food-based multivitamin every day. Proper amounts of vitamins C, D, E, K and B complex are vital to brain health, as well as magnesium, iron, iodine, and zinc. Plan on taking a good omega-3 supplement, as well, in the form of cod liver or krill oil. You might want to consider these additional supplements that have been shown to enhance memory: acetyl-l-carnitine, citicoline, curcumin, Ginko biloba, American ginseng, magnesium threonate, Arctic root, and vinpocetine. There is no need to take lots of pills, just a high quality vitamin, omega-3 supplement and anything else that works for you. ESSENTIAL OILS:
Our senses are enhanced in many ways through essential oils. It’s been found that the aroma of rosemary oil improves memory function, while peppermint oil enhances alertness.9 UNPLUG:
Electronic gadgets are making us lazy and weakening our cognitive ability. The next time you take a trip by car, turn off the GPS and stimulate your brain’s visuospatial abilities to get you there. Dependence on GPS is destroying cognitive directional senses that have taken humans tens of thousands of years to develop.10 The brain is on autopilot during a routine commute. Taking a different route to work will stimulate the brain cortex and hippocampus.11 Don’t reach for the calculator; do the addition or percentage conversion by hand. Stop using speed dial on your phone and start putting in the numbers by hand. AVOID OTC MEDICATIONS:
Prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medications are well-known to contribute to memory loss, with cholesterol-lowering statins12 and sleeping pills being among the worst.13 Antihistamines, pain relievers, sleep aids, and those for acid reflux have all been shown to contribute to dementia.14
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7 WAYS TO REIGNITE SEXUAL INTIMACY
IN YOUR MARRIAGE BRING LOVE, PASSION AND FUN BACK TO YOUR SEX LIFE!
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By Dr. Dawn Michael, Relationship Expert & Certified Clinical Sexologist
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nowing how to deepen intimacy and have a great married sex life is about more than looking at how often you have sex. It's an emotional process of learning and exploration that requires both husband and wife to do some conscious work within their marriage. As a certified clinical sexologist with more than a decade of experience helping couples rediscover sexual intimacy and enjoy sex in their marriages again in fun, playful, and loving ways, I've found that while anyone can have "hot sex," not everyone can have hot intimate sex—the kind of sex many of us refer to as "making love." The exchange of intimate touching, kissing, hugging, and caressing are all parts of intimacy, but this doesn't only relate to sex. Rather, it extends to what goes on between partners outside of the bedroom as well.
“True intimacy in marriage is about husband and wife connecting through frequent intimate exchanges—kisses, hugs, intimate words, special looks, holding hands, and even sitting next to each other watching television.” Men and women often view intimacy differently, thus creating problems within some marriages. True intimacy in marriage is about husband and wife connecting through frequent intimate exchanges—kisses, hugs, intimate words, special looks, holding hands, and even sitting next to each other watching television. WHEN COUPLES GAIN A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TO CREATE THIS INTIMACY INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF THE BEDROOM, THEY STRENGTHEN THEIR MARITAL BOND OVER ALL.
Intimacy in marriage is that special relationship between a husband and a wife, and the love and passion they share with one another. Taking steps to bring the intimacy back is a process, but one that is worth the effort. Your marriage comes before anything else, and making time for it must be a priority. Couples must understand that finding quality time to spend with each other alone every week strengthens the bond of the marriage and makes it special. START WITH THE INTIMATE EXCHANGE OF FACE-TOUCHING, EXPLAINED IN DETAIL BELOW.
This exercise is about getting to know each other again on an intimate level, and it can bring about unexpected emotional exchanges many couples haven't felt in years. Above all, remember that sex is not a duty in marriage, nor should it ever feel like one! C ON T I N U E D. . .
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LABEL LANGUAGE
DECODING INGREDIENT LABELS TO MAKE BETTER FOOD CHOICES By Dr. Habib Sadeghi
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n the last decade, Americans have become increasingly health conscious about what they eat. With a broader knowledge of organic standards, the risks of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food, the difference between good fats and bad fats and more, Americans are making smarter food choices for their families. Even better, many conventional grocery stores are now carrying more organic and whole food products, while chains like Whole Foods Market and Earth Fare are expanding far beyond the limits of the big cities. C ON T I N U E D. . .
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With wider access to whole foods, everyone has a greater opportunity to improve their health through nutrition. Still, much of that benefit depends on the products we choose, even in the so-called health food stores. There is a lot of junk on the shelves of Whole Foods Market and similar healthy grocers. If you don’t know what to look for, the products you purchase often contain the same harmful ingredients you’re trying to avoid, all while paying a higher price. Most of this confusion comes down to packaged or convenience foods, things we can grab on-the-go or prepare in a hurry because time is important to all of us. We’ll look at six popular “healthy” brand convenience foods and read between the lines of their ingredient labels to discover what’s really inside—and it’s about much more than just being certified organic. Credit for this amazing food label detective work goes to Kristin Michaelis at foodrenegade. com. Be sure to visit for more food label decoding profiles and lots of excellent whole food information and recipes.
Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base BY SUPERIOR TOUCH
Beef and chicken bouillon save lots of time when making soup when real soup stock isn’t on hand. The problem is that nearly all bouillon contains scary ingredients, including monosodium glutamate (MSG), a flavor enhancer that has neurotoxic effects. Here’s what the label says: “Better Than Bouillon concentrated bases are made from meat, poultry, seafood and vegetables. This gives them a richer, more robust flavor than ordinary bouillons. No added MSG, low or no fat, lower sodium: Better Than Bouillon bases have 1/3 less salt than ordinary bouillons.” INGREDIENTS:
Chicken meat including natural chicken juices, salt, sugar, corn syrup solids, chicken fat, hydrolyzed soy protein, dried whey (milk), flavoring, disodium inosinate and guanylate, turmeric The first problem is that this MSG-free product is actually full of MSG. How do we know that? By looking a little deeper into the ingredients label. Hydrolyzed soy protein is one of more than 40 food ingredients that contains MSG.1 The manufacturer of this product can get away with calling it MSG-free because it didn’t add MSG to the bouillon as a separate ingredient, but it’s still there. Equally of concern is any soy-based ingredient. More than 95% of all soy sourced from the U.S. is GMO. All soy, whether organic or not, contains high levels of phyto-estrogens that mimic biological estrogen in the body that increase cancer risk and decrease fertility in both men and women, among other serious health concerns. For more information, see The Dark Side of Soy, MegaZEN Volume 4. Flavoring, natural flavoring or “spices” are generic terms for other ingredients that also contain MSG. Likewise, the process used to create dried whey also produces MSG.2 Disodium inosinate and guanylate are also dead giveaways that this product is full of hidden MSG. Why? Because they’re flavor enhancers that only work in the presence of MSG.3 Otherwise, there is no reason for them to be in this product. Adding insult to injury, corn syrup solids are always derived from GMO corn. Unless an ingredient label specifically says it contains cane sugar, the source of its “sugar” is more than likely sugar beets, which are 95% GMO. HEALTH TEST—Better
Than Bouillon Chicken Base:
FAIL
Koyo Asian Vegetable Ramen BY KOYO FOODS
It seems as though Ramen noodles are a staple food of college students. Not only are they very cheap, but they cook quickly in a pot of boiling water and can be dressed up with any kind of meat or vegetables for a fast meal. Here’s what the label says:
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“The Koyo Ramen Noodles are crafted from freshly milled organically grown heirloom wheat. They are pre-cooked, and baked not fried. They do not contain any Additives, Preservatives or MSG. Authentic Asian flair for today’s modern lifestyle.” INGREDIENTS (NOODLES):
Organic heirloom wheat flour, sea salt. (Soup Packet): Natural sea salt, Chinese mushroom powder, vegetable powders (onion and garlic), natural cane sugar, garlic, chili pepper, ginger, snow peas, sweet red bell pepper, green onion, black pepper, kombu powder While consuming lots of processed grains, particularly wheat, isn’t advised, this version of Ramen noodles is definitely a step up from its standard line of noodles by using organic heirloom wheat. Regular Ramen noodles are made from enriched wheat flour that are shaped into blocks, deep fried in soybean oil, then dehydrated and infused with preservatives. This version has none of those things. Sea salt is always a better choice than regular salt. See Worth Its Salt in this edition of MegaZEN. The spices are specifically identified as garlic, ginger, etc. and although not organic, they don’t pose a great concern for the amount used here. The source of the sugar is also specified as natural cane sugar, so it’s not GMO. Kombu powder is simply dried seaweed finely ground. While I wouldn’t recommend eating lots of Ramen noodles because simple carbs create insulin rushes that are bad for health, for a quick meal these noodles can be a safe choice. They also contain no preservatives or hidden MSG. HEALTH TEST—Koyo
Asian Vegetable Ramen:
PASS
Pacific Organic Cream of Mushroom Soup BY PACIFIC NATUR AL FOODS
While canned soups have long been exposed as not the healthiest of choices, boxed alternatives have hit the shelves with claims of higher quality. Pacific Natural Foods provides a whole line of boxed soups and broths. While each one would need to be evaluated separately for its ingredients, today we examine their Organic Cream of Mushroom Soup. The label claims: “Organic Cream of Mushroom Condensed Soup is a savory base of mushrooms combined with garlic and crème fraiche from our founder’s farms that delivers a delicious, robust flavor that your family is sure to love. It is as versatile as it is delicious; our cream of mushroom soup is great as a base for soups, casseroles and sauces. This organic soup is gluten free and soy-free. It is a chef-inspired hearty soup that delivers fresh home-made taste in an easy open tear package; no can openers or scissors required, no sharp edges. BPA-free packaging.” INGREDIENTS:
Filtered water, organic mushrooms, organic crème fraiche (organic cultured cream [milk]), organic rice starch, organic rice flour, sea salt, organic whey powder (milk), organic onion powder, organic garlic powder The organic ingredients are always good. It’s nice to see crème fraiche used here, which is a higher end sour cream that yields a better taste. It’s organic, as well, which ensures that it was sourced from cows that received no antibiotics or hormones and were not given GMO feed. Organic rice starch and organic rice flour are used as thickeners, and are better choices than wheat. While there has been some concern with arsenic in rice in recent years, the larger issue is the amount of rice consumed, and there isn’t anywhere near that level in this product. Organic sea salt and specifically named spices like onion and garlic powder is always a good sign. The only drawback is the whey powder. Although it’s organic, most whey powders are produced using high heat that oxidizes cholesterol and generates enough free glutamic acid to cause reactions in those sensitive to MSG.
