I pray your Christmas was wonderful. My wish for you is that 2016 will be a year of abundant blessings. This time of year can be extremely difficult for many. I remember Christmas of 1971, being on the gun line in Vietnam, away from home and in hostile circumstances. We were tied up to a munitions ship with an all hands work party bringing on board 1000 five inch projectiles and powder casings. 

Being the interior communications electrician, I had wired a small car cassette player up to the 1MC announcing system and played Bing Crosby Christmas music all over the ship, (how to change your environment regardless of circumstances). Being away from loved ones back home, I was able to take comfort in being with those I was stationed with. It can be difficult, but in most situations we can find some degree of comfort. 

As we enter into 2016, many will decide to make lifestyle changes for the better. This is a positive move for sure. How you implement your desire will either manifest in success or failure. A verbal or mental desire alone won’t get the job done. If you truly desire to meet with success, you have to plan out your goal then diligently pursue it. Change doesn’t happen all by itself.

The first step in any transformation is identifying what you want to change, and what you want the end result to look like. Creating a vision which can be shared means you’ve defined your desire to the point of being able to reproduce and impart the vision to someone else. If you’re unable to convey the vision to someone else, you’ve not fully embraced it yourself. 

You must begin to see yourself acquiring the end result. If it’s not a vision you hold within, it won’t be a driving force for you to obtain. Truly motivated individuals accomplish more in a day than many non motivated people accomplish in a year.

Always aim high. The person who says they’ve accomplished everything they’ve ever attempted, probably hasn’t attempted anything very great. Failure occurs only when one quits. Setbacks are opportunities to find out other avenues to accomplish a goal. The vision, if strong enough will fuel itself, and will drive you toward success.

Don’t let previous failures prevent you from obtaining your goal. Today is a new day, and previous setbacks only influence your outcome if you meditate on them.

If your goal is to lose weight, define how much. Write the number down. Determine what a realistic time frame is to reach your goal. Identify all obstacles to obtaining your goal. Evaluate how important it is to keep those obstacles in your life if you crave them. Is it more important for you to keep that bad habit, or to see your goal manifest? What are you willing to sacrifice to reach your desired goal in the allotted time?

Anything worth having usually comes with sacrifices. If weight loss is your goal, which are you most comfortable keeping, the weight, or the habit that’s been defeating your attempts at weight loss? Your success will be determined by your answer to that question.

If you desire to beat a disease like diabetes, you’ll have to identify cause first, and then evaluate your lifestyle to see if it’s a contributor. If so, are you willing to change your lifestyle to promote health, or just remain on the path you’ve been on? Dietary changes as well as activity changes are required if you desire to beat a disease like this one. We have nutritional supports like Gymnema, (a sugar blocker), as well as support for pancreatic function and cellular metabolism. These are excellent at modifying the body’s response to sugars, but if you fail to change lifestyle, long term success is impossible. After all, how did the condition get there?

Because making lifestyle changes requires wisdom, knowledge, and determination, obtaining a good life coach, who understands your issues, is helpful. When a professional sports team repeatedly loses, it’s not uncommon to see the coach fired, and a new one hired. A coach looks for weak areas and identifies strong ones. Then he or she assists the player in overcoming their weaknesses and focusing on how to utilize their strength to win.

I see myself as a life coach, and take great joy in seeing lives transformed. Discovering and developing healthy lifestyle habits is a great beginning to a wonderful and bright 2016. I’m here and ready to address your health needs. I have appointments available, so consider a healthy change for 2016. Are you ready for a life transformation?

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

With tomorrow being Christmas, I felt it important to exercise my political incorrectness and wish everyone of my readers a Very Happy, Healthy, and Blessed Christmas Holiday. The many blessings in life which I’m overjoyed to experience, including the many precious patients which come to me from all over the United States and Canada, could never have been possible without the greatest gift of all. 

The gift of everlasting life through our Savior, Jesus Christ, born into this world to bear the sins and condemnation of His beloved kids, is the greatest present mankind could ever receive. God expressed His love for you and me through His provision on the cross for us. He created this world and all that’s on and in it for our enjoyment. 1 Timothy 6:17 “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” One of the greatest enjoyments we can participate in, involves giving to others. A favorite saying of mine is, “Blessed to be a blessing.

A favorite scripture verses of mine is 3 John 2, which reads “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”  God’s desire is that His beloved children, (you and me) live in abundance in all areas of life, and that includes health. 

According to this scripture, how we fare in our finances as well as our health is a direct reflection of the health of our soul. When we look at the realm of our soul, we’re looking at our mind, our will, and our emotions. 

