your life goals
For men only:
| ___ | Having a urine stream that’s very weak or very slow |
| ___ | Having prostate trouble |
| ___ | Having unusual burning or discharge from your penis |
| ___ | Having swelling or lumps in your testicles |
| ___ | Having your testicles painful |
| ___ | Having trouble getting erections (getting hard) |
For women only:
| ___ | Having trouble with your menstrual period |
| ___ | Bleeding between your periods |
| ___ | Having heavy bleeding with your periods |
| ___ | Getting bloated or irritable before your periods |
| ___ | Taking birth control pills (in the last year) |
| ___ | Having lumps in your breasts |
| ___ | Having excess discharge from your vagina |
| ___ | Feeling weak or sick with your periods |
| ___ | Having to lie down when your periods start |
| ___ | Feeling tense and jumpy with your periods |
| ___ | Having constant hot flashes and sweats |
| ___ | Have had a hysterectomy or on hormonal replacement |
TOTAL SYMPTOMS _______
If you have more than ten symptoms, the time has come to make some intelligent decisions about your lifestyle! And if you have over twenty symptoms, you may well already have significant maladaptation or illnesses!
Even without significant symptoms, it is wise to consider by age 30 some tests that might help you avoid major illnesses later:
Complete blood count—red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, etc.
Chem panel—electrolytes, cholesterol, liver, and kidney functions, etc.
Homocysteine—this should be 7.5 or LESS. Anything higher increases risk of heart attack, stroke, and cancer.
Cardiac calcium index—the simplest, safest, least expensive way to be sure you are not beginning the process of coronary arteriosclerosis
Susan Kobasa has been a major contributor to our understanding of hardiness—our resilience or tolerance of life stressors. Since so many people are not optimally healthy and suffer the ravages of stress, it is important to look at the foundation of a healthy life. Clinically, about 40% of Americans are depressed and a similar number are not truly happy—they have what I call a subclinical depressive miasma. In addition to the genes we receive from our parents, there is a social environment that is critical for health. Obviously, there are essentials such as air, water, food, clothing, and shelter. Without those, nothing else is even worth considering. The next most essential is nurturing, which should begin with conception. Therein begins the problem for the 40% of individuals who are conceived out of wedlock. Children of unwed mothers are much more likely to be born prematurely, have lower birth weight, and have many times more emotional and physical problems than children born to committed parents. In the 70s, Ann Landers wrote a column in which she reported that of the 10,000 individuals who had written her, 70% said that they wished they had never had children! This led my wife and me to write To Parent or Not? This implies that a huge percentage of parents are too stressed themselves to provide adequate nurturing to their offspring.
The minimum requirements for providing a child the essential nurturing:
A committed relationship of both parents who want a child
Optimal health habits while pregnant
A healthy delivery without spinal or general anesthesia
A nurturing home for at least the first seven years of life
Absence of any one of these situations leads to severe deficiency in oxytocin production, which is a problem in:
ADHD
Autism
Anxiety
Depression
Addiction
Borderline personality
Inadequate personality
Schizophrenia
There are of course many factors, but the outstanding finding in every one of these emotional/mental disorders is that oxytocin is deficient. And of course, major trauma at any age may block a previously healthy person’s production of oxytocin, leading to PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In fact, I consider virtually all depression and significant anxiety to be post stress! Interestingly, stimulation of the Ring of Air also raises oxytocin, the bonding hormone which is deficient in ADHD, Autism, Depression, Addiction, and even in Schizophrenia!
From a physical point of view, disorders/diseases fall into several diagnosable categories:
Addiction
Autoimmune
Benign tumor
Biochemical/metabolic
Degenerative
Electrical
Endocrine
Hematologic
Hereditary/congenital
