Infectious—amoebic, bacterial, fungal, protozoan, viral
Inflammatory
Psychological: emotional, mental/spiritual
Malignant tumor
Parasitic
Surgical
Traumatic
Vascular
Almost all of these have some inflammatory component and some biochemical abnormality as well as a variety of immunological disorders.
And these problems seem to be associated with significant physical locations related to the psychological/spiritual issues of the seven chakras of the body:
First—All parts of the legs. Family issues
Second—Low back (bottom of third lumbar spine through sacrum), abdomen from belly button down and pelvis. Sexuality, finances, and security
Third—From the belly button up to the rib cage (1st through 3rd lumbar vertebrae); upper abdomen. Self-esteem and responsibility
Fourth—Chest, heart, lungs, breasts; (1st through 12th thoracic vertebrae). Love and judgment
Fifth—Mouth, neck, shoulders, arms and hands; (1st through 7th cervical vertebrae). Will power—ability to express needs and desires
Sixth—Brain, eyes, ears, nose, mind. Reason and logic
Seventh—Spirituality, soul, God
In other words, stress not only initiates a variety of biochemical abnormalities, but specific parts of the body and organs are also affected when the anxiety, anger, guilt, or depression are related to the specific issues of the chakras! The stress initiates inflammation in a specific organ which cascades into many biochemical dysfunctions and the wide variety of possible diseases. Now, the “physical” cause of disease does not in any way mean that there is not an underlying stress issue. In general, some current life stress elicits anger, guilt, anxiety, or depression, and it reminds you at a deep “unconscious” level of unfinished issues from a previous life! Then a cycle of lost memories feeds the underlying cauldron of worries and aggravates the situation.
Now that you have some understanding of the causes of all illnesses, the big questions are:
Are you ready and willing to examine the problems in your life and to make whatever changes are necessary to correct all health issues??
Are you willing to develop the absolute essential practices for optimal health?
No smoking
Maintaining a body mass index between 18 to 24
Eating a minimum of five servings fruits and vegetables daily
Exercising a minimum of thirty minutes at least five days a week
Only three percent of Americans have all four of these practices.
Having talked to thousands of individuals at my workshops over the past forty years who have come to hear about health, at most 25% of each audience maintains these four practices! All the drugs and surgeries in the world cannot substitute for common sense! As far as I can tell, health is far more important than any other aspect of life!
In addition to these four essentials, good sleep—a minimum of seven hours daily and for most people eight hours—is critical. In all of history, societal stress has been present—from natural stressors such as weather to political ones. Stress is inevitable. Thus, finding ways to cope with external stress becomes equally critical. Stress can be:
physical—heat, cold, pressure, physical injuries, etc.
mental/emotional—worry, anger, anxiety, guilt, depression
chemical—toxins such as arsenic, cadmium, aluminum, lead as well as some 550,000 chemical pollutants released into the air, water, and earth every year and now 80% of all food sold in the U.S. is junk!
nuclear—radioactivity has increased many thousands of times in the past seventy years
Physical stress is perhaps most easily understood, with heat and cold being obvious. And perhaps the most common serious physical stress injuries are created by a modern luxury—automobiles. Not that earlier travel by horse or on foot was without potential physical stress.
Mental emotional stress requires both proactive and corrective approaches. For instance, it has been shown that twenty minutes of deep relaxation twice a day reduces insulin requirement and adrenalin production by 50% for the entire twenty-four hours. (See The Relaxation Response by Herb Benson.) In 1929, Edmund Jacobson demonstrated that thirty minutes of progressive relaxation not only reduced stress but also actually improved 89% of most stress illnesses! And beginning in 1912, Johanne Schultz demonstrated that autogenic training, twenty minutes daily, reduced stress illnesses by 80%. By 1969, the first of six volumes on autogenic training was published, with 2600 scientific references. Although I have examined the wide variety of mental approaches to stress reduction for over forty years (See my 90 Days to Self-Health), autogenic training is still my favorite because of the tremendous research showing that athletes, students, business people, and those with most stress illnesses are managed well by this simple tool—coordinating the words with your slow breathing and creating visual images to reinforce the statements. Essentially, you get into a relaxed physical body position and repeat for about three minutes each of the following statements:
My arms and legs are heavy and warm.
My heartbeat is calm and regular.
My breathing is free and easy.
My abdomen is warm.
My forehead is cool.
My mind is quiet and still.
Get the sensory feedback, awareness from each part of your body—face, jaws, neck, shoulders, arms and hands, chest, breasts, abdomen, back, buttocks, pelvis, legs before and after twenty minutes of practice. Basically you can feel good and OK with no tense pain or discomfort and no feeling from each and every body part. The goal is the relaxed and OK feedback from each part! If after twenty minutes there are still areas that are not relaxed and OK, you can:
Talk to the body part—e.g., My back is relaxed and comfortable.
Love it—appreciate that part of your body.
Tense and release the muscles in that part of your body.
Breathe in and collect tension or discomfort from that part of your body and breathe out, releasing the undesired sensation.
Breathe through the skin over that part of your body
Circulate the electrical energy