With a multitude of stressors facing everyone, we have many daily opportunities to allow our minds to go where they shouldn’t. Along with this, our emotions, and ultimately, our will are subject to these forces. To keep a grip on good health this year and into the new year, make the resolution to maintain a healthy outlook on life. Look to the author and the finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ for strength in the coming days, and rejoice, “It’s Christmas!”

If you boil down everything this season means into just one word, that word would be Love! The reason I weekly sit and ponder the needs of people, research various topics of interest, and the direction needed for my article, it’s all about love. Inspiration doesn’t come from need as much as it comes from a desire to be a blessing. Since I do this, not for financial gain, but as a blessing to all, it has to be a labor of love.

Obviously, the material in these articles is based on nutritional research, personal practice exposure, and a deep conviction of the Word of God. Should you disagree, that's ok. Thankfully we live in a land where we are all entitled to our own opinion. Getting offended is a personal decision. You don't have to agree with me, but hopefully what I share will empower your life.
Be blessed and may 2016 be an awesome year for all of you.

Just how important are antioxidants to the human body? We see volumes of information concerning the need for antioxidants to extend life, but how valid are those observations? Companies market life-extension products loaded with antioxidants with claims to turn the tide against aging.

For years it’s been believed that dose related response to any element introduced to the body was linear. We expect to see a response increase in direct proportion to the dose given. 

We’re so used to living in the land of Costco, Big Lots, and bulk purchase mentality where more is better, that we’ve lost sight of something far greater, balance. Giving more of a substance, doesn’t always equate to improved response.

What’s known as biphasic response is where initially we see benefit from a substance, only to see a greater negative response as the dose increases. This phenomena with a shift from one extreme to the other is what’s called “hormesis”.

Homeopathy employs a principle where using small or low dose treatments stimulate a desired response in the body, where a high dose would actually subdue function.

Hormesis is a biological phenomenon where a beneficial effect (improved health, stress tolerance, growth or longevity) results from exposure to low doses of an agent which is otherwise toxic or lethal when given at higher doses. High potency vitamin supplements can be dangerous!

Paracelsus (1493-1541) stated that “All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison.” In the 1800’s, Friedrich Nietzsche stated that, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” Dr Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) is known as the father of homeopathy, in which the greater the dilution, the greater the metabolic response. This was an early form of using hormesis to effectively treat patients.

In the 1980’s there were only 10 to 15 citations of hormesis in literature. Because of an increased awareness of dose response in the last years, there have been nearly 6,000 citations of hormesis/hormetics in 2013, with over 2,000 peer reviewed scientific papers on the subject.

With this foundation, I want to show how antioxidants can be dose specific, and when found in nature, are present for purposes which we tend to overlook. Consider first that plants make antioxidants. The purpose of plants producing them may surprise you. 

Our body runs on oxygen, creating carbon dioxide as waste. Carbon dioxide is toxic to our body if not removed. Without oxygen, we die! Too much carbon dioxide we die!

In the process of photosynthesis, plants convert solar energy and carbon dioxide, into chemical energy and oxygen. Just as carbon dioxide can be harmful to our system, oxygen can damage the structure of the plant. 

So, you may ask, “Don’t we need antioxidant’s?” If antioxidants stop the action of oxygen, don’t you think they’re counterproductive to our system? Shutting down oxygen utilization in the body is just the opposite of what we want to do. Controlling oxygen is a totally different story.

Effects of vitamin C 1000mg and vitamin E 400IU on insulin sensitivity in young healthy men after 4 weeks: Exercise improved insulin sensitivity only in the absence of antioxidants. Natural, internally created antioxidants, (superoxide dismutase, and glutathione peroxidase) which control oxygen action were improved only in those not taking the antioxidants. Most supplements on the market have 1000mg of vitamin C and 400IU of vitamin E.

Why do certain plants contain high levels of antioxidants? If your local bank has a lot of bank guards hanging around, you might suspect they have a lot of money. A stupid bank robber runs off with the guards, leaving the money in the vault. That’s what high potency supplements are all about. Whole food nutrition provides the functional components your body requires.  

If a food is known for high levels of antioxidants, it’s obvious the nutritional value of that food is excellent. Rose hips are a good source of vitamin C. The quantity of ascorbic acid in rose hips is about one percent. The remainder is responsible for vitamin C’s action.

In the past, I placed a lot of emphasis on eliminating Reactive Oxygen Species, believing they were our enemy. Surprisingly, these are part of our body’s defense against diseases like cancer. Oxygen is critical to how our body fights! Don’t restrict it, increase it!

www.drjohnabriggs.com