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POETRY LOU A WOUNDED KNIGHT’S TALE By Susan R. Johnson MD PART I Once, there was a Silver Knight, who sought to transform her soul. Wisdom, compassion, and selfless deeds, were her ennobled goals. She joined a group, of similar knights, who were also on this quest. They all were in search, of this Holy Grail, and vowed, they’d never rest. They rode by horseback, dawn to dusk, galloping ever so fast. They avoided the paths, where dragons lay, so they would not be last. They travelled over huge mountains, crisscrossing rivers and streams. They travelled through thick forests, pretending they were a team. There was no stopping at villages, where dragons lay in wait. Nor time to talk with strangers, for that would make them late. Their gaze was always forward, not ever, side to side,
And looking back, was forbidden, for that, would slow their stride. They were focused on their mission, and kept a rapid pace. For time, was of the essence, and there was no time, to waste!
PART II But now that Silver Knight, was beginning to lag behind. For dragons of fear and doubt, had started to plague her mind. Her thoughts were now consumed, with fears, of the unknown. And now, her pace had slowed, until she was riding, alone. And as that Knight experienced, her overwhelming fears. She suddenly, fell off her horse, abandoned, by her peers.
PART III She landed hard, upon the ground; her head, struck a stone. She was knocked unconscious, for quite a spell, then awoke, with a groan.
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UNGE The darkness, now, had overcome the light, and a scaly, monstrous tail. as she gazed upon a star. It flew right down, to that Silver Knight, And then, she spied her horse a grazing, who appeared so scared and frail. in the meadowland, afar. And then the Dragon, so sweetly spoke: The Silver Knight could barely stand, “Come, climb upon my back.” her right leg, now, was broken. “For I will give you freedom, She used her sword, just like a cane, and nothing will you lack.” while angry words, were spoken. “Come leave this loneliness and sorrow; The Knight removed her dented armor, come leave behind this earth.” and laid it in a pile. “Come fly with me, away from here, Then hobbled over, to a clearing, to bliss and your rebirth.” and sat down, for a while. “Come share my dreams, just leave your She rested in that meadow, Quest; pondering her path. you’re not needed, anymore.” And then she heard a thunderous screech, “Come fly with me, into the moonlight, that filled the skies, with wrath. where both of us can soar.” Her pulse, began to rapidly beat; her heart, filled with fear. And now that thundering, screeching sound, grew louder, and more near.
That Dragon offered a burning death; Its words were full of lies! So, the sword was grasped, by the Silver Knight, to fight, that beast, from the skies.
A fierce and fiery Dragon, descended from the sky. Billowing smoke and spewing flames, that Knight, just wanted to die.
The Silver Knight and that Dragon, battled throughout the night. The Knight fought bravely with her sword, exerting all her might!
That Dragon had such powerful wings,
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C ON T I N U E D. . .
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WELL-BEING JOURNAL
CON T R IBU TORS EDITORS IN CHIEF Dr. Habib Sadeghi Dr. Sherry Sami
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dr. Habib Sadeghi Dr. Sherry Sami Dr. Ron Hulnick Dr. Mary Hulnick
Dr. Susan R. Johnson Dr. Debra Wickman Dr. Dawn Michael Luke Cowles
Cynthia Liu Lisa Starr Jacqueline Lindsay Singer
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dr. Habib Sadeghi Elizabeth Pandolfi Luke Cowles David Ord
MAGAZINE DESIGN & CREATIVE DIRECTION Persius Creative
ART DIRECTION & ILLUSTRATION Persius Creative
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Kourosh M. Khajavi Vivian Liu Photography David Sand
MANAGING DIRECTORS OF BEING CLARITY PUBLICATION Dr. Habib Sadeghi Dr. Sherry Sami Hutch Morton
beingclarity.com All content in this magazine is protected and may not be copied, reprinted or republished without written permission from Being Clarity Inc. For Permission and reprint requests please email megazen@beingclarity.com. MegaZENâ„¢ is a Registered Trademark. All Rights Reserved. Designed with
